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Procedural justice and probation officer legitimacy: Testing the process-based model in community supervision

PurposeThis study provides an empirical test of Tyler's (2006) process-based model by investigating the relationship between procedural justice, legitimacy, and felt obligation to obey among people sanctioned to county-level probation. MethodsUsing a cross-sectional design, self-reported data were collected from a sample of individuals on probation in a western state (n = 185). Confirmatory factor analyses and full structural equation modeling were used to test a measurement and structural component on the relationship between procedural justice and clients' legitimacy and obligation to obey. ResultsResults demonstrate construct and discriminant validity across measures of client's procedural justice and legitimacy attitudes. In addition, SEM results revealed a positive and statistically significant association between procedural justice with probationers' legitimacy beliefs. In addition, perceived legitimacy was associated with clients' felt obligation to obey their probation officer, though indirect effects were non-significant but potentially suggested partial mediation. ConclusionsThis study provides empirical evidence supporting the positive relationship between perceptions of procedural justice with clients' legitimacy and perceived PO legitimacy with their felt obligation. Study results highlight key theoretical and policy considerations regarding the measurement and application of the process-based model in community corrections.

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Is corrections officers' use of illegal force networked? Network structure, brokerage, and key players in the New York City Department of Correction

PurposeRecent research on police misconduct has adopted a network perspective, while recent work on correctional officer (CO) use of force has similarly framed it as an organizational behavior, learned through socialization and deployed with considerable discretion. This paper leverages the network paradigm in police misconduct research to study the use of force by COs. MethodsUsing data on lawsuits involving the New York City Department of Correction from 2013 to 2022, this paper forms a co-offending network of those COs who have been sued for excessive force. This paper then uses descriptive social network analysis and key player selection and community detection methods. ResultsAfter describing the basic network structure of COs who use force together, this paper identifies brokers who connect disparate parts of the CO network; it also uses a community detection algorithm to identify clusters of COs involved in force incidents. Finally, the paper compares this network to an analogous network of police use of force, finding structural similarities. ConclusionsThis analysis bridges disparate work on correctional officer use of force and police misconduct; for policymakers who seek to curtail COs' excessive use of force, this paper might provide a blueprint for identifying key players and clusters.

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Criminal justice transitions among adolescents in Australia: A multi-state model

PurposeThis study aimed to identify key transitional pathways in the criminal justice system from adolescence to adulthood and the risk factors associated with the escalation of criminal justice involvement over time. MethodWe retrospectively linked offending records from 1994 to 2022 and mental health records from 2001 to 2022 for a cohort of 1556 adolescents identified through four health surveys in New South Wales, Australia. Transition probabilities were calculated using the Aalen-Johansen method, and the hazards of transition-specific covariates were estimated. ResultsThe median age of adolescent entry was 15 years. The cohort was predominantly male (87.5%) and non-Indigenous (65.6%). Among incarcerated adolescents, 76.8% transitioned to adult incarceration. Transition probabilities were the highest among those aged 10–13 years. Among those with mental disorders, psychosis was associated with transitions to adolescent and adult incarceration. Other risk factors for future incarceration include being male, Indigenous, socio-economically disadvantaged, having a history of adolescent incarceration, and being diagnosed with substance use and behavioural disorders. ConclusionYounger adolescents have higher transition probabilities to more intense criminal justice involvement. Legislative and policy reforms are needed to delay the onset of adolescent criminal justice involvement and ensure age-appropriate rehabilitative strategies to reduce recidivism.

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How maternal and paternal parenting behaviors predict developmental changes in self-control and deviance during early adolescence

PurposeThe present study tested the pattern of developmental changes in self-control during early adolescence, and whether maternal and paternal closeness, support, monitoring, and disciplinary inconsistency were associated with developmental changes in deviance, indirectly through developmental changes in self-control. MethodsFive assessments part of the Brno Longitudinal Study of Youth on 582 early adolescents (58.4% female; Mage = 12.34 years, SD = 0.89 at baseline) were used for the study. A latent growth model tested the growth of self-control over two years in early adolescence. Associations between parenting and developmental changes in self-control as well as deviance were tested using structural equation modeling with latent constructs. ResultsSelf-control declined over time; individuals varied both in initial levels and rates of change. Full mediation through developmental changes in self-control were found; more specifically, more maternal monitoring at age 12 was associated with increases in self-control at age 13, which, in turn, was associated with less deviance at age 14. Results also provided evidence of direct effects, where more maternal closeness at age 12 was associated with less deviance at age 14. ConclusionsSelf-control decreased during early adolescence, thus supporting continued malleability. Both maternal closeness and monitoring were associated with less deviance, where the effect of monitoring was mediated through self-control.

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The influence of spirituality and religious participation on binge drinking: An investigation into subjective and structural mechanisms of desistance

PurposeResearch on the mechanisms of desistance from substance abuse have delineated between subjective and structural mechanisms. Similarly, research on religiosity has distinguished two separate domains, behavioral and attitudinal. The present study bridges these concepts and examines the impact of spirituality and religious participation on binge drinking behavior. MethodsThis paper uses a secondary data source for a sample of 1354 adolescents adjudicated for serious offenses followed over a 7-year period. The analysis employs multilevel mixed-effects logistic regression models to separate within, between, and person-context effects of subjective measure spirituality and structural measure religious participation on binge drinking. ResultsAnalyses reveal that the subjective factor, spirituality, has significant within effects on the likelihood to engage in binge drinking, while religious participation was not significant at either level. Furthermore, the interaction effect was found to be significant in that increased religious participation in combination with increased spirituality can increase the likelihood of abstinence from binge drinking. ConclusionsResults of this study hold implications for the desistance mechanism debate within the context of religiosity and substance use. Finding suggest the subjective factor of spirituality is more influential in the desistance process of binge drinking than the structural factor of religious participation.

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