Most recent papers:

• Effect of racial misclassification in police data on estimates of racial disparities*.
  Ayobami Laniyonu, Samuel T. Donahue.
  Criminology. March 22, 2023
  ["Criminology, EarlyView. ", "\nAbstract\nResearch on race and policing increasingly draws upon data collected by police officers to estimate racial disparities in police contact. Many of these data sets, however, rely on officer perception of a stopped person's race, which may be inconsistent with how those individuals self‐identify. Furthermore, researchers frequently benchmark contact data where race is perceived by police officers against census and survey data where race is self‐identified. We argue that discordance between how individuals self‐identify and how they are classified by officers can bias estimates of racial disparities. Using a unique data set, which allows us to compare officers’ racial classification of stopped persons with those same persons’ racial self‐identification, we characterize rates of racial misclassification in administrative police records. We find evidence of racial misclassification in police records, especially among Hispanic and Asians/Pacific Islanders. We find that officer classification of Hispanics as (non‐Hispanic) White is the most common form of racial misclassification in our sample and that its substantive consequences are significant. Specifically, we find that officer classification of Hispanics as White may lead analysts to incorrectly conclude that Hispanics are no more likely than Whites to be cited by police.\n"]

  March 22, 2023   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12329   open full text
• Unpredictable and monetized contact with the police: Race, avoidance behaviors, and modified activity spaces.
  Andrea Giuffre, Beth M. Huebner.
  Criminology. February 12, 2023
  ["Criminology, EarlyView. ", "\nAbstract\nExponential growth in order maintenance policing and associated misdemeanor sanctions have led to disproportionate consequences for people of color. Using data from qualitative interviews with individuals in the metropolitan St. Louis, Missouri, region, the current study documents the racialized and monetized nature of police contact. This work extends extant scholarship by considering how minor contact with the police shapes individual avoidance behaviors and activity spaces, places where people work and live. We consider how the combination of monetary sanctions, warrants, incarceration, and overpolicing in the region affects avoidance behaviors, particularly for people of color. Our findings suggest that the frequently unpredictable nature of police contacts and the parochial and often profit‐focused structure of policing organizations in the region leads individuals to modify the ways in which they move through the region and, for some, to isolate. Narratives reflect the need for constant calibration of behaviors and decisions, as well as the legacy that police contact and monetary sanctions can have on everyday routines.\n"]

  February 12, 2023   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12328   open full text
• Value orientations, life transitions, and desistance: Assessing competing perspectives.
  Kyle J. Thomas, Holly Nguyen, Erica P. Jackson.
  Criminology. February 03, 2023
  ["Criminology, Volume 61, Issue 1, Page 103-131, February 2023. ", "\nAbstract\nLaub and Sampson (2003) and Paternoster and Bushway (2009) offered opposing explanations of desistance from crime. Yet, extant research has failed to test the key theoretical differences that distinguish these perspectives: 1) the temporal ordering of internal changes in identity/values and life transitions and 2) the impact of values/life transitions on offending conditional on key predictors from the opposing theory (e.g., whether marriage contributes to desistance among individuals who already hold prosocial values). We assess competing claims using data from the Pathways to Desistance. We find that within‐person changes in prosocial value orientations are significantly related to within‐person changes in one's likelihood of entering into serious romantic relationships and becoming employed. Conversely, life transitions are unrelated to changes in one's values. The results derived from fixed‐effects Poisson models indicate high or increasing prosocial value orientations help explain offending patterns among those who enter into serious romantic relationships/get employed and help explain changes in offending among those who do not experience structural “turning points.” Marriage/cohabitation is unrelated to within‐person changes in offending, whereas the impact of employment has an inconsistent relationship. Theoretical and policy implications are discussed.\n"]

  February 03, 2023   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12325   open full text
• “That shit doesn't fly”: Subcultural constraints on prison radicalization.
  Sandra M. Bucerius, William Schultz, Kevin D. Haggerty.
  Criminology. February 03, 2023
  ["Criminology, Volume 61, Issue 1, Page 157-181, February 2023. ", "\nAbstract\nMany observers describe prison subcultures as inherently and irredeemably antisocial. Research directly ties prison subcultures to violence, gang membership, and poor reintegration. In extreme cases, research has also suggested that prison subcultures contribute to incarcerated people joining radical groups or embracing violent extremist beliefs. These claims, however, ignore key differences in the larger cultural and social context of prisons. We examine the relationship between prison subcultures and prison radicalization based on semistructured qualitative interviews with 148 incarcerated men and 131 correctional officers from four western Canadian prisons. We outline several imported features of the prison subculture that make incarcerated people resilient to radicalized and extremist messaging. These features include 1) national cultural imaginaries; 2) the racial profile of a prison, including racial sorting or a lack thereof; and 3) how radicalization allowed incarcerated men and correctional officers to act outside the otherwise agreed‐to subcultural rules. Our research findings stress the importance of contemplating broader sociocultural influences when trying to understand the relationship between radicalization and prison dynamics and politics.\n"]

  February 03, 2023   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12327   open full text
• “[It's] what you do after the mistake that counts”: Positive employment credentials, criminal record stigma, and potential pathways of mediation.
  Megan Denver, Samuel E. DeWitt.
  Criminology. February 03, 2023
  ["Criminology, Volume 61, Issue 1, Page 5-39, February 2023. ", "\nAbstract\nThe findings from prior research indicate that positive credentials, or documentation of prosocial accomplishments, can vary in strength and perceived value in mitigating aversions to hiring individuals with criminal records. In the current study, we examine why certain types of positive credentials may be more influential in reducing stigma than others. Using data from a nationwide survey of American adults (N = 3,476), we combine a mediation analysis with content‐coding of open‐ended responses to identify key themes and patterns in decision processes. The results indicate the factors examined here—employee dependability, trustworthiness, recidivism risk, and workplace crime—explain a large proportion of the total effect across credentials and are the strongest for reference letters. Trustworthiness is the most influential mediator across credentials, whereas general recidivism risk is consistently the lowest. An analysis of open‐ended responses provides further context and insight into these patterns. Although policy strategies often target risk reduction on the employer's end, credentials that also relay information about skills, character, and the timeline of recent life events are especially influential.\n"]

  February 03, 2023   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12319   open full text
• Changing contexts: A quasi‐experiment examining adolescent delinquency and the transition to high school.
  Brittany N. Freelin, Cassie McMillan, Diane Felmlee, D. Wayne Osgood.
  Criminology. February 03, 2023
  ["Criminology, Volume 61, Issue 1, Page 40-73, February 2023. ", "\nAbstract\nIn a quasi‐experiment, we examine whether changing schools during the transition from 8th to 9th grade influences adolescent delinquency, using a sample of more than 14,000 students in 26 public school districts (PROSPER study). The dataset follows students for eight waves from 6th through 12th grade and facilitates a unique, direct comparison of students who change schools with those who remain in the same school during this period. Results show that students who transition between schools report significantly less delinquency after the shift than those who do not, and that this difference persists through 10th grade. This decline is most pronounced when adolescents from multiple middle schools move to a single high school (i.e., multifeeder transitions). Students who transition between schools have fewer delinquent friends and participate in less unstructured socializing following the change in school environment, which partially mediates their reduced delinquency. Results provide some support for theories of differential association and routine activities. Our findings highlight the role of a crucial, yet understudied, life transition in shaping adolescent delinquency. The results from this quasi‐experiment underscore the potential of alterations in social context to significantly dampen juvenile delinquency throughout high school.\n"]

  February 03, 2023   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12320   open full text
• When men fight with women (versus other men): Limited offending during disputes.
  Richard B. Felson, Mark T. Berg, Ethan M. Rogers, Andrew T. Krajewski.
  Criminology. February 03, 2023
  ["Criminology, Volume 61, Issue 1, Page 132-156, February 2023. ", "\nAbstract\nWhat transpires in a dispute, even a violent dispute, is affected by the tendency for adversaries to engage in “limited offending.” We focus on one restraint: the tendency of men to limit their aggression in their disputes with women. Analyses are based on an incident‐level survey about interpersonal disputes administered to 503 men who are incarcerated and 220 men who had never been incarcerated. Using multinomial and logistic regression models, we examined the extent to which an adversary's gender predicted dispute‐related behaviors. The evidence suggests that the chivalry norm has pervasive effects on the behavior of men during their disputes with women. Men are more likely to engage in remedial actions (e.g., apologies) when their adversary is a woman, as opposed to another man. In addition, men are less likely to make violent threats and engage in physical attacks when their adversary is a woman, even after they have themselves been physically attacked. When men are violent, they are less likely to injure a woman than a man. However, the chivalry norm does not inhibit verbal aggression in these disputes: men are just as likely to engage in verbal attacks and nonviolent threats when the adversary is a woman.\n"]

  February 03, 2023   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12324   open full text
• Situational factors and police use of force across micro‐time intervals: A video systematic social observation and panel regression analysis.
  Eric L. Piza, Nathan T. Connealy, Victoria A. Sytsma, Vijay F. Chillar.
  Criminology. February 03, 2023
  ["Criminology, Volume 61, Issue 1, Page 74-102, February 2023. ", "\nAbstract\nThe current study analyzes police use of force as a series of time‐bound transactions between officers, civilians, and bystanders. The research begins with a systematic social observation of use‐of‐force events recorded on police body‐worn cameras in Newark, New Jersey. Researchers measure the occurrence and time stamps for numerous participant physical and verbal behaviors. Data are converted into a longitudinal panel format measuring all observed behaviors in 5‐second intervals. Panel logistic regression models estimate the effect of each behavior on use of force in immediate and subsequent temporal periods. Findings indicate certain variables influence use of force at a distinct point in time, whereas others exert influence on use of force across multiple time periods. The most influential variables relate to authority maintenance theoretical constructs. This finding supports prior perspectives arguing that police use of force largely results from officer attempts to maintain constant authority over civilians during face‐to‐face encounters. Nonetheless, a range of additional variables reflecting procedural justice, civilian resistance, and bystander presence significantly affect when police use force during civilian encounters. Results provide nuance to theoretical frameworks considering use of force as resulting from the interplay between officer and civilian actions and reactions.\n"]

  February 03, 2023   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12323   open full text
• Comparing deep‐end confinement in England & Wales and Norway.
  Ben Crewe, Julie Laursen, Kristian Mjåland.
  Criminology. December 13, 2022
  ["Criminology, EarlyView. ", "\nAbstract\nExtreme forms of custody represent the boundary points of state power. The configuration of the most restrictive corners of prison systems, and what goes on within them, is highly instructive in exposing the objectives, limits, and implications of state coercion at its most severe. Based on data collected in England & Wales and Norway, this article has two main aims. The first is to explore the degree to which “deep‐end” confinement differs between jurisdictions with different penal philosophies. The second is to understand how the most extreme form of confinement in each jurisdiction differs from the more typical carceral experiences within each system and its overall penal ethos. Empirically, then, the article seeks to shine light into the deepest dominions of both prison systems, illuminating the experiential texture of extreme forms of imprisonment. It concludes by asking what can be inferred about Nordic exceptionalism, and about deep‐end confinement more generally, by analyzing these domains.\n"]

  December 13, 2022   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12326   open full text
• Structural predictors of choice: Testing a multilevel rational choice theory of crime.
  Kyle J. Thomas, Eric P. Baumer, Thomas A. Loughran.
  Criminology. November 16, 2022
  ["Criminology, Volume 60, Issue 4, Page 606-636, November 2022. ", "\nAbstract\nExtant research has provided support for the micro‐level predictions of rational choice models of crime. Yet, a central feature of the rational choice perspective in the broader social sciences—that it is multilevel in focus, situating individuals within broader community social structures—has been neglected within criminology. In this article, we discuss and test a model that links community structural characteristics to several individual expectations and preferences relevant to crime. Using data from the Pathways to Desistance study, we find that objective levels of neighborhood concentrated disadvantage influence individuals’ perceptions of, and preferences for, the risks, costs, and rewards associated with offending indirectly by affecting perceived disorder and perceived opportunities for legitimate avenues of success within one's neighborhood. The implications of a multilevel rational choice model of offending are discussed.\n"]

  November 16, 2022   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12314   open full text
• Procedural justice, legal orientations, and gang membership: Testing an alternative explanation to understand the gang–misconduct link.
  Jennifer J. Tostlebe, David C. Pyrooz.
  Criminology. November 16, 2022
  ["Criminology, Volume 60, Issue 4, Page 700-739, November 2022. ", "\nAbstract\nA top priority of prison authorities is maintaining a safe and orderly institutional environment. Gangs are believed to impede this objective, warranting bespoke policies and practices. Drawing on the process‐based model of regulation, we depart from orthodox explanations for the gang–misconduct link and argue that gang affiliates are treated less fairly than nongang affiliates owing to suppression‐oriented administrative policies and harsher day‐to‐day interactions with officers, which, in turn, impact compliance. We use administrative and survey data sources based on a sample of 802 male prisoners and generalized structural equation modeling to examine whether procedural justice and legal orientations mediate the association between official classification of gang affiliation and self‐reported misconduct. Our findings reveal partial support for the process‐based model: procedural justice and legitimacy are poorer among gang than among nongang respondents but do not mediate the gang–misconduct link. The traditional pathway between procedural justice, legitimacy, and obligation to obey was observed, none of which were related to misconduct, standing in sharp contrast to the expectations of the process‐based model. These findings suggest that factors other than procedural justice and legal orientations may be more relevant for rule violations among gangs, specifically, and within correctional environments, generally.\n"]

  November 16, 2022   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12316   open full text
• Race, work history, and the employment recidivism relationship.
  Simon G. Kolbeck, Paul E. Bellair, Steven Lopez.
  Criminology. November 16, 2022
  ["Criminology, Volume 60, Issue 4, Page 637-666, November 2022. ", "\nAbstract\nRecent studies have found that race, work history, postprison employment, and recidivism are intertwined, suggesting that race and work history may shape the employment–recidivism relationship in nuanced, yet underexplored ways. Additionally, the literature has yet to settle on what kinds of employment patterns matter most for recidivism. These issues are especially important to resolve given contemporary concerns about mass incarceration and racial disparities among citizens returning from prison. To investigate these questions, we analyze administrative prison records, unemployment insurance (UI) quarterly data, and a recidivism follow‐up documenting multiple failures for approximately eight years. Frailty models, which address unobserved heterogeneity among those prone to multiple recidivism events, reveal that establishing a recent work history unlocks the protective effect of employment, and that the relationship between postprison employment and recidivism does not vary by race. We also find that being sporadically employed is as protective as being more consistently employed. Our findings imply that employment contributes to racial disparities in recidivism via racialized barriers to labor market participation rather than via differential effects. Our results further suggest that addressing barriers to employment, especially for those with no work history and those facing racialized barriers to labor market entry, could significantly reduce recidivism.\n"]

  November 16, 2022   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12317   open full text
• More immigrants, less death: An analysis of immigration effects on county‐level drug overdose deaths, 2000–2015.
  Ben Feldmeyer, Diana Sun, Casey T. Harris, Francis T. Cullen.
  Criminology. November 16, 2022
  ["Criminology, Volume 60, Issue 4, Page 667-699, November 2022. ", "\nAbstract\nPublic and political discourse has routinely suggested that immigration is linked to higher community levels of violence and drug problems. In contrast to these claims, research has consistently shown that immigration is not associated with greater violence at the macro level. However, few studies have examined the links between immigration flows and community drug problems. The current study seeks to address this gap in research by providing a county‐level longitudinal analysis of immigration and drug overdose deaths both overall and by substance type for the 2000 to 2015 period and provides an analysis of homicide for comparison with prior immigration–crime research. In addition, this analysis compares immigration–overdose relationships across immigrant destination types. The current project relies on overdose and homicide data drawn from the Centers for Disease Control's Restricted Access Multiple Cause of Death Mortality files combined with data on county social, economic, health, and legal contexts drawn from multiple macro‐level data sources. Findings reveal that immigration is not associated with higher levels of overdose or homicide deaths, and when effects are significant, immigration is linked to lower levels of overdose mortality across multiple substances and destination types.\n"]

  November 16, 2022   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12318   open full text
• Police legitimacy regimes and the suppression of citizen oversight in response to police violence.
  Theresa Rocha Beardall.
  Criminology. November 16, 2022
  ["Criminology, Volume 60, Issue 4, Page 740-765, November 2022. ", "\nAbstract\nA lack of formal accountability in the aftermath of police violence against communities of color has long fueled public demands for increased police oversight. Yet, little is known about how interorganizational relationships affect citizen complaint investigations once citizen review boards (CRBs) are established. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, interviews, and archival sources about the Syracuse Citizen Review Board in New York State, I show how CRBs operate as bureaucratic agencies that ostensibly address police misconduct, yet are managed by municipal power relations that neutralize the agency's ability to actualize change. Specifically, I find that a CRB's embeddedness within a municipality's interorganizational field creates a site of contestation to ensure public legitimation of police despite community concern. To show how the aims of citizen oversight can be upended within the structural and practical politics of local government, I introduce the concept of a police legitimacy regime: a set of (in)formal policies, organizations, and actors that protect and promote the legitimacy of state police power. In Syracuse, police protection happens at the expense of residents’ demands for police reform, and I conclude by outlining the implications of this research for other communities seeking citizen‐led approaches to police accountability.\n"]

  November 16, 2022   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12321   open full text
• “If it don't kill you, it'll take away your life”: Survival strategies and isolation in a long‐running gun conflict.
  Tom Wooten.
  Criminology. November 16, 2022
  ["Criminology, Volume 60, Issue 4, Page 581-605, November 2022. ", "\nAbstract\nGun violence in the United States often spurs long‐running conflicts, but little is known about how individuals involved in these conflicts cope with the lingering threat of being shot. Drawing on an in‐depth ethnographic case study of one young man's long‐running gun conflict in New Orleans, as well as on interviews and fieldwork with other young men in his social network who dealt with similar conflicts, this study examines how individuals contend with direct, ongoing threats of violence targeted specifically at them. It finds that these threats can severely disrupt people's lives. When targeted individuals anticipate that their opponents will seek them out through known associations and whereabouts, people and places that were previously sources of security become newly imbued with apparent danger. Such insidious threats force targeted individuals to cut off formerly vital relationships and routines. These isolationist strategies help keep targeted individuals safe, but in the process they snuff out opportunity, stifle otherwise healthy relationships, and give rise to protracted stalemates. The findings show how the lived experience of a long‐running gun conflict can be characterized primarily by caution and defensiveness, not by going on the attack. They also reveal previously hidden social consequences of these defensive strategies.\n"]

  November 16, 2022   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12322   open full text
• Gender equality and the shifting gap in female‐to‐male prison admission rates.
  Heather McLaughlin, Sarah K. S. Shannon.
  Criminology. August 17, 2022
  ["Criminology, Volume 60, Issue 3, Page 508-537, August 2022. ", "\nAbstract\nAlthough women have made dramatic gains toward equality with men over the past century, this progress has occurred alongside tremendous growth in U.S. incarceration rates. Extending prior research on sex differences in offending, we turn our attention to punishment by exploring how gender equality in education, work, and politics is associated with disparities in annual prison admissions. Using pooled cross‐sectional data for U.S. states from 1983 to 2010, we conduct a series of fixed‐effects regressions to estimate the ratio of female‐to‐male annual prison admission rates, as well as sex‐specific rates, disaggregated by violent, property, and drug crimes. We find partial support for the ameliorative hypothesis, which predicts that increasing gender equality will decrease female incarceration rates relative to male rates. For one of our three measures of gender equality—the sex gap in educational attainment—we find that greater equality is associated with a widening of the sex gap in incarceration rates, particularly for property offenses. We explore the implications of these findings in relation to existing theories of gender, crime, and punishment.\n"]

  August 17, 2022   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12308   open full text
• Improving or declining: What are the consequences for changes in local crime?
  John R. Hipp, Xiaoshuang Iris Luo.
  Criminology. August 17, 2022
  ["Criminology, Volume 60, Issue 3, Page 480-507, August 2022. ", "\nAbstract\nWhereas existing ecology of crime research frequently uses a cross‐sectional design, an open question is whether theories underlying such studies will operate similarly in longitudinal research. Using latent trajectory models and longitudinal data in half‐mile egohoods from the Southern California region over a 10‐year period (2000–2010), we explore this question and assess whether the changes in key measures of social disorganization theory are related to changes in violent or property crime through three possible relationships: 1) a monotonic relationship, 2) an asymmetric relationship, and 3) a perturbation relationship in which any change increases crime. We find evidence that measures can exhibit any of these three possible relationships, highlighting the importance of not assuming monotonic relationships. Most frequently observed are asymmetric relationships, which we posit are simultaneously capturing more than one theoretical process of neighborhoods and crime. Specific findings include asymmetric relationships between change in concentrated disadvantage, racial/ethnic minority composition, or population and violent crime, as well as relationships between change in Asian composition or population and property crime. We consider how this strategy opens a needed area of future research assessing how measures for other theories operate as environments change.\n"]

  August 17, 2022   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12309   open full text
• “We keep the nightmares in their cages”: Correctional culture, identity, and the warped badge of honor.
  Ethan M. Higgins, Justin Smith, Kristin Swartz.
  Criminology. August 17, 2022
  ["Criminology, Volume 60, Issue 3, Page 429-454, August 2022. ", "\nAbstract\nCorrectional scholarship has demonstrated concern over the dehumanizing implications of the carceral state for incarcerated people. This concern has been paralleled by an interest in understanding the work of prison staff and how correctional subculture may play an active role in prison dehumanization. By drawing from focus groups from all prisons in one state, we investigate how correctional staff construct and manage their identity through “us–them” ideologies. We find that staff leverage negative attitudes toward the incarcerated, and that these attitudes were underpinned by sensational cultural stories and epithets. Moreover, we find that staff use “othering” toward the incarcerated as a means to construct a warped badge of honor, which illustrates the burdens they bear from prison work and which frames themselves as heroes, guardians, and protectors. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of our findings, where we consider how dehumanization illustrates the mental coping work staff endure to carry out the symbolic violence and dehumanizing objectives of the carceral system.\n"]

  August 17, 2022   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12306   open full text
• Personality pathways to aggression: Testing a trait‐state model using immersive technology.
  Jean‐Louis Gelder, Reinout E. Vries, Iris Sintemaartensdijk, Tara Donker.
  Criminology. August 17, 2022
  ["Criminology, Volume 60, Issue 3, Page 406-428, August 2022. ", "\nAbstract\nTrait‐state models aim to provide an encompassing view of offender decision‐making processes by linking individual dispositions to proximal factors. In an experiment using an immersive virtual reality bar fight scenario, we propose and test a trait‐state model that identifies the pathways through which robust personality correlates of aggressive behavior, that is, agreeableness, emotionality, and honesty‐humility, result in intentions to aggress. Using structural equation modeling, we show how these personality traits relate to intentions to aggress via anger, fear, perceived risk, and anticipated guilt/shame. Additionally, we demonstrate superior validity of our virtual scenario over a written version of the same scenario by virtue of its ability to provide more contextual realism, to establish a stronger sense of presence, and to trigger more intense emotional states relevant to the decision situation. Implications for future decision‐making research and theory are discussed.\n"]

  August 17, 2022   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12305   open full text
• Damned if you do, damned if you don't: How formerly incarcerated men navigate the labor market with prison credentials.
  Sadé L. Lindsay.
  Criminology. August 17, 2022
  ["Criminology, Volume 60, Issue 3, Page 455-479, August 2022. ", "\nAbstract\nAlthough employment is central to successful reentry, formerly incarcerated people struggle to find work because of criminal stigma, poor education, and sparse work histories. Prison credentials are proposed as one solution to alleviate these challenges by signaling criminal desistance and employability. Evidence regarding their efficacy, however, is inconsistent. In this article, I develop a novel explanation—the prison credential dilemma—highlighting the numerous and contradictory ways employers may interpret prison credentials as positive and negative signals. Drawing on 50 qualitative interviews with formerly incarcerated men in Franklin County, Ohio, I examine how the prison credential dilemma and the uncertainty it produces shape their job search strategies and pathways to employment. I find that participants concealed or obscured institutional affiliations of prison credentials on job applications to signal employability rather than their criminal records. In job interviews, however, prison credentials were used to divert conversations away from their criminal record toward skills and criminal desistance via the use of redemptive narratives. Participants also attempted to acquire credentials outside of prison and/or pursued temporary, precarious jobs, aspiring for such physically strenuous and poorly paid work to materialize into stable employment. This study has implications for prison programming as well as policies and practices aiming to improve reentry outcomes.\n"]

  August 17, 2022   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12307   open full text
• Mental health disparities in solitary confinement.
  Jessica T. Simes, Bruce Western, Angela Lee.
  Criminology. August 17, 2022
  ["Criminology, Volume 60, Issue 3, Page 538-575, August 2022. ", "\nAbstract\nHarsh prison conditions have been widely examined for their effects on the mental health of incarcerated people, but few studies have examined whether mental health status exposes individuals to harsh treatment in the penal system. With prisoners confined to their cells for up to 23 hours each day, often being denied visitors or phone calls, solitary confinement is an important case for studying harsh treatment in prisons. Routinely used as punishment for prison infractions, solitary confinement may be subject to the same forces that criminalize the mentally ill in community settings. Analyzing a large administrative data set showing admissions to solitary confinement in state prison, we find high rates of punitive isolation among those with serious mental illness. Disparities by mental health status result from the cumulative effects of prison misconduct charges and disciplinary hearings. We estimate that those with serious mental illness spend three times longer in solitary confinement than similar incarcerated people with no mental health problems. The evidence suggests the stigma of dangerousness follows people into prison, and the criminalization of mental illness accompanies greater severity of incarceration.\n"]

  August 17, 2022   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12315   open full text
• When guardians become offenders: Understanding guardian capability through the lens of corporate crime*.
  Fiona Chan, Carole Gibbs.
  Criminology. April 21, 2022
  ["Criminology, Volume 60, Issue 2, Page 321-341, May 2022. ", "\nAbstract\nRecent developments in routine activities theory have sought to conceptualize the notion of capable guardianship, as well as to broaden the application of the theory to the corporate crime context. Building on this work with systematically collected qualitative data, we examine the mechanisms in which offenders commit corporate financial fraud and identify the failures in guardianship. In addition to the unique dimensions of corporate crime already identified (i.e., specialized access to targets), our work highlights the need to consider guardian–offender overlap, or instances in which those tasked with guardianship responsibilities become motivated offenders. Our findings suggest financial regulations focusing on adding layers of guardians may be insufficient. They also have broader implications for understanding guardian capability in other forms of crime—namely, the need to consider the costs and benefits of intervention, willingness and ability to intervene in differing contexts, and how these dimensions of guardianship shape offender risk perceptions.\n"]

  April 21, 2022   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12300   open full text
• Collective efficacy and the built environment*.
  Charles C. Lanfear.
  Criminology. April 21, 2022
  ["Criminology, Volume 60, Issue 2, Page 370-396, May 2022. ", "\nAbstract\nCollective efficacy is a prominent explanation for neighborhood crime concentrations. Just as crime is concentrated in particular neighborhoods, within‐neighborhoods crime is concentrated in particular criminogenic locations. Research suggests criminogenic locations are determined by features of the built environment. This study links collective efficacy with situational opportunity to propose that collective efficacy facilitates the removal of criminogenic features of the built environment. I test this by examining associations 1) between past collective efficacy and present criminogenic features of the built environment, as well as 2) between those built environment features and crime, net of present collective efficacy. These are modeled using piecewise structural equations with generalized linear mixed‐effect regressions on data from 1,641 blocks in 343 Chicago neighborhoods. Four types of police‐reported crime are modeled using eight block‐level built environment features in the 2003 Chicago Community Area Health Study (CCAHS; N = 3,074) and neighborhood collective efficacy from the CCAHS and the 1995 Project in Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN) Community Survey (N = 7,672). Findings suggest neighborhoods with high collective efficacy maintain low rates of crime in part by limiting criminogenic built environment features, in particular, abandoned buildings. This crime control pathway is important because changes to the built environment are long lasting and reduce the need for future interventions against crime.\n"]

  April 21, 2022   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12304   open full text
• Social order and social justice: Moral intuitions, systemic racism beliefs, and Americans’ divergent attitudes toward Black Lives Matter and police.
  Eric Silver, Kerby Goff, John Iceland.
  Criminology. April 21, 2022
  ["Criminology, Volume 60, Issue 2, Page 342-369, May 2022. ", "\nAbstract\nWe examine the influence of moral intuitions on Americans’ divergent attitudes toward Black Lives Matter (BLM) and police. Drawing on Moral Foundations Theory, we hypothesize that individualizing moral intuitions that put care and protection of the vulnerable at the center of moral concern (a social justice orientation) lead people to express positive feelings toward BLM and negative feelings toward police, whereas binding moral intuitions that put social stability at the center of moral concern (a social order orientation) lead people to express positive feelings toward police and negative feelings toward BLM. We find strong support for these hypotheses using data from a 2021 YouGov survey of 1,125 U.S. adults including a 100 percent oversample of Black respondents. We also find that belief in systemic racism as a cause of police use of excessive force mediates much of the effects of the moral intuitions measures, except for the association between binding moral intuitions and positive feelings toward police, which is largely direct. Our results provide compelling evidence that moral intuitions play an important role in explaining American's divergent attitudes toward BLM and police.\n"]

  April 21, 2022   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12303   open full text
• Police contact and future orientation from adolescence to young adulthood: Findings from the Pathways to Desistance Study.
  Alexander Testa, Kristin Turney, Dylan B. Jackson, Chae M. Jaynes.
  Criminology. April 21, 2022
  ["Criminology, Volume 60, Issue 2, Page 263-290, May 2022. ", "\nAbstract\nIn response to the changing nature of policing in the United States, and current climate of police–citizen relations, research has begun to explore the consequences of adolescent police contact for life outcomes. The current study investigates if and under what conditions police contact has repercussions for future orientation during adolescence and the transition into young adulthood. Using data from the Pathways to Desistance study, a multisite longitudinal study of serious offenders followed from adolescence to young adulthood, results from a series of fixed‐effects models demonstrated three main findings. First, personal and vicarious police contact, compared with no additional police contact, are negatively associated with within‐person changes in future orientation. Second, any exposure to police contact, regardless of how just or unjust the contact is perceived, is negatively associated with future orientation. Third, the negative association between police contact and future orientation is larger for White individuals compared with that for Black or Hispanic individuals. Considering the importance of future orientation for prosocial behavior, the findings suggest that adolescent police contact may serve as an important life‐course event with repercussions for later life outcomes.\n"]

  April 21, 2022   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12297   open full text
• “No idea whether he's Black, White, or purple”: Colorblindness and cultural scripting in prosecution*.
  R. R. Dunlea.
  Criminology. April 21, 2022
  ["Criminology, Volume 60, Issue 2, Page 237-262, May 2022. ", "\nAbstract\nProsecutors maintain immense power over criminal case processing. Yet, they have not historically been a major target for reforms designed to foster equality and reduce racial disparity in criminal justice outcomes. Using in‐depth interviews with 47 line prosecutors, this study explores how prosecutors think about race in criminal justice, and what they believe their role should be in addressing racial disparities. Results show that prosecutors broadly embrace a colorblind approach to prosecution and argue that race should be disregarded in case processing. Their support for colorblind prosecution is reinforced by race‐neutral cultural scripts that can be linked to the social and operational realities of prosecutors’ work environment. These findings suggest that efforts to improve fairness in case processing will be more effective if they are accompanied by widespread prosecutorial culture change. Such efforts may also benefit from the consideration of structural features of the prosecutor's office that currently lead line agents to embrace colorblindness and reject a larger role in alleviating racial disparities.\n"]

  April 21, 2022   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12296   open full text
• The American racial divide in fear of the police.
  Justin T. Pickett, Amanda Graham, Francis T. Cullen.
  Criminology. April 21, 2022
  ["Criminology, Volume 60, Issue 2, Page 291-320, May 2022. ", "\nAbstract\nThe mission of policing is “to protect and serve,” but recent events suggest that many Americans, and especially Black Americans, do not feel protected from the police. Understanding police‐related fear is important because it may impact civilians’ health, daily lives, and policy attitudes. To examine the prevalence, sources, and consequences of both personal and altruistic fear of the police, we surveyed a nationwide sample (N = 1,150), which included comparable numbers of Black (N = 517) and White (N = 492) respondents. Most White respondents felt safe, but most Black respondents lived in fear of the police killing them and hurting their family members. Approximately half of Black respondents preferred to be robbed or burglarized than to have unprovoked contact with officers. The racial divide in fear was mediated by past experiences with police mistreatment. In turn, fear mediated the effects of race and past mistreatment on support for defunding the police and intentions to have “the talk” with family youths about the need to distrust and avoid officers. The deep American racial divide in police‐related fear represents a racially disparate health crisis and a primary obstacle to law enforcement's capacity to serve all communities equitably.\n"]

  April 21, 2022   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12298   open full text
• Are guns the new dog whistle? Gun control, racial resentment, and vote choice*.
  Nathaniel M. Schutten, Justin T. Pickett, Alexander L. Burton, Cheryl Lero Jonson, Francis T. Cullen, Velmer S. Burton,.
  Criminology. February 08, 2022
  ["Criminology, Volume 60, Issue 1, Page 90-123, February 2022. ", "\nAbstract\nTwo principal movers of American politics appear increasingly to be connected: racism and guns. The racial content underlying gun rights rhetoric, however, is rarely made explicit during political campaigns. As such, it is possible that espousing pro‐gun messages may be an effective way to surreptitiously court prejudiced voters without transgressing popular egalitarian norms. In other words, gun rights rhetoric may function as a racial dog whistle. In the present study, we test this theory using data from a survey experiment conducted with a national sample of registered voters. The findings from our experiment show that election candidates’ National Rifle Association (NRA)‐funding status and position on gun control impact voters’ evaluations, and racial resentment moderates these effects. Racially resentful voters are more likely than low‐resentment voters to say they would vote for a candidate when the candidate is funded by the NRA and does not support gun control. This is true among voters who own guns and among those who do not, and it is true regardless of the candidate's political party. The findings also show that there is a backlash effect among low‐resentment voters—such individuals are aversive to NRA‐funded candidates but strongly supportive of pro‐gun control candidates.\n"]

  February 08, 2022   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12292   open full text
• Prior punishments and cumulative disadvantage: How supervision status impacts prison sentences*.
  Audrey Hickert, Shawn D. Bushway, David J. Harding, Jeffrey D. Morenoff.
  Criminology. February 08, 2022
  ["Criminology, Volume 60, Issue 1, Page 27-59, February 2022. ", "\nAbstract\nThis article explores one way prior punishments may contribute to cumulative disadvantage: through more severe sentencing of those under criminal justice supervision. We examine the impact of being on supervision in Michigan on receiving a sentence of imprisonment—comparing the magnitude of the impact reflected in the formal sentencing guideline recommendation with deviations made by court actors. We find that the formal penalty for supervision status is modest, whereas court actors place substantially more weight on current parole status than do the guidelines when deciding to sentence a defendant to prison. They do not seem to give current probation status extra weight in a consistent way. As such, parole is more likely to contribute to cumulative disadvantage stemming from prior punishments. This disproportionately impacts Black defendants because of their higher rates of parole—not through disproportionate sentencing conditional on parole status. Findings suggest that attempts to address factors contributing to cumulative disadvantage will need to consider not only formal rules but also how informal discretion contributes to prison sentences.\n"]

  February 08, 2022   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12290   open full text
• Public fear of protesters and support for protest policing: An experimental test of two theoretical models*.
  Christi Metcalfe, Justin T. Pickett.
  Criminology. February 08, 2022
  ["Criminology, Volume 60, Issue 1, Page 60-89, February 2022. ", "\nAbstract\nAs protests erupted across the United States in recent years over racialized issues (e.g., Black Lives Matter and Confederate monuments), so too did questions about when and how police should respond. Understanding public attitudes toward protest policing is important for police legitimacy and policy. One theory is that citizens are willing to trade civil liberties, such as the right to assemble, for security, and thus disruptive or dangerous protest tactics should increase support for police control by elevating public fear. Another theory is that citizens view protests through the lens of group position, and thus, they should be more supportive of repression when protest goals conflict with preexisting racial beliefs and threaten racial interests. To test these theories, we embedded an experiment in a nationwide survey fielded in 2020 after George Floyd's killing sparked the broadest protests in U.S. history. We randomized protest tactics (e.g., weapon carrying) and goals, as well as other contextual characteristics (e.g., protest size). We found that the public generally opposed repressive protest policing. Certain protest tactics, however, increased support for repression by elevating fear. Protest goals (e.g., pro‐Black Lives Matter and pro‐immigrants) also impacted support for repression, but the effect depended on respondents’ racial beliefs.\n"]

  February 08, 2022   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12291   open full text
• Body‐worn cameras, lawful police stops, and NYPD officer compliance: A cluster randomized controlled trial*.
  Anthony A. Braga, John M. MacDonald, James McCabe.
  Criminology. February 08, 2022
  ["Criminology, Volume 60, Issue 1, Page 124-158, February 2022. ", "\nAbstract\nThe federal court settlement of Floyd, et al. v. City of New York, et al. (2013) mandated that the New York City Police Department (NYPD) implement a series of reforms to address unlawful stop, question, and frisk patterns and practices. Among other changes, the remedial order required the NYPD to implement and evaluate a pilot body‐worn camera program to determine whether outfitting officers with the technology led to more lawful and civil police–citizen encounters. A cluster randomized controlled trial involving 40 police precincts and 3,889 NYPD officers was used to evaluate the effects of body‐worn cameras on a series of police work activity, civility, and lawfulness outcomes. Relative to control officers, citizen complaints against treatment officers outfitted with body‐worn cameras were reduced by 21 percent. Treatment officers, however, also filed nearly 39 percent more stop reports when compared with control officers. Treatment stop reports tended to involve minority subjects, were less likely to involve arrests and summons, and were significantly more likely to be rated as not meeting constitutional justifications for stops, frisks, and searches. These results suggest that body‐worn cameras improved NYPD officer compliance with mandates to document all stops and could be used to address unlawful policing through better detection of problematic police–citizen encounters.\n"]

  February 08, 2022   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12293   open full text
• The price of a sex offense conviction: A comparative analysis of the costs of community supervision.
  Beth M. Huebner, Andrea Giuffre, Breanne Pleggenkuhle, Kimberly R. Kras.
  Criminology. February 08, 2022
  ["Criminology, Volume 60, Issue 1, Page 159-186, February 2022. ", "\nAbstract\nMonetary sanctions can expand the scope and depth of punishment. Most research on monetary sanctions has centered on fines and fees assessed by the court, but they are also routinely imposed as part of the probation and parole sentence. In this article, we draw on in‐depth interview data from a sample of individuals under correctional supervision to document the often hidden costs of correctional control. We further consider a subsample of participants convicted of sexual offenses to illustrate the unique way that monetary sanctions are levied on groups of people who are considered more morally culpable and worthy of carceral control. We find that monetary sanctions are regularly assessed and challenging for most participants. The stigma of a sexual offense conviction and economic precarity, particularly among Black members of the sample, further the costs of punishment. We contend that costs associated with a sexual offense are unique because they can continue in perpetuity, govern normative behavior, and are centered on an assumption of continued guilt. We argue that the monetary sanctions levied against convicted persons, especially individuals with sexual offenses, demonstrate the often hidden and expansive nature of carceral control for other marginalized groups.\n"]

  February 08, 2022   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12294   open full text
• Sex, drugs, and coercive control: Gendered narratives of methamphetamine use, relationships, and violence.
  Heith Copes, Fiona Brookman, Jared Ragland, Blake Beaton.
  Criminology. February 08, 2022
  ["Criminology, Volume 60, Issue 1, Page 187-218, February 2022. ", "\nAbstract\nWhile many of the motives people provide for using drugs transcend gender, there are also notable gendered differences. These differences in motive talk aid in stigma management, shape gender performances, and can encourage or constrain behavior. Using data from a photoethnography with 52 people who use methamphetamine in rural Alabama, we find that men and women articulate their motives for drug use in distinctly gendered ways. Most notably, men emphasized the benefits of sex on meth while most of the women did not. Men's stories of meth as a sex drug shaped how they interacted with women often leading them to use violence and coercion to control when, where, and with whom women used meth. Women were less likely to say that increased sexual feelings was their primary motive for using meth. They drew on gendered themes of femininity (e.g., motherhood, home keeper) when explaining their drug use. They also sought ways to resist coercive control that were intertwined with their gendered narratives of drug use. The findings point to the importance of gendered narratives in shaping interactions, and significantly, how narratives can contribute to harm and reinforce gender inequality in drug markets.\n"]

  February 08, 2022   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12295   open full text
• The ties that bribe: Corruption's embeddedness in Chicago organized crime*.
  Jared Joseph, Chris M. Smith.
  Criminology. November 19, 2021
  ["Criminology, Volume 59, Issue 4, Page 671-703, November 2021. ", "\nAbstract\nThe crime of corruption ranges from politicians involved in high‐profile scandals to low‐level bureaucrats granting contracts and police officers demanding bribes. Corruption occurs when state actors criminally leverage their positions of power for financial gain. Our study examines how corruption varies by political power position and within criminal contexts by measuring the embeddedness of corruption within Chicago historical organized crime. We analyze Chicago's organized crime network before and during Prohibition (1900–1919 and 1920–1933) to compare differences across embedded network positions between political, law enforcement, and nonstate actors. Our findings show that more police were in organized crime than politicians before Prohibition, but the small group of politicians had higher embeddedness in organized crime. During Prohibition, when organized crime grew and centralized, law enforcement decreased in proportion and became less embedded in organized crime. Politicians, however, maintained their proportion and high level of embeddedness. We argue that everyday corruption is more frequent but less embedded when criminal contexts are moderately profitable. As criminal contexts increase in profitability, however, corruption moves up the political ladder to include fewer people who are more highly embedded. This work has theoretical implications for the symbiotic relationship between corruption and criminal organizations.\n"]

  November 19, 2021   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12287   open full text
• Life lessons: Examining sources of racial and ethnic disparity in federal life without parole sentences*.
  Brian D. Johnson, Cassia Spohn, Anat Kimchi.
  Criminology. November 19, 2021
  ["Criminology, Volume 59, Issue 4, Page 704-737, November 2021. ", "\nAbstract\nAlongside capital punishment, sentences to life without the possibility of parole are one of the most distinctive aspects of the American system of criminal punishment. Unlike the death penalty, though, almost no empirical work has examined the decision to impose life imprisonment. The current study analyzes several years of recent federal sentencing data (FY2010–FY2017) to investigate underlying sources of racial disparity in life without parole sentences. The analysis reveals disparities in who receives life imprisonment, but it finds these differences are attributable mostly to indirect mechanisms built into the federal sentencing system, such as the mode of conviction, mandatory minimums, and guidelines departures. Both Black and Hispanic offenders are more likely to be eligible for life sentences under the federal guidelines, but conditional on being eligible, they are not more likely to receive life sentences. Findings are discussed in relation to ongoing debates over racial inequality and the growing role that life imprisonment plays in American exceptionalism in punishment.\n"]

  November 19, 2021   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12288   open full text
• Immigrant status, citizenship, and victimization risk in the United States: New findings from the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)*.
  Min Xie, Eric P. Baumer.
  Criminology. November 19, 2021
  ["Criminology, Volume 59, Issue 4, Page 610-644, November 2021. ", "\nAbstract\nUntil recently, national‐level data on criminal victimization in the United States did not include information on immigrant or citizenship status of respondents. This data‐infrastructure limitation has hindered scientific understanding of whether immigrants are more or less likely than native‐born Americans to be criminally victimized and how victimization may vary among immigrants of different statuses. We address these issues in the present study by using new data from the 2017–2018 National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) to explore the association between citizenship status and victimization risk in a nationally representative sample of households and persons aged 12 years and older. The research is guided by a theoretical framing that integrates insights from studies of citizenship with the literature on immigration and crime, as well as with theories of victimization. We find that a person's foreign‐born status (but not their acquired U.S. citizenship) confers protection against victimization. We also find that the protective benefit associated with being foreign born does not extend to those with ambiguous citizenship status, who in our data exhibit attributes similar to the known characteristics of undocumented immigrants. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings and the potential ways to extend the research.\n"]

  November 19, 2021   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12278   open full text
• “God is real”: Narratives of religiously motivated desistance*.
  Stephanie M. DiPietro, Timothy Dickinson.
  Criminology. November 19, 2021
  ["Criminology, Volume 59, Issue 4, Page 645-670, November 2021. ", "\nAbstract\nThis study examines the role of Islam in shaping processes of criminal desistance among four men, each with extensive histories of crime and violence. The men's life histories are unique, first, in that they came of age in contexts of extreme violence and religious persecution—all men are Muslim and were children during the ethnic cleansing campaigns in Bosnia in the early 1990s—and second, in that they all identify their newfound or newly cemented dedication to Islam as the primary catalyst for their desistance. Thematic analyses rooted in the principles of grounded theory reveal some consistencies with extant research on religiously motivated desistance, including the role of faith as a means for self‐transformation and behavioral guidance. They also shed light on traditionally understudied mechanisms in the faith‐desistance relationship, including the power of religion to reconfigure masculine identities, to reconcile with traumatic pasts, and to cultivate a new moral universe. In examining these men's life histories, we make the case for considering the transformative benefits of Islam in studies of crime and desistance, and for disentangling the role of distinctive faith factors (e.g., faith and religious participation) in processes of change.\n"]

  November 19, 2021   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12284   open full text
• Asymmetry in process‐based model relationships: A longitudinal study of adjudicated adolescents*.
  Andrew J. Thompson, Justin T. Pickett.
  Criminology. November 19, 2021
  ["Criminology, Volume 59, Issue 4, Page 585-609, November 2021. ", "\nAbstract\nThe asymmetry hypothesis predicts that negative police encounters matter more than positive ones for legitimacy, suggesting that officers may get little credit for using procedural justice. We tested the asymmetry hypothesis and extended it to other process‐based model relationships by estimating asymmetric fixed effects models with longitudinal data from adjudicated adolescents. By utilizing within‐individual variability and decomposing accumulated positive and negative changes in the predictors, these models pushed beyond the limits of existing research. Prior studies of asymmetric effects in policing either focused on the impact of a single encounter, often one that was both hypothetical and vicarious, or were unable to control for all time‐invariant confounders. Our findings reveal that positive and negative changes in perceived procedural justice are both related to changes in legitimacy. The relationship is symmetric for global perceptions of procedural justice but asymmetric for encounter‐specific perceptions. Both positive and negative changes in legitimacy are related to changes in offending variety, but the relationship is symmetric. The implications are that police do get credit for procedural justice, and that they must work to maintain legitimacy once they have it, because it is something that can be lost, and its loss has consequences for offending.\n"]

  November 19, 2021   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12279   open full text
• Can the group disincentivize offending? Considering opt‐out thresholds and decision reversals*.
  Jean Marie McGloin, Kyle J. Thomas, Zachary R. Rowan, Jessica R. Deitzer.
  Criminology. November 19, 2021
  ["Criminology, Volume 59, Issue 4, Page 738-765, November 2021. ", "\nAbstract\nScholars generally agree that offending decisions occur in social context, with some suggesting that choice models should explicitly integrate the notion that the deviant actions of others can incentivize offending. In this study, we investigate whether group settings can also disincentivize deviant action via reverse bandwagon effects, where individuals reverse their offending decision and express an intention to opt out of the criminal act. Based on survey data from three universities using hypothetical scenarios about theft and fighting, we find evidence of opt‐out thresholds. Our findings indicate that deviant groups can serve as both an incentive and a disincentive, and that the relationship between group size and the perceived utility of crime is more complicated than prior work has suggested. Moreover, we find that these self‐reported opt‐out thresholds vary across scenarios, indicating that socially interdependent decision‐making processes may be situation specific. In the end, the study underscores the importance of acknowledging the social context in offending decisions and highlights that group effects may be more complex and nuanced than previously discussed.\n"]

  November 19, 2021   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12289   open full text
• Prosecutors, court communities, and policy change: The impact of internal DOJ reforms on federal prosecutorial practices*.
  Mona Lynch, Matt Barno, Marisa Omori.
  Criminology. September 22, 2021
  ["Criminology, Volume 59, Issue 3, Page 480-519, August 2021. ", "\nAbstract\nThe current study examines how key internal U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) policy changes have been translated into front‐line prosecutorial practices. Extending courts‐as‐communities scholarship and research on policy implementation practices, we use U.S. Sentencing Commission data from 2004 to 2019 to model outcomes for several measures of prosecutorial discretion in federal drug trafficking cases, including the use of mandatory minimum charges and prosecutor‐endorsed departures, to test the impact of the policy changes on case processing outcomes. We contrast prosecutorial measures with measures that are more impervious to discretionary manipulation, such as criminal history, and those that represent judicial and blended discretion, including judicial departures and final sentence lengths. We find a significant effect of the policy reforms on how prosecutorial tools are used across DOJ policy periods, and we find variation across districts as a function of contextual conditions, consistent with the court communities literature. We also find that a powerful driver of changes in prosecutorial practices during our most recent period is the confirmation of individual Trump‐appointed U.S. Attorneys at the district level, suggesting an important theoretical place for midlevel actors in policy translation and implementation.\n"]

  September 22, 2021   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12275   open full text
• Social media, socialization, and pursuing legitimation of police violence*.
  Tony Cheng.
  Criminology. September 22, 2021
  ["Criminology, Volume 59, Issue 3, Page 391-418, August 2021. ", "\nAbstract\nEvery day, police departments across America are executing stops, summonses, arrests, and increasingly, tweeting. Although scholarship has focused on how social media democratizes news production and information sharing for activist movements, it has yet to explore how police leverage these attributes to advance institutional interests. I argue that, beyond digital surveillance or community engagement, social media provides police with the technological capacity to pursue both daily socialization of online audiences to their worldview and legitimation in the aftermath of contested police violence. I provide evidence by adopting a qualitative approach to “big data” sources analyzing 1) all 3,167 tweets posted by the New York Police Department in 2018; 2) the 778 Twitter replies to their most contested fatal shooting that year; and 3) a sample of 139 news articles covering this shooting over a year afterward. As public scrutiny toward police intensifies, social media represents an independent channel for police to publicize information unfiltered by traditional mass media. These findings have implications for police accountability and the episodes of police violence that do—and do not—elevate into national controversies.\n"]

  September 22, 2021   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12277   open full text
• The accumulation of disadvantage: Criminal justice contact, credit, and debt in the transition to adulthood*.
  Laura M. DeMarco, Rachel E. Dwyer, Dana L. Haynie.
  Criminology. September 22, 2021
  ["Criminology, Volume 59, Issue 3, Page 545-580, August 2021. ", "\nAbstract\nSocial exclusion of those with criminal justice experience increasingly includes a financial component, but the structure of disadvantage in credit and debt remains unclear. We develop a model of financial disadvantage in debt holding during the transition to adulthood among justice‐involved groups. We study cumulative criminal justice contact and debt holding by age 30 using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97). The NLSY97 cohort transitioned to adulthood during an era of historically high criminal justice contact, with many experiencing arrests, convictions, and incarceration. We develop a distinct measurement approach to cumulative criminal justice contact by age 30 that captures variation between young adults in the severity of justice encounters in the early life course. We conceptualize financial disadvantage as a lower likelihood of holding debt that facilitates property and attainment investments and a higher likelihood of holding higher cost debts used for consumption or emergencies. We find that those with the most punitive criminal justice contact evidence the most disadvantageous form of debt holding, potentially exacerbating social exclusion. We consider the implications of the accumulation of financial disadvantage for our understanding of criminal justice contact as a life‐course process.\n"]

  September 22, 2021   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12286   open full text
• Authoritarian exclusion and laissez‐faire inclusion: Comparing the punishment of men convicted of sex offenses in England & Wales and Norway*.
  Alice Ievins, Kristian Mjåland.
  Criminology. September 22, 2021
  ["Criminology, Volume 59, Issue 3, Page 454-479, August 2021. ", "\nAbstract\nComparative penologists have described neoliberal and social democratic jurisdictions as though they exist at opposite ends of a continuum of inclusion and exclusion, and as though neoliberal states are inactive and social democratic states are invasive. This article, which is based on more than 129 interviews with men convicted of sex offenses in England & Wales and Norway, uses Cohen's work on inclusion and McNeill's typology of rehabilitative forms to complicate this simplistic binary. It argues that the punishment of men convicted of sex offenses in England & Wales was demanding but exclusionary; it imposed strict legal restrictions on these men during and after their imprisonment, blocking them from engaging in social and moral rehabilitation and providing a limited and treacherous route to change. In Norway, punishment operated in a way that was formally inclusionary but surprisingly laissez‐faire: Prisoners retained their legal rights during and after their incarceration, but the lack of opportunities to discuss their offending meant that their sentences were rarely experienced as meaningful, and their formal inclusion was not enough for them to feel substantially included after release.\n"]

  September 22, 2021   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12276   open full text
• Reconsidering the “gang effect” in the face of intermittency: Do first‐ and second‐time gang membership both matter?*.
  Megan Bears Augustyn, Jean Marie McGloin.
  Criminology. September 22, 2021
  ["Criminology, Volume 59, Issue 3, Page 419-453, August 2021. ", "\nAbstract\nResearch demonstrates that joining a gang is associated with amplified criminal behavior. Given that gang membership can be a transient and intermittent status, we question whether it has a consistent effect on offending regardless of whether an individual joins a gang for the first time or rejoins (for the second time). Using panel data from the Rochester Youth Development Study (N = 1,217 person‐periods nested within 177 individuals), we employ a within‐persons analysis via multilevel structural equation models with fixed slopes. First‐time membership is associated with increases over pregang periods in general, violent and property offending, as well as drug sales. Joining a gang for the second time is associated with significant increases in general and violent offending, as well as with drug sales, compared with the time out of the gang after first‐time membership. Finally, the total changes in offending associated with first‐ and second‐time gang membership seem to be comparable. Overall, the results suggest that gang membership, whether a new or repeat experience, is a salient life event and that intermittency is related to meaningful disruptions in offending pathways.\n"]

  September 22, 2021   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12274   open full text
• The long arm of parenting: How parenting styles influence crime and the pathways that explain this effect*.
  Leslie Gordon Simons, Tara E. Sutton.
  Criminology. September 22, 2021
  ["Criminology, Volume 59, Issue 3, Page 520-544, August 2021. ", "\nAbstract\nAlthough several criminological theories suggest that variations in parenting increase the probability of adult crime, most studies limit focus to the association between parenting and adolescent delinquency. Thus, research exploring the association between parenting and adult crime is rare. The present study used path analyses and prospective, longitudinal data from a sample of 318 African American men to examine the effects of eight parenting styles on adult crime. Furthermore, we investigated the extent to which significant parenting effects are mediated by criminogenic schemas, negative emotions, peer affiliations, adult transitions, and involvement with the criminal justice system. Consonant with the study hypotheses, the results indicated that parenting styles with high demandingness, regardless of whether it co‐occurred with responsiveness or corporal punishment, reduced the risk of adult crime. On the other hand, parenting styles low on demandingness but high on responsiveness or corporal punishment were associated with a robust increase in risk for adult crime. These parenting effects were mediated, in large measure, by criminogenic schemas and affiliation with adult deviant peers. The findings held after taking into account the effect of adolescent experiences and traits such as delinquency, deviant peer affiliations, community violence, discrimination, negative emotionality, and poor self‐control.\n"]

  September 22, 2021   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12285   open full text
• Examining the county‐level political considerations associated with declining reliance on the death penalty from 1990 to 2010*.
  Ethan Amidon, John M. Eassey.
  Criminology. June 30, 2021
  ["Criminology, Volume 59, Issue 2, Page 318-350, May 2021. ", "\nAbstract\nTheorists have placed considerable emphasis on the role that political factors play in shaping jurisdictional use of the death penalty. However, scholars have yet to empirically examine whether these political explanations account for reliance on this punishment across counties in the United States. Furthermore, empirical research that has examined the political factors associated with the dramatic decline in the use of the death penalty in the late 20th and early 21st centuries has been limited. In order to address these gaps in the literature, this study examines whether the variables derived from three political perspectives are associated with use of death sentences across 2,572 counties in the United States from 1990 to 2010. The results from this study indicate support for the key propositions within the partisan politics, religious fundamentalist sentiment, and economic threat hypotheses. However, in contrast to the results from prior studies, no support was shown for the direct relationship between the size of African American populations and local reliance on the death penalty.\n"]

  June 30, 2021   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12272   open full text
• Sanction risk perceptions, coherence, and deterrence*.
  Timothy C. Barnum, Daniel S. Nagin, Greg Pogarsky.
  Criminology. June 30, 2021
  ["Criminology, Volume 59, Issue 2, Page 195-223, May 2021. ", "\nAbstract\nResearch from environmental criminology, policing, and related literatures consistently finds that objective conditions related to risk of apprehension affect crime. The mechanism underlying this relationship is not explicitly tested; instead, perceptual deterrence is assumed. In this analysis we explicitly investigate that mechanism. This test is not straightforward, however, as some research shows that risk perceptions are susceptible to various cognitive biases and framing effects. Thus, we advance a framework of sanction risk perception that combines individual and contextual determinants. Specifically, we investigate whether contextual factors materially influence risk perceptions and in turn intentions to offend after accounting for the influence of individual‐specific determinants. Our data come from an experimental survey on speeding (N = 1,919). Respondents viewed videos from the driver's perspective of a sedan speeding on a highway and provided estimates of sanction risk, safety perceptions, and behavioral intentions. Although sanction risk and safety perceptions for speeding varied widely across respondents, they remained grounded in the objective conditions of the experimental videos. In turn, citizen perceptions of apprehension risk were comparable with risk estimates elicited from state troopers after viewing the same videos. The results suggest deterrence and safety considerations are important contributing factors that help shape intentions to transgress.\n"]

  June 30, 2021   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12266   open full text
• “I don't have time for drama”: Managing risk and uncertainty through network avoidance*.
  Jamie J. Fader.
  Criminology. June 30, 2021
  ["Criminology, Volume 59, Issue 2, Page 291-317, May 2021. ", "\nAbstract\nThis study employs in‐depth interviews (n = 45) with men 25–34 years in age who live in a Philadelphia neighborhood heavily impacted by mass incarceration. It asks the following: 1) How do they perceive risk? 2) How do they organize their daily routines in response to it? 3) Are there racial differences in perceptions and adaptations to risk? Nearly all of the men of color in the study reported staying in their houses and avoiding public spaces, viewing them as unpredictable and posing an unacceptable level of risk. They worried about “drama” or the potential for interactions with others to lead to attention by the police. Their practice of “network avoidance” often meant a complete lack of engagement in their community. Network avoidance is a racialized adaptation to the expansion of the criminal legal apparatus and the unpredictable nature of men's interactions with its agents and enforcers. It reproduces the effects of incarceration by essentially turning their homes into prisons. Network avoidance effectively erases young men of color from the public sphere in the same way that incarceration removes them from their communities, with considerable costs for the men themselves and for their neighborhoods.\n"]

  June 30, 2021   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12271   open full text
• Selection, stability, and spuriousness: Testing Gottfredson and Hirschi's propositions to reinterpret street gangs in self‐control perspective*.
  David C. Pyrooz, Chris Melde, Donna L. Coffman, Ryan C. Meldrum.
  Criminology. June 30, 2021
  ["Criminology, Volume 59, Issue 2, Page 224-253, May 2021. ", "\nAbstract\nOverlooked in the extensive literature on self‐control theory are propositions with respect to street gangs. In Gottfredson and Hirschi's (1990) perspective, gangs are loose confederations of youth with low self‐control and their criminological relevance is attributable to “politics and romance” rather than to rigorous empirical research. Prior research is limited by the use of cross‐sectional data, which takes on added importance in light of recent findings on self‐control instability. Using six waves of panel data from a large sample of youth, we test three propositions: gang membership is endogenous to self‐control (selection), self‐control is unrelated to gang membership (stability), and self‐control confounds the well‐established link between gang membership and delinquency (spuriousness). The main findings from stabilized inverse propensity‐weighted multilevel structural equation models are that 1) self‐control is one, but not the only, source of selection into gangs; 2) levels of self‐control worsen during active periods of gang membership; and 3) gang membership maintains a direct association with delinquency, as well as an indirect association operating through self‐control. The empirical evidence does not support reinterpreting gangs in self‐control perspective, instead pointing to the continued relevance of the group context to criminology.\n"]

  June 30, 2021   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12268   open full text
• Self‐reported experiences and consequences of unfair treatment by police*.
  Christopher R. Dennison, Jessica G. Finkeldey.
  Criminology. June 30, 2021
  ["Criminology, Volume 59, Issue 2, Page 254-290, May 2021. ", "\nAbstract\nThis study uses data from the most recent wave of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (wave V of Add Health) to examine the predictors of experiencing unfair treatment by police. It also considers the degree to which unfair police treatment is associated with a range of social‐psychological and behavioral outcomes in adulthood, including depressive symptoms, self‐efficacy, suicide ideation, and drug use. Finally, this study examines whether any of the relationships between unfair police treatment and adult outcomes differ by race and ethnicity. Most broadly, results suggest that the odds of reporting ever experiencing unfair treatment by police are disproportionately higher among minorities (and more specifically non‐Latino Blacks), men, and those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. Furthermore, such experiences are detrimental to all of the social‐psychological and behavioral outcomes in adulthood, even after accounting for the differences in who is most likely to experience unfair police treatment via propensity score methods. Lastly, some of these consequences seem to be more pronounced among non‐Latino Whites compared with non‐Latino Blacks, which we believe is attributable to the unfortunate reality that unfair police contact continues to be a normative life‐course event for Black people in the United States.\n"]

  June 30, 2021   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12269   open full text
• Changing routine activities and the decline of youth crime: A repeated cross‐sectional analysis of self‐reported delinquency in Sweden, 1999–2017*.
  Robert Svensson, Dietrich Oberwittler.
  Criminology. June 30, 2021
  ["Criminology, Volume 59, Issue 2, Page 351-386, May 2021. ", "\nAbstract\nThis study examines the declining crime trend among Swedish adolescents between 1999 and 2017 using data from eight repeated cross‐sectional waves of a nationally representative school survey (N = ca. 49,000). We examined to what extent changes in parental monitoring, school bonds, attitudes toward crime, routine activities, and binge drinking were related to the noticeable decline in youth crime. Multilevel modeling was employed for the analysis of temporal trends. We found strong empirical support for our hypotheses, that is, that changes in social bonds, attitudes toward crime, and routine activities were all associated with the decline in youth crime. Routine activities had the strongest explanatory power, and all predictors combined accounted for most of the variance attributed to the decline in youth crime. This study moves research on the crime drop closer to the analysis of social mechanisms by demonstrating that micro‐level associations between theoretically relevant, proximal variables, and delinquency account for macro‐level change.\n"]

  June 30, 2021   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12273   open full text
• Picking battles: Correctional officers, rules, and discretion in prison.
  Kevin D. Haggerty, Sandra M. Bucerius.
  Criminology. February 17, 2021
  ["Criminology, Volume 59, Issue 1, Page 137-157, February 2021. ", "\nAbstract\nTo outsiders, prisons vacillate between visions of regimented order and anarchic disorder. The place of rules in prison sits at the fulcrum between these two visions of regulation. Based on 131 qualitative interviews with correctional officers across four different prisons in western Canada, we examine how correctional officers understand and exercise discretion in prison. Our findings highlight how an officer's habitus shapes individual instances of discretionary decision‐making. We show how officers modify how they exercise discretion in light of their views on how incarcerated people, fellow officers, and supervisors will interpret their decisions. Although existing research often sees a correlation between “rule‐following” by incarcerated individuals and official statistics on such misdeeds, our data highlight that official statistics on rule violations do not easily represent the rate or frequency of such misbehavior. Instead, these numbers are highly discretionary organizational accomplishments. Our findings advance an appreciation for correctional officer discretion by focusing on the range of factors officers might contemplate in forward‐looking decisions about applying a rule and how they rationalize the nonenforcement of rules.\n"]

  February 17, 2021   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12263   open full text
• Confinement as a two‐stage turning point: Do changes in identity or social structure predict subsequent changes in criminal activity?*.
  Audrey Hickert, Shawn Bushway, Paul Nieuwbeerta, Anja J.E. Dirkzwager.
  Criminology. February 17, 2021
  ["Criminology, Volume 59, Issue 1, Page 73-108, February 2021. ", "\nAbstract\nScholars frequently characterize incarceration as a possible turning point in criminal activity. This implies a two‐stage process: 1) change in life‐course mechanisms around confinement and reentry result in 2) subsequent change in criminal activity relative to preconfinement. Following this model, we examine change in criminal activity, criminal identity, and social/structural challenges using data from the Prison Project, a cohort of adult males with short‐term confinement in the Netherlands in 2010–2011. Results of a novel test for within‐individual change in arrests from preconfinement to post‐reentry show that most individuals are stable—yet there is a substantial group who go down meaningfully and a much smaller group who go up. Even though changes in criminal identity from the intervening period do not predict these change groups, increases in social/structural challenges predict those who go up in criminal activity. We build from prior work on desistance and reentry, contrasting our findings and highlighting the unique insight gained from, as well as challenges of, measuring individual change within our two‐stage turning point model. Although life‐course mechanisms often correspond with changes in criminal activity concurrently, identifying individual changes that are predictors of subsequent shifts in criminal offending remains elusive.\n"]

  February 17, 2021   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12262   open full text
• Romantic partners and young adult offending: Considering the role of partner's socioeconomic characteristics.
  Alex O. Widdowson, Carter Hay, Sonja E. Siennick.
  Criminology. February 17, 2021
  ["Criminology, Volume 59, Issue 1, Page 158-190, February 2021. ", "\nAbstract\nIn this study, we examined whether and to what extent the effects on offending of marriage and different types of cohabitating partnerships depend on the romantic partner's socioeconomic status (SES). Such research addresses a key gap in knowledge regarding potential heterogeneity of effects on behavior of romantic partnerships. Drawing on the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, we examined the within‐individual effects of three romantic partner's socioeconomic characteristics–education, employment, and income–on offending from ages 18 to 34. Results revealed that marriage was related to reductions in arrest only for those whose spouse was employed (full or part time) and had income. In contrast to marriage, partner SES was not related to arrest among those who cohabited with a partner they never married. Additionally, partner SES was often associated with reductions in arrest among those who cohabited with a partner they later married, but the reductions were statistically indistinguishable across levels of partner SES. Lastly, these effects were experienced similarly for low‐ and high‐SES individuals alike, and no gender differences were detected in these effects. Our findings suggest that important life events such as marriage and cohabitation can be behavior‐altering transitions, but the effects of these events are variable.\n"]

  February 17, 2021   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12265   open full text
• Race, ethnicity, and social change: The democratization of middle‐class crime*.
  Michael L. Benson, Ben Feldmeyer, Shaun L. Gabbidon, Hei Lam Chio.
  Criminology. February 17, 2021
  ["Criminology, Volume 59, Issue 1, Page 10-41, February 2021. ", "\nAbstract\nSince the mid‐1970s, the percentage of non‐White people convicted of white‐collar type crimes in the federal judicial system has been growing steadily. In 2015, non‐Whites accounted for more than half of all convictions for certain white‐collar type crimes, but the increase in non‐White participation has not occurred evenly across all race and ethnic groups. Asians and Latinos have increased their participation in white‐collar crime more so than Blacks. Using data from the U.S. Sentencing Commission, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the U.S. Census, we investigate whether the differential increase among race and ethnic groups in white‐collar type crimes can be explained by their differential increase in middle‐class occupations. The findings have implications for opportunity, cultural, and race‐centered perspectives on crime, as well as institutional anomie theory, and they suggest that low‐level white‐collar crimes are being democratized along lines of race and ethnicity.\n"]

  February 17, 2021   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12261   open full text
• In the eye of the beholder: Meaning and structure of informal status in women's and men's prisons*.
  Derek A. Kreager, Jacob T.N. Young, Dana L. Haynie, David R. Schaefer, Martin Bouchard, Kimberly M. Davidson.
  Criminology. February 17, 2021
  ["Criminology, Volume 59, Issue 1, Page 42-72, February 2021. ", "\nAbstract\nApplying an abductive mixed‐methods approach, we investigate the informal status systems in three women's prison units (across two prisons) and one men's prison unit. Qualitative analyses suggest “old head” narratives—where age, time in prison, sociability, and prison wisdom confer unit status—are prevalent across all four contexts. Perceptions of maternal “caregivers” and manipulative “bullies,” however, are found only in the three women's units. The qualitative findings inform formal network analyses by differentiating “positive,” “neutral,” and “negative” status nominations, with “negative” ties primarily absent from the men's unit. Within the women's units, network analyses find that high‐status women are likely to receive both positive and negative peer nominations, such that evaluations depend on who is doing the evaluating. Comparing the women's and men's networks, the correlates of positive and neutral ties are generally the same and center on covariates of age, getting along with others, race, and religion. Overall, the study points to important similarities and differences in status across the gendered prison contexts, while demonstrating how a sequential mixed‐methods design can illuminate both the meaning and the structure of prison informal organization.\n"]

  February 17, 2021   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12260   open full text
• The contemporary transformation of american youth: An analysis of change in the prevalence of delinquency, 1991–2015.
  Eric P. Baumer, Kelsey Cundiff, Liying Luo.
  Criminology. February 17, 2021
  ["Criminology, Volume 59, Issue 1, Page 109-136, February 2021. ", "\nAbstract\nYouth involvement in crime has declined substantially over the past few decades, yet the reasons for this trend remain unclear. We advance the literature by examining the role of several potentially important shifts in individual attitudes and behaviors that may help to account for the observed temporal variation in youth delinquency. Our multilevel analysis of repeated cross‐sectional data from eighth and tenth grade students in the Monitoring the Future (MTF) study indicates that changes in youth offending prevalence were not associated with changes in youth attachment and commitment to school, community involvement, or parental supervision after school. In contrast, the study provides suggestive evidence that the significant reduction in youth offending prevalence observed since the early 1990s was significantly associated with a decrease in unstructured socializing and alcohol consumption and, to a lesser extent, with a decrease in youth preferences for risky activities. Implications for existing theoretical explanations and future research on youth crime trends are discussed.\n"]

  February 17, 2021   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12264   open full text
• Fearful futures and haunting histories in women's desistance from crime: A longitudinal study of desistance as an uncanny process*.
  Tea Fredriksson, Robin Gålnander.
  Criminology. November 04, 2020
  ["Criminology, Volume 58, Issue 4, Page 599-618, November 2020. ", "\nAbstract\nAlthough desistance is increasingly recognized as a series of complex processes by which individuals transform from offenders into nonoffenders, few desistance scholars have studied this process in depth. In recent years, however, some have begun to explore how desistance is a process rife with setbacks and struggles. Through an analysis of repeated in‐depth interviews with ten desisting women, in this study, we have found such struggles to be unsettling and outright frightening. Examples of this were prevalent throughout the women's narratives. The results of our analysis show how frightening aspects of desistance processes stem from making an unfamiliar, normative lifestyle familiar, while unfamiliarizing oneself with a familiar, deviant lifestyle. As such, desistance processes can be conceptualized as uncanny, that is, as pertaining to the frightening and uncertain. Although uncanniness is not a theoretical framework one tends to find in desistance research, it has the potential to develop the understanding of the struggles, fears, and anxieties of desistance processes. Through our analysis, we engage with how uncanniness can nuance established concepts in desistance research. Implications for theory as well as for criminal justice practice are discussed.\n"]

  November 04, 2020   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12250   open full text
• The organizational justice effect among criminal justice employees: A meta‐analysis*.
  Scott E. Wolfe, Spencer G. Lawson.
  Criminology. November 04, 2020
  ["Criminology, Volume 58, Issue 4, Page 619-644, November 2020. ", "\nAbstract\nOrganizational justice has been shown to be an important predictor of criminal justice employees’ work‐related perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors. In this study, we take stock of the organizational justice effect on criminal justice employees’ work outcomes by subjecting the literature to a meta‐analysis. Multilevel modeling based on 1,924 effect size estimates drawn from 143 studies (95 independent data sets) was used to establish the empirical status of the organizational justice effect. The results indicate a sizeable relationship between organizational justice and justice system employee work outcomes (Mz = .256, CI = [.230, .283]). The findings also demonstrate that the organizational justice effect size varies slightly across several methodological variations. Specifically, the organizational justice effect size is larger when the concept is measured with scales that contain survey items tapping into all four dimensions of justice. Also, we found that outcome type, presence of confounding mechanisms, research design, and sample characteristics moderate the justice effect. We conclude that organizational justice theory is a useful framework for developing a more theoretically informed understanding of justice system employees’ work outcomes. We discuss the theoretical implications of the meta‐analytic findings and avenues for future research based on the results.\n"]

  November 04, 2020   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12251   open full text
• Locking up my generation: Cohort differences in prison spells over the life course.
  Yinzhi Shen, Shawn D. Bushway, Lucy C. Sorensen, Herbert L. Smith.
  Criminology. November 04, 2020
  ["Criminology, Volume 58, Issue 4, Page 645-677, November 2020. ", "\nAbstract\nCrime rates have dropped substantially in the United States, but incarceration rates have remained high. The standard explanation for the lasting trend in incarceration is that the policy choices from the 1980s and 1990s were part of a secular increase in punitiveness that has kept rates of incarceration high. Our study highlights a heretofore overlooked perspective: that the crime–punishment wave in the 1980s and 1990s created cohort differences in incarceration over the life course that changed the level of incarceration even decades after the wave. With individual‐level longitudinal sentencing data from 1972 to 2016 in North Carolina, we show that cohort effects—the lingering impacts of having reached young adulthood at particular times in the history of crime and punishment—are at least as large (and likely much larger) than annual variation in incarceration rates attributable to period‐specific events and proclivities. The birth cohorts that reach prime age of crime during the 1980s and 1990s crime–punishment wave have elevated rates of incarceration throughout their observed life course. The key mechanism for their elevated incarceration rates decades after the crime–punishment wave is the accumulation of extended criminal history under a sentencing structure that systematically escalates punishment for those with priors.\n"]

  November 04, 2020   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12256   open full text
• Redemption and reproach: Religion and carceral control in action among women in prison.
  Rachel Ellis.
  Criminology. November 04, 2020
  ["Criminology, Volume 58, Issue 4, Page 747-772, November 2020. ", "\nAbstract\nCriminologists are increasingly interested in how a variety of justice‐adjacent institutions scaffold surveillance and punishment in the U.S. criminal justice system. A relevant but understudied institution within the carceral state is that of religion. Drawing on 12 months of ethnographic fieldwork inside a U.S. state women's prison, I interrogate how religion—predominately conservative and evangelical Protestantism—served dual purposes in light of carceral control. Religion offered redemptive narratives to counter punitive carceral narratives promulgated by the state. At the same time, this narrative shift from “flawed” to “faithful” prescribed particular forms of embodiment: avoiding fights and rejecting sexual relationships with women. These forms of Protestant embodiment aligned with carceral purposes, such that women who reprimanded others for breaching religious norms were simultaneously enforcing prison rules. Although rhetorically challenging official prison narratives on the meaning of incarceration, Protestant narratives in practice regulated women's emotional and sexual behaviors and fostered a system of informal surveillance among incarcerated women. These findings illuminate how organizational narratives are linked to individual action. More broadly, they suggest how an institution such as religion can undergird state authority within an intractable context of carceral control.\n"]

  November 04, 2020   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12258   open full text
• Institutionalizing inequality in the courts: Decomposing racial and ethnic disparities in detention, conviction, and sentencing*.
  Marisa Omori, Nick Petersen.
  Criminology. November 04, 2020
  ["Criminology, Volume 58, Issue 4, Page 678-713, November 2020. ", "\nAbstract\nA significant body of literature has examined racial and ethnic inequalities in sentencing, focusing on how individual court actors make decisions, but fewer scholars have examined whether disparities are institutionalized through legal case factors. After finding racial and ethnic inequalities in pretrial detention, conviction, and incarceration based on 4 years of felony court data (N = 83,924) from Miami‐Dade County, we estimate nonlinear decomposition models to examine how much of the inequalities are explained by differences in criminal history, charging, and for conviction and incarceration, pretrial detention. Results suggest that inequality is greatest between White non‐Latinos and Black Latinos, followed by White non‐Latinos and Black non‐Latinos, ranging from 4 to more than 8 percentage points difference in the probability of pretrial detention, 7–13 points difference in conviction, 5–6 points in prison, and 4–10 points difference in jail. We find few differences between White non‐Latinos and White Latinos. Between half and three‐quarters of the inequality in pretrial detention, conviction, and prison sentences between White non‐Latino and Black people is explained through legal case factors. Our findings indicate that inequality is, in part, institutionalized through legal case factors, suggesting these factors are not “race neutral” but instead racialized and contribute to inequalities in court outcomes.\n"]

  November 04, 2020   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12257   open full text
• Threat, emboldenment, or both? The effects of political power on violent hate crimes*.
  Laura Dugan, Erica Chenoweth.
  Criminology. November 04, 2020
  ["Criminology, Volume 58, Issue 4, Page 714-746, November 2020. ", "\nAbstract\nHow do expressions of support or opposition by the U.S. federal government, influence violent hate crimes against specific racial and ethnic minorities? In this article, we test two hypotheses derived from Blalock's (1967) conceptualization of intergroup power contests. The political threat hypothesis predicts that positive government attention toward specific groups would lead to more hateful violence directed against them. The emboldenment hypothesis predicts that negative government attention toward specific groups would also lead to more hateful violence directed against them. Using combined data on U.S. government actions and federal hate crime statistics from 1992 through 2012, vector autoregression models provide support for both hypotheses, depending on the protected group involved. We conclude that during this period, African Americans were more vulnerable to hate crimes motivated by political threat, and Latinx persons were more vulnerable to hate crimes motivated by emboldenment.\n"]

  November 04, 2020   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12259   open full text
• The public salience of crime, 1960–2014: Age–period–cohort and time–series analyses†.
  Luzi Shi, Yunmei Lu, Justin T. Pickett.
  Criminology. August 06, 2020
  ["\nAbstract\nThe public salience of crime has wide‐ranging political and social implications; it influences public trust in the government and citizens’ everyday routines and interactions, and it may affect policy responsiveness to punitive attitudes. Identifying the sources of crime salience is thus important. Two competing theoretical models exist: the objectivist model and the social constructionist model. According to the first, crime salience is a function of the crime rate. According to the second, crime salience is a function of media coverage and political rhetoric, and trends in crime salience differ across population subgroups as a result of differences in their responsiveness to elite initiatives. In both theories, period‐level effects predominate. Variation in crime salience, however, may also reflect age and cohort effects. Using data from 422,504 respondents interviewed between 1960 and 2014, we first examine the nature of crime salience using hierarchical age–period–cohort (HAPC) models and then analyze period‐level predictors using first differences. We find that 1) crime salience varies mostly at the period level; 2) crime salience trends are parallel (cointegrated) across demographic, socioeconomic, and partisan groups; and 3) crime salience trends within every population subgroup are most consistent with the constructionist model. The crime rate does not exert a significant effect in any subgroup.\n", "Criminology, Volume 58, Issue 3, Page 568-593, August 2020. "]

  August 06, 2020   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12248   open full text
• Neighborhood climates of legal cynicism and complaints about abuse of police power†.
  Bill McCarthy, John Hagan, Daniel Herda.
  Criminology. August 06, 2020
  ["\nAbstract\nResearch findings show that legal cynicism—a cultural frame in which skepticism about laws, the legal system, and police is expressed—is important in understanding neighborhood variation in engagement with the police, particularly in racially isolated African American communities. We argue that legal cynicism is also useful for understanding neighborhood variation in complaints about police misconduct. Using data on complaints filed in Chicago between 2012 and 2014, we show that grievances disproportionately came from racially segregated neighborhoods and that a measure of legal cynicism from the mid‐1990s predicts complaints about abuse of police power two decades later. The association between legal cynicism and complaints is net of prior complaints, reported crime, imprisonment, and other structural factors that contribute to the frequency and nature of interactions involving police and residents. Legal cynicism also mediates the influence of racially isolated neighborhoods on complaints. The mid‐1990s is the approximate midpoint of a half‐century of police scandals in Chicago. Our research findings suggest that contemporary complaints about police misconduct in highly segregated Chicago neighborhoods are grounded in collectively shared historical memories of police malfeasance. They also suggest that persistent complaints about police misconduct may represent officially memorialized expressions of enduring racial protest against police abuse of power.\n", "Criminology, Volume 58, Issue 3, Page 510-536, August 2020. "]

  August 06, 2020   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12246   open full text
• Perceived arrest risk, psychic rewards, and offense specialization: A partial test of rational choice theory†.
  Kyle J. Thomas, Thomas A. Loughran, Benjamin C. Hamilton.
  Criminology. August 06, 2020
  ["\nAbstract\nIn prior tests of Beckerian rational choice theory, the notion that individuals are responsive to the (dis)incentives associated with crime has been supported. Much of this research has comprised composite scores of perceived rewards and risks of multiple, often disparate, crime types that are then used to predict “general” offending behavior. Although the results of such prior tests are informative, we believe that this tendency has resulted in two shortcomings. First, a central component of mathematical rational choice theory is overlooked, namely, that responsivity to incentives will be crime specific. That is, offenders should prefer crime types that subjectively offer greater rewards and fewer risks relative to other crimes. Second, individual differences in offending specialization are not addressed, of which Clarke and Cornish (1985) and Shover (1996) argued rational choice theories are well suited to explain. Using a sample of serious offenders, we find that in a given time period, individuals are more likely to engage in crime types they viewed as more intrinsically rewarding and less risky compared with other crimes. Furthermore, individuals displayed greater specialization in violence to the extent they view violence as more rewarding and less risky than property offenses\n", "Criminology, Volume 58, Issue 3, Page 485-509, August 2020. "]

  August 06, 2020   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12243   open full text
• Long‐term consequences of being placed in disciplinary segregation†.
  Christopher Wildeman, Lars Højsgaard Andersen.
  Criminology. August 06, 2020
  ["\nAbstract\nBeing placed in restrictive housing is considered one of the most devastating experiences a human can endure, yet a scant amount of research has been conducted to test how this experience affects core indicators of prisoner reentry such as employment and recidivism. In this article, we use Danish registry data, which allow for us to link penal conditions to postrelease outcomes, to show how the reentry outcomes of individuals placed in disciplinary segregation, which is placement in restrictive housing because of disciplinary infractions, compare with those sanctioned for in‐prison offenses but not placed in segregation. The results from matched difference‐in‐differences analyses show that Danish inmates placed in disciplinary segregation experience larger drops in employment and larger increases in the risk of being convicted of a new crime in the 3 years after release from a correctional facility than do Danish inmates who were sanctioned for a serious offense but not placed in disciplinary segregation as a result. Because being placed in disciplinary segregation, and restrictive housing more broadly, is so common, these results indicate that restrictive housing placement may be a key moderator of the effects of incarceration that merits more attention from criminologists, provided the associations shown here represent causal effects and generalize.\n", "Criminology, Volume 58, Issue 3, Page 423-453, August 2020. "]

  August 06, 2020   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12241   open full text
• Pubertal timing and adolescent delinquency†.
  Rebecca Bucci, Jeremy Staff.
  Criminology. August 06, 2020
  ["\nAbstract\nEarly pubertal timing (PT) increases the risk of adolescent delinquency, whereas late development reduces this risk; however, the mechanisms explaining PT effects on delinquency remain elusive. Theoretically, the PT–delinquency relationship is as a result of changes in parental supervision, peer affiliations, and body‐image perceptions or is a spurious reflection of early life risk factors. Using intergenerational data from the Millennium Cohort Study, a prospective sample of children followed from infancy to age 14 years in the United Kingdom (N = 11,556 parent–child pairs), we find that for both boys and girls, early PT is associated with heightened risks of delinquency, relative to on‐time puberty, whereas late PT is associated with lower risks, even after controlling for a large share of childhood confounders. Mediation test results indicate that changes in parental supervision, peer affiliations, and body‐image perceptions from ages 11 to 14 partly account for associations between off‐time PT and delinquency. Our findings are most consistent with criminological theories in which the psychosocial, familial, and peer group changes that accompany off‐time pubertal development are emphasized. Changes in peer substance use, in particular, were the primary explanatory factor for the relationships between early and late PT and delinquency, for both boys and girls.\n", "Criminology, Volume 58, Issue 3, Page 537-567, August 2020. "]

  August 06, 2020   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12245   open full text
• Institutional anomie and cross‐national differences in incarceration†.
  Douglas B. Weiss, Alexander Testa, Mateus Rennó Santos.
  Criminology. August 06, 2020
  ["\nAbstract\nMessner and Rosenfeld's (2007) institutional anomie theory (IAT) has mainly been applied by criminologists to explain crime rates at various aggregate levels. However, Messner and Rosenfeld also suggest that the same social and cultural forces that lead to high crime may explain differences in punishment, although this latter proposition has yet to be subject to empirical testing. Using a variety of data sources for 41 countries measuring various structural and cultural configurations, in this study we assess the extent to which IAT can explain cross‐national differences in incarceration. Our results indicate that the strength of the economic institution and the extent of institutional imbalance reflecting a dominant economic institution are positively associated with incarceration rates when the national culture is characterized by individualism, a competitive achievement orientation, or both. A national culture characterized by both collectivism and a cooperative achievement orientation, however, serves as a buffer against the punitive effects of an institutional imbalance that favors the economy. Our results are discussed in the context of the extant IAT literature and future research on cross‐national incarceration.\n", "Criminology, Volume 58, Issue 3, Page 454-484, August 2020. "]

  August 06, 2020   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12242   open full text
• Employer aversion to criminal records: An experimental study of mechanisms.
  Naomi F. Sugie, Noah D. Zatz, Dallas Augustine.
  Criminology. November 04, 2019
  --- - |2 Abstract The mark of a criminal record is clearly harmful for employment. The reasons for employer aversion, however, are not well established even though legal, policy, and scholarly responses rely on particular explanations. We propose that explanations for aversion often fit under a repetition risk framework in which employers use records as neutral sources of information about prior illegal activity and make decisions to minimize risk of similar future conduct. A second explanation is stigma, in which the records themselves, independent of conduct, trigger stereotypes, status loss, and discrimination. Using an experimental employer survey, we find that employers evaluate applicants with records more negatively than they do applicants with similar behavior signaled through non‐criminal‐justice sources (e.g., social media); this effect remains after accounting for predictions about future conduct. It is also most apparent among higher status jobs rather than among manual labor jobs, and it persists after adjusting for firm‐level and legal constraints. We conclude that aversion reflects not only repetition risk but also the stigma of criminal justice contact. Insofar as criminal record screening is not exclusively a form of rational risk management, this finding may lead to altered assessments of the benefits of screening relative to the costs of perpetuating inequality produced by the criminal justice system. - 'Criminology, EarlyView. '

  November 04, 2019   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12228   open full text
• Evaluating the shared and unique predictors of legal cynicism and police legitimacy from adolescence into early adulthood.
  Amy Nivette, Manuel Eisner, Denis Ribeaud.
  Criminology. October 28, 2019
  --- - |2 Abstract In different theoretical traditions, negative social conditions, attachments, and interactions shape the way individuals view the law and its agents. Although most researchers acknowledge the conceptual distinction between different legal attitudes such as legal cynicism and police legitimacy, it remains unclear to what extent these attitudes stem from the same social sources. In the current study, therefore, we evaluate the social and individual factors that influence trajectories of legal cynicism and police legitimacy using a diverse community sample of youths in Zurich, Switzerland. Latent growth curve models were employed to examine patterns of change in legal cynicism and police legitimacy between 13 and 20 years of age. The findings show that legal cynicism and police legitimacy both decline into early adulthood and exhibit high rank‐stability over time. Furthermore, we find that legal cynicism is closely related to individual characteristics that reflect one's inability to recognize or abide by their internal rules. By contrast, police legitimacy is shaped by socialization influences, particularly teacher bonds and police contacts. These results indicate a need to assess the measurement and interpretation of legal cynicism critically in relation to broader legitimacy beliefs and to investigate the shared and distinct sources of these different constructs. - 'Criminology, EarlyView. '

  October 28, 2019   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12230   open full text
• Criminal records and college admissions: A modified experimental audit.
  Robert Stewart, Christopher Uggen.
  Criminology. October 23, 2019
  --- - |2 Abstract In this article, we consider the effect of criminal records on college admissions. Nearly 72 percent of colleges require criminal history information during their application processes, which indicates that an applicant's criminal history could be a significant impediment to achieving the benefits associated with higher education. We conducted a modified experimental audit to learn whether and to what extent criminal records affect admissions decisions. Matched same‐race pairs of tester applications were sent to a national sample of nonelite 4‐year colleges, with both testers applying as either Black or White. Within each pair, one application signaled a prior low‐level felony conviction only when required by the application. Consistent with the findings of research on employment, we find the rejection rate for applicants with felony convictions was nearly 2.5 times the rate of our control testers. Relative to the large racial differences observed in previous studies of hiring decisions, we find smaller racial differences in admissions decisions. Nevertheless, Black applicants with criminal records were particularly penalized when disclosing a felony record at colleges with high campus crime rates. We address implications for reentry, racial progress, and the college “Ban the Box” movement. We suggest colleges consider narrowing the scope of such inquiries or removing the question altogether – particularly when it conflicts with the goals of these institutions, including reducing the underrepresentation of students of color.” - 'Criminology, EarlyView. '

  October 23, 2019   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12229   open full text
• School punishment and interpersonal exclusion: Rejection, withdrawal, and separation from friends.
  Wade C. Jacobsen.
  Criminology. September 13, 2019
  --- - |2 Abstract School suspension is a common form of punishment in the United States that is disproportionately concentrated among racial minority and disadvantaged youth. In labeling theories, the implication is that such stigmatized sanctions may lead to interpersonal exclusion from normative others and to greater involvement with antisocial peers. I test this implication in the context of rural schools by 1) examining the association between suspension and discontinuity in same‐grade friendship ties, focusing on three mechanisms implied in labeling theories: rejection, withdrawal, and physical separation; 2) testing the association between suspension and increased involvement with antisocial peers; and (3) assessing whether these associations are stronger in smaller schools. Consistent with labeling theories, I find suspension associated with greater discontinuity in friendship ties, based on changes in the respondents’ friendship preferences and self‐reports of their peers. My findings are also consistent with changes in perceptual measures of exclusion. Additionally, I find suspension associated with greater involvement with substance‐using peers. Some but not all of these associations are stronger in smaller rural schools. Given the disproportionate distribution of suspension, my findings indicate that an excessive reliance on this exclusionary form of punishment may foster inequality among these youth. - 'Criminology, EarlyView. '

  September 13, 2019   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12227   open full text
• Structural discrimination and social stigma among individuals incarcerated for sexual offenses: Reentry across the rural–urban continuum.
  Beth M. Huebner, Kimberly R. Kras, Breanne Pleggenkuhle.
  Criminology. September 06, 2019
  --- - |2 Abstract The stigma associated with a felony conviction can impede the reentry process, and emerging research findings indicate that one's community can amplify or temper the mark of a criminal record. Researchers examining criminal stigma have focused on individuals living in urban areas, overlooking the experiences of persons outside these communities. Using qualitative data collected from a sample of men and women paroled for sexual offenses in Missouri, we contrast how social and structural stigma alter the reentry experiences for participants living in communities along the rural and urban continuum. The results show that the stigma of a sex offense conviction was a near‐universal experience and residence restrictions stymied efforts to find housing. Residents of urban areas and some large cities felt that the community offered relative anonymity from stigma but the stress of their status being discovered was omnipresent. Participants in rural areas and small cities had less social privacy and reported being shunned in the community, although strong social ties did mitigate some of the consequences of stigma. The results highlight the importance of considering place when studying reentry and have implications for designing correctional policies to address the needs of residents returning to non–metropolitan locations. - 'Criminology, EarlyView. '

  September 06, 2019   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12226   open full text
• The commemoration of death, organizational memory, and police culture.
  Michael Sierra‐Arévalo.
  Criminology. August 27, 2019
  --- - |2 Abstract Police scholars document that although there is fragmentation of the so‐called “monolithic” police culture, historically consistent features of the occupational culture of police exist. By drawing on ethnographic observations in three U.S. police departments, I describe how one consistent feature of police culture—the preoccupation with danger and potential death—is maintained by the commemoration of officers killed in the line of duty. Through the use of commemorative cultural artifacts, officers and departments construct an organizational memory that locally reflects and reifies the salience of danger and potential death in policing. Furthermore, commemoration of fallen officers is not restricted to a department's own; the dead of other departments are commemorated by distant police organizations and their officers, maintaining broad, occupational assumptions of dangerous and deadly police work that transcend a single department and its localized organizational memory. Implications for the study of police culture, inequalities in policing, and police reform are considered. - 'Criminology, EarlyView. '

  August 27, 2019   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12224   open full text
• Testing a rational choice model of “desistance:” Decomposing changing expectations and changing utilities.
  Kyle J. Thomas, Matt Vogel.
  Criminology. August 23, 2019
  --- - |2 Abstract We argue that a rational choice framework can be used to explain declines in offending from adolescence to young adulthood in two ways. First, subjective expectations of offending can be age graded such that perceptions of rewards decrease and perceptions of risks and costs increase. Second, the marginal (dis)utility of crime may be age graded (e.g., preferences for risks, costs, and rewards). We examine changes in offending from adolescence to young adulthood among a subset of individuals from the Pathways to Desistance Study (N = 585) and employ a nonlinear decomposition model to partition differences in offending attributable to changing subjective expectations (X) and changing marginal utilities (β). The results indicate that both have direct and independent effects on changes in offending over time. The results of a detailed decomposition on the subjective expectations also indicate that differences exist across the type of incentives. That is, the effect of changing expectations is attributed mainly to changes in perceived rewards (both social and intrinsic). Changing expectations of social costs and risk of arrest from offending have weak effects on changes in criminal behavior, which suggests that they must be accompanied by increases in the weight placed on these expectations to promote appreciable declines in offending. - 'Criminology, EarlyView. '

  August 23, 2019   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12223   open full text
• Sexual victimization against transgender women in prison: Consent and coercion in context.
  Valerie Jenness, Lori Sexton, Jennifer Sumner.
  Criminology. August 22, 2019
  --- - |2 Abstract In this article, we conjoin two long‐standing lines of inquiry in criminology—the study of prison life and the study of sexual assault—by using original qualitative and quantitative data from 315 transgender women incarcerated in 27 California men's prisons. In so doing, we advance an analysis of the factors and processes that shape their experience of sexual victimization in prison. The results of qualitative analysis of 198 reported incidents of sexual victimization exhibit a range of types of sexual victimization experienced by transgender women in prison and reveal the centrality of relationships to their experiences of victimization. Findings from logistic regression models buttress the qualitative results, highlighting a factor that consistently and powerfully indicates vulnerability to sexual victimization is involvement in consensual sexual relationships with male prisoners. Together, the data demonstrate the prominence of intimate partner violence in prison, complicate the distinction between consent and unwanted sexual experiences in the lives of transgender women in prisons for men, and shine a light on the workings of gender in a total institution that privileges heteronormativity at the expense of the safety of transgender women in prisons for men. We discuss the implications of our findings in light of timely policy concerns. - 'Criminology, EarlyView. '

  August 22, 2019   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12221   open full text
• Producing race disparities: A study of drug arrests across place and race*.
  Shytierra Gaston.
  Criminology. August 18, 2019
  --- - |2 Abstract In studies of race disparities in policing, scholars generally employ quantitative methodologies with the goal of determining whether race disparities exist or, in fewer instances, of ruling out correlates. Yet, lacking from theoretical and empirical efforts is an elucidation of how and why on‐the‐ground policing produces race disparities that are justified in legal, race‐neutral terms. To address this knowledge gap, I analyze officers’ self‐reported accounts of their enforcement activities, justifications, and decision‐making in a representative sample of 300 official reports of drug arrests made in St. Louis from 2009 to 2013. These accounts are analyzed across neighborhood racial contexts and arrestee race, revealing important differences that help illuminate the race disparity problem. Unlike drug arrests in White neighborhoods or of White citizens that primarily stem from reactive policing, drug arrests in Black and racially mixed neighborhoods and of Black citizens result from officers’ greater use of discretionary stops based on neighborhood conditions, suspicion of ambiguous demeanor, or minor infractions. During such stops, officers’ discovery of drug possession often results from discretionary Terry frisks or searches incident to arrests for outstanding bench warrants. These findings fill important theoretical and empirical gaps and have implications for reforms toward racially just policing. - 'Criminology, Volume 57, Issue 3, Page 424-451, August 2019. '

  August 18, 2019   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12207   open full text
• Does gang membership pay? Illegal and legal earnings through emerging adulthood*.
  Megan Bears Augustyn, Jean Marie McGloin, David C. Pyrooz.
  Criminology. August 18, 2019
  --- - |2 Abstract Gang membership is believed to impede success in the legitimate economic market while simultaneously supporting success in the illegal market. We extend the study of the economic effects of gang membership by using a within‐ and between‐individual analytic design, decomposing gang membership into multiple statuses (i.e., entering a gang, continuously in a gang, leaving a gang, and inactive gang membership), examining legal and illegal earnings simultaneously, and accounting for factors endogenous to gang membership that may contribute to economic achievement. By using panel data from 1,213 individuals who participated in the Pathways to Desistance Study to conduct a multilevel path analysis, we find that active gang membership status is unrelated to legal earnings. Alternatively, entering a gang is associated with increased illegal earnings, attributable to changes in delinquent peers and drug use, whereas leaving a gang has a direct relationship with decreased illegal earnings. Our results indicate that the positive economic effect of gang membership (i.e., illegal earnings and total earnings) is short‐lived and that, on balance, the sum of the gang membership experience does not “pay” in terms of overall earnings. - 'Criminology, Volume 57, Issue 3, Page 452-480, August 2019. '

  August 18, 2019   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12208   open full text
• Linking parental incarceration and family dynamics associated with intergenerational transmission: A life‐course perspective*.
  Peggy C. Giordano, Jennifer E. Copp, Wendy D. Manning, Monica A. Longmore.
  Criminology. August 18, 2019
  --- - |2 Abstract Children experiencing parental incarceration face numerous additional disadvantages, but researchers have often relied on these other co‐occurring factors primarily as controls. In this article, we focus on the intimate links between crime and incarceration, as well as on the broader family context within which parental incarceration often unfolds. Thus, parents’ drug use and criminal behavior that precedes and may follow incarceration periods may be ongoing stressors that directly affect child well‐being. We also use our analyses to foreground mechanisms associated with social learning theories, including observations and communications that increase the child's risk for criminal involvement and other problem outcomes. These related family experiences often channel the child's own developing network ties (peers, romantic partners) that then serve as proximal influences. We explore these processes by drawing on qualitative and quantitative data from a study of the lives of a sample of respondents followed from adolescence to young adulthood, as well as on records searches of parents’ incarceration histories. Through our analyses, we find evidence that 1) some effects attributed to parental incarceration likely connect to unmeasured features of the broader family context, and b) together parental incarceration and the broader climate often constitute a tightly coupled package of family‐related risks linked to intergenerational continuities in criminal behavior and other forms of social disadvantage. - 'Criminology, Volume 57, Issue 3, Page 395-423, August 2019. '

  August 18, 2019   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12209   open full text
• Learning on the job: Studying expertise in residential burglars using virtual environments*.
  Claire Nee, Jean‐Louis Gelder, Marco Otte, Zarah Vernham, Amy Meenaghan.
  Criminology. August 18, 2019
  --- - |2 Abstract In this article, we describe a quasi‐experiment in which experienced incarcerated burglars (n = 56), other offenders (n = 50), and nonoffenders (n = 55) undertook a mock burglary within a virtual neighborhood. We draw from the cognitive psychology literature on expertise and apply it to offending behavior, demonstrating synergy with rational choice perspectives, yet extending them in several respects. Our principal goal was to carry out the first robust test of expertise in offenders by having these groups undertake a burglary in a fully fledged reenactment of a crime in a virtual environment. Our findings indicate that the virtual environment successfully reinstated the context of the crime showing clear differences in the decision making of burglars compared with other groups in ways commensurate with expertise in other behavioral domains. Specifically, burglars scoped the neighborhood more thoroughly, spent more time in the high‐value areas of the crime scene while traveling less distance there, and targeted different goods from the comparison groups. The level of detail in the data generated sheds new light on the cognitive processes and actions of burglars and how they “learn on the job.” Implications for criminal decision‐making perspectives and psychological theories of expertise are discussed. - 'Criminology, Volume 57, Issue 3, Page 481-511, August 2019. '

  August 18, 2019   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12210   open full text
• Consequences of mental and physical health for reentry and recidivism: Toward a health‐based model of desistance*.
  Nathan W. Link, Jeffrey T. Ward, Richard Stansfield.
  Criminology. August 18, 2019
  --- - |2 Abstract During the last few decades, criminologists have identified several adult roles and statuses, including employment, positive family relations, and economic stability, as critical for promoting successful reintegration and desistance. Very few researchers, however, have investigated the conditions that serve to bring about these transitions and successes crucial for behavior change. As a complement to a burgeoning amount of literature on the impact of incarceration on health, we emphasize the reverse: Health has important implications for reentry outcomes and reincarceration. Informed by multiple disciplines, we advance a health‐based model of desistance in which both mental and physical dimensions of health affect life chances in the employment and family realms and ultimately recidivism. Investigating this issue with longitudinal data from the Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative (SVORI) and structural equation models, we find overall support for the health‐based model of desistance. Our results indicate several significant pathways through which both manifestations of health influence employment, family conflict, financial problems, and crime and reincarceration. The findings highlight the need for implementation of correctional and transitional policies to improve health among the incarcerated and avert health‐related reentry failures. - 'Criminology, Volume 57, Issue 3, Page 544-573, August 2019. '

  August 18, 2019   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12213   open full text
• Development of impulsivity and risk‐seeking: Implications for the dimensionality and stability of self‐control*.
  Walter Forrest, Carter Hay, Alex O. Widdowson, Michael Rocque.
  Criminology. August 18, 2019
  --- - |2 Abstract In Gottfredson and Hirschi's self‐control theory, introduced in 1990, they contend that self‐control is a unidimensional construct that develops early in childhood and remains stable throughout the life span. According to findings reported in recent research, however, these arguments are now being challenged, with scholars pointing to ways in which self‐control may be multidimensional in nature and may change beyond the period of alleged stabilization. In this study, we draw on Steinberg's dual systems model, introduced in 2008, to consider this issue further. We examine that model's two key elements of low self‐control—risk‐seeking and impulsivity—to determine whether they are empirically distinguishable from one another and have differing developmental trajectories from childhood to early adulthood. We also consider the consequences of changes in risk‐seeking and impulsivity for within‐individual changes in crime. We examine these issues with data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79) for individuals from 10 to 30 years old. The results of our analyses show support for a multidimensional and dynamic conception of self‐control—from age 10 to age 30, risk‐seeking and impulsivity are empirically distinct and develop in divergent ways that are consistent with the dual systems model. Changes in risk‐seeking and impulsivity also affect changes in crime, but their effects vary with age and changes in the other element. We discuss these findings and their implications for self‐control and the development of life‐course criminology. - 'Criminology, Volume 57, Issue 3, Page 512-543, August 2019. '

  August 18, 2019   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12214   open full text
• Fight or flight: Integral emotions and violent intentions.
  Timothy C. Barnum, Starr J. Solomon.
  Criminology. August 08, 2019
  --- - |2 Abstract The effect of proximate emotions on risk perceptions is of central importance to criminal decision‐making theory, but has been understudied. We investigate the role of two integral (situational specific) emotional responses, anger and fear, in a decision‐making context regarding the choice to commit assault. We draw on dual‐process models of information processing and appraisal theory to propose a theoretical model in which integral emotions influence decisions and behavior. Using data from an experiment embedded in a survey to a nationwide sample of adults (N = 804), we test the interrelated roles of anger, fear, and traditional rational choice considerations on the intention to commit assault. We find a strong direct association between emotions and intentions to commit assault. Additionally, anger and fear moderate the effect of cognitive deliberations on behavioral intentions and provide a lens through which to evaluate a criminogenic opportunity. - 'Criminology, EarlyView. '

  August 08, 2019   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12222   open full text
• Taking sides: Gender and third‐party partisanship in disputes*.
  Ethan M. Rogers, Richard B. Felson, Mark T. Berg, Andrew Krajewski.
  Criminology. June 11, 2019
  --- - |2 Abstract We examine the role of a norm protecting women in understanding third‐party partisanship in verbal and violent disputes. Our analyses are based on reports provided by male inmates and men they know who have never been arrested. The results show that third parties are more likely to support female adversaries than male adversaries. The gender effect is stronger when we control for the relational distance between adversaries, which indicates that a privacy norm might inhibit this normative protection. The gender effect is somewhat weaker when we control for the relative physical size of the adversaries, which indicates that a general norm protecting vulnerable people partly explains the gender effect. The strong gender effect that remains, however, demonstrates the importance of the normative protection of women, regardless of relative size, during disputes. The results have implications for research on situational factors in violence and violence against women. - 'Criminology, EarlyView. '

  June 11, 2019   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12215   open full text
• “The times have changed, the dope has changed”: Women's cooking roles and gender performances in shake methamphetamine markets*.
  Jessica R. Deitzer, Lindsay Leban, Heith Copes.
  Criminology. May 17, 2019
  --- - |2 Abstract Drug markets are typically portrayed as male dominated, with men occupying the higher positions and women fulfilling the lower positions. Yet, the results of recent work highlight how women's participation and experiences in drug economies varies by the structure and organization of the specific market. We focus on the shake‐and‐bake (“shake”) methamphetamine (meth) market, which seems to have emerged mainly in response to legal attempts to curtail methamphetamine production. We explore how women adapt to structural changes and how they perform gender to navigate a market in which the focus is on personal consumption instead of on monetary gain. By relying on semistructured interviews with 40 women who cooked meth, we identify the gendered strategies they adopt and how these coincide with their position in the drug market. Cooking roles took three forms (partner, lead, and team), and each role was characterized by distinct patterns of gender performance and autonomy (emphasized femininity, matriarchal control, and gender neutral). We show that certain market conditions allow for increased participation among women in meth manufacturing. Yet, even within favorable conditions, variability remains in women's positions and gender performances. The findings highlight the role of organizational and legal context in shaping both the roles women adopt in drug markets and the ways they perform gender. - 'Criminology, Volume 57, Issue 2, Page 268-288, May 2019. '

  May 17, 2019   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12200   open full text
• Assessing the effects of body‐worn cameras on procedural justice in the Los Angeles Police Department*.
  John D. McCluskey, Craig D. Uchida, Shellie E. Solomon, Alese Wooditch, Christine Connor, Lauren Revier.
  Criminology. May 17, 2019
  --- - |2 Abstract In this article, we explore variations in procedural justice delivered in face‐to‐face encounters with citizens before and after the implementation of body‐worn cameras (BWCs). We draw on recent advances in the measurement of procedural justice using systematic social observation of police in field settings in the Los Angeles Police Department. Data collected on 555 police–citizen encounters are examined in bivariate and multivariate models exploring the primary hypothesis that BWCs affect procedural justice delivered by police directly and indirectly. Our results indicate that significant increases in procedural justice during police–citizen encounters were directly attributable to the effect of BWCs on police behavior as well as to the indirect effects on citizen disrespect and other variables. The implications for policy include explicit measurement and monitoring of procedural justice or elements such as officer discourtesy in departments adopting BWCs. Further research questions such as more detailed examination of citizens’ behavior changes under BWCs are also considered in the context of the findings. - 'Criminology, Volume 57, Issue 2, Page 208-236, May 2019. '

  May 17, 2019   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12201   open full text
• Putting a price on drugs: An economic sociological study of price formation in illegal drug markets.
  Kim Moeller, Sveinung Sandberg.
  Criminology. May 17, 2019
  --- - |2 Abstract Prices in illegal drug markets are difficult to predict. Based on qualitative interviews with 68 incarcerated drug dealers in Norway, we explore dealers’ perspectives on fair prices and the processes that influence their pricing decisions. Synthesized through economic sociology, we draw on perspectives from traditions as different as behavioral economics and cultural analysis to demonstrate how participants in illicit drug distribution base their pricing decisions on institutional context, social networks, and drug market cultures. We find that dealers take institutional constraints into consideration and search for niches with high earnings and low risks. The use of transactions embedded in social networks promotes a trusting form of governance, which enables strategic network management and expedient distribution but also uncompetitive pricing. Finally, dealers’ pricing decisions are embedded in three different cultures narratives: business, friendship, and street cultural stories, with widely varying implications for prices. Our findings demonstrate how an economic sociology of illicit drug distribution can extend insights from behavioral economics and cultural studies into a coherent criminology of illegal drug markets. - 'Criminology, Volume 57, Issue 2, Page 289-313, May 2019. '

  May 17, 2019   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12202   open full text
• Criminal network security: An agent‐based approach to evaluating network resilience*.
  Scott W. Duxbury, Dana L. Haynie.
  Criminology. May 17, 2019
  --- - |2 Abstract Criminal networks are frequently at risk of disruption through arrest and interorganizational violence. Difficulties in designing empirical studies of criminal network recovery, however, have problematized research into network responses to disruption. In this study, we evaluate criminal network resilience by examining network recovery from disruption in an array of different criminal networks and across different disruption strategies. We use an agent‐based model to evaluate how criminal networks recover from disruption. Our results reveal the vulnerabilities and time to recovery of numerous criminal organizations, and through them, we identify which disruption strategies are most effective at damaging various criminal networks. - 'Criminology, Volume 57, Issue 2, Page 314-342, May 2019. '

  May 17, 2019   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12203   open full text
• Role of voice in the legal process*.
  Liana Pennington, Amy Farrell.
  Criminology. May 17, 2019
  --- - |2 Abstract As communities face unrest and protest because of perceived racial bias and decreased trust and confidence in the criminal justice system, it is critical to explore mechanisms that foster institutional legitimacy. Voice is a central element in the procedural justice framework because it is anticipated to promote process control as well as a shared understanding between institutions and communities. As a concept, however, voice is undertheorized. Measures of voice used in legitimacy research may result in oversimplification of the concept, not fully capturing the struggles disadvantaged people face in trying to exercise influence in the court system. Through the use of rich data from qualitative interviews with youth and families involved in the juvenile justice system and in‐depth observations of juvenile court events, we explore what voice is, the mechanisms through which people try to assert voice, and how voice matters in the legal process. Respondents sought voice for many reasons, including to validate their experiences, to affirm their membership in a community, and to assert concerns about perceived police misconduct. Contrary to traditional conceptualizations of voice as a static event (e.g., having voice or not having voice), voice was a process of negotiating dialogue between court officials and court participants throughout the legal process. - 'Criminology, Volume 57, Issue 2, Page 343-368, May 2019. '

  May 17, 2019   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12205   open full text
• Neighborhood immigrant concentration and violent crime reporting to the police: A multilevel analysis of data from the National Crime Victimization Survey*.
  Min Xie, Eric P. Baumer.
  Criminology. May 17, 2019
  --- - |2 Abstract Using data from the Area‐Identified National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), we provide a national assessment of the impact of neighborhood immigrant concentration on whether violence is reported to the police. By drawing on multiple theoretical perspectives, we outline how the level of violence reporting could be higher or lower in immigrant neighborhoods, as well as how this may depend on individual race/ethnicity and the history of immigration in the county in which immigrant neighborhoods are located. Controlling for both individual‐ and neighborhood‐level conditions, our findings indicate that within traditional immigrant counties, rates of violence reporting in immigrant neighborhoods are similar to those observed elsewhere. In contrast, within newer immigrant destinations, we observe much lower rates of violence reporting in neighborhoods with a large concentration of immigrants. Our study findings reveal comparable patterns for Whites, Blacks, and Latinos. The results have important implications for theory, policy, and future research. - 'Criminology, Volume 57, Issue 2, Page 237-267, May 2019. '

  May 17, 2019   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12204   open full text
• One gang dies, another gains? The network dynamics of criminal group persistence*.
  Marie Ouellet, Martin Bouchard, Yanick Charette.
  Criminology. February 15, 2019
  --- - |2 Abstract What leads a minority of criminal groups to persist over time? Although most criminal groups are characterized by short life spans, a subset manages to survive extended periods. Contemporary research on criminal groups has been primarily descriptive and static, leaving important questions on the correlates of group persistence unanswered. By drawing from competing perspectives on the relationship between cohesion and group persistence, we apply a longitudinal approach to examine the network dynamics influencing the life span of criminal groups. We use 9 years of official data on the criminal and social networks of gang associates in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, to delineate criminal group boundaries and examine variation in group duration. Our statistical approach simultaneously considers within‐ and between‐group attributes to isolate how groups’ cohesion, as well as their embeddedness in the wider gang structure, impacts survival. Our results show that group survival is a function of their cohesion and embeddedness. Yet, the relationship is not direct but moderated by group size. Whereas large groups that adopt closed structures are more likely to persist, small groups’ survival depends on less cohesive and more versatile structures. In the discussion, we consider the impact of these findings for the continued understanding of group trajectories. - 'Criminology, Volume 57, Issue 1, Page 5-33, February 2019. '

  February 15, 2019   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12194   open full text
• Roads diverged: An examination of violent and nonviolent pathways in the aftermath of the Bosnian war*.
  Stephanie M. DiPietro.
  Criminology. February 15, 2019
  --- - |2 Abstract Despite renewed interest among criminologists in war and genocide, still understudied are the implications of mass violence for human development and behavior over the life course. By drawing on detailed life history data gathered from 55 male Bosnian refugees and nationals, in this work, I examine the shared beginnings of men who experienced the Bosnian war and genocide (1992–1995) in their youth, as well as examine their divergent pathways over time and across two distinct postwar contexts. My findings reveal that violent pathways are shaped by the confluence of social–psychological mechanisms (e.g., the normalization of violence) and exogenous risk factors (e.g., family disruption and loss of male role models). Compared with nonviolent men, who emphasize themes of catharsis and resilience, and the emulation of prosocial models of masculinity, violent men's narratives are distinguished by themes of persecution and exile, the emulation of violent role models, and contextual barriers to attaining valued masculine identities. Beyond the experience of war, these findings have implications for understanding how early experiences of chronic violence and community disruption shape turning points and cultural frames over the life course, and they indicate that studies of violent pathways should grant greater primacy to the social–historical context and the meaning individuals ascribe to their experiences. - 'Criminology, Volume 57, Issue 1, Page 74-104, February 2019. '

  February 15, 2019   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12196   open full text
• Putting homicide followed by suicide in context: Do macro‐environmental characteristics impact the odds of committing suicide after homicide?*.
  Emma E. Fridel, Gregory M. Zimmerman.
  Criminology. February 15, 2019
  --- - |2 Abstract Homicide followed by suicide remains an understudied phenomenon in the criminological literature. This is due, in part, to methodological and statistical limitations—much of the extant research includes small samples and has not kept pace with quantitative advances. Moreover, scholarship on homicide–suicide has been focused almost exclusively on individual risk factors, discounting contextual influences. In this study, we examine whether macro‐environmental characteristics affect the odds of suicide after a homicide. We use data on 24,373 homicide and homicide–suicide cases distributed across 3,019 cities and 48 U.S. states from the National Violent Death Reporting System to examine the direct effects of structural factors on the odds of suicide after a homicide; and whether structural characteristics condition the impact of the victim–offender relationship on the odds of homicide–suicide. Hierarchical logistic regression models indicate that macro‐level concentrated disadvantage decreases the odds of homicide–suicide. Furthermore, concentrated disadvantage attenuates the odds of suicide after the homicide of an intimate partner, child, family member, or friend, relative to the killing of a stranger. The findings reveal that researchers should account for the context in which homicide–suicide occurs; failure to do so may unintentionally discount a key correlate of homicide–suicide and artificially inflate the effects of the micro‐environment. - 'Criminology, Volume 57, Issue 1, Page 34-73, February 2019. '

  February 15, 2019   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12195   open full text
• Heterogeneous effects of adolescent violent victimization on problematic outcomes in early adulthood*.
  Jillian J. Turanovic.
  Criminology. February 15, 2019
  --- - |2 Abstract Violent victimization—particularly when it happens to young people—can inflict a wide array of negative consequences across the life course. Nevertheless, some victims are more likely to suffer these consequences than others, and we do not have a very good understanding of why that is. One promising avenue of research is to examine how individuals’ differential risks of being victimized affect the extent to which they experience negative outcomes. By using propensity score matching and data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (N = 8,323), in this study I estimate the heterogeneous effects of adolescent violent victimization on several problematic outcomes in early adulthood (violent and property offending, subsequent violent victimization, depressive symptoms, hard drug use, and low educational attainment). Individuals’ differential risks of adolescent violent victimization are estimated with a host of personal, social, and contextual factors, including prior experiences with crime and violence. The results show that the consequences of adolescent victimization in early adulthood are more pronounced for youth with the lowest risks of being victimized. These findings have important implications for theory, research, and practice, and they emphasize that the consequences of victimization cannot be understood separately from the sources of victimization. - 'Criminology, Volume 57, Issue 1, Page 105-135, February 2019. '

  February 15, 2019   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12198   open full text
• Cumulative impact: Why prison sentences have increased*.
  Ryan D. King.
  Criminology. February 15, 2019
  --- - |2 Abstract Why has the probability of going to prison after a felony conviction increased since the early 1980s? Social scientists often try to answer this question through macro‐level research that is aimed at examining correlations between prison admissions and crime rates or sociopolitical characteristics of states. That type of macro‐level inquiry, however, does not allow for a close examination of how characteristics of offenders changed over time, and whether such changes are consequential for understanding trends in the use of imprisonment. In the current study, I take a different approach—one in which case‐level data are observed over a lengthy time span—to investigate why the likelihood of going to prison for a given crime persistently increased for several decades. The results of analyses of more than 350,000 felony cases sentenced in Minnesota during a 33‐year period show that the probability of a defendant receiving a prison sentence increased from 1981 to 2013, as would be expected. The primary reason for the rising probability of imprisonment was the significant increase in the average offender's criminal record, which more than doubled during the observation period. - 'Criminology, Volume 57, Issue 1, Page 157-180, February 2019. '

  February 15, 2019   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12197   open full text
• Beyond the dichotomy: Incarceration dosage and mental health*.
  Lauren C. Porter, Laura M. DeMarco.
  Criminology. February 15, 2019
  --- - |2 Abstract The findings from a growing body of research reveal that incarceration is detrimental for both physical and mental health. Incarceration, however, is typically conceptualized and operationalized as a dichotomy; individuals either have, or have not, been incarcerated. Considering that incarceration can range from one day to several years, a dichotomous measure may be overlooking important variations across lengths of exposure. In addition, most inmates are incarcerated more than once. In this study, we help to fill this gap by examining the relationship between incarceration dosage, measured as time served and number of spells, and mental health among a sample of young adults from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth 1997. By using fixed‐effects modeling, we find that the number of spells and the months incarcerated are positively related to mental health symptoms and the likelihood of depression. The association, however, is contingent on whether a respondent is currently or formerly incarcerated. Among current inmates, more time served is expected to improve mental health and the number of spells is unrelated to either outcome. - 'Criminology, Volume 57, Issue 1, Page 136-156, February 2019. '

  February 15, 2019   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12199   open full text
• Avoiding The Runaround: The Link Between Cultural Health Capital And Health Management Among Older Prisoners*.
  Meghan A. Novisky.
  Criminology. November 15, 2018
  --- - |2 Abstract The link between incarceration and health is of emerging empirical interest to criminological scholars. Yet, we still know little about the needs of the rising population of older prisoners and the health issues they face. By drawing on qualitative data gathered from 193 interviews with older men incarcerated across three U.S. prisons, I examine the specific health promotion strategies available to, and used by, these men through a cultural health capital framework. Findings show that older prisoners make deliberate choices to protect their health from the constraints and deprivations inherent in their carceral lives. In the hopes of better managing chronic and acute disease, the strategies prisoners reference include acquiring medical information, making food and diet modifications, and health advocacy. Notably, the mobilization of cultural health capital is situated within a context of privilege, leaving important implications for both incarcerated individuals and correctional administrators. - 'Criminology, Volume 56, Issue 4, Page 643-678, November 2018. '

  November 15, 2018   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12188   open full text
• Media Construction Of Crime Revisited: Media Types, Consumer Contexts, And Frames Of Crime And Justice*.
  Andrew J. Baranauskas, Kevin M. Drakulich.
  Criminology. November 15, 2018
  --- - |2 Abstract Through this study, we shed new light on a key line of inquiry for criminologists: the way the media influence the public's understanding of crime and justice. We argue for expanding the lens of studies on the media's construction of crime, moving away from one‐dimensional reactions to crime to an integrated set of frames about crime and justice policy while considering the potential influence of a diverse array of media forms and content. Most critically, this social construction process must be placed in context, specifically, the racial composition in which people consume media. By using two nationally representative surveys matched with contextual data, we identify two forms of media consumption that seem important to understandings of crime: local television news and TV crime dramas. Interestingly, local news seems more important than national news even to perceptions of national crime trends, whereas news consumed over the Internet is not relevant, nor are 24‐hour cable news channels once political views are taken into account. Television news viewers are also more likely to support tougher crime policies. Importantly, context matters: The influence of television news and crime dramas on perceptions of crime is strongest among White respondents who live near larger numbers of Black neighbors. - 'Criminology, Volume 56, Issue 4, Page 679-714, November 2018. '

  November 15, 2018   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12189   open full text
• Credentialing Decisions And Criminal Records: A Narrative Approach*.
  Megan Denver, Alec Ewald.
  Criminology. November 15, 2018
  --- - |2 Abstract Decision makers such as employers and state occupational licensing officials are often encouraged or required to incorporate evidence of rehabilitation into hiring decisions when applicants have criminal records. Current policy movements at the local, state, and federal levels may increase the use of such individualized assessments. Yet little is known about which types of information these decision makers use, how they evaluate evidence, and how they ultimately make determinations. We examine a sample of 50 unarmed security guard licensing decisions in New York State using content analysis. We find that administrative law judges rely on a narrative framework to document whether applicants currently have a prosocial identity and merit licensure. Judges typically describe one of two prosocial identity narratives for successful applicants: The applicant demonstrates achieving meaningful change, or his or her criminal record represents an aberration. Two factors seem vital to these assessments: applicants’ postconviction trustworthiness, as demonstrated through good conduct or inferred through positive appraisals, and credible testimony. In narrative explanations, personal responsibility and adult milestones are often discussed, reflecting a judicial nod to the notion of a “transition to adulthood.” The results hold implications for scholars and policy makers examining employment barriers, stigma remediation, and collateral sanctions for individuals with criminal records. - 'Criminology, Volume 56, Issue 4, Page 715-749, November 2018. '

  November 15, 2018   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12190   open full text
• Prison Officer Legitimacy, Their Exercise Of Power, And Inmate Rule Breaking*.
  Benjamin Steiner, John Wooldredge.
  Criminology. November 15, 2018
  --- - |2 Abstract Prison officers are directly responsible for transmitting penal culture and prison policy to the confined, yet few studies of officers’ impact on inmate behavior have been conducted. We examined the effect of inmates’ perceptions of officer legitimacy on rule breaking within prisons, as well as the effects of officers’ reliance on different power bases on rates of rule breaking across prisons. The findings from bi‐level analyses of data from inmates and officers from 33 prisons revealed that inmates who held stronger views regarding officer legitimacy committed fewer nonviolent infractions but that perceived legitimacy did not affect the number of violent offenses inmates committed. We also examined a subsample of inmates encountered by officers for a rule violation and found no relationship between perceived legitimacy and subsequent rule breaking, although stronger perceptions of procedural justice related to the incident did directly and indirectly (through perceived legitimacy) coincide with lower odds of nonviolent misconduct. At the prison level, we found that prisons in which officers exercised their authority more lawfully and fairly (positional power) or by relying more on their skills and expertise (expert power) had lower rates of violent or nonviolent rule violations. Prisons in which officers relied more on coercion had higher levels of nonviolent infractions. - 'Criminology, Volume 56, Issue 4, Page 750-779, November 2018. '

  November 15, 2018   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12191   open full text
• Police Culture And Officer Behavior: Application Of A Multilevel Framework.
  Jason R. Ingram, William Terrill, Eugene A. Paoline.
  Criminology. November 15, 2018
  --- - |2 Abstract Although recent advancements have been made in the understanding and studying of police culture, several significant gaps remain, including deficiencies in theoretical development and the lack of research on culture's influence on police practice. In the current study, we apply a multilevel theoretical framework to the examination of officers’ cultural attitudes and behavior to help bridge these gaps. In doing so, police culture is treated as a collective feature of patrol groups as opposed to as an individual‐level attribute. Furthermore, we extend previous work by introducing the concept of culture strength as a moderator of the culture–behavior relationship. After drawing on survey and behavioral data from a national multimethod project, we then test this framework with two empirical examples from each of the primary work environments (i.e., street and organization) in which police culture originates and operates. The findings reveal that workgroup culture is associated with officers’ behaviors, representing a collective effect, and that the relationship between culture and behavior may not always be linear. The results provide support for incorporating a multilevel approach to the study of police culture and officer behavior. - 'Criminology, Volume 56, Issue 4, Page 780-811, November 2018. '

  November 15, 2018   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12192   open full text
• Policing Through Subsidized Firepower: An Assessment Of Rational Choice And Minority Threat Explanations Of Police Participation In The 1033 Program*.
  David M. Ramey, Trent Steidley.
  Criminology. November 15, 2018
  --- - |2 Abstract There is a popular belief that the use of military equipment can improve police efforts at social control. Recent protests and riots across the country, however, have piqued public concern about racial disparities in law enforcement and the acquisition and use of military equipment by police in the United States. By using data from the Department of Defense's 1033 Program, we conduct an agency‐level analysis to assess the validity of rational choice arguments and minority threat explanations of police participation in the 1033 Program. Our results reveal that higher violent crime rates and lower drug arrest rates increase law enforcement participation in the 1033 Program. Participation in the 1033 Program, however, is also a function of minority threat, with the functional form of minority threat varying across models predicting 1033 participation and the value of materiel acquired by successful departments. Specifically, a curvilinear relationship exists between the relative size of the Black population and involvement in the 1033 Program, and an exponential relationship between the relative size of the Black and Hispanic populations and the value of property departments receive annually from the 1033 Program. - 'Criminology, Volume 56, Issue 4, Page 812-856, November 2018. '

  November 15, 2018   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12193   open full text
• Lynchings, Racial Threat, And Whites’ Punitive Views Toward Blacks.
  Eric A. Stewart, Daniel P. Mears, Patricia Y. Warren, Eric P. Baumer, Ashley N. Arnio.
  Criminology. August 13, 2018
  --- - |2 Abstract Disparities in historical and contemporary punishment of Blacks have been well documented. Racial threat has been proffered as a theoretical explanation for this phenomenon. In an effort to understand the factors that influence punishment and racial divides in America, we draw on racial threat theory and prior scholarship to test three hypotheses. First, Black punitive sentiment among Whites will be greater among those who reside in areas where lynching was more common. Second, heightened Black punitive sentiment among Whites in areas with more pronounced legacies of lynching will be partially mediated by Whites’ perceptions of Blacks’ criminality and of Black‐on‐White violence in these areas. Third, the impact of lynching on Black punitive sentiment will be amplified by Whites’ perceptions of Blacks as criminals and as threatening more generally. We find partial support for these hypotheses. The results indicate that lynchings are associated with punitive sentiment toward Black offenders, and these relationships are partially mediated by perceptions of Blacks as criminals and as threats to Whites. In addition, the effects of lynchings on Black punitiveness are amplified among White respondents who view Blacks as a threat to Whites. These results highlight the salience of historical context for understanding contemporary views about punishment. - 'Criminology, Volume 56, Issue 3, Page 455-480, August 2018. '

  August 13, 2018   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12176   open full text
• Privatizing Punishment: Testing Theories Of Public Support For Private Prison And Immigration Detention Facilities.
  Peter K. Enns, Mark D. Ramirez.
  Criminology. August 13, 2018
  --- - |2 Abstract The transfer of authority over the supervision of inmate populations from state and federal governments to private corporations is one of the most significant contemporary developments in the criminal justice system. Yet, the controversy surrounding the private prison industry has occurred in U.S. criminal justice policy circles without any understanding of the public's preferences toward these institutions. In this article, we test several theories that potentially explain opinions toward privatizing carceral institutions: the racial animus, business is better, conflict of interest, and problem‐escalation models. These models are tested with original data from the 2014 Cooperative Congressional Election Survey. The data show that opinions toward the privatization of carceral institutions do not neatly fall along partisan or ideological divisions but are explained by beliefs about racial resentment, corporate ethics, and the potential ability of private companies to provide services cheaper than the public sphere. The results hold important implications for how we understand the future of private carceral institutions in the United States. - 'Criminology, Volume 56, Issue 3, Page 546-573, August 2018. '

  August 13, 2018   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12178   open full text
• Body‐Worn Cameras As A Potential Source Of Depolicing: Testing For Camera‐Induced Passivity.
  Danielle Wallace, Michael D. White, Janne E. Gaub, Natalie Todak.
  Criminology. August 13, 2018
  --- - |2 Abstract Contentious debate is currently taking place regarding the extent to which public scrutiny of the police post‐Ferguson has led to depolicing or to a decrease in proactive police work. Advocates of the “Ferguson effect” claim the decline in proactive policing increased violent crime and assaults on the police. Although police body‐worn cameras (BWCs) are touted as a police reform that can generate numerous benefits, they also represent a form of internal and public surveillance on the police. The surveillance aspect of BWCs suggests that BWCs may generate depolicing through camera‐induced passivity. We test this question with data from a randomized controlled trial of BWCs in Spokane (WA) by assessing the impact of BWCs on four measures: officer‐initiated calls, arrests, response time, and time on scene. We employ hierarchical linear and cross‐classified models to test for between‐ and within‐group differences in outcomes before and after the randomized BWC rollout. Our results demonstrate no evidence of statistically significant camera‐induced passivity across any of the four outcomes. In fact, self‐initiated calls increased for officers assigned to treatment during the RCT. We discuss the theoretical and policy implications of the findings for the ongoing dialogue in policing. - 'Criminology, Volume 56, Issue 3, Page 481-509, August 2018. '

  August 13, 2018   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12179   open full text
• How Collective Is Collective Efficacy? The Importance Of Consensus In Judgments About Community Cohesion And Willingness To Intervene.
  Ian Brunton‐Smith, Patrick Sturgis, George Leckie.
  Criminology. August 13, 2018
  --- - |2 Abstract Existing studies have generally measured collective efficacy by combining survey respondents’ ratings of their local area into an overall summary for each neighborhood. Naturally, this approach results in a substantive focus on the variation in average levels of collective efficacy between neighborhoods. In this article, we focus on the variation in consensus of collective efficacy judgments. To account for differential consensus among neighborhoods, we use a mixed‐effects location‐scale model, with variability in the consensus of judgments treated as an additional neighborhood‐level random effect. Our results show that neighborhoods in London differ, not just in their average levels of collective efficacy but also in the extent to which residents agree with one another in their assessments. In accord with findings for U.S. cities, our results show that consensus in collective efficacy assessments is affected by the ethnic composition of neighborhoods. Additionally, we show that heterogeneity in collective efficacy assessments is consequential, with higher levels of criminal victimization, worry about crime, and risk avoidance behavior in areas where collective efficacy consensus is low. - 'Criminology, Volume 56, Issue 3, Page 608-637, August 2018. '

  August 13, 2018   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12180   open full text
• Does Increasing Women's Education Reduce Their Risk Of Intimate Partner Violence? Evidence From An Education Policy Reform.
  Abigail Weitzman.
  Criminology. August 13, 2018
  --- - |2 Abstract Although scholars have employed rigorous causal methods to examine the relationship between education and crime, few of them have taken a causal approach to the study of education and intimate partner violence (IPV) specifically. From a social causation perspective, improving women's education should protect them from violence, yet from a social selection perspective, education could proxy for unobserved factors that explain negative associations between education and IPV. In this study, I adjudicate between the two possibilities using an exogenous source of variation in education—a 1990s compulsory schooling reform in Peru. Specifically, I conduct an instrumented regression discontinuity that implicitly controls for women's unobserved endowments by comparing women who were aged slightly younger (N = 8,195) and slightly older (N = 6,645) than the school‐age cutoff at the time of the reform. Consistent with the social causation perspective, increasing women's schooling reduced both their recent and longer term probabilities of psychological, physical, and sexual IPV, as well as their recent and longer term probabilities of experiencing any IPV and polyvictimization. The results of supplemental mediation analyses provide support for three interrelated causal pathways—improvements in women's personal resources, delayed family formation, and changes in partner selection. These findings confirm the protective effects of women's education and further illuminate the mechanistic processes by which this occurs. - 'Criminology, Volume 56, Issue 3, Page 574-607, August 2018. '

  August 13, 2018   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12181   open full text
• The Trade In Tools: The Market For Illicit Guns In High‐Risk Networks.
  David M. Hureau, Anthony A. Braga.
  Criminology. August 13, 2018
  --- - |2 Abstract Illegal guns circulating among high‐risk networks represent a threat to the security and well‐being of urban neighborhoods. Research findings reveal that illegal firearms are usually acquired through a variety of means, including theft and diversions from legitimate firearms commerce. Little is known, however, about the underground gun markets supplying the gang and drug networks responsible for a large share of gun violence in U.S. cities. In this article, we take a mixed‐methods approach, combining trace analyses of recovered handguns with ethnographic interviews of high‐risk gun users to develop new insights on the entry of guns into three criminal networks in Boston. We find that guns possessed by Boston gang members are of a different character compared with other crime guns; these guns are more likely to be older firearms originating from New Hampshire, Maine, and I‐95 southern states. The results of our qualitative research reveal that gang members and drug dealers pay inflated prices for handguns diverted by traffickers exploiting unregulated secondary market transactions, with significant premiums paid for high‐caliber semiautomatic pistols. Taken together, these findings provide an analytic portrait of the market for illicit guns among those most proximate to violence, yielding novel empirical, theoretical, and practical insights into the problem of criminal gun access. - 'Criminology, Volume 56, Issue 3, Page 510-545, August 2018. '

  August 13, 2018   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12187   open full text
• Issue Information.
  
  Criminology. August 13, 2018
  --- - - Criminology, Volume 56, Issue 3, Page 433-436, August 2018.
  

  August 13, 2018   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12158   open full text
• Not Even Our Own Facts: Criminology In The Era Of Big Data.
  James Lynch.
  Criminology. June 06, 2018
  --- - |2 Abstract Criminology is an applied discipline where the findings from the data collected and analyses conducted inform debates about policy and practice. For this to happen, a discipline must have an agreed‐upon set of facts to define the problem and suggest solutions. We can debate the soundness of fundamental data series, but these debates must take place within the confines of scientific inquiry and all data must be subjected to the same scrutiny. Data sources must comprise agreed‐upon standards for collection and be accessible for replication. The increasing use of “big data” has frayed this agreement about quality and accessibility and has made it more difficult for criminology to have its own facts. In this presentation, I define the term “big data” and argue it will be difficult for big data to replace traditional data sources and to live up to their potential for knowledge building. Finally, I suggest a few things that the discipline might do to address these problems of access and quality. - Criminology, Volume 56, Issue 3, Page 437-454, August 2018.
  

  June 06, 2018   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12182   open full text
• Issue Information.
  
  Criminology. May 22, 2018
  --- - - Criminology, Volume 56, Issue 2, Page 225-228, May 2018.
  

  May 22, 2018   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12157   open full text
• Criminology Reviewers List.
  
  Criminology. April 16, 2018
  --- - - Criminology, Volume 56, Issue 2, Page 229-232, May 2018.
  

  April 16, 2018   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12177   open full text
• Does Undocumented Immigration Increase Violent Crime?*.
  Michael T.Light , Tymiller.
  Criminology. March 25, 2018
  --- - |2 Abstract Despite substantial public, political, and scholarly attention to the issue of immigration and crime, we know little about the criminological consequences of undocumented immigration. As a result, fundamental questions about whether undocumented immigration increases violent crime remain unanswered. In an attempt to address this gap, we combine newly developed estimates of the unauthorized population with multiple data sources to capture the criminal, socioeconomic, and demographic context of all 50 states and Washington, DC, from 1990 to 2014 to provide the first longitudinal analysis of the macro‐level relationship between undocumented immigration and violence. The results from fixed‐effects regression models reveal that undocumented immigration does not increase violence. Rather, the relationship between undocumented immigration and violent crime is generally negative, although not significant in all specifications. Using supplemental models of victimization data and instrumental variable methods, we find little evidence that these results are due to decreased reporting or selective migration to avoid crime. We consider the theoretical and policy implications of these findings against the backdrop of the dramatic increase in immigration enforcement in recent decades. - Criminology, Volume 56, Issue 2, Page 370-401, May 2018.
  

  March 25, 2018   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12175   open full text
• “Experience Of The Expected?” Race And Ethnicity Differences In The Effects Of Police Contact On Youth*.
  Lee Annslocum , Stephanie Annwiley.
  Criminology. March 12, 2018
  --- - |2 Abstract Proponents of police reform have called for changes in the way police interact with citizens, particularly with people of color. The rationale, in part, is that when people have more favorable perceptions of their police encounters, they view the police as more just and are more willing to cooperate and comply with the law. To assess whether perceptions of police‐initiated encounters shape law‐related outcomes, we examine how satisfaction with treatment during prior police contact affects procedural injustice, reporting intentions, norms supporting the use of violence, and delinquency. We also explore whether these relationships vary among Blacks, Whites, and Latinos. Our results indicate that youth who have been stopped or arrested fare worse than their counterparts with no police‐initiated contact; however, the potentially negative ramifications of these encounters on all outcomes except violence norms are generally mitigated when youth are satisfied with their treatment. The effects of contact are mostly invariant across racial/ethnic groups when a robust set of control variables are included. We conclude that changing the perceptions of youth regarding how they are treated by the police may mitigate some of the harms of being stopped or arrested, but we caution that these perceptions are shaped by factors aside from police behavior during encounters. - Criminology, Volume 56, Issue 2, Page 402-432, May 2018.
  

  March 12, 2018   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12174   open full text
• Marketized Mentality, Competitive/Egoistic School Culture, And Delinquent Attitudes And Behavior: An Application Of Institutional Anomie Theory*.
  EVA M.GROß , ANDREASHÖVERMANN , STEVEN F.MESSNER.
  Criminology. March 01, 2018
  --- - |2 Abstract We analyze the individual‐level and school‐level determinants of delinquency through the lens of a macro‐sociological theory of crime—institutional anomie theory (IAT). The concept of a “marketized mentality” is introduced as a predictor of students’ delinquency, along with an egoistic/competitive school culture—a feature of the school community. Five hypotheses pertaining to the readiness to use violence and self‐reported delinquency were assessed using multilevel modeling with data from a survey in Germany for 4,150 students clustered in 69 schools. The results largely meet theoretical expectations. The measure of marketized mentality exhibits robust relationships with both forms of delinquency at the individual level, and an egoistic/competitive school culture helps explain variation in levels of these forms of delinquency across schools. Also consistent with expectations, the anti‐social effects of marketized mentality are accentuated for both the readiness to use violence and committing instrumentally motivated property offenses as a competitive/egoistic school climate increases. The results of our analyses reveal that bringing in concepts of IAT can appreciably enhance understanding of the characteristics of students and features of communal school organization that are conducive to youthful offending. - Criminology, Volume 56, Issue 2, Page 333-369, May 2018.
  

  March 01, 2018   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12173   open full text
• Poisoned Development: Assessing Childhood Lead Exposure As A Cause Of Crime In A Birth Cohort Followed Through Adolescence.
  Robertj. Sampson , Alixs. Winter.
  Criminology. February 20, 2018
  --- - |2 Abstract The consequences of lead exposure for later crime are theoretically compelling, but direct evidence from representative, longitudinal samples is sparse. By capitalizing on an original follow‐up of more than 200 infants from the birth cohort of the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods matched to their blood lead levels from around age 3 years, we provide several tests. Through the use of four waves of longitudinal data that include measures of individual development, family background, and structural inequalities in how lead becomes embodied, we assess the hypothesized link between early childhood lead poisoning and both parent‐reported delinquent behavior and official arrest in late adolescence. We also test for mediating developmental processes of impulsivity and anxiety or depression. The results from multiple analytic strategies that make different assumptions reveal a plausibly causal effect of childhood lead exposure on adolescent delinquent behavior but no direct link to arrests. The results underscore lead exposure as a trigger for poisoned development in the early life course and call for greater integration of the environment into theories of individual differences in criminal behavior. - Criminology, Volume 56, Issue 2, Page 269-301, May 2018.
  

  February 20, 2018   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12171   open full text
• Issue Information.
  
  Criminology. February 15, 2018
  --- - - Criminology, Volume 56, Issue 1, Page 1-4, February 2018.
  

  February 15, 2018   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12156   open full text
• Correlates Of Violent Political Extremism In The United States*.
  Garylafree , Michael A.Jensen , Patrick A.James , Aaronsafer‐Lichtenstein.
  Criminology. February 02, 2018
  --- - |2 Abstract Although research on terrorism has grown rapidly in recent years, few scholars have applied criminological theories to the analysis of individual‐level political extremism. Instead, researchers focused on radicalization have drawn primarily from political science and psychology and have overwhelmingly concentrated on violent extremists, leaving little variation in the dependent variable. With the use of a newly available data set, we test whether variables derived from prominent criminological theories are helpful in distinguishing between nonviolent and violent extremists. The results show that variables related to social control (lack of stable employment), social learning (radical peers), psychological perspectives (history of mental illness), and criminal record all have significant effects on participation in violent political extremism and are robust across multiple techniques for imputing missing data. At the same time, other common indicators of social control (e.g., education and marital status) and social learning perspectives (e.g., radical family members) were not significant in the multivariate models. We argue that terrorism research would benefit from including criminology insights and by considering political radicalization as a dynamic, evolving process, much as life‐course criminology treats more common forms of crime. - Criminology, Volume 56, Issue 2, Page 233-268, May 2018.
  

  February 02, 2018   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12169   open full text
• Reassessing The Breadth Of The Protective Benefit Of Immigrant Neighborhoods: A Multilevel Analysis Of Violence Risk By Race, Ethnicity, And Labor Market Stratification*.
  Minxie , Eric P.Baumer.
  Criminology. February 02, 2018
  --- - |2 Abstract Researchers in the United States have increasingly recognized that immigration reduces crime, but it remains unresolved whether this applies to people of different racial–ethnic and economic backgrounds. By using the 2008–2012 area‐identified National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), we evaluate the effect of neighborhood immigrant concentration on individual violence risk across race/ethnicity and labor market stratification factors in areas with different histories of immigration. The results of our analysis reveal three key patterns. First, we find a consistent protective role of immigrant concentration that is not weakened by low education, low income, unemployment, or labor market competition. Therefore, even economically disadvantaged people enjoy the crime‐reduction benefit of immigration. Second, we find support for threshold models that predict a nonlinear, stronger protective role of immigrant concentration on violence at higher levels of immigrant concentration. The protective function of immigration also is higher in areas of longer histories of immigration. Third, compared with Blacks and Whites, Latinos receive a greater violence‐reduction benefit of immigrant concentration possibly because they live in closer proximity with immigrants and share common sociocultural features. Nevertheless, immigrant concentration yields a diminishing return in reducing Latino victimization as immigrants approach a near‐majority of neighborhood residents. The implications of these results are discussed. - Criminology, Volume 56, Issue 2, Page 302-332, May 2018.
  

  February 02, 2018   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12172   open full text
• Studying Crime Trends: Normal Science And Exogenous Shocks*.
  Richardrosenfeld.
  Criminology. January 23, 2018
  --- - |2 Abstract The study of crime trends has proceeded along two paths: 1) normal science investigations of slow‐moving and tractable changes in crime rates and explanatory conditions and 2) research encounters with unexpected and abrupt changes in crime rates resulting from exogenous shocks. I draw from my research on the relationship between crime rates and changing macroeconomic conditions to illustrate the pains and pleasures of studying crime trends with the tools of normal science. I describe my exploratory investigations of the recent homicide rise in the United States to underscore the theoretical importance and methodological challenges of research on exogenous shocks to crime rates. Finally, I hope to convey to the next generation of criminologists the intellectual excitement that comes from the study of crime trends. - Criminology, Volume 56, Issue 1, Page 5-26, February 2018.
  

  January 23, 2018   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12170   open full text
• Revisiting Juvenile Waiver: Integrating The Incapacitation Experience*.
  Megan Bearsaugustyn , Jean Mariemcgloin.
  Criminology. December 29, 2017
  --- - |2 Abstract More than 20 years after an expansion of juvenile transfer policies, questions remain regarding the specific deterrent effect of juvenile waiver given the singular focus on the court of jurisdiction and neglect of other critical aspects of the provision, such as the incapacitation experience. Prior research has also not been focused on identifying the mediating mechanisms that produce criminogenic, null, or deterrent effects. We use data from the Pathways to Desistance Study, propensity score methodology, and mediational analyses to examine how and why the waiver‐incapacitation experience is related to recidivism rates during emerging adulthood. We find that the prior focus on a binary “waiver effect” is potentially misleading as it masks meaningful variation. Furthermore, we find that the path to increased recidivism in emerging adulthood is indirect and we identify stymied educational attainment as a mediator. Our discussion is focused on the criminogenic effects of incapacitation for juveniles and its implications for juvenile transfer research. The discussion also calls for future research to explore treatment heterogeneity further. - Criminology, Volume 56, Issue 1, Page 154-190, February 2018.
  

  December 29, 2017   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12165   open full text
• The Role Of Turning Points In Establishing Baseline Differences Between People In Developmental And Life‐Course Criminology.
  John H.Bomaniv , Thomas J.Mowen.
  Criminology. December 15, 2017
  --- - |2 Abstract Turning points, between‐person differences, and within‐person changes have all been linked to desistance from crime. Nevertheless, the means through which between‐person differences are frequently captured in life‐course criminology makes them intertwined with, and perhaps confounded by, turning points in life. We propose that a new way of capturing the between‐person effect—the baseline between‐person difference—could benefit theoretically informed tests of developmental and life‐course issues in criminology. Because they occur at one time point immediately preceding a turning point in life, we demonstrate that baseline between‐person differences establish meaningful theoretical connections to behavior and the way people change over time. By using panel data from the Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative, we estimate models capturing within‐person change and baseline between‐person differences in social bonds (family support) and differential association (peer criminality) at the time of release from prison. The results demonstrate that baseline levels of family support protect people from postrelease substance use but not from crime. Baseline between‐person differences and within‐person changes in peer criminality, however, are robustly related to crime and substance use. Collectively, baseline between‐person differences seem critical for behavior and within‐person change over time, and the results carry implications for reentry‐based policy as well as for theory testing in developmental criminology more broadly. - Criminology, Volume 56, Issue 1, Page 191-224, February 2018.
  

  December 15, 2017   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12167   open full text
• Tracing Charge Trajectories: A Study Of The Influence Of Race In Charge Changes At Case Screening, Arraignment, And Disposition*.
  Besiki Lukakutateladze.
  Criminology. December 04, 2017
  --- - |2 Abstract Although social scientists and legal scholars have made valuable headway in identifying and explaining the relationships between myriad demographic, social, and legal factors and case outcomes, a sizable gap in understanding remains with respect to how cases evolve across decision points and how charges change for different racial and ethnic groups at individual decision points and cumulatively. This gap is partially addressed in this study through the examination of charge decreases, increases, and no change at three essential decision points—case screening for prosecution, arraignment, and final disposition. The results show that, overall, screening and disposition were much more dynamic decision points than was arraignment and that one third of cases experienced a charge decrease at some point. Even though racial differences in charge reductions at case screening were not large, at arraignment and disposition, as well as cumulatively, Black and Latino defendants were less likely than White defendants to have charges decreased. Conversely, Asian defendants experienced even more favorable outcomes than White defendants as they were more likely to have charges reduced and less likely to experience an increase. These findings are framed in the context of focal concerns, cumulative disadvantage, and “charge reasonableness” arguments. - Criminology, Volume 56, Issue 1, Page 123-153, February 2018.
  

  December 04, 2017   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12166   open full text
• Racial Discrimination, Racial Socialization, And Crime Over Time: A Social Schematic Theory Model.
  Callie H. Burt, Man Kit Lei, Ronald L. Simons.
  Criminology. November 27, 2017
  Recent studies evince that interpersonal racial discrimination (IRD) increases the risk of crime among African Americans and familial racial socialization fosters resilience to discrimination's criminogenic effects. Yet, studies have focused on the short‐term effects of IRD and racial socialization largely among adolescents. In this study, we seek to advance knowledge by elucidating how racialized experiences—in interactions and socialization—influence crime for African Americans over time. Elaborating Simons and Burt's (2011) social schematic theory, we trace the effects of childhood IRD and familial racial socialization on adult offending through cognitive and social pathways and their interplay. We test this life‐course SST model using data from the FACHS, a multisite study of Black youth and their families from ages 10 to 25. Consistent with the model, analyses reveal that the criminogenic consequences of childhood IRD are mediated cognitively by a criminogenic knowledge structure and socially through the nature of social relationships in concert with ongoing offending and discrimination experiences. Specifically, by increasing criminogenic cognitive schemas, IRD decreases embeddedness in supportive romantic, educational, and employment relations, which influence social schemas and later crime. Consonant with expectations, the findings also indicate that racial socialization provides enduring resilience by both compensating for and buffering discrimination's criminogenic effects.

  November 27, 2017   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12164   open full text
• Street Network Structure And Crime Risk: An Agent‐Based Investigation Of The Encounter And Enclosure Hypotheses.
  Daniel Birks, Toby Davies.
  Criminology. November 27, 2017
  Street networks shape day‐to‐day activities in complex ways, dictating where, when, and in what contexts potential victims, offenders, and crime preventers interact with one another. Identifying generalizable principles of such influence offers considerable utility to theorists, policy makers, and practitioners. Unfortunately, key difficulties associated with the observation of these interactions, and control of the settings within which they take place, limit traditional empirical approaches that aim to uncover mechanisms linking street network structure with crime risk. By drawing on parallel advances in the formal analyses of street networks and the computational modeling of crime events interactions, we present a theoretically informed and empirically validated agent‐based model of residential burglary that permits investigation of the relationship between street network structure and crime commission and prevention through guardianship. Through the use of this model, we explore the validity of competing theoretical accounts of street network permeability and crime risk—the encounter (eyes on the street) and enclosure (defensible space) hypotheses. The results of our analyses provide support for both hypotheses, but in doing so, they reveal that the relationship between street network permeability and crime is likely nonlinear. We discuss the ramifications of these findings for both criminological theory and crime prevention practice.

  November 27, 2017   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12163   open full text
• Ecological Networks And Urban Crime: The Structure Of Shared Routine Activity Locations And Neighborhood‐Level Informal Control Capacity.
  Christopher R. Browning, Catherine A. Calder, Bethany Boettner, Anna Smith.
  Criminology. November 14, 2017
  By drawing on the work of Jacobs (1961), we hypothesize that public contact among neighborhood residents while engaged in day‐to‐day routines, captured by the aggregate network structure of shared local exposure, is consequential for crime. Neighborhoods in which residents come into contact more extensively in the course of conventional routines will exhibit higher levels of public familiarity, trust, and collective efficacy with implications for the informal social control of crime. We employ the concept of ecological (“eco‐”) networks—networks linking households within neighborhoods through shared activity locations—to formalize the notion of overlapping routines. By using microsimulations of household travel patterns to construct census tract‐level eco‐networks for Columbus, OH, we examine the hypothesis that eco‐network intensity (the probability that households tied through one location in a neighborhood eco‐network will also be tied through another visited location) is negatively associated with tract‐level crime rates (N = 192). Fitted spatial autoregressive models offer evidence that neighborhoods with higher intensity eco‐networks exhibit lower levels of violent and property crime. In contrast, a higher prevalence of nonresident visitors to a given tract is positively associated with property crime. The results of these analyses hold the potential to enrich insight into the ecological processes that shape variation in neighborhood crime.

  November 14, 2017   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12152   open full text
• Age, Period, And Cohort Effects On Death Penalty Attitudes In The United States, 1974–2014.
  Amy L. Anderson, Robert Lytle, Philip Schwadel.
  Criminology. November 04, 2017
  In this article, we further the understanding of both changes in public opinion on capital punishment in the United States and changes in the factors associated with public opinion on the death penalty. Support for the death penalty may be motivated by events happening during specific time periods, and it can vary across birth cohorts as a result of cohort‐specific socialization processes, demographic changes, and formative events that are specific to each generation. An explication of the sources of and variation in death penalty attitudes over time would benefit from the accounting for the age of the respondent, the year of the survey response, and the birth cohort of the respondent. We improve on previous research by using multiple approaches including hierarchical age–period–cohort models and data from the General Social Survey (N = 41,474) to examine changes in death penalty attitudes over time and across birth cohorts. The results showed curvilinear age effects, strong period effects, and weak cohort effects on death penalty support. The violent crime rate explained much of the variation in support for the death penalty across periods. The examination of subgroup differences suggests that support for the death penalty is becoming concentrated among Whites, Protestants, and Republicans.

  November 04, 2017   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12160   open full text
• Does The Gender Gap In Delinquency Vary By Level Of Patriarchy? A Cross‐National Comparative Analysis.
  Jukka Savolainen, Samantha Applin, Steven F. Messner, Lorine A. Hughes, Robert Lytle, Janne Kivivuori.
  Criminology. November 04, 2017
  We examined cross‐national variation in the gender differential in offending, which is often referred to as the gender gap in crime. Analyses were directed toward two empirical questions: 1) Is the gender gap narrower in less patriarchal sociocultural settings, and if so, 2) is this outcome a result of higher levels of offending on the part of girls, lower levels of offending on the part of boys, or some combination thereof? To address these questions, we compiled a multilevel, cross‐national data set combining information on self‐reported offending from the second International Self Report Delinquency Survey (ISRD‐2) with normative and structural indicators of societal levels of patriarchy. The results from regression equations showed the gender gap in delinquency to be narrower at reduced national levels of patriarchy. The predicted probabilities calculated from regression coefficients suggested that this narrowing is a result of increased offending among girls and, to some extent, of decreased offending among boys in less patriarchal nations. Sensitivity checks with alternative model specifications confirmed these patterns but also identified a potential outlier. We discuss the implications of these descriptive findings for etiological research and theory.

  November 04, 2017   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12161   open full text
• Do Cellmates Matter? A Causal Test Of The Schools Of Crime Hypothesis With Implications For Differential Association And Deterrence Theories.
  Heather M.Harris , Kiminorinakamura , Kristofer Bretbucklen.
  Criminology. November 04, 2017
  --- - |2 Abstract In the schools of crime hypothesis, social interactions between inmates are assumed to produce criminogenic rather than deterrent prison peer effects, thus implicating them in the persistence of high recidivism rates and null or criminogenic prison effects. We assess the validity of the schools of crime hypothesis by estimating prison peer effects that result from differential cellmate associations in a male, first‐time release cohort from the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. To isolate causal prison peer effects in the presence of essential heterogeneity, we use a semiparametric local instrumental variables estimation strategy. Our results do not support the school of crime hypothesis. In our sample, prison peer effects produced in interaction with more criminally experienced cellmates are always null or deterrent rather than criminogenic. Although we do not explicitly test for the operant conditioning mechanisms theorized to underlie social influence in the context of differential association, we argue that, under the assumption that the differential association context relates positively to the direction of peer influence, our universally noncriminogenic estimates exclude direct reinforcement, vicarious reinforcement, and direct punishment as potential drivers of prison peer effects produced in interaction with more criminally experienced cellmates. Our results support the assertion that operant conditioning mechanisms connect differential association and deterrence theories. - Criminology, Volume 56, Issue 1, Page 87-122, February 2018.
  

  November 04, 2017   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12155   open full text
• Crime, Fear, And Mental Health In Mexico.
  Andrés Villarreal, Wei‐Hsin Yu.
  Criminology. November 01, 2017
  This article examines the effect of exposure to criminal violence on fear of crime and mental health in Mexico, a country that has experienced a dramatic rise in violent events resulting from the operation of drug trafficking organizations (DTOs). Data are drawn from more than 30,000 respondents to a national longitudinal survey of Mexican households. We use fixed‐effects models which allow us to control for time‐invariant individual and municipal characteristics affecting both exposure to violence and mental health. The results indicate a substantial increase in fear and psychological distress for individuals living in communities that suffered a rise in the local homicide rate even when exposure to other forms of victimization and more personal experiences with crime are taken into account. Because DTO killings occur in response to factors external to a specific neighborhood, they generate fear and psychological distress at a larger geographical scale. They also seem to create a generalized sense of insecurity, leading to increased fear of other types of crimes. We examine the effect of large surges in homicide and the presence of military and paramilitary groups combatting DTOs as these conditions may approximate those in conflict zones elsewhere in the world. We also explore differences in the relative sensitivity to homicide rates between sociodemographic groups.

  November 01, 2017   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12150   open full text
• Parenthood As A Turning Point In The Life Course For Male And Female Gang Members: A Study Of Within‐Individual Changes In Gang Membership And Criminal Behavior.
  David C. Pyrooz, Jean Marie Mcgloin, Scott H. Decker.
  Criminology. October 28, 2017
  The impact of parenthood on leaving a street gang is not well understood. This is likely because researchers in prior studies have not accounted for multiple dimensions of gang exit, possible gender differences, and potential selection bias. In this study, we use a sample of 466 male and 163 female gang members from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth 1997 to consider the within‐individual relationship between changes in parenthood and changes in claiming gang membership and offending. These data offer the opportunity to consider gender differences and birth parity (i.e., first or second child). The results from a series of fixed‐effects models reveal that motherhood is associated with enduring reductions in both the odds of claiming gang membership and the rate of offending, whereas fatherhood has a temporary beneficial impact on gang membership and offending only for those fathers who reside with their children. In most cases, the beneficial effect of having a child rests in becoming a parent for the first time. On the whole, our study findings demonstrate that parenthood serves as a turning point for a particular group of noteworthy offenders—gang members.

  October 28, 2017   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12162   open full text
• Toward A Bifurcated Theory Of Emotional Deterrence.
  Justin T.Pickett , Sean Patrickroche , Gregpogarsky.
  Criminology. October 05, 2017
  --- - |2 Abstract Since Hobbes (1957 [1651] and Beccaria (1963 [1764]), scholars have theorized that the emotion of fear is critical for deterrence. Nevertheless, contemporary deterrence researchers have mostly overlooked the distinction between perceived sanction risk and fear of apprehension. Whereas perceived risk is a cognitive judgment, fear involves visceral feelings of anxiety or dread. Equally important, a theory explicating the influence of deterrence on both criminal propensity and situational offending has remained elusive. We develop a theoretical model in which perceived risk and fear are distinguished at both the general and situational levels. We test this theoretical model with data from a set of survey‐based experiments conducted in 2016 with a nationwide sample of adults (N = 965). We find that perceived risk and fear are empirically distinct and that perceived risk is positively related to fear at both the general and situational levels. Certain background and situational factors have indirect effects through perceived risk on fear. In turn, perceived risk has indirect effects through fear on both criminal propensity and situational intentions to offend. Fear's inclusion increases explanatory power for both criminal propensity and situational offending intentions. Fear is a stronger predictor than either self‐control or prior offending of situational intentions to offend. - Criminology, Volume 56, Issue 1, Page 27-58, February 2018.
  

  October 05, 2017   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12153   open full text
• Applying A General Strain Theory Framework To Understand School Weapon Carrying Among Lgbq And Heterosexual Youth.
  Deeanna M. Button, Meredith G. F. Worthen.
  Criminology. September 25, 2017
  Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and questioning (LGBQ) youth are at a higher risk for school victimization, social isolation, and school weapon carrying compared with their heterosexual peers, yet few studies have been conducted to investigate their experiences. By using a general strain theory (GST) framework, data from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) statewide probability sample of Delaware heterosexual (n = 7,688) and LGBQ (n = 484) youth in grades 9–12 show that there are both similarities and differences in the factors associated with school weapon carrying among LGBQ and heterosexual youth. LGBQ and heterosexual youth's weapon carrying is related to school victimization, but social support does not moderate the relationship between school victimization and school weapon carrying as suggested by GST. Furthermore, being male is significantly related to heterosexual youth's weapon carrying, but sex is not related to weapon carrying among LGBQ youth. Overall, the results highlight a need to reconceptualize GST to help center the experiences of LGBQ youth, a historically marginalized group, within mainstream criminological literature. Theoretical and policy implications are discussed.

  September 25, 2017   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12151   open full text
• Testing The Transitivity Of Reported Risk Perceptions: Evidence Of Coherent Arbitrariness.
  Kyle J.Thomas , Benjamin C.Hamilton , Thomas A.Loughran.
  Criminology. September 25, 2017
  --- - |2 Abstract An often implicit assumption of perceptual deterrence tests is that the elicited values pertaining to arrest risk reflect stable underlying beliefs. But researchers in other disciplines have found that reported expectations are highly susceptible to exogenous factors (e.g., anchors and question ordering), indicating that such values are somewhat arbitrary responses to probabilistic questions. At the same time, reported expectations are coherent within persons, such that respondents rank order them rationally. For deterrence, then, absolute values reported on arrest risks are likely not stable but individuals still rank order specific crimes in meaningful ways. We examine the interpretability of reported arrest risk for three possibilities: 1) Reported risks are stable probabilistic values; 2) reported risks are arbitrary and uninformative for deterrence research; or 3) reported risks display “coherent arbitrariness” with unstable values between individuals but stable rank ordering of crimes within individuals. Through the use of three random experiments of college students, our results indicate that elicited risk perceptions are arbitrary in that they are influenced by the presentation of anchors and question ordering. Nevertheless, the rank ordering of crimes within and across conditions is unaffected by the presentation of anchors, suggesting that reported risks are locally coherent within persons. - Criminology, Volume 56, Issue 1, Page 59-86, February 2018.
  

  September 25, 2017   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12154   open full text
• The Funny Side Of Drug Dealing: Risk, Humor, And Narrative Identity.
  Timothy Dickinson, Richard Wright.
  Criminology. July 11, 2017
  In this study, we explore the role humor plays in the narrated identities of drug dealers, in their negotiation of the threat of formal punishment, and in their cultural membership and authority. By drawing from interview and observation data gathered from 33 active drug dealers residing in St. Louis, Missouri, we find that humor facilitates identity work among illicit drug dealers in several ways. Humor is an important symbolic boundary marker distinguishing dealers from others they consider “stupid” or less circumspect. It also indicates dealers’ identities as “smart” and simultaneously establishes and validates their subcultural authority and membership in the symbolic group of “smart” dealers. Furthermore, drug dealers use denigrating humor in their narratives to distance their former and virtual identities from their present identities. Finally, humor also reduces dealers’ perceptions of the threats posed by police and potential snitches by casting dealers’ present identities and former reactions to the threat of punishment in a positive light. We conclude by discussing implications for narrative criminology, extant humor research, and current understanding of symbolic boundaries, identity work, and deterrence.

  July 11, 2017   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12148   open full text
• Stress, Genes, And Generalizability Across Gender: Effects Of Maoa And Stress Sensitivity On Crime And Delinquency*.
  Jessica Wells, Todd Armstrong, Danielle Boisvert, Richard Lewis, David Gangitano, Sheree Hughes‐Stamm.
  Criminology. July 07, 2017
  In the current study, we extend the gene‐by‐environment interaction (cGxE) literature by examining how a widely studied polymorphism, the MAOA upstream variable number tandem repeat (MAOA‐uVNTR) interacts with distal and proximal stressors to explain variation in crime and delinquency. Prior research findings have revealed that MAOA‐uVNTR interacts with single indicators of environmental adversity to explain criminal behavior in general‐population and incarcerated samples. Nevertheless, the genetically moderated stress sensitivity hypothesis suggests that increased risk for criminal behavior associated with variation in the MAOA‐uVNTR can be best understood in the context of both distal stress during childhood and proximal stress in adulthood. Therefore, we employed Tobit regression analyses to examine a gene–distal–proximal environment (CGxExE) interaction across gender in a sample of university students (n = 267) and with data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health; n = 1,294). The results across both sets of analyses demonstrate that variation in the MAOA‐uVNTR interacts with distal and proximal stress to lead to increased risk for criminal behavior in males. Although proximal life stress is associated with an increase in crime and delinquency, this effect is more pronounced among MAOA‐L allele carriers that have experienced distal stress.

  July 07, 2017   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12147   open full text
• On The Reliability And Validity Of Self‐Reported Illegal Earnings: Implications For The Study Of Criminal Achievement*.
  Holly Nguyen, Thomas A. Loughran.
  Criminology. July 04, 2017
  The study of the monetary returns to criminal activity is a central component in many emerging areas of criminology, including rational choice and offender decision‐making, desistance, and criminal achievement. Scholars have been increasingly captivated with specification of the earnings function and with examining how variations in illegal earnings predict important outcomes such as persistence in offending. The potential utility of findings in related empirical studies hinges on the quality of the key measure, self‐reported illegal earnings. Yet to date scant attention has been paid by researchers to the measurement properties of this metric. We analyze self‐reported illegal earnings generated from a variety of instrumental crimes by using data from the Pathways to Desistance Study (n = 585) and the National Supported Work Project (n = 1,509), which are two longitudinal data sets of active offenders separated by more than 30 years. Findings based on analyses both within and between data sets reveal support for the internal consistency reliability and criterion validity of self‐reported illegal earnings. Moreover, the results reveal premiums in terms of higher earnings associated with different crime types, which are persistent both over time and across data sets. Implications and future directions for advancing the theoretical study of criminal achievement are also discussed.

  July 04, 2017   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12144   open full text
• Neighborhood Social Control And Perceptions Of Crime And Disorder In Contemporary Urban China*.
  Lening Zhang, Steven F. Messner, Sheldon Zhang.
  Criminology. July 04, 2017
  By drawing on the two streams of Western literature on “neighborhood effects” and perceptions of neighborhood disorder adapted to the distinctive organizational infrastructure of neighborhoods in contemporary urban China, we examine the contextual effects of different forms of neighborhood social control (i.e., collective efficacy, semipublic control, public control, and market‐based control) on different types of perceived disorder (i.e., criminal activity, social disorder, physical disorder, and total disorder) across neighborhoods. The analyses are based on data collected in the year 2013 from a survey of approximately 2,500 households in 50 neighborhoods across the city of Tianjin. Collective efficacy as a form of informal control has a significant effect only for perceived social disorder. Public control as measured by the activities of neighborhood police stations has a significant contextual effect on all forms of perceived disorder, whereas the role of market‐based control as represented by contracted community services is limited to perceived physical disorder. Finally, semipublic control as measured by the activities of neighborhood committees significantly affects all forms of perceived disorder, but the direction of the effect is positive. We interpret this positive effect with reference to the complex processes surrounding the “translation” of neighborhood disorderly conditions into perceptions of disorder.

  July 04, 2017   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12142   open full text
• The Language Of Stigmatization And The Mark Of Violence: Experimental Evidence On The Social Construction And Use Of Criminal Record Stigma.
  Megan Denver, Justin T. Pickett, Shawn D. Bushway.
  Criminology. June 30, 2017
  After years of stagnation, labeling theory has recently gained new empirical support. Simultaneously, new policy initiatives have attempted to restructure criminal record stigma to reduce reintegration barriers, and subsequent recidivism, driven by labeling. For example, in a recent Department of Justice (DOJ) language policy, person‐first terms (e.g., “person with a conviction”) were substituted for crime‐first terms (e.g., “offender”). The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has also issued guidelines to structure how decision‐makers use criminal records. Unfortunately, little is currently known about the social construction and use of criminal record stigma or the potential effects of such policy changes. In the current study, we provide two unique empirical tests. In study 1, we examine the social construction of stigma by testing DOJ's language policy with experimental data from a nationally representative sample of American adults (N = 996). In study 2, we use a separate nationwide experiment (N = 1,540) to examine how the contextualization of criminal records influences social exclusion decisions. Across both studies, we find consistent evidence of a “mark of violence.” The public perceives that individuals with violent convictions are the most likely to commit future crimes, and it is more supportive of excluding these individuals from employment. Crime‐first terms exacerbate perceived recidivism risk for individuals with violent convictions.

  June 30, 2017   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12145   open full text
• When Policy Comes To Town: Discourses And Dilemmas Of Implementation Of A Statewide Reentry Policy In Kansas.
  Andres F. Rengifo, Don Stemen, Ethan Amidon.
  Criminology. June 26, 2017
  In this case study, we document challenges to reform implementation posed by line staff, supervisors, and managers during a large‐scale realignment of the Kansas Department of Corrections (KDOC) in which they sought to replace a traditional approach of “risk containment” focused on surveillance and incarceration with a new model of “risk reduction” focused on service delivery and reintegration. We draw on interviews, observations, and archival research to document the staff's discursive challenges to the rollout of the new policy. More specifically, we describe how varying challenges to the reforms—“denial,” “dismissal,” and “defiance”—reflect actors’ positions within the organization, the local contexts in which they operate, and more general frames of interpretation of the long‐term orientation of the KDOC. We integrate these perspectives to contribute to the ongoing expansion of conventional models of penal change that highlight the role of actors and local social and institutional context as moderators of the gap between “law on the books” and “law in action.”

  June 26, 2017   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12146   open full text
• Facial Profiling: Race, Physical Appearance, And Punishment*.
  Brian D. Johnson, Ryan D. King.
  Criminology. June 06, 2017
  We investigate the associations among physical appearance, threat perceptions, and criminal punishment. Psychological ideas about impression formation are integrated with criminological perspectives on sentencing to generate and test unique hypotheses about the associations among defendant facial characteristics, subjective evaluations of threatening appearance, and judicial imprisonment decisions. We analyze newly collected data that link booking photos, criminal histories, and sentencing information for more than 1,100 convicted felony defendants. Our findings indicate that Black defendants are perceived to be more threatening in appearance. Other facial characteristics, such as physical attractiveness, baby‐faced appearance, facial scars, and visible tattoos, also influence perceptions of threat, as do criminal history scores. Furthermore, some physical appearance characteristics are significantly related to imprisonment decisions, even after controlling for other relevant case characteristics. These and other findings are discussed as they relate to psychological research on impression formation, criminological theories of court actor decision‐making, and sociological work on race and punishment.

  June 06, 2017   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12143   open full text
• Marriage, In‐Laws, And Crime: The Case Of Delinquent Brothers‐In‐Law*.
  Lars Højsgaard Andersen.
  Criminology. April 19, 2017
  With marriage comes in‐laws, and if the in‐laws include delinquent males, their delinquency could affect the prosocial effects of the given marriage. In this article, I focus on the effect of having a convicted brother‐in‐law as a general indicator of this broader phenomenon of family‐formation processes impairing the positive impact of marriage on crime desistance. I use registry data on all men from birth cohorts 1965–1975 in Denmark (N = 69,066) to show that when a man marries, his new family ties to delinquent brother(s)‐in‐law do indeed hinder his criminal desistance. The results that take into account the characteristics of husbands, wives, their shared family‐formation process, and the criminality of male family members suggest that 1) family dynamics tend to keep criminality within family networks and 2) influences from one's broader social network through marriage are important for the protective effects of marriage. Analyses of previous conviction, co‐offending between a man and his brother‐in‐law, as well as analyses of in‐laws who reside in close proximity confirm the two mentioned main findings. In all, the findings reported in this article add to our understanding of the processes by which families are tied, and how these family‐formation processes influence men's behavior.

  April 19, 2017   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12137   open full text
• Age And Its Relation To Crime In Taiwan And The United States: Invariant, Or Does Cultural Context Matter?*.
  Darrell Steffensmeier, Hua Zhong, Yunmei Lu.
  Criminology. April 18, 2017
  Current empirical and theoretical understanding of the relation between age and crime is based almost entirely on data from the United States and a few prototypical Western societies for which age‐specific crime information across offense types is available. By using Western databases, Hirschi and Gottfredson (1983) projected that the age distribution of crime is always and everywhere robustly right‐skewed (i.e., sharp adolescent peak)—a thesis that is both contested and widely accepted in criminology and social science writings. In the study described here, we tested this age–crime invariance thesis by comparing age–crime patterns in Taiwan (a non‐Western Chinese society) with those in the United States. In light of Taiwan's collectivist culture versus the U.S. individualist gestalt, we anticipated more divergence than homogeneity in their age–crime schedules. Our findings show robust divergence in Taiwan's age–crime patterns compared with U.S. patterns and the reverted J‐shaped norm projected by Hirschi and Gottfredson. Implications for research and theory on the age–crime relation and for studying human development or life‐course topics more broadly are discussed.

  April 18, 2017   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12139   open full text
• Explaining The Gender Gap In Crime: The Role Of Heart Rate.
  Olivia Choy, Adrian Raine, Peter H. Venables, David P. Farrington.
  Criminology. April 06, 2017
  Although it is well established that males engage in more crime compared with females, little is known about what accounts for the gender gap. Few studies have been aimed at empirically examining mediators of the gender–crime relationship in a longitudinal context. In this study, we test the hypothesis that a low resting heart rate partly mediates the relationship between gender and crime. In a sample of 894 participants, the resting heart rate at 11 years of age was examined alongside self‐reported and official conviction records for overall criminal offending, violence, serious violence, and drug‐related crime at 23 years of age. A low resting heart rate partially mediated the relationship between gender and all types of adult criminal offending, including violent and nonviolent crime. The mediation effects were significant after controlling for body mass index, race, social adversity, and activity level. Resting heart rate accounted for 5.4 percent to 17.1 percent of the gender difference in crime. This study is the first to produce results documenting that lower heart rates in males partly explain their higher levels of offending. Our findings complement traditional theoretical accounts of the gender gap and have implications for the advancement of integrative criminological theory.

  April 06, 2017   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12138   open full text
• Juvenile Waiver As A Mechanism Of Social Stratification: A Focus On Human Capital*.
  Megan Bears Augustyn, Thomas A. Loughran.
  Criminology. March 23, 2017
  The historic transformations of the criminal justice system must be justified and interpreted through the effects on criminals (Maruna and Immarigeon, 2011). The push for harsher sentencing policies for juvenile offenders specifically through the use of juvenile waiver to criminal court is one such policy that is not well understood in terms of its effects on offenders, especially in terms of broader outcomes beyond recidivism. We use data from the Pathways to Desistance Study, which consists of a sample of adolescent offenders followed for 7 years postadjudication, to investigate the effect juvenile waiver has on human capital acquisition and yield among 557 adolescents from Maricopa County, Arizona. By using various matching specifications, our findings demonstrate that juveniles transferred to adult court experience no deleterious effects on human capital in terms of educational acquisition compared with similar youth retained in the juvenile system, yet they still earn considerably less income 7 years postadjudication. These results suggest that an important and unintended collateral consequence of juvenile waiver is an increase in social stratification potentially through labeling and labor market discrimination.

  March 23, 2017   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12136   open full text
• Consequences Of Incarceration For Gang Membership: A Longitudinal Study Of Serious Offenders In Philadelphia And Phoenix*.
  David C. Pyrooz, Nancy Gartner, Molly Smith.
  Criminology. March 14, 2017
  Gang members are overrepresented among incarcerated populations in the United States. The link between incarceration and gang membership is beyond dispute, but serious questions remain about the causal mechanisms underlying this relationship. In this study, we develop and test theoretical models—origination, manifestation, and intensification—that focus on whether gang membership is exogenous or endogenous to incarceration. We used 7 years of monthly life calendar data nested within an 11‐wave longitudinal study of 1,336 serious offenders in Philadelphia and Phoenix to examine the effects of incarceration on gang membership. Multilevel models indicated that offenders were more likely to be in gangs while incarcerated in jail and prison settings than when not, although longer spells of incarceration corresponded with prolonged gang membership only in Phoenix. Incarceration in juvenile facilities maintained adverse between‐ and within‐individual effects on gang membership only in Phoenix. Additional descriptive findings revealed that gang status was durable to transitions into and out of incarcerated settings, and that more offenders exited than entered gangs while incarcerated. We situate these findings within our theoretical models and the body of knowledge on incarceration, concluding with a call for future research that is focused on the symbiosis between gangs in street and incarcerated settings.

  March 14, 2017   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12135   open full text
• Role Of The Street Network In Burglars' Spatial Decision‐Making*.
  Michael J. Frith, Shane D. Johnson, Hannah M. Fry.
  Criminology. March 10, 2017
  Explaining why crime is spatially concentrated has been a central theme of much criminological research. Although various theories focus on neighborhood social processes, environmental criminology asserts that the physical environment plays a central role by shaping people's activity patterns and the opportunities for crime. Here, we test theoretical expectations regarding the role of the road network in shaping the spatial distribution of crime and, in contrast to prior research, disentangle how it might influence offender awareness of criminal opportunities and the supply of ambient guardianship. With a mixed logit (discrete choice) model, we use data regarding (N = 459) residential burglaries (for the first time) to model offender spatial decision‐making at the street segment level. Novel graph theory metrics are developed to estimate offender awareness of street segments and to estimate levels of ambient guardianship, distinguishing between local and nonlocal guardianship. As predicted by crime pattern theory, novel metrics concerning offender familiarity and effort were significant predictors of residential burglary location choices. And, in line with Newman's (1972) concept of defensible space, nonlocal (local) pedestrian traffic was found to be associated with an increase (decrease) in burglary risk. Our findings also demonstrate that “taste” preferences vary across offenders, which presents a challenge for future research to explain.

  March 10, 2017   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12133   open full text
• Can Hot Spots Policing Reduce Crime In Urban Areas? An Agent‐Based Simulation*.
  David Weisburd, Anthony A. Braga, Elizabeth R. Groff, Alese Wooditch.
  Criminology. February 24, 2017
  Over the past two decades, there has been a growing consensus among researchers that hot spots policing is an effective strategy to prevent crime. Although strong evidence exists that hot spots policing will reduce crime at hot spots without immediate spatial displacement, we know little about its possible jurisdictional or large‐area impacts. We cannot isolate such effects in previous experiments because they (appropriately) compare treatment and control hot spots within large urban communities, thus, confounding estimates of area‐wide impacts. An agent‐based model is used to estimate area‐wide impacts of hot spots policing on street robbery. We test two implementations of hot spots policing (representing different levels of resource allocation) in a simulated borough of a city, and we compare them with two control conditions, one model with constant random patrol and another with no police officers. Our models estimate the short‐ and long‐term impacts on large‐area robbery levels of these different schemes of policing resources. These experiments reveal statistically significant effects for hot spots policing beyond both a random patrol model and a landscape without police. These simulations suggest that wider application of hot spots policing can have significant impacts on overall levels of crime in urban areas.

  February 24, 2017   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12131   open full text
• How And Why Does Work Matter? Employment Conditions, Routine Activities, And Crime Among Adult Male Offenders*.
  Robert Apel, Julie Horney.
  Criminology. February 21, 2017
  An inverse relationship between employment and crime is well established, although the mechanisms that account for the correlation remain poorly understood. In the current study, we investigate the role of work quality, measured objectively (hours, income) as well as subjectively (commitment). A routine activities perspective is proposed for the work–crime relationship, and it inspires hypotheses about the way that work reduces crime indirectly, in part, through unstructured leisure and substance‐using behaviors that tend to carry situational inducements to offend. The results derive from within‐person analyses of monthly data provided by adult male offenders recently admitted to state prison in the Second Nebraska Inmate Study (N = 717; NT = 21,965). The findings indicate that employment significantly reduces self‐report crime but only when employed men report strong commitment to their jobs, whereas other work characteristics are unrelated to crime. This indicates that, among serious criminally involved men, the subjective experience of work takes priority over its objective characteristics. The results also indicate that routine activities only partly mediate the relationship among work, job commitment, and crime, whereas the majority of the work–crime relationship remains unmediated.

  February 21, 2017   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12134   open full text
• Heuristics And Biases, Rational Choice, And Sanction Perceptions*.
  Greg Pogarsky, Sean Patrick Roche, Justin T. Pickett.
  Criminology. February 02, 2017
  The relevance of several cognitive heuristics and related biases for rational choice perspectives on crime, and for perceptions of sanction risk, were investigated. We present findings from a series of randomized experiments, embedded in two nationwide surveys of American adults (18 and older) in 2015 (N = 1,004 and 623). The results reveal that offender estimates of detection risk are less probabilistically precise and more situationally variable than under prevailing criminological perspectives, most notably, rational choice and Bayesian learning theories. This, in turn, allows various decision‐making heuristics—such as anchoring and availability—to influence and potentially bias the perceptual updating process.

  February 02, 2017   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12129   open full text
• Judicial Rotation As Centripetal Force: Sentencing In The Court Communities Of South Carolina*.
  Rhys Hester.
  Criminology. February 02, 2017
  Courts as communities theory emphasizes the sentencing differences that can arise between localities within a single state. The results of published studies have highlighted how local differences emerge based on informal sociological and political processes defined by the communities perspective. The findings from recent quantitative studies from South Carolina have revealed notably less county variation in sentencing than has been observed elsewhere. I use qualitative interviews with 13 South Carolina trial judges to investigate sentencing processes and to shed light on these findings. The interviews explore the state's legal structure and culture, including the practice of circuit rotation in which judges travel among counties holding court. The results suggest rotation serves as a centripetal force of sentencing culture, homogenizing what might otherwise be a more varied collection of county‐specific norms. Rotation leads to increased uniformity through judge shopping and the cross‐pollination of ideas and norms. Defendants can strategically judge shop and plead in front of a lenient judge—a process that gives rise to the term “plea judge,” which is a label for the most lenient judges who sentence a large number of defendants. Rotation also increases the interactions among judges and prosecutors, expanding networks and grapevines, and leading to cross‐pollination and the sharing of ideas.

  February 02, 2017   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12132   open full text
• A New Look At The Employment And Recidivism Relationship Through The Lens Of A Criminal Background Check*.
  Megan Denver, Garima Siwach, Shawn D. Bushway.
  Criminology. January 30, 2017
  Criminal background checks are increasingly being incorporated into hiring decisions by employers. Although originally uncompromising—almost anyone with a criminal record could be denied employment—court rulings and policy changes have forced criminal background checks to become more nuanced. One motivation for allowing more individuals with criminal records to work is to decrease recidivism and encourage desistance. In this article, we estimate the causal impact of receiving a clearance to work on subsequent arrests for individuals with criminal records who have been provisionally hired to work in certain nonlicensed health‐care jobs in New York State (N = 6,648). We employ an instrumental variable approach based on a substantive understanding of the state‐mandated criminal background check process. We examine age‐graded effects within this group of motivated individuals and differential effects by sex in the rapidly growing health‐care industry, which is typically dominated by women. Our estimated local average treatment effect indicates a 2.2‐percentage‐point decrease in the likelihood of a subsequent arrest in 1 year and a 4.2‐percentage‐point decrease over 3 years. We find meaningful variations by sex; men are 8.4 percentage points less likely to be arrested over the 3‐year period when cleared compared with a 2.4‐percentage‐point (and nonsignificant) effect for women. Older women in particular are driving the nonsignificant results for women.

  January 30, 2017   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12130   open full text
• Subnational Determinants Of Killing In Rwanda*.
  Hollie Nyseth Brehm.
  Criminology. January 05, 2017
  Nearly one million people were killed in the Rwandan genocide in 1994. Although scholars have theorized why this violence occurred, we know comparatively less about how it unfolded. Accordingly, this article assesses the determinants of subnational levels of killing in 142 Rwandan communes by relying on data from the Rwandan Ministry of Local Administration and Community Development, the National University of Rwanda, and the 1991 Rwandan census. Fixed effects analyses reveal that top‐down and bottom‐up factors coalesced to influence violence across Rwanda. The state orchestrated and implemented the violence, and more violence occurred near the extremist center of the country as well as where state actors met strong opposition. Local conditions also shaped the violence, however, and indicators of low community cohesion and social control are associated with comparatively more violence. When put together, a unique model is introduced that integrates state conflict theories and social control theories of crime to explain subnational killing during the genocide in Rwanda.

  January 05, 2017   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12126   open full text
• Contextualizing Community Crime Control: Race, Geography, And Configurations Of Control In Four Communities*.
  Andrea Leverentz, Monica Williams.
  Criminology. December 30, 2016
  Criminology and urban sociology have long‐standing interests in how neighborhoods and communities respond to and control crime. We build on the literature on social disorganization, collective efficacy, and new parochialism to develop a framework that explains how and why communities respond differently to crime. We draw on more than 2 years of comparative ethnographic data and 56 resident and stakeholder interviews on responses to crime in four communities in two states. We find that the intersections of racial composition, geography, and crime narratives in each place contributed to distinct community responses to crime. By analyzing these dynamics across the four sites, we propose three types of public–parochial partnerships that communities use to respond to crime: public alliances that rely primarily on public forms of control, tentative public–parochial partnerships that rely on tenuous connections with public institutions, and grassroots engagement with public institutions. We explain the emergence of these three approaches as patterned responses rooted in characteristics of local contexts, including racial composition and geographic isolation.

  December 30, 2016   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12127   open full text
• Interorganizational Utility Of Welfare Stigma In The Criminal Justice System*.
  Armando Lara‐Millán, Nicole Gonzalez Van Cleve.
  Criminology. December 30, 2016
  The appropriation of “welfare stigma” or stereotypes about poor people's overreliance and abuse of public aid in two core criminal justice functions is examined: felony adjudication in a court system and space allocation in a jail. Through a comparative ethnographic study in which an abductive analysis of data (20 months of fieldwork) was used, we show that criminal justice gatekeepers utilize welfare stigma to create stricter eligibility criteria for due process in criminal courts and occupancy in jails. Specifically, the number of court appearances, motions, trials, jail beds, food, showers, and medical services is considered by professionals to be the benefits that individuals seek to access and abuse. Professionals view their role as preventing (rather than granting) access to these resources. The comparative nature of our data reveals that welfare stigma has interorganizational utility by serving two different organizational goals: It streamlines convictions in courts, which pulls defendants through adjudication, and conversely, it expands early release from jails, which pulls inmates out of the custody population. In the context of diminishing social safety nets, our findings have implications for understanding how discretion is exercised in an American criminal justice system increasingly tasked with the distribution of social services to the urban poor.

  December 30, 2016   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12128   open full text
• Paternal Incarceration And Children's Risk Of Being Charged By Early Adulthood: Evidence From A Danish Policy Shock*.
  Christopher Wildeman, Signe Hald Andersen.
  Criminology. December 09, 2016
  In this article, we exploit a Danish criminal justice reform that dramatically decreased the risk of incarceration for individuals convicted of some types of crimes to isolate how having a father who was eligible for a noncustodial sentence under the reform affected a child's risk of ever subsequently being charged with a crime. Specifically, we use a difference‐in‐differences framework to compare all Danish children 12–18 years of age whose fathers were eligible for a noncustodial sentence instead of incarceration under the reform [N = 1,546] with a reference group of children whose fathers were convicted of similar crimes but were ineligible [N = 1,852] in the 2 years surrounding when the reform was enacted [July 1, 2000] as a way of testing the effects of the reform on children's risk of ever being charged with a crime by 22–28 years of age. Our estimates indicate that having a father sentenced under the reform sharply decreased the risk of being charged in the next 10 years for boys but not for girls. Taken together, these results indicate that both paternal criminality and paternal incarceration promote the criminal justice contact of male children and, hence, that paternal incarceration is not solely a symptom of criminality but also a cause of it.

  December 09, 2016   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12124   open full text
• Age, Gender, And The Crime Of Crimes: Toward A Life‐Course Theory Of Genocide Participation*.
  Hollie Nyseth Brehm, Christopher Uggen, Jean‐Damascène Gasanabo.
  Criminology. November 23, 2016
  This article asks whether genocide follows the age and gender distributions common to other crime. We develop and test a life‐course model of genocide participation to address this question using a new dataset of 1,068,192 cases tried in Rwanda's gacaca courts. Three types of prosecutions are considered: 1) inciting, organizing, or supervising violence; 2) killings and other physical assaults; and 3) offenses against property. By relying on systematic graphic comparisons, we find that the peak age of those tried in the gacaca courts was 34 years at the time of the genocide, which is older than the peak age for most other types of crime. We likewise find that women were more likely to participate in crimes against property and comparatively unlikely to commit genocidal murder. Symbolic–interactionist explanations of crime suggest people desist from crime as a result of shared understandings of the expectations of adulthood. We argue that this process may be turned on its head during genocide as participants may believe they are defending their communities against a perceived threat. Thus, in contrast to other criminological theories suggesting that people must desist from crime to be accorded adult status, some adults may participate in genocide to fulfill their duties as adult men.

  November 23, 2016   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12122   open full text
• General Theory Of Spatial Crime Patterns*.
  John R. Hipp.
  Criminology. November 07, 2016
  I propose a general theory for examining the spatial distribution of crime by specifically addressing and estimating the spatial distribution of the residences of offenders, targets, guardians, and their respective expected movement patterns across space and time. The model combines information on the locations of persons, typical spatial movement patterns, and situational characteristics of locations to create estimates of crime potential at various locations at various points in time and makes four key contributions. First, the equations make the ideas involved in the theory explicit, and they highlight points at which our current state of empirical evidence is lacking. Second, by creating measures of spatial “potentials” of offenders, targets, and guardians, this theory provides a precise grounding for operationalizing spatial effects in studies of place and crime. Third, the equations provide an explicit consideration of offenders and where they might travel and, therefore, incorporates offenders into crime‐and‐place research. Fourth, these equations suggest ways that researchers could use simulations to predict stable patterns, as well as changes, in the levels of crime at both micro and macro scales. Finally, I provide an empirical demonstration of the added explanatory power provided by the theory to a study of place and crime.

  November 07, 2016   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12117   open full text
• Risk, Race, And Recidivism: Predictive Bias And Disparate Impact*.
  Jennifer L. Skeem, Christopher T. Lowenkamp.
  Criminology. November 03, 2016
  One way to unwind mass incarceration without compromising public safety is to use risk assessment instruments in sentencing and corrections. Although these instruments figure prominently in current reforms, critics argue that benefits in crime control will be offset by an adverse effect on racial minorities. Based on a sample of 34,794 federal offenders, we examine the relationships among race, risk assessment [the Post Conviction Risk Assessment (PCRA)], and future arrest. First, application of well‐established principles of psychological science revealed little evidence of test bias for the PCRA—the instrument strongly predicts arrest for both Black and White offenders, and a given score has essentially the same meaning—that is, the same probability of recidivism—across groups. Second, Black offenders obtain higher average PCRA scores than do White offenders (d = .34; 13.5 percent nonoverlap in groups’ scores), so some applications could create disparate impact. Third, most (66 percent) of the racial difference in PCRA scores is attributable to criminal history—which is already embedded in sentencing guidelines. Finally, criminal history is not a proxy for race, but instead it mediates the relationship between race and future arrest. Data are more helpful than rhetoric if the goal is to improve practice at this opportune moment in history.

  November 03, 2016   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12123   open full text
• Crime Diversity*.
  P. Jeffrey Brantingham.
  Criminology. October 12, 2016
  Large geographic areas should host a greater diversity of crime compared with small geographic areas. This proposition is reasonable given that larger geographic areas should not only support more crime but also contain a greater diversity of criminogenic settings. This article uses a neutral model to characterize crime richness as a function of area. The model starts with two neutral assumptions: 1) that all environments are statistically equivalent and exert no influence on what types of crimes occur there; and 2) that different crime types occur independently of one another. The model produces rigorous predictions for the mean and variance in crime richness with increasing area. Tests of the model against a sample of 172,055 crimes occurring in Los Angeles during the year 2013 are qualitatively consistent with neutral expectations. The model is made quantitatively consistent by constant scaling. Resampling experiments show that at most 20 percent of the mean crime richness is attributable to nonrandom clustering and assortment of crime types. A modified neutral model allowing for variation crime concentration is consistent with observed variance in crime richness. The results suggest that very general and largely neutral laws may be driving crime diversity in space.

  October 12, 2016   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12116   open full text
• The Implications Of Arrest For College Enrollment: An Analysis Of Long‐Term Effects And Mediating Mechanisms*.
  Alex O. Widdowson, Sonja E. Siennick, Carter Hay.
  Criminology. October 07, 2016
  This study draws on labeling theory and education research on the steps to college enrollment to examine 1) whether and for how long arrest reduces the likelihood that high‐school graduates will enroll in postsecondary education and 2) whether any observed relationships are mediated by key steps in the college enrollment process. With 17 years of data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97) and propensity score matching, we derived matched samples of arrested and nonarrested but equivalent youth (N = 1,761) and conducted logistic regression and survival analyses among the matched samples to examine the short‐ and long‐term postsecondary consequences of arrest. The results revealed that arrest reduced the odds of 4‐year college enrollment directly after high school, as well as that high‐school grade point average and advanced coursework accounted for 58 percent of this relationship. The results also revealed that arrest had an enduring impact on 4‐year college attendance that extended into and beyond emerging adulthood. Two‐year college prospects were largely unaffected by arrest. These findings imply that being arrested during high school represents a negative turning point in youths’ educational trajectory that is, in part, a result of having a less competitive college application. Implications are discussed.

  October 07, 2016   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12114   open full text
• Revisiting The Criminological Consequences Of Exposure To Fetal Testosterone: A Meta‐Analysis Of The 2 D:4 D Digit Ratio*.
  Travis C. Pratt, Jillian J. Turanovic, Francis T. Cullen.
  Criminology. September 22, 2016
  As criminology has become more interdisciplinary in recent years, biosocial criminology has earned a place at the table. Although this perspective comes in many forms, one important proposition has gained increasing attention: that the 2D:4D finger digit ratio—a purported physical biomarker for exposure to fetal testosterone—is related to criminal, aggressive, and risky/impulsive behavior. Strong claims in the literature have been made for this link even though the findings seem to be inconsistent. To establish the empirical status of this relationship, we subjected this body of work to a meta‐analysis. Our multilevel analyses of 660 effect size estimates drawn from 47 studies (14,244 individual cases) indicate a small overall effect size (mean r = .047). Moderator analyses indicate that this effect is rather “general” across methodological specifications—findings that are at odds with theoretical propositions that specify the importance of exposure to fetal testosterone in predicting criminal and analogous behavior later in life. We conclude with a call for exercising caution over embracing the findings from one or two studies and instead highlight the importance of systematically organizing the full body of literature on a topic before making decisions about what does, and what does not, predict criminal and analogous behavior.

  September 22, 2016   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12115   open full text
• Cynical Streets: Neighborhood Social Processes And Perceptions Of Criminal Injustice*.
  Mark T. Berg, Eric A. Stewart, Jonathan Intravia, Patricia Y. Warren, Ronald L. Simons.
  Criminology. August 09, 2016
  Studies have found that African Americans are more likely to perceive racial biases in the criminal justice system than are those from other racial groups. There is a limited understanding of how neighborhood social processes affect variation in these perceptions. This study formulates a series of hypotheses focused on whether perceived racial biases in the criminal justice system or perceptions of injustice vary as a function of levels of moral and legal cynicism as well as of adverse police–citizen encounters. These hypotheses are tested with multilevel regression models applied to data from a sample of 689 African Americans located in 39 neighborhoods. Findings from the regression models indicate that the positive association between structural disadvantage and perceptions of injustice is accounted for by moral and legal cynicism. Furthermore, adverse police encounters significantly increase perceptions of injustice; controlling for these encounters reduces the strength of the association between cynicism and injustice perceptions. Finally, the findings reveal that cynicism intensifies the association between adverse police encounters and perceptions of criminal injustice. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for research regarding perceived biases in the criminal justice system and neighborhood social processes.

  August 09, 2016   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12113   open full text
• Violent Offending And Victimization In Adolescence: Social Network Mechanisms And Homophily*.
  Jillian J. Turanovic, Jacob T.N. Young.
  Criminology. August 01, 2016
  Although violent offending and victimization share many features, they can affect adolescent social relationships in distinct ways. To understand these differences, we take a network approach to examine the mechanisms responsible for similarities (i.e., homophily) in violent offending and violent victimization among friends. Our goal is to determine whether the social network mechanisms that produce homophily for violent offending are similar to or different from those that produce homophily for violent victimization. By using stochastic actor‐oriented modeling and two waves of friendship network data for 1,948 respondents from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, we examine homophily mechanisms of preference for similarity, avoidance, and influence with respect to youth violence and victimization. The results demonstrate that homophily observed for violent offending primarily reflects selection of similar others, whereas homophily observed for victimization reflects the tendency among alters to avoid victimized youth. These findings have important implications for future research and suggest that, among adolescents, violent offending and victimization homophily are the result of unique social processes.

  August 01, 2016   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12112   open full text
• Spatial Dimensions Of The Effect Of Neighborhood Disadvantage On Delinquency*.
  Matt Vogel, Scott J. South.
  Criminology. July 07, 2016
  Research examining the relationship between neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage and adolescent offending typically examines only the influence of residential neighborhoods. This strategy may be problematic as 1) neighborhoods are rarely spatially independent of each other and 2) adolescents spend an appreciable portion of their time engaged in activities outside of their immediate neighborhood. Therefore, characteristics of neighborhoods outside of, but geographically proximate to, residential neighborhoods may affect adolescents’ propensity to engage in delinquent behavior. We append a spatially lagged, distance‐weighted measure of socioeconomic disadvantage in “extralocal” neighborhoods to the individual records of respondents participating in the first two waves of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1997 Cohort (N = 6,491). Results from negative binomial regression analyses indicate that the level of socioeconomic disadvantage in extralocal neighborhoods is inversely associated with youth offending, as theories of relative deprivation, structured opportunity, and routine activities would predict, and that the magnitude of this effect rivals that of the level of disadvantage in youths’ own residential neighborhoods. Moreover, socioeconomic disadvantage in extralocal neighborhoods suppresses the criminogenic influence of socioeconomic disadvantage in youths’ own neighborhoods, revealing stronger effects of local neighborhood disadvantage than would otherwise be observed.

  July 07, 2016   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12110   open full text
• Family Matters: Effects Of Family Members’ Residential Areas On Crime Location Choice*.
  Barbara Menting, Marre Lammers, Stijn Ruiter, Wim Bernasco.
  Criminology. July 05, 2016
  According to crime pattern theory, offenders are likely to select crime locations within their awareness space. Previous studies have shown that offenders often commit crimes within their current and former residential areas and in areas they previously targeted. However, offenders’ awareness spaces obviously consist of more locations that potentially influence their crime location choices. This study examines the importance of the residential areas of offenders’ family members. Most offenders visit their families at least occasionally and consequently get familiar with the areas in which their families live. It is hypothesized that family members’ residential areas are at increased risk of being targeted. Unique data were used to reconstruct residential histories of the parents, siblings, and children of 7,910 offenders who committed 19,420 offenses. The results of discrete spatial choice models showed that residential areas of family members are indeed at increased risk of being targeted. Current familial residential areas had stronger and more consistent effects than had former familial residential areas. Effects were strongest for the residential areas of offenders’ children compared with those of their parents and siblings. The residential areas of male and female family members affected the crime location choices of male and female offenders equally.

  July 05, 2016   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12109   open full text
• Incentives For Collective Deviance: Group Size And Changes In Perceived Risk, Cost, And Reward*.
  Jean Marie Mcgloin, Kyle J. Thomas.
  Criminology. June 23, 2016
  Research has demonstrated that the presence of others shifts decision‐making about risky/deviant behavior. One reason for this shift could be changes in the anticipated experience of formal sanctions, informal costs, and rewards. To investigate this possibility, this study conducted two randomized controlled trials with hypothetical vignettes, in which a range of how many other people were also involved in the criminal act defined the treatment conditions. Across two samples of university students (Ns = 396 and 263), the results revealed that as the size of the involved group increased, the anticipated experience of sanction risk and several informal social costs associated with engaging in the act decreased, and the anticipated experience of two rewards increased. Additional analyses suggest that, with one exception in each data set, these changes are not only tied to the solo/group distinction.

  June 23, 2016   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12111   open full text
• Indefinite Punishment And The Criminal Record: Stigma Reports Among Expungement‐Seekers In Illinois*.
  Simone Ispa‐Landa, Charles E. Loeffler.
  Criminology. June 08, 2016
  Although criminal records in the United States are more publicly accessible than ever before, we lack knowledge about how record‐bearers seek to overcome the negative consequences associated with a visible criminal record as they apply for jobs, housing, and financial aid. Furthermore, although criminal histories record all arrests—and not just those that result in conviction—researchers have yet to compare how those with more extensive versus minor criminal records cope with criminal record stigma. We present interview data from a comparative study of expungement‐seekers (N = 53) who have petitioned the courts to remove their criminal records from public view. One group had extensive criminal records (46 percent); the other group had more minor criminal records (54 percent). Several key findings emerged. First, both groups of participants tried, but failed, to persuade potential employers and landlords to overlook the criminal record. They also faced restricted educational opportunity. Second, participants in both groups expressed distress that criminal justice contact could follow them throughout their lives, subjecting them to ongoing stigma. However, those with extensive versus minor criminal records offered different rationales explaining why the visible criminal record history unfairly burdened them. Implications for reintegration theory and policy are discussed.

  June 08, 2016   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12108   open full text
• Why Is Involvement In Unstructured Socializing Related To Adolescent Delinquency?*.
  Evelien M. Hoeben, Frank M. Weerman.
  Criminology. May 20, 2016
  The relationship between unstructured socializing (peer‐oriented activity without supervision) and adolescent delinquency is widely established and recognized, but less is known about why this relationship exists. The present study integrates the unstructured socializing perspective with insights from social learning theory and other theoretical perspectives on peer influence and empirically investigates four possible explanatory processes. The study applies time diary data to operationalize accurately the concept of unstructured socializing and survey data to capture mediating variables and self‐reported delinquency (a general frequency measure of various offenses, as well as specified measures for violence, theft, and vandalism). Data were collected longitudinally with two waves of surveys and space–time budget interviews among 610 adolescents (11 to 20 years of age). A multilevel‐path model was estimated to analyze within‐individual changes over time. The findings indicate that three of the four proposed explanatory processes contribute to the explanation of the relationship between unstructured socializing and delinquency.

  May 20, 2016   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12105   open full text
• Incarceration And Population Health In Wealthy Democracies*.
  Christopher Wildeman.
  Criminology. April 26, 2016
  Everywhere you look, incarceration seems to be doing harm. Research has implicated incarceration not only in worse outcomes for individuals, their families, and their communities but also in growing inequality. Yet incarceration may not always harm society—even if it does harm those who experience it. To consider this possibility, I build an argument demonstrating how the macro‐level consequences of incarceration may be distinctively harmful in the United States, focusing on the incarceration–health relationship as one indicator of a broader phenomenon. I then test my hypothesis by using an unbalanced panel data set including 21 developed democracies (N = 414) and a series of ordinary least‐squares models predicting three measures of population health as a function of incarceration. Models including only a main effect of incarceration demonstrate an inverse association between changes in incarceration and changes in population health. Models including an incarceration by U.S. interaction, however, indicate that the population health consequences of changes in incarceration are far worse in the United States than elsewhere. Taken together, the results indicate that the United States is exceptional for both its rate of incarceration and its effects of incarceration, although it is unclear what drives this exceptionalism in effects.

  April 26, 2016   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12107   open full text
• How Judges Think About Racial Disparities: Situational Decision‐Making In The Criminal Justice System*.
  Matthew Clair, Alix S. Winter.
  Criminology. April 22, 2016
  Researchers have theorized how judges’ decision‐making may result in the disproportionate presence of Blacks and Latinos in the criminal justice system. Yet, we have little evidence about how judges make sense of these disparities and what, if anything, they do to address them. By drawing on 59 interviews with state judges in a Northeastern state, we describe, and trace the implications of, judges’ understandings of racial disparities at arraignment, plea hearings, jury selection, and sentencing. Most judges in our sample attribute disparities, in part, to differential treatment by themselves and/or other criminal justice officials, whereas some judges attribute disparities only to the disparate impact of poverty and differences in offending rates. To address disparities, judges report employing two categories of strategies: noninterventionist and interventionist. Noninterventionist strategies concern only a judge's own differential treatment, whereas interventionist strategies concern other actors’ possible differential treatment, as well as the disparate impact of poverty and facially neutral laws. We reveal how the use of noninterventionist strategies by most judges unintentionally reproduces disparities. Through our examination of judges’ understandings of racial disparities throughout the court process, we enhance understandings of American racial inequality and theorize a situational approach to decision‐making in organizational contexts.

  April 22, 2016   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12106   open full text
• Violence Begets Violence … But How? A Decision‐Making Perspective On The Victim–Offender Overlap*.
  Margit Averdijk, Jean‐Louis Van Gelder, Manuel Eisner, Denis Ribeaud.
  Criminology. April 13, 2016
  This study applied a decision‐making perspective to examine the causal mechanisms underlying the relation between violent victimization and offending. We theorized that having been victimized affects an individual's appraisal of subsequent potentially conflictive situations in such a way that victims become more attuned toward the benefits of violence perpetration than toward its costs. Furthermore, we argued that this altered appraisal mediates the relation between violent victimization and violent offending. We tested these hypotheses by using data from the Zurich Project on the Social Development of Children and Youths, a longitudinal study of Swiss youth (N = 1,013; 11–15 years of age). In line with expectations, path analysis results showed that prior victimization influenced the appraisal of decision‐making situations that, in turn, predicted subsequent self‐reported violent offending. Importantly, these mediation effects held when controlling for a variety of time‐stable factors, such as self‐control and risky activities, as well as prior victimization and delinquency. Implications for research and theorizing on the victim–offender overlap are elaborated in the discussion.

  April 13, 2016   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12102   open full text
• Debt Problems And Crime*.
  Mikko Aaltonen, Atte Oksanen, Janne Kivivuori.
  Criminology. April 07, 2016
  The few existing studies on the association between debt problems and crime have suggested that the two are correlated, but the causal nature and direction of this association has been unclear. By using longitudinal register data (N = 20,696) from Finland on young adults’ debt default and crime, we examine the potentially reciprocal association between debt problems and crime with both cross‐sectional and longitudinal models. Debt problems and crime have a strong association in the data, which persists after controlling for several measures of socioeconomic status. The longitudinal analyses using fixed‐effects regression models show that levels of crime are higher during periods of debt enforcement, ruling out stable between‐person heterogeneity as the sole cause. The final analysis examining the exact timing of new debt defaults and crime shows signs of a mutually reinforcing association; the rate of newly enforced debt increases in the months preceding the first crime leading to a conviction and continues to increase afterward mostly because of criminal monetary sanctions left unpaid. The conclusion of the analysis is that debt problems have a dynamic association with criminal offending. We discuss the difficult barrier that unpaid debts pose to offenders seeking to desist from criminal activity in the current Finnish context.

  April 07, 2016   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12103   open full text
• Voluntary Organizations And Neighborhood Crime: A Dynamic Perspective*.
  James C. Wo, John R. Hipp, Adam Boessen.
  Criminology. March 04, 2016
  Although numerous theories suggest that voluntary organizations contribute to lower crime rates in neighborhoods, the evidence for this proposition is weak. Consequently, we propose a dynamic perspective for understanding the relationship between voluntary organizations and neighborhood crime that involves longitudinal analyses and the measurement of the age of organizations. By using longitudinal data on a sample of census blocks (N = 87,641) located across 10 cities, we test the relationship between age‐graded measures of different types of voluntary organizations and neighborhood crime rates. We use fixed‐effects negative binomial regression models that focus on change within neighborhoods of the relationship between voluntary organizations and neighborhood crime. Our results show that although each type of voluntary organization is found to exhibit crime‐reducing behavior in neighborhoods, we find that many of them are consistent with what we refer to as the “delayed impact scenario”—there is a pronounced delay between the placement of a voluntary organization and a neighborhood subsequently experiencing a reduction in crime. With protective effects of organizations typically not demonstrated until several years after being in the neighborhood, these patterns suggest a need for long‐term investment strategies when examining organizations.

  March 04, 2016   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12101   open full text
• Institutional Ineffectiveness, Illegitimacy, And Public Support For Vigilantism In Latin America.
  Amy E. Nivette.
  Criminology. February 15, 2016
  Why do individuals or groups support vigilantism as a means of conflict resolution? Most researchers tend to agree that support for and participation in vigilantism occurs in “stateless locations,” that is, when formal justice institutions are weak or absent. Despite this general consensus, quantitative evidence of this relationship is limited to a handful of country‐specific studies that used only subjective survey‐based measures of institutional weakness. This study seeks to extend research on vigilantism by assessing the relationship between subjective and objective conditions of formal justice institutions and public support for vigilantism across 323 provinces in 18 Latin American countries by using the 2012 AmericasBarometer Survey. Specifically, this study uses multilevel logistic regression techniques to examine the variability of public support for lethal vigilantism within and across Latin American countries. When controlling for a wide range of potential confounds, the results show that the most robust predictors of support for violent vigilantism are subjective indicators of institutional illegitimacy, personal victimization, and punitive attitudes. Evidence also exists that objective insecurity, as measured by province‐level homicide rates, fosters public support for violent vigilantism in certain situations.

  February 15, 2016   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12099   open full text
• The Influence Of Early School Punishment And Therapy/Medication On Social Control Experiences During Young Adulthood.
  David M. Ramey.
  Criminology. January 11, 2016
  The use of suspensions and expulsions by American public school administrators has increased dramatically over the past 40 years. Meanwhile, a growing number of childhood misbehaviors have been diagnosed by doctors as medical conditions and are being treated with therapy or medication. As these trends develop at different rates for boys of different racial and ethnic groups, the connection between childhood and adult social control remains untested empirically. By using a prospective panel of 3,274 White, Black, and Hispanic males (15,675 person‐years) and multilevel logistic models, I examine whether and how school punishment and/or the use of therapy or medication during childhood contributes to involvement in the criminal justice or mental health systems during young adulthood. The findings suggest that school punishment is associated with greater odds of involvement in the criminal justice system but not the mental health system. The use of therapy and/or medication during childhood is associated with higher odds of involvement in the mental health system but not the criminal justice system. Finally, although the relationship between school punishment and involvement with the criminal justice system is similar for White, Black, and Hispanic men, the relationship between medicalized social control during childhood and young adulthood is stronger for Whites than for non‐Whites.

  January 11, 2016   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12095   open full text
• Differentiating Serious Adolescent Offenders Who Exit The Justice System From Those Who Do Not.
  Carol A. Schubert, Edward P. Mulvey, Lindsay Pitzer.
  Criminology. January 11, 2016
  Numerous factors have been posited to promote desistance from criminal offending in late adolescence and early adulthood. Research in this area has generally examined these factors for their impact on offending for a period shortly after the occurrence or shifts in possible predictors. The current study takes a slightly different approach. It examines the broad relation of life changes and developmental patterns to wholesale shifts in offending behavior. The current study uses data from the Pathways to Desistance study to compare the developmental patterns of two groups of serious adolescent male offenders: those who are “system successes” with no subsequent criminal justice system involvement and a matched sample for a 7‐year period after court involvement for a felony offense. Findings from growth curve analyses indicate that patterns of change in criminal attitudes, psychosocial development, and legal employment over this extended follow‐up period are related to an absence of offending. These results support further investigation of the synergistic effects of psychological changes and entry into the job market as possible mechanisms promoting desistance during this developmental period. The policy and practice implications of these findings are discussed.

  January 11, 2016   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12098   open full text
• How The U.S. Prison Boom Has Changed The Age Distribution Of The Prison Population.
  Lauren C. Porter, Shawn D. Bushway, Hui‐Shien Tsao, Herbert L. Smith.
  Criminology. January 08, 2016
  This article provides a demographic exposition of the changes in the U.S prison population during the period of mass incarceration that began in the late twentieth century. By drawing on data from the Survey of Inmates in State Correctional Facilities (1974–2004) for inmates 17–72 years of age (N = 336), we show that the age distribution shifted upward dramatically: Only 16 percent of the state prison population was 40 years old or older in 1974; by 2004, this percentage had doubled to 33 percent with the median age of prisoners rising from 27 to 34 years old. By using an estimable function approach, we find that the change in the age distribution of the prison population is primarily a cohort effect that is driven by the “enhanced” penal careers of the cohorts who hit young adulthood—the prime age of both crime and incarceration—when substance use was at its peak. Period‐specific factors (e.g., proclivity for punishment and incidence of offense) do matter, but they seem to play out more across the life cycles of persons most affected in young adulthood (cohort effects) than across all age groups at one point in time (period effects).

  January 08, 2016   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12094   open full text
• Can Rational Choice Be Considered A General Theory Of Crime? Evidence From Individual‐Level Panel Data.
  Thomas A. Loughran, Ray Paternoster, Aaron Chalfin, Theodore Wilson.
  Criminology. January 08, 2016
  In the last few decades, rational choice theory has emerged as a bedrock theory in the fields of economics, sociology, psychology, and political science. Although rational choice theory has been available to criminologists for many years now, the field has not embraced it as other disciplines have. Moreover, rational choice scholars have fueled this skepticism of the theory's generality by modeling offender decision making that is one‐sided—large on the costs of crime (sanction threats), short on the benefits of crime. In this article, we directly assess the generality of rational choice theory by examining a fully specified model in a population that is often presumed to be less rational—adolescents from lower socioeconomic families who commit both instrumental (property) and expressive crimes (violence/drugs). By using a panel of N = 1,354 individuals, we find that offending behavior is consistent with rational responses to changes in the perceived costs and benefits of crime even after eliminating fixed unobserved heterogeneity and other time‐varying confounders, and these results are robust across different subgroups. The findings support our argument that rational choice theory is a general theory of crime.

  January 08, 2016   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12097   open full text
• The Company You Keep? The Spillover Effects Of Gang Membership On Individual Gunshot Victimization In A Co‐Offending Network.
  Andrew V. Papachristos, Anthony A. Braga, Eric Piza, Leigh S. Grossman.
  Criminology. October 20, 2015
  The effects of gang membership on individual social, behavior, cognitive, and health outcomes are well documented. Yet, research consistently has shown that gang membership and the boundaries of gangs are often fluid and amorphous. The current study examines how social proximity to a gang member in one's co‐offending network influences the probability of being a gunshot victim. We re‐create and analyze the social network of all individuals who were arrested, summonsed for a quality‐of‐life violation, and subjected to noncustodial police contacts in Newark, New Jersey, during a 1‐year time period (N = 10,531). A descriptive network analysis finds an extreme concentration of fatal and nonfatal gunshot injuries within a small social network: Nearly one third of all shootings in Newark occur in a network that contains less than 4 percent of the city's total population. Furthermore, a series of logistic regression models finds that being directly or indirectly linked to a gang member in one's co‐offending network has a significant effect on one's probability of being a gunshot victim. Implications of these findings for the study of gangs, gun violence, and a public health approach to violence are discussed.

  October 20, 2015   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12091   open full text
• Toward A Better Understanding Of Politicized Policing Attitudes: Conflicted Conservatism And Support For Police Use Of Force.
  Jasmine R. Silver, Justin T. Pickett.
  Criminology. October 20, 2015
  America is in the midst of an extraordinary public debate about police policy. “Conflicted conservatives,” who are symbolically conservative but operationally liberal, may have a disproportionate influence on policy making. Specifically, conflicted conservatives may be more likely to vote across party lines because they attend more to utilitarian concerns about social conditions and government performance than to symbolic issues. Prior criminological research, however, typically has treated conservatives as a homogenous group. We use data from the General Social Survey to explore the extent and correlates of global and situational support for police use of force among conflicted conservatives and other political groups. The findings from logistic regression models estimated with two analytic samples (N = 11,119 and 2,069) indicate that conflicted conservatives’ attitudes about police use of force are distinct from those of “consistent conservatives” who are both symbolically and operationally conservative, but do not reflect a unique consideration of utilitarian concerns over symbolic beliefs. Two other notable findings emerged: 1) Racial attitudes predicted support for police use of excessive force invariably across political groups and 2) public support for excessive force increased substantially during the first decade of the twenty‐first century, sharply contrasting trends in general punitive sentiment.

  October 20, 2015   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12092   open full text
• Early Life Risks, Antisocial Tendencies, And Preteen Delinquency.
  Jeremy Staff, Corey Whichard, Sonja E. Siennick, Jennifer Maggs.
  Criminology. October 20, 2015
  Early age‐of‐onset delinquency and substance use confer a major risk for continued criminality, alcohol and drug abuse, and other serious difficulties throughout the life course. Our objective is to examine the developmental roots of preteen delinquency and substance use. By using nationally representative longitudinal data from the UK Millennium Cohort Study (N= 13,221), we examine the influence of early childhood developmental and family risks on latent pathways of antisocial tendencies from 3 to 7 years of age, and the influence of those pathways on property crime and substance use by 11 years of age. We identified a normative, nonantisocial pathway; a pathway marked by oppositional behavior and fighting; a pathway marked by impulsivity and inattention; and a rare pathway characterized by a wide range of antisocial tendencies. Children with developmental and family risks that emerged by 3 years of age—specifically difficult infant temperament, low cognitive ability, weak parental closeness, and disadvantaged family background—face increased odds of antisocial tendencies. Minimal overlap is found between the risk factors for early antisocial tendencies and those for preteen delinquency. Children on an antisocial pathway are more likely to engage in preteen delinquency and substance use by 11 years of age even after accounting for early life risk factors.

  October 20, 2015   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12093   open full text
• Work, Income Support, And Crime In The Dutch Welfare State: A Longitudinal Study Following Vulnerable Youth Into Adulthood.
  Janna Verbruggen, Robert Apel, Victor R. Van Der Geest, Arjan A. J. Blokland.
  Criminology. October 08, 2015
  Life‐course criminological research has consistently suggested that employment can reduce criminal behavior. However, it is unclear whether the financial aspects of employment or the social control that inheres in employment best explains the relationship between employment and reduced offending. By using longitudinal information on a sample of men and women (N = 540) who were institutionalized in a Dutch juvenile justice institution in the 1990s, this study examines the effects of employment as well as the different types of income support on crime. Random‐ and fixed‐effects models show that for men, both work and income support are associated with a reduction in the rate of offending. For women, however, although employment is correlated with a lower offending rate, receiving income support, and in particular disability benefits, is correlated with a higher offending rate. The findings support both theories that stress the financial motivation for crime as well as theories that emphasize the importance of informal social control for reducing offending.

  October 08, 2015   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12080   open full text
• Federal Sentencing As A Complex Collaborative Process: Judges, Prosecutors, Judge–Prosecutor Dyads, And Disparity In Sentencing.
  Byungbae Kim, Cassia Spohn, E. C. Hedberg.
  Criminology. September 24, 2015
  Investigations of how criminal justice actors contribute to variation in sentencing typically focus on the role played by the judge. We argue that sentencing should be viewed as a collaborative process involving actors other than the judge and that the role of the prosecutor is particularly salient. We also contend that the courtroom workgroup literature has suggested that sentences may vary depending on the particular judge and prosecutor to whom the case is assigned. By using a unique data set from three U.S. district courts (N = 2,686) that identifies both the judge and the prosecutor handling the case, we examine how the judge, the prosecutor, and the judge–prosecutor dyad contribute to variance in offender sentences. We do this by employing cross‐classified random‐effects models to estimate the variance components associated with judges, prosecutors, and judge–prosecutor interactions. The results indicate that disparity attributable to the prosecutor is larger than disparity from the judge. Moreover, the role that the judge plays is moderated by the prosecutor to whom the case is assigned, as the judge–prosecutor effect is consistently larger than other random effects across the models. We also find that results vary by judicial district.

  September 24, 2015   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12090   open full text
• Development And Fracture Of A Discipline: Legacies Of The School Of Criminology At Berkeley.
  Johann Koehler.
  Criminology. September 10, 2015
  In the early twentieth century, the University of California—Berkeley opened its doors to police professionals for instruction in “police science.” This program ultimately developed into the full‐fledged School of Criminology, whose graduates helped shape American criminology and criminal justice until well into the 1970s. Scholarship at the School of Criminology eventually fractured into three distinct traditions: “Administrative criminology” applied scientific methods in pursuit of refining law enforcement practices, “law and society” coupled legal scholarship with social scientific methods, and “radical criminology” combined Marxist critiques of the state with community activism. Those scientific traditions relied on competing epistemic premises and normative aspirations, and they drew legitimacy from different sources. Drawing on oral histories and archival data permits a neo‐institutional analysis of how each of these criminological traditions emerged, acquired stability, and subsided. The Berkeley School of Criminology provides fertile ground to examine trends in the development of criminal justice as a profession, criminology as a discipline and its place in elite universities, the uncoupling of criminology from law and society scholarship, and criminal justice policy's disenchantment with the academy. These legacies highlight how the development of modern criminology and the professionalization of American law enforcement find precedent in events that originate at Berkeley.

  September 10, 2015   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12081   open full text
• General Assessments And Thresholds For Chronic Offending: An Enriched Paradigm For Explaining Crime.
  Robert Agnew, Steven F. Messner.
  Criminology. September 04, 2015
  General assessments refer to individuals’ overall judgment of their standing on broad dimensions that have special relevance for the explanation of crime, such as their overall bond to society or their prospects for success. These assessments are partly a function of the independent variables that are commonly considered in contemporary crime theories and quantitative research. But these standard etiological variables are far from fully determinative of general assessments because individuals differ in how they interpret, weigh, and combine their standing along these variables. The social–psychological factors that affect the subjective judgments underlying general assessments have yet to be theorized in any comprehensive, systematic manner. Nevertheless, we hypothesize that the incorporation of general assessments in models of offending will greatly enhance their explanatory power because these assessments are the most proximate, comprehensive, and personally relevant causes of crime. Moreover, we anticipate that once these assessments reach certain threshold levels, such as the view that bonds to society are severed irreparably or success is beyond reach, they result in a nonlinear jump in the frequency, seriousness, and duration of offending (i.e., chronic offending). A consideration of general assessments and their associated thresholds should therefore substantially improve efforts to explain crime.

  September 04, 2015   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12079   open full text
• Delinquency And Gender Moderation In The Moving To Opportunity Intervention: The Role Of Extended Neighborhoods.
  Corina Graif.
  Criminology. August 18, 2015
  A long history of research has indicated that neighborhood poverty increases youth's risk taking and delinquency. This literature predominantly has treated neighborhoods as independent of their surroundings despite rapidly growing ecological evidence on the geographic clustering of crime that suggests otherwise. This study proposes that to understand neighborhood effects, investigating youth's wider surroundings holds theoretical and empirical value. By revisiting longitudinal data on more than 1500 low‐income youth who participated in the Moving to Opportunity (MTO) randomized intervention, this article explores the importance of extended neighborhoods (neighborhoods and surroundings) and different concentrated disadvantage configurations in shaping gender differences in risk taking and delinquency. The results from two‐stage, least‐squares analyses suggest that the extended neighborhoods matter and they matter differently by gender. Among girls, extended neighborhoods without concentrated disadvantage were associated with lower risk‐taking prevalence than extended neighborhoods with concentrated disadvantage. In contrast, among boys, localized concentration of disadvantage was associated with the highest prevalence of risk taking and delinquency. Interactions between the immediate and surrounding neighborhoods were similarly associated with differential opportunity and social disorganization mediators. Among the more critical potential mediators of the link between localized disadvantage and boys’ risk taking were delinquent network ties, strain, and perceived absence of legitimate opportunities for success.

  August 18, 2015   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12078   open full text
• A Threshold Model Of Collective Crime.
  Jean Marie Mcgloin, Zachary R. Rowan.
  Criminology. July 23, 2015
  The group nature of offending has been recognized as an inherent characteristic of criminal behavior, yet our insight on the decision to engage in group crime is limited. This article argues that a threshold model offers broad appeal to understand this decision. After discussing the basis of this model and its applicability to collective crime, we offer one example of the kind of research that could stem from this model. Specifically, by using survey data from 583 university students, this study asked respondents to self‐report thresholds for group theft and destruction of property. By experimentally manipulating characteristics of the hypothetical scenario used to measure thresholds, we investigated both the individual‐ and situational‐level correlates of these self‐reported thresholds. The discussion considers the results that emerge from a Tobit regression model and offers suggestions for future research that would provide further refinement of the threshold model.

  July 23, 2015   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12077   open full text
• Testing For Temporally Differentiated Relationships Among Potentially Criminogenic Places And Census Block Street Robbery Counts.
  Cory P. Haberman, Jerry H. Ratcliffe.
  Criminology. July 14, 2015
  This study examined street robbery patterns in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from the years 2009 to 2011 to determine whether the effects of potentially criminogenic places are different across different periods of the day. Census block (N = 13,164) street robbery counts across four periods (6:45 a.m. to 9:59 a.m., 10:00 a.m. to 4:29 p.m., 4:30 p.m. to 9:14 p.m., and 9:15 p.m. to 6:44 a.m.) were modeled with 12 different potentially criminogenic places, 3 measures of illicit markets, 4 compositional control variables, and spatially lagged versions of the 12 potentially criminogenic places and population using simultaneously estimated negative binomial regression models. Differences in the magnitudes of the parameter estimates across the time periods were assessed with Wald tests. Overall, the patterns across the four models were mostly consistent with the effects hypothesized based on the study's crime pattern theory and time‐geography theoretical frame; yet differences in the magnitudes of the coefficients were less pronounced than hypothesized. Overall, the results provide moderate support for the crime pattern theory and time‐geography explanation of spatial‐temporal robbery patterns; however, numerous points are raised for future crime and place research.

  July 14, 2015   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12076   open full text
• Intimate Partner Violence Risk Among Victims Of Youth Violence: Are Early Unions Bad, Beneficial, Or Benign?
  Danielle C. Kuhl, David F. Warner, Tara D. Warner.
  Criminology. June 23, 2015
  Youth violent victimization (YVV) is a risk factor for precocious exits from adolescence via early coresidential union formation. It remains unclear, however, whether these early unions 1) are associated with intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization, 2) interrupt victim continuity or victim–offender overlap through protective and prosocial bonds, or 3) are inconsequential. By using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (N = 11,928; 18–34 years of age), we examine competing hypotheses for the effect of early union timing among victims of youth violence (n = 2,479)—differentiating across victimization only, perpetration only, and mutually combative relationships and considering variation by gender. The results from multinomial logistic regression models indicate that YVV increases the risk of IPV victimization in first unions, regardless of union timing; the null effect of timing indicates that delaying union formation would not reduce youth victims’ increased risk of continued victimization. Gender‐stratified analyses reveal that earlier unions can protect women against IPV perpetration, but this is partly the result of an increased risk of IPV victimization. The findings suggest that YVV has significant transformative consequences, leading to subsequent victimization by coresidential partners, and this association might be exacerbated among female victims who form early unions. We conclude by discussing directions for future research.

  June 23, 2015   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12075   open full text
• Close‐Ups And The Scale Of Ecology: Land Uses And The Geography Of Social Context And Crime.
  Adam Boessen, John R. Hipp.
  Criminology. June 03, 2015
  Whereas one line of recent neighborhood research has placed an emphasis on zooming into smaller units of analysis such as street blocks, another line of research has suggested that even the meso‐area of neighborhoods is too narrow and that the area surrounding the neighborhood is also important. Thus, there is a need to examine the scale at which the social ecology impacts crime. We use data from seven cities from around the year 2000 to test our research questions using multilevel negative binomial regression models (N = 73,010 blocks and 8,231 block groups). Our results suggest that although many neighborhood factors seem to operate on the microscale of blocks, others seem to have a much broader impact. In addition, we find that racially and ethnically homogenous blocks within heterogeneous block groups have the most crime. Our findings also show the strongest results for a multitude of land‐use measures and that these measures sharpen some of the associations from social characteristics. Thus, we find that accounting for multiple scales simultaneously is important in ecological studies of crime.

  June 03, 2015   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12074   open full text
• Intimate Partner Violence In Young Adulthood: Narratives Of Persistence And Desistance.
  Peggy C. Giordano, Wendi L. Johnson, Wendy D. Manning, Monica A. Longmore, Mallory D. Minter.
  Criminology. April 25, 2015
  Prior research on patterns of intimate partner violence (IPV) has documented changes over time, but few studies have focused directly on IPV desistance processes. This analysis identifies unique features of IPV, providing a rationale for the focus on this form of behavior cessation. We develop a life‐course perspective on social learning as a conceptual framework and draw on qualitative interviews (n = 89) elicited from a sample of young adults who participated in a larger longitudinal study (Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study). The respondents’ backgrounds reflected a range of persistence and desistance from IPV perpetration. Our analyses revealed that relationship‐based motivations and changes were central features of the narratives of successful desisters, whether articulated as a stand‐alone theme or in tandem with other potential “hooks” for change. The analysis provides a counterpoint to individualistic views of desistance processes, highlighting ways in which social experiences foster attitude shifts and associated behavioral changes that respondents tied to this type of behavior change. The analyses of persisters and those for whom change seemed to be a work in progress provide points of contrast and highlight barriers that limit a respondent's desistance potential. We describe implications for theories of desistance as well as for IPV prevention and intervention efforts.

  April 25, 2015   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12073   open full text
• Delinquent Peer Influence On Offending Versatility: Can Peers Promote Specialized Delinquency?
  Kyle J. Thomas.
  Criminology. April 07, 2015
  The consistent and robust relationship between peers and frequency of offending is often cited as evidence that friends play an important role in adolescent behavioral tendencies. But Warr (2002) has argued that the empirical support for peer perspectives remains equivocal in part because research has not demonstrated that individuals and their peers display similarities in the qualitative form of their delinquent behavior (i.e., the tendency to specialize in delinquent acts). By using data from the Gang Resistance Education and Training (G.R.E.A.T.) evaluation (N = 1,390) and the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health (AddHealth) (N = 1,848), this study seeks to fill this void in the literature by examining whether having friends who display specialization in specific delinquent acts relative to other offense types predicts an individual's own tendency to display specializing in those same crime types. Consistent with peer influence perspectives, the results of multilevel latent‐trait models (Osgood and Schreck, 2007) suggest that individuals who associate with friends who demonstrate specialization in violence, theft, and substance use are more likely to display greater levels of specialization in those offense types themselves.

  April 07, 2015   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12069   open full text
• Biting Once, Twice: The Influence Of Prior On Subsequent Crime Location Choice.
  Marre Lammers, Barbara Menting, Stijn Ruiter, Wim Bernasco.
  Criminology. April 04, 2015
  Properties, victims, and locations previously targeted by offenders have an increased risk of being targeted again within a short time period. It has been suggested that often the same offenders are involved in these repeated events and, thus, that offenders’ prior crime location choices influence their subsequent crime location choices. This article examines repeated crime location choices, testing the hypothesis that offenders are more likely to commit a crime in an area they previously targeted than in areas they did not target before. Unique data from four different data sources are used to study the crime location choices of 3,666 offenders who committed 12,639 offenses. The results indicate that prior crime locations strongly influence subsequent crime location choices. The effects of prior crime locations are larger if the crimes are frequent, if they are recent, if they are nearby, and if they are the same type of crime.

  April 04, 2015   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12071   open full text
• Women's Gender Performances And Cultural Heterogeneity In The Illegal Drug Economy.
  Heidi Grundetjern.
  Criminology. March 19, 2015
  Based on interviews with 32 female drug dealers in Norway, this study investigates different gender performances among women situated in the illegal hard drug economy—a context with strong gendered “rules of the game.” Using grounded theory methods, I have identified four predominant patterns in which women enact their gendered identities being part of the drug economy: performing emphasized femininity in the context of marginalization; performing street masculinity; employing a feminine business model; and last, flexible use of cultural repertoires. The findings suggest that different gender performances among dealers are rooted in variations in the cultural tool kits they have at their disposal. I find that the content of women's cultural tool kits varied with three sociodemographic factors: 1) age, 2) time of entrée to the drug economy, and 3) educational and employment history. Combined, these influenced the type of gender performances the dealers tended to use as well as their position in the drug market hierarchy. The research suggests that those dealers using cultural repertoires flexibly are the most successful as they skillfully employed the model best suited for the context they were in.

  March 19, 2015   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12068   open full text
• Racially Homophilous Social Ties And Informal Social Control.
  Barbara D. Warner, Kristin Swartz, Shila René Hawk.
  Criminology. March 12, 2015
  Social disorganization theory argues that racial/ethnic heterogeneity is a key neighborhood characteristic leading to social disorganization and, consequently, higher levels of crime. Heterogeneity's effect is argued to be a result of its fragmentation of social ties along racial/ethnic lines, which creates racially homophilous social networks with few ties bridging racial/ethnic groups. Most studies of social ties in social disorganization models, however, have examined their quantity and left unaddressed the extent to which ties are within or across different racial groups. This study goes beyond previous studies by examining the effects of both racially homophilous and interracial friendship networks on informal social control. Using multilevel models and data from 66 neighborhoods with approximately 2,300 respondents, we found that heterogeneity actually increased the average percentage of residents with interracial friendship networks, but the percentage of residents with interracial networks decreased the likelihood of informal social control. In contrast, the percentage of residents with White racially homophilous networks increased the likelihood of informal social control. Examining the microcontext of individuals’ networks, however, we found residents with interracial ties reported higher likelihoods of informal social control and that this effect was enhanced in neighborhoods with higher percentages of non‐White racially homophilous networks.

  March 12, 2015   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12066   open full text
• Police Response To Domestic Violence: Situations Involving Veterans Exhibiting Signs Of Mental Illness*.
  Fred E. Markowitz, Amy C. Watson.
  Criminology. March 11, 2015
  Drawing on attribution theory, research on police discretion, and public attitudes toward mental illness, we examine attributional processes in police decision making in response to domestic violence situations involving veterans and nonveterans with signs of mental illness. Using data from experimental vignettes varying veteran status, victim injury, and suspect compliance administered to a sample of 309 police officers, the results indicate that 1) veterans are perceived as less responsible for troublesome behavior but more dangerous than nonveterans, 2) suspects’ veteran status has a significant effect on officers’ preference for mental health treatment versus arrest, and 3) part of the effect of veteran status on officer response is mediated by internal and external attributions for problematic behavior and by perceptions of dangerousness. The study empirically demonstrates countervailing processes in police decision making—recognition of the causes for troublesome behavior and the need for mental health treatment on the one hand and concern for community safety and enforcing the law on the other.

  March 11, 2015   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12067   open full text
• Friends With My Future Self: Longitudinal Vividness Intervention Reduces Delinquency.
  Jean‐Louis Gelder, Eva C. Luciano, Marleen Weulen Kranenbarg, Hal E. Hershfield.
  Criminology. March 05, 2015
  In a field experiment, we use a novel method to test whether instilling a greater sense of vividness of the future self motivates people to act in a more future‐oriented way and reduces their delinquent involvement. We manipulate vividness of the future self by having participants, a sample of high‐school youth (N = 133), “befriend” an avatar representing their future self on a social network website. For 7 days, they reply to short messages from their future self designed to trigger thinking about that distant self. Using repeated‐measures analysis of variance (ANOVA), we find that participants who had been linked to their future self report less delinquent involvement, whereas controls did not. Furthermore, the results of a nonparametric bootstrapping procedure show that this effect is mediated by changes in vividness of the future self, such that increases in vividness lead to lower self‐reported delinquency. We conclude that vividness of the future self holds promise not only as a cognitive explanation for the failure to make informed cost–benefit trade‐offs but also for interventions aiming to reduce delinquency.

  March 05, 2015   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12064   open full text
• Historical Contingencies And The Evolving Importance Of Race, Violent Crime, And Region In Explaining Mass Incarceration In The United States.
  Michael C. Campbell, Matt Vogel, Joshua Williams.
  Criminology. March 04, 2015
  This article combines insights from historical research and quantitative analyses that have attempted to explain changes in incarceration rates in the United States. We use state‐level decennial data from 1970 to 2010 (N = 250) to test whether recent theoretical models derived from historical research that emphasize the importance of specific historical periods in shaping the relative importance of certain social and political factors explain imprisonment. Also drawing on historical work, we examine how these key determinants differed in Sunbelt states, that is, the states stretching across the nation's South from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific, from the rest of the nation. Our findings suggest that the relative contributions of violent crime, minority composition, political ideology, and partisanship to imprisonment vary over time. We also extend our analysis beyond mass incarceration's rise to analyze how factors associated with prison expansion can explain its stabilization and contraction in the early twenty‐first century. Our findings suggest that most of the factors that best explained state incarceration rates in the prison boom era lost power once imprisonment stabilized and declined. We find considerable support for the importance of historical contingencies in shaping state‐level imprisonment trends, and our findings highlight the enduring importance of race in explaining incarceration.

  March 04, 2015   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12065   open full text
• Brave New World Of Biosocial Science.
  Douglas S. Massey.
  Criminology. February 19, 2015
  There is no abstract available for this paper.

  February 19, 2015   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12058   open full text
• Abandon Twin Research? Embrace Epigenetic Research? Premature Advice For Criminologists.
  Terrie E. Moffitt, Amber Beckley.
  Criminology. February 19, 2015
  There is no abstract available for this paper.

  February 19, 2015   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12061   open full text
• Mathematical Proof Is Not Minutiae And Irreducible Complexity Is Not A Theory: A Final Response To Burt And Simons And A Call To Criminologists.
  John Paul Wright, J. C. Barnes, Brian B. Boutwell, Joseph A. Schwartz, Eric J. Connolly, Joseph L. Nedelec, Kevin M. Beaver.
  Criminology. February 19, 2015
  There is no abstract available for this paper.

  February 19, 2015   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12059   open full text
• Heritability Studies In The Postgenomic Era: The Fatal Flaw Is Conceptual.
  Callie H. Burt, Ronald L. Simons.
  Criminology. February 19, 2015
  There is no abstract available for this paper.

  February 19, 2015   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12060   open full text
• Deterrence, Criminal Opportunities, And Police.
  Daniel S. Nagin, Robert M. Solow, Cynthia Lum.
  Criminology. January 24, 2015
  In this article, we join three distinct literatures on crime control—the deterrence literature, the policing literature as it relates to crime control, and the environmental and opportunity perspectives literature. Based on empirical findings and theory from these literatures, we pose a mathematical model of the distribution of criminal opportunities and offender decision making on which of those opportunities to victimize. Criminal opportunities are characterized in terms of the risk of apprehension that attends their victimization. In developing this model, our primary focus is on how police might affect the distribution of criminal opportunities that are attractive to would‐be offenders. The theoretical model we pose, however, is generalizable to explain how changes in other relevant target characteristics, such as potential gain, could affect target attractiveness. We demonstrate that the model has important implications for the efficiency and effectiveness of police deployment strategies such as hot spots policing, random patrol, and problem‐oriented policing. The theoretical structure also makes clear why the clearance rate is a fundamentally flawed metric of police performance. Future research directions suggested by the theoretical model are discussed.

  January 24, 2015   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12057   open full text
• Fetal Testosterone And Criminality: Test Of Evolutionary Neuroandrogenic Theory.
  Anthony W. Hoskin, Lee Ellis.
  Criminology. December 23, 2014
  Evolutionary neuroandrogenic (ENA) theory asserts that criminality is a crude form of competitive behavior over resources, status, and mating opportunities. Theoretically, males have been selected for resource acquisitiveness as a result of female preferences for mates who are successful at resource provisioning. ENA theory also asserts that brain exposure to both prenatal and postpubertal androgens (particularly testosterone) promotes all forms of competitiveness, including those that victimize others. The present study was undertaken to test ENA theory by correlating 14 self‐reported measures of offending with a biomarker for fetal testosterone exposure based on the ratio of the 2nd and 4th digits of the right hand (r2D:4D), in a nonrepresentative sample of 445. Both Spearman correlations and negative binomial regressions produced results that largely supported the hypothesized connection between offending and high prenatal androgen exposure, even when findings were analyzed separately by sex. Also, offending was significantly associated with r2D:4D for both males and females. Overall, this study supports the view that exposing the brain to high levels of testosterone and other androgens prenatally elevates the probability of offending later in life.

  December 23, 2014   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12056   open full text
• Does What Police Do At Hot Spots Matter? The Philadelphia Policing Tactics Experiment*.
  Elizabeth R. Groff, Jerry H. Ratcliffe, Cory P. Haberman, Evan T. Sorg, Nola M. Joyce, Ralph B. Taylor.
  Criminology. December 10, 2014
  Policing tactics that are proactive, focused on small places or groups of people in small places, and tailor specific solutions to problems using careful analysis of local conditions seem to be effective at reducing violent crime. But which tactics are most effective when applied at hot spots remains unknown. This article documents the design and implementation of a randomized controlled field experiment to test three policing tactics applied to small, high‐crime places: 1) foot patrol, 2) problem‐oriented policing, and 3) offender‐focused policing. A total of 81 experimental places were identified from the highest violent crime areas in Philadelphia (27 areas were judged amenable to each policing tactic). Within each group of 27 areas, 20 places were randomly assigned to receive treatment and 7 places acted as controls. Offender‐focused sites experienced a 42 percent reduction in all violent crime and a 50 percent reduction in violent felonies compared with their control places. Problem‐oriented policing and foot patrol did not significantly reduce violent crime or violent felonies. Potential explanations of these findings are discussed in the contexts of dosage, implementation, and hot spot stability over time.

  December 10, 2014   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12055   open full text
• An Explicit Test Of Plea Bargaining In The “Shadow Of The Trial”.
  Shawn D. Bushway, Allison D. Redlich, Robert J. Norris.
  Criminology. November 20, 2014
  Bargaining in the “shadow of the trial,” which hinges on the expectations of trial outcomes, is the primary theory used by noncriminologists to explain variation in the plea discount given to defendants who plead guilty. This study develops a formal mathematical representation of the theory and then presents an empirical test of the theory using an innovative online survey with responses to a hypothetical case from 1,585 prosecutors, defense attorneys, and judges. The key outcomes are the probability that the defendant will be convicted at trial, the sentence for the defendant if convicted, and the best plea that the respondent would accept or offer. Variation in the outcomes is created through experimental variation in the information presented to the respondents. Structural regression models are estimated to fit the formal theoretical models, and the instrumental variables method is used to correct for measurement error in the estimate for probability of conviction. The data support the basic shadow model, with minor modifications, for only prosecutors and defense attorneys. Controlling for the characteristics of the individual actors and their jurisdictions adds explanatory value to the model, although these control variables did not affect the key coefficients from the shadow model.

  November 20, 2014   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12054   open full text
• Incorporating Routine Activities, Activity Spaces, And Situational Definitions Into The Social Schematic Theory Of Crime.
  Ronald L. Simons, Callie H. Burt, Ashley B. Barr, Man‐Kit Lei, Eric Stewart.
  Criminology. November 20, 2014
  Simons and Burt's (2011) social schematic theory (SST) of crime posits that adverse social factors are associated with offending because they promote a set of social schemas (i.e., a criminogenic knowledge structure) that elevates the probability of situational definitions favorable to crime. This study extends the SST model by incorporating the role of contexts for action. Furthermore, the study advances tests of the SST by incorporating a measure of criminogenic situational definitions to assess whether such definitions mediate the effects of schemas and contexts on crime. Structural equation models using 10 years of panel data from 582 African American youth provided strong support for the expanded theory. The results suggest that childhood and adolescent social adversity fosters a criminogenic knowledge structure as well as selection into criminogenic activity spaces and risky activities, all of which increase the likelihood of offending largely through situational definitions. Additionally, evidence shows that the criminogenic knowledge structure interacts with settings to amplify the likelihood of situational definitions favorable to crime.

  November 20, 2014   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12053   open full text
• The Edge Of Stigma: An Experimental Audit Of The Effects Of Low‐Level Criminal Records On Employment.
  Christopher Uggen, Mike Vuolo, Sarah Lageson, Ebony Ruhland, Hilary K. Whitham.
  Criminology. November 20, 2014
  Ample experimental evidence shows that the stigma of a prison record reduces employment opportunities (Pager, 2007). Yet background checks today uncover a much broader range of impropriety, including arrests for minor crimes never resulting in formal charges. This article probes the lesser boundaries of stigma, asking whether and how employers consider low‐level arrests in hiring decisions. Matched pairs of young African American and White men were sent to apply for 300 entry‐level jobs, with one member of each pair reporting a disorderly conduct arrest that did not lead to conviction. We find a modest but nontrivial effect, with employer callback rates about 4 percentage points lower for the experimental group than for the matched control group. Interviews with the audited employers suggest three mechanisms to account for the lesser stigma of misdemeanor arrests relative to felony convictions: 1) greater employer discretion and authority in the former case; 2) calibration of the severity, nature, and timing of the offense; and 3) a deeply held presumption of innocence, which contrasts the uncertainty of arrest with the greater certainty represented by convictions. In addition, personal contact and workplace diversity play important roles in the hiring process.

  November 20, 2014   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12051   open full text
• Gender, Friendship Networks, And Delinquency: A Dynamic Network Approach.
  Dana L. Haynie, Nathan J. Doogan, Brian Soller.
  Criminology. October 27, 2014
  Researchers have examined selection and influence processes in shaping delinquency similarity among friends, but little is known about the role of gender in moderating these relationships. Our objective is to examine differences between adolescent boys and girls regarding delinquency‐based selection and influence processes. Using longitudinal network data from adolescents attending two large schools in AddHealth (N = 1,857) and stochastic actor‐oriented models, we evaluate whether girls are influenced to a greater degree by friends’ violence or delinquency than boys (influence hypothesis) and whether girls are more likely to select friends based on violent or delinquent behavior than boys (selection hypothesis). The results indicate that girls are more likely than boys to be influenced by their friends’ involvement in violence. Although a similar pattern emerges for nonviolent delinquency, the gender differences are not significant. Some evidence shows that boys are influenced toward increasing their violence or delinquency when exposed to more delinquent or violent friends but are immune to reducing their violence or delinquency when associating with less violent or delinquent friends. In terms of selection dynamics, although both boys and girls have a tendency to select friends based on friends’ behavior, girls have a stronger tendency to do so, suggesting that among girls, friends’ involvement in violence or delinquency is an especially decisive factor for determining friendship ties.

  October 27, 2014   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12052   open full text
• Demonstrating The Validity Of Twin Research In Criminology.
  J. C. Barnes, John Paul Wright, Brian B. Boutwell, Joseph A. Schwartz, Eric J. Connolly, Joseph L. Nedelec, Kevin M. Beaver.
  Criminology. September 30, 2014
  In a recent article published in Criminology, Burt and Simons () claimed that the statistical violations of the classical twin design render heritability studies useless. Claiming quantitative genetics is “fatally flawed” and describing the results generated from these models as “preposterous,” Burt and Simons took the unprecedented step to call for abandoning heritability studies and their constituent findings. We show that their call for an “end to heritability studies” was premature, misleading, and entirely without merit. Specifically, we trace the history of behavioral genetics and show that 1) the Burt and Simons critique dates back 40 years and has been subject to a broad array of empirical investigations, 2) the violation of assumptions in twin models does not invalidate their results, and 3) Burt and Simons created a distorted and highly misleading portrait of behavioral genetics and those who use quantitative genetic approaches.

  September 30, 2014   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12049   open full text
• Impact Of Victimization On Residential Mobility: Explaining Racial And Ethnic Patterns Using The National Crime Victimization Survey.
  Min Xie, David Mcdowall.
  Criminology. September 24, 2014
  Criminal victimization is known to influence households’ moving decisions, but theories suggest that the processes leading to a moving decision can vary across racial and ethnic groups. Drawing from current literature, we hypothesized that victimization would have a stronger effect on moving decisions for Whites than for Blacks or Hispanics, and that racial/ethnic residential segregation would moderate the impact of victimization on mobility. Using a longitudinal sample of 34,134 housing units compiled from the National Crime Victimization Survey for the 40 largest metropolitan areas in the United States (1995–2003), we found results that both support and contradict the hypotheses. Specifically, White residents display consistent evidence that victimization is a significant predictor of household mobility. Blacks and Hispanics, in contrast, are more varied in their moving behavior after victimization. In addition, significant differences exist among these groups in responses to victimization and in how mobility is influenced by residential segregation. Higher levels of residential segregation play a part in the victimization–mobility relationship among Blacks in a way that is more complex than we hypothesized.

  September 24, 2014   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12048   open full text
• Cumulative Disadvantage: Examining Racial And Ethnic Disparity In Prosecution And Sentencing.
  Besiki L. Kutateladze, Nancy R. Andiloro, Brian D. Johnson, Cassia C. Spohn.
  Criminology. August 25, 2014
  Current research on criminal case processing typically examines a single decision‐making point, so drawing reliable conclusions about the impact that factors such as defendants’ race or ethnicity exert across successive stages of the justice system is difficult. Using data from the New York County District Attorney's Office that tracks 185,275 diverse criminal cases, this study assesses racial and ethnic disparity for multiple discretionary points of prosecution and sentencing. Findings from multivariate logistic regression analyses demonstrate that the effects of race and ethnicity vary by discretionary point and offense category. Black and Latino defendants were more likely than White defendants to be detained, to receive a custodial plea offer, and to be incarcerated—and they received especially punitive outcomes for person offenses—but were more likely to benefit from case dismissals. The findings for Asian defendants were less consistent but suggest they were the least likely to be detained, to receive custodial offers, and to be incarcerated. These findings are discussed in the context of contemporary theoretical perspectives on racial bias and cumulative disadvantage in the justice system.

  August 25, 2014   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12047   open full text
• Varieties Of Violent Behavior.
  Cathy Spatz Widom.
  Criminology. August 11, 2014
  There is an implicit assumption of homogeneity across violent behaviors and offenders in the criminology literature. Arguing against this assumption, I draw on three distinct literatures [child abuse and neglect (CAN) and violence, violence and post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and CAN and PTSD] to provide a rationale for an examination of varieties of violent behaviors. I use data from my prospective cohort design study of the long‐term consequences of CAN to define three varieties of violent offenders using age of documented cases of CAN, onset of PTSD, and first violent arrest in a temporally correct manner [CAN → to violence, CAN → PTSD → violence (PTSD first), and CAN → violence → PTSD (violence first)], and a fourth variety, violence only. The results illustrate meaningful heterogeneity in violent behavior and different developmental patterns and characteristics. There are three major implications: First, programs and policies that target violence need to recognize the heterogeneity and move away from a “one‐size‐fits‐all” approach. Second, violence prevention policies and programs that target abused and neglected children are warranted, given the prominent role of CAN in the backgrounds of these violent offenders. Third, criminologists and others interested in violence need to attend to the role of PTSD, which is present in about one fifth (21 percent) of these violent offenders, and not relegate the study of these offenders to the psychiatric and psychological literatures.

  August 11, 2014   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12046   open full text
• Self‐Control Through Emerging Adulthood: Instability, Multidimensionality, And Criminological Significance.
  Callie H. Burt, Gary Sweeten, Ronald L. Simons.
  Criminology. August 07, 2014
  This study assesses self‐control theory's stability postulate. We advance research on self‐control stability in three ways. First, we extend the study of stability beyond high school, estimating GBTMs of self‐control from ages 10 to 25. Second, drawing on advances in developmental psychology and social neuroscience, especially the dual systems model of risk taking, we investigate whether two distinct personality traits—impulsivity and sensation seeking—often conflated in measures of self‐control, exhibit divergent developmental patterns. Finding that they do, we estimate multitrajectory models to identify latent classes of co‐occurring developmental patterns. We supplement GBTM stability analyses with hierarchical linear models and reliable variance estimates. Lastly, using fixed effects models, we explore whether the observed within‐individual changes are associated with changes in crime net of overall age trends. These ideas are tested using five waves of data from the Family and Community Health Study. Results suggest that self‐control is unstable, that distinct patterns of development exist for impulsivity and sensation seeking, and that these changes are uniquely consequential for crime. We conclude by comparing our findings with extant research and discussing the implications for self‐control theory.

  August 07, 2014   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12045   open full text
• Revisiting “What They Think”: Adolescent Drinking And The Importance Of Peer Beliefs.
  Daniel T. Ragan.
  Criminology. July 25, 2014
  The association between delinquent peers and delinquent behavior is among the most consistent findings in the criminological literature, and several recent studies have raised the standards for determining the nature and extent of peer influence. Despite these advances, however, key questions about how deviant behavior is socially transmitted remain unresolved. In particular, much of the research examining peer influence has been limited to peer behavior, despite a rich literature supporting the salience of beliefs, such as expectations and moral approval, in shaping behaviors. In the current study, I model the peer influence and selection processes with longitudinal social network analysis to reexamine the contributions of peer beliefs and behaviors to adolescent drinking. I find evidence that beliefs related to peer drinking have both a direct and an indirect impact on behavior and play an important role in the friendship selection process. These results highlight the importance of understanding how peers influence deviant behavior and suggest that peer beliefs are an important part of this relationship.

  July 25, 2014   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12044   open full text
• Imprisonment Length And Post‐Prison Employment Prospects.
  Anke Ramakers, Robert Apel, Paul Nieuwbeerta, Anja Dirkzwager, Johan Wilsem.
  Criminology. June 27, 2014
  This study considers the relationship between imprisonment length and employment outcomes. The data are a unique prospective, longitudinal study of Dutch pretrial detainees (N = 702). All subjects thus experience prison confinement of varying lengths, although the durations are relatively short (mean = 3.8 months; median = 3.1 months). This contrasts with prior research that was limited to the study of American prison sentences spanning an average of 2 years. These data thus fill a gap in the empirical base concerning short‐term confinement, which is the norm in the United States (e.g., jail incarceration) and other Western countries. Using a comprehensive array of pre‐prison covariates, a propensity score methodology is used to examine the dose–response relationship between imprisonment length and a variety of employment outcomes. The results indicate that, among prison lengths less than 6 months in duration, longer confinement is largely uncorrelated with employment. In contrast, among spells in excess of 6 months, longer imprisonment length seems to worsen employment prospects.

  June 27, 2014   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12042   open full text
• The Effects Of Directed Patrol And Self‐Initiated Enforcement On Firearm Violence: A Randomized Controlled Study Of Hot Spot Policing.
  Richard Rosenfeld, Michael J. Deckard, Emily Blackburn.
  Criminology. June 27, 2014
  Targeted policing has proven effective in reducing serious crime in areas where it is highly concentrated, but the enforcement mechanisms responsible for the success of so‐called hot spots strategies remain poorly understood. This study evaluates the effects of a 9‐month randomized controlled hot spots field experiment on firearm assaults and robberies in St. Louis, Missouri. Thirty‐two firearm violence hot spots were randomly allocated to two treatment conditions and a control condition. Directed patrols were increased in both treatment conditions, whereas the experimental protocol limited other enforcement activity in one of the treatment conditions and increased it in the other. The results from difference‐in‐difference regression analyses indicate that the intervention substantially reduced the incidence of nondomestic firearm assaults, with no evident crime displacement to surrounding areas, to times when the intervention was not active, or to nonfirearm assaults. By contrast, we find no effects of the intervention on firearm robberies. Less definitive results suggest that the certainty of arrests and occupied vehicle checks account for the treatment effects on nondomestic firearm assaults.

  June 27, 2014   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12043   open full text
• Labeling Effects Of First Juvenile Arrests: Secondary Deviance And Secondary Sanctioning.
  Akiva M. Liberman, David S. Kirk, Kideuk Kim.
  Criminology. June 23, 2014
  A growing literature suggests that juvenile arrests perpetuate offending and increase the likelihood of future arrests. The effect on subsequent arrests is generally regarded as a product of the perpetuation of criminal offending. However, increased rearrest also may reflect differential law enforcement behavior. Using longitudinal data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN) together with official arrest records, the current study estimates the effects of first arrests on both reoffending and rearrest. Propensity score methods were used to control differences between arrestees and nonarrestees and to minimize selection bias. Among 1,249 PHDCN youths, 58 individuals were first arrested during the study period; 43 of these arrestees were successfully matched to 126 control cases that were equivalent on a broad set of individual, family, peer, and neighborhood factors. We find that first arrests increased the likelihood of both subsequent offending and subsequent arrest, through separate processes. The effects on rearrest are substantially greater and are largely independent of the effects on reoffending, which suggests that labels trigger “secondary sanctioning” processes distinct from secondary deviance processes. Attempts to ameliorate deleterious labeling effects should include efforts to dampen their escalating punitive effects on societal responses.

  June 23, 2014   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12039   open full text
• Explaining The Association Between Incarceration And Divorce.
  Sonja E. Siennick, Eric A. Stewart, Jeremy Staff.
  Criminology. May 26, 2014
  Recent studies have suggested that incarceration dramatically increases the odds of divorce, but we know little about the mechanisms that explain the association. This study uses prospective longitudinal data from a subset of married young adults in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (N = 1,919) to examine whether incarceration is associated with divorce indirectly via low marital love, economic strain, relationship violence, and extramarital sex. The findings confirmed that incarcerations occurring during, but not before, a marriage were associated with an increased hazard of divorce. Incarcerations occurring during marriage also were associated with less marital love, more relationship violence, more economic strain, and greater odds of extramarital sex. Above‐average levels of economic strain were visible among respondents observed preincarceration, but only respondents observed postincarceration showed less marital love, more relationship violence, and higher odds of extramarital sex than did respondents who were not incarcerated during marriage. These relationship problems explained approximately 40 percent of the association between incarceration and marital dissolution. These findings are consistent with theoretical predictions that a spouse's incarceration alters the rewards and costs of the marriage and the relative attractiveness of alternative partners.

  May 26, 2014   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12040   open full text
• Changes In Criminal Offending Around The Time Of Job Entry: A Study Of Employment And Desistance.
  Torbjørn Skardhamar, Jukka Savolainen.
  Criminology. April 08, 2014
  Does employment promote desistance from crime? Most perspectives assume that individuals who become employed are less likely to offend than those who do not. The critical issue has to do with the timing of employment transitions in the criminal trajectory. The turning point hypothesis expects reductions in offending after job entries, whereas the maturation perspective assumes desistance to have occurred ahead of successful transitions to legitimate work. Focusing on a sample of recidivist males who became employed during 2001–2006 (N = 783), smoothing spline regression techniques were used to model changes in criminal offending around the point of entry to stable employment. Consistent with the maturation perspective, the results showed that most offenders had desisted prior to the employment transition and that becoming employed was not associated with further reductions in criminal behavior. Consistent with the turning point hypothesis, we identified a subset of offenders who became employed during an active phase of the criminal career and experienced substantial reductions in criminal offending thereafter. However, this trajectory describes less than 2 percent of the sample. The patterns observed in this research suggest that transition to employment is best viewed as a consequence rather than as a cause of criminal desistance.

  April 08, 2014   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12037   open full text
• Heart Rate And Antisocial Behavior: The Mediating Role Of Impulsive Sensation Seeking.
  Jill Portnoy, Adrian Raine, Frances R. Chen, Dustin Pardini, Rolf Loeber, J. Richard Jennings.
  Criminology. April 08, 2014
  Although a low resting heart rate is considered the best‐replicated biological correlate of antisocial behavior, the mechanism underlying this relationship remains largely unknown. Sensation‐seeking and fearlessness theories have been proposed to explain this relationship, although little empirical research has been conducted to test these theories. This study addressed this limitation by examining the relationship between heart rate and antisocial behavior in a community sample of 335 adolescent boys. Heart rate was measured during a series of cognitive, stress, and rest tasks. Participants also completed self‐report measures of state fear, impulsive sensation seeking, and both aggressive and nonaggressive forms of antisocial behavior. As expected, increased levels of aggression and nonviolent delinquency were associated with a low heart rate. Impulsive sensation seeking, but not fearlessness, significantly mediated the association between heart rate and aggression. This study is the first to show that impulsive sensation seeking partly underlies the relationship between aggression and heart rate, and it is one of the few to examine the mechanism of action linking heart rate to antisocial behavior. Findings at a theoretical level highlight the role of impulsive sensation seeking in understanding antisocial behavior and at an intervention level suggest it as a potential target for behavioral change.

  April 08, 2014   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12038   open full text
• Pulling Back The Curtain On Heritability Studies: Biosocial Criminology In The Postgenomic Era.
  Callie H. Burt, Ronald L. Simons.
  Criminology. March 27, 2014
  Unfortunately, the nature‐versus‐nurture debate continues in criminology. Over the past 5 years, the number of heritability studies in criminology has surged. These studies invariably report sizeable heritability estimates (∼50 percent) and minimal effects of the so‐called shared environment for crime and related outcomes. Reports of such high heritabilities for such complex social behaviors are surprising, and findings indicating negligible shared environmental influences (usually interpreted to include parenting and community factors) seem implausible given extensive criminological research demonstrating their significance. Importantly, however, the models on which these estimates are based have fatal flaws for complex social behaviors such as crime. Moreover, the goal of heritability studies—partitioning the effects of nature and nurture—is misguided given the bidirectional, interactional relationship among genes, cells, organisms, and environments. This study provides a critique of heritability study methods and assumptions to illuminate the dubious foundations of heritability estimates and questions the rationale and utility of partitioning genetic and environmental effects. After critiquing the major models, we call for an end to heritability studies. We then present what we perceive to be a more useful biosocial research agenda that is consonant with and informed by recent advances in our understanding of gene function and developmental plasticity.

  March 27, 2014   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12036   open full text
• The Pragmatic American: Empirical Reality Or Methodological Artifact?
  Justin T. Pickett, Thomas Baker.
  Criminology. March 14, 2014
  Scholars widely agree that the public is pragmatic about criminal justice. The empirical basis for this conclusion is the failure in several previous studies to find a sizable negative relationship between dispositional and situational crime attributions, or between support for punitive and rehabilitative crime policies. We suggest, however, that public pragmatism may be an artifact of the use of unidirectional question batteries in prior research to measure attribution styles and policy support. When such questions are used, acquiescent responding can introduce systematic error that is positively correlated across items and scales. Drawing on data from an experiment with a national sample (N = 826) of Internet panelists, we examine how this methodological approach impacts the bivariate correlations and multivariate relationships between attribution styles and between support for punitive and rehabilitative crime policies. The findings reveal that using unidirectional sets of questions to measure these concepts likely results in 1) inflated alpha reliability coefficients, 2) an underestimation of the magnitude of the negative relationships between attribution styles and between punitiveness and support for rehabilitation, and 3) an underestimation of the extent to which punitiveness and support for rehabilitation are driven by the same factors, working in opposite directions.

  March 14, 2014   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12035   open full text
• Criminal Group Embeddedness And The Adverse Effects Of Arresting A Gang's Leader: A Comparative Case Study.
  Robert Vargas.
  Criminology. February 21, 2014
  Although law enforcement agencies arrest criminal group leaders to dismantle organized crime, few studies have assessed whether such interventions produce adverse effects. Through a mixed‐method comparative case study of the Latin Kings and 22 Boys street gangs in Chicago, this article examines the consequences of arresting a gang's leader. Using violent crime data, I show that a spike in violent crime took place in the first month after the arrest of the 22 Boys gang leader. In contrast, the arrest of the Latin Kings gang leader produced no change in violent crime. Using several qualitative data sources, I show that the arrest of the 22 Boys gang leader temporarily led to the gang's withdrawal from its territory, which spurred violent aggression from rival gangs in adjacent territories. In contrast, the Latin Kings gang continued its operations because the gang's prison leaders quickly appointed new leadership. The results suggest that criminal group embeddedness (or the social relations between criminal groups) can contribute to adverse effects in interventions targeting gang or other criminal group leaders.

  February 21, 2014   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12033   open full text
• The “True” Juvenile Offender: Age Effects And Juvenile Court Sanctioning.
  Daniel P. Mears, Joshua C. Cochran, Brian J. Stults, Sarah J. Greenman, Avinash S. Bhati, Mark A. Greenwald.
  Criminology. February 21, 2014
  Age is the only factor used to demarcate the boundary between juvenile and adult justice. However, little research has examined how age guides the juvenile court in determining which youth within the juvenile justice system merit particular dispositions, especially those that reflect the court's emphasis on rehabilitation. Drawing on scholarship on the court's origins, attribution theory, and cognitive heuristics, we hypothesize that the court focuses on youth in the middle of the range of the court's age of jurisdiction—characterized in this article as “true” juveniles—who may be viewed as meriting more specialized intervention. We use data from Florida for court referrals in 2008 (N = 71,388) to examine the decision to proceed formally or informally and, in turn, to examine formally processed youth dispositions (dismissal, diversion, probation, commitment, and transfer) and informally processed youth dispositions (dismissal, diversion, and probation). The analyses provide partial support for the hypothesis. The very young were more likely to be informally processed; however, among the informally processed youth, the youngest, not “true” juveniles, were most likely to be diverted or placed on probation. By contrast, among formally processed youth, “true” juveniles were most likely to receive traditional juvenile court responses, such as diversion or probation.

  February 21, 2014   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12034   open full text
• The Role Of Neighborhood Context In Youth Co‐Offending.
  David R. Schaefer, Nancy Rodriguez, Scott H. Decker.
  Criminology. December 23, 2013
  Despite co‐offending being a core criminological fact, locating suitable peers has many challenges. Chief among these, given the risky nature of co‐offending, is finding trustworthy accomplices. We propose that neighborhoods serve as youths’ most ready source of accomplices, and as such, their composition affects the likelihood of identifying suitable co‐offenders. In particular, youth are more likely to co‐offend in contexts with more peers of their race/ethnicity, less disadvantage, and greater residential stability—all of which promote trust among neighbors. We test our hypotheses using multilevel models applied to census data and official court records for 7,484 delinquent youth in a large metropolitan area. The results offer support for our hypotheses and provide greater insight into how individual and contextual factors combine to affect co‐offending behavior. An implication of these findings is that many of the same neighborhood characteristics that reduce crime lead to a greater proportion of co‐offending.

  December 23, 2013   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12032   open full text
• Self‐Control And Victimization: A Meta‐Analysis.
  Travis C. Pratt, Jillian J. Turanovic, Kathleen A. Fox, Kevin A. Wright.
  Criminology. December 17, 2013
  A consequential development in victimization theory and research was the idea that individuals with low self‐control self‐select into the various risky behaviors that may ultimately result in their victimization. To establish the empirical status of the self‐control–victimization link, we subjected this body of work to a meta‐analysis. Our multilevel analyses of 311 effect size estimates drawn from 66 studies (42 independent data sets) indicate that self‐control is a modest yet consistent predictor of victimization. The results also show that the effect of self‐control is significantly stronger when predicting noncontact forms of victimization (e.g., online victimization) and is significantly reduced in studies that control directly for the risky behaviors that are assumed to mediate the self‐control–victimization link. We also note that the studies assessing self‐control and victimization are not representative of victimization research as a whole, with intimate partner violence (IPV), violence against women, and child abuse being severely underrepresented. We conclude that future research should continue to examine the causal processes linking self‐control to victimization, how self‐control shapes victims’ coping responses to their experience, and whether self‐control matters in contexts where individuals may have limited autonomy over the behavioral routines that put them at risk for victimization.

  December 17, 2013   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12030   open full text
• Unpacking The Black Box Of Peer Similarity In Deviance: Understanding The Mechanisms Linking Personal Behavior, Peer Behavior, And Perceptions.
  Jacob T. N. Young, Cesar J. Rebellon, J. C. Barnes, Frank M. Weerman.
  Criminology. November 26, 2013
  The strong correlation between measures of personal and peer deviance occurs with near “law‐like” regularity. Yet, as with other manifestations of peer similarity (often referred to as homophily), the mechanisms generating this relationship are widely debated. Specific to the deviance literature, most studies have failed to examine, simultaneously, the degree to which similarity is the consequence of multiple causes. The current study addresses this gap by using longitudinal network data for 1,151 individuals from the Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement (NSCR) School Project. Structural equation modeling is used to address these issues by adapting Jussim and Osgood's () model of deviant attitudes in dyadic pairs to the current data. Across two separate behavioral domains (substance use and property offending), the results provide strong support for the prediction that individuals project their own deviant tendencies inaccurately onto their peers. Conversely, the results provide little or no support for the predictions that respondents accurately perceive their peers’ deviance or that their perceptions of peer deviance influence their own behavior. Implications for understanding the role of peer behavior in the etiology of adolescent deviance are discussed.

  November 26, 2013   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12029   open full text
• The Social Ecology Of Public Space: Active Streets And Violent Crime In Urban Neighborhoods.
  Christopher R. Browning, Aubrey L. Jackson.
  Criminology. November 22, 2013
  Drawing on one element of the discussion by Jacobs () of the social control benefits of “eyes on the street,” this article explores the link between the prevalence of active streets and violence in urban neighborhoods. Three distinct data sources from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods are merged to explore the functional form and potential contingency of the active streets–violence relationship: 1) video data capturing the presence of people on neighborhood streets; 2) longitudinal data on adolescents (11 to 16 years of age) and their self‐reports of witnessing severe violence; and (3) community survey data on neighborhood social organizational characteristics. The results from multilevel models indicate that the proportion of neighborhood streets with adults present exhibits a nonlinear association with exposure to severe violence. At low prevalence, the increasing prevalence of active streets is positively associated with violence exposure. Beyond a threshold, however, increases in the prevalence of active streets serve to reduce the likelihood of violence exposure. The analyses offer no evidence that the curvilinear association between active streets and violence varies by levels of collective efficacy, and only limited evidence that it varies by anonymity. Analyses of data on homicide and violent victimization corroborate these findings.

  November 22, 2013   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12026   open full text
• Restrictive Deterrent Effects Of A Warning Banner In An Attacked Computer System.
  David Maimon, Mariel Alper, Bertrand Sobesto, Michel Cukier.
  Criminology. November 20, 2013
  System trespassing by computer intruders is a growing concern among millions of Internet users. However, little research has employed criminological insights to explore the effectiveness of security means to deter unauthorized access to computer systems. Drawing on the deterrence perspective, we employ a large set of target computers built for the sole purpose of being attacked and conduct two independent experiments to investigate the influence of a warning banner on the progression, frequency, and duration of system trespassing incidents. In both experiments, the target computers (86 computers in the first experiment and 502 computers in the second) were set either to display or not to display a warning banner once intruders had successfully infiltrated the systems; 1,058 trespassing incidents were observed in the first experiment and 3,768 incidents in the second. The findings reveal that although a warning banner does not lead to an immediate termination or a reduction in the frequency of trespassing incidents, it significantly reduces their duration. Moreover, we find that the effect of a warning message on the duration of repeated trespassing incidents is attenuated in computers with a large bandwidth capacity. These findings emphasize the relevance of restrictive deterrence constructs in the study of system trespassing.

  November 20, 2013   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12028   open full text
• The Unintended Consequences Of Being Stopped Or Arrested: An Exploration Of The Labeling Mechanisms Through Which Police Contact Leads To Subsequent Delinquency.
  Stephanie Ann Wiley, Lee Ann Slocum, Finn‐Aage Esbensen.
  Criminology. October 06, 2013
  Much debate has taken place regarding the merits of aggressive policing strategies such as “stop, question, and frisk.” Labeling theory suggests that police contact may actually increase delinquency because youth who are stopped or arrested are excluded from conventional opportunities, adopt a deviant identity, and spend time with delinquent peers. But, few studies have examined the mechanisms through which police contact potentially enhances offending. The current study uses four waves of longitudinal data collected from middle‐school students (N = 2,127) in seven cities to examine the deviance amplification process. Outcomes are compared for youth with no police contact, those who were stopped by police, and those who were arrested. We use propensity score matching to control for preexisting differences among the three groups. Our findings indicate that compared with those with no contact, youth who are stopped or arrested report higher levels of future delinquency and that social bonds, deviant identity formation, and delinquent peers partially mediate the relationship between police contact and later offending. These findings suggest that programs targeted at reducing the negative consequences of police contact (i.e., poor academic achievement, deviant identity formation, and delinquent peer associations) might reduce the occurrence of secondary deviance.

  October 06, 2013   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12024   open full text
• Transitory Mobility, Cultural Heterogeneity, And Victimization Risk Among Young Men Of Color: Insights From An Ethnographic Study In Cape Town, South Africa.
  Marie Rosenkrantz Lindegaard, Jody Miller, Danielle M. Reynald.
  Criminology. October 06, 2013
  The coupling of racial and economic stratification has been found to result in a range of adverse outcomes for youth of color, including disproportionate exposure to violence and victimization. Primary explanations of these patterns, particularly at the micro‐level, have focused on the impact of street culture. In this article, we draw from a multiyear ethnography in Cape Town, South Africa, to offer a theoretical elaboration of the place of culture in contributing to victimization risks among urban minority young men. The study is based on data collected from a sample of 26 young men of color who lived on the Cape Flats between 2003 and 2006. Using grounded theory methods, we suggest the import of unequal access to spatial mobility as a multifaceted means by which culture mediates young men's risks for victimization in disadvantaged communities. We find that transitory mobility—conceptualized as youth's temporary access to cultural spaces outside their segregated residential neighborhoods—is an important source of cultural heterogeneity in townships that can intensify the strength of local social identities and outgroup antipathies directed at those whose mobility is perceived as a cultural threat. Transitorily mobile young men's cultural repertoires are a key facet of street efficacy that can either insulate them from risk or heighten their vulnerabilities. Our findings are suggestive of important sources of variation in young men's victimization outcomes in disadvantaged communities, offering insights about factors that shape risks beyond those linked to the victim–offender overlap in high‐risk settings.

  October 06, 2013   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12025   open full text
• High Times For Hate Crimes: Explaining The Temporal Clustering Of Hate‐Motivated Offending.
  Ryan D. King, Gretchen M. Sutton.
  Criminology. August 30, 2013
  This research explains the temporal clustering of hate crimes. It is hypothesized that many hate crimes are retaliatory in nature and tend to increase, sometimes dramatically, in the aftermath of an antecedent event that results in one group harboring a grievance against another. Three types of events are used to test and refine the argument: 1) contentious criminal trials involving interracial crimes, 2) lethal terrorist attacks, and 3) appellate court decisions concerning same‐sex marriage. The results from time‐series analyses indicate that contentious trial verdicts and lethal domestic terrorist attacks precede spikes in racially or religiously motivated hate crimes, whereas less evidence is found for antigay hate crimes after appellate court rulings that grant rights to same‐sex partners. The model put forth in this article complements prior work by explaining in part the timing of hate crime clusters.

  August 30, 2013   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12022   open full text
• Situational Causes Of Offending: A Fixed‐Effects Analysis Of Space–Time Budget Data.
  Wim Bernasco, Stijn Ruiter, Gerben J.N. Bruinsma, Lieven J.R. Pauwels, Frank M. Weerman.
  Criminology. August 14, 2013
  Situational theories of crime assert that the situations that people participate in contain the proximal causes of crime. Prior research has not tested situational hypotheses rigorously, either for lack of detailed situational data or for lack of analytical rigor. The present research combines detailed situational data with analytical methods that eliminate all stable between‐individual factors as potential confounds. We test seven potential situational causes: 1) presence of peers, 2) absence of adult handlers, 3) public space, 4) unstructured activities, 5) use of alcohol, 6) use of cannabis, and 7) carrying weapons. In a two‐wave panel study, a general sample of adolescents completed a space–time budget interview that recorded, hour by hour over the course of 4 complete days, the activities and whereabouts of the subjects, including any self‐reported offenses. In total, 76 individuals reported having committed 104 offenses during the 4 days covered in the space–time budget interview. Using data on the 4,949 hours that these 76 offenders spent awake during these 4 days, within‐individual, fixed‐effects multivariate logit analyses were used to establish situational causes of offending. The findings demonstrate that offending is strongly and positively related to all hypothesized situational causes except using cannabis and carrying weapons.

  August 14, 2013   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12023   open full text
• Does Economic Adversity Breed Criminal Cooperation? Considering The Motivation Behind Group Crime.
  HOLLY NGUYEN, JEAN MARIE McGLOIN.
  Criminology. July 17, 2013
  The fact that most offenders have accomplices at some point in their criminal career is curious, given the risks associated with criminal cooperation. McCarthy, Hagan, and Cohen () offered the first formal theory of the decision to co‐offend, which addressed explicitly the uncertainties attached to the decision to engage in group crime. They posited that when offenders experience adversity, they become more risk seeking and oriented toward the chance for potential gain, which essentially outweighs the uncertainties attached to criminal cooperation. McCarthy, Hagan, and Cohen's analysis of street youth offered some empirical support for their premise but left open many important questions. The current study uses data from two different samples of incarcerated felons in Nebraska (N = 321 offenders) and Colorado (N = approximately 1,120 observations nested within approximately 640 offenders) that provide information on different forms of economic adversity. Logistic regression models provide some evidence for the association between adversity and co‐offending, but they are inconsistent. In contrast, a preference for excitement is a consistent and powerful predictor of offending.

  July 17, 2013   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12021   open full text
• Group Cohesiveness, Gang Member Prestige, And Delinquency And Violence In Chicago, 1959–1962.
  Lorine A. Hughes.
  Criminology. July 08, 2013
  Data from Short and Strodtbeck's () study of gangs in Chicago, 1959–1962, are used to examine the association between intragang friendship networks and violent and delinquent behaviors among 248 boys from 11 different gangs (9 Black and 2 White). Contrary to expectations of tightly connected gangs being the most dangerous, estimates from multilevel overdispersed Poisson regression models showed significantly increased mean levels of violence among gangs with relatively low group cohesion. No relationship was observed between delinquency and gang cohesiveness, regardless of the specific network measure employed. At the individual level, popular boys were at a significantly increased risk for both delinquency and violence, suggesting a link between prestigious positions within the structure of gang friendship networks and conformity with group processes. The implications of these findings for detached worker intervention are discussed.

  July 08, 2013   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12020   open full text
• Masculinities, Persistence, And Desistance.
  Christoffer Carlsson.
  Criminology. June 21, 2013
  In life‐course criminology, when gender has been the focus of study, it has predominantly been treated as a variable. Studies that explore the gendered nature of criminal careers through the lived experiences of offenders are rare, even though these studies can make important contributions to our understanding of crime and the life course. Analyzing qualitative data, this article uses life‐history narratives of a small sample of male juvenile delinquents (N = 25), born in 1969–1974, to explore the possible link among masculinities, persistence, and desistance from crime. The findings of the study suggest that processes of persistence and desistance are imbued with age‐specific norms of what it means to “be a man” and successfully do masculinity in different stages of life. Analyzing these gender‐specific practices gives a deepened understanding of processes that underlie the offenders’ lives as they go through stages of continuity and change in crime. The findings of the study further suggest a complex intersection between gendered biographies and gendered structures, with fruitful contributions to life‐course criminology. The implications of these findings are discussed.

  June 21, 2013   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12016   open full text
• The Code Of The Street And Inmate Violence: Investigating The Salience Of Imported Belief Systems.
  Daniel P. Mears, Eric A. Stewart, Sonja E. Siennick, Ronald L. Simons.
  Criminology. June 21, 2013
  Scholars have long argued that inmate behaviors stem in part from cultural belief systems that they “import” with them into incarcerative settings. Even so, few empirical assessments have tested this argument directly. Drawing on theoretical accounts of one such set of beliefs—the code of the street—and on importation theory, we hypothesize that individuals who adhere more strongly to the street code will be more likely, once incarcerated, to engage in violent behavior and that this effect will be amplified by such incarceration experiences as disciplinary sanctions and gang involvement, as well as the lack of educational programming, religious programming, and family support. We test these hypotheses using unique data that include measures of the street code belief system and incarceration experiences. The results support the argument that the code of the street belief system affects inmate violence and that the effect is more pronounced among inmates who lack family support, experience disciplinary sanctions, and are gang involved. Implications of these findings are discussed.

  June 21, 2013   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12017   open full text
• Vulnerable Victims, Monstrous Offenders, And Unmanageable Risk: Explaining Public Opinion On The Social Control Of Sex Crime.
  Justin T. Pickett, Christina Mancini, Daniel P. Mears.
  Criminology. June 21, 2013
  With the possible exception of terrorists, sex offenders in the United States experience a greater degree of punishment and restriction than any other offender group, nonviolent or violent. Members of the public overwhelmingly support “get tough” sex crime policies and display an intense hostility toward persons labeled “sex criminals.” The theoretical literature has identified three models potentially explaining public opinion on the social control of sex crime: the victim‐oriented concerns model, the sex offender stereotypes model, and the risk‐management concerns model. However, empirical work that directly tests these models is absent. This article addresses that gap by analyzing national survey data that includes measures of the key concepts outlined in the different theoretical models and items gauging support for punitive sex crime laws as well as support for sex offender treatment. The findings provide partial support for all three models but suggest that extant theories can better explain support for punitive sex crime policies than views about sex offender treatment.

  June 21, 2013   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12018   open full text
• Peaceful Warriors: Codes For Violence Among Adult Male Bar Fighters.
  Heith Copes, Andy Hochstetler, Craig J. Forsyth.
  Criminology. June 21, 2013
  Considerable theoretical and empirical inquiry has focused on the role codes for violence play in generating crime. A large part of this work has examined the attitudes and codes condoning retaliation and violence as well as the prevalence of these among minorities residing in impoverished neighborhoods. Much about the nature of codes remains unknown, however, and this may in part reflect a narrow interest in beliefs about provocation and uses of violence among the inner‐city poor. In this study, we elaborate on a code of violence as part of a system of order and honor as articulated by a network of White, working‐class males in a southern U.S. city who participate in bar fights. The findings suggest that the code these men use prohibits predatory violence, puts exclusive limitations on situations that warrant violence, and constrains the level of violence in a fight. We detail the contours of this code (e.g., purpose of fighting, the rules of honorable fighting, and justifications for violating these rules) and discuss the code as both a cause and a consequence of behavior.

  June 21, 2013   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12019   open full text
• Examining The Generality Of The Unemployment–Crime Association.
  Mikko Aaltonen, John M. Macdonald, Pekka Martikainen, Janne Kivivuori.
  Criminology. June 10, 2013
  This article examines whether the relationship between unemployment and criminal offending depends on the type of crime analyzed. We rely on fixed‐effects regression models to assess the association between changes in unemployment status and changes in violent crime, property crime, and driving under the influence (DUI) over a 6‐year period. We also examine whether the type of unemployment benefit received moderates the link to criminal behavior. We find significantly positive effects of unemployment on property crime but not on other types of crime. Our estimates also suggest that unemployed young males commit less crime while participating in active labor market programs when compared with periods during which they receive standard unemployment benefits.

  June 10, 2013   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12012   open full text
• Is Being “Spiritual” Enough Without Being Religious? A Study Of Violent And Property Crimes Among Emerging Adults.
  Sung Joon Jang, Aaron B. Franzen.
  Criminology. June 10, 2013
  Although prior research has had a tendency to confirm a negative association between religiousness and crime, criminologists have been slow to incorporate new concepts and emergent issues from the scientific study of religion into their own research. The self‐identity phrase “spiritual but not religious” is one of them, which has been increasingly used by individuals who claim to be “spiritual” but disassociate themselves from organized religion. This study first examines differences in crime between “spiritual‐but‐not‐religious” individuals and their “religious‐and‐spiritual,” “religious‐but‐not‐spiritual,” and “neither‐religious‐nor‐spiritual” peers in emerging adulthood. Specifically, we hypothesize that the spiritual‐but‐not‐religious young adults are more prone to crime than their “religious” counterparts, while expecting them to be different from the “neither” group without specifying whether they are more or less crime prone. Second, the expected group differences in crime are hypothesized to be explained by the microcriminological theories of self‐control, social bonding, and general strain. Latent‐variable structural equation models were estimated separately for violent and property crimes using the third wave of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. The overall results tend to provide a partial support for the hypotheses. Implications for criminology and future research are discussed.

  June 10, 2013   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12013   open full text
• Modeling The Association Between Academic Achievement And Delinquency: An Application Of Interactional Theory.
  John P. Hoffmann, Lance D. Erickson, Karen R. Spence.
  Criminology. June 10, 2013
  Many studies have addressed whether delinquent behavior is associated with various aspects of schooling and academics. However, this research has been limited to examining unidirectional effects. Building on Thornberry's interactional theory, we develop a conceptual model that posits reciprocal associations among delinquent behavior, school attachment, and academic achievement. The model is tested with two waves from the Add Health data set (n = 9,381) that include measures of transcript grade point average (GPA). The results of a set of structural equation models provide evidence that academic achievement is associated with less delinquent behavior over time, as well as with higher school attachment. However, the effects of delinquency are limited to an attenuating effect on subsequent school attachment; delinquency does not directly influence academic achievement. Thus, we find only partial support for interactional theory.

  June 10, 2013   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12014   open full text
• The 2012 Sutherland Address Penality And The Penal State.
  David Garland.
  Criminology. June 10, 2013
  The sociology of punishment has developed a rich understanding of the social and historical forces that have transformed American penality during the last 40 years. But whereas these social forces are not unique to the United States, their penal impact there has been disproportionately large, relative to comparable nations. To address this issue, I suggest that future research should attend more closely to the structure and operation of the penal state. I begin by distinguishing penality (the penal field) from the penal state (the governing institutions that direct and control the penal field). I then present a preliminary conceptualization of “the penal state” and discuss the relationship between the penal state and the American state more generally.

  June 10, 2013   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12015   open full text
• “Seeing” Minorities And Perceptions Of Disorder: Explicating The Mediating And Moderating Mechanisms Of Social Cohesion.
  Rebecca Wickes, John R. Hipp, Renee Zahnow, Lorraine Mazerolle.
  Criminology. May 14, 2013
  Research shows that residents report high levels of disorder in places with greater concentrations of minorities even after controlling for objective indicators of crime or disorder. Less understood, however, are the mechanisms that explain this relationship. Drawing on a survey of nearly 10,000 residents nested within 297 neighborhoods across two cities, we use a multiple indicators–multiple causes model to examine the cues that lead individuals to distort the presence of minorities in neighborhoods. We then employ multilevel models to test whether these distortions influence perceptions of disorder. Furthermore, we assess whether living in a socially cohesive neighborhood mediates and/or moderates the relationship between “seeing” minorities and perceiving disorder. We find that when residents overestimate the proportion of minorities living in their neighborhood, perceptions of disorder are heightened. Yet social cohesion moderates and partially mediates this relationship: Residents living in socially cohesive neighborhoods not only report less disorder than those living in less cohesive communities, but also they “see” fewer minorities when compared with residents living in less socially cohesive neighborhoods. These results suggest that social cohesion is an important mechanism for explaining how residents internalize the presence of minorities in their neighborhoods and how this then leads to perceived neighborhood disorder.

  May 14, 2013   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12011   open full text
• A Dual‐Systems Approach For Understanding Differential Susceptibility To Processes Of Peer Influence.
  Kyle J. Thomas, Jean Marie Mcgloin.
  Criminology. April 10, 2013
  The distinct peer‐based perspectives of deviant normative influence and unstructured/unsupervised socializing with friends contend that adolescents rely on different information when deciding to offend, with the former positing that individuals offend after considering the longer term consequences of behavior, and the latter positing that decisions to offend derive from situational stimuli. We argue that these processes can be organized under a dual‐systems framework of decision making, which leads to the hypothesis that individuals at the edges of impulsivity should be differentially vulnerable to these peer influence processes because of their tendency to rely on only one system of decision making. We use two large data sets to test this hypothesis: a nationally representative sample of adolescents from the AddHealth study (N = ∼9,000) and a pooled panel data set of adolescents from the Gang Resistance Education and Training (G.R.E.A.T.) evaluation (N = 1,172). The results of longitudinal negative binomial analyses indicate that normative influence by deviant peers has a stronger effect on delinquency for adolescents with low impulsivity than it does for individuals with high impulsivity. Differences in the informal socializing with peers coefficients are less clear and offer minimal support for our predictions.

  April 10, 2013   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12010   open full text
• When The Ties That Bind Unwind: Examining The Enduring And Situational Processes Of Change Behind The Marriage Effect.
  Bianca E. Bersani, Elaine Eggleston Doherty.
  Criminology. April 10, 2013
  Despite the continued growth of research demonstrating that marriage promotes desistance from crime, efforts aimed at understanding the mechanisms driving this effect are limited. Several theories propose to explain why we observe a reduction in offending after marriage including identity changes, strengthened attachments, reduced opportunities, and changes to routine activities. Although mechanisms are hard to measure, we argue that each proposed mechanism implies a specific change process, that is, whether the change that ensues after marriage is enduring (stable) or situational (temporary). Drawing on a medical model framework, we cast the role of marriage as a treatment condition and observe whether the effect of marriage is conditional on staying married or whether the effect persists when the “treatment” is taken away (i.e., divorce). We use 13 years of monthly level data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY97), a nationally representative sample containing close to 3,000 individuals with an arrest history, to examine changes in relationship status and arrest from adolescence into young adulthood. Estimates from multilevel within‐individual models reveal greater support for situational mechanisms in that divorce is detrimental particularly for those in longer marriages; yet they also reveal important caveats that suggest a closer examination of the marriage effect. This research adds to the growing body of knowledge regarding the marriage effect by redirecting desistance research away from asking if marriage matters to asking how marriage affects desistance. A better understanding of this change process has important implications for criminal justice policy.

  April 10, 2013   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12008   open full text
• A Multilevel Framework For Understanding Police Culture: The Role Of The Workgroup.
  Jason R. Ingram, Eugene A. Paoline, William Terrill.
  Criminology. April 10, 2013
  Relying on a well‐established theoretical paradigm from organizational psychology, the aim of the current inquiry is to apply a multilevel approach to the study of police culture that identifies workgroups as important entities that influence officers’ occupational outlooks. More specifically, we propose that police culture be assessed in a way similar to concepts in criminology, such as collective efficacy and street culture, whereby the shared features of individuals’ environments are considered. Within this framework, we draw on survey data from five municipal police agencies to examine how strongly officers within 187 separate workgroups share culture, as well as the extent to which culture differs across these workgroups. Collectively, the findings suggest that the workgroup serves as a viable context that patterns culture in police organizations. As such, the study provides a way to move beyond conceptualizations of police culture as either a purely monolithic or an individual‐level phenomenon.

  April 10, 2013   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12009   open full text
• Punitive Sentiment.
  Mark D. Ramirez.
  Criminology. March 14, 2013
  Scholarship has long noted the importance of understanding the changes that occur over time in aggregate public support for punitive criminal justice policies. Yet, the lack of a reliable and valid measure of this concept limits our understanding of this aspect of the criminal justice system. This research develops a measure of public support for punitive policies from 1951 to 2006 using 242 administrations of 24 unique survey indicators. It argues that punitive sentiment is politically constructed via frames focusing on the permissiveness of the criminal justice system. Punitive sentiment is estimated with an error‐correction model showing both the short‐ and long‐term relationships between punitive sentiment and presidential framing of crime, public dissatisfaction with social welfare policies, and perceptions of racial integration. The results highlight the complex dynamics responsible for the change over time in punitive sentiment as well as the possibilities of obtaining public support for alternative solutions to crime.

  March 14, 2013   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12007   open full text
• Egohoods As Waves Washing Across The City: A New Measure Of “Neighborhoods”.
  John R. Hipp, Adam Boessen.
  Criminology. March 14, 2013
  Defining “neighborhoods” is a bedeviling challenge faced by all studies of neighborhood effects and ecological models of social processes. Although scholars frequently lament the inadequacies of the various existing definitions of “neighborhood,” we argue that previous strategies relying on nonoverlapping boundaries such as block groups and tracts are fundamentally flawed. The approach taken here instead builds on insights of the mental mapping literature, the social networks literature, the daily activities pattern literature, and the travel to crime literature to propose a new definition of neighborhoods: egohoods. These egohoods are conceptualized as waves washing across the surface of cities, as opposed to independent units with nonoverlapping boundaries. This approach is illustrated using crime data from nine cities: Buffalo, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dallas, Los Angeles, Sacramento, St. Louis, and Tucson. The results show that measures aggregated to our egohoods explain more of the variation in crime across the social environment than do models with measures aggregated to block groups or tracts. The results also suggest that measuring inequality in egohoods provides dramatically stronger positive effects on crime rates than when using the nonoverlapping boundary approach, highlighting the important new insights that can be obtained by using our egohood approach.

  March 14, 2013   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12006   open full text
• Target Choice During Extreme Events: A Discrete Spatial Choice Model Of The 2011 London Riots.
  Peter Baudains, Alex Braithwaite, Shane D. Johnson.
  Criminology. March 05, 2013
  Riots are extreme events, and much of the early research on rioting suggested that the decision making of rioters was far from rational and could only be understood from the perspective of a collective mind. In the current study, we derive and test a set of expectations regarding rioter spatial decision making developed from theories originally intended to explain patterns of urban crime when law and order prevail—crime pattern and social disorganization theory—and consider theories of collective behavior and contagion. To do this, we use data for all riot‐related incidents that occurred in London in August 2011 that were detected by the police. Unlike most studies of victimization, we use a random utility model to examine simultaneously how the features of the destinations selected by rioters, the origins of their journeys, and the characteristics of the offenders influence offender spatial decision making. The results demonstrate that rioter target choices were far from random and provide support for all three types of theory, but for crime pattern theory in particular. For example, rioters were more likely to engage in the disorder close to their home location and to select areas that contained routine activity nodes and transport hubs, and they were less likely to cross the Thames River. In terms of contagion, rioters were found to be more likely to target areas that had experienced rioting in the previous 24 hours. From a policy perspective, the findings provide insight into the types of areas that may be most vulnerable during riots and why this is the case, and when particular areas are likely to be at an elevated risk of this type of disorder.

  March 05, 2013   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12004   open full text
• The Cycle Of Violence In Context: Exploring The Moderating Roles Of Neighborhood Disadvantage And Cultural Norms.
  Emily M. Wright, Abigail A. Fagan.
  Criminology. March 05, 2013
  Although the cycle of violence theory has received empirical support (Widom, 1989a, 1989b), in reality, not all victims of child physical abuse become involved in violence. Therefore, little is known regarding factors that may moderate the relationship between abuse and subsequent violence, particularly contextual circumstances. The current investigation used longitudinal data from 1,372 youth living in 79 neighborhoods who participated in the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN), and it employed a multivariate, multilevel Rasch model to explore the degree to which neighborhood disadvantage and cultural norms attenuate or strengthen the abuse–violence relationship. The results indicate that the effect of child physical abuse on violence was weaker in more disadvantaged communities. Neighborhood cultural norms regarding tolerance for youth delinquency and fighting among family and friends did not moderate the child abuse–violence relationship, but each had a direct effect on violence, such that residence in neighborhoods more tolerant of delinquency and fighting increased the propensity for violence. These results suggest that the cycle of violence may be contextualized by neighborhood structural and cultural conditions.

  March 05, 2013   doi: 10.1111/1745-9125.12003   open full text