Exploring the Effect of Exposure to Short-Term Solitary Confinement Among Violent Prison Inmates

Objectives

This study tracked the behavior of male inmates housed in the general inmate populations of 70 different prison units from a large southern state. Each of the inmates studied engaged in violent misconduct at least once during the first 2 years of incarceration (n = 3,808). The goal of the study was to isolate the effect of exposure to short-term solitary confinement (SC) as a punishment for their initial act of violent behavior on the occurrence and timing of subsequent misconduct.

Methods

This study relied upon archival longitudinal data and employed a multilevel counterfactual research design (propensity score matching) that involved tests for group differences, event history analyses, and trajectory analyses.

Results

The results suggest that exposure to short-term solitary confinement as a punishment for an initial violence does not appear to play a role in increasing or decreasing the probability, timing, or development future misconduct for this particular group on inmates.

Conclusions

Upon validation, these findings call for continued research and perhaps a dialog regarding the utility of solitary confinement policies under certain contexts. This unique study sets the stage for further research to more fully understand how solitary impacts post-exposure behavior.

     

Individual neighborhood attachment and perceptions of neighborhood safety

Macrostructural research in the social disorganization tradition assumes neighborhood structure dictates individual behavior. The current research explores the opposite perspective to determine whether individual attachment to the neighborhood influences perceptions of neighborhood safety. Using the Chicago Metropolitan Area Survey, the results show that loners, persons wishing to move, and renters perceive their neighborhoods as being less safe than attached residents. Implications for future research are offered. Data for this study were made available by the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research.     

Probity Auditing: Keeping the Bureaucrats Honest?

The use of probity audits has flourished in the public sector in recent years. This growth has been accompanied by the development of probity guidelines by a number of central agencies and infrastructure providers across Australia. However, these guidelines tend to focus on competitive procurement processes and ignore broader factors applying to other processes in which probity audits are also used. Further, as there are no professional standards governing a probity audit (unlike most other types of audit), it is important that agencies have a clear understanding of their benefits and limitations and of the skills and experience required of a probity auditor before they commission one.     

Who is left out: exploring social boundaries in entrepreneurial ecosystems

The Journal of Technology Transfer - This study attempts to develop our understanding of the ecosystem as a complex social construct by advancing a social network perspective. Based on personal...     

Possibility In Adversity

Australia and China are strategic partners, with deeply integrated economies and growing people-to-people links.When there are differences,they are overcome with maturity and in the mutual interest of working together.     

Sustaining families, dissuading crime: The effectiveness of a family preservation program with male delinquents

Purpose

Family factors have long been considered an important contributor to the criminogenic process. Family Preservation (FP) programs attempt to improve family functioning and, thereby, dissuade future delinquency. Despite years of delivery, the limited research concerning the influence of FP programs on juvenile delinquency remains inconclusive.

Methods

This study examined the effectiveness of an FP program implemented in a metropolitan county of a large Southern state. Subjects were adjudicated male juveniles referred to the program by the courts. Recidivism outcomes for FP participants were compared against those of a simple random sample of non-participants.

Results

Findings suggest that FP does not impact recidivism among study participants. Issues with treatment fidelity may be responsible for the lack of results for this program.

Conclusion

These findings fail to lend support to the FP program. However, they do demonstrate the importance of treatment fidelity in juvenile justice programming.     

Toward a phenomenology of terrorism: implications for research and policy

The central theme of this paper is that the phenomenology of perception can contribute to conceptualizing terrorism, in terms of both a research orientation and policy applications. This means that counter-terrorism needs to be grounded in a holistic perspective that has meaning from the point of view of those engaged in terrorism. A critique of the “war on terror” counter-terrorism practices is followed by a discussion of phenomenology and its implications for a holistic perception of counter-terrorism. Four cases are presented that show how a phenomenological approach can facilitate counter-terrorism study and policy.     

Price Reform in the USSR: Comment on Shmelev

An apparent shift and rethinking of earlier views on prices by one of perestroyka's most outspoken and visible architects prompts an analysis by a leading American specialist in the field. Problems of the three main components of the Soviet price system, namely industrial producer prices, agricultural producer prices, and state retail prices, are examined. Proposals and official plans for changes in the price system are discussed. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: 027, 052, 124, 227.     

Soviet Assessments of Economic Reforms in Other Socialist Countries

A prominent American economist pieces together and analyzes Soviet assessments of economic reforms in other socialist countries. Included in the author's analysis are studies of Soviet specialists investigating changes in the administrative organization of the state sector, planning, pricing, banking, labor, agriculture, nonstate activity, and foreign economic relations, within the framework of a socialist planned economy. Also covered are more recent Soviet studies focusing on privatization, marketization, and government regulation in the transition to a capitalist market economy—work that influenced decisions about economic reforms in the Soviet Union. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: P21, B20.