Criminal Justice Policy Research Articles

The Efficacy of Restorative Justice Programs in Reducing Recidivism Rates

Purpose: This study sought to assess the efficacy of restorative justice programs in reducing recidivism rates. Methodology: The study adopted a desktop research methodology. Desk research refers to secondary data or that which can be collected without fieldwork. Desk research is basically involved in collecting data from existing resources hence it is often considered a low cost technique as compared to field research, as the main cost is involved in executive’s time, telephone charges and directories. Thus, the study relied on already published studies, reports and statistics. This secondary data was easily accessed through the online journals and library. Findings: The findings reveal that there exists a contextual and methodological gap relating to restorative justice programs in reducing recidivism rates. Preliminary empirical review revealed that restorative justice interventions were effective in reducing reoffending and promoting positive outcomes for both offenders and victims. Through processes such as victim-offender mediation and family group conferencing, restorative justice provided opportunities for offenders to take responsibility, repair harm, and engage in rehabilitation. While acknowledging variations in effectiveness based on offender characteristics and program implementation, the study highlighted the importance of continued investment in restorative justice initiatives to create a more just and equitable criminal justice system. Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: Labeling theory, Social Learning theory and Routine Activities theory may be used to anchor future studies on restorative justice programs in reducing recidivism rates. The study offered recommendations that contributed to theoretical advancements, practical improvements, and policy developments in the field. It emphasized the importance of exploring underlying mechanisms, standardized training for practitioners, and integration of restorative principles into mainstream criminal justice policies. These recommendations were aimed at enhancing the effectiveness and sustainability of restorative justice interventions in promoting positive outcomes for victims, offenders, and communities.

A life on hold: women, drugs, and electronically monitored parole in Thailand

ABSTRACT The United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-Custodial Measures for Women Offenders (the Bangkok Rules) advocate for the increased use of non-custodial measures alongside women-wise criminal justice programs, policies, and practices. In Thailand, since the Bangkok Rules were adopted, there has been increased attention paid to implementing affirmative action to counterbalance the gender discrimination women face behind prison walls. However, there is a sparsity of knowledge and consideration of women’s non-custodial involvement, in Thailand and worldwide. In this paper, we present findings from research exploring women’s pathways to and experiences of electronically monitored (EM) parole in Thailand. We found that women’s criminalisation trajectories were facilitated by a configuration of multifaceted, commonly interconnected, vulnerabilities and harms. While EM parole should, according to governmental rhetoric, be rehabilitative and supportive of reintegration through ‘the treatment of offenders in accordance with international norms and standards’ in practice, women’s needs were barely recognised, let alone met. Instead, rather than supporting women, EM parole was, in many ways, setting them up to fail.

Beyond Numbers: Embracing the Depth of Qualitative Research in Criminology

This article advocates for the integral role of qualitative research in criminology, emphasizing its capability to delve into the nuanced and complex experiences of outliers, such as criminals and victims, whose behaviors and experiences significantly deviate from societal norms. It argues that traditional quantitative methods, while useful for identifying broad patterns and trends, often fall short in capturing the depth of human behavior and the intricacies of social problems. Qualitative methods, including in-depth interviews, ethnography, and case studies, are presented as essential tools for uncovering the motivations, emotions, and social contexts underlying criminal actions and the impact of crime. The article highlights the limitations of quantitative research in dealing with outliers and the dynamic nature of human behavior, underscoring the importance of qualitative approaches in providing a richer, more contextualized understanding of crime and victimization. Through a series of case studies and methodological discussions, it demonstrates how qualitative research enriches criminological inquiry, offering critical insights that are instrumental for theoretical advancement and the development of effective criminal justice policies. The conclusion calls for an integrated approach to criminological research that values the complementary strengths of both qualitative and quantitative methods, fostering a more comprehensive and nuanced understanding of crime and its impacts on society.

‘Patience, persistence and proportionality’: Probation officer's perspectives of desistance in practice

Desistance from crime is a priority for criminal justice policy and practice yet the term carries varying definitions across research literature. Contemporary discourses promote a refocusing from desistance's representation as an individual's personal journey, to understanding desistance more akin to a social movement. Research has predominantly focused on the lived experience of those striving to achieve desistance, with practitioner perspectives remaining under researched. This study, conducted post COVID-19, aimed to explore and evaluate how probation officers operationalise desistance in practice. Outcomes evidence that whilst practitioners acknowledge the diverse conceptualisations of desistance, it remains a priority in practice, even where the focus is predominantly risk management. Key practice features emerging as essential to promoting desistance include identifying and cultivating a motivation to change, approaches to forming the supervisory relationship and how practitioner's respond when risks increase. A supporting organisational ethos is critical but challenged in the complex post COVID-19 context.

Racial Attitudes Towards Criminal Justice Policy

The present study examined the intersection of race and attitudes toward crime and criminal justice policies. Using the Kinder Houston Area Survey, findings revealed some surprising similarities, but also significant differences between the three largest racial categories sampled: Black/African American, Hispanic, and White. Political affiliation, social class, and educational attainment were the primary indicators of support/rejection toward attitudinal beliefs regarding crime and criminal justice policy (i.e., teachers carrying guns, death penalty, assault weapon bans). Political affiliation and education were paramount regarding whether teachers should carry guns on school grounds and implementing mandatory background checks. White and Hispanic republicans favored teachers carrying guns, while educated Blacks and Hispanics rejected this policy. At the same time, educated Blacks and Hispanics favored implementing mandatory background checks. Similarly, support and/or objection to the death penalty and banning assault weapons yielded interesting findings. Black, Hispanic, and White republicans advocated support for the death penalty, while simultaneous rejecting bans on assault weapons. Interestingly, only educated Blacks supported banning assault weapons. Participants' political party affilation influenced their attitudes toward these policies. These and other findings are discussed in relation to the extent to which race, sociodemographic characteristics, political, and residential placement shape beliefs about crime and criminal justice policy in one of Americas most racially and ethnically diverse metropolitan cities.

The Legal Framework for Community Penalties in Jordanian Law

This study aims to clarify the contemporary criminal justice policy, which endeavors to embrace a system of societal sanctions, also known as alternative punishments, as a viable alternative to conventional criminal justice in the present era. This is in response to the fact that the prevailing criminal justice policy in both Arab and foreign legal systems primarily emphasizes punitive measures, resulting in a surge in crime rates and a mounting caseload in the judiciary. Upon concluding our study, we determined that the Jordanian legislator made a proper decision by implementing many alternative societal sanctions, such as social service, social control, and social service, which are acknowledged in comparable laws. There should be strong assurances in place to ensure that convicts can be successfully reintegrated into society after their release. This includes allowing conditional release, where a convict's good behaviors do not prevent them from benefiting from this measure before the specified end date of their sentence. It is important to always provide opportunities for convicts to benefit from alternative punishment systems, as this decision should be based on the best interests of society, rather than solely on the convict's interest.

The People’s Intervention: How #BlackLivesMatter Circumvented a Culture of Congruent Criminal Justice Policies in American States

AbstractSince 2014, the #BlackLivesMatter movement has worked to initiate police reforms designed to increase accountability and reduce the extrajudicial killing of Black and brown people. However, policy designs are typically congruent—meaning the allocation of benefits and burdens is generally aligned with how the target group is perceived by society. How could the movement motivate policy noncongruent action that would likely burden police—a group privileged by their position within a congruent, punitive, and racialized criminal justice policy culture? An examination of the innovation and diffusion of 12 noncongruent police reforms from 2014 to 2020 suggests the movement’s demands (1) reoriented the political and social contexts that fueled past diffusion processes, (2) activated key institutional actors—Black lawmakers—who served as entrepreneurs in state institutions, and (3) reactivated innovative states to serve as “leaders” in a new wave of noncongruent reform. This analysis provides a useful framework to understand how marginalized communities and their allies can exact real policy change in a political environment known for its unresponsiveness to the demands of marginalized groups.

PENALTIES NOT RELATED TO IMPRISONMENT IN THE CRIMINAL LEGISLATION OF UZBEKISTAN: CONCEPT, SYSTEM, SPECIFIC ASPECTS

In this article, the author covered the concept, system, specific aspects general of penalties not related to imprisonment according to the criminal legislation of Uzbekistan. The author notes that the system of non-parole-related penalties continues to develop all over the world at the present time. Among them, fines, public works (including correctional work) are especially widely used. It should be noted that the task of developing a system of punishments in which criminal law is not associated with deprivation of Liberty is of urgent importance for Uzbekistan, which is constantly reforming the judicial system. As the main directions of the criminal justice policy implemented in Uzbekistan, the revision of types of crimes according to the level of social danger, the transfer of many serious or extreme crimes established in the criminal law into a category of crimes of greater social risk and less severe severity, the relaxation of the conditions for applying criminal liability measures to persons who first committed, it can be seen in expanding the scope and capabilities of the basis for the application of types of punishment that are not related to the separation of the convicted from society, in improving the procedure for the enforcement of these criminal justice measures.

International Law Enforcement Observer XII

Aim: Issue XII of the Observer covers topics that could have a significant impact on both public safety strategy and the future development of criminal justice policy. There is no doubt that the strengthening of constitutional values and the need to make the functioning of state power more effective are new challenges for law enforcement. The following reviews report on research from abroad that can serve the development of policing, law enforcement and criminal justice.Methodology: In addition to the traditional jurisprudential methodology, the literature increasingly draws on political science disciplines with a global perspective. A good example is Tamás Suszter’s paper, which gives us a picture of how the situation of NGOs in some countries has been assessed in recent times. Róbert Berei also reports on ground-breaking research in his report on the organisational culture of the Metropolitan Police Service in London in 2023. BernadettBacsó’s analysis is not far behind, confronting the reader with the lessons of the so-called German police family model. Typical criminological reactions are highlighted by Barbara Mágó when she notes that ‘the majority of narratives on human trafficking focus on criminals exploiting vulnerable victims’.Findings: One of the findings of the study analysing the situation of NGOs is that, ‘It is important to note, however, that although the laws against NGOs do not appear to be a cause of wider human rights repression in the period under review, this does not mean that they do not have a deterrent effect on the functioning of NGOs.’ A new feature in the criminological analysis of trafficking is the analysis from the perspectives of consent, coercion and fraud, which ‘... provides a somewhat more nuanced view of the rigid legal definition, and empirical studies present a less hostile picture of trafficking. The approach of the study can thus be considered as a niche one.’ Róbert Bogotyán cites a US example from the field of penitentiary law when he states, ‘The late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries saw a dramatic jump in parole revocations: both new offenses and parole violations were now sufficient to contribute to the increase in American incarceration.’Value: Despite the diversity of the reviews in the fields of constitutionalism, public security, law enforcement, criminal justice and prison culture, they are united in their defence of human values. From civilian control to the reintegration of those serving their sentences, the common theme is the effective and humane service of public order and public safety.

Drug transactions and the dark web: Public perceptions of the locational setting of offenders and support for drug policy outcomes

BackgroundBoth legal and extra-legal factors influence judicial and non-judicial opinions about persons who use drugs. Yet, how the locational setting of drug transactions influences public perceptions of drug control policies remains understudied. In particular, the public's view of drug exchanges on the dark web could directly and indirectly influence drug policy, legal decision making, and spending decisions. The study's aim is to identify whether the location of a drug exchange, specifically the dark web, influences public preferences for drug policy and police resourcing. MethodsA sample (n = 1359) from the United States of America was recruited and participated in a discrete choice experiment. The participants compared and repeatedly chose across five iterations between two drug offender profiles with nine set features, such as the location of drug transactions, all with randomized levels. The resulting sample included a total of 13,590 contest pairs. ResultsAveraging over the non-locational attributes, respondents indicated that, compared to the dark web, several locational settings for drug exchange (such as the street corner, social media, and an unknown location) needed fewer police resources and offenders were less deserving of longer punishments. No statistically significant difference was found for opinions about harm to communities, and offenders involved in drug exchanges on university campuses were considered more deserving of a substance abuse treatment program than offenders on the dark web. ConclusionThere appears to be a preference for more punitive criminal justice policies for drug transactions occurring on the dark web relative to some other common settings. Such preferences may indicate a novelty effect driven by negative sentiment surrounding the dark web or a perceived deficit in the police's ability to deal with drug crimes on the dark web. These findings suggest that the public may prefer supply-side policing efforts over demand-side policies, which emphasizes harm reduction.

Overview of the Work of CCJ’s Task Force on Long Sentences

This issue presents the final report and research briefs commissioned by the Council on Criminal Justice (CCJ) Task Force on Long Sentences. CCJ is a nonpartisan think tank that advances understanding of the criminal justice policy choices facing the nation and builds consensus for solutions that enhance safety and justice for all. In 2022, CCJ established the Task Force, recruiting 16 national subject matter experts representing diverse political perspectives to scrutinize the impact of extended sentences on the criminal justice system and the communities it serves, encompassing victims, incarcerated individuals, their families, and correctional staff. Drawing on sentencing data and comprehensive research, the Task Force developed 14 recommendations designed to enhance individual and systemic accountability, mitigate racial and ethnic disparities, better support crime victims, and bolster public safety.

The Role of Intuition in Expressing Support for Harsh Criminal Justice Policy

The Role of Intuition in Expressing Support for Harsh Criminal Justice Policy

Enhancing Civic Literacy and Engagement: The Impact of a Criminal Justice Capstone Course

This study examines the effects of a criminal justice capstone course on student levels of civic literacy and civic engagement. The course was designed to provide students with insights into the intersection between criminal justice policies and practices and the political process. The goals of the course included helping students more fully understand criminal justice policies and practices and where they come from and helping to motivate them to participate in the political process and be more knowledgeable when they do. An evaluation of the course utilized a mixed-methods approach involving pre- and post-semester surveys and reflections submitted at the end of the course. Quantitative and qualitative results of this study indicate a shift in students’ civic literacy and engagement throughout the semester. The findings of this research highlight the pivotal role of education in nurturing informed and engaged citizens.

Human Rights at the Edges of Late Imperial Britain: The Tyrer Case and Judicial Corporal Punishment from the Isle of Man to Montserrat, 1972–1990

AbstractIn Tyrer v. United Kingdom (1978), the European Court of Human of Human Rights ruled that judicial corporal punishment contravened Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which proscribed “degrading treatment or punishment.” The case unfolded at a formative moment in British legal activism, as left-wing civil-liberties lawyers who had been wary of human rights discourse began taking cases to Strasbourg. The case also involved tactical challenges for British politicians and government lawyers. The case originated on the Isle of Man, which is close to the British mainland but constitutionally not part of the United Kingdom: it is a “crown dependency” with its own executive, legislature, and judiciary, and it persisted with judicial corporal punishment long after the practice had been abolished in Great Britain. By convention, the British government respected the island's laws and criminal-justice policies, but Britain was responsible for the island's compliance with international agreements—including the European Convention on Human Rights. How the British government dealt with the Isle of Man during and after the litigation had direct implications for a host of other small territories in what remained of the British empire—in particular, Britain's remaining Caribbean territories. The Tyrer case's protracted endgame was an object lesson in how much Britain's “unwritten” constitution depends on negotiation, manipulation, and avoiding the overt exercise of powers that might crumble upon use.

The Sequential Intercept Model and Forensic Assertive Community Treatment (FACT) for People with Serious Mental Illness: Implications for Social Work Practice

In the United States, adults with serious mental illness are overrepresented in the criminal justice system. The sequential intercept model is a novel framework that identifies three major stages where interventions for this population can best be utilized: pretrial diversion, post-plea alternative to incarceration (ATI), and community reentry from jail and prison. This paper begins with a review of the literature that supports the application of Forensic Assertive Community Treatment (FACT) across these three stages. This paper will also draw on the influences of therapeutic jurisprudence, which holds that the courts can be used to both advance public safety and enhance access to mental health services for justice involved people with serious mental illness. 
 The literature has suggested that patients receiving FACT services have been found to have lower rates of psychiatric hospitalization and criminal justice recidivism in comparison to those who received traditional mental health services. This paper will touch on cutting edge practices to reduce psychiatric hospitalization and criminal justice recidivism rates among people with mental illness that are currently in use. In particular, programs involving law enforcement integration such as ACT-PI teams, co-response teams, and crisis intervention training will be explored. This paper will focus on applications and limitations of FACT across the various stages of the sequential intercept model, with a particular focus of using FACT as a way to reduce racial and gender disparities within the criminal justice system among people with serious mental illness. In light of the broad support the literature highlights for FACT when applied earlier within the criminal justice system, social work practice efforts should accordingly focus on expansion of early access to FACT services. In particular, criminal justice policy efforts should be expanded with respect to utilization of these services at the pretrial diversion and ATI stages, where they are historically underutilized.

Predatory Helpfulness: An Empirical Framework to Identify Fraudulent Tactics Used by Pimps to Recruit and Commercially Sexually Exploit Young Girls and Women

ABSTRACT Understanding how traffickers entrap and exploit young girls and women has become crucial to correctly identifying sex trafficking. Research shows that pimps use recruitment techniques of seduction, housing assistance, drugs, and emotional support as well as physical violence, debt bondage, and psychological manipulation to entrap women into commercial sexual exploitation (CSE). This pilot study posits that these seemingly dichotomous methods represent two temporal occurrences; pimps use superficially positive offers to lure young girls and women into a relationship via grooming tactics, then shift the relationship into a sexually exploitive one via recruitment tactics. This study aimed to explore this temporal sequence a two-prong process termed “predatory helpfulness.” Data for this preliminary study examined coercive control tactics, and trauma-coerced attachment in sex trafficking survivors. Participants (N = 19) were all women who had previously been pimp trafficked. Study findings strongly supported the predatory helpfulness model; 18 of the 19 participants felt their initial relationships with their pimps were positive and helpful, and 17 of the 19 participants were able to identify a distinct relational shift between this grooming stage and the recruitment stage, where CSE began. These findings help identify undetected coercive behaviors on the part of the pimp and inform criminal justice interventions and policy. Furthermore, understanding predatory helpfulness will shift the focus to the perpetrators’ behaviors, moving us toward a community that embraces and supports the victims impacted by CSE. A 12 Question Predatory Helpfulness Screener is proposed as a tool for legal actors and providers.

Identifying the Legislative Techniques of Criminalization in the Criminal Code 2015 and some Recommendations

Criminalization is a part of criminal justice policy and one of the most important and frequently-used legislative methods in criminal law. It creates a legal basis for combating crimes and ensures the effectiveness of the Criminal Code. Identifying the legislative techniques of criminalization in the Criminal Code 2015 is essential to minimize shortcomings in the implementation process of this legislative activity.
 
 
 

The crime control of true crime best sellers

ABSTRACT In criminology, social and legal eras are often referred to as dominated by either due process or crime control narratives. In general, crime control narratives focus on the need for tough-on-crime policies and on the terror of criminals wreaking havoc in society. By contrast, due process narratives focus on the need to move slowly and methodically through our justice process to avoid mistakes and violations of human rights. These eras swing back and forth, neither wholly related nor unrelated to the conservative/liberal pendulum of broader politics. Arguably, despite a conservative and nationalist moment in US politics, our criminal justice policy pendulum is again swinging in the due-process direction. This is evidenced in policy reforms and popular calls for policy reform such as monitoring the police, ending cash bail, legalizing marijuana, and so on. Contrary to prevailing trends, best-selling true crime books remain crime control oriented regardless of the historical/cultural era.

Why victim age and co-offending status matter in sexual offending: An analysis of Data First Ministry of Justice Crown Court data

ObjectivesThe study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of victim age and co-offending status classification systems in distinguishing between diverse sexual offenders/offences. This can aid in enhancing comprehension of the correlates and aetiologies of these offences and inform the development of more effective criminal justice policy.
 MethodsThe current study uses Data First Ministry of Justice Crown Court Data from England and Wales between 2013 and 2019 to compare offender and offence characteristics between different typologies of sexual offending categorised using: (1) victim age (child sexual abuse v adult sexual abuse); (2) co-offending status (lone v duo v group); and (3) a combination of victim age and co-offending status (group child sexual abuse v group adult sexual abuse).
 ResultsSignificant differences between the typologies were found across a variety of variables for all three categorisation systems. These included the age, sex, ethnicity, and prosecution histories of offenders; age and ethnic composition of co-offending groups/duos; and the nature of the offences committed. While some findings support previous studies, some diverge from what has previously been reported in the literature. Furthermore, some of the findings provide information on areas which, until now, have received very little attention in the literature (i.e., comparisons of group perpetrated child sexual abuse and group perpetrated adult sexual abuse).
 ConclusionThis study provides support for the application of victim age and co-offending status classification systems to sexual offending as a means of disentangling heterogeneous groups of offenders/offences.

Institutional violence from police militarization and drug cartel wars as a 'Big Event' and its influence on drug use harms and HIV risk in people who inject drugs on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Globally, the US-Mexico Border is one of the largest drug trafficking regions, with Ciudad Juarez (CJ) and El Paso (EP) making up the second-largest border crossing in the world. Border communities are places where the risk of drug use harm and infectious diseases such as HIV are augmented due to the confluence of factors operating across the physical, social, economic and policy environment. Although the two cities are economically, culturally, and socially intertwined, each has distinct criminal justice systems and policy practices aimed at curtailing substance use. Between 2008 and 2011, the CJ/EP region experienced an unprecedented level of violence that stemmed from the intersection of police militarization and drug cartel wars, which profoundly shaped every aspect of life. Little research has documented the impact of drug cartel wars on the drug use and health harms of people who inject drugs (PWID) living in CJ and EP. The purpose of the study is to understand the effect that the drug cartel war had on the drug use harms and HIV risk of PWID. We conducted 40 in-depth interviews with people who inject drugs who resided in CJ or EP and had used heroin or crack cocaine in the last 30 days, and asked how police militarization and drug cartel war affected their daily lives. The risk environment framework informed the analysis and interpretation of findings. Findings indicated that the risk environment was profoundly altered as PWID residing in CJ experienced profound changes in their daily lives that promoted engagement in behaviors that increased drug use and health harms including HIV risk, exacerbated trauma, and prevented use of substance use treatment and harm reduction services. The risk environment was also altered in EP, where PWID experienced drug supply shortages, violent policing practices, and reduced availability of harm reduction services. Findings underscore the permeability of risk environments across geographical borders. The intersection of law enforcement militarization and drug cartel wars can be conceptualized as a 'big event' because it disrupts the drug market economy, leads to drug shortages, promotes entrance into the drug market economy by people who use drugs, reshapes drug use sites, and constrains the provision of harm reduction services. The stability of the harm reduction system in CJ was negatively impacted and limited the ability of individuals to reduce harm. Our findings show that drug cartel wars render the CJ/EP region extremely susceptible to drug use and health harms, while also creating vulnerability by severely restricting its ability to respond. Traditional recommendations to intervene to limit the impact of risk environments on the drug use harms of PWID need to be reconsidered in the context of drug cartel wars.