PAROLEES' PERCEPTION OF THE JUSTICE SYSTEM

The parolees in this sample viewed the police rather negatively, were reluctant to label contacts with the police as harassment, and experienced a great deal of pluralistic ignorance about the extent of the police harassment of ex-offenders. They also had a very negative opinion of the courts and lawyers. When asked general questions about the courts and police harassment, blacks responded more negatively than whites; but when asked about their personal experiences with these organizations, no racial differences were found. Those interviewed were somewhat positive toward the parole system and very positive toward their parole agents. Possibly this is because the agents employ a strategy of ingratiation in that they do not enforce all of the existing rules, or possibly it is because the Illinois parole agents are doing a good job of being counsellors rather than policemen. This study also found: (1) on opinions of the police and the courts, the black-white differences which have been found in the community were also found here; namely, blacks were more negative than were whites. (2) On opinions of lawyers and the parole system, no black-white differences existed among respondents. (3) There was no evidence of a disconfirmed expectancy effect; that is, in no case was there more negativity among white parolees than among black due to whites' higher expectations of the justice system.     

Women Coming Home: Long‐Term Patterns of Recidivism

Drawing on recent scholarship on prisoner reentry and gendered pathways to crime, this research explores how social relationships, incarceration experiences, and community context, and the intersection of these factors with race, influence the occurrence and timing of recidivism. Using a large, modern sample of women released from prison, we find that women who are drug dependent, have less education, or have more extensive criminal histories are more likely to fail on parole and to recidivate more quickly during the eight year follow‐up period. We also observe racial variation in the effect of education, drug use, and neighborhood concentrated disadvantage on recidivism. This study highlights the importance of an intra‐gender, theoretical understanding of recidivism, and has import for policy aimed at female parolees.     

Recidivism and the Propensity to Forgo Parole Release

This study investigates whether inmates who are unconditionally released at the end of their sentence because they opt out of the parole process could potentially benefit from community supervision. This research was conducted in response to a recently passed law in the state of New Jersey that targets this group for a mandatory six-month term of parole. The study uses propensity scores to match this group to discretionarily released parolees in order to simulate random assignment. Results indicate that those who voluntarily forgo parole consideration are significantly less successful after release according to several measures of recidivism, including rearrests, reconvictions, and community tenure. However, between-group differences are small. Findings suggest that some form of supervision may be beneficial for this group, but likely not in the fashion that is explicated in the current law.     

Program Evaluation in the Context of Supervision Regime Change: Motivational Interviewing in Colorado

This study assesses the effectiveness of an evidence-based counseling strategy employed by Colorado parole officers called Motivational Interviewing (MI), which aims to reduce parolee recidivism. I employ a quasi-experimental research design in which the caseloads of MI-trained officers are divided into two sub-samples: parolees supervised before the achievement of MI certification and parolees supervised after certification. Regression analyses show that MI is associated with recidivism reduction, but this relationship would not have been revealed without accounting for a high-profile crime that interrupted the study period—the murder of the Executive Director of the Colorado Department of Corrections by a high-risk parolee that had absconded from supervision. This crime caused a public relations crisis for the parole agency, which responded by lowering tolerance for misconduct. This reduction in tolerance increased recidivism rates among parolees in Colorado, obscuring the effect of MI on parole outcomes. Theoretical and policy implications are discussed.     

ASSESSING LENGTH OF INSTlTUTIONALIZATION IN RELATION TO PAROLE OUTCOME

This study assesses the relative impact of different lengths of imprisonment upon parole outcome, for narcotic law violotors, while holding other factors constant. Three alternative procedures for measuring association (r, ø and r_t) were each used in parallel base expectancy analyses on the same data base. The study group consists of 929 narcotic law violators who were paroled in 50 jurisdictions. Parole performance ws derived after a twe-year follow-up period The 1968 parolees were used to develop offender risk ratings. These ratings were applied to 1969 parolees to determine whether they would be associated with parole outcome in a new sample. The three methods worked about the same for developing offender risk ratings. Once personal characteristics of offenders were taken into considemtion, the number of months served had no consistent relationship to parole outcome. This remained true for all three parallel techniques used.     

Co-occurring Psychiatric and Substance Dependence Disorders as Predictors of Parolee Time to Rearrest

An estimated 500,000-plus people are on parole each year, many with serious co-occurring psychiatric and substance use disorders. Using cross sectional, self-report data this study examined the relationships between parolee time to rearrest, serious mental illnesses, and substance dependency (n = 1,121). Regression analyses indicated that after controlling for demographic and criminal justice variables, parolees with serious psychiatric and substance dependence disorders were rearrested faster than non-dually diagnosed parolees (p < .05). An explanation is that compared with parolees without dual diagnoses, parole violations by dually diagnosed parolees are detected and punished more quickly because of closer parole supervision.     

Sex and parole: A comparison of male and female parolees

Male and female parolees released in 1970 with a two-year follow-up were compared on three basic factors: personal attributes, time served, and parole outcome. The two sexes were substantially different in five commitment offenses, prior prison sentences, age at admission to confinement from which paroled, and alcohol and drug involvement; they were relatively similar in the proportion of prior non-prison sentences. Women, on the average, serve less time in prison before parole than men. The proportion successfully continued on parole is the same for both sexes.     

Women's accounts of their prison experiences: A retrospective view of their subjective realities

This article examines the subjective experiences of previously imprisoned women. Their retrospective narratives of prison life reveal overt behavioral and underlying structural tensions that create an atmosphere of fear and violence. Furthermore, attitudes of indifference between inmates and correctional staff often contribute to fostering an environment of neglect. The study, based on in-depth interviews with fifty-four female subjects, describes and analyzes several aspects of the socialization process for inmates as related by women on parole. The research shows that the “pains of imprisonment” for women are suffered to a greater degree than previously acknowledged. Prison for these women is a social world filled with anxiety and, perhaps, represents a punishment well beyond what the law intended.     

Girls,Why Do You Want to Become Police Officers? Career Goals/Choices Among Criminal Justice Undergraduates

Three main research questions were examined in the present study. First, are there differences between male and female criminal justice undergraduates when it comes to selecting their future careers? Second, are male criminal justice students more likely than their female counterparts to pursue careers in law enforcement? Third, are men more likely than women to hold unfavorable attitudes toward women criminal justice practitioners? Data were collected from 256 undergraduates majoring in criminal justice at an urban university located in a metropolitan area in the midwestern United States during the early spring of 2006. Significant gender differences were found among the respondents in terms of their career goals/choices and motivations.     

SUPERVISION REGIMES,RISK, AND OFFICIAL REACTIONS TO PAROLEE DEVIANCE*

Parolee deviance has emerged as a central issue in policy debates about crime and punishment in American society as well as in scholarship on “mass incarceration.” Although the prevailing approach to studying parolees conceives of parole violations as outcomes of individual propensities toward criminal behavior (i.e., criminogenic risk), we consider how indicators of individual risk and characteristics of formal social control systems combine to account for reported parole violations. Using data on California parolees, we examine the effects of parolees’ personal characteristics, their criminal histories, and the social organization of supervision on parole violations. We advance the notion of a “supervision regime”—a legal and organizational structure that shapes the detection and reporting of parolee deviance. Three components of a supervision regime are explored: 1) the intensity of supervision, 2) the capacity of the regime to detect parolee deviance, and 3) the tolerance of parole officials for parolee deviance. We find that personal characteristics and offense histories are predictive of parole violations. However, we also find that introducing supervision factors reduces the effects of offense history variables on violation risk, suggesting that the violation risks of serious, violent, and sexual offenders are partially explainable through the heightened supervision to which they are subject. In addition, we find that supervision intensity and tolerance are generally predictive of violation risk. Capacity effects are present but weak. We conclude with a discussion of how the supervision regimes concept illuminates the gap between macro‐ and micro‐analyses of social control.     

Collaborative behavioral management: integration and intensification of parole and outpatient addiction treatment services in the Step’n Out study

Integration of community parole and addiction treatment holds promise for optimizing the participation of drug-involved parolees in re-entry services, but intensification of services might yield greater rates of technical violations. Collaborative behavioral management (CBM) integrates the roles of parole officers and treatment counselors to provide role induction counseling, contract for pro-social behavior, and to deliver contingent reinforcement of behaviors consistent with contracted objectives. Attendance at both parole and addiction treatment are specifically reinforced. The Step’n Out study of the Criminal Justice–Drug Abuse Treatment Studies (CJ-DATS) randomly allocated 486 drug-involved parolees to either collaborative behavioral management or traditional parole with 3-month and 9-month follow-up. Bivariate and multivariate regression models found that, in the first 3 months, the CBM group had more parole sessions, face-to-face parole sessions, days on which parole and treatment occurred on the same day, treatment utilization and individual counseling, without an increase in parole violations. We conclude that CBM integrated parole and treatment as planned, and intensified parolees’ utilization of these services, without increasing violations.     

The Effect of Gender of Perpetrator and Victim on Perceptions of Psychological and Physical Intimate Partner Aggression

Most studies of third-party perceptions of intimate partner violence focus on heterosexual relationships and report that male-to-female aggression is perceived more negatively than female-to-male. Since gender of aggressor and gender of victim are consistently confounded in these portrayals, it is not clear whether the gender of the aggressor or the gender of the victim accounts for the effect. The present research manipulated gender of perpetrator and victim to unravel this confound. Two hundred and fifty one participants (166 females) read scenarios involving psychological or physical aggression between two males, two females, or a male and a female. Participants reported their perceptions of the encounter and the character and emotional reactions of the individual couple members. Physical aggression was evaluated more negatively than psychological aggression. Participants evaluated the encounter and the perpetrator and victim in a manner consistent with stereotypical gender roles, revealing more concern for female than male victims and greater denigration of male than female perpetrators. These results have implications for programs aimed at the reduction of intimate partner violence and the services and programs developed for perpetrators and victims.     

假释撤销条件比较研究

撤销假释是对假释犯不遵守假释条件的惩罚方式之一。罪犯在假释考验期内再犯新罪应当不分犯罪性质、罪过形式和刑罚轻重,一律撤销假释。在假释考验期内,发现罪犯尚有漏罪,不应撤销假释,而是应根据漏罪的具体情况,分别处理。对于假释期间违反应当遵守的假释条件一律撤销假释的规定是不合理的。只有对情节严重的违反假释条件的行为,才应当撤销假释。     

Coerced work during parole: Prevalence,mechanisms, and characteristics

Coerced work on parole occurs when people are required to work under the threat of criminal legal repercussions. In the face of barriers to “good” work for people after prison, coercion helps to funnel parolees into positions at the bottom of the labor market. Parolee workers in these positions experience issues common to precarious, low-wage work (low pay, hazardous working conditions, and labor law violations), as well as heightened vulnerability to predatory employers and exposure to parole-prohibited activities. Because of the threat-backed requirements to work, however, parolees must choose to either accept this “bad” work or face potential sanctions. Using mixed-methods, including a novel form of respondent-driven sampling I call “Hybrid-RDS,” this article documents the prevalence of coerced work for people on parole in Los Angeles County, identifies the mechanisms through which coercive work operates, and illustrates the problematic employment conditions of coerced work after prison.     

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF A DEFINITE SENTENCE PAROLE PROGRAM

With the currently available evidence suggesting the failure of the treatment modality in corrections. parole systems throughout the United States have been the object of increasing criticism. This criticism is usually focused primarily at the indeterminate sentence and discretionary release to parole supervision, often considered integral components of a parole system. In this study, a parole system was examined that operates with definite sentencing and relatively less emphasis on discretionary release decision-making. The parole supervision aspect of this system was found to reduce markedly the post-release criminal activity of parolees as compared with a control group of discharges released from the same institutions, but not to parole supervision.     

Examining the blue line in the rainbow: the interactions and perceptions of law enforcement among lesbian,gay, bisexual,transgender and queer communities

ABSTRACT

Despite the fact that LGBTQ individuals are at greater risk of victimization than the average citizen, the LGBTQ community’s relationship with law enforcement has been a turbulent one. Using a mixed-methods approach, including surveys, semi-structured interviews and observations of town hall meetings, and following the participatory action research framework, this study examines the interactions between the LGBTQ community and law enforcement, and the perceptions of police within the LGBTQ community. The current study demonstrates how members of the LGBTQ community continue to have negative experiences with police that adversely impact their perceptions of law enforcement. Moreover, the findings underline the importance of examining how multiple identities impact an individual’s experiences with and their perceptions of law enforcement. Expanding past research on this topic, this study offers an analysis based upon suggestions of the study’s participants of what steps must be taken in order to improve relations between these two groups.     

Job satisfaction: The gender perspective among police officers

Although women constitute more than 50% of the United States’ population, their percentage among police officers is approximately 9%. Despite being relatively new to policing as fully accepted officers, their growth in numbers should be higher. Nevertheless, such growth may be stagnant. The reasons for this phenomenon are still under examination, and any research that can shed light on this quandary is useful. This article examines job satisfaction among police officers and whether there is a difference by gender. The belief is that if job satisfaction among women police officers is low, this could reflect why more women are not entering law enforcement. However, the data analyzed from a purposive sample of 2,309 male and 309 female officers suggest that there is little difference in job satisfaction solely by gender.