Justice Quarterly 28(2)

Becoming an Informant
J. Mitchell Miller

Though widely acknowledged as vital to law enforcement, social scientists have largely ignored the practice of confidential informing. The extant literature on the topic is primarily comprised of experientially based practical guides to informant management and a handful of field studies drawing information from informants in the study of other undercover practices. This study features data obtained from in-depth interviews with eighty-four former informants drawn from five southern states identified through a purposive-snowball sampling strategy. Informant accounts suggest that the practice of confidential informing is an institutionalized component of a general narcotics enforcement pattern characterized by duplicity and social control irony. Confidential informant work is observed as a moral career entailing deviant identity maintenance through neutralizations and insider perspective. Narratives confirmed a motivational typology accounting for role assumption and informant-agent dynamics and orient discussion around practice and research implications.

The Geospatial Structure of Terrorist Cells
D. Kim Rossmo; Keith Harries

Counterterrorism investigations commonly suffer from information overload problems that make the identification of relevant patterns difficult. Geographic prioritization models can be useful tools in such situations. We applied the general theories and principles of the environmental criminology perspective, and the specific ideas and concepts developed in geographic profiling, as a basis for understanding the geospatial patterns of terrorist cell behavior in Ankara and Istanbul, Turkey. From a unique access to police investigation files, we collected spatial data on terrorism incidents and terrorist cell sites, mapped these locations, and measured the distances from cell sites to incident sites and the distances between cell sites. The resulting probability distributions provide the basis for the development of a geospatial model for intelligence management.

The Effects of School Crime Prevention on Students' Violent Victimization, Risk Perception, and Fear of Crime: A Multilevel Opportunity Perspective
Marie Skubak Tillyer; Bonnie S. Fisher; Pamela Wilcox

This study examined the effects of school-based crime prevention strategies aimed at reducing criminal opportunity. Results are mixed as to the effectiveness of such efforts in reducing violent victimization among students. Further, few studies have examined the effects net of student-level risk factors. Finally, it is unclear as to whether such measures agitate or placate students' risk perception and fear. Guided by a multilevel opportunity perspective, this study used self-report data from 2,644 seventh-grade students nested within 58 schools to test whether such efforts reduce students' victimization, risk perception, and fear of violence at school. Hierarchical logistic models were estimated to control for individual-level opportunity for victimization. Net of compositional differences, the prevention practices did not significantly reduce the likelihood of experiencing violent victimization or perceptions of risk, and only one measure, metal detectors, significantly reduced fear. Implications for school crime prevention are discussed in light of the findings.

Establishing Connections: Gender, Motor Vehicle Theft, and Disposal Networks
Christopher W. Mullins; Michael G. Cherbonneau

Motor vehicle theft is an offense typically dominated by male offenders. As with all other major forms of criminal activity that are male dominated, women do participate in the theft of vehicles; yet, few studies have endeavored to examine their involvement in auto theft and even fewer have directly compared women's experiences alongside that of men's. This paper examines the gendered nature of motor vehicle theft through direct comparison of in-depth interviews with 35 men and women actively involved in auto theft in St. Louis, Missouri. By tracing similarities and differences between men's and women's initiation into auto theft, enactment methods, and access to networks for vehicle and parts' disposal, we provide a contextual analysis of offender's perceptions and behavior. The findings indicate that while initiation into auto theft and property disposal networks are both governed by male gatekeepers, women experience greater barriers in gaining access to disposal networks than they do entry into auto theft offending which, in turn, leads to some key similarities in techniques between men and women.

Utilizing Criminal History Information to Explore the Effect of Community Notification on Sex Offender Recidivism
Sean Maddan; J. Mitchell Miller; Jeffery T. Walker; Ineke Haen Marshall

While sex offender registration laws with notification provisions are now over a decade old, little is known about how these policies influence the prevention of sex offending. Very few studies have considered the impact of notification on sex offender recidivism or the effect of these laws on sex crimes, generally. This study considers the effectiveness of offender tracking and declaration at the state level through evaluation of current sex offender laws in Arkansas. Using a quasi-experimental regression-discontinuity design, this research evaluated the recidivism of the first three waves of sex offenders registered in the state (1997-1999) vs. a comparison group of sex offenders from a decade earlier (1987-1989). Findings indicate there is no statistically significant difference between the two groups in terms of recidivism. Policy implications are discussed.

Prevalence and Characteristics of Co-Offending Recruiters
Sarah B. van Mastrigt; David P. Farrington

Previous examinations of co-offending have identified a subset of high-rate offenders who commit crimes with a large number of co-offenders, most of whom are younger and less criminally experienced. These so-called “recruiters” are of particular interest to researchers and practitioners, because of their potential role in facilitating offending onset and recidivism among their co-offenders. In this paper, data on 61,646 individuals detected by a large UK police force are used to identify offenders who fitted the recruiter profile, and to compare their individual and offending characteristics with those of non-recruiters. In total, 86 recruiters were identified. In multivariate analyses, recruiters were found to be older than non-recruiters and were typically involved in property crimes. In addition, they tended to offend in criminal groups that were more heterogeneous and stable than non-recruiters. These findings suggest that a small but identifiable group of recruiters can be detected using official data and that these individuals may be important targets for police attention and court treatment.

Risk Terrain Modeling: Brokering Criminological Theory and GIS Methods for Crime Forecasting
Joel M. Caplan; Leslie W. Kennedy; Joel Miller

The research presented here has two key objectives. The first is to apply risk terrain modeling (RTM) to forecast the crime of shootings. The risk terrain maps that were produced from RTM use a range of contextual information relevant to the opportunity structure of shootings to estimate risks of future shootings as they are distributed throughout a geography. The second objective was to test the predictive power of the risk terrain maps over two six-month time periods, and to compare them against the predictive ability of retrospective hot spot maps. Results suggest that risk terrains provide a statistically significant forecast of future shootings across a range of cut points and are substantially more accurate than retrospective hot spot mapping. In addition, risk terrain maps produce information that can be operationalized by police administrators easily and efficiently, such as for directing police patrols to coalesced high-risk areas.

Reentry and the Ties that Bind: An Examination of Social Ties, Employment, and Recidivism
Mark T. Berg; Beth M. Huebner

Scholars consistently find that reentering offenders who obtain steady work and maintain social ties to family are less likely to recidivate. Some theorize that familial ties may operate through employment to influence recidivism and that such ties may also serve a moderating role. The current study employs an integrated conceptual framework in order to test hypotheses about the link between familial ties, post-release employment, and recidivism. The findings suggest that family ties have implications for both recidivism and job attainment. In fact, the results suggest that good quality social ties may be particularly important for men with histories of frequent unemployment. The implications of these findings are discussed with regard to theory and future research on prisoner reentry and recidivism.

Justice Quarterly, April 2011: Volume 28, Issue 2