CORRELATES OF VIOLENT POLITICAL EXTREMISM IN THE UNITED STATES*

Although research on terrorism has grown rapidly in recent years, few scholars have applied criminological theories to the analysis of individual‐level political extremism. Instead, researchers focused on radicalization have drawn primarily from political science and psychology and have overwhelmingly concentrated on violent extremists, leaving little variation in the dependent variable. With the use of a newly available data set, we test whether variables derived from prominent criminological theories are helpful in distinguishing between nonviolent and violent extremists. The results show that variables related to social control (lack of stable employment), social learning (radical peers), psychological perspectives (history of mental illness), and criminal record all have significant effects on participation in violent political extremism and are robust across multiple techniques for imputing missing data. At the same time, other common indicators of social control (e.g., education and marital status) and social learning perspectives (e.g., radical family members) were not significant in the multivariate models. We argue that terrorism research would benefit from including criminology insights and by considering political radicalization as a dynamic, evolving process, much as life‐course criminology treats more common forms of crime.     

Detention Decision-Making in a Predominantly Hispanic Region: Rural and Non-Rural Differences

This study examines the implementation of juvenile detention policy by comparing decision making in two jurisdictions where Hispanics represent the numerical majority of the population. One jurisdiction is rural and the other is a jurisdiction with over 1000,000 population. Interviews with juvenile justice probation and parole officers and judges are combined with a quantitative analysis of official records from 1994. Detention decision making is different in these jurisdictions. There is more formal processing and detention of juveniles in the rural jurisdiction. This is attributable to a perception of the community as heterogeneous rather than homogeneous, and a lack of alternatives as compared to the non-rural jurisdiction.     

The German Police Forecast for the Year 2000: Administrative and Policy Implications

Projections of the future are often developed to assist organizations in planning and preparing for assigned responsibilities and to serve as guides for long-range operations control and decision-making. As noted by several scholars, American police agencies have paid insufficient attention to futuristics even though most upper level officers voice support for efforts to enhance the ability of decision makers to anticipate future problems. This paper examines the study completed by the International Federation of Senior Police Officers (IFSPO) entitled “Police in the Year 2000” dealing with the West German police system and discusses the implications of that study for police planning and management. Special attention is devoted to aspects of the model considered significant for American policing agencies and institutions.     

Analysis of Crime in Africa by the Mass Media in the 1960's and 1970's

This paper seeks to demonstrate the extent to which the mass media has become a partner in investigating as well as documenting the crime problem in the new states of Africa since the 1960's. Also, it examines the problems that have confronted the mass media in this role.