Data sources in Chinese crime and criminal justice research

This paper reviews major criminological data collected in China over decades. Very few quantitative criminological data-sets are available to international and comparative scholars because of the sensitivity of the topic. Studies have been scattered and intertwined in other areas of study, such as law. However, several major projects have been conducted, although they may not be widely known to the international research community. The paper describes and analyzes the major projects in terms of their designs, samples, and measures. It also assesses their nature, scope, and utility that may be informative for further research on crime and justice in China.

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Victims of crime in the criminal justice system in Barbados

The study focused on the treatment of victims in the criminal justice system in Barbados, a developing country in the English speaking Caribbean. Based on the administration of a pre-designed questionnaire to 458 respondents from a simple random sample of victims who made reports to the police in Barbados. It focused on victims' experiences with the police in the law enforcement process, their experiences in the courts in the adjudication process, and factors associated with these. The findings were mixed, but showed that the respondents' experiences in the law enforcement and the adjudication process were generally positive. Regression analysis showed that police seriousness about, and interest in the case were statistically significant predictors of victims' satisfaction with the police, and that these together with police politeness, and response time explained 67 percent of the variance in respondents satisfaction with the police.     

Corporate crime and criminal justice system capacity: Government response to financial institution fraud

References to gang initiation rites are common in contemporary discourse about crime. Contemporary legends claim that gangs require initiates to commit horrific crimes, social science researchers depict initiations as brief tests of character, and newspaper accounts use initiation rites to explain unsolved crimes. The motif of gang initiation resembles claims about other deviant conspiracies. Its use illustrates how existing cultural resources serve the construction of social problems.     

Schizophrenia: Causes,crime, and implications for criminology and criminal justice

This paper is aimed at criminologists and criminal justicians seeking to understand their role in educating law enforcement and correctional personnel who must deal with the mentally ill. It is motivated by William Johnson's (2011) recent call for rethinking the interface between mental illness, criminal justice, and academia, and his call for advocacy. We concur with his concerns, and insist that this rethinking must necessarily include grounding in the etiology of mental illness (specifically, with schizophrenia) as it is currently understood by researchers in the area. Advocacy must go hand in hand with a thorough knowledge of the condition of the people for whom we are advocating. We first examine major etiological models of schizophrenia, emphasizing the neurodevelopmental model that incorporates genetics, neurological functioning, and immunological factors guided by the assumption that the typical criminologist/criminal justician has minimal acquaintance with such material. We then address the link between schizophrenia and criminal behavior, and conclude with a discussion of the implications for criminology and criminal justice.     

Race,criminal justice professionals,and intellectual authority in fictional crime dramas

The purpose of this research is to extend the existing media and crime literature by discussing how minority criminal justice personnel are granted or not granted intellectual authority in fictional crime dramas by their representation as presenters of crime and non-crime fact-based statements. An analysis of 117 episodes from four fictional crime dramas appearing in the top 20 Nielson ratings from 2003 to 2010 indicate that Black characters are not given the same intellectual authority as White characters, and therefore are imbued with less power and status than their White counterparts. In some cases, Black characters are not even given intellectual authority within their respective intellectual fields.     

Some implications of non-reporting and self-reporting of crime on criminal justice research

Conclusions There are reasonable grounds for assuming that unreported crime is extensive. Inasmuch as questionnaires are the major source of data for self-reported crime and delinquency and Clark and Tifft have seriously challenged the validity of this data source, it seems these areas lack a valid and unequivocal basis for assessing theory. It seems rather pointless to pursue etiological studies until new, valid, and reliable sources of data are available for theory construction and testing. The contention that interdisciplinary research is needed in Criminology is strengthened by the Clark and Tifft study, which offers an instance of fruitful interdisciplinary collaboration. Other recognized examples of significant interdisciplinary effort include the works of Pasmanick,et.al.,²³ Srole,et. al.,²⁴ and Lindner,et. al. ²⁵ Students of crime and delinquency must break through the parochialism of unitary and doctrinaire commitment to their own disciplines. In particular, sociologists must learn increasingly to utilize and embrace, at least on the micro-level, the potentials offered by other sciences, especially the life sciences. An alternative to this proposal would be a largescale consecutive birth study; then, perhaps in a quarter of a century, we might have the data necessary to formulate tentative etiological conclusions.     

Race, conventional crime, and criminal justice: The declining importance of skin color

Blacks in the United States are arrested, prosecuted, convicted, and incarcerated in numbers disproportionate to their percentage of the population. One explanation is that racial discrimination against Blacks pervades the American system of criminal justice. This study examined the nature and extent of racial discrimination in the criminal justice system by evaluating five propositions using data from extant literature. Little evidence was found to support the allegation that the criminal justice system systematically discriminates against Blacks.     

Teaching restorative justice to education and criminal justice majors

In academia, departments in Education and Sociology/Criminal Justice are in different colleges, but professionals in these fields frequently interact, such as probation officers working in schools and teachers working in prisons. This paper describes a course that addressed a commonality of the two by focusing on Restorative Justice. The content of the course was multi-disciplinary and co-taught by two professors from these different disciplines, and students were from a wide range of majors. Not only did the course content focus on Restorative Justice, this perspective guided how the course was taught. All classes were conducted within a Circle, students participated in the creation of the syllabus, students contracted for grades, and students organized many of the discussions. Emphasis was on critical analysis of Restorative Justice practices and theories. Quantitative and qualitative evaluations were provided as well as reflections by the teachers.