Violent Felonies Research Articles

The Utility of Expert-Rated and Self-Report Assessments of Youth Psychopathic Traits for Predicting Felony Recidivism Among Formerly Incarcerated Youth

Psychopathic traits assessed with expert-rated instruments are well-established predictors for both general and violent felony recidivism outcomes in adjudicated youth. However, it is not clear whether self-report assessments of psychopathic traits show similar predictive value. The current study evaluated both expert-rated (i.e., the Hare Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version [PCL:YV]) and self-report measures (i.e., the Childhood Psychopathy Scale, Inventory of Callous Unemotional Traits, Antisocial Process Screening Device, and the Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory) assessing youth psychopathic traits for predicting general and violent felony recidivism among formerly incarcerated high-risk male adolescents ( n = 275). Scores on both expert-rated and self-report instruments were significantly associated with a shorter time to felony rearrest into early adulthood (with an average follow-up window of 11 years). However, the expert-rated PCL:YV, but not self-report measures, provided significant utility for predicting violent felony arrest. These results suggest that in general, youth psychopathic traits, regardless of the specific instrument used, are predictors of general felony rearrest outcomes, while the expert-rated PCL:YV alone provides utility for predicting the most severe crimes (i.e., violent felonies). The strengths and limitations of the assessment modalities are discussed.

Psychopathy Scores Predict Recidivism in High-risk Youth: A Five-year Follow-up Study

Psychopathic traits have been associated with rearrest in adolescents involved in the criminal legal system. Much of the prior work has focused on White samples, short follow-up windows, and relatively low-risk youth. The current study aimed to evaluate the utility of the Hare Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version (PCL:YV) for predicting general and violent felony recidivism in a large sample of high-risk, predominantly Hispanic/Latino, male adolescents (n = 254) with a five-year follow-up period. Results indicated higher PCL:YV scores and lower full-scale estimated IQ scores were significantly associated with a shorter time to felony and violent felony rearrest. These effects generalized to Hispanic/Latino adolescents (n = 193)—a group that faces disproportionate risk of being detained or committed to juvenile correctional facilities in the U.S. These results suggest that expert-rated measures of psychopathic traits and IQ are reliable predictors of subsequent felony and violent felony rearrest among high-risk male adolescents.

How accurate are rebuttable presumptions of pretrial dangerousness? A natural experiment from New Mexico

AbstractIn New Mexico and many other jurisdictions, judges may detain defendants pretrial if the prosecutor proves, through clear and convincing evidence, that releasing them would pose a danger to the public. However, some policymakers argue that certain classes of defendants should have a “rebuttable presumption” of dangerousness, shifting the burden of proof to the defense. Using data on over 15,000 felony defendants who were released pretrial in a 4‐year period in New Mexico, we measure how many of them would have been detained by various presumptions, and what fraction of these defendants in fact posed a danger in the sense that they were charged with a new crime during pretrial supervision. We consider presumptions based on the current charge, past convictions, past failures to appear, past violations of conditions of release, and combinations of these drawn from recent legislative proposals. We find that for all these criteria, at most 8% of the defendants they identify are charged pretrial with a new violent crime (felony or misdemeanor), and at most 5% are charged with a new violent felony. The false‐positive rate, that is, the fraction of defendants these policies would detain who are not charged with any new crime pretrial, ranges from 71% to 90%. The broadest legislative proposals, such as detaining all defendants charged with a violent felony, are little more accurate than detaining a random sample of defendants released under the current system, and would jail 20 or more people to prevent a single violent felony. We also consider detention recommendations based on risk scores from the Arnold Public Safety Assessment (PSA). Among released defendants with the highest risk score and the “violence flag,” 7% are charged with a new violent felony and 71% are false positives. We conclude that these criteria for rebuttable presumptions do not accurately target dangerous defendants: they cast wide nets and recommend detention for many pretrial defendants who do not pose a danger to the public.

Adult criminal outcomes of juvenile justice involvement.

The juvenile justice system in the USA adjudicates over seven hundred thousand youth in the USA annually with significant behavioral offenses. This study aimed to test the effect of juvenile justice involvement on adult criminal outcomes. Analyses were based on a prospective, population-based study of 1420 children followed up to eight times during childhood (ages 9-16; 6674 observations) about juvenile justice involvement in the late 1990 and early 2000s. Participants were followed up years later to assess adult criminality, using self-report and official records. A propensity score (i.e. inverse probability) weighting approach was used that approximated an experimental design by balancing potentially confounding characteristics between children with v. without juvenile justice involvement. Between-groups differences on variables that elicit a juvenile justice referral (e.g. violence, property offenses, status offenses, and substance misuse) were attenuated after applying propensity-based inverse probability weights. Participants with a history of juvenile justice involvement were more likely to have later official and violent felony charges, and to self-report police contact and spending time in jail (ORs from 2.5 to 3.3). Residential juvenile justice involvement was associated with the highest risk of both, later official criminal records and self-reported criminality (ORs from 5.1 to 14.5). Sensitivity analyses suggest that our findings are likely robust to potential unobserved confounders. Juvenile justice involvement was associated with increased risk of adult criminality, with residential services associated with highest risk. Juvenile justice involvement may catalyze rather than deter from adult offending.

Juvenile transfer status and the sentencing of violent offenders: a test of the liberation hypothesis

ABSTRACT A small but growing body of research has explored how juveniles transferred to the criminal court are sentenced relative to adult defendants, but the findings from this literature have been complex and inconsistent. A noteworthy line of inquiry that to date has received only limited attention is how crime type might moderate these relationships. Theoretically, according to the liberation hypothesis, primary offense type corresponds closely with the exercise of judicial discretion, and court actors’ decision-making is most likely to be informed by extralegal offender-based attributions in the disposition of less serious cases. The goal of the present study is to extend this literature by exploring the main and interactive effects of juvenile status and crime type on adult court punishment outcomes among defendants sentenced for seven violent felony offenses. Using data from Florida circuit courts (N = 198,362), the findings show that, regarding sentencing to prison, transferred youth are consistently punished more severely than adult defendants among the three least serious crime types. However, juveniles receive shorter prison terms than adults for most violent offenses, and these disparities are greatest among murder, manslaughter, and robbery/carjacking cases.

Sex, Alcohol, and Soul: Violent Reactions to Coming Out after the “Gay Propaganda” Law in Russia

This article is focused on a particular set of social relations in Russia: sexuality and violence in the context of consumption of alcohol. We look at how violence erupts after revelation of queer sexuality of one of the participants of collective drinking. Discussions of homosexuality in Russia became especially heated after the adoption of the bill against the “propaganda of non‐traditional family values” in 2013. This law primarily marks information about homosexuality as inappropriate and dangerous to minors. We review court decisions on violence against gay men before and after the introduction of this law. The court cases we analyze are not cases of the “propaganda” law enforcement, but routine violent felonies. As we selected only those cases that involve alcohol consumption from a larger sample, we analyze the stories told in these court files focusing on interaction rituals during the practice of collective heavy drinking. We demonstrate how this ritual is centered around confirmation of masculinity, ceremonies of sharing, and exchange of respect. We also show that these ritualized practices are interrupted and confused by introduction of information about one of the participants' queer sexuality. This interruption evolves into violent reactions, including murder. Nevertheless, the ritual of drinking supports both a “conversation of souls” (sharing intimate secrets) and violent reactions to the information that challenges masculinity of the ritual's participants.

Are the Effects of Adverse Childhood Experiences on Violent Recidivism Offense-Specific?

A growing body of literature has found that exposure to child maltreatment and other forms of family dysfunction, often conceptualized as Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), are associated with delinquent and criminal behavior. Recent research has indicated that the effects of ACEs on offending may differ not only by offense type but also by sex and race/ethnicity. However, no study to-date has investigated the effects of ACEs on violent-specific recidivism, nor how these effects differ by sex- and racial/ethnic-specific subgroups. The current study seeks to address this gap by examining a large, diverse sample of serious delinquents institutionalized in a large southern state. The results indicated that while ACEs increased the likelihood of being rearrested for any violent felony, the effects were particularly strong for domestic violence and sexual offenses among white females and minority males. A discussion of these findings are presented, along with the limitations of the study.

Race, Ethnicity, Crime Type, and the Sentencing of Violent Felony Offenders

Within the large body of literature on racial/ethnic disparities in criminal sentencing, some research has demonstrated that these relationships are conditional upon various legally relevant case characteristics, including the type of offense for which the defendants are sentenced. To date, however, few studies have explored the potential moderating effects of different violent crimes. Using data from Florida ( N = 186,885), the findings from these analyses indicate that Black–White sentencing disparities are particularly pronounced for manslaughter, robbery/carjacking, arson, and resisting arrest with violence. While Hispanic ethnicity exerts limited effects on sentencing outcomes generally, Hispanics are particularly disadvantaged in manslaughter cases. Relative to minority defendants, White offenders receive harsher sentences for sexual battery, other sex offenses, and abuse of children.

A Gap in Causation? Punishing Polluters for Contributing to Climate Change & Increasing Violent Crime

Climate change will lead to an increase in violent crime. More rapes and violent felonies occur during the warm summer months than in cooler temperatures. As climate change progresses, there will be longer summers, higher temperatures, and thus, more violent crime. This Note examines whether American sanctions of environmental crimes that contribute to climate change should become more stringent given what we now know about the violent consequences of climate change. Part II of this Note describes the history and scientific evidence which proves that rising temperatures increase the rate of violent crimes. Part III reviews current regulations that deal with environmental crimes. Part IV suggests alternatives for how the government can combat environmental crimes that contribute to climate change and damage the public well-being. There is a causal link between environmental crimes and climate change. Further, climate change increases the rate of violent wrongdoings. Thus, the perpetrators of environmental crimes must be punished for the long-term effects of their actions: the increased rates of violent crimes. Part V analyzes the most realistic regulations and punishment schemes to promote conservation and public health. While there are many causes of climate change and greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions, this Note refers to the every-day use of aerosol cans as an example when proposing how to handle the global problem of climate change. Finally, Part VI acknowledges some difficulties and consequences of the author’s analysis, but still presents an alternative framework for further inquiry into these issues.

„Reichsbürger und Selbstverwalter“ im Kontext politisch motivierter Gewalt in Sachsen

“Reichsbürgers and Selbstverwalters” have been in the focus of German national security authorities and the press since 2016. By the example of three right-wing violent felonies in Saxony between 2011 and 2016, similarities and possible crossovers with right-wing extremist groups are discussed. What are the significant common grounds and differences of politically motivated crimes committed by “Reichsbürgers and Selbstverwalters” and right-wing extremists?

A Touchy Subject: The Eleventh Circuit's Tug-of-War Over What Constitutes Violent 'Physical Force'

In a prosecution for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, a pivotal question is whether an individual is subject to a sentencing enhancement under the Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA). If an individual has three or more prior convictions that qualify as “violent felonies” or “serious drug offenses,” the ACCA increases his statutory range of imprisonment from zero-to-ten years to fifteen years to life. Historically, a prior conviction could qualify as a “violent felony” if it satisfied at least one of the three “violent felony” clauses—the elements clause, the enumerated-offenses clause, or the catch-all residual clause. But on June 26, 2015, the Supreme Court invalidated the residual clause in Johnson v. United States, 135 S. Ct. 2551 (2015) (Johnson II). Since Johnson II, substantial disagreements have emerged both within the Eleventh Circuit and among the other circuits regarding Johnson II’s reach and the proper application of the ACCA's elements clause. This Article examines those disagreements, including three ways the Eleventh Circuit got it wrong—specifically, the court’s unusual conduct in ruling on requests to file second or successive post-conviction motions based on Johnson II and recent rulings on whether the Florida offenses of robbery and felony battery qualify as “violent felonies” under the elements clause. This Article argues the ACCA’s elements-clause analysis should focus on the degree of force used in an act, and the Supreme Court should resolve these disagreements and provide guidance to the lower courts by reviewing whether one of these offenses satisfies the elements clause.

Trauma, Race, and Risk for Violent Felony Arrests Among Florida Juvenile Offenders.

This study tests the assumptions of the The Childhood Trauma Model, which proposes that marginalized populations are both more likely to have traumatic childhoods and more criminalized than those in the upper echelons of society. It hypothesizes that traumatic childhood experiences increase risk of being sanctioned for violent behavior, and risks are amplified for minority and disadvantaged groups. The study finds that experiencing three or more traumas had a 200% to 370% increased chance of being arrested for a violent felony as youth who experienced a single traumatic event, and Blacks had up to 300% increased risk than Whites with equal trauma scores.

Taming Self-Defense: Using Deadly Force to Prevent Escapes

The fleeing felon rule permits the use of deadly force when it is necessary to prevent the escape of a person who committed a violent felony. In many jurisdictions, analogous rules also permit correctional officers to use deadly force to prevent incarcerated individuals from escaping. Struggling to justify these laws, the Supreme Court has taken the position that deadly force in these cases is a form of self-defense and defense of others. But self-defense and defense of others cannot justify the use of deadly force against escaping criminals. Both defenses are rightly subject to three critical limitations — necessity, imminence, and proportionality — that would not allow preventive force against the purely speculative future threats that fleeing criminals pose. If rules permitting deadly force against fleeing suspects or criminals are justifiable at all, the justification for them must rest, at least in part, on governments’ monopoly on force and concomitant responsibility to protect others from those who resist the most basic compliance with the rule of law. More broadly, our understanding of when deadly force is permissible outside of self-defense needs to be reexamined.

Identification of Nonfatal Strangulation by 911 Dispatchers: Suggestions for Advances Toward Evidence-Based Prosecution.

Research highlights the need for systematic law enforcement training on nonfatal strangulation in domestic violence situations to improve evidence-based prosecution of these violent felonies. However, most of this research focuses on the role of police officers in the safety response. Although often overlooked, this research examines the role of 911 dispatchers, who are many times the first person the victim calls for assistance. This study examines official domestic violence records, gathered through a partnership with a County Sheriff's agency, to determine whether domestic violence strangulation is being adequately identified and documented by first responders. This research highlights the need for considering 911 dispatchers as having a potentially critical role in a comprehensive response to domestic violence strangulation from initial screening to eventual prosecution.

Is Burglary a Violent Crime? An Empirical Investigation of the Armed Career Criminal Act’s Classification of Burglary as a Violent Felony

Traditionally considered a non-violent property offense, burglary is nonetheless classified as a violent crime under the federal Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA). The ACCA, a three-strikes law that provides a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years, is triggered when an offender, who has been previously convicted for a crime classified under the ACCA as either a “violent felony” or “serious drug offense,” is convicted at the federal level for any felony committed while in possession of a firearm. The present study investigated the ACCA’s classification of burglary as violent through analysis of National Crime Victimization Survey data for the period of 2009 to 2014. Results showed that burglary is overwhelmingly a non-violent offense. The national incidence of actual violence or threats of violence during a burglary was 7.9%. At most, 2.7% of burglaries involved actual acts of violence. Legislative reform of the ACCA classification to match the empirical description of burglary is discussed.

You Can't Get There from Here: Elderly Prisoners, Prison Downsizing, and the Insufficiency of Cost Cutting Advocacy

The prison population in the United States has peaked and begun to recede, reversing more than 30 years of growth. Mass incarceration is yielding to the imperative to reduce state budgets in recessionary times. As states turn away from the extravagant use of prison for nonviolent offenders, the percentage of the prison population serving long and life sentences for violent felonies will increase. By 2009 one in eleven prisoners were lifers. These are the prisoners growing old and dying in prison. High cost elderly prisoners who have aged out of crime should be good candidates for cost saving measures such as compassionate release, parole, and release through community corrections programs. This impression does not withstand scrutiny. Two thirds of elderly prisoners have been convicted of violent crimes; one quarter has been convicted of sexual offenses. Programs to reduce prison costs have indeed gained ground but they are designed for a very different population. The offender who is well positioned to avoid or leave prison as a result of cost savings policies is a young nonviolent offender; The majority of states have succeeded in reducing prison admissions by diverting nonviolent offenders to drug and other treatment programs and reducing prison terms for low level offenders. A threshold condition for diversion or release is low risk of violent offending. Implicitly these low risk nonviolent offenders are also promoted as criminals who can rehabilitate and reintegrate into the community. The majority of compassionate release programs either exclude prisoners who were convicted of violent crimes or require that the prisoner be incapacitated to the extent that he or she poses no threat to public safety. Yet even prisoners who meet these standards are rarely released. Arguing for cost cutting release of the fast growing legion of elderly prisoners is much less easily buttressed with soothing claims about the happy coincidence of lower costs and public safety. Even if, and it is big if, exaggerated fear of further predations were successfully addressed, the advocate of cost cutting reform cannot answer demands for retribution without venturing beyond the discourse of the “tough on crime” era. For thirty years the political class has shunned the previously commonly invoked criminal justice values of second chances -- the redemptive values of rehabilitation, reintegration, and mercy. The sickest and oldest prisoners are largely beyond second chances for productive citizenship. Whether released or incarcerated their care will be borne by the public purse. Elder care is not free. This Article focuses on the subclass of old prisoners who are beyond any prospect for productive citizenship because of age and ill health and are in need of elder care. The argument of this Article is that in order to capture the savings that release (and efficient carceral care) of elderly prisoners would bring, politicians and policy advocates will have to relearn to speak the language of humane criminal justice values, prominently mercy.

Does raising indigent defender pay rates improve defendant outcomes? Evidence from New York

ABSTRACTBeginning 1 January 2004, the rates paid to assigned counsel – private attorneys who defend the indigent in criminal cases when a public defender does not – were raised from a maximum of $40 per hour to $75 per hour in the state of New York. This article examines the extent to which this relatively large pay increase affects case outcomes. Efficiency wage theory would suggest paying workers higher rates can improve their productivity, and the results of this analysis are consistent with this. Using a difference-in-difference approach, I find that after the assigned counsel rate increase, case outcomes significantly improved in counties with higher poverty rates relative to those with lower poverty rates. The likelihood of conviction and the likelihood of pleading guilty both fell by more than two percentage points in high-poverty counties compared to low-poverty counties after the rate increase, and the differences in the likelihood of being convicted are especially pronounced for cases involving violent felonies. The results suggest raising assigned counsel rates can be an effective policy tool to improve indigent defence systems that are in need of reform.

Sentencing on the Evidence

The type and quantity of evidence in a case is a critical factor for deciding guilt but should have little or no influence on the sentencing determinations of judges post conviction; this is because case evidence goes to guilt decisions by triers of fact, whereas sentences are imposed upon those already convicted. This study examines the effects of evidentiary type and the total quantity of physical evidence in a case on length of custodial sentence. The results demonstrate that violent felony cases with forensic evidence and those cases with more varied pieces of physical evidence result in longer custodial sentences for convicted defendants. Thus, the findings indicate that inculpatory evidence in criminal trials has enduring effects post conviction and, more broadly, suggest that judicial discretion at sentencing is, at least in part, influenced by the judge’s confidence in the defendant’s guilt.

Using Johnson v. United States to Reframe Retroactivity for Second or Successive Collateral Motions

The Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA) provides a fifteen-year mandatory minimum sentence in federal prison for persons with at least three prior “violent felony” convictions who are subsequently convicted of being in possession of a firearm. In Johnson v. United States, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down one portion of this statute on the ground that it was unconstitutionally vague. In addition to an enumerated list of “violent felonies” that can result in a conviction, this portion included a catchall category that defined a violent felony as a crime that “otherwise involves conduct that presents a serious potential risk of physical injury to another.”This Note examines whether federal prisoners, whose convictions and sentences under this now-unconstitutional prong of the ACCA were final before Johnson, and who have previously petitioned for habeas corpus, may again petition in federal court based on Johnson’s holding. In other words, the question, which has become the subject of a widening circuit split and is under review by the Supreme Court, is whether Johnson’s new rule about the unconstitutionality of the ACCA has been “made retroactive . . . by the Supreme Court” to federal prisoners seeking habeas corpus relief in federal court. This Note addresses this question and the circuit split that has emerged on the issue and concludes that Johnson has indeed been “made retroactive.” Finally, this Note offers a modified framework for assessing the retroactivity of new rules to second or successive habeas petitions.

The Armed Career Criminal Act: Imprecise, Indeterminate, and Unconstitutional

The Armed Career Criminal Act provides a mandatory minimum fifteen-year sentence enhancement for felons possessing a firearm who have previously been convicted three times of a “violent felony” or a “serious drug offense.” Despite this seemingly clear mandate, the statute has been embroiled in controversy for decades as judges struggle to determine what predicate crimes meet this standard. The culmination of this battle resulted in the invalidation of the ACCA’s “residual clause” when the Supreme Court found that the clause violated due process in Johnson v. United States. Nonetheless, the remaining provisions of the ACCA are still problematic. For example, although burglary is a specifically enumerated offense that constitutes a violent felony, burglary convictions in some states have been held to be violent felonies while burglary convictions in other states have not. Likewise, offenses involving “the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against the person of another” have mired the courts in similar difficulties in determining whether the particular offensive qualifies as violent felony. Perhaps most troublesome, a finding of juvenile delinquency can be considered a criminal conviction that subjects an individual to ACCA enhancement in a subsequent adult proceeding, despite the fact that juveniles do not have the right to a jury trial. This paper argues that the ACCA is imprecise, indeterminate, and insusceptible of principled and predictable interpretation. Absent a wholesale modification by Congress, the substantive provisions of the ACCA examined in this paper ought to be held by the courts to be unconstitutional because they deprive defendants of due process.