Showing papers by "Francis T. Cullen published in 2015"

Prisoner Reentry Programs

Abstract: Only in the past decade has prisoner reentry been “discovered” and become a central policy concern in the United States. This is due in part to the sheer number of released inmates (more than 600,000 annually) and in part to a movement that has defined the issue as “reentry.” A growing number of programs have been created in prisons and the community. Implementing them effectively, however, poses substantial challenges. A wide diversity of programs fall under the rubric and only a limited number of rigorous evaluations have been conducted. Research suggests that, overall, reentry services reduce recidivism, but program effects are heterogeneous and at times criminogenic. Effective programs tend to be consistent with the risk-need-responsivity model. A sustained effort to evaluate carefully designed programs rigorously is needed and may require development of a “criminology of reentry.” More needs to be understood about why recidivism rates are high in the first year after reentry, why some offende...

Incarceration Heterogeneity and Its Implications for Assessing the Effectiveness of Imprisonment on Recidivism

Abstract: Mass incarceration has led to increased interest in understanding the effects of imprisonment. Reviews of criminological theory and research report mixed evidence that incarceration reduces recidiv...

Public Willingness to Downsize Prisons: Implications From Oregon

Abstract: After decades of the steady growth of inmate populations, the mass imprisonment movement has stalled and serious attempts are being undertaken to downsize prisons. At issue, however, is whether the American public will endorse this policy agenda. This issue is explored with data from a 2010 survey of 1,569 Oregon adults. On a broad level, the respondents favored a preventative-rehabilitative approach to crime control and endorsed a range of reentry services for inmates. Most significant, the sample supported specific policies, including community sanctions and several forms of early release, to reduce prison populations. Notably, however, they did not embrace downsizing for the purpose of lowering spending—a finding that should be explored in other states. These results indicate that, at least in Oregon, the public is willing to consider efforts to downsize prisons. Capitalizing on this public support remains the challenge to be addressed.

Liberal But Not Stupid: Meeting the Promise of Downsizing Prisons

Abstract: A confluence of factors — a perfect storm — interfered with the intractable rise of imprisonment and contributed to the emergence of a new sensibility defining continued mass imprisonment as non-sustainable. In this context, reducing America’s prisons has materialized as a viable possibility. For progressives who have long called for restraint in the use of incarceration, the challenge is whether the promise of downsizing can be met. The failure of past reforms aimed at decarceration stand as a sobering reminder that good intentions do not easily translate into good results. Further, a number of other reasons exist for why meaningful downsizing might well fail (e.g., the enormous scale of imprisonment that must be confronted, limited mechanisms available to release inmates, lack of quality alternative programs). Still, reasons also exist for optimism, the most important of which is the waning legitimacy of the paradigm of mass incarceration, which has produced efforts to lower inmate populations and close institutions in various states. The issue of downsizing will also remain at the forefront of correctional discourse because of the court-ordered reduction in imprisonment in California. This experiment is ongoing, but is revealing the difficulty of downsizing; the initiative appears to be producing mixed results (e.g., reductions in the state’s prison population but increased in local jail populations). In the end, successful downsizing must be “liberal but not stupid.” Thus, reform efforts must be guided not only by progressive values but also by a clear reliance on scientific knowledge about corrections and on a willingness to address the pragmatic issues that can thwart good intentions. Ultimately, a “criminology of downsizing” must be developed to foster effective policy interventions.

Environmental Corrections: A New Paradigm for Supervising Offenders in the Community

Abstract: Environmental Corrections is an innovative guide filled with rich insights and strategies for probation and parole officers to effectively integrate offenders back into the community and reduce recidivism. Authors Lacey Schaefer, Francis T. Cullen, and John E. Eck move beyond traditional models for interventions and build directly on the applied focus of environmental criminology theories. Using this approach, the authors answer the question of what officers can do to decrease opportunities for an offender to commit a crime. Readers will learn how to recognize and assess specific criminal opportunities in an offender’s past and gain the tools and strategies they need to design an individualized supervision plan that channels offenders away from these criminogenic situations.

Putting a Price on Justice: How to Incentivize the Downsizing of Prison Populations

Abstract: We argue that the proximate reason the United States overuses prisons is that for local prosecutors and judges, sending offenders to prison is “free”; the state pays. By completely subsidizing prison use, states incentivize local overuse of prisons. State prisons in the United States are common pool resources, so options to managing common pool resources used in fisheries and environmental protection may have applications to corrections. We propose, for this purpose, seven options: six involve pricing systems and each having several variants. Each approach, in its own way, puts a price on justice. We also outline other changes in correctional and sentencing practices policy makers need to make to implement these approaches. We anticipate potential consequences, good and bad, of incentivizing justice. Finally, we fully expect our proposals to incur the ire of some political idealists on the right and the left. Nevertheless, for policy makers who are concerned about practical solutions to the grave ...

Challenging Criminological Theory: The Legacy of Ruth Rosner Kornhauser

Abstract: This volume is divided into five sections that, when taken together, offer an informative account of the impact of Ruth Rosner Kornhauser's Social Sources of Delinquency on the development of American criminological thought. This classic book was her major contribution to the field. Section I tells the story of Kornhauser's brief but influential academic career. Section II probes deeply into the specific ways in which she challenged criminological theory and the subsequent responses that were forthcoming. Section III then presents commentary on specific lines of inquiry inspired by Kornhauser's book and orientation to criminological theory. Section IV explores recent efforts to move beyond Kornhauser's insights on communities and crime. Section V concludes with three critical essays contending that Social Sources of Delinquency paid insufficient attention to criminal motivation, the role of opportunity in offending, and gangs and girls. This volume-authored by prominent scholars-shows that Kornhauser's way of thinking about crime continues to be a starting point for much criminological theory today.

Richard Quinney's the Social Reality of Crime: A Marked Departure from and Reinterpretation of Traditional Criminology

Abstract: ON THE OCCASION OF THE 40TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE PUBLICATION of THE Social Reality of Crime (Quinney 1970a), the November 2010 Meeting of the American Society of Criminology (ASC) in San Francisco featured a panel to discuss the legacy and continuing relevance of this pathbreaking book. (1) Richard Quinney authored over 30 books and nearly 80 articles in his lifetime and recently ranked among the top 10 most-cited scholars in criminology (Wozniak 2011,223). The Social Reality of Crime has continued to be popular and influential up to current times. The issues and concerns it raised are featured in widely adopted contemporary textbooks in introductory sociology (Schaefer 2010; Witt 2010), criminology (Brown, Esbensen, and Geis 2013; Siegel 2007), and criminological theory (Lilly, Cullen, and Ball 2011; Void, Bernard, and Snipes 2002). As Richard Quinney (2000a, xi) noted: In the preface to my book, The Social Reality of Crime, published in 1970,1 stated that my purpose was to provide a reorientation to the study of crime. It was my intention to create a new theoretical perspective for criminology, drawing from past criminology but informing the new perspective with the sensibility that was forming at the end of the 1960s. In a new introduction to the fourth printing of the book (Quinney 2008, ix), Javier Trevino wrote: Three decades after it was published, Richard Quinney's The Social Reality of Crime remains an eloquent and important statement on crime, law and justice.... At the time of its appearance in 1970, the theory of the social reality of crime--as a critical reinterpretation of criminology--not only liberated the field from being a recitation of the policies of the police, courts, and corrections, it also, and more importantly, represented a marked departure from the traditional analysis of crime that viewed criminal behavior as pathological in nature. In this spirit, the following commentaries add further perspective to the legacy of The Social Reality of Crime for present and future analyses of crime. Francis T. Cullen: The Social Reality of Crime--The Lessons Learned When Chuck Reasons kindly invited me to participate in the ASC panel celebrating Richard Quinney's seminal work, I must confess that I was honored--of course-- but also perplexed. I was not one of Richard's students, nor am I typically seen as someone who lives in the critical-peacemaking end of the discipline--though I do occasionally hang out there. So, I quickly redirected Chuck's attention to my good friend and Quinney scholar, John Wozniak. Chuck thought that including John was a great idea and said, "Good, now you can both be on the panel!" This inability to avoid participating in the session occasioned acute anxiety, because I immediately panicked about what the hell I could say. But Chuck's invitation had the unanticipated--and positive--consequence of prompting me to revisit Richard's The Social Reality of Crime. This book resides on a shelf in my office--as it has for over three decades-- just several feet from where I sit at my desk. The difficulty with age is that books that I read in graduate school as exciting new contributions have been transformed at my current career stage into historical works! But as I revisited The Social Reality of Crime, I not only recalled how important this volume was on my first read, but also realized how so much of its content continues to ring true and to illuminate today's crime and justice issues. Indeed, Richard's erudition in this treatise is extraordinary, ranging from philosophy to the sociology of law to criminology. It is a book that contains many lessons. Younger criminologists, in particular, should be encouraged to enjoy an excursion through its chapters. Although the book may be "old" in years, they certainly will find many "new" ideas to weigh seriously in it. …

30 Intervening Effectively with Juvenile Offenders: Answers from Meta-Analysis

Abstract: A general critique of the injustices characterizing juvenile corrections became focused on the empirical effectiveness of rehabilitation programs, with the claim being made that “nothing works” to reform wayward youths. The statistical technique of meta-analysis played a crucial role in arbitrating this debate. Most prominently conducted by Mark Lipsey, meta-analytic studies revealed that deterrence or punishment-oriented interventions do not work, but that human service or treatment programs do work. In particular, programs implemented with therapeutic integrity and that conform the principles of the Risk-Need-Responsibility (RNR) Model reduce recidivism the most. Research knowledge gained from meta-analysis should be used to develop and implement evidence-based interventions. Broad public support exists for rehabilitative efforts to save juvenile offenders from a life in crime.