Perceptual Biases, Graffiti and Fraternity Crime: Points of Deflection that Distort Social Justice

Although the official, law-enforcement policy in Bloomington, Indiana, categorized graffiti as vandalism, prominently displayed graffiti produced by Indiana University's student organizations escaped criminalization. This article documents the differential, criminal justice treatment of graffiti vandalism based on the group producing it thereby reaffirming the existence of a class-based system of justice. This article also uncovers a hidden bias inherent in Chambliss' “The Saints and the Roughnecks” by arguing that university students, whose graffiti do not receive negative sanctioning, represent Saints at the college level who exhibit criminal behavior. University-level lessons about how the crimes of the privileged go unprosecuted or become transformed into civil rather than criminal events could very well pave the way for further crimes after graduation rather than the “Saintly” adulthood implied by Chambliss. More research into the alternate system of justice used with regard to university students could shed light on both the problems and possibilities encountered when implementing alternate systems of social justice. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

A preliminary study of the factors related to trauma in childhood sexual abuse

This study examined levels of depression, anxiety, and self worth in a sample of 75 sexually abused girls. The subjects had higher levels of anxiety and depression and lower levels of self worth than normal samples. Although multivariate analysis failed to find a relationship between abuse-specific variables and outcome when the variables were examined alone, significant interactions emerged. The interaction between the identity of the perpetrator and force was significantly related to levels of depression and self worth. Force was related to a less serious impact when the father was a perpetrator and more serious with a non-father perpetrator. The interaction of the perpetrator and whether the child was removed from the home was related to anxiety. When abused by a perpetrator who was not a father figure, those removed from the home had higher levels of anxiety. Trends in the data and significance of the research to intervention are discussed.     

Environmental Horizon Scanning and Criminological Theory And Practice

The world is rapidly changing due to climate change and the systematic depletion of natural resources. This paper provides a glimpse over the horizon of issues likely to be of interest to European criminology in the not so distant future. Our concern is to identify a set of issues and trends that have significant theoretical, methodological and policy implications for those with an interest in transnational environmental crime. The concerns range from the social consequences of climate change through to the use of the subterranean spaces of the planet as a toxic repository. This paper presents a brief summary of several horizon issues and explores the implications of these for criminological research and intervention. The paper provides an introduction and overview of environmental horizon scanning as informed by eco-global criminological considerations.     

Child Abuse in a Disciplinary Context: A Typology of Violent Family Environments

The objectives of this study were to identify and validate types of violent family environments based on child abuse in a disciplinary context. The study is original in that it simultaneously takes into account the cognitive and behavioral dimensions of the parental role as it relates to the degree of family violence in a child??s life. Cluster analyses were performed on a representative sample of 3,148 families. The Abusive profile applied to families who reported at least one severe assault on a child within the past year. This profile also had the highest levels of domestic violence, psychological aggression, and corporal punishment. The Harsh profile is nevertheless similar to the Abusive profile, despite the fact that these families reported no severe assault. The key difference is the lower score levels: the attributes are the same, but less intense. The Nonabusive profile accounted for the families with the lowest rates of domestic and parental violence, together with a negative attitude towards corporal punishment and a heightened awareness of the consequences of violence. Although the families who matched the Paradoxical profile reported very little violence, they are the least aware of the consequences of violence and the most in favor of corporal punishment. The four profiles were replicated with another cluster analysis performed on an independent representative sample of 2,465 families. Then the profiles were compared with regard to the variables used to create the clusters and other variables theoretically associated with the appearance of maltreatment. These validation methods enhance the credibility of the proposed typology.