Journal of Criminal Justice最新文献

Devastating incidents in which children have accessed their parents' unsecured guns and used them to kill themselves or others have occurred with alarming frequency across the United States. Although strong evidence exists that safe-storage laws decrease firearm-related child deaths and suicides, the United States does not regulate gun storage at the federal level, and few states have gun storage laws. In this context, the current study examines public support for safe-storage laws, and the association of such support with racial and political attitudes. Using survey-experimental data from a population-matched national sample recruited by YouGov (n = 1018), we find widespread support among the American public for safe-storage legislation, both globally and in the specific case of criminalizing parents' unsafe gun storage. Public support for holding parents accountable is highest when young children obtain especially deadly guns (AR-15) and shoot others. Our findings further reveal that public attitudes toward safe-storage laws are racialized and politicized. White nationalists report lower support for safe-storage laws, and this association is mediated by right-wing political views.

Purpose

To use zero-inflated regression models to examine the differences in prevalence and frequency of adolescent substance use. This addresses several limitations of prior research that uses dichotomous measures of substance use and does not estimate separate models depending on type of substance.

Methods

This study used data from the Arizona Youth Survey and included a variety of independent variables derived from criminological theory and several types of substances.

Results

Many of the independent variables were associated with substance use when logistic regression was used. Variables derived from social learning theory and the opportunity perspective had among the largest effect sizes. When zero-inflated models were used, findings were more nuanced, suggesting that there are differences in prevalence and frequency of use. These explanations were more consistent for models examining alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana, suggesting that social learning, social bonds, and opportunity may not explain street drug use and prescription drug misuse.

Conclusions

While the findings suggest that peer-based prevention and intervention programs should be used, differences between prevalence and frequency should be addressed. Additionally, while these programs may work for alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana, they may not be beneficial for less commonly used substances.

Purpose

Incarceration is linked to mental illness (MI), but limited evidence exists on the impact of the timing, duration, and frequency of incarceration on the mental health of males and females.

Methods

Data were drawn from a cohort of 83,049 people registered as born in Queensland in 1983/84 and followed to age 29–31 years. Cox regression analyses were conducted to predict the risk of MI diagnosis post-incarceration (youth detention or adult prison).

Results

There were 2010 individuals with a record of imprisonment/detention, of which 46.4% also had MI. Incarcerated males had a longer median time to first MI diagnosis post-custody than incarcerated females (4.6 vs 3.0 years). Incarcerated males who were Indigenous, first offended at an early age, were incarcerated more than once, and had a history of violent offences had an increased likelihood of first MI diagnosis post-custody. However, for females, incarceration-related variables were not predictive of first MI diagnosis post-custody. This might be due to the small number of incarcerated females, with a high proportion of them receiving MI diagnoses prior to prison/detention (65.3%).

Conclusions

This study expands existing evidence by providing comprehensive and detailed insight into the association between incarceration and MI for males and females.

Purpose: In the 2016–17 school year a Florida county integrated and formalized their school resource officer (SRO) program while simultaneously expanding SRO presence into the elementary schools. This study examines whether these changes influenced the number of school-based arrests.

Methods: Descriptive statistics explored demographic and offense characteristics of school arrests of juveniles in the county. Interrupted time series analysis was used to examine arrest trends over a six-year period and explore whether formalization and expansion of the county's SRO program immediately impacted student arrests.

Results: Results showed that contrary to the proffered hypothesis, the number of school arrests decreased by 5% post-intervention. Interrupted time series analysis indicated that the new SRO program did not have a statistically significant impact on total number of student arrests, but disaggregating the data revealed a significant increase to felony arrests and arrests completed by certain law enforcement agencies.

Conclusions: Findings suggest that expanding SRO presence into elementary schools does not automatically result in an increase in student arrests. However, the reorganization and formalization of SRO programming attempted in the county did not appear to universally prevent the criminalization of student behaviors.

There is an emerging body of research examining the impact of adult-use recreational cannabis legalization on racial disparities in arrests, yet this is among the first studies to examine changes to the jail population composition. We use a quasi-experimental design, including difference-in-differences (DiD) analysis and matching via the synthetic control method (SCM) to examine the impact of recreational cannabis legalization on Black–White disparity in jail populations in Colorado and Washington State. Our findings reveal that Black–White disparity has overall declined in both legalized and criminalized states. We observe more of a reduction in Black–White disparity in legalized states; however, the results are not substantially or statistically significantly different (DiD results: Estimate = −0.052, SE = 0.320, p = 0.872; SCM results being consistent with the DiD results). This research provides important insight into continued racialized social control even when laws become liberalized. Further, the findings of this study have important policy implications, as voters and legislative bodies should seek policies more purposefully designed to reduce racial disparity in the jail population if this is their goal.

Purpose

The current study was designed to evaluate the effects of time spent in pretrial detention on the number of days from release until experiencing an arrest for a new offense and a new violent offense.

Methods

Using a sample of 31,598 individuals from three counties in the United States, the evaluation estimated the effects of spending 2–3 days, 3–7 days, and >7 days in pretrial detention – compared to admitted to jail and released on the same or next day (0 to 1 day– on the number of days from release until a new criminal arrest and new violent criminal arrest. The primary models were replicated using inverse probability weighting and propensity score matching.

Results

The results of the study suggest that spending 2–3 days, 3–7 days, and >7 days in pretrial detention was associated with an increased probability of a new criminal arrest and new violent criminal arrest earlier when compared to spending 0 to 1 day in pretrial detention.

Conclusions

This research is consistent with the prior literature, suggesting that spending more time in pretrial detention might be criminogenic and contribute to an increased rate of churn through the criminal legal system.

Purpose

This study examines the role of national identification in public cooperation with the police in Ghana. The first objective is to examine the antecedents of national identification and police legitimacy in Ghana, and the second objective is to examine the association between national identification and public cooperation in Ghana.

Methods

Using data from an online survey of university students (N = 482), the current study employs structural equation modeling (SEM) to examine the antecedents of national identification and police legitimacy, and the association between national identification and public cooperation. Bootstrapped standard errors with bias-corrected confidence intervals is used examine the mediating effects of national identification and police legitimacy.

Results

The SEM indicates that participants who viewed the police as effective and distributively just were willing to cooperate with the police. Police procedural justice was the sole predictor of police legitimacy. Contrary to theoretical expectations regarding the status- and value-signaling function of procedural justice, participants felt valued and worthy as members of Ghanaian society when the police were effective at fighting crime and fair in allocating outcomes.

Conclusion

This study demonstrates that perceived group identification plays a role in public cooperation with police in Ghana.

Purpose

Crime Gun Intelligence Centers (CGICs) are organized around the investigation of repeat shooting events that are connected through intelligence derived from the National Integrative Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN). This study investigates the potential of the Detroit CGIC to increase clearance rates for fatal and nonfatal shooting cases with NIBIN leads.

Method

The analysis consists of logistic regression models to estimate the sample average treatment effect on the treated, using weights from coarsened exact matching to reduce imbalance between treated and control cases.

Results

The study found that the benefits of the Detroit CGIC increased the odds of clearing fatal and nonfatal shooting cases with NIBIN leads. This effect is more pronounced when the Detroit CGIC optimized its capability to provide advanced intelligence.

Conclusion

Law enforcement agencies should prioritize the efficient processing of ballistic evidence and the creation of comprehensive NIBIN lead reports, particularly those containing advanced intelligence. Collaboration with the NIBIN National Correlation and Training Center is also crucial in this regard, as are the resources provided through CGICs. Grant funding is essential to support these critical initiatives in the short term, while operational funding from city and/or state budgets is crucial for their long-term sustainability.

Purpose: Online fraud has become a serious problem around the world. To reduce the harm it causes to society and individuals, this study aims to explore the emotional state of victims during the victimization process through text sentiment analysis to provide a basis for targeted fraud prevention.

Methods: We crawled 1217 valid posts from the Zhihu and Douban platforms, which were posted by online fraud victims and described their experiences of being defrauded. We divided the narrative texts into the different stages of being defrauded and analyzed the texts using a lexicon-based sentiment analysis method.

Results: The results showed that victims in the early stage of being defrauded more often experienced the emotions of expectation and love; in the middle stage, they experienced more anxiety and expectation; and in the late stage, they experienced more expectation and disgust. There were also differences in the emotional experience of victims among different types of fraud.

Conclusions: This study uses data from social media sources to explore the emotional experience of victims at different stages of fraud victimization process in the Chinese context, which provides a non-Western perspective for fraud victimization research and lays a foundation for future research on whole-process fraud intervention.

Purpose

To identify heterogeneity in the development of high-crime neighborhood exposure and financial adversity among justice-involved women and test for racial/ethnic disparities in patterns of change and continuity.

Methods

Data were from 402 women interviewed repeatedly over several years after a felony conviction. Group based trajectory modeling identified developmental subgroups differing in high-crime neighborhood exposure and patterns of financial adversity. Multinomial logistic regression examined racial/ethnic differences in trajectory group assignment for each outcome. Dual trajectory analysis tested for overlap between assignment to the high-crime neighborhood trajectory and financial adversity groups.

Results

Three-group models were identified for both the financial adversity and high-crime neighborhood exposure outcomes. Racially/ethnically minoritized participants were at higher risk of assignment to trajectory groups characterized by elevated and chronic levels of high-crime neighborhood exposure and financial adversity. Following a high and chronic pattern of financial adversity was associated with increased risk for high and chronic exposure to high crime neighborhoods.

Conclusions

For many justice-involved women, especially racial/ethnic minorities, high crime neighborhood exposure and financial adversity are chronic. There is a need to reconsider justice policies that impose costs of conviction, for example high bail and fees, since such policies can exacerbate exposure to criminogenic contexts and circumstances.