Magnitude and direction of WISC-R verbal-performance IQ discrepancies among adjudicated male delinquents

A field study is reported in which the discrepancy between verbal and nonverbal skills among 150 adjudicated male delinquents was assessed by the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children — Revised (WISC-R) and evaluated with respect to three interpretations of the observed differences. Alternative explanations were that the verbal-nonverbal disparity among delinquents (a) represented a group-by-test interaction producing unusually large discrepancies, (b) was a function of intelligence level of the sample, and (c) was no more frequent among delinquents than nondelinquents when socioeconomic status (SES) was controlled. Results indicated that the WISC-R Verbal-Performance IQ discrepancy occurred reliably more often among delinquents than among controls. Individual differences within the two groups could be attributed neither to a group-by-test interaction, SES, or intelligence level. It was concluded that cognitive mediators of delinquent behavior differ mainly in degree form those of non-delinquents, and intellectual asymmetry is a concomitant variable significantly associated with delinquent behavior.Received M. A. from Ball State University. Current interests are applications of self-instructional-training to classroom problems and curriculum.Received Ph.D. from Purdue University. Current interests are cognitive strengths and weaknesses of clinical populations.     

The effects of body-worn cameras on police-citizen encounters and police activity: evaluation of a pilot implementation in Philadelphia,PA

Journal of Experimental Criminology - Examine changes in officer behavior, when wearing body-worn cameras, as revealed by pedestrian stops, vehicle stops, arrests, use of force, and citizen...     

Explaining Dosage Diffusion During Hot Spot Patrols: An Application of Optimal Foraging Theory to Police Officer Behavior

Drawing from the concepts of optimal foraging theory, this paper presents and tests the assumptions of a foraging theory of police behavior during hot spots patrols. The theory explains why, over time, officers involved in hot spots policing interventions would leave the hot spots they are assigned to police and begin working within other locations. We test what factors influence the amounts of activity that officers undertake outside of their assigned hot spots and at nearby streets using data gathered as part of the Philadelphia Foot Patrol Experiment. Officers performed more activity outside of their beats as the experiment progressed. Several theoretically relevant variables predict the level of activity that officers perform outside their beats, including the size of the target area and the amounts of crime occurring within and outside of the target area. “Dosage diffusion” might be one reason why hot spot interventions have diminishing effects over time. From an optimal foraging theory perspective, hot spots requiring police officers to constrain their actions to pre-defined areas can be perceived as counter-intuitive by the officers, especially over extended periods of time. The results of this study support the suggestion that hot spots patrols should be short-term and randomly rotated across hot spots.     

Is it Important to Examine Crime Trends at a Local “Micro” Level?: A Longitudinal Analysis of Street to Street Variability in Crime Trajectories

Over the last 40 years, the question of how crime varies across places has gotten greater attention. At the same time, as data and computing power have increased, the definition of a ‘place’ has shifted farther down the geographic cone of resolution. This has led many researchers to consider places as small as single addresses, group of addresses, face blocks or street blocks. Both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies of the spatial distribution of crime have consistently found crime is strongly concentrated at a small group of ‘micro’ places. Recent longitudinal studies have also revealed crime concentration across micro places is relatively stable over time. A major question that has not been answered in prior research is the degree of block to block variability at this local ‘micro’ level for all crime. To answer this question, we examine both temporal and spatial variation in crime across street blocks in the city of Seattle Washington. This is accomplished by applying trajectory analysis to establish groups of places that follow similar crime trajectories over 16 years. Then, using quantitative spatial statistics, we establish whether streets having the same temporal trajectory are collocated spatially or whether there is street to street variation in the temporal patterns of crime. In a surprising number of cases we find that individual street segments have trajectories which are unrelated to their immediately adjacent streets. This finding of heterogeneity suggests it may be particularly important to examine crime trends at very local geographic levels. At a policy level, our research reinforces the importance of initiatives like ‘hot spots policing’ which address specific streets within relatively small areas.