Journal of Criminal Justice最新文献

This project explores whether military service is correlated with the use of force required to gain compliance by law enforcement officers (LEOs), asking whether military-affiliated LEOs are more likely to (1) use force, (2) engage in higher levels of officer presence, verbal, physical, weapon display, or nonlethal force, and (3) have higher rates of force per incident. Using the Dallas Police Department's 2020 Police Response to Resistance data, the researchers measure force usage collectively and by specific category and consider LEO military background both dichotomously and by branch. Compared to those without military experience, military-affiliated LEOs do not have statistically higher odds of using force overall, but Army-affiliated LEOs have statistically higher odds of using force. Furthermore, military-affiliated LEOs were at a greater risk (approximately 35%) of using any form of force, but Army-affiliated LEOs were at nearly twice the risk of using all categories of force. However, when considering counts of force per incident, Army-affiliated LEOs required significantly lower rates of force to gain compliance across all use of force categories, and Marine Corps-affiliated LEOs had significantly lower incident rates for displaying their weapon.

The special sensitivity hypothesis asserts that the atypical background and personal characteristics of white-collar offenders may make them particularly susceptible to the “pains of imprisonment” while incarcerated. Using a national data set of U.S. prisoners, we evaluated symptoms of negative affect, misconduct, and various institutional outcomes among two distinct groups of white-collar offenders: those defined by their crime of exploiting specialized access for profit and those further defined by their status (i.e., employment, finances, and education). Findings indicated that the status-based offenders reported feeling significantly less worthless and that they were significantly more likely to have held a work assignment. However, the offense-based group was significantly less likely to have participated in educational programming and exhibited significantly worse negative affect—specifically nervousness, restlessness, and depression—suggesting they had greater difficulty adapting to prison life compared to others. We conclude by examining the implications for criminological theory and criminal justice policy.

Purpose

To assess the prevalence and nature of police misconduct and discipline in Florida from 2012 to 2023. To measure the relative harm of criminal offenses committed by a subset of particularly deviant police.

Methods

We use official data from 241 law enforcement agencies to assess cases of serious police misconduct in 67 counties (N = 1103). The Pareto principle is used to understand the clustering of incidents and harm. Incident count and harm score are temporally examined in quarter-annual increments. Using Florida sentencing guidelines and the Cambridge Crime Harm Index (CCHI), harm scores were calculated for each offense type.

Results

We identify 24 categories of police misconduct. Perjury and failure to report had the highest incidence, followed by sexual offenses and drug- and alcohol-related misconduct. About 30% of counties account for 80% of all police misconduct incidents in Florida, while only 23% of counties account for 80% of the total harm inflicted.

Conclusions

Harm from police crime clusters more tightly geographically than incidents in traditional hot spots. Sex-related crime is high in both incidence and harm. We conclude the challenges to quantifying harm and future applications of harm indexing, as well as the implications regarding the harm of police sexual violence.

Objectives

The goal of this study is to evaluate the potential spill-over of police procedural justice perceptions onto perceptions of prison staff procedural justice and assess the impact of this spill-over on prison misconduct.

Methods

This study uses data from the Prison Project a longitudinal panel study collected in the Netherlands. The analytic sample included 730 participants. We use structural equation modeling to assess the direct and indirect effects of perceptions of police procedural justice on in-prison misconduct (self-reported and official) mediated by prison staff procedural justice.

Results

Perceptions of police procedural justice are significantly and positively associated with prison staff procedural justice and significantly, negatively, and indirectly associated with prison misconduct through perceptions of prison staff procedural justice. Prison staff procedural justice is significantly and negatively associated with official and self-reported misconduct.

Conclusions

Police procedural justice may have lingering effects on the behavior of people who encounter law enforcement. While prison staff may be able to affect prison misconduct through just procedures, they may benefit or suffer from the impact of people's prior criminal justice experiences.

Background

Children, adolescents and young adults are in developmentally sensitive stages and can be disproportionally negatively impacted by imprisonment, yet these age groups are rarely described.

Methods

Complete records of all persons aged 15–34 imprisoned in Norway in the period 2000–2019 (n = 52,588) were linked with data from sociodemographic and police registries.

Results

Imprisoned children and adolescents were characterized by several markers for socioeconomic disadvantage, convictions for serious crime, and high rates of reimprisonment. Over the last 20 years, the number of children and adolescents in Norwegian prisons has declined, while their criminal profiles become increasingly severe.

Conclusion

Children and adolescents are characterized by an accumulation of sociodemographic and family-related risk factors and have an increased risk of reimprisonment even when controlling for a number of relevant factors. Preventative measures both in the community and in prison must be aimed at children and adolescents at risk.

The public and policymakers have become increasingly concerned about gun violence. However, there are open questions concerning how citizens have reacted to such threats, which if understood, could inform gun crime prevention efforts. Specifically, to what extent do Americans report avoidance (e.g., staying away from crowds) and protective (e.g., talking to others about staying safe, purchasing a gun) behaviors as avenues to protect themselves (and others) from gun violence? What factors—concern about crime, gun crime-related perceptions, prior firearm-related experiences, as well as personal characteristics (e.g., age, race, parental status)—are associated with such actions? Drawing on a 2023 national poll, this study examines these research questions. Results suggest a sizable number of Americans have engaged in avoidance (15%–35%) and protective (29–59%) behaviors. As theorized, the occurrence of these behaviors is related to various factors concerning perceptions and experiences with crime and guns as well as socio-demographic characteristics. Implications are discussed.

We compare the correlates of “white collar” offending—defined in various ways—to conventional offending. Analyses are based on the 1997 and 2004 Survey of Inmates in State and Federal Correctional Facilities. We find that offenders who committed embezzlement or fraud in violation of federal statutes are very different from conventional offenders. On the other hand, those who committed fraud in violation of state statutes and those who committed occupational crimes are not much different. Regardless of the offense, the higher the socioeconomic status of the offender, the more they differ from conventional offenders. Our results suggest that commonly cited causal factors in conventional offending may not explain the behavior of high-status offenders, federal fraudsters, or embezzlers.

Purpose

As the universe of potential response options to address mental health-related calls for service continues to grow, it becomes increasingly important to understand how police make decisions during interactions with mental health involvement. This study evaluates the levels of variability in the preferred course of action police select to address these encounters.

Methods

We employ vignette-based surveys in two police agencies to evaluate the level of disagreement in the preferred categorical outcomes of calls involving people with mental illness. To understand factors that contribute to levels of variation in responses, we randomly assigned participants to one of two variations each vignette, which modifies a single element of the scenario.

Results

We find extensive evidence of ‘pattern noise’, or variability in the preferred course of action when dealing with mental health calls for service. This disagreement is observed across jurisdictions, among both patrol and command staff, and in varied situational contexts.

Conclusion

The application of noise audits in law enforcement agencies can help to quantify the level of alignment in how decisions are made among both patrol officers and by leadership. This process can facilitate efforts to align organizational decision-making.

Purpose

The different forms of intimate partner violence (IPV) are a widespread problem in most societies with broad consequences for the victims, who are frequently women in case of more severe IPV. Corresponding perpetrators are mainly male and there are various, sometimes competing, etiological theories as to why men become violent toward their partners. On the one hand, family-related adverse childhood experiences (ACE) and on the other, traditional and anti-feminist gender role conceptions are repeatedly mentioned in this context.

Methods

The present study therefore attempted to combine these two theoretical approaches and to examine their validity empirically using a mediation analysis on a German sample of 81 self-reported offenders.

Results

For physical and sexual IPV, it was demonstrated for the first time that the effect of ACE on perpetration in adulthood was mediated by anti-feminist sex role notions. However, this did not apply to psychologically aggressive behavior in romantic relationships.

Conclusions

These findings suggest that violent experiences in childhood and adolescence generate anti-feminist beliefs that remain stable over time, despite progressive emancipation, and that these appear to be a major etiological factor for future IPV. Preventative potentials derived from these new findings are discussed.

Correctional officers are differentially exposed to workplace violence, but little is known about how both direct and indirect exposure may impact officers. The current study examines differences in the impact of direct (i.e., being the primary target of assault) and indirect (i.e., responding to a violent incident) violence exposure on stress responsivity and mental health problems in a sample of correctional officers from Minnesota (N = 488). Greater accumulation of direct assault exposures increased the overall incidence of mental health problems but was not associated with changes in stress responsivity measured via salivary biomarkers. Alternatively, the accumulation of indirect assault exposures did not increase the prevalence of mental health problems but was associated with subsequent changes in cortisol. These results indicate that the stress-related consequences of assault exposure vary based on officers' exposure type. Future programming should target both direct and indirect violence exposures to mitigate negative, stress-related outcomes, including mental health problems.