Can electronic monitoring reduce crime for moderate to high-risk offenders?

Electronic monitoring (EM) of offenders has been in use for just over two decades and motives for using it remain diverse. Some agencies that use EM attempt to deliver humane and affordable sanctions while others seek to relieve jail crowding or to avoid the construction of new jails. Nonetheless, all EM programs aim to suppress the criminal behavior of offenders being monitored and its advocates have always hoped EM could be instrumental in reducing long-term recidivism. This review investigates the history of EM and the extent to which EM empirically affects criminal behavior in moderate to high-risk populations. All available recidivism studies that included at least one comparison group between the first impact study in 1986 and 2002 were considered for the review. Although variants such as GPS tracking and continuous testing for alcohol in perspiration have recently emerged, no studies of these technologies were found that met the review’s inclusion criteria. Studies are examined and combined for meta-analysis where appropriate. Given its continued and widespread use and the dearth of reliable information about its effects, the authors conclude that applications of EM as a tool for reducing crime are not supported by existing data. Properly controlled experiments would be required to draw stronger conclusions about the effects of EM.     

Prevention science,drug abuse prevention,and Life Skills Training: Comments on the state of the science

There has been tremendous growth in the field of prevention science over the past two decades. The defining features of contemporary prevention science are high quality empirical research using rigorous and well-established scientific methods, careful hyphothesis testing, and the systematic accumulation of knowledge. One area where substantial progress has been made is in our understanding of the etiology and prevention of tobacoo, alcohol, and illicit drug abuse. In this paper, we review the growth in prevention as a scientific enterprise, discuss advances in drug abuse prevention research, and review the effectiveness of one approach to the problem of adolescent drug abuse, the Life Skills Traning (LST) program, and the methodological strengths of the LST evaluation research. In addition, we provide a response to criticism regarding two types of data analysis in evaluation research, and show that these analyses can help address a number of important research questions with implications for theory and practice. First, the analysis of high fidelity subsamples can address research questions about the importance of program implementation fidelity; and second, composite measures of concurrent tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana use (i.e., polydrug use) are useful in testing research questions about program effects on more serious levels of drug involvement. With an increasing number of ramdomized controlled trials underway, the field of prevention science is contributing to a new generation of evidence-based approaches and policies that, if widely utilized, offer the potential of reducing the mortality and morbidity associated with a number of major health and social problems.     

The Causal Relationship between Stock,Credit Market and Economic Development: An Empirical Evidence for Greece

This paper examines empirically the causal relationship among financial development, credit market and economic growth by using a trivariate autoregressive VAR model in Greece for the examined period 1988:1–2002:12. The results of cointegration analysis suggested that there is one cointegrated vector among the functions of stock market, the banking sector development and economic growth. Granger causality tests have shown that there is a bilateral causal relationship between banking sector development and economic growth and a unidirectional causality between economic growth and stock market development whereas there is no causal relationship between the stock market and banking sector development.     

Emerging Markets: Preferences,R isks,Performance...

The paper surveys the most important literature on emerging markets and their performance. Emerging market countries are defined here as the countries with low intuitional capacity in general, rather than the countries with particular economic characteristics and per capita income; although the latter is the predominant view in the current literature. The paper places particular importance on the legal system and legal order (compliance) in the transitional economies, stressing the importance of adequate regulation where even more advanced regulatory models, like market regulation, should not be totally excluded. Despite many common characteristics, emerging markets differ significantly one from another and it is very difficult, if really not impossible, to create one ‘general theory of emerging markets’ and its financial behaviour. Finally, the practice in the last decade or so, has proven that emerging markets are somewhat unpredictable and difficult to model.     

Oubliez Critique

Critique has been shaped according to legal protocols and techniques. From Kant to Hegel and Marx, critics have tended to adopt one of the roles available in court procedure. This internal connection is most evident in American CLS of a psychoanalytical nature. If critique recognises itself in the juridical, psychoanalysis asks us to believe in the law. British critical legal scholars have followed a more political and aesthetic strategy, which today may ask us to abandon traditional critique for acts of critical resistance.     

Modeling Facts,Culture, and Cognition in the Gun Debate

Can empirical data generate consensus about how to regulate firearms? If so, under what conditions? Previously, we presented evidence that individuals' cultural worldviews explain their positions on gun control more powerfully than any other fact about them, including their race or gender, the type of community or region of the country they live in, and even their political ideology or party affiliation. On this basis, we inferred that culture is prior to facts in the gun debate: empirical data can be expected to persaude individuals to change their view on gun policies only after those individuals come to see those policies as compatible with their core cultural commitments. We now respond to critics. Canvassing the psychological literature, we identify the mechanisms that systematically induce individuals to conform their factual beliefs about guns to their culturally grounded moral evaluations of them. To illustrate the strength and practical implications of these dynamics, we develop a series of computer simulations, which show why public beliefs about the efficacy of gun control can be expected to remain highly polarized even in the face of compelling empirical evidence. Finally, we show that the contribution culture makes to cognition could potentially be harnessed to generate broad, cross-cultural consensus: if gun policies can be framed in terms that are expressively compatible with diverse cultural worldviews, the motivation to resist compelling empirical evidence will dissipate, and individuals of diverse cultural persuasions can be expected rapidly to converge in their beliefs about what policies are best. Constructing a new, expressively pluralistic idiom of gun control should therefore be the first priority of policy-makers and -analysts interested in promoting the adoption of sound gun policies.     

Implications of an Arrest in Domestic Violence Cases: Learning From Korean Social Workers' Experiences in the U.S.

In response to the lack of research on the effect of arrest in deterring domestic violence in minority communities, a qualitative exploratory study was conducted with Korean American social workers providing services to Korean domestic violence victims in the New York metropolitan area. The authors examined study participants' perceptions about their clients' experiences of arrests in domestic violence situations. Findings reveal major barriers for Korean victims that prevent them from utilizing help from the police. Main themes from the data show both negative and positive results from arrests. Participants perceived arrest as an ultimately necessary tool for deterring domestic violence in the Korean community in the U.S. Participants suggested some changes in the criminal justice system to better respond to immigrant victims of domestic violence. Practice and policy implications are discussed. This study was, in part, presented at the 23rd APPAM (Association for Public Analysis and Management) Annual Research Conference in Washington, D.C. on November 1, 2001.     

The Relationship Between Adolescent Physical Abuse and Criminal Offending: Support for an Enduring and Generalized Cycle of Violence

Prospective investigations have demonstrated support for the cycle of violence theory. However, few studies have examined whether or not abuse occurring during adolescence increases the prevalence and frequency of criminal involvement, or explored the long-term consequences of such victimization. In addition, there has been little investigation of whether or not the effects of abuse vary depending on characteristics of the victim, such as sex, race/ethnicity, age, family structure or income. Using data from the National Youth Survey, this study demonstrates that adolescent physical abuse has immediate and enduring effects on the prevalence and frequency of a variety of self-reported offenses, including violent and non-violent crimes, drug use and intimate partner violence. Furthermore, the study reveals that while victimization increases the prevalence of offending for victims of varying backgrounds, the frequency of offending is moderated by family income, area of residence, and family structure. Implications for prevention are discussed.     

Reasons for Returning to Abusive Relationships: Effects of Prior Victimization

Studies have demonstrated that women with a history of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) are at increased risk of revictimization, but research has not yet examined whether a history of CSA may affect patterns of remaining in or returning to abusive relationships in adulthood. This study examines the impact of a CSA history on decisions to return to abusive relationships in a sample of 104 adult domestic violence survivors. Participants were interviewed about the number of times that they had previously separated from and returned to their abusive partner, the factors that influenced their decision to return (both psychological/internal and environmental/external factors), and their perceived likelihood of returning in the future. As predicted, CSA survivors (n = 34) reported a significantly greater number of past separations than non-CSA survivors (n = 70). CSA survivors were also significantly more likely to report that their decisions to return were influenced by emotional attachment to the batterer. CSA survivors did not perceive themselves to be at greater risk of returning in the future, suggesting that they may be more likely to underestimate their vulnerability to returning to the battering relationship. Clinical implications of the findings are discussed.