Journal of Criminal Justice 43(4)

Journal of Criminal Justice, July 2015: Volume 43, Issue 4

Can the causal mechanisms underlying chronic, serious, and violent offending trajectories be elucidated using the psychopathy construct?
Raymond R. Corrado, Matt DeLisi, Stephen D. Hart, Evan C. McCuish

Capturing clinical complexity: Towards a personality-oriented measure of psychopathy
David J. Cooke, Caroline Logan

Bringing psychopathy into developmental and life-course criminology theories and research
Bryanna H. Fox, Wesley G. Jennings, David P. Farrington

Ingredients for Criminality Require Genes, Temperament, and Psychopathic Personality
Matt DeLisi, Michael G. Vaughn

Brain imaging research on psychopathy: Implications for punishment, prediction, and treatment in youth and adults
Rebecca Umbach, Colleen M. Berryessa, Adrian Raine

Childhood and Adolescent Characteristics of Women with High versus Low Psychopathy Scores: Examining Developmental Precursors to the Malignant Personality Disorder
Elham Forouzan, Tonia L. Nicholls

Psychopathy and violent misconduct in a sample of violent young offenders
Catherine Shaffer, Evan McCuish, Raymond R. Corrado, Monic P. Behnken, Matt DeLisi

A multi-wave cross-lagged regression analysis of the Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory and Self-Reported Offending
Glenn D. Walters

The prevalence of psychopathic personality disturbances among incarcerated youth: Comparing serious, chronic, violent and sex offenders
Jesse Cale, Patrick Lussier, Evan McCuish, Ray Corrado

The role of symptoms of psychopathy in persistent violence over the criminal career into full adulthood 

Evan C. McCuish, Raymond R. Corrado, Stephen D. Hart, Matt DeLisi

The role of psychopathic traits and developmental risk factors on offending trajectories from early adolescence to adulthood: A prospective study of incarcerated youth
Raymond R. Corrado, Evan C. McCuish, Stephen D. Hart, Matt DeLisi 

Journal of Criminal Justice 43(3)

Journal of Criminal Justice, May 2015: Volume 43, Issue 3

Racial (in)variance in prison rule breaking

Benjamin Steiner, John Wooldredge

Purpose: Sampson and Wilson (1995) argued that the sources of crime are invariant across race, and are instead rooted in the structural differences between communities. This study involved an examination of the applicability of this thesis to incarcerated individuals. Methods: Random samples totaling 2,388 blacks and 3,118 whites were drawn from 46 prisons in Ohio and Kentucky. Race-specific and pooled bi-level models of violent and nonviolent rule violations were estimated. Differences between race-specific models in the magnitude of regression coefficients for the same predictors and outcomes were compared. Results: Findings revealed that individual and environmental effects were very similar between black and white inmates, although rates of violent and nonviolent rule breaking were higher for blacks. Within prisons, black inmates were also more likely than white inmates to engage in rule breaking. The individual-level relationship between race and violence was stronger in prisons with a lower ratio of black to white inmates and in prisons where inmates were more cynical towards legal authority. Conclusions: Findings seemingly refute the applicability of the racial invariance hypothesis to an incarcerated population.

Metropolitan local crime clusters: Structural concentration effects and the systemic model

Lallen T. Johnson, Ralph B. Taylor, Elizabeth R. Groff

Purpose: Using community structure and the racial-spatial divide as a framework, this study examines whether geographic sub-regions of violent crime exist in a large metropolitan area, and if the systemic model of crime can predict them. In addition, surrounding social structure measures are included to determine whether they demonstrate the same violent crime links seen in recent work on concentration impacts. Methods: A LISA analysis is used to identify violent crime clusters for 355 jurisdictions in the Philadelphia (PA)-Camden (NJ) primary metropolitan area over a 9-year period. Multinomial logit hierarchical/mixed effects models are used to predict cluster classification using focal and lagged structural covariates. Results: Models confirmed links of focal jurisdiction socioeconomic status and residential stability with sub-region classification. Models with spatially lagged predictors show powerful impacts of spatially lagged racial composition. Conclusions: Findings extend work on racial concentration effects and the basic systemic model to metropolitan sub-regions. Implications for shifting spatial inequalities in metropolitan structure and questions about responsible dynamics merit attention.

On the general relationship between victimization and offending: Examining cultural contingencies

Chad Posick, Laurie A. Gould

Culture has been implicated in a wide range of individual behaviors. However, empirical investigation of how culture impacts violent behavior is limited. In particular, the well-established finding that there is an overlap between offenders and victims has not been examined in a culturally comparative context - limiting the ability to generalize current findings across cultures. Purpose: This study uses data from the second International Self-Report Delinquency Study (ISRD-II), a large school-based sample of adolescents in grades 7-9, and three measures from the Hofstede Dimensions of National Culture dataset to investigate how culture might moderate the relationship between victimization and offending. Methods: A series of multivariate, multilevel models are run examining variation in the victim-offender overlap across contexts and attempting to explain why variations exist. Results: The results indicate that victimization remains a salient predictor of offending across contexts with overall consistency in its effect on offending. Some cultural indicators were shown to slightly moderate this relationship. Conclusions: While consistency in the victim-offender overlap was clear, individualism was a cultural-level variable that displayed a weak but statistically significant moderation effect on the victim-offender relationship suggesting that culture should not be altogether ignored in studies on violence.

Gender and Arrests for Larceny, Fraud, Forgery, and Embezzlement: Conventional or Occupational Property Crime Offenders?

Darrell Steffensmeier, Casey T. Harris, Noah Painter-Davis

Purpose: Our goal is to address a major debate within criminology – among scholars and practitioners interested in white collar/corporate crime and the gender-crime relationship in particular – regarding the types of offenses and offenders represented within the Uniform Crime Report categories of larceny, fraud, forgery, and embezzlement (LFFE). In particular, we examine whether female versus male arrests are serious, employment-situated offenses or instead represent minor, conventional property crime. Methods: We utilize detailed offense and incident information from the National Incident-Based Reporting System and New York Crime Reporting Program to disaggregate female and male LFFE arrests into occupational and non-occupational offenses, as well as establish the severity for each specific type of crime. Results: We find most LFFE offending is non-occupational, especially for females whose arrests are disproportionately for shoplifting, bad checks, and welfare/benefit fraud as compared to male arrests for theft from motor vehicles, transportation fraud, and counterfeiting. For both males and females, most arrests involve small financial loss and misdemeanors or low-level felony charges. Conclusions: Providing a current profile of female and male property crime, we conclude that arrestees within the summary categories of larceny, fraud, and forgery overwhelmingly represent minor, conventional property crime offenders.

Cost of crime: A systematic review

Nyantara Wickramasekera, Judy Wright, Helen Elsey, Jenni Murray, Sandy Tubeuf

Purpose: This study aims to systematically search and review all the relevant studies that have estimated the cost of crime of adult offenders. Methods: Fifteen databases were searched for published studies and grey literature. We included studies that estimated the cost of crime of adult offenders. Due to high heterogeneity results were synthesised descriptively. Results: Twenty-one studies estimated the cost of crime. There was considerable variance in the estimated total costs of crime and studies from the United States consistently reported the highest total costs. All the studies consistently included robbery and burglary in the total cost estimate. Homicide was ranked as the most costly offence and accounted on average for 31% of the total cost of crime, followed by drug offence (21%) and fraud (17%). Crime categories that involved violence to a person were associated with large intangible costs. Conclusions: While it is difficult to precisely determine what caused the large variance in the total cost estimates, we think that it could be due to changes in unit costs, changes in crime trends, and variations in the methods used to estimate costs. The findings from this systematic review highlight the need for more up-to-date studies with better reporting standards.

The Relationship between Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) and Juvenile Offending Trajectories in a Juvenile Offender Sample

Michael T. Baglivio, Kevin T. Wolff, Alex R. Piquero, Nathan Epps

Purpose: Adverse childhood experiences have been identified as a key risk factor for offending and victimization, respectively. At the same time, the extent to which such experiences distinguish between unique groups of offenders who vary in their longitudinal offending patterns remains an open question, one that is pertinent to both theoretical and policy-related issues. This study examines the relationship between adverse childhood experiences for distinguishing offending patterns through late adolescence in a large sample of adjudicated juvenile offenders. Methods: The current study uses data from 64,000 adjudicated juvenile offenders in the State of Florida. We use Semi-Parametric Group-Based Method (SPGM) to identify different latent groups of official offending trajectories based on individual variation over time from ages 7 to 17. Multinomial logistic regression was used to examine which measures, including the ACE score, distinguished between trajectory groups. Results: Findings indicate five latent trajectory offending groups of offending through age 17 and that increased exposure to multiple Adverse Childhood Experiences distinguishes early-onset and chronic offending from other patterns of offending, net of several controls across demographic, individual risk, familial risk, and personal history domains. Conclusions: Childhood maltreatment as measured by the cumulative stressor Adverse Childhood Experiences score influences official offending trajectories.

Responding to probation and parole violations: Are jail sanctions more effective than community-based graduated sanctions?

Eric J. Wodahl, John H. Boman IV, Brett E. Garland

Purpose: In response to escalating revocation rates in community supervision, many jurisdictions have adopted graduated sanction policies. Research on graduated sanctions has shown promising results. However, most studies focus exclusively on jail sanctions and have largely ignored the possibility that community-based graduated sanctions such as written assignments, increased treatment participation, or community service hours may be as effective, or more effective, than jail sanctions. Extending this research, the current study examines whether community-based sanctions are as effective in increasing offender compliance as spending time in jail. Methods: Using data from over 800 violations committed by a random sample of probationers and parolees on intensive supervision probation, multilevel models are estimated that examine whether jail sanctions are more effective than community sanctions in 1) extending time to the offender’s next violation event, 2) reducing the number of future violations, and 3) successfully completing the probation program. Results: Results consistently indicate that jail sanctions do not outperform community-based sanctions. Conclusion: Due to the financial, social, and potentially criminogenic effects of jail, the lack of significant differences between jail sanctions and community-based sanctions calls into question the use of jail as a means of punishing persons on community supervision.

Journal of Criminal Justice 43(1)

Journal of Criminal Justice, January 2015: Volume 43, Issue 1

Editorial: Sex offenders: No solicitude required  
Matt DeLisi

Perceptions of Police Practice, Cynicism of Police Performance, and Persistent Neighborhood Violence: An Intersecting Relationship
Nicholas Corsaro, James Frank, Murat Ozer

Purpose: A growing literature indicates that legal cynicism at the neighborhood level corresponds with retaliatory homicides and persistent homicide rates, net of controls. However, no study to date has examined: a) how cynicism of police performance might be influenced by specific experiences with and perceptions of the police, and b) whether neighborhood cynicism of police performance is associated with violent crime beyond homicides. Method: This study analyzed citizen and neighborhood data from Cincinnati, Ohio in the late 1990s - a social setting that had antagonistic police-community relationships.Results: The results revealed that perceived unjust policing was the strongest individual level correlate of cynicism of police services, and that aggregate levels of cynicism predicted both homicides and overall violence above and beyond social disorganization as well as previous levels of violence. Conclusion: We speak to the importance of these findings in terms of identifying which police-community factors seemingly have the greatest likelihood to facilitate the association between cynicism and persistent neighborhood violence.

Does substance misuse moderate the relationship between criminal thinking and recidivism?
Michael S. Caudy, Johanna B. Folk, Jeffrey B. Stuewig, Alese Wooditch, Andres Martinez, Stephanie Maass, June P. Tangney, Faye S. Taxman

Purpose: Some differential intervention frameworks contend that substance use is less robustly related to recidivism outcomes than other criminogenic needs such as criminal thinking. The current study tested the hypothesis that substance use disorder severity moderates the relationship between criminal thinking and recidivism. Methods: The study utilized two independent criminal justice samples. Study 1 included 226 drug-involved probationers. Study 2 included 337 jail inmates with varying levels of substance use disorder severity. Logistic regression was employed to test the main and interactive effects of criminal thinking and substance use on multiple dichotomous indicators of recidivism. Results: Bivariate analyses revealed a significant correlation between criminal thinking and recidivism in the jail sample (r = .18, p < .05) but no significant relationship in the probation sample. Logistic regressions revealed that SUD symptoms moderated the relationship between criminal thinking and recidivism in the jail-based sample (B = -.58, p < .05). A significant moderation effect was not observed in the probation sample. Conclusions: Study findings indicate that substance use disorder symptoms moderate the strength of the association between criminal thinking and recidivism. These findings demonstrate the need for further research into the interaction between various dynamic risk factors.

Local gangs and residents’ perceptions of unsupervised teen groups: Implications for the incivilities thesis and neighborhood effects
Brandy L. Blasko, Caterina Gouvis Roman, Ralph B. Taylor

Purpose: The current work responds to calls for more conceptual clarity in disorder and incivility models, and for closer ties between gang and neighborhood effects research. Focusing on the perceived incivility that is pivotal to the dynamics of several theories in community criminology—unsupervised teen groups—and adopting Messick’s (1995) unified perspective on construct validation, the current work examines ecological and psychological impacts of street gang set spaces on these perceptions. Methods: Survey responses of over 900 residents in 55 census block groups in the northeast quadrant of the District of Columbia were combined with census data and expert assessments of gang set spaces. Results: Residents living in closer proximity to gang set spaces, within and beyond their neighborhood, reported more problems with unsupervised teen groups. This held true even after controlling for social integration. Conclusions: Results support Hunter’s (1978) distinction between general social disorder and specific correlated manifestations thereof, like incivilities, and Thrasher’s (1926) view of gangs as consequences of social disorder, furthering our understanding of this key social incivility.

The determination of victim credibility by adult and juvenile sexual assault investigators
Bradley A. Campbell, Tasha A. Menaker, William R. King

Purpose: Literature on sexual assault case outcomes has demonstrated that victim credibility is a critical component in criminal justice outcomes. Much of this literature has focused on prosecutors’ evaluations of victim credibility and the role of credibility in decisions to charge. Comparatively less research has examined the specific factors that impact police investigators’ evaluation of victim credibility. This study examines how sexual assault investigators determine victim credibility. Methods: This study analyzes interview data collected from 44 sexual assault investigators to understand how investigators evaluate victim credibility, and victim credibility’s role in decisions to arrest and present cases to prosecutors. Results: Findings indicate that extralegal characteristics including victim behavior at the time of victimization and victim moral character were important factors when evaluating victim credibility. In the absence of corroborating evidence, victim credibility was considered the most critical factor in decisions to arrest and present cases to prosecutors. Finally, important distinctions were revealed between juvenile and adult investigators regarding the evaluation of credibility. Conclusions: Police investigators’ decisions are guided by their perceptions of the characteristics necessary for prosecutors to accept charges in sexual assault investigations. Among these characteristics, victim credibility appeared to be the most important.

The Impact of Gun Ownership Rates on Crime Rates: A Methodological Review of the Evidence   Review Article
Gary Kleck

Purpose: This paper reviews 41 English-language studies that tested the hypothesis that higher gun prevalence levels cause higher crime rates, especially higher homicide rates. Methods: Each study was assessed as to whether it solved or reduced each of three critical methodological problems: (1) whether a validated measure of gun prevalence was used, (2) whether the authors controlled for more than a handful of possible confounding variables, and (3) whether the researchers used suitable causal order procedures to deal with the possibility of crime rates affecting gun rates, instead of the reverse. Results: It was found that most studies did not solve any of these problems, and that research that did a better job of addressing these problems was less likely to support the more-guns-cause-more crime hypothesis. Indeed, none of the studies that solved all three problems supported the hypothesis. Conclusions: Technically weak research mostly supports the hypothesis, while strong research does not. It must be tentatively concluded that higher gun ownership rates do not cause higher crime rates, including homicide rates.

The impact of low birth weight and maternal age on adulthood offending
Jamie C. Vaske, Jamie Newsome, Danielle L. Boisvert, Alex R. Piquero, Angela D. Paradis, Stephen L. Buka

Purpose: The current study examines the relationship between low birth weight and adult offending, and whether maternal age at childbirth moderates this relationship. Methods: Using longitudinal data from mothers and offspring from the Providence sample of the Collaborative Perinatal Project, multivariate logistic regression models were used to study the relationship between low birth weight and adulthood arrest by maternal age. Results: Offspring born at low birth weight were at an increased risk of adult arrest, but only if they were born to adolescent (and not adult) mothers. These results remained while controlling for preterm delivery, number of cigarettes smoked during pregnancy, mothers’ marital status, socioeconomic status, African American race, gender, and court contact during adolescence. Conclusions: Results highlight the importance of considering the moderating role of maternal age at childbirth, and underscore the notion that the adverse effect of a child born at low birth weight—with respect to crime—can be exacerbated if the child is born to a young mother but lessened or even ameliorated if born to an older mother. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Hirschi’s Reconceptualization of Self-Control: Is Truth Truly the Daughter of Time? Evidence from Eleven Cultures
Alexander T. Vazsonyi, Li Huang

Purpose: The conceptualization and measurement of self-control remains a debated topic, in criminology as well as other social and behavioral sciences. The current study compared the relationships between the Grasmick and colleagues (1993) self-control scale and the redefined self-control measure by Hirschi (2004) on measures of deviance in samples of adolescents. Methods: Anonymous, self-report data were collected from over N = 16,000 middle and late adolescents in China, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Japan, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, and the United States. Results: Based on latent constructs with items parcels in an SEM framework, multi-group tests were used to examine both the relative predictive utility of each self-control measure on deviance and the extent to which these relationships varied across cultures. Both scales appear to tap into self-control; however, findings provide evidence that the Grasmick et al. measure explains more variance. These links did not vary across cultural contexts. Conclusions: Hirschi provocatively suggested that the truth is the daughter of time; yet, we find that the measure developed by Grasmick and colleagues, the most widely used scale, retains greater explanatory power, and does so in an invariant manner across all eleven developmental contexts examined.

It's Official: Predictors of Self-Reported vs. Officially Recorded Arrests
Wendi Pollock, Scott Menard, Delbert S. Elliott, David H. Huizinga

Purpose: The study of the distribution and correlates of arrest is widely recognized as an important topic, for the purposes of contributing to changes in police policy and training, which in turn increase the fairness of U.S. policing. Despite agreement that this area of research is an important one, there remains variation in the way arrest is measured. The current study compares two common measurements of arrest, official records and self-reports, for National Youth Survey Family Study (NYSFS) respondents across four time periods. Methods: The sample was divided by those who reported severe offending and those who did not. Crosstabs, correlation coefficients and logistic regression models were run, to examine the extent to which self-reported and officially recorded arrests are related, and whether there are commonalities in the predictors of self-reported and officially recorded arrests. Results: While the agreement between the two measurements of arrest is over 80%, the majority of that agreement is comprised of respondents who were not arrested. Conclusions: Overall, there were more instances of a self-reported arrest but no official arrest, than the reverse. There does not appear to be a pattern in frequencies or correlation coefficients based on the severity of reported offending.

Perceptions of and support for sex offender policies: Testing Levenson, Brannon, Fortney, and Baker’s findings
Sarah Koon-Magnin

Purpose: In one of the most impactful studies of perceptions of sex offender legislation, respondents claimed that they would support the laws, “even if there is no scientific evidence showing that they reduce sexual abuse” (Levenson, Brannon, Fortney, & Baker, 2007). The present research experimentally tested that assertion across two samples of Alabama residents. Methods: In both samples, an experimental group was informed that, “There is no conclusive scientific evidence showing that sex offender registries or notification laws reduce sexual abuse.” All respondents were then asked about community notification statutes. Results: Support was high among all respondents (regardless of the experimental prompt) and did not differ significantly based on demographic characteristics. Males were more likely than females to perceive some policies as effective. Parents reported that they would feel significantly more fear and anger if a sex offender moved into their neighborhood than did non-parents. Conclusions: These findings suggest that: 1.) despite their limited instrumental impact, sex offender laws hold symbolic value to the public, 2.) more research is needed to further understand demographic differences in perceptions of sex offender policies, and 3.) perhaps public education must precede an effective attempt at implementing evidence-based sex offender legislation.

Journal of Criminal Justice 42(6)

Journal of Criminal Justice, November 2014: Volume 42, Issue 6

Antisocial Traits Murdered the Code of the Street in a Battle for Respect 
Matt DeLisi

Implementing Intelligence-Led Policing: An Application of Loose-Coupling Theory
Jeremy G. Carter, Scott W. Phillips, S. Marlon Gayadeen

Purpose: This research is intended to inform a knowledge gap in the literature and present the first national findings related to intelligence-led policing adoption among state and local agencies. Specific practices are identified to inform scholars and practitioners regarding intelligence-led policing behaviors. Methods: Original survey research from a federally-funded project is gleaned to explore intelligence-led policing adoption through a loose-coupling theoretical perspective. Negative binomial and logistic regression models are employed to identify predictive relationships. Results: Agencies nationwide appear to be closely following the National Criminal Intelligence Sharing Plan recommendations to enhance information sharing. Consistent with the Department of Homeland Security’s Target Capabilities List is also observed. Agency size appears to have a significant effect on key organizational information sharing behaviors. The findings are tempered due to limitations in the research design. Conclusions: Local agencies appear to be tightly-coupled with the recommendations put forth in the National Criminal Intelligence Sharing Plan in their efforts to adopt intelligence-led policing. Agency size appears to enhance adoption across most dependent metrics. This research progresses the limited evidence base and progress regarding this emerging policing philosophy.

The influence of strain on law enforcement legitimacy evaluations
Frank V. Ferdik

Purpose: While law enforcement officers have the state-sanctioned authority to use force as a way to ensure citizen obedience with the law, research has found that when private citizens evaluate the police as legitimate, they are more likely to comply with legal demands and cooperate with the police. Although procedural justice has shown to be a highly significant predictor of perceived police legitimacy, research has found other correlates of this outcome, including ethnic identity, low self-control and structural economic disadvantage. To date, no study has explored whether strain influences perceptions of the legitimacy of law enforcement. Methods: A series of linear regression equations was estimated using survey data collected from a convenience sample of college students to determine the effect of strain on perceived police legitimacy. Results: Even after controlling for procedural justice, strain exerted a negative and statistically significant influence on law enforcement legitimacy evaluations. Conclusions: Police officers are encouraged to interact with citizens in procedurally just manners and to also consider people's strain levels when enforcing the law.

A biosocial analysis of the sources of missing data in criminological research
Joseph A. Schwartz, Kevin M. Beaver

Purpose: Failing to deal with missing data patterns effectively may result in biased parameter estimates and ultimately may produce inaccurate results and conclusions. The vast majority of criminological research has addressed this issue with listwise deletion (LD) and multiple imputation (MI) techniques. Identifying the specific covariates that directly contribute to patterns of missingness is highly important in deciding which technique to use. One of the more surprising omissions from the identified list of covariates is the potential role of genetic influences in the development of missingness. Methods: The current study addresses this gap in the literature by estimating genetic (A), shared environmental (C), and the nonshared environmental (E) influences on missingness across measures of delinquency and self-control within a longitudinal sample of twin and sibling pairs. Results: The results indicated that genetic influences explain a significant portion of the variance in missing values related to both delinquency and self-control. Conclusions: Current methodological techniques aimed at addressing missing data should be amended to take genetic influences into account. Such modifications and the implications of the findings for future research are discussed.

Causes and correlates of prison inmate misconduct: A systematic review of the evidence
Benjamin Steiner, H. Daniel Butler, Jared M. Ellison

Purpose: Inmate rule violations or “misconducts” reflect offending within a prison, and this study involved a systematic review of studies of the causes/correlates of inmate misconduct published between 1980 and 2013. Methods: An exhaustive search of relevant high impact journals yielded 98 studies of causes/correlates of inmates misconduct published between 1980 and 2013. The final models from these studies were examined to assess the impact of the predictor variables on misconduct. Results: Findings revealed that predictor variables reflecting inmates’ background characteristics (e.g., age, prior record), their institutional routines and experiences (e.g., prior misconducts), and prison characteristics (e.g., security level) all impact misconduct. Conclusions: Researchers should apply general theories of crime and deviance (e.g., control) that can incorporate all of the empirically relevant inmate and prison characteristics to the study of offending in prison (misconduct). Researchers should also examine the sources of variability in the effects of predictor variables across studies.

On the consequences of ignoring genetic influences in criminological research
J.C. Barnes, Brian B. Boutwell, Kevin M. Beaver, Chris L. Gibson, John P. Wright

Purpose: Many criminological scholars explore the social causes of crime while giving little consideration to the possibility that genetic factors underlie the observed associations. Indeed, the standard social science method (SSSM) assumes genetic influences do not confound the association between X and Y. Yet, a nascent stream of evidence has questioned the validity of this approach by revealing many criminological variables are at least partially affected by genetic influences. As a result, a substantial proportion of the literature may be misspecified due to uncontrolled genetic factors. No effort has been made to directly estimate the extent to which genetic confounding has biased the associations presented in criminological studies. Methods: The present study seeks to address this issue by drawing on simulated datasets. Results: clusions Results: gest genetic confounding may account for a negligible portion of the relationship between X and Y when their correlation (ryx) is larger than the correlation between genetic factors and Y (i.e., ryx > ryg). Genetic confounding appears to be much more problematic when the correlation between X and Y is in the moderate-to-small range (e.g., ryx = .20) and the genetic effect is in the moderate-to-large range (e.g., ryg ≥ .30).

Criminal epidemiology and the immigrant paradox: Intergenerational discontinuity in violence and antisocial behavior among immigrants
Michael G. Vaughn, Christopher P. Salas-Wright, Brandy R. Maynard, Zhengmin Qian, Lauren Terzis, Abdi M. Kusow, Matt DeLisi

Purpose: A growing number of studies have examined the immigrant paradox with respect to antisocial behavior and crime in the United States. However, there remains a need for a comprehensive examination of the intergenerational nature of violence and antisocial behavior among immigrants using population-based samples. Methods: The present study, employing data from Wave I and II data of the National Epidemiologic Survey of Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC), sought to address these gaps by examining the prevalence of nonviolent criminal and violent antisocial behavior among first, second, and third-generation immigrants and compare these to the prevalence found among non-immigrants and each other in the United States. Results: There is clear evidence of an intergenerational severity-based gradient in the relationship between immigrant status and antisocial behavior and crime. The protective effect of nativity is far-and-away strongest among first-generation immigrants, attenuates substantially among second-generation immigrants, and essentially disappears among third-generation immigrants. These patterns were also stable across gender. Conclusion: The present study is among the first to examine the intergenerational nature of antisocial behavior and crime among immigrants using population-based samples. Results provide robust evidence that nativity as a protective factor for immigrants wanes with each successive generation.

The impact of neighborhood crime levels on police use of force: An examination at micro and meso levels
Hoon Lee, Michael S. Vaughn, Hyeyoung Lim

Purpose: Neighborhood contextual factors have gained a considerable amount of attention, relating neighborhood crime levels to police force. Prior research mainly examined the relationship either at the police district level or at the city level. The current study intends to investigate the relationship at lower levels of geographic aggregation. Methods: Using Geographic Information System techniques, the current study utilized four radial buffer zones around each use of force incident location to measure the impact of neighborhood violent criminal activities at the micro level on the level of police force used. In addition, hierarchical linear modeling using neighborhood crime rates within police command areas allowed for a comparison study to measure the impact of neighborhood criminal activities at the meso level on police force. Results: The current study found that neighborhood crime levels have a significant and positive effect of increasing the level of police force used at the micro level. Conclusions: The current study supports the work of Black and Smith, concluding that more training and supervision are required for officers working in high crime areas.

Correctional destabilization and jail violence: The consequences of prison depopulation legislation
Jonathan W. Caudill, Chad R. Trulson, James W. Marquart, Ryan Patten, Matthew O. Thomas, Sally Anderson

Purpose: This study explored the effects of prison depopulation on local jail violence through a general systems perspective – where an abrupt shift in the processing of offenders had the potential to create ripple effects through other organizations – of the criminal justice system. Methods: In 2011, California passed the Criminal Justice Realignment legislation aimed to reduce prison population by making low-level felony offenders ineligible for state incarceration and diverting those already in state prison for the included offenses from state to county-level community supervision once paroled. This study incorporated bivariate and negative binomial regression analyses to model officially-recorded county jail panel data to estimate the effects of state prison depopulation on California county jails. Results: Findings demonstrated support for the general systems framework as there was a significant decrease in jail utility in the bivariate analysis and a significant increase in jail violence in the multivariate analysis associated with passage of California’s prison depopulation legislation. Conclusions: The results supported the notion of an interconnected criminal justice system. Policy implications include the consequences of increased violence on jail operations, the potential for a cadre of habitual offenders, and generalizing these findings to the community.

Sex industry exposure over the life course on the onset and frequency of sex offending
Christina Mancini, Amy Reckdenwald, Eric Beauregard, Jill S. Levenson

Purpose: Research has examined pornography use on the extent of offending. However, virtually no work has tested whether other sex industry experiences affect sex crime. By extension, the cumulative effect of these exposures is unknown. Social learning theory predicts that exposure should amplify offending. Separately, the developmental perspective highlights that the timing of exposure matters. Methods: Drawing on retrospective longitudinal data, we first test whether exposure during adolescence is associated with a younger age of onset; we also examine whether adulthood exposure is linked with greater frequency of offending. Results: Findings indicate that most types of adolescent exposures as well as total exposures were related to an earlier age of onset. Exposure during adulthood was also associated with an overall increase in sex offending, but effects were dependent on “type.” Conclusion: There are nuances in the effect of sex industry exposure on offending patterns. Implications of results are discussed.

Do the adult criminal careers of African Americans fit the “facts”?
Elaine Eggleston Doherty, Margaret E. Ensminger

Purpose: A major gap in the criminal career research is our understanding of offending among African Americans, especially beyond early adulthood. In light of this gap, this study describes the criminal career patterns of a cohort of African American males and females. Methods: This paper uses official criminal history data spanning ages 17 to 52 from the Woodlawn Study, a community cohort of 1,242 urban African American males and females. We use basic descriptive statistics as well as group-based modeling to provide a detailed description of the various dimensions of their adult criminal careers. Results: We find cumulative prevalence rates similar to those for African Americans from national probability sample estimates, yet participation in offending extends farther into midlife than expected with a substantial proportion of the cohort still engaged in offending into their 30s. Conclusions: The descriptive analyses contribute to the larger body of knowledge regarding the relationship between age and crime and the unfolding of the criminal career for African American males and females. The applicability of existing life course and developmental theories is discussed in light of the findings.

Dissecting the relationship between mental illness and return to incarceration
James A. Wilson, Peter B. Wood

Purpose: We examine all releases to parole supervision in a single state over a period of four years to consider how a diagnosis of mental illness is associated with return to incarceration. Methods: We use survival methods and Cox regression to understand patterns of and influences on return to prison. Our measure of mental illness is based on in-prison clinical diagnoses. Data include a rich set of administrative variables with demographic, criminal history and institutional controls. Results: Our findings suggest that (1) there is a statistically significant relationship between having a DSM diagnosis and reincarceration, (2) substance-related disorders account for most of that relationship, and (3) there are some important variations among types of disorders examined. Conclusions: Research that examines mental illness and recidivism without controlling for substance use disorders/problems is likely to be uninformative and misleading. Findings provide qualified support for the notion that programming addressing criminogenic risks and needs may be as important, or more so, than therapeutic programming focusing on mental illness when recidivism reduction is the goal.

General strain theory, exposure to violence, and suicide ideation among police officers: A gendered approach
Stephen A. Bishopp, Denise Paquette Boots

Purpose: A wide body of research has demonstrated that police officers are profoundly affected by their exposure to violence and the traumatic events viewed commonly as part of their job duties. Faced with stress, officers learn to adapt by incorporating coping techniques. Methods: The current study utilizes Agnew's general strain theory to explain occurrences of the most dangerous maladaptive coping technique: suicide ideation. Male and female police officers from three large cities in Texas were surveyed (n = 1,410). Results: The present study utilizes logistic regression techniques, finding that strain has a positive and direct effect on male officers suicide ideation risk, but not for female police. Moreover, depression has a mediating effect on strain and suicide ideation for both genders. Conclusions: Some critical differences in suicide ideation outcomes between male and female police officers are reported. Policy implications concerning retention and recruiting are also discussed.

Cops and cameras: Officer perceptions of the use of body-worn cameras in law enforcement
Wesley G. Jennings, Lorie A. Fridell, Mathew D. Lynch

Purpose: There has been a recent surge in the adoption of and media attention to the use of body-worn cameras in law enforcement. Despite this increase in use and media attention, there is little to no research on officer perceptions of body-worn cameras. Methods: This study relies on baseline data of officer perceptions toward body-worn cameras collected from surveys administered to Orlando Police officers who are participants in a randomized experiment evaluating the impact of body-worn cameras (Taser AXON Flex) in law enforcement. Results: Results suggest that police officers are, by and large, open to and supportive of the use of body-worn cameras in policing, they would feel comfortable wearing them, and that they perceive a potential for benefits of body-worn cameras in improving citizen behavior, their own behavior, and the behavior of their fellow officers. Conclusions: Officers are generally supportive of body-worn cameras, and they hold perceptions that these devices can be beneficial in positively affecting relevant outcomes. Study limitations and implications are also discussed.

Assessing stereotypes of adolescent rape
Monica Williams, Bill McCarthy

Purpose: This study examined adolescent rape in light of two popular stereotypes of young rapists. The “deficit” view emphasizes various sexual, psychological, or social problems, whereas the “entitlement” perspective highlights instrumental motivation, confidence, and gender-based privileges. Methods: The study analyzed data on adolescent males from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). We used rare events logistic regression analysis to test the associations between rape and sexual abuse, sexual activity, personality and social attributes, and control variables. Results: Findings indicated notable associations between adolescent rape and variables emphasized by both stereotypes: net of a range of controls, a history of sexual abuse and low sexual self-control were associated with rape, but rape was also positively associated with self-esteem. We found no significant relationships between adolescent rape and sexual precociousness, number of sexual partners, using sex as a coping mechanism, social isolation, impulsivity, or narcissism. Conclusions: These findings suggest that both the deficit and entitlement stereotypes hold some merit for understanding why some young men rape.

In the eye of the beholder? An examination of the inter-rater reliability of the LSI-R and YLS/CMI in a correctional agency
Michael Rocque, Judy Plummer-Beale

Purpose: To examine the inter-rater reliability of two risk assessment tools: The Level of Service Inventory-Revised (LSI-R) and the Youth Level of Service/Case Management Inventory (YLS/CMI). Methods: Two identical experiments are reported. For both studies, a random sample of 10 offenders were interviewed and videotaped with each tool (totaling 20 offenders). The tapes were then shown to a random selection of 20 raters (for a total of 40 raters) employed at a state agency. The fully-crossed design allowed each of the raters to rate the each of the cases, resulting in 200 total risk score observations for each tool. Inter-rater reliability analyses were then conducted. Results: The LSI-R demonstrated adequate to fair reliability, with certain domains showing lower reliability. Overall, the LSI-R had an ICC of .65. The YLS/CMI demonstrated higher reliability (ICC of .78). In addition, for the LSI-R study, comparisons were made between staff raters who work in a facility versus those in the community (e.g., probation officers). For the YLS/CMI study, comparisons were made between incarcerated offenders versus probationers. Neither comparison yielded consistent differences. Conclusions: The YLS/CMI is generally reliable. The LSI-R showed less reliability. However, each study showed certain domains with less than ideal reliability.

Revisiting broken windows theory: A test of the mediation impact of social mechanisms on the disorder–fear relationship
Jacinta M. Gau, Nicholas Corsaro, Rod K. Brunson

Purpose: Broken windows theory predicts that disorder signals a lack of neighborhood control, sparks fear of crime, and sets off a chain reaction ultimately resulting in crime. Support has been found for the disorder–fear link, but the present study argues that this link is actually intended to be indirect—perceived loss of control is what should cause fear. Methods: Hierarchical linear models and structural equation models test four hypotheses regarding whether social cohesion and expectations for social control mediate the disorder–fear relationship. Results: Results support partial mediation. Conclusion: Results suggest confirmation of a portion of broken windows theory, in that disorder may inspire fear partially as a result of its detrimental impact on neighborhood cohesion and shared expectations for social control.

The Effects of Suspect Characteristics on Arrest: A Meta-Analysis
Daniel J. Lytle

Purpose: Synthesis research on the correlates of arrest has had a long history of analysis in police decision making research. Yet, much of this line of synthesis research has found mixed results and has been unable to definitively state whether relationships exist between suspect demographic characteristics, race, gender, age, and ethnicity, and arrest. This research attempts to clear this confusion created by previous synthesis attempts particularly. Methods: Meta-analysis was used to generate weighted mean effect sizes of the effect of race, gender, age, and ethnicity on arrest. Effect sizes were weighted using the inverse variance method and random effects modeling was also used. Moderator analyses were also performed. Results: Black individuals, males, and Hispanic individuals were significantly more likely to be arrested than white individuals, females, and non-Hispanic individuals. These effects persisted across the majority of moderator categories. Age was not a significant predictor of arrest. Conclusions: The results here bring some degree of order to a large amount of arrest decision making literature. The findings confirm the results of a previous meta-analysis on race and arrest and also expand upon that research. These results expand “what we know” about the effect of race on arrest.

Journal of Criminal Justice 42(5)

Journal of Criminal Justice, September 2014: Volume 42, Issue 5

Sexual crime and place: The impact of the environmental context on sexual assault outcomes
Ashley Hewitt, Eric Beauregard

Purpose: Using the rational choice perspective, the current study investigates the impact that the environment and offending behavior have on serial sexual crime event outcomes. Methods: The effects of time and place factors, as well as offender modus operandi strategies, on sexual crime event outcomes are tested using Generalized Estimating Equations on a sample of 361 crime events committed by 72 serial sex offenders. Results: Time and place do impact serial stranger sexual offenders’ modus operandi strategies, but the place characteristics of the crime have more of an effect on the offender’s behavior than do the temporal conditions during which the event occurs. Subsequent analyses indicate that temporal and place factors, as well as offender modus operandi strategies, predict whether the offender completes the rape, his reaction to victim resistance, and the level of physical force that he inflicts on the victim, but not whether the victim is forced to commit sexual acts on the offender. Conclusions: Serial stranger sexual offenders are effective decision-makers who adapt their strategies to the physical environment in which they commit their crimes, but their degree of rationality can vary as some outcomes are more dependent on the context than the offender and his actions.

A Critical Examination of the “White Victim Effect” and Death Penalty Decision-Making from a Propensity Score Matching Approach: The North Carolina Experience
Wesley G. Jennings, Tara N. Richards, M. Dwayne Smith, Beth Bjerregaard, Sondra J. Fogel

Purpose: Death penalty research has rather consistently demonstrated a statistically significant relationship between defendant race and victim race in general, and for the Black defendant/White victim race dyad specifically. The bulk of this evidence has been derived from correlational studies and from cases over relatively condensed time frames. Methods: The current study uses data from North Carolina (n = 1,113) over several decades (1977–2009) to evaluate the link between defendant/victim racial dyad and jury death penalty decision-making. Results: Results suggest that there is an apparent “White victim effect” that can be observed in death penalty decision-making in traditional logistic regression models. Yet, once cases are matched via propensity score matching on approximately 50 case characteristics/confounders including the type of aggravators and mitigators accepted by the jury in addition to the number of aggravators and mitigators accepted, the relationship is rendered insignificant. Furthermore, these results hold for a defendant of any race killing a White victim and for the “most disadvantaged” situation for Black defendants (e.g., cases with White victims). Conclusions: The “White victim effect” on capital punishment decision-making is better considered as a “case effect” rather than a “race effect.”

The association between psychopathic personality traits and health-related outcomes
Kevin M. Beaver, Joseph L. Nedelec, Christian da Silva Costa, Ana Paula Poersch, Mônica Celis Stelmach, Micheli Cristina Freddi, Jamie M. Gajos, Cashen Boccio

Purpose: Psychopathy and psychopathic personality traits (PPT) have been linked to a long list of negative life outcomes. To date, however, few studies have provided a systematic analysis of whether psychopathic personality traits contribute to increased health burden. The current study was designed to address this gap in the literature. Method: This study analyzed data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health and employed a measure of PPT derived from the five-factor model of personality. Analyses were conducted using OLS, logistic, and Poisson regression techniques. Results: The results revealed that relatively higher scores on psychopathic personality traits were associated with a slight increase in a wide range of negative health outcomes. These significant associations were detected for both males and females. Conclusions: We speak to the importance of these findings for the potential to reduce health burden among psychopaths and those who score relatively high on measures of psychopathic personality traits.

The persistence of early childhood physical aggression: Examining maternal delinquency and offending, mental health, and cultural differences
Stacy Tzoumakis, Patrick Lussier, Raymond R. Corrado

Purpose: To examine the persistence of physical aggression in preschoolers and associated correlates (i.e., socio-demographic, socioeconomic, criminality, parenting practices, maternal mental health). Methods: One-year follow-ups are completed with 240 mothers and their preschool children (boys and girls) from the Vancouver Longitudinal Study on the Psychosocial Development of Children. A series of structural equation models are examined. Results: Maternal psychological symptoms, juvenile delinquency, and adult offending are associated with higher levels of physical aggression in their offspring. Children of non-Caucasian mothers and those born outside of North are less physically aggressive. Cultural differences in the correlates of physical aggression were identified. Conclusions: Maternal past delinquency, current adult offending, and mental health are important factors in the development of children’s physical aggression. The findings suggest that there are multiple pathways leading to chronic physical aggression, which may be culturally-based. Cultural differences should be taken into account when developing programs and intervening with families of children with behavioral problems.

Neighborhood factors related to the likelihood of successful informal social control efforts
Barbara D. Warner

Purpose: To expand conceptualizations of informal social control in social disorganization and collective efficacy theories to include responses to informal social control, and to examine neighborhood level predictors of responses to informal social control. Methods: The study uses surveys of approximately 2300 residents across 66 neighborhoods, supplemented with census data at the block group level. Results: Neighborhood mobility decreased the odds of positive responses to informal social control, measured as both “giving in” and “talking it out” when you have a disagreement with your neighbor. Disadvantage was found to decrease only the odds of “giving in.” Neighborhood level measures of social cohesion and faith in the police were also found to increase the odds of responding positively to informal social control efforts. In contrast, social ties were not found to significantly affect the likelihood of positive responses to informal social control. Conclusions: The findings from this study broaden support of collective efficacy theory and concepts related to efficacious neighborhoods. While previous studies have raised questions about the measurement of informal social control, the findings in this paper offer support to earlier studies by providing a different approach to the conceptualization and measurement of informal social control.

Journal of Criminal Justice 42(3)

Journal of Criminal Justice, May 2014: Volume 42, Issue 3

A meta-analysis of the correlates of turnover intent in criminal justice organizations: Does agency type matter?
Adam K. Matz, Youngki Woo, Bitna Kim

The study synthesizes the literature on turnover intentions to assess what domains (e.g., personal characteristics, work environment, and job attitudes) account for the strongest association with turnover intent, what are the characteristics of these relationships, and how do these relationships differ by criminal justice practitioner type. The current study utilizes a systematic review to obtain studies for conducting a meta-analysis. The researchers utilized the r family/correlation coefficient. Studies were weighted by sample size, correlations converted to Fisher’s z, analyses performed, and results converted back to r for interpretation. In terms of the individual predictors for law enforcement, the five strongest variables included alternative job search behavior, job satisfaction, psychological distress, emotional exhaustion, procedural and distributive justice. The five strongest predictors of turnover intent for institutional corrections were normative commitment, emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, affective commitment, and job satisfaction. The five strongest predictors for community corrections included experience, alternative job search behavior, perceptions of coworkers, growth need strength, and job satisfaction. The results of the meta-analysis confirmed the domain of personal characteristics, overall, has the weakest association with turnover intent whereas work environment and job attitude domains consistently display moderate-to-large effects for both law enforcement and corrections.

An investigation into the empirical relationship between time with peers, friendship, and delinquency
Bob Edward Vásquez, Gregory M. Zimmerman

Much of the research on peer influence has examined the relationship between peer associations and delinquency. Relatively little empirical research has addressed the effects of delinquent behavior on peer intimacy and time spent with peers. Our research attempts to fill these gaps in the literature as we hypothesize that, net of peer delinquency, delinquents spend more time with their peers but are less closely attached to their peers. Using data from two waves of the National Youth Survey (NYS), we present two sets of regression models to account for selection bias resulting from whether respondents reported having friends. To assess the stability of our findings, we supplement our presented findings with extensive use of alternate estimation strategies. Conclusions regarding our hypotheses do not vary by estimation strategy. Delinquents spend more time with their peers, but delinquents and non-delinquents do not report differences in closeness to their peers. Given our control variables, our finding introduces complexity in the causal priority between time spent with peers and delinquency. Prior delinquency may be a predictor of more time with peers, but partly as an avenue for opportunities for crime, not for the sake of friendship.

Prior problem behavior accounts for the racial gap in school suspensions
John Paul Wright, Mark Alden Morgan, Michelle A. Coyne, Kevin M. Beaver, J.C. Barnes

A large body of empirical research finds a significant racial gap in the use of exclusionary school discipline with black students punished at rates disproportionate to whites. Furthermore, no variable or set of variables have yet to account for this discrepancy, inviting speculation that this association is caused by racial bias or racial antipathy. We investigate this link and the possibility that differential behavior may play a role. Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class (ECLS-K), the largest sample of school-aged children in the United States, we first replicate the results of prior studies. We then estimate a second model controlling for prior problem behavior. Replicating prior studies, we first show a clear racial gap between black and white students in suspensions. However, in subsequent analyses the racial gap in suspensions was completely accounted for by a measure of the prior problem behavior of the student – a finding never before reported in the literature. These findings highlight the importance of early problem behaviors and suggest that the use of suspensions by teachers and administrators may not have been as racially biased as some scholars have argued.

The effect of prison gang membership on recidivism
Brendan D. Dooley, Alan Seals, David Skarbek

How does prison gang membership affect recidivism? In this paper, we use a unique dataset of all releasees from prisons operated by the Illinois Department of Corrections during the month of November 2000, which includes demographic information and data on gang participation. We attempt to control for confounding factors that are traditionally associated with both prison gang membership and rearrest. We develop a potential-outcomes framework and describe the conditions under which a counterfactual can be estimated when gang membership is not randomly assigned. We combine regression analysis with Coarsened Exact Matching, which has several advantages over the more popular propensity score matching, to estimate the effect of gang membership on recidivism. Prison gang membership results in a six percentage point increase in recidivism. Despite the strengths of the data, unobserved heterogeneity among inmates could still bias estimates. However, there are probably important subtleties to the gang participation decision such that experimental or quasi-experimental data are unlikely to increase our understanding of the relationship between gang-membership and post-release outcomes. We recommend incorporating ethnography with survey data collection, because ethnographers are able to document otherwise unobservable contextual information concerning the selection process which could be used to identify causal relationships.

Social Control Across Immigrant Generations: Adolescent Violence at School and Examining the Immigrant Paradox
Anthony A. Peguero, Xin Jiang

Social control predicts adolescent violence; however, there is limited research about the extent to which social control explains adolescent violence across immigrant generations. Because it is estimated that one out of four children in the United States has at least one immigrant parent, understanding the correlates of violence for adolescents in immigrant families warrants investigation. This study explores whether and how the adolescent associations between social control (i.e., attachment, commitment, involvement, and belief) and school-based misconduct and victimization vary across immigrant generations. Data are drawn from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002. Findings indicate important nuances related to immigrant generation in the conceptual links between social control and adolescent violence. For instance, attachment to school is linked to decreased misconduct for third-plus generation adolescents but a potential factor toward misconduct for first generation adolescents. The implications of the relationships between social control and adolescent violence across immigrant generations are discussed more generally.

The Relationship between Self-Control in Adolescence and Social Consequences in Adulthood: Assessing the Influence of Genetic Confounds
Joseph L. Nedelec, Kevin M. Beaver

Assess the relationship between levels of self-control in adolescence and a variety of later-life outcomes and evaluate the confounding effects of genetic factors. The current study employed data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) and examined whether levels of self-control in adolescence are related to economic, educational, employment, health, relationship and family, and behavioral outcomes in adulthood using DeFries-Fulker regression-based analyses. Analyses employing non-genetically sensitive methods indicated robust associations between self-control and various social consequences. After estimating genetically-sensitive analyses, however, many associations were no longer significant. Those associations which remained significant were in the reversed direction relative to the non-genetically sensitive models. Additionally, further analyses indicated that some of the remaining significant associations were influenced by nonshared genetic effects. The findings indicate that even after controlling for the effect of genetic factors, levels of self-control are associated with differences in a variety of social outcomes. However, given the reduction in the number of significant associations and reversal of associations in the genetically sensitive models, analyses of the social consequences of low self-control which do not account for the effect of genetic factors are likely misspecified.

Sex as a moderator and perceived peer pressure as a mediator of the externalizing-delinquency relationship: A test of gendered pathways theory
Glenn D. Walters

The current study sought to determine whether sex moderated peer mediation of the externalizing-delinquency relationship as part of a larger test of the gendered pathways theory of crime. Data gathered from 4,144 (2,079 males and 2,065 females) members of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth-Child sample were subjected to simple correlational and moderated mediation analysis. Externalizing behavior and delinquency correlated equally in boys and girls but in testing a full moderated mediation model it was discovered that sex moderated the mediating effect of perceived peer pressure on the externalizing–delinquency relationship. Whereas externalizing behavior predicted delinquency in both boys and girls, perceived peer pressure only mediated the externalizing-delinquency relationship in boys. These results support the gendered pathways to delinquency model to the extent that the relationship between childhood externalizing behavior and delinquency was mediated by perceived peer pressure in males but not females. The implications of these results for theoretical refinement of the gendered pathways approach and crime prevention and intervention are discussed.

Journal of Criminal Justice 42(2)

Journal of Criminal Justice, March 2014: Volume 42, Issue 2

Adolescent self-image as a mediator between childhood maltreatment and adult sexual offending
Amy Reckdenwald, Christina Mancini, Eric Beauregard

Highlights • Self-image is an important intervening mechanism in the abuse-offending link • Self-image partially mediates the relationship between abuse and sex offending • 42.8% of the total abuse-offending effect is explained by poor self-image

Linking early ADHD to adolescent and early adult outcomes among African Americans
Monic P. Behnken, W. Todd Abraham, Carolyn E. Cutrona, Daniel W. Russell, Ronald L. Simons, Frederick X. Gibbons

Highlights • ADHD predicted exclusionary school discipline and juvenile arrest in adolescence. • ADHD predicted both arrests and lower educational attainment in young adulthood. • Lack of ADHD diagnosis predicted greater post-high-school education initiation. • Higher levels of parenting quality corresponded with better adult outcomes. • Higher levels of childhood poverty corresponded with worse adult outcomes.

Special issue: Sex Offenders and Sex Offenses

Sex offending: A criminological perspective  
Patrick Lussier, Eric Beauregard

Community re-entry and the path toward desistance: A quasi-experimental longitudinal study of dynamic factors and community risk management of adult sex offenders
Patrick Lussier, Carmen L.Z. Gress

Highlights • The study describes dynamic factors of adult male sex offenders. • Dynamic risk factors are associated with recidivism upon re-entry • Negative social influences and poor cooperation are associated with poor outcomes • Type of community risk management can moderate the impact of dynamic factors

Consistency in crime site selection: An investigation of crime sites used by serial sex offenders across crime series
Nadine Deslauriers-Varin, Eric Beauregard

Highlights • Identification of recurrent crime sites across sex crime series. • Limited diversity of victim encounter and release sites used by serial offenders. • Associations between encounter sites and offenders’ series progression. • Prevalence of encounter sites identified varies across offenders’ crime series. • Encounter sites more likely to be selected by offenders having longer crime series.

The Successful Onset of Sex Offending: Determining the Correlates of Actual and Official Onset of Sex Offending
Jeffrey Mathesius, Patrick Lussier

Highlights • Investigated actual onset, official onset and cost avoidance of adult sex offenders. • Most initiate in early adulthood but typically not arrested until late adulthood. • Wide variability in cost avoidance exists across sex offenders. • The correlates of actual age of onset are distinct from official age of onset. • Official onset occurs later for offenders more skilled at avoiding costs.

The juvenile sex offender: The effect of employment on offending
Chantal van den Berg, Catrien Bijleveld, Jan Hendriks, Irma Mooi-Reci

Highlights • Juvenile sex offenders (JSO) enter the labor market at relatively young ages • The JSO have short employment contracts interrupted by spells of unemployment. • Only regular employment is associated with a significant decline in offending. • Group offenders and peer abusers benefit from employment, child abusers do not. • Guidance towards employment may be effective in risk reduction for JSO.

The adolescence-adulthood transition and Robins’s continuity paradox: Criminal career patterns of juvenile and adult sex offenders in a prospective longitudinal birth cohort study
Patrick Lussier, Arjan Blokland

Highlights • Juvenile and adult sex offending are two distinct phenomenon. • Vast majority of juvenile sex offenders do not become adult sex offenders. • Vast majority of adult sex offenders were not juvenile sex offenders. • Heterogeneity is found in the criminal career outcomes of juvenile sex offenders. • Two patterns of adult-onset sex offending were found.

The long term recidivism risk of young sexual offenders in England and Wales– enduring risk or redemption?
Claire Hargreaves, Brian Francis

Highlights • We examine the long-term sexual recidivism risk of juvenile sex offenders. • At the end of the 35 yr follow-up 13% of sex offenders had a sexual re-conviction. • Sex offenders’ hazard converges with the never-convicted after 17 years. • The study has implications for the registration periods of juvenile sex offenders.

Community characteristics and child sexual assault: Social disorganization and age
Elizabeth Ehrhardt Mustaine, Richard Tewksbury, Lin Huff-Corzine, Jay Corzine, Hollianne Marshall

Highlights • We find that the sources of sexual assault differ between preteen and teen victims. • More registered sex offenders in a community increases only teen sexual assault. • Social disorganization adds moderately to explaining preteen & teen sexual assault.

Considering specialization/versatility as an unintended collateral consequence of SORN
Wesley G. Jennings, Kristen M. Zgoba, Christopher M. Donner, Brandy B. Henderson, Richard Tewksbury

Highlights • Specialization thresholds illustrated that sex offenders were diverse. • Sex offenders who were released post-SORN were more specialized. • Post-SORN sex offenders’ specialization was a function of drug offenses.

To what extent does civil commitment reduce sexual recidivism? Estimating the selective incapacitation effects in Minnesota
Grant Duwe

Highlights • Study examined 105 sex offenders civilly committed between 2004 and 2006. • MnSOST-3 used to estimate effects of civil commitment on sex offense recidivism. • Estimated four-year sexual recidivism rate was 9 percent for civil commits. • Civil commitment reduced four-year sexual recidivism rate by 12 percent. • Estimated lifetime sexual recidivism rate was 28 percent.

Employing mixed methods to explore motivational patterns of repeat sex offenders
Joan A. Reid, Eric Beauregard, Karla M. Fedina, Emily N. Frith

Highlights • Identified two motivational constructs underlying sex offenses by repeat offenders • One motivation driven by desire for sexual gratification and one by anger/aggression • Five types of sex offenders emerged from two underlying motivations driving offenses • Stability in motivation observed across sex offenses committed by same offender • Proportional influence of offense/victim specifics did not vary by type of motivation

No body, no crime? The role of forensic awareness in avoiding police detection in cases of sexual homicide
Eric Beauregard, Melissa Martineau

Highlights • Victim characteristics are related to sexual murderers’ police detection • Use of precautions does not increase the offender’s chance of avoiding detection; • Offenders’ modus operandi help to delay the discovery of the victim • Offenders exhibit rational thinking in order to delay body recovery; • Number of days until body recovery is a better measure of detection avoidance

Notes on a (sex crime) scandal: The impact of media coverage of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church on public opinion
Christina Mancini, Ryan T. Shields

Highlights • Media exposure detailing sexual abuse affects views about the Catholic Church. • Catholics who followed the coverage were more confident in the Church. • Catholics who viewed the coverage as biased expressed more positive views about the Church. • Non-Catholics who perceived media bias believed the Church could prevent sex crime. • Religiosity mediated media exposure effects among Catholics.

Journal of Criminal Justice 42(1)

Journal of Criminal Justice, January 2014: Volume 42, Issue 1

False positive and false negative rates in self-reported intentions to offend: A replication and extension
M. Lyn Exum, Diana Bailey, Eric L. Wright

Purpose: Studies of criminal decision making commonly rely on college students’ self-reported intentions to commit a hypothetical offense. The current study evaluates the predictive validity of these intentions to offend. Methods: Undergraduate students (n = 726) read a fictitious but seemingly realistic newspaper article describing an illegal opportunity for acquiring digital music files, and then reported their intentions to act upon the opportunity. Afterward, participants’ real world attempts to follow-through on the opportunity were monitored covertly. Results: Findings reveal that participants who reported weak intentions to offend typically refrained from the act, resulting in a low false negative rate. However, those who reported strong intentions to offend also typically refrained from the act, thereby resulting in a high false positive rate. Conclusions: These findings suggest that while participants’ predictions of criminal abstention are generally accurate, their predictions of criminal involvement are more problematic. Such faulty intentions have important implications for research on criminal decision making.

Foundation for a temperament-based theory of antisocial behavior and criminal justice system involvement
Matt DeLisi, Michael G. Vaughn

Background: Temperament has been shown to be associated with behavior for millennia but has not been explicitly used in a theory of crime. Methods: This state-of-the-art review incorporates theory and research from over 300 studies from developmental psychology, psychiatry, genetics, neuroscience, and criminology to introduce a temperament-based theory of antisocial conduct with criminal justice system implications. Findings: Two temperamental constructs—effortful control and negative emotionality—are significantly predictive of self-regulation deficits and behavioral problems in infancy, in toddlerhood, in childhood, in adolescence, and across adulthood. Conclusion: Unlike other theories that focus merely on explaining problem behaviors, our temperament approach also explains negative and aversive interactions with criminal justice system practitioners and associated maladjustment or noncompliance with the criminal justice system. A program of research is also offered to examine and test the theory.

A New Look into Broken Windows: What Shapes Individuals’ Perceptions of Social Disorder?
Joshua C. Hinkle, Sue-Ming Yang

Purpose: This study compares perceptual and observational measures of social disorder to examine the influence of observable levels of disorder in shaping residents’ perceptions of social problems on their street. Methods: This study uses regression models utilizing data from a survey of residents, systematic social observations and police calls for service to explore the formation of perceptions of social disorder. Results: We find little correspondence between residents’ perceptual and researchers’ observational measures of social disorder, suggesting that residents form perceptions of social disorder differently than do outsiders to their community. However, researchers’ observations of physical disorder were found to strongly influence residents’ perceptions of social disorder. Findings also suggest that people with different demographic backgrounds and life experiences may perceive the same social environment in very different ways. Conclusions: The results add to a growing literature suggesting that social disorder is a social construct, rather than a concrete phenomenon. Moreover, we suggest that the linkage between physical disorder and residents’ perceptions of social disorder might provide an avenue for police to address residents’ fear of crime while avoiding some of the criticisms that have been leveled against programs targeting social disorder.

Formal and informal control views in China, Japan, and the U.S.
Shanhe Jiang, Eric G. Lambert, Jianhong Liu, Toyoji Saito

Purpose: This study compared and contrasted the views of formal and informal crime control among college students from China, Japan, and the U.S., and examined the correlates behind the views. Methods: Using the same questionnaire, this study collected data from 1,275 completed surveys in the three nations. Results: The study revealed that both Chinese and Japanese respondents evaluated formal and informal control and their combination in crime control as more important than American counterparts did. The variable trust in police was a predictor of attitudes toward formal control and the mix of formal and informal control in all the three nations. Demographics in the U.S. were more important factors than in China and Japan in predicting the respondents' ranking of the importance of formal control and informal control and their combination in crime control. Conclusions: This is the first empirically comparative study of the perceived importance of formal and informal mechanisms in crime prevention and control in China, Japan and the U.S. The study found both similarities and differences in the perceived importance and reasons behind them. More research is needed in the future.

Genetic and environmental influences on the co-occurrence of early academic achievement and externalizing behavior
Jamie Newsome, Danielle Boisvert, John Paul Wright

Purpose: Several studies have observed a relationship between academic achievement and externalizing behaviors, both of which are predictors of delinquency and criminal behavior in adulthood. There is, however, no consensus on an explanation for their co-occurrence. One perspective is that both emerge as a result of a common underlying factor. This study investigates the degree to which the same genetic and environmental factors account for the co-occurrence of these two outcomes. Methods: The sample consists of twins (N = 360) from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey-Kindergarten Class of 1998-1999. Bivariate genetic analyses were conducted to assess the genetic and environmental influence on the relationship between academic achievement and externalizing behaviors during kindergarten. Results: The covariation was due primarily to common shared environmental factors (55-87%), followed by common genetic (8-44%) and nonshared environmental factors (1-13%). Conclusions: Both early academic achievement and externalizing behaviors are partially influenced by the same genetic and environmental factors. The large proportion of covariance attributed to shared environmental influences suggests that identifying and targeting shared environmental factors in prevention and intervention strategies may improve both behavior and academic achievement.

Do school disciplinary policies have positive social impacts? Examining the attenuating effects of school policies on the relationship between personal and peer delinquency
Gregory M. Zimmerman, Carter Rees

Purpose: Empirical research has yet to demonstrate that strict school disciplinary policies deter student misconduct. However, underlying the null and negative effects observed in prior research may be competing social impacts. What is missing from prior research is an acknowledgement that the deviance amplification effects of criminogenic risk factors may be partially offset by the general deterrence effects of strict school sanctions. Methods: Using data from the school administrator questionnaire, the in-school interview, and the in-home interview from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, this study employs logistic hierarchical models to investigate whether strict school sanctions condition the relationship between personal and peer smoking, drinking, and fighting. Results: Results indicate that the effects of peer smoking, drinking, and fighting on corresponding respondent delinquency are attenuated in schools with strict sanction policies for these behaviors. Conclusions: Results suggest that school policies can aid in preventing crime in unanticipated ways, for example, by reducing the crime-inducing effects of having delinquent peers. Prior research may therefore be unintentionally discounting the general deterrence effects of school disciplinary policies by neglecting the moderating mechanisms through which these policies operate.

Psychopathic traits and offending trajectories from early adolescence to adulthood
Evan C. McCuish, Raymond Corrado, Patrick Lussier, Stephen D. Hart

Purpose: Measures of adolescent psychopathy have yet to be examined in offending trajectory studies. This may explain why identifying etiological differences between individuals following high-rate and moderate-rate offending trajectories has remained elusive. The current study used the Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version (PCL:YV) to examine psychopathic traits and offending trajectories within a sample of incarcerated offenders. Methods: Convictions were measured for Canadian male (n = 243) and female (n = 64) offenders at each year between ages 12 and 28. Semi-parametric group based modeling identified four unique trajectories: adolescence-limited (AL) (27.3% of sample), explosive-onset fast desister (EOFD) (30.6%), high-rate slow desister (HRSD) (14.6%), and high frequency chronic (HFC) (27.5%). Findings: Both a three and a four factor model of psychopathy were tested, and both factor structures were positively and significantly associated with the HRSD and HFC trajectories. Regarding individual factors of psychopathy, the ‘Antisocial’ factor of the PCL:YV was the only individual dimension significantly associated with membership in high-rate compared to moderate-rate offending trajectories. Conclusions: Psychopathic traits appear more commonly present amongst individuals who follow chronic versus moderate offending trajectories. Implications for early intervention and risk management of offenders are discussed.

Inked into Crime? An Examination of the Causal Relationship between Tattoos and Life-Course Offending among Males from the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development
Wesley G. Jennings, Bryanna Hahn Fox, David P. Farrington

Purpose: There have been a number of prior studies that have investigated the relationship between tattoos and crime with most documenting evidence of an association. Specifically, prior research often suggests that individuals with tattoos commit more crime, are disproportionately concentrated in offender and institutionalized populations, and often have personality disorders. Having said this, the bulk of the prior research on this topic has been correlational. Methods: In the current study, we rely on data from a prospective longitudinal study of 411 British males from the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development and employ propensity score matching to determine if the link between tattoos and crime may in fact be causal. Results: Results suggest that having tattoos is better considered as a symptom of another set of developmental risk factors and personality traits that are both related to tattooing and being involved in crime rather than as a causal factor for predicting crime over the life-course. Conclusions: Study limitations and directions for future research are discussed.

Journal of Criminal Justice 41(6)

Journal of Criminal Justice, November 2013: Volume 41, Issue 6

Exploring the Variation in Drug Selling Among Adolescents in the United States 

Jeffrey J. Shook, Michael G. Vaughn, Christopher P. Salas-Wright
This study explores the variation in adolescent drug sellers
Three groups were found: Dabblers, delinquents, and externalizers
Different factors are associated with each adolescents drug selling group
Interventions need to focus on these factors in seeking to disrupt drug dealing behavior

The relationship between injustice and crime: A general strain theory approach
Heather L. Scheuerman

Various types of injustice differentially predict the intention to engage in crime.
Two forms of injustice are sufficient to promote criminal coping.
The relationship between injustice and crime is mediated by situational anger.
Intending to use violence is associated with procedural and distributive injustice.
Excessive drinking is influenced by interactional and distributive injustice.

Reconciling questions about dichotomizing variables in criminal justice research
Anne-Marie R. Iselin, Marcello Gallucci, Jamie DeCoster

We address unresolved questions about dichotomization in criminal justice research.
Using continuous variables is a better alternative to dichotomization.
This is true with non-normal distributions and when testing non-linear relations.
It is also true when probing interaction effects and theorizing about subgroups.

Similarities and differences between perceptions of peer delinquency, peer self-reported delinquency, and respondent delinquency: An analysis of friendship dyads
Ryan C. Meldrum, John H. Boman IV

Peer self-reported delinquency doesn’t reflect respondent reports of peer delinquency.
Perceptions of peer delinquency largely reflect respondent self-reported delinquency.
Peer self-reported delinquency is distinct from respondent self-reported delinquency.

In and out of prison: Do importation factors predict all forms of misconduct or just the more serious ones?
Glenn D. Walters, Gregory Crawford

Examined 6 importation factors as predictors of prison and community misconduct.
Importation variables predicted high/high-moderate severity infractions and crimes.
Importation variables did not predict moderate severity infractions and crimes.
Importation model as relevant to community adjustment as to prison adjustment.
Importation part of a more general theoretical construct of criminal propensity.

Prison O Glorious Prison
Matt DeLisi

Do drug courts reduce the use of incarceration?: A meta-analysis
Eric L. Sevigny, Brian K. Fuleihan, Frank V. Ferdik

We present a meta-analysis examining the effects of drug courts on incarceration.
Meta-regression is used to examine the influence of key drug court moderators.
Drug courts reduce the incidence of subsequent incarceration.
Drug courts do not reduce the aggregate amount of time that offenders spend behind bars.

Gender as social threat: A study of offender sex, situational factors, gender dynamics and social control
Stephanie Bontrager Ryon

The study examines the relationship between gender and adjudication withheld.
Adjudication withheld allows offender to escape the label 'convicted felon'.
Women are more likely to receive adjudication withheld than men.
Women convicted of 'atypical' crimes are most likely to get adjudication withheld.
Changing gender dynamics do not weaken the effect of gender on the outcome.

Rational choice beyond the classroom: Decision making in offenders versus college students
Jeffrey A. Bouffard, M. Lyn Exum

Tests of rational choice theory often utilize undergraduate student samples.
This reliance on student samples raises questions regarding external validity.
A rational choice survey was given to undergraduates and incarcerated offenders.
The groups’ perceived consequences of crime and decisional processes were similar.
Students appear to provide valid insight into the decisions of known criminals.

Preventing Crime is Hard Work: Early Intervention, Developmental Criminology, and the Enduring Legacy of James Q. Wilson
Brandon C. Welsh, David P. Farrington

Dark Knights Rising: The Aurora Theater and Newtown School Massacres and Shareholder Wealth
Benjamin W. Cross, Stephen W. Pruitt

Both Aurora theater and competitors show strongly negative changes in stock prices
Major non-US theater companies showed no reaction to the Aurora shooting
Smith and Wesson (maker of the Aurora weapon) showed no reaction to the shooting
Ruger showed gains in share prices at the time of the Aurora massacre
Smith & Wesson and Ruger both fell dramatically at the time of the Newtown shooting

How well do dynamic needs predict recidivism? Implications for risk assessment and risk reduction
Michael S. Caudy, Joseph M. Durso, Faye S. Taxman

Static risk is a robust predictor of recidivism across the two study samples.
Antisocial peers, education/employment, antisocial attitudes, and substance abuse significantly correlated with recidivism.
Risk prediction is better served by static risk factors.
Informing risk reduction requires assessment of dynamic needs.
Clearly defining risk/need assessment goals is essential in criminal justice practice.

A national population based examination of the association between age-versatility trajectories and recidivism rates
Shachar Yonai, Stephen Z. Levine, Joseph Glicksohn

Tests competing theories of juvenile offending on subsequent recidivism.
Examine the age-versatility curve pre-first-conviction and recidivism association.
Trajectory modeling identified specialization and versatility groups.
Cox models show that pre-conviction high-stable-versatility increased recidivism.
Results were generally consistent with the taxonomic theory of crime.