Abstract While body-worn cameras (BWCs) are increasingly becoming commonplace in police organizations, researchers and policymakers still know little about their implementation in the field and the factors related to their actual use. Using data collected from 146,601 incidents in Phoenix, Arizona, the present study examines the prevalence and correlates of BWC activation. In doing so, we examine the

Abstract Despite the potential symbolic, political, and practical importance of naming a law after a victim, it is unclear whether this practice influences public opinion about the law itself. I conducted a randomized vignette survey experiment on 1,000 American adults to determine if support for a proposed distracted driving law, and the punishment it authorized, was influenced by whether it was named

Abstract Recent political rhetoric both in the U.S. and abroad has drawn renewed attention to racial and ethnic conflict, state power, and punishment. The salience of minority group conflict on incarceration is well established in theory and research in the U.S. This study explores whether racial/ethnic composition explains incarceration rates throughout the world, rather than being a peculiarity of

Abstract Sentencing scholars have recently analyzed cumulative disadvantage that minority defendants are confronted with in the criminal justice system. This research has particularly focused on black, Latino, and to a lesser extent, Asian defendants. Little attention, however, has been paid to how American Indian defendants are treated across multiple decision points and cumulative disadvantage they

Abstract Much of the political rhetoric that facilitated mass incarceration was predicated on the promise of reducing fear among the public. Yet, it remains unclear whether the large increases in imprisonment experienced in many areas made residents feel less afraid. We examine this issue by integrating geographic data on imprisonment with individual-level data on fear from the General Social Survey

Abstract Judicial experience is considered essential for the proper functioning of the sentencing system. We investigate how it influences judicial decisions and its role in reducing sentencing disparity. To do so, we analyze all Czech criminal decisions imposed in 2007–2017 using data that includes judge identifiers. This unique feature of our data enables us to measure judges’ experience directly

Abstract Traditional police tactics such as rapid response and reactive enforcement continue to dominate the police response against human trafficking despite knowledge about the challenges and potential harm of using these tactics. Through the case of illicit massage businesses (IMBs), this study examines why police continue to rely on strategies that have received little empirical support. In-depth

Abstract We examine the situational effects of delinquent friends and unstructured socializing on the commission of thirteen types of offenses. We use the method of situational decomposition to disentangle the effects of situational influence from historical effects and confounding variables. Analyses are based on the Second International Self-Reported Delinquency Study (N = 73,000). They show that

Abstract Latent preferences feature prominently in rational choice and symbolic interaction theories but are difficult to capture empirically. To address this limitation, we introduce a discrete choice random utility model to estimate latent preferences for risk. Using data from the Pathways to Desistance study, we estimate the statistical model and demonstrate the usefulness of the preference estimates

Abstract This study examines the effect of defendant Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) on sentencing decisions in death penalty cases. Relying on Focal Concerns Theory and the affect heuristic, we examine the relative importance of substantive rationalities (blameworthiness and protection of the community from harm) and affect (anger and sympathy) in explaining the impact of such evidence. U.S.

Abstract This research synthesizes studies on crime and punishment, work in political sociology, and race and ethnicity scholarship in order to theorize and empirically examine the democratic foundations of group threat theory. We argue that ethnic diversity is particularly threatening when coupled with robust democratic institutions that empower individuals to pose challenges to the extant political

Abstract The current study involves a two-level examination of the impact of COVID-19 and George Floyd’s death on police work in the Tempe (AZ) Police Department. We employ interrupted time series analysis to test weekly trends (January 2017–January 2021) in crime and officer activity measures. We also examine body-worn camera footage (n = 474) to compare dynamics of police-citizen encounters over

Abstract Recidivism rates after release from prison are high worldwide. While research has not shown much promise in the ability of incarceration to reduce the risk of reoffending, little attention has been paid to the variation in prison experiences. This article examines if a relationship exists between prison conditions (unit characteristics and prison climate) and recidivism, and if any such relationship

Abstract This article seeks to resolve inconsistencies with life course theory (LCT) that we observed in our ethnographic research on life in multiple highly impoverished communities in Mexico where residents are involved heavily with drug cartels. The theoretical areas examined are some of the core aspects of LCT: trajectory; the age-graded process; transitions; state dependence; effects from other

Abstract Anger is considered integral for motivating youths’ criminal activity. To assess how anger and its features (fuse and duration) are associated with youths’ patterns of violence and offending, we studied official risk and (re)offending data among a sample of justice-involved youth (Mage = 14.87, SD = 1.40) in the United States (N = 548). Short anger fuse was associated with increased likelihood

Abstract Custodial prison work and vocation programs are among the most common programs in United States corrections. However, literature suggests ambiguity regarding their effectiveness in producing desired outcomes. Extant systematic reviews and meta-analyses of these programs are dated, focus on post-release programs, and rely on monolithic effect sizes to determine if these programs ‘work.’ To

Abstract Across the U.S., policy makers are enacting criminal justice reform while limiting many of those reforms to low-level, non-violent offenders. Given the power the public wields in shaping policy, it is necessary to consider which arguments for reform are most effective and who is viewed as most deserving of those reforms. The current study finds that varying the argument for reform, such as

Abstract Research suggests undocumented immigrants are vulnerable to robbery, burglary, and car theft, but studies have focused exclusively on victims’ perspectives rather than those of street offenders. This study draws from in-depth, semi-structured interviews of 25 active street offenders from a major southeastern US city to understand offenders’ perspectives and motivations for deciding whether

Abstract The gun ownership literature is vast, with dozens of studies seeking to explain who owns guns and why. We build on this literature in two key ways. First, we introduce a new variable into the fold: sensitivity to harm. We theorize that this concern actively inhibits gun ownership. Second, we direct theoretical and empirical attention to a predictor that has frequently been overlooked in the

(2021). Editorial Introduction to Special Issue of Justice Quarterly 2021: Addressing High Priority, “Big” Policy Questions in a Polarized Society. Justice Quarterly: Vol. 38, Addressing High Priority, “Big” Policy Questions in a Polarized Society. Guest Editor: Jodi Lane., pp. 1291-1292.

Abstract Over the last decade, high-profile mass shootings in the United States have brought gun policies back to the front of the public policy debate. While Americans remain divided on a number of gun policies, background checks have drawn bipartisan support. This study examines the impact of changes to background checks and licensing policies shortly after the passage of the 2014 Massachusetts gun

Abstract Democratic police reforms have reduced the isolation of officers from the public, putting recent public demands for changes to U.S. policing into stark relief with existing practices of police agencies. This qualitative study examines role conflict related to negotiating external expectations for policing among 48 U.S. police officers. Findings suggest that role conflict related to incoherent

Abstract The coercive nature of prisons is a longstanding topic of academic inquiry. Although correctional staff help incarcerated individuals adjust to prison by enforcing prison rules and providing guidance, incarcerated individuals are confined against their will. Most research on this topic typically does not focus on the role that time served in prison and in-prison experiences may have on perceptions

ABSTRACT: Despite the policy relevance of college-in-prison, the existing research on these programs has important flaws, failing to address selection and self-selection bias. We address an important policy question: what are the effects of college-in-prison program? To do this, we provide the largest study published to-date of a single college-in-prison program. We analyze the effects of the Bard

Abstract Despite a robust literature examining how immigration impacts community rates of crime, only a handful of studies have explored the heterogeneity of the foreign-born population. Using data for the year 2015 for over 1,000 incorporated census places in the United States, we examine how the diverse regional origins of immigrants from Latin America, Asia, Europe, and Africa are associated with

Abstract Neighborhood racial composition contributes to racial disparities in arrests, but prior research has almost exclusively focused on the magnitude of a minority population with somewhat mixed findings. We investigate whether racial disparities in arrests perpetuate when the racial composition reaches a particular threshold to assess whether the accumulation of race matters, and to what degree

Abstract Literature holds that religious engagement can help prisoners cope with prison life and suggests it may affect the likelihood of recidivism. But despite agreement that religion supports identity transformation and generates social control, few studies have examined the utility of these mechanisms during both prison and reentry. The relationship between religion and desistance may be complicated

Abstract The death penalty has historically been used to communicate moral outrage and fear about the murders of some kinds of victims more than others. A large body of research has inquired into the effects of defendant race, and to a lesser extent victim race in capital punishment. However, there is much less research on how victim gender influences capital punishment decisions, and even less research

Abstract As efforts to reverse mass incarceration increase, so does the need to supervise more individuals in the community. Faced with heightened demand, community corrections agencies increasingly use risk assessment to allocate resources efficiently and improve public safety. While both static, historical factors as well as dynamic, changeable factors have been incorporated into risk assessment

Abstract This study used violent victimization data from the National Crime Victimization Survey (1994–2018) to examine whether criminal justice interventions (i.e. reporting to the police and arrest) for youth-perpetrated violence were more likely to occur in school than outside school. On average, violence at school was 8.4 percentage points less likely than violence outside school to be reported

Abstract The present study examines the impact of Proponte Más, a family-based, multiple gated prevention program in Honduras. The primary goal of Proponte Más is to reduce the risk factors for problem behavior associated with youth in Honduras through family-based intervention services. At risk youth were randomly assigned to a treatment and control group. Data for the study were sourced primarily

Abstract Much remains unknown about how disability intersects with victimization. Relying on data from the 2016- 2019 nationally representative self-reported National Crime Victimization Survey, we examine if type of disability is associated with different health outcomes when someone is violently victimized. Through logistic regressions, we examine if the individual is injured (or not) and, among

Abstract A popular model of legal socialization contends that interactions with authority figures impact the internalization of pro-social values and beliefs, including authority legitimacy. Simultaneously, subcultural theories, including the code of the street, emphasize that negative contextual and experiential factors promote subcultural beliefs. The current study examines whether legal socialization

Abstract Research on when alternatives to incarceration are available – and for whom – is underdeveloped. In this study we introduce the concept of “salvageability” as a fourth focal concern guiding the decisions of court actors. In assessing salvageability, actors must consider the casual reasons behind offenders’ criminal involvement and the extent to which those causes can be ameliorated through

Abstract A plea for scaling up (i.e., examining the global dimensions) and expanding out (i.e., considering indirect, alternative and complementary measures) of local crime and criminal justice phenomena is made in this paper. The implications and benefits of doing so are illustrated by utilizing the study of unresolved (or cold case) homicides, which are usually conceived as events responsive to localized

Abstract Fridel's response to my critique of her Justice Quarterly article is a “nonresponse response.” She does not actually respond to any of my criticisms, and does harm to the field of research on guns and violence by encouraging scholars to believe two falsehoods: (1) that instrumental variables methods are not feasible as a technique for addressing causal order issues, and that (2) that the percent

ABTRACT Following Kleck’s critique on my recent article on guns, firearms homicide, and mass shootings, I wrote a detailed and thorough reply refuting his methodological concerns and discussing directions for future research. In response, Kleck published a second rebuttal reiterating issues already addressed in both the original manuscript and the reply article, erroneously dismissing my work as a

Abstract While in prison, incarcerated persons can be subjected to qualitatively different conditions of confinement ranging from minimum to maximum security settings. In this study, we use data on 17,542 incarcerated men to assess whether the relationship between visitation and recidivism varies across the types of settings (i.e. minimum, medium, close, and maximum custody units) in which individuals

Abstract Despite concerns and debates about the policy of using extended solitary confinement for managing individuals deemed to be too violent or disruptive to be controlled any other way—for the broader goal of system order and safety—empirical assessments of disparities in placements into this form of incarceration are limited. Prior studies typically have not compared extended solitary management

Abstract Public reporting programs such as the “See Something, Say Something” campaign are important counterterrorism measures. Yet public knowledge about terrorism is low, and Americans tend to associate terrorist activity with Muslims and Middle Easterners rather than with Whites. The consequence may be biases in public reporting that lead to discriminatory law enforcement. Using data from a national

Abstract The current study administered a self-report survey with behaviorally specific questions to a stratified sample of non-college educated women, aged 18 to 29, in the general population (N = 996). Notably, the women were classified as being trafficked as adults only (3.8%), minors only (9.6%), or as both adults and minors (9.3%) using the federal legal definition. More than 1 in 5 (22.7%) women

Abstract Despite considerable evidence that police legitimacy results in beneficial outcomes like compliance, cooperation, and empowerment, scholars have yet to agree on how to define and operationalize legitimacy. Drawing on Max Weber’s facets of legitimacy, we developed and tested a measure of “traditional authority,” reflecting the possibility that some people legitimate the police more so based

Abstract This paper reports on a systematic review and meta-analysis of disproportionate minority contact in the juvenile justice system. A total of 79 independent samples were analyzed from the 67 studies that met the criteria for inclusion in the meta-analyses. Meta-analytic techniques were used to examine the overall effects of race/ethnicity at the six major decision points in the juvenile justice

Abstract Police use of deadly force represents a pressing public policy issue with implications for police-community relationships and equitable access to justice. A growing body of literature considering the structural factors influencing officers’ exposure to potential violence suggests that context plays a pivotal role in officer use of deadly force. This study explores how local gun ownership rates

Abstract The effects of stressful life events on violent victimization have been well established. The existing literature, however, remains relatively limited in examining the indirect association between stressful life events and violent victimization through acquired psychological processes. The current study examines the mediating effects of the co-occurrence of negative psychological symptoms

Abstract Fridel recently published a macro-level panel study of firearms homicide rates and counts of mass shootings, and concluded that higher gun ownership rates increase the number of mass shootings, and that more permissive laws on gun carrying increase the firearms homicide rate. The conclusions are unreliable because the study repeated the most important methodological errors identified in prior

Abstract Research on the consequences of hate crime victimization primarily focuses on adverse health and economic effects with limited attention devoted to the socio-behavioral impact of crime. Informed by Intersectionality Theory (Crenshaw, 1989 Crenshaw, K. (1989). Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory and antiracist

Abstract In December 2018, the First Step Act of 2018 was signed into law, which required the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to begin using risk and needs assessment to assign programs and provide inmates with required treatment. The Attorney General was tasked to develop an assessment to assess and assign inmates to four possible risk levels. In response, BOP and National Institute of Justice (NIJ)

Abstract People consider potential risks and rewards while deciding whether to engage in crime. Such perceptions and their impact on behavior can vary according to individual differences like criminal self-efficacy, or one’s perception of criminal competency. We examine perceptions of skill, risk, and reward using semi-structured interviews with 46 women “shake and bake” meth cooks currently residing

(2021). Why Your Bar Has Crime but Not Mine: Resolving the Land Use and Crime – Risky Facility Conflict. Justice Quarterly. Ahead of Print.

Abstract The present study examines whether the effect of involvement with delinquent friends on young people’s criminal activity is contingent on adolescents’ personal morality and their capacity for self-control and how these enduring properties work together in determining youths’ vulnerability to peer influence. The corresponding person–environment interactions are tested based on a longitudinal

Abstract In most states and jurisdictions, risk assessments are incorporated into justice system practice. Despite decades of use, the methods of tool development are rarely translated to the field. Many agencies implement ‘off-the-shelf’ versions, where a tool developed with a unique set of methods and subjects demonstrates prediction shrinkage when applied to a new jurisdiction. Using a large, 10-state

Abstract In the current study, we theorized that businesses in place are subject to two processes: a crime generator effect in which they heighten crime due to increased opportunities and a crime inhibition effect in which certain types of businesses can increase guardianship capability. We explicitly compare the different effects of local vs. non-local and small vs. large businesses on crime in street

Abstract There is mixed evidence on whether incarcerated persons with mental illnesses have increased odds of being placed in solitary confinement. This study answered this question using a large system-wide sample and a propensity score matching design that accounted for a wide range of individual and facility confounds. Having a mental illness was associated with an increase of up to 170% in the

(2021). Statement of retraction. Justice Quarterly: Vol. 38, No. 6, pp. 1290-1290.

Abstract Despite the well-established link between homelessness and incarceration, very little qualitative research has focused on the social processes that underlie this nexus. In this article, I draw on 19 in-depth interviews with incarcerated men who reported pre-prison housing instability, supplemented with 5 interviews with formerly-incarcerated men experiencing homelessness, to explore the gendered

Abstract This study examines individual differences in violent extremist intentions. It combines key criminological theories and concepts including situational action theory, social learning theory, self-control, general strain theory and legal cynicism. We employ a conceptually integrated approach to studying extremism, which acknowledges the profound effect of person-environment reciprocity and,

(2020). Successful Research-Practitioner Partnerships: Empirical Research in Honor of Joan Petersilia. Justice Quarterly: Vol. 37, Successful Researcher-Practitioner Partnerships: Empirical Research in Honor of Joan Petersilia. Guest Editor: Jodi Lane, pp. 1173-1175.

Abstract Considerable attention has been devoted to understanding police socialization and the resulting culture, yet only recently have scholars turned to a network approach to understand the social relationships between officers. We extend these efforts with results from a pilot study of officer networks in a large US police department. Network data are collected from 88 front-line officers to examine

Abstract In the aftermath of a cluster of at least twenty suicides among correction officers working for a state department of correction, we conducted the first extensive mixed-methods study of correction officer suicide. Using a grounded theory approach, we sought to better understand the ways in which personal and occupational factors may have contributed to the suicide deaths of the officers. We