Cleaning up your act: Forensic awareness as a detection avoidance strategy

Purpose

Although rational choice researchers has investigated how offenders successfully commit certain crimes, there is a lack of research looking at the factors explaining the use - or not - of certain detection avoidance strategies. This study introduces the concept of “forensic awareness” as a detection avoidance strategy, and proposes to examine the effect of disinhibitors, target selection behaviors, and acts that may potentially leave evidence at the crime scene on its use.

Methods

Factors influencing forensic awareness are tested using logistic regression models on a sample of 222 rape events collected from offenders incarcerated in Canada.

Results

Offenders exhibit less forensic awareness when under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol. However, offenders who show some form of target selection are more likely to take forensic precautions. Finally, offenders who break and enter in the victim's residence, and undertake specific sexual acts during the crime are also more likely to exhibit forensic awareness.

Conclusion

Despite the increasing use and knowledge of forensic evidence by law enforcement, offenders are inconsistent in their forensic awareness and they direct most of their efforts toward protecting their identity, neglecting to either destroy or clean up DNA that could be recovered at the crime scene.     

Patterns of criminal achievement in sexual offending: Unravelling the “successful” sex offender

Purpose

The current study examines significant variations in criminal achievement across sex offenders. To examine the “successful” sex offender, the study proposes a concept of achievement in sexual offending defined as the ability to maximise the payoffs of a crime opportunity while minimizing the costs.

Methods

The study is based on a sample of convicted adult male sex offenders using retrospective longitudinal data.

Results

The study findings show a wide variation in criminal achievement, a variation that is not correlated with the severity of sentences meted out or the actuarial risk scores obtained by these offenders. Those offenders who specialize in sex crimes were shown to be the most productive and least detected offenders. Two types of successful offenders emerge, the first relying on his conventional background in targeting a victim that can be repeatedly abused for a long period without detection. The second is a younger offender that is successful in the sense of being able to complete aggressions on multiple victims.

Conclusions

Results suggest that the successful sex offender is not “detected” once he enters the criminal justice system, nor is he handled in a way that may deter him from sexually reoffending in the future.     

Marked for Death: An Empirical Criminal Careers Analysis of Death Sentences in a Sample of Convicted Male Homicide Offenders

Background

Although prior criminal record and concurrent criminal charges constitute the main eligibility and aggravating circumstances used in capital sentencing, relatively little research has examined the criminal careers of offenders who are ultimately sentenced to death.

Materials and Methods

Using official criminal history data for 618 incarcerated male homicide offenders selected from 8 states—191 of whom were sentenced to death—the current study explored the criminal careers of offenders that received the most severe legal punishment.

Results

Poisson regression incidence rate ratio models indicated that multiple measures of prior criminal activity including contemporaneous and prior history of violence, prior incarceration, early onset of arrest, juvenile homicide offending, and juvenile child molestation were associated with subsequently being sentenced to death. Separate models for white, African American, and Hispanic males showed contrasting effects in their criminal careers and varying relationships between prior criminal career and current capital offending.

Conclusion

The current study adds to the literature on lifespan criminality by applying Poisson regression analyses and a criminal careers approach to study the most extreme offenders including those sentenced to death.     

Substance abuse treatment for juvenile offenders: A review of quasi-experimental and experimental research

Purpose

The purpose of this systematic literature review is to assess the effectiveness of substance abuse treatment on alcohol and marijuana use for juvenile offenders based on existing quasi-experimental and experimental research. Additionally, a secondary aim is to compare the effects of individual-based interventions to family-based interventions.

Methods

A systematic search of literature and electronic databases through 2010 generated five experimental or quasi-experimental studies that assessed alcohol outcomes for juvenile offenders and five experimental or quasi-experimental studies that assessed marijuana outcomes for juvenile offenders.

Results

Overall, substance abuse treatment appears to have a small to moderate effect on alcohol and marijuana reduction for juvenile offenders. Interventions that showed the most promise were Multisystemic Therapy, Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care, Teaching Family, and Life Skills Training. Individual-based interventions and family-based interventions had similar small to moderate effects on alcohol and marijuana use.

Conclusion

This review highlights several promising interventions for this high-risk population; however, further rigorous study is desperately needed to provide a better understanding of what works best in reducing substance use among juvenile offenders.     

Is teen court the best fit? Assessing the predictive validity of the Teen Court Peer Influence Scale

Purpose

Despite the increased use of teen courts for first time, non-violent juvenile offenders, there has been little research examining the decision-making processes regarding which offenders are best suited for this type of intervention. The Teen Court Peer Influence Scale (TCPIS) was developed to assist juvenile justice officials in making these determinations. The purpose of the present research is to determine the predictive validity of the TCPIS.

Methods

The TCPIS was administered to a nonprobability sample of teen court participants in Florida (N = 404) between September 2006 and February 2007. Dependent measures for the validity analysis were developed from the Youth Self-administered Questionnaire and included social bonds, prosocial attitudes, delinquent peer associations, positive perceptions of teen court, and perceived delinquency.

Results

All hypotheses were supported with the TCPIS global score accounting for a significant amount of variance among each of the delinquency measures strengthening the predictive validity of the measure.

Conclusions

These preliminary findings are positive regarding the predictive validity of the TCPIS. With additional research, the TCPIS could be a useful tool for decision-makers regarding which juvenile offenders are the best fit for teen court diversion programs.     

Correlates and consequences of pre-incarceration gang involvement among incarcerated youthful felons

Objective

The primary aim of the study is to document the prevalence and variation in types of pre-incarceration gang membership among a sample of incarcerated felons. The second goal is to consider if and how pre-incarceration gang involvement affects institutional behavior.

Materials and Methods

This study builds on the existing literature by considering if and how different types of pre-incarceration gang involvement effect prison misconduct. This relationship is examined while controlling for attitudinal measures and pre-prison social characteristics that may condition entrance into gangs and involvement in serious prison misconduct. The study includes a sample of 504 youthful adults incarcerated in a large Midwestern state in 1996.

Results

The results highlight that there is a high degree of variation in pre-incarceration gang involvement. Moreover, involvement in different types of gangs also is a significant predictor of prison misconduct. Individuals involved in organized/criminal gangs at the point of incarceration experienced significantly more serious misconduct reports than their non-gang counterparts, but similar findings were not evident for those involved in unorganized gangs.

Conclusions

Even among a relatively serious population of youthful adult offenders, pre-incarceration gang involvement is uncommon. Pre-incarceration involvement in organized gangs represents a significant risk factor for prison misconduct.     

Targeting dispositions for drug-involved offenders: A field trial of the Risk and Needs Triage (RANT)™

Purpose

This field trial examined the process of assigning drug-involved offenders to dispositions based on their criminogenic risks and needs.

Methods

Probation officers administered the Risk and Needs Triage (RANT)™ to 627 felony drug and property offenders at the pre-trial stage or shortly after sentencing to probation. The RANT™ was evaluated for internal scale consistency, factor structure, and predictive validity for re-arrest and re-conviction rates within 12 months of case disposition. Exploratory analyses examined whether recidivism was lower for participants who were assigned to an appropriate disposition given their assessment results.

Results

The RANT™ demonstrated acceptable internal consistency and factorial validity, and significantly predicted re-arrest and re-conviction rates within 12 months of case disposition. There was no racial or gender bias in the prediction of recidivism. Non-significant trends favored better outcomes for participants who were assigned to the indicated dispositions.

Conclusions

The results lend support for the RANT™ as a dispositional triage tool for drug-involved defendants and probationers at or near the point of arrest. The results also lend tentative support to the hypothesis that outcomes might be better if drug-involved offenders were matched to appropriate dispositions based on their risk-and-need profiles. Directions for future research are discussed.     

Can general strain theory be used to explain recidivism among registered sex offenders?

Purpose

The purpose of the current study was to assess sex offender recidivism in the context of General Strain Theory (GST).

Methods

Surveys were mailed to 3,506 sex offenders with (N = 939) in Nebraska, (N = 1,850) in Kansas and (N = 717) in Montana. Questions related to strain associated with registration and community notification, anger, depression, and criminal behavior were asked. OLS Regression was utilized to predict overall recidivism, as well as sex, violent, drug, and property recidivism.

Results

Findings suggest that GST is supported when analyzing recidivism.

Conclusions

In the context of these findings, policymakers would do well to reexamine the broad use of registration and community notification laws.     

Cost-benefit analysis of reducing crime through electronic monitoring of parolees and probationers

Objective

The objective of this study was to estimate the benefits and costs of using electronic monitoring (EM) and home detention to reduce crime committed by parolees and probationers.

Method

Data from a national survey of state prison inmates was adjusted and used to estimate the number of crimes that would have been committed by all parolees and probationers over the course of one year in the absence of EM and home detention. The data were analyzed in combination with existing analyses of the effectiveness and costs of EM and home detention and the economic costs of crime to estimate the benefit-cost ratio of nationwide implementation of EM and home detention with all parolees and probationers.

Results

EM plus home detention could avert an estimated 781,383 crimes every year. The social value of the annual reduction in crime is $481.1 billion. Society would gain $12.70 for every dollar expended on the proposed intervention.

Conclusion

EM plus home detention could be an effective deterrent to crime and could have enormous social benefits, especially if it is applied early and saves what would otherwise be habitual offenders from a life of crime.     

Population heterogeneity, state dependence and sexual offender recidivism: The aging process and the lost predictive impact of prior criminal charges over time

Purpose

Two competing theories explain the link between past and future criminal behavior: population heterogeneity and state dependence. Actuarial models of risk prediction emphasize static variables, akin to population heterogeneity. State dependence, has never been tested with similar populations.

Methods

Using survival modeling this study examines both population heterogeneity and state dependence using a sample of adult sex offenders incarcerated in Quebec, Canada from 1994-2000. Analyses were conducted on offenders age 36 and over (n = 242). Official criminal activity was measured at: (a) 18-23 years; (b) 24-29 years; (c) 30-35 years; and, (d) 36 + years.

Results

Cox proportional hazards modeling shows stronger evidence for state dependence, suggesting changeability in risk over time.

Conclusions

Support was found for both offending continuity and discontinuity, or a mixed model of offending. Current actuarial risk assessment tools for adult sex offenders do not accommodate for the inclusion of state dependent and life-course processes, which could have implications for the potential overestimation of offender risk.     

The ties that bind or the ties that break: Examining the relationship between visitation and prisoner misconduct

Purpose

Prior theory and research suggest that inmate visitation can reduce misconduct in prison. However, prior studies have not accounted for the longitudinal and heterogeneous nature of these experiences. This paper addresses this research gap by examining variation in visitation experiences and the relationship between patterns of visitation and misconduct.

Methods

Using a cohort of offenders incarcerated in Florida between 2000 and 2002, group-based trajectory model analyses were used to identify groups of inmates based on their visitation and misconduct patterns. Dual trajectory analysis was used to then assess the extent to which the development of visitation and misconduct patterns are interrelated.

Results

Visitation, and more consistent visitation in particular, is associated with less prison misconduct.

Conclusions

Visitation may reduce inmate misconduct. Implications for future research, theory, and policy are discussed.     

Violent criminals locked up: Examining the effect of incarceration on behavioral continuity

Purpose

The purpose of the current study was to determine whether, and the degree to which, inmates committing specific types of violent crimes in the community were prone to commit acts of violence while incarcerated.

Materials and methods

Data were collected from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice on the prison stock population and a restricted admissions cohort serving time during FY 2008.

Results

After controlling for pre-prison and post-conviction characteristics, crime of conviction retained a modest degree of influence on inmates’ propensity to commit dangerous rule violations in prison. Inmates convicted of assault, robbery and other miscellaneous violent crimes were more likely to commit dangerous rule infractions than inmates convicted of property crimes, supporting the behavioral continuity thesis. Inmates convicted of homicide were no more likely, and those convicted of sexual assault less likely, to commit dangerous rule violations in comparison to those convicted of property crimes.

Conclusions

The findings suggest that researchers and prison officials should not view all inmates convicted of one of a broad category of “violent crimes” in the community as being equivalent in their propensity for violence while incarcerated.     

Social ecology, individual risk, and recidivism: A multilevel examination of main and moderating influences

Purpose

Despite a longstanding tradition in criminology to consider the impact of neighborhood context on crime-related outcomes, criminologists have largely ignored the influence of social ecology on recidivism until recently. The purpose of the present study was to examine the main and moderating influences of social ecology on recidivism.

Materials and Methods

The present study used hierarchical nonlinear modeling to estimate the effects of concentrated disadvantage, immigrant concentration, and residential stability on recidivism for a sample of offenders released from custody/supervision in 2006 and nested within Iowa counties. We controlled for individual-level risk for recidivism using the Level of Service Inventory-Revised (LSI-R), a validated risk assessment instrument. We also examined whether the relationship between LSI-R score and recidivism varied across counties, and if so, whether this variation can be explained by social structural characteristics.

Results

Results indicate that residential stability was the only contextual variable significantly related to recidivism. The relationship between individual-level risk and recidivism did not vary across contexts.

Conclusions

The findings suggest that the social structural context has limited influence on recidivism, while the LSI-R is a robust predictor of recidivism across contexts. We discuss the implications of our findings for theory, practice, and future research.     

Assessing the interaction between offender and victim criminal lifestyles & homicide type

Purpose

This study examined the interaction between homicide victim and offender criminal lifestyles and the situational characteristics of homicides that occurred in the city of Newark, New Jersey from 1997 through 2007. Three research questions were explored: (1) what are the lifestyles exhibited by homicide victims and offenders; (2) are there different types of homicide actors (i.e., victim and/or offender) based on their criminal lifestyle; (3) do varying homicide actor (i.e., victim and/or offender) types influence the characteristics of homicide incidents?

Methods

Five hundred and thirteen homicide incidents was used to answer the three research questions. Hierarchical Agglomerative Cluster and Logistic Regression Analyses were employed to answer the research questions.

Findings

The findings showed that criminal lifestyles were indeed very common among homicide victims and offenders, and that they resemble each other. The findings also showed that there were two types of homicide victims and offenders, and that these types influenced the etiology of homicide incidents.

Conclusion

Overall, the results suggest that researchers and practitioners should take into account the criminal lifestyles of potential victims and offenders when tailoring homicide prevention strategies.     

Predictors of suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, and self-harm without lethal intent in a community corrections sample

Purpose

Little published research data exist about suicidal ideation and self-harm behavior in community corrections and we seek to fill this void.

Aims

To examine the effects of drug dependence, depression, anxiety, psychopathy, fracture, and child trauma on suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, and self-harm without lethal intent in community corrections.

Methods

The Semi-Structured Assessment for the Genetics of Alcoholism Revised (SSAGA II) and the screening version of the Hare Psychopathy Checklist (PCL:SV) were administered. Separate binary logistic regression analyses were used to predict lifetime suicidal ideation, suicide attempt, and self-harm behavior.

Results

Prevalences of suicidal ideation, suicide attempt, and self-harm without lethal intent were 41%, 19%, and 14%. Suicidal ideation was predicted by drug dependence, elevated PCL:SV Factor 2 score, and Caucasian race. Suicidal ideation and attempt were both predicted by fractures, depression, and child trauma. Self-harm was predicted by fractures, panic, PCL:SV score, and child trauma.

Conclusions

Child trauma and multiple fractures are potent predictors for suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, and self-harm without lethal intent in this community corrections sample. Depression predicted suicidal ideation and attempts, while panic predicted self-harm without lethal intent. Psychopathy was also an important predictor of suicidal ideation and self-harm behaviors without lethal intent.     

Nature and consequences of dismissals: Implications for public safety and crime prevention in criminal courts in America

The role of dismissal as a major case disposition in criminal courts in America has been largely neglected in empirical studies to date, despite long-lasting questions about its nature and important implications for justice goals. This paper is a first attempt to fill in this gap.

Purpose

Drawing on untested assumptions about a possible dismissal-reoffending connection, the paper proposes a public safety framework for examining the nature of dismissals and their consequences for the community. Under this perspective, dismissal is a function of defendants’ risk attributes and contributes to subsequent public safety threat.

Methods

To test these hypotheses, predictive and causal analyses were conducted on an 800-case sample of criminal defendants in one large urban American jurisdiction, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Cases were sampled at the first judicial stage and followed as a cohort for one year to record disposition and post-disposition outcomes.

Results

The findings indicate that defendants’ risk attributes contribute to the explanation of dismissal and that dismissal in itself adds to the probability of subsequent offending.

Conclusions

The findings raise questions about the justice system goals, particularly deterrence and have important policy implications for the processing and disposition of criminal cases in American jurisdictions.     

Incarceration, education and transition from delinquency

Purpose

Much of what is known regarding the transition away from crime is limited to young adulthood and specific life events and samples of non-serious offenders comprised mainly of white males.

Methods

The current study assesses the potential links between educational achievement, post-release schooling, and re-arrest for a cohort of 4,147 incarcerated youths drawn from 115 Florida juvenile institutions and followed for two years post-release.

Results

Incarcerated youths with higher levels of educational achievement are more likely to return to school after release, and those youths who returned to and attended school regularly were less likely to be rearrested within 12 and 24 months. Moreover, among youths who were rearrested, those youth who attended school regularly following release were arrested for significantly less serious offenses compared to youths who did not attend school or attended less regularly.

Conclusions

The study concludes with discussion of the importance of educational achievement as an important turning point for juvenile offenders as they transition into young adulthood.