An Examination of Defendant Sex Disparity in Capital Sentencing: A Propensity Score Matching Approach

Although much prior work has examined the influence of extralegal factors on jury capital sentencing decision-making, the influence of defendant sex has been largely omitted from previous investigations. Using propensity score matching methods, the current study analyzes data from the North Carolina Capital Sentencing Project to examine whether “sex matters” in capital sentencing. Findings demonstrated that prior to matching there was a significant difference in the likelihood of receiving the death penalty for female and male defendant cases; however, after matching cases on an array of legal and extralegal case characteristics, these differences were no longer significant. Further results revealed that male defendants’ cases included different aggravating and mitigating factors than female defendants’ cases and that female defendants had limited “paths” to capital trials. Findings suggest that any apparent sex effects that are observed in capital sentencing stem from real differences in the case characteristics found in female and male defendants’ cases rather than any direct effects of defendant sex on jury decision-making. Study limitations and implications for death penalty research are also discussed.     

Energy Crime,Harm, and Problematic State Response in Colorado: A Case of the Fox Guarding the Hen House?

Crime related to energy extraction is an emerging area of interest among green and critical criminologists. This paper contributes to that developing work by examining the political economy of harm and crime associated with the oil and natural gas industry in rural Colorado. Specifically, we examine problematic state regulatory response to citizens’ complaints regarding a range of harms caused by private industry (e.g., water pollution, adverse human health consequences, and domestic livestock death). In this paper, we draw on content analysis of formal complaints filed by citizens to the state, ethnographic work, and intensive interviews with citizens seeking relief from problematic or abusive industry practices. Our analysis illuminates how the state documents these practices, how citizens experience them, and how the state dilutes and deflects the externalities of energy extraction to produce additional harm.     

Dental hygiene students' matching accuracy when comparing antemortem dental radiographs and oral photographs to simulated postmortem WinID3® odontograms

Matching dental antemortem (AM) and postmortem (PM) data for human identification is especially challenging when the workforce is limited. Dental hygienists have served mass fatality incidents (MFIs) due to dental-related expertise. However, forensics within dental hygiene education and research on transferable skills is limited. This qualitative balance design study assessed senior dental hygiene students' match accuracy of simulated cases varying in dental identifiers based on AM full mouth series (FMS) radiographs and oral photographs to PM WinID3^® odontograms to demonstrate possible disaster victim identification (DVI) transferable skills gained during formal education. A convenience sample of senior dental hygiene students (n = 31) was presented information on WinID3^® interpretation, then presented with 5 mismatched cases and asked to visually interpret each to make 10 total matches; five based on AM FMS with simulated PM WinID3^® odontograms and five based on AM photographs with PM WinID3^® odontograms. Match accuracy scores ranged from 41.9% to 58.1% for cases with 1–10 identifiers, and 77.4% to 93.5% for cases with 11–40 identifiers. Accuracy when matching AM radiographs to PM odontograms versus AM photographs to PM odontograms was compared and revealed no statistical differences in match accuracy depending on image type (p = 0.388 to 1.000). Results of this pilot study suggests transferable match accuracy skills resulted from the participants' dental hygiene formal education. These baseline skills with additional specialized training support the rationale for dental hygienists serving on DVI teams. More research is needed in education and practice when preparing dental hygienists for forensic-based service.     

Seen or Unseen? The Role of Race in Police Contact among Homeless Youth

Homeless youth are at an increased risk of police contact—being stopped by police and arrested, yet it is less clear if this interaction is patterned by race. The current study draws on diverse scholarship to examine three possible effects of race on homeless youths’ interaction with police: that non-White homeless youth are more likely (disproportionate minority contact/symbolic assailants), less likely (out-of-place policing) or no different than White youth (master status) to experience police contact. Using the Midwest Longitudinal Study of Homeless Adolescents, we examine homeless youths’ odds of self-reported police harassment and arrest. Non-White homeless youth are more likely to report police harassment and arrest, but living on the street neutralizes these racial disparities. Further, prior police harassment is linked to subsequent arrest, operating similarly for White and non-White homeless youth. We discuss the implications of these findings for advancing scholarship on the challenges faced by homeless youth.     

Effects of Experiencing the Eyewitness Identification Procedure on Juror Decisions

Mistaken eyewitness identifications are believed to contribute to a preponderance of wrongful convictions, underscoring the need to identify methods to help decrease the likelihood of false convictions based on eyewitness testimony. The present study tested the hypothesis that providing jurors with first-hand experience with eyewitness identification procedures could help further sensitize them to the limitations of eyewitness testimony. Eighty college students watched a videotaped mock trial in which the prosecution’s sole evidence was eyewitness testimony. In a 2 × 2 randomized factorial design, we manipulated whether participants heard expert psychological testimony (henceforth referred to as expert testimony) on the limitations of eyewitness identification and whether they experienced an eyewitness identification procedure. As predicted, experiencing the eyewitness identification procedure had a significant impact on juror decisions, suggesting that this procedure could further help reduce the likelihood of wrongful convictions.     

The co-implementation of Compstat and community policing

Over the last twenty-five years Compstat and community policing have emerged as powerful movements in U.S. police reform. Despite their importance, there are virtually no studies on how they interact when implemented in the same police organization. Based on field work in seven police agencies, this article provides the first systematic research on this co-implementation issue. In doing so it examines the reform literature to illuminate and clarify the key doctrinal elements of Compstat and community policing, including where they are similar and where they differ. Next it describes the patterns of co-implementation that emerged across different sites, including the finding that these reforms operated largely independently. This leads us to consider a broader theoretical explanation for why this should be the case and to provide a basis for enriching future research on the co-implementation of these reforms.     

Self-Reported Communication Variables and Dating Violence: Using Gottman’s Marital Communication Conceptualization

Communication behaviors, while extensively studied within the marital field, have received only peripheral attention in violent dating relationships. The purpose of this research was to better establish empirical continuity between the marital and dating literatures by exploring communication variables that have been identified in marital relationships broadly and their self-reported manifestation in violent dating relationships. Using Gottman’s (1999) marital communication conceptualization, individuals were assessed on adaptive and maladaptive communication variables and relationship aggression. Results suggested that negative communication behaviors were associated with, and predicted, aggression in participants’ dating relationships, consistent with findings from the marital literature. However, repair attempts, generally considered an adaptive communication behavior, predicted aggression victimization. Implications and how these data fit within the context of recent research on positive marital communication behaviors are explored.     

Book Reviews

Women and Public Policy: The Shifting Boundaries Between the Public and Private Spheres. Edited by S. Baker and A. Van Doorne‐Huiskes. Ashgate Publishing Ltd., 1999. Pp.234.

Environmental Movements: Local, National and Global. Edited by Christopher Rootes. Frank Cass. 1999. Pp 316. £39.50 hb; £17.50 pb.

Driving Forces ‐ The Automobile, its Enemies and the Politics of Mobility. By James A. Dunn JR. Brookings Institution Press, 1998. Pp.230. $18.95 pb; $44.95 hb.

Perspectives on British Rural Planning Policy 1994–97. By Andrew Gilg. Ashgate, 1999. Pp.154. £35 hb.

Power to the Parishes. Special issue of Local Governance. Edited by A. Coulson. Institute of Local Government Studies, University of Birmingham, 2000. £10.

The Changing Nature of Local Government in Developing Countries. Edited by Patricia L. McCarney. Centre for Urban and Community Studies, University of Toronto, 1996. Pp.314.

Planning Beyond 2000. Edited by P. Allmendinger and M. Chapman. John Wiley &; Sons, 1999. £22.50 pb.

Regional Policy and Planning in Europe. By P. Balchin, L. Sykora and G. Bull. Routledge, 1999. £15.99 pb.

Urban Policy and Politics in Britain. By Dilys M. Hill. Macmillan, 2000. Pp.254. £.14.99 pb.

Local Statesmen: The Story of Politics in Nottinghamshire County Council. By Peter Housden. The Local Government Centre, University of Warwick and Nottinghamshire County Council, 2000. Pp.219. £9.99 plus £2 postage and packaging.

County Borough Elections in England and Wales 1919–1938: A Comparative Analysis: Volume 1: Barnsley ‐ Bournemouth. By Sam Davies and Bob Morley. Ashgate, 1999. Pp.708. £80.

The British Police. Police Forces and Chief Officers 1829–2000. By Martin Stallion and David S. Wall. Police History Society, 1999. Pp.256. £15 pb.

Policing Provincial England 1829–1856: The Politics of Reform. By David Philips and Robert D. Storch. Leicester University Press, 1999. Pp.342. £55 hb.     

The Contradictory Effects in Efficiency and Citizens’ Participation when Employing Geo-ICT Apps within Local Government

Abstract

With the increasing use of web-based mapping applications, inter-mediation between public planning agencies and citizens is changing. This article investigates how one form of inter-mediation, geo-ICT-enabled apps (applications on mobile phones and/or internet that use maps or locations as basic references for any functional analysis), influences the degree of efficiency and participation in managing public space. The theoretical assumption here is that such apps encourage information disclosure and therefore have the potential to make a local government more responsive and transparent. Drawing on observation, interviews, and document and web content analysis conducted as part of a case study, this article suggests that the apps have indeed enhanced one municipality’s response and have made citizens more active in uploading their complaints. However, unexpected and contradictory effects include an increase in trivial complaints, which has made the handling of reports less efficient, and the emergence of opportunistic behaviour by third parties on the basis of the complaints, which has made the services less effective. Consequently, the assumed causal relation between enhanced citizen participation and increased transparency and information disclosure requires an adaptation that incorporates such wicked effects.