The noble cause: An empirical assessment

Literature on police ethics has employed the term “noble cause” to describe a utilitarian orientation toward crime control. No empirical research, however, has systematically investigated the noble cause, a shortcoming addressed in this study. A survey of deputies in a western sheriff's office provided the setting for the current research. Twelve items tapping the noble cause revealed a multidimensional latent structure composed of three factors. Findings did not support the presence of a link between measures of the noble cause and crime. A positive though inconsistent relationship was found between measures of the noble cause and deputies' attitudes toward administrators.     

Economics of court performance: an empirical analysis

This paper proposes an empirical analysis of Spanish court performance using the economic approach. An econometric model will be estimated in order to answer two basic questions: (1) why some courts’ output it is greater than others? (2) Could courts produce a higher output using their actual resources? In addition it will be determine, by means of an analysis of variance (ANOVA), whether courts showing higher than average output have dictated resolutions with a higher reversal rate.     

Hispanic perception of police performance: An empirical assessment

This exploratory study examines relationships between the police and Hispanics in Texas. Specifically, data were collected on Hispanic evaluations of police performance, expectations of police performance, and overall satisfaction with the police. A sample of 500 Hispanics throughout the state of Texas were surveyed on their experienced and perceived relationships with three levels of police agencies: local (municipal) police, sheriff's officers, and the state's Department of Public Safety. Findings are reported based upon overall ratings of the police, victim-related data, and data from individuals who had any form of contact with the police. Significant findings show that any form of contact with the police appeared to lower the rating of police performance. This appears to be a product of the interaction between high public expectations and qualitatively poor police performance. Further findings indicate that an increase in the fear of crime among Hispanics lowered evaluations of local police. Similarly, victimization lowered the evaluation of local police, the county sheriff, and the Department of Public Safety. Hispanics also perceived that officers have a “bad attitude,” that the police need to patrol and investigate more, that response time should be improved, and that there should be less discrimination against Hispanics. These findings appear to be largely influenced by ineffective communication (both symbolic and linguistic) and cultural conflict.     

An empirical assessment of content in criminal psychological profiles

Although criminal psychological profiling has been in use by law enforcement agencies for almost three decades, there is a paucity of empirical research examining the technique. A fundamental issue that has received little attention is the empirical evaluation of information contained in profiles composed by professional profilers. In this study, a group of profilers, police officers, psychologists, college students, and self-declared psychics were given information from a solved murder investigation, after which the participants composed a written profile predicting the probable offender. Professional profilers tended to write more lengthy profiles that contained more information about the nonphysical attributes of the offender and more information about the crime scene or the offender's behavior before, during, and after the crime. These results are discussed in terms of their implication for our broader understanding of the technique of profiling and future directions for research into profiling.     

An empirical assessment of the process of restorative justice

This study involved an empirical assessment of restorative justice processes with an application of a theoretical model proposed by Presser and Van Voorhis (2002). Their model identified three common procedural activities associated with restorative justice: dialogue, relationship building, and communication of moral values. This study utilized secondary data, consisting of observation and interview data, originally obtained by Sherman, Braithwaite, Strang, and Barnes (1999) for their Reintegrative Shaming Experiments (RISE) in Australia, 1995-1999, to test the theoretical model. The results generally supported the hypothesis that the restorative justice program engaged offenders in dialogue, relationship building, and moral communication to a greater degree than traditional court proceedings. An unexpected result emerged in the interview data showing that violent offenders in the restorative justice program did not report a greater sense of relationship building than those in court proceedings. Possible explanations accounting for the anomaly are provided. Implications for policy and future studies derived from the findings are also discussed.     

An empirical assessment of Niederhoffer's police cynicism scale

For some time there has been an intensive effort among police scholars to determine the attitudes of law enforcement personnel. Their efforts have focused particularly on the determinants of police cynicism. However, to date, there has only been one attempt to construct an index estimating that attitude—Niederhoffer's in 1967. Thus, all discussions of police cynicism rest on that index.This paper examines for the first time the reliability and validity of that instrument on a separate population of police personnel. The results were significant. First, it is shown that the index has an extremely low reliability and validity. Then, it is revealed that the index is tapping at least five separate dimensions of cynicism—not one, as police scholars so frequently assert.The implications from this research are great. The most obvious is that it is time to stop discussing the “cynical cop.” Instead, social scientist can begin specifying toward which dimensions of the occupation officers with particular traits are likely to become cynical. Second, the findings indicate the need to develop additional measures of police cynicism that are more reliable and valid than the sole existing index.     

The quality of doctoral programs in deviance,criminology, and criminal justice: An empirical assessment

While information regarding the doctoral programs in any discipline is of obvious and considerable relevance both to those in the discipline and to those seeking access to the best possible sites for graduate training, our knowledge about the quality of doctoral programs continues to be based on little more than speculation and highly ambiguous measures of institutional or departmental prestige. This study attempts to fill this gap for those who have special interests in the related fields of deviance, criminology, and criminal justice by ranking the thirty-six most significant doctoral programs in the nation by means of data derived from the Social Science Citation Index. Perhaps the most striking of our findings—and certainly to us the most distressing finding—is that those departments ranked by our measures as being the highest quality are consistently those which exist within the broader structure of departments of sociology. Given our firm conviction that the discipline of criminology is far, far more than that aspect of it which is closely related to issues of substantive significance to the field of sociology, we can only speculate that those in leadership positions in the growing number of independent schools or departments of criminology or criminal justice are not meeting their obligations to the discipline whose vitality and prospects depend so heavily on the quality of their judgment.     

基于模糊集值统计方法的城市应急资源保障能力评价探讨

本文从城市应急系统的结构出发,结合城市应急的特点,构建了一个具有十五项评价指标的城市应急资源保障能力评价指标体系,利用模糊集值统计方法对各指标的权值和评价分值加以分析,建立了城市应急资源保障能力综合评价模型.传统的专家判断法主要是令专家直接给出指标权值和评价值,本文利用模糊集值统计方法将专家给出各指标权值和评价值的描述范围进行整合运算,得出各指标的权值和评价值,能够减少主观随意性,提高评价的可靠性和客观性,为提高城市应急资源保障能力提供决策依据.     

White-collar criminals in Norway: An empirical study

This article addresses the following research question: What characteristics concerning white-collar criminals can be found based on newspaper articles in Norway? This research is important, as studies of white-collar criminals so far have focused on case studies rather than statistical analysis of a larger sample. Based on articles in Norwegian financial newspapers in 2010/2011, a total of 49 white-collar criminals convicted to jail sentence were identified. The average age of the convicted persons was 51 years. 47 out of 49 criminals were men. The average sentence was 3 years imprisonment. The average sum of money involved in the financial crime was 185 million Norwegian kroner (30 million US dollars).     

Using court culture to strengthen the administration of trial courts

Managerial culture defines the character of administrative practices in trial courts, shaping the way cases are handled, participants in the legal process are treated, and how a court functions as an institution. In fact, the notion of local legal culture is part of the conventional wisdom. What is missing in such discussions are the benefits of a comprehensive methodological approach to translate rich ideas and hunches into the measurement of court culture. In response, researchers at the National Center for State Courts have developed an analytical framework including a conceptual typology of culture, an instrument for measuring managerial culture and a schema for interpreting results within and between courts. The essay concludes with an invitation for the People＇s Republic of China to adapt the framework to understand the nature of culture in their courts of first instance.     

Dangers of police professionalization: An empirical analysis

This study examines relationships between professionalization (measured by the amount of college education and police training) and police officer attitudes. Using data from a survey of 712 police officers in twenty-nine departments in the St. Louis area, the analysis focuses on propositions derived from scholars who have identified harmful effects they expect to flow from the reform. Although the limited operational definition of the key variables and other factors noted in the study require caution in interpreting the findings, little evidence in support of the expected “dangers” is found. This result, in combination with other studies that have failed to find support for the case made for raising the educational level of police, suggests the need to reassess expectations about the impact of college education in policing.     

Tokenism in policing: An empirical test of Kanter's hypothesis

This study presented the first quantitative test of tokenism theory (Kanter, 1977) in a municipal policing context with data collected from a large sample of Baltimore police officers (Gershon, 1999). In bivariate and multivariate analyses, the effects of gender and race status and their interaction on three dependent variables capturing the central dynamics of tokenism (visibility/performance pressure, contrast/social isolation, and assimilation/role encapsulation) were explored. The study found weak to moderate support for the theory, but no evidence of a distinct “double token” interaction effect between race and gender statuses. By and large, race status alone predicted the greatest tokenism consequences. Limitations and future directions for tokenism research in policing are discussed.     

NEGOTIATION AND PLEA BARGAINING MODELS: An Organizational Perspective

This article assesses the contributions to our understanding of plea bargaining made by economic and decision-theory models of criminal justice decision-making. The author introduces an organizational interpretation of plea bargaining and critiques two of the more prominent attempts at formal modeling of the criminal process. Empirical evidence, gathered by others, is reanalyzed to compare the relative explanatory power of these formal models in determining patterns of choice among negotiative and adversary dispositions in two urban felony jurisdictions. The article concludes with the assertion that economic and decision-theory models present an insightful but essentially distorted view of criminal justice decision-making. An appreciation for contextual factors, emphasized in organization theory, is necessary for grasping the reality of the criminal process and for shaping meaningful reform.     

Electronic signatures and security issues: An empirical study

Security concerns with regard to the use of electronic signatures in the electronic environment seem to represent a potential barrier to their usage. This paper presents an empirical study that examines businesses' perceived security concerns with the use of the electronic signature technology for executing contracts and commercial transactions and whether such issues represent a disincentive for their usage. The findings of the study reveal that there are significant security concerns in the business community with regard to the use of electronic signatures. However, such perceptions seem to be primarily driven by a lack of awareness and understanding. Advising prospective users of electronic signatures about the kind of safeguards that could be put in place to minimise risks associated with their usage can be a useful step towards overcoming their fears and hesitance.     

An empirical assessment of the AIDS Risk Reduction Model (ARRM) employing ordered probit analyses

The AIDS Risk Reduction Model (ARRM) is a conceptual model designed to explain the influence of knowledge and attitudes about AIDS/HIV on risk-related behaviors. This article measures the influence of the primary concepts associated with the ARRM (labeling, commitment, and enactment) on high-risk adolescent's knowledge, attitudes, and self-reported behaviors. Data were collected from 393 adolescents incarcerated in juvenile detention facilities. Ordered probit and ordinary least squares (OLS) analyses were conducted to determine which of several independent variables have the most impact on acceptance of the ARRM. Results indicated that the ARRM is effective for understanding the factors that influence AIDS risk avoidance. Findings also indicate that previous life experiences should be formally integrated into the model. Moreover, specific forms of enactment are associated with different factors. Suggestions as to how the ARRM may prove useful for promoting behavioral change among high-risk adolescents are provided.