bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Religion and Inequality
Authors: Madsen Richard , Sullivan William M.
Published: January 2024

The growth of economic inequality poses severe challenges, not only to the stability of global economic and political systems, but also to the health and viability of the social fabric of contemporary societies. Inequality is therefore a moral and spiritual as well as a technical economic problem. This chapter asks what resources the great world religions—Islam, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Confucianism—can bring to the crises occasioned by inequality. Two major problems stand in the way of effective religious engagement with the problem. First, the mindset that sees progress as ‘growth’ does not admit moral or religious concerns as legitimate policy issues. Second, the world religions themselves, though they descend from movements for universal human dignity of the axial age of the first millennium bce, often remain embedded in premodern, unequal social visions. How might they reinterpret their heritage to speak effectively to the present situation?
Religion and Feminist Economic Ethics
Authors: Al-Kohlani Sumaia A.
Published: January 2024

This chapter starts by analysing the feminist economics concept and the ethical economics decisions females usually encounter in patriarchal societies. It discusses the economic return of females’ education, and the economic, social, and ethical consequences of females’ illiteracy, as well as unpaid work such as domestic work and care work. After that, it analyses how male-dominant religions—Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism—contribute to females’ economic, social, and ethical status and the changes that have occurred in both religious and secular countries in relation to feminist economics ethics and gender norms. Then, it assesses what is still left to do to improve females’ economic status without decreasing the ethical aspect of the issue. Finally, the chapter provides a conclusion and suggestions for future studies.
Akan Traditional Religion and Economic Ethics
Authors: Amenga-Etego Rose Mary
Published: January 2024

Has the proverb, ‘A good name is better than riches’, been replaced by ‘Money is blood’ in contemporary Ghanaian society? Acknowledged as an integral part of the sacred text of Africa, proverbs serve as the repository of wisdom, religious beliefs, philosophy, and cultural norms, as well as the ethical and legal frameworks of Indigenous communities. Proverbs provide an avenue for the understanding of Indigenous communities and their religio-cultural beliefs and practices. Yet, as oral text, proverbs are dynamic and fluid, evolving with respect to time and context. Is the contemporary rush for money and the relegation of the ‘good name’ to the margins an issue of the modern economy, or is it grounded in the complex nature of the Akan religio-cultural systems and economic ethics? With reference to the above proverbs, including those imbedded in Akan marriage and inheritance, this chapter examines how proverbs have created a paradigm shift in the economic ethics of Akan society, also known as the Ashanti.
Christian Economic Ethics
Authors: Barrera Albino
Published: January 2024

Building on the Hebrew Scriptures, the Christian faith’s instructions on proper economic conduct range from the New Testament’s caution on the idolatry of wealth, to the Patristic indictment of usury, to the Scholastic natural-law account of economic life, all the way to the modern Christian social thought’s proposed solutions to the problems spawned by the modern industrial marketplace and by global economic integration. Economic life is merely instrumental in the pursuit of the common good and integral human development. Such human flourishing is characterized by an ethos of stewardship, accountability, moderation, and mutual compassion. Socio-economic life is lived within the self-understanding (1) that humans are made in the image and likeness of God with Jesus Christ as the model of what it is to be truly and fully human and (2) that all humanity is one family in God, brothers and sisters to one another. Authentic human freedom is actualized only to the degree that the human person is truly and fully alive to God. This is the ultimate end served by socio-economic life.
Islamic Economics
Authors: Hassan M. Kabir , Muneeza Aishath
Published: January 2024

Islamic economics is ethical as its principles are derived from the religion Islam that gives paramount consideration to application of moral principles in all aspects of human lives. As such, there is no need to mention the word ethics with Islamic economics to describe its moral dimension since ethical values are inherently included in Islamic economics. This chapter provides a basic overview of the lex loci applicable to Islamic economics, which is Shariah, in order to understand the Islamic world view surrounding the subject and its economic teachings derived from tawheed. Furthermore, the differences between an Islamic economic system, on the one hand, and socialism and capitalism, on the other hand, are also provided, followed by a discussion of Islamic economic governance via the institution of hisbah and the practice of Islamic economics in classical and contemporary times. This chapter aims to provide readers with an understanding of Islamic economics by presenting the theoretical foundations undergirding its contemporaneous practical application.
Daoist Economic Ethics
Authors: O’Neill Rory , Moeller Hans-Georg
Published: January 2024

This chapter describes an economic ethic implicit in the Daoist tradition that envisages economic health, not as synonymous with growth, but akin to stability. The Daoist notion of health aspires to achieving longevity of body, of political rule, and, in contemporary applications, of our natural environment. Longevity is possible through alignment with patterns of nature, and by shunning anthropocentric urges to dominate. In the context of contemporary economic discussion, the Daoist maxim of ‘noncoercive action’, or wuwei, is often likened to the notion of laissez-faire in classical liberal economics. While both traditions advocate a lack of intervention, Smithian classical economics views self-interested desire as a positive force for increasing economic prosperity within society. By contrast, the Daoists of ancient China cautioned against excessive desire and self-interest. This chapter begins with a very brief history of Daoism and goes on to draw primarily from the core teachings of the Daoist tradition: the Zhuangzi and particularly the Daodejing.
Jain Economic Ethics
Authors: Shah Atul K.
Published: January 2024

As one of the world’s oldest living cultures, Jainism provides a unique cultural and philosophical lens on contemporary economic issues like selfish capitalism, inequality, and unsustainability. Through the core principles of Satya, Asteya, Ahimsa, Tapas, and Brahmacharya, the Jains have developed a unique theory and practice of interdependence. In addition, it is also one of the world’s most inclusive ‘successful’ business cultures, with a track record of sustained success in business, finance, and enterprise. The primary philosophy of the Jains is Ahimsa or non-violence towards all living beings—a recognition of profound interdependence, and it has a vast literature ranging from philosophy to narrative and poetry, including music and bhakti which has a very important bearing on economic ethics. Jains today live all over the world and have been extremely adaptable to different cultures and lifestyles without compromising their own principles and virtues, often operating quietly and becoming role models for others. The Jains provide integrity to economics and have thousands of years of lived experience to share with the world about respectful, compassionate, and sustainable economics. They also show how humans can become responsible and accountable trustees of the planet, rather than extractors and exploiters of its resources. A key part of their success has been in replenishing moral trust and social capital through the work they do and the character of their enterprise.
Marginalized No More
Authors: Kaschub Michele
Published: January 2024

The complex challenges of marginalization cannot fully be solved in music classrooms, but a thoughtful approach to teaching and learning can serve to counter its negative effects. Music composition teaching, for example, can be tailored to focus on the unique background, needs, and interests of each student. This approach allows teachers to engage in an emergent curriculum that honors the different ways that students musically communicate how they think and feel alongside what they know and can do. This chapter explores the impact of social, economic, political, psychological, and educational marginalization and then offers specific strategies to welcome diversity and foster inclusivity through composition pedagogy.
Skills Successful Songwriters and Producers Utilize and Why It Matters to Music Educators
Authors: Carter Bruce Allen
Published: January 2024

Musicianship training in most colleges and universities in the United States places emphasis on the learning of music theory as it has been taught for centuries. The practice maintains a system that values the tonal system central to white European traditions while other cultures and musical practices are largely ignored. This had led some music education to question what is required to sustain and advance the musical life of today’s musicians. What is truly relevant and what persists as the common practices of tradition? These questions are particularly important to educators working with music producers and songwriters as their practices are ultimately extensions of and extenders of music composition practices. To gain insight into modern generative practices, I present interviews with two prominent songwriters/music producers. I ask them to identify the skills they are using and the role their musical training plays in forming their output. I then examine their answers to map the musical skills that educators might emphasize when engaging young people in learning about music-making.
Addressing Creative Intentions through Revision and Editing
Authors: Riley Patricia Ajamie
Published: January 2024

This chapter explores how to address student creative intentions through the compositional step of revising and editing. It is examined through the lens of both student composer and teacher mentor within the context of the online music composition community, Music-COMP (https://music-comp.org). Two student compositions at different levels of compositional skill are shared, analyzed, and discussed. They exemplify students revising and editing their pieces to achieve their creative intentions, as well as teacher mentors working to help the students achieve those intentions, develop their compositions, and further their compositional skill. Both the music notation and written dialogue between the student composers and mentors are presented. Also included are recommendations for teachers to use as they mentor students during revision and editing.
Developing Compositional Capacities
Authors: Kaschub Michele , Smith Janice
Published: January 2024

The primary purpose of education is to develop capacities of many kinds across an array of human endeavors. This chapter defines and offers examples of a capacities-based approach to teaching composition and learning how to compose. The approach is predicated on a belief that all humans have an innate ability to create music and that this potential can be encouraged and nurtured in many settings with students of diverse backgrounds, interests, and dis/abilities. Musical capacities find root in the universal experiences of feeling, knowing within the body via somatic perception, and interaction with sounds framed as music. These three points comprise the basis for the compositional capacities of feelingful intention, musical expressivity, and artistic craftsmanship. To engage in the act of composition is to step into an open-ended process in which the musical and human products cannot be predicted in advance of their creation. As such, composition requires a different type of pedagogy—one that is itself more open. In recognizing that students are artists with different perspectives and unique voices, the teacher’s role shifts from authoritative director to supportive guide. From this shifted vantage point, the teacher seeks to advance students’ artistic autonomy through the use of prompts and questions that encourage critical and creative thinking to invite a deeper and richer understanding of music, self, and others. The chapter concludes with examples drawn from classroom experiences.
Movement → Improvisation → Composition through Dalcroze Eurhythmics
Authors: Butke Marla A. , Frego R. J. David
Published: January 2024

This chapter outlines the Dalcroze philosophy and connects its framework to the process of musical composition. Information about the life of Jaques-Dalcroze, the historical context of the evolvement of the approach, and the tenets of the philosophy are first addressed. The philosophy of eurhythmics provides the structure and support to create musical goals for the general music classroom, choral or instrumental rehearsal, or private studio. Those goals include sensitivity and expressivity accomplished through purposeful movement. The components of the Dalcroze philosophy are identified as eurhythmics, rhythmic solfège, improvisation, and plastique animée and are described in detail in the chapter. The application of this philosophy to music composition is delineated by providing lesson activities, specifically in the areas of physical exploration and purposeful movement. Providing a foundation through activities of music concepts, the chapter then describes the linear sequence to composition activities achieved through movement. The nature of a Dalcroze setting being rooted in risk-taking, creativity, and freedom to express provides a fruitful opportunity for composition.
Constructing a Pedagogy for Music Improvisation and Composition
Authors: Houlahan Micheál , Tacka Philip
Published: January 2024

The inclusion of an increasingly expansive array of repertoires informs how we teach music in the twenty-first century. Creating effective pedagogical paths that guide students to audiate and perform these repertoires in authentic and culturally appropriate ways has become a standard practice for music educators. This has created an opportunity to reimagine how music teacher’s musicality and musicianship can be transmitted to their students through the teaching of repertoire using the skill of audiation. One of the end goals is to develop students’ improvisation and composition voice. We use the Performance Through Sound Analysis model for learning repertoires through recordings or live performances. This model adopts practices that folk and commercial musicians use to audiate, learn, and perform the repertoire. The Houlahan and Tacka Model of Learning and Instruction is used to develop audiation and strengthen music literacy by improving aural and visual fluency with rhythm and solfège syllables. This model adopts practices that classical musicians use to audiate, learn and perform repertoire through notation. We use the Performance Through Sound Analysis and Notation model for learning repertoires through both aural analysis and notation. This model adopts practices that classical musicians use to audiate, learn, and perform the repertoire. Using these pedagogical models, students discover their unique improvisational and compositional voices.
Gordon Music Learning Theory
Authors: Erős John
Published: January 2024

Music composition is viewed as an essential component of a child’s music education, as evidenced in both national (National Coalition for Core Arts Standards, 2014) and state standards (i.e. California State Board of Education, 2019), as well as in research and discussion in music education. The purpose of this chapter is to explore the pedagogy of music composition as viewed through the lens of Music Learning Theory, an approach to music teaching and learning developed by Dr. Edwin E. Gordon. Gordon Music Learning Theory has for decades been recognized as one of the major approaches to music education (Shehan, 1986). Therefore, as a major and influential framework for music teaching and learning, it behooves music educators to develop knowledge of and the capacity to utilize Music Learning Theory as a resource for teaching music composition in their K–12 curricula.
The Music No One Has Heard Yet
Authors: Kratus John
Published: January 2024

Although student performance is at the heart of music education, the addition of student composition can provide a more meaningful form of music education. This chapter uses personal narrative and reviews of anthropological, psychological, and philosophical literature to support the inclusion of composition in children’s music education. The word “composition” is deconstructed to examine its meaning and unintended consequences. The impediments to teaching composition (musical, pedagogical, psychological, and sociological) are described, as are the means to overcome these impediments. Without student composition, music education fosters technique and precision, which some students may find gratifying but does not provide for a sustainable music education.
Mentoring Young Composers
Authors: Menard Elizabeth A.
Published: January 2024

Music composition is a problem-solving process that is important in the intellectual, social, and emotional development of children. However, music teachers often express concerns about including music composition instruction in traditional music classrooms. This chapter shares how music educators might reframe the process of “teaching” composition. A more effective approach to instruction may be to view it less as teaching and more as a process of mentorship. Mentorship of young composers can be viewed as a form of creative collaboration between teacher and student. Examples of composition mentorship are presented. Through examination of resources and mentorship programs, guidelines and strategies for effective mentorship of young composers are explored. The benefits of a collaborative mentorship process for both teachers and students is also discussed. In the collaborative mentorship process, both teachers and students develop greater confidence in their creative abilities and gain improved identity as composers.
Cultivating a Purpose-Driven Composition Pedagogy in General Music
Authors: Bylica Kelly
Published: January 2024

Through composition, music educators can help students cultivate a variety of skills and dispositions, including creativity, musical craftsmanship, and criticality. An educational climate that prioritizes the use of composition to benefit performance-based structures, however, can result in criticality and creativity being understood as secondary, only to be considered after students have mastered a particular set of functional skills. When both criticality and craftsmanship are developed in tandem, students may use composition to explore their own inquiries, helping them cultivate their voices alongside and in community with others. In this chapter, I explore how criticality and creativity can strike a balance with craftsmanship in composition, as students simultaneously explore musical development and engage in musical creation as a form of social response. I then place these ideas within the realm of general music at multiple levels, arguing for a notion of these classes as spaces where dispositions that are critical, creative, and artistic can be cultivated.
Refining and Expanding Music Composition Pedagogies
Authors: Webster Peter R.
Published: January 2024

This chapter offers bases for music composition pedagogy. Historical and more recent writings are surveyed in music composition pedagogy that are both conceptual and practical in nature. Ideas within music teaching philosophy, learning theory, and methodology are considered in building a pedagogy that recognizes the importance of blending knowledge and skills with creative affordance. Teachers of elementary and secondary education are the focus, however much of the content holds enormous significance for higher education, especially in terms of teaching preparation. The topic is considered within the context of contemporary scholarship about how best to teach music to others in the twenty-first century.
Culture, Creation, and Community in Hip-Hop Classrooms
Authors: Holden Lamont , Kruse Adam J.
Published: January 2024

There are many reasons that music educators might have for wanting to include Hip Hop in their teaching, ranging from relevance to representation, creativity to culturally responsive teaching, or disrupting Eurocentrism and decentering whiteness. While the reasoning might vary from context to context, these aims matter deeply and will influence the possibilities for providing inclusive and transformative music education spaces for students. In order to help music educators work toward meaningful engagements with their students through Hip Hop, we offer cultural, musical, and pedagogical considerations. We will break down elements of both instrumental backing tracks and lyric writing—or more colloquially, beats and rhymes. We include special attention to sampling, which is a less familiar musical practice for many music teachers. We also provide explanations around concepts of rap flow and the content of Hip Hop lyrics. Ultimately, we suggest that Hip Hop classrooms should prioritize youth knowledge and avoid dictating taste or limiting creative choices.
Composition in Band Classes
Authors: Doiron Matthew R.
Published: January 2024

This chapter aims to provide guidance for instrumental music teachers who want to teach students to create their own music. It begins with a brief examination of the rationale for including composition as a part of performing ensemble pedagogy as well as common challenges that often impede widespread implementation among music classrooms. The following sections focus on guidelines for adapting ensemble rehearsals into a safe and productive space for teaching composition. The chapter continues with five different composition activities with examples of student work and concludes with guidelines and suggestions for assessing student compositions. Learning to compose is a perceptual challenge, one that involves learning to hear with greater depth and recognition. Re-focusing teaching in this direction can have a profound effect on students and can reinvigorate a teacher’s passion to be more musically creative.
Interactive Composing in School Jazz Ensembles
Authors: Owens Douglas T.
Published: January 2024

The instrumental jazz ensemble has traditionally presented students an opportunity to study and perform a variety of jazz traditions. Improvisation is central to the music; while many students have participated in the creative activity of improvisation, opportunities should be created for students to compose music for the jazz ensemble. This chapter is approaches composition at the beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels of skill development. Composing in the beginning jazz ensemble integrates listening examples with the teaching and rehearsal of jazz style, articulation, rhythm, syncopation, harmony, chord progressions, improvisation, etc. With these foundations established, intermediate composers use guided and independent listening in partnership with composition projects that explore melodic and rhythmic interpretation in various styles. The discussion of expanded harmonic and melodic ideas including motivic development, additional modes, chord progressions, etc., is included. An added focus on the role of the rhythm section instruments is also desirable as students benefit from discussing piano and guitar comping styles, bass line construction, drum set fills, rhythmic set-ups, and the importance of the rhythm section as a foundational section of the jazz ensemble. Much of this information is organized effectively in various jazz ensemble performance method books for the beginning and intermediate jazz students. While these may no longer be an essential guide for advanced composers, the music being studied and rehearsed can inform their compositional processes. The importance of listening, the learning of additional musical styles, and experimentation with contemporary techniques and instrumentation will be emphasized.
Composition Pedagogy in Australia
Authors: Crawford Renée
Published: January 2024

Music education in the hands of an educator who intimately understands the artistry of the discipline has the power to develop crucial intrinsic and extrinsic attributes in students. Research studies in Australia and internationally provide compelling evidence about the potential of music education to develop students’ academic, personal, and social development skills and knowledge. Despite this strong empirical research, music and the arts are often one of the first disciplines to be omitted from school programs and curriculum. This chapter challenges the current rhetoric about what should be considered essential and non-essential learning so that education authorities are compelled to make considered and informed decisions that include providing young people the opportunity to engage with a quality music education and experience a holistic learning approach. Composition pedagogy and creativity in music education are explored through a series of case studies underpinned by Crawford’s (2008 and 2014) multidimensional/non-linear teaching and learning model.
Composition Pedagogy in the Czech Republic
Authors: Zouhar Vít
Published: January 2024

This chapter focuses on the current state of composition pedagogy in the Czech Republic. Based on the recent research and professional literature, it presents historical starting points and methodology of individual artistic composition pedagogy and general music-oriented group composition pedagogy. It describes their different goals, objectives, and methodology. Influential historical composers’ schools have been contrasting with a lack of teaching books for the individual artistic composition pedagogy. Methodological texts on group composing are contrasting with the absence of separate composition activities in curricular materials for general music education. These conditions determine two main streams of Czech composition pedagogy and the roles and functions of artistic and general music education. The expanding meaning of the term “composition” offers new possibilities for composing in general music education and non-formal education. It is presented on the methodology of the Different Hearing program. Practical stimuli for group composing and best practice activities by educators and composers are concluding this chapter.
Composition Pedagogy in Finland
Authors: Partti Heidi
Published: January 2024

The chapter discusses the aims and practices of composing in the Finnish formal music education system. It provides an overview of how composition is situated within the system by introducing and exploring the role of composition in basic education and extracurricular music education. It examines more closely how music educators are equipped to facilitate musical composition. Finally, the author turns to the wider question of possibilities opened up through musical composition in educational contexts. The chapter puts forward a suggestion that viewing composing as a creative activity available to everyone holds great potential for not only musical meaning-making, but also for cultural participation and the building of a shared future between people from diverse backgrounds and with different starting points—not only in Finland but also elsewhere in the world.
Everyone Can Make Music Creatively
Authors: Akutsu Taichi
Published: January 2024

The chapter focuses on Japanese music education in schools and partly in kindergarten, exploring how creative music-making was implemented in the Japanese music education curriculum. First, the chapter overviews the Asian concept of creativity as a foundation to implement creative music-making in Japan. Next, the study also investigates the process of implementing creative music-making by interviewing Professor Yukiko Tsubonou, one of the leading scholars in the realm of creativity in music education, who contributed to the design of the Japanese curriculum with ongakudukuri. Finally, the chapter draws an explicit connection between Japanese creative music-making and composition pedagogy in a practical manner. The elements of the structured musical play, imitation, call and response, and the connections between music listening and creative music-making were illustrated by introducing actual cases of the lessons as examples of ongakudukuri in Japan.
Music Creators on Creating Music
Authors: Stauffer Sandra L.
Published: January 2024

What motivates composers? Where do their ideas come from? How do they create the music that they make? And how did they learn to do what they do? In this chapter, twelve composers describe their diverse experiences in music, the pathways to their careers as composers, and their insights about the creative process. They also reflect on their own early music learning experiences, the ways they generate ideas, what encourages or discourages the creative impulse, and the help of mentors, teachers, and musician collaborators. Their commentaries reflect their work in different genres, styles, and music industries. They conclude by offering suggestions for students and teachers.
Legitimacy and Evidence-Based Policy
Authors: Tankebe Justice , Bottoms Anthony
Published: January 2024

To say that a system of power or the action of a powerholder is legitimate is to say that it commands recognition as being rightful. This necessarily requires a view of legitimacy as a social—rather than a psychological—concept, involving continuous dialogues with multiple audiences in particular situational contexts. In this chapter, the authors first discuss citizens’ “basic legitimation expectations” (BLEs), which, if continuously fulfilled, can help to build and sustain the legitimacy of criminal justice systems. Second, they discuss why legitimate criminal justice matters not only as a mechanism for achieving institutional objectives of crime prevention but, just as importantly, as a condition for citizens to achieve their valued functionings. Third, they differentiate between organizational structures—fragile, resilient, and anti-fragile—based on the impact of rare but unforeseen events on their legitimacy. Finally, they identify certain principles that can help to develop resilient and anti-fragile legitimacy in criminal justice agencies. These include developing structures and practices that are ready for the unexpected, take seriously the pluralistic nature of legitimacy, develop an awareness of their effects on citizens’ functionings, are sufficiently flexible to permit the reversing of policy where necessary, and are always willing to learn from mistakes.
Rehabilitation for Enduring Change
Authors: Rocque Michael
Published: January 2024

Since Robert Martinson’s famous declaration that there was little evidence on the effectiveness of rehabilitation, correctional research on what works to reduce recidivism has proliferated. There is a vast body of literature indicating that programs and interventions, when applied appropriately in prison or in the community, can be effective. Intervention approaches with relatively strong evidence include (1) educational/vocational, (2) cognitive-behavioral therapy, (3) substance use/abuse, and some evidence for (4) sex offender programs. However, there is a large amount of variability in the results of evaluations, and the sources of that variability need to be interrogated. While there is increasingly good evidence about the effectiveness of correctional programming, much more rigorous evidence is necessary for both prison- and community-based interventions. Further, to truly assess rehabilitation, which implies “enduring change,” corrections should take a desistance-focused approach and expand the measurement of outcomes and of follow-up time frames.
Using Research to Inform Services for Victims of Crime
Authors: Turanovic Jillian J. , Kuper Julie L. , Masters Mackenzie
Published: January 2024

Victims of crime often experience numerous difficulties coping with trauma and navigating the criminal justice process. To help mitigate these challenges, victim service programs have been developed. Despite the exponential growth in victim service programs over the past several decades, relatively little is known about “what works” in the field of victim services. This chapter reflects on the state of the literature by describing victim services, the forms of assistance that are typically offered, and their use. Principles of effective victim services and evidence-based programs and practices for responding to victims of crime are discussed. We conclude with a discussion of challenges in the identification and implementation of evidence-based practice, and put forth several directions for future research.
Applying What We Know and Building an Evidence Base
Authors: Donohue John J.
Published: January 2024

While discerning the gun safety measures that can reduce the problem of American gun violence is methodologically challenging, a growing body of evidence has strengthened the conclusion that the instrumentality effect in part explains why the United States is such an outlier among affluent nations in overall homicides and mass shootings, while not standing out in terms of overall crime. An increasing number of empirical studies buttresses the view that restrictions on assault weapons and large-capacity magazines, as well as restrictions on carrying guns outside the home and on access to firearms (along with determined efforts to enforce these restrictions), can provide meaningful benefits. At the same time, potent political and economic forces try to undermine this evidence and reject its claims. Indeed, the expanded interpretation of the Second Amendment adopted in the recent US Supreme Court Bruen decision—which specifically held that empirical evidence on the impact of gun safety regulation is irrelevant—may take many beneficial policy measures off the table.
Translational Criminology and Evidence-Based Policy and Practice
Authors: Telep Cody W.
Published: January 2024

Translational criminology focuses on efforts to bring findings from research into policy and practice. Translational work thus serves as a link between the generation of research evidence and the application of that evidence to policy and practice. This chapter reviews what is known about translational criminology, focusing first on practitioner receptivity to research and then on what has been learned about increasing practitioner and policymaker research utilization. These prior findings suggest a number of key mechanisms that can assist in translational efforts, including dissemination work, partnerships, influential peers, facilitators for learning about research, and rewards and incentives. The chapter highlights recent case studies from crime and justice utilizing these mechanisms to translate research findings, particularly to policing and correctional practice. While there is a growing body of work on translational criminology, there remain important gaps, especially surrounding what works best to translate findings into successfully implemented evidence-based policies and practices.
Implementation Science for Evidence-Based Policy
Authors: Fixsen Dean L. , Van Dyke Melissa K. , Blase Karen A.
Published: January 2024

Assuring that public policy produces intended public benefits is a persistent challenge for state and federal governments. Policy impact evaluations in human services consistently point to little or no population benefits. This chapter describes Active Implementation as the missing link in the policy to administration to service chain and provides a more purposeful and hopeful approach to public policy designed to improve enactment in practice. Active Implementation is an evidence-based approach to assuring the full and effective use of evidence-based programs and other innovations in practice. The chapter offers specific advice for including knowledge regarding implementation practice and science in legislation and policy, departmental administration, and service sectors. Implementation-informed legislation, implementation-informed departmental regulations and funding methods, and implementation-supported contracted services can substantially increase the return on investment in a broad range of human service programs.
Toward System-Level Change, Population Impacts, and Equity
Authors: Schindler Holly S.
Published: January 2024

Evidence-based policymaking has resulted in a number of promising programs. However, these programs have faced challenges in reproducing positive impacts when brought to scale. Further, the evidence-based policy movement has had some unintended consequences, including incentivizing statistical significance over meaningful change, average impacts over discovering subpopulation impacts, and rigidity in implementation over flexibility and cultural relevance. These and other threats to scaling have impeded progress toward achieving equitable population impacts. This chapter aims to take a closer look at how the social sciences can advance toward this goal, drawing on lessons learned from the early childhood field, implementation science, collective impact, and human-centered design.
Diversion
Authors: Smith Roger S.
Published: January 2024

This chapter reviews the emergence and development of youth diversion and addresses the question of how we define and measure its achievements. Recurrent features of diversion are identified, such as the tension between minimum intervention and a preventive program–based approach. This enables us to focus on outcomes (intended and unintended), definitions of success, and how these are measured and evaluated. The chapter initially outlines the history of juvenile/youth diversion in the United Kingdom. Building on this, the chapter considers parallel developments in the United States and internationally, before moving on to report and reflect on the available reported evidence. The chapter develops a critique of evaluation models that concentrate primarily on reoffending as the principal success criterion for diversionary initiatives, and argues instead for approaches to research and evaluation grounded in realist analysis of system effects and wider consequences such as the potential for reinforcing or alternatively challenging discriminatory practices and impacts.
Evidence-Based Innovations in Juvenile Probation
Authors: Myers David L. , Orts Kelly
Published: January 2024

Virtually all youth who enter the juvenile justice system interact with a juvenile probation officer while progressing through various stages of court processing. In recent decades, juvenile probation departments have adopted a number of evidence-based programs and practices. The use of risk and needs assessment is common, although using assessment results to match youth with research-supported services remains a work in progress. While a number of juvenile programs have been determined through research to be “effective” or “promising,” access to these programs is uneven, and various ineffective or harmful programs continue to exist. Disproportionate minority contact also continues, including in probation caseloads. Although there have been significant evidence-based advancements, there are several ongoing areas for improvement with regard to juvenile probation operations and innovation.
Birds of a Feather?
Authors: Tostlebe Jennifer J. , Sanchez Jose Antonio
Published: January 2024

Gang membership has a robust relationship with crime and violence, leading scholars to take an interest in examining the sources of gang joining. One understudied line of inquiry is individual differences, which are rank-order or time-stable characteristics that vary between people. One reason for this lack of attention is the debate around whether researchers should examine individual differences at all. This chapter takes stock of studies conducted on individual differences and gang joining to determine their relevance for research. First, the chapter provides an overview of the state dependence and population heterogeneity perspectives for gang joining. Next, it reviews research conducted on 11 individual differences spanning 50 studies and the authors determine that research at the individual level is ultimately worth pursuing. However, conclusions must be interpreted with caution due to neglected theorizing on the relationship, lack of longitudinal research, and minimal empirical studies conducted. Finally, the chapter charts directions for future research on this topic.
Transnational Gangs?
Authors: Cruz José Miguel , Rosen Jonathan D.
Published: January 2024

This chapter explores the role of migration in the emergence of transnational gangs. It highlights the prominence of human mobility across borders in the global expansion of certain groups. Migration contributes to the spread of group identities and street cultures. The transnational character of some gangs means that their identities and symbols were created elsewhere, but they are re-signified locally. This chapter focuses on how migration operates in circular and symbolic ways in shaping some street gangs. Hence, gang identities are recycled in communities where migration is experienced not only as events of arrival but also as dislodgement. The chapter first reviews the reports about the historical role of immigration in the emergence of gangs, especially in the United States. Then it discusses the use of the term “transnational gang” in the literature while proposing a definition. Third, the chapter addresses the different theories seeking to explain the rise and development of transnational gangs. Finally, this work discusses the relationship between migration, globalization, and territoriality. The chapter pays special attention to Central American gangs, considered the prototypical transnational groups.
On Gangs and Family
Authors: Cesar Gabriel T. , Walker D’Andre , Fernandez Tiffany
Published: January 2024

Research rarely explores the link between family and the gang directly. This is an important oversight, because family plays important and dynamic roles in the development of gangs, gang members, and gang careers. Marginalized or otherwise troubled primary families (i.e., families of origin) tend to push youth toward gangs. Later in life, the responsibilities of secondary families (i.e., created families) tend to pull young adults out of or away from gangs. However, how the gang functions as a replacement source of attachment (e.g., surrogate family) over the life course is not well understood. This chapter advances the discussion of gangs and families by integrating the life-course perspective of gang involvement with attachment theory to generate a more functional and inclusive framework through which to analyze family and the gang as group processes.
Linking Education and Criminology Research to Understand the Schooling Experiences of Gang Youth and Adults
Authors: Huerta Adrian H.
Published: January 2024

This chapter centers on the influence of schools and schooling practices related to gang-associated populations in primary, secondary, and postsecondary education. Drawing from scholarship in education, criminology, and related fields helps to illuminate how school-based practices are informed by the school-to-prison pipelines that negatively impact gang-involved youth. Harmful school practices contribute to the social and educational marginalization of young people affected and involved in gangs and help to explain the significant educational disparities in high school completion and college enrollment for gang-associated populations. Throughout the chapter quotes are embedded from former gang members to show how they overcame mistreatment throughout the educational pipeline, reframing gang-associated youth to being at-promise rather than at-risk.
Storming the Capital
Authors: Harding Simon , Deuchar Ross
Published: January 2024

This chapter focuses on the essential internal dynamics of urban street gangs by bringing together discussions on the dual concepts of social capital and “street capital.” The chapter presents an overview of the multifaceted perspectives on social capital theory and how it has been drawn on to explore and understand what may lead the most disadvantaged and vulnerable to join street gangs, before exploring the newer theory of “street capital” and how its accumulation can help gang members climb the social hierarchical ladder. The theories are drawn on as a means to develop a deeper understanding of why some young men may engage in street gang violence, progress to organized crime, and, increasingly, participate in extreme forms of criminality. The chapter concludes by suggesting the reasons why policymakers and practitioners may find these theoretical perspectives helpful in developing and delivering evidence-based public health–focused gang intervention initiatives.
The Social Construction of the American Street Gang
Authors: Lopez-Aguado Patrick
Published: January 2024

This chapter explores the social construction of street gangs in the United States by considering how such groups are institutionally or legally created, as well as how social meanings are ascribed to gangs as a stigmatized type of social group. Gang members build social meanings for their own groups that are often contextualized by the communities and social orders that structure their everyday lives. However, these nuanced self-definitions are often overshadowed by media depictions and legal definitions that reduce gangs to purely criminal groups. The United States’ history of using gangs as racialized folk devils have also directly shaped the heavily lopsided identification of people of color as criminal gang members. The chapter argues that, consistent with its historical use legitimizing colonial expansion and racial domination, the constructed image of the criminal gang member primarily functions as a punishable status that facilitates the conviction and mass imprisonment of poor communities of color.
Religion and Gangs
Authors: Lauger Timothy R. , Kubiniec Haleigh
Published: January 2024

This chapter develops Lauger and Rivera’s (2022) isolated and integrated affiliation models to explore how gang membership may intersect with religion to influence behavior. The isolated affiliation model posits that gang members will be exposed to religion, but tension between the gang and religious life undermines their interaction. When gang members do embrace religion, it creates a conflict that forces individuals to choose either gang or religious life. Choosing religion is a step toward gang disengagement and reductions in criminal behavior. The integrated affiliation model posits that some gang members will engage with religious groups or institutions and embrace beliefs even when they contradict gang ideals. Yet it also recognizes that some gangs may be openly religious or include elements of religion. The influence of religion on gang member behavior under the integrated affiliation model is uncertain, and this chapter concludes by exploring possible ways religion may impact criminal behavior.
The Emerging Frontier
Authors: Covey Herbert C.
Published: January 2024

This chapter proposes that gang research in developing countries should expand. Over the next decades, developing countries will experience demographic changes that will provide fertile grounds for the formation and expansion of gangs, such as population growth, urbanization, and migration. In addition, cultural and historical contexts and processes in developing countries, such as colonization and civil conflicts, differ from the developed world, where most gang research has been conducted. This chapter encourages an assessment of the applicability of existing concepts to gangs in developing countries. Undoubtedly, some current concepts and approaches are directly applicable to understanding gangs in developing countries, but others may need modification. Given the wide variety of cultures, ethnicities, and contexts in the developing world, the definition of “gang” needs to be at the forefront of discussion. Other subjects, such as the drug trade, migration of populations, marginalization, and gang evolution, need to be assessed for applicability.