Police crackdowns on illegal gun carrying: a systematic review of their impact on gun crime

This paper presents a systematic review of the impact of police strategies to reduce illegal possession and carrying of firearms on gun crime, including directed patrols, monitoring of probationers and parolees, weapon reporting hotlines, and others. Four studies met the inclusion criteria, reporting a total of seven nonrandomized tests of directed patrols focused on gun carrying in three American cities (five tests) and two Colombian cities (two tests). Six of the seven tests (not all of which were independent) suggest that directed patrols reduced gun crime in high-crime places at high-risk times. However, conclusions and generalizations must be qualified based on the small number of studies, variability in study design and analytic strategy across the studies, preintervention differences between intervention and comparison areas, and limited data regarding factors such as implementation, crime displacement, and long-term impact.Although the protocol for this review was registered and approved by the Campbell Collaboration Crime and Justice Group (), this paper represents an independent effort of the authors and has not been reviewed by the Campbell Collaboration. Evan Mayo-Wilson conducted research for this project while he was Coordinator of the Campbell Crime and Justice Group at the University of Pennsylvania's Jerry Lee Center of Criminology and a student at the Fels Institute of Government.     

Development of a simulation model to assess the impact of contamination in casework using STRs

Because contamination is usually tube-specific, negative controls cannot give assurance that an associated batch of extracted casework material is contaminant-free. However, it is possible to use them to predict the level of overall (undetected) contamination that is processed by an operational DNA unit. A MATLAB-based program was used to combine results of negative controls with actual casework DNA profiles to assess the probability that laboratory contaminants will give rise to reportable profiles (along with their likelihood ratios). Using data from an operational DNA unit as an example, it was demonstrated that the risk is inextricably linked to guidelines used to interpret DNA profiles. We have demonstrated how computer-based models can predict the levels of contamination expected in the process and, in addition, how the process can be made more robust by changing reporting guidelines. There is a need to compare DNA profiles against staff and plasticware elimination databases in order to determine sources of contamination. The likeliest outcome of a contamination event is false exclusion.     

Terror in the courts: Beginning to assess the impact of terrorism-related prosecutions on domestic criminal law and procedure in the USA

This article explores some of the possible influences of the “war on terror.” It asks whether civilian criminal prosecutions of terrorism-related offenses or suspects may shape or distort domestic criminal law and procedure in the USA. The article identifies issues that may tend to arise in terrorism-related cases and suggests categories of prosecutions that may be more or less likely to influence the development of domestic law. It ends with several specific suggestions for further research.     

Retrieving administrative data to assess long-term outcomes: a case study of the 23-year follow-up of the Milwaukee domestic violence experiment

Objectives

To describe how social scientists, criminal justice practitioners, and administrative agencies collected administrative data to follow-up a criminological experiment after two decades. To make recommendations that will guide similar long-term follow-ups.

Methods

A case study approach describes the processes of and sociological benefits to collecting administrative data to assess criminal justice and life-course outcomes.

Results

While maintaining experimental integrity, we developed, executed, and verified processes to retrieve arrest, mortality, and residential data for the experimental subjects, which enabled us to complete the longest ever follow-up of a criminal justice experiment.

Conclusions

When experiments have policy implications, administrative data may be preferable to survey data for assessing primary effects. Successful social science research can be conducted in conjunction with multiple administrative agencies.

     

Using a natural experiment to measure the impact of swifter punishment on criminal recidivism

Journal of Experimental Criminology - Measure the impact of swifter punishment on the timing of first imprisonment and on criminal recidivism among young violent offenders. A policy reform in 1994...     

Selling stolen goods on the online markets: an explorative study

Historically, criminologists studied theft from different perspectives, but only a few focused their attention on the reselling of stolen items. The advent of the Internet has boosted stolen good markets by facilitating interactions between vendors (thieves and receivers) and buyers. This study, based on 227 cases reported by news sites in 2015 and 2016, focuses on the markets and methods used to sell stolen goods online. The results suggest that the online selling methods are quite independent from existing offline methods. The findings innovate with respect to the typology provided by Sutton. The online markets for stolen goods are rather a new environment where perpetrators may choose among several methods of disposal. The results reflect a preference for resale through classified ads sites (44.24%), auction sale sites (28.11%) and social media (19.35%). In the light of this study, more research is needed to understand online stolen goods markets and their mechanisms.     

利用颅骨枪弹创骨折类型推断射击方向和顺序的实验

建立利用颅骨枪弹创骨折类型推断射击方向和顺序的方法。使用国产五四式7．62mm口径手枪及五六式7．62mm口径半自动步枪,以3m的距离2次射击16具尸体的头颞部及枕部,造成颅脑贯通创,制成颅骨枪弹射入、出口各32例,并根据定位标记进行观察。结果显示：颅骨枪弹创骨折形态可分为带有斜面的孔状骨折,锁孔状骨折,放射状骨折和环状隆起骨折4种类型,其出现多见于低速枪射击,并与射击方向和顺序有直接关系。根据颅骨枪弹创骨折类型可推断射击方向和顺序。     

An economic approach on countering the misuse of the right to challenge judges: an experiment

Parties can challenge a judge (request a recusal) when they have reasons to believe that a judge is not impartial. In practice this procedure is sometimes abused by lawyers who, for example, want to delay proceedings. Countries have taken different measures to deter the improper use of the procedure to request a recusal, like fines for dismissed requests, or immediately dismissing evidently unfounded requests. In a laboratory experiment we examine the effects of a summary review whether a challenge is evidently unfounded, with or without fines. We find that a review without fine improves legal protection in practice as well as efficiency by reducing unfounded challenges and increasing challenges that have a substantial chance of success. Overall the number of challenges declines. With a fine, challenges decline, but also legal protection.     

Long-term impact of family group conferences on re-offending: the Indianapolis restorative justice experiment

Objectives

The purpose of the current study is to test the long-term effect of Family Group Conferences (FGCs) on recidivism prevalence and time to first re-offense for first-time youthful offenders.

Methods

The current study builds on an experiment with a reasonably large sample (n?=?782) conducted in Marion County (Indianapolis), Indiana, USA. The current study extends this work by following the cases for an additional 10?years. To examine the empirical relationships among the variables, this study employs a two-step approach. The initial analysis, employing logistic regression, measures prevalence of re-offending based on whether the youth ever was re-arrested during the follow-up period. The second step employs Cox Proportional-Hazards Regression to examine time until first re-offense.

Results

The findings revealed that when extended to a 12-year follow-up period, there were no significant differences between the FGC and control groups in re-offending prevalence or time to re-offense.

Conclusions

An earlier study suggests that treatment group youths experienced reduced risk in the short-term and there is no evidence in the present study to suggest that youths participating in FGCs were placed at greater risk for re-offending. Given these findings and the body of research suggesting improved outcomes for victims, continued experimentation with FGCs and related restorative processes seems warranted. Future studies would benefit from blocking procedures in the experimental design in order to examine whether treatment effects are moderated by gender, race, and initial type of offense. The lack of such blocking procedures represents a limitation of the current study.     

Measuring the impact of a targeted law enforcement initiative on drug sales

Law enforcement focused on drug sales with special intensity in particular during the 1980s and 1990s because of their impact on community decline and violence. This study considered the impact and implications of one particular law enforcement intervention, the establishment of “drug free zones” in Portland, Oregon. The analysis of possible effects of the drug free zone strategy employed multiple methods including mapping and multilevel analytic techniques. Together, these methods were employed to identify hypothesized impacts of the drug free zone intervention, in the context of the effects of temporal shifts and community characteristics, on drug sales arrests. Findings from the research suggested that future consideration be given to the development of meaningful measures of the relationship between drug free zone status and law enforcement practices. Findings also shed light upon the relative importance of ecological predictors of crime at the block group level.     

Understanding parrot trafficking between illicit markets in Bolivia: an application of the CRAVED model

The CRAVED model has been used to understand theft variation in a whole host of hot products, including wildlife. Past research, however, has only applied the model at either the theft or illicit market stage to understand why particular products are stolen in high numbers. The CRAVED model has yet to be applied to the trafficking stage of hot products smuggled between illicit markets and, therefore, its applicability at this particular stage remains unknown. Using secondary data from the Los Pozos wildlife market in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, this study applies the CRAVED model to explain why parrot species are trafficked between illicit markets in Bolivia. This research finds that species that are more “available” and less “valuable” are more likely to be trafficked between illicit markets, suggesting that variation at the trafficking stage of the parrot trade can be explained by nearly the same CRAVED concepts as they do at the poaching stage. This study also finds that one-quarter of parrots in the Los Pozos market are trafficked to other cities, of which 99% are to the city of Cochabamba. These findings suggest that shutting down illicit markets and patrolling major roadways between cities can substantially reduce the illegal parrot trade.     

Evaluating the relative impact of positive and negative encounters with police: a randomized experiment

Objectives

Examines the influence of positive, negative, and neutral police behavior during traffic stops on citizen perceptions of police.

Methods

Participants were randomly assigned to view a video clip of a simulated traffic stop in which the officer communicates with the driver in a positive (procedurally just), negative (procedurally unjust), or neutral manner. After viewing the video, participants completed a survey about their perceptions of police, including their level of trust in police, obligation to obey police orders, and willingness to cooperate with police.

Results

Observing positive interactions with police enhanced people’s self-reported willingness to cooperate with police, obligation to obey police and the law, and trust and confidence in police, whereas observing negative interactions undermined these outcomes. The effects of these interactions were much stronger for encounter-specific outcomes than for more general outcomes.

Conclusions

The results from this randomized experiment confirm that procedural justice can enhance people’s prosocial attitudes toward police, whereas procedural injustice can undermine these attitudes. While positive (procedurally just) interactions tend to have weaker effects than negative (procedurally unjust) interactions, this study finds little support for the notion that only negative experiences shape people’s views about the police.

     

从单一干预到微观规制与宏观调控的辩证统一——政府干预经济的立法理念变迁

政府干预经济的立法理念受到一国市场经济发展不同阶段特征的影响,从直接的微观规制到宏观调控的不断加强体现了立法理念追随制度变迁的轨迹。在世界经济日趋全球化的背景下,中国政府干预的经济立法理念也表现出从单一干预到微观规制和宏观调控的辩证统一发展趋势。新时期中国政府宏观经济调控的关键是尽快提升法律手段干预经济的地位和比例,力求对宏观经济从行政调控到法律调控的转换。     

Intimacy training in a forensic psychiatric setting: an experiment

This article is about intimacy training in two forensic psychiatric hospitals. This training is an experiment in which patients are trained in skills relating to intimacy and sexuality through real physical contact with a therapist. It is a way of treatment in those cases in which other, usually verbal methods, have failed to accomplish (sexual) behaviour change, and it can feed or revitalise verbal therapy. The purpose of the training is (a) to make the patient aware of the feelings intimate contact with a woman provokes and (b) to increase the patient's social and sociosexual skills so that he learns how to handle his intimate and sexual wishes, needs, and limits, and those of his partner. The training aims at diminishing the risk of new offences. The experiment is intended to provide answers to questions about the effectiveness of this kind of training in relationship to this aim.     

Specifying the role of exposure to violence and violent behavior on initiation of gun carrying: a longitudinal test of three models of youth gun carrying

Two waves of longitudinal data from 1,049 African American youth living in extreme poverty are used to examine the impact of exposure to violence (Time 1) and violent behavior (Time 1) on first time gun carrying (Time 2). Multivariate logistic regression results indicate that (a) violent behavior (Time 1) increased the likelihood of initiation of gun carrying (Time 2) by 76% after controlling for exposure to violence at Time 1, which is consistent with the stepping stone model of youth gun carrying, and (b) youth who were both exposed to violence at Time 1 and engaged in violent behavior at Time 1 were more than 2.5 times more likely to initiate gun carrying at Time 2 compared to youth who had neither of these characteristics, which supports the cumulative risk model of youth gun carrying. The authors discuss the implications of these findings in clarifying the role of violence in the community on youth gun carrying and the primary prevention of youth gun violence.     

Rational-choice gun use in armed robbery: The likely deterrent effect on gun use of mandatory additional imprisonment

Conclusion The Western Australian findings suggest that a sentencing policy targeted specifically at the use of guns in committing robbery could be effective in discouraging the choice of this weapon. The proposed sentence is a mandatory minimum period of twelve months for the first offense. Sentencing for the principal, or focal, offense of robbery would be governed by existing law. A second, or even later, gun-using offense should carry a greater mandatory additional sentence. At the same time, given the social and experiential factors that have brought offenders to the point of choosing a weapon and a modus operandi, any such policy must be applied humanely. Rational-choice theory does not deny that there may be unequal opportunities to exercise choice; it does, however, assert that decision making can be influenced by an appropriate sentencing strategy.The implementation of any such policy should be carefully evaluated both in aggregate studies, as has been done in Canada, and in individualized, rational-choice research. The evaluation should address not only the efficacy of the broad strategy but also the narrower question of whether the suggested mandatory sentences are optimal.Although this article has offered theoretical and statistical support that the proposed sentencing strategy is likely to reduce the incidence of gun use in robbery, some offenders may be discouraged from committing further robberies altogether, inasmuch as victim management in certain kinds of robbery may be sensibly attempted only through the use of a gun. Deterred from using guns, some offenders may look for a different career altogether, whether criminal or not.This article is based on a report entitledWeapon Choice by Violent Offenders in Western Australia: A Pilot Study, co-authored with Ann Blake. Copies are available free of charge from the Administrative Secretary, Crime Research Centre, University of Western Australia, Nedlands, W.A. 6009, Australia.The original research for the report was funded by Grant No. 5 of 1988 by the Australian Criminology Research Council. These funds were supplemented by the Crime Research Centre of the University of Western Australia. This article was written while the author was on sabbatical leave at the Centre for Criminological Research, University of Oxford.L.L.B., University of London 1960; L.L.M., Columbia University 1962. I would like to express my thanks to Dr. Roger Hood, Director of the Center for Criminological Research, University of Oxford.