Journal of Experimental Criminology最新文献

In “Cause, Effect, and the Structure of the Social World” (2023), Megan Stevenson makes a claim that randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have not had a significant effect in criminal justice settings. She then draws the conclusion that the gold standard for research designs, RCTs, are inherently incapable of doing so, demonstrating that the social world they intervene on is too complex, but also too resilient, to respond to the types of interventions that are evaluable by RCT. She calls the insistence that RCTs can work an “engineer’s” view of the world, which she discards as a myth. The argument then conflates RCTs with other methods of generating and sustaining change in organizations and systems, and closes suggesting RCTs should be discarded for less rigorous but more sweeping means of social reform. This article proceeds as follows: It characterizes Stevenson’s argument, which she asserts is empirical, as a de facto meta-analysis of criminal justice RCTs executed as a heuristic and presented in a narrative format. It argues that if a formal meta-analysis would be rendered invalid by violating established protocols, then a heuristic analysis that commits the same errors would be invalid as well. The analysis then presents the prohibitions on pooling studies with heterogeneous designs, interventions, outcomes, and metrics for the purpose of meta-analysis. It demonstrates that Stevenson pools a wide range of heterogenous studies, rendering her empirical meta-analytic claims problematic. It is true that many criminal justice RCTs have produced null or lackluster results—which also constitute an important outcome—and attempts to replicate significant findings have often been unsuccessful. This is not unique to criminal justice: psychology was recently in crisis when it was determined few of its most prominent studies could be replicated. However, less rigorous methods of reform do not solve this problem. Instead, more comprehensive research designs such as hybrid implementation/effectiveness trials can reveal aspects of our social world that impact external validity and generalizability. Findings from these studies can help illuminate the conditions that impact outcomes and sustainably modify highly resilient human behaviors. These methods arise from techniques in medicine and public health, which Stevenson brackets off as fundamentally different from criminal justice. This type of thinking may be the actual myth that prevents progress.

Objective

Calls for more transparent and replicable scientific practices have been increasing across scientific disciplines over the last decade, often referred to as the open science movement. Open science practices are arguably particularly important in fields like criminology and criminal justice where empirical findings aim to inform public policy and legal practice. Despite favorable views of these practices by criminal justice scholars, limited research has explored how often researchers actually use these open science practices.

Method

The current study measures the reported use of pre-registration, open access, open materials, open data, and open code in leading criminology and criminal justice journals from 2018 to 2022.

Results

Our results reveal limited use of open science practices, particularly pre-registration and open code.

Conclusions

Given these findings, we call for both journals and authors to consider adopting these practices to move toward a more transparent and replicable field.

Objectives

Estimate the impact of October 7^th on fear, antagonism, and harassment towards Jewish members of universities.

Methods

The study is based on a survey experiment conducted with 201 Jewish individuals at universities in Northern America and Europe. Respondents were asked about their exposure to hate, and about their comfort level conducting several activities. However, we randomly manipulated whether each respondent was asked about the weeks before October 7^th, the weeks thereafter, or about recent weeks. Because of random assignment, estimates are conservative and are less sensitive to bias.

Results

We found high levels of hate prior to October 7^th, which were exacerbated significantly afterwards. Most respondents no longer feel comfortable expressing their culture or conducting several daily activities.

Conclusions

Respondents are being harmed for their identity and because of a conflict which is outside of their control. They also believe their host institutions have been ineffective in addressing their safety concerns.

Objective

Recent reports suggest that thefts of vehicles and thefts from vehicles have increased significantly over the last several years. Some police agencies have turned to mobile surveillance watchtowers to address this problem. This study examines the effectiveness of these mobile watchtowers at reducing vehicle-related thefts in Arlington, Texas.

Methods

An interrupted time series analysis is used to determine whether the use of mobile watchtowers reduces the frequency of vehicle-related thefts.

Results

The watchtowers are associated with a small, but significant, decrease in vehicle-related thefts. However, this effect appears to decay over time.

Conclusion

Mobile watchtowers may be a viable method for addressing vehicle-related thefts.

Background

Alternative responses to behavioral health emergencies are increasingly common interventions to address the overrepresentation of people with mental illness in the criminal legal and health systems. We compared costs associated with receiving a crisis response from police-as-usual versus a police-mental health co-response team that occurred as part of a randomized controlled trial.

Methods

Eligible 911 calls-for-service were randomized to receive a police-as-usual or a co-response. Next, we record-linked randomized events to emergency medical services, jail, outpatient services, and emergency department data to assess outcomes. We calculated per-person costs of service utilization following the randomized event from a public-sector perspective.

Results

Our analysis revealed no cost-savings from the co-response. Persons who received a co-response team response had greater 12-month post-randomized incident costs associated with outpatient behavioral health encounters and emergency department visits.

Conclusions

Rigorous evaluations and cost analyses are important for determining whether alternative police response interventions achieve community goals.

Objectives

We test the benefit of adding an outreach specialist to a dedicated police team tasked with helping the vulnerable community in the transit system move to treatment or shelter.

Methods

For a year, officer shifts were randomized to determine when they were accompanied by an outreach specialist. One hundred and fifty-eight in-depth treatment conversations regarding treatment or shelter with 165 vulnerable people were assessed for whether they were subsequently transported to a suitable facility.

Results

Likelihood of an individual in a treatment conversation with a specialist and a police officer being transported to a facility was 29% greater than the likelihood for an individual talking with only a police officer; however, this finding was not statistically significant.

Conclusions

With the outcome of getting vulnerable people (mainly people experiencing homelessness) to accept transportation to a shelter or treatment facility, the co-responder model did not significantly outperform the effect of specially trained police officers working independently of the outreach specialist.

Objectives

Test how incident-level factors affect perceptions of rape.

Methods

An experimental vignette design was embedded in an online survey administered to a national sample of adults (N = 1205) to examine how type of penetration, location of penetration, type of resistance, and victim intoxication affect perceptions of criminal incidents of sexual violence. Multivariate logistic regression models examined the relationship between incident-related factors and (1) the belief that the scenario was a crime, (2) the belief it was an act of rape, and (3) whether “rape” is the preferred term to label the scenario and net of individual attitudinal and demographic variables.

Results

Scenarios involving tonic immobility (i.e., victim was unable to speak or move) were less likely to be perceived as a crime compared to those where the victim was asleep, verbally resisted, and physically resisted. Additionally, scenarios involving oral penetration (compared to vaginal penetration) were less likely to be labeled “rape” or have “rape” as the preferred term to label the incident, and penetration by fingers or an object was less likely to be labeled “rape” or to have “rape” as the preferred label compared to penetration with a penis. Finally, tonic immobility reduced the likelihood participants labeled the act “rape” or preferred the label “rape” compared to scenarios where the victim was asleep, physically resisted, and verbally resisted. Whether or not the victim was intoxicated did not appear to influence the outcomes under study.

Conclusions

Public opinions regarding “rape” do not align with the current federal definition; educational efforts are needed to provide a comprehensive understanding of sexual violence.

Background

Unwanted sexual behaviours (USB) are widespread within mass transit networks worldwide. The present study examines the effectiveness of a place-based approach to tackle USB: repeated visits by capable guardians to prevent victimisation in train stations with a greater propensity for incidence of USB.

Methods

Pretest-posttest between groups randomised controlled trial on the effect of an intervention administered by a non-police security team at a prominent train operating company in England and Wales. Eligible hotspot stations (n = 51) were randomly assigned to two conditions: enhanced security measures, encompassing heightened presence of security staff, proactive interaction with possible victims, and pre-emptive efforts to prevent USB, and business-as-usual conditions. Negative binomial regression models estimate the treatment effect in terms of USB, violence, and all other incidents in the treatment compared to the control arms.

Findings

The implementation of heightened security measures led to significant reductions in reported incidents of USB at treatment stations compared to control stations. The intervention has also led to significant decreases in reported violent incidents but has had no significant effect on other reported incidents.

Conclusions

Security personnel have the potential to serve as efficient guardians in train stations, effectively reducing the risk of USB and violence. The findings highlight the efficacy of place-based interventions as measures against USB. However, the intervention comes with a significant opportunity cost as the security teams had limited capacity to deal with other crime types. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.

Objectives

We conducted two experiments to test the possibility that exposure to natural (versus urban) landscapes is associated with a lower tendency to perform delinquent acts.

Methods

Participants were randomly assigned to either the nature or urban exposure condition in both experiments. A discounting measure was then administered. The likelihood of cheating in a matrix task (Experiment 1) and the tendency toward delinquent choices (Experiment 2) served as the dependent measures.

Results

Participants in the nature exposure condition were less likely to cheat in a matrix task (Experiment 1), and less inclined to make delinquent choices (Experiment 2), compared with participants in the urban exposure condition. The discounting tendency mediated the link between exposure to nature and the inclination to engage in delinquent behavior.

Conclusions

Our findings suggest that exposure to urban landscapes is more closely associated with delinquent behavior than previously thought.

Objectives

The study analyzes the impact of supervised consumption sites (SCSs) on local crime in New York City (NYC), examining both violent and property crimes.

Methods

We use a count-based synthetic control approach to compare police administrative crime data before and after SCS establishment in two NYC neighborhoods. This quasi-experimental design was used to infer the causal effects of SCSs on neighborhood crime, using an evaluation framework across a range of local spatial bandwidths.

Results

We found a significant 167% increase in property crimes within 1000 feet of the Washington Heights SCS after it opened as an SCS. We did not see changes in violence or property crimes near the East Harlem site. These findings suggest a differential impact of SCSs on neighborhood crime, possibly moderated by local factors.

Conclusion

This research contributes to our understanding of how SCSs impact neighborhoods, suggesting that their effect on neighborhood crime is not uniform and may be dependent on local context. It underscores the need for further research to understand the interaction between public health interventions and local crime trends.