bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
CRIMINALITY, PROSECUTORIAL SCREENING, AND UNCERTAINTY: TOWARD A THEORY OF DISCRETIONARY DECISION MAKING IN FELONY CASE PROCESSINGS
Authors: ALBONETTI CELESTA A.
Published: March 2006

This research contributes to a further understanding of the process of criminalization by examining case information that affects prosecuting attorneys' decision to continue felony prosecution following grand jury indictment. It is suggested that prosecuting attorneys, like other decision makers in organizations engaged in people‐processing activities, are confronted with uncertainty emerging from an inability to unilaterally exercise control over all actors involved in the transformation process. By relying on a self‐imposed decision criteria of prosecutorial merit defined as the likelihood of obtaining a jury trial conviction, prosecutors attempt to impose a “bounded rationality” on the exercise of discretion in screening decision making. This rationality is one that is sensitive to concerns for effective management of victims and witnesses. It is argued that information relevant to victim/witness credibility and/or cooperation in prosecution is brought to bear in deciding prosecutorial strategies of case processing. Therefore, it is hypothesized that, controlling for legal and extralegal variables, case information that decreases uncertainty concerning victim/witness management will increase the probability of continued prosecution. Support is found for this uncertainty avoidance thesis. In addition, the data indicate that prosecuting attorneys are less likely to continue prosecution of cases involving female defendants and are more likely to continue prosecution of defendants whose bail outcome includes financial conditions for release.
GEEKING UP AND THROWING DOWN: HEROIN STREET LIFE IN DETROIT
Authors: MIECZKOWSKI THOMAS
Published: March 2006

This paper reports the results of a field study of 15 street‐level heroin dealers in Detroit, Michigan. The techniques used by these heroin dealers are different from those described in most previous literature. The Detroit dealers do not conform to the traditional “hustling” model. They operate within a bureaucracy, do not generally sell heroin to fund their own habit, are relatively young, and largely lack an approval ideology for their activities.
AN EMPIRICAL TEST OF SCHOOL‐BASED ENVIRONMENTAL AND INDIVIDUAL INTERVENTIONS TO REDUCE THE RISK OF DELINQUENT BEHAVIOR*
Authors: GOTTFREDSON DENISE C.
Published: March 2006

This report examines a school‐based delinquency prevention program that combined an environmental change approach with direct intervention for high‐risk youths to reduce delinquent behavior and increase educational attainment. The program involved school stafl students, and community members in planning and implementing a comprehensive school improvement effort; changed disciplinary procedures; and enhanced the school program with activities aimed at increasing achievement and creating a more positive school climate. It also provided services to marginal students designed to increase their self‐concepts and success experiences and to strengthen their bonds to the school.

The program brought about a small but measurable reduction in delinquent behavior and misconduct. Students in participating schools were suspended less often, reported fewer punishing experiences in school, and reported less involvement in delinquent and drug‐related activities. The environmental interventions apparently decreased delinquency and misconduct by promoting a sense of belonging in and attachment to the school and by improving the general climate and disciplinary practices in the schools. The direct interventions with high‐risk students did not reduce delinquent behavior, but did increase commitment to education as indicated by rates of dropout, retention, graduation, and standardized achievement test scores. The evidence supports the conclusion that the program has promise for reducing delinquency and its risk factors for the general population and for improving educational outcomes for high‐risk individuals. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.
POPULATION DIVERSITY AND CROSS‐NATIONAL HOMICIDE: THE EFFECTS OF INEQUALITY AND HETEROGENEITY*
Authors: AVISON WILLIAM R. , LORING PAMELA L.
Published: March 2006

This study examines the impact of income inequality and ethnic heterogeneity on homicide rates for a sample of 32 nations. The results of the analyses indicate that vertical social direrentiation, as measured by income inequality, and horizontal differentiation, as indexed by ethnic heterogeneity, have signijicant main effects on cross‐national homicide. Additionally, evidence is presented suggesting an interaction effect on inequaliry and heterogeneity on homicide. It appears that increased ethnic heterogeneity exacerbates the impact of income inequality on homicide rates.
UNEMPLOYMENT, CRIME, AND IMPRISONMENT: A PANEL APPROACH*
Authors: PARKER ROBERT NASH. , HORWITZ ALLAN V.
Published: March 2006

Despite the widespreach acceptance of the notion that during periods of economic downturn, higher levels of unemployment lead to higher levels of crime and imprisonment, the research literature reveals very little consistent support for the existence of such a relationship. Studies that do suggest unemployment causes crime and imprisonment have used methodological techniques which, especially in over‐time studies, could lead to the acceptance of spurious effects caused by trend and lag as evidence of a true relationship. Using data over a six‐year period for the United States, a panel model is specified in which appropriate controls for intra‐series trend and cross‐series lagged effects are included. Although bivariate correlations are strongly suggestive of a relationship between unemployment and crime, results of the panel approach suggest that most of the apparent relationship is due to common trend effects. Little evidence is found for the existence of a relationship between crime/imprisonment and unemployment, regardless of the type of effect considered. In addition, results from stability tests indicate that the crime‐unemployment relationship has been unstable. while the unemployment‐imprisonment relationship has been relatively invariant.
ISSUES AND MISCONCEPTIONS IN PRISONER LITIGATION: A CRITICAL VIEW*
Authors: THOMAS JIM , KEELER DEVIN , HARRIS KATHY
Published: March 2006

In the past quarter‐century, the number of suits filed by prisoners in federal courts has substantially increased. Critics have borrowed metaphors from ballistics or pathologv to describe this increase as an “epidemic” of “legal pollution” or an “explosion.” The causes of this “hyperlexis,” or excessive litigation, are often attributed to prisoners' attempts to retry their cases once they have lost, or to some psychological attribute of plaintiffs who view litigation as a means of striking back at their keepers. This paper examines several common conceptions of prisoner litigation. National ling data from federal district courts are used to assess the merits of each. The data provide little support for many of the conceptions of and explanations for prisoner suits. It is suggested that prisoners' use of courts may be a form of social resistance to conditions for which there is no other legitimate avenue for relief:
OBSERVATIONS ON POLICE UNDERCOVER WORK*
Authors: MILLER GEORGE I.
Published: March 2006

Law enforcement officers are dependent upon citizens to alert them to criminal violations of the law. When citizens do not willingly communicate information to the police or cannot be induced to do so, police officers themselves adopt fictitious identities of various types. This paper explores police undercover work, a form of covert law enforcement used to gather information about conduct external to the organization. Through interviews with supervisors and practitioners, the benefits and liabilities of the assignment for the officers and the organization are presented. The work enables the police to investigate citizens who are not suspected of criminal activity and therefore lends itself to abuse. The practice itself demands attention as the lack of operational guidelines, standardless selection of operatives, and loose supervision imperil the safety of officers and the rights of citizens.
CITIZEN GUN OWNERSHIP AND CRIMINAL DETERRENCE: THEORY, RESEARCH, AND POLICY*
Authors: GREEN GARY S.
Published: March 2006

Research on the general and specific deterrents emanating from citizenowned firearms is examined under assumptions about deterrence. Only slight and indirect empirical evidence for deterrence exists in the area of citizen gun ownership. The crime‐reducing effects associated with public policies that support civilian gun ownership are balanced in light of other, negative public health factors associated with citizen‐owned guns.
PROBABILISTIC MODELS OF YOUTHFUL CRIMINAL CAREERS
Authors: BARNETT ARNOLD , BLUMSTEIN ALFRED , FARRINGTON DAVID P.
Published: March 2006

This paper focuses on the characterization of the criminal careers of youthful offenders. It was found that these criminal careers could be modeled with parameters rejecting constant individual rates of offending and constant probability of career termination; population heterogeneity could be adequately represented by two distinct groups—designated here as “frequents” and occasionals.” These parameters were estimated for the multiple offenders in a London cohort studied from their first convictions until age 25. In that cohort, the frequents were estimated to have an annual conviction rate of 1.14 convictions per year (constant with age) and a probability of career termination of .10 following each conviction; the occasionals had an annual conviction rate of .41 and termination probability of .33 following each conviction; the frequents were estimated to comprise 43% of the population, and the occasionals the others 57%. While this parsimonious model structure was adequate for the London cohort, it must still be tested with other offender populations.
RELIGIOSITY, PEER ASSOCIATIONS, AND ADOLESCENT MARIJUANA USE: A PANEL STUDY OF UNDERLYING CAUSAL STRUCTURES*
Authors: BURKETT STEVEN R. , WARREN BRUCE O.
Published: March 2006

This paper examines the relationship between the religious factor and adolescent marijuana use. Using panel data from a sample of 264 high school youth, several three‐wave, four‐variable models derived from social learning theory and social control theory are estimated. Each model specifies causal links between measures of religious attitude and predispositions (religious commitment and an act‐specific religious belief), involvement with marijuana‐using friends, and self‐reported marijuana use. The results provide evidence that the impact of religion is indirect through its influence on the variable Peer Associations. The findings also show the emergence of a direct effect of the act‐specific belief on behavior over time. This effect is interpreted to be more a function of within‐group attitude‐behavior similarity due to social selection than to socialization to peer group standards. These findings extend rather than refute previous research which fails to control for the effects of peer influences.
CRIME AND CUSTOM IN AN ORDERLY SOCIETY: THE SINGAPORE PROTOTYPE*
Authors: AUSTIN W. TIMOTHY
Published: March 2006

Based on five months of field work in Singapore, this study examines the style of law and order in a densely populated, island city‐state. In addition to providing descriptive accounts of what some now regard as a highly regimented, if not repressive society, the relevance of Singapore to criminological theory is explored. How police‐community relations have altered as a result of massive urban renewal programs is set forth. Further clarification is given several of Black's propositions regarding the behavior of law and to Adler's critique of low‐crime nations. An interpretation of Singapore systems of social control from a conflict theory stance is discussed.
THE ROLE OF PEERS IN THE COMPLEX ETIOLOGY OF ADOLESCENT DRUG USE*
Authors: JOHNSON RICHARD E. , MARCOS ANASTASIOS C. , BAHR STEPHEN J.
Published: March 2006

The role of peers in adolescent drug use is analyzed by integrating differential association and situational group pressure notions with propositions derived from social bond theory. The resultant causal model is tested for self‐reported use of alcohol, cigarettes, marijuana, amphetamines, and depressants. The model explains 49% of the variation in combined drug use among 768 adolescents. The variables from social learning traditions have the strongest effects in the model, but associations with drug‐using parents or with prodrug definitions received from parents or friends have far less impact on drug use than do associations with drug‐using friends per se. It is argued that differential association with situational pressure to join others in drug use may be more relevant to adolescent drug use than are social bonds or differential association with a ratio of prodrug to antidrug definitions.
DIFFERENTIAL ASSOCIATION AND MARIJUANA USE: A CLOSER LOOK AT SUTHERLAND (WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM BECKER)*
Authors: ORCUTT JAMES D.
Published: March 2006

Based on Sutherland's differential association theory and Becker's early research on marijuana use, a contingency model estimating the exact probability of getting high on marijuana under various associational and motivational conditions is specified and tested. Data from surveys at two universities fit this model closely. Predicted first‐order interactions and nonlinear effects of motivational balance and peer association are statistically significant and generate highly precise estimates of the probability of getting high. These results suggest that linear main‐effects models employed in previous research on differential association processes do not adequately reject the complex casual structure of Sutherland's theory. In addition, this study raises serious questions about claims that differential association theory is untestable and has been made outdated by social learning theory.
REVIEW ESSAY:
Authors: HAGAN JOHN
Published: March 2006

The Social Contexts of Criminal Sentencing by Martha A. Myers and Susette Talarico.

Racial Disparities in the Criminal Justice System by Joan Petersilia.

The Myth of a Racist Criminal Justice System by William Wilbanks.
FEAR OF CRIME AND VICTIMIZATION AMONG THE ELDERLY IN DIFFERENT TYPES OF COMMUNITIES*
Authors: AKERS RONALD L. , La GRECA ANTHONY J. , SELLERS CHRISTINE , COCHRAN JOHN
Published: March 2006

The central issue examined here is the effect that community setting, relative to other factors, has on victimization and fear of crime among the elderly. Findings are from 1,410 in‐home interviews in two retirement communities (age homogeneous) and two age‐heterogeneous communities. Victimization of elderly is low in all communities, and although nearly half of the respondents have some fear of crime, the percentage reporting great fear of crime is low. Victimization and fear of crime are only weakly related to one another, and the regression model for each does not account for much variance. But both are significantly related to the type of community, and fear of crime is also related to other variables. The greater the age density of the community (greater concentration of elderly), the less crime and less fear of crime. Living arrangements, sociodemographic variables, and health status of the elderly as indicators of personal vulnerability to crime are not related to victimization, but are related to fear of crime, and effects of community setting on fear of crime are reduced when these other variables are taken into account. Suggestions for other, unmeasured, sources of variations and implications for future research are presented.
THE EFFECT OF ETHNICITY ON CRIME ATTRIBUTION
Authors: FISHMAN GIDEON , RATTNER ARYE , WEIMANN GABRIEL
Published: March 2006

This study investigates the impact of ethnic origin on the attribution of criminal offenses to faces seen in portrait photographs. The underlying hypothesis is that ethnic stereotypes are a result of the way people perceive themselves and other groups (that is, the relation of in‐groups to outgroups) and that ethnic stereotypes directly affect a person's readiness to attribute particular offenses to given portraits. Thus, this study explores cross‐ethnic and intra‐ethnic offense attribution.
DIMENSIONS OF RACIAL INEQUALITY AND RATES OF VIOLENT CRIME*
Authors: GOLDEN REID M. , MESSNER STEVEN F.
Published: March 2006

The purpose of this paper is to identify systematic sources of discrepancies in the macro‐level research on racial inequality and rates of violent crime. A review of the literature suggests three likely sources of discrepant results across previous studies: differing operationalizations of racial inequality, differing samples, and differing specifications. The analyses reveal that while sample composition appears to be relatively unimportant, operationalization of racial inequality in terms of socioeconomic status (SES) rather than income can lead to very different conclusions. For certain models, SES‐based measures are clearly superior to income‐based measures. However, slight modifications of the regression models can render the effects of racial inequality in SES nonsignificant. These results call for a skeptical assessment of previous evidence indicating a positive relationship between racial inequality and rates of violent crime.
THE SIZE OF THE “CRIMINAL POPULATION”: THE PREVALENCE AND INCIDENCE OF ADULT ARREST*
Authors: TILLMAN ROBERT
Published: March 2006

The recent emphasis in criminological theory and research on “chronic offenders” assumes that involvement in crime is concentrated among a small group of offenders rather than being widespread in the population. To address this question, this study employs a longitudinal data base on criminal histories to estimate the prevalence of arrest—defined as the proportion of a population ever arrested—and the incidence of arrest—defined as the number of arrests incurred by those ever arrested—for an age cohort of young adults between the ages of 18 and 29. The results show that being arrested is a relatively common experience for young adults: nearly one‐quarter of the entire cohort and one‐third of the males in the cohort were arrested at least once. One of six males and two of five black males were arrested for an index offense. The data on incidence reveal the presence of a subset of “chronic offenders” who are responsible for a disproportionate number of arrests. However, defined in terms of three or more arrests for any offense, their numbers are smaller, but the data suggest it may be difficult to distinguish “chronic offenders” from “one‐time” offenders because 60% do not recidivate. These findings suggest that the current preoccupation with chronic offenders may obscure the broader social structural factors that cause very large segments of the population to come into conflict with the law.
THE METHODOLOGICAL ADEQUACY OF LONGITUDINAL RESEARCH ON CRIME*
Authors: GOTTFREDSON MICHAEL , HIRSCHI TRAVIS
Published: March 2006

This paper argues that the increasing dominance in contemporary criminology of the longitudinal or cohort study is not justified on methodological grounds, that this research design has taken criminological theory in unproductive directions, has produced illusory substantive findings, and has promoted policy conclusions of doubtful utility. In addition, it is noted that longitudinal research is very expensive and therefore has high opportunity costs, costs that have not been properly evaluated. The positive thesis is that many of the apparent benefits of longitudinal research can be obtained by carefully designed and reasonably conceptualized cross‐sectional studies, at substantially reduced cost.
FAMILY ORIGINS OF VIOLENT DELINQUENTS*
Authors: FAGAN JEFFREY , WEXLER SANDRA
Published: March 2006

Family is central to contemporary theories of delinquent and violent behavior. Yet, the processes by which families shape violent behavior in their children are not well understood. In the past, structural views posited that a weak family exposed a child to the evils of the street. More recently, functionalists have suggested that the family plays an active role in socializing youths to violent behaviors through supervision and discipline practices and modeling and reinforcement of antisocial behaviors. Integrated theories presume that socially disorganized families weaken children's conventional bonds and attachments, leading to associations with delinquent peers and in turn antisocial behavior. However, the influence of the family as a socializing environment may shift over time, and some suggest that its influence is overshadowed during adolescence by that of other social domains—schools, neighborhoods, peers, and work. This study describes the family processes and environments of (n = 98) chronically violent delinquents. Interviews with youths and their mothers assessed family social process and environments and the social domains and institutions with which they interact.

Analyses of youth reports of family environments and processes yield three family types: “interactionist” families exhibiting a high degree of internal interaction and bonding; “hierarchical” families characterized by parental dominance and the presence of family bond and interaction patterns; and “antisocial” families marked by criminality and family violence. Family variables have weaker explanatory power than do other social influences on violent delinquency. The relative contributions of family supervision practices and school environment varied by crime type. Social influences outside the family appear as stronger contributors to delinquency and violence during adolescence, regardless of early childhood experiences. The results underscore the importance of integrating social policies regarding family, crime, and neighborhood.
LONGITUDINAL PREDICTORS OF SERIOUS SUBSTANCE USE AND DELINQUENCY*
Authors: WHITE HELENE RASKIN , PANDINA ROBERT J. , LaGRANGE RANDY L.
Published: March 2006

The present study tests the validity of a common‐cause model in explaining both serious substance use and serious delinquent behavior among youths. Longitudinal data on 441 male and 441 female adolescents are analyzed. Youths originally tested at Time 1 when they were 12, 15, or 18 years old were retested three years later when they were 15, 18, or 21 years old. The results provide modest support for a common‐cause model. While a number of predictor variables drawn from control theory and differential association theory are related to both behaviors, those drawn from the literature on psychological correlates of adolescent deviance tend to be more strongly related to subsequent serious substance use than to serious delinquency. The findings suggest that there is a degree of etiological independence in serious adolescent substance use and serious forms of delinquency. The implications of these results for theory development and policy implementation are discussed.
REVIEW ESSAY: DANGEROUS PEOPLE Criminal Careers and “Career Criminals” edited by Alfred Blumstein, Jacqueline Cohen, Jeffrey A. Roth, and Christy A. Visher. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1986.
Authors: MESSINGER SHELDON L. , BERK RICHARD A.
Published: March 2006

Criminal Careers and “Career Criminals” edited by Alfred Blumstein, Jacqueline Cohen, Jeffrey A. Roth, and Christy A. Visher.
THE METHODS OF DELINQUENCY THEORY*
Authors: FERDINAND THEODORE N.
Published: March 2006

Delinquency theory must come to terms with experimental studies of causation and with existential studies of delinquents in situ The three are closely related. Existential studies provide insight into both the forms of delinquency and its causal matrix, and causal studies suggest both the relevant context and lawful regularities in the nature of delinquency. Moreover, using the concepts of domain and generality, one sees that strain “theory” is not a theory but a causal paradigm and that it is not competitive with control theory. One also finds that social control theory and cultural deviance are parallel in that both deal essentially with conforming behavior.
CAUSES OF WHITE‐COLLAR CRIME*
Authors: HIRSCHI TRAVIS , GOTTFREDSON MICHAEL
Published: March 2006

This paper begins with a conceptual analysis of the idea of white‐collar crime. It considers data relevant to popular images of white‐collar crime and outlines a general theory of crime explicitly applicable to both ordinary and white‐collar crime. This theory is compared with traditional explanations of white‐collar crime, and several explicit empirical tests of rival views are described.
THE PROCESS OF CRIMINALIZATION: THE CASE OF COMPUTER CRIME LAWS*
Authors: HOLLINGER RICHARD C. , LANZA‐KADUCE LONN
Published: March 2006

Scholars are rarely afforded contemporary opportunities to study the formation of criminal law. This paper reviews state and federal efforts to criminalize various forms of computer abuse. The analysis indicates that there was neither organized opposition to nor significant interest group involvement in computer crime enactments. Individual reformers included computer crime “experts” and legislators rather than “moral entrepreneurs.” The media were crucial to the criminalization, in that they provided both data on the incidence of computer crime and also helped to define society's response to the perceived problem. The paper concludes that the criminalization of computer abuse can be interpreted as a symbolic endeavor to educate and socialize a new generation of computer users by extending traditional definitions of property and privacy.
GENDER, FAMILIAL CONTROL, AND DELINQUENCY*
Authors: HILL GARY D. , ATKINSON MAXINE P.
Published: March 2006

This research addresses a key process in power‐control theory, namely, the gender stratification of social control. Using a multidimensional measure of familial control, the authors find evidence that the types of familial control employed are stratified by gender: male children are more typically aligned with paternal support and appearance rules, and female children are more often the objects of maternal support and curfew rules. All four dimensions have significant negative effects on delinquency. Brief attention is given as well to the effects of these variables on contact with formal social control agencies.
THE IMPACT OF MEDICAL RESOURCES ON CRIMINALLY INDUCED LETHALITY: A FURTHER EXAMINATION*
Authors: DOERNER WILLIAM G.
Published: March 2006

A recent addition to the literature on the ecology of homicide is the explanation offered by Doerner and Speir (1986) that the differential distribution of medical resources is partially responsible for variation in criminally induced lethality. Unfortunately, that analysis was hampered by data that did not adequately measure crucial concepts. Consequently, this study reanalyzes homicide data for Florida in conjunction with a more detailed medical data base. The results indicate that medical resources, particularly emergency transportation, do affect the distribution of criminally induced lethality.
NARCOTICS USE AND CRIME: A MULTISAMPLE, MULTIMETHOD ANALYSIS*
Authors: ANGLIN M. DOUGLAS , SPECKART GEORGE
Published: March 2006

Various addict behaviors that are relevant to the narcotics‐crime relationship are examined throughout the course of the addiction career. Anglo and Chicano methadone patients are studied and several methodological approaches are utilized. The data are representative of numerous critical periods within the addiction career as well as periods immediately preceding and subsequent to it. The results from the various methodological analyses converge to indicate that while involvement in property crime activities generally precedes the addiction career, after addiction occurs the highly elevated property crime levels demonstrated by addicts appear to be regulated by similarly high narcotics use levels. During periods of curtailed narcotics use produced by treatment, property crime levels are significantly reduced and become extremely low after termination of the addiction career. The findings are compared with results previously reported and new results are presented. Theoretical consideration of circumstances that significantly moderate the narcotics‐crime relationship, such as geographic and sociodemographic differences, drug trafficking, and other behaviors, are discussed.
DIRECT PARENTAL CONTROLS AND DELINQUENCY*
Authors: WELLS L. EDWARD , RANKIN JOSEPH H.
Published: March 2006

Until recently, “direct controls” by parents have been summarily dismissed by delinquency researchers as theoretically and empirically unimportant. Although prior research indicates that various measures of direct parental controls (e.g., the amount of time spent interacting with parents) are related to delinquency, the correlations are uniformly weak and often not significant. However, when the term “direct control” is reconceptualized to include specific components—normative regulation, monitoring, and punishment—the results indicate that direct controls by parents have as great an impact on delinquency as that of “direct controls” or parental “attachments.” Further, the results suggest that the form of the relation between direct controls and delinquency is not simple, direct, and linear. Depending on which specific component of direct control is examined, its relationship to delinquency may be either linear or nonlinear, positive or inverse.
IS THERE A SEASON FOR HOMICIDE?
Authors: CHEATWOOD DERRAL
Published: March 2006

A “thermic law” postulating a relationship between violent crime and hot weather or southern climates is one of the oldest propositions in criminology. On the question of homicide and seasonality, modern research produces contradictory findings—some studies support a seasonal pattern of homicide but others reject such a pattern. A review of studies on the seasonality of homicide and an analysis of Uniform Crime Reports data and data on homicide in Baltimore from 1974 to 1984 are undertaken in order to resolve the issue. The contradictory results are not explained by differences in definitions nor by differences in data or methodology; nor are they explained on the bases of regional differences or an urban bias present in most studies. The nature of the question asked, however, is critical to the results obtained. The conclusion reached is that there is no season to homicide. The months of December, July, and August are significantly more likely to be among the months in which homicide is high for any given year, but the number of homicides during those months may not be significantly higher than in other months.
UNRAVELING FAMILIES AND DELINQUENCY: A REANALYSIS OF THE GLUECKS' DATA*
Authors: LAUB JOHN H. , SAMPSON ROBERT J.
Published: March 2006

One of the most influential studies in the history of criminological research is Sheldon and Eleanor Gluecks' Unraveling Juvenile Delinquency (UJD) (1950). The research design of the UJD study was strong, but the conceptual and statistical analyses performed by the Gluecks were ofen lacking in both methodological and theoretical rigor. As a result, the Gluecks' study has been criticized from both a methodological and ideological perspective. This research reanalyzes the original Glueck data, with a specijic focus on variables relating to family characteristics of 500 oficially defined delinquents and 500 nondelinquents. Using multivariate analyses we find that mother's supervision, parental styles of discipline. and parental attachment are the most important predictors of serious and persistent delinquency. On the other hand, background factors (e.g., parental criminality and drunkenness, broken homes, crowding) have little or no direct effect on delinquency, but instead operate through the family process variables. By reanalyzing the original UJD data, this study contributes to the current literature on family lve and delinquency and provides an updated assessment of the Gluecks' contributions to criminologv.
GANG HOMICIDE, DELINQUENCY, AND COMMUNITY*
Authors: CURRY G. DAVID , SPERGEL IRVING A.
Published: March 2006

Analysis of community‐level data on community areas in Chicago substantiates two conceptual differences: the first. between gang crime and delinquency as community‐level phenomena; and the second, between theoretical associations of each of the former to community‐area patterns of social disorganization and poverty. One pattern is more common in Chicago's Hispanic communities; the other, in Chicago's black communities. Five measures of the quality of community life used are gang homicide rate, delinquency rate, unemployment rate, percentage living below the poverty level, and mortgage investment per dwelling. Identifying communities as white, black, Hispanic, or mixed and applying discriminant analysis reveal the racial‐ethnic communities as distinct social worlds. Regression analyses of gang homicide and delinquency rates show that the two measures display very different patterns of association with other community characteristics. An analysis of the residual change score for gang homicide rate over two time periods indicates the relative stability of community patterns with poverty measures explaining much of the change in patterns. It is concluded that gang homicide rates and delinquency rates are ecologically distinct community problems. The distribution of gang homicide rates conforms to classic theories of social disorganization and poverty, and the distribution of delinquency rates is more generally associated with poverty.
DIFFERENTIAL CRIMINAL PATTERNS OF NARCOTIC ADDICTS OVER AN ADDICTION CAREER*
Authors: NURCO DAVID N. , HANLON THOMAS E. , KINLOCK TIMOTHY W. , DUSZYNSKI KAREN R.
Published: March 2006

In a further study of the addiction‐crime relationship, 214 narcotic addicts were classified according to their criminal involvement during a 2‐year preaddiction period. The sample was divided into two groups—those who reported involvement in any of 20 categories of criminal activity (N = 108) and those who reported no such activity (N = 106). The criminal behavior and drug‐use patterns of the two groups were then compared during subsequent addiction and nonaddiction periods. As expected, the impact of addiction was much more prominent in the low‐crime group. The implications of results for rehabilitation strategies are discussed.
THE MISPLACED ROLE OF RATIONAL CHOICE IN NEUTRALIZATION THEORY
Authors: HAMLIN JOHN E.
Published: March 2006

This study addresses one point in neutralization theory. It is often maintained that techniques of neutralization relieve moral constraints which allow for individuals to commit delinquent behavior. Drawing on the body of knowledge concerning vocabularies of motives, it is argued here that motives in deviancy theory should not be viewed in such positivist/causal terms. Techniques of neutralization are motives which are more accurately utilized after behavior is committed and only when such behavior is called into question. It is also argued that the use of motives and the types of motives should indicate the degree of conflict involved in the question situation.
EXPLAINING RATE CHANGES IN DELINQUENT ARREST TRANSITIONS USING EVENT HISTORY ANALYSIS*
Authors: TONTODONATO PAMELA
Published: March 2006

Many aspects of the criminal career are amenable to empirical analysis, and in recent years we have witnessed a proliferation of research in the areas of individual offense frequency, arrest frequency, career length, and crime‐switching patterns. This research analyzes the effects of explanatory variables on the rate at which officially detected juvenile offenders move from one crime type to another, and the statistical techniques used take advantage of the longitudinal nature of the data. An arrest is considered an event that occurs at a given point in time, and event history analysis is used to model the transition rate from one crime type to another as a function of offense history and offender characteristics. This transition rate encompasses two aspects of the criminal career process: the rate at which arrests take place and the likelihood of transition from arrest to arrest.
A TIME SERIES ANALYSIS OF VIOLENT CRIME AND ITS RELATION TO PROLONGED STATES OF WARFARE: THE ISRAELI CASE*
Authors: LANDAU SIMHA F. , PFEFFERMANN DANNY
Published: March 2006

This study examines the effect of security‐related stressors (e.g., wars and more prolonged states of belligerence) on violent crime patterns. Two alternative hypotheses are put forward: the cohesion hypothesis, which predicts a decrease in criminal violence in times of increased security‐related stress, and the legitimation‐habituation hypothesis, which predicts an increase in criminal violence in such periods. The study uses monthly data collected in Israel over 15 years. Security‐related casualties and incidents are the security‐related stressors, homicide and robbery are the measures of criminal violence, and economic and sociodemographic indicators are the control variables. The analysis uses a multiple regression model with autoregressive errors. The reported number of casualties had a significant marginal positive effect on homicide, thus supporting the legitimation‐habituation hypothesis. Such an effect could not be detected for the robberies series. Inflation increments had a strong positive effect on both series, and rates of unemployment had a significant marginal positive effect on robbery but not on homicide. The effects of the various stressors are not contemporaneous but extend to several months ahead. Some theoretical aspects of the findings and their implications for Israeli society are discussed.
DISTRICT ATTORNEYS AND CORPORATE CRIME: SURVEYING THE PROSECUTORIAL GATEKEEPERS
Authors: BENSON MICHAEL L. , MAAKESTAD WILLIAM J. , CULLEN FRANCIS T. , GEIS GILBERT
Published: March 2006

A mail survey of California district attorneys regarding corporate crime focused on the recent experiences of the prosecutors with such crimes and on factors that limit the likelihood of their prosecuting corporate offenders. A significant majority of the district attorneys had prosecuted a variety of corporate crimes, and a sizable minority anticipated devoting more resources to corporate crime prosecutions in the future. There was a strong consensus among the district attorneys that the primary obstacle to corporate crime prosecutions is not political but practical and inheres in the level of resources available to them. Prosecutors in small districts were more constrained by the potential impact that a corporate prosecution might have on the local economy than their counterparts in large districts. This finding suggests that community context may influence social control responses to corporate lawbreakers.
NEIGHBORHOOD CHANGES IN ECOLOGY AND VIOLENCE*
Authors: TAYLOR RALPH B. , COVINGTON JEANETTE
Published: March 2006

We investigate links between ecological changes and changes in violence in Baltimore neighborhoods in the 1970's The two most salient ecological changes during the decade were (1) the emergence of a large number of gentrifying neighborhoods and (2) the further absorption of several older, minority neighborhoods into an “underclass” status Relative deprivation and social disorganization each predict increasing violence in gentrifying and emerging underclass neighborhoods. But, relative deprivation theory highlights the role of changes in economic status, whereas social disorganization highlights the role of changes in stability or family status. We further suggest that connections between ecological change and changes in disorder are contingent not only on historical context, but also on overall neighborhood structure at the beginning of the period. We hypothesize: (a) neighborhoods becoming more solidly “underclass” will experience increasing violence as status and stability decline and (b) emerging gentrifying neighborhoods will experience increasing violence as status and stability increase. Controlling for spatial autocorrelation, results support these hypotheses In emerging underclass neighborhoods status changes are most clearly linked to violence changes, whereas in gentrifying neighborhoods violence shifts are most closely tied to changing stability.
SOCIAL BACKGROUND AND THE SENTENCING BEHAVIOR OF JUDGES*
Authors: MYERS MARTHA A.
Published: March 2006

This paper explores the extent to which the social background of judges affects their sentencing behavior. An analysis of data on felons convicted in Georgia suggests that background has little direct bearing on sentencing outcomes. Instead, it conditions the weight judges attach to legally relevant and social background factors. Expectations about the role of the judge's age, religion, prior prosecutorial experience, and local background received mixed support. Older judges were selectively more punitive than their younger colleagues, but they did not direct this punitiveness toward disadvantaged offenders. Nor was there evidence that male judges were paternalistic toward female offenders. Baptist and Fundamentalist judges also sentenced more punitively, but they were not more likely than other judges to discriminate against black or disadvantaged offenders. Rather, they appeared to hold white and older offenders to a higher standard of behavior. Former prosecutors were selectively punitive and applied the law more uniformly than nonprosecutors. Local judges appeared to be more responsive to public demands for incarceration and sentenced more particularistically. These results illustrate the importance of considering judicial background in conjunction with case attributes, and they underscore the need for research that increases our understanding of judicial background as a conditioner of differential treatment during sentencing.
THE MANAGEMENT OF VIOLENCE BY POLICE PATROL OFFICERS*
Authors: BAYLEY DAVID H. , GAROFALO JAMES
Published: March 2006

This study examines the dynamics of potentially violent encounters between police and public. It is based on systematic observation of about 350 eight‐hour tours of duty by patrol officers in three precincts of New York City during the summer of 1986. It compares the tactics and resulting outcomes found in encounters handled, respectively, by patrol officers believed by their peers to be especially skilled at minimizing violence and a cross section of all other patrol officers. Its major conclusions are (1) violence, even verbal aggression, is relatively rare in police work: (2) most conflict is dampened by the arrival of the police, leaving little scope for the use of defusing tactics: and (3) the behavior of officers judged by colleagues to be skilled in minimizing violence is measurably different from the behavior of “average” patrol officers, and in ways that suggest that colleagues may be good judges of on‐street performance.
RELATIVE COHORT SIZE AND AGE‐SPECIFIC CRIME RATES: AN AGE‐PERIOD‐RELATIVE‐COHORT‐SIZE MODEL*
Authors: O'BRIEN ROBERT M.
Published: March 2006

The compositional effects of relatively large young‐adult cohorts on the total rate of serious crimes is well established. The more subtle effect of relative cohort size on age‐specific crime rates, suggested by Richard Easterlin, is more controversial. The literature contains no adequate test of Easterlin's hypothesis as it relates to crime. To provide an adequate test of Easterlin's theory, this study includes age‐specific rates and measures of relative cohort size and controls for age and period in an age‐period‐relative‐cohort‐size model. Using arrest data from the Uniform Crime Reports (Part I crimes) for the years 1960, 1965, 1970, 1975, 1980, and 1985, the analysis provides support for Easterlin's theory for property crimes, that is, for robbery, burglary, and larceny (but not for motor vehicle theft). Though these relationships were small in comparison to those between age or period and age‐specific crime rates, they were generally statistically significant and were replicated with data from 1962, 1967, 1972, 1977, 1982, and 1987. The relationships between relative cohort size and assaultive crimes provided little consistent support for Easterlin's theory.
ORIGINS OF INTEREST IN THE PRIVATIZATION OF PUNISHMENT: THE NINETEENTH AND TWENTIETH CENTURY AMERICAN EXPERIENCE
Authors: III ALEXIS M. DURHAM
Published: March 2006

Interest in the privatization of punishment has increased substantially during the past decade. The rising costs of incarceration and steady increases in the incarcerated population have stimulated governmental enthusiasm for the transfer of certain correctional responsibilities to the private sector. Advocates and critics of privatization differ regarding the ultimate benefits of private sector participation in the correctional process. In an effort to shed light on some of the conflicting claims of advocates and critics, this paper analyzes the origins of interest in privatization in America during both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The analysis suggests that scrutiny of the historical record may provide insights that will be useful in the development of policy that can successfully anticipate and avoid hazards to the success of correctional privatization.
A HISTORICAL ANALYSIS OF THE LAW OF VAGRANCY
Authors: ADLER JEFFREY S.
Published: March 2006

For more than two decades William Chambliss's analysis of vagrancy law has provided criminologists with historical evidence to support class‐based explanations for the development of criminal law. Chambliss's use of the historical record, however, is suggestive more than it is conclusive, and recent studies of vagrancy law have exposed important shortcomings in his model. In fact, a systematic examination of the history of vagrancy law reveals that Chambliss's analysis is flawed. Thus. Criminologists should not continue to cite Chambliss's article as an authoritative source on the historical development of criminal law.
CHILD ABUSE, NEGLECT, AND VIOLENT CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR*
Authors: WIDOM CATHY SPATZ
Published: March 2006

Using a prospective cohorts design, official criminal histories for a large sample of substantiated and validated cases of physical and sexual abuse and neglect from the years 1967 through 1971 (n = 908) were compared with those of a matched control group (n = 667) of individuals with no official record of abuse or neglect. Abused and neglected subjects had higher rates of having an adult criminal record than controls and a larger number of arrests as an adult. Based on a logit analysis, a model using four explanatory variables (age, sex, race, and abuse/neglect status) provided a good fit. In comparison with controls, abused and neglected subjects also had a higher frequency of arrests for violent offenses as adults; however, this was due primarily to significantly more adult violent offenses by abused males. Support for the cycle of violence is discussed as well as sex differences in the results, limitations of the findings, and implications for further research.
ON THE CAUSES OF “WHITE‐COLLAR” CRIME: AN ASSESSMENT OF HIRSCHI AND GOTTFREDSON'S CLAIMS
Authors: STEFFENSMEIER DARRELL
Published: March 2006

This article assesses Hirschi and Gottfredson claims about patterns and explanations of White‐collar crime. It points out several flaws in their analysis and shows (1) that the UCR offense categories of fraud and forgery are not appropriate indicators of white‐collar or occupational crime because the typical arrestee in these categories committed a nonoccupational crime; (2) that the demographic distribution (age, sex, race) of these “white‐collar” crimes is not the same as it is for most ordinary crimes; and (3) that the occurrence of these “white‐collar” crimes is not relatively rare. The implications of the findings for research and theory on crime are also discussed.