Journal of Criminal Justice 43(1)

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

Editorial: Sex offenders: No solicitude required  
Matt DeLisi

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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