Chris L. Gibson; J. Mitchell Miller; Wesley G. Jennings; Marc Swatt; Angela Gover
Due to methodological limitations, such as unmatched gang samples and a lack of longitudinal investigations, it remains unresolved whether joining a gang leads to future violent victimization or both share a set of common causes. Guided by selection, facilitation, and enhancement perspectives, the current study applied Propensity Score Matching on data from the Gang Resistance Education and Training longitudinal study to investigate the nature of the gang-violent victimization relationship. Results indicated antecedent differences between those who did and did not join gangs, particularly violent victimization and delinquency. When gang and non-gang members with similar propensities for joining were matched, the relationship between gang membership and violent victimization dissipated. Findings suggest policy attention to early delinquency and victimization risk factors generally.
Gang Membership, Drug Selling, and Violence in Neighborhood Context
Paul E. Bellair; Thomas L. McNulty
A prominent perspective in the gang literature suggests that gang member involvement in drug selling does not necessarily increase violent behavior. In addition it is unclear from previous research whether neighborhood disadvantage strengthens that relationship. We address these issues by testing hypotheses regarding the confluence of neighborhood disadvantage, gang membership, drug selling, and violent behavior. A three-level hierarchical model is estimated from the first five waves of the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, matched with block-group characteristics from the 2000 U.S. Census. Results indicate that (1) gang members who sell drugs are significantly more violent than gang members that don't sell drugs and drug sellers that don't belong to gangs; (2) drug sellers that don't belong to gangs and gang members who don't sell drugs engage in comparable levels of violence; and (3) an increase in neighborhood disadvantaged intensifies the effect of gang membership on violence, especially among gang members that sell drugs.
Where Size Matters: Agglomeration Economies of Illegal Drug Markets in Philadelphia
Travis A. Taniguchi; George F. Rengert; Eric S. McCord
There is a debate over whether police attention focused on an illegal drug market causes dealers to spatially displace their activities “around the corner” therefore having no positive impact on the aggregate level of illegal drug sales in the city. The alternative perspective is that focused police attention lowers the rate of illegal drug sales in the city. Recent research in Jersey City, New Jersey has demonstrated that focused police attention does not simply move illegal drug dealing around the corner. The present analysis explains why this finding is likely to be common in other cities using the economic theory of “agglomeration economies.” Agglomeration economies illustrate that taking the largest and most profitable site from illegal drug dealers will make dealing in the surrounding neighborhoods less rather than more profitable and lead to a smaller marketplace overall. The empirical analysis focuses on Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Low Self-Control and Contact with the Criminal Justice System in a Nationally Representative Sample of Males
Kevin M. Beaver; Matt DeLisi; Daniel P. Mears; Eric Stewart
Prior research on law enforcement and court system actions suggests that offender demeanor influences practitioner decision making. However, few studies have examined a key implication of this body of work—namely, criminogenic factors associated not only with offending but also with demeanor may result in a greater likelihood of contact with and formal processing by law enforcement and the courts. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we test the hypothesis that low self-control, which is associated with a range of characteristics that might influence practitioner perceptions of individual offenders' demeanors, will predict greater contact and formal processing. Briefly, we found that low self-control was consistently related to criminal justice system involvement as measured by police contacts, arrests, age at first police contact, and arrest onset. The implications of the findings for theory and research are discussed.
Public Area CCTV and Crime Prevention: An Updated Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Brandon C. Welsh; David P. Farrington
In recent years, there has been a marked and sustained growth in the use of closed circuit television (CCTV) surveillance cameras to prevent crime in public places in the USA and other Western nations. Amidst this expansion and the associated public expenditure, as well as concerns about their efficacy and social costs, there is an increasing need for an evidence-based approach to inform CCTV policy and practice. This paper reports on an updated systematic review and meta-analysis of the effects of CCTV on crime in public places. Evaluations were included if CCTV was the main intervention and the design was of high methodological quality. Forty-four evaluations met the inclusion criteria. The results suggest that CCTV caused a modest (16%) but significant decrease in crime in experimental areas compared with control areas. This overall result was largely driven by the effectiveness of CCTV schemes in car parks, which caused a 51% decrease in crime. Schemes in most other public settings had small and nonsignificant effects on crime: a 7% decrease in city and town centers and in public housing communities. Public transport schemes had greater effects (a 23% decrease overall), but these were still nonsignificant. Schemes evaluated in the UK were more effective than schemes evaluated in the USA and other countries, but this was largely driven by the studies in the car parks. Implications for policy and research are discussed.
The Crime Reduction Effects of Public CCTV Cameras: A Multi-Method Spatial Approach
Jerry H. Ratcliffe; Travis Taniguchi; Ralph B. Taylor
Public Closed Circuit TeleVision (CCTV) initiatives have been utilized as methods of monitoring public space for over two decades. Evaluations of these efforts to reduce crime have been mixed. Furthermore, there has been a paucity of rigorous evaluations of cameras located in the USA. In this analysis, crime in the viewshed of publicly funded CCTV cameras in Philadelphia, PA, is examined using two evaluation techniques: hierarchical linear modeling and weighted displacement quotients. An analysis that incorporates controls for long-term trends and seasonality finds that the introduction of cameras is associated with a 13% reduction in crime. The evaluation suggests that while there appears to be a general benefit to the cameras, there were as many sites that showed no benefit of camera presence as there were locations with a positive outcome on crime. The policy implications of these findings are discussed.
On the Origins of the Violent Neighborhood: A Study of the Nature and Predictors of Crime-Type Differentiation across Chicago Neighborhoods
Christopher J. Schreck; Jean Marie McGloin; David S. Kirk
Little of the literature on crime at the neighborhood level examines whether and why some crime types predominate in a given neighborhood over other types. Many macro-level theories do make predictions about the sort of crimes that occur in some neighborhoods, although they remain largely untested. This study focuses on one of these theories, differential opportunity, and its predictions about the making of violent neighborhoods. Drawing on various data sources, this inquiry determines whether crime profiles differ across Chicago neighborhoods—that is, whether there is significant variation across neighborhoods on ratio of violent crimes to other crime types. Next, it also investigates whether the structural factors implicated in the differential opportunity perspective distinguish these neighborhoods or only predict the incidence of crime. The results reveal significant differences in the distribution of crimes across neighborhoods, as well as show that certain factors identify neighborhoods that favor violence over other crimes.
Comparing Methods for Examining Relationships Between Prison Crowding and Inmate Violence
John Wooldredge; Benjamin Steiner
Studies of empirical relationships between indicators of prison crowding and inmate violence have uncovered null, negative, and positive relationships. These mixed findings may be due, in part, to cross-study differences in definitions of crowding, levels of analysis, and sample designs. We compared findings across some of the more popular approaches to study the relationship between facility crowding and the prevalence of inmate assaults in order to determine the implications of different methods for variation in estimates. Multi-level data from a national sample of 10,022 men confined in 203 state correctional facilities during 1997 were examined. Findings revealed differences across methods in the direction and significance of the crowding/assault relationship. These differences were then considered in order to derive a strategy for more uniform research on the topic. This strategy consists of including both total inmate population and design capacity as separate predictors in the same model, examination of tri-level data (inmates, facilities, and states) in order to control compositional differences in inmate populations across facilities and to remove confounding state-level differences in crowding levels and assault rates, and more careful consideration of secondary analyses of complex samples with sample weights.
Rediscovering Quetelet, Again: The “Aging” Offender and the Prediction of Reoffending in a Sample of Adult Sex Offenders
Patrick Lussier; Jay Healey
This study explored the role of age at release on the risk of reoffending using a sample of sex offenders. It examined whether the risk of reoffending, assessed using actuarial tools, should be adjusted according to the offender's age at the time of release. The sample comprised 553 offenders, all of whom were consecutive admissions to a Canadian federal penitentiary. Scores on the Static-99 as well as age at release were included in successive nested prediction models using Cox-regression. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves and Allison's R2 were computed to assess the predictive accuracy of the models and the strength of the association between the covariate measures of general and violent/sexual reoffending. Results showed that overall predictive accuracy observed across models was fair at best. Generally, age of onset and age at release improved the prediction accuracy over and above the scores on the Static-99. In fact, by itself, age at release showed a predictive accuracy comparable to that of the actuarial tool. The results suggest that risk assessors should adjust the risk of reoffending based on the offender's age at release. The implications of this study are discussed in light of the age-crime curve literature and the risk management of sex offenders in the community.
Justice Quarterly, December 2009: Volume 26, Issue 4
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