bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
ASSESSING THE VALIDITY OF OFFICIAL DATA ON ARSON*
Authors: JACKSON PATRICK G.
Published: March 2006

Prior research has not examined the validity of Uniform Crime Report (UCR) “reported crime” figures on the offense of arson. The reporting of arson is distinguished from that of other index offenses by the requirement that an investigation occur that establishes that a fire has been purposefully set or attempted; the counting of all arsons regardless of their occurrence with other offenses; the detection and reporting of the offense by noncitizens; and the infrequent existence of exclusive police jurisdiction. Because of these unique characteristics, past approaches to assessing the validity of data on index crimes, such as a comparison with victim reports of crime, are not possible or appropriate. In this study UCR data on arson are compared with data obtained through a national survey (n=683) of fire departments. The comparisons indicate that UCR data are significantly lower than the rate of arson reported by local fire departments both overall and across all regions of the country.
THE IMPACT OF FAMILY STRUCTURE AND QUALITY ON DELINQUENCY: A COMPARATIVE ASSESSMENT OF STRUCTURAL AND FUNCTIONAL FACTORS*
Authors: VOORHIS PATRICIA VAN , CULLEN FRANCIS T. , MATHERS RICHARD A. , GARNER CONNIE CHENOWETH
Published: March 2006

Despite the plethora of studies of broken homes, multivariate studies comparing the effects of the broken home and other theoretically relevant measures of the quality of family life are rare. This study examines the family structure versus family function issue by testing the comparative effects on self‐reported delinquency of family structure and jive measures of family function. Five types of delinquency are considered. The data were obtained from a 1980 survey of 152 high school students in a small midwestern town. Item analysis and data reduction techniques were employed to construct six family quality indices and jive delinquency indices. Two types of family structure were examined: presence of both biological parents in the home v. other and single‐ v. two‐parent homes. Multivariate analyses controlled for the effects of age and gender.

Bivariate tests of the relationships between broken homes and delinquency were not significant, except for a moderate relationship between broken homes and status offenses. In addition, a bivariate relation between single‐parent homes and delinquency was observed for status offenses only. Other forms of family dysfunction all were significantly related to overall delinquency and to status offenses. Moreover, several measures of family quality evidenced significant bivariate relationships to property offenses. violent offenses, and drug offenses. The importance of the broken home was further diminished when the direct effects of broken homes and home quality were examined in multivariate tests. Regression equations showed home quality and gender, rather than family structure, to be the more important determinants of delinquency. The family structure coefficient was significant in only 1 of 10 tests, a regression of broken home and home quality on status offenses. Efforts to expand the analysis to identify specific areas of family dysfunction were unenlightening.
THE IMPACT OF STATE MENTAL HOSPITAL DEINSTITUTIONALIZATION ON COMMITMENTS FOR INCOMPETENCY TO STAND TRIAL*
Authors: ARVANITES THOMAS M.
Published: March 2006

Previous studies have reported that state mental hospital deinstitutional‐ization has resulted in the criminalization of the mentally ill. Utilizing two samples of defendants found incompetent to stand trial (IST) pre‐ and post‐deinstitutionalization, selected from three states, this study examines the correlation between the rate of deinstitutionalization and increases in the frequency of incompetency commitments, as well as changes in the characteristics of incompetent defendants. These data suggest that increases in IST commitments and the mental health histories of the post‐deinstitutional cohort are positively related to deinstitutionalization. Contrary to the criminalization hypothesis, there is no evidence that incompetent defendants are now being arrested for less serious offenses.
PERCEPTUAL DETERRENCE AND DRINKING AND DRIVING AMONG COLLEGE STUDENTS*
Authors: LANZA‐KADUCE LONN
Published: March 2006

This research examines the effect of perceived legal risks on drinking and driving. Data are from college students who were surveyed three times. Self‐reports of recent drinking and driving at Time 3 are regressed on Time 1 and Time 2 measures of perceived risk of punishment. Prior moral evaluations, past drinking and driving, and previous legal intervention for drinking and driving are controlled. Perceptions of risk of arrest and severity of punishment are not related to subsequent drinking and driving, but moral tolerance, prior drinking and driving, and previous legal intervention all predict subsequent drinking and driving.
SOME NEW EVIDENCE ON THE SERIOUSNESS OF CRIME*
Authors: COHEN MARK A.
Published: March 2006

Previous studies of the seriousness of crime have attempted to elicit information from public surveys. This paper reports on an alternative method of ranking the severity of crime. Actual victim injury rates are combined with jury awards in personal injury accident cases to estimate pain, suffering, and fear. Crime‐related death rates are combined with estimates of the value of life to arrive at monetary values for the risk of death. These estimates are combined with out‐of‐pocket costs (such as medical costs and lost wages) to arrive at total dollar estimates of the cost of individual crimes to victims. These dollar estimates are then used to rank the seriousness of crimes. Although these two approaches yield surprisingly similar rankings, the monetary estimates indicate that violent crimes are relatively more costly to victims than survey results might imply.
SPECIALIZATION IN JUVENILE COURT CAREERS
Authors: FARRINGTON DAVID P. , SNYDER HOWARD N. , FINNEGAN TERRENCE A.
Published: March 2006

The study of specialization in offending careers is relevant to the key theoretical issue of whether different types of offending reject only one underlying theoretical construct (such as delinquent tendency) or several different constructs. This research improves on previous studies of specialization in offending careers in three ways: (1) It is based on the complete juvenile court careers of a very large sample of offenders (nearly 70,000). (2) It uses a fine‐grained classification of 21 offense types. (3) It uses a new measure of the strength of specialization, the Forward Specialization Coefficient (FSC). Both transition matrices and offending careers are studied.

The major findings from the transition matrices are (1) there was a small but significant degree of specialization in offending superimposed on a great deal of versatility: (2) the degree of specialization tended to increase with successive referrals, and this was not due to more versatile offenders dropping out: and (3) the relative extent to which offenders specialized in different offenses held for two jurisdictions (Maricopa County, Arizona, and Utah), both sexes, and all ages.

The analyses of offending careers showed that the most specialized offenses were runaway, burglary, motor vehicle theft, liquor violations, incorrigibility, curfew, truancy, and drugs. Nearly 20 percent of the offenders were identified as specialists. The conclusion is that, while offending was versatile to a first approximation, delinquency theories should attempt to explain specialization and specialists in order to yield more accurate quantitative predictions about offending careers.
SOCIAL DISORGANIZATION AND THEORIES OF CRIME AND DELINQUENCY: PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS*
Authors: BURSIK ROBERT J.
Published: March 2006

After a period of decline in the discipline, the social disorganization model of Shaw and McKay is again beginning to appear in the literature. This paper examines five criticisms of the perspective and discusses recent attempts to address those issues and problems that are still in need of resolution.
DISAGGREGATING SELF‐REPORTED DELINQUENCY AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR THEORY*
Authors: PATERNOSTER RAYMOND , TRIPLETT RUTH
Published: March 2006

This paper examines the theoretical import of disaggregating self‐reported delinquency data into two constituent parts: (1) prevalence data, which record the proportion of any group involved in crime, reject the decision to participate in crime, and (2) incidence data, which record the frequency of offending within the subgroup of participants, reject the decision to repeat a previously committed offense. The importance of this conceptual distinction is that different causal facts may be involved in these separate offending decisions and those differences would be obscured if the data were not disaggregated. We review major delinquency theories to determine if theoretical variables are more strongly related to the prevalence or the incidence of delinquency. Multivariate models tentatively suggest that the distinction between prevalence and incidence should be maintained, although additional research with more serious offenses is needed.
POWER‐CONTROL THEORY, GENDER, AND DELINQUENCY: A PARTIAL REPLICATION WITH ADDITIONAL EVIDENCE ON THE EFFECTS OF PEERS*
Authors: SINGER SIMON I. , LEVINE MURRAY
Published: March 2006

This examination of Hagan et al.'s (1985, 1987) power‐control theory of delinquency and gender finds that gender and delinquency are related to the relative authority of parents at work in ways unexpected by power‐control theory. Support is found, however, for the power‐control thesis pertaining to parental control and risk‐taking attitudes. In reconciling differences between these findings and those of Hagan et al., the conclusion is that relations of affiliation as well as parental authority are important determinants of delinquency and its relationship with gender.
INSTITUTIONAL AND POSTRELEASE BEHAVIOR OF FURMAN‐COMMUTED INMATES IN TEXAS*
Authors: MARQUART JAMES W. , SORENSEN JONATHAN R.
Published: March 2006

In 1972, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Furman v. Georgia that the death penalty as administered constituted cruel and unusual punishment. This ruling also invalidated the death sentences of over 600 inmates in the United States, who subsequently had their sentences commuted to life imprisonment. This article examines the institutional and postrelease behavior of the 47 Furman inmates in Texas from 1973 to 1986. Prior to the release of these inmates into the general prisoner population, prison officials and clinicians stated that they were dangerous and constituted a substantial threat to other inmates and to the security staff. The institutional and release behavior of the Furman inmates is compared with that of a cohort of like violent offenders. The Furman inmates committed few serious rule violations. They did not kill other inmates or staff. A minority of inmates in both groups committed the majority of prison rule violations. Of the 31 Furman inmates released on parole, 1 committed a new homicide. No cohort inmate killed again. The conclusion is that the execution of these 47 inmates would not have greatly protected society.
THE POLICE AND CHILD ABUSE: AN ANALYSIS OF POLICE DECISIONS TO REPORT ILLEGAL BEHAVIOR*
Authors: WILLIS CECIL L. , WELLS RICHARD H.
Published: March 2006

This research examines police decisions to report child abuse. A questionnaire was administered to 142 law enforcement officers at both municipal and county police agencies in a southern county. Vignettes were used to determine the response of police to several abuse events that differ in their nature and seriousness. Other items measured include dogmatism, knowledge of the reporting law, and experience reporting child abuse. The results indicate that the primary contributors to police decisions are definition of the behavior as serious, perception that the behavior is criminal, and race of the family. Conclusions and inferences are made regarding how these perceptions are formed and their impact on police discretion.
HOT SPOTS OF PREDATORY CRIME: ROUTINE ACTIVITIES AND THE CRIMINOLOGY OF PLACE*
Authors: SHERMAN LAWRENCE W. , GARTIN PATRICK R. , BUERGER MICHAEL E.
Published: March 2006

A leading sociological theory of crime is the “routine activities” approach (Cohen and Felson, 1979). The premise of this ecological theory is that criminal events result from likely offenders, suitable targets, and the absence of capable guardians against crime converging nonrandomly in time and space. Yet prior research has been unable to employ spatial data, relying instead on individual‐ and household‐level data, to test that basic premise. This analysis supports the premise with spatial data on 323,979 calls to police over all 115,000 addresses and intersections in Minneapolis over 1 year. Relatively few “hot spots” produce most calls to Police (50% of calls in 3% of places) and calls reporting predatory crimes (all robberies at 2.2% of places, all rapes at 1.2% of places, and all auto thefts at 2.7% of places), because crime is both rare (only 3.6% of the city could have had a robbery with no repeat addresses) and concentrated, although the magnitude of concentration varies by offense type. These distributions all deviate significantly, and with ample magnitude, from the simple Poisson model of chance, which raises basic questions about the criminogenic nature of places, as distinct from neighborhoods or collectivities.
JUVENILE DELINQUENCY OR JUVENILE JUSTICE: WHICH CAME FIRST?*
Authors: FERDINAND THEODORE N.
Published: March 2006

Stanley Cohen (1985) maintains that the methods of control, whether exclusionary or inclusionary, are linked with the emergence of a bifurcated population of hard‐core, intensely antisocial offenders and mildly deviant but more prosocial offenders. The latter basically is a quasi‐normal population that was handled informally before the emergence of a formal criminal justice system and inclusionary programs. It tends to include dissipative, self‐indulgent, mild offenders who in adulthood often become dependent on inclusionary programs and the society of other mild deviants for structure in their lives.

When applied historically to juveniles in Massachusetts this formulation suggests a steady transformation of established inclusionary programs with rehabilitative goals into exclusionary programs with punitive, retributive goals. It also implies a gradual extension of the definition of delinquency to include more nearly normal populations as additional inclusionary programs are inaugurated.
ESCALATION AND DESISTANCE OF WIFE ASSAULT IN MARRIAGE*
Authors: FELD SCOTT L. , STRAUS MURRAY A.
Published: March 2006

This article examines two widely held beliefs concerning the nature of “careers” of wife assault. Most researchers and members of the public believe that assaultive behavior in marriage, once begun, tends to continue for the life of the marriage. It is also commonly believed that minor violence (e.g., slapping, shoving, throwing things at a spouse) is unrelated to severe assaults (e.g., punching, kicking, using a weapon). These beliefs are based on the most severe cases of wife battering, as described by the media and by women in shelters. Despite these beliefs, we suggest that wife assault is similar to other forms of deviance and crime, in that desistance is common and engaging in minor forms of deviance is a risk factor for engaging in major forms of deviance and crime. The article reports a study using data on a sample of 380 married respondents who reported some violence in their marriage in 1985 and were reinterviewed in 1986. The findings indicate that most marital violence is transient, but even minor violence by a wife poses a risk of escalation to more dangerous assaults by a husband. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.
THE MEANING OF ARREST FOR WIFE ASSAULT*
Authors: WILLIAMS KIRK R. , HAWKINS RICHARD
Published: March 2006

The social meaning of wife assault has changed in recent years for both citizens and formal social control agents. Research on deterrence has been partly responsible for modifying police responses to domestic violence. Police are increasingly adopting pro‐arrest policies for wife assault, but little is known about perceptions held by assaulters concerning the consequences of arrest for their life circumstances. Using national survey data from samples of both assaultive and nonassaultive men, the following questions are addressed: What costs do men perceive as most likely to occur if they are arrested for wife assault? Does the perceived likelihood of these costs contribute to their overall fear (i.e., perceived severity) of arrest? To what extent is the perceived likelihood of these costs related to involvement in wife assault? Perceived costs include both direct consequences seen to result from arrest and any indirect costs for the person. Indirect consequences include stigmatic costs (e.g., familial or personal humiliation), attachment costs (e.g., damage to interpersonal relationships) or commitment costs (e.g. jeopardized investments or foreclosed opportunities). The implications of the findings for an expanded version of the deterrence doctrine are discussed.
URBANNESS AND UNCONVENTIONAL BEHAVIOR: A PARTIAL TEST OF CLAUDE FISCHER'S SUBCULTURAL THEORY
Authors: TITTLE CHARLES R.
Published: March 2006

Eleven hypotheses concerning individual behavior are derived from Claude Fischer's ecological subcultural theory linking size‐of‐place, subcultural development, and unconventional behavior. Data from a three‐state survey are used to test the derived hypotheses. The findings are mixed, which suggests the theory has merit but that it is too general and should be refined to specify the conditions under which various effects are most likely. The results suggest that a refinement must confront the following realities: (1) the size of the population is not necessarily predictive of high probabilities of all kinds of deviance, (2) all deviance is not subculturally linked, and (3) subcultures and subcultural involvement are not necessarily concentrated in larger places. Nevertheless, (4) when subcultural involvement is strong, it exercises great influence on behavior. Approaches for refining the theory are suggested.
GENDER, REHABILITATION, AND PROBATION DECISIONS*
Authors: EREZ EDNA
Published: March 2006

This article examines the structure of probation decision making on the perceived “need” level of probationers and the pursuant prescription of “treatment.” Although male and female probationers did not direr in their cumulative “need” level, significant differences by sex were found in the factors used by the probation officers to arrive at their decision or in the relative weights assigned to them. A multivariate analysis indicates that gender‐role expectations and stereotypes weigh heavily in the officers' decision making and guide the application of treatment. The implications of such gender‐based rehabilitation are drawn and discussed.
THEY IS CLOWNING TOUGH: 911 AND THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF REALITY*
Authors: GILSINAN JAMES F.
Published: March 2006

This article examines the interaction of 911 operators with callers. The study is based on 36 hours of participant observation and an in‐depth analysis of 265 randomly recorded telephone contacts between citizens and police emergency operators over a 24‐hour period. Call processing is only partially explained by the in formation‐gathering function of operators. Initial data from callers are used by operators to help the caller and the operator together construct a definition of an event that makes sense organizationally. Thus, the article describes the interpretive work of 911 operators and the consequences of such work for demand processing within police agencies.
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF WHITE‐COLLAR CRIME FOR A GENERAL THEORY OF CRIME
Authors: HIRSCHI TRAVIS , GOTTFREDSON MICHAEL
Published: March 2006

Advocates of the concept of white‐collar crime have failed to make the case for its scientific value. Steffensmeier's efforts to save the concept further support our view that it is flawed and misleading. His efforts support our contention that the correlates of white‐collar crime are the same as the correlates of crime, that the age distribution of offending is the same for white‐collar crimes as for other crimes, that official statistics have sufficient validity for many etiological purposes, and that the search for a general theory of crime holds great promise for criminology.
TIME TRENDS AND AGE TRENDS IN ARRESTS AND SELF‐REPORTED ILLEGAL BEHAVIOR*
Authors: OSGOOD D. WAYNE , O'MALLEY PATRICK M. , BACHMAN JERALD G. , JOHNSTON LLOYD D.
Published: March 2006

National estimates of time trends and age trends in self‐reported illegal behavior in the United States are compared with corresponding figures for arrests. The self‐report data are from Monitoring the Future, an annual national survey of high school seniors. The analysis of time trends covers 1975 through 1985 for a sample of over 3,000 respondents per year, studied at a constant age. The analysis of age trends covers ages 17 through 23 for samples of 300 to 1,200 per year. Both self‐report and arrest measures reveal substantial declines in illegal behavior throughout this age span, with the exception of arrests for assault. Both methods also indicate that rates of assault increased from 1975 through 1985, a finding that has not previously been reported. Time trends for other offenses were erratic.
STRUCTURAL POSITION AND VIOLENCE: DEVELOPING A CULTURAL EXPLANATION*
Authors: LUCKENBILL DAVID F. , DOYLE DANIEL P.
Published: March 2006

Research assessing the capacity of a cultural explanation to account for the relationship between certain structural positions and high rates of criminal violence has ignored a significant intervening variable. That variable is disputatiousness—the likelihood of being offended by a negative outcome and seeking reparation through protest. This article develops a cultural model of disputatiousness and aggressiveness. It hypothesizes that individuals who occupy positions featuring high rates of violence are more likely than their counterparts to be offended by a negative outcome, to protest the injury, and to use force when the protest fails. It also hypothesizes that differential disputatiousness and aggressiveness are most pronounced when the negative outcome involves an attack on the self by an equal in a public setting. Testing these hypotheses calls for individual level data bearing on behavioral dispositions under a variety of circumstances. A methodological procedure for collecting such data is proposed, and suggestions for future research are discussed.
RACE, HOMICIDE SEVERITY, AND APPLICATION OF THE DEATH PENALTY: A CONSIDERATION OF THE BARNETT SCALE*
Authors: KEIL THOMAS J. , VITO GENNARO F.
Published: March 2006

This study uses the Barnett scale of homicide severity to analyze the capital sentencing process in Kentucky. In his analysis of Georgia cases, Barnett found that whites were disproportionately the victims of homicides that the scale considered as most serious. This conclusion was cited as an explanation for racial disparity in capital sentencing. When the scale is applied to Kentucky data and the level of seriousness of the murder is controlled, however, we Jind that prosecutors were more likely to seek the death penalty in cases in which blacks killed whites and that juries were more likely to sentence to death blacks who killed whites.
POLICING CORPORATE COLLUSION*
Authors: SCOTT DONALD W.
Published: March 2006

This is a documentary study of the origin and investigation of all criminal prosecutions of collusive trade agreements filed by the Antitrust Division, US. Department of Justice from 1946 through 1970. The methodology seeks to reconstruct these cases from previously classified investigative files of the division. Observations include the sources of organizational intelligence, investigative methods, and encounters among antitrust victims, offenders, and officials. Most cases originate with complainants and informants outside the agency, but most evidence is obtained with the cooperation of offenders, who usually receive immunity or leniency in return. The conclusions suggest that public exposure of trade conspiracies serves as a deterrent despite weak penalties.
THE SOCIAL ORGANIZATION OF DRUG USE AND DRUG DEALING AMONG URBAN GANGS*
Authors: FAGAN JEFFREY
Published: March 2006

Youth gangs are a major part of the urban landscape. Gang members always have been involved in collective and individual violence and, in recent years, in drug use and drug dealing. Involvement in drug dealing recently has been associated with increased violence among gangs. However, variation in organizational and social processes within gangs suggests that there also will be variation in drug‐crime relationships among gang members. Analyses of the drug‐crime relationships were conducted from interviews with 151 gang members in three cities. Four types of gangs were identified, and similar gang types were observed in the three cities. All gang types had high involvement in drug use, but drug dealing varied. The severity of collective gang crime was associated with the prevalence of drug use within a gang. Drug dealing occurred among gangs with both high and low involvement in violence and other crimes. Involvement in cocaine, opiates, and PCP occurred among both violent and nonviolent gangs, as well as among gangs with different involvement in drug dealing. The results suggest that the drug‐crime relationship is skewed and spurious for gang members, similar to relationships among nongang inner‐city adolescents. Members of violent gangs more often reported the existence of several features of social organization and cohesion in their gangs, independent of gang involvement in drug use and dealing. Similar to other urban adolescents, for gang members violence is not an inevitable consequence of involvement in drug use or dealing.
CIRCUMSTANCES IN SUPPLEMENTARY HOMICIDE REPORTS: VARIETY AND VALIDITY*
Authors: MAXFIELD MICHAEL G.
Published: March 2006

This paper presents a critical examination of homicide circumstances as reported in supplementary homicide reports (SHR). Different types of homicides can be distinguished by the circumstance codes and victim/offender relationship recorded on the SHR. Delineating murder by type invites analysis of this offense from a victimization perspective–homicides have much in common with nonlethal offenses. Different types of homicide present different policy problems to police. The paper also discusses various sources of error in SHR data, which must be recognized by researchers interested in theoretical or policy questions.
WHAT IS THE PERCEIVED SERIOUSNESS OF CRIMES?
Authors: WARR MARK
Published: March 2006

Although criminologists have measured the perceived seriousness of offenses for decades, there is no consensus on the meaning of seriousness, nor is there clear evidence as to what individuals have in mind when they rate the seriousness of crimes. Seriousness judgments could reflect normative evaluations of offenses (i.e., their wrongfulness) or factual judgments about their harmfulness to victims. Survey data from Dallas residents show that the two dimensions are distinct and that conventional classes of crime (personal, property, public order) systematically differ on the two dimensions. Where crimes are perceived to be more wrong than harmful, seriousness mirrors wrongfulness. Where crimes are perceived to be more harmful than wrong, harmfulness predominates. A substantial minority of respondents, however, did not perceive differences in the moral gravity of crimes, judging the seriousness of crimes solely on the basis of harmfulness. These and other findings indicate that seriousness judgments are more structured and complex than commonly supposed and that conventional measures of seriousness, when applied to substantive problems, may mask or obscure distinct mechanisms of evaluation.
ANGRY AGGRESSION AMONG THE “TRULY DISADVANTAGED”*
Authors: BERNARD THOMAS J.
Published: March 2006

Violent incidents arising out of trivial conflicts and insults have been explained by subcultural theories of violence, but empirical support for those theories has been lacking. Recent cognitively oriented research on anger and aggression is combined in this analysis with W. Wilson's (1987) arguments about the “truly disadvantaged” to revise those theories. An individual‐level theory explains the violent incidents, and an aggregate level theory explains the distribution of those incidents among social groups. A subculture of angry aggression arises under conditions of social isolation, when multiple feedback loops result in concentration effects.
RATE OF OFFENDING IN JUVENILE CAREERS: FINDINGS OF CONSTANCY AND CHANGE IN LAMBDA *
Authors: LOEBER ROLF , SNYDER HOWARD N.
Published: March 2006

This study examines changes in the rate of offending in a sample of 8,834 males whose official juvenile law‐violating careers included 26,650 offense episodes between ages 8 and 17 The rate of offending of active offenders (i.e., lambda) varied substantially as a function of age, increasing monotonically with age. Lambda, however, was not related to the age at first offense. In fact, the average lambda was amazingly constant at each individual age level regardless of the age at which offending began or desisted. Results are discussed in the light of age‐crime curves known from other data sets and from the perspective of developmental changes in the rate of offending as youths grow older.
DOES A DIFFERENCE MAKE A DIFFERENCE? COMPARING CROSS‐NATIONAL CRIME INDICATORS *
Authors: BENNETT RICHARD R. , LYNCH JAMES P.
Published: March 2006

This study investigates the question of reliability among four widely used cross‐national data sets by constructing an error framework that relates types of errors to uses of the data. The findings indicate that (1) for nation‐by‐nation point estimation, the four data sets differ by varying degrees, (2) for aggregate point estimation in cross‐sectional descriptive and longitudinal descriptive studies, they are statistically similar, and (3) for analytic or explanatory cross‐sectional purposes, they yield statistically and substantively similar results. In short, for studies seeking aggregate descriptions of world crime or analytic explanations of cross‐national crime rates, differences in the data sets do not make a difference in the results.
THE ROLE OF ARREST IN DOMESTIC ASSAULT: THE OMAHA POLICE EXPERIMENT *
Authors: DUNFORD FRANKLYN W. , HUIZINGA DAVID , ELLIOTT DELBERT S.
Published: March 2006

This paper reports on a replication of the Minneapolis Domestic Violence Experiment in Omaha, Nebraska. Suspects who were eligible for the experiment were randomly assigned to one of three police dispositions: mediation, separation, or arrest. No differences by disposition were found in prevalence or frequency of repeat offending, using jive measures of recidivism to assess outcome six months after police intervention. A survival analysis, using three of the measures for which dates of failure were available, also produced no differences by disposition
ILLEGAL ENTERPRISE: A THEORETICAL AND HISTORICAL INTERPRETATION *
Authors: HALLER MARK H.
Published: March 2006

Illegal enterprise—defined as the sale of illegal goods and services to customers who know that the goods or services are illegal—has long been a central part of the American underworld, but it has received little attention as a separate criminological category. Although such activities are often relatively short term and small scale when compared with legal businesses, three major factors explain the cooperation that sometimes emerges among illegal entrepreneurs. The first factor is systematic corruption, which often permits police or politicians to bring order to illegal activities within a political subdivision. A second factor is overlapping partnerships by which entrepreneurs often launch and maintain illegal businesses. A third factor is the internal economic characteristics of illegal businesses, which shape the manner in which they operate. The paper explores the implications of each factor through historical examples and suggests hypotheses concerning the changing structure of illegal enterprises in American cities.
A LATENT TRAIT APPROACH TO UNIFYING CRIMINAL CAREERS *
Authors: ROWE DAVID C. , OSGOOD D. WAYNE , NICEWANDER W. ALAN
Published: March 2006

We propose a latent trait model that simultaneously accounts for both participation in crime and the frequency of crimes, phenomena that the criminal career model attributes to different causal processes. The criminal career model is predicated on a categorical distinction between active offenders and nonoffenders, but the latent trait model assumes a continuous distribution of propensity to offend. Our specific statistical model relates a relatively stable and general latent propensity to engage in crime to the frequency of criminal behavior. The latent trait model successfully fit both the proportion of offenders (participation) and frequency of offending for several samples and several measures of offending. The model fit both samples of whites and nonwhites and both males and females. This shows that separate causal processes are not necessary to account for group differences in frequency and in participation, which disproves the major evidence in favor of the criminal career model. Finally, the latent trait model yielded evidence that disparate sex differences in rates of participation for different categories of offenses are consistent with a single difference on a latent trait. This demonstrates the latent trait model's potential for parsimoniously unifying knowledge about criminal careers.
SPECIFYING THE SES/DELINQUENCY RELATIONSHIP
Authors: TITTLE CHARLES R. , MEIER ROBERT F.
Published: March 2006

Theoretical and empirical work concerning socioeconomic status (SES) and delinquency has mainly been devoted, throughout the past decade, to specifying the conditions under which SES and delinquency are likely to be highly related. Three broad categories of conditions, with 12 particular subconditions, have been hypothesized as specifiers of the SES/delinquency relationship. Here, we review the recent empirical literature as it bears on these potential specifications. The results do not support any of the conditional hypotheses about SES and delinquency, and they again challenge the idea that a negative SES/delinquency relationship is general and pervasive. Almost all of the recent research finds some condition under which SES and delinquency are significantly related, however, and several of the specification hypotheses have not been thoroughly enough investigated to permit firm conclusions about their potency. This poses a quandary for scholars trying to understand delinquent behavior. Possible responses to the situation are discussed.
PENOLOGICAL REFORM AND THE MYTH OF BECCARIA *
Authors: NEWMAN GRAEME , MARONGIU PIETRO
Published: March 2006

Beccaria is widely acknowledged as one of penology's great reformers. This paper analyzes aspects of Beccaria's life and works and concludes that the adoration afforded Beccaria by penologists far outweighs the actual contributions he made to penology. Many of the reforms that occurred during the eighteenth century can as easily be ascribed to social and political conditions as to Beccaria's work When compared with the works of other great reformers of the eighteenth century, such as Voltaire or Bentham, Beccaria's works are less profound. The myth of Beccaria nonetheless presides over the modern paradigm of liberal penology.
THE ARTIFACT ISSUE IN DETERRENCE RESEARCH
Authors: GIBBS JACK P. , FIREBAUGH GLENN
Published: March 2006

The often‐observed negative correlation between crime rates and estimates of the objective certainty of a legal punishment is interpreted by some as support for the deterrence doctrine. Others, however, characterize the correlation as inherently artifactual because the variables being correlated have a common term (number of crimes is the numerator of the crime rate and the denominator of the objective certainty variable). Still others argue that the correlation is not inherently artifactual but is nevertheless spurious because of measurement error. This paper shows that the negative correlation is not inherently artifactual and provides evidence to support the measurement error interpretation. Unfortunately, however, there is no definitive way to demonstrate whether the negative correlation between the crime rate and the objective certainty of punishment rejects deterrence or merely measurement error.
DOES CORRECTIONAL TREATMENT WORK? A CLINICALLY RELEVANT AND PSYCHOLOGICALLY INFORMED META‐ANALYSIS *
Authors: ANDREWS D.A. , ZINGER IVAN , HOGE ROBERT D. , BONTA JAMES , GENDREAU PAUL , CULLEN FRANCIS T.
Published: March 2006

Careful reading of the literature on the psychology of criminal conduct and of prior reviews of studies of treatment effects suggests that neither criminal sanctioning without provision of rehabilitative service nor servicing without reference to clinical principles of rehabilitation will succeed in reducing recidivism. What works, in our view, is the delivery of appropriate correctional service, and appropriate service reflects three psychological principles: (1) delivery of service to higher risk cases, (2) targeting of criminogenic needs, and (3) use of styles and modes of treatment (e.g., cognitive and behavioral) that are matched with client need and learning styles. These principles were applied to studies of juvenile and adult correctional treatment, which yielded 154 phi coefficients that summarized the magnitude and direction of the impact of treatment on recidivism. The effect of appropriate correctional service (mean phi = .30) was significantly (p <.05) greater than that of unspecified correctional service (.13), and both were more effective than inappropriate service (−.06) and non‐service criminal sanctioning (−.07). Service was effective within juvenile and adult corrections, in studies published before and after 1980, in randomized and nonrandomized designs, and in diversionary, community, and residential programs (albeit, attenuated in residential settings). Clinical sensitivity and a psychologically informed perspective on crime may assist in the renewed service, research, and conceptual efforts that are strongly indicated by our review.
THE EFFECT OF LONGITUDINAL ARREST PATTERNS ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF ROBBERY TRENDS AT THE NEIGHBORHOOD LEVEL *
Authors: BURSIK ROBERT J. , GRASMICK HAROLD G. , CHAMLIN MITCHELL B.
Published: March 2006

Although the current resurgence of ecological deterrence research has addressed many of the methodological and theoretical problems of earlier studies, the question concerning the appropriate level of aggregation for such models has not been resolved. In this paper, we argue that there is strong evidence in the criminological literature that the neighborhood is the most meaningful level of aggregation for such studies. However, in an analysis of robbery incidents and arrests over 100 weeks in five Oklahoma City neighborhoods we did not find any significant support for the deterrent effect of arrests on subsequent illegal behavior. We propose that the lack of such a relationship reflects periods of short‐term equilibrium in the local community, during which the levels of crime and arrests are relatively stabilized.
CLASSIFICATION TO HALFWAY HOUSES: A QUASI‐EXPERIMENTAL EVALUATION *
Authors: BONTA JAMES , MOTIUK LAURENCE L.
Published: March 2006

Faced with prison overcrowding, institutions must seek alternatives to imprisonment. An under researched possibility is the use of halfway houses for the placement of offenders serving prison sentences. The LSI, an objective risk classification instrument, was administered to inmates from three jails. Low‐scoring inmates from two of the jails were flagged for placement in correctional halfway houses, and the third jail was blind to LSI scores. The halfway house placement rate was 51 % for the jails that used LSI scores and 16% for the jail using traditional subjective classification procedures. The results suggest that subjective offender assessments run the risk of over classifying offenders whereas objective risk assessments yield more appropriate classifications.
HOW EARLY CAN WE TELL?: PREDICTORS OF CHILDHOOD CONDUCT DISORDER AND ADOLESCENT DELINQUENCY *
Authors: WHITE JENNIFER L. , MOFFITT TERRIE E. , EARLS FELTON , ROBINS LEE , SILVA PHIL A.
Published: March 2006

It is often argued that intervention efforts can benefit from the early identification of children at risk for antisocial disorders. Little is known, however about the predictive efficacy of early predictors This study examined the predictive power of a variety of characteristics of the preschool child for antisocial outcome at ages 11 and 15. The subjects were 1,037 members of a longitudinal investigation of a New Zealand birth cohort. Groups with no disorders (n = 837), disorders other than antisocial disorders (n =37), and antisocial disorders (n = SO) were defined. Preschool descriptors were screened for their predictive power. A discriminant function analysis was computed with the jive most promising preschool variables. The function correctly classified 81 % of subjects as antisocial, or not. at age 11, and 66% of subjects as delinquent, or not, at age 15. Having preschool behavior problems was the single best predictor of antisocial disorders at age 11. This result is consistent with earlier findings that, among measures assessed in childhood, behavior problems are the best predictor of later antisocial outcome.
ADOLESCENT RESOURCES AND DELINQUENCY *
Authors: AGNEW ROBERT
Published: March 2006

The dominant theories of delinquency tend to view the delinquent as a deprived individual who engages in delinquency because of forces beyond his or her control. This paper challenges that image, awing that many adolescents possess resources that increase their power and autonomy. This power and autonomy may be used to reduce social control and increase “Illegitimate means,” which in turn increase the likelihood of delinquency. Whether adolescents use their resources for delinquent ends is conditioned by several factors, most notably the adolescent's predisposition for delinquency, the benefits and costs of employing resources for delinquent ends in a particular situation, and the adolescent's perceived self‐efficacy. Data from two nationally representative surveys of adolescents are used to analyze the relation between resources and delinquency among adolescents differing in their predisposition for delinquency. In most cases, resources are positively related to delinquency when the predisposition for delinquency is high.
WOMEN, RACE, AND CRIME *
Authors: HILL GARY D. , CRAWFORD ELIZABETH M.
Published: March 2006

This paper explores the capacity of alternative theoretical perspectives to explain the self‐reported criminality of black and white young adult females. When criminal involvement is regressed on the theory operation‐alizations separately by race, a key difference emerges: For white women, significant effects are clustered in the social‐psychological theory groups (bonding, attitudes, and maturation), but for the black women the social‐psychological variables have only scattered and inconsistent eflects. Instead, for black women structural indicators emerge as the important predictors of criminal involvement.
ECONOMIC THREAT AND RACIAL DISPARITIES IN INCARCERATION: THE CASE OF POSTBELLUM GEORGIA
Authors: MYERS MARTHA A.
Published: March 2006

Economic threat figures prominently in recent explanations of lethal social control directed against blacks after the Civil War. As the position of whites and blacks became more similar, racial antagonisms intensified and found expression in efforts to suppress and intimidate blacks through lynchings and executions. This paper applies the economic threat hypothesis to the exercise of nonlethal social control in Georgia between 1874 and 1936. Time series analysis indicates that declines in racial inequality slightly increased racial disparities in incarceration. More noticeably, they decreased the black male incarceration rate and increased its white counterpart. The paper concludes with a discussion of the theoretical and empirical implications of the results.
A REPLY TO WAETERS AND WHITE: “HEREDITY AND CRIME”*
Authors: BRENNAN PATRICIA A. , MEDNICK SARNOFF A.
Published: March 2006

This paper is written in response to the Walters and white (1989) review article “Heredity and Crime: Bad Genes or Bad Research?” Walters and white's criticisms are often global statements of disapproval or name‐calling rather than useful, analytic statements. Unfortunately, when they become specific, they are usually in error.
MODELING CRIMINAL CAREERS*
Authors: GREENBERG DAVID F.
Published: March 2006

A stochastic model of criminal careers embodying the assumptions of Gottfredson and Hirschi (1986, 1988) is used as a tool to examine the arguments and claims that have been raised in the recent debate over the nature of criminal careers. The model is used to fit aggregate career data in different jurisdictions and to explain racial and sex patterns in recidivism data. Some of the arguments that have been deployed on both sides of this debate are shown to lack validity. Nullius in verba. —Motto of the Royal Society
THE NEGLECTED SITUATION: A CROSSNATIONAL STUDY OF THE SITUATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CRIME*
Authors: La FREE GARY , BIRKBECK CHRISTOPHER
Published: March 2006

Although it is generally recognized in the social sciences that the “situation” is indispensable for understanding behavior, thus far criminologists have not devoted systematic attention to situational analysis. This paper contributes to the development of a situational perspective on crime by defining the concept of situation, developing four hypotheses about the situational characteristics of selected personal contact crimes, and then testing those hypotheses using victimization survey data from the United States and Venezuela. The research shows that coercive crimes are less situationally clustered than noncoercive crimes and that instrumental crimes are more situationally clustered than character crimes. Despite tremendous differences in crime rates for the two countries, substantial similarity is found in situational crime patterns. The implications of the research for criminological theory are discussed.
SEX RATIOS AND RAPE RATES: A POWERCONTROL THEORY*
Authors: OBRIEN ROBERT M.
Published: March 2006

Guttentag and Secord (1983) hypothesize that sex ratios (the number of men per 100 women) affect the roles of both men and women. They suggest that although high sex ratios decrease men 3 dyadic power, when sex ratios are high men use their structural power to control women. Their theory can be combined with the routine activities approach of Cohen and Felson (1979) or with a version of the power‐threat/power‐competition hypothesis of Blalock (1967) to develop a power‐control theory dealing with the relationship between sex ratios and rape rates: i.e., when sex ratios are high, rape rates should be relatively low. Analyses of data from the United States for the years 1962, 1967, 1972, 1977, 1982, and 1987 support this hypothesis.
“THE LAW'S THE LAW, BUT FAIR IS FAIR:” RAPE SHIELD LAWS AND OFFICIALS' ASSESSMENTS OF SEXUAL HISTORY EVIDENCE*
Authors: SPOHN CASSIA , HORNEY JULIE
Published: March 2006

Recently enacted rape shield laws, which restrict the introduction of evidence of the complainant's prior sexual conduct, have engendered considerable controversy. This paper examines the responses of judges, prosecutors, and defense attorneys in six major urban jurisdictions to a set of hypothetical cases in which evidence of the victim's past sexual conduct is at issue. The different kinds of sexual history evidence evoke different responses from officials, and the specific provisions of the six rape shield statutes also affect officials' judgments.