The Relationship Between Deprivation and Forensic Material Recovered from Stolen Vehicles: Is it Affected by Vehicle Condition and Tidiness?

Previous research has shown that as crime scene location deprivation increases (lower socioeconomic status), the recovery of forensic material, principally DNA and fingerprints, also increases. However, this increase does not result in more crimes being solved by forensic means. In this study, we analyze stolen vehicle data and find a statistically significant positive association between deprivation and the amount of forensic material that matched either the victim or an associate of the victim on a criminal database. The nature of this association was investigated further by inspecting recovered stolen vehicles to establish whether the condition of a stolen vehicle and the tidiness of its interior influenced the recovery of forensic material that was attributed to the victim or an associate. Contradictory results suggest that other factors may contribute to understanding the association between the recovery of victim- or associate-attributable forensic material and crime scene location deprivation.     

Implementation of the Americans with Disabilities Act in State Police and Highway Patrol Agencies: Results of a National Survey

This article provides an empirical analysis of Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) implementation within the law enforcement profession. Specifically, the study reports results from a national survey of state police/highway patrol agencies regarding practical implementation of the ADA. The data is analyzed in terms of population size and collective bargaining status. Results of this endeavor indicate that implementation of the ADA within law enforcement is difficult, especially as applied to the work of sworn personnel. These challenges are somewhat diminished when applied to non-sworn personnel such as dispatchers, administrators, and clerical personnel. The most substantial obstacles to implementation of the ADA within law enforcement is not associated with political officials or administrators. Instead, most arise from the lack of training and vague legislative language and regulatory standards. Smaller states and those without collective bargaining report lower levels of accommodation; however, there are few statistically significant differences in terms of population and collective bargaining.     

Describing intimate partner stalking over time: an effort to inform victim-centered service provision

Stalking has increasingly been the subject of legislation and research in the past 20 years. Within intimate partner violence, the context where it is most likely to occur, stalking predicts both greater danger and greater distress for the victim. However, research shows that practitioners are often unsure how to address stalking, and that the remedies available may not be effective. This longitudinal exploration of stalking focused on the experience of victims of intimate partner stalking and was conducted by Safe Horizon, an organization providing assistance to victims of violence and abuse in New York City. The sample of 82 women was interviewed monthly over 7 months, and the data were analyzed using growth curve models. We found that stalking decreased over time at a marginally significant level, and that change in stalking varied among participants. Perceived safety followed a similar pattern, increasing but not significantly, while stalking-related distress decreased significantly. The slopes of these variables were correlated, such that as stalking frequency decreased, perceived safety increased and distress decreased. Help-seeking was greater from court sources than victim services over the course of the study, but neither help source was related to a significant decrease in the stalking trajectory. According to victim report, orders of protection (OP) were helpful at some points and not at others. Implications of these results for offering victim-centered services are discussed.     

A multi-site, randomized study of strengths-based case management with substance-abusing parolees

Objectives  

To test whether strengths-based case management provided during an inmate’s transition from incarceration to the community increases participation in community substance abuse treatment, enhances access to needed social services, and improves drug use, crime, and HIV risk outcomes.     

Considering Mixed Mode Surveys for Questions in Political Behavior: Using the Internet and Mail to Get Quality Data at Reasonable Costs

Telephone surveys have been a principle means of learning about the attitudes and behaviors of citizens and voters. The single mode telephone survey, however, is increasingly threatened by rising costs, the declining use of landline telephones, and declining participation rates. One solution to these problems has been the introduction of mixed-mode surveys. However, such designs are relatively new and questions about their representativeness and the intricacies of the methodology remain. We report on the representativeness of a post election mixed-mode (Internet and mail) survey design of 2006 general election voters. We compare sample respondent means to sample frame means on key demographic characteristics and examine how mail and Internet respondents differed in terms of attitudes, behaviors and demographics. We find that overall the Internet respondents were representative of the population and that respondent choice of mode did not influence item response. We conclude that mixed-mode designs may allow researchers to ask important questions about political behavior from their desktops.     

On the promise and perils of citizenship: heuristic concepts,Zimbabwean example

Increasingly, struggles in the name of citizenship inspire and catch the imagination and support of individuals and groups found in a variety of locales within a nation as well as transnational spaces. At the same time, their consequences may be quite different from the assumptions and dreams of those involved in perpetuating and imagining these struggles. To analyse how new social citizenship claims can embolden and channel struggles in particular directions with varied results – the promise and perils of citizenship more broadly – I suggest that one should pay attention to the promulgators of such visions of citizenship, the techniques of promoting their claims and the cultural politics and political economies of belonging in the locales of mobilization. Drawing on an ethnographic example of a farm labour struggle in the late 1990s in Zimbabwe, I explore the importance of attending to wider shifts in the political importance of citizenship as well as its entanglement in particular localities. Through examining how farm workers are situated through such struggles, I show the promise and limits of citizenship in addressing social justice concerns of a group historically marginalized through racialized, classed and gendered processes.     

An Analysis of Miranda Warnings and Waivers: Comprehension and Coverage

Miranda warnings enshrine the constitutional rights of custodial suspects against self-incrimination. However, the wording and sentence complexity of Miranda warnings and waivers vary dramatically from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. This study is the first extensive investigation of Miranda warning variations examining 560 Miranda warnings from across the United States. With Flesch-Kincaid reading comprehension as a useful metric, Miranda warnings varied from very simple comprehension (i.e., grade 2.8) to requiring postgraduate education. Miranda warnings are composed of five components (e.g., silence and evidence against you); marked variations were also observed in the comprehensibility of individual components. On average, the Miranda warning component on "continuing rights" requires a reading comprehension level six grades higher than the comparatively simple expression of the right to silence. Similar analyses were conducted on Miranda waivers. The content of these warnings differed on such issues as communicating (a) when access to an attorney would be granted (e.g., 45.9% specified only "during questioning") and (b) explicitly that indigent legal services were free (e.g., 31.8% directly informed suspects). Finally, the study identified representative Miranda components at different levels of reading comprehension as a template for further research.     

Catching the Bad Guy: Morphing Composite Faces Helps

Composite faces built by eyewitnesses commonly are poor likenesses of the target face. When there are multiple witnesses, however, an opportunity exists to morph the composites. Morphs were rated as more similar to the target face than were the mean ratings of the individual composites. However, as hypothesized, the morph also came to resemble non-target faces more than the individual composites did (a prototype effect). This prototype effect was so strong that the morphs resembled non-targets more than the individual composites resembled the targets. In addition, morphing composites produced an attractiveness bias, which made the morphing of composites less effective for less attractive targets. Even when the prototype effect and the attractiveness bias were controlled for, however, a true morph-superiority effect continued to exist. The author won the Psi Chi/APS Albert Bandura Graduate Research Award in 2005--2006 for this study.     

Secondary Traumatic Stress and Burnout among Law Enforcement Investigators Exposed to Disturbing Media Images

This study examines the psychological impact of viewing disturbing media on investigators engaged in computer forensics work. Twenty-eight federal law enforcement personnel who investigate Internet child pornography cases completed measures of secondary traumatic stress disorder (STSD) and burnout. Substantial percentages of investigators reported poor psychological well-being. Greater exposure to disturbing media was related to higher levels of STSD and cynicism. STSD and burnout scores were related to increased protectiveness of family, reliance on co-workers, general distrust, and turnover intentions. On a positive note, investigators scored high in professional efficacy, indicating they feel their work makes a difference. Furthermore, personnel with supportive relationships scored lower on both STSD and burnout.