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.     

Responsive regulation in public‐private partnerships: Between deterrence and persuasion

Design‐Build‐Finance‐Maintain‐Operate (DBFMO) contracts are a particular type of public‐private partnership whereby governments transfer the responsibility for the design, construction, financing, maintenance, and operation of a public infrastructure or utility service building to a multi‐headed private consortium through a long‐term performance contract. These arrangements present a typical principal‐agent problem because they incorporate a “carrot and stick” approach in which the agent (consortium) has to fulfill the expectations of the principal (procurer). This article deals with a neglected aspect in the literature related to the actual use of “the sticks or sanctions” in DBFMOs and assesses to what extent and under which conditions contract managers adopt a deterrence‐based enforcement approach or switch to a persuasion‐based approach, specifically when the contract clauses require the use of (automatic) deterrence. An empirical analysis of four DBFMOs in the Netherlands shows that the continuation of service delivery, the need to build trust, and the lack of agreement on output specifications play a role in the willingness of the procurer to apply a more responsive behavior that uses persuasion, even when deterrence should be automatically applied. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd     

Female delinquents in a birth cohort: Tests of some aspects of control theory

In the light of the rather low, empirical interest in the etiology of female crime and delinquency, this study presents and discusses some findings on aspects of control theory. The data are taken from Project Metropolitan, a longitudinal study of a Stockholm birth cohort comprising 15,117 cases (males and females) studied during a 30-year period. Of the females 791 cases or 11% acquired records of delinquency, drug use, or crime up to age 26. The delinquents were divided according to assumed seriousness and compared to the nondelinquents on two dimensions of the social bond called Attachment to school and Commitment to education. The results show, first, that delinquency varies with the strength of the social bond and, second, that the ability to predict future delinquency with knowledge of these aspects of the bond is limited, as the variance proportions accounted for are low. However, when comparing the explained variances to some well-known studies, we find that the differences are not so extensive.This paper is published in its complete form by the Project Metropolitan Research Report series, Department of Sociology, University of Stockholm, 1989. The summary tables presented here are found in original form in the original version.     

Administering child protection: a feminist analysis of the conceptual practices of organizational power

Abstract: This article explores textually-mediated administrative technology such as that being implemented by Ontario's Ministry of Community and Social Services to organize more effective control over the delivery of contracted services to children and families under child welfare legislation. A case study of the development and testing of a related technology, case-weighting, initiated by the Metro Toronto Children's Aid Society, offers the opportunity for an in-depth analysis of “conceptual practices” for exercising organizational power. It is argued that the use of conceptual practices, made practicable by improvements in computer facilities, represents a major development in managerial method which restructures organizational meanings, outcomes, and relations among participants in human service organizations. Feminist scholarship contributes both a critical stance on the approach being taken to child protection services and appropriate methodology for the analysis. Sommaire: Le présent article explore les technologies administratives fondées sur des textes, comme celles mises en oeuvre actuellement par le ministère des Services communautaires et sociaux de l'Ontario, afin de resserrer les contrôles sur la prestation de services contractuels aux enfants et aux familles, en vertu des lois sur l'assistance à l'enfance. Une étude de cas concernant la mise au point et la validation d'une technique connexe, la pondération des cas, lancée par la Société d'aide à l'enfance du Grand Toronto, permet de faire une analyse approfondie des “pratiques conceptuelles” qui permettent d'exercer le pouvoir organisationnel. L'article soutienl que l'utilisation des pratiques conceptuelles, rendue possible par le progrès de l'informatique, a grandement changé les méthodes de gestion, qui restructurent les significations, résultats et rapports organisationnels entre les participants au sein des organismes de services. Des études féministes apportent à la fois une perspective critique en ce qui concerne l'approche adoptée envers les services de protection à l'enfance et une méthodologie appropriée à leur analyse.     

A latent structure analysis of delinquency

This paper uses latent structure analysis to develop a construct of delinquency based on a set of frequently used indicators of illegal behavior. Other methods, such as Guttman scaling and factor analytic procedures, are briefly reviewed as similar attempts to identify manifest (observed) variables that may act as indicators of a latent (unobserved or unobservable) variable, delinquency. The basic mathematical properties of the latent structure model employed in this paper are presented and then applied to a set of six self-report measures. The issue of external validity is also examined in a comparative analysis of an additive scale of delinquency and the latent class measure of delinquency. The latent class measure provides a considerable increase in the magnitude of association with such commonly studied correlates as attachment, peer delinquency, and instrumental attitudes toward the law.     

Environment Rights versus Environmental Wrongs: Forum over Substance?

Beginning with the 1972 Stockholm Declaration, there have been a number of international proclamations of a human right to a clean environment, both implicit and explicit. The highpoint of this movement towards an internationally recognized substantive right to a clean environment came with the 1992 Rio Declaration. This movement has continued forward in regional and specialized regimes – for example with respect to water and indigenous rights. There has also been a parallel move towards recognition of what can be considered procedural rights, which require public access to information, participation in decision making, and access to justice in environmental matters. This article argues that further development and use of these procedural rights will not only provide opportunities to protect environmental rights, but can also further the development of a substantive right to a clean environment.     

The impact of distributive and procedural justice on correctional staff job stress, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment

Correctional staff are the heart and soul of any correctional facility. While there was a significant body of research on the impact of the work environment on correctional staff, this study sought to expand that knowledge by examining the effects of distributive and procedural justice on correctional staff job stress, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. Multivariate models were estimated. Both forms of organizational justice had negative effects on job stress and organizational commitment; however, only procedural justice, but not distributive justice, had a significant impact on job satisfaction.