Higher Arrest Rates Research Articles

Overview of Kleptomania and Phenomenological Description of 40 Patients

BACKGROUND: Despite its considerable personal toll and its impact on the economy and the legal system, kleptomania is an understudied psychiatric disorder. METHOD: We review what is known about the epidemiology, course, and treatment of kleptomania and describe 40 patients meeting DSM-IV criteria for the disorder. RESULTS: Our data suggest a female preponderance, with an early age at onset and most often a continuous course. No other gender-based differences were seen. The majority of our subjects had not received treatment for kleptomania despite often having sought help for comorbid psychiatric conditions, most commonly major depressive disorder. Our data confirm kleptomania's devastating effects on personal and professional lives and serious legal consequences, reflected in high arrest and incarceration rates. Because patients with kleptomania rarely seek psychiatric help for the disorder, we indicate how other health care providers can screen for it, possibly as part of taking patients' legal and social histories, and suggest treatments. CONCLUSION: Awareness of kleptomania, empathy toward those afflicted, and rigorous research into treatment options are needed to mitigate kleptomania's personal and societal costs.

HAMMETT ET AL. RESPOND

Hirshon and Wilson raise important questions about the statistical methodology underlying part of our approach to estimating the burden of infectious disease among inmates and releasees. Our approach involved estimating the number of unique individuals who entered jails during a given year. Given the rapid turnover of jail populations, we assumed that the number of entrants would be roughly equivalent to the number of releasees. Although the total number of entries is countable, the number of unique individuals who entered had to be inferred from arrest data. For that purpose, we assumed and estimated a stochastic model (using a negative binomial regression) of the arrest process and used it to infer that each person who entered jail at least once during a year in fact entered, on average, about 1.38 times that year. Hirshon and Wilson question the use of a negative binomial regression for generating this estimate. Researchers frequently use the Poisson and negative binomial distributions to model arrest histories.1 This is partly a matter of convenience, because those distributions are especially tractable in the study of repeated events, but also because those distributions seem to fit arrest data particularly well. Furthermore, both the Poisson and negative binomial models give consistent estimates, provided the mean function is correctly specified, even when the maintained distribution is false.2 Hirshon and Wilson should rest assured that our estimates are reasonably robust with respect to distributional assumptions about the arrest process. We were more concerned about data quality than about statistical modeling. A reader should take the estimated arrest (and, by inference, release) rate as a rough approximation of the true rate. A recent report, not available at the time we wrote our article, explains the intricacies of using a negative binomial model to estimate arrest rates using samples collected at booking facilities (Rhodes W, Kling R, “Estimating prevalence of hard to reach populations,” unpublished paper, 2002). Using probability-based survey data from 35 counties, that report provides statistics leading to a consensus adjustment of 1.42 arrests per year for chronic drug users. Had we used that consensus adjustment in place of the 1.38 used in our article, our estimates of the burden of infectious disease would have been only about 3% lower. This is probably a lower limit, because chronic drug users have comparatively high arrest rates. On the other hand, had we assumed that every arrestee (and by inference, every releasee) was a unique individual, our estimates of the burden of infectious diseases among inmates would have been about 38% higher, but surely this is an unrealistic upper limit, because many people cycle repeatedly through jails. In sum, any errors resulting from use of the negative binomial distribution to model the arrest process are unlikely to have a material effect on the conclusions reached in our article.

Race and the Probability of Arrest

Although blacks are arrested disproportionately for most types of violent crimes, disagreement persists as to the extent to which official arrest data are indicative of differential offending behavior or selection bias on the part of law enforcement personnel Using data from the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), we assess the effect of an offenders race on the probability of arrest for 335,619 incidents of forcible rape, robbery, and assault in 17 states during 1999. The baseline model for these comparisons is the equiprobability hypothesis that relative to violation frequency as reported by crime victims, the likelihood of arrest for white and black offenders is roughly equal. Multivariate logistic regression results show that the odds of arrest for white offenders is approximately 22% higher for robbery, 13% higher for aggravated assault, and 9% higher for simple assault than they are for black offenders. An offenders race plays no noteworthy role in the likelihood of arrest for the crime of forcible rape. These findings suggest that the disproportionately high arrest rate for black citizens is most likely attributable to differential involvement in reported crime rather than to racially biased law enforcement practices.

Rural, Urban Influenced, and Urban Differences Among Domestic Violence Arrestees

The purpose of this article was to examine a statewide random sample of rural, urban influenced, and urban males arrested for perpetrating domestic violence against an intimate partner on demographic, criminal justice history, substance use, relationship characteristics, child abuse, and treatment exposure factors. The study used a 9% random sample of 1,112 pretrial interview records on males arrested for domestic violence in 1997 in Kentucky. The study examined perpetrators in three geographical areas to examine regional differences. Results indicated that community context is critical in understanding domestic violence. In general, rural males appear to present more significant problems given their lower employment rates, lower educational attainments, greater use of psychoactive medications, and higher arrest rates. Alcohol use was significantly prevalent across all three groups, but combined alcohol and nerve pill drug use was more prevalent among rural domestic violence arrestees. Implications are discussed.

Geographical distribution of cardiac arrest in Nottinghamshire

Background: to analyse the incidence of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in Nottinghamshire; to ascertain its geographical distribution; and to determine whether the geography of coronary heart disease mortality and out-of-hospital cardiac arrest are the same. Methods and results: population based, retrospective study in the County of Nottinghamshire with a total population of 993 914 in an area of 2183 km 2 divided into 191 electoral areas. In the 4 years from 1 January, 1991 to 31 December, 1994, 1634 patients sustained a cardiac arrest attributed to a cardiac cause (International Classification of Diseases codes 390–414 and 420–429) and were attended by the Nottinghamshire Ambulance Service. The overall crude mean incidence rate of community cardiac arrest per electoral area was 40.2 per 100 000 population (range 0–121.2). Thirteen electoral areas, relatively deprived according to the Townsend score, had a significantly greater than expected incidence rate of cardiac arrest (median of 75.6/100 000 per electoral area; interquartile range (IQR) 65.3, 83.8). Twelve relatively affluent electoral areas had a significantly lower than expected incidence rate (median of 18.5/100 000 per area (IQR 13.0, 28.7). After adjusting for deprivation index, there were no differences in coronary heart disease (CHD) mortality and community cardiac arrest in urban and rural electoral areas. Apart from response times by ambulance crews, the events that follow the cardiac arrest such as bystander resuscitation, ventricular fibrillation found as the presenting rhythm and survival were similar in all electoral areas. Conclusions: increasing level of deprivation is associated with areas of increased incidence of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in Nottinghamshire, and the effect is apparently different from that on CHD mortality. There is scope for reducing incidence rates of community cardiac arrest and to introduce strategies to improve survival in areas identified as having high rates of community cardiac arrest.

From Cell Death to Embryo Arrest: Mathematical Models of Human Preimplantation Embryo Development

Objectives: Human preimplantation embryo development is characterized by high rates of developmental arrest during the first week in vitro, and the presence of apoptotic cells in blastocysts. The relationship between the two is unclear and difficult to determine by conventional experimental approaches, mainly due to limited numbers of embryos. Supplementation of experiments by mathematical modelling offers the potential of gaining maximum information from the data and of developing new hypotheses and experiments.

A longitudinal study of high scorers on the Hypomanic Personality Scale.

Former college students (n = 36) identified by high scores on the Hypomanic Personality Scale (HYP; Eckblad & Chapman, 1986) were compared with control participants (n = 31) at a 13-year follow-up assessment. As hypothesized, the HYP group reported more bipolar disorders and major depressive episodes than the control group. The HYP group also exceeded the control group on the severity of psychotic-like experiences, symptoms of borderline personality disorder, and rates of substance use disorders. HYP group members with elevated scores on the Impulsive-Nonconformity Scale (Chapman et al., 1984) experienced greater rates of bipolar mood disorders, poorer overall adjustment, and higher rates of arrest than the remaining HYP or control participants.

Expectancy Theory and Police Productivity in DUI Enforcement

This article drew on expectancy theory in industrial/organizational psychology to explain arrest productivity for driving under the influence (DUI) in a sample of Pennsylvania police officers. Expectancy theory is a cognitive model of motivation and performance based on workers' perceptions of their situation. Its major elements are estimated in a regression model: the officer's capability and opportunity for DUI enforcement (performance-reward expectancy), the instrumentality of DUI enforcement behavior for the officer, and the reward-cost balance associated with making DUI arrests. These factors account for 26% of the residual variance in the number of DUI arrests made annually once organizational effects have been removed. The relationships revealed are as expectancy theory predicts, except for instrumentality variables, which show a negative relationship to arrest productivity. This is due largely to the orientation of a small number of “rate busters,” whose exceptionally high arrest rate and negative attitudes toward their peers and the department hierarchy make them a distinct group accounting for a disproportionate number of arrests.

Embryo development capacity of oocytes fertilized by immature sperm and sperm treated with motility stimulants.

The fertilizing ability of mouse spermatozoa develops during maturation and coincides with the acquisition of motility. The lack of progressive motility of spermatozoa from the testis and precaudal segments of the epididymis interferes with their ability to fertilize oocytes after insemination in vitro. The removal of cumulus cells for insemination in vitro and the use of subzonal injection of a single spermatozoon resulted in a higher number of oocytes fertilized by immature caput and corpus spermatozoa. High rates of embryonic arrest and retarded development were observed in oocytes fertilized by caput and corpus spermatozoa when compared with oocytes fertilized by cauda spermatozoa. However, when the oocytes were enclosed in their cumulus cells or microinjected with a single spermatozoon, these effects were reduced. A block in embryonic development was also observed after human and mouse oocytes were exposed to the sperm motility stimulants pentoxifylline (PTF) and 2-deoxyadenosine (DOA). These observations suggest that exposure of oocytes to PTF and DOA should be avoided.

A review of arrests among psychiatric patients

E. Glenn Schellenberg,* Donald Wasylenki,** Christopher D. Webster,*** and Paul Goering**** Common wisdom has it that “trouble with the law” is a serious problem for psychiatric patients. This may be especially so for chronically mentally ill patients, most of whom have a diagnosis of schizophrenia. However, little is known about how often clinicians should expect to encounter this problem, or about the factors involved. In a major review of the literature, Rabkin (1979) divided relevant studies into two groups-those published before 1965 and those published after. The earlier studies showed that arrest rates for patients were lower than rates for the general population (Ashley, 1922; Brill & Malzberg, 1962; Cohen & Free- man, 1945; Pollock, 1938). Studies published between 1965 and 1979 showed arrest rates of patients to be equal to, or greater than, those of the general population (Durbin, Pasewark, & Albers, 1977; Giovanni & Gurel, 1967; Rap- peport & Lassen, 1965, 1966; Sosowski, 1974, 1978; Steadman, Cocozza, & Melick, 1978; Zitrin, Hardesty, & Burdock, 1976). Rabkin (1979) attributed the increase in arrest rates to an increase in the proportion of patients with prior criminal records. It is important to note, however, that thousands of patients were “deinstitutionalized” between 1965 and 1974. The bed capacity of U.S. state hospitals diminished from 550,000 in 1961 to 110,000 by 1975 (Bassack & Gerson, 1978), placing many more patients at risk for arrest. Data concerning schizophrenia and risk for arrest were equivocal. Rabkin concluded that schizophrenics are no more likely to be arrested than are other diagnostic groups, with the exception of violent crime, for which schizophren- ics may have higher rates of arrest. She also concluded that psychiatric pa- tients, in general, are not predisposed to be arrested for some crimes as op- posed to others, with the exception of assaultive behavior, for which they are more likely than other persons to be arrested. No conclusions could be reached concerning the effect of psychiatric hospitalization or treatment on arrest rates. This report examines research conducted since 1980 concerned with arrest

The Violent and Illegal Behavior of Mental Patients Reconsidered

Although advocates for the mentally ill assert that mental patients are inappropriately stigmatized as dangerous, research indicates that former mental patients have higher arrest rates than the general public. Because of the limitations of arrest-rate studies, however, alternative hypotheses have suggested that the apparent dangerousness of mental patients is a methodological artifact. We compare mental patients and never-treated community residents on several official and self-reported measures of violentlillegal conduct. Mental patients have higher rates on all measures of violentlillegal behavior, and these differences cannot be accountedfor by sociodemographic and community context variables. A scale of psychotic symptoms is the only variable that accounts for differences in levels of violent! illegal behavior between patients and never-treated community residents. Although mental patients have elevated rates of violentlillegal behavior compared to nonpatients, the differences are modest and are confined to those experiencing psychotic symptoms.

Age structure and crime rates: The conflicting evidence

Because arrest rates are especially high for teenagers and young adults, criminologists have long contended that age structure changes affect crime trends. In recent years, however, this belief has been drawn into question because crime has not declined even though high-crime age groups have shrunk. We argue that the age/crime relationship is probably exaggerated because the high arrest rates for younger persons are due partly to their lesser ability to escape arrest, younger persons commit more group crime, and the age structure of victims should be taken into account. We then review 90 studies that regress crime rates on age structure; only a small minority consistently finds significant relationships. Because of methodological problems in this research, one cannot conclude that the age/crime relationship does not exist, but the weight of evidence shows that forecasts based on demographic trends are not likely to be helpful.

Police enforcement of alcohol-related laws

Data are presented that indicate that the Southern region of the United States has a much higher arrest rate for drunkenness than other regions of the country; that the state of Kentucky has a much higher arrest rate for drunkenness and for alcohol offenses in total than even the Southern region; and that Madison County, Kentucky has much higher rates than even the state of Kentucky. Data collected from court records in Madison County are then presented to describe the people arrested for alcoholrelated offenses, the circumstances of their arrests, and the legal processing of their cases. Finally, speculative hypotheses for the higher arrest rates for alcohol-related offenses in the South, in Kentucky, and in Madison County are discussed.

Youth, Underemployment, and Property Crime: Differential Effects of Job Availability and Job Quality on Juvenile and Young Adult Arrest Rates

This paper examines the relationship between employment conditions and property-crime arrest rates of male juveniles and young adults, using age-specific state-level data from 1977-1980, compiled from raw arrest data of the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports and from the Census Bureau's annual March Current Population Survey. The analysis is disaggregated by age and utilizes dimensions of underemployment to provide more sensitive indicators for labor market conditions, including measures of job availability (such as unemployment) and job quality (such as low hours and low wages). Controls are included for criminal opportunity and other variables related to crime and the labor market. Labor market effects on arrest rates differ for juveniles and young adults. Availability of employment produces strong effects on juvenile arrest rates--full-time employment is associated with low arrest rates, unemployment with high arrest rates. Low quality of employment (e.g., inadequate pay and hours) is associated with high arrest rates for young adults. We discuss theoretical and policy implications of our findings. (abstract Adapted from Source: American Sociological Review, 1989. Copyright © 1989 by the American Sociological Association) 1970s 1980s Property Crime Employment Factors Unemployment-Crime Link Unemployment Effects Unemployment Factors Delinquency Causes Juvenile Offender Juvenile Delinquency Juvenile Crime Juvenile Male Crime Causes Young Adult Male Crime Male Delinquency Male Offender Adult Crime Adult Male Adult Offender Arrest Rates Offender Arrest 07-02

Organizational determinants of police discretion: The case of drinking-driving

Organizational explanations of police behavior differ in terms of the influence on street-level discretion attributed to the formal administrative apparatus. Rational and constrained rational models emphasize the influence of formal policies and structures, whereas the loosely coupled model emphasizes the informal structure and environment. This study examined the relevance of these models for explaining patrol officers' decisions to arrest in the drinking-driving situation in four police agencies. Analysis of officer questionnaire responses (N=71) to a drunk driver scenario showed that officers in the two larger, bureaucratized departments were much less likely to arrest than those in the smaller departments. Loose coupling of the administrative apparatus and officer discretion were pronounced in the large departments, but administrative priorities were closely coupled to officer discretion in the small agencies. Unable to employ elaborate bureaucratic forms due to size constraints, the small departments pursued DUI arrests to demonstrate their professional worth. The larger departments, operating with fewer resources relative to demand, were preoccupied with other issues and did not find a high DUI arrest rate particularly useful for sustaining community support. They were able to rely on institutional forms that signified commitment to DUI arrests without actually constraining officers to make them.

Coping or Copping Out: Police Service Delivery in Domestic Disputes

The literature of domestic violence is critical of police service dlivery in dmnestic disputes. Yet, little has been systematically documented regarding dispatch procedures, citizen‐police interactions, or the special circumstances surrounding domestic investigations. This article describes the actions of investigating officers with family or intimately related persons during police encounters. It wmpares these with like investigations of non‐related disputants. Among the major findings are that (1)dispatch tend to underreport the nature of domestic assaults; (2) patrol officers face mme agitated persons in domestic en‐ ccuunters; (3) police arrest suspects more often in domestic cases, but circumstances would appear to warrant even higher rates of arrest; (4) misis intervention appears to take precedence over arrest in some domestic assaults; and (5) police almost never refer citizens to social service agencies. Overall, the findings point to ule need for police service delivery in domestic disputes that is w e geared to law enforcement in cases of violent family Conflict.

Pre- and posttreatment arrests of alcoholic outpatients at a rural mental health center.

Examined pre- and post-arrests of 76 alcoholics treated on an outpatient basis at a rural mental health center and compared with the arrest rates of non-treated alcoholics (N = 36) and the general Wyoming population. It was found that: (1) the treated alcoholics had generally higher arrest rates than the general population; and (2) frequency of arrests for the outpatients did not evidence reduction after treatment.

The Effects of the Police On Crime: A Response to Jacob and Rich

In an earlier article in this Review, we argued, on the basis of a cross-sectional study of 35 large American cities, that as the proportion of robberies resulting in arrest rises, the rate at which robberies are committed falls (Wilson and Boland, 1978). By estimating a set of simultaneous equations, we suggested that this negative association between arrest rates and robbery rates was evidence of the deterrent effect of arrests on robberies. Moreover, we argued that the ability of the police to produce high arrest rates was not simply a function of police resources but also a result of organizational arrangementschiefly, decisions about what proportion of the patrol force to put on the street and how aggressively those units should patrol. Finally, we supplied some evidence that these organizational arrangements tended to be the enduring consequence of an underlying political culture (namely, having a reformed or professionalized city administration). Recently, Herbert Jacob and Michael J. Rich have criticized these findings (Jacob and Rich, 1980). By means of a longitudinal analysis of robbery rates in nine large American cities over (approximately) a 30-year period, they conclude that our findings are incorrect. In particular, Jacob and Rich argue the following. (1) There is no correlation over time between the number of traffic arrests for moving violations and the number of robbery arrests (we had used moving violation arrests as a measure of patrol aggressiveness in our study). (2) Any negative correlation between the robbery rate and the proportion of robberies resulting in arrests is likely to be spurious because there is a common term (the number of robberies) that is found on both sides of the equation, and this common term is subject to significant measurement error. (3) Increased expenditures on the police are associated with

Correlates of alcohol arrests in a rural state.

Arrest and conviction rates for public intoxication, driving while intoxicated, and liquor law violations were correlated with population, population change, liquor sales, number of law officers, Indian population, and overall crime rate for 23 counties in Wyoming. It was concluded that increased liquor sales, but not arrest rates, are associated with population increase. Alcohol arrests are related positively to population magnitude and overall crime rate, but not to number of law officers. Counties with larger Indian populations report higher arrest rates for public intoxication and liquor law violations, but conviction rates for alcohol arrests in these counties are not different.

The Personal Adjustment of Navajo Indian Migrants to Denver, Colorado1

Urban migration creates many adjustment problems for those American Indians who find economic opportunities on their reservations inadequate. Their extremely high rate of arrest in comparison with other urban groups, almost all for drunkenness or drinking‐related offenses, is testimony to the extent of their difficulties and the inadequate resources that they possess for coping with them. A systematic investigation of 259 male Navajo Indian migrants to Denver over the last ten years reveals a number of economic, social, and psychological pressures and constraints bearing on them, which account in large part both for intragroup differences in adjustment among them, and for their high arrest rates in comparison with other minority groups. The interaction among these determinants, as well as feedback from the migrant's behavioral response, is analyzed as a system of mutually interlocking and reinforcing variables through time. Practical implications of this study are briefly explored, including the apparent primary role played by the migrant's marginal economic position in the city.