DELINQUENT PEER INFLUENCE ON OFFENDING VERSATILITY: CAN PEERS PROMOTE SPECIALIZED DELINQUENCY?

The consistent and robust relationship between peers and frequency of offending is often cited as evidence that friends play an important role in adolescent behavioral tendencies. But Warr (2002) has argued that the empirical support for peer perspectives remains equivocal in part because research has not demonstrated that individuals and their peers display similarities in the qualitative form of their delinquent behavior (i.e., the tendency to specialize in delinquent acts). By using data from the Gang Resistance Education and Training (G.R.E.A.T.) evaluation (N = 1,390) and the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health (AddHealth) (N = 1,848), this study seeks to fill this void in the literature by examining whether having friends who display specialization in specific delinquent acts relative to other offense types predicts an individual's own tendency to display specializing in those same crime types. Consistent with peer influence perspectives, the results of multilevel latent‐trait models (Osgood and Schreck, 2007) suggest that individuals who associate with friends who demonstrate specialization in violence, theft, and substance use are more likely to display greater levels of specialization in those offense types themselves.     

“EXPERIENCE OF THE EXPECTED?” RACE AND ETHNICITY DIFFERENCES IN THE EFFECTS OF POLICE CONTACT ON YOUTH*

Proponents of police reform have called for changes in the way police interact with citizens, particularly with people of color. The rationale, in part, is that when people have more favorable perceptions of their police encounters, they view the police as more just and are more willing to cooperate and comply with the law. To assess whether perceptions of police‐initiated encounters shape law‐related outcomes, we examine how satisfaction with treatment during prior police contact affects procedural injustice, reporting intentions, norms supporting the use of violence, and delinquency. We also explore whether these relationships vary among Blacks, Whites, and Latinos. Our results indicate that youth who have been stopped or arrested fare worse than their counterparts with no police‐initiated contact; however, the potentially negative ramifications of these encounters on all outcomes except violence norms are generally mitigated when youth are satisfied with their treatment. The effects of contact are mostly invariant across racial/ethnic groups when a robust set of control variables are included. We conclude that changing the perceptions of youth regarding how they are treated by the police may mitigate some of the harms of being stopped or arrested, but we caution that these perceptions are shaped by factors aside from police behavior during encounters.     

TOUGH LOVE? CRIME AND PARENTAL ASSISTANCE IN YOUNG ADULTHOOD*

Although informal social reactions to crime are key to many criminological theories, we know little about how readily offenders’ significant others reject and withdraw support from them. I explore the limits of others’ willingness to help offenders by studying parents’ financial assistance of grown offending and nonoffending offspring. I use data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health and from the 1997 cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to show that, despite their strained relationships with their parents, young adult offenders receive more parental assistance than do their nonoffending peers and even their own nonoffending siblings. This is not because offenders have fewer financial resources, but it is partly because they tend to have a variety of other life circumstances that trigger parental assistance. I suggest that parents’ reactions to offending offspring are limited by role obligations and norms of familial duty.     

HOW AND WHY DOES WORK MATTER? EMPLOYMENT CONDITIONS,ROUTINE ACTIVITIES,AND CRIME AMONG ADULT MALE OFFENDERS*

An inverse relationship between employment and crime is well established, although the mechanisms that account for the correlation remain poorly understood. In the current study, we investigate the role of work quality, measured objectively (hours, income) as well as subjectively (commitment). A routine activities perspective is proposed for the work–crime relationship, and it inspires hypotheses about the way that work reduces crime indirectly, in part, through unstructured leisure and substance‐using behaviors that tend to carry situational inducements to offend. The results derive from within‐person analyses of monthly data provided by adult male offenders recently admitted to state prison in the Second Nebraska Inmate Study (N = 717; NT = 21,965). The findings indicate that employment significantly reduces self‐report crime but only when employed men report strong commitment to their jobs, whereas other work characteristics are unrelated to crime. This indicates that, among serious criminally involved men, the subjective experience of work takes priority over its objective characteristics. The results also indicate that routine activities only partly mediate the relationship among work, job commitment, and crime, whereas the majority of the work–crime relationship remains unmediated.     

DO CELLMATES MATTER? A CAUSAL TEST OF THE SCHOOLS OF CRIME HYPOTHESIS WITH IMPLICATIONS FOR DIFFERENTIAL ASSOCIATION AND DETERRENCE THEORIES

In the schools of crime hypothesis, social interactions between inmates are assumed to produce criminogenic rather than deterrent prison peer effects, thus implicating them in the persistence of high recidivism rates and null or criminogenic prison effects. We assess the validity of the schools of crime hypothesis by estimating prison peer effects that result from differential cellmate associations in a male, first‐time release cohort from the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. To isolate causal prison peer effects in the presence of essential heterogeneity, we use a semiparametric local instrumental variables estimation strategy. Our results do not support the school of crime hypothesis. In our sample, prison peer effects produced in interaction with more criminally experienced cellmates are always null or deterrent rather than criminogenic. Although we do not explicitly test for the operant conditioning mechanisms theorized to underlie social influence in the context of differential association, we argue that, under the assumption that the differential association context relates positively to the direction of peer influence, our universally noncriminogenic estimates exclude direct reinforcement, vicarious reinforcement, and direct punishment as potential drivers of prison peer effects produced in interaction with more criminally experienced cellmates. Our results support the assertion that operant conditioning mechanisms connect differential association and deterrence theories.     

PARENTAL EFFICACY AND DELINQUENT BEHAVIOR: DO CONTROL AND SUPPORT MATTER?

Recently, the concept of "collective efficacy" has been advanced to understand how communities exert control and provide support to reduce crime. In a similar way, we use the concept of "parental efficacy" to highlight the crime reducing effects associated with parents who support and control their youth. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY), we examine the inter-relationship between parental controls and supports and their joint influence on youthful misbehavior. The results show that (1) support and control are intertwined, and (2) that parental efficacy exerts substantive effects on adolescent delinquency for the sample as a whole and across varying age groups.     

WHY A LAWYER?—THE IMPORTANCE OF CLIENT‐DIRECTED LEGAL REPRESENTATION FOR YOUTH

This article begins with a discussion about the importance of ensuring that all children have lawyers in abuse and neglect cases. Lawyers provide a vital role in giving youth a voice in proceedings that sound profoundly affect their lives. The article then discusses why the client‐directed lawyer's role is consistent with federal law and legal ethics. Finally, the article discusses the growing support for client‐directed representation and what the American Bar Association has done to support this type of child representation.     

DOING HER OWN TIME? WOMEN'S RESPONSES TO PRISON IN THE CONTEXT OF THE OLD AND THE NEW PENOLOGY*

Assumptions about gender role socialization dominated explanations for gender differences in responses to incarceration. We suspend these gender comparisons, which produced the focus on homosexuality and kinship networks in women's prisons, to determine how women's pre‐prison experiences, in the context of two different institutions, influence the way they “do time.” We analyze in‐depth interviews with a diverse sample of 70 female inmates housed in the California Institution for Women (CIW)—the oldest prison for women in the state—and Valley State Prison (VSP)—the newest prison for women. These two institutions differ in structure, size, and management philosophy, and accordingly necessitate the consideration of moderating situational effects. We use qualitative analysis to examine how women do time and to determine whether individual variations in doing time are similar across very different institutions.     

DOES THE TIME CAUSE THE CRIME? AN EXAMINATION OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TIME SERVED AND REOFFENDING IN THE NETHERLANDS*

This work uses a sample of Dutch offenders, serving an average of 6.7 months of confinement, to examine the relationship between time served in prison and future criminality. To overcome the selection issues inherent in this examination, this article introduces a new method to the criminological literature that relies on a generalization of the propensity score to control for observed differences in offenders sentenced to different periods of confinement. On the whole, very little evidence of a relationship between time served and future offending was found. In particular, 3‐year reconviction rate and the proportion of offenders reconvicted in the next 3 years do not seem to depend on incarceration length. Although a relationship between time served and future sentence length was found, the evidence is modest.     

INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE RISK AMONG VICTIMS OF YOUTH VIOLENCE: ARE EARLY UNIONS BAD,BENEFICIAL, OR BENIGN?

Youth violent victimization (YVV) is a risk factor for precocious exits from adolescence via early coresidential union formation. It remains unclear, however, whether these early unions 1) are associated with intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization, 2) interrupt victim continuity or victim–offender overlap through protective and prosocial bonds, or 3) are inconsequential. By using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (N = 11,928; 18–34 years of age), we examine competing hypotheses for the effect of early union timing among victims of youth violence (n = 2,479)—differentiating across victimization only, perpetration only, and mutually combative relationships and considering variation by gender. The results from multinomial logistic regression models indicate that YVV increases the risk of IPV victimization in first unions, regardless of union timing; the null effect of timing indicates that delaying union formation would not reduce youth victims’ increased risk of continued victimization. Gender‐stratified analyses reveal that earlier unions can protect women against IPV perpetration, but this is partly the result of an increased risk of IPV victimization. The findings suggest that YVV has significant transformative consequences, leading to subsequent victimization by coresidential partners, and this association might be exacerbated among female victims who form early unions. We conclude by discussing directions for future research.     

DO DISADVANTAGED NEIGHBORHOODS CAUSE WELL‐ADJUSTED CHILDREN TO BECOME ADOLESCENT DELINQUENTS? A STUDY OF MALE JUVENILE SERIOUS OFFENDING,INDIVIDUAL RISK AND PROTECTIVE FACTORS,AND NEIGHBORHOOD CONTEXT*

This paper presents a study of the relationship between type of neighborhood socioeconomic context, individual characteristics (individuals are classified by a set of selected key measures of individual dispositions and social situation) and serious male juvenile offending (prevalence and early and late onsets) in the city of Pittsburgh. The analytical strategy may best be described as holistic and epidemiological. The key research question is whether onset and prevalence of juvenile serious offending is invariant by neighborhood socioeconomic context when controlling for individual sets of risk and protective characteristics. The results do not support the notion that neighborhood socioeconomic context has any greater direct impact on the early onset of serious offending. However, neighborhood socioeconomic context appears to have a direct impact on the late onset of offending for those juveniles who score high on protective factors, or who have a balanced mix of risk and protective factors. No support was found for the notion that individual risk characteristics and neighborhood risk are additive. Children and adolescents with high scores on risk characteristics offend in serious crime at a similar high rate regardless of the socioeconomic context of their neighborhood.     

COMPLEMENTARITY AND COOPERATIVE JUSTICE AHEAD OF THEIR TIME? THE UNITED NATIONS WAR CRIMES COMMISSION,FACT-FINDING AND EVIDENCE

Today, many international criminal lawyers claim that the future of international law is domestic. The example of the United Nations War Crimes Commission (UNWCC) shows that this might not only be the future, but also the past. This article analyzes the practice of the Commission (1943–1948), with a particular emphasis on facts, evidence and interaction with domestic authorities. It argues that the UNWCC marked an early counter-model to the idea of military justice that prevailed in many World War II accountability initiatives, and an alternative to the centralized and situation-specific enforcement model under the umbrella of United Nations (UN) peace maintenance. The Commission represents a cooperative approach to justice and sovereignty that has got lost in the course of the second half of the twentieth century. In the mid-1940s, attention shifted quickly, and perhaps too early from the UNWCC itself to the idea of centralized enforcement under the umbrella of an International Criminal Court. The work of the Commission foreshadows many core dilemmas of contemporary international justice, including debates over independent investigative authority, proprio motu powers, the labelling and origin of core crimes (e.g. aggression, crimes against humanity), the treatment of group criminality (e.g. attribution of conduct) and evidentiary standards in proceedings. Similar structures are gradually re-emerging in the context of regional integration (e.g. ‘mutual trust’ under the European Area of Freedom, Security and Justice) or the operationalization of complementarity under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC). But in terms of cooperation between major powers and use of international expertise and advice in criminal proceedings, international criminal justice is still in search of a modern UNWCC 2.0.     

WHY PROHIBIT DONATIONS BETWEEN HUSBAND AND WIFE IN MEDIEVAL EUROPE?

Between the end of the eleventh century and the beginning of the twelfth century, following the rediscovery of Roman law in the West, the first Bolognese commentators stuck to the Roman principle prohibiting donations between spouses. Authors commented over and over again upon fragments of the writings of Roman jurists Paul and Ulpian that were integrated into the Digest of Emperor Justinian. According to these jurists of the Classical Age, fears of despoliation between spouses, of negligence in the children’s education and of marriage becoming venal were the main reasons found. Medieval canon law takes the subject of donations between spouses very seriously. Laurent of Spain (? 1248), in the Glossa Palatina, worries about donations of cosmetics, which are seen as luxury enhancing. In Liber Extra (1234), a decretal signed by Gregory IX took up the subject, confirming the opinions expressed by Paul and Ulpian by expressing hostility to such donations on the basis of public morality. Following the Fourth Lateran Council (1215), a new literary form appeared: confession - or casuistic - manuals. In these aspects, the subject of gifts between spouses is closely assimilated to the question of sin, especially of luxury. Continental Europe’s common law (ius commune) shows similar spirit in that respect. Italian statutory laws, in conformity with the separatist spirit of Roman law, forbade them without distinction. They were outlawed in English law by unitas carnis which presides over conjugal relations. According to Jean Boutillier (1395), the author of La Somme rural, a famous French interpreter of law, donations between spouses are generally regarded as a result of fear, complacency or luxury, and so should be forbidden. The common theme between Roman or Canon law and different common laws is the upholding of a certain public morality and the control of couples as the mainstay of their respective families.     

RECONCILING PARENTS' AND CHILDREN'S INTERESTS IN RELOCATION In Whose Best Interest?

When a family comes before the court, whose interests are really served? Can the court's representatives act in the best interests of the children while respecting the rights of parents? When a case is sent to a court‐connected evaluator, how does the evaluator balance the tensions and varying perspectives inherent in this work? Within the bounds of advocacy and legal ethics, how does the attorney balance the demands and rights of the client while guiding the parent to consider the needs of the children? How do judges frame the dilemmas before them and consider the work of the evaluator? This article addresses these questions in a multidisciplinary fashion, using a hypothetical case as a guide.     

POLICING CORRUPTION AND ECONOMIC CRIME — HOW CAN WE DO IT BETTER?

While history records that economically motivated crime and misconduct in its various forms has existed since the earliest civilizations and has always raised issues of fairness and integrity, in recent years additional concerns have come to the fore. Economic stability particularly in an interdependent world, has thrown up issues related to stability and security. The tools that have been developed to address certain manifestations of economic misconduct and in particular the development of financial intelligence are now used across a much broader spectrum than merely the control of fraud and corruption. We use, for example, the regimes that have been designed to identify suspect wealth for a variety of purposes including the raising of revenue which have less relevance to the direct interdiction of financial crime. This paper considers from a practical rather than conceptual standpoint how best to address the risks and issues thrown up by economically motivated crime and also the mechanisms that have been adopted to address it. In particular it seeks to examine various ways in which economically motivated crime may be better discouraged and its impact mitigated. It does not pretend to be a deeply conceptual analysis of the relevant law given its aspiration to have a wider significance and purchase than one jurisdiction. What it does do, however, is to seek to build upon practical experience and apply it to the fashioning of enhanced weapons in the fight against economic crime.     

LEGISLATION AND REPORTS: Copyright and Parody: Taking Backward the Gowers Review?

In 2006 the Gowers Review of Intellectual Property made a series of recommendations for reforming the intellectual property regime to better serve the interests of both consumers and industry. Among the proposed recommendations was that an exception for parody be introduced within the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988. In January 2008 the Intellectual Property Office (the IPO) launched the first part of a two‐stage consultation process on exceptions to copyright. As part of that consultation process, the IPO proposed a ‘fair dealing style exception’ for parody, and sought views on whether a new exception should be introduced as well as what form it might take. In December 2009 the IPO launched the second stage of this consultation process. The second consultation document rejected the case for a new parody exception. This article considers the place of parody within the copyright regime and the objections levelled against the introduction of an exception set out within the IPO's second consultation document. It invites the IPO to reconsider its decision not to recommend the introduction of a specific exception for parody within the UK.     

A New Kind of Molotov? Gasoline–Pool Chlorinator Mixtures*

This paper investigates the reaction between pool chlorinators and gasoline. In particular, the propensity for self-ignition and the resulting chemical products were studied. An organic pool chlorinator was combined with gasoline in varying proportions in an attempt to form a hypergolic mixture. None of the combinations resulted in self-ignition, but larger quantities of chlorinator produced vigorous light-colored smoke and a solid mass containing isocyanuric acid and copper chloride. Additionally, the chlorinating abilities of different commercially available pool chlorinators were explored. When Ca(ClO)(2) and sodium dichloro-s-triazinetrione-based chlorinators were used, the presence of gasoline was still visible after 10 days, despite limited chlorination. The trichloro-s-triazinetrione-based chlorinator, however, caused efficient chlorination of the C(2)- and C(3)-alkylbenzenes, making gasoline no longer identifiable.