Developmental trajectories,transitions, and nonlinear dynamical systems: a model of crime deceleration and desistance

Research on crime-related developmental trajectories is reviewed with outcomes revealing the existence of several trajectories rather than a single general pattern. Each trajectory is marked by transitions that define the pattern's path and direction over time. These anticipated transitions differ from the unanticipated transitions known to precipitate crime deceleration and desistance. Borrowing principles from nonlinear dynamical systems theory--sensitive dependence on initial conditions, chaotic attractors, and self-organization in particular--this article offers a model of crime deceleration and desistance in which belief systems congruent with crime are altered in phases--initiation, transition, maintenance--to create belief systems incongruent with crime. The practical implications of this model are discussed and suggestions for future research are outlined.     

Are Behavioral Measures of Self-Control and the Grasmick Self-Control Scale Measuring the Same Construct? A Meta-Analysis

The Grasmick attitudinal scale of self-control (Grasmick, Tittle, Bursik, & Arneklev, Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 30, 5–29, 1993) is one of the more commonly used measures in research on Gottfredson and Hirschi’s (1990) self-control concept. What has yet to be determined is whether the Grasmick scale correlates as well with crime and delinquency as behavioral measures of self-control and whether the Grasmick scale correlates better with these behavioral measures than it does with crime and delinquency. A meta-analysis was performed on 13 samples obtained from published research where the Grasmick scale, a behavioral or consequences measure of self-control, and an estimate of crime or delinquency were all administered to participants. All analyses were computed with Comprehensive Meta-Analysis, Version 2 (Borenstein, Hedges, Higgins, & Rothstein, 2005) software. The results of the meta-analysis revealed that the Grasmick scale and behavioral/consequences measures of self-control achieved comparable correlations with concurrent measures of crime and delinquency but correlated no higher with each other than they did with crime and delinquency. Four possible interpretations of these results are considered: (1) the self-control concept advanced by Gottfredson and Hirschi is a tautology; (2) the attitudinal and behavioral/consequences measures of self-control are measuring different constructs; (3) self-control is a multidimensional construct; (4) self-report measures of behavioral self-control are inadequate for assessing low self-control.     

The Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles and Level of Service Inventory-Revised: Screening Version as Predictors of Official and Self-reported Disciplinary Infractions

A total of 159 male inmates screened with the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS) and Level of Service Inventory-Revised: Screening Version (LSI-R:SV) were followed for a period of 24 months for evidence of disciplinary infractions (incident reports). Eighty-three of these inmates also furnished a self-report of disciplinary infractions occurring during the 24-month follow-up. The PICTS General Criminal Thinking (GCT) score and LSI-R:SV total score correlated with and accurately identified the presence of an officially recorded disciplinary infraction, an officially recorded severe disciplinary infraction, and a self-reported disciplinary infraction but only age and the GCT score achieved incremental validity when age, GCT, and LSI-R:SV were included as predictors in the same probit regression or loglinear survival equation.     

Towards a framework for measuring local government return on investment in arts and cultural development

Local governments make a significant annual investment in arts and cultural development programmes. However, the practicalities of measuring the return on this investment have been largely overlooked by researchers, and investigations into return on investment have frequently focused on the economic return. Here, it is argued that intrinsic social and cultural returns on investment are equally important. A further issue is that measurement frameworks have often taken an outputs-based approach, seeking to evaluate the performance of one-off events rather than measuring the outcomes or impact of the total investment in arts and cultural development over the life of a policy or strategy. This paper therefore takes a broader, outcomes-based approach and offers a practical evaluation framework. An implementation-ready method is presented which will allow local government policy-makers to provide evidence of medium- and long-term outcomes and impacts of their arts and cultural development programmes and weigh this against their investment.     

The Politics of Cramped Space: Dilemmas of Action,Containment and Mobility

This article introduces a special issue oriented to the theme of cramped space. We look to cramped space to advance critical understanding of the relationship between space, mobility and politics. Cramped space registers degrees of deprivation, constriction, and obstruction, but always and simultaneously a concern for the ways in which such limits operate to stimulate and incite movements of becoming and remaking. With this point in mind we argue that the idea of cramped space promises to foster a fruitful dialogue between two lines of research that have hitherto unfolded separately. The first of these is the recent shift within globalization theories and mobility studies away from the initial overly-optimistic focus on unbounded flows, and towards questions of friction, containment, blockage, mediation and infrastructure. The second is Deleuze and Guattari's argument for minor politics (from where the idea of cramped space originates). Addressing an age when talk of fences and walls saturates public rhetoric, the essays collected here think through cramped space to imagine new vistas of the politics of mobility.     

Procedural justice perceptions,legitimacy beliefs,and compliance with the law: a meta-analysis

Journal of Experimental Criminology - The purpose of this study was to compare procedural justice and legitimacy as correlates and predictors of compliance with the law. A literature review...     

Deportation,Expulsion, and the International Police of Aliens

Compared with refugee or immigration policy, the historical and political analysis of deportation is poorly developed. This paper suggests some lines along which critical studies of deportation might proceed. First, it argues that we can historicize and denaturalize deportation by setting it within a wider field of political and administrative practices. This is done by comparing modern deportation practice with other historical forms of expulsion. Second, the paper interrogates the forms of governmentality which invest the practice of deportation, and asks what they might tell us about modern citizenship. It argues that deportation can be seen as one key element in the international police of aliens.