Criminology and Public Policy 9(1)

Vollmer Award Address and Commentary

On being right, but unhappy
Elliott Currie

Elliott Curries contribution to public criminology : An appreciation and a lament
Malcom M. Feeley

Elliott Currie : In tribute to a life devoted to confronting crime
Francis T. Cullen

Elliott Currie : August Vollmer Award winner, 2009
Jerome H. Skolnick


Alcohol Policy Implementation Evaluation

Evaluation of the Licensing Act of 2003 : A look inside the black box
Andrew Treno

Evaluating a natural experiment in alcohol policy : The Licensing Act (2003) and the requirement for attention to implementation
David K. Humphreys, Manuel P. Eisner

This study examines the effects of a dramatic change in alcohol licensing policy on the practice of liquor retailing across a metropolitan urban region. The policy was enacted to remove fixed closing times and to install staggered closing times across regions where it potentially would reduce violent crime and disorder. We found great variation in the extent to which the provisions of the policies were installed as intended.
The findings suggest that prior consideration for how policy interventions will be applied to real-world settings is important to the validity of research evaluations. Understanding and monitoring variation in the implementation of an intervention is a vital prerequisite to the evaluation of outcomes. Without knowledge of the real-world application of an intervention, researchers risk attributing causal effects to a prevention initiative that might have been absent or only partially received.

After the Act : Alcohol licensing and the administrative governance of crime
Phil Hadfield, Fiona Measham

Why implementation matters : Recent experience with the U.K. Licensing Act (2003)
Shannon Frattaroli


Legitimacy Perceptions in Corrections

Boot camps redux : What can they tell us about correctional legitimacy?
Susan Turner

Legitimacy in corrections : A randomized experiment comparing a boot camp with a prison
Derrick Franke, David Bierie, Doris Layton Mackenzie

To extend research on legitimacy to the correctional system, we study a sample of 202 adult inmates randomly assigned to serve their 6-month sentence at one of two institutions—a traditional prison or a military-style correctional boot camp. Findings show that perceptions of justice system legitimacy changed during the course of incarceration, that the prison (but not the boot camp) proved delegitimizing, and that certain regime characteristics explained why.
Across academic disciplines, studies continue to link compliance with perceived legitimacy. Compliance with the law, for instance, is related closely to the legitimacy of the justice system and its actors. These findings suggest implementing legitimacy-building policies such as procedurally fair treatment and decision making by police officers and judges. This article, by finding legitimacy to be malleable even at the final stage of the justice process, proposes the efficacy of similar policies in the correctional system. As research from England and Wales has shown, legitimizing strategies in this context could increase compliance both during and after incarceration.

Transforming attitudinal change into behavioral change : The missing link
Megan C. Kurlychek

"Legitimacy in corrections" : Policy implications
Tom R. Tyler


Problem-Oriented Policing

Evaluating the effectiveness of problem-oriented policing
Michael S. Scott

Is problem-oriented policing effective in reducing crime and disorder? : Findings from a Campbell systematic review
David Weisburd, Cody W. Telep, Joshua C. Hinkle, John E. Eck

We conducted a Campbell systematic review to examine the effectiveness of problem-oriented policing (POP) in reducing crime and disorder. After an exhaustive search strategy that identified more than 5,500 articles and reports, we found only ten methodologically rigorous evaluations that met our inclusion criteria. Using meta-analytic techniques, we found an overall modest but statistically significant impact of POP on crime and disorder. We also report on our analysis of pre/post comparison studies. Although these studies are less methodologically rigorous, they are more numerous. The results of these studies indicate an overwhelmingly positive impact from POP.
POP has been adopted widely across police agencies and has been identified as effective by many policing scholars. Our study supports the overall commitment of police to POP but suggests that we should not necessarily expect large crime and disorder control benefits from this approach. Moreover, funders and the police need to invest much greater effort and resources to identify the specific approaches and tactics that work best in combating specific types of crime problems. We conclude that the evidence base in this area is deficient given the strong investment in POP being made by the government and police agencies.

Setting a higher standard for the evaluation of problem-oriented policing initiatives
Anthony A. Braga

Whither problem-oriented policing
Nick Tilley

Criminology and Public Policy, February 2010: Volume 9, Issue 1

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

Journal of Marriage and Family 72(1)

Minisymposium on Gender and Parenting

How Does the Gender of Parents Matter?
Timothy J. Biblarz, Judith Stacey

Generating Heat or Light? The Challenge of Social Address Variables
Lisa Strohschein

Studying Complex Families in Context
Abbie E. Goldberg

Same-Sex Parenting and Child Development: Reviewing the Contribution of Parental Gender
Fiona Tasker

Ideal Families and Social Science Ideals
Timothy J. Biblarz, Judith Stacey

Adolescent and Young Adult Intimate Relationships

When Does Race Matter? Race, Sex, and Dating at an Elite University
Elizabeth Aura McClintock

Relationship Transitions Among Youth in Urban Kenya
Shelley Clark, Caroline Kabiru, Rohini Mathur

Neighborhood Poverty and Nonmarital Fertility: Spatial and Temporal Dimensions
Scott J. South, Kyle Crowder

Does Premarital Cohabitation Predict Subsequent Marital Stability and Marital Quality? A Meta-Analysis
Anita Jose, K. Daniel O'Leary, Anne Moyer

Life Course Stage in Young Adulthood and Intergenerational Congruence in Family Attitudes
Freek Bucx, Quinten Raaijmakers, Frits van Wel

Of General Interest

Longitudinal Associations Between Husbands' and Wives' Depressive Symptoms
Chrystyna D. Kouros, E. Mark Cummings

Parent Care as Unpaid Family Labor: How Do Spouses Share?
Ursula Henz

"Women's Work"? Women Partners of Transgender Men Doing Housework and Emotion Work
Carla A. Pfeffer

Separate Spheres or Increasing Equality? Changing Gender Beliefs in Postwar Japan
Kristen Schultz Lee, Paula A. Tufis, Duane F. Alwin

Family and Household Formations and Suicide in the United States
Justin T. Denney

Journal of Marriage and Family, February 2010: Volume 72, Issue 1

Social Psychology Quarterly 72(4)

"Categorizing the Categorizer": The Management of Racial Common Sense in Interaction
Kevin A Whitehead

"City Air Makes Free": A Multi-Level, Cross-national Analysis Of Self-efficacy
Jeffrey S Debies-Carl, Christopher M Huggins

Beyond the United States and Japan: Testing Yamagishi's Emancipation Theory of Trust across 31 Nations
Mirona A Gheorghiu, Vivian L Vignoles, Peter B Smith

Building Cohesion in Positively Connected Exchange Networks
David R Schaefer, Olga Kornienko

Escaping Embarrassment: Face-work in the Rap Cipher
Jooyoung Lee

Framing and Face: The Relevance of The Presentation of Self to Linguistic Discourse Analysis
Deborah Tannen

On Rereading The Presentation of Self: Some Reflections
Anthony Giddens

Some Frames for Goffman
Louis Menand

Social Psychology Quarterly, December 2009: Volume 72, Issue 4

Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 47(1)

Community Variations in Violence: The Role of Social Ties and Collective Efficacy in Comparative Context
Lorraine Mazerolle, Rebecca Wickes, and James McBroom

This article explores the relative roles of social ties and collective efficacy in explaining community variations in violent victimization in Australia. Using data from a survey of 2,859 residents across 82 communities in the city of Brisbane, coupled with official reported crime data provided by the Queensland Police Service and Australian Bureau of Statistics census data for 2001, the authors employ multilevel statistical models to depict the relative importance of social ties and collective efficacy in predicting between-neighborhood violent victimization in an Australian context. The models include measures of social relationships and community-based crime prevention programs, and the authors compare and contrast their findings with studies of collective efficacy in Chicago and Stockholm, finding similar results. These findings suggest that despite structural and cultural differences between the United States and Australia in particular, collective efficacy is a significant mechanism in explaining the spatial distribution of self-reported violent victimization in the Australian context. This research underscores the importance of cross-cultural theory testing and the need to further develop the measurement of ecological constructs such as social ties and organizational behavior.

"Does It Take a Village?" Assessing Neighborhood Influences on Children's Self-Control
Chris L. Gibson, Christopher J. Sullivan, Shayne Jones, and Alex R. Piquero

Although individuals low in self-control are more likely to engage in antisocial and criminal behavior, few studies have investigated its sources. Gottfredson and Hirschi argue that primary caregivers are largely responsible, whereas Wikström and Sampson contend that self-control is partially a function of neighborhood context. Using data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods, the authors assessed neighborhood effects on children’s self-control. They found significant variation in self-control between neighborhoods, but it accounted for a small amount of the total variance. In the initial model, neighborhood structural characteristics had direct effects on self-control, but after taking into account individual-level characteristics, they became nonsignificant. Furthermore, parenting variables exhibited significant and consistent effects on self-control. The authors consider the theoretical implications of the findings, address limitations, and provide suggestions for future research.

On the Relationship between Co-Offending Network Redundancy and Offending Versatility
Jean Marie McGloin and Alex R. Piquero

The role of criminal, social interactions occupies a central place in criminology, yet minimal research exists on the relationship between co-offender networks and dimensions of offending. Drawing on the social network literature, this investigation hypothesizes that a link exists between the level of redundancy (i.e., the extent of overlap) in an individual’s co-offender network and offending versatility. Relying on longitudinal data for a random sample of delinquents from Philadelphia, this study begins by constructing egocentric co-offending networks for the respondents. Then, using Tobit regression models, it finds that higher levels of co-offender network redundancy (more dense networks) are related to higher levels of specialized offending in group crimes, but no such relationship exists with overall (i.e., solo and group) offending specialization. The discussion considers the implications of these findings and offers suggestions for future research.

History of Juvenile Arrests and Vocational Career Outcomes for At-Risk Young Men
Margit Wiesner, Hyoun K. Kim, and Deborah M. Capaldi

This study uses longitudinal data from the Oregon Youth Study (OYS) to examine prospective effects of juvenile arrests and of early versus late onset of juvenile offending on two labor market outcomes by age 29 or 30 years. It was expected that those with more juvenile arrests and those with an early onset of offending would show poorer outcomes on both measures, controlling for propensity factors. Data were available for 203 men from the OYS, including officially recorded arrests and self-reported information on the men’s work history across 9 years. Analyses revealed unexpected specificity in prospective effects: Juvenile arrests and mental health problems predicted the number of months unemployed; in contrast, being fired from work was predicted by poor child inhibitory control and adolescent substance use. Onset age of offending did not significantly predict either outcome. Implications of the findings for applied purposes and for developmental taxonomies of crime are discussed.

Civic Community, Population Change, and Violent Crime in Rural Communities
Matthew R. Lee and Shaun A. Thomas

This analysis investigates the relationships between measures of civic community, population change, and violent crime rates in rural communities. Rural communities that are civically robust are hypothesized to have lower violent crime rates and to experience less change in violent crime over time. Alternatively, sustained population change is hypothesized to elevate violent crime rates and to moderate the protective effect that civic robustness provides against violent crime over time. Results from both lagged panel and cross-sectional negative binomial regression models of county-level data support these expectations. In substantive terms, these findings suggest that civically robust communities are much better positioned to weather population change than civically weak communities, but continuous change over time compromises the protective effect that civic robustness provides against serious crime.

Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, February 2010: Volume 47, Issue 1

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

Theory and Society 39(1)

The sociopolitical origins of the American Legion
Alec Campbell

Reversals of fortune: path dependency, problem solving, and temporal cases
Jeffrey Haydu

Of yarmulkes and categories: Delegating boundaries and the phenomenology of interactional expectation
Iddo Tavory

Historical legacies, institutional change, and policy leadership: the case of Alexandre Millerand and the French factory inspectorate
Frieda Fuchs

Alexis de Tocqueville in the twenty-first century: plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose?
John Stone and Xiaoshuo Hou

Theory and Society, January 2010: Volume 39, Issue 1