Executive orders: Symbolic politics, criminal justice policy, and the American presidency

The theory of symbolic politics is used to examine presidential executive orders related to criminal justice policy. It is hypothesized that presidents use executive orders to make more of a symbolic, rather than a substantive, statement. Data were collected from the National Archives and Records Administration on all presidential executive orders from the first Eisenhower administration (1953) through the last Clinton administration (2001). A content analysis of presidential executive orders related to crime and justice offers partial support for the claim that presidents use these executive orders primarily for evoking symbols. The author would like to thank Dr. Matthew J, Franck for his review of an earlier draft of this paper and the anonymous reviewers for sharing their helpful comments.     

Extraterritorial criminal jurisdiction: Its impact on criminal justice

Public international law recognizes the right of states to protect themselves and their subjects against threats and damage from within their territory and outside. In the international sphere, the means and methods of national protection are restricted by the extraterritorial jurisdiction of courts and the laws they enforce.Criminal justice today is being confronted on an ever increasing scale by international criminal offenses that impinge on domestic concerns: drugs, securities and financial manipulations, money laundering, and terrorism, to mention only a few. This article discusses some of the issues that arise under the United States Constitution when criminal justice agencies are called upon to enforce U.S. laws beyond U.S. territorial limits. The principles of extraterritorial jurisdiction are discussed along with a number of United States court cases pointing to the importance of this new area of criminal justice.     

The use of simulation in criminal justice policy evaluation

The criminal justice system is administered at the local level by many independent agencies and departments, often without regard to each other's objectives and often at the expense of overall effectiveness. This study has attempted to relate the primary system goal of crime control to a set of policy alternatives distributed over each criminal justice sector. Specifically, a simulation model based on the techniques of “industrial dynamics” was developed to evaluate combinations of the following policies: speedy trial, no plea bargaining, and restricted bail. Data obtained from the District of Columbia's criminal justice agencies were used to validate the model. The results of the analysis indicate that the system is basically insensitive to small perturbations, but is susceptible to disruption from large changes in input and procedure. Under the given set of assumptions, continuation of current practices will lead to a gradual deterioration in performance that can only be stemmed by large expenditures on manpower and facilities.     

Explaining the cultural and symbolic resonance of zero tolerance in contemporary criminal justice

Zero tolerance has been described as a "popular slogan for politicians talking tough." It is also a slogan with international advocates. In addition to the US, politicians from Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and South Africa have praised this aggressive policing strategy. While this is a testament to the ease with which ideas diffuse between nations in the contemporary world, it does not explain why this particular idea is so popular. Nor does it explain why zero tolerance animated so many in the mid- to late-1990s. In order to answer these questions adequately, it is important to place zero tolerance in a wider social, political, and economic context. As this article argues, zero tolerance resonates in contemporary culture because it symbolizes a variety of tensions and anxieties found in late modern society. These anxieties are revealed through the often volatile and contradictory politics of law and order; through the routine scrutiny of marginal populations in society; and through the high degree of public tolerance for both of these developments. Recent research suggests that the rise of free market neoliberalism and social conservatism in western industrialized democracies provides an important backdrop against which these anxieties emerge. Imbued with meaning and populist appeal, it is the idea of zero tolerance, along with its cultural and symbolic resonance in contemporary criminal justice, which requires explanation.     

The future of criminal justice administration and its impact on civil liberties

Criminal justice agencies have the means to increase their efficiency and to bring a larger proportion of the population within their net of surveillance and control. In the next twenty or forty years this form of control over citizens will increase. Simultaneously, growing bureaucratic and legal control mechanisms will prevent such control from becoming tyrannous. Over a longer period, given the possibility of a “no-growth” economy and a decline in the social and economic system that supports traditional civil liberties, there is a threat that an efficient criminal justice system would support tyrannous government. In the future tyranny can be avoided by the conscious policy of limiting the full potential of control over citizens by the criminal justice system.     

Health policy and ERISA: interest groups and semipreemption

This paper is a history of the health policy results of the Employee Retirement and Income Security Act of 1974, particularly section 514, which preempts state laws "which relate to any employee benefit plan" but permits states to continue to regulate the business of insurance. This history exemplifies how health policy is often made outside conventional arenas. On the basis of published primary sources and interviews with a number of key participants, the paper describes how interest groups which rarely act together coalesced to create and sustain semipreemption and its effects on state and federal health policy. The paper concludes with an assessment of recent state legislative efforts to address the problems created by ERISA semipreemption. The ironical results of semipreemption occurred because of the absence of a coalition of interest groups that was sufficiently strong to resolve the fundamental questions raised by our commitment to linking health insurance to employment.     

Improving criminal justice through better decision making: Lessons from the medical system

Against a backdrop of unprecedented growth in the criminal justice system stand calls for increased government accountability, yet substantial gaps between ideal and actual practice remain. Many observers have pointed to the problem and some of its causes and solutions, including the need for performance monitoring and evidence-based practices. Less attention has been paid to how decision-making errors influence effective criminal justice practice. This article draws on examples from medicine, where decision making has been examined in more depth, and applies them to criminal justice. Its goals are to identify the types of decision-making errors that can undermine effective practice and policy in the criminal justice system, illustrate how systemic factors influence everyday decision making, and draw attention to the benefits of decision making-focused monitoring and assessment. The article concludes by discussing the implications for performance monitoring and improving the criminal justice system.     

The tragedy of academic criminal justice

Criminal justice Ph.D. programs in the United States are unusually behavioristic in their structure, concentrating attention on quantitative methodologies and strongly pressuring students to construct studies that utilize acquired skills. As a result, Ph.D. students take on a strongly conservative cast, seldom asking larger, more philosophical questions about the field as a whole and its place in its context, which is that of the American polity. Instead, students look for methodologically manageable problems within the given and accepted system. The result is the creation of a generation of American Ph.D. holders who have practically no critical perspective on the system.     

Some uses and misuses of research for criminal justice policy development and utilization

Criminal justice research has been extensively critized In recent years for its may shortcomings. Problems In its use appear to focus around three major areas of effort: Policy-makers, research managers, and professional researchers. This paper reviews what are seen as some of the major obstacles to quality criminal justice research in each of these areas of contemporary concern. Then, a number of suggestions are offered which are designed to improve the use of research for policy development and utilization in criminal justice.     

An assessment of the relative impact of criminal justice and criminology journals

The current study was undertaken to provide an impact assessment of criminal justice and criminology journals as an alternative measure to the prestige survey ratings reported by Sorensen, Snell, and Rodriguez (2006). Citations to sixty-seven target journals were tallied from ten top criminal justice and criminology journals. Various impact measures were fairly consistent with one another and the prestige survey ratings, particularly for a “top tier” of journals. With a couple of notable exceptions, a long-standing core of these elite journals has held their relative positions from early impact studies relying on data from the 1970s and 1980s; nevertheless, significant deviations were noted based on the measurement utilized for all but the top journals. Findings from the current study suggested that the quality of journals is multifaceted and warns against employing a scale based on one dimension of journal quality.     

Dimensions of criminal justice policy: The Supreme Court,the Fourth Amendment and the trial court system

A full understanding of the role of the U.S. Supreme Court’s supervisory authority over the criminal justice process must recognize that the political and social environment affects local responses to Supreme Court directives. This paper reviews the development of Supreme Court Fourth Amendment decisions in which criminal court deliver justice. The authors suggest that future treatment of problems in Supreme Court’s supervisory role and the prospects of demands for Reform being generated from the larger political community.     

Attitudes toward hiring applicants with mental illness and criminal justice involvement: The impact of education and experience

Individuals with mental health diagnoses, as well as those involved in the criminal justice system, experience a number of barriers in the recovery and reintegration progress, including access to stable, prosocial employment opportunities. Employment for these populations is important for establishing financial security, reducing unstructured leisure time, increasing self-worth, and improving interpersonal skills. However, research has demonstrated that individuals with psychiatric and/or criminal backgrounds may experience stigmatizing attitudes from employers that impede their ability to find adequate work. This study aimed to evaluate stigmatizing beliefs toward hypothetical applicants who indicated a mental health history, a criminal history, or both, as well as the effectiveness of psychoeducation in reducing stigma. Participants consisted of 465 individuals recruited from a large university who completed a series of online questions about a given applicant. Results of this study varied somewhat across measures of employability, but were largely consistent with extant research suggesting that mental illness and criminal justice involvement serve as deterrents when making hiring decisions. Overall, psychoeducation appeared to reduce stigma for hiring decisions when the applicant presented with a criminal history. Unfortunately, similar findings were not revealed when applicants presented with a psychiatric or a psychiatric and criminal history. Implications and limitations of these findings are presented, along with suggestions for future research.     

Critical justice consciousness: Social injustice and the criminal justice system

In this essay I examine the importance of social justice to my identity and the changing interpretation of my “justice consciousness” resulting from changes in my work life. Drawing on my academic experience as well as my experience as an attorney, I describe the meaning that social justice has for me. I also examine the connections that I see between social injustice and the operation of the critical justice system.     

The application of social impact assessment to the study of criminal and juvenile justice programs: A case study

This article focuses on the utility of social impact assessment as a method for the study of criminal and juvenile justice programs. Social impact assessment is a relatively new research approach which has most often been used not in the field of criminal and juvenile justice, but to predict the many possible impacts of public construction programs on individuals, organizations, and the community. To illustrate the method of social impact assessment, a case study of one of the few applications of social impact assessment in a juvenile or criminal justice setting is provided. The case study is of a nationally acclaimed program model, the Community Arbitration Project (CAP), which was designed to improve the screening of juvenile delinquency cases before court. The case study compares CAP with a traditional screening program. It shows the procedure used to identify many types of possible impacts that may differ between the two programs, including those which are desired and not desired, and those which are intended and unintended. Furthermore, the case study demonstrates the process used to document selected impacts throughout the social system, in the case of CAP and traditional screening, on offenders, victims, police, the juvenile court, and the local community. The article concludes with a discussion of the feasibility of using the results of a social impact assessment as input into the modification of innovative model programs during their formative stage, and as input into the decision making that leads up to the choice of a model program for replication.     

The stalking victim's decision to contact the police: A test of Gottfredson and Gottfredson's theory of criminal justice decision making

There is a significant body of research exploring the reporting behaviors of crime victims. Much of this literature has focused on specific types of victimization (e.g., sexual assault) and the correlates of victim reporting. Recently, the crimes of stalking and cyberstalking have received empirical attention; however, few studies have examined the reporting behaviors of victims of these crimes. Using the theoretical framework proposed by Gottfredson and Gottfredson (1988), the current study explored how offense seriousness, the victim-offender relationship, and the prior record of the offender influenced a victim's decision to contact the police. Data were drawn from the 2006 stalking supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey, which examined stalking in the United States. Results offered support to Gottfredson and Gottfredson (1988) and highlighted the significance of understanding the reporting behaviors for this sample of crime victims. Differences in reporting for victims of stalking and cyberstalking were also examined.