The Forward Specialization Coefficient: Distributional Properties and Subgroup Differences

For both public policy and theoretical reasons, criminologists have been interested in the degree to which criminal offenders specialize in particular crimes. Traditionally, offense specialization has been measured with the forward specialization coefficient (FSC). Recently, the FSC has been criticized for being interpretationally obtuse and having no known sampling distribution. In this paper we examine both the interpretational and the statistical properties of the FSC. We conclude that (1) it has an intuitive interpretation that is no less useful than either a standard correlation coefficient or its competitors, (2) its sampling distribution is approximately normal, and (3) the conventional formula for the estimated standard error of the FSC may underestimate the true standard error in some circumstances. With these results behind us, we propose and illustrate both a parametric statistical test for the difference between two independent FSCs and two nonparametric alternatives.     

Reviews

Seweryn Bialer ed. Politics. Society and Nationality inside Gorbachev's Russia. Boulder, London: Westview Press, 1989. xv + 255 pp., £22.50 h/b., £11.00 p/b.

Jan Winiecki, The Distorted World of Soviet‐Type Economies. London and New York: Routledge, 1988, xi + 130 pp., £33.00.

Jan Adam, Economic Reforms in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe since the 1960s. London: Macmillan, 1989, xvi + 242 pp. £29.50.

Alexander George, Philip J. Farley and Alexander Dallin, eds. U.S.‐Soviet Security Cooperation. Achievements, Failures, Lessons. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988, xi + 746 pp., £30.00.

Thomas M. Cynkin, Soviet and American Signalling in the Polish Crisis. London: MacMillan Press, 1988, ix + 263 pp., £35.00.

Stephen Lewarne, Soviet Oil: The Move Offshore. Boulder and London: Westfield Press, 1988, xiv + 190 pp. Price not indicated.

Margaret Chadwick, David Long and Machiko Nissanke, Soviet Oil Exports: Trade Adjustments, Refining Constraints and Market Behaviour. Oxford: OUP 1987. xviii + 263 pp. £29.50.

James H. Bater, The Soviet Scene: A Geographical Perspective. London: Edward Arnold, 1989, xv + 304 pp., £30.00 h/b., £11.95 p/b.

Raymond Hutchings, Soviet Secrecy and Non‐Secrecy. London: Macmillan, 1987, vii + 292 pp., £29.50.

Bryan Ranft and Geoffrey Till, The Sea in Soviet Strategy. 2nd Edition, London: Macmillan, 1989, xviii + 284 pp., £35.00.

Robert Desjardins, The Soviet Union through French Eyes, 1945–85. Foreward by Archie Brown, St Antony's/Macmillan series, Macmillan Press, London, 1988, xiii + 199 pp., £33.00.

Linda R. Killen, The Soviet Union and the United States: A New Look at the Cold War. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1989, xv + 195 pp., $24.95 h/b., $12.95 p/b.

Anne D. Rassweiler, The Generation of Power. The History of Dneprostroi. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988, viii + 247 pp., £24.00.

Stephen White, The Bolshevik Poster. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988, viii + 152 pp., £19.95, $39.95.

János Timár, Idö és munkaidö (Time and Work Time), Közgazdasági és Jogi Könyvkiadó, Budapest, 1988, 297 pp.

Tamara Dragadze, Rural Families in Soviet Georgia. A case study in Ratcha Province. International Library of Anthropology, Routledge, London and New York, 1988, xii + 226 pp.

Thomas A. Oleszczuk, Political Justice in the USSR: Dissent and Repression in Lithuania, 1969–1987. Boulder, Colorado: East European Monographs, 1988, viii + 221 pp., $34.50.

Nora Levin, The Jews in the Soviet Union since 1917: Paradox of Survival. New York: New York University Press, 1988, 2 vols. xxxiv + 1013 pp., $55 each vol., $100 the set; foreign prices $69 and $125.

Benjamin Pinkus, The Jews of the Soviet Union: The History of a National Minority. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988, xvii + 397 pp., £30.00, $34.50.

Marko Milivojevi?, John B. Allcock and Pierre Maurer, eds. Yugoslavia's Security Dilemmas: Armed Forces, National Defence and Foreign Policy. Oxford: Berg Publishers Limited, 1988, viii + 324 pp., £35.00.

German Institute for Economic Research, ed. GDR and Eastern Europe. A Handbook. Avebury, Gower Publishing Company Limited, 1989, xxi + 383 pp., £32.50.

Daniel N. Nelson, Romanian Politics in the Ceausescu Era. London: Gordon and Breach Science Publishers, 1988, xvii + 244 pp., $69.00.

The Blackwell Encyclopedia of the Russian Revolution, Edited by Harold Shukman, Basil Blackwell, 1988, xv + 418 pp.     

Reviews

Vladimir Shlapentokh, Soviet Intellectuals and Political Power: The Post‐Stalin Era. London: I. B. Tauris & Co. Ltd., 1990, xiv + 321 pp., £19.95

Jadwiga Staniszkis, The Dynamics of the Breakthrough in Eastern Europe. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1991, xiii + 303 pp., £25.00, $35.00.

Richard Sakwa, Gorbachev and his Reforms, 1985–1990. London: Philip Allan, 1990, xiv + 459 pp., £35.00 h/b, £12.95 p/b.

Julian Cooper, The Soviet Defence Industry: Conversion and Reform. London: Pinter Publishers, 1991, ix + 111 pp., £22.50 h/b, £8.95 p/b.

Elizabeth Winiecki & Jan Winiecki, The Structural Legacy of the Soviet‐Type Economy. London: CRCE, 1992, 133 pp., £6.50 p/b.

Marsha Siefert, ed., Mass Culture and Perestroika in the Soviet Union. New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991, 200 pp., $35.00.

Anne White, De‐Stalinization and the House of Culture. Declining state control over leisure in the USSR, Poland and Hungary, 1953–89. London and New York: Routledge, 1990, x+195 pp., £30.00.

Deborah Adelman, The ‘Children of Perestroika’. Moscow Teenagers Talk About Their Lives and the Future. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe Inc., 1991, xxiii + 256 pp., $24.95.

Michael Marrese & Sándor Richter, eds, The Challenge of Simultaneous Economic Relations with East and West. London: Macmillan, 1990, xviii + 216 pp., £45.00.

David W. Hunter, Western Trade Pressure on the Soviet Union. Basingstoke: Macmillan Academic and Professional Ltd, 1991, xii + 163 pp., £45.00

Pierre Maurer, La Reconciliation Sovieto‐Yougoslave, 1954–1958: Illusions et Disillusions de Tito. Cousset, Fribourg: Editions Delval, 1991, 474 pp., no price.     

Examining the Effectiveness of Restorative Justice in Reducing Victims’ Post-Traumatic Stress

Crime victimisation is a significant life event that can lead to the development of post-traumatic symptomology. Compared with the general population, victims of crime are significantly more likely to present with symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Restorative justice is an approach to criminal justice that considers the goal of the justice system to restore victims to their state pre-victimisation. The purpose of this review was to evaluate the effectiveness of restorative justice in reducing symptoms of post-traumatic stress that develop following victimisation. Relevant databases were searched to identify quantitative studies measuring post-traumatic symptoms in victims of crime who successfully completed either a restorative justice or customary justice intervention. A total of seven studies were identified examining one or more facet of post-traumatic symptomology. These studies provide modest support that restorative justice did produce a greater improvement on post-traumatic symptoms than customary justice procedures. However, this was only consistently evidenced for symptoms of avoidance and intrusion, whereas there were mixed findings with regard to the subscales of negative alterations in mood and cognition, and arousal and reactivity. Reasons for these inconsistencies are discussed and recommendation made for further empirical work on this subject.