Journal of Criminal Justice 41(3)

Journal of Criminal Justice, May 2013: Volume 41, Issue 3

Personal factors and substance abuse treatment program retention among felony probationers: Theoretical relevance of initial vs. shifting scores on impulsivity/low self-control
Liana Taylor, Matthew Hiller, Ralph B. Taylor

Purpose Although past work connects personal factors to substance abuse treatment retention, most studies have been atheoretical. The current work specifically examines impulsivity/low self-control and retention in substance abuse treatment using the General Theory of Crime () which anticipates a relationship between intake scores and retention. Methods Analyses examined 330 probationers in a modified therapeutic community. Four logistic regression models predicting treatment completion examined four aspects of impulsivity/low self-control. Each model included initial scores, while controlling for unexpected changes after 90 days and demographics. Model-fit was analyzed using the Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC). Results Two best-fitting models emerged: sensation-seeking and volatile tendencies. Higher intake scores for sensation-seeking were related to significantly lower odds of completion. Unexpectedly increasing volatile tendencies was related to a significantly lower odds of completion. Models with impulsivity/low self-control indices provided significantly better fit than models with demographics alone. Conclusions Both measurement periods of impulsivity/low self-control were found to be associated with substance abuse treatment completion. These findings appear supportive of the General Theory of Crime and are directly applicable to Therapeutic Communities. They also may prove useful in future work examining how personal factors connect with treatment outcomes.

Perceptions of prosocial and delinquent peer behavior and the effect on delinquent attitudes: A longitudinal study
Dena C. Carson

Purpose This study uses social learning and balance theories to explore the relationship between a youth's perceptions of both prosocial and antisocial peer behavior and their own delinquent attitudes. Methods The current research examines both the contemporaneous and lagged relationships between peer behavior and a youth's delinquent attitudes, the relative effect of prosocial versus antisocial peer behavior on attitudes as well as the effects of changes in these variables. Relationships are examined using data from a multi-site longitudinal sample of 3,820 youth. Analyses are completed using random-effects regression techniques as well as change scores. Results Findings indicate that perceptions of prosocial peer behavior have a lasting protective effect on the formation of delinquent attitudes. However, when focusing on change over time, changes in perceptions of delinquent peer behavior produce a stronger change in delinquent attitudes. Conclusions The current study was able to make advancements to both social learning and balance theory by focusing on perceptions of peer behavior and delinquent attitudes. The results justify the significance of continuing to examine factors that relate to how peer associations matter for delinquent attitudes and behavior.

Adolescent parties and substance use: A situational approach to peer influence
Owen Gallupe, Martin Bouchard

Purpose This study takes a situational approach to testing criminogenic peer influence effects on substance use by examining audience characteristics at the last two parties that adolescents attended. We examine the applicability of situational approaches to social learning theory and symbolic interactionist perspectives on criminogenic peer group effects. Methods Using a sample of adolescents in a large Canadian city, we test the cross-sectional correlates of substance use at parties (n = 775) as well as how changes in audience characteristics relate to changes in substance use from one party to the next (n = 361). Results We found that higher levels of substance use are more likely to occur in smaller group settings. But having more friends use alcohol/cannabis and in larger amounts is strongly related to greater personal substance use. Further, it was found that increases in the amount that friends drink/smoke from one party to the next is related to increases in personal substance use. Conclusions There appears to be little support for a generalized audience effect; what is important is the behavior of peers in specific situations. Findings suggest that integrating a situational audience perspective provides valuable insights into peer influence dynamics.

Adult onset offending in a Swedish female birth cohort
Frida Andersson, Marie Torstensson Levander

Background In criminal career research, the existence of an adult onset trajectory has been identified more or less regularly over recent decades, providing indications of the existence of a group of serious offenders that resembles the early onset chronic offenders. Aims The aim of this study is to further explore the origins and development of the adult onset females with regard to familial and social predictors and life events. Methods Results are based on the Project Metropolitan data for 7,398 girls up to age 30 using logistic regression. Results The adult onset group showed a markedly higher prevalence of all covariates when compared with non-offenders and they are largely similar to the high level chronics. A logistic regression model including 11 covariates identified only two predictors on which the adult onsetters could be separated from the high level chronics. Conclusions The authors conclude that there is support for the actual existence of the adult onset group, and that the group is difficult to separate from the high level chronics on the basis of structural factors. Using additional variables, including individual factors, further research should focus on answering the question of how the delayed onset of this group might be explained.

Need drugs, will travel?: The distances to crime of illegal drug buyers
Lallen T. Johnson, Ralph B. Taylor, Jerry H. Ratcliffe

Purpose This study examines distances to crime among illegal drug buyers while controlling for buyer, drug, and destination characteristics. Methods Geocoded arrests for drug buyers in an urban municipality, over a three year period, spatially identify major drug markets. Negative binomial regression is used to model compositional characteristics of drug arrestees and contextual effects of markets on distance to arrest (n = 4,082). Results Trip distance to drug purchase arrest varies by drug market. Being white, and having prior contact with the criminal justice system correlated with longer trip distances. Additional compositional effects vary by drug type. Conclusions In line with prior journey to crime research and crime pattern theory, illicit drug buyers are arrested in close proximity of their homes. Future research should consider the extent to which short aggregate market distances reflect policing differentials and close social ties.

Two dopamine receptor genes (DRD2 and DRD4) predict psychopathic personality traits in a sample of American adults
Tong Wu, J.C. Barnes

Purpose Psychopathy is often defined as a personality disorder that manifests as a constellation of characteristics including a lack of affective emotions, manipulative and irresponsible interpersonal reactions, and impulsive and sometimes violent behaviors. Prior studies have shown that genetic factors may have some influence on the etiology of psychopathy, but there is little evidence on which specific genes may play a role. Methods This study examines the correlation between three dopamine genes—DAT1, DRD2, and DRD4—and psychopathic personality traits. Results The results of this study demonstrate that two of the examined genes predict psychopathic personality traits in the hypothesized direction (DRD2: b = .69 p < .05; DRD4: b = 1.02 p < .05). Conclusions These findings emphasize the importance of the dopaminergic system in the etiology of psychopathic personality traits, providing guidance for future researchers.

The effect of prison-based college education programs on recidivism: Propensity Score Matching approach
Ryang Hui Kim, David Clark

Purpose Most prior research reports that prison-based college education reduces recidivism, but fails to address the potential problem of self-selection bias. The primary purpose of this study is to examine the true treatment effect of prison-based college education on recidivism. Methods Using data acquired from New York State, we use the Propensity Score Matching (PSM) method to control for self-selection bias. The recidivism rate is compared between the treatment and matched comparison group. Also, fixed-effects logistic regression and Cox regression models are utilized to measure the effect of prison-based college programs on recidivism. Results We find that the recidivism rates within three years after release for college program completers and a PSM derived comparison group were 9.4% and 17.1% respectively. However, the recidivism rate for a comparison group not derived by the PSM method was more than double the rate of the PSM derived comparison group. Fixed-effects logistic regression and Cox regression models also confirm that prison-based college programs have a positive effect on reducing recidivism. Conclusions The results of this study suggest that inflated estimates of the treatment effect may result when research does not take self-selection bias into account and apply appropriate methods to compensate for that bias.