American Offenders Research Articles

Examining the Predictive Validity of the Static-99R on Native American Sex Offenders

No study to date has evaluated the predictive validity of the Static-99R on a sample of Native American sex offenders. This study provides such an investigation. Findings reveal the Static-99R demonstrates small predictive validity for new sexual recidivism charges (AUC = 0.599) at five years for all offenders. However, the predictive validity for the sample of Native American sex offenders reaches moderate predictive validity (AUC = 0.672) when examined separately. Additional metrics beyond area under the curve analyses are used to assess the three dimensions of predictive validity: accuracy, discrimination, and calibration. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Risk assessment as a mechanism for reducing differential treatment of minorities by a juvenile justice system

Disparities in treatment of African American juvenile offenders persist in juvenile justice systems across the United States. This study examined adjudication trends over a ten-year span within a Mid-Western County’s juvenile court for African American young offenders subsequent of the system’s implementation of the Risk Need Responsivity Model (RNR-Model). Special attention was given to changes in disproportionate minority contact with intensive interventions within the Delinquency Division versus informal probation, which is considered a low intensity and less punitive adjudication path. The findings indicated African Americans were more likely to be referred to low intensity interventions at Intake (Informal Probation) after the RNR Model was implemented, suggesting disparities in contact were partially mitigated by the risk assessment approach. Implications for policy are discussed.

The Impact of Disability and Type of Crime on Employment Outcomes of African American and Latino Offenders

Individuals with criminal histories who struggle to gain employment may choose to turn to illegal activity or seek state and federal program assistance to support themselves and their families. African Americans and Hispanic/Latinos with disabilities and criminal histories experience barriers (i.e., disability, criminal history, and race/ethnicity) that often prevent them from obtaining or maintaining competitive integrated employment. The purpose of this article was to examine the extant literature pertinent to disability and criminal history as employment obstacles among African American and Hispanic/Latino ex-offenders. As the foundation, the article categorizes employment outcomes for these target population by disability and criminal history, discusses how state vocational rehabilitation agencies can develop a criminal history service delivery model to improve employment outcomes, presents implications for improving employment outcomes, and explores future research.

An Archival Exploration of 19th-Century American Adult Female Offender Parricides

Social and behavioral scientists have increasingly attended to the contexts and motivational dynamics underlying parricidal events. These efforts notwithstanding, most research has focused on adolescent or adult male offender populations. One largely neglected area of study is that of adult female offender parricide. The present study utilizes archival records to examine the contexts and sources of conflict that gave rise to adult female offender parricides in the late 19th century. Three general themes emerged, representing the primary contexts behind adult female offender parricide: (1) abuse and neglect; (2) instrumental, financially-motivated killings; and (3) expressive killings, often during the course of arguments. Each of these contexts is explored.

Conviction Odds in Chicago Homicide Cases: Does Race/Ethnicity Matter?

This study investigates disparity as it exists in the conviction of Latino, African American, and White offenders in Chicago homicide cases. The study participants were adults who had been identified by the Chicago Police Department as suspects in homicide incidents for the years 1990 through 1995. Information about the offender, victim, homicide incident, and adjudication of the homicide case in court was collected from police and court records. Logistic regression modeling was used to determine the odds of conviction for Latino, African American, and White homicide offenders at the adjudication decision point of criminal case processing. Results indicated that in Chicago homicide cases, when deciding guilt or no guilt for Class M Felony murder, neither race nor ethnicity mattered; what did matter the most was the offender–victim relationship, the number of charges filed against the offender, and the mode of conviction. This study continues the important tradition in racial and ethnic disparity studies of measuring the effect of offender–victim dyads on case outcomes. It builds on prior research in 2 ways: (a) by measuring the impact of the offender–victim dyad's race and ethnicity on conviction odds and (b) by expanding the scope of case-processing research through examining decision making at the pre-sentence adjudication stage, a point researchers have heretofore rarely examined.

HIV Risk Behaviors Among African American Male Violent Youth Offenders

Bay City (pseudonym) is one of the nation's urban epicenters of the HIV epidemic. Although researchers have examined HIV risk behaviors among juvenile offenders detained in juvenile facilities, no study has examined these risk behaviors among youth offenders who have been waived to adult criminal court and detained in U.S. jails. In the present study, qualitative data were collected from 30 African American male youth (ages 15–17) detained at the Bay City Jail. These rich, descriptive narratives provide important insight into the HIV risk behaviors within this population.

Substance Abuse, Familial Factors, and Mental Health: Exploring Racial and Ethnic Group Differences Among African American, Caucasian, and Hispanic Juvenile Offenders

The present study examined racial, ethnic, and gender differences in family composition substance abuse, and mental health issues, such as depression and self-esteem among adjudicated juvenile offenders. Results revealed a negative relationship between depression and self-esteem among all ethnicities and family compositions. Caucasians reported greater incidence of substance abuse than did African American and Hispanic youth. Moreover, in reconstituted families, Caucasians had lower self-esteem scores than did other ethnicities. The findings illustrate the complexities of risk to substance use among high-risk populations, particularly as they relate to familial factors and the importance of intensive family therapy among this population.

Predicting Retention in Three Substance Abuse Treatment Modalities Among Anglo, African American, and Mexican American Juvenile Offenders

Many of the same factors that predict delinquent behavior also predict adolescent drug use. This study examined factors that predict, and interventions that maximize, substance abuse treatment retention in three modalities among high-risk Anglo, Mexican American, and African American juvenile offenders. The study sample includes youth (N = 211) who were discharged from probation supervision and who received substance abuse services through a CSAT-funded federal demonstration project. The key predictors examined included the stage-of-change (i.e., precontemplation, contemplation, preparation) in which a juvenile fell, various dimensions captured by the Comprehensive Addiction Severity Index for Adolescents, and other intervention status (probation, case management, and mental health treatment). The research questions were addressed using statistical models known as survival analysis that treated time from entry into substance abuse treatment to exit from substance abuse treatment as the outcomes. Among key findings were that females were 73% more likely to leave day treatment relative to males; for each additional family problem ever experienced, Mexican American adolescents were 15% more likely to leave residential treatment compared with African American adolescents; and African American and Mexican American adolescents in the contemplation stage-of-change were 50% less likely to leave day treatment compared with Anglo adolescents. Applications for practice and research with this population are discussed.

An Examination of the Influence of Perceived Parenting Practices on Depression and Substance Use Among African American Juvenile Offenders

ABSTRACT The primary purpose of this study was to examine whether perceived parenting practices were related to and predictive of depression and substance use among 119 African American juvenile offenders. Findings revealed that maternal practices were related to and predictive of depression, with maternal roles accounting for most of the variance. Paternal practices were related to and predictive of substance use with paternal roles and affective involvement accounting for most of the variance. Taken together, the results reinforce previous research in the general adolescent population by highlighting the role of the parent-adolescent relationship in an adolescents' involvement in maladaptive and/or delinquent behaviors. This study discusses the significance of understanding the link between parenting practices, depression, and substance use among African American juvenile offenders, as well as implications for forensic psychology practice and directions for future research.

Differences Among Substance Abusing Latino, Anglo, and African-American Juvenile Offenders in Predictors of Recidivism and Treatment Outcome

ABSTRACT Alcohol and drug use is prevalent among juvenile offenders and many of the risk factors that predict delinquent behavior also predict adolescent drug use. This study examined the impact of self-reported risk factors on treatment outcomes and recidivism among Latino, Anglo, and African American juvenile offenders. Risk factors included family structure and interactions, peer influences, education, psychiatric history, substance abuse history, stressful life events experienced, and use of leisure time. Analyses yielded the following key findings: Older adolescents and males were more likely to have a greater number and severity of offenses; older adolescents were less likely to complete treatment successfully; a curvilinear relationship existed between time in treatment and positive treatment outcomes, with extremely long treatment time associated with poorer outcomes; and significant differences existed between Latino and African American youth in which risk factors predicted outcomes. Implications for social work practice and research are discussed.

Cross-validation of the Self-Appraisal Questionnaire (SAQ): an offender risk and need assessment measure on Australian, British, Canadian, Singaporean, and American offenders.

The Self-Appraisal Questionnaire (SAQ) is a 72-item self-report measure designed to predict violent and nonviolent recidivism among adult criminal offenders. The results from using samples from Australia, Canada, England, Singapore, and two samples from the United States (North Carolina and Pennsylvania) indicated that (a) the SAQ has sound psychometric properties, with acceptable reliability and concurrent validity for assessing recidivism and institutional adjustment; (b) there were no significant differences among the scores of the White, African American, Hispanic, and Aboriginal Australian offenders on the SAQ; (c) there were no significant differences among offenders who completed the SAQ for research purposes versus offenders who completed it as part of a decision-making process. Results provided support for the validity of the SAQ to be used with the culturally diverse offenders involved in this research and provided further evidence that contradicts concerns that the SAQ as a self-report measure may be susceptible to lying, and self-presentation biases.

Concurrent cross-validation of the Self-Appraisal Questionnaire: a tool for assessing violent and nonviolent recidivism and institutional adjustment on a sample of North Carolina offenders.

The aim of this study was to determine whether the Self-Appraisal Questionnaire (SAQ), a tool that was found to be reliable and valid for assessing violent and nonviolent recidivism and institutional adjustment for Canadian offenders, would also be valid for the same purposes with a demographically different population of North Carolina offenders. The internal consistency alphas and SAQ total and subscale scores' correlations were high. Offenders with high SAQ total scores had significantly more violent offenses, had more total number of past offenses, had higher numbers of past arrests, and had more institutional infractions than those with low SAQ scores. There were no significant differences between the responses of the African American and Caucasian offenders on the SAQ scales. These results support previous findings regarding the reliability and validity of the SAQ for assessing recidivism and institutional adjustment and suggest that the SAQ could be used with diverse populations.

Testing Damasio's somatic marker hypothesis with psychopathic individuals: risk takers or risk averse?

Damasio and colleagues (A. R. Damasio, 1994; A. R. Damasio, D. Tranel, & H. Damasio, 1990) have theorized about a possible relationship between somatic markers and the behavior of psychopathic individuals (Ps), but, to date, there are no published data regarding the proposed relationship. The authors assessed 86 Caucasian and 71 African American male offenders using R. D. Hare's (1991) Psychopathy Checklist--Revised and used a modified version of Bechara and colleagues' (A. Bechara, A. R. Damasio, H. Damasio, & S. W. Anderson, 1994; A. Bechara, H. Damasio, D. Tranel, & A. R. Damasio, 1997) gambling task to test the hypothesis that Ps would, consistent with the somatic marker hypothesis, fail to become risk averse. Results indicated that level of anxiety, but not psychopathy, was predictive of response choices. Several limitations and implications of the study are noted.

Immigration and the Ethnic Distribution of Homicide in Miami, 1985-1995

This article extends the city-level research tradition initiated by Marvin E. Wolfgang in a unique comparison of immigrant (Haitian, Latino) and native born (Anglo, African American) criminal homicide in the city of Miami, Florida. Although previous research has been limited primarily to Anglo and African American victims and offenders, direct access to Miami police records on 1,450 homicides for the period 1985 through 1995 allowed the authors to compare the homicide risk of Anglos, African Americans, Haitians, and Latinos. Although current policy debates focus on immigration as a contributing factor to rising crime rates, the results indicate that the groups with higher proportions of foreign-born members have comparatively low homicide rates. The findings underscore the need to extend homicide research to include diverse ethnic groups in designs that attempt to disentangle the relative influence of social conditions, ethnicity, and immigration on patterns of criminal homicide.