bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
THE EFFECT OF SUPERMAXIMUM SECURITY PRISONS ON AGGREGATE LEVELS OF INSTITUTIONAL VIOLENCE*
Authors: BRIGGS CHAD S. , SUNDT JODY L. , CASTELLANO THOMAS C.
Published: March 2006

Supermax prisons have been advanced as means of controlling the “worst of the worst” and making prisons safer places to live and work. This research examined the effect of supermaxes on aggregate levels of violence in three prison systems using a multiple interrupted time series design. No support was found for the hypothesis that supermaxes reduce levels of inmate‐on‐inmate violence. Mixed support was found for the hypothesis that supermax increases staff safety: the implementation of a supermax had no effect on levels of inmate‐on‐staff assaults in Minnesota, temporarily increased staff injuries in Arizona, and reduced assaults against staff in Illinois.
MISSING THE MARK: REFLECTIONS ON GREENBERG'S COMMENT*
Authors: COONEY MARK
Published: March 2006

Greenberg's (2003) Comment fails to address the substance or spirit of “The Privatization of Violence.”
REASSESSING NONLINEARITY IN THE URBAN DISADVANTAGE/VIOLENT CRIME RELATIONSHIP: AN EXAMPLE OF METHODOLOGICAL BIAS FROM LOG TRANSFORMATION*
Authors: HANNON LANCE , KNAPP PETER
Published: March 2006

Sociologists and criminologists have become increasingly concerned with nonlinear relationships and interaction effects. For example, some recent studies suggest that the positive relationship between neighborhood disadvantage and violent crime is nonlinear with an accelerating slope, whereas other research indicates a nonlinear decelerating slope. The present paper considers the possibility that this inconsistency in findings is partially caused by lack of attention to an important methodological concern. Specifically, we argue that researchers have not been sensitive to the ways in which logarithmic transformation of the dependent variable can bias tests for nonlinearity and statistical interaction. We illustrate this point using demographic and violent crime data for urban neighborhoods, and we propose an alternative procedure to log transformation that involves the use of weighted least‐squares regression, heteroscedasticity consistent standard errors, and diagnostics for influential observations.
MODEL MISSPECIFICATION: WHY AGGREGATION OF OFFENSES IN FEDERAL SENTENCING EQUATIONS IS PROBLEMATIC
Authors: ALBONETTI CELESTA A.
Published: March 2006

This paper addresses two concerns that arise from Steffensmeier and Demuth (2001) analysis of federal sentencing and their misrepresentation of my analyses of sentence severity (Albonetti, 1997). My primary concern is to alert researchers to the importance of controlling for the guidelines offense that drives the sentencing process under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines. My second concern is to correct Steffensmeier and Demuth's (2001) errors in interpretation of my earlier findings of the effect of guidelines offense severity on length of imprisonment.
ANTISOCIAL BEHAVIOR AND YOUTH GANG MEMBERSHIP: SELECTION AND SOCIALIZATION
Authors: GORDON RACHEL A. , LAHEY BENJAMIN B. , KAWAI ERIKO , LOEBER ROLF , STOUTHAMER‐LOEBER MAGDA , FARRINGTON DAVID P.
Published: March 2006

We examine whether gang membership is associated with higher levels of delinquency because boys predisposed to delinquent activity are more likely than others to join. We use 10 years of longitudinal data from 858 participants of the Pittsburgh Youth Study to identify periods before, during and after gang membership. We build on prior research by controlling for ages and calendar time, by better accounting for gang memberships that occurred before the study began, and by using fixed effects statistical models. We find more evidence than has been found in prior studies that boys who join gangs are more delinquent before entering the gang than those who do not join. Even with such selective differences, however, we replicate research showing that drug selling, drug use, violent behaviors and vandalism of property increase significantly when a youth joins a gang. The delinquency of peers appears to be one mechanism of socialization. These findings are clearest in youth self‐reports, but are also evident in reports from parents and teachers on boys' behavior and delinquency. Once we adjust for time trends, we find that the increase in delinquency is temporary, that delinquency falls to pre‐gang levels when boys leave gangs.
WILLINGNESS‐TO‐PAY FOR CRIME CONTROL PROGRAMS*
Authors: COHEN MARK A. , RUST ROLAND T. , STEEN SARA , TIDD SIMON T.
Published: March 2006

This paper reports on a new methodology to estimate the “cost of crime.” It is adapted from the contingent valuation method used in the environmental economics literature and is itself used to estimate the public's willingness to pay for crime control programs. In a nationally representative sample of 1,300 U.S. residents, we found that the typical household would be willing to pay between $100 and $150 per year for programs that reduced specific crimes by 10 percent in their communities. This willingness amounts, collectively, to approximately $25,000 per burglary, $70,000 per serious assault, $232,000 per armed
SENTENCING IN CONTEXT: A MULTILEVEL ANALYSIS
Authors: ULMER JEFFERY T. , JOHNSON BRIAN
Published: March 2006

Criminal sentencing is, along with arresting and prosecuting, among the most important of formal social control decisions. In this study we use hierarchical modeling to test hypotheses about contextual level influences and cross level interaction effects on local court decisions. Most of the explanatory “action,” our analysis shows, is at the individual case level in criminal sentencing. We also find evidence that local contextual features–such as court organizational culture, court caseload pressure, and racial and ethnic composition–affect sentencing outcomes, either directly or in interaction with individual factors. We conclude by discussing theoretical implications of our findings, and how our study points out some dilemmas among civil rights, local autonomy and organizational realities of criminal courts.
ON THE USE OF THE TOTAL INCARCERATION VARIABLE IN SENTENCING RESEARCH*
Authors: HOLLERAN DAVID , SPOHN CASSIA
Published: March 2006

This study calls into question the use of the total incarceration response variable incorporated into sentencing studies over the past 30 years. Specifically, using data from the Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing (PCS), it argues–and reveals–that prison and jail represent two distinct institutions, and that the judge's decision on disposition should take that factor into account. It recommends that researchers should therefore reconsider use of the total incarceration variable, which combines prison and jail into a single response category.
PROFILING AND POLICE LEGITIMACY: PROCEDURAL JUSTICE, ATTRIBUTIONS OF MOTIVE, AND ACCEPTANCE OF POLICE AUTHORITY*
Authors: TYLER TOM R. , WAKSLAK CHERYL J.
Published: March 2006

This paper reports the results of four studies that investigate racial profiling as an attribution about police motives. Each study explores, first, the types of police behavior that heighten or lessen the occurrence of profiling attributions and, second, the consequences of such attributions. Results support prior studies in finding that judgments about whether the police are profiling are associated with the level of public support for the police. The studies then extend the analysis of subjective profiling judgments by examining their antecedents. The findings support the procedural justice hypothesis that the fairness with which the police exercise their authority influences whether members of the public view the police as profiling.
TRAJECTORIES OF CRIME AT PLACES: A LONGITUDINAL STUDY OF STREET SEGMENTS IN THE CITY OF SEATTLE*
Authors: WEISBURD DAVID , BUSHWAY SHAWN , LUM CYNTHIA , YANG SUE‐MING
Published: March 2006

Studies of crime at micro places have generally relied on cross‐sectional data and reported the distributions of crime statistics over short periods of time. In this paper we use official crime data to examine the distribution of crime at street segments in Seattle, Washington, over a 14‐year period. We go beyond prior research in two ways. First, we view crime trends at places over a much longer period than other studies that have examined micro places. Second, we use group‐based trajectory analysis to uncover distinctive developmental trends in our data. Our findings support the view that micro places generally have stable concentrations of crime events over time. However, we also find that a relatively small proportion of places belong to groups with steeply rising or declining crime trajectories and that these places are primarily responsible for overall city trends in crime. These findings are particularly important given the more general decline in crime rates observed in Seattle and many other American cities in the 1990s. Our study suggests that the crime drop can be understood not as a general process that occurred across the city landscape but one that was generated in a relatively small group of micro places with strong declining crime trajectories over time.
REFORMING THE POLICE: RACIAL DIFFERENCES IN PUBLIC SUPPORT FOR CHANGE*
Authors: WEITZER RONALD , TUCH STEVEN A.
Published: March 2006

While the literature has extensively documented popular discontent with various types of police misconduct, little is known about popular support for corrective measures. Such information, however, would be valuable for public policy and has the potential to enhance public confidence in the police. This article, using data from a recent national survey, reports public attitudes toward several specific reforms in policing. Findings indicate, first, that race is a predictor. Blacks and Hispanics are the most supportive of reform. Second, support for reform is strongly affected by the perceived frequency of police misconduct in one's city and neighborhood and by exposure to media reports of police misconduct. Respondents who believe that police corruption, unwarranted stops, and verbal and physical abuse of citizens are common are more likely to favor reforms. The same is true for those who are frequently exposed to news media coverage of incidents of police misconduct. The findings are consistent with the group‐position theory of race relations.
THE JUVENILE PENALTY: A COMPARISON OF JUVENILE AND YOUNG ADULT SENTENCING OUTCOMES IN CRIMINAL COURT*
Authors: KURLYCHEK MEGAN C. , JOHNSON BRIAN D.
Published: March 2006

This study uses criminal court data from the Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing (PCS) to investigate the sentencing of juvenile offenders processed in adult criminal court by comparing their sentencing outcomes to those of young adult offenders in similar situations. Because the expanded juvenile exclusion and transfer policies of the 1990s have led to an increase in the number of juveniles convicted in adult courts, we argue that it is critical to better understand the judicial decision making processes involved. We introduce competitive hypotheses on the relative leniency or severity of sentencing outcomes for transferred juveniles and interpret our results with the focal concerns theoretical perspective on sentencing. Our findings indicate that juvenile offenders in adult court are sentenced more severely than their young adult counterparts. Moreover, findings suggest that juvenile status interacts with and conditions the effects of other important sentencing factors including offense type, offense severity and prior criminal record. We discuss these results as they relate to immediate outcomes for transferred juveniles, criminal court processes in general and the broader social implications for juvenile justice policy concerning the transfer of juveniles to criminal court.
INDUSTRIAL SHIFT, POLARIZED LABOR MARKETS AND URBAN VIOLENCE: MODELING THE DYNAMICS BETWEEN THE ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION AND DISAGGREGATED HOMICIDE*
Authors: PARKER KAREN F.
Published: March 2006

Industrial restructuring marks the removal of a manufacturing and production‐based economy in urban areas, which had served as a catalyst in concentrating disadvantage and polarizing labor markets since the 1970s. Although scholars have established a relationship between concentrated disadvantage — poverty, joblessness, racial residential segregation — and urban violence in cross‐sectional studies, this literature has yet to estimate whether economic restructuring contributed to the change in urban homicide over time. Modeling this relationship requires an analytical strategy that incorporates specific indicators of (race and gender) polarized labor markets, separate from indicators of urban disadvantage, on disaggregated homicides while taking into account the growing dependency of urban cities on formal social control (via police presence and rise in incarceration). In this study I provide a theoretical rationale for linking industrial restructuring to urban homicide. Using a multivariate strategy to capture the shift in labor market forces and disaggregated homicides from 1980 to 1990, I also estimate the impact of this relationship. The results provide evidence of the industrial ship and documents both the decline in Manufacturing jobs for black males and black females and a growth in the service sector opportunities for white males only. I also find that industrial restructuring had a unique impact on disaggregated homicide beyond what has previously been established in cross‐sectional studies.
A MULTILEVEL TEST OF RACIAL THREAT THEORY
Authors: STOLZENBERG LISA , D'ALESSIO STEWART J. , EITLE DAVID
Published: March 2006

We develop a conceptual model articulating the mechanisms by which racial threat is theorized to affect social control, focusing specifically on the influence of the relative size of the black population on the likelihood that the police will arrest a black citizen suspected of a violent criminal offense. A multilevel analysis of 145, 255 violent crimes reported to police in 182 cities during 2000 shows only qualified support for racial threat theory. Controlling for the amount of race‐specific crime reported to police, our findings reveal that black citizens actually have a lower probability of arrest in cities with a relatively large black population. This finding tends to cast doubt on the validity of the racial threat hypothesis. No evidence buttresses the claim that economic competition between whites and blacks affects arrest probabilities. However, results show that in cities where racial segregation is more pronounced blacks have a reduced risk sof being arrested relative to whites. Crimes involving black offenders and white victims are also more apt to result in an arrest in cities that are racially segregated. These findings support the view that racial segregation is an informal mechanism to circumscribe the threat of potentially volatile subordinate populations.
DISCERNING UNFAIRNESS WHERE OTHERS MAY NOT: LOW SELF‐CONTROL AND UNFAIR SANCTION PERCEPTIONS
Authors: PIQUERO ALEX R. , GOMEZ‐SMITH ZENTA , LANGTON LYNN
Published: March 2006

Criminologists have long recognized that whether one perceives a sanction as fair or unfair influences the deterrent success of sanctions and the legitimacy afforded to legal authority. Unfortunately, although several scholars have claimed that individual characteristics influence how sanctions are interpreted, very little research has explored the individual factors that influence how one perceives sanctions to be fair/unfair. In this study, we take Gottfredson and Hirschi's notion of self‐control and use it to explain, in part, whether an individual perceives a sanction as fair/unfair. We also examine how sanction perceptions and low self‐control influence the perceived anger that may result from being singled out for sanctioning and whether self‐control conditions the relationship between perceptions and anger. Our results suggest that individuals with low self‐control are more likely to perceive sanctions as unfair, that unfair sanctions and low self‐control lead to perceived anger for being singled out for punishment and that self‐control conditions the effect of unfair sanction perceptions on perceived anger. Future directions are outlined.
GIRL FRIENDS ARE BETTER: GENDER, FRIENDS, AND CRIME AMONG SCHOOL AND STREET YOUTH*
Authors: MCCARTHY BILL , FELMLEE DIANE , HAGAN JOHN
Published: March 2006

In recent years, popular media has drawn attention to “mean girls” and their negative treatment of others, particularly other females. But while the attention to girls' aggression and their mistreatment of their peers highlights understudied aspects of female behavior, it neglects the beneficial aspects of female friendship. We argue that compared to relationships with males, friendships with females provide more social control, fewer opportunities and less motivation for offending and may therefore discourage crime. Because an adolescent's gender likely influences the association between the gender of one's friends and crime, we anticipate that the association will be stronger for females than for males. The relationship is also likely affected by the context in which relationships originate; we expect that those that develop in less conventional contexts will have weaker effects on crime. We explore these hypotheses with a comparative analysis of effects of friendships on property crime in two samples of youth: those who live at home and attend school and those who are homeless and spend their days and nights on the street. Our findings support our hypotheses. The relationship between female‐dominated friendship networks and property crime is negative and significant; however, this association is strongest for school females, weaker for school males and females who live on the street, and nonsignificant for homeless males.
RESISTING CRIME: THE EFFECTS OF VICTIM ACTION ON THE OUTCOMES OF CRIMES
Authors: TARK JONGYEON , KLECK GARY
Published: March 2006

This study assessed the impact of sixteen types of victim self protection (SP) actions on three types of outcomes of criminal incidents: first, whether the incident resulted in property loss, second, whether it resulted in injury to the victim, and, third, whether it resulted in serious injury. Data on 27, 595 personal contact crime incidents recorded in the National Crime Victimization Survey for the 1992 to 2001 decade were used to estimate multivariate models of crime outcomes with logistic regression. Results indicated that self‐protection in general, both forceful and nonforceful, reduced the likelihood of property loss and injury, compared to nonresistance. A variety of mostly forceful tactics, including resistance with a gun, appeared to have the strongest effects in reducing the risk of injury, though some of the findings were unstable due to the small numbers of sample cases. The appearance, in past research, of resistance contributing to injury was found to be largely attributable to confusion concerning the sequence of SP actions and injury. In crimes where both occurred, injury followed SP in only 10 percent of the incidents. Combined with the fact that injuries following resistance are almost always relatively minor, victim resistance appears to be generally a wise course of action.
COMMUNITIES, STREET GUNS AND HOMICIDE TRAJECTORIES IN CHICAGO, 1980–1995: MERGING METHODS FOR EXAMINING HOMICIDE TRENDS ACROSS SPACE AND TIME*
Authors: GRIFFITHS ELIZABETH , CHAVEZ JORGE M.
Published: March 2006

We merge Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis (ESDA) and a semi‐parametric, group‐based trajectory procedure (TRAJ) to classify communities in Chicago by violence trajectories across space. Total, street gun and other weapon homicide trajectories are identified across 831 census tracts between 1980 and 1995. We find evidence consistent with a weapon substitution effect in violent neighborhoods that are proximate to one another, a defensive diffusion effect of exclusively street gun‐specific homicide increases in neighborhoods bordering the most violent areas, and a spatial decay effect of temporal homicide trends in which the most violent areas are buffered from the least violent by places experiencing mid‐range levels of lethal violence over time. In merging these two methods of data analysis, we provide a more efficient way to describe both spatial and temporal trends and make significant advances in furthering applications of space‐time methodologies.
THE UNREPENTANT HORSE‐SLASHER: MORAL INSANITY AND THE ORIGINS OF CRIMINOLOGICAL THOUGHT*
Authors: RAFTER NICOLE
Published: March 2006

This paper raises questions about the origins, definition and nature of criminological knowledge by seeking to identify the earliest examples of scientific criminological thought. Pushing the story further back in time than previous studies of criminological history, it proposes a way to think about criminology before criminologists—that is, efforts to study crime scientifically before the emergence of specifically criminological discourses and before the formation of the professional specialization of criminologist. The roots of scientific criminological thought lie in late 18th‐ and early 19th‐century discourses on the phenomenon of moral insanity, or uncontrollable, remorseless criminal behavior. Examination of these texts reveals both the origins of criminological knowledge and the birth of idea that crime can be studied scientifically.
A COUPLES ANALYSIS OF PARTNER ABUSE WITH IMPLICATIONS FOR ABUSE‐PREVENTION POLICY*
Authors: MOFFITT TERRIE E. , ROBINS RICHARD W. , CASPI AVSHALOM
Published: March 2006

Research Summary: We studied a representative sample of 360 young‐adult couples from a birth cohort. We found abuse was a dyadic process; both partners’ personal characteristics increased abuse risk, and both sexes participated in abuse, particularly in clinical abusive couples having injury and/or official agency intervention. Treating only men may not reduce risk completely for most young couples.

Policy Implications: If replicated, the findings would suggest policy encouraging development and evaluation of programs to reduce physical abuse by women. Prevention programs could aim to reduce abusive behavior by both sexes and promote victim safety among both sexes. Policies against treating women in abusive couples may act counter to prevention.
PUTTING VIOLENCE IN ITS PLACE: THE INFLUENCE OF RACE, ETHNICITY, GENDER, AND PLACE ON THE RISK FOR VIOLENCE*
Authors: LAURITSEN JANET L. , WHITE NORMAN A.
Published: March 2006

Research Summary: This research shows that non‐Latino black, non‐Latino white, and Latino males and females in the U.S. experience significantly different levels of stranger and non‐stranger violence, and that these forms of non‐lethal violence are especially pronounced in areas with high levels of socioeconomic disadvantage. Many of the differences between these groups are eliminated once community and other individual characteristics are taken into account.

Policy Implications: The results suggest that victimization resources should be geographically targeted at places with high levels of poverty and single‐parent families, and that the most stable institutions within these communities be drawn upon to deliver information about victimization prevention and services.
REDUCING FIREARMS VIOLENCE THROUGH DIRECTED POLICE PATROL*
Authors: McGARRELL EDMUND F. , CHERMAK STEVEN , WEISS ALEXANDER , WILSON JEREMY
Published: March 2006

Research Summary: This evaluation of a directed police patrol project utilizes a pre‐post quasi‐experimental design with a non‐equivalent control group as well as an interrupted time series analysis. The results suggest that directed patrol had an impact on firearms crime in one of the target areas but not the other.

Policy Implications: The results suggest that a specific deterrence strategy whereby the police utilize directed patrol to focus on suspicious activities and locations reduced violent gun crime. In contrast, a general deterrence strategy focused on maximizing vehicle stops did not have an apparent effect.
THE PROSECUTION AND PUNISHMENT OF INTERNATIONAL TERRORISTS IN FEDERAL COURTS: 1980–1998*
Authors: SMITH BRENT L. , DAMPHOUSSE KELLY R. , JACKSON FREEDOM , SELLERS AMY
Published: March 2006

Research Summary: This study reports findings from the American Terrorism Study. The data show that from 1980 to 1998, the U.S. government periodically tried accused domestic and international terrorists through the use of traditional criminal trials. The extent to which federal prosecutors “explicit politicized” these trials (and the success that the politicization had) varied among the types of terrorist groups. Explicit politically was not found to be successful in trials of domestic terrorists but seemed to work for trials involving international terrorists. Over the 20‐year period, however, federal prosecutors began to rely more heavily (and more successfully) on the politicization of the criminal acts by international terrorists. The results also show that international terrorists, like their domestic counterparts, are much less likely to plead guilty. Finally, the study shows that these traditional trials have resulted in international terrorists being punished more severely than domestic terrorists. Unfortunately, the practice of performing these politicized trials within the venue of the federal court system may have been compromised by defense strategies that capitalized on the due process procedures so prominent in the U.S. system of justice. In the wake of the terrorism attacks in September 2001 by foreign nationals, the federal government began to take the next step in its “war against terrorism” by instituting the use of military tribunals.

Policy Implications: Although the federal government has been relatively successful in the prosecution of terrorism in America in the past two decades, the movement toward the use of military tribunals has perhaps become inevitable (as the use of the traditional criminal trial for international terrorists manifests weaknesses). In the short term, it is likely that several international terrorism cases stemming from the September 2001 attacks and other subsequent attacks (which may be presumed) will be tried in federal courthouses across the country (even with the advent of military tribunals). Federal prosecutors will need to be trained on the specifics of trying these kinds of cases. In the long term, the use of military tribunals will provide greater ease of prosecution for the federal government. Long‐term consequences such as retaliatory attacks and attacks aimed at the release of political prisoners cannot be ignored by policy makers.
UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES OF POLITICALLY POPULAR SENTENCING POLICY: THE HOMICIDE PROMOTING EFFECTS OF “THREE STRIKES” IN U.S. CITIES (1980–1999)*
Authors: KOVANDZIC TOMISLAV V. , SLOAN JOHN J. , VIERAITIS LYNNE M.
Published: March 2006

Research Summary: Using panel data from 188 large cities during 1980–1999, we examined the possible homicide promoting effects of “three‐strikes” laws. Results indicated that cities in states with three‐strikes laws experienced short‐term increases in homicide rates of 13% to 14% and long‐term increases of 16% to 24% compared with cities in states without the laws.

Policy Implications: Our results emphasize the fact that rarely are the possible unintended negative consequences of policy directives considered and point to the need for policy makers to consider both intended and unintended consequences of policy directives before the directives are codified.
LAW ENFORCEMENT AND THE RULE OF LAW: IS THERE A TRADEOFF?
Authors: BAYLEY DAVID H.
Published: March 2006

This essay assesses whether a strong evidence‐based argument can be made to support the proposition that when police violate the rule‐of‐law they do more harm than good with respect to their collective, as well as personal, interests. The assessment is undertaken to counter the common presumption among police officers that circumstances often justify cutting legal corners in the interests of public safety. The essay first examines what research shows about the facilitators of police law breaking. It then examines seven reasons why violating the rule‐of‐law works against the instrumental interests of the police themselves. After assessing the strength of the evidence against the instrumental benefit of violating the rule‐of‐law, suggestions are made about research that is needed to make the case more compelling. In conclusion, the essay discusses how empirical knowledge might be most productively used to change the culture of contemporary policing.
REFORMING TO PRESERVE: COMPSTAT AND STRATEGIC PROBLEM SOLVING IN AMERICAN POLICING*
Authors: WEISBURD DAVID , MASTROFSKI STEPHEN D. , MCNALLY ANN MARIE , GREENSPAN ROSANN , WILLIS JAMES J.
Published: March 2006

Research Summary:

This paper provides the first national description of Compstat programs, considered in the framework of strategic problem solving. Relying on a survey of American police departments conducted by the Police Foundation, we examine the diffusion of Compstat programs and the nature of Compstat models throughout the United States. We also assess the penetration of models of strategic problem solving more generally into American policing. Our findings document a process of “diffusion of innovation” of Compstat‐like programs in larger police agencies that follows a rapid pace. At the same time, our data suggest that many elements of strategic problem solving had begun to be implemented more widely across American police agencies before the emergence of Compstat as a programmatic entity, and that such elements have been adopted broadly even by departments that have not formally adopted a Compstat program.

Policy Implications:

Compstat holds out the promise of allowing police agencies to adopt innovative technologies and problem‐solving techniques while empowering traditional police organizational structures. However, our analysis suggests that at this stage, what most characterizes Compstat departments and distinguishes them from others is the development of the control element of this reform. This leads us to question whether the rapid rise of Compstat in American police agencies can be interpreted more as an effort to maintain and reinforce the “bureaucratic” or “paramilitary” model of police organization (that has been under attack by scholars for most of the last two decades) than as an attempt to truly reform models of American policing.
OPPORTUNITY IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER: THE ROLE OF PUBLICITY IN CRIME PREVENTION
Authors: JOHNSON SHANE D. , BOWERS KATE J.
Published: March 2006

Research Summary:

Data concerning burglary rates and, among other things, the timing and intensity of publicity campaigns were acquired for 21 burglary reduction schemes. Statistical analyses showed clear effects of publicity as follows: (1) schemes that employed stand‐alone publicity campaigns were the most effective in reducing burglary; (2) time‐series analyses demonstrated that burglary reduction was coincident with intense periods of publicity; and (3) across the 21 schemes, there was evidence of a drop in the burglary rates prior to the implementation of the schemes, a so‐called anticipatory benefit.

Policy Implications:

The results suggest that the effectiveness of crime reduction schemes may be significantly enhanced by publicity. Promoting schemes prior to their implementation may also produce an anticipatory benefit, as was observed here. This suggests that carefully planned publicity campaigns may represent a powerful yet cost‐effective tool in crime prevention.
CREDIBLE RESEARCH PRACTICES TO INFORM DRUG LAW ENFORCEMENT
Authors: MANSKI CHARLES F.
Published: March 2006

Chairing the recent National Research Council Committee on Data and Research for Policy on Illegal Drugs, I learned that our nation has invested little in research on drug law enforcement and that the limited available research does not provide a credible basis for formation of drug control policy. This commentary conjectures reasons for the distressing status quo and recommends changes in research practices that may improve matters.
ARE SEX OFFENDERS DANGEROUS?*
Authors: SAMPLE LISA L. , BRAY TIMOTHY M.
Published: March 2006

Research Summary:

Current legislation mandating DNA collection, civil commitment, registration, and community notification of sex offenders is predicated on the assumption that sex offenders are simply more dangerous than other types of offenders in that they inevitably re‐offend. Moreover, many states are moving to expand sex offender legislation to include non‐sexual offenders on the assumption that some offense types, such as burglary and robbery, serve as “gateway” offenses to sex crimes. The purpose of this research is to highlight two of the common perceptions underlying sex offender laws, and the extension thereof, and examine them in light of current empirical evidence. We employ analysis of variance techniques on Illinois arrest data from 1990 to 1997 to examine the degree to which sex offenders have higher proportions of repeat offending than other criminal categories and if some offense types serve as “gateway” or predicate offenses to sex crimes.

Policy Implications:

Our results suggest that the extension of sex offender laws to non‐sexual offenders will likely have little effect on sexual victimization rates. More importantly, our results illustrate that policies can be founded on misconceptions, and these misconceptions not only have financial consequences, but also can affect the likelihood that the policies enacted will achieve their goals. If nothing else, this research suggests that policy makers need to become better informed on the issues they subject to far‐reaching and costly legislation.
COMBATING DOMESTIC VIOLENCE: FINDINGS FROM AN EVALUATION OF A LOCAL DOMESTIC VIOLENCE COURT*
Authors: GOVER ANGELA R. , MACDONALD JOHN M. , ALPERT GEOFFREY P.
Published: March 2006

Research Summary:

The present study examined the effectiveness of a localized domestic violence court in Lexington County, South Carolina. An interrupted time series analysis indicated that domestic violence arrests increased significantly after the court was established. Recidivism rates of 189 defendants arrested for domestic violence before the implementation of the domestic violence court were compared with 197 defendants arrested after the court's implementation. Results indicate significantly lower rates of rearrests among defendants processed through the domestic violence court.

Policy Implications:

The results from this study suggest that systematic localized court interventions aimed at domestic violence defendants can be effective at enhancing enforcement and improving victim safety.
INCREASING THE PROPORTION OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE ARRESTS THAT ARE PROSECUTED: A NATURAL EXPERIMENT IN MILWAUKEE*
Authors: DAVIS ROBERT C. , SMITH BARBARA E. , TAYLOR BRUCE
Published: March 2006

Research Summary: Mandatory and pro‐arrest policies in domestic violence incidents have increased strains on prosecutorial and court resources. They have also brought to prosecutors many cases in which victims never wanted batterers charged and prosecuted. Prosecutors are faced with the dilemma of (a) screening out difficult cases up front and expending resources on fewer but more winnable case or (b) prosecuting a larger number of cases as adequately as resources will allow. We studied a natural experiment that resulted when the Milwaukee prosecutor liberalized his screening policy to double the number of domestic violence case filings. After the new screening policy was implemented, time to disposition doubled, convictions decreased, the prevalence of pretrial crime increased, and victim satisfaction declined.

Policy Implications: The results do not support the idea that domestic violence cases can be readily prosecuted without regard for victim desires. To commit to such a policy would require a substantial commitment of additional staff, resources to collect additional types of evidence, and a willingness to try a substantially larger number of cases.
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE LEGISLATION: EXPLORING ITS IMPACT ON THE LIKELIHOOD OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, POLICE INVOLVEMENT, AND ARREST*
Authors: DUGAN LAURA
Published: March 2006

Research Summary: This research uses data from the National Crime Victimization Survey to test whether legislation affects domestic violence, police involvement, and arrest. Findings suggest that most laws do reduce the chances of family or intimate violence. Fewer appear to influence police involvement, and none relate to more arrest. This suggests that laws may deter would‐be offenders from harming family and partners.

Policy Implications: The findings suggest that states should continue to aggressively pursue domestic violence offenders. However, local officials should recognize that mandatory arrest laws could reduce the number of cases that enter the system. Further, more protection should go toward victims when the state awards them custody of the children.
HOMELESS SHELTER USE AND REINCARCERATION FOLLOWING PRISON RELEASE*
Authors: METRAUX STEPHEN , CULHANE DENNIS P.
Published: March 2006

Research Summary:

This paper examines the incidence of and interrelationships between shelter use and reincarceration among a cohort of 48,424 persons who were released from New York State prisons to New York City in 1995–1998. Results show that, within two years of release, 11.4% of the study group entered a New York City homeless shelter and 32.8% of this group was again imprisoned. Using survival analysis methods, time since prison release and history of residential instability were the most salient risk factors related to shelter use, and shelter use increased the risk of subsequent reincarceration.

Policy Implications:

These findings show both homelessness and reincarceration to be substantial problems among a population of released prisoners, problems that fall into the more general framework of community reintegration. They also suggest that enhanced housing and related services, when targeted to a relatively small at‐risk group among this population, have the potential to substantially reduce the overall risk for homelessness in the group.
SUSTAINING PROBLEM‐SOLVING CAPACITY IN COLLABORATIVE NETWORKS
Authors: SRIDHARAN SANJEEV , GILLESPIE DAVID
Published: March 2006

Research Summary:

Comprehensive Community Initiatives (CCIs) attempt to build collaborative networks within the community and enhance the community's collaborative social problem‐solving capacity to address specific criminal justice problems. In this paper, we use network analysis methods to operationalize the collaborative problem‐solving capacity in two sites involved in the Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent and Chronic Juvenile Offenders (Wilson and Howell, 1995). The problems addressed in this paper originally emerged while conducting a national process evaluation of the Comprehensive Strategy. Both overall and organizational‐level network measures are used to operationalize the collaborative problem‐solving capability in the planning and implementation phases of the Comprehensive Strategies.

Policy Implications:

An important policy implication of our work is that sustaining connections with even a handful of organizations can be difficult. CCIs represent complex systems consisting of multiple organizations collaborating over time under varying constraints and opportunities. Understanding such dynamic complexity is important if one is to recognize the difficulties inherent in sustaining such collaborative networks. For the process evaluation of the Comprehensive Strategy, participants provided concrete feedback about how to sustain the collaborative networks into the implementation phase. Specific feedback included: (1) providing greater upfront clarity of funding, (2) learning from other “exemplary” sites, and (3) developing a clearer definition of community and funder roles. We leverage results from other parts of the implemented multimethod research design to both interpret and validate the network results.
ASSESSING THE EFFECTS OF MASS INCARCERATION ON INFORMAL SOCIAL CONTROL IN COMMUNITIES
Authors: LYNCH JAMES P. , SABOL WILLIAM J.
Published: March 2006

Research Summary:

This paper reviews and evaluates the existing (and limited) evidence that increases in incarceration have affected the ability of residential neighborhoods to perform their traditional social control functions. It suggests that, although comparatively weak, the evidence points to the increases in the level and clustering in social and geographic space of incarceration as contributing to changes in the social organization of affected communities by weakening family formation, labor force attachments, and patterns of social interaction among residents. At the same time, however, the paper does find support for the contention that incarceration leads to reductions in crime in affected communities.

Policy Implications:

To the extent that mass incarceration disrupts patterns of social interaction, weakens community social organization, and decreases the stigma of imprisonment, its longer‐run effects may be to reduce its effectiveness.
SUSPECT SEARCHES: ASSESSING POLICE BEHAVIOR UNDER THE U.S. CONSTITUTION*
Authors: GOULD JON B. , MASTROFSKI STEPHEN D.
Published: March 2006

Research Summary:

This study examines police conformity to the law by evaluating direct observations of police searches in a medium‐sized American city against the applicable constitutional standards. Other researchers have investigated police misconduct, but the present study uses direct observations of police behavior. The research asks three questions: How frequently do patrol officers engage in searches? How often do their searches meet constitutional standards? What explains the proclivity to search unconstitutionally? The results paint a disquieting picture, with nearly one‐third of searches performed unconstitutionally and almost none visible to the courts. The research links police misconduct to the municipality's “war on drugs,” but surprisingly, the majority of constitutional violations was concentrated in a small number of otherwise model officers engaged in community policing.

Policy Implications:

Based on researchers’ direct field observations, this analysis suggests that studies of constitutional violations based on secondary or official records touch only the exposed tip of the population of police searches, and far more importantly, they may vastly understate the extent of constitutional violations. This is not the picture offered by Wilson and Kelling (1982), who claimed that the police previously had been constrained by legal restrictions. If anything, the data support Kelling's (1999) more recent contention that police officers are “pushing the Fourth Amendment” to the verge of or beyond what is legally permissible. There are substantial costs when the police search unconstitutionally, not only to the rights of individuals but also to the legitimacy of law enforcement. The present observations were conducted in the midst of a war on drugs, which raises the question of what a replication would show now that the nation's local law enforcement agencies have been enlisted in a war against terrorism.
AN ANALYSIS OF THE ECONOMICS OF PRISON SITING IN RURAL COMMUNITIES
Authors: KING RYAN SCOTT , MAUER MARC , HULING TRACY
Published: March 2006

Research Summary:

This study is the first of its kind to use statistical controls to measure the effects of prison siting on the host county. We use an interrupted time series design to measure the impact of prison siting on employment and income indicators in rural New York State from 1977 to 2000. Results indicate that prisons have had no substantive or statistically significant impact on host counties.

Policy Implications:

In the last decades of the twentieth century, a number of rural areas decimated by chronic poverty due to the decline of the manufacturing and agricultural economy that had once sustained them turned to prison siting as a means of development. The results of this study suggest that those decisions have been premature, and counties that rely on prisons to rebuild their economy will receive little return on their investment, while closing off any discourse concerning other means of sustainable economic growth.
SURVEILLANCE FOR CRIME PREVENTION IN PUBLIC SPACE: RESULTS AND POLICY CHOICES IN BRITAIN AND AMERICA
Authors: WELSH BRANDON C. , FARRINGTON DAVID P.
Published: March 2006

Research Summary:

The present study assessed the comparative effectiveness of two forms of surveillance in preventing crime in public space: formal surveillance, in the form of closed‐circuit television (CCTV) surveillance cameras, and natural surveillance, in the form of improved street lighting. Based on the highest quality available research evidence on these two measures—from systematic reviews incorporating meta‐analytic techniques—it was found that they are equally effective in reducing crime. More detailed analyses showed that improved street lighting was more effective in reducing crime in city centers, that both were more effective in reducing property crimes than violent crimes, and that both measures were far more effective in reducing crime in Britain than in America.

Policy Implications:

The results of this study lend support for the continued use of CCTV and improved street lighting to reduce crime, but they suggest that they need to be targeted more narrowly on property crimes. A policy that combines the two interventions may produce a greater yield in reduced crime rates, but this may be limited to vehicle crimes in car parks. Improved street lighting is an effective form of surveillance to reduce crime in public space, and it may attract less public resistance than CCTV surveillance cameras (in America at least). Lessons from the British studies to help improve the effectiveness of the two measures in America are explored.
RECIDIVISM AMONG AN EARLY COHORT OF CALIFORNIA'S PROPOSITION 36 OFFENDERS
Authors: FARABEE DAVID , HSER YIH‐ING , ANGLIN M. DOUGLAS , HUANG DAVID
Published: March 2006

Research Summary:

In November 2000, California voters approved the Substance Abuse and Crime Prevention Act (SACPA), also known as “Proposition 36,” which gives adults convicted of nonviolent drug possession offenses the option of participating in drug treatment in lieu of incarceration. Using data from an earlier evaluation of community treatment programs, we examined the subsample of clients admitted to drug treatment during the law's first six months (July 1, 2001 and December 31, 2001; N = 3,748) in 13 counties to describe an initial cohort of SACPA clients (SACPA; N = 688) regarding their participation in treatment and their subsequent rearrest outcomes. These data were compared with other criminal justice‐referred clients (Non‐SACPA‐CJ; N = 1,178) and with clients who entered treatment without a current criminal justice status (Non‐CJ; N = 1,882). Relative to Non‐CJ clients, CJ (SACPA or Non‐SACPA) clients with severe drug problems were significantly less likely to be treated in residential programs. Subsequent analyses further revealed a significant severity by modality interaction, with high‐severity/outpatient clients being most likely to be rearrested on a drug‐related charge in the 12 months after treatment admission. Although the prevalence of arrests decreased for all three groups after treatment admission, SACPA clients remained more likely to be rearrested for a drug crime even after controlling for the interaction between drug use severity and treatment modality.

Policy Implications:

These findings underscore the importance of client‐treatment matching (based on addiction severity) and of actively applying legal pressure to increase treatment retention and maximize potential treatment benefits.