Dealing with Juvenile Offenders in the Criminal Justice System

The treatment of juveniles within the criminal justice systems is a matter of great variety in the 11 European countries studied comparatively. The study focuses on the age of criminal responsibility, ways to divert juvenile offenders from the criminal justice system or avoid criminal justice responses to them, juvenile proceedings and special reactions and sanctions. In spite of different approaches there is a common trend towards preventing juvenile offenders from being treated by criminal courts and being sentenced to criminal sanctions.     

Observations Regarding Key Operational Realities in a Compstat Model of Policing

With nearly 4 million adults under supervision in the US, probationers make up the largest group of offenders under the supervision of the criminal justice system. Yet the sanction of probation has received relatively little study. Because probation is generally a local endeavor, coordinated data collection is rare. In this article, the changing dynamics of felony probation populations in California over two decades are examined using dynamic systems simulation modeling. In addition to demonstrating the utility of this underused modeling technique, the legal and social sources of changes in the use of felony probation in California’s criminal justice system are discussed, as are the practical and policy implications of these changes.     

A Perspective on Policy and Practice in the Re-Integration of Offenders

Concentrations of unemployment and crime are promoting a slow crisis in the lives of unskilled young men, and obstruct the successful re-integration and resettlement of offenders. At the same time, criminal justice system programmes for offenders are seeking a new balance between treatment approaches and the creation of opportunities. In this article the author reflects on the policy frameworks which give rise to these approaches, and considers the danger that criminal justice systems may place emphasis on diverting people from crime without directing them towards opportunities for re-integration. The author considers the needs of offenders in relation to housing and employment in particular.     

日本现行罚金刑制度及发展趋向考察

日本罚金刑在现行刑法、刑事政策和司法实践中均占有重要的地位。其适用对象侧重过失犯和初犯;其适用方式多为选处和单处;罚金刑的量定未采用日数罚金制,仍袭旧制;执行制度有缴纳制度、执行犹豫、劳役场留置以及犯规通告制度。《日本改正刑法草案》反映了日本在罚金刑适用上的一些变化,罚金刑的适用范围有所扩大,方式更为多样合理,幅度变低并细化,裁量方式更趋完善。     

General systems theory and criminal justice

Criminal justice agencies are organized sequentially — “output” from one agency is “input” to the next — but most scholars argue that criminal justice is not a system in a theoretical sense. In this article, it is argued that general systems theory (GST) reveals important insights into criminal justice structures and functions. Specifically, it is argued that the criminal justice system processes “cases” rather than people, and that the common goal of criminal justice processing is to “close cases so that they stay closed.” It also is argued that processing capacity progressively declines, in that at each system point the subsequent agency cannot input as many cases as the previous agency can output. Each agency therefore experiences “backward pressure” to close cases in order to reduce input to the next agency. Overall, this article highlights that criminal justice agents and agencies are best understood as operating in the context of the larger whole, thus it is concluded that criminal justice is a system in the sense of general systems theory.     

Examining the Behavior of a System: An Outcome Evaluation of a Coordinated Community Response to Domestic Violence

One goal of a coordinated community response (CCR) to domestic violence is to create an infrastructure that will facilitate systems-level, and ultimately societal-level change. This study evaluated whether a CCR implemented in two counties in Georgia would be effective at increasing criminal justice system sanctions for male domestic violence offenders (i.e., arrests, prosecutions, convictions, sentencing, and referrals to batterer intervention programs). Time series analyses revealed that, in both counties, there was a significant increase in arrests of male offenders; however, law enforcement agencies also arrested more women following the intervention. More men were sentenced to probation and to attend a batterer’s intervention program post-intervention in one county; in the second county, there was no change in these outcomes. Results highlight the importance of examining how a CCR may affect the behavior of criminal justice systems, especially in terms of the unintended consequences for women.     

Incorporating Co-offending in Sentencing Models: An Analysis of Fines Imposed on Antitrust Offenders

Analyses of sentencing (and other criminal justice processes such as the decision to prosecute, plea bargaining, and contact with the police) often use the isolated individual as the unit of analysis. However, the criminal justice system often processes either offenses or court cases rather than persons. If court cases always involved one individual, this would have little impact. However, offenses involving co-offending—two or more persons acting together—comprise a substantial proportion of criminal activity (Reiss, 1980, 1986). Depending on the prevalence of co-offending, it may be very likely that two or more individuals involved in the same case will be selected as members of the same sample of criminal justice or criminological data. Unless it can be shown that both the individual-level variables of co-offenders and their error terms are mutually independent, analyses based on methods such as ordinary least-squares multiple regression would violate the underlying assumptions of such models. However, alternatives to linear models assuming either type of independence are available. Among the most useful of these are mixed models, specifically those assuming compound symmetry. This is illustrated with an analysis of fines imposed on criminally convicted antitrust offenders. These models may yield results which are substantially different than those from models which ignore co-offending. In a model of fines imposed on antitrust offenders, models which ignore co-offending generally overstate both estimates and statistical significance of offense-level variables and understate those of offender-level variables.     

Presidential address: Juvenile justice at the crossroads: Presidential address to the academy of criminal justice sciences

Three interacting factors appear to significantly affect our treatment of youths and thus our juvenile justice policy: ideology, the media, and politics. As a result of these factors, although juvenile violent crime is decreasing, legislatures still advocate a harsh, punitive stance toward youthful offenders. Legislative initiatives have resulted in determinate sentencing for juveniles, more youths handled by the adult criminal court, and more youths sentenced to adult institutions. Recent evidence suggests that the public supports more prevention and early intervention strategies for youths and favors rehabilitation rather than punishment. These conflicting trends suggest that we are at a crossroads: the juvenile justice system can continue its harsh, reactive stance, or it can choose a more proactive approach. The members of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences have an opportunity to play an active role in the development of criminal justice policy.     

Designed to fail: Self-control and involvement in the criminal justice system

This study investigates self-control theory using official and selfreported criminal records of 500 adult offenders. Four items derived from rapsheets (aliases, date of birth, place of birth, and social security number) are used as indicators of the self-control construct. Negative binomial regression models indicate a significant inverse relationship between self-control and escape arrests, failure to appear violations, probation and parole violations, felony convictions, and prison sentences. Since system involvement entails discipline, tenacity, and responsibility, offenders with low self-control are more likely to experience a criminal justice system failure.     

Defence lawyers and probation officers: offenders' allies or adversaries?

The shift in recent decades towards an explicitly punitive agenda for criminal justice in Western jurisdictions has been well-documented in the criminological literature. People accused of offences and convicted offenders progress through a punitive criminal justice system replete with crime control values. Furthermore, in criminal justice policy development, the notion of victims' rights and the quest to rebalance the system in favour of victims now override concerns about rights. In the light of this state of affairs, it seems necessary to assess the role of practitioners within the criminal justice system who, by virtue of their professional mandates, can be expected to act as much needed allies for defendants as they progress through the system. These practitioners are defence lawyers and probation officers. Insufficient attention has been paid to the role of both and they have not previously been considered as two parts of a greater whole despite their obviously complimentary nature. In an effort to address this gap in knowledge, this article draws on two different studies to offer an exploratory discussion of how both practitioners interact with their clients and whether or not the practitioners can be viewed as effective allies of those implicated with the criminal process.     

Legal,Psychological, and Behavioral Outcomes

States have responded to the public's outrage at rising juvenile crime by revising their transfer statutes to make it easier to transfer juvenile offenders for trial and sentencing in criminal court and possible incarceration in adult prisons. These changing trends in juvenile justice raise three questions about what actually happens to juveniles once they are in the adult criminal justice system. To what extent does trial in adult court and/or incarceration in adult prisons promote or retard community protection, juvenile offenders' accountability, and the development of competencies in juvenile offenders? This article discusses state transfer laws and the legal consequences of criminal court prosecution, and analyzes current research on deterrence effects of transfer laws, conviction and sentencing in juvenile versus criminal court, recidivism rates in juvenile versus criminal court, and conditions and programming in juvenile versus adult correctional facilities. The research findings have two important implications for juvenile justice policy: the number of juvenile cases transferred to criminal court should be minimized, and imprisonment of juveniles in adult facilities should be avoided whenever possible. These implications are discussed, and directions for future research are identified.     

Views from the Top and Bottom: Lawmakers and Practitioners Discuss Sex Offender Laws

The perceptions and attitudes that policymakers and criminal justice practitioners have about sexual offending and sexual victimization affects how state lawmakers respond to sex crimes, and how practitioners implement sex offender legislation. Policymakers continue to create new sex offender laws and, as such, the number of convicted sex offenders continues to rise. Thus, policymakers and criminal justice practitioners are increasingly important players in the public policy response to sexual criminals. To better understand the motivation, rationale, content, and purpose of statewide sex offender laws, and their role in the day-to-day management of convicted sex offenders, a non-probability sample of policymakers (n?=?61) and criminal justice practitioners (n?=?25) from across the country were interviewed. Results indicated that nearly all respondents from both groups were familiar/very familiar with their state-level sex offender laws. Policymakers and practitioners also mentioned the influential role that specific victimizations play in creating a perceived need for more sex offender legislation. The politicians and the practitioners view the laws as effective public safety mechanisms. Still, both groups noted serious problems with the laws. Furthermore, policymakers had a more negative attitude about the efficacy of sex offender therapy than criminal justice respondents. Suggestions for future research and policy implications are offered.     

Is restorative justice for sexual crime compatible with various criminal justice systems?

In addition to the more conventional approaches of the criminal justice system, this article suggests that there is a need for restorative justice as another method of addressing sexual crime. In support of this view, the present article explores the possibility of a hybrid justice system based on a complementary relationship between restorative justice and the criminal justice system. An analysis of the limits of the criminal justice system and the need for restorative justice in the contentious area of sexual crime will be followed by a detailed examination of key justice considerations when trying to marry both criminal justice and restorative justice perspectives. Such considerations include: the meaning of justice; legislation; sentencing principles; due process; victims’ rights; and the location of restorative justice within/alongside/outside the criminal justice system. The aim of this article is to determine whether it is possible to reconcile two seemingly juxtaposed methods of justice delivery in the context of sexual crime in order to create a hybrid system of justice that best protects and responds to the rights and needs of victims and offenders.     

"CLUB FED" AND THE SENTENCING OF WHITE-COLLAR OFFENDERS BEFORE AND AFTER WATERGATE

This paper counterposes the common assumption that criminal justice systems are resistant to reform with the widespread belief that the sentencing of white-collar offenders became more severe after Watergate. It is argued that readjustments may be more more common than actual reforms in criminal justice systems. This paper provides an example of how such processes of readjustment can be explored in the context of sentencing decisions made before and after the unique historical experience of Watergate. It is shown with data from one of America's most prominent federal district courts that changes did occur in sentences imposed before (in 1973) and after (1975) Watergate, but with offsetting results: after Watergate, persons convicted of white-collar crimes were more likely to be sentenced to prison, but for shorter periods of time, than less-educated persons convicted of common crimes. Using a technique that corrects for sample selection processes, these effects are shown to cancel one another out. Examples are provided of the token kinds of prison sentences assigned after Watergate to white-collar offenders in several highly publicized cases and areas of enforcement.     

Understanding of criminal reconciliation in ancient China

It is the duty of literature on criminal law to record the states orthodox criminal legislation and justice. However, it is difficult to find a systematic and sufficient historical literature for directly expounding the criminal reconciliation outside the state criminal litigation system. This is a civil act among people or a non-statutory criminal reconciliation. Meanwhile, the object of historiography of modern criminal law is usually limited to the evolution and development of the state criminal law and official criminal justice. Thus researchers focus on these areas leaving little systematic evidence for scattered, local, individual, non-statutory and non-normalized criminal reconciliations between victims and offenders. However, upon investigation of the long standing institutional change of Chinese society as well as an analysis of the social reality reflected by Chinese traditional social and legal cultures, it can be confirmed that criminal reconciliation in ancient Chinese society existed reasonably and necessarily.     

Public perceptions of white-collar crime and punishment

Although financial losses from white-collar crime continue to exceed those of street crime, the criminal justice system has traditionally focused on the latter. Past research suggested that citizens are more likely to support punitive sanctions for street offenders than white-collar offenders. Recent corporate scandals have increased public awareness of white-collar crime, but whether public attitudes have been altered remains to be determined. Using a 2005 national sample of 402 telephone survey participants, the current study examined citizen perceptions of white-collar and street crime, as well as attitudes regarding apprehension and punishment. This research extended prior studies by also considering the influence of sociodemographic characteristics as well as perceptions of white-collar crime and punishment on the public's support for increasing resource allocation. Implications for future research and development of more effective white-collar crime control policy are discussed.     

SELECTIVE INCAPACITATION,THREE STRIKES,AND THE PROBLEM OF AGING PRISON POPULATIONS: USING SIMULATION MODELING TO SEE THE FUTURE*

Research Summary: The growth of prison populations over the last three decades is a great source of concern for policy makers and observers. One mechanism by which this growth occurs is via sentencing reforms that extend length of stay for certain categories of offenders. This has the effect of aging prison populations, which is problematic for many reasons. Apart from the increased financial burdens entailed in caring for older prisoners, it is also important to consider the intent of reforms in evaluating them. Of late, sentencing reform has become increasingly focused on the selective incapacitation of dangerous offenders. Policies that have the effect of aging the prison population are problematic from this perspective due to the diminishing returns realized with respect to incapacitation as offenders age. Dynamic systems simulation analysis is employed to investigate the likely consequences of recent sentencing reforms that increase length of stay for some offenders. These analyses indicate that the effects of recent reforms may not be as dramatic as some observers have predicted, but they suggest that the consideration of alternatives to incarceration for elderly offenders is warranted from the standpoint of cost considerations as well as that of selective incapacitation. Policy Implications: The results indicate that California's Three Strikes law will not accelerate the rate of growth of the elderly prison population. However, even without increasing the proportional representation of elderly prisoners, the number of elderly prisoners is expected to grow substantially over the next three decades. These prisoners will strain criminal justice system resources while presenting little public safety threat. State criminal justice policy makers and their constituents should closely examine laws that impose very long stays without discretionary release, as these statutes may contribute to the production of elderly prisoners. This problem is particularly pronounced in Three Strikes and other habitual offender laws that use retrospective methods to identify habitual offenders. Additionally, the effects of reforms lengthening stay for some offenders must be considered in light of cumulative effects of sentencing reform resulting in changes to the demographic structure of the prison population overall. Dynamic systems simulation modeling is presented as a valuable policy‐making tool, as it allows the policy analyst to examine the potential impacts of laws in the absence of data suitable for conventional statistical analyses.     

Marked for Death: An Empirical Criminal Careers Analysis of Death Sentences in a Sample of Convicted Male Homicide Offenders

Background

Although prior criminal record and concurrent criminal charges constitute the main eligibility and aggravating circumstances used in capital sentencing, relatively little research has examined the criminal careers of offenders who are ultimately sentenced to death.

Materials and Methods

Using official criminal history data for 618 incarcerated male homicide offenders selected from 8 states—191 of whom were sentenced to death—the current study explored the criminal careers of offenders that received the most severe legal punishment.

Results

Poisson regression incidence rate ratio models indicated that multiple measures of prior criminal activity including contemporaneous and prior history of violence, prior incarceration, early onset of arrest, juvenile homicide offending, and juvenile child molestation were associated with subsequently being sentenced to death. Separate models for white, African American, and Hispanic males showed contrasting effects in their criminal careers and varying relationships between prior criminal career and current capital offending.

Conclusion

The current study adds to the literature on lifespan criminality by applying Poisson regression analyses and a criminal careers approach to study the most extreme offenders including those sentenced to death.     

论宽严相济刑事政策的定位

宽严相济的刑事政策是惩办与宽大相结合刑事政策的继承和发展。刑事政策根据其指导功能的不同,可分为刑事立法政策、刑事司法政策、刑事执行政策。宽严相济对司法领域而言,可以说是刑事司法政策;但它也指导刑事立法、刑事执行,因而也是刑事立法政策、刑事执行政策。刑事政策根据其所处层次的不同,可分为基本刑事政策和具体刑事政策。宽严相济是基本刑事政策,"严打"、"少杀、慎杀"等是具体刑事政策,后者都是前者的组成部分。说宽严相济是刑事司法政策,并不否定宽严相济是基本刑事政策。     

‘An Unsolvable Justice Problem’? Punishing Young People's Sexual Violence

This article addresses the paradox that whilst young offenders in general are increasingly diverted from formal justice, there continues to be resistance to the idea of diversion for those young people who commit sexual offences. It explores the ways in which tensions arising from this paradox are currently being played out within criminal justice systems in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. Building on published and new research on criminal justice responses to young sexual offenders, the article highlights the problems of responding within any one justice framework to the – at times – competing concerns about risk, welfare, and control that these young offenders provoke. Drawing on criminological, psychological, and sociological work, the article argues that these concerns are accentuated in relation to young sexual offenders because of interrelated fears about the progressive nature of sexual offending; the ability of 'newer' justice practices to meet the need for 'affective' and 'effective' justice in relation to sexual crimes; and because of wider societal anxieties about sexual crimes, particularly where the victims and the offenders are children or young people.