bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
REDUCTION IN DRUNK DRIVING AS A RESPONSE TO INCREASED THREATS OF SHAME, EMBARRASSMENT, AND LEGAL SANCTIONS*
Authors: GRASMICK HAROLD G. , BURSIK ROBERT J. , ARNEKLEV BRUCE J.
Published: March 2006

In a recent paper we proposed a strategy for incorporating threats of shame and embarrassment, along with the threat of legal sanctions, into a rational choice perspective on illegal behavior. In this paper we use that approach in an attempt to account for a reduction in self‐reported drunk driving observed in a community between identical surveys conducted in 1982 and 1990. The interval between the two surveys was a period of intense legislative activity and moral crusading at the national and local levels. Our analysis indicates that the reduction in self‐reported drunk driving in the community is primarily attributable to an increase in the threat of shame for this offense.
THE INFLUENCE OF TESTOSTERONE ON DEVIANCE IN ADULTHOOD: ASSESSING AND EXPLAINING THE RELATIONSHIP*
Authors: BOOTH ALAN , OSGOOD D. WAYNE
Published: March 2006

Using a large sample of men, we examine alternative models of the way in which testosterone may influence adult deviant behavior. The results indicate a significant and moderately strong relationship between testosterone and adult deviance, and this relationship between testosterone and adult deviance is largely mediated by the influence of testosterone on social integration and on prior involvement in juvenile delinquency. In addition, testosterone level moderates the relationship of social integration to adult deviance: The restraining influence of social integration is less necessary for men with lower levels of testosterone. Further, prior delinquency interacts with social integration in the same fashion, accounting for much of the moderating effect of testosterone. This pattern of results supports the conclusions that (1) testosterone is one of a larger constellation of factors contributing to a general latent propensity toward deviance and (2) the influence of testosterone on adult deviance is closely tied to social factors. Our findings show that there is considerable promise in a biosocial approach that integrates social and biological explanations, rather than playing them off against one another.
A NOTE ON PERCEPTUAL DETERRENCE, RELIGIOUSLY BASED MORAL CONDEMNATION, AND SOCIAL CONTROL*
Authors: BURKETT STEVEN R. , WARD DAVID A.
Published: March 2006

Empirical investigations of social control mechanisms are often limited to single sources of control, such as the efficacy of legal punishments. Because research has produced only moderate support for the hypothesis that perceived risk of legal punishments reduces the likelihood of nonconformity, some have searched sources of control that condition this relationship. such as the degree of moral condemnation individuals hold toward a criminal/delinquent act. However, relevant research has resulted in contradictory findings. Using cross‐sectional and panel data, we obtained results that show that moral condemnation of an act conditions the deterrent relationship and that findings from previous studies may have underestimated the effect of legal deterrents given the presence of those in the population who refrain from marijuana use because it is believed to be sin fur. Implications of the findings for the relative deterrability of serious versus minor offenses and the relevance of this distinction for issues of social control are discussed.
PERCEPTUAL DETERRENCE AMONG ACTIVE RESIDENTIAL BURGLARS: A RESEARCH NOTE*
Authors: DECKER SCOTT , WRIGHT RICHARD , LOGIE ROBERT
Published: March 2006

The research reported here is based on a comparison of active residential burglars and a matched control group regarding their willingness to commit a burglary at varying levels of certainty of arrest, severity of penalty, and anticipated reward. Initial analyses revealed that few controls were willing to offend regardless of risk, penalty, or reward and that offenders were not influenced by penalty on its own. Consequently, responses of the offenders only were further analyzed in relation to the impact of risk, penalty, and reward. The results of a logit analysis indicated that both risk of being caught and prospect of increased gain had a significant influence on the offenders' decision making.
A STRUCTURAL EXAMINATION OF MISDEMEANOR COURT DISPOSITION PATTERNS*
Authors: JAMIESON KATHERINE M. , BLOWERS ANITA NEUBERGER
Published: March 2006

The utility of structural criminology in explaining societal reaction to criminal events is examined in an analysis of misdemeanor court cases processed in an urban southern jurisdiction. The analysis employs a relational measure of class to discern distinctions in disposition patterns for misdemeanors classified by type of complaining party. Logistic regression is used to consider the influence of a variety of procedural/legal and extralegal variables in predicting case dispositions for individual, corporate, and victimless cases. Results indicate partial support for the premises of structural theory, and the discussion focuses on how the context of criminal court processing may be conditioned by varying degrees of control between victim and offender.
EVALUATION OF THE PAINT CREEK YOUTH CENTER: A RESIDENTIAL PROGRAM FOR SERIOUS DELINQUENTS*
Authors: GREENWOOD PETER W. , RAND SUSAN TURNER
Published: March 2006

A classic experimental design was used to determine whether youths assigned to a small experimental program, designed to offer a comprehensive and highly structured array of intervention services and activities, actually received significantly different treatment, and performed better, than control youths assigned to traditional training schools. Interviews with staff and youths suggest that the experimental program did deliver significantly more treatment services. One‐year follow‐up data showed no significant differences in arrests or self‐reported delinquency between experimental and control groups, although those who completed the experimental program performed significantly better than those who were removed for disciplinary reasons.
MANAGING RAPE: EXPLORATORY RESEARCH ON THE BEHAVIOR OF RAPE STATISTICS*
Authors: JENSEN GARY F. , KARPOS MARYALTANI
Published: March 2006

This article explores interpretations of the UCR‐NCS disparity in rape rates within the context of recent debates and research about the UCR‐NCS relationship. Analysis of a variety of survey, organizational, and employee data together with UCR and NCS crime data yields a pattern of findings that makes sense if two assumptions are made: Downward trends in NCS data are an approximation of trends in the real rate of rape, and upward trends in UCR data are primarily a product of changes in the management of rape cases. The common attribution of disparities between UCR and NCS rape data to changes in public or victim reporting receives little support when compared with explanations stressing organizational change. Upward movement in official attention to rape could, in fact, account for downward movement in NCS rape rates. The implications of recent NCS efforts to improve the official measurement of rape for the future behavior of rape statistics are also considered.
SIBLING RESEMBLANCE IN JUVENILE DELINQUENCY: FINDINGS FROM THE NATIONAL YOUTH SURVEY*
Authors: LAURITSEN JANET L.
Published: March 2006

Analyses based on individual‐ and family‐level self‐report data indicate that (1) delinquency incidents are disproportionately concentrated among households with adolescents, (2) families do not specialize in delinquency by producing certain types of offenders, and (3) adolescent levels of delinquency are predicted equally as well by the offending of an older sibling. the offending of a younger sibling, or by the average level of offending among all other adolescents in the household. Three sets of family characteristics (socioeconomic status, composition, and functioning) are used in multivariate analyses to examine the association among sibling delinquency levels. while sibling composition and family functioning are significant predictors of adolescent delinquency, only family functioning accounts for a small proportion of sibling resemblance in offending. These analyses add to the growing body of research that suggests that sibling similarity in delinquency requires additional consideration in theoretical and empirical investigations of juvenile offending.
REEXAMINING SOCIAL DISORGANIZATION THEORY USING CALLS TO THE POLICE AS A MEASURE OF CRIME*
Authors: WARNER BARBARA D. , PIERCE GLENN L.
Published: March 2006

This study examines social disorganization theory using calls to the police during 1980 in 60 Boston neighborhoods. These data, based on complainant reports of crime rather than official police reports, allow further investigation of differences in findings based on victimization data and official crime data. The rates of assault, robbery, and burglary are regressed on poverty, mobility, racial heterogeneity, family disruption, and structural density. Interaction terms for poverty and heterogeneity, poverty and mobility, and mobility and heterogeneity are also explored. Results from this study support findings from recent victimization studies and earlier ecological studies using official counts of crime. Poverty and heterogeneity, along with family disruption and structural density, are found to be important ecological variables for understanding the distribution of crime rates among neighborhoods.
SAVINGS AND LOAN FRAUD AS ORGANIZED CRIME: TOWARD A CONCEPTUAL TYPOLOGY OF CORPORATE ILLEGALITY*
Authors: CALAVITA KITTY , PONTELL HENRY N.
Published: March 2006

This paper proposes a classification scheme for distinguishing “organized crime” and “corporate crime” based not on the occupational position or social status of their perpetrators, but on the motives and methods of the offenses themselves. Using government documents, interviews with FBI investigators and thrift regulators, as well as a variety of secondary sources, it documents patterns of crime in the savings and loan industry and demonstrates that these conspiracies more closely approximate organized crime than corporate crime. Included in the discussion is a brief exploration of the other forms of corporate illegality to which this broader typology can be applied. The paper concludes with a discussion of the theoretical and policy implications of applying the organized crime model to certain forms of white‐collar crime and argues that with the proliferation of financial fraud, it is imperative to replace traditional ad hominem assumptions about corporate illegality with more analytically useful distinctions based on the modus operandi.
PROBATION AND PAROLE: PUBLIC RISK AND THE FUTURE OF INCARCERATION ALTERNATIVES*
Authors: GEERKEN MICHAEL R. , HAYES HENNESSEY D.
Published: March 2006

Jail and prison populations in the United States have continued to grow unabated during the past two decades but crime rates have not declined. Partly in response to the pressures caused by burgeoning correctional populations, the use of alternatives to incarceration has expanded. An ongoing debate centers on the effectiveness of these alternatives. Many criminal justice professionals and some researchers question whether such alternatives seriously restrict the criminal justice system 's ability to incapacitate the active offender. This study deals specifically with two alternatives to incarceration: probation and parole. We examine offender recidivism for a sample of probationers and parolees active in New Orleans, Louisiana, and offer a new approach to addressing the effectiveness issue. Past research has evaluated the effectiveness of alternatives by examining failure rates of diverted offenders. High failure rates, we argue, do not necessarily imply a significant loss of the incapacitative effects of imprisonment. We suggest that a more appropriate measure of the loss of incapacitative effect is the proportion of all offenses committed by persons on probation or parole. Our results suggest that such losses are surprisingly low. The policy implications of our findings are discussed.
GANGS, DRUGS, AND DELINQUENCY IN A SURVEY OF URBAN YOUTH*
Authors: ESBENSEN FINN‐AAGE , HUIZINGA DAVID
Published: March 2006

Youth delinquent gangs have been given considerable academic and media attention during the past decade. Much of the attention has focused on the violence and drug dealing in which gang members are assumed to be involved. Recent knowledge about gangs has relied primarily on data obtained from police gang units and from observational or case studies. Very little information has been derived from surveys or interviews with a more general sample of youths. In this paper, data from the Denver Youth Survey, a longitudinal study of families, are used to examine: (1) the prevalence and demographic composition of gangs: (2) the degree to which gang members are involved in illegal activities: and (3) the temporal relationship between criminal offending and gang membership.
RELIGION, ATTRIBUTION STYLE, AND PUNITIVENESS TOWARD JUVENILE OFFENDERS*
Authors: GRASMICK HAROLD G. , McGILL ANNE L.
Published: March 2006

A growing body of research shows that adherents to conservative Christian beliefs are more punitive than others in their response to crime. A frequently offered but still untested explanation is that such beliefs promote a dispositional attribution style—the idea that crime results from the offender's character, not from unfortunate or unjust environmental influences. With punitiveness toward juvenile offenders as the dependent variable, the present study directly tests the hypothesis that a tendency to attribute crime to dispositional factors is the intervening variable linking conservative religious beliefs to punitiveness. The analysis provides strong support for the hypothesis.
DELINQUENT PEERS, BELIEFS, AND DELINQUENT BEHAVIOR: A LONGITUDINAL TEST OF INTERACTIONAL THEORY*
Authors: THORNBERRY TERENCE P. , LIZOTTE ALAN J. , KROHN MARVIN D. , FARNWORTH MARGARET , JANG SUNG JOON
Published: March 2006

Three theoretical models of the interrelations among associations with delinquent peers, delinquent beliefs, and delinquent behavior are examined. The socialization model views delinquent peers and beliefs as causally prior to delinquent behavior, whereas the selection model hypothesizes that associations with delinquent peers and delinquent beliefs are a result of delinquent behavior. The interactional model combines aspects of both the socialization and the selection models, positing that these variables have bidirectional causal influences on one another over time. Data to test for reciprocal causality are drawn from three waves of the Rochester Youth Development Study. Results suggest that simple unidirectional models are inadequate. Associating with delinquent peers leads to increases in delinquency via the reinforcing environment of the peer network. Engaging in delinquency, in turn, leads to increases in associations with delinquent peers. Finally, delinquent beliefs exert lagged effects on peers and behavior, which tend in turn to “harden” the formation of delinquent beliefs.
LEVELS OF SOCIAL INTEGRATION IN GROUP CONTEXTS AND THE EFFECTS OF INFORMAL SANCTION THREAT ON DEVIANCE*
Authors: PETEE THOMAS A. , MILNER TRUDIE F. , WELCH MICHAEL R.
Published: March 2006

Contextual data from a unique study (Notre Dame Study of Catholic Parish Life) are used to test multilevel models predicting three types of deviance ranging from excessive drinking to tax evasion. Measures representing informal sanction threat and aggregate‐level social integration as well as the interaction of these variables displayed the net effects that were predicted only for those types of deviance that appear to be less impulsive. In general, the deterrent effects of informal sanctions were found to be strongest in communities characterized by high levels of social integration.
ARE SOME PEOPLE CRIME‐PRONE? REPLICATIONS OF THE PERSONALITY‐CRIME RELATIONSHIP ACROSS COUNTRIES, GENDERS, RACES, AND METHODS*
Authors: CASPI AVSHALOM , MOFFITT TERRIE E. , SILVA PHIL A. , STOUTHAMER‐LOEBER MAGDA , KRUEGER ROBERT F. , SCHMUTTE PAMELA S.
Published: March 2006

We examined the relation between personality traits and crime in two studies. In New Zealand we studied 18‐year‐old males and females from an entire birth cohort. In Pittsburgh we studied an ethnically diverse group of 12‐ and 13‐year‐old boys. In both studies we gathered multiple and independent measures of personality and delinquent involvement. The personality correlates of delinquency were robust in different nations, in different age cohorts, across gender, and across race: greater delinquent participation was associated with a personality configuration characterized by high Negative Emotionality and weak Constraint. We suggest that when Negative Emotionality (the tendency to experience aversive affective states) is accompanied by weak Constraint (difficulty in impulse control), negative emotions may be translated more readily into antisocial acts. We review additional evidence about the developmental origins and consequences of this personality configuration and discuss its implications for theories about antisocial behavior.
POSTMODERN THOUGHT AND CRIMINOLOGICAL DISCONTENT: NEW METAPHORS FOR UNDERSTANDING VIOLENCE*
Authors: SCHWARTZ MARTIN D. , FRIEDRICHS DAVID O.
Published: March 2006

Although postmodern theory has virtually exploded throughout the social sciences, thus far it has only begun to touch criminology. This piece identifies some of the principal themes associated with postmodern thought, reasons for the current interest in it, and its potential relevance for criminology. There are many postmodernisms, but special attention is paid here to the popular models borrowed from literary and linguistic analysis. Violence is used as a concrete example to explore these issues. The postmodern critique is a challenge not only to the philosophical underpinnings of traditional and empirical criminology, but also to the basic premises of both mainstream and progressive social policy responses to criminal violence.
TWO ROUTES TO DELINQUENCY: DIFFERENCES BETWEEN EARLY AND LATE STARTERS IN THE IMPACT OF PARENTING AND DEVIANT PEERS*
Authors: SIMONS RONALD L. , WU CHYI‐IN , CONGER RAND D. , LORENZ FREDERICK O.
Published: March 2006

This paper tests hypotheses concerning differences in the determinants of involvement with the criminal justice system for adolescents who show early versus late onset of delinquency. Four waves of data collected on 177 adolescent boys living in small towns in the midwest were used to test the hypotheses. For late starters, quality of parenting predicted affiliation with deviant peers, which was associated in turn with criminal justice system involvement. Oppositional/defiant behavior was unrelated both to affiliation with deviant peers and to involvement with the criminal justice system. For early starters, on the other hand, quality of parenting predicted oppositional/defiant behavior. This behavior pattern predicted affiliation with deviant peers, which in turn predicted criminal justice system involvement. Further, we found evidence of an interaction effect for early starters: criminal justice system involvement was highest for those youths who both were oppositional/defiant and had deviant friends. Overall the findings support the idea of different routes to criminal behavior and arrest for early versus late starters.
SENTENCING AND UNWARRANTED DISPARITY: AN EMPIRICAL ASSESSMENT OF THE LONG‐TERM IMPACT OF SENTENCING GUIDELINES IN MINNESOTA*
Authors: STOLZENBERG LISA , D'ALESSIO STEWART J.
Published: March 2006

Using an interrupted time‐series design, this research note analyzes the long‐term effect of Minnesota's sentencing guidelines on reducing unwarranted disparity in sentencing outcomes that fall within their scope of authority. Unwarranted disparity is defined as residual variation not attributable to legally mandated sentencing factors. Findings suggest that although the sentencing guidelines initially reduced disparity for the no prison/prison sentencing decision, inequality began to revert to preguideline levels as time passed. Further analysis revealed that the guidelines had a permanent impact on reducing disparities in decisions on the length of prison sentence. Overall we observed an 18% decline in disparity for the no prison/prison outcome and a 60% reduction in inequality for the judicial decision as to length of prison sentence. Two explanations for the reversionary trend in the no prison/prison series are highlighted.
A GENERAL PARADIGM FOR UNDERSTANDING CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR: EXTENDING EVOLUTIONARY ECOLOGICAL THEORY*
Authors: VILA BRYAN
Published: March 2006

A paradigm is presented for developing and extending Cohen and Machalek's evolutionary ecological theory of expropriative crime to encompass all criminal behavior. The paradigm uses well‐understood concepts from evolutionary ecology to identify the scope and scale necessary for a holistic understanding of crime. It demonstrates how consistent empirical findings and insights from the many disciplines that study crime may be integrated into a single comprehensive theoretical framework. At the micro level, it explains how individual criminal behavior is influenced, but not determined, by systematic interactions between factors at ecological, individual, and societal levels over the life course. At the macro level, it explains the evolution of population‐level characteristics such as the frequency and type of crime—and approaches to crime control—as the cumulative result of the behaviors of individuals and their interactions with one another and the environment. If the proposed relationships between domains of variables can be refined, it appears possible to develop a truly general theory of criminal behavior. Research and policy implications of this approach to understanding crime are discussed.
REINTEGRATIVE SHAMING AND COMPLIANCE WITH REGULATORY STANDARDS*
Authors: MAKKAI TONI , BRAITHWAITE JOHN
Published: March 2006

Australian nursing home inspection teams are partitioned into those with an enforcement ideology supportive of reintegrative shaming, those who believe in being tolerant and understanding when confronted with noncompliance with the law, and those with a more stigmatizing ideology toward noncompliers. Nursing homes visited by teams with a reintegrative shaming ideology display significantly improved compliance in the period following the inspection. Nursing homes visited by inspection teams with a more stigmatizing attitude toward noncompliance display an approximately equal drop in compliance. The performance of homes visited by tolerant and understanding inspection teams falls between these two extremes. A more specific test of the theory shows that when interdependency exists between the nursing home and the inspection team, reintegrative shaming has a stronger positive effect on improving compliance. In nursing homes with no link between the home and the inspection team, reintegrative shaming has no effect on compliance levels. These effects demonstrate both the importance and the limitations of reintegrative shaming as a theoretical concept worthy of further empirical investigation.
A LONGITUDINAL ANALYSIS OF MEDIATING VARIABLES IN THE DRUG USE‐DROPPING OUT RELATIONSHIP*
Authors: KAPLAN HOWARD B. , LIU XIAORU
Published: March 2006

Theoretically informed models estimate the temporal relationships between illicit drug use and dropping out of school, and the variables that mediate these relationships. Subjects are tested in the seventh grade (Time 1), in the eighth grade (Time 2), and during young adulthood (Time 3) (N=2,805). Models are estimated by using logistic regression. Time 1 drug use has a significant effect on not graduating from high school (measured at Time 3), controlling for gender, father's education, race/ethnicity, and Time 1 measures of deviance, distress, self‐control, and grades. This effect is decomposed by the addition of three hypothesized mediating variables in the relationships: Time 2 measures of low motivation, negative social sanctions, and premature performance of competing social roles. The addition of Time 1 measures of these variables does not obviate the relationship, but the addition of Time 2 measures of the three hypothesized mediating variables to the equation reduces to nonsignificance the effect of drug use on not graduating from high school.
BEHAVIORAL PREDICTION AND THE PROBLEM OF INCAPACITATION*
Authors: GOTIFREDSON STEPHEN D. , GOTTFREDSON DON M.
Published: March 2006

Traditional views of incapacitation as a crime control strategy rely fundamentally on behavioral prediction. Most attempts at predicting offenders' behaviors have relied on simple dichotomous dependent variables. Recent attention to components of the “criminal career,” such as the rate of offending and the nature and potential patterning of offending behavior, could provide significant advantage to the prediction problem while informing debates about incapacitation strategies. We examine this possibility in the context of a study of some 6,000 offenders followed for more than 25 years. Little predictive advantage is realized by attention to more sophisticated behavioral outcome criteria. In agreement with other studies, we observe little support for hypotheses concerning the pattern of careers with respect to offense behaviors. The utility of incapacitation as a crime control strategy seems to be constrained by the limits imposed by predictive validity and perhaps by the nature of the criminal career.
PARENTAL ATTACHMENTS AND DELINQUENCY*
Authors: RANKIN JOSEPH H. , KERN ROGER
Published: March 2006

Using the 1972 National Survey of Youth, we analyze attachment to mother and father along several dimensions (i.e., intimacy of communication, affectional identification, supervision, and family activities). We test two hypotheses: (1) as long as a child is strongly attached to one parent, strong ties to the other parent play an insignificant role in reducing delinquency further and (2) single‐parent homes are not associated with delinquency as long as the child is strongly attached to the custodial parent. Generally, we find that children who are strongly attached to both parents have a lower probability of self‐reported delinquency than children who are strongly attached to only one parent. Further, children living in single‐parent homes who are strongly attached to the custodial parent generally have a greater probability of committing delinquent acts than children living in intact homes who are strongly attached to both parents.
THE TECHNIQUES OF NEUTRALIZATION AND VIOLENCE
Authors: AGNEW ROBERT
Published: March 2006

This study uses data from the second and third waves of the National Youth Survey to examine the effect of neutralizations regarding violence on violent behavior. Data indicate that only a small percentage of adolescents generally approve of violence or express indifference to violence. A large percentage of adolescents, however, accept neutralizations justifying the use of violence in particular situations. Both cross‐sectional and longitudinal data suggest that the acceptance of these neutralizations contributes to violent behavior. Further, the effect of these neutralizations on violence is conditioned by certain variables; neutralization is most likely to lead to violent behavior among those who disapprove of violence and associate with delinquent peers.
DEMEANOR OR CRIME? THE MIDWEST CITY POLICE‐CITIZEN ENCOUNTERS STUDY*
Authors: LUNDMAN RICHARD J.
Published: March 2006

There is agreement in the literature on policing that demeanor and other extralegal variables help determine police decisions. A recent challenge to that agreement has been issued, however. Klinger (1994) has asserted that nearly all previous quantitative analyses of the effects of demeanor and other extralegal variables are fatally pawed because they failed to limit demeanor to spoken words and failed to control for crime. He concluded that all previous research is suspect until additional analyses of the data sets used in previous research and new observational research are presented. This research starts the first of these tasks by reporting additional analyses of data from three previously published papers based on the Midwest City Police‐Citizen Encounters Study. With demeanor limited to spoken words and crime partially controlled, the reanalyzed data suggest that the effects of demeanor depend on how demeanor is represented and, to a lesser extent, model specification. Consequently, caution with respect to existing reports of the effects of demeanor and other extralegal variables remains necessary. In addition, carefully controlling for crime and limiting demeanor to spoken words may not be the only problems surrounding efforts to assess the effects of demeanor. This research suggests that multiple representations of demeanor and more fully specified models may be important as well.
DETERMINISM, INDETERMINISM, AND CRIME: AN EMPIRICAL EXPLORATION*
Authors: AGNEW ROBERT
Published: March 2006

Most individual‐level research in criminology is based on a deterministic model: the factors that constrain individuals to crime or conformity are listed, and those factors are used to predict differences in the level of crime between individuals or groups of similar individuals. This paper explores an empirical model derived from recent work on sop determinism and indeterminism. Behaviors are said to vary in the extent to which they are determined, with behavior being fully determined at one end of the continuum and largely free (indetermined) at the other end. There is a discussion of those factors that influence the extent to which behavior is determined. And it is hypothesized that crime will be more variable and less predictable when conditions favor indeterminism. The empirical model in this paper, then, focuses on those factors believed to foster freedom of action and choice, and it uses those factors to predict differences in the amount of variation (unpredictability) in crime between individuals or groups of similar individuals. Data from two national surveys of adolescents provide tentative support for the hypothesis.
RELIGION AND CRIME REEXAMINED: THE IMPACT OF RELIGION, SECULAR CONTROLS, AND SOCIAL ECOLOGY ON ADULT CRIMINALITY*
Authors: EVANS T. DAVID , CULLEN FRANCIS T. , DUNAWAY R. GREGORY , BURTON VELMER S.
Published: March 2006

Since Hirschi and Stark's (1969) surprising failure to find religious (“hellfire”) effects on delinquency, subsequent research has generally revealed an inverse relationship between religiosity and various forms of deviance, delinquency, and crime. The complexity of the relationship and conditions under which it holds, however, continue to be debated. Although a few researchers have found that religion's influence is noncontingent, most have found support—especially among youths—for effects that vary by denomination, type of offense, and social and/or religious context. More recently the relationship has been reported as spurious when relevant secular controls are included. Our research attempts to resolve these issues by testing the religion‐crime relationship in models with a comprehensive crime measure and three separate dimensions of religiosity. We also control for secular constraints, religious networks, and social ecology. We found that, among our religiosity measures, participation in religious activities was a persistent and noncontingent inhibiter of adult crime.
THE LOGIC OF DEFINITION IN CRIMINOLOGY: PURPOSES AND METHODS FOR DEFINING “GANGS”
Authors: BALL RICHARD A. , CURRY G. DAVID
Published: March 2006

This article is aimed at clarifying some of the problems in gang definition by examination of the logic of definition. Definitions are considered in terms of various purposes as well as lexical and stipulative definitional types. Methods of stipulative definition that have been tangled together in gang research and theory are identified as analytic definition and synthetic definition, with the latter including correlational, causal, and definition by description. The article examines how various researchers and theorists have fallen into various errors of logic in use of these methods and how gang research and theory might make more consistent progress through clarification of the definitional issues.
THE IMPACT OF SENTENCING GUIDELINES ON JAIL INCARCERATION IN MINNESOTA*
Authors: D'ALESSIO STEWART J. , STOLZENBERG LISA
Published: March 2006

Although available empirical evidence suggests that Minnesota's Determinate Sentencing Law has had little effect on prison incarceration, it is still uncertain whether the sentencing guidelines affected jail use. A few recent studies imply that the guidelines have had a positive effect on jail incarceration rates. Accounts have pointed to preexisting trends, more severe sanctioning of repeat property offenders, and judicial concern with prison overcrowding as possible underlying causes of this observed increase. Using longitudinal data and an ARIMA study design, we investigate the validity of these competing explanations. Our findings show that the onset of the sentencing guidelines increased judicial use of the jail sanction beyond the effect of preexisting trends. In addition, the effect of mitigated dispositional departures from the no prison/prison outcome on jail use is salient only when prison population levels are high. This latter finding supports the thesis that judicial concern with prison overcrowding motivated judges to circumvent the guidelines in order to shift the burden of incarcerating offenders from the state to the local level. The policy implications of these results for determinate sentencing reform are discussed.
“A CROSS‐BURNING IS NOT JUST AN ARSON”: POLICE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF HATE CRIMES IN BALTIMORE COUNTY*
Authors: MARTIN SUSAN E.
Published: March 2006

Growing public concern over racial and ethnic conflict and a perceived increase in hate crimes during the 1980s have led to legislation expanding the scope of the law and the severity of punishment for such offenses and to police‐initiated efforts to focus attention on hate crimes. Although a number of critiques have examined the legislative approach, little attention has been devoted to the police response. This article examines the rationale for a police initiative in addressing hate crimes; the characteristics of incidents labeled as such in one jurisdiction, Baltimore County, Maryland; and some of the problems in defining, identifying, and verifying bias motivation. Because about 40% of the offenses initially considered by the Baltimore County Police Department to be motivated by racial, religious, or ethnic (RRE) prejudice subsequently are not verified as RRE motivated, a closer examination of all such cases permits insight into the social construction of “bias motivation” and related issues raised by a police hate‐crime program. These include determining what forms of bias are eligible for special responses; identifying bias motivation; weighing the victim's perception of the event; determining the line between criminal and non‐criminal incidents; and adopting consistent standards for verifying ambiguous events.
RECIDIVISM AMONG PAROLED PROPERTY OFFENDERS RELEASED DURING A PERIOD OF PRISON REFORM*
Authors: JOO HEE‐JONG , EKLAND‐OLSON SHELDON , KELLY WILLIAM R.
Published: March 2006

Data from four successive yearly cohorts and one special early release cohort of parolees are used to explore the question of whether rapid statewide changes in the administration of criminal justice affected the patterns of recidivism among persons on parole for property offenses. Given the earlier broadly constructed research reported by Ekland–Olson et al. (1993), and their conclusion that variation in shifting policies would have different effects on different types of offenses, we decided to sharpen the focus of the research questions posed by concentrating on recidivism patterns among property offenders. Three alternative explanations—compositional effects, administrative discretion, and deterrence—are explored to interpret the differences found across cohorts While suggestive, these alternative explanations remain open to question given the limitations inherent in quasi‐experimental research. Conclusions related to issues of prison construction policy suggest that more attention be paid to the “replacement factor,” whereby “vacancies” left by incarcerated offenders are rapidly filled by others. If future research supports the rapid replacement hypothesis, increased levels of incarceration will yield a larger, more experienced criminal “work force” and ironically a heightened collective potential for crime.
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CHILDHOOD MALTREATMENT AND ADOLESCENT INVOLVEMENT IN DELINQUENCY*
Authors: SMITH CAROLYN , THORNBERRY TERENCE P.
Published: March 2006

Recent research suggests a link between childhood maltreatment and later involvement in delinquency. This study examines this issue using official and self‐report data from the Rochester Youth Development Study. The analysis addresses three central issues: the magnitude of the relationship between early child maltreatment and later delinquency, official and self‐reported; the possibility of spuriousness in this relationship; and the impact of more extensive measurement of maltreatment on later delinquency. A significant relationship between child maltreatment and self‐reported and official delinquency is found and this relationship, especially for more serious forms of delinquency, remains when controlling for other factors. The results also suggest that more extensive maltreatment is related to higher rates of delinquency. Implications and suggestions for further research are discussed.
SELF‐INTEREST, EQUITY, AND CRIME CONTROL: A GAME‐THEORETIC ANALYSIS OF CRIMINAL DECISION MAKING
Authors: DE MESQUITA BRUCE BUENO , COHEN LAWRENCE E.
Published: March 2006

Employing the analytic technique of game theory, we attempt to answer questions about how individuals with different proclivities to use crime to accomplish ends, and different beliefs about society's fairness, are likely to respond to different incentives and disincentives that are derived from strain and neoclassical deterrence theories. Our analysis indicates that the crime control policies typically recommended by adherents of both theories are often logically invalid, given the premises upon which they are supposedly based. For example, our analysis suggests why punishment strategies like “three strikes and you're out” and “entitlement strategies” such as welfare and other short‐term redistributive payment programs fail to deter crime. Finally, after including notions of equity with traditional rational choice assumptions, our analysis identifies a mix of theoretically derived strategies that may more effectively deter crime.
LAW ENFORCEMENT IN A TIME OF COMMUNITY POLICING*
Authors: MASTROFSKI STEPHEN D. , WORDEN ROBERT E. , SNIPES JEFFREY B.
Published: March 2006

Community policing creates the expectation that oficers will become more selective in making arrests and that those decisions will be influenced more by extralegal considerations and less by legal ones. Data on 451 nontraffic police‐suspect encounters were drawn from ridealong observations in Richmond, Virginia, where the police department was implementing community policing. The arrest/no arrest decision is regressed on variables representing legal and extralegal characteristics of the situation. Legal variables show much stronger effects than extralegal ones, but that depends upon the officer's attitude toward community policing. Supporters of community policing are, as predicted, more selective in making arrests and much less influenced by legal variables than are officers with negative views. However, pro‐community‐policing officers are like negative officers in the extent of influence exerted by extralegal factors. There are some differences between the two groups of officers on the strength and direction of effects of predictor variables taken individually, but only 1 of 17 is significant. Thus, in a time of community policing, officers who support it do manifest some arrest decision patterns distinguishable from those of colleagues who adhere to a more traditional view of law enforcement.
SPECIFIC DETERRENCE IN A SAMPLE OF OFFENDERS CONVICTED OF WHITE COLLAR CRIMES*
Authors: WEISBURD DAVID , WARING ELIN , CHAYET ELLEN
Published: March 2006

It is generally argued that white‐collar criminals will be particularly influenced by punishment policies. White‐collar crime is seen as a highly rational form of criminality, in which the risks and rewards are carefully evaluated by potential offenders, and white‐collar criminals are assumed to have much more to lose through sanctions than more common law violators. In this article we examine the impact of sanctions on the criminal careers of 742 offenders convicted of white‐collar crimes in seven US. district courts between fiscal years 1976 and 1978. Utilizing data on court‐imposed sanctions originally compiled by Wheeler et al. (1988b), as well as information on subsequent criminal behavior provided by the Identification Bureau of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, we assess the effect of imprisonment upon the oficial criminal records of people convicted of white‐collar crimes. Comparing prison and no‐prison groups that were matched in terms of factors that led to their receipt of a prison sanction, we find that prison does not have a specific deterrent impact upon the likelihood of rearrest over a 126‐month follow‐up period.
ORGANIZATION AND INSTIGATION IN DELINQUENT GROUPS*
Authors: WARR MARK
Published: March 2006

The group character of delinquency has been recognized for more than 60 years, but the nature of delinquent groups remains poorly understood. Data from the National Survey of Youth are used to examine delinquent groups, with special attention to the identity and role of instigators in those groups. Delinquent groups are small and transitory, but offenders commonly belong to multiple groups and thus have a larger network or pool of accomplices. Groups appear to be more specialized than individuals, which suggests that offense specialization is the primary source of group differentiation. Most delinquent groups have an identifiable instigator, a person who tends to be older, more experienced, and emotionally close to other members. Males almost always follow other males, whereas females are much more likely to follow a member of the opposite sex. As a rule, offenders do not consistently assume the role of instigator or joiner over time, but instead switch from one role to the other depending on their relative position in the group in which they are participating at the time. The roles that offenders adopt are thus determined, not by some stable individual trait, but by the situational interaction of group and individual characteristics.
DEMEANOR, CRIME, AND POLICE BEHAVIOR: A REEXAMINATION OF THE POLICE SERVICES STUDY DATA*
Authors: WORDEN ROBERT E. , SHEPARD ROBIN L.
Published: March 2006

Recent research has called into question the seemingly well‐established conclusion that the likelihood of arrest by the police rises when suspects display a disrespectful or hostile demeanor toward the police. In this article we reanalyze data collected for the Police Services Study, on which a substantial body of supporting evidence for this conclusion is based, to determine whether previous analyses of these data have misestimated the effects of demeanor on police behavior. We find that, insofar as the data permit us to address the criticisms, the original findings hold.
DETERMINATE SENTENCING AND ABOLISHING PAROLE: THE LONG‐TERM IMPACTS ON PRISONS AND CRIME*
Authors: MARVELL THOMAS B. , MOODY CARLISLE E.
Published: March 2006

We estimate the impact of determinate sentencing laws (DSLs) on prison commitments, prison populations, and Uniform Crime Report crime rates. Ten states enacted these laws between 1976 and 1984; all abolished parole and most established presumptive sentences. The research uses a multiple time‐series design that, among other benefits, controls for national trends and facilitates the use of control variables. We found that DSLs are clearly associated with prison population growth in only one state, Indiana, and with major reductions in two, Minnesota and Washington. The remaining laws show no evidence of increasing populations and may have reduced them somewhat. The estimated impacts on commitments are similarly varied. There is little or no evidence that DSLs affect crime. Earlier studies evaluating individual DSLs are often criticized for poor research designs, and our findings support the criticisms.
POLICE PRODUCTIVITY AND CRIME RATES: 1973‐1992*
Authors: O'BRIEN ROBERT M.
Published: March 2006

According to the Uniform Crime Reports, violent crime rates increased dramatically over the past two decades. National Crime Victimization Survey data, on the other hand, indicate that the rates of violent crime remained relatively stable or dropped during this period. Which series provides a “correct” estimate of crime‐rate trends is of more than academic interest. Highly publicized statistics on crime trends influence the public's concerns about crime and the decisions of policymakers both directly through their own perceptions of crime trends and indirectly through demands by the general public to control crime. This article compares these two major series on trends in violent crime rates in the United States for the period 1973–1992, with the goal of assessing the extent to which they measure the same underlying phenomenon: fluctuations in violent crime rates. The series are related (but not strongly). My conclusion, with some reservation, is that changes in law enforcement agencies rather than changes in the rates of violent crime incidents have created the upward trend in UCR violent crime rates during the past two decades.
SELF‐CONTROL IN A CRIMINAL SAMPLE: AN EXAMINATION OF CONSTRUCT VALIDITY*
Authors: LONGSHORE DOUGLAS , RAND SUSAN TURNER , STEIN JUDITH A.
Published: March 2006

Favorable evidence on the validity of the Grasmick et al. (1993) self‐control scale has been reported in studies using general population samples. However, the scale has never been tested among persons extensively involved in crime. We assessed the construct validity of this scale, slightly revised, in a heterogeneous sample of drug‐using criminal offenders. Factor analyses identified five subscales, mostly congruent with existing formulations of the self‐control construct. Also, recent crimes of force and fraud were more frequent among people scoring lower on self‐control. However, the five‐factor solution was not tenable among women, and the scale was no more closely related to crime than were three subscales representing more specific constructs already established in criminology.
IS DIFFERENTIAL ASSOCIATION/SOCIAL LEARNING CULTURAL DEVIANCE THEORY?*
Authors: AKERS RONALD L.
Published: March 2006

Sutherland's differential association theory has long been criticized as a “cultural deviance” theory, and the critics have continued to apply this same designation to the theory's social‐learning reformulation by Akers. According to this critique, differential association/social learning theory rests on the assumption that socialization is completely successful and that cultural variability is unlimited, cannot explain individual differences in deviance within the same group and applies only to group differences, has no way of explaining violation of norms to which the individual subscribes, and proposes culture as the single cause of crime. This article examines the basis and validity of this cultural deviance label. I conclude that the usual attribution of cultural deviance assumptions and explanations to differential association/ social learning theory is based on misinterpretations. Then, I offer a clarification of how cultural elements are incorporated into the theory.