Showing papers in "Crime and Justice in 2015"
TL;DR: A wide diversity of reentry services fall under the rubric of "reentry services" and only a limited number of rigorous evaluations have been conducted as mentioned in this paper, which suggests that, overall, reentry service reduce recidivism, but program effects are heterogeneous and at times criminogenic.
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...
105 citations
TL;DR: This article found that adolescents are more impulsive, shortsighted, and responsive to immediate rewards and less likely to consider long-term consequences than adults, and adolescents are thus less blameworthy than adults.
Abstract: Responses to juvenile offending have swung between rehabilitative and punishment approaches since the 1960s. A shift back toward rehabilitation has been influenced by recent research on adolescence, adolescent decision making, and adolescent brain development. US Supreme Court decisions on juvenile sentencing have been influenced by them. Major changes from adolescence into early adulthood have been demonstrated in the frontal lobe and especially the prefrontal cortex, which helps govern executive functions such as self-control and planning. Compared with adults, adolescents are more impulsive, short-sighted, and responsive to immediate rewards and less likely to consider long-term consequences. Adolescents are thus less blameworthy than adults. Responses to juvenile offending should take account of malleable aspects of psychosocial functioning in a developmentally informed manner.
88 citations
TL;DR: This article found a negative longitudinal association between marriage and crime, and that desistance precedes rather than follows marriage in most of the 58 studies reviewed by the authors of this paper. But none of the studies demonstrates evidence of direct (counterfactual) causality; no study has served a causal estimate unbiased by selection processes.
Abstract: The “marriage effect” is one of the most widely studied topics of life course criminology. The contemporary consensus is that marriage promotes desistance from crime. Most of the 58 studies reviewed here find a negative longitudinal association between marriage and crime. The results are more consistent among men. Studies that attend to relationship quality, such as the level of marital attachment, tend to produce particularly strong associations. Critical scrutiny of the evidence regarding the causal nature of the reported associations suggests, however, that claims about the restraining influence of marriage are overstated. None of the studies demonstrates evidence of direct (counterfactual) causality; no study has served a causal estimate unbiased by selection processes. Moreover, only a few studies address time ordering, and some of those show that desistance precedes rather than follows marriage. Evidence in support of the theoretical mechanisms responsible for the marriage effect is also mix...
68 citations
TL;DR: This article found that the share of racial disproportionality in imprisonment that can be explained by differential involvement in crime has declined over time; attribute the continuing racial disparities to policies pursued during the war on drugs and officials' race-linked stereotypes of culpability, dangerousness, and likelihood of reoffending; and contend that race affects the capital sentenci...
Abstract: Flagrant and widespread racism that characterized the criminal justice system during the early part of the twentieth century has largely been eliminated, but racial disparities persist. Whether because of overt racism, implicit bias, or laws and practices that have racially disparate effects, black (and Hispanic) men and women make up a disproportionate number of people in American prisons and on death row. Researchers have conducted dozens of studies designed to untangle the complex relationships between race and punishment to determine the causes of racial disparities. Findings vary somewhat, but most conclude that the share of racial disproportionality in imprisonment that can be explained by differential involvement in crime has declined over time; attribute the continuing—possibly worsening—disparity to policies pursued during the war on drugs and officials’ race-linked stereotypes of culpability, dangerousness, and likelihood of reoffending; and contend that race affects the capital sentenci...
61 citations
TL;DR: The authors show that changes in zoning and street configurations, configuration and design of housing, and access to public transit can help manage crime, but the mechanisms by which such changes influence crime are not well understood, though shifts in the supply of criminal opportunities most likely play a role.
Abstract: Crime is influenced by the built environment. Broken windows, crime prevention through environmental design, situational crime prevention, and economic theories of the supply of and demand for criminal opportunities offer explanations. Zoning, designs of streets and housing, locations of public transit, and land uses shape the built environment in ways that can increase or reduce crime. Cross-sectional research shows that elements of the built environment are associated with crime rates in particular places. Quasi-experimental studies show that changes in zoning and street configurations, configuration and design of housing, and access to public transit can help manage crime. The mechanisms by which such changes influence crime are not well understood, though shifts in the supply of criminal opportunities most likely play a role. This evidence is promising. It suggests that the built environment can be modified to reduce both crime and reliance on criminal justice sanctions. Place-based experiment...
56 citations
TL;DR: The number of high-quality benefit-cost analyses of crime prevention programs has grown from 12 to 23 since 2000, and numerous benefit cost ratios have been calculated by the Washington State Institute for Public Policy as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The number of high-quality benefit-cost analyses of crime prevention programs has grown from 12 to 23 since 2000, and numerous benefit-cost ratios have been calculated by the Washington State Institute for Public Policy. Benefits are often estimated conservatively, whereas costs are usually estimated in full. Benefits nonetheless exceed costs for most programs, especially for preschool and cognitive-behavioral programs, target hardening and improved lighting, Communities That Care programs, and Business Improvement Districts. However, benefits and costs are not estimated comparably in different studies; few analyses are strongly comparable. There is great need for the establishment and use of a standard list of benefits and costs. Better research designs are needed, especially including randomized controlled trials. It is more cost-beneficial to invest in prevention than in imprisonment. The time is ripe for major investment to improve the lives of disadvantaged children.
46 citations
TL;DR: There has been relatively little effort at cross-national analysis of data concerning drug policy, though there is growing variation in how nations deal with illegal drugs as mentioned in this paper, and the same is true of intensity of enforcement; besides problems of creating comparable arrest, conviction and incarceration data, there is difficulty in generating an appropriate denominator of offenses.
Abstract: There has been relatively little effort at cross-national analysis of data concerning drug policy, though there is growing variation in how nations deal with illegal drugs. Systematic accounts of barriers to, and opportunities for, making comparisons are scarce. Comparisons of drug use prevalence, the focus of most cross-national studies, are undermined by fundamental and unacknowledged methodological differences. Prevalence is a poor measure of drug problems, but more appropriate indicators, such as drug-related crime and morality, are generated by institutional and legal systems that differ across countries, making them even more difficult to compare. The same is true of intensity of enforcement; besides problems of creating comparable arrest, conviction, and incarceration data, there is difficulty in generating an appropriate denominator of offenses. Collaboration among national data collection programs can help somewhat, but substantial progress will depend on harmonization of basic measurement systems, such as arrests and incarceration and on more subtle measures such as the prevalence of problem drug use
31 citations
TL;DR: The Dutch drug policy has slowly but surely shifted from a primarily public health focus to an increasing focus on law enforcement as mentioned in this paper, which led to acknowledgment of the adverse consequences of increased law enforcement and tempered its application.
Abstract: Dutch drug policy, once considered pragmatic and lenient and rooted in a generally tolerant attitude toward drug use, has slowly but surely shifted from a primarily public health focus to an increasing focus on law enforcement. The “coffee shop” policy and the policy toward MDMA/ecstasy are illustrations. Both were initiated from a public health perspective but were attacked because of unintended side effects relating to supply markets, crime, and nuisance. Coffee shops became the subject of increasing restrictions and MDMA/ecstasy production became the target of a comprehensive enforcement program. It took some time before the tougher strategies were applied. The health-oriented approach and the conviction that drug problems can be contained, but not eradicated, are deeply rooted. This led to acknowledgment of the adverse consequences of increased law enforcement and tempered its application. Research showed effectiveness in some regards but also unintended consequences. The expansion of illegal ...
27 citations
TL;DR: In the United States, social class differences have been invoked to explain perceived racial differences in criminal involvement in United States since the middle of the nineteenth century as mentioned in this paper, with mixed success.
Abstract: Social class differences have been invoked to explain perceived racial differences in criminal involvement in the United States since the middle of the nineteenth century. Scholars have joined with the public and the media to make such arguments with mixed success. Despite criticism of the theories and research methods used and contradictory evidence, social class arguments have persisted. Among the most enduring are subculture of violence and subculture of poverty theories, which purportedly explain instrumental crimes such as property crime, drug sales, and robbery, but also violence including homicide and assault. Proponents argue that African Americans are carriers of pro-crime norms and values. Criminologists and sociologists have recently advanced more parsimonious theories that posit that structured social and economic disadvantage account for racial and ethnic patterns of crime. Good data and analysis provide compelling supporting evidence. Ethnographic evidence has compellingly shown that...
22 citations
TL;DR: This article found that changing cultural definitions have affected official statistics for domestic violence and showed changes in the willingness of victims to report to the police, while evidence does not indicate that the cultural definition of lesser violence has changed in a way that has affected trends in official statistics.
Abstract: Macro-social theories posit that societies become more civil as they modernize. An open question is whether these changes affect major social indicators of crime. To produce level and change estimates, national data collection systems employ safeguards to promote stability. Cultural changes, though, might affect these systems in more subtle ways by affecting what citizens view as criminal violence and how these behaviors are recounted in crime surveys and reported to police. Three subclasses of violence appear most susceptible: rape and sexual assault, domestic violence, and lesser forms of violence such as verbal threats. Findings are strongest that changing cultural definitions have affected official statistics for domestic violence. Rape and sexual assault also have shown changes in the willingness of victims to report to the police. Evidence does not indicate that the cultural definition of lesser violence has changed in a way that has affected trends in official statistics. Estimating change ...
10 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the human rights analysis flowing from Rawls's innovative theory of justice has been used for criminal law reform, and it has become central in relation to decriminalization, mens rea, deterrence, prisons, capital punishment, sentencing, probation, parole and other doctrines.
Abstract: John Rawls's A Theory of Justice (1971) launched important jurisprudential rethinking of criminal law doctrine, policy, and practice. The opposing theories of Kant (natural rights) and Bentham (utilitarianism) are brought into new perspective by the human rights analysis flowing from Rawls's innovative theory. The traditional antagonism between the natural rights and utilitarian positions can no longer be sustained at least in its traditional form; the human rights perspective becomes central in relation to decriminalization, mens rea, deterrence, prisons, capital punishment, sentencing, probation, parole and other doctrines, and institutions and principles of punishment under the criminal law.
TL;DR: The Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 as mentioned in this paper was the first attempt to reduce the worst excesses of indeterminate sentencing and achieving greater fairness, consistency, equality, accountability, and transparency in sentencing federal offenders.
Abstract: The federal sentencing system was conceived in one era and delivered in another. When the first bills that culminated in passage of the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 were introduced, they aimed at reducing the worst excesses of indeterminate sentencing and achieving greater fairness, consistency, equality, accountability, and transparency in sentencing federal offenders. The overriding goal was reduction of unwarranted racial and other disparities. In the different political climate of the mid-1980s the federal sentencing commission instead sought to achieve greater rigidity and severity and to respond to the law-and-order policy preferences of the Reagan administration and the Republican-controlled US Senate. Probation, formerly the sentence of half of convicted federal offenders, was nearly eliminated as a stand-alone punishment. Lengths of prison sentences increased enormously. After the federal guidelines took effect, buttressed by a plethora of mandatory minimum sentence laws, the growth of t...