FROM INITIAL DETERRENCE TO LONGTERM ESCALATION: SHORT-CUSTODY ARREST FOR POVERTY GHETTO DOMESTIC VIOLENCE*

Persons arrested for misdemeanor domestic violence are held in custody for widely varying lengths of time. To test the effects of this variance, we randomly assigned short (X?= 2.8 hours), full (X?= 11.1 hours), and no arrests (warning only) to a sample of 1,200 cases with predominantly unemployed suspects concentrated in black ghetto poverty neighborhoods in Milwaukee. Victim interviews and one official measure showed that short arrest had a substantial initial deterrent effect relative to the warning group. Longer term follow-up and before-after analysis, however, found neither arrest group reflected any deterrence. On the most comprehensive official measure, short arrest consistently showed significantly higher long-term recidivism than no arrest. Its deterrent effect ended at 30 days, but its criminogenic effect was significant after one year. We conclude that short-custody arrests for domestic violence in poverty ghetto areas may pose a dilemma between short- and long-term crime control, but longer custody arrests have no clear long-term effect in either direction.     

BEHAVIORAL APPROACHES TO TREATMENT IN THE CRIME AND DELINQUENCY FIELD

Empirical, practical, and ethical issues pertaining to the use of behavior modification approaches in the crime and delinquency area are discussed. In reviewing specific procedures and programs, we emphasize a number of critical components for behavior modification programs, including: (a) procedures for programming generalization of treatment effects to the natural environment, (b) self-government due process systems, (c) safeguards for human and constitutional rights, (d) systematic procedures for teaching more socially adaptive skills, and (e) systematic consumer evaluations of the program's effectiveness and pleasantness     

Dworkin and Phenomenology of the “Pre‐Legal”?

Ronald Dworkin states in his preface to “Law's Empire” (1986) that he is doing a phenomenology of law. In regards to a phenomenology of law, I wish to investigate Dworkin's theory of law, and subsequently, what is left out in order for it to be considered a phenomenological account. In doing so, I will compare Dworkin's phenomenology of law to Schütz's phenomenology of the social world. The comparison between the two will illuminate what I believe is necessary for law, and that is a Phenomenology of the Pre‐Legal.     

The Ethical Deficit of the United Kingdom's Proposed Universal Credit: Pimping the Precariat?

Universal Credit is a proposed means‐tested cash benefit scheme in the UK that will serve, inter alia, to top‐up the wages of low‐paid workers. This article will argue first, that the moral justification for the scheme that is offered by the UK government is specious; second that the reconfiguration of existing wage top‐ups may be counterproductive and will in any event do little, if anything, to promote the work ethic; third, that the new scheme will not relieve but add to the injustices borne by the ‘precariat’ (the workers engaged in low‐paid precarious employment); finally, that far from having a justifiable moral purpose, Universal Credit is ethically flawed.     

A New Zealand Family in Nanjing

My family and I were invited to Nanjing inorder that I be resident at the printing facility.MY wife Jane and I, and our four children Michelle, Melinda, Niki and Shane, have been living in Nanjing for close to 15 years. I made my first visit to Nanjing in 1992, when I assisted the Amity Printing Company. I felt immediately that I liked Nanjing and its people. My family and I were invited back to Nanjing in order that I be resident at the printing facility. We have been living in Nanjing since May 1993, at which time we had two children. Within two years, however, we doubled our offspring when twins Niki and Shane arrived!     

THE EFFECT OF VICTIM IMPACT PANELS ON DUI REARREST RATES: A FIVE‐YEAR FOLLOW‐UP*

Victim Impact Panels (VIPs) were introduced by Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) in 1982 and have since spread throughout the United States in an attempt to reduce drunk driving. The objective of a VIP is to expose DUI offenders to the pain and suffering caused by drunk driving without necessarily condemning the DUI offender. The few scientific evaluations of the effectiveness of VIPs have produced mixed results. The present investigation draws on evidence from a quasi‐experimental design and a five‐year follow‐up to probe further the effects of VIPs on DUI recidivism. Results show that 33.5% of the comparison group, but only 15.8% of the VIP group, were rearrested over the five‐year period. Discrete‐time event history analyses suggest that VIPs are associated with a 55.7% overall decrease in the hazard of rearrest; the VIP effect is strong in the first two years but then wanes dramatically. Methodological threats stemming from the study's design are considered. The implications of the differing styles of VIP and the resultant outcomes are also discussed.