Exploring the Impact of Child Sex Offender Suicide

This paper explores the issues and widespread impact surrounding child sex offenders (CSO) who commit suicide after learning they are under criminal investigation. This phenomenon, which has received scant attention in the literature, affects family, friends, and victims of offenders who may experience a range of conflicting emotions including anger, guilt, confusion, betrayal, and loss. Involved law enforcement may, likewise, experience a range of complex reactions. Law enforcement personnel are neither trained nor required to assess offenders’ suicidality. However, awareness of how CSOs are impacted by an investigation may mitigate the risk of suicide and enhance operational strategies, including officer safety.     

Can general strain theory explain white-collar crime? A preliminary investigation of the relationship between strain and select white-collar offenses

Agnew's (1992) general strain theory (GST) had been tested across a wide range of populations and on numerous criminal and analogous behaviors. The ability of GST to predict white-collar offending, however, had yet to be explored. Using data from convicted white-collar offenders, this research examined the ability of GST to explain white-collar offenses. The results revealed that GST was useful for predicting a select group of white-collar offenses, but might not be generalizable to individuals committing corporate-type crimes. Additionally, the findings suggested that the types of strain and negative emotion at work for white-collar offenders might vary from those found in other criminal populations. Implications for white-collar crime studies are discussed and ideas for future research are presented.     

MAKING THE CONNECTION: LEGAL ADVOCACY AND MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES

Recent research documenting the magnitude of mental health needs among juveniles has intensified calls for interventions that both address clinical needs and decrease recidivism. This article first examines research supporting the movement toward community mental health treatment for juveniles and argues that effective legal advocacy requires interdisciplinary coordination to identify and address mental health needs. Next, we present one jurisdiction's model for increasing access to community‐based mental health services and discuss how attorneys can apply the model to achieve this end.     

The Logic of Transnational Action: The Good Corporation and the Global Compact

This article examines corporate participation in the UN Global Compact programme. Using data on the world's 2,000 largest companies, we address the question of why companies voluntarily assume the programme's responsibilities and promote the rights of 'global citizenship'. Our analytic approach is to view transnational corporate political behaviour as a result of firm-level decisions shaped by country-level variation in political audience effects. Drawing on earlier research on more conventional forms of corporate political activity, we expect factors influential in the standard model of firm political activity to determine participation in the Global Compact. In addition, we argue that this highly visible, less instrumental dimension of a firm's political behaviour is driven by efforts to build a good environmental and human rights reputation with its audience of external actors. The importance of environmental and human rights concerns depends on the substance of the firm's business activities, the availability of investment and 'exit' options, and the home audience's bias towards the UN and human and environmental rights. We find support for political factors as well as firm and industry-level characteristics influencing the decision to participate in the Global Compact.     

Low self-control and parole failure: An assessment of risk from a theoretical perspective

Due to high levels of probation and parole failure, a substantial body of research in criminology, psychology, and criminal justice focused on pinpointing those factors that indicate the highest risk of recidivism and recommitment. The majority of the risk assessment tools that were currently utilized, however, were not theoretically based. This research was an attempt to examine parole failure from a theoretical perspective-that of Gottfredson and Hirschi’s general theory of crime. Results showed that low self-control was a significant, although not the only, predictor of parole failure. Low self-control, however, did not appear to significantly impact the length of time before the failure occurred. Future research suggestions and policy implications are provided.     

Transforming academic research findings into economically profitable technologies

The Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) operates on the principle that pooling investment in basic, pre-competitive research permits members to target a larger percentage of their research and development dollars towards devising technologies that will yield a competitive edge. This benefit is mot effectively realized, however, when the research “product” is expeditiously transferred from the research lab into the commercial environment. The product, in this case, may be knowledge, a design or manufacturing tool, personnel who are trained in the use of the tool, or information about a research approach that should be avoided. At the SRC, technology transfer is essential to the success of its cooperative research effort, and consequently, during 15 years of managing this transfer across the university/industry interface, the not-for-profit consortiun has developed and refined structures and methodologies to overcome transfer barriers. The paper written by Lynn Burnett, Gail Massari and Richard LaScala discusses administrative and managerial barriers to technology conversion and transfer and the solutions developed and practiced by the SRC to transcend those barriers.