DOES CORRECTIONAL TREATMENT WORK? A CLINICALLY RELEVANT AND PSYCHOLOGICALLY INFORMED META-ANALYSIS *

Careful reading of the literature on the psychology of criminal conduct and of prior reviews of studies of treatment effects suggests that neither criminal sanctioning without provision of rehabilitative service nor servicing without reference to clinical principles of rehabilitation will succeed in reducing recidivism. What works, in our view, is the delivery of appropriate correctional service, and appropriate service reflects three psychological principles: (1) delivery of service to higher risk cases, (2) targeting of criminogenic needs, and (3) use of styles and modes of treatment (e.g., cognitive and behavioral) that are matched with client need and learning styles. These principles were applied to studies of juvenile and adult correctional treatment, which yielded 154 phi coefficients that summarized the magnitude and direction of the impact of treatment on recidivism. The effect of appropriate correctional service (mean phi = .30) was significantly (p <.05) greater than that of unspecified correctional service (.13), and both were more effective than inappropriate service (?.06) and non-service criminal sanctioning (?.07). Service was effective within juvenile and adult corrections, in studies published before and after 1980, in randomized and nonrandomized designs, and in diversionary, community, and residential programs (albeit, attenuated in residential settings). Clinical sensitivity and a psychologically informed perspective on crime may assist in the renewed service, research, and conceptual efforts that are strongly indicated by our review.     

PROBLEM-ORIENTED POLICING IN VIOLENT CRIME PLACES: A RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED EXPERIMENT*

Over the past decade, problem-oriented policing has become a central strategy for policing. In a number of studies, problem-oriented policing has been found to be effective in reducing crime and disorder. However, very little is known about the value of problem-oriented interventions in controlling violent street crime. The National Academy of Sciences' Panel on the Understanding and Control of Violent Behavior suggests that sustained research on problem-oriented policing initiatives that modify places, routine activities, and situations that promote violence could contribute much to the understanding and control of violence. This study evaluates the effects of problem-oriented policing interventions on urban violent crime problems in Jersey City, New Jersey. Twenty-four high-activity, violent crime places were matched into 12 pairs and one member of each pair was allocated to treatment conditions in a randomized block field experiment. The results of the impact evaluation support the growing body of research that asserts focused police efforts can reduce crime and disorder at problem places without causing crime problems to displace to surrounding areas.     

Images of Nyongo amongst Bamenda Grassfielders in Whiteman Kontri

This paper discusses the experiences and discourses of transnational migrants from the Bamenda Grassfields of Cameroon. It uses Nyongo, a popular form of witchcraft that privileges zombification over instant gratification through instant and total death, to seek to illustrate how the tensions occasioned by everyday witchcraft offer migrants and their communities the opportunity to interrogate, adapt to, reject or appropriate new ideas of being acquired through encounters with difference. The paper thus attempts to capture not only what it means to see oneself as a victim of Nyongo, but to detail the contradictions involved with inhabiting spaces that conjure images of Nyongo. While not primarily about potent witchcraft fears, violence and afflictions, the paper does point to how the metaphorical and sometimes joking self-image of zombiehood by Bamenda Grassfielders in the diaspora offers a discursive resource among others for ongoing negotiations of belonging, personal success and expectations. The paper argues that the collectivist notions of success from which migrants and their home communities draw are such as to warrant accusations, counter-accusations, and images of Nyongo as a way of seeking a healthy balance between marginalization and exploitation, social responsibility and personal success, home of origin and home of refuge. The accusatory language of victimhood employed by migrants to describe their subjection and ultra-exploitation by forces at home and in the host countries is evidence that, to them, home is neither simply to be found “at home” or “away from home”.