Justice Programs Research Articles

Reimagining a Prosecutor’s Role in Sentencing

Research Article| May 11 2020 Reimagining a Prosecutor’s Role in Sentencing Lauren-Brooke Eisen, Lauren-Brooke Eisen Director, Justice Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, NYU School of Law Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Courtney M. Oliva Courtney M. Oliva Executive Director, Center on the Administration of Criminal Law, NYU School of Law Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Federal Sentencing Reporter (2020) 32 (4): 195–201. https://doi.org/10.1525/fsr.2020.32.4.195 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Twitter LinkedIn Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Lauren-Brooke Eisen, Courtney M. Oliva; Reimagining a Prosecutor’s Role in Sentencing. Federal Sentencing Reporter 11 May 2020; 32 (4): 195–201. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/fsr.2020.32.4.195 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentFederal Sentencing Reporter Search This content is only available via PDF. © 2020 Vera Institute of Justice. All rights reserved.2020 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

Community perceptions: procedural justice, legitimacy and body-worn cameras

PurposeThis paper explores community members' perceptions of the Milwaukee Police Department (MPD)'s body-worn camera (BWC) program, examining knowledge and support of the program and its impact on views of procedural justice and legitimacy.Design/methodology/approachA two-wave, online survey was administered to Milwaukee-area residents in the fall of 2017 and summer of 2018, yielding 1,527 respondents. Multivariate regression analyses focus on overall relationships between sociodemographic characteristics, community member knowledge of the program, procedural justice and legitimacy and support for BWCs.FindingsCommunity members are supportive of BWCs and view officers as procedurally just and legitimate; however, perceptions were significantly lower among Black respondents. Respondents with knowledge of the BWC program were more likely to view officers as procedurally just, but program knowledge did not increase support for it.Research limitations/implicationsPolice agencies may benefit from improving community awareness of their BWC program as knowledge of the program is positively linked to the views of departmental procedural justice and legitimacy. However, education efforts alone are not sufficient in improving police–community relations. Future research should examine how policing stakeholders can engage the community to build views of legitimacy associated with BWC policies.Originality/valueFindings provide insight into community member perceptions of a large BWC program in a major US city. Results demonstrate the relationship between knowledge of a department's BWC program and views of procedural justice and legitimacy and support for BWCs.

Supporting Adolescents and Young Adults Exposed to or Experiencing Violence During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Supporting Adolescents and Young Adults Exposed to or Experiencing Violence During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Mechanisms of Action for Empirically Supported Interventions to Reduce Adolescent Sexual Risk Behavior: A Randomized Controlled Trial

PurposeAdolescents are at high risk for sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. Interventions to reduce adolescent sexual risk often have modest outcomes. Understanding of the mechanisms of program effectiveness is needed to develop stronger interventions. We used a randomized controlled trial to examine mechanisms of response to two empirically supported interventions: motivational interviewing versus behavioral skills training. MethodsA total of 262 adolescents (mean age = 15.89 years, standard deviation = 1.24; 34% female and 61% Latinx) were recruited from juvenile justice programs in the U.S.; all youth were randomized to motivational interviewing or behavioral skills training. Primary outcomes included (1) theory-based mechanisms (condom use attitudes, norms, self-efficacy, and intentions measured before and immediately after the interventions); and (2) risky sexual behavior (frequency of unprotected sex) and condom use measured 3 months postintervention. ResultsBoth interventions significantly increased positive attitudes toward condom use, self-efficacy for condom use, and intentions to use condoms post-test, with no differences by condition. Neither intervention impacted norms for condom use. Both interventions significantly decreased risky sexual behavior and increased condom use at the 3-month follow-up. The pattern of associations of Theory of Planned Behavior constructs to behavior were of similar magnitude in the two groups. ConclusionsThe results indicate common mechanisms of action for these two interventions and support the use of transdiagnostic mechanisms of treatment impact for sexual risk reduction.

Veterans Justice Programs: Assessing Population Risks for Suicide Deaths and Attempts.

Understanding suicide risks among Veteran subpopulations is a national priority. This study assessed risks of suicide, suicide attempts, and other-cause mortality among recipients of Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Veterans Justice Program services as compared to other Veteran VHA users. Per VHA records, the cohort included 5,401,192 Veterans alive as of January 1, 2013 and with VHA utilization in 2012. Receipt of Veterans Justice Outreach (VJO) or Health Care for Reentry Veterans (HCRV) services in 2012 was assessed using encounter codes. Multivariable proportional hazards regression assessed risks of suicide (per National Death Index search results from the VA/DoD Mortality Data Repository) and attempts (per diagnoses and site reports) in 2013-2016, adjusting for demographic and clinical indicators. Compared to other patients, Veterans with VJO encounters had greater risk of suicide (unadjusted HR=2.80, 95% confidence interval [CI]=2.30-3.40; adjusted HR=1.25, 95% CI=1.02-1.53) and attempts (unadjusted HR=8.88, 95% CI=8.45-9.35; adjusted HR=1.06, 95% CI=1.00-1.11). Veterans with HCRV encounters had elevated risk of suicide attempts (unadjusted HR=4.56, 95% CI=4.00-5.20; adjusted HR=1.42, 95% CI=1.24-1.62). Risks were also elevated for other external causes of mortality. Findings document increased risk of suicidal behavior among Veterans Justice Program recipients. These results have informed VHA suicide prevention activities.

The Alert Collector: Police Use of Force

High-profile news stories about excessive use of police force, often leading to a person’s death, have filled our news feeds and become a hot-button issue. Karen Evans’s column for this months’ Alert Collector highlights some of the major books on this topic that will flesh out your collection, whether you serve a criminal justice program, students needing the best sources for a pros and cons essay, or a clientele wanting the best resources to help them understand this complex issue. Evans is the librarian for the School of Criminology and Security Studies at Indiana State University. She holds a graduate degree in criminology and criminal justice, and serves as the editor for the criminal justice section of Resources for College Libraries.

More than a Slogan: Or, how we built a Social Justice Program that made our campus more Just

Today on college campuses in the U.S., “social justice” is everywhere—a bright signal of some institutional wokeness in institutions that have not always been good or awake to the needs of many in their communities. In 2014, I joined the trend, as part of a small group of faculty and staff at Portland Community College, that created a concentration of courses called the Social Justice Focus Award and, the next year, built a curriculum for a capstone class called “Social Justice: Theory & Practice” (SJ210). This article shares this experience for faculty considering building such a course, program, or major; maybe you can learn from our successes (and our mistakes).
 But in telling this story, I am also tracing the contradictions tied up in the proliferation of “social justice” on college campuses. Even as a marking strategy, for higher ed to claim it’s doing social justice sparks off massive institutional identity conflicts. Higher education’s long-term investment in (scientific) objectivity, neutrality, of teaching students ‘how to think not what to think’ stands in direct contrast to doing the work of justice. So claiming to teach social justice—to grant degrees in it!—begs important questions about the kinds of promises we’re making to our students and our communities, to say nothing of our conception of who we are as institutions.
 I’ll argue here that if we teach social justice in the framework dictated by traditional higher ed commitments, we probably do a bad job. But we can make good on the promise of social justice if our courses and programs are (1) centered on a student-led, class-defined, campus-based project that (2) involves collective action. That work must be grounded in a classroom that is (3) explicitly not neutral. In our program, we don’t aim at global justice; we aim at making the changes we can make on campus. And what we’ve learned is that by starting there, our students are actually making the world more just. As our students learn to identify injustice, talk about it with others, and enact strategies for change, they are meeting the course’s learning outcomes while improving life for many on campus, including undocumented students, nonbinary students, and students living without housing. Their work has made “social justice” more than a slogan on our campus.

Characterizing Multi-Door Criminal Justice: A Comparative Analysis of Three Criminal Justice Mechanism

This article provides an empirical, comparative analysis of three criminal justice programs that reflect different social and ideological accounts: community courts, arraignment hearings, and restorative justice. The study draws on empirical findings that have been collected over three years in Israel, through observations and archival documentation of these mechanisms. Using the Criminal Law Taxonomy developed elsewhere by the authors as an analytical tool, the comparison is based on characteristics that relate to the structure, content, stakeholders, and outcomes of these justice mechanisms, emphasizing the plurality we have today in multi-door criminal justice systems. The comparative analysis highlights differences and similarities among various justice mechanisms, and offers policy makers and criminal justice practitioners important insights for referring different cases to various mechanisms.

Development and Implementation of a Capstone Experience in Criminal Justice

During the academic year 2015–2016, our department implemented a capstone experience for all criminal justice majors. The contemporary scholarly literature on developing a capstone in a criminology/criminal justice program is limited. Therefore, we focused on developing a capstone experience that would be a high impact practice opportunity, take advantage of the existing Internship option, and be consistent with our program-level learning outcomes. A Senior Seminar course was also developed as an alternative to the Internship and students were provided the option of either. A common assignment was also developed with the goal of assessing program-level outcomes in communication. Preliminary assessment results are discussed along with the challenges and lessons learned in this process.

Criminal Justice as Regulation

Problem-solving courts and restorative justice programs provide important new alternatives to cope with recurring problems in the criminal justice process. But they are much more. They are harbingers of a new theory of the criminal justice process that challenges traditional accounts in fundamental ways. Although practices akin to problem-solving courts and restorative justice have long operated outside or below the radar of the theory of criminal law and the adjudicative process, over the past few decades these practices have come to the fore and are now supported with full-blown theories, which threaten to displace traditional accounts of criminal responsibility, criminal liability, and indeed the core features of the criminal justice process. The new theories are based on theories of regulation, where the objective is not so much to enforce the law as it is to secure compliance to the law in order to facilitate harm reduction and restore social order. Nowhere is this new development so clearly seen as in the opening chapters of John Braithwaite’s important book, Restorative Justice and Responsive Regulation. In this book, Braithwaite offers a full-throated theory of the new criminal justice process that is based on recent developments in regulatory theory and, most particularly, responsive regulation, which Braithwaite helped to develop. This model is implicit to varying degrees in any number of recent developments in the criminal justice process, and in this paper, I argue it has the potential for displacing the classical theory of criminal law.

Esboço de um programa de justiça comunitária libertária Ubuntu

African and Afro-Brazilian civilizations have legal-philosophical repertoires that can mobilize new world readings for the practice of justice and law in a local and global dimension. Through the study of justice and law we find values, postulates, principles, axioms and proverbs present in African and diasporic civilizations and we will confront them with the social studies and practices of restorative, community, traditional authorities, etc. Finally, we aim to establish a field of study for an Ubuntu Libertarian Community Justice Program inspired by Afro-Brazilian thinking.

Characterizing Multi-door Criminal Justice

This article provides an empirical, comparative analysis of three criminal justice programs that reflect different social and ideological accounts: community courts, arraignment hearings, and restorative justice. The study draws on empirical findings that have been collected over three years in Israel, through observations and archival documentation of these mechanisms. Using the Criminal Law Taxonomy developed elsewhere by the authors as an analytical tool, the comparison is based on characteristics that relate to the structure, content, stakeholders, and outcomes of these justice mechanisms, emphasizing the plurality we have today in multi-door criminal justice systems. The comparative analysis highlights differences and similarities among various justice mechanisms, and offers policy makers and criminal justice practitioners important insights for referring different cases to various mechanisms.

JCOERE Judicial Cooperation Supporting Economic Recovery in Europe Report 1: Identifying Substantive Rules in Preventive Restructuring Frameworks Including the Preventive Restructuring Directive which May Be Incompatible with Judicial Cooperation Obligations

The JCOERE Project, funded by the European Commission’s DG Justice Programme (2014-2020), addresses two aspects of the EU’s strategy to respond to the problems of cross-border insolvency within the increasingly integrated internal market. The Commission’s strategy is described in the Recommendation setting out A New Approach to Business Failure. The first aspect concerns the implementation of co-operation obligations that have been imposed on all EU domestic courts and judiciary under the EIR Recast. The second concerns the introduction through the Preventive Restructuring Directive (PRD) of a preventive restructuring framework in the domestic insolvency laws of all Member States. This first JCOERE Report examines these initial substantive and procedural aspects arising from the preventive restructuring frameworks. This, together with JCOERE Report 2, will contribute to answering the overall project research question, which asks: Based on existing experience with restructuring (e.g. Ireland), if obstacles to court co-operation will arise from substantive rules, which are particular to preventive restructuring. If some of these obstacles will be exacerbated in the preventive restructuring context, given that they pertain to existing procedural rules. JCOERE project Report 1 (reflecting the goals of Workpackage 2 of the Project) will accordingly concentrate on the nature of substantive and procedural aspects that may arise in complex preventive restructuring or rescue regimes as envisaged by the PRD. The Report also focuses on identifying substantive doctrinal and procedural restructuring rules relevant to court-to-court, and to court-to-practitioner co-operation obligations described in the EIR Recast Regulation 2015/848. The Report includes an analysis of pre-existing systems, such as the Irish Examinership process, the French sauvegarde, and the Spanish and Austrian reorganisation and restructuring procedures. In addition, the approaches of other jurisdictions included in the Project Consortium, namely Italy and Romania, will be discussed. In view of the anecdotal evidence of its influence on the drafting of the PRD, and given its popularity of a restructuring destination, the UK is also considered as a benchmarking exercise. The comparative analysis was extended to other jurisdictions, for example the Netherlands, because of its timely and pre-emptive response to the PRD, and Germany, Poland and Denmark. The JCOERE Project was conducted by a team at the University College Cork in collaboration with teams at the University of Florence, Titu Maiorescu University in Romania, and INSOL Europe. The content of this document represents the views of the author only and is his/her sole responsibility. The European Commission does not accept any responsibility for use that may be made of the information it contains.

When the Right Measure Doesn’t Exist: A Novel Motivational Interviewing Tool for Community Programs

This report describes the reliability and validity of the Motivational Interviewing Evaluation Rubric (MIER). The MIER is a novel MI evaluation tool for use in supervision with community-based providers. In the MIER, there are 15 items targeting the following sub-dimensions: Spirit (four items), Process (six items), and Skills (five items). Two raters engaged in 10 h of training and practice on the use of the MIER. Data were session audio-files from youth justice program providers. Inter-rater reliability results showed good performance for the measure. Specifically, 2-way mixed Intraclass Coefficients were excellent, ranging from 0.81 to 0.92 for sub-dimension scores, and Kappa ratings per item were fair to substantial (k = 0.35 to 0.87). Internal consistency reliability for Spirit, Process, and Skills scores ranged from a = .72 to 0.78. In concurrent validity analyses, MIER sub-dimension scores were positively and moderately correlated with relevant Motivational Interviewing Treatment Integrity (4.2) criterion scores (rs = .45 to 0.67; p < .005). The MIER is a promising observational measure for guiding supervision in community youth programs.

A Preliminary Examination of Substance Use Risk among Metropolitan and Non-Metropolitan Girls Involved in the Juvenile Justice System

Research is limited on geographic differences in substance use risk factors among juvenile justice-involved girls. This secondary data analysis from one state juvenile justice system, collected as part of the NIH/NIDA funded JJTRIALS cooperative agreement, assessed criminogenic needs at intake for 160 girls from metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties. Although girls from different geographic areas did not differ significantly on key variables of interest, including substance use risk and related criminality variables, findings suggest that substance use risk is related to criminal history, substance-related offenses, and relationship problems among justice-involved girls. Implications include gender-specific juvenile justice programming and research.

Interview with Simon McNorton, Better Delivery Team Leader, UK Department for International Development, British Embassy Beirut

Simon McNorton lives in Beirut, Lebanon, where he works for the UK's Department for International Development (DFID). McNorton heads a team that ensures effective delivery of the UK's £90m bilateral aid package to Lebanon. He has held roles with DFID as a researcher and evaluation adviser based in East Africa and in the UK, following two years as a Senior Research Officer at the UK's Department for Work and Pensions. McNorton graduated from the Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration in 2013 with a MasterÕs in Public Policy and a concentration in International Development and Program Evaluation. His capstone team delivered an evaluation framework for Teachers Without Borders global disaster response education. During his graduate study and earlier in his career, McNorton worked for the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce in DC as a Senior Policy Fellow, and spent two years in the Public Affairs Team at Stonewall, the UK's leading lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights charity. Immediately prior to his graduate study, McNorton spent a year working on social justice programs in Rajasthan, India. He completed his undergraduate study at the University of Salford in Manchester in the UK in 2006. In February 2020, Fania Jean interviewed McNorton for Policy Perspectives.

Fair and Appropriate? Compensation of Victims of Sexual Violence in EU Member States: Greece, Italy, Latvia, the Netherlands and Spain. Part I: A Survey of State and Offender Compensation

This is Part I of the reporting of FAIRCOM, a collaboration of partners, both academics and NGO's, in several member states of the European Union. The aim of FAIRCOM is to contribute to justice for victims of sexual crimes in the European Union by improving the possibilities for obtaining compensation (https://sexualviolencejustice.eu/). This Report part I presents the first results of an investigative study on State Compensation and Offender Compensation in the current five partner countries: Greece, Italy, Latvia, the Netherlands and Spain. In the follow-up to this first Report there will also be a Report part II, as well as a Final Report. FAIRCOM is financed by The EU Justice Program (2014-2020).

The evolution of addiction treatment and harm reduction programs in Iran: a chaotic response or a synergistic diversity?

Iran has 2.1 and 1.8% of its 15-64-year-old population living with illicit substance and opioid use disorders, respectively. To address these problems, Iran has been developing a large and multi-modality addiction treatment system, spanning the time before and after the Islamic Revolution. Iran's current drug treatment scene is a combination of services, ranging from medical/harm reduction services to punitive/criminal justice programs. Included in this array of services are drop-in centers providing low-threshold harm reduction services, such as distribution of sterile needles and syringes; opioid maintenance treatment clinics providing methadone, buprenorphine and opium tincture; and abstinence-based residential centers. We will review the evolution of this system in four phases. In 1980, Iran's revolutionary government shut down all voluntary treatment programs and replaced them with residential correctional programs. The first shift in the addiction treatment policies came 15years later after facing the negative consequences. Addiction is viewed as a disease, and new voluntary treatment centers offering non-agonist medications and psychosocial services were established. With an increased number of people who inject drugs and HIV/AIDS epidemics, in the second shift an extensive move towards harm reduction strategies and opioid-maintenance programs has been implemented to reduce HIV-related high-risk behavior. The emergence of a methamphetamine use crisis creating an increased number of socially marginalized addicted people resulted in public and political demands for stricter policies and ended in the third shift starting in 2010, with extended compulsory court-based residential programs. Currently, there is a new shift towards reducing the severity of criminal penalties for drug use/sales and promoting proposals for opium legalization. Iran's evolutionary experience in developing a large addiction treatment program in a complex combination of medical/harm reduction and punitive/criminal justice addiction treatment can be examined in its political, clinical and pragmatic context.

Investigating the New Criminal Neighborhood: The Need for Dark Web Education for Law Enforcement Personnel

Responses in investigations of drug and sex traffic related crimes often originate in the Dark Web. Internet and cybercrimes are increasingly becoming reliant on criminal justice practitioners to help solve them. However, while the demand for criminal justice participation in cyber investigations increases daily, most law enforcement agencies or state law enforcement accrediting bodies are lagging in their educational and training opportunities for new police officers entering the law enforcement fields. This article discusses the need incorporate education courses covering the Dark and Deep Web in the law enforcement curriculum. A review of existing cyber-criminal justice programs in Texas (N=28) and nationally suggests that most colleges, with a cyber program, have yet to develop courses/programs in understanding and investigating the dark web on the internet. The federal government and a few companies have limited training on the Dark Web for law enforcement officers. The Dark Web serves as the new “Criminal Neighborhood” for illegal activity and needs to be better understood so it can be investigated. This research outlines the need for police officers and police investigators to learn the geographies of the Dark Web.

Promoting Youth Competence Through Balanced and Restorative Justice: A Community-Based PYD Approach

As responses to first-time, nonviolent juvenile offenders move towards community-based restorative justice, approaches such as the Balanced and Restorative Justice (BARJ) Model are prominent. The BARJ Model engages the youth offender, offense victim(s), and community in which the offense occurred with three associated goals: accountability, community safety, and competency development. However, while the goals of accountability and community safety are often prioritized, many community-based restorative justice programs neglect the goal of competency development, which is ultimately a disservice not only to the youth offender, but to the community. To interrupt the cyclical nature of juvenile offending and support the long-term rehabilitation of the youth offender, the integration of the BARJ model and a positive youth development (PYD) approach within the context of community-based restorative justice is proposed. PYD is grounded in the belief that all youth have the potential for healthy development, viewing them as assets and resources in community settings. To enhance long-term development, PYD objectives simultaneously promote protective factors, develop internal and external assets, and mitigate risk factors. The integration of a PYD approach within the BARJ model addresses the need to enhance youth competency development through PYD indicators inherent to many community-based programs. This article explores the conceptual compatibility of integration of the BARJ model and a PYD approach with the goal of promoting competency development among youth offenders in a restorative justice context.