Experience,quality of life,and neighborhood context: A hierarchical analysis of satisfaction with police

We test three different conceptual models—“experience with police,” “quality of life,” and “neighborhood context”—for directional accuracy and ability to explain satisfaction with the police. We also investigate whether these models help to explain the common finding that African-Americans are more dissatisfied with the police than are Caucasians. To do so, we use hierarchical linear modeling to simultaneously regress our outcome measure on clusters of citizen- and neighborhood-level variables. The analysis was conducted using recently collected information from the Project on Policing Neighborhoods (POPN). The data file consisted of survey responses from 5,361 citizens residing in 58 neighborhoods located in Indianapolis, Indiana and St. Petersburg, Florida. At the citizen level, the psychologically based “quality of life” model accounts for the greatest proportion of explained variance and provides the greatest directional accuracy. Also, residents of neighborhoods characterized by concentrated disadvantage express significantly less satisfaction with the police. In addition, neighborhood context reduces the negative effect of African-American status on satisfaction with police when a sparse citizen-level specification is used; racial variation in satisfaction with police persists, however, when citizen-level hierarchical models are specified more fully.     

TESTING CONTROL THEORY AND DIFFERENTIAL ASSOCIATION: A REANALYSIS OF THE RICHMOND YOUTH PROJECT DATA*

In what has become a classic work in the field, Matsueda (1982) tested control theory against differential association theory using Hirschi's (1969) Richmond Youth Project data. Matsueda found that measures of “definitions favorable to law violation” entirely mediated the effect of his social control measures and friends' delinquency, and concluded that differential association theory was supported over control theory. We note several problems with Matsueda's specification of control theory, and we reanalyze the Richmond data including measures of commitment to conventional goals and several attachment to parents variables that Matsueda excluded. We also propose and test a new method of measuring the social bond, conceptualizing the social bond as a second-order latent construct. In contrast with Matsueda's findings, we find that the social bond and friends' delinquency retain important direct effects on delinquency, and that these effects are greater than those of definitions. Thus, our results are more supportive of control theory than differential association theory.     

Specifying digital forensics: A forensics policy approach

In this paper we present an approach to digital forensics specification based on forensic policy definition. Our methodology borrows from computer security policy specification, which has accumulated a significant body of research over the past 30 years. We first define the process of specifying forensics properties through a forensics policy and then present an example application of the process. This approach lends itself to formal policy specification and verification, which would allow for more clarity and less ambiguity in the specification process.     

Rejoinder—Personality and crime: Toward knowledge construction

In his response to “Personality and Crime,” Professor Gibbons took issue with several of our specific points. Several of these points are reviewed in this rejoinder, and we list our rationalizations for naming names (or for what Gibbons calls our “verbal thumping” of individual criminologists). More important, we find that Gibbons agrees on the need for a self-consciously “social” criminology to display greater respect for both evidence and human diversity. The paper closes with a specification of the criterion variable within the psychology of crime and with an appeal for an openness to the full range of potential covariates of that criterion variable, be they biological, personal, or social.     

SENTENCING IN CONTEXT: A MULTILEVEL ANALYSIS

Criminal sentencing is, along with arresting and prosecuting, among the most important of formal social control decisions. In this study we use hierarchical modeling to test hypotheses about contextual level influences and cross level interaction effects on local court decisions. Most of the explanatory "action," our analysis shows, is at the individual case level in criminal sentencing. We also find evidence that local contextual features–such as court organizational culture, court caseload pressure, and racial and ethnic composition–affect sentencing outcomes, either directly or in interaction with individual factors. We conclude by discussing theoretical implications of our findings, and how our study points out some dilemmas among civil rights, local autonomy and organizational realities of criminal courts.     

Perpetrator programmes for partner violence: A rejoinder to Respect

Purpose. To reply to the comments made by Debbonaire and Todd (2012) in relation to our critique of Respect's Position Statement. Method. We examined their reply in relation to our original article and to the wider research literature. Results. We show that Debbonaire and Todd's reply is largely a series of assertions, for which little or no supporting evidence is offered. Their argument is first that we are misplaced in criticizing their Position Statement, and second that the main points of the statement are defendable. We indicate why our criticisms of the statement still stand. Conclusions. We argue that Respect have not countered our overall criticism of their position that intimate partner violence (IPV) can only be addressed as a gendered issue, that is as a consequence of patriarchal values enacted at the individual level. Instead we advocate a gender‐inclusive approach applying a knowledge base derived from robust empirical research on IPV and more widely from research on human aggression.     

Studying Discretion in the Processes that Generate Criminal Justice Sanctions

This paper presents a typology of discretion that differs from the standard typology of discretion in the legal literature: Type A discretion, which is the generally recognized discretion of individual actors to make decisions within a set of laws and rules, and Type B discretion, which is the crafting of laws and setting of rules in the first place. An analysis using aggregate data from 1992 to 2002 points to the prosecution stage as the primary source of Type A discretion that contributed to the massive increase in incarceration during this period. To understand how this could happen, this paper argues that actions need to be linked to outcomes. We identify three key outcomes of the sanctioning process—crime control, justice (guilt/innocence), racial disparity (fairness)—that deserve more attention from social scientists.     

有序与效率:当事人主张的具体化义务研究——以民事诉讼为视角

民事诉讼奉行辩论主义,诉讼围绕当事人双方的攻击防御方法而展开,当事人必须就于己有利的要件事实向法院主张,基于维护对方当事人的防御利益以及证人的自我保全利益,维护法院的审理利益,促进审理的集中化,阻止当事人滥诉,当事人的攻防主张都必须要满足具体化义务的要求才能被视为是适格的主张,否则将可能因此而遭受诉讼上的不利益。由于存在证据偏在的现代型诉讼中,基于武器平等、诚信原则、证据接近、危险领域等原理,具体化义务的程度或界限在某些情形或案件类型中需要降低,以维护当事人之间的实质公平。在我国未来的民事诉讼制度构建中,应当逐步确立当事人的具体化义务。     

A Pimp's Game: A Rational Choice Approach to Understanding the Decisions of Sex Traffickers

We employ a rational choice framework to understand the conditions under which sex traffickers allow their victims access to telecommunications devices while under their control. We posit that sex traffickers are rational actors who make calculated decisions regarding whether to allow their victims access to the Internet and cell phones. We hypothesize that sex traffickers allow younger victims and those they did not defraud in the recruitment process greater access to telecommunications devices because these decisions maximize their payoffs with minimal risk. However, we hypothesize that younger victims’ access to telecommunications devices is conditional on whether they have been defrauded in recruitment. In order to test these hypotheses, we deployed a survey to 115 victims of sex trafficking in the United States to learn about how they were recruited by their sex trafficker and the level of access they had to technology while under their sex trafficker's control. We find support for all of our hypotheses. The results have serious implications for criminal justice policy and practice.     

法社会学视阈下的中国行政程序

从法社会学的视阈研究我国的行政程序,可以从法律规范之外的视角全方位地观察和分析我国行政程序建设面临的问题与将来的努力方向。从法社会学的进路研究中国的行政程序,主要关注两个方面的问题:一是在社会变迁的大背景中把握中国行政程序的发展,二是在平等基础上重构行政程序主体的角色和地位。     

Topics in macro-modelling of East European countries in the period of transition

Central and European former Centrally Planned Economies (CPEs) entered a period of transition towards market economies. The evolution is marked by a transition from shortage- to demand-determined economies, associated with the abandonment of price control and the introduction of tight wage control. Stabilization programmes (in Poland from 1990), implementing tough deflationary fiscal and monetary policies, brought about the suppression of hyperinflation. The high adjustment costs — deep recession, high rates of unemployment — are characteristics of the early '90s. The deregulation of the public sector and the building of the private one commenced, and will be a long-lasting process. To meet the changes in economic regimes and mechanisms, the existing models had to be adequately respecified and new models constructed. The large W-5 macromodel for Poland, which covers the final and intermediate demands, had to be extended to introduce the market adjustment mechanisms and, more broadly, the financial flows. To meet the needs of short-term financial policies, new quarterly models had to be built, as, for instance, the WK macromodel for the Polish economy. The paper discusses the major problems of the models' specification under the data constraints.     

Controlling Immigrants: The Latent Function of Italian Administrative Orders

Enforcement of new—or relatively new—administrative powers targeting control and criminalization of behaviorbehavior has become increasingly common in Italian cities in recent years. Defined as ordinanze sindacali, Mayors’ Administrative Orders (MAOs) have traditionally been among the powers available to mayors to regulate urban life. Under a new national law passed in 2008, their use in controlling undesirable behavior ranging from minor social and physical incivilities to prostitution and social problems like begging and vagrancy has become increasingly common. In this paper, using data from our own research and from national and local studies, we discuss these orders from a new perspective, showing how they have been used in Italy to criminalize statuses and behaviors of a specific vulnerable social group: namely, legal and illegal immigrants. We describe the main features of these administrative tools, their complex interactions with the criminal justice system and immigration laws, and the mechanisms through which they target irregular and regular immigrants and their use of public space. We contextualize their enforcement in Italian cities in the broader development of exclusionary policies against immigrants and in the more general tendency to increase criminalization of groups and behaviors that seem to be part of a common punitive turn in many Western countries.     

A NEW LOOK AT THE EMPLOYMENT AND RECIDIVISM RELATIONSHIP THROUGH THE LENS OF A CRIMINAL BACKGROUND CHECK*

Criminal background checks are increasingly being incorporated into hiring decisions by employers. Although originally uncompromising—almost anyone with a criminal record could be denied employment—court rulings and policy changes have forced criminal background checks to become more nuanced. One motivation for allowing more individuals with criminal records to work is to decrease recidivism and encourage desistance. In this article, we estimate the causal impact of receiving a clearance to work on subsequent arrests for individuals with criminal records who have been provisionally hired to work in certain nonlicensed health‐care jobs in New York State (N = 6,648). We employ an instrumental variable approach based on a substantive understanding of the state‐mandated criminal background check process. We examine age‐graded effects within this group of motivated individuals and differential effects by sex in the rapidly growing health‐care industry, which is typically dominated by women. Our estimated local average treatment effect indicates a 2.2‐percentage‐point decrease in the likelihood of a subsequent arrest in 1 year and a 4.2‐percentage‐point decrease over 3 years. We find meaningful variations by sex; men are 8.4 percentage points less likely to be arrested over the 3‐year period when cleared compared with a 2.4‐percentage‐point (and nonsignificant) effect for women. Older women in particular are driving the nonsignificant results for women.     

SELF‐CONTROL THEORY AND THE CONCEPT OF OPPORTUNITY: THE CASE FOR A MORE SYSTEMATIC UNION*

The purpose of this study is to advance the idea that low self‐control—one of the strongest known predictors of crime—likely has effects that are conditional on the supply of criminal opportunities. Some scholars initially interpreted the theory to make this exact prediction, but Gottfredson and Hirschi (2003) have rejected this interpretation. They have insisted that the simplistic nature of most crimes ensures that opportunities are limitless and that variation in opportunity simply reflects variation in self‐control. We trace the history of this uncertain position of opportunity in self‐control theory and argue that it should play a significant role in the theory, even if Gottfredson and Hirschi did not originally envision this. Next, we draw on routine activities theory and applications of it to individual offending to offer a theoretical statement of how opportunity should be incorporated into self‐control theory. Last, using data from a national sample of juveniles, we test the arguments that have been made. The analysis suggests that the effects of low self‐control on delinquency partially depend on the availability of criminal opportunities, as indicated by the time juveniles spend with their friends or away from the supervision of their parents.     

The Value of Majority Status: The Effect of Jeffords's Switch on Asset Prices of Republican and Democratic Firms

Using the change in party control of the Senate that resulted from Jim Jeffords's 2001 change in party affiliation, we compare competing partisan and partyless legislative theories. We offer a reconceptualization of agenda control that provides a new and promising basis for studying parties and policymaking in the Senate. Also, we present a novel methodology—an “event study”—to test partisan and partyless hypotheses. Our results show that, when Jeffords switched, the stock prices of Republican‐supported energy firms dropped and prices for Democrat‐supported firms rose, supporting the hypothesis that the majority party influences Senate decisions.     

Legislative Fragmentation and Government Spending in Presidential Democracies: Bringing Ideological Polarization into the Picture

We claim that, in presidential democracies, the effect of increasing fragmentation on government spending should be conditional on polarization, defined as the ideological distance between the government's party and other parties in Congress. We build a model where this result follows from negotiations between the legislature and an independent government seeking the approval of its initiatives—as in presidential democracies. Using cross‐country data over time, we test the empirical validity of our claim finding that, in presidential democracies, there is indeed a positive effect of fragmentation only when polarization is sufficiently high. The same is not true for parliamentary democracies.     

Conflicts of Rights and Action-Guidingness

In this paper, we raise two points. First, any rights-based theory should provide a method by which to guide reasoning in addressing conflicts of rights. The reason, we argue, is that these theories must provide guidance on what should be done. Second, this method must contain two key recommendations: (1) We should try to find a deliberative mechanism through which none of the rights is simply eliminated from the scene; (2) these rights may be balanced against each other to define which right should prevail, but without considering non-rights-interests as if they were rights in the process. These recommendations instantiate two crucial principles that underlie our common intuitions on rights, namely, the principle that rights deserve equal respect and the principle that rights should be taken seriously.     

Do Theories of Punishment Necessarily Deliver a Binary System of Verdicts? An Exploratory Essay

Scholars writing on theories of punishment generally try to answer two main questions: what human behaviour should be punished and why? Only cursorily do they concern themselves with the question as to how confident in the occurrence of criminal behaviour we must be prior to punishing—i.e., the question of the criminal standard of proof. Theories of punishment are ultimately theories about choices of action—in particular, about how to treat individuals. If this is correct, it seems that they should not overlook one of the fundamental variables governing human decision-making: the uncertainty about the facts relevant to our acting. Now, the question as to whether existing theories of punishment require a standard of proof as high as ‘proof beyond a reasonable doubt’ is gaining increasing attention in the scholarship. However, scholars working on theories of punishment give little attention to a particular way in which human decision-making handles the problem of uncertainty. In our everyday lives, we often decide in a many-valued, rather than a binary, fashion. Instead of having a single evidential threshold, the satisfaction of which determines whether we act or stay put, we tend to adjust our actions to our degree of confidence in certain states of affairs. In other words, we decide based on a ladder of evidential thresholds: the features of our actions vary according to the evidential threshold that we have satisfied. Notably, criminal trials do not follow this structure and theorists generally take this departure for granted. Why shouldn’t trials work as ‘ex post facto bets,’ whereby the response that the state is willing to ‘wager’ correlates with the fact finder’s confidence in the defendant’s guilt? The paper explores this question; in particular, it assesses whether the main theories of punishment (consequentialist, retributive, and communicative) necessarily deliver a binary system of verdicts. The work is part of a long-term research project on the comparison between the binary and the many-valued models of the system of criminal verdicts.     

Same Question,Different Answers: Theorizing Victim and Third Party Decisions to Report Crime to the Police

The current study attempts to address a key, but underdeveloped, area in crime reporting literature: the decisions of non-victims to report crime. Drawing on a theory of criminal justice decision-making, we argue that the decision to report a crime reflects a rational process, where the individual considers his or her goals, potential actions, and the relative ability of those actions to achieve the specified goals. Differences in each of these areas result in different decision-making processes for victims and third parties. We offer a preliminary test of our arguments using data from the National Crime Victimization Survey. In general, we find support for our expectations, with third party reporting decisions more heavily influenced by crime seriousness and less so by the offender’s relationship with the victim than are victim reporting decisions. In concluding, we argue that third party reporters should be focal points of future reporting analyses.     

Models of Nonresponse in Legislative Politics

Tools dedicated to inferring the ideological leanings of legislators from observed votes—techniques such as NOMINATE (Poole and Rosenthal 1997) or the item‐response‐theory model of Clinton, Jackman, and Rivers (2004)—rest on the assumption that the political process that generates abstentions is ignorable, an assumption not always easy to justify. We extended the item‐response‐theory model to analyze abstention and voting processes simultaneously in situations where abstentions are suspected to be nonrandom. We applied this expanded model to two assemblies where the existing literature gives reason to expect nonrandom abstentions, and we demonstrate how our extensions yield nuanced analyses of legislative politics. We also acknowledge limits to our ability to decide on the adequacy of alternative assumptions about abstentions, since these assumptions are not readily verifiable.