Journal of Experimental Criminology最新文献

Objectives

This study was a 3-year experiment to determine the impact of a fatigue training intervention on police employee sleep, mental health, wellbeing, and safety.

Methods

Using a randomized control trial (RCT) experimental design, employees from the Seattle Police Department were exposed to a fatigue training intervention. Measurement included wrist actigraphy to objectively measure sleep, as well as a battery of validated surveys to measure sleep quality, sleepiness, depression, anxiety, and PTSD symptomatology.

Results

Study results revealed that the training significantly improved employee sleep (+ 18 min per 24-h period) and reduced rates of depression, anxiety, PTSD symptomatology, and likelihood of falling asleep at the wheel.

Conclusions

This study is the first to document the effectiveness of a fatigue training intervention in promoting police employee sleep, mental health, wellbeing, and safety using an RCT design. Implications for the police profession are discussed.

Objective

This experimental study examined if people are more willing to cooperate with police after police apologize and provide a plan of action to prevent wrongdoing in the future. It also tested if prior procedural justice perceptions moderate the effect.

Methods

Adults (N = 536) were randomly assigned to read a police apology vignette with or without a plan of action.

Results

Participants were more willing to cooperate with police if the police apology included a plan of action. Effects were stronger among participants with negative perceptions of procedural justice at the start of the study.

Conclusions

In order for police to mend their relationship with their community and enhance voluntary cooperation, police should recognize and apologize for past harm and also explain their plan of action moving forward.

Objectives

This study evaluated a micro hot spot (MHS) program developed based entirely on the chief executive’s professional exposure to hot spot policing tactics. It considers the informal stage followed by a formal stage in program development and implementation.

Methods

To examine the MHS program on gun violence, the study executes multiple interrupted time series analyses using Poisson or negative binomial regression to model count data with a non-normal distribution. Weekly crime and calls for service data are analyzed at the city level.

Results

We report a significant decrease in the level of calls for service involving non-fatal shootings, compared to the pre-intervention level. Further, the decreasing trend became steeper in the post-MHS program period. There is also evidence of decreases in both the level and trend of gun homicides in the post-intervention period.

Conclusions

The study provides insight to police departments with basic evidence-based knowledge that attempts to address gun violence in a timely manner.

Objectives

The current study examines the influence of gang affiliation and specific gangs on prison misconduct, particularly serious and assaultive behavior.

Methods

Different matching procedures were employed with a large sample of gang and nongang inmates to minimize confounding factors likely to impact the effect of gang affiliation on outcome measures. A wide array of demographic variables associated with gang affiliation is included in multivariate analyses in predicting general, serious, and assaultive acts.

Results

Propensity Score Matching (PSM) and Coarsened Exact Matching (CEM) generally yielded similar results. Consistent with prior research, gang-affiliated inmates committed significantly higher rates of general and serious violations.

Conclusions

Researchers may prefer PSM over CEM when analyzing serious and rare behaviors. Prison gang affiliation is a significant contributing factor to various prison disciplinary outcomes, and specific gang affiliation significantly influences disciplinary outcomes.

Abstract

Objectives

We examine the potential effects of gunshot detection technology longitudinally in Chicago through a synthetic control quasi-experiment.

Methods

Police districts receiving gunshot detection technology were compared to a synthetic control unit via a staggered difference-in-difference design. Across eleven unique gunshot detection technology deployment phases, the analyses produce results for aggregate, initial versus expanded, and phase-specific deployment effects across five gun violence outcome measures.

Results

Gunshot detection technology had no effect on fatal shootings, non-fatal shootings, general part I gun crimes, or shots fired calls for service. Gun recoveries significantly increased in the aggregate, initial, and expanded models, and in several individual phases relative to controls.

Conclusions

The results align with prior literature that has found a procedural benefit, but not a crime prevention benefit, of gunshot detection technology. Law enforcement agencies seeking crime prevention or reduction solutions may be better served by investing in other options.

Objectives

This study investigates the effectiveness of immersive 360° video technology in evoking and manipulating two emotions, anger, and sexual arousal, relevant to criminal decision-making. Additionally, we provide a focused review of emotions in decision-making research in criminology, offering a comprehensive foundation for our study.

Methods

We conducted immersive 360° video experiments emulating real-world situations (n = 101). We measured self-reported emotions before and after exposure to the virtual scenarios, considering both between- and within-person effects.

Results

The scenarios effectively elicited the criminogenic emotions in the controlled virtual environments.

Conclusions

Immersive technologies, such as 360° video and virtual reality, can serve as a bridge between laboratory-based investigations and real-world criminogenic situations, offering an ecologically effective tool for exploring the intricate relationship between state affect and decision-making processes.

Objectives

This study examines how sexuality, gender, and severity affect the willingness of third parties to mobilize facets of the criminal justice system in response to witnessing intimate partner violence (IPV).

Methods

An M-Turk online sample of 803 adults in the USA completed a factorial vignette survey. Participants were presented with an incident of intimate partner violence and asked to report how likely they would be to notify police and select jail as punishment for the perpetrator.

Results

Results of the study uncover no clear evidence of heteronormative bias. Rather, female victims of IPV garner the most support from third parties. Furthermore, respondents were more likely to favor a jail sentence for male perpetrators. Patterns were amplified in severe incidents.

Conclusion

The current study suggests that gender and violence severity, rather than sexuality, are the most salient predictors of the third-party’s decision to notify the police and prefer strong criminal justice punishments.

Abstract

Objective

This study sought to understand how the public perceived new offenses in a time of public health crisis—social distancing deviance in the COVID-19 pandemic—and what factors influenced their perceptions. We also explored whether the correlates of crisis-related punitiveness changed over time, as the pandemic became more politicized.

Data and methods

Our data came from two national surveys administered one year apart, in March 2020 (n = 995) and March 2021 (n = 1,030). To measure sanction preferences, we used experimental vignettes randomizing the characteristics of the offense (e.g., victim harm) and offender (e.g., individual vs. business owner).

Results

As with other types of deviance, just desert concerns predominated. Respondents preferred harsher penalties when offenders violated social distancing directives (versus guidelines) and caused more harm. Certain political/ideological factors (e.g., binding foundations, libertarianism, racial resentment) became more predictive one year into the pandemic, after controlling for personal fear of the virus and demographic factors.

Conclusions

The findings illustrate how public punitiveness toward antisocial behavior develops over time. When new offenses emerge, the public initially evaluates them mostly based on moral culpability and harm. With politicization, however, other factors (e.g., racial and political beliefs) play a role as well. It appears, then, that public reactions to new offenses initially reflect intuitions of justice and are later updated to incorporate cultural and political concerns.