Pub Date : 2025-11-01Epub Date: 2025-10-04DOI: 10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2025.102522
L.M.J. Bekkers , T.J. Holt , E.R. Leukfeldt
Not much is known about the characteristics of solo offenders relative to group offenders engaged in cyber-dependent crime. This cross-sectional survey study utilized a general population sample of 1240 Dutch young people. Respondents completed a battery of validated measurements that measured lifetime offending behaviors and screened for risk factors. Multinominal regression models were estimated to explore the factors that differentiate solo offenders from group offenders engaged in low-tech and high-tech forms of cybercrime. Analyses revealed that solo offenders showed a different profile than those who offend together with others, and that correlates were particularly dependent on the level of technical sophistication of crimes. Low-tech solo offenders seemed to act more opportunistically, whereas high-tech solo offenders had programming skills and higher levels of self-control. Findings imply that co-offending in cyber-dependent crime may be more of an instrumental choice for offenders who have insufficient capabilities to offend alone.
{"title":"Exploring the factors that differentiate individual and group offenders in cyber-dependent crime","authors":"L.M.J. Bekkers , T.J. Holt , E.R. Leukfeldt","doi":"10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2025.102522","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2025.102522","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Not much is known about the characteristics of solo offenders relative to group offenders engaged in cyber-dependent crime. This cross-sectional survey study utilized a general population sample of 1240 Dutch young people. Respondents completed a battery of validated measurements that measured lifetime offending behaviors and screened for risk factors. Multinominal regression models were estimated to explore the factors that differentiate solo offenders from group offenders engaged in low-tech and high-tech forms of cybercrime. Analyses revealed that solo offenders showed a different profile than those who offend together with others, and that correlates were particularly dependent on the level of technical sophistication of crimes. Low-tech solo offenders seemed to act more opportunistically, whereas high-tech solo offenders had programming skills and higher levels of self-control. Findings imply that co-offending in cyber-dependent crime may be more of an instrumental choice for offenders who have insufficient capabilities to offend alone.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48272,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Criminal Justice","volume":"101 ","pages":"Article 102522"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145220616","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-01Epub Date: 2025-09-04DOI: 10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2025.102497
Anna Kahlmeter, Olof Bäckman
While equality before the law is a fundamental democratic principle, some disparities in justice delivery are intentional. For example, the sentencing of young offenders has long been the subject of special consideration in the Swedish criminal justice system. This study investigates social inequality based on socioeconomic status in Swedish youths´ access to a waiver of prosecution before and after a youth justice reform, which, among other things, aimed to increase waivers of prosecution. It further explores how socioeconomic status, gender and ethnic background interact and how this relates to youths' chances of being processed with minimal intervention. Findings demonstrate that youths with highly educated parents are more likely to have their cases diverted from a sanction. Still, inequality only appeared after the 2007 youth justice reform. While diversion away from penal sanctions increased for all youths after the reform, the increase was more substantial for youths whose parents had higher levels of education. This suggests that justice-response disparities arose as a knock-on effect of the youth policy reform. Furthermore, the findings indicate that the influence of parental socioeconomic status is more substantial for girls and youths with Western backgrounds. These findings are discussed in relation to theories of sentencing decisions, intersectionality and a resource perspective.
{"title":"Justice by privilege? Social inequality in waivers of prosecution among youth.","authors":"Anna Kahlmeter, Olof Bäckman","doi":"10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2025.102497","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2025.102497","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>While equality before the law is a fundamental democratic principle, some disparities in justice delivery are intentional. For example, the sentencing of young offenders has long been the subject of special consideration in the Swedish criminal justice system. This study investigates social inequality based on socioeconomic status in Swedish youths´ access to a waiver of prosecution before and after a youth justice reform, which, among other things, aimed to increase waivers of prosecution. It further explores how socioeconomic status, gender and ethnic background interact and how this relates to youths' chances of being processed with minimal intervention. Findings demonstrate that youths with highly educated parents are more likely to have their cases diverted from a sanction. Still, inequality only appeared after the 2007 youth justice reform. While diversion away from penal sanctions increased for all youths after the reform, the increase was more substantial for youths whose parents had higher levels of education. This suggests that justice-response disparities arose as a knock-on effect of the youth policy reform. Furthermore, the findings indicate that the influence of parental socioeconomic status is more substantial for girls and youths with Western backgrounds. These findings are discussed in relation to theories of sentencing decisions, intersectionality and a resource perspective.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48272,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Criminal Justice","volume":"101 ","pages":"Article 102497"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144997139","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-01Epub Date: 2025-09-11DOI: 10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2025.102512
Tibor Rutar
Despite recent advances, the existing macro-social, cross-national research on whether gun ownership exacerbates (gun) homicide remains unsettled. Studies report positive, negative, and null results. This is in part due to pervasive methodological issues like small sample sizes, inappropriate modelling and sparse controls for confounding, crude measures of gun ownership, and not differentiating between gun homicide and total homicide rates. This paper presents a novel estimation strategy performed on a new cross-national dataset covering more than 100 countries and spanning 2000–2019, which is by far the largest global sample to date. Using the validated proxy of gun ownership (percentage of gun suicides), both simple cross-sectional as well as Mundlak-corrected, correlated random-effects models – which are robust to time-invariant, country-specific heterogeneity – consistently show evidence of a statistically significant, positive, and sizable effect on gun homicide. This result survives a battery of robustness tests, different controls, and an alternative measure of gun ownership. However, I find no support for the existence of a significant relationship between gun ownership and the total homicide rate.
{"title":"Guns do kill people: Novel global evidence on the cross-national relationship between gun ownership and (gun) homicide","authors":"Tibor Rutar","doi":"10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2025.102512","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2025.102512","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Despite recent advances, the existing macro-social, cross-national research on whether gun ownership exacerbates (gun) homicide remains unsettled. Studies report positive, negative, and null results. This is in part due to pervasive methodological issues like small sample sizes, inappropriate modelling and sparse controls for confounding, crude measures of gun ownership, and not differentiating between gun homicide and total homicide rates. This paper presents a novel estimation strategy performed on a new cross-national dataset covering more than 100 countries and spanning 2000–2019, which is by far the largest global sample to date. Using the validated proxy of gun ownership (percentage of gun suicides), both simple cross-sectional as well as Mundlak-corrected, correlated random-effects models – which are robust to time-invariant, country-specific heterogeneity – consistently show evidence of a statistically significant, positive, and sizable effect on gun homicide. This result survives a battery of robustness tests, different controls, and an alternative measure of gun ownership. However, I find no support for the existence of a significant relationship between gun ownership and the total homicide rate.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48272,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Criminal Justice","volume":"101 ","pages":"Article 102512"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145049537","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-01Epub Date: 2025-09-18DOI: 10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2025.102516
Rebekkah L. Gross, John Leverso, Brittany E. Hayes
Justice-involved girls face disproportionately high rates of trauma, sexual victimization, and mental health challenges, yet little research has explored how gang involvement compounds these risks. Using data from the Northwestern Juvenile Project (N = 416), a longitudinal study of justice-involved youth that assessed a wide range of health, social, and legal topics through structured interviews, the present study focuses on the associations between gang membership, gang embeddedness, sexual victimization, and mental health outcomes—specifically mood disorders and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)—among justice-involved girls. Analyses pooled across Waves 2–5 and conducted with logistic regression models with clustered standard errors reveal that sexual victimization significantly increases the odds of both mood disorders and PTSD, while gang membership alone is not a significant indicator. However, deeper gang embeddedness is associated with higher odds of PTSD, and perceived gang organization is linked to increased odds of mood disorders. These findings highlight the critical role of proximal, gendered harms—particularly sexual victimization and deeper gang involvement—in shaping mental health outcomes beyond broader structural adversities. This study extends gender-focused gang research by quantifying the mental health risks tied to gang structure and depth of involvement, underscoring the need for trauma-informed, gender-responsive interventions for justice-involved girls embedded in gang environments.
{"title":"The association of gang embeddedness and sexual victimization with mental health outcomes","authors":"Rebekkah L. Gross, John Leverso, Brittany E. Hayes","doi":"10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2025.102516","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2025.102516","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Justice-involved girls face disproportionately high rates of trauma, sexual victimization, and mental health challenges, yet little research has explored how gang involvement compounds these risks. Using data from the Northwestern Juvenile Project (<em>N</em> = 416), a longitudinal study of justice-involved youth that assessed a wide range of health, social, and legal topics through structured interviews, the present study focuses on the associations between gang membership, gang embeddedness, sexual victimization, and mental health outcomes—specifically mood disorders and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)—among justice-involved girls. Analyses pooled across Waves 2–5 and conducted with logistic regression models with clustered standard errors reveal that sexual victimization significantly increases the odds of both mood disorders and PTSD, while gang membership alone is not a significant indicator. However, deeper gang embeddedness is associated with higher odds of PTSD, and perceived gang organization is linked to increased odds of mood disorders. These findings highlight the critical role of proximal, gendered harms—particularly sexual victimization and deeper gang involvement—in shaping mental health outcomes beyond broader structural adversities. This study extends gender-focused gang research by quantifying the mental health risks tied to gang structure and depth of involvement, underscoring the need for trauma-informed, gender-responsive interventions for justice-involved girls embedded in gang environments.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48272,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Criminal Justice","volume":"101 ","pages":"Article 102516"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145096116","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-01Epub Date: 2025-10-09DOI: 10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2025.102532
Hyeyoung Lim , Brian Lawton
In response to problematic encounters, police agencies have increasingly relied on additional training as a remedy. While specific training is required for all officers within an agency or a state, larger police agencies often offer optional, discretionary training opportunities and newly developed programs. To build on and extend the work of Lim and Lee (2015), this study examines the impacts of topic-specific training and officers' use of force, while also incorporating the training received by their immediate supervisors. Using Response to Resistance (R2R) reports and training records from 2009 to 2017 provided by a large-sized police department in Texas, this study explores how both officer and supervisor training influence force application and the supervisory role in guiding and managing use of force decisions. Three topic-specific trainings focused on this study are on the topics related to the use of force, working with impaired individuals, and issues of race and ethnicity. Given the categorical nature of the dependent variable, clustered multinomial logistic regression models were employed, accounting for the nesting of officers under supervisors. Findings indicate that impairment-related training was generally associated with a reduced likelihood of higher levels of force, while force-specific training was unexpectedly linked to greater odds of using higher levels of force compared to the weaponless force. Supervisor training effects were inconsistent but significant in certain contrasts, underscoring the potential influence of supervisory oversight on officer behavior. Study limitations and recommendations for future studies were further discussed.
{"title":"The impact of officer and supervisor training in police use of force incidents","authors":"Hyeyoung Lim , Brian Lawton","doi":"10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2025.102532","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2025.102532","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In response to problematic encounters, police agencies have increasingly relied on additional training as a remedy. While specific training is required for all officers within an agency or a state, larger police agencies often offer optional, discretionary training opportunities and newly developed programs. To build on and extend the work of Lim and Lee (2015), this study examines the impacts of topic-specific training and officers' use of force, while also incorporating the training received by their immediate supervisors. Using Response to Resistance (R2R) reports and training records from 2009 to 2017 provided by a large-sized police department in Texas, this study explores how both officer and supervisor training influence force application and the supervisory role in guiding and managing use of force decisions. Three topic-specific trainings focused on this study are on the topics related to the use of force, working with impaired individuals, and issues of race and ethnicity. Given the categorical nature of the dependent variable, clustered multinomial logistic regression models were employed, accounting for the nesting of officers under supervisors. Findings indicate that impairment-related training was generally associated with a reduced likelihood of higher levels of force, while force-specific training was unexpectedly linked to greater odds of using higher levels of force compared to the weaponless force. Supervisor training effects were inconsistent but significant in certain contrasts, underscoring the potential influence of supervisory oversight on officer behavior. Study limitations and recommendations for future studies were further discussed.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48272,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Criminal Justice","volume":"101 ","pages":"Article 102532"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145267223","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-01Epub Date: 2025-09-01DOI: 10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2025.102496
Chae M. Jaynes, Mateus Rennó Santos, Danielle M. Thomas, Katelyn N. Smith
This study evaluates whether a longer time since conviction improves managers' willingness to callback (WCB) job applicants with a criminal record. We surveyed hiring managers and implemented a vignette experiment, manipulating time since conviction and offense type. We also presented managers with redemption research evidence that time since conviction reduces recidivism risk. We found a positive association between time since conviction and WCB. However, there were nuances by crime type where time had a positive effect for applicants who committed unspecified or non-violent crimes but did not have an effect for violent offenses. Exposure to redemption research had a positive impact on managers' WCB, an effect which was strongest for a violent offense. Cumulatively, these findings indicate that time and exposure to research evidence can reduce barriers to employment for those with a record. Findings highlight the importance of translational criminology. Policy implications and future directions are discussed.
{"title":"Does time heal all? Evaluating the effect of time since conviction on employability","authors":"Chae M. Jaynes, Mateus Rennó Santos, Danielle M. Thomas, Katelyn N. Smith","doi":"10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2025.102496","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2025.102496","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study evaluates whether a longer time since conviction improves managers' willingness to callback (WCB) job applicants with a criminal record. We surveyed hiring managers and implemented a vignette experiment, manipulating time since conviction and offense type. We also presented managers with redemption research evidence that time since conviction reduces recidivism risk. We found a positive association between time since conviction and WCB. However, there were nuances by crime type where time had a positive effect for applicants who committed unspecified or non-violent crimes but did not have an effect for violent offenses. Exposure to redemption research had a positive impact on managers' WCB, an effect which was strongest for a violent offense. Cumulatively, these findings indicate that time and exposure to research evidence can reduce barriers to employment for those with a record. Findings highlight the importance of translational criminology. Policy implications and future directions are discussed.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48272,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Criminal Justice","volume":"101 ","pages":"Article 102496"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144921819","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-01Epub Date: 2025-09-02DOI: 10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2025.102500
Heng Choon (Oliver) Chan , Wade C. Myers
Sexual homicide offenders (SHOs) have been widely acknowledged to be a heterogenous offender population, including those male offenders who perpetrated against only one single victim. Since 2010, to our knowledge, 13 empirically-derived offender classifications of nonserial or single-victim (SV) male SHOs have been identified. The present study has two objectives: (1) to provide a review of these offender classifications for context, and (2) to develop a statistical classification of male SV SHOs using the U.S. FBI's Supplementary Homicide Reports database that spanned over a 47-year period (1976–2022). A latent class analysis (LCA) was computed to detect subtypes of male SHOs in a large sample of 3204 offenders. Findings of the LCA identified six unique classes of male SHOs: (1) young victim sexual murderers, (2) homosexual sexual murderers, (3) older victim sexual murderers, (4) female young adult victim sexual murderers, (5) White intra-racial sexual murderers, and (6) Black intra-racial sexual murderers. The distinguishing features of these six classes were the offender's racial group and weapon used; the victim's sex, age, and racial groups; the victim-offender relationship; and the geographical urbanness level of crime location. This empirically-derived offender classification can be informative for law enforcement and other investigative and security professionals.
{"title":"Male single-victim sexual homicide arrestees in the U.S.: An exploratory latent class analysis","authors":"Heng Choon (Oliver) Chan , Wade C. Myers","doi":"10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2025.102500","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2025.102500","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Sexual homicide offenders (SHOs) have been widely acknowledged to be a heterogenous offender population, including those male offenders who perpetrated against only one single victim. Since 2010, to our knowledge, 13 empirically-derived offender classifications of nonserial or single-victim (SV) male SHOs have been identified. The present study has two objectives: (1) to provide a review of these offender classifications for context, and (2) to develop a statistical classification of male SV SHOs using the U.S. FBI's Supplementary Homicide Reports database that spanned over a 47-year period (1976–2022). A latent class analysis (LCA) was computed to detect subtypes of male SHOs in a large sample of 3204 offenders. Findings of the LCA identified six unique classes of male SHOs: (1) <em>young victim sexual murderers</em>, (2) <em>homosexual sexual murderers</em>, (3) <em>older victim sexual murderers</em>, (4) <em>female young adult victim sexual murderers</em>, (5) <em>White intra-racial sexual murderers</em>, and (6) <em>Black intra-racial sexual murderers</em>. The distinguishing features of these six classes were the offender's racial group and weapon used; the victim's sex, age, and racial groups; the victim-offender relationship; and the geographical urbanness level of crime location. This empirically-derived offender classification can be informative for law enforcement and other investigative and security professionals.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48272,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Criminal Justice","volume":"101 ","pages":"Article 102500"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144933248","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-01Epub Date: 2025-09-27DOI: 10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2025.102519
Brandon K. Applegate , Nicola Pasquire
Despite the legal and practical obligation of correctional institutions to prevent victimization of people held in prisons and jails, relatively little research has sought to understand variation in the risk of victimization during incarceration. This characterization is particularly true in the context of detention in local jails and for property victimization. Moreover, the existing literature varies in methodology, model specification, and other features in ways that obscure our ability to determine the generalizability of explanatory models. The current study analyzes nationally representative data on multiple measures of victimization among people incarcerated in U.S. prisons and jails to assess the generalizability of an opportunity framework for understanding this phenomenon. We find that some aspects of the opportunity framework consistently predict victimization regardless of type, location, or perpetrator. Others vary in important ways. Based on our analyses, we provide suggestions for moving the study of victimization during incarceration forward.
{"title":"Understanding victimization of people held in U.S. prisons and jails: The generalizability of an opportunity framework","authors":"Brandon K. Applegate , Nicola Pasquire","doi":"10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2025.102519","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2025.102519","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Despite the legal and practical obligation of correctional institutions to prevent victimization of people held in prisons and jails, relatively little research has sought to understand variation in the risk of victimization during incarceration. This characterization is particularly true in the context of detention in local jails and for property victimization. Moreover, the existing literature varies in methodology, model specification, and other features in ways that obscure our ability to determine the generalizability of explanatory models. The current study analyzes nationally representative data on multiple measures of victimization among people incarcerated in U.S. prisons and jails to assess the generalizability of an opportunity framework for understanding this phenomenon. We find that some aspects of the opportunity framework consistently predict victimization regardless of type, location, or perpetrator. Others vary in important ways. Based on our analyses, we provide suggestions for moving the study of victimization during incarceration forward.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48272,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Criminal Justice","volume":"101 ","pages":"Article 102519"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145158393","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Despite wide use among researchers and law enforcement, crime classification structures have received little empirical study to validate their theoretical models. Specifically, few studies have examined the empirical structure of crime categories across a large range of offenses to examine adherence to traditional classification systems (e.g., violent vs. non-violent; crimes against persons, property, and society). This study first identified how crimes clustered together empirically in a sample of Florida jail inmates (Aim 1; N = 832, 68% men, 72% White, 83% non-Hispanic) and then tested the replicability of that grouping in a second sample of justice-involved individuals in Illinois (Aim 2; N = 794, 62% men, 51% Black, 96% non-Hispanic). The psychological and behavioral correlates of the factors were then explored (Aim 3). Results from exploratory factor analysis in Sample 1 and exploratory structural equation modeling in Sample 2 indicated a 4-factor structure best fit the data, supporting and expanding the Uniform Crime Report/National Incident-Based Reporting System 3-factor model (i.e., crimes against persons, property, and society). Property and societal crime factors were highly replicable across samples; two factors related to violent crimes were present in both samples but differed in their composition, suggesting the need for more research to understand violent crime heterogeneity. Correlations between the crime factors and external criteria indicated mixed support for the construct coherence of the factors. Most consistently, all crime factors were related to callous unemotional, impulsive, and aggressive traits across samples, suggesting that these characteristics offer little discriminatory ability in understanding criminal behavior.
{"title":"The empirical clustering of crimes","authors":"Alora McCarthy , Haomin Chen , Bryanna Fox , Edelyn Verona","doi":"10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2025.102526","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2025.102526","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Despite wide use among researchers and law enforcement, crime classification structures have received little empirical study to validate their theoretical models. Specifically, few studies have examined the empirical structure of crime categories across a large range of offenses to examine adherence to traditional classification systems (e.g., violent vs. non-violent; crimes against persons, property, and society). This study first identified how crimes clustered together empirically in a sample of Florida jail inmates (Aim 1; <em>N</em> = 832, 68% men, 72% White, 83% non-Hispanic) and then tested the replicability of that grouping in a second sample of justice-involved individuals in Illinois (Aim 2; <em>N</em> = 794, 62% men, 51% Black, 96% non-Hispanic). The psychological and behavioral correlates of the factors were then explored (Aim 3). Results from exploratory factor analysis in Sample 1 and exploratory structural equation modeling in Sample 2 indicated a 4-factor structure best fit the data, supporting and expanding the Uniform Crime Report/National Incident-Based Reporting System 3-factor model (i.e., crimes against persons, property, and society). Property and societal crime factors were highly replicable across samples; two factors related to violent crimes were present in both samples but differed in their composition, suggesting the need for more research to understand violent crime heterogeneity. Correlations between the crime factors and external criteria indicated mixed support for the construct coherence of the factors. Most consistently, all crime factors were related to callous unemotional, impulsive, and aggressive traits across samples, suggesting that these characteristics offer little discriminatory ability in understanding criminal behavior.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48272,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Criminal Justice","volume":"101 ","pages":"Article 102526"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145220617","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-01Epub Date: 2025-10-22DOI: 10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2025.102541
Jin R. Lee , Yongjae Nam , Wei-Gin Lee , Thomas J. Holt , Adam M. Bossler
The advancement of digital technology has intensified the threat of cybercrime, particularly offenses involving computer hacking. Despite its growing prevalence, police officers remain underprepared to respond to such crimes, with both individual perceptions and agency-level factors influencing response capability. While prior research has examined these domains independently, few have explored their concurrent and interactive effects. Using data from 1350 constables and sergeants across 35 constabularies in England and Wales, this study assessed the independent, concurrent, and interaction effects of officers’ cybercrime perceptions and perceived agency-level factors on officers’ self-reported capability to respond to computer hacking incidents. Findings revealed that officers’ perceptions and perceived agency factors independently predicted self-reported capability. However, officers’ perceptions were no longer significant when modeled alongside perceived agency factors. A significant interaction effect revealed that officers’ perceptions enhanced response capability only when perceived agency support was high. The implications of this analysis for cybercrime policing are discussed in detail.
{"title":"Police capacity for cybercrime response: Assessing the impact of officers’ perceptions and agency-level factors on England and Wales constables’ capability responding to computer hacking offenses","authors":"Jin R. Lee , Yongjae Nam , Wei-Gin Lee , Thomas J. Holt , Adam M. Bossler","doi":"10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2025.102541","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2025.102541","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The advancement of digital technology has intensified the threat of cybercrime, particularly offenses involving computer hacking. Despite its growing prevalence, police officers remain underprepared to respond to such crimes, with both individual perceptions and agency-level factors influencing response capability. While prior research has examined these domains independently, few have explored their concurrent and interactive effects. Using data from 1350 constables and sergeants across 35 constabularies in England and Wales, this study assessed the independent, concurrent, and interaction effects of officers’ cybercrime perceptions and perceived agency-level factors on officers’ self-reported capability to respond to computer hacking incidents. Findings revealed that officers’ perceptions and perceived agency factors independently predicted self-reported capability. However, officers’ perceptions were no longer significant when modeled alongside perceived agency factors. A significant interaction effect revealed that officers’ perceptions enhanced response capability only when perceived agency support was high. The implications of this analysis for cybercrime policing are discussed in detail.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48272,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Criminal Justice","volume":"101 ","pages":"Article 102541"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145362407","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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