Reassessing the Influence of Criminal History in Federal Criminal Courts

Abstract

Prior sentencing research indicates that defendants with more extensive criminal histories receive more punitive dispositions and that criminal history influences sentencing decisions over and above its influence on the guideline recommended sentence. To date, these additional effects of criminal history have almost exclusively been treated as linear effects. However, there are plausible reasons to expect that criminal history could have curvilinear effects on sentencing outcomes that taper off at higher scores. The purpose of this paper is to explore the potential curvilinear effects of defendant criminal history on incarceration, sentence length, and downward departure decisions in federal criminal courts. The findings suggest that criminal history has curvilinear effects on each of these sentencing outcomes. As criminal history category increases, defendants receive more severe sentences, net of other factors, but only up to a certain threshold level, at which point criminal history effects taper off and even reverse.     

Too central to fail? Terror networks and leadership decapitation

ABSTRACT

Leadership decapitation, as a means of hindering the operations and hastening the demise of terrorist organizations, has been the subject of a growing body of research. However, these studies have not examined how an organization’s position in a broader network impacts its ability to weather decapitation. We argue that highly networked organizations possess characteristics that make decapitation less effective. To test this argument, we combine data on leadership decapitation with network data on terrorist organizations and find that well-networked organizations are resilience to leadership decapitation. Our study has implications for our understanding of how terrorist organizations respond to counterterrorism efforts.     

Predictors of sexual aggression among male juvenile offenders

The purpose of this study was to conduct a longitudinal examination of predictors of sexual aggression among male juvenile offenders. Four hundred and four adolescent males between the ages of 14 and 17 years were recruited from juvenile probation offices to take part in a prospective study of substance use and sexual risk. At baseline, participants completed a series of questionnaires that assessed putative risk factors for sexual aggression. They then completed a measure of sexual aggression at the 6-month follow-up period. Correlational analyses revealed that participants who reported hard drug use, more frequent alcohol and marijuana use, and less severe offenses reported engaging in more severe sexual aggression. In addition, participants who reported higher impulsivity, sensation seeking, and externalizing behaviors also reported participating in more severe sexual aggression. When these variables were included in a regression analysis, only externalizing behaviors and severity of offense uniquely predicted severity of sexual aggression at the 6-month follow-up.     

Acute deaths in nonpregnant adults due to invasive streptococcal infections

Streptococcal organisms, part of the normal human bacterial flora, occasionally become infectious pathogens responsible for a wide array of clinical syndromes, ranging from mild pharyngitis to death. Notably, infections due to group A and group B beta-hemolytic strains are well known for causing invasive disease leading to death. These deaths, while often suspected clinically, occasionally are not diagnosed until autopsy. We present 3 rapid deaths, with very different presentations, due to streptococcal infection. Two decedents experienced sudden deaths due to pneumonia and severe meningoencephalitis caused by group B beta-hemolytic streptococcal infection, a common cause of neonatal meningitis but only rarely reported in nonpregnant adults. The final case involves a 69-year-old male who presented to the emergency room with a complaint of shoulder pain but over the next several hours developed signs of necrotizing fasciitis, became septic, and died. While antemortem cultures were negative, owing to antibiotic administration, postmortem cultures of bone and deep soft tissue were positive for group A beta-hemolytic Streptococcus sp. Acute and sudden deaths due to infectious etiology represent an uncommon yet well-documented occurrence. The importance of appropriate postmortem cultures in these situations and a review of the literature will be discussed.     

From tribe to peasant? The Limbus and the Nepalese state

This article's context is the distinction inform and meaning of land tenure systems as between tribes and peasants, and the role of the state in the transformation of traditionally inalienable tribal lands into alienable private property. The historical circumstances which have shaped and transformed the economy and culture of a particular tribal population ‐ the Limbus of east Nepal ‐ are examined. There is analysis of the programme of land reform introduced by the Nepalese state, whose chief outcome for the Limbus was the abolition of their kipat tenures and the conversion of their lands into private property. The implications in terms of land and identity are considered, and the outcome of heavy dependence on a small class of high caste Hindus who are now their landlords, creditors and employers is outlined.     

ClashofCultures

<正>Experiencing the Lunar New Year in China is always a memorable event,but this year’s spectacle was amplified through multiple glasses of baijiu and a bombardment of unsavory news from abroad.During the Chinese New Year,which started on January 28,hundreds of millions of citizens drained out of top-tier cities such as Beijing to seek the embrace of their hometown family and     

Endogenous competence and a limit to the Condorcet Jury Theorem

We describe and compare the experiences of academic exclusion of Alexander Del Mar, J.A. Hobson, and Gordon Tullock. While aspects of the circumstances differed, a common element was academic exclusion because of challenges to mainstream views. Alexander Del Mar, J.A. Hobson, and Gordon Tullock were in due course recognized for the originality and merit of their contributions, although each incurred personal costs because of the exclusion by the academic elites of their time. Our study takes us into the role of ideologically based prejudice in judgment of the worthiness of economic ideas.