Half Of Offenders Research Articles

In the Name of Love or Hatred: a Systematic Comparison Between Filicide-Suicide and Mariticide/Uxoricide-Suicide in Hong Kong.

While much of work on homicide-suicide (HS) arises out of the USA and the UK, there is a paucity of research on HS outside of the Anglo-American sphere. This paper investigates HS in Hong Kong (HK), comparing the subtypes of filicide-suicide (FS) and mariticide/uxoricide-suicide (MUS) in that context as a means of testing the generalizability of past studies. Data from the HK Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government and the HK Police Force reports retrieved 156 cases from 2000 to 2019. In that timeframe, HS resulted in 261 deaths, with MUS being the most prevalent type of HS. Male offenders and female victims are more commonly seen. Offenders are generally older than their victims, and over half of offenders are married. FS and MUS display distinct characteristics in terms of offender and victim demographics, relationship dynamics, motives, and mode of killing. Depressed mothers tend to victimize their sons in FS as a means of saving their sons from a perceived miserable future, whereas male offenders aggress upon their female partners in MUS to alleviate their own frustrations, subsequently dying by suicide out of sorrow or a fear of consequence. MUS offenders are more hostile towards their victims and tend to kill with aggressive means, whereas FS offenders are more likely to kill with altruistic motives and with minimal force. These results match patterns of MUS and FS in the Anglo-American sphere, but with some important differences in terms of the use of guns and the presence of altruistic killing.

Exposing School Employee Sexual Abuse and Misconduct: Shedding Light on a Sensitive Issue

ABSTRACTWhile the media continue to report incidents of school employee sexual misconduct, few empirical studies focus on this issue. To address this gap in the literature, expand knowledge and awareness around the problem, and inform future research and programs, this research intends to document and analyze the characteristics of school employee sexual misconduct cases reported in the media. The authors conducted a landscape analysis of 361 published school employee sexual misconduct cases in the United States from 2014, documenting factors such as offender and victim characteristics, type of incident, technology use, location of offense, and resulting disciplinary actions by schools and law enforcement. These analyses showed that offenders were most often male and general education teachers, with approximately a quarter identified as athletic coaches. Offenders’ average age was 36 years, while the average age of victims was 15. More than half of incidents took place at school or school-related events. Results also showed that school employee sexual misconduct incidents most often involved physical contact; however, technology (i.e., cell phones, computers, cameras/video recorders, and storage devices) played an important role in three out of four cases. Finally, analyses of the criminal and school-related consequences showed that over half of offenders were placed on administrative leave or resigned immediately following their arrest and almost all were convicted of their crimes. Additional findings concerning this topic are also reported in this article.

The Potential for Change in Rehabilitation and Reentry for Behaviorally and Mentally Disordered Offenders in the Post-Affordable Care Act and Second Chance Act Health Care Climate

The United States has the highest incarceration rate among developed nations. With more than half of offenders estimated to have mental illness or addiction, correctional systems are the largest de-facto mental and behavioral health service providers. Correctional facilities are often poorly equipped to serve as treatment facilities and are limited in scope of services due to budgetary restrictions. Historically, the coordination of care during release from jails and prisons is insufficient to secure efficient and uninterrupted care. With low continuity of community-based services during reentry periods, offenders are more likely to become caught in the revolving door of the criminal justice system. Specialty courts and new treatment and reentry models have emerged from evidence-based roots over the past decades, though such approaches have yet to become ubiquitous fixtures in the justice system. The cost of disease burden remains substantial, and large-scale implementation of evidence-based reentry has yet to become a staple of the justice system. In 2014, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) made affordable health care plans and Medicaid coverage available to justice-involved individuals, expanding the possibilities for transitional care. This article reviews the current state of mental and behavioral health care for offender populations, evidence-based models for improving reentry processes, the economic impact of mental and behavioral disorders in justice-involved populations, directions for the future of treatment and reentry, and the implications of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) for bringing about long-term change in the systemic approach to high-need offenders.

A population-based study on toxicological findings in Swedish homicide victims and offenders from 2007 to 2009

Background and objectivesPrevious research on the toxicology of homicide has shown that about half of offenders and victims have psychoactive substances in their blood. The purpose of this study was to examine this topic in a Swedish setting. MethodsToxicological data were sought in a database for all victims (n=273) and perpetrators (n=257) of homicide in Sweden from 2007 to 2009. Sufficient tests were identified for 97.1% of all victims (n=265) and 46.7% of all offenders (n=120). Additional information was obtained from court records and police reports. ResultsA majority of individuals involved in homicides displayed positive toxicology (57.0% of victims and 62.5% of offenders). The most commonly detected substances, in both victims and offenders, were ethanol (44.9% vs. 40.8%) and benzodiazepines (8.3% vs. 19.2%). The difference between offenders and victims concerning benzodiazepines was statistically significant (OR 2.6; p=0.002). Perpetrators of homicide–suicide had a lower prevalence of positive toxicology (30.8%) than other homicide offenders (66.4%; p=0.04) and victims in unsolved cases more often exhibited positive drug toxicology compared to victims in solved cases (36.1% vs. 8.3%; p<0.001). ConclusionsThe results of the study support the notion that substance abuse is firmly linked to committing homicide and to becoming a victim thereof.

Analyzing Offense Patterns as a Function of Mental Illness to Test the Criminalization Hypothesis

Analyzing Offense Patterns as a Function of Mental Illness to Test the Criminalization Hypothesis

A multiple risk factor approach for predicting DWI recidivism.

A sample of DWI (driving while impaired) offenders was studied to compare various approaches for predicting reoffenses over a 4-year period. Logistic regression yielded multivariate predictor equations that were significant statistically, but were not helpful to clinicians in assessing risk for reoffending. As a different approach, five predictor variables that were consistently correlated with reoffense status were examined to determine the cut score at which the repeat offense rate exceeded the base rate. These were combined to yield the number of risk factors (from 0 to 5) for each offender. This method, used for the original and a hold-out sample, yields results as accurate as those derived from a logistic regression model that includes all the risk variables, and allows clinicians to classify offenders into low and high risk categories in a straightforward manner. Nearly half of offenders with four or five risk factors (age, years of education, arrest blood alcohol concentration (BAC), score on the receptive area scale of AUI and raw score on the MacAndrews scale of MMPI-2) were rearrested compared to the base rate (25%). However, this method is not sufficiently precise to accurately predict which individuals will and will not be rearrested. Although generalizability of specific algorithms across populations needs to be examined, this method appears promising as a clinically accessible way to classify, in a given offender population, those who are most likely to repeat the offense.