Criminal Justice Research Research Articles

Research in Action: Student Perceptions of Active Learning in Criminal Justice Research Courses

This project addressed two major points: do interactive classroom activities improve student’s perception of learning research methodology in an undergraduate course and does the class structure, i.e. traditional face-to-face versus hybrid impact perceived student comprehension? Over the course of two fall semesters, the researchers utilized three common interactive assignments. These assignments were designed around the subjects of sampling, content analysis, and survey craftsmanship. The students completed the activities during class and then completed a brief survey immediately following the activity. A total of 72 students were part of the study (32 in a traditional course and 40 in a hybrid course). Regardless of the class format, at least 75% or more of the students agreed or strongly agreed that the interactive class activity increased their knowledge of the topic. In comparing the responses between both sets of students, there does seem to be some differences in perceptions of student learning based on whether the class is taught traditionally or in a hybrid format.

Poaching, Social Conflict, and the Public Trust: Some Critical Observations on Wildlife Crime

ABSTRACTThe illegal killing of wild animals is recognized as a significant social problem in modern society, yet when compared to many other types of unlawful behaviors, the study of wildlife crime has received scant attention from criminal justice researchers. With the emergence of green criminology in recent decades, however, there has been a concomitant increase in poaching research. This essay reviews the literature and provides some observations on the status of poaching research, and then offers directions for future research on wildlife crime from a critical perspective. Conflict theory provides a useful framework for analyzing wildlife crime and can be used to enhance our understanding of laws regulating the use of wild animals. Given the fact that wildlife is a public trust resource in the United States, it is argued that state wildlife agencies that offer special programs to landowners to facilitate the commercialization of wildlife may be committing a state crime.

Female offenders of human trafficking and sexual exploitation

Female offenders are seldom studied by criminological scholars. This is certainly the case regarding offenses like human trafficking and sexual exploitation. However, the number of women suspected of being a perpetrator of human trafficking should not be underestimated. In this paper we present the results of a study on female perpetrators of human trafficking. We have analyzed the court-files of 150 women who have been convicted for human trafficking. We present results on the prevalence of female offenders of human trafficking and the forms of exploitation they have been convicted for. After this we present the sanctions that were imposed on the women and the offender, offense and victim characteristics. This paper concludes by discussing implications for criminal justice authorities, policy and research.

Interviewing Criminal Justice Populations without Electronic Recording Devices: A Guide

We outline a guide for facilitating face-to-face in-depth interviews without the use of electronic recording devices in criminal justice research. It is designed to provide researchers with step-by-step directions they can follow to conduct interviews when recording equipment is not available, not allowed, or not used due to other reasons. In-depth interviews are common in qualitative criminal justice research but require researchers to be highly flexible and adaptive. When interviews are conducted on sensitive issues or carried out in high security environments, recording devices may not be permitted or welcomed. This protocol aims to make the interviews more structured, systematic and organized when electronic recording devices are not used in an attempt to enhance the accuracy and transparency. These guidelines were developed based on practical and theoretical foundations.

Action research in criminal justice: restorative justice approaches in intercultural settings

Action research in criminal justice: restorative justice approaches in intercultural settings

Cognitive Interviewing to Improve Questionnaires for Justice-Involved Youth.

This study demonstrates the utility of cognitive interviewing for survey and scale development in criminal justice research and identifies common comprehension problems with survey items for justice-involved youth. A cognitive interviewing strategy was utilized with a sample of youth who completed a survey examining risk factors for recidivism. A content analysis of interviews was used to identify patterns and to classify the nature and type of comprehension issues youth experienced. Five specific comprehension issues were identified including reading comprehension, item ambiguity, precondition binds, double-barreled questions, and double negatives. Findings illustrate the value of cognitive interviewing for pretesting survey items for justice-involved youth and provide further insight into issues surrounding word choice, question structure, and response sets. Results also point to the need to reassess the validity of established scales used in contemporary studies. Limitations of the current study and implications for future research are discussed.

An Examination of How District Attorneys Perceive Justice.

Scholars have identified four primary types of justice: distributive, procedural, interpersonal, and informational. These four types of justice correspond, respectively, to the perceived fairness of one’s outcomes, to the perceived fairness of the procedures used to determine one’s outcomes, to the degree to which people are treated with dignity and respect, and to whether individuals receive complete, truthful, and timely explanations of procedures and decisions. A significant amount of criminal justice research has examined how perceptions of justice affect attitudes and behavior (Denver 2011). Understanding how district attorneys view justice gives insight into the decisions they make including how to dispose of cases, what charges to bring against defendants, what sentences to recommend, and even how victims should be treated throughout the court process. As noted by Colquitt (2001), a large number of studies have sought to link justice perceptions to a variety of organizational outcomes, including job satisfaction, organizational commitment, withdrawal, and organizational citizenship behavior (p. 425). Nonetheless, the extant literature is lacking on conceptualizations of justice related to jury trials. Since ensuring that justice prevails is the primary responsibility of the district attorney (Felkenes 1975), this study seeks to examine district attorneys’ perceptions of justice resulting from the use of jury trials.

Corrections for Academic Medicine: The Importance of Using Person-First Language for Individuals Who Have Experienced Incarceration.

This Invited Commentary addresses the use of labels and their impact on people involved in the criminal justice system. There are 2.2 million adults incarcerated in the United States and close to 6.6 million under correctional supervision on any day. Many of these people experience health inequalities and inadequate health care both in and out of correctional facilities. These numbers are reason enough to raise alarm among health care providers and criminal justice researchers about the need to conceptualize better ways to administer health care for these individuals. Using terms like "convict," "prisoner," "parolee," and "offender" to describe these individuals increases the stigma that they already face. The authors propose that employing person-first language for justice-involved individuals would help to reduce the stigma they face during incarceration and after they are released. Coordinated, dignified, and multidisciplinary care is essential for this population given the high rates of morbidity and mortality they experience both in and out of custody and the many barriers that impede their successful integration with families and communities. Academic medicine can begin to address the mistrust that formerly incarcerated individuals often have toward the health care system by using the humanizing labels recommended in this Invited Commentary.

Criminological Policy Mobilities and Sex Work: Understanding the Movement of the ‘Swedish Model’ to Northern Ireland

Abstract Ideas, policies and models related to criminal justice often travel between places. How, then, should we make sense of this movement? We make the case for drawing on the policy mobilities literature, which originates in human geography. It is only recently that criminological studies have drawn on small parts of this literature. This article argues for a more expansive engagement with the policy mobilities literature, so that criminal justice researchers focus on concepts such as mobilities, mutation, assemblages, learning, educating and showcasing when studying the movement of criminal justice ideas, policies and models. To illustrate our argument, we will draw on a case study of the adaptation of the ‘Swedish model’ of governing sex work by policymakers in Northern Ireland.

Death by Folklore

My original essay “Death by Folklore” was written soon after the 1982 murders of teenagers Annette Cooper and Todd Schultz in an area of Southeastern Ohio plagued by rumors of Satanic cults. I argued that the killings and the local reaction to them could be understood as acts of ostension, possibly criminal acts or, more likely, acts of interpreting ambiguous events in terms of familiar legends about Satanism. Since then, the original defendant has been exonerated, and a convict has confessed to being the actual murderer, which he says was the result of an unmeditated impulse with no folklore relevance. So, was my article irrelevant to the crime? The essay surveys new information uncovered through investigative journalism and criminal justice research, and concludes that ostension, in its current sense, remains the best theoretical tool for understanding the murders’ cultural significance.

Part-Time Jail Time: Jailors’ Perspectives on the Practice of Nonconsecutive Day Sentencing in Virginia

Jurisdictions across the Commonwealth of Virginia are working to broaden and refine the implementation of community-oriented alternative sentencing programs. From the perspective of practitioners, this article examines the statutory expansion of one such alternative sanction in Virginia—nonconsecutive day sentencing (“weekend” or “part-time” jail time)—as adopted in Senate Bill No. 36 during the General Assembly’s 2018 Regular Session. Presenting mixed-methods survey results from a large sample of correctional professionals across the Commonwealth, the study finds little practitioner support for the expanded application of weekend jail programming. Based on such stakeholder input, the article discusses anticipated adverse effects of the statutory amendments passed in SB36 and argues that practitioners, with the assistance of criminal justice researchers, must lend their expertise to legislators in policy development process from proposal through implementation.

Arson in an urban setting: a multi-event near repeat chain analysis in Flint, Michigan

A growing body of literature has recently begun to examine spatiotemporal nuances of arson. However, criminal justice research has minimally investigated how an arson event might serve as an initiator for a string of arsons. To rectify this gap, the current study conducted a near repeat analysis incorporating multiple-event near repeat chains to identify possible spatiotemporal patterns for arson in Flint, Michigan. Findings underscore that increased risk of repeat arson victimization was most pronounced for residential arsons. Results for near repeat chains indicate an average mean risk of roughly 5 days but for certain chains risk lasted for up to 2 months. Discussion of implications, limitations, and future research are also provided.

More Autonomous or more Fenced-in? Neuroscientific Instruments and Intervention in Criminal Justice

Neuroscientific research in relation to antisocial behavior has strongly grown in the last decades. This has resulted in a better understanding of biological factors associated with antisocial behavior. Furthermore several neuroscientific instruments and interventions have been developed that have a relatively low threshold for use in the criminal justice system to contribute to prevention or reduction of antisocial and criminal behavior. When considering implementation in the criminal justice system, ethical aspects of the use of neuroscientific instruments and interventions need to be taken into account. With respect to ethics in relation to neurocriminology much of the literature focuses on identifying and debating risks and value conflicts. This is important and necessary, but the positive contribution of neuroscientific applications may therefore get less attention in the ethical literature. Yet, ethicists can help criminal justice researchers and practitioners to identify ways in which neuroscience could add positively to important values in (young) offender rehabilitation. It is argued that this role of ethicists in interdisciplinary teams deserves more emphasis. As an illustration, this contribution focuses on how neuroscientific knowledge, instruments and interventions may contribute to autonomy of (young) offenders.

Predicting state police officer alcohol consumption and use of tobacco

Criminal justice research has well documented the fact that law enforcement officers experience a significant amount of stress. Research also suggests law enforcement officers use tobacco (which is not healthy at any rate) and alcohol at rates exceeding those of other populations. Although several studies have documented the above across a wide variety of law enforcement populations, research has not previously explored the extent to which state police officers use tobacco and alcohol. Because no studies explore state law enforcement officer use of tobacco and alcohol, no studies exist that identify factors predictive of state police officer use of alcohol and tobacco. This study addresses these gaps in the literature by surveying all sworn state police officers of one state police agency. Policy recommendations, as they pertain to reducing state police officer use of alcohol and tobacco are discussed below.

Measuring drug dependence in police custody: An item response theory and differential item function analysis of UNCOPE in Australia.

Although there has been significant investment in policies and programs aimed at preventing drug-related crime, there has been comparatively little effort dedicated to the validation the relevant research and evidence gathering tools. In this study, we aim to confirm the internal consistency of UNCOPE, developed by Hoffmann and colleagues, in the Australian context, as well as explore whether time in custody and prior custodial experience results in differential item functioning. Data were derived from the Australian Institute of Criminology's Drug Use Monitoring in Australia Program in which the UNCOPE instrument had been administered with 15 454 detainees who reported illicit drug use in the past 12 months. Item response theory methods are used to explore the characteristics of all six items, while Multiple Indicators Multiple Causes and likelihood ratio differential item functioning test methods are used to explore differential item functioning. Strong support is indicated for the internal consistency of the UNCOPE instrument. Modest differential functioning is identified for only one item, indicating that prolonged periods of detention prior to interview may influence the probability of endorsement for items that require introspection and reflection on drug-related neglect. These modest effects are unlikely to have any practical effect on the overall utility of UNCOPE. In these analyses, the item characteristics of UNCOPE appear consistent with results seen in the USA. Further, the modest differential item functioning identified for neglect (item N) has no practical impact on the overall functioning on UNCOPE. Criminal justice and drug policy researchers will be comforted by the absence of any substantial implementation or environmental bias.

Police moonlighting and gender difference: exploring paid detail security for men and women officers in North American police departments

Paid detail public police work is underexplored in criminal justice and criminological research. As a result, gender disparities for women police officers in paid detail policing, entailing the private employment of public police for services that often resemble stationary guarding, have not been investigated. Based on analysis of police paid detail records and interviews with police and users of paid detail across the United States and Canada, we investigate the significance of paid detail for police officer pay and differences by gender. We discuss gender proportions in police departments and compare them to gender proportions in paid detail assignments. Our analysis reveals all nine police departments selected as case studies had far more men than women officers. This dominance was also evidenced by the fact that most assignments were taken up by men in all nine departments. Moreover, albeit the differences were usually modest, in seven of nine departments, the proportion of assignments taken up by men was greater than the proportion of men in the department. After reflecting on explanations for why this disparity exists, we conclude with recommendations for policy reform, and directions for future research.

The Response Rate Test: Nonresponse Bias and the Future of Survey Research in Criminology and Criminal Justice

There is a disciplinary assumption in our field that surveys with low response rates produce biased estimates, which leads to the use of simple rules for judging the quality of survey data. Surveys with “low” response rates fail this “response rate test” and become difficult to publish. Most of our research methods texts list these rules: e.g., “A response rate below 60% is a disaster, and even a 70% response rate is not much more than minimally acceptable”. Editors embrace this view, and often reject out of hand any study failing to reach this conventional standard. We argue that our field’s use of response rate rules in evaluating scholarship is based more on disciplinary custom than on survey science. In this paper, we describe the long-term downward trend in response rates and address confusion about nonresponse bias and its relation to response rates. Using Groves and Peytcheva’s (2008) meta-analytic data, we present evidence about the magnitude of the estimate- and study-level relationships between response rates and two different measures of nonresponse bias in univariate estimates. We then discuss several consequences of using the “response rate test” to judge data quality.

The impact of family indifference on delinquency among American Indian youth: A test of general strain theory

ABSTRACTNative American (NA) youth's delinquency is one of the major problems that have been overlooked by criminal justice researchers and practitioners. To examine if negative family environment influences their delinquency with the mediating effect of negative emotion, this study analyzed structural equation modeling based on the General Strain Theory (GST). Using data regarding NA adolescents, this study found much evidence supporting GST. The results of the model with anger showed that anger was a mediating variable between family indifferences and delinquency, and the model with depression indicated that family indifferences increased delinquency through depression. However, some results in the model with anger and depression were not in accordance with GST hypothesis.

Crime and Criminal Justice Research: Australia and its Region

Research on crime and criminal justice history for Australia and its region is almost entirely restricted chronologically to the period since 1788. That was the year when transported convicts sentenced in England first landed at their destination in Botany Bay. The geo-temporal location of the area “Australia and its region” is one defined initially by the region’s imperial and colonial histories. The dominant imperial power was Britain, and its proxies, the British-populated settler colonies...

The construction of allegedly abused children’s narratives in Scottish criminal courts

ABSTRACTThis study investigated lawyers’ use of social narratives surrounding child sexual abuse when questioning 66 5- to 17-year-old alleged victims in Scottish criminal courts using a mixed-methods approach. Thematic analysis found that the use of beliefs and stereotypes varied depending upon the lawyers’ role (defense/prosecution), children’s age, and the alleged victim-defendant relationship. These findings were investigated further using narrative analysis, which showed that, with increasing age and decreasing familiarity with defendants, narratives increasingly focused on the characteristics and actions of the victims rather than the defendants. Older children contributed more to narratives than younger children, but their contributions were only incorporated into the prosecutors’ narratives. Defense lawyers adopted more victim-blaming tactics as the narratives developed. Findings suggest that the criminal justice system, practitioners, and researchers must do more to recognize and guard against the reinforcement of stereotypes that may influence public rhetoric and jury decision-making.