Social Psychology Quarterly 72(3)

Altruism and Helping: The Evolution of a Field: The 2008 Cooley-Mead Presentation
Jane Allyn Piliavin

Embodied Self-reflexivity
Michal Pagis

Formation and Stabilization of Vertical Hierarchies among Adolescents: Towards a Quantitative Ethology of Dominance among Humans
John Levi Martin

Introduction of Jane Allyn Piliavin: Recipient of the 2008 Cooley-Mead Award
Peter L Callero

Introduction to the Introduction
Gary Alan Fine

Structural Implications of Reciprocal Exchange: A Power-Dependence Approach
Phillip Bonacich, Elisa Jayne Bienenstock

The Spectacle of Wealth and its Costs
Caitlin Zaloom

The Work of Play at American Girl Place
John F Sherry Jr.

Social Psychology Quarterly, September 2009: Volume 72, Issue 3

Sociological Theory 27(3)

Political Articulation: Parties and the Constitution of Cleavages in the United States, India, and Turkey
Cedric De Leon, Manali Desai, Cihan Tugal

Movement Societies and Digital Protest: Fan Activism and Other Nonpolitical Protest Online
Jennifer Earl, Katrina Kimport

Herder's Heritage and the Boundary-Making Approach: Studying Ethnicity in Immigrant Societies
Andreas Wimmer

Body to Body: On the Political Anatomy of Crowds
Christian Borch

Cultural Performance and Political Regime Change
Thomas Kern

Gendering the Comparative Analysis of Welfare States: An Unfinished Agenda
Ann Shola Orloff

Sociological Theory, September 2009: Volume 27, Issue 3

Theory and Society 38(5)

Transforming everyday life: Islamism and social movement theory
Cihan Tugal

The crisis of neoliberalism and the future of international institutions: A comparison of the IMF and the WTO
Nitsan Chorev and Sarah Babb

Culture, memory, and structural change: explaining support for “socialism” in a post-socialist society
Jeremy Brooke Straughn

Keynes, legacies, and inquiry
Jonathan Kirshner

Theory and Society, September 2009: Volume 38, Issue 5

Justice Quarterly 26(3)

Racial Discrimination and Hirschi's Criminological Classic: A Chapter in the Sociology of Knowledge
James D. Unnever; Francis T. Cullen; Scott A. Mathers; Timothy E. McClure; Marisa C. Allison

In Causes of Delinquency, Travis Hirschi attempted to falsify the strain theory claim that racial discrimination might contribute to the delinquency of African American youths. A reanalysis of the Richmond Youth Project data used in his classic study, however, reveals that perceived racial discrimination is a robust predictor of delinquent involvement. This finding suggests that Hirschi missed a historic opportunity to focus the attention of a generation of criminologists on how the unique experiences of African Americans may shape their criminality. Given the salience of perceived racial bias in the lives of many African Americans, the subsequent neglect by scholars of discrimination as a potential source of crime is a remarkable omission—so much so that it constitutes a significant and as yet untold chapter in the sociology of knowledge.

Gendered Responses to Serious Strain: The Argument for a General Strain Theory of Deviance
Joanne M. Kaufman

This paper expands and builds on newer avenues in research on gender and general strain theory (GST). I accomplish this by focusing on serious strains that are relevant for males and females, including externalizing and internalizing forms of negative emotions, and including multiple gendered deviant outcomes. Using the Add Health dataset, I find strong support for the impact of serious strains on both types of negative emotions and different forms of deviance for males and females. However, the experience of serious strain, emotionally and behaviorally, is gendered. Depressive symptoms are particularly important for all types of deviance by females. Including multiple types of deviant outcomes offers a fuller understanding of both similarities and differences by gender. These results support the utility of GST as a theory of deviance in general and support greater connections between GST, feminist theorizing, and the sociology of mental health.

Understanding Physical Victimization Inside Prisons: Factors that Predict Risk
Nancy Wolff; Jing Shi; Jane Siegel

Research evidence on the prevalence of physical victimization inside prison settings has grown in precision and specificity. Considerably less explored are the factors predicting physical victimization. Using a sample of approximately 7,000 male inmates, a multilevel predictive model of victimization was estimated that includes characteristics of the individual and environment. Overall, prisons with poorer climates (higher levels of inmate dissatisfaction with officers and/or other inmates) had higher rates of inmate-on-inmate and staff-on-inmate victimization. The effect of inmate characteristics on victimization varied by type of perpetrator. Younger inmates, whites, and those with convictions involving sexual victimization were more likely to report physical victimization by other inmates. Characteristics increasing the likelihood of being physically assaulted by staff included non-white, convicted of a violent crime, and higher education. Knowing the characteristics of prisons and inmates that elevate their risk for victimization provides facilities with information that can inform prevention strategies (n = 147).

Career Dimensions of Stalking Victimization and Perpetration
Matt R. Nobles; Kathleen A. Fox; Nicole Piquero; Alex R. Piquero

Prior literature concerning stalking, particularly in the field of criminology, finds wide variation in fundamental trends regarding stalking victimization and perpetration. There seems to be little consensus regarding when and how stalking is manifested. Furthermore, prior research to date has not addressed the etiology of stalking-related behaviors by applying principles from criminal career research, including participation, frequency, onset, and duration. The present study builds upon prior research by addressing trends in age of onset for stalking victimization and perpetration, the duration of stalking-related behaviors, and the relationship between those behaviors and other types of crime over the life course using primary data from a sample of young adults. Findings indicate that stalking victimization and perpetration share important career attribute similarities, and that self-reported history of intimate partner violence and sexual assault are strongly associated with stalking outcomes.

Speeding While Black? Assessing the Generalizability of Lange et al.’s (2001, 2005) New Jersey Turnpike Speeding Survey Findings
Richard J. Lundman; Brian R. Kowalski

Across three months during 2001, Lange, Blackman, Johnson and Voas collected data from the New Jersey Turnpike to determine whether there were differences in speeding behavior grounded in race and ethnicity, while controlling for age and gender. They reported that Black drivers were more likely to speed at high rates (15 mph or more over the speed limit) in 65 mph speed zones, as were young drivers and male drivers. In the scholarly report of their research, Lange and colleagues concluded: “our research offer[s] a plausible explanation for the findings that Black drivers are represented among traffic stops at a higher rate than they are represented in the population.” The present research assesses the generalizability of the findings reported by Lange and colleagues using data reported by Massachusetts State Police officers during April and May of 2001. We also find that Black drivers, young drivers, and male drivers are more likely to speed at high rates in 65 mph speed zones. We therefore remind scholars that Lange and colleagues' findings and our own are entirely consistent with theory and research on the correlates of law violative actions. Our fundamental conclusion, however, is that more research is needed to determine whether traffic stops for Driving While Black are in small part the result of Speeding While Black.

Revisiting the Racial Threat Thesis: The Role of Police Organizational Characteristics in Predicting Race-Specific Drug Arrest Rates
David Eitle; Susanne Monahan

Previous research examining the relationship between structural factors and drug arrest rates has neglected the role of the police organization. A central proposition of racial threat theory is that indicators of a threatening Black population will be associated with law enforcement actions as a form of social control. In order to fully test this proposition, however, organizational aspects of law enforcement beyond size of the police force must be considered. Hence, the present study examines police organizational factors as direct predictors of race-specific drug arrest rates but also as potential moderators of the effects of structural factors on drug arrest rates. Using data from 260 cities, we find that police organizational factors matter, both directly and as moderators of the association between racial economic competition and Black drug arrest rates. Consistent with expectations derived from racial threat and organizational theory, we find that racial threat measures are associated with Black drug arrest rates under conditions of relatively low organizational control.

Racial Bias in Case Processing: Does Victim Race Affect Police Clearance of Violent Crime Incidents?
Terrance J. Taylor; David Holleran; Volkan Topalli

Prior studies have illustrated racial differences in perceptions of police legitimacy. African-Americans' views, however, appear to be complex, shaped by perceptions of over-enforcement of crimes committed by African-American offenders coupled with under-enforcement of crimes involving African-American victims. Using data from the 2002 National Incident-Based Reporting System, we examine whether victim race (alone, and in combination with offender race) affects police case clearance of four types of violent criminal incidents (homicide, aggravated assault, rape, and robbery) as a potential explanation of African-Americans' reduced levels of support for the police. Results suggest that the race of the victim, particularly in combination with the race of the offender, is related to police clearance of violent criminal incidents, but that this relationship is not as strong as those between agency, offense type, and situational characteristics of the incident. Implications for research and policy on police—community relations are discussed.

Striking Out: Race and Support for Police Use of Force
Devon Johnson; Joseph B. Kuhns

This research examines whites' and blacks' support for police use of force using a survey-based experiment that varies the race of the offender across four different scenarios. Bivariate results show that the race of the offender influences blacks' approval for the use of force by police, but does not affect whites' approval. Multivariate analyses examine whether the factors influencing support for police use of force vary depending on the race of the offender. Results indicate that the predictors for approval of police use of force differ by the race of respondent, the race of offender, and the appropriateness of the use of force. The implications of the results for police-community relations are discussed.

Justice Quarterly, September 2009: Volume 26, Issue 3

Journal of Criminal Justice 37(5)

Predictors of job satisfaction among police officers: Does personality matter?
Holly A. Miller, Scott Mire, Bitna Kim

The aim of this research was to enhance the theoretical foundation of job satisfaction within the field of policing. The data were collected through a self-report survey administered to a sample of sworn police officers (N = 87). The primary research question was whether personality characteristics significantly contribute to perceptions of job satisfaction beyond which could be explained through demographic and job characteristic variables. Although results of hierarchical multiple regressions revealed that overall personality measurement added to the variance accounted for in job satisfaction beyond demographic and job characteristic variables, none of the independent personality scales were significant predictors. Overall, results demonstrated that years of experience and the job characteristic factors of autonomy and feedback were the most important predictors of job satisfaction in this sample of police offers. Implications and future directions are discussed.

Ethnic and immigrant residential concentration, and crime rates
Sergio Herzog

One of the main arguments of social disorganization theory is that ethnic heterogeneity, influenced by immigrant residential concentration, is highly disruptive for community organization, and therefore, highly criminogenic. The effect of immigrant residential concentration on crime rates is, however, generally masked by the general effect of the broader category of ethnic heterogeneity. Some recent studies even suggested a negative relationship between immigrant residential concentration and crime. The present study, conducted in the city of Haifa, Israel, used neighborhood level data to test the specific relationship between immigrant residential concentration and crime rates among recent immigrants from the former Soviet Union. The results showed that the decomposition of ethnic heterogeneity into its two main components—immigrant residential concentration and ethnic residential concentration—served to qualify the predicted effects of social disorganization theory.

How staff attitude and support for inmate treatment and rehabilitation differs by job category: An evaluation of findings from Pennsylvania's Department of Corrections' employee training curriculum ‘Reinforcing Positive Behavior’
Jacqueline L. Young, Michael E. Antonio, Lisa M. Wingeard

In July 2006, the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections began delivering a training session titled Reinforcing Positive Behavior to all new employees. The training educated staff about the department's philosophy on inmate treatment programming and about staff responsibilities for reinforcing treatment concepts. Findings from a survey administered immediately after the training revealed that treatment and clerical staff strongly agreed that how they treat inmates and how they behave in a correctional facility impacts inmate rehabilitation efforts, and that reinforcing positive behavior among inmates was a requirement of their profession. Also, treatment and clerical staff, more so than correctional officers, recognized that staff support of treatment programs impacted inmate rehabilitation outcomes and that staff actions and interactions with other staff and inmates can make a correctional facility a more positive place.

Street youths' violent responses to violent personal, vicarious, and anticipated strain
Stephen W. Baron

Utilizing general strain theory, this study explored the role experienced violent victimization, vicarious violent victimization, and two forms of anticipated violent victimization, played in the generation of street youths' violent offending. Basic models showed that experienced, vicarious, and fear of anticipated victimization were associated with violent offending. Full models suggested that only experienced violent victimization had a lower order relationship with violence. The relationship between experienced victimization and violence was further moderated by negative emotionality and low constraint. Males were also more likely to respond to experienced victimization with violence at higher levels of social support. Findings also revealed the relationship between vicarious violent victimization and violence was moderated by low constraint. Further, anticipated risk of violent victimization was associated with violent offending at lower levels of constraint, greater negative emotionality, and higher levels of social support. Results are discussed and avenues for future research are offered.

Examining the “CSI-effect” in the cases of circumstantial evidence and eyewitness testimony: Multivariate and path analyses
Young S. Kim, Gregg Barak, Donald E. Shelton

As part of a larger investigation of the changing nature of juror behavior in the context of technology development, this study examined important questions unanswered by previous studies on the “CSI-effect.” In answering such questions, the present study applied multivariate and path analyses for the first time. The results showed that (a) watching CSI dramas had no independent effect on jurors' verdicts, (b) the exposure to CSI dramas did not interact with individual characteristics, (c) different individual characteristics were significantly associated with different types of evidence, and (d) CSI watching had no direct effect on jurors' decisions, and it had an indirect effect on conviction in the case of circumstantial evidence only as it raised expectations about scientific evidence, but it produced no indirect effect in the case of eyewitness testimony only. Finally, implications of the present study as well as for future research on the “CSI-effect” on jurors are discussed.

Explaining criminal victimization in Taiwan: A lifestyle approach
Shih-Ya Kuo, Steven J. Cuvelier, Kuang-Ming Chang

Routine activities and lifestyle-exposure theories were shaped and substantially tested in Western societies; this study extended their application to a non-Western context in Taiwan. Using the most recent but underutilized 2005 Taiwan Areas Criminal Victimization Survey, responses from a random sample of 18,046 participants were analyzed for robbery, assault, and personal larceny victimization. The findings showed that the risk factors associated with criminal victimization in Taiwan resembled those in Western nations, but anomalies also appeared. Females faced a higher risk of being robbed than males; married and affluent persons were more likely to be victims of personal larceny than not married or less affluent persons; and those who stayed home at night were more likely to be assaulted than those who went out at night. The discussion of these findings suggest that explaining victimization patterns involve more than victims' attributes or lifestyles; the social and cultural context should be considered as well.

Correlates of currency counterfeiting
Robert G. Morris, Heith Copes, Kendra Perry-Mullis

Estimates from the U.S. Secret Service suggest that $40 million worth of counterfeit currency are confiscated each year in the United States. Despite measures to guard against the crime, modern technology has made reproducing fraudulent bills relatively easy. Over 90 percent of counterfeiting reported in the United States results from the use of readily available digital technology. Yet, little is known about the characteristics of the crime or those who engage in it. The current article presents a descriptive analysis of counterfeiting using data from closed case files from the Secret Service in a southern jurisdiction. Results suggest advances in consumer digital technologies have democratized the crime. That is, this form of offending is committed by a diverse group in terms of age, gender, race, and criminal history. The majority of counterfeiting cases involved multiple offenders, particularly among female counterfeiters. Sample limitations are discussed, as are recommendations for future research.

Self-control, differential association, and gang membership: A theoretical and empirical extension of the literature
Jason Kissner, David C. Pyrooz

Using data gathered from a sample of two hundred jail inmates housed in a large California city, this research extends the still nascent literature on the self-control/gang membership association. The article begins by first articulating more comprehensively than earlier research Gottfredson and Hirschi's theoretical justification for expecting a self-control/gang membership link. Next, an examination is undertaken of the relative independent influences on gang membership of self-control and a series of measures, derived from differential association theory, that mainly tap familial gang involvement. On the whole, logistic regression models suggested that self-control exerted an effect on gang membership that was almost entirely independent of, but also modest in comparison to, familial gang involvement effects, although the results also indicated the insignificance of self-control upon controlling for a series of differential association measures. Finally, theoretical implications of the findings and suggestions for future research are offered.

Juvenile attitudes towards the police: The importance of subcultural involvement and community ties
Bradley T. Brick, Terrance J. Taylor, Finn-Aage Esbensen

Citizens' attitudes toward police have been examined in a variety of contexts during the past several decades. Additionally, the importance of juveniles' attitudes towards the police has received considerable attention during the past decade. The current article examines attitudes toward police from a large, multi-site study of sixth to ninth grade youths. Three specific questions were examined: (1) What is the influence of police contact (generally and by different types of contact) on juvenile attitudes toward the police? (2) How does involvement in delinquent subcultures affect these attitudes? (3) How do community contexts and ties influence juvenile attitudes toward the police? Results suggested that community ties and involvement in delinquent subcultures substantially mediate the influence of police contact on juveniles' attitudes toward the police.

Why do people support gun control?: Alternative explanations of support for handgun bans
Gary Kleck, Marc Gertz, Jason Bratton

Many scholars have suggested that Americans' positions on gun control are the product of culture conflicts. This assertion has been largely based on associations of gun control opinion with membership in social groups believed to be hostile, or favorable, towards gun ownership, rather than with direct measures of the cultural traits thought to mediate the effects of group membership on gun control opinion. Data from a 2005 national telephone survey were analyzed to test competing theories of why people support handgun bans. Instrumental explanations, which stress belief in a policy's likely effectiveness, accounted for less than 25 percent of the variation in support. The results supported the culture conflict perspective. Those who endorsed negative stereotypes about gun owners, and who did not believe in the need to defend their own homes against crime (versus relying on the police) were more likely to support handgun bans.

An assessment of the relative impact of criminal justice and criminology journals
Jon R. Sorensen

The current study was undertaken to provide an impact assessment of criminal justice and criminology journals as an alternative measure to the prestige survey ratings reported by Sorensen, Snell, and Rodriguez (2006). Citations to sixty-seven target journals were tallied from ten top criminal justice and criminology journals. Various impact measures were fairly consistent with one another and the prestige survey ratings, particularly for a “top tier” of journals. With a couple of notable exceptions, a long-standing core of these elite journals has held their relative positions from early impact studies relying on data from the 1970s and 1980s; nevertheless, significant deviations were noted based on the measurement utilized for all but the top journals. Findings from the current study suggested that the quality of journals is multifaceted and warns against employing a scale based on one dimension of journal quality.

Gender differences in police officers' attitudes: Assessing current empirical evidence
Margarita Poteyeva, Ivan Y. Sun

Research on attitudinal differences between female and male police officers has burgeoned since the 1980s, producing a rich albeit at times contradictory legacy. Focusing on quantitative studies published after 1990, this current study reviewed empirical results regarding attitudinal differences between female and male police officers. A comprehensive search of the literature yielded thirty-three articles where gender was used either as an independent or control variable in multivariate regression analysis. A general finding was that officer gender has only a weak effect on officers' attitudes toward community policing, the community and neighborhood residents, job satisfaction, and domestic violence. There was some limited evidence showing that male and female officers differ in their attitudes toward the police role and stress. The limitations of this research are pointed out, and the directions for future research are identified.

Journal of Criminal Justice, September-October 2009: Volume 37, Issue 5

Critical Criminology 17(3)

To Discipline and Publish: Scottsboro and Narratives of Delinquency
Karl Precoda and Paulo S. Polanah

With the economics of racism of the 1930s and 1950s American South in mind, our essay explores the relationship between the act of writing and institutional penology. Taking an obscure, but visceral autobiographical account by Paterson and Conrad (Scottsboro Boy, Garden City Doubleday, 1950), we examine how discipline, punishment, and institutional identity emerge out of publishing, or, as Foucault put it, “the power of writing.” Narratives of delinquency born out of a racialized penal economy tend to resist attempts to tame the criminal, making institutional survival a productive discourse, and its articulation, a unique revolutionary act.

Revisiting Patriarchy: Its Conceptualization and Operationalization in Criminology
Robbin S. Ogle and Candice Batton

In recent decades, patriarchy has increasingly been posited as an explanation for gender differences in crime and victimization. While researchers frequently allude to the “patriarchal structure of society” or to “male domination” when discussing their theoretical perspective or findings, rarely do they articulate their conceptualization of the term. As a result, patriarchy has been used as an explanatory wild card that lacks specificity and is purported to both increase and decrease female crime and delinquency. In this paper we examine the conceptualization of patriarchy in criminological theory and research, discuss why the failure to clearly conceptualize this construct is problematic, and offer potential avenues for operationalizing patriarchy with the goal of facilitating future research on gender differences in crime.

The Roots of Modern White-Collar Crime: Does the Modern Form of White-Collar Crime have its Foundation in the Transition from a Society Dominated by Agriculture to One Dominated by Industry?
Tage Alalehto and Daniel Larsson

The purpose of the present paper is to investigate whether the process of transition from an agricultural to an industrial society was a watershed for white-collar crime, such that this type of crime increased rapidly in connection with the industrialization process. The theoretical reasoning behind this notion is that the transition process promoted a mentality characterized by self-centered values and a culture of competitiveness, which together paved the way for fraud perpetrated at the expense of others. The data are from Statistic Sweden’s historical records and cover the period of 1864–1912. Since there is no way to measure all crimes that can be defined as white collar crime, we have used bankruptcy offences as an example of white collar crime. The results do not support the notion that the transition period from an agricultural to an industrial society showed an increase in bankruptcy offences. Instead, the results show that when fluctuations in the economy are taken into account, the industrialization process per se entailed less bankruptcy offences. On the other hand, other research using the case of Sweden has shown that it was first after World War II that bankruptcy offences increased rapidly. Our argument is that the transition process as a structural mechanism had a greater impact on bankruptcy offences when industrialized capitalism became advanced.

“It’s a Horrible Coincidence”: Corporate Responsibility and the 2007 Pet Food Recall
Amy J. Fitzgerald

The 2007 pet food recall has perhaps become best known for marking the beginning of the barrage of recalled items produced in China. The importance of this case, however, extends well beyond that distinction. The recall received extensive media coverage, its implications are vast, and the threads of corporate malfeasance woven throughout are plentiful. The pet food recall therefore provides an instructive case for examining discourses of corporate responsibility and crime in the media. To this end, an analysis of newspaper accounts of the recall in Canada, where the primary pet food manufacturing company involved is located, and in the United States, where the bulk of the affected pets and owners reside, is undertaken in this paper. Building on previous research examining mediated discourses of corporate crime, this paper documents a shift in the depictions of responsibility for the recall over time. However, a continued reluctance to invoke a “social vocabulary of corporate crime” is observed in the descriptions of certain actors’ actions, particularly once juxtaposed against the behavior of constructed “folk devils” in the case.

Critical Criminology, September 2009: Volume 17, Number 3

The British Journal of Criminology 49(5)

The Transformation of Violence in Iraq
Penny Green and Tony Ward

This article explores the connections between various forms of organized political violence and ostensibly private, non-political violence in post-invasion Iraq, focusing on gender-based violence and the links between militias and organized crime. We argue that, as in other civil wars, much of the violence is ‘dual-purpose’, simultaneously serving private and political goals, and that despite a decline in violence since 2007, the situation created by the overthrow of the previous dictatorship remains extremely dangerous.

Pre-Crime and Counter-Terrorism: Imagining Future Crime in the ‘War on Terror’
Jude McCulloch and Sharon Pickering

This article looks at pre-crime in the context of counter-terrorism. Pre-crime links coercive state actions to suspicion without the need for charge, prosecution or conviction. It also includes measures that expand the remit of the criminal law to include activities or associations that are deemed to precede the substantive offence targeted for prevention. The trend towards anticipating risks as a driving principle in criminal justice was identified well before 2001. However, risk and threat anticipation have substantially expanded in the context of contemporary counter-terrorism frameworks. Although pre-crime counter-terrorism measures are rationalized on the grounds of preventing terrorism, these measures do not fit in the frame of conventional crime prevention. The article argues that the shift to pre-crime embodies a trend towards integrating national security into criminal justice along with a temporal and geographic shift that encompasses a blurring of the borders between the states’ internal and external coercive capacities. The counter-terrorism framework incorporates and combines elements of criminal justice and national security, giving rise to a number of tensions. One key tension is between the ideal of impartial criminal justice and the politically charged concept of national security. Pre-crime counter-terrorism measures can be traced through a number of interlinking historical trajectories including the wars on crime and drugs, criminalization and, more fundamentally, in colonial strategies of domination, control and repression. The article concludes by identifying a number of challenges and opportunities for criminology in the shift from post-crime criminal justice to pre-crime national security.

From the ‘Old’ to the ‘New’ Suspect Community: Examining the Impacts of Recent UK Counter-Terrorist Legislation
Christina Pantazis and Simon Pemberton

The ‘war on terror’ has emerged as the principal conflict of our time, where ‘Islamic fanaticism’ is identified as the greatest threat to Western liberal democracies. Within the United Kingdom, and beyond, this political discourse has designated Muslims as the new ‘enemy within’—justifying the introduction of counter-terrorist legislation and facilitating the construction of Muslims as a ‘suspect community’. In this paper, we develop Hillyard's (1993) notion of the ‘suspect community’ and evidence how Muslims have replaced the Irish as the main focus of the government's security agenda whilst also recognizing that some groups have been specifically targeted for state surveillance. We conclude that the categorization of Muslims as suspect may be serving to undermine national security rather than enhance it.

Prison Islam in the Age of Sacred Terror
Mark S. Hamm

Research indicates that Islam is the fastest growing religion among prisoners in Western nations. In the United States, roughly 240,000 inmates have converted to the faith since the 9/11 attacks. According to federal law enforcement, Saudi-backed Wahhabi clerics have targeted these prisoners for terrorist recruitment. The present research examines this claim from several different perspectives. First, it reviews the literature on prisoner conversions to Islam and concludes that there are opposing viewpoints on the matter. One side of the debate takes an alarmist stance, arguing that prisons have become incubators for Islamic terrorism; the other side asserts that Islam plays a vital role in prisoner rehabilitation. Second, results of a two-year study of prisoner radicalization and terrorist recruitment in US prisons are reported. The motives for prisoner conversions to Islam are discussed along with the effects of conversion on inmate behaviour; the role played by gangs and charismatic leaders in radicalizing prisoners; and the social processes by which inmates move from radicalization to operational terrorism. Third, two case studies are presented. One involves a terrorist plot waged by a gang of Sunni prisoners at California's New Folsom Prison; the other looks at the inmate-led Islamic Studies Program at Old Folsom Prison, which has adopted a de-radicalization agenda. It is argued that inmate self-help programmes may do more than the state to prevent radicalization and terrorist recruitment behind bars.

Exceptionalism and the ‘War on Terror’: Criminology Meets International Relations
Claudia Aradau and Rens van Munster

Criminology and International Relations (IR) share a relatively wide vocabulary: political violence, crime, security, deterrence, war on terror, risk, human rights and freedom. Particularly in the case of the ‘war on terror’, similar concerns and conceptual tools have increasingly surfaced on both sides. Nonetheless, one debate—namely Carl Schmitt's theory of the exception and its uptake in IR—has travelled less well. This article argues that there is value in engaging with the IR debates on the exception. From the perspective of IR, the exception makes possible different insights about the dialectics between law and crime by unpacking the constitutive role of the politics of fear, the importance of the ‘international’ and the transformed relationship to the future. It also exposes the deteriorating effects of the ‘war on terror’ on justice, democracy and social transformation.

Justice in a Time of Terror
Barbara Hudson

The war on terror has seen the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan; the use of torture on detainees in Guantanamo Bay; extension of periods of detention without trial, and increased levels of surveillance and control in the United Kingdom and the United States. Although being fought in the name of justice and democracy, the war on terror seems to have brought about curbs on freedom to citizens of the Western democracies and brutality rather than justice to those who are designated enemies and suspects in the war. This article looks at aspects of the war on terror from the perspective of a concern to defend the ideal of justice. Under headings of justice and legality, the lesser evil, the threat to liberal values, and justice and the other, war and occupation, torture, curtailment of civil liberties and the extent to which we each have a responsibility to protect the rights of those who are not our fellow citizens and who do not appear to share our values and our commitments to rights and freedoms are discussed. Recent writings by Michael Walzer on just and unjust wars, Michael Ignatieff on the use of the lesser evil, Jacques Derrida on the rights of the stranger to hospitality and Drucilla Cornell on the need to defend our ideals at the time when we are most likely to forsake them are drawn upon to help examine the fate of and the prospects for justice in a time of terror.

The British Journal of Criminology, September 2009: Volume 49, Issue 5

The Annals of the AAPSS 625(1)

The End of Television? (So Far)

Elihu Katz
The End of Television?

Daniel Dayan
Sharing and Showing: Television as Monstration

Joshua Meyrowitz
We Liked to Watch: Television as Progenitor of the Surveillance Society

Amanda D. Lotz
What Is U.S. Television Now?

William Uricchio
Contextualizing the Broadcast Era: Nation, Commerce, and Constraint

John P. Robinson and Steven Martin
Of Time and Television

Paul Frosh
The Face of Television

John Ellis
The Performance on Television of Sincerely Felt Emotion

David E. Morrison
Cultural and Moral Authority: The Presumption of Television

Peter Lunt
Television, Public Participation, and Public Service: From Value Consensus to the Politics of Identity

Andrea Press
Gender and Family in Television’s Golden Age and Beyond

Sonia Livingstone
Half a Century of Television in the Lives of Our Children

Michael Gurevitch, Stephen Coleman, and Jay G. Blumler
Political Communication —Old and New Media Relationships

Menahem Blondheim and Tamar Liebes
Television News and the Nation: The End?

Monroe E. Price
End of Television and Foreign Policy

Garry Whannel
Television and the Transformation of Sport

Paddy Scannell
The Dialectic of Time and Television

The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, September 2009: Volume 625, Issue 1

Journal of Quantitative Criminology 25(3)

Assessing the Impact of First-Time Imprisonment on Offenders’ Subsequent Criminal Career Development: A Matched Samples Comparison
Paul Nieuwbeerta, Daniel S. Nagin and Arjan A. J. Blokland

Using data from the Netherlands-based Criminal Career and Life-course Study the effect of first-time imprisonment between age 18–38 on the conviction rates in the 3 years immediately following the year of the imprisonment was examined. Unadjusted comparisons of those imprisoned and those not imprisoned will be biased because imprisonment is not meted out randomly. Selection processes will tend to make the imprisoned group disproportionately crime prone compared to the not imprisoned group. In this study group-based trajectory modeling was combined with risk set matching to balance a variety of measurable indicators of criminal propensity. Findings indicate that first-time imprisonment is associated with an increase in criminal activity in the 3 years following release. The effect of imprisonment is similar across offence types.

Measuring Long Term Individual Trajectories of Offending Using Multiple Methods
Shawn D. Bushway, Gary Sweeten and Paul Nieuwbeerta

Criminal career researchers and developmental criminologists have identified describing individual trajectories of offending over time as a key research question. In response, recently various statistical methods have been developed and used to describe individual offending patterns over the life-course. Two approaches that are prominent in the current literature are standard growth curve modeling (GCM) and group-based trajectory models (GTM). The goal of this paper is to explore ways in which these different models with different sets of assumptions, do in fact lead to different outcomes on individual trajectories. Using a particularly rich dataset, the criminal career and life-course study, we estimate a unique trajectory for each individual in the sample using the GCM and GTM. We also estimate separate trajectories for each individual directly using the long time series. We then compare these three separate trajectories for each individual. We find that the average trajectories obtained from the different approaches match each other. However, for any given individual, these approaches tell very different stories. For example, each method identifies a rather different set of individuals as desistors. This comparison highlights the strengths and weaknesses of each approach, and more broadly, it reveals the uncertainty involved with measuring long term patterns of change in latent propensity to commit crimes.

Crime is the Problem: Homicide, Acquisitive Crime, and Economic Conditions
Richard Rosenfeld

A question that emerges from recent research on the relationship between economic conditions and street crimes committed for monetary gain concerns the effect of changing economic conditions on violent crime. I propose that the economy stimulates violent crime indirectly through its effect on acquisitive crime. This hypothesis is evaluated in fixed-effects panel models of change in acquisitive crime and homicide rates between 1970 and 2006. The analysis indicates that collective perceptions of economic conditions have a significant effect on an index of acquisitive crime and an indirect effect, through acquisitive crime, on homicide. Consistent with this result, the effect of collective economic perceptions is stronger for felony than argument-related homicides. A promising focus for future research is the role of underground markets in the production of both property and violent crime.

Do US City Crime Rates Follow a National Trend? The Influence of Nationwide Conditions on Local Crime Patterns
David McDowall and Colin Loftin

This study considers the degree to which the crime rates of US cities follow a uniform national trend. A nationwide trend has consequences for theories that explain aggregate changes in crime, but how closely subnational units hold to a common time path has received almost no research attention. Using annual panel data, the current study presents analyses that attempt to measure the correspondence between city-level and national-level crime rates. The results of each analysis are consistent with a clear single pattern that operates across the nation’s major urban areas. This supports the idea that a meaningful national trend exists, and it suggests the desirability of continuing efforts to explain it.

Measuring and Modeling Repeat and Near-Repeat Burglary Effects
M. B. Short, M. R. D’Orsogna, P. J. Brantingham and G. E. Tita

We develop a mathematical framework aimed at analyzing repeat and near-repeat effects in crime data. Parsing burglary data from Long Beach, CA according to different counting methods, we determine the probability distribution functions for the time interval t between repeat offenses. We then compare these observed distributions to theoretically derived distributions in which the repeat effects are due solely to persistent risk heterogeneity. We find that risk heterogeneity alone cannot explain the observed distributions, while a form of event dependence (boosts) can. Using this information, we model repeat victimization as a series of random events, the likelihood of which changes each time an offense occurs. We are able to estimate typical time scales for repeat burglary events in Long Beach by fitting our data to this model. Computer simulations of this model using these observed parameters agree with the empirical data.

Journal of Quantitative Criminology, September 2009: Volume 25, Issue 3