Journal of Criminal Justice最新文献

Objective

The movement to end mass incarceration has largely concentrated on people serving shorter sentences for non-violent offenses. There has been less consideration for the 1 in 7 people in prison serving life sentences, overwhelmingly for violent offenses, including those serving juvenile life without parole (JLWOP). Recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions result in a pressing need for data on second chance considerations for JLWOP. This study tracks outcomes of the national population of juvenile lifers.

Data/methods

We cross-reference data to identify the JLWOP population at the time of Miller (N = 2904) to build a demographic profile and track resentencing, release, and mortality statuses. Statistics and data visualization are used to establish national and state-level baselines.

Results

Findings reveal more than 2500 individuals have been resentenced and more than 1000 have been released. There is notable state variation in the number of JLWOP sentences, the extent to which JLWOP is still allowed, sentence review mechanisms, and percentage of juvenile lifers released.

Conclusions/implications

The present study provides an important foundation for subsequent work to examine equity in the implementation of Miller and Montgomery within and across states, and to study reentry of an aging population that has spent critical life stages behind bars.

The present study examined the corelates of individuals` varying attitudes towards reforming American law enforcement. Building on previous research, we hypothesized that such demand among American adults may result from their fear of police brutality, the quality of relationship between the police and minorities, the role of media news, political views, and other demographic factors. Three concepts (i.e., reforming the police, defunding the police, or maintaining the status quo) were employed to measure reform attitudes. Analyses of survey data indicated that the three proposals do not have identical predictors. While fear of police brutality and political views were significant predictors of all three attitudes across the models, with opposing effects on maintaining the status quo, belonging to a minority group and exposure to news media had no significant effect on support for defunding or reforming the police. The results of the study were discussed, and its policy implications were considered.

Objective

To examine the effects of a novel prosecutor-led gun diversion program (PLGDP) on criminal recidivism outcomes, with a focus on charges that impact public safety.

Methods

We employed a quasi-experimental design comparing 76 participants from a PLGDP in Minneapolis, MN with 93 individuals from a comparison group. Participants joined the program between 2017 and 2019, and logistic regression analyses focused on the two-year period following the illegal gun possession offense. Outcomes included arrest and conviction for any criminal offense and offenses involving a weapon or violence.

Results

PLGDP participants as a whole demonstrated lower odds of a conviction in the two-year follow period compared to individuals in the comparison group. Program graduates had significantly lower odds of a violent or weapons-related offense compared to those in the comparison group, while terminated program participants demonstrated higher odds of charges and convictions.

Conclusions

Findings demonstrate that a PLGDP can address the racially disparate punishment of illegal gun possession and can be implemented without detrimental effects on public safety. PLGDPs represent a promising new component to broader gun violence prevention efforts.

Objectives

This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of police reassurance callbacks to victims who reported crimes online, focusing on their rating of satisfaction with their reporting experience, perceived legitimacy, procedural justice, trust, and police performance. It also seeks to explore whether variations in the communication strategies used by the police – i.e., sending letters, a call from the investigator, or the reassurance callback – affect the participants' scores differently.

Methods

A posttest-only control group design, with victims who reported crimes online in the Southern District of Israel but whose cases were closed by the police. Participants were randomly assigned to receive a callback from the police based on the tenets of procedural justice (treatment group) or not (control group). Telephone interviews inquired about satisfaction, trust, security, and procedural justice. t and χ² statistics were then applied to measure the differences between the treatment and control conditions. Analyses of variance and Tukey's honestly significance difference test were used to estimate how different communication strategies affect victims' perceptions.

Results

No statistically significant differences in victims' ratings of satisfaction, procedural justice, trust in police, overall opinion of the police, or sense of security were observed between the treatment and control groups. However, based on the ad hoc analyses, compared to no contact at all following victims' initial reporting to the police, we show that (a) receiving only a letter from the police did not improve victims' satisfaction or overall rating of the police, whereas (b) a phone call from an investigator did lead to significant improvement in victim satisfaction and perceptions of procedural justice; however, (c) an additional procedural justice callback did not further enhance the investigator's phone call. Trust and security scores were not elevated under any of these conditions.

Conclusions

When added to an initial callback from the police, consequent to online crime reporting, a second call based on the tenets of procedural justice does not significantly improve victims' satisfaction or perceptions of procedural justice beyond the first contact, and a letter-only communication does not improve victims' perceptions.

Most people accused of a crime are released into the community pending the resolution of their charges. To manage perceived risk, conditions of release on bail modify and control behaviour while providing a mechanism and justification for state monitoring. Drawing on 120 interviews with accused people in Canada this paper develops a typology to theorize how bail is experienced by accused, providing a framework for understanding what motivates accused to comply or violate their bail conditions and what impact conditioning has on their lives. Our analysis reveals insights into how accused present themselves to the court, navigate conditions of release and evaluate being conditioned in the community under the threat of further criminalization. Consistent with Yule et al. (2023), accused report a complex, variegated experience of social control in the community prior to conviction. Insights from participants suggest that bail is part of a broader criminal court process, that differentiates and marks accused (Kohler-Hausmann, 2018) who lack the requisite docility and discipline as risky and requiring more intensive conditioning and monitoring.

An offender's criminal record is nearly always discussed during sentencing. The incorporation of the criminal history of offenders by judges into sentencing decisions surprisingly remains an empirically understudied topic, especially from the comparative perspective. This study used two datasets derived from the sentencing decisions of judges from England/Wales and Hong Kong, respectively. The study demonstrates that the recidivist sentencing premium model is the better explanation for England/Wales as the number of previous criminal convictions is associated with the likelihood of a more severe sentence. Whereas the progressive loss of mitigation model (PLM) is the better explanation with respect to the decision to impose a custodial sentence and the flat-rate sentencing model is the better explanation for sentence length in Hong Kong. This study demonstrates the complexity of sentencing decisions with respect to criminal history and its differences across legal jurisdictions.

Purpose

Two dominant theoretical approaches used to explain racial and ethnic disparities in criminal justice outcomes are focal concerns and group threat. This study tests hypotheses about disparities in prosecutors' indictment decisions drawn from these theories, as well as the liberation hypothesis.

Methods

Propensity score matching is used to examine charging disparities between Arabs and Jews suspected of different property crimes in the Jerusalem district court from 2007 to 2018.

Results

Hypotheses drawn from each of these perspectives are not supported. The pattern of disparities across different crime types is consistent with an explanation that bridges insights from focal concerns and group threat perspectives.

Conclusions

Our study emphasizes the importance of the broader social context of the offense in understanding the threat perceptions tied to specific crimes and explaining ethnic gaps in prosecutorial decision making.

Scholars have proposed several underlying mechanisms to explain the relationship between economic inequality and crime. However, these mechanisms have not been empirically tested. This study empirically tests the causal paths offered by three salient mechanisms through which economic inequality may affect crime: negative emotions, social distance, and social resistance. We applied a randomized controlled trial with an experimental-causal-chain design in two studies. In Study 1 we manipulated economic inequality and examined its effect on both the mediating variables and crime, operationalized as cheating behavior. In Study 2 we manipulated the mediating variable found to be associated with economic inequality in Study 1 (social resistance), and examined its effect on cheating. Our findings support the social resistance mechanism, while there is no evidence supporting the negative emotions (operationalized here as anger) and social distance mechanisms. These findings suggest that economic inequality breeds crime by producing perceptions of discrimination and alienation, leading individuals to actively express their dissatisfaction through crime.

Purpose

To conduct an umbrella review of Risk-Need-Responsivity (RNR) principles by synthesizing and appraising the consistency and quality of the underlying evidence base of RNR.

Methods

Following PRISMA guidelines, we searched three bibliographic databases, the Cochrane Library, and grey literature from 2002 to 2022 for systematic reviews and meta-analysis on RNR principles. We isummarized effect sizes, including as odds ratios and Area Under the Curve (AUC) statistic. We evaluated the quality of review evidence by examining risk of bias, excess statistical significance, between-study heterogeneity, and calculated prediction intervals for reported effect sizes.

Results

We identified 26 unique meta-anlayses that examined RNR principles. These meta-analyses indicate inconsistent statistical support for the individual components of RNR. For the risk principle, there were links with recidivism (OR = 1.6, 95% CI [1.1, 2.3]). For the need principle, although there were associations between adherence to intervention programs and recidivism, risk assessment tools reflecting this principle had low predictive accuracy (AUCs 0.62–0.64). The general and specific responsivity principles received some support. However, the overall quality of the evidence was poor as indicated by potential authorship bias, lack of transparency, substandard primary research, limited subgroup analyses, and conflation of prediction with causality.

Conclusion

The prevalent poor quality evidence and identified biases suggests that higher quality research is needed to determine whether current RNR claims of being evidence-based are justified.

Purpose

Multi-agency initiatives as a response to complex crimes, such as stalking, pose conceptual and operational challenges for practitioners and evaluators. This study addresses these challenges, by combining a theory of change driven approach with the realist-inspired EMMIE evaluation framework to present findings from a pilot multi agency stalking intervention partnership in England and Wales.

Methods

The study uses a mixed methods approach based on analysis of police data and semi-structured interviews with stakeholders to present a process and effect evaluation of a complex social intervention.

Results

Findings based on a small sample and limited follow up period show nonsignificant results in terms of reducing the harmful effects of stalking, but which are encouragingly in the right direction. The case study demonstrates the importance of a theory driven approach to multi-agency evaluation and identifies essential factors necessary for ensuring implementation success.

Conclusions

A theory of change driven approach and an EMMIE-inspired evaluation can help identify whether interventions work, how they work, for whom they work, and under what conditions. It demonstrates the importance of data collection and provision for long term evaluation plans, especially for complex social interventions. The paper makes a significant methodological and empirical contribution to evaluation literature.