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Clearing crimes in the aftermath of police lethal violence Criminology & Public Policy (IF 5.085) Pub Date : 2022-06-07 Aki Roberts, John M. Roberts
Police use of violence may threaten police agencies’ effectiveness by reinforcing residents’ legal cynicism and disengagement from police. We examined police lethal violence against Black people and its relationship with clearance by arrest in a sample of Black victims’ crime incidents in over 350 jurisdictions in 2015, via Mapping Police Violence and the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS)
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Do body-worn cameras reduce disparities in police behavior in minority communities? Evidence of nuanced influences across Black and Hispanic neighborhoods Criminology & Public Policy (IF 5.085) Pub Date : 2022-05-24 Jessica Huff
The adoption of body-worn cameras (BWCs) is often promoted in response to contentious police use of force incidents involving minority civilians. BWCs are expected to improve policing outcomes by enhancing accountability, although researchers have yet to determine whether BWCs can reduce racial/ethnic disparities. I examine whether BWCs mitigate the influence of neighborhood racial/ethnic context on
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“Culture eats strategy for breakfast”: An in-depth examination of police officer perceptions of body-worn camera implementation and their relationship to policy, supervision, and training Criminology & Public Policy (IF 5.085) Pub Date : 2022-05-25 James J. Willis
This study uses interviews with 23 police officers from a small police department to conduct an in-depth examination of their perceptions of three critical but understudied areas related to body-worn camera programs: the implementation and policy-making process, supervision, and training. The focus is on understanding the factors which contribute to, or undermine, body-worn camera integration and acceptance
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Police body-worn camera policies as democratic deficits? Comparing public support for policy alternatives Criminology & Public Policy (IF 5.085) Pub Date : 2022-05-19 Daniel E. Bromberg, Camille Faubert, Étienne Charbonneau
Policies that govern the use of body-worn cameras (BWCs) by police vary widely between American cities. However, it is currently unclear whether citizen preferences for these policies vary in a similar manner. More specifically, do BWC policies reflect citizen preferences or are existing policies disfavored by a majority of the public? To investigate these questions, we randomly sampled 1000 respondents
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Estimating the effects of shrinking the criminal justice system on criminal recidivism Criminology & Public Policy (IF 5.085) Pub Date : 2022-05-19 Charles E. Loeffler, Anthony A. Braga
We examined the impact of Raise the Age (RTA) in Massachusetts, which increased the maximum jurisdictional age for its juvenile court in late 2013. Using statewide re-arraignment data and a difference-in-differences research design comparing affected 17-year-olds to unaffected 18-year-olds, we find that RTA increased recidivism for affected 17-year-olds. The observed increases in recidivism were especially
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Stacking punishment: The imposition of consecutive sentences in Pennsylvania Criminology & Public Policy (IF 5.085) Pub Date : 2022-04-25 Miranda A. Galvin
This study introduces the decision to impose consecutive sentences as a “window of discretion” in modern sentencing regimes that has the potential to produce extreme and disparate punishment. Among cases sentenced in Pennsylvania between 2015 and 2019, consecutive sentences were present in more than 20% of all cases, including 35% of cases resulting in a primary sentence to prison and 39% of cases
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Toward victim-sensitive body-worn camera policy: Initial insights Criminology & Public Policy (IF 5.085) Pub Date : 2022-04-20 Alana Saulnier, Amanda Couture-Carron, Daniel Scholte
Despite constituting a substantial portion of police contacts, victims in general, and violence against women (VAW) survivors in particular, have received little attention in body-worn camera (BWC) research. As BWCs proliferate in policing, crafting victim-sensitive BWC policies is important. Drawing from qualitative interviews with 33 survivors of sexual assault and/or intimate partner violence, we
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The impact and policy relevance of street lighting for crime prevention: A systematic review based on a half-century of evaluation research Criminology & Public Policy (IF 5.085) Pub Date : 2022-04-11 Brandon C. Welsh, David P. Farrington, Stephen Douglas
This article reports on an updated systematic review and meta-analysis of the effects of street lighting interventions on crime in public places. Following Campbell Collaboration guidelines, it uses robust criteria for inclusion of studies, comprehensive search strategies to identify eligible studies, a detailed protocol for coding key study characteristics, and rigorous methods for analyzing studies
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A test of the bifurcation hypothesis in prosecutorial diversion Criminology & Public Policy (IF 5.085) Pub Date : 2022-04-02 Besiki Luka Kutateladze, R. R. Dunlea, Lin Liu, Maria Arndt
This study offers a localized test of the bifurcation hypothesis, which suggests that jurisdictions adopting decarceral policies for lower-level offenses often do so at the expense of increased punitiveness toward more serious offenses. Relying on fresh data from Florida, we examine how adopting a new diversion program targeting low-level traffic offenses affects overall prosecutorial diversion decisions
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Beyond impunity: An evaluation of New York State's nonfatal shooting initiative Criminology & Public Policy (IF 5.085) Pub Date : 2022-04-01 Hannah Cochran, Robert E. Worden
New York State's nonfatal shooting initiative provided support to police departments and district attorney's offices in two cities, Newburgh and Utica, NY: two investigators and a crime analyst dedicated to nonfatal shooting investigations, training and technical assistance, and timely forensic laboratory analysis of evidence. Evaluation findings show that the initiative positively affected the processes
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Disarming abusers: Domestic violence protective order (DVPO) firearm restriction processes and dispositions Criminology & Public Policy (IF 5.085) Pub Date : 2022-03-28 Julie M. Kafka, Kathryn E. Moracco, Deanna S. Williams, Claire G. Hoffman
We investigated the degree to which legislatively mandated firearm restrictions for domestic violence protective orders (DVPOs) have been implemented in North Carolina. We used a representative sample of n = 406 DVPO hearings (2016–17) and found that defendant access to firearms was seldom discussed (23.81%). Among granted orders (n = 303), 69.5% prohibited defendant firearm possession (n = 238) but
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The association between police officers in schools and students’ longer term perceptions of police as procedurally just Criminology & Public Policy (IF 5.085) Pub Date : 2022-03-23 Deanna N. Devlin, Mateus Rennó Santos
Much debate exists regarding the use of police inside schools and their impacts on students. Some argue that the use of School Resource Officers (SROs) could foster positive perceptions of police. However, no research exists examining whether SROs affect perceptions of police later in life. Further, research has not evaluated how differing SRO roles impacts lasting perceptions of police. Using a regression
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Immigration policy, immigrant detention, and the U.S. jail system Criminology & Public Policy (IF 5.085) Pub Date : 2022-03-10 Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes, Mary J. Lopez
The increase in immigration enforcement during the past two decades has led to a larger number of immigrants being detained in the U.S. criminal justice system. Using data from the 2006–2018 Annual Survey of Jails, we examine the impact of immigrants being held for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on the conditions in U.S. jails. We find that increases in the number of detainees held for ICE
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Pretrial risk assessment instruments in practice: The role of judicial discretion in pretrial reform Criminology & Public Policy (IF 5.085) Pub Date : 2022-03-06 Jennifer E. Copp, William Casey, Thomas G. Blomberg, George Pesta
We explored the extent to which the implementation of a pretrial risk assessment instrument (PRAI) corresponded to changes in the pretrial processing of defendants using multiple administrative data sources from a large county in the southeastern United States. Our findings revealed little evidence of reductions in detention lengths or increases in the use of nonfinancial forms of release following
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What is the best approach for preventing recruitment to terrorism? Findings from ABM experiments in social and situational prevention Criminology & Public Policy (IF 5.085) Pub Date : 2022-02-21 David Weisburd, Michael Wolfowicz, Badi Hasisi, Mario Paolucci, Giulia Andrighetto
This study uses agent-based models (ABMs) to compare the impacts of three different types of interventions targeting recruitment to terrorism—community workers at community centers; community-oriented policing; and an employment program for high-risk agents. The first two programs are social interventions that focus on de-radicalization and changing the dispositions of agents in the model, whereas
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Can “race-neutral” program eligibility requirements in criminal justice have disparate effects? An examination of race, ethnicity, and prison industry employment Criminology & Public Policy (IF 5.085) Pub Date : 2022-02-21 Claudia N. Anderson, John Wooldredge, Joshua C. Cochran
This study assesses whether racial and ethnic disparities exist in prison industry employment and whether seemingly race- and ethnicity-neutral eligibility requirements contribute to any such disparities. We examine whether there are racial/ethnic disparities in industrial prison work, the extent to which disparities are explained by administrative policies, and the conditions under which disparities
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Goldilocks and the three “Ts”: Targeting, testing, and tracking for “just right” democratic policing Criminology & Public Policy (IF 5.085) Pub Date : 2022-02-17 Lawrence W. Sherman
Police are often criticized for doing “too much” or “too little” policing in various situations. These criticisms amount to testable hypotheses about whether “less” force, or intensity, or enforcement would have been enough, or whether “more” was needed. The rise of evidence-based policing provides a starting point for public dialogues about those hypotheses, in ways that could help to build police
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Ambiguity and legal compliance Criminology & Public Policy (IF 5.085) Pub Date : 2021-12-06 Timothy C. Barnum, Daniel S. Nagin
This study examines the independent and joint effect of ambiguity and perceived certainty of apprehension on law-breaking decision-making. Data come from a survey of experienced drivers (N = 1147) who viewed videos depicting a car speeding on an interstate highway under experimentally manipulated circumstances. The sampled drivers were generally ambiguity averse, opting to reduce speeding as ambiguity
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Focus on prevention: The public is more supportive of “overdose prevention sites” than they are of “safe injection facilities” Criminology & Public Policy (IF 5.085) Pub Date : 2021-12-08 Kelly M. Socia, Rebecca Stone, Wilson R. Palacios, John Cluverius
Research Summary: Using a national survey experiment, we examined Americans’ national and local-level support for facilities that provide a safer space for individuals to consume illicit drugs under the supervision of medical professionals. We determined whether support levels differed based on (1) the label used to refer to such facilities (“safe injection facilities” vs. “overdose prevention sites”)
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George Floyd protests and the criminal justice system Criminology & Public Policy (IF 5.085) Pub Date : 2022-02-01 Joshua D. Freilich,Steven M. Chermak
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Mass support for proposals to reshape policing depends on the implications for crime and safety Criminology & Public Policy (IF 5.085) Pub Date : 2022-01-20 Paige E. Vaughn, Kyle Peyton, Gregory A. Huber
This paper presents novel survey and experimental evidence that reveals the mass public's interpretation of movements to reform, defund, and abolish the police. We find strong support for police reform, but efforts to defund or abolish generate opposition both in terms of slogan and substance. While these differences cannot be explained by differing beliefs about each movement's association with violent
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“Defund the police:” Perceptions among protesters in the 2020 March on Washington Criminology & Public Policy (IF 5.085) Pub Date : 2022-01-20 Jennifer Cobbina-Dungy, Soma Chaudhuri, Ashleigh LaCourse, Christina DeJong
Research summary: Using qualitative interviews, this study examines how protesters with varying levels of commitment to the Black Lives Matter movement perceive the slogan defund the police. Findings indicate while a small number had reservations regarding the term, the vast majority of protesters associate defunding as a two-step process that starts with reduction of police budgets, followed by reallocation
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Assessing the impact of de-escalation training on police behavior: Reducing police use of force in the Louisville, KY Metro Police Department Criminology & Public Policy (IF 5.085) Pub Date : 2022-01-12 Robin S. Engel, Nicholas Corsaro, Gabrielle T. Isaza, Hannah D. McManus
Changing police use of force policies and training to incorporate de-escalation tactics is one of the most routinely recommended police reform measures. Despite widespread promotion and proliferation of de-escalation trainings, to date, no research has empirically demonstrated that these trainings reduce use of force in the field (Engel, R. S., McManus, H. D., & Herold, T. D., 2020). Therefore, it
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The effect of the Seattle Police-Free CHOP zone on crime: A microsynthetic control evaluation Criminology & Public Policy (IF 5.085) Pub Date : 2022-01-10 Eric L. Piza, Nathan T. Connealy
Nightly confrontations occurred between protestors and officers outside of the Seattle Police Department's (SPD's) East precinct in the aftermath of George Floyd's murder. On June 8, 2020, the SPD abandoned the East precinct in an attempt to calm the situation. Following closure of the precinct, the Capitol Hill Occupation Protest (CHOP) took hold in the surrounding 6-block area. The CHOP occupation
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Regulatory intermediaries and the challenge of democratic policing Criminology & Public Policy (IF 5.085) Pub Date : 2022-01-06 Tony Cheng, Jennifer Qu
This study examines a model for achieving democratic governance over police departments: regulatory intermediaries, where non-state actors are empowered with regulatory authority over public institutions. Drawing on a decade of transcripts from monthly public meetings held by the Chicago Police Board (September 2009–February 2021), this study finds, however, that regulatory intermediaries can regulate
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Ferguson as a distal crisis: Chief assessments of changes in the police institutional environment Criminology & Public Policy (IF 5.085) Pub Date : 2022-01-03 Alicia L. Jurek, Matthew C. Matusiak, William R. King
We explore how a widely publicized crisis in another jurisdiction, a distal crisis, affects police agencies that were far removed from the crisis. Using data from a two-wave, panel-design survey of 411 police chiefs in Texas, we investigate how the events occurring in Ferguson, Missouri during 2014 changed chiefs’ perceptions of their institutional environmental sectors. Although distant from Ferguson
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News media and public attitudes toward the protests of 2020: An examination of the mediating role of perceived protester violence Criminology & Public Policy (IF 5.085) Pub Date : 2022-01-03 Andrew J. Baranauskas
This study investigates the role of the news media in shaping attitudes toward the protests of 2020. Using data from a nationally representative election survey, it examines the association between news consumption and support for law-and-order policies to address protest violence, with perceptions that the protesters were violent as a potential mediator. Findings indicate that viewers of online news
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Does racial congruence between police agencies and communities reduce racialized police killings of civilians? Criminology & Public Policy (IF 5.085) Pub Date : 2021-11-22 Shytierra Gaston, Matthew J. Teti, Matheson Sanchez
In response to highly publicized, controversial police killings of Black Americans, policymakers and advocates have proposed several police reforms, including a recurrent, decades-long demand for police departments to diversify their forces to better match the racial composition of the communities they serve. We draw on a unique police agency-level dataset comprising 1,988 local police agencies and
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Banishing justice: Extradition limits in the United States Criminology & Public Policy (IF 5.085) Pub Date : 2021-11-22 David M. Bierie, Kristen M. Budd
Arrest warrants are an important and pervasive aspect of crime and justice in the United States. There are nearly three million arrest warrants active on any given day, of which several hundred thousand were issued for serious violent crimes (SVCs) such as aggravated assault, robbery, forcible sexual assault, and homicide. In more than a third of those SVC warrants, however, extradition is conditionally
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Crime, quarantine, and the U.S. coronavirus pandemic Criminology & Public Policy (IF 5.085) Pub Date : 2021-09-17 Ernesto Lopez, Richard Rosenfeld
Priorresearch has produced varied results regarding the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on crime rates, depending on the offenses and time periods under investigation. The current study of weekly offense rates in large U.S. cities is based on a longer time period, a greater number of offenses than prior research, and a varying number of cities for each offense (max = 28, min = 13, md = 20). We find
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Risk and implications of COVID-19 among the community supervised population Criminology & Public Policy (IF 5.085) Pub Date : 2021-10-28 Carmen Gutierrez, Evelyn J. Patterson
Despite growing national awareness that COVID-19 in jails and prisons constitutes a public health emergency in the United States, remarkably little attention has been paid to understanding how the virus affects people under community supervision. We used data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) to explore differences in the extent to which men under community supervision are vulnerable
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Crime under lockdown: The impact of COVID-19 on citizen security in the city of Buenos Aires Criminology & Public Policy (IF 5.085) Pub Date : 2021-10-04 Santiago M. Perez-Vincent, Ernesto Schargrodsky, Mauricio García Mejía
This paper studies the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown on criminal activity in the City of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Following quarantine restrictions, we find a large, significant, robust, and immediate decline in property crime reported to official agencies, police arrests, and crime reported in victimization surveys. We observe no significant change in homicides, and a
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Comparing 911 and emergency hotline calls for domestic violence in seven cities: What happened when people started staying home due to COVID-19? Criminology & Public Policy (IF 5.085) Pub Date : 2021-10-31 Tara N. Richards, Justin Nix, Scott M. Mourtgos, Ian T. Adams
Research Summary: We examine changes in help-seeking for domestic violence (DV) in seven U.S. cities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using Bayesian structural time-series modeling with daily data to construct a synthetic counterfactual, we test whether calls to police and/or emergency hotlines varied in 2020 as people stayed home due to COVID-19. Across this sample, we estimate there were approximately
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Understanding the circumstances and stakeholder perceptions of gun violence restraining order use in California: A qualitative study Criminology & Public Policy (IF 5.085) Pub Date : 2021-11-08 Rocco Pallin, Elizabeth Tomsich, Julia P. Schleimer, Veronica A. Pear, Amanda Charbonneau, Garen J. Wintemute, Christopher E. Knoepke
Risk-based firearm removal policies are relatively new, and research on their implementation and effectiveness is limited. Using an interpretive phenomenological approach, we interviewed stakeholders in California's gun violence restraining order (GVRO) process to learn about circumstances in which GVROs are appropriate. Two primary themes emerged: (1) GVROs are most useful when there is acute risk
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Pain, suffering, and jury awards: A study of the cost of wrongful convictions Criminology & Public Policy (IF 5.085) Pub Date : 2021-11-08 Mark A. Cohen
This paper estimates the cost of wrongful convictions based on analysis of jury awards and settlements for individuals who were wrongfully convicted and incarcerated for crimes they did not commit. Key variables of interest are number of days spent in prison, days on probation, and demographics of wrongfully convicted and their families. The average “cost” of a wrongful conviction is estimated to be
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Racial bias and DUI enforcement: Comparing conviction rates with frequency of behavior Criminology & Public Policy (IF 5.085) Pub Date : 2021-10-19 Rose M.C. Kagawa, Christopher D. McCort, Julia Schleimer, Veronica A. Pear, Amanda Charbonneau, Shani A.L. Buggs, Garen J. Wintemute, Hannah S. Laqueur
This study estimates disparities in driving under the influence (DUI) convictions relative to the frequency with which racial/ethnic groups engage in alcohol-impaired driving. We use had-been-drinking crashes and self-reported alcohol-impaired driving to approximate alcohol-impaired driving frequency for racial/ethnic groups in California from 2001 to 2016. DUI conviction and had-been-drinking crash
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Elevated police turnover following the summer of George Floyd protests: A synthetic control study Criminology & Public Policy (IF 5.085) Pub Date : 2021-08-26 Scott M. Mourtgos, Ian T. Adams, Justin Nix
Several of the largest U.S. police departments reported a sharp increase in officer resignations following massive public protests directed at policing in the summer of 2020. Yet, to date, no study has rigorously assessed the impact of the George Floyd protests on police resignations. We fill this void using 60 months of employment data from a large police department in the western United States. Bayesian
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COVID-19 frauds: An exploratory study of victimization during a global crisis Criminology & Public Policy (IF 5.085) Pub Date : 2021-08-05 Jay P. Kennedy, Melissa Rorie, Michael L. Benson
The COVID-19 pandemic threated public health and safety and led to a number of virus-related fraud schemes. We surveyed over 2,200 American adults to investigate their experiences with COVID-19-related frauds. Our goals were to better understand fraud targeting and victimization, as well as the impacts of fraud on victims. Over a quarter of our sample reported purchasing either a COVID-19-related product
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Random drug testing in prisons: Does a little testing go a long way? Criminology & Public Policy (IF 5.085) Pub Date : 2021-04-22 Holly Nguyen, Greg Midgette, Thomas Loughran, Yiwen Zhang
We investigated whether higher rates of random drug testing lower substance use among people who are incarcerated and improve prison safety. To answer this question, we estimated linear panel two-way fixed effects models using naturally varying monthly rates of random drug testing across all Pennsylvania state prisons over a 45-month period during 2016–2019. Overall, we find that the testing rate is
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How many complaints against police officers can be abated by incapacitating a few “bad apples?” Criminology & Public Policy (IF 5.085) Pub Date : 2021-06-14 Aaron Chalfin, Jacob Kaplan
The notion that the unjustified use of force by police officers is concentrated among a few “bad apples” is a popular descriptor that has gained traction in scholarly research and achieved considerable influence among policy makers. But is removing the bad apples likely to have an appreciable effect on police misconduct? Leveraging a simple policy simulation and data from the Chicago Police Department
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Bad apples and incredible certitude Criminology & Public Policy (IF 5.085) Pub Date : 2021-06-14 Michael Sierra-Arévalo, Andrew Papachristos
Chalfin and Kaplan attend to the problem of police misconduct with a series of simulation analyses that leverage data on complaints and uses of force in the Chicago Police Department. They conclude that incapacitating officers has minimal effects on misconduct and that, given political constraints, policy makers may prefer broader reforms around accountability and management to removing “bad apples”
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Gang-related crime in Los Angeles remained stable following COVID-19 social distancing orders Criminology & Public Policy (IF 5.085) Pub Date : 2021-04-20 Paul Jeffrey Brantingham, George E. Tita, George Mohler
The onset of extreme social distancing measures is expected to have a dramatic impact on crime. Here, we examine the impact of mandated, city-wide social distancing orders aimed at limiting the spread of COVID-19 on gang-related crime in Los Angeles. We hypothesize that the unique subcultural processes surrounding gangs may supersede calls to shelter in place and allow gang-related crime to persist
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Use of extreme risk protection orders to reduce gun violence in Oregon Criminology & Public Policy (IF 5.085) Pub Date : 2021-04-14 April M. Zeoli, Jennifer Paruk, Charles C. Branas, Patrick M. Carter, Rebecca Cunningham, Justin Heinze, Daniel W. Webster
We examined petition and respondent characteristics from extreme risk protection order (ERPO) cases in Oregon for the 15 months after implementation (n = 93). Most petitions were filed by law enforcement (65%) a were more likely to be granted than petitions filed by family/household members (p < 0.001). Most ERPO respondents were reported by petitioners to have histories of suicidality (73%) or interpersonal
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The social ecology of sexual victimization against transgender women who are incarcerated: A call for (more) research on modalities of housing and prison violence Criminology & Public Policy (IF 5.085) Pub Date : 2021-02-14 Valerie Jenness
President Biden has called for reform of the criminal justice system to ensure fair treatment of people who are transgender who come into contact with the criminal justice system. He has done so in a context in which criminologists, public health researchers, and others, including journalists and advocates, have produced a growing body of research that documents the over criminalization and differential
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The online behaviors of Islamic state terrorists in the United States Criminology & Public Policy (IF 5.085) Pub Date : 2021-01-03 Joe Whittaker
This study offers an empirical insight into terrorists’ use of the Internet. Although criminology has previously been quiet on this topic, behavior‐based studies can aid in understanding the interactions between terrorists and their environments. Using a database of 231 US‐based Islamic State terrorists, four important findings are offered: (1) This cohort utilized the Internet heavily for the purposes
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Testing public policy at the frontier: The effect of the $15 minimum wage on public safety in Seattle Criminology & Public Policy (IF 5.085) Pub Date : 2021-02-05 David Mitre-Becerril, Aaron Chalfin
In 2017, Seattle, Washington, became the first city in the United States to increase its minimum wage to $15 per hour, more than double the federal minimum wage. Not only was a $15 minimum wage unprecedented, but the increase was also extremely rapid, with the minimum wage rising by nearly 60% in just 2 years. Using a synthetic differences-in-differences estimator, we consider the impact of Seattle's
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What does the public want police to do during pandemics? A national experiment Criminology & Public Policy (IF 5.085) Pub Date : 2021-01-16 Justin Nix, Stefan Ivanov, Justin T. Pickett
We administered a survey experiment to a national sample of 1068 U.S. adults in April 2020 to determine the factors that shape support for various policing tactics in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Respondents were sharply divided in their views about pandemic policing tactics and were least supportive of policies that might limit public access to officers or reduce crime deterrence. Information
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An apple in one hand, a gun in the other: Public support for arming our nation's schools Criminology & Public Policy (IF 5.085) Pub Date : 2021-01-15 Cheryl Lero Jonson, Alexander L. Burton, Francis T. Cullen, Justin T. Pickett, Velmer S. Burton
In the wake of repeated school shootings, today's youth have acquired the label of the “mass shooting generation.” Another fitting label would be the “armed school generation.” Most states now permit school security officers to carry firearms, and at least 466 school districts in 19 states allow teachers or staff members to be armed. In this context, understanding public opinion about guns in schools
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Did de-escalation successfully reduce serious use of force in Camden County, New Jersey? A synthetic control analysis of force outcomes Criminology & Public Policy (IF 5.085) Pub Date : 2021-01-07 Li Sian Goh
Despite the widespread interest that de-escalation training has attracted in law enforcement contexts over the past few years, we know little about its effectiveness in reducing use of force incidents. This study seeks to ascertain the effect of de-escalation training on serious use of force events in Camden, a high-crime and high-poverty city in New Jersey. An analysis of individual officers suggested
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A hidden cost of convenience: Disparate impacts of a program to reduce burden on probation officers and participants Criminology & Public Policy (IF 5.085) Pub Date : 2020-12-09 Jessica Saunders, Greg Midgette, Jirka Taylor, Sara‐Laure Faraji
Criminal justice practitioners increasingly seek out efficient means of community supervision supplanting face‐to‐face interactions with practices that are less onerous to administrators and clients. We examined the differential impact of remote supervision for low‐risk probationers by race. Remote reporting greatly reduces or eliminates in‐person meetings where race would be salient; however, it also
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Progressing policy toward a risk/need informed sanctioning model Criminology & Public Policy (IF 5.085) Pub Date : 2020-11-17 Christopher D'Amato, Ian A. Silver, Jamie Newsome, Edward J. Latessa
This study examined whether risk/need assessment results coincided with the placement of defendants into six types of sanctions among convicted adults from 11 counties in one state. Crosstabulations highlighted that individuals’ risk/need levels corresponded to the placement of low‐risk/need individuals to probation and high‐risk/need individuals to prison; however, intermediate sanctions were rarely
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Counter‐terrorism policies in the Middle East: Why democracy has failed to reduce terrorism in the Middle East and why protecting human rights might be more successful Criminology & Public Policy (IF 5.085) Pub Date : 2020-11-17 Nancy A. Morris, Gary LaFree, Eray Karlidag
Most quantitative research examining predictors of country‐level terrorism have used worldwide samples which potentially obscures regional or country‐specific effects. This may be especially problematic for regions in which common predictors of political violence differ from what is expected based on worldwide patterns. In this paper we explore the possibility that this situation exists for several
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Beyond the eternal criminal record: Public support for expungement Criminology & Public Policy (IF 5.085) Pub Date : 2020-11-17 Alexander L. Burton, Francis T. Cullen, Justin T. Pickett, Velmer S. Burton,, Angela J. Thielo
In The Eternal Criminal Record, James Jacobs detailed how it has become increasingly difficult to escape the mark of a criminal record. One way to “wipe the slate clean” is through the official expungement of criminal records. We assess public views toward this policy using a national sample of American adults (N = 1,000). Public support for expungement is high for persons convicted of property and
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Letter from the Editors in Chief Criminology & Public Policy (IF 5.085) Pub Date : 2020-10-24 Cynthia Lum,Christopher S. Koper
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Sentencing scorecards: Reducing racial disparities in prison sentences at their source Criminology & Public Policy (IF 5.085) Pub Date : 2020-10-15 Greg Ridgeway, Ruth A. Moyer, Shawn D. Bushway
Scorecards have become an increasingly common tool for public policy decision making about important issues in education, finance, and health care. Few scorecards have been applied in criminal justice and none has been developed to highlight racial disparities in incarceration. We constructed county‐level scorecards for racial disparities in incarceration rates for the New York State Permanent Commission
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Effect of sentencing reform on racial and ethnic disparities in involvement with the criminal justice system: The case of California's proposition 47 Criminology & Public Policy (IF 5.085) Pub Date : 2020-10-15 Magnus Lofstrom, Brandon Martin, Steven Raphael
We analyze the disparate effects of a recent California sentencing reform on the arrest, booking, and incarceration rates experienced by California residents from different racial and ethnic groups. In November 2014, California voters passed state Proposition 47 that redefined a series of felony and “wobbler” offenses (offenses that can be charged as either a felony or misdemeanor) as straight misdemeanors
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Did mass incarceration lead to the disproportionate admission of minorities and marginal offenders? Criminology & Public Policy (IF 5.085) Pub Date : 2020-10-15 Richard B. Felson, Andrew T. Krajewski
We examine the effects of mass incarceration on the admission of minority and marginal (i.e., first‐time) offenders to state prisons. Our analyses are based on six waves of data from the Survey of Inmates in State and Federal Correctional Facilities from 1973 to 2004. The results suggest that the era of mass incarceration led to increased incarceration of Hispanic offenders relative to White offenders
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Can police training reduce ethnic/racial disparities in stop and search? Evidence from a multisite UK trial Criminology & Public Policy (IF 5.085) Pub Date : 2020-10-15 Joel Miller, Paul Quinton, Banos Alexandrou, Daniel Packham
This study examines the effects of a 1‐day pilot training program on ethnic/racial bias in police use of stop and search powers, using a randomized controlled trial in six diverse agencies in England. We theorized the training could reduce officer bias by improving their competence to apply legitimate criteria in search decisions, and/or by reducing their reliance on ethnic/racial stereotypes. Survey
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Testing for disparities in traffic stops: Best practices from the Connecticut model Criminology & Public Policy (IF 5.085) Pub Date : 2020-10-15 Matthew B. Ross, Jesse J. Kalinowski, Kenneth Barone
Connecticut's novel approach to collecting and analyzing traffic stop data for evidence of disparate treatment is widely considered to be a model of best practice. Here, we provide an overview of Connecticut's framework, detail solutions to the canonical empirical challenges of analyzing traffic stop, and describe a data‐driven approach to early intervention. Unlike most jurisdictions that simply produce
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Evidence‐based juvenile justice programs and practices: A critical review Criminology & Public Policy (IF 5.085) Pub Date : 2020-10-15 Delbert S. Elliott, Pamela R. Buckley, Denise C. Gottfredson, J. David Hawkins, Patrick H. Tolan
There is growing critical commentary and debate about the relative effectiveness of individual program and generic practice approaches to identifying evidence‐based interventions and their impact on the operation of the juvenile justice system. The central issue is whether both of these approaches to identifying evidence‐based interventions provide a valid and reliable guide to improving juvenile justice