Racial prejudice, perceived injustice, and the Black-White gap in punitive attitudes

Conflict theory and previous research suggest that the Black-White difference in support for harsh criminal punishments may be linked to anti-Black prejudice among Whites and perceived injustice among Blacks. Using survey data from the 2001 Race, Crime and Public Opinion Study, this article examines the sources of the racial gap in levels of punitiveness. Two main explanations are tested: perceived racial bias in the criminal justice system and racial prejudice. The results indicate that, together, racial prejudice and perceived racial bias explain the Black-White gap in punitive attitudes.     

Examining the Protective Effect of Ethnic Identity on Drug Attitudes and Use Among a Diverse Youth Population

Ethnic identity is an important buffer against drug use among minority youth. However, limited work has examined pathways through which ethnic identity mitigates risk. School-aged youth (N?=?34,708; 52?% female) of diverse backgrounds (i.e., African American (n?=?5333), Asian (n?=?392), Hispanic (n?=?662), Multiracial (n?=?2129), Native American (n?=?474), and White (n?=?25718) in grades 4–12 provided data on ethnic identity, drug attitudes, and drug use. After controlling for gender and grade, higher ethnic identity was associated with lower past month drug use for African American, Hispanic, and Multiracial youth. Conversely, high ethnic identity was associated with increased risk for White youth. An indirect pathway between ethnic identity, drug attitudes, and drug use was also found for African American, Hispanic, and Asian youth. Among White youth the path model was also significant, but in the opposite direction. These findings confirm the importance of ethnic identity for most minority youth. Further research is needed to better understand the association between ethnic identity and drug use for Multiracial and Hispanic youth, best ways to facilitate healthy ethnic identity development for minority youth, and how to moderate the risk of identity development for White youth.     

Teaching technology decision making for product design and development: A university course on technology assessment and technology transfer

Engineers deploy their skills in contexts that require decisions based on certain criteria and on an understanding of processes that were not learned in college. This paper explores how these supplemental, “contextual” skills may be taught and reports on an experimental, fairly successful upper-division course at Pennsylvania State University in the fall of 1995.     

Desistance and dynamic risk factors belong together

ABSTRACT

Depending on definitions, dynamic risk factors and desistance are either highly intertwined or aligned with distinctly separate paradigms. This paper describes and critiques each concept, and then reviews research on how they may be linked, including some preliminary findings from a longitudinal study of the early phases of desistance in high-risk offenders. I argue that seeking to understand how reductions in dynamic risk work together with the development of the psychological components of desistance will shed the most light on how offenders move from persistence to the maintenance of desistance.     

Offenders as victims: post-traumatic stress disorder and substance use disorder among male prisoners

Background: Comorbid substance use disorder(s) and post-traumatic stress disorder (SUD-PTSD) is common among prisoners and linked to an increased risk of criminal recidivism; however, little is known about the characteristics of prisoners with this comorbidity. Aim: This study provides a preliminary examination of the clinical and criminal profile of male inmates with symptoms of SUD-PTSD, and examines whether this profile differs according to whether a person has experienced a trauma while in prison. Methods: Thirty male inmates from two correctional centres in Sydney, Australia, were recruited and assessed using a structured interview. Results: The sample reported extensive criminal, substance use and trauma histories. A history of substance dependence was almost universal (90%) and 56.7% met diagnostic criteria for PTSD with the remainder experiencing sub-threshold symptoms. Forty-three per cent reported a traumatic event while in prison. Those who had experienced trauma in prison, compared to those who had not, were more likely to nominate heroin as their main drug of concern and to be receiving drug treatment in prison. There was also a trend toward inmates who had experienced a trauma in prison being more likely than inmates who had no prison trauma to have experienced a physical assault. Conclusion: Male prisoners with SUD-PTSD are a high-needs group yet treatment responses are poor. Further research examining treatment options for this comorbidity may improve prisoner well-being and reduce recidivism.     

Treating high-risk rapists in a New Zealand intensive prison programme

The focus of this article is on the pilot development and implementation of a prison-based intensive treatment programme for high-risk adult-victim rape offenders in New Zealand. Advances in actuarial risk assessment enabled the identification of a group of high-risk adult sex offenders for whom no dedicated treatment programme existed. Based on a review of the treatment literature for rapists, a pilot programme was developed called the Adult Sex Offender Treatment Programme (ASOTP). The programme, based on the risk–need–responsivity and cognitive behavioural therapy principles, also used an adaptation of Young's schema therapy to address personality responsivity issues and specific idiosyncratic schema associated with participant offence pathways identified by the Massachusetts Treatment Centre classification (Version 3 for rapists). Measures of responsivity and dynamic risk administered in the ASOTP indicated some success in addressing treatment needs for the pilot participants (n=10). The programme has subsequently been expanded across prison specialist treatment unit sites and delivered to a further 52 participants. Although intermediate measures continue to indicate change in dynamic risk, recidivism outcome evaluations have not yet been possible, due to low numbers of paroled participants.     

The Structure of Citizen Perceptions of Crime and Disorder: New Insights from a Caribbean Community

Objectives

This study builds on existing research from US cities on the construct and discriminant validity of perceptual measures of crime and disorder. It seeks to determine whether citizens distinguish between crime and disorder.

Methods

This study draws on quantitative and qualitative data from a high-crime community in Trinidad and Tobago, a small-island developing nation in the eastern Caribbean. Analysis of the quantitative data relies on exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis methods designed for use with categorical observed variables and continuous latent variables.

Results

In contrast to previous research, we find that citizens do distinguish between physical disorder and general crime, but there is a perceptual overlap for some drug-related offenses and types of social disorder.

Conclusions

This study raises questions about the external validity of research on the relationship between perceptions of crime and disorder conducted in the US, and contributes to ongoing discussions and debates about the meaning of disorder. The findings suggest the need for theory and research to explain how context shapes not only the magnitudes of these perceptions, but also their structures. The results also demonstrate the benefits of mixed-methods research approaches in this area of study.

     

Shifting perspectives: a confirmatory factor analysis of the working alliance inventory (short form) with high-risk violent offenders

The Working Alliance Inventory (WAI) is the most widely used measure of the therapeutic alliance. However, previous studies of the factor structure of the WAI have obtained disparate results. This study examined ratings from three rater perspectives (therapists, clients, and observers) in a rehabilitation program for high-risk violent prisoners with high PCL-psychopathy scores. The authors used confirmatory factor analysis with a short version of the WAI and examined one-, two-, and three-factor models. It was hypothesized that the context and client characteristics could alter the factor structure of the ratings. However, no differences were found in factor structure by perspective; the results from all rater perspectives suggested that a two-factor structure was the best fit for the data. Thus, we concluded that therapists, observers, and prisoners all saw the goals and task aspects of the therapeutic alliance as distinct from the bond component.     

How to train your dragon: an introduction to the special issue on treatment programmes for high-risk offenders

The plot of the popular movie How to Train Your Dragon includes several features that are paralleled in the efforts of programme designers and treatment providers who work with the highest risk offenders in criminal justice systems. This introduction to the special feature on programmes for high-risk offenders notes that there are important differences in how treatments are provided for offenders with varying levels of risk, need, and responsivity. It asks if what is known about effective offender intervention – much of it derived from moderately risky offenders – applies to those who are thought to be at high risk of new criminal activity. It observes that the relative lack of intervention theory for these offenders provides an important justification for a feature that focuses primarily on describing a range of these interventions and their theoretical underpinnings. The papers that follow are then introduced.