Authors:Sean Maddan Pages: 745 - 753 Abstract: Literature reviews in criminological and criminal justice journal articles have long served as an integral component in our empirical backyard. In this address I explore the value of the literature review in peer-reviewed research articles. I begin by evaluating the merits of the literature review section in empirically refereed research articles. I propose abandoning the literature review, due to its overall insignificance and best practices from other disciplines. Based on reasons outlined in this speech, I elaborate on the strengths and weaknesses of this somewhat controversial notion in the criminological/criminal justice discipline. PubDate: 2018-12-01 DOI: 10.1007/s12103-018-9442-x Issue No:Vol. 43, No. 4 (2018)
Authors:Justin Hoyle; Bryan Lee Miller; John M. Stogner; Chad Posick; Brenda Sims Blackwell Pages: 754 - 767 Abstract: The current study focuses on predominant predictors associated with men’s and women’s engagement in driving under the influence (DUI) in an attempt to determine whether gender-specific interventions would be more affective at reducing impaired vehicle operation. A male-only subsample (n = 863) and a female-only subsample (n = 975) from a survey administered at a large Southeastern university containing self-reported measures of DUI were used to evaluate gender differences in motivations and correlates of DUI behavior. A series of logistic regressions containing indicators drawn from theories of deviant behavior (e.g., Akers’ social learning theory (SLT) and Gottfredson and Hirshi’s low self-control (LSC) theory) yield results indicating that differential association and imitation, both factors associated with SLT, are significant predictors for both gender cohorts’ DUI behavior. Low self- control was a significant predictor within female-only models, but not the final male-only models. This suggests that peer associations and modeling may be targets of intervention generally, but that, as it relates to DUIs, women may particularly benefit from programs focused at limiting impulsivity and risk-taking behavior as these are components of Gottfredson and Hirschi’s LSC construct. PubDate: 2018-12-01 DOI: 10.1007/s12103-017-9431-5 Issue No:Vol. 43, No. 4 (2018)
Authors:Emily R. Berthelot; Brittani A. McNeal; Julie Marie Baldwin Pages: 768 - 791 Abstract: While the extant research on trust and confidence in the criminal justice system is broad in scope, its individual studies are more limited, leaving much unknown about these relationships. Building on prior research, the current study investigates the relationships between prior contact, victimization, and seven measures of trust and confidence in the police and courts. This study responds to calls for the relationships between trust and confidence in the criminal justice system, race/ethnicity, prior contact, and victimization to be investigated within a single study. Although rare in prior research, outcomes of trust and confidence in local police and courts are individually investigated within the same sample simultaneously. As a first, the current study also separates prior contact by police, courts, community corrections, and institutional corrections and examines four types of victimization (direct violent, vicarious violent, direct non-violent, vicarious non-violent). The latter allows for an examination of potentially more nuanced relationships between victimization and trust and confidence in the police and in the courts. PubDate: 2018-12-01 DOI: 10.1007/s12103-018-9434-x Issue No:Vol. 43, No. 4 (2018)
Authors:Matt DeLisi; Michael J. Elbert; Alan J. Drury Pages: 792 - 809 Abstract: The criminal career paradigm is a major research area but has largely overlooked federal offenders and federal data. Drawing on a population of federal supervised release clients in the Midwestern United States, the current study examined the predictive validity of the federal Post-Conviction Risk Assessment (PCRA) and its subscales for their association with six parameters of the criminal career. Poisson, negative binomial, and logistic regression models showed that PCRA Risk was significantly associated with annual offending rate (lambda), chronicity, prison misconduct, noncompliance on supervised release, having a warrant requested on supervised release, and career criminal status. Various PCRA subscales also were significantly associated with criminal career outcomes especially for current community supervision outcomes. These effects withstood confounding effects for age, sex, race, age of arrest onset, federal criminal history rank, and total prison exposure. The study supported basic criminal career findings using federal data and showed that a standard risk assessment actuarial in the federal system has utility as an indicator of the criminal career. PubDate: 2018-12-01 DOI: 10.1007/s12103-018-9436-8 Issue No:Vol. 43, No. 4 (2018)
Authors:Donald M. Linhorst; P. Ann Dirks-Linhorst; Susan McGraugh; Lauren Choate; Sarah Riley Pages: 810 - 830 Abstract: This study compared the characteristics and court-ordered evaluation questions and responses among 4,430 defendants to determine if differences existed between those represented by public defenders and private attorneys when receiving trial competency or responsibility psychiatric evaluations from a state department of mental health. Defendants represented by public defenders were more likely to be younger, to have less education, to have psychotic disorders, to have a history of inpatient psychiatric treatment, to live in urban or rural counties, and to be jailed at the time of the evaluation. In addition, defendants represented by public defenders were less likely to have a request for a criminal responsibility evaluation and more likely to be evaluated as having a mental illness, to be incompetent to stand trial, and to need hospitalization pending trial. Consideration of whether defendants with public defenders receiving less requests for responsibility evaluations was indicative of a therapeutic jurisprudence approach is discussed. Implications for research on types of legal representation of defendants with mental illness are discussed. PubDate: 2018-12-01 DOI: 10.1007/s12103-017-9430-6 Issue No:Vol. 43, No. 4 (2018)
Authors:Ethan Amidon Pages: 831 - 860 Abstract: Recent theorists have argued that the use of the death penalty has been shaped by political considerations throughout history. However, empirical research has primarily examined this relationship in the last third of the twentieth century. In order to expand the temporal scope used to examine capital punishment practices, this study examines whether four post-Furman perspectives are able to account for the use of death sentences at the state level from 1930 to 2010. This study also examines whether the movement from the pre- to the post-Furman time period moderated the relationship between political factors and use of death sentences. The findings indicate that the size of religious fundamentalist populations, jurisdictional welfare expenditures, and surpluses in the labor force are significant predictors of death sentences across both eras. These results suggest that the predictive power of recent political theories is not restrained to the jurisdictional use of death sentences in the last third of the twentieth century. PubDate: 2018-12-01 DOI: 10.1007/s12103-018-9441-y Issue No:Vol. 43, No. 4 (2018)
Authors:Gennaro F. Vito; George E. Higgins; Anthony G. Vito Pages: 861 - 870 Abstract: Citizens’ attitudes toward the death penalty have been effected by the availability of life without parole (LWOP). Our analysis focuses upon data from a representative sample of Kentuckians on death penalty attitudes. The factors influencing and related to death penalty support and compared to support for LWOP are considered along with a review of Kentucky survey findings from 1989–2016. The results reveal consistent support for LWOP over the death penalty. Male Kentucky residents with a college education were most likely to support life without parole over capital punishment while male conservatives did not. PubDate: 2018-12-01 DOI: 10.1007/s12103-017-9429-z Issue No:Vol. 43, No. 4 (2018)
Authors:Stacey Clifton; Jose Torres; James Hawdon Pages: 871 - 885 Abstract: The policing profession has recently experienced events that affected officers across the nation. Several high-profile cases involving police and members of minority communities intensified the tensions among these groups. Amid public criticisms of policing, law enforcement officers have become targets of attacks. Multiple cases of officer ambushes and assassinations have further troubled the already stressful occupational position of law enforcement. This study investigates what coping strategies officers used after the deadly attacks on police in Dallas, Texas and Baton Rouge, Louisiana that occurred in July, 2016. We also investigate how the coping strategies used affects job motivation among officers. Our findings suggest officers turned to three coping strategies: support networks, stoic self-help, and self-medication. These coping strategies were found to be ineffective mechanisms for protecting officer job motivation; however, some strategies adversely affected motivation more than others. Understanding how officers are coping and why effective strategies are not being employed adequately is imperative for both the safety of officers and the public. PubDate: 2018-12-01 DOI: 10.1007/s12103-018-9437-7 Issue No:Vol. 43, No. 4 (2018)
Authors:Timothy S. Nixon; J. C. Barnes Abstract: General deterrence theory assumes objective risks of punishment and citizens’ perceptions of punishment risks are closely calibrated. Yet little empirical attention has been devoted to testing this assumption. Of the few studies that exist, most have tested the calibration with county-level indicators of objective punishment risk. This strategy has been criticized for being too far removed from the individual citizen: why should we expect citizens to know the punishment risks in such a large geographic unit' We estimated the calibration between objective punishment levels and individuals’ perceptions of those punishment levels by analyzing data drawn from a large sample of students (n = 11,085) from 44 schools in Ohio. Multi-level models found the calibration between objective punishment and students’ perceptions is weak and not statistically significant. More than half of our calibration estimates were in the wrong direction (i.e., they were negative) and results from interaction tests did not indicate that the calibration is any stronger among those with the highest levels of self-reported offending. We discuss the implications of these findings for policies rooted in general deterrence theory. PubDate: 2018-12-05 DOI: 10.1007/s12103-018-9466-2
Authors:George B. Pesta; Thomas G. Blomberg; Javier Ramos; J. W. Andrew Ranson Abstract: Over the past two decades, criminologists have attempted to better understand the process through which research is used by practitioners and policymakers to identify the conditions that facilitate its policy and practice use. As part of this effort, the current study examines the translational research process and the use of researcher-practitioner partnerships (RPPs) in two state correctional agencies. The methods include interviews with leading national researchers, Florida legislative personnel, and state-level decision makers in adult and juvenile corrections. The findings document barriers, facilitators, and mechanisms involved in the translation process and reveal the effectiveness of RPPs to translate research into policy and practice. PubDate: 2018-11-29 DOI: 10.1007/s12103-018-9467-1
Authors:Bienvenido Ruiz; Billy J. Ulibarrí; Arlett S. Lomelí; Ramon S. Guerra; Rolando R. Longoria Abstract: The concept of legal pressure has been used in research to study the effect threats of increased punishment have on the rehabilitation trajectory of individuals with substance use disorders under community supervision. This study investigates how unequal legal pressures affect the chances of success for participants in a drug court-supervised rehabilitation aftercare program. Using bivariate and logistic regression analyses, we compare the successful program completion rates of individuals charged with felony- and misdemeanor-level offenses. Consistent with the legal pressure thesis, we find that clients under misdemeanor-level charges become more likely to fail probation than those under the threat of felony-level punishment upon transition to community aftercare. Moreover, the higher rate of failure in the lower legal pressure group is strongly associated with their failure to abstain from drug use during the outpatient phase of community supervision. A shift in legal pressure is thus identified as a potential dynamic risk factor in substance abuse aftercare. The implications for community supervision of offenders recovering from addictions are discussed. PubDate: 2018-11-28 DOI: 10.1007/s12103-018-9465-3
Authors:Richard J. Stringer Abstract: This project examines the relationship between police enforcement of driving under the influence (DUI) and fatal alcohol related crashes. This article merged data from several sources to fit several 3-level growth curve models that assess the relationship between DUI arrests and fatal alcohol related crashes in U.S. counties from 1985 to 2015. The findings indicate that increases in DUI arrests are related to decreased fatal alcohol related crashes during the period. However, the two are not linearly related and the relationship varies across states. The non-linearity indicates there is a point of diminished returns where increased arrests are no longer related to reductions in fatalities. These findings suggest that policy makers should explore alternative methods of reducing crashes to supplement enforcement efforts such as addressing problems of alcoholism and traffic safety. PubDate: 2018-11-24 DOI: 10.1007/s12103-018-9464-4
Authors:Thomas J. Mowen; Adrienne Freng Abstract: The use of security measures within schools has increased dramatically over the past few decades. These proliferations are often touted by teachers, school administrators, politicians, and the public as necessary for improving student safety. Though research in this area is growing, we know little about how increased use of school security measures relates to both student and parental perceptions of school safety. Using data from wave one of the 2002 Educational Longitudinal Study, the current study investigates the relationship between the use of security measures in schools and student and parent assessments of safety. Findings from multi-level models indicate that school security measures are, generally, related to decreased perceptions of safety by both parents and students. Implications of these findings are addressed. PubDate: 2018-11-16 DOI: 10.1007/s12103-018-9461-7
Authors:Nicole L. Collier; Samantha J. Brown; Andrea N. Montes; George B. Pesta; Daniel P. Mears; Sonja E. Siennick Abstract: Schools in the United States are increasingly faced with the challenge of navigating two seemingly contradictory approaches to school safety. On the one hand, they attempt to make schools safer by employing get-tough, punishment-oriented policies. On the other hand, schools promote support-oriented policies that seek to address the root causes of students’ behavioral issues. Despite considerable advances in research on school safety, little is known about how schools balance the implementation of these two approaches. To address this research gap, we present findings from interviews with school principals, assistant principals, discipline coordinators, police, and district leaders to illustrate how schools navigate the implementation of these competing school safety philosophies. Implications for theory, research, and policy are discussed. PubDate: 2018-11-14 DOI: 10.1007/s12103-018-9462-6
Authors:Rhys Hester Abstract: An individual’s prior record can have a pronounced impact on the punishment he or she receives for a new offense, substantially increasing the likelihood and duration of an incarceration sentence. Not only does prior record contribute to mass incarceration, but prior research has consistently shown that criminal history mediates race effects and exacerbates disparities. In guidelines jurisdictions, criminal history enhancements are partially or primarily employed as proxies for risk prevention. But for the most part these scores were not developed empirically, and, to date, whether scores are valid predictors of risk has gone unexplored. This paper uses survival analysis and area under the curve analysis to examine the predictive efficacy of the Pennsylvania Prior Record Score using a sample of offenders sentenced in Pennsylvania and followed-up for 3 years after release (n = 130,758). The results show that some of the Pennsylvania PRS categories fail to accurately distinguish among offenders based on their likelihood of recidivism. Further, some of the key score components that increase the PRS (and the punishment imposed) have marginal effects on the predictive efficacy of the score, often only increasing the prediction accuracy by a single percentage point. By re-engineering the PRS categories and sub-components, this jurisdiction could recommend less punishment in some cases without any apparent increase in risk to public safety. PubDate: 2018-11-14 DOI: 10.1007/s12103-018-9460-8
Authors:Claire Angelique Nolasco; Michael S. Vaughn Abstract: This article analyzes the constitutional parameters of solitary confinement, administrative segregation, and/or punitive isolation within correctional facilities in the United States. After briefly discussing the harmful effects of isolation and the number of inmates subject to this type of confinement, it explains the U.S. Supreme Court’s “atypical and significant hardship” standard for assessing the legality of segregation. Evaluation of 68 cases decided by the 12 U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals reveals how each Circuit decides when conditions of segregation amount to an “atypical and significant hardship” for the inmate, creating a liberty interest protected by the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process clause. Due to the Supreme Court’s ambiguity, the Federal Circuit Courts of Appeals lack agreement on (1) when liberty interests attach and (2) which confinement conditions outside of segregation should serve as a comparison baseline to assess “atypicality” and “hardship.” While inmates possess limited liberty interests when placed in segregation, the physical and psychological harms wrought by segregation, isolation, and solitary confinement are rarely considered when courts make constitutional determinations of such practices. PubDate: 2018-11-14 DOI: 10.1007/s12103-018-9463-5
Authors:Brian K. Payne; Brittany Hawkins; Chunsheng Xin Abstract: Over the past decade, reports of cybercrime have soared across the globe. Criminologists agree that the increase in cybercrime stems from technological advancements that have changed all facets of societal interactions. While it is agreed that technology has shaped cybercrime, there is less understanding about the dynamics of cybercrime. In particular, some researchers have explored whether these offenses are simply traditional types of crime that are now carried out through different strategies, while others have argued that cybercrimes are, in fact, new types of crime. This ambiguity potentially limits prevention and intervention strategies. In an effort to build our understanding about cybercrime within a criminological framework, in this study we use labeling theory as a guide to examine the patterns, characteristics, and sanctions associated with a sample of cybercrimes with an aim towards identifying how these offenses are socially constructed in comparison to traditional crimes, white-collar crimes, and international crimes. In doing so, our hope is to further determine how cybercrime can be understood within current criminological thinking. PubDate: 2018-11-03 DOI: 10.1007/s12103-018-9457-3
Authors:Christopher J. Marier; Richard K. Moule Abstract: Recent protests against law enforcement have spurred claims by practitioners and editorialists that public antipathy toward the police may influence police occupational norms. A number of classic police ethnographies also suggest a link between perceived public antipathy and police culture, but limited empirical research has examined this claim. Using a sample of 12,376 sworn law enforcement officers who participated in the National Police Research Platform, and a series of ordinary least squares regressions, this study examines whether officers’ perceptions of public support predict their cultural orientations. Results reveal that officers perceiving greater public antipathy report higher levels of social isolation, work-group solidarity, cynicism toward the public, and coercive attitudes. We identify practical implications and potential organizational remedies to address these perceptions, and situate these findings within theoretical arguments of early police ethnographers and contemporary claims of the “Ferguson Effect.” PubDate: 2018-10-27 DOI: 10.1007/s12103-018-9459-1
Authors:Mark Alden Morgan; Matthew W. Logan; Francis T. Cullen Abstract: Military veteran status has been associated with a variety of criminal justice outcomes as well as higher rates of mental illness and suicide when compared to the general population. Although research has generally focused on why veterans become involved with the justice system, less is known about their experiences while incarcerated. In particular, studies of veterans in the community context indicate that they are unwilling to seek out mental health treatment due to potential stigmas, suggesting that this reluctance may extend into the prison environment. Using a sample of 14,278 veteran and nonveteran inmates, we find that veterans do not necessarily fare worse in prison and are actually more likely to obtain treatment. However, this effect is largely mediated by the greater history of mental disorders and suicidal behaviors among veterans. Our findings lend credence to recent efforts designed to screen and manage justice-involved veterans as a distinct, at-risk group. PubDate: 2018-10-25 DOI: 10.1007/s12103-018-9458-2
Authors:Donna Sedgwick; James Hawdon Abstract: Since the rise of “homeland security policing” (Oliver International Review of Law, Computers & Technology, 20(1-2), 49–62, 2006), police agencies from all levels of organization are called on to cooperate by sharing intelligence, equipment, tactics, and training. While the increased level of cooperation between local policing agencies and Federal-level agencies has been well documented, far less attention has been paid to cooperation among agencies that share contiguous jurisdictions. Similarly, a body of research assesses if information is shared across agencies, but far less research exists that investigates if agencies cooperate in ways other than simply sharing information. Through interviews with officers from agencies operating in several adjacent jurisdictions, this research documents the ways in which agencies cooperate, the perceived benefits of cooperation, and the perceived challenges to cooperation. These findings suggest that agencies engage a variety of joint activities, and they agree on the benefits that working together affords. However, the broader political and contextual climates in which these organizations operate often limit the extent to which they can cooperate. Implications of this research for police management are discussed. PubDate: 2018-10-16 DOI: 10.1007/s12103-018-9456-4
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