Justice Quarterly 27(1)

The Independent and Joint Effects of Race/Ethnicity, Gender, and Age on Sentencing Outcomes in U.S. Federal Courts
Jill K. Doerner; Stephen Demuth

Using data compiled by the United States Sentencing Commission, we examine the independent and joint effects of race/ethnicity, gender, and age on sentencing decisions in U.S. federal courts. We find that Hispanics and blacks, males, and younger defendants receive harsher sentences than whites, females, and older defendants after controlling for important legal and contextual factors. When these effects are examined in combination, young Hispanic male defendants have the highest odds of incarceration and young black male defendants receive the longest sentences. The findings show considerable variation in the sentencing outcomes of defendants depending on their relative social-structural position in society, and that particularly harsh punishments are focused disproportionately on the youngest Hispanic and black male defendants. Our results reinforce the idea that researchers need to consider the combined impact of multiple defendant statuses on sentencing outcomes because joint effects are considerably larger than the effects of any one defendant characteristic.

Observations Regarding Key Operational Realities in a Compstat Model of Policing
Dean Dabney

Much has been written about the design, implementation, and crime-related outcomes of the Compstat model of policing. However, there exists a paucity of literature investigating the operational realities of this approach. Drawing on 350 hours of ethnographic work conducted in a single geographic command within a metropolitan police department, this paper seeks to explore how officers orient to and internalize various dimensions of the Compstat model. The results identify a series of potential pitfalls associated with the Compstat model.

Police Misconduct, Media Coverage, and Public Perceptions of Racial Profiling: An Experiment
Lisa Graziano; Amie Schuck; Christine Martin

The purpose of this study was: (1) to assess the impact of an incident of racial profiling on residents' attitudes about profiling; and (2) to examine the effects of exposure to a video clip of deliberation about the incident on residents' beliefs about the causes of profiling. All residents, White and minority, were less likely to believe that Chicago police officers engaged in profiling after the incident. These findings suggest that attitudes about the prevalence of racial profiling are susceptible to the manner in which the media construct incidents of police misconduct. Exposure to the video clip was not related to differences in residents' beliefs about the causes of profiling, but was related to differences in perceptions of the dangerousness of traffic stops. The findings highlight the need for more research on how media constructions of police misconduct influence attitudes about profiling and impact community-police relations.

Threatened Globally, Acting Locally: Modeling Law Enforcement Homeland Security Practices
George W. Burruss; Matthew J. Giblin; Joseph A. Schafer

The present study examined the effects of institutional pressures on homeland security preparedness among law enforcement agencies in Illinois. The data come from the Illinois Homeland Security Survey (IHSS). Specifically, the study employed three theories to explain homeland security preparedness: contingency theory, resource dependence theory, and institutional theory. We hypothesized that institutional pressures will lead to isomorphism as agencies attempt to conform to institutional expectations about appropriate activities in a homeland security era. To evaluate these theories and their impact on homeland security practices, the authors used confirmatory factor analysis. The IHSS data lend strong support to the application of organizational theory as a lens through which homeland security preparedness can be understood. Institutional pressures, such as professional and government publications, training, professional associations, and the actions of peer agencies, significantly influenced municipal and county agencies in Illinois. Funding, while often thought important to encourage preparedness, was not a significant predictor. The results of this analysis advance our understanding of homeland security preparedness via institutional theory by suggesting that the larger environment is salient.

What Distinguishes Single from Recurrent Sexual Victims? The Role of Lifestyle-Routine Activities and First-Incident Characteristics
Bonnie S. Fisher; Leah E. Daigle; Francis T. Cullen

An unsettling reality is that a substantial proportion of women who have been sexually victimized are recurrent victims who experience more than one sexual victimization while young adults. What is not well understood is why some women experience a single sexual victimization whereas others experience recurrent sexual victimizations. Using a sample of 4,399 college women from the National College Women Sexual Victimization study, we examine lifestyle-routine activities and first-incident characteristics that could place women at risk of being recurrent sexual victims during an academic year. Our results show that none of the lifestyle-routine activities variables differentiated single and recurrent victims; the factors that predicted being a single victim are similarly predictive of being a recurrent victim. However, women who used self-protective action during the first incident reduced their likelihood of being a recurrent victim. Implications for the development of sexual victimization risk-reduction and prevention programs are also discussed.

Is It Who You Know, or How Many That Counts? Criminal Networks and Cost Avoidance in a Sample of Young Offenders
Martin Bouchard; Holly Nguyen

The aim of the current study is to assess whether criminal networks can help young offenders avoid contacts with the criminal justice system. We examine the association between criminal network and cost avoidance specifically for the crime of cannabis cultivation in a rural region in Quebec, Canada. A self-report delinquency survey, administered to the region's quasi-population of high-school students (N = 1,166), revealed that a total of 175 adolescents had participated in the cannabis cultivation industry (a 15% lifetime prevalence rate). Forty-seven respondents (27%), including 29 who were arrested, reported having participated in a cultivation site that was detected by the police. Results indicate that “who you know” matters in the cultivation industry, and is an important independent predictor of arrest: very few young growers who were embedded in adult networks were apprehended. Conversely, embeddedness in a youth network emerged as an independent risk factor, especially embeddedness in larger networks.

Justice Quarterly, February 2010: Volume 27, Issue 1