Capitalizing on Criminal Accomplices: Considering the Relationship between Co-offending and Illegal Earnings

This study investigates whether co-offending offers an avenue towards criminal success. Specifically, it considers if current and prior co-offending experience is related to the probability of reporting illegal earnings as well as the amount of these earnings. Using data from the Pathways to Desistance Study, we estimated fixed-and random-effects models to test whether co-offending experience is related to self-reported illegal earnings. The models also estimated whether “historical” co-offending experience predicted current illegal earnings. Across both modeling strategies, current and historical co-offending predicted the probability of reporting non-zero illegal earnings, net of offending frequency and controls. There is minimal evidence of a relationship between co-offending experience and the amount of illegal earnings, however. These findings lead us to conclude that access to a relatively common criminal connection—the co-offender—offers tangible benefits to adolescent offenders, primarily by affecting their ability to translate criminal opportunities into monetary gain.     

Legal Mobilization and Analogical Legal Framing: Feminist Litigators’ Use of Race–Gender Analogies

We investigate how cause lawyers articulate their demands in court. We do so by examining feminist legal briefs submitted in US Supreme Court cases from 1970 to the present, specifically focusing on the use of race–gender analogical legal framing. We explore the frequency and trends in the use of such arguments as well as the forms these arguments take, including how race–gender analogies parallel frame bridging and transformation. Additionally, we also investigate why activists choose to deploy race–gender analogies in their legal framing and discern that different political, legal, and social contexts can produce different uses of the race–gender analogy.     

Death following accidental sodium azide ingestion

Two college students developed symptoms of poisoning following ingestion of a salt solution during a college physiology laboratory exercise. Symptoms included nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and altered consciousness. The ingested solution was identified as isotonic buffered saline containing sodium azide in a concentration of 1.0 g/L. The solution was commercially prepared for instrumentation use only and was used inadvertently for the exercise instead of freshly preparing sodium chloride in water. One student drank three sips of the solution and survived. The other student drank 700 to 800 mL and over several days became progressively ill, suffering myocardial damage and cardiac dysrhythmias, and, finally, died. Toxicologic studies confirmed the presence of azide in an antemortem urine sample from the deceased. Sodium azide is an uncommon but potent poison which can cause serious illness and death.     

On the "general acceptance" of handwriting identification principles

Informed by the admissibility requirements of the broad and narrow Frye tests as well as Daubert's general acceptance factor, the present study elicited the views of a homogeneous group of forensic document examiners and a heterogeneous group of handwriting scientists regarding the degree to which a set of principles relating to the nature of handwriting and its identification were generally accepted within the respondents' fields. Among forensic document examiners, the greatest agreement was found concerning the process of examination, and somewhat less agreement on other matters. Forensic document examiners and handwriting scientists appear not to agree on the acceptability of most of the propositions.     

Batterers Stalking Patterns

This clinically based study asked 165 batterers attending a court-mandated assessment program to quantify a series of behaviors that occurred since being convicted of battering. The behaviors clustered into 2 factors: (1) an Ambivalent Contact Pattern whereby behaviors of batterers were associated with contacting their ex-partner, sending gifts and letters, and watching her without her knowing while harboring conflicting feelings of love, hate, and anger; and (2) a Predatory Contact Pattern whereby the behaviors of batterers were associated with hang up calls, entering her home without permission, threatening or physically causing harm to her while harboring a propensity for abusiveness. Clinicians should assess batterers for predatory thoughts about the estranged partner, and reason for the contact since separation. Presence of stalking behaviors and predatory fantasy is a window to determine repetitive and escalating domestic violence.     

Acculturation,Social Context,and Drug Use: Findings from a Sample of Hispanic Adolescents

Criminologists have largely neglected the influence of acculturation in the etiology of Hispanic drug use and delinquency. This is somewhat surprising since a long line of research from several disciplines has consistently linked higher levels of acculturation to greater incidence of negative social, health, and behavioral outcomes. A major shortcoming of this extant literature, however, is its failure to consider the acculturation-drug use link within a particular explanatory framework. This study attempts to address this oversight by examining the acculturation-drug use relationship within the context of gang membership, drug availability, and susceptibility to peer influence. Using data from a sample of Mexican–American adolescents residing in the American Southwest, a series of regression equations were estimated exploring the relative effects of acculturation, gang membership, drug availability, and susceptibility to peer influence on drug use. Separate analyses were conducted on minor (e.g., alcohol, marijuana) and major (e.g., cocaine, heroin) drug use. Findings indicated that all study variables, except acculturation, were significantly related to drug use.     

Effects of Motivational Enhancement on Immediate Outcomes of Batterer Intervention

This article presents results of a quasi-experimental trial of a 6 week motivation enhancing intervention for batterers highly resistant to intervention. One hundred and forty one (29%) highly resistant batterers were identified from a consecutive sample of 486 men referred to a large batterer intervention program. Resistant batterers attended either standard intervention (16 weeks) or a specialized 6 week motivation enhancing group followed by 10 weeks of standard intervention. Observation of counselor behaviors confirmed significant differences in rates of confrontation across groups. Analyses of immediate program outcomes provide some support for the value of motivation enhancing intervention. Resistant batterers who attended specialized intervention completed intervention at a significantly higher rate (84.2%) than both resistant clients in standard intervention (46.5%) and non-resistant clients (61.1%). Differences were maintained even after controlling for demographic and lifestyle related predictors of attrition. Advantages of specialized intervention did not extend to counselor-rated success at meeting core treatment goals. Discussion focuses on the implications of these results for the use of motivation enhancing intervention strategies to improve attendance at batterer intervention programs.