Gender differences in the effects of prison on recidivism

Purpose

This study examines gender differences in the effectiveness of prison in reducing recidivism.

Methods

Using data on released male and female prisoners, we apply a propensity score matching methodology to compare the effects of prison on recidivism versus three counterfactual conditions—jail, intensive probation, and probation.

Results

The analyses indicated that a prison term, as compared to placement on intensive probation or traditional probation, is associated with a greater likelihood of property and drug recidivism. There was little evidence that recidivism was greater when compared to jail, that prison increased the likelihood of violent or other recidivism, or that the criminogenic effect of prison is appreciably greater for females or males.

Conclusions

The findings do not support arguments that prison is an effective alternative to non-incarcerative punishments or that it exerts a differential effect on females or males. Further research is needed on what features of the prison experience contribute to the observed effects.     

Examining the empirical relationship between prison crowding and inmate misconduct: A meta-analysis of conflicting research results

Incarceration rates in the United States dramatically increased over the past several decades. This trend has drawn significant academic attention to prison overcrowding and its potential effect on inmate misconduct. The empirical relationship between inmate misconduct and overcrowding, however, is less than clear. To be sure, studies indicating positive, negative, and null relationships can all be found in the literature. The current research subjects this body of literature to a meta-analysis in an effort to: (1) clarify the direction and strength of the relationship between overcrowding and rates of prison misconduct across all studies, and (2) to uncover the degree to which variation in research outcomes can be attributed to methodological differences across studies. Results indicate that prison crowding has little substantive impact on inmate misconduct. Implications of the findings are discussed in detail.     

Unintended consequences: experimental evidence for the criminogenic effect of prison security level placement on post-release recidivism

Most prison systems use quantitative instruments to classify and assign inmates to prison security levels commensurate to their level of risk. Bench and Allen (The Prison Journal 83(4):367-382, 2003) offer evidence that the assignment to higher security prisons produces elevated levels of misconduct independent of the individual’s propensity to commit misconduct. Chen and Shapiro (American Law and Economics Review, 2007) demonstrate that assignment to higher security level among inmates with the same classification scores increases post-release recidivism. Underlying both of these claims is the idea that the prison social environment is criminogenic. In this paper we examine the theoretical premises for this claim and present data from the only experiment that has been conducted that randomly assigns inmates to prison security levels and evaluates both prison misconduct and post-release recidivism. The experiment’s results show that inmates with a level III security classification who were randomly assigned to a security level III prison in the California prison system had a hazard rate of returning to prison that was 31% higher than that of their randomly selected counterparts who were assigned to a level I prison. Thus, the offenders’ classification assignments at admission determined their likelihood of returning to prison. There were no differences in the institutional serious misconduct rates of these same prisoners. These results are contradictory to a specific deterrence prediction and more consistent with peer influence and environmental strain theories. These results also raise important policy implications that challenge the way correctional administrators will have to think about the costs and benefits of separating inmates into homogeneous pools based on classification scores.

Estimating the numbers of prison terms in criminal careers from one-step probabilities of recidivism

A method of using estimates of one-step probabilities of recidivism, i.e., conditional probabilities of individuals returning to prison for the jth time given release for the (j-1)st time, to estimate the numbers of prison terms expected to be accumulated by the individuals, is presented. The method is illustrated by calculating the expected numbers of prison terms separately for racial and gender groups in a large data base of Western Australian prisoners. The recidivism probabilities for these data were estimated by fitting Weibull mixture models to the (possibly censored) times to recidivate. The probabilities increase strongly asj increases from 1 to 6, then level off. Large differences between them are due to racial and gender group and these are reflected in the differing expected prison career durations for these groups. The effect of interventions which might lower recidivism is discussed in the light of the method as applied to these estimates.     

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 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.     

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.     

Why longer prison terms fail to serve a specific deterrent effect: an empirical assessment on the remembered severity of imprisonment

For a prison sentence to exert a specific deterrent effect, the ultimate question is that imprisonment is remembered as aversive once the offender is released, and is contemplating future criminal activities. Drawing on insights from social psychology and cognition, this study assessed (1) how inmates remember the severity of their imprisonment following release, and (2) how the severity as experienced while being incarcerated (e.g. the worst or the last moment) affects its recollected aversiveness among a sample of Dutch inmates who were released for approximately six months (n?=?696). The findings indicated that the severity as experienced while being incarcerated is strongly related to the severity as recollected following release, net of the duration of confinement. Strikingly, to the extent that the length of imprisonment affected its recollected aversiveness, it did so in the opposite direction than traditional deterrence research presumes. Implications for correctional policy and future research are discussed.     

An empirical testing of leverage effects via the common distribution network

The paper aims to empirically test the significance of leverage effects via the common distribution network in the conglomerate mergers between beer and soju manufacturers of Korea in the time period of 1994–2003. In this paper, a beer (or soju) manufacturer's ability to push the sales of soju (or beer) products via the common regional liquor distribution network is measured by the beer (or soju) firm's market share in the region. If the leverage effect is significant, we expect consumer choices to be significantly affected by the merged firm's ability to push. For a consistent estimation of the leverage effect on consumer demands, this paper adapts a logistic demand function for Yellow Pages in Rysman [Rysman, M. (2004). Competition between networks: A study of the market for yellow pages. Review of Economic Studies, 71, 483–512], controlling other demand-side variables such as prices, consumer loyalty, quality and the introduction of new products. The hypothesis test results indicate that the leverage effects via the common distribution network were not significant at the significance level of 0.1. This conclusion is robust to different specifications of leverage effects and the number of potential drinking.     

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.     

An assessment of the empirical validity and conceptualization of individual level multivariate studies of lifestyle/routine activities theory published from 1995 to 2005

Although routine activities (RA) theory has become a staple of mainstream criminology, little research has critically evaluated the “quality” of the theory. The purpose of this article is to assess the empirical validity and conceptualization of routine activities theory by reviewing individual level multivariate studies that have been published in mainstream journals from 1995 to 2005. First, the empirical validity of RA theory is assessed by examining the pattern of multivariate findings for four key concepts (target attractiveness, guardianship, deviant lifestyles, and exposure to potential offenders). Next, the pattern of findings is examined to determine if they are invariant across time/space/place. Third, areas of conceptual ambiguity are highlighted by identifying variables categorized under more than one key concept. Finally, the theoretical implications, limitations of the current study, and areas for future research are discussed.     

提升全国监狱工作整傩水平的新思路和新举措——范方平副部长谈监狱“三化”建设

监狱工作法制化、科学化和社会化(以下简称“三化”),是促进罪犯改造质量不断提高的有效途径,是建设社会主义政治文明中监狱工作的战略性的系统工程,是新形势下监狱工作实现可持续协调发展的根本保障。2003年11月23、24日,司法部在北京召开的全国监狱工作“三化”建设座谈会上明确,下一阶段全国监狱要普遍推进“三化”建设工作。日前,本刊记者就监狱工作法制化、科学化和社会化建设的背景、重要意义、主要内容、与监狱其他工作的关系以及各地“三化”实践等问题走访了司法部副部长范方平。     

Cognitive limitations and affirmative action: The effects of aggregate versus sequential data in the perception of discrimination

The present experiment examined whether or not relatively simple cognitive and information-processing limitations may prevent us from recognizing instances of organizational discrimination. It was hypothesized that the perception of discrimination would be more difficult when the relevant information had been presented in a case-by-case basis rather than in aggregate format. The obtained results provided strong support for the original hypothesis. Subjects who had been presented with company data in aggregate format provided significantly higher ratings of discrimination than those subjects for whom the information had been presented in sequential form. The implications of these findings to the policy of affirmative action are also discussed.     

Using recidivism data to evaluate project 12-ways: An ecobehavioral approach to the treatment and prevention of child abuse and neglect

Many programs and projects have been remiss at looking at outcome variables such as recidivistic child abuse and neglect. Presented here are program evaluation data which examine recidivism data over 5 years across more than 700 families. Families receiving services from Project 12-Ways, a multifaceted in-home ecobehavioral approach, were compared with families indicated in the same region who received child protective services other than those offered by Project 12-Ways. Families who receive services from Project 12-Ways are less likely to reinjure or neglect their children again.     

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.     

Conflict theory and racial profiling: An empirical analysis of police traffic stop data

Using data collected by the Richmond, Virginia Police Department, this article applies conflict theory to police traffic stop practices. In particular, it explores whether police traffic stop, search, and arrest practices differ according to racial or socioeconomic factors among neighborhoods. Three principal findings emanate from this research. First, the total number of stops by Richmond police was determined solely by the crime rate of the neighborhood. Second, the percentage of stops that resulted in a search was determined by the percentage of Black population. Third, when examining the percentage of stops that ended in an arrest/summons, the analyses suggest that both the percentage of Black population and the area crime rate served to decrease the percentage of police stops that ended in an arrest/summons. Implications for conflict theory and police decision-making are addressed.     

努力推进监狱工作法制化科学化社会化建设 提高监狱工作整体水平

在2002年底召开的全国司法厅(局)长会议上,司法部党组首次系统提出推进监狱工作法制化、科学化、社会化(以下简称“三化”)建设的要求,这是提高改造质量、提升监狱工作整体水平的重大举措,标志着监狱工作由封闭转向开放、由神秘转向透明、由狭义改造走向广义改造。2003年11月23、24日,司法部在北京召开全国监狱工作“三化”建设座谈会,科学总结了全国监狱一年多“三化”建设工作的实践经验,认真分析了全国监狱“三化”建设工作存在的问题,全面部署下一阶段“三化”建设工作。会议对进一步统一思想,明确目标,全面推进监狱工作“三化”建设进程,实现监狱工作在新时期的新发展和新突破,具有深远的历史意义和重要的现实意义。