Showing papers by "Francis T. Cullen published in 1992"

The violent and illegal behavior of mental patients reconsidered.

Abstract: Although advocates for the mentally ill assert that mental patients are inappropriately stigmatized as dangerous, research indicates that former mental patients have higher arrest rates than the general public. Because of the limitations of arrest-rate studies, however, alternative hypotheses have suggested that the apparent dangerousness of mental patients is a methodological artifact. We compare mental patients and never-treated community residents on several official and self-reported measures of violentlillegal conduct. Mental patients have higher rates on all measures of violentlillegal behavior, and these differences cannot be accountedfor by sociodemographic and community context variables. A scale of psychotic symptoms is the only variable that accounts for differences in levels of violent! illegal behavior between patients and never-treated community residents. Although mental patients have elevated rates of violentlillegal behavior compared to nonpatients, the differences are modest and are confined to those experiencing psychotic symptoms.

Research note victimization in the workplace: A test of routine activities theory

Abstract: To advance and test fully routine activities theory, it is necessary to examine the relationship between routines and victimization in specific domains of social life, such as work, school, home, and leisure. Domain-specific studies, however, are limited in number and in rigor. In this light, using a sample of faculty members, the present study attempts to assess the impact of routines on victimization at work. The results support the utility of routine activities theory as an explanation of differences in workplace vitimization of faculty members. We discuss the implication of these findings, as well as the implications of domain-specific models for empirical tests of routine activities theory.