Justice Quarterly 40(1)

Justice Quarterly, January 2012: Volume 40, Issue 1

Youth violence at school and the intersection of gender, race, and ethnicity
Anthony A. Peguero, Ann Marie Popp

The intersection of gender, race, and ethnicity is significant when examining youth violence at school. Sports are an insulating factor against victimization for girls regardless of race/ethnicity. Sports are a protective for White American boys while a risk for racial/ethnic minority boys against victimization. Academic activity for Asian American girls is a risk factor for victimization.

Taxometrics and Criminal Justi Assessing the Latent Structure of Crime-Related Constructs
Glenn D. Walters

Taxometric method capable of shedding light on key criminal justice concepts. Sample and indicator preconditions discussed. Principal procedures include MAMBAC, MAXCOV/MAXEIG, and L-Mode. Taxometrics illustrated with delinquency cohort data.

Pornographic exposure over the life course and the severity of sexual offenses: Imitation and cathartic effects
Christina Mancini, Amy Reckdenwald, Eric Beauregard

We examine whether pornography exposure elevates the violence of a sexual crime. Only adolescence exposure was associated with increased victim harm. Immediately prior exposure decreased the extent of victim physical injury. Research and policy implications are discussed.

Low Resting Heart Rate and Rational Choi Integrating Biological Correlates of Crime in Criminological Theories
Todd A. Armstrong, Brian B. Boutwell

We test the relationship between low resting heart rate and perceptions of the costs and benefits of offending. Those with low resting heart rate anticipate a lower risk of sanction and less guilt/shame as a result of offending. LRHR is related to an increased intent to commit assault. The relationship between low resting heart rate and intent to commit assault is mediated by guilt/shame.

Shades of blue: Confidence in the police in the world
Liqun Cao, Yung-Lien Lai, Ruohui Zhao

The impact of political regime on the confidence in the police is examined. Results show that there is a convex curvilinear relationship between political regime and confidence in the police. Stability, regardless of regime nature, promotes confidence in the police while political unrest demotes it.

Public opinion on crime causation: An exploratory study of Philadelphia area residents
Shaun L. Gabbidon, Danielle Boisvert

Philadelphia area residents were asked their opinions on crime causation. There were significant gender differences in opinions on crime causation. There were significant across-race differences in opinions on crime causation. There were few within-race differences in opinions on crime causation. Public opinion on crime causation significantly differed based on one's political ideology.

Assessing the effectiveness of drug courts on recidivism: A meta-analytic review of traditional and non-traditional drug courts
Ojmarrh Mitchell, David B. Wilson, Amy Eggers, Doris L. MacKenzie

We meta-analytically synthesized the results of 154 drug court evaluations. This meta-analysis is the largest of its kind. Evaluations of adult and DWI drug courts reveal substantial reductions in recidivism. The mean effect of these courts is a 12-percentage point drop in recidivism. Evaluations of juvenile drug courts reveal much smaller reductions in recidivism.

Problematic alcohol consumption by police officers and other protective service employees: A comparative analysis
Henriikka Weir, Daniel M. Stewart, Robert G. Morris

Members of protective service occupations (PSOs) do not consume alcohol more often than members of other occupational groups. PSO members do not exhibit higher likelihood of alcohol abuse/dependency when compared to other occupational groups. PSO members report a higher occurrence of binge drinking than members of other occupations. The relationship between PSO members and binge drinking is not mediated by mental health but gender. The correlates of alcohol abuse/dependency do not substantially differ for PSOs when compared to non-PSOs.

Take the car keys away: Metropolitan structure and the long road to delinquency
Gisela Bichler, Carlena A. Orosco, Joseph A. Schwartz

This study compares delinquent and at-risk youth travel within the context of urban structure with a multilevel model. It is the first scholarship to examine offender travel within the urban structure. The findings show that distinctive population subgroups do exist within youths involved in juvenile probation. Regional metropolitan structure and vehicle accessibility increase the potential for delinquent youth to escape supervision The travel range of at-risk youth is significantly restricted and associated with the popularity of youth hangouts.

On the relationship of past to future involvement in crime and delinquency: A behavior genetic analysis
J.C. Barnes, Brian B. Boutwell

This study analyzed stability and change in criminal behavior across a 13-year span. Genetic factors explained the majority of stability in antisocial behavior. Genetic and nonshared environmental factors explained changes. Population heterogeneity explanations of stability are consistent with the findings. State dependence theories may be salient for explaining behavioral change.

Justice Quarterly 28(3)

Street Youths and the Proximate and Contingent Causes of Instrumental Crime: Untangling Anomie Theory
Stephen W. Baron

Utilizing a sample of 300 homeless street youths, the research examines the individual-level sub-model of Baumer's interpretation of Merton's anomie theory. The paper explores the role the interaction between monetary goals and weak commitment to legitimate means plays in the generation of instrumental crime and the manner in which this interaction is itself moderated by blocked opportunities, monetary dissatisfaction, social modeling, cultural support, and the perceived risk of punishment. The findings reveal that a weak commitment to legitimate means, but not monetary goals, has a lower order impact on the willingness to commit instrumental crime. These two variables, however, do not interact to predict intentions to offend. Instead the findings reveal that blocked opportunities and higher levels of monetary dissatisfaction moderate the relationship between the monetary goals and weak commitment to legitimate means interaction and the willingness to offend. Findings are discussed and suggestions for further research are offered.

How Much is the Public Willing to Pay to be Protected from Identity Theft?
Nicole Leeper Piquero; Mark A. Cohen; Alex R. Piquero

Identity theft has become one of the most ubiquitous crimes in the USA with estimates of the number of households being victimized annually ranging between 5% and 25%, resulting in direct losses totaling hundreds of billions of dollars over the past few years. Government efforts to combat identity theft have included legislation criminalizing and increasing penalties as well as regulatory efforts designed to protect individual identifying information held by financial and other business organizations. At the same time, individuals are taking their own preventive actions and purchasing private protection such as credit monitoring and identity theft insurance services. We use data from a large sample of residents from four states (Illinois, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, and Washington) in order to assess the public's willingness to pay (WTP) for a government program designed to reduce identify theft under two separate conditions, one promising a 25% reduction in identity theft and the other promising a 75% reduction in identity theft. Results indicate that: (1) between 40% and 66% of the public is willing to pay an additional tax for identity theft prevention, more so when the promise of a reduction is highest (75% compared to 25%) with an average WTP of $87, and (2) WTP is highest among individuals who carry many credit cards, who subscribe to an identity theft protection service, and who take active steps in preventing fraud by shredding bills and paying with cash, but is lowest among individuals who believe that taxes are too high. Converted into a “per crime” cost and combined with the portion of identity theft costs that are borne directly by business, we estimate the average cost per identity theft to range from approximately $2,800 to $5,100.

Juvenile Justice Decision-Making Before and After the Implementation of the Disproportionate Minority Contact (DMC) Mandate
Michael Leiber; Donna Bishop; Mitchell B. Chamlin

The disproportionate minority confinement (DMC) mandate was included in the reauthorization of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act in 1988 and required states to assess the extent DMC was evident and to develop strategies to address the issue. The DMC mandate was designed to achieve equal treatment of youth within the juvenile justice system. In the present study, we analyzed the predictors of juvenile justice decision-making before and after the mandate to determine the impact of possible changes in the relative influence of legal criteria and extralegal considerations, especially race, on case outcomes in one juvenile court. The findings indicate that the factors impacting decision-making, for the most part, did not change in significance or relative impact though some unanticipated race effects were found at judicial disposition following the mandate.

Looking Inside the Black Box of Drug Courts: A Meta-Analytic Review
Deborah Koetzle Shaffer

There has been a rapid proliferation of drug courts over the past two decades. Empirical research examining the effectiveness of the model has generally demonstrated reduced rates of recidivism among program participants. However, relatively little is known about the structure and processes associated with effective drug courts. The current study seeks to address the issues by exploring the moderating influence of programmatic and non-programmatic characteristics on effectiveness. The methodology goes beyond previous meta-analyses by supplementing published (and unpublished) findings with a survey of drug court administrators. Consistent with previous research, the results revealed drug courts reduce recidivism by 9% on average. Further analyses indicated target population, program leverage and intensity, and staff characteristics explain the most variability in drug court effectiveness. These findings are discussed within the context of therapeutic jurisprudence and effective interventions.

Broken Windows or Window Breakers: The Influence of Physical and Social Disorder on Quality of Life
Allison T. Chappell; Elizabeth Monk-Turner; Brian K. Payne

The relationship between neighborhood disorder and fear of crime is well established. According to Wilson and Kelling's broken windows theory, physical and social disorder lead to fear and cause citizens to retreat into their homes. This breaks down informal social control mechanisms and may lead to more serious crime. Insofar as fear is related to quality of life, an implication of broken windows theory is that disorder may impact quality of life, but that relationship has not yet been examined in the research literature. The present study seeks to fill a void in the literature by investigating the relationship between neighborhood disorder and quality of life. Results indicate that disorder is related to quality of life. In particular, physical disorder is negatively associated with quality of life, but social disorder loses significance when controlling for physical disorder. Policy implications of the findings and direction for future research are discussed.

Justice Quarterly, June 2011: Volume 28, Issue 3

Justice Quarterly 28(2)

Becoming an Informant
J. Mitchell Miller

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Justice Quarterly, April 2011: Volume 28, Issue 2

Justice Quarterly 28(1)

Presidential Address: The Future of Justice Studies
Ronald D. Hunter

Former Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences President Ronald D. Hunter discusses the efforts of previous ACJS Presidents in advancing the discipline of criminal justice/criminology. He reviews their efforts in the ongoing development of criminology/criminal justice/justice studies as a separate discipline. Hunter argues that justice studies have come of age and are too large and too influential to be ignored. He concludes with recommendations regarding the nature of criminology/criminal justice as a discipline.

Rethinking the Interface between Mental Illness, Criminal Justice and Academia
William Wesley Johnson

Punishment and treatment don't occur within a vacuum. Responses in the justice system affect the mental health system, hospitals, clinics, and the welfare system. These systems are inextricably bound to each other. This paper, drawn from the 2009 Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences (ACJS) Presidential Address, discusses issues regarding the criminalization of mental illness, fiscal crises, and three deinstitutionalization movements. Particular attention is given to the role of academia in reshaping the criminal justice system during the current fiscal crisis.

The Election of Barack Obama and Perceptions of Criminal Injustice
James D. Unnever; Shaun L. Gabbidon; George E. Higgins

Informed by a more nuanced racial threat theory, the current study investigates the relationship between the attitudes that African Americans and whites have about the election of Barack Obama as President of the USA and whether they perceive that the police and the criminal justice system are biased against blacks. We test four hypotheses using the 2008 Gallup Minority Rights and Relations/Black-White Social Audit Poll. We first hypothesize that whites and African Americans should substantially differ in their opinions about whether the police and the criminal justice system are biased against blacks. Second, we posit that African Americans and whites should express substantially different opinions regarding the impact of Obama's election on race relations. Third, we hypothesize that the relationship between perceptions of criminal justice injustices and attitudes toward Obama's election should differ among whites. We theorize that there should be a group of whites—committed racists—who deny that the criminal justice system is biased against African Americans and believe that the election of Barack Obama will worsen race relations. Fourth, we posit that African Americans should nearly unvaryingly believe that the criminal justice system is racist. And, we hypothesize that African American opinions about Barack Obama should have a negligible impact on their perceptions of whether the criminal justice system is racist. The results support these four hypotheses.

Gender, Identity, and Accounts: How White Collar Offenders Do Gender When Making Sense of Their Crimes
Paul M. Klenowski; Heith Copes; Christopher W. Mullins

When offenders are asked to explain their crimes, they typically portray themselves as decent people despite their wrongdoings. To be effective at managing the stigma of crime, motivational accounts must be believable to the social audience. Thus, variation in patterns of accounts is likely due to the social position of the actors. Here we examine whether gender constrains the way individuals describe their crimes by analyzing the motivational accounts of male and female white collar offenders. Results show that while men and women both elicit justifications when discussing their crimes, they do differ in the frequency with which they call forth specific accounts and in the rhetorical nature of these accounts. When accounting for their crime, white collar offenders draw on gendered themes to align their actions with cultural expectations of masculinity and femininity. These findings suggest that gender does constrain the accounts that are available to white collar offenders.

Considering the Effectiveness of Drug Treatment behind Bars: Findings from the South Carolina RSAT Evaluation
J. Mitchell Miller; Holly Ventura Miller

Through funding from the national Residential Substance Abuse Treatment Program, the South Carolina Department of Corrections implemented the Correctional Recovery Academy in the Turbeville Medium Security Institution to treat drug-dependent offenders. The program features a cognitive-behavioral change modality delivered in a modified therapeutic community to first time, non-violent, drug-dependent, youthful male offenders. A quasi-experimental design was employed to specify impact as indicated by recidivism, relapse, and parole revocation. While analyses revealed no statistically significant difference between treatment and control group participants on these outcome measures, implications regarding the efficacy of the treatment modality are ambiguous as implementation failure masked determination of program effects. Drug testing frequency after release, however, was found to be a significant factor precluding failure, contrary to the conventional view that increased testing identifies greater use.

Talking Heads: Crime Reporting on Cable News
Natasha A. Frost; Nickie D. Phillips

In this study, we examine the extent to which criminologists and other academics participate in newsmaking criminology as guests on cable news shows. Building on earlier examinations of print media, we explore the ways in which crime is portrayed on popular cable television news programs (airing on CNN, FOX, MSNBC). Specifically, we examine 180 segments devoted to crime on cable news that aired from June to August 2006, with an emphasis on the role of the 347 guests appearing in those segments and their perspectives on crime causation and crime control. We find that criminologists and other academic experts infrequently appear on these programs, and that guests—regardless of type—only rarely address crime causation or crime control when appearing.

Confessing their Crime: Factors Influencing the Offender’s Decision to Confess to the Police
Nadine Deslauriers-Varin; Patrick Lussier; Michel St-Yves

Confessions are crucial to successful police investigations but scholars have significantly overlooked factors that contribute to an offender's decision to confess a crime. This study aims to examine a large array of factors that play a role in the offender's decision to confess a crime to the police and potential interaction effect among them. A total of 221 adult males incarcerated in a federal Canadian penitentiary were recruited. Correctional files, police reports, and offenders' self-reported data were collected and analyzed. Controlling for sociodemographic, criminological, and contextual factors, a series of logistic regression analyses were conducted. Findings highlighted the predominant role of police evidence over and above other factors analyzed. Furthermore, sociodemographic and criminological factors played a more important role in the offender's decision to confess when police evidence was weak. Findings are discussed in light of the current scientific literature on the determinants of offenders' decision to confess their crime.

Examining the Sources of Variation in Risk for Recidivism
Beth M. Huebner; Mark T. Berg

This research explores the correlates of desistance and recidivism among a modern cohort of men released from prison. Using eight years of follow-up data, we estimate a series of multivariate models to differentiate offenders who recidivate in the short term from men who failed after an extended period or who do not return to criminal behavior at all. Consistent with research of this type, the odds of recidivism increased sharply after release and leveled off over time. In addition, younger men with more extensive criminal histories were the least likely to desist and failed early in the release period. The results also reveal heterogeneity in patterns of recidivism over the short and long term, and highlight the importance of post-release context in understanding prisoner reentry.

Policies and Imprisonment: The Impact of Structured Sentencing and Determinate Sentencing on State Incarceration Rates, 1978–2004
Don Stemen; Andres F. Rengifo

Through funding from the national Residential Substance Abuse Treatment Program, the South Carolina Department of Corrections implemented the Correctional Recovery Academy in the Turbeville Medium Security Institution to treat drug-dependent offenders. The program features a cognitive-behavioral change modality delivered in a modified therapeutic community to first time, non-violent, drug-dependent, youthful male offenders. A quasi-experimental design was employed to specify impact as indicated by recidivism, relapse, and parole revocation. While analyses revealed no statistically significant difference between treatment and control group participants on these outcome measures, implications regarding the efficacy of the treatment modality are ambiguous as implementation failure masked determination of program effects. Drug testing frequency after release, however, was found to be a significant factor precluding failure, contrary to the conventional view that increased testing identifies greater use.

Justice Quarterly, February 2011: Volume 28, Issue 1

Justice Quarterly 27(6)

The Empirical Status of Social Learning Theory: A Meta-Analysis
Authors: Travis C. Pratt; Francis T. Cullen; Christine S. Sellers; L. Thomas Winfree Jr.; Tamara D. Madensen; Leah E. Daigle; Noelle E. Fearn; Jacinta M. Gau

Social learning theory has remained one of the core criminological paradigms over the last four decades. Although a large body of scholarship has emerged testing various propositions specified by the theory, the empirical status of the theory in its entirety is still unknown. Accordingly, in the present study, we subject this body of empirical literature to a meta-analysis to assess its empirical status. Results reveal considerable variation in the magnitude and stability of effect sizes for variables specified by social learning theory across different methodological specifications. In particular, relationships of crime/deviance to measures of differential association and definitions (or antisocial attitudes) are quite strong, yet those for differential reinforcement and modeling/imitation are modest at best. Furthermore, effect sizes for differential association, definitions, and differential reinforcement all differed significantly according to variations in model specification and research designs across studies. The implications for the continued vitality of social learning in criminology are discussed.

On the Malleability of Self-Control: Theoretical and Policy Implications Regarding a General Theory of Crime
Authors: Alex R. Piquero; Wesley G. Jennings; David P. Farrington

Gottfredson and Hirschi's general theory of crime has generated significant controversy and research, such that there now exists a large knowledge base regarding the importance of self-control in regulating antisocial behavior over the life-course. Reviews of this literature indicate that self-control is an important correlate of antisocial activity. Some research has evaluated programmatic efforts designed to examine the extent to which self-control is malleable, but little empirical research on this issue has been carried out within criminology, largely because the theorists have not paid much attention to policy proscriptions. This study evaluates the extant research on the effectiveness of programs designed to improve self-control up to age 10 among children and adolescents, and assesses the effects of these programs on self-control and delinquency/crime. Meta-analytic results indicate that (1) self-control programs improve a child/adolescent's self-control, (2) these interventions also reduce delinquency, and (3) the positive effects generally hold across a number of different moderator variables and groupings as well as by outcome source (parent-, teacher-, direct observer-, self-, and clinical report). Theoretical and policy implications are also discussed.

Where the Margins Meet: A Demographic Assessment of Transgender Inmates in Men's Prisons
Authors: Lori Sexton; Valerie Jenness; Jennifer Macy Sumner

Drawing on official data and original interview data on 315 transgender inmates in California prisons for men, this research provides the first empirical portrayal of a prison population in California that is unique by virtue of being both transgender and incarcerated. Situated at the nexus of intersecting marginalities, transgender inmates fare far worse on standard demographic and health measures than their non-transgender counterparts in the US population, the California population, the US prison population, and the California prison population. With the possible exceptions of partnership status and educational attainment, these factors combine to reveal that transgender inmates are marginalized in heretofore undocumented ways. At a time in which an evidence-based approach to corrections is increasingly embraced by corrections officials in the US, this article provides the first systematic profile of transgender prisoners. It reveals they can be regarded as a special population that, from a policy point of view, raises what Minow calls “the dilemma of difference”.

Racial and Ethnic Heterogeneity, Economic Disadvantage, and Gangs: A Macro-Level Study of Gang Membership in Urban America Pages 867 - 892
Authors: David C. Pyrooz; Andrew M. Fox; Scott H. Decker

There is a lack of macro-level gang research. The present study addresses this shortcoming by providing a theoretically informed analysis of gang membership in large US cities. More specifically, our goal is to determine whether racial and ethnic heterogeneity conditions the relationship between economic disadvantage and gang membership. Three separate sources of data are used in this study: U.S. Census 2000, Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Services 2000, and National Youth Gang Survey 2002-2006. A series of weighted least-squares regression models are estimated, finding that both economic disadvantage and racial and ethnic heterogeneity exhibit independent and additive effects on gang membership. In addition, the results show that racial and ethnic heterogeneity has a conditioning relationship with economic disadvantage. Furthermore, our expanded operationalization of the Blau heterogeneity measure indicates that prior research may have underestimated the effects of heterogeneity. The authors discuss these findings in the context of existing gang research and offer directions for future research.

Community In-Reach Through Jail Reentry: Findings from a Quasi-Experimental Design
Authors: Holly Ventura Miller; J. Mitchell Miller

Offenders face a number of significant challenges upon reentry into the community, including securing employment, locating housing, and accessing adequate substance abuse and mental health treatment. These and related issues, if neglected, only bolster rising recidivism rates which have prompted renewed interest in rehabilitation initiatives such as inmate reentry. Many jurisdictions have implemented programs designed to improve offenders' success after prison, but jail reentry programs are far less common. This study examined the effectiveness of one such program, the Auglaize County (OH) Transition (ACT) Program. Using a quasiexperimental design, recidivism was measured a year after release to determine if participation in the ACT Program was predictive of successful reentry. Findings suggest that program participation is strongly related to outcome success as was criminal history. Implications for correctional policy and suggestions for additional jail reentry research are considered.

Justice Quarterly, December 2010: Volume 27, Issue 6

Justice Quarterly 27(5)

Intimidation and Street Gangs: Understanding the Response of Victims and Bystanders to Perceived Gang Violence
Chris Melde; Callie Marie Rennison

While research routinely examines the influence of gang membership on the quantity of violent crime involvement, less is known about the influence of gang violence on the situational characteristics of violent victimization. Felson's discussion of street gangs highlights the possible functional role gang membership plays in the commission of violent crime; what he terms “the street gang strategy.” This study examines the functionality of gang membership during violent crimes by investigating the influence of perceived gang membership on the likelihood of victim resistance, bystander intervention, and police reporting using data from the National Crime Victimization Survey. Findings offer little support for the idea that gang members intimidate victims and bystanders to the extent that their behavior during and after violence differs systematically from responses resulting from non-gang violence. Results are discussed in terms of their policy relevance and implications for future research.

An Analysis of the Effectiveness of Community Notification and Registration: Do the Best Intentions Predict the Best Practices?
Kristen Zgoba; Bonita M. Veysey; Melissa Dalessandro

This research measures group differences in recidivism before and after implementation of Megan's Law. The pre-post study consists of a total of 550 male sex offenders released during the years 1990 and 2000, of which 250 offenders were released during 1990 and 1994 (i.e., the pre-Megan's Law group) and 300 offenders were released between 1995 and 2000 (i.e., the post-Megan's Law group). Offenders were released from a general population setting and a sex offender specific treatment facility. The main variables of concern include: (1) recidivism levels, (2) days to first re-arrest, and (3) level of harm (i.e., number of sex offenses, violent offenses, and number of child victims). Statistical findings from chi-square and survival analysis testing indicate significant group differences on levels of general recidivism; however, no significant differences were identified on measures of sex offense recidivism. Implications of these findings on sex offender specific policies are discussed.

The Darkest Figure of Crime: Perceptions of Reasons for Male Inmates to Not Report Sexual Assault
Kristine Levan Miller

Although sexual assault behind bars is recognized as problematic, very few of the sexual assaults that occur behind bars are officially reported. Many researchers have examined the individual and institutional variables which can help predict an inmate's probability of being victimized by his fellow inmates. With a sample obtained from a sample of eight Texas prisons, the current survey will disentangle the individual, institutional, and individual-institutional level variables which contribute to the rationales behind inmates choosing to report or not report sexually assaultive behavior. The findings somewhat mirror the findings of sexual assaults in the free community, with inmates indicating that the primary reasons to not report include embarrassment, fear of harassment, and retaliation from the perpetrator.

The Right to Counsel in Juvenile Court: The Conundrum of Attorneys as an Aggravating Factor at Disposition
Barry C. Feld; Shelly Schaefer

In re Gault provided procedural safeguards in juvenile courts, including the right to counsel. Decades later, judges continue to resist appointing lawyers. And, when they do appoint counsel, lawyers appear to be an aggravating factor when judges sentence youths. In 1995, Minnesota enacted law reforms, including mandatory appointment of counsel. As a cost-saving strategy, the law also converted most misdemeanors into status offenses and restricted judges' sentencing authority in order to deny juveniles a right to counsel. This study compares how juvenile courts processed 30,270 youths in 1994—the year before the changes—with how they processed 39,369 youths in 1999 after the amendments. We assess changes in appointment of counsel and their impact on sentencing practices. We report inconsistent judicial compliance with the mandate to appoint counsel and a positive decrease in the number of youths removed from home.

The Power to be Lenient: Examining New York Governors' Capital Case Clemency Decisions
Talia Roitberg Harmon; James R. Acker; Craig Rivera

This article examines the factors explaining New York governors' clemency decisions in capital cases between 1900 and 1963. It relies on a statistical analysis of 130 cases in which death sentences were commuted and a comparison sample of 146 cases resulting in execution. The analysis suggests that governors were more inclined to grant clemency to offenders younger than 21, when appellate court decisions included dissenting opinions, when mitigating factors outnumbered aggravating factors, and when death sentences were imposed pursuant to mandatory capital punishment provisions. The study failed to produce evidence that racial, ethnic, or socioeconomic variables were related to clemency decisions. The statistical analysis is complemented by discussion of the results of a qualitative study of New York capital clemency decisions. The article concludes by urging that a similar combined approach involving quantitative and qualitative techniques be employed to gain further insights into the exercise of clemency discretion in contemporary capital cases.

Justice Quarterly, October 2010: Volume 27, Issue 5

Justice Quarterly 27(4)

If Your Friends Jumped Off of a Bridge, Would You Do It Too? Delinquent Peers and Susceptibility to Peer Influence
Author: Holly Ventura Miller

Association with delinquent peer groups is one of the most salient predictors of delinquent behavior. Despite the widespread documentation of these effects, little is known about whether the delinquent peer effect is conditioned by individual-level characteristics. Using data from a multi-wave survey of Mexican-American adolescents, this study explored the interactive effect of susceptibility to peer influence and differential association with delinquent peers on delinquent outcomes. Results suggested that the delinquent peer effect on self-reported delinquency is amplified when an adolescent is highly susceptible to peer influence. Analyses also indicated that this moderating effect varies according to offense seriousness. Specifically, the conditioning effect is most important when considering acts of serious delinquency.

“That's Not Who I Am:” How Offenders Commit Violent Acts and Reject Authentically Violent Selves
Andy Hochstetler; Heith Copes; J. Patrick Williams

Participation in contemporary street cultures often exposes individuals to a world characterized by violence. The participants in this study admitted to frequent experience with violence and regular use of it. Many viewed violence as an appropriate response to some situations, though they often worked to avoid negative connotations of such behavior, especially ascriptions of an “authentically” violent self. Using an interactionist framework, we explore the processes by which offenders who engage in violent crimes resist being labeled as authentically violent. Drawing from data from semi-structured interviews with 30 offenders who engaged in carjackings, we analyze contrastive statements they employed to resist a violent self-concept and label. Offenders differentiated their own violent behaviors, as situational and excusable, from behaviors that characterize authentically violent others. Understanding these processes sheds light on criminal identities and gives insights into attempts to change offender behavior by altering self-conceptions.

Alcohol and Drug Mitigation in Capital Murder Trials: Implications for Sentencing Decisions
Beth Bjerregaard; M. Dwayne Smith; Sondra J. Fogel; Wilson R. Palacios

Analyses of the impact on sentencing when alcohol and drug-related mitigation is used in the sentencing phases of capital murder trials is virtually absent from the existing literature. The present study addresses this by exploring the effect of having mitigation with alcohol and drug themes accepted in a large sample (n = 804) of capital murder trials in North Carolina. Logistic regression analyses that include a number of relevant control variables reveal no substantive impacts of having alcohol mitigation accepted by capital murder juries, but drug mitigators that were either accepted or rejected by juries were associated with an increased risk of receiving a death sentence. Possible reasons for the results and their implications are discussed and suggestions are made for further study of the effects of alcohol/drug mitigation in capital trials.

Cognitive Skills, Adolescent Violence, and the Moderating Role of Neighborhood Disadvantage
Paul E. Bellair; Thomas L. McNulty

Numerous studies uncover a link between cognitive skills and adolescent violence. Overlooked is whether the relationship changes at varying levels of neighborhood disadvantage. We examine the issue by contrasting two models that place individual difference in cognitive skill within a social-structural framework. Using five waves of the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and a three-level hierarchical model, results indicate that cognitive skill is inversely associated with violence and that the relationship is strongest in non-disadvantaged neighborhoods. However, the cognitive skills-violence relationship is indistinguishable from zero in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods. The findings are therefore consistent with the hypothesis that social expression of developed ability is muted in disadvantaged contexts.

Trial Penalties in Federal Sentencing: Extra-Guidelines Factors and District Variation
Jeffery T. Ulmer; James Eisenstein; Brian D. Johnson

The guarantee of the right to a jury trial lies at the heart of the principles that underlie the American criminal justice system's commitment to due process of law. We investigate the differential sentencing of those who plead guilty and those convicted by trial in U.S. District Courts. We first investigate how much of any federal plea/trial sentencing differences are accounted for by substantial assistance to law enforcement, acceptance of responsibility, obstruction of justice, and other Guideline departures. Second, we investigate how such differences vary according to offense and defendant characteristics, as well as court caseloads and trial rates. We use federal sentencing data for fiscal years 2000-02, along with aggregate data on federal district court caseload features. We find that meaningful trial penalties exist after accounting for Guidelines-based rationales for differentially sentencing those convicted by guilty plea versus trial. Higher district court caseload pressure is associated with greater trial penalties, while higher district trial rates are associated with lesser trial penalties. In addition, trial penalties are lower for those with more substantial criminal histories, and black men. Trial penalties proportionately increase, however, as Guideline minimum sentencing recommendations increase. We also supplement our analysis with interview and survey data from federal district court participants, which provide insights into the plea reward/trial penalty process, and also suggest important dimensions of federal court trial penalties that we cannot measure.

Private Military Contractors, Crime, and the Terrain of Unaccountability
Dawn L. Rothe; Jeffrey Ian Ross

Criminological research has traditionally attempted to explain the etiological factors of crime and then suggest appropriate controls. More often than not, the foci of this kind of work have remained on “street crime.” Since the 1990s, however, some scholars have turned their attention to the causal factors of corporate crime, state crime, crimes of globalization, supranational crimes, and their various permutations and interconnections. Clearly missing from this literature is the growing phenomenon of private military contractors (PMCs) and the crimogenic culture of and atmosphere within which they operate. Specifically, while the use of PMCs is rapidly growing, the increasing propensity for PMC's crimogenic culture and the unregulated nature of what has become a global industry is rarely studied by social scientists. Further, few criminologists have examined this area of research by applying criminological theory to explain the growth and emergence of PMCs. Our goal is to help fill this gap. Through the process of theory building and refinement we identify factors that facilitate the criminogenic environment within which PMCs operate. Additionally, without attempting to expand explanatory and causal mechanisms, policies aimed at reducing PMC criminality and social justice for their victims cannot be developed. As such, we draw from theoretical developments in state and state-corporate crime, social disorganization, and anomie literature to shed light on key factors associated with PMCs, namely, the crimogenic atmosphere within which they operate.

Justice Quarterly, August 2010: Volume 27, Issue 4

Justice Quarterly Forthcoming

Gender, Identity, and Accounts: How White Collar Offenders Do Gender When Making Sense of Their Crimes
Paul M. Klenowski; Heith Copes; Christopher W. Mullins

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

Community In-Reach Through Jail Reentry: Findings from a Quasi-Experimental Design
Holly Ventura Miller; J. Mitchell Miller

Policies and Imprisonment: The Impact of Structured Sentencing and Determinate Sentencing on State Incarceration Rates, 1978–2004
Don Stemen; Andres F. Rengifo

More articles forthcoming in Justice Quarterly

Justice Quarterly 27(3)

Failure to Register as a Sex Offender: Is it Associated with Recidivism?
Jill Levenson; Elizabeth Letourneau; Kevin Armstrong; Kristen Marie Zgoba

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between failure to register (FTR) as a sex offender and subsequent recidivism (N = 2,970). No significant differences were found between the sexual recidivism rates of those who failed to register and compliant registrants (11% vs. 9%, respectively). There was no significant difference in the proportion of sexual recidivists and nonrecidivists with registration violations (12% vs. 10%, respectively). FTR did not predict sexual recidivism, and survival analyses revealed no significant difference in time to recidivism when comparing those who failed to register (2.9 years) with compliant registrants (2.8 years). Results fail to support the supposition that sexual offenders who fail to register are more sexually dangerous than those who comply with registration requirements. The punitive emphasis on registration enforcement may not be justified and might divert limited resources away from strategies that would better facilitate public protection from sexual violence.

Lethal Outcome in Sexual Assault Events: A Conjunctive Analysis
Tom Mieczkowski; Eric Beauregard

This paper examines violent sexual assaults and the factors associated with those assaults with lethal outcomes. It utilizes a criminal events perspective in conceptualizing the nature of these assaults and divides the event into three domains: victim characteristics, situational characteristics, and crime characteristics. Using a method developed by Miethe, Hart, and Regoeczi, conjunctive analysis of case configurations, we find that certain characteristics of the crime itself and certain characteristics of the victim appear strongly associated with fatal outcomes in sexual assaults, while situational characteristics appear relatively weakly associated with lethality.

Lawlessness in the Federal Sentencing Process: A Test for Uniformity and Consistency in Sentence Outcomes
Amy L. Anderson; Cassia Spohn

One of the important goals of the federal sentencing guidelines was to reduce inter-judge disparity in sentencing. In this paper, we test the assumption that structuring discretion produced uniformity in federal sentencing and consistency in the process by which judges arrive at the appropriate sentence. We also examine whether background characteristics of judges affect the sentences they impose on similarly situated offenders. We used hierarchical linear modeling, nesting the offenders in the judges that sentenced them in order to examine the sentencing decisions of federal judges in three U.S. District Courts. While we found that significant variation between judges in sentencing is largely accounted for by our level 1 characteristics, we also found that judges arrive at decisions regarding the appropriate sentence in different ways, by attaching differential weights to several of the legally relevant case characteristics and legally irrelevant offender characteristics.

Criminal Prosecutions: Examining Prosecutorial Discretion and Charge Reductions in U.S. Federal District Courts
Lauren O'Neill Shermer; Brian D. Johnson

The role of the prosecutor in criminal punishments remains a fervent topic of criminal justice discourse, yet it has received limited empirical attention, particularly for U.S. Attorneys in federal district courts. The present study examines charging and sentencing outcomes in federal courts by combining charging data from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts with sentencing data from the U.S. Sentencing Commission. The merger of these data sources overcomes limitations of each and provides for an investigation of the causes and consequences of federal prosecutorial charging decisions. Our investigation focuses on the subtle but important influences that extralegal offender characteristics exert in this process. Results indicate that some extralegal characteristics are intricately tied to the likelihood of charge reductions. Moreover, these effects sometimes interact to produce compound disadvantages for some groups of offenders. Our analyses are guided by contemporary theoretical perspectives on courtroom decision-making.

The Pragmatic American: Attributions of Crime and the Hydraulic Relation Hypothesis
James D. Unnever; John K. Cochran; Francis T. Cullen; Brandon K. Applegate

Attribution theory argues that a “hydraulic relation” exists between dispositional and situational attribution styles, causing people to endorse one style at the expense of the other. That is, attribution theorists predict that there should be a strong negative relationship between attribution styles. We test this prediction using data collected in Hillsborough County (Tampa), Florida, and two national polls. Our investigation shows that, rather than a bifurcated view of crime causation, Americans manifest a complex attributional style that views crime emerging from multiple sources. We discuss how these findings reveal that the American public tends to be not ideological but pragmatic in its view of crime causation and, ultimately, in the crime control policies it is willing to endorse.

Contemporary Regional Differences in Support by Whites for the Death Penalty: A Research Note
Steven E. Barkan; Steven F. Cohn

Despite good theoretical reasons to expect strong differences between Southern whites and non-Southern whites in death penalty support, prior research with 1990 General Social Survey (GSS) data found only a small difference that lacked statistical significance. This paper investigates the possibilities that this null result was a statistical anomaly due to sampling vagaries or that a regional difference has emerged since 1990. Examining GSS data from 1974 through 2006, we initially found that a South/non-South regional difference among whites did not exist before 1993 but has existed since then. However, further analysis revealed that a Northeast/non-Northeast difference among whites has also existed during this same period. These findings suggest that future research on death penalty opinion should use both such differences as regional controls rather than just the customary South/non-South division.

Justice Quarterly, June 2010: Volume 27, Issue 3

Justice Quarterly 27(2)

Trafficking in Bodily Perfection: Examining the Late-Modern Steroid Marketplace and Its Criminalization
Peter B. Kraska;  Charles R. Bussard; John J. Brent

Illicit steroid and human growth hormone use by professional athletes has received significant media and political attention in the last five years. The resulting political pressure has compelled federal law enforcement to prosecute serious new control initiatives. To date, no academic research inquiring into the nature of this illicit industry exists. This study fills this void through the mixed methods approach—employing both ethnographic field research and quantitative content analysis. The ethnographic data demonstrate a fascinating late-modern trafficking scheme where the central informant established an apartment-based manufacturing operation, converting raw steroid chemical compounds ordered off the Internet into injectable solutions. Content analysis of 186 websites that supply anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS) demonstrates that these grounded findings are indicative of a much larger phenomenon. Our final analysis examines the broader theoretical relevance of the ethnographic findings through contextualizing them within macro-structural (supply) and macro-cultural (demand) social forces.

The Necessary Conditions for Retaliation: Toward a Theory of Non-Violent and Violent Forms in Drug Markets
Scott Jacques

Research provides strong support for the theory that drug market participants are often involved in violent retaliation because they lack access to formal mediation. Yet retaliation is not always violent. The existing drug market literature offers few counts, estimates, or stories of non-violent retaliation, and no single theory specifies the variable conditions that determine which form of retaliation occurs. This paper contributes to criminology by drawing on the necessary conditions perspective and qualitative data obtained from drug dealers to provide the conceptual and theoretical foundation for future criminological work, including the development of theories that explain variability in retaliatory forms, research that demonstrates whether any given theory is supported by data, and criminal justice policies that draw on theoretical and empirical knowledge to reduce all forms of drug market retaliation—violent and non-violent.

Understanding Elder Sexual Abuse and the Criminal Justice System's Response: Comparisons to Elder Physical Abuse
Brian K. Payne

A great deal of research has considered the dynamics of sexual assault and the way that sexual assault cases are processed and handled in the criminal justice system. Most of this research has focused on sexual assault cases involving younger victims. Very little criminological research has considered the dynamics of elder sexual abuse. To fill this void, the current study uses a sample of 127 elder sexual abuse cases and 314 elder physical abuse cases to shed some light on the dynamics of elder sexual abuse and the way the justice system processes these cases. Attention is also given to the way that the processing of elder sexual abuse cases can be distinguished from the processing of elder physical abuse cases. Results show that a wide range of elder sexual abuse cases are committed and these cases are processed differently than elder physical abuse cases. Implications are provided.

Women Coming Home: Long-Term Patterns of Recidivism
Beth M. Huebner;  Christina DeJong; Jennifer Cobbina

Drawing on recent scholarship on prisoner reentry and gendered pathways to crime, this research explores how social relationships, incarceration experiences, and community context, and the intersection of these factors with race, influence the occurrence and timing of recidivism. Using a large, modern sample of women released from prison, we find that women who are drug dependent, have less education, or have more extensive criminal histories are more likely to fail on parole and to recidivate more quickly during the eight year follow-up period. We also observe racial variation in the effect of education, drug use, and neighborhood concentrated disadvantage on recidivism. This study highlights the importance of an intra-gender, theoretical understanding of recidivism, and has import for policy aimed at female parolees.

Procedural Justice and Order Maintenance Policing: A Study of Inner-City Young Men’s Perceptions of Police Legitimacy
Jacinta M. Gau; Rod K. Brunson

There is tension between the core tenets of procedural justice and those of order maintenance policing. Research has shown that citizens' perceptions of procedural justice influence their beliefs about police legitimacy, yet at the same time, some order maintenance policing efforts stress frequent stops of vehicles and persons for suspected disorderly behavior. These types of programs can threaten citizens' perceptions of police legitimacy because the targeted offenses are minor and are often not well-defined. Citizens stopped for low-level offenses may view such stops as a form of harassment, as they may not believe they were doing anything to warrant police scrutiny. This paper examines young men's self-described experiences with this style of proactive policing. Study findings highlight that order maintenance policing strategies have negative implications for police legitimacy and crime control efforts via their potential to damage citizens' views of procedural justice.

Further Evidence on the Discriminant Validity of Perceptual Incivilities Measures
Todd Armstrong; Charles Katz

Exploratory factor analysis tested the extent to which measures of incivilities and measures of both crime perceptions and victimization had distinct factor loadings in one- and two-factor models. Confirmatory factor analysis tested the fit of one- and two-factor structural equation models. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis showed that perceptual incivilities measures and victimization reports tended to load on distinct factors, offering evidence of the discriminant validity of perceptual incivilities measures relative to victimization reports. Exploratory and confirmatory analysis of perceived incivilities measures and measures of perceptions of crime provided equivocal results. In exploratory factor analysis, perceived incivilities measures and measures of crime perceptions did not always load on distinct factors and confirmatory factor analysis models did not meet the specified thresholds for good model fit across all fit criteria.

Justice Quarterly, April 2010: Volume 27, Issue 2

Justice Quarterly Forthcoming

Racial and Ethnic Heterogeneity, Economic Disadvantage, and Gangs: A Macro-Level Study of Gang Membership in Urban America
David C. Pyrooz; Andrew M. Fox; Scott H. Decker

All Justice Quarterly forthcoming articles

Justice Quarterly 27(1)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Justice Quarterly, February 2010: Volume 27, Issue 1

Justice Quarterly Forthcoming

Justice Quarterly plans to expand from four to six issues per year in 2010, and it currently appears to hold a backlog of at least 25 articles: these have been accepted but only electronically published. Because some have been available online as long as seven months (but are still not yet in print), it seems worth listing them here. To save space, I have not included these abstracts; I will do so when the articles are included in new issues.

Where the Margins Meet: A Demographic Assessment of Transgender Inmates in Men’s Prisons
Lori Sexton;  Valerie Jenness; Jennifer Macy Sumner

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

Examining the Sources of Variation in Risk for Recidivism
Beth M. Huebner; Mark T. Berg

The Empirical Status of Social Learning Theory: A Meta-Analysis
Travis C. Pratt;  Francis T. Cullen;  Christine S. Sellers;  L. Thomas Winfree Jr.;  Tamara D. Madensen;  Leah E. Daigle;  Noelle E. Fearn; Jacinta M. Gau

On the Malleability of Self-Control: Theoretical and Policy Implications Regarding a General Theory of Crime
Alex R. Piquero;  Wesley G. Jennings; David P. Farrington

An Analysis of the Effectiveness of Community Notification and Registration: Do the Best Intentions Predict the Best Practices?
Kristen Zgoba;  Bonita M. Veysey; Melissa Dalessandro

The Power to be Lenient: Examining New York Governors’ Capital Case Clemency Decisions
Talia Roitberg Harmon;  James R. Acker; Craig Rivera

The Darkest Figure of Crime: Perceptions of Reasons for Male Inmates to Not Report Sexual Assault
Kristine Levan Miller

The Right to Counsel in Juvenile Court: The Conundrum of Attorneys as an Aggravating Factor at Disposition
Barry C. Feld; Shelly Schaefer

Intimidation and Street Gangs: Understanding the Response of Victims and Bystanders to Perceived Gang Violence
Chris Melde; Callie Marie Rennison

Confessing their Crime: Factors Influencing the Offender’s Decision to Confess to the Police
Nadine Deslauriers-Varin;  Patrick Lussier; Michel St-Yves

If Your Friends Jumped Off of a Bridge, Would You Do It Too? Delinquent Peers and Susceptibility to Peer Influence
Holly Ventura Miller

“That's Not Who I Am:” How Offenders Commit Violent Acts and Reject Authentically Violent Selves
Andy Hochstetler;  Heith Copes; J. Patrick Williams

Talking Heads: Crime Reporting on Cable News
Natasha A. Frost; Nickie D. Phillips

Cognitive Skills, Adolescent Violence, and the Moderating Role of Neighborhood Disadvantage
Paul E. Bellair; Thomas L. McNulty

Trafficking in Bodily Perfection: Examining the Late-Modern Steroid Marketplace and Its Criminalization
Peter B. Kraska;  Charles R. Bussard; John J. Brent

Alcohol and Drug Mitigation in Capital Murder Trials: Implications for Sentencing Decisions
Beth Bjerregaard;  M. Dwayne Smith;  Sondra J. Fogel; Wilson R. Palacios

Lethal Outcome in Sexual Assault Events: A Conjunctive Analysis
Tom Mieczkowski; Eric Beauregard

Failure to Register as a Sex Offender: Is it Associated with Recidivism?
Jill Levenson;  Elizabeth Letourneau;  Kevin Armstrong; Kristen Marie Zgoba

Trial Penalties in Federal Sentencing: Extra-Guidelines Factors and District Variation
Jeffery T. Ulmer;  James Eisenstein; Brian D. Johnson

Contemporary Regional Differences in Support by Whites for the Death Penalty: A Research Note
Steven E. Barkan; Steven F. Cohn

Private Military Contractors, Crime, and the Terrain of Unaccountability
Dawn L. Rothe; Jeffrey Ian Ross

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

Lawlessness in the Federal Sentencing Process: A Test for Uniformity and Consistency in Sentence Outcomes
Amy L. Anderson; Cassia Spohn

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

Justice Quarterly forthcoming articles as of December 2009

Justice Quarterly 26(4)

Using Propensity Score Matching to Understand the Relationship between Gang Membership and Violent Victimization: A Research Note
Chris L. Gibson;  J. Mitchell Miller;  Wesley G. Jennings;  Marc Swatt; Angela Gover

Due to methodological limitations, such as unmatched gang samples and a lack of longitudinal investigations, it remains unresolved whether joining a gang leads to future violent victimization or both share a set of common causes. Guided by selection, facilitation, and enhancement perspectives, the current study applied Propensity Score Matching on data from the Gang Resistance Education and Training longitudinal study to investigate the nature of the gang-violent victimization relationship. Results indicated antecedent differences between those who did and did not join gangs, particularly violent victimization and delinquency. When gang and non-gang members with similar propensities for joining were matched, the relationship between gang membership and violent victimization dissipated. Findings suggest policy attention to early delinquency and victimization risk factors generally.

Gang Membership, Drug Selling, and Violence in Neighborhood Context
Paul E. Bellair; Thomas L. McNulty

A prominent perspective in the gang literature suggests that gang member involvement in drug selling does not necessarily increase violent behavior. In addition it is unclear from previous research whether neighborhood disadvantage strengthens that relationship. We address these issues by testing hypotheses regarding the confluence of neighborhood disadvantage, gang membership, drug selling, and violent behavior. A three-level hierarchical model is estimated from the first five waves of the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, matched with block-group characteristics from the 2000 U.S. Census. Results indicate that (1) gang members who sell drugs are significantly more violent than gang members that don't sell drugs and drug sellers that don't belong to gangs; (2) drug sellers that don't belong to gangs and gang members who don't sell drugs engage in comparable levels of violence; and (3) an increase in neighborhood disadvantaged intensifies the effect of gang membership on violence, especially among gang members that sell drugs.

Where Size Matters: Agglomeration Economies of Illegal Drug Markets in Philadelphia
Travis A. Taniguchi;  George F. Rengert; Eric S. McCord

There is a debate over whether police attention focused on an illegal drug market causes dealers to spatially displace their activities “around the corner” therefore having no positive impact on the aggregate level of illegal drug sales in the city. The alternative perspective is that focused police attention lowers the rate of illegal drug sales in the city. Recent research in Jersey City, New Jersey has demonstrated that focused police attention does not simply move illegal drug dealing around the corner. The present analysis explains why this finding is likely to be common in other cities using the economic theory of “agglomeration economies.” Agglomeration economies illustrate that taking the largest and most profitable site from illegal drug dealers will make dealing in the surrounding neighborhoods less rather than more profitable and lead to a smaller marketplace overall. The empirical analysis focuses on Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Low Self-Control and Contact with the Criminal Justice System in a Nationally Representative Sample of Males
Kevin M. Beaver;  Matt DeLisi;  Daniel P. Mears; Eric Stewart

Prior research on law enforcement and court system actions suggests that offender demeanor influences practitioner decision making. However, few studies have examined a key implication of this body of work—namely, criminogenic factors associated not only with offending but also with demeanor may result in a greater likelihood of contact with and formal processing by law enforcement and the courts. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we test the hypothesis that low self-control, which is associated with a range of characteristics that might influence practitioner perceptions of individual offenders' demeanors, will predict greater contact and formal processing. Briefly, we found that low self-control was consistently related to criminal justice system involvement as measured by police contacts, arrests, age at first police contact, and arrest onset. The implications of the findings for theory and research are discussed.

Public Area CCTV and Crime Prevention: An Updated Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Brandon C. Welsh; David P. Farrington

In recent years, there has been a marked and sustained growth in the use of closed circuit television (CCTV) surveillance cameras to prevent crime in public places in the USA and other Western nations. Amidst this expansion and the associated public expenditure, as well as concerns about their efficacy and social costs, there is an increasing need for an evidence-based approach to inform CCTV policy and practice. This paper reports on an updated systematic review and meta-analysis of the effects of CCTV on crime in public places. Evaluations were included if CCTV was the main intervention and the design was of high methodological quality. Forty-four evaluations met the inclusion criteria. The results suggest that CCTV caused a modest (16%) but significant decrease in crime in experimental areas compared with control areas. This overall result was largely driven by the effectiveness of CCTV schemes in car parks, which caused a 51% decrease in crime. Schemes in most other public settings had small and nonsignificant effects on crime: a 7% decrease in city and town centers and in public housing communities. Public transport schemes had greater effects (a 23% decrease overall), but these were still nonsignificant. Schemes evaluated in the UK were more effective than schemes evaluated in the USA and other countries, but this was largely driven by the studies in the car parks. Implications for policy and research are discussed.

The Crime Reduction Effects of Public CCTV Cameras: A Multi-Method Spatial Approach
Jerry H. Ratcliffe;  Travis Taniguchi; Ralph B. Taylor

Public Closed Circuit TeleVision (CCTV) initiatives have been utilized as methods of monitoring public space for over two decades. Evaluations of these efforts to reduce crime have been mixed. Furthermore, there has been a paucity of rigorous evaluations of cameras located in the USA. In this analysis, crime in the viewshed of publicly funded CCTV cameras in Philadelphia, PA, is examined using two evaluation techniques: hierarchical linear modeling and weighted displacement quotients. An analysis that incorporates controls for long-term trends and seasonality finds that the introduction of cameras is associated with a 13% reduction in crime. The evaluation suggests that while there appears to be a general benefit to the cameras, there were as many sites that showed no benefit of camera presence as there were locations with a positive outcome on crime. The policy implications of these findings are discussed.

On the Origins of the Violent Neighborhood: A Study of the Nature and Predictors of Crime-Type Differentiation across Chicago Neighborhoods
Christopher J. Schreck;  Jean Marie McGloin; David S. Kirk

Little of the literature on crime at the neighborhood level examines whether and why some crime types predominate in a given neighborhood over other types. Many macro-level theories do make predictions about the sort of crimes that occur in some neighborhoods, although they remain largely untested. This study focuses on one of these theories, differential opportunity, and its predictions about the making of violent neighborhoods. Drawing on various data sources, this inquiry determines whether crime profiles differ across Chicago neighborhoods—that is, whether there is significant variation across neighborhoods on ratio of violent crimes to other crime types. Next, it also investigates whether the structural factors implicated in the differential opportunity perspective distinguish these neighborhoods or only predict the incidence of crime. The results reveal significant differences in the distribution of crimes across neighborhoods, as well as show that certain factors identify neighborhoods that favor violence over other crimes.

Comparing Methods for Examining Relationships Between Prison Crowding and Inmate Violence
John Wooldredge; Benjamin Steiner

Studies of empirical relationships between indicators of prison crowding and inmate violence have uncovered null, negative, and positive relationships. These mixed findings may be due, in part, to cross-study differences in definitions of crowding, levels of analysis, and sample designs. We compared findings across some of the more popular approaches to study the relationship between facility crowding and the prevalence of inmate assaults in order to determine the implications of different methods for variation in estimates. Multi-level data from a national sample of 10,022 men confined in 203 state correctional facilities during 1997 were examined. Findings revealed differences across methods in the direction and significance of the crowding/assault relationship. These differences were then considered in order to derive a strategy for more uniform research on the topic. This strategy consists of including both total inmate population and design capacity as separate predictors in the same model, examination of tri-level data (inmates, facilities, and states) in order to control compositional differences in inmate populations across facilities and to remove confounding state-level differences in crowding levels and assault rates, and more careful consideration of secondary analyses of complex samples with sample weights.

Rediscovering Quetelet, Again: The “Aging” Offender and the Prediction of Reoffending in a Sample of Adult Sex Offenders
Patrick Lussier; Jay Healey

This study explored the role of age at release on the risk of reoffending using a sample of sex offenders. It examined whether the risk of reoffending, assessed using actuarial tools, should be adjusted according to the offender's age at the time of release. The sample comprised 553 offenders, all of whom were consecutive admissions to a Canadian federal penitentiary. Scores on the Static-99 as well as age at release were included in successive nested prediction models using Cox-regression. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves and Allison's R2 were computed to assess the predictive accuracy of the models and the strength of the association between the covariate measures of general and violent/sexual reoffending. Results showed that overall predictive accuracy observed across models was fair at best. Generally, age of onset and age at release improved the prediction accuracy over and above the scores on the Static-99. In fact, by itself, age at release showed a predictive accuracy comparable to that of the actuarial tool. The results suggest that risk assessors should adjust the risk of reoffending based on the offender's age at release. The implications of this study are discussed in light of the age-crime curve literature and the risk management of sex offenders in the community.

Justice Quarterly, December 2009: Volume 26, Issue 4

Justice Quarterly 26(3)

Racial Discrimination and Hirschi's Criminological Classic: A Chapter in the Sociology of Knowledge
James D. Unnever; Francis T. Cullen; Scott A. Mathers; Timothy E. McClure; Marisa C. Allison

In Causes of Delinquency, Travis Hirschi attempted to falsify the strain theory claim that racial discrimination might contribute to the delinquency of African American youths. A reanalysis of the Richmond Youth Project data used in his classic study, however, reveals that perceived racial discrimination is a robust predictor of delinquent involvement. This finding suggests that Hirschi missed a historic opportunity to focus the attention of a generation of criminologists on how the unique experiences of African Americans may shape their criminality. Given the salience of perceived racial bias in the lives of many African Americans, the subsequent neglect by scholars of discrimination as a potential source of crime is a remarkable omission—so much so that it constitutes a significant and as yet untold chapter in the sociology of knowledge.

Gendered Responses to Serious Strain: The Argument for a General Strain Theory of Deviance
Joanne M. Kaufman

This paper expands and builds on newer avenues in research on gender and general strain theory (GST). I accomplish this by focusing on serious strains that are relevant for males and females, including externalizing and internalizing forms of negative emotions, and including multiple gendered deviant outcomes. Using the Add Health dataset, I find strong support for the impact of serious strains on both types of negative emotions and different forms of deviance for males and females. However, the experience of serious strain, emotionally and behaviorally, is gendered. Depressive symptoms are particularly important for all types of deviance by females. Including multiple types of deviant outcomes offers a fuller understanding of both similarities and differences by gender. These results support the utility of GST as a theory of deviance in general and support greater connections between GST, feminist theorizing, and the sociology of mental health.

Understanding Physical Victimization Inside Prisons: Factors that Predict Risk
Nancy Wolff; Jing Shi; Jane Siegel

Research evidence on the prevalence of physical victimization inside prison settings has grown in precision and specificity. Considerably less explored are the factors predicting physical victimization. Using a sample of approximately 7,000 male inmates, a multilevel predictive model of victimization was estimated that includes characteristics of the individual and environment. Overall, prisons with poorer climates (higher levels of inmate dissatisfaction with officers and/or other inmates) had higher rates of inmate-on-inmate and staff-on-inmate victimization. The effect of inmate characteristics on victimization varied by type of perpetrator. Younger inmates, whites, and those with convictions involving sexual victimization were more likely to report physical victimization by other inmates. Characteristics increasing the likelihood of being physically assaulted by staff included non-white, convicted of a violent crime, and higher education. Knowing the characteristics of prisons and inmates that elevate their risk for victimization provides facilities with information that can inform prevention strategies (n = 147).

Career Dimensions of Stalking Victimization and Perpetration
Matt R. Nobles; Kathleen A. Fox; Nicole Piquero; Alex R. Piquero

Prior literature concerning stalking, particularly in the field of criminology, finds wide variation in fundamental trends regarding stalking victimization and perpetration. There seems to be little consensus regarding when and how stalking is manifested. Furthermore, prior research to date has not addressed the etiology of stalking-related behaviors by applying principles from criminal career research, including participation, frequency, onset, and duration. The present study builds upon prior research by addressing trends in age of onset for stalking victimization and perpetration, the duration of stalking-related behaviors, and the relationship between those behaviors and other types of crime over the life course using primary data from a sample of young adults. Findings indicate that stalking victimization and perpetration share important career attribute similarities, and that self-reported history of intimate partner violence and sexual assault are strongly associated with stalking outcomes.

Speeding While Black? Assessing the Generalizability of Lange et al.’s (2001, 2005) New Jersey Turnpike Speeding Survey Findings
Richard J. Lundman; Brian R. Kowalski

Across three months during 2001, Lange, Blackman, Johnson and Voas collected data from the New Jersey Turnpike to determine whether there were differences in speeding behavior grounded in race and ethnicity, while controlling for age and gender. They reported that Black drivers were more likely to speed at high rates (15 mph or more over the speed limit) in 65 mph speed zones, as were young drivers and male drivers. In the scholarly report of their research, Lange and colleagues concluded: “our research offer[s] a plausible explanation for the findings that Black drivers are represented among traffic stops at a higher rate than they are represented in the population.” The present research assesses the generalizability of the findings reported by Lange and colleagues using data reported by Massachusetts State Police officers during April and May of 2001. We also find that Black drivers, young drivers, and male drivers are more likely to speed at high rates in 65 mph speed zones. We therefore remind scholars that Lange and colleagues' findings and our own are entirely consistent with theory and research on the correlates of law violative actions. Our fundamental conclusion, however, is that more research is needed to determine whether traffic stops for Driving While Black are in small part the result of Speeding While Black.

Revisiting the Racial Threat Thesis: The Role of Police Organizational Characteristics in Predicting Race-Specific Drug Arrest Rates
David Eitle; Susanne Monahan

Previous research examining the relationship between structural factors and drug arrest rates has neglected the role of the police organization. A central proposition of racial threat theory is that indicators of a threatening Black population will be associated with law enforcement actions as a form of social control. In order to fully test this proposition, however, organizational aspects of law enforcement beyond size of the police force must be considered. Hence, the present study examines police organizational factors as direct predictors of race-specific drug arrest rates but also as potential moderators of the effects of structural factors on drug arrest rates. Using data from 260 cities, we find that police organizational factors matter, both directly and as moderators of the association between racial economic competition and Black drug arrest rates. Consistent with expectations derived from racial threat and organizational theory, we find that racial threat measures are associated with Black drug arrest rates under conditions of relatively low organizational control.

Racial Bias in Case Processing: Does Victim Race Affect Police Clearance of Violent Crime Incidents?
Terrance J. Taylor; David Holleran; Volkan Topalli

Prior studies have illustrated racial differences in perceptions of police legitimacy. African-Americans' views, however, appear to be complex, shaped by perceptions of over-enforcement of crimes committed by African-American offenders coupled with under-enforcement of crimes involving African-American victims. Using data from the 2002 National Incident-Based Reporting System, we examine whether victim race (alone, and in combination with offender race) affects police case clearance of four types of violent criminal incidents (homicide, aggravated assault, rape, and robbery) as a potential explanation of African-Americans' reduced levels of support for the police. Results suggest that the race of the victim, particularly in combination with the race of the offender, is related to police clearance of violent criminal incidents, but that this relationship is not as strong as those between agency, offense type, and situational characteristics of the incident. Implications for research and policy on police—community relations are discussed.

Striking Out: Race and Support for Police Use of Force
Devon Johnson; Joseph B. Kuhns

This research examines whites' and blacks' support for police use of force using a survey-based experiment that varies the race of the offender across four different scenarios. Bivariate results show that the race of the offender influences blacks' approval for the use of force by police, but does not affect whites' approval. Multivariate analyses examine whether the factors influencing support for police use of force vary depending on the race of the offender. Results indicate that the predictors for approval of police use of force differ by the race of respondent, the race of offender, and the appropriateness of the use of force. The implications of the results for police-community relations are discussed.

Justice Quarterly, September 2009: Volume 26, Issue 3