Identifying the nature and causes of penal change over decades can be a fraught exercise, particularly where those changes are gradual and the reasons for changes are diffuse. Like climate change and weather patterns, Australia’s rising prison population is the product of forces that are also evident in Western Anglophonic societies but that vary in scale and speed depending on local conditions. These forces include penal populism, media influences, risk aversion, and distrust of the judiciary. Changes in the balance of power between the legislature, the judiciary, and the executive, increasing the power of the former and restricting the discretionary powers of the latter, all contribute to increasing prison numbers and more persons under correctional supervision. But where some jurisdictions have seen the cost and futility of continuous expansion of penal populations and appear inclined to draw back, Australia seems determined to follow this senseless path.
{"title":"The Road Well Traveled in Australia: Ignoring the Past, Condemning the Future","authors":"A. Freiberg","doi":"10.1086/685537","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/685537","url":null,"abstract":"Identifying the nature and causes of penal change over decades can be a fraught exercise, particularly where those changes are gradual and the reasons for changes are diffuse. Like climate change and weather patterns, Australia’s rising prison population is the product of forces that are also evident in Western Anglophonic societies but that vary in scale and speed depending on local conditions. These forces include penal populism, media influences, risk aversion, and distrust of the judiciary. Changes in the balance of power between the legislature, the judiciary, and the executive, increasing the power of the former and restricting the discretionary powers of the latter, all contribute to increasing prison numbers and more persons under correctional supervision. But where some jurisdictions have seen the cost and futility of continuous expansion of penal populations and appear inclined to draw back, Australia seems determined to follow this senseless path.","PeriodicalId":51456,"journal":{"name":"Crime and Justice-A Review of Research","volume":"45 1","pages":"419 - 457"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-06-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1086/685537","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"60502076","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
There has been relatively little effort at cross-national analysis of data concerning drug policy, though there is growing variation in how nations deal with illegal drugs. Systematic accounts of barriers to, and opportunities for, making comparisons are scarce. Comparisons of drug use prevalence, the focus of most cross-national studies, are undermined by fundamental and unacknowledged methodological differences. Prevalence is a poor measure of drug problems, but more appropriate indicators, such as drug-related crime and morality, are generated by institutional and legal systems that differ across countries, making them even more difficult to compare. The same is true of intensity of enforcement; besides problems of creating comparable arrest, conviction, and incarceration data, there is difficulty in generating an appropriate denominator of offenses. Collaboration among national data collection programs can help somewhat, but substantial progress will depend on harmonization of basic measurement systems, such as arrests and incarceration and on more subtle measures such as the prevalence of problem drug use.
{"title":"What Can Be Learned from Cross-National Comparisons of Data on Illegal Drugs?","authors":"B. Kilmer, P. Reuter, L. Giommoni","doi":"10.1086/681552","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/681552","url":null,"abstract":"There has been relatively little effort at cross-national analysis of data concerning drug policy, though there is growing variation in how nations deal with illegal drugs. Systematic accounts of barriers to, and opportunities for, making comparisons are scarce. Comparisons of drug use prevalence, the focus of most cross-national studies, are undermined by fundamental and unacknowledged methodological differences. Prevalence is a poor measure of drug problems, but more appropriate indicators, such as drug-related crime and morality, are generated by institutional and legal systems that differ across countries, making them even more difficult to compare. The same is true of intensity of enforcement; besides problems of creating comparable arrest, conviction, and incarceration data, there is difficulty in generating an appropriate denominator of offenses. Collaboration among national data collection programs can help somewhat, but substantial progress will depend on harmonization of basic measurement systems, such as arrests and incarceration and on more subtle measures such as the prevalence of problem drug use.","PeriodicalId":51456,"journal":{"name":"Crime and Justice-A Review of Research","volume":"44 1","pages":"227 - 296"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-08-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1086/681552","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"60381537","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Flagrant and widespread racism that characterized the criminal justice system during the early part of the twentieth century has largely been eliminated, but racial disparities persist. Whether because of overt racism, implicit bias, or laws and practices that have racially disparate effects, black (and Hispanic) men and women make up a disproportionate number of people in American prisons and on death row. Researchers have conducted dozens of studies designed to untangle the complex relationships between race and punishment to determine the causes of racial disparities. Findings vary somewhat, but most conclude that the share of racial disproportionality in imprisonment that can be explained by differential involvement in crime has declined over time; attribute the continuing—possibly worsening—disparity to policies pursued during the war on drugs and officials’ race-linked stereotypes of culpability, dangerousness, and likelihood of reoffending; and contend that race affects the capital sentencing process. Remedying this will require reducing the size of the prison population, reforming the sentencing process so that many more offenders convicted of nonserious crimes receive alternatives to incarceration, and abolishing or severely restricting use of the death penalty.
{"title":"Race, Crime, and Punishment in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries","authors":"C. Spohn","doi":"10.1086/681550","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/681550","url":null,"abstract":"Flagrant and widespread racism that characterized the criminal justice system during the early part of the twentieth century has largely been eliminated, but racial disparities persist. Whether because of overt racism, implicit bias, or laws and practices that have racially disparate effects, black (and Hispanic) men and women make up a disproportionate number of people in American prisons and on death row. Researchers have conducted dozens of studies designed to untangle the complex relationships between race and punishment to determine the causes of racial disparities. Findings vary somewhat, but most conclude that the share of racial disproportionality in imprisonment that can be explained by differential involvement in crime has declined over time; attribute the continuing—possibly worsening—disparity to policies pursued during the war on drugs and officials’ race-linked stereotypes of culpability, dangerousness, and likelihood of reoffending; and contend that race affects the capital sentencing process. Remedying this will require reducing the size of the prison population, reforming the sentencing process so that many more offenders convicted of nonserious crimes receive alternatives to incarceration, and abolishing or severely restricting use of the death penalty.","PeriodicalId":51456,"journal":{"name":"Crime and Justice-A Review of Research","volume":"44 1","pages":"49 - 97"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-08-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1086/681550","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"60381649","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Only in the past decade has prisoner reentry been “discovered” and become a central policy concern in the United States. This is due in part to the sheer number of released inmates (more than 600,000 annually) and in part to a movement that has defined the issue as “reentry.” A growing number of programs have been created in prisons and the community. Implementing them effectively, however, poses substantial challenges. A wide diversity of programs fall under the rubric and only a limited number of rigorous evaluations have been conducted. Research suggests that, overall, reentry services reduce recidivism, but program effects are heterogeneous and at times criminogenic. Effective programs tend to be consistent with the risk-need-responsivity model. A sustained effort to evaluate carefully designed programs rigorously is needed and may require development of a “criminology of reentry.” More needs to be understood about why recidivism rates are high in the first year after reentry, why some offenders have late-onset failure, whether who comes home matters, and how stigma and other collateral consequences of conviction can be managed.
{"title":"Prisoner Reentry Programs","authors":"C. Jonson, F. Cullen","doi":"10.1086/681554","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/681554","url":null,"abstract":"Only in the past decade has prisoner reentry been “discovered” and become a central policy concern in the United States. This is due in part to the sheer number of released inmates (more than 600,000 annually) and in part to a movement that has defined the issue as “reentry.” A growing number of programs have been created in prisons and the community. Implementing them effectively, however, poses substantial challenges. A wide diversity of programs fall under the rubric and only a limited number of rigorous evaluations have been conducted. Research suggests that, overall, reentry services reduce recidivism, but program effects are heterogeneous and at times criminogenic. Effective programs tend to be consistent with the risk-need-responsivity model. A sustained effort to evaluate carefully designed programs rigorously is needed and may require development of a “criminology of reentry.” More needs to be understood about why recidivism rates are high in the first year after reentry, why some offenders have late-onset failure, whether who comes home matters, and how stigma and other collateral consequences of conviction can be managed.","PeriodicalId":51456,"journal":{"name":"Crime and Justice-A Review of Research","volume":"111 3S 1","pages":"517 - 575"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-07-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1086/681554","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"60382007","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
T. Skardhamar, J. Savolainen, Kjersti N. Aase, T. Lyngstad
The “marriage effect” is one of the most widely studied topics of life course criminology. The contemporary consensus is that marriage promotes desistance from crime. Most of the 58 studies reviewed here find a negative longitudinal association between marriage and crime. The results are more consistent among men. Studies that attend to relationship quality, such as the level of marital attachment, tend to produce particularly strong associations. Critical scrutiny of the evidence regarding the causal nature of the reported associations suggests, however, that claims about the restraining influence of marriage are overstated. None of the studies demonstrates evidence of direct (counterfactual) causality; no study has served a causal estimate unbiased by selection processes. Moreover, only a few studies address time ordering, and some of those show that desistance precedes rather than follows marriage. Evidence in support of the theoretical mechanisms responsible for the marriage effect is also mixed and insufficient. The criminological literature has been insensitive to the reality that entering a marital union is increasingly unlikely to signify the point at which a committed, high-quality relationship is formed.
{"title":"Does Marriage Reduce Crime?","authors":"T. Skardhamar, J. Savolainen, Kjersti N. Aase, T. Lyngstad","doi":"10.1086/681557","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/681557","url":null,"abstract":"The “marriage effect” is one of the most widely studied topics of life course criminology. The contemporary consensus is that marriage promotes desistance from crime. Most of the 58 studies reviewed here find a negative longitudinal association between marriage and crime. The results are more consistent among men. Studies that attend to relationship quality, such as the level of marital attachment, tend to produce particularly strong associations. Critical scrutiny of the evidence regarding the causal nature of the reported associations suggests, however, that claims about the restraining influence of marriage are overstated. None of the studies demonstrates evidence of direct (counterfactual) causality; no study has served a causal estimate unbiased by selection processes. Moreover, only a few studies address time ordering, and some of those show that desistance precedes rather than follows marriage. Evidence in support of the theoretical mechanisms responsible for the marriage effect is also mixed and insufficient. The criminological literature has been insensitive to the reality that entering a marital union is increasingly unlikely to signify the point at which a committed, high-quality relationship is formed.","PeriodicalId":51456,"journal":{"name":"Crime and Justice-A Review of Research","volume":"44 1","pages":"385 - 446"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-07-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1086/681557","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"60382351","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Crime is influenced by the built environment. Broken windows, crime prevention through environmental design, situational crime prevention, and economic theories of the supply of and demand for criminal opportunities offer explanations. Zoning, designs of streets and housing, locations of public transit, and land uses shape the built environment in ways that can increase or reduce crime. Cross-sectional research shows that elements of the built environment are associated with crime rates in particular places. Quasi-experimental studies show that changes in zoning and street configurations, configuration and design of housing, and access to public transit can help manage crime. The mechanisms by which such changes influence crime are not well understood, though shifts in the supply of criminal opportunities most likely play a role. This evidence is promising. It suggests that the built environment can be modified to reduce both crime and reliance on criminal justice sanctions. Place-based experiments that manipulate features of the built environment will provide evidence for policy makers to use in designing cities in ways that reduce crime.
{"title":"Community Design and Crime: The Impact of Housing and the Built Environment","authors":"J. Macdonald","doi":"10.1086/681558","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/681558","url":null,"abstract":"Crime is influenced by the built environment. Broken windows, crime prevention through environmental design, situational crime prevention, and economic theories of the supply of and demand for criminal opportunities offer explanations. Zoning, designs of streets and housing, locations of public transit, and land uses shape the built environment in ways that can increase or reduce crime. Cross-sectional research shows that elements of the built environment are associated with crime rates in particular places. Quasi-experimental studies show that changes in zoning and street configurations, configuration and design of housing, and access to public transit can help manage crime. The mechanisms by which such changes influence crime are not well understood, though shifts in the supply of criminal opportunities most likely play a role. This evidence is promising. It suggests that the built environment can be modified to reduce both crime and reliance on criminal justice sanctions. Place-based experiments that manipulate features of the built environment will provide evidence for policy makers to use in designing cities in ways that reduce crime.","PeriodicalId":51456,"journal":{"name":"Crime and Justice-A Review of Research","volume":"44 1","pages":"333 - 383"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-07-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1086/681558","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"60382417","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The number of high-quality benefit-cost analyses of crime prevention programs has grown from 12 to 23 since 2000, and numerous benefit-cost ratios have been calculated by the Washington State Institute for Public Policy. Benefits are often estimated conservatively, whereas costs are usually estimated in full. Benefits nonetheless exceed costs for most programs, especially for preschool and cognitive-behavioral programs, target hardening and improved lighting, Communities That Care programs, and Business Improvement Districts. However, benefits and costs are not estimated comparably in different studies; few analyses are strongly comparable. There is great need for the establishment and use of a standard list of benefits and costs. Better research designs are needed, especially including randomized controlled trials. It is more cost-beneficial to invest in prevention than in imprisonment. The time is ripe for major investment to improve the lives of disadvantaged children.
{"title":"Benefit-Cost Analysis of Crime Prevention Programs","authors":"Brandon C. Welsh, D. Farrington, B. Gowar","doi":"10.1086/681556","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/681556","url":null,"abstract":"The number of high-quality benefit-cost analyses of crime prevention programs has grown from 12 to 23 since 2000, and numerous benefit-cost ratios have been calculated by the Washington State Institute for Public Policy. Benefits are often estimated conservatively, whereas costs are usually estimated in full. Benefits nonetheless exceed costs for most programs, especially for preschool and cognitive-behavioral programs, target hardening and improved lighting, Communities That Care programs, and Business Improvement Districts. However, benefits and costs are not estimated comparably in different studies; few analyses are strongly comparable. There is great need for the establishment and use of a standard list of benefits and costs. Better research designs are needed, especially including randomized controlled trials. It is more cost-beneficial to invest in prevention than in imprisonment. The time is ripe for major investment to improve the lives of disadvantaged children.","PeriodicalId":51456,"journal":{"name":"Crime and Justice-A Review of Research","volume":"44 1","pages":"447 - 516"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-07-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1086/681556","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"60382226","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Dutch drug policy, once considered pragmatic and lenient and rooted in a generally tolerant attitude toward drug use, has slowly but surely shifted from a primarily public health focus to an increasing focus on law enforcement. The “coffee shop” policy and the policy toward MDMA/ecstasy are illustrations. Both were initiated from a public health perspective but were attacked because of unintended side effects relating to supply markets, crime, and nuisance. Coffee shops became the subject of increasing restrictions and MDMA/ecstasy production became the target of a comprehensive enforcement program. It took some time before the tougher strategies were applied. The health-oriented approach and the conviction that drug problems can be contained, but not eradicated, are deeply rooted. This led to acknowledgment of the adverse consequences of increased law enforcement and tempered its application. Research showed effectiveness in some regards but also unintended consequences. The expansion of illegal cannabis consumer markets after restrictions on coffee shops is one example. The use of alternative chemical ingredients for ecstasy production is another. Changes in drug policy have an effect on supply markets, but drug use seems largely unaffected.
{"title":"Drug Policy: The “Dutch Model”","authors":"Marianne M. J. van Ooyen-Houben, E. Kleemans","doi":"10.1086/681551","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/681551","url":null,"abstract":"Dutch drug policy, once considered pragmatic and lenient and rooted in a generally tolerant attitude toward drug use, has slowly but surely shifted from a primarily public health focus to an increasing focus on law enforcement. The “coffee shop” policy and the policy toward MDMA/ecstasy are illustrations. Both were initiated from a public health perspective but were attacked because of unintended side effects relating to supply markets, crime, and nuisance. Coffee shops became the subject of increasing restrictions and MDMA/ecstasy production became the target of a comprehensive enforcement program. It took some time before the tougher strategies were applied. The health-oriented approach and the conviction that drug problems can be contained, but not eradicated, are deeply rooted. This led to acknowledgment of the adverse consequences of increased law enforcement and tempered its application. Research showed effectiveness in some regards but also unintended consequences. The expansion of illegal cannabis consumer markets after restrictions on coffee shops is one example. The use of alternative chemical ingredients for ecstasy production is another. Changes in drug policy have an effect on supply markets, but drug use seems largely unaffected.","PeriodicalId":51456,"journal":{"name":"Crime and Justice-A Review of Research","volume":"44 1","pages":"165 - 226"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-07-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1086/681551","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"60381874","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Social class differences have been invoked to explain perceived racial differences in criminal involvement in the United States since the middle of the nineteenth century. Scholars have joined with the public and the media to make such arguments with mixed success. Despite criticism of the theories and research methods used and contradictory evidence, social class arguments have persisted. Among the most enduring are subculture of violence and subculture of poverty theories, which purportedly explain instrumental crimes such as property crime, drug sales, and robbery, but also violence including homicide and assault. Proponents argue that African Americans are carriers of pro-crime norms and values. Criminologists and sociologists have recently advanced more parsimonious theories that posit that structured social and economic disadvantage account for racial and ethnic patterns of crime. Good data and analysis provide compelling supporting evidence. Ethnographic evidence has compellingly shown that observable cultural differences are consequences of disadvantage and not causes of the conditions in which the impoverished poor live.
{"title":"From Slavery to Social Class to Disadvantage: An Intellectual History of the Use of Class to Explain Racial Differences in Criminal Involvement","authors":"R. Crutchfield","doi":"10.1086/681665","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/681665","url":null,"abstract":"Social class differences have been invoked to explain perceived racial differences in criminal involvement in the United States since the middle of the nineteenth century. Scholars have joined with the public and the media to make such arguments with mixed success. Despite criticism of the theories and research methods used and contradictory evidence, social class arguments have persisted. Among the most enduring are subculture of violence and subculture of poverty theories, which purportedly explain instrumental crimes such as property crime, drug sales, and robbery, but also violence including homicide and assault. Proponents argue that African Americans are carriers of pro-crime norms and values. Criminologists and sociologists have recently advanced more parsimonious theories that posit that structured social and economic disadvantage account for racial and ethnic patterns of crime. Good data and analysis provide compelling supporting evidence. Ethnographic evidence has compellingly shown that observable cultural differences are consequences of disadvantage and not causes of the conditions in which the impoverished poor live.","PeriodicalId":51456,"journal":{"name":"Crime and Justice-A Review of Research","volume":"44 1","pages":"1 - 47"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-07-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1086/681665","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"60383742","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Macro-social theories posit that societies become more civil as they modernize. An open question is whether these changes affect major social indicators of crime. To produce level and change estimates, national data collection systems employ safeguards to promote stability. Cultural changes, though, might affect these systems in more subtle ways by affecting what citizens view as criminal violence and how these behaviors are recounted in crime surveys and reported to police. Three subclasses of violence appear most susceptible: rape and sexual assault, domestic violence, and lesser forms of violence such as verbal threats. Findings are strongest that changing cultural definitions have affected official statistics for domestic violence. Rape and sexual assault also have shown changes in the willingness of victims to report to the police. Evidence does not indicate that the cultural definition of lesser violence has changed in a way that has affected trends in official statistics. Estimating change over time is a key reason statistical systems employ safeguards to remove shifting views of violence. These safeguards may limit an accurate view of victimization risk and exposure. Balancing the need for stability with a desire to capture emerging crimes and risks requires developing careful systematic processes for reviewing and updating national crime statistics.
{"title":"Crime Trends and the Elasticity of Evil: Has a Broadening View of Violence Affected Our Statistical Indicators?","authors":"J. Lynch, Lynn A. Addington","doi":"10.1086/681555","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/681555","url":null,"abstract":"Macro-social theories posit that societies become more civil as they modernize. An open question is whether these changes affect major social indicators of crime. To produce level and change estimates, national data collection systems employ safeguards to promote stability. Cultural changes, though, might affect these systems in more subtle ways by affecting what citizens view as criminal violence and how these behaviors are recounted in crime surveys and reported to police. Three subclasses of violence appear most susceptible: rape and sexual assault, domestic violence, and lesser forms of violence such as verbal threats. Findings are strongest that changing cultural definitions have affected official statistics for domestic violence. Rape and sexual assault also have shown changes in the willingness of victims to report to the police. Evidence does not indicate that the cultural definition of lesser violence has changed in a way that has affected trends in official statistics. Estimating change over time is a key reason statistical systems employ safeguards to remove shifting views of violence. These safeguards may limit an accurate view of victimization risk and exposure. Balancing the need for stability with a desire to capture emerging crimes and risks requires developing careful systematic processes for reviewing and updating national crime statistics.","PeriodicalId":51456,"journal":{"name":"Crime and Justice-A Review of Research","volume":"44 1","pages":"297 - 331"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-07-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1086/681555","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"60382165","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"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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