Journal of Criminal Justice最新文献

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.

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

This study provides an empirical test of Tyler's (2006) process-based model by investigating the relationship between procedural justice, legitimacy, and felt obligation to obey among people sanctioned to county-level probation.

Methods

Using a cross-sectional design, self-reported data were collected from a sample of individuals on probation in a western state (n = 185). Confirmatory factor analyses and full structural equation modeling were used to test a measurement and structural component on the relationship between procedural justice and clients' legitimacy and obligation to obey.

Results

Results demonstrate construct and discriminant validity across measures of client's procedural justice and legitimacy attitudes. In addition, SEM results revealed a positive and statistically significant association between procedural justice with probationers' legitimacy beliefs. In addition, perceived legitimacy was associated with clients' felt obligation to obey their probation officer, though indirect effects were non-significant but potentially suggested partial mediation.

Conclusions

This study provides empirical evidence supporting the positive relationship between perceptions of procedural justice with clients' legitimacy and perceived PO legitimacy with their felt obligation. Study results highlight key theoretical and policy considerations regarding the measurement and application of the process-based model in community corrections.

Recent polls reveal a complex picture of policing attitudes in Black America. Although most Black Americans are afraid of the police, most also prefer to maintain (or increase) local police presence and spending. Are these paradoxical policy preferences artifacts of the questions used in Gallup and Pew polls—questions that fail to disentangle assumptions about trends in crime and police reform? We tested this experimentally using a nationwide survey (N = 1,100) with comparable numbers of Black (N = 511) and non-Black (N = 589) respondents. We found that Black Americans’ policing preferences were robust—if anything, they were more robust than those of non-Black Americans. Most Black Americans said that even if crime was declining and new police reforms were not enacted, they would still prefer to maintain (or increase) police patrols and spending. Both fear of police and perceived procedural justice predicted policy preferences, regardless of respondents’ race.

Purpose

Recent research on police misconduct has adopted a network perspective, while recent work on correctional officer (CO) use of force has similarly framed it as an organizational behavior, learned through socialization and deployed with considerable discretion. This paper leverages the network paradigm in police misconduct research to study the use of force by COs.

Methods

Using data on lawsuits involving the New York City Department of Correction from 2013 to 2022, this paper forms a co-offending network of those COs who have been sued for excessive force. This paper then uses descriptive social network analysis and key player selection and community detection methods.

Results

After describing the basic network structure of COs who use force together, this paper identifies brokers who connect disparate parts of the CO network; it also uses a community detection algorithm to identify clusters of COs involved in force incidents. Finally, the paper compares this network to an analogous network of police use of force, finding structural similarities.

Conclusions

This analysis bridges disparate work on correctional officer use of force and police misconduct; for policymakers who seek to curtail COs' excessive use of force, this paper might provide a blueprint for identifying key players and clusters.

Purpose

This study aimed to identify key transitional pathways in the criminal justice system from adolescence to adulthood and the risk factors associated with the escalation of criminal justice involvement over time.

Method

We retrospectively linked offending records from 1994 to 2022 and mental health records from 2001 to 2022 for a cohort of 1556 adolescents identified through four health surveys in New South Wales, Australia. Transition probabilities were calculated using the Aalen-Johansen method, and the hazards of transition-specific covariates were estimated.

Results

The median age of adolescent entry was 15 years. The cohort was predominantly male (87.5%) and non-Indigenous (65.6%). Among incarcerated adolescents, 76.8% transitioned to adult incarceration. Transition probabilities were the highest among those aged 10–13 years. Among those with mental disorders, psychosis was associated with transitions to adolescent and adult incarceration. Other risk factors for future incarceration include being male, Indigenous, socio-economically disadvantaged, having a history of adolescent incarceration, and being diagnosed with substance use and behavioural disorders.

Conclusion

Younger adolescents have higher transition probabilities to more intense criminal justice involvement. Legislative and policy reforms are needed to delay the onset of adolescent criminal justice involvement and ensure age-appropriate rehabilitative strategies to reduce recidivism.

Objectives

There is empirical evidence that sexual recidivism rates have been dropping for several decades, but it remains unclear whether this drop is an artifact of changing research methodologies over the years. The current study, therefore, examines whether the sexual recidivism drop is robust while accounting for various methodological factors.

Method

The study is based on a systematic review and a quantitative meta-analysis of 468 empirical studies published between 1940 and 2019 that reported sexual recidivism rates. A total of 626 estimations (n = 388,994) of sexual recidivism were retrieved for the study period and of those, 238 were independent observations (n = 196,651). A series of sensitivity analyses were conducted using a meta-regression approach.

Results

A series of meta-regression analyses show that, even after accounting for various methodological factors (e.g., study settings, follow-up length, recidivism criteria), there has been a sexual recidivism rate drop of about 45–60% since the 1970s.

Conclusions

The study findings confirm the presence of a sexual recidivism drop while recognizing that sexual recidivism rates are sensitive to methodological details.

Purpose

The present study tested the pattern of developmental changes in self-control during early adolescence, and whether maternal and paternal closeness, support, monitoring, and disciplinary inconsistency were associated with developmental changes in deviance, indirectly through developmental changes in self-control.

Methods

Five assessments part of the Brno Longitudinal Study of Youth on 582 early adolescents (58.4% female; M_age = 12.34 years, SD = 0.89 at baseline) were used for the study. A latent growth model tested the growth of self-control over two years in early adolescence. Associations between parenting and developmental changes in self-control as well as deviance were tested using structural equation modeling with latent constructs.

Results

Self-control declined over time; individuals varied both in initial levels and rates of change. Full mediation through developmental changes in self-control were found; more specifically, more maternal monitoring at age 12 was associated with increases in self-control at age 13, which, in turn, was associated with less deviance at age 14. Results also provided evidence of direct effects, where more maternal closeness at age 12 was associated with less deviance at age 14.

Conclusions

Self-control decreased during early adolescence, thus supporting continued malleability. Both maternal closeness and monitoring were associated with less deviance, where the effect of monitoring was mediated through self-control.

Purpose

Used to reduce detention, bail/bond, and jail, pretrial risk assessments (PRAs) applications have expanded in the last decade. Yet, many PRAs are created with a unique population, adopted ‘off-the-shelf’ in a new location, reducing the tool's accuracy and functionality. Further, many PRAs are created with criminal history indicators, increasing concerns of prediction bias. The current study described the development of the Personal Recognizance Interview & Needs Screen (PRINS).

Methods

Using a multistage development process and large sample (N = 28,147) of defendants, we created a tool that combines static and dynamic indicators, gender-responsive modeling, in the prediction of seven outcomes.

Results

Findings indicate exceptional accuracy of the PRINS, with relative prediction parity across gender and race/ethnicity sub-groups. Further, compared to the Virginia Pretrial Risk Assessment Instrument, Ohio Risk Assessment System – Pretrial Assessment Tool, and the Public Safety Assessment, we identify greater accuracy via the PRINS and substantial enhancements for higher risk, females, and defendants of color.

Conclusions

We demonstrate the advantages of developing PRAs with dynamic items and incorporating indicators important to judges and stakeholders, while using data gathered locally. Adopting tools with these innovations will improve accuracy, reduce bias, create greater buy-in and, in turn, reduce the use of bond/bail and detention.

Purpose

This study aims to explore the effects of callous-unemotional (CU) traits on disruptive behavior during the ages of 11 and 12 while considering main and moderating influences associated with pubertal development (PD), distinguishing outcomes by sex.

Methods

This longitudinal study of a Spanish community sample explores children at ages 11 (n = 447, M = 11.6, SD = 0.3) and 12 (n = 360, M = 12.8, SD = 0.3). Separate linear regression models were estimated according to age and sex and for each analyzed outcome of disruptive behavior.

Results

Significant interactions between CU traits and PD in boys at age 11, and in girls at age 12, on disruptive behavior were found. Specifically, the odds of disruptive behavior increased with higher CU scores only in boys with medium or high PD and in girls with low or medium PD. CU traits were directly associated with higher externalizing problem scores reported by teachers, regardless of PD level for both boys and girls.

Conclusions

There are sex-specific patterns in the relationship between CU traits, PD, and disruptive behavior in children aged 11 and 12. CU traits and PD should be considered when assessing and treating disruptive behavior in clinical practice.