CORRECTIONAL POLICY AND PUBLIC VALUES

Since 1960, research on various options in correctional policy has emphasiz ‘two basic dimensions: the offender and the community. Under the assumptions that the community and the offender are not separable concerns and that the community is a complex system with many different and conflicting elements, this study examines public values regarding several popular correctional options. Data obtained demonstrate two normative clusters, one concerned with retribution and one with rehabilitation. Examination of the social status of respondents suggests a complex relationship between community structure and norms concerning correctional programs. Recommendations for further research are outlined, as well as for ways that correctional officials could reduce public resistance to the programs favored by officials.     

NARCOTIC ADDICTS AND CRIME Analysis of Recent Trends

This study attempts to shed light on the types of crime committed by drug addicts and the possible changes in criminal behavior over time. The study revealed that arrests for crimes against the person are becoming more prominent among addicts although acquisition of property appeared to be the prime motive in these offenses Over the four-year period analyzed, arrests for crimes against property and drug offenses remained the more numerically important categories even though arrests for crimes against the person increased. It was also found that, for each type of offense, more persons were arrested after than before they initiated thew drug abuse patterns.     

THE SUPREME COURT AND CAPITAL PUNISHMENT: A Quest for Balance between Legal and Societal Morality

The interrelationships of legal and societal morality are examined through an analysis of judicial opinions in the Supreme Court's review of the constitutionality of the death penalty. Neither community standards nor considerations of utility provided the justices with a satisfactory basis for rejecting or regulating the death penalty. Resting their decisions instead on grounds of fairness, the justices endorsed a mode of jury guidance and monitoring that potentially facilitates citizen participation in the process of "evolving standards of decency." Legal morality thus is used as the justification for a decision that affects societal morality in a manner likely to limit rather than to expand the gap between the two moralities .     

PREDICTING THE RECIDIVISM OF SERIOUS YOUTHFUL OFFENDERS USING SURVIVAL MODELS*

Increases over the past decade in the number and seriousness of crimes committed by young offenders have resulted in renewed interest in control of the serious, violent, or chronic youthful offender. Recent research has established a number of theoretically relevant variables associated with persistent offending and offending defined recidivism. Few studies, however, have examined the individual characteristics that might predict the timing of youthful recidivism. This paper seeks to fill some gaps in knowledge of the serious youthful offender by estimating a multivariate survival model for a sample of youths paroled from California Youth Authority institutions. The model's results are then used to develop risk-assessment profiles for the sample. We suggest that these profiles may provide a reasonable approach for establishing treatment protocols or supervision requirements for paroled youths.