Temporal discounting: the differential effect of proximal and distal consequences on confession decisions

Drawing on the psychological principle that proximal consequences influence behavior more strongly than distal consequences, the authors tested the hypothesis that criminal suspects exhibit a short-sightedness during police interrogation that increases their risk for confession. Consistent with this hypothesis, Experiment 1 showed that participants (N = 81) altered how frequently they admitted to criminal and unethical behaviors during an interview to avoid a proximal consequence even though doing so increased their risk of incurring a distal consequence. Experiment 2 (N = 143) yielded the same pattern, but with a procedure that reversed the order of the proximal and distal consequences, thereby ruling out the possibility that it was the unique characteristics of the consequences rather than their proximity that influenced the admission rate. The authors discuss the supported psychological process as a potential explanation for several well-established findings reported in the literature on confessions.     

Violence against women in video games: a prequel or sequel to rape myth acceptance?

Current research suggests a link between negative attitudes toward women and violence against women, and it also suggests that media may condition such negative attitudes. When considering the tremendous and continued growth of video game sales, and the resulting proliferation of sexual objectification and violence against women in some video games, it is lamentable that there is a dearth of research exploring the effect of such imagery on attitudes toward women. This study is the first study to use actual video game playing and control for causal order, when exploring the effect of sexual exploitation and violence against women in video games on attitudes toward women. By employing a Solomon Four-Group experimental research design, this exploratory study found that a video game depicting sexual objectification of women and violence against women resulted in statistically significant increased rape myths acceptance (rape-supportive attitudes) for male study participants but not for female participants.     

The Authority to Do Good: Publicly Responsible Behavior among Private Mortgage Lenders

Private organizations are increasingly relied on, explicitly and implicitly, to carry out public objectives. But given that profit and public motives are not always aligned, why do private firms behave in publicly responsible ways? Specifically, how do diverse regulative, economic, normative, and cultural influences combine to enable or constrain publicly responsible behavior? This analysis focuses on a specific group of private actors: mortgage lenders. Through semi‐structured interviews with private lending agents participating in a public mortgage program, this analysis investigates influences that contribute to publicly responsible behavior. From the interviews, four different publicness dispositions are identified: pecuniary (sensitive to economic and regulative constraints), traditional (sensitive to regulative and isomorphic constraints), altruistic (sensitive to isomorphic and cultural‐cognitive influences), and opportunistic (sensitive to multiple influences). Even for organizations (and their actors) operating within the same policy context and the same public program, responses to political authority likely are contingent on varying publicness dispositions.     

The gendering effects of co-authorship in criminology & criminal justice research

Historically, research from various fields has indicated that females are underrepresented in academic papers. Not only are females less likely to publish relative to males, but they are also less likely to be sole-, co-, and first-authors in journal publications. While this gender discrepancy has become smaller in recent decades, males are still disproportionately represented in academic papers. The current study reviews author characteristics of articles published in the top fifteen criminology/criminal justice journals over a forty-year period (1974–2014). Among the 11,348 articles in the study, results indicated that while female sole- and first-authorship increased throughout the study period, 26.6% of sole-authors were female while 32% were first-authors and composed 33.3% of all co-authors. Further, females were less likely to be sole- and first-authors, less likely to have co-authors, and more likely to publish with other female co-authors.     

The Need for a Stronger Definition: Recognizing Abandonment as a form of Elder Abuse Across the United States

Elder abuse is a growing public health problem in the United States and statistics show that each year, hundreds of thousands of elders are abused in some manner. This Note discusses elder abuse while focusing specifically on the occurrence of elder abandonment and how the majority of states do not recognize elder abandonment as a form of elder abuse in their statutes. Moreover, this Note proposes a model statute to be adopted by every state in an effort for elder abandonment to become more widely reported. Elder abandonment is an unfortunate phenomenon and those who contribute to elder abandonment should face criminal liability similar to those abusers who engage in elder neglect or other types of elder abuse. Furthermore, this Note emphasizes that there should be a greater focus on how caregivers can seek assistance in order to prevent elder abuse in the United States.     

Arrest and the Amplification of Deviance: Does Gang Membership Moderate the Relationship?

Although research has found that gang suppression efforts are largely ineffective, these policies have been responsible for the arrests of many gang youth. Prior research indicates that arrest is associated with deleterious consequences, but we know less about how arrest uniquely affects gang members. Using longitudinal data from a school-based sample, this study explores the effects of arrest for both gang and nongang youth. Propensity score matching and matched outcome analyses allow us to determine whether gang membership moderates the effect of arrest on later deviant outcomes. Our results indicate that the consequences of arrest are inconsistent with the goals of suppression tactics, with gang members reporting little to no change in deviant attitudes and peers and modest increases in delinquency. Meanwhile, nongang youth experience a range of consequences associated with arrest, including increased odds of gang-joining.     

An outcome evaluation of the Methodist Home for Children’s value-based therapeutic environment model

Objectives

This study presents an outcome evaluation of the Value-Based Therapeutic Environment model, a multipurpose, cognitive–behavioral treatment approach for juvenile offenders.

Methods

Using a quasi-experimental design, the impact of VBTE treatment on recidivism is assessed for 258 youths, relative to a matched subsample of 258 comparison subjects.

Results

Results indicate that VBTE treatment is an effective intervention for reducing violent recidivism but has no significant effect on property, drug, or public order offenses. Consistent with past research, offender type moderates the impact of treatment. Specifically, 72.8 % of high-risk/need youth in the comparison group had reoffended within a 16-month follow-up period, compared to only 57.5 % of high-risk/need MHC youth, yet there were no significant differences between the treatment and comparison groups among low- and medium-risk/need juveniles. Moreover, the odds of a new violent charge were 49 % lower for high-risk/need MHC youth during the 12 months following MHC-discharge. Supplementary analysis indicates that VBTE participants also showed improvements on value- and skills-based behaviors related to self-image, goal orientation, honesty, empathy, decision-making, and personal development.

Conclusions

Findings of this study suggest that the VBTE model is a promising approach for the treatment of violent behavior among high-risk youth. Implications of the findings are discussed with regard to alternative treatment approaches for juvenile offenders.