Safety Conscious
Profiling the profilers: Who is watching our backs?
Joseph Glicksohn & Shelly Rechtman
Personality and Individual Differences, forthcoming
Abstract:
A total of 87 males, ranging in age between 22 and 41, comprised two participating groups: 43 professional bodyguards and 44 controls. They completed the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised, short version, and the Sensation Seeking Scale (SSS), Form V; they then completed the Group Embedded Figures Task. Bodyguards were predicted and found to be prosocial sensation seekers, scoring low on Neuroticism, and exhibiting marked field independence. We contrast our data with those of a previous study looking at two other risky professions, and offer some suggestions for the effective screening of candidates for VIP protection.
------------------------
Video Games and Youth Violence: A Prospective Analysis in Adolescents
Christopher Ferguson
Journal of Youth and Adolescence, forthcoming
Abstract:
The potential influence of violent video games on youth violence remains an issue of concern for psychologists, policymakers and the general public. Although several prospective studies of video game violence effects have been conducted, none have employed well validated measures of youth violence, nor considered video game violence effects in context with other influences on youth violence such as family environment, peer delinquency, and depressive symptoms. The current study builds upon previous research in a sample of 302 (52.3% female) mostly Hispanic youth. Results indicated that current levels of depressive symptoms were a strong predictor of serious aggression and violence across most outcome measures. Depressive symptoms also interacted with antisocial traits so that antisocial individuals with depressive symptoms were most inclined toward youth violence. Neither video game violence exposure, nor television violence exposure, were prospective predictors of serious acts of youth aggression or violence. These results are put into the context of criminological data on serious acts of violence among youth.
------------------------
Nancy Wolff & Jing Shi
Crime & Delinquency, January 2011, Pages 29-55
Abstract:
Little is known about the patterns of sexual victimization inside prisons and their relationship to inmates' feelings of safety. This study examined patterns of sexual victimization with and without co-occurring physical victimization and feelings of safety as reported by 6,964 male and 564 female inmates. Respondents completed a computerized survey with questions about type of victimization (sexual/physical) and source of victimization (inmate/staff). Compared to sexual assault, inappropriate sexual touching was more common, especially among female inmates (22% versus 4%), whereas sexual assault was relatively less common for male and female inmates (< 2%). Sexual victimization often involved one to three types of sexually inappropriate behavior. Victimization perpetrated by staff was more frequently reported by male inmates. Most inmates, independent of gender and sexual victimization, reported feeling safe inside prison. Inmates who felt the most unsafe reported sexual victimization by staff or concurrent sexual and physical victimization (n = 150).
------------------------
Modeling the Effects of Racial Threat on Punitive and Restorative School Discipline Practices
Allison Ann Payne & Kelly Welch
Criminology, November 2010, Pages 1019-1062
Abstract:
It is clear that schools are mirroring the criminal justice system by becoming harsher toward student misbehavior despite decreases in delinquency. Moreover, Black students consistently are disciplined more frequently and more severely than others for the same behaviors, much in the same way that Black criminals are subjected to harsher criminal punishments than other offenders. Research has found that the racial composition of schools is partially responsible for harsher school discipline just as the racial composition of areas has been associated with punitive criminal justice measures. Yet, no research has explored comprehensively the dynamics involved in how racial threat and other factors influence discipline policies that ultimately punish Black students disproportionately. In this study (N = 294 public schools), structural equation models assess how school racial composition affects school disciplinary policies in light of other influences on discipline and gauge how other possible predictors of school disciplinary policies relate to racial composition of schools, to various school disciplinary policies, and to one another. Findings indicate that schools responding to student misbehavior with one type of discipline tend to use other types of responses as well and that many factors predict the type of disciplinary response used by schools. However, disadvantaged, urban schools with a greater Black, poor, and Hispanic student population are more likely to respond to misbehavior in a punitive manner and less likely to respond in a restorative manner.
------------------------
Gentrification and Crime: Identification Using the 1994 Northridge Earthquake in Los Angeles
Yan Lee
Journal of Urban Affairs, December 2010, Pages 549-577
Abstract:
Theory suggests that in the long term, gentrification - which I define as the phenomenon where wealthier individuals move into lower-income areas - should decrease neighborhood crime. In the short term, however, anecdotal evidence indicates that gentrification actually increases crime, perhaps due to the relative difference in status between newcomers and existing residents, and to increased opportunities for criminal behavior. Further, consumers' choice of residential location depends on crime rates, creating simultaneity that likely biases estimates that overlook this concern. I exploit the 1994 Northridge earthquake in Los Angeles and subsequent short-term government-sponsored home financing incentives as an instrument to control for this endogeneity. The exogenous event induced middle- and upper-income individuals to purchase homes in earthquake-affected low and moderate-income neighborhoods, which I argue is independent of the influence of crime. The results show that in the short term, gentrification increases assaults, robberies, automobile thefts, and thefts from automobiles.
------------------------
Alex Piquero, Wesley Jennings & David Farrington
Justice Quarterly, December 2010, Pages 803-834
Abstract:
Gottfredson and Hirschi's general theory of crime has generated significant controversy and research, such that there now exists a large knowledge base regarding the importance of self-control in regulating antisocial behavior over the life-course. Reviews of this literature indicate that self-control is an important correlate of antisocial activity. Some research has evaluated programmatic efforts designed to examine the extent to which self-control is malleable, but little empirical research on this issue has been carried out within criminology, largely because the theorists have not paid much attention to policy proscriptions. This study evaluates the extant research on the effectiveness of programs designed to improve self-control up to age 10 among children and adolescents, and assesses the effects of these programs on self-control and delinquency/crime. Meta-analytic results indicate that (1) self-control programs improve a child/adolescent's self-control, (2) these interventions also reduce delinquency, and (3) the positive effects generally hold across a number of different moderator variables and groupings as well as by outcome source (parent-, teacher-, direct observer-, self-, and clinical report). Theoretical and policy implications are also discussed.
------------------------
Explaining the Relationship between Employment and Juvenile Delinquency
Jeremy Staff, Wayne Osgood, John Schulenberg, Jerald Bachman & Emily Messersmith
Criminology, November 2010, Pages 1101-1131
Abstract:
Most criminological theories predict an inverse relationship between employment and crime, but teenagers' involvement in paid work during the school year is correlated positively with delinquency and substance use. Whether the work-delinquency association is causal or spurious has been debated for a long time. This study estimates the effect of paid work on juvenile delinquency using longitudinal data from the national Monitoring the Future project. We address issues of spuriousness by using a two-level hierarchical model to estimate the relationships of within-individual changes in juvenile delinquency and substance use to those in paid work and other explanatory variables. We also disentangle the effects of actual employment from the preferences for employment to provide insight about the likely role of time-varying selection factors tied to employment, delinquency, school engagement, and leisure activities. Whereas causal effects of employment would produce differences based on whether and how many hours respondents worked, we found significantly higher rates of crime and substance use among nonemployed youth who preferred intensive versus moderate work. Our findings suggest the relationship between high-intensity work and delinquency results from preexisting factors that lead youth to desire varying levels of employment.
------------------------
Garrick Percival
Social Science Quarterly, December 2010, Pages 1063-1082
Objective: To test the influence of local (county) politics on minority incarceration rates.
Methods: Data are collected at the county level in California to create a pooled cross-sectional data set. OLS regression models predicting black, Hispanic, and white incarceration rates (in state prison) are used in the analysis.
Results: Counties' ideological orientations and racial and ethnic contextual characteristics significantly impact minority incarceration rates. Greater ideological conservatism within counties is associated with higher rates (as a proportion of their population) of both black and Hispanic incarceration. Consistent with racial threat theory, results show counties with greater racial and ethnic diversity are more likely to incarcerate blacks and Hispanics. Tests for interaction effects indicate that greater county diversity decreases the punitive effects of ideological conservatism on minority incarceration.
Conclusion: Political forces nested within states systematically shape how state government incarceration power is distributed across different racial and ethnic groups.
------------------------
Dora Costa
NBER Working Paper, December 2010
Abstract:
Debilitating events could leave either frailer or more robust survivors, depending on the extent of scarring and mortality selection. The majority of empirical analyses find frailer survivors. I find heterogeneous effects. Among severely stressed former Union Army POWs, which effect dominates 35 years after the end of the Civil War depends on age at imprisonment. Among survivors to 1900, those younger than 30 at imprisonment faced higher older age mortality and morbidity and worse socioeconomic outcomes than non-POW and other POW controls whereas those older than 30 at imprisonment faced a lower older age death risk than the controls.
------------------------
Contagion and repeat offending among urban juvenile delinquents
Jeremy Mennis & Philip Harris
Journal of Adolescence, forthcoming
Abstract:
This research investigates the role of repeat offending and spatial contagion in juvenile delinquency recidivism using a database of 7166 male juvenile offenders sent to community-based programs by the Family Court of Philadelphia. Results indicate evidence of repeat offending among juvenile delinquents, particularly for drug offenders. The likelihood of recidivism is influenced by ethnicity, parental criminality, and various measures of prior contact with the juvenile justice system. Spatial contagion, measured as the rate of recidivism for specific crime types among delinquents living nearby the juvenile's residence, was found to strongly influence the likelihood of recidivism. These results suggest that delinquent peer contagion is offense specific, and thus facilitates repeat offending, as well as neighborhood specialization, particularly for drug offenses.
------------------------
Race-Specific Employment Contexts and Recidivism
Xia Wang, Daniel Mears & William Bales
Criminology, November 2010, Pages 1171-1211
Abstract:
Although much literature has examined macrolevel employment contexts and crime rates and, at the individual level, employment and offending, few studies have examined systematically whether macrolevel employment contexts influence individual-level offending. At the same time, emerging literature on prisoner reentry increasingly underscores the potential importance of the social environment for impeding or facilitating successful transitions back into society. All three avenues of inquiry have emphasized the salience of race-specific and offense-specific effects. This study extends prior work on ecology and offending, employment and crime, and prisoner reentry by examining the race-specific effects of unemployment rates and manufacturing employment rates on violent, property, and drug recidivism. By analyzing data on male ex-prisoners released to 67 counties in Florida, we found, as hypothesized, that Black ex-prisoners released to areas with higher Black male unemployment rates have a greater likelihood of violent recidivism. No comparable effect was identified for White exprisoners. However, we found that White ex-prisoners, especially those without prior violent convictions, have a lower likelihood of violent recidivism when released to areas with higher White male manufacturing employment rates. We discuss the findings and their implications for theory, research, and policy.
------------------------
The Impact of Adult Incarceration on Child Poverty: A County-Level Analysis, 1995-2007
Robert DeFina & Lance Hannon
Prison Journal, December 2010, Pages 377-396
Abstract:
Traditionally, research on the tremendous variation in the use of incarceration across time and space has focused on the issue of whether imprisoning more offenders reduces crime. More recently, research has begun to explore the collateral consequences of mass incarceration for the families and communities of those imprisoned. The current study adds to this burgeoning literature by examining the impact of incarceration rates on child poverty rates. Employing a panel design for North Carolina county data, 1995-2007, we use instrumental variable techniques to disentangle the effect of incarceration on poverty from the effect of poverty on incarceration. The results indicate that mass incarceration has significantly increased child poverty rates. The impact of adult incarceration on child poverty appears especially pronounced in counties with a high proportion of non-White residents.
------------------------
John Hipp, Joan Petersilia & Susan Turner
Criminology, November 2010, Pages 947-979
Abstract:
We studied a sample of reentering parolees in California in 2005-2006 to examine whether the social structural context of the census tract, as well as nearby tracts, along with the relative physical closeness of social service providers affects serious recidivism resulting in imprisonment. We found that a 1 standard deviation increase in the presence of nearby social service providers (within 2 miles) decreases the likelihood of recidivating 41 percent and that this protective effect was particularly strong for African American parolees. This protective effect was diminished by overtaxed services (as proxied by potential demand). We found that higher concentrated disadvantage and social disorder (as measured by bar and liquor store capacity) in the tract increases recidivism and that higher levels of disadvantage and disorder in nearby tracts increase recidivism. A 1 standard deviation increase in the concentrated disadvantage of the focal neighborhood and the surrounding neighborhoods increases the likelihood of recidivating by 26 percent. The findings suggest that the social context to which parolees return (both in their own neighborhood and in nearby neighborhoods), as well as the geographic accessibility of social service agencies, play important roles in their successful reintegration.
------------------------
Parolees' Physical Closeness to Social Services: A Study of California Parolees
John Hipp, Jesse Jannetta, Rita Shah & Susan Turner
Crime & Delinquency, January 2011, Pages 102-129
Abstract:
This study examines the proximity of service providers to recently released parolees in California over a 2-year period (2005-2006). The addresses of parolee residences and service providers are geocoded, and the number of various types of service providers within 2 miles (3.2 km) of a parolee are measured. "Potential demand" is measured as the number of parolees within 2 miles of a provider. Although racial and ethnic minority parolees have more service providers nearby, these providers appear to be particularly impacted based on potential demand. It is also found that the parolees arguably most in need of social services-those who have spent more time in correctional institutions, have been convicted of more serious or violent crimes in their careers, or are sex offenders-live near fewer social services, or the providers near them appear impacted.
------------------------
Income redistribution and criminality in a growing economy
Volker Arnold & Marion Hübner
International Review of Law and Economics, December 2010, Pages 338-344
Abstract:
We examine the question of whether a combination of law enforcement and redistributive transfers will be used in fighting criminality due to poverty. This is done in a model where a proportion of the poor participates in illegal activities. The victims of theft are firms. In contrast to most of the literature, we add a dynamic aspect: Technological progress leads to a permanent increase in labor productivities and firm output. We show that transfers will be used to fight criminality only after a certain level of economic development has been reached.
------------------------
Are social networking sites a source of online harassment for teens? Evidence from survey data
Anirban Sengupta & Anoshua Chaudhuri
Children and Youth Services Review, February 2011, Pages 284-290
Abstract:
Media reports on incidences of abuse on the internet, particularly among teenagers, are growing at an alarming rate causing much concern among parents of teenagers and prompting legislations aimed at regulating internet use among teenagers. Social networking sites (SNS) have been criticized for serving as a breeding ground for cyber-bullying and harassment by strangers. However, there is a lack of serious research studies that explicitly identify factors that make teenagers prone to internet abuse, and study whether it is SNS that is causing this recent rise in online abuse or is it something else. This study attempts to identify the key factors associated with cyber-bullying and online harassment of teenagers in the United States using the 2006 round of Pew InternetTM American Life Survey that is uniquely suited for this study. Results fail to corroborate the claim that having social networking site memberships is a strong predictor of online abuse of teenagers. Instead this study finds that demographic and behavioral characteristics of teenagers are stronger predictors of online abuse.