Deterrence: Testing the Effects of Perceived Sanction Certainty on Probation Violations

Deterrence theory has been repeatedly used to explain individuals'choices to commit vs. not commit crimes. Its utilitarian premise is that individuals will choose to commit or not commit crimes based on the certainty, swiftness, and severity of punishments. This study examines the perceived certainty of sanctions among offenders mandated into intensive probation and the effects of varying levels of perceived sanction certainty in deterring offenders from violating probation requirements. Data from an Intensive Supervision Probation program in New Jersey are used. Results support the salience of offenders'perceptions of sanction certainty on their intensive probation outcomes, and implications for policy are discussed.     

Parole Revocation in the Era of Mass Incarceration

The explosive growth of US prison populations over the last 30 years—now known as ‘mass incarceration’—has been driven by harsh sentences delivered to offenders by criminal courts, but the increasingly common practice of parole revocation has also contributed significantly to this phenomenon. As the criminal justice system has been reoriented away from rehabilitation and toward punitive objectives, the function of parole has changed accordingly. No longer focused on the successful reintegration of offenders, parole has been transformed into a managerial instrument that mainly serves to identify and reincarcerate dangerous criminals. This function entails a substantial amount of discretion in revocation decision making, raising concerns about the further entrenchment of disadvantage among already impoverished populations. However, given the professional and reputational pressures on state parole boards, revocation decision making logics appear rational. Reducing the flow of parole violators into prisons, therefore, is far more complicated than the technical re-engineering of parole practices. Such reform necessarily involves questioning our fundamental philosophies of punishment.     

THE INFLUENCE OF CLASS POSITION ON THE FORMAL AND INFORMAL SANCTIONING OF WHITE-COLLAR OFFENDERS

Although researchers have investigated formal legal reactions to white-collar crime, few data exist on informal reactions to white-collar lawbreakers and how these reactions influence sentencing decisions. Even so, commentators often assert that whitecollar offenders receive lenient criminal penalties because judges sympathize with such offenders due to the losses they incur through informal sanctions. In this light, a causal model is used to explore the influence of class position on an important informal sanction—loss of job—and the influence of loss of job on sentence severity. Class position is found to determine the likelihood of loss of job but not that of incarceration. Further, offenders who commit large-scale offenses are less likely to suffer loss of job than those who commit small-scale crimes. Social reactions to white-collar crime are inconsistent, and class position more strongly influences informal, nongovernmental social control than social control through law.     

Predicting case conviction and domestic violence recidivism: measuring the deterrent effects of conviction and protection order violations

Previous research offered little guidance on sentencing outcomes for protection order (PO) violations in cases of domestic assault and whether PO violation charges affected offender recidivism rates. Using data from local court records, this study examined the effect of PO violation charges on the odds of case conviction relative to dismissal, and whether case conviction or a PO violation charge results in lower domestic violence rearrest rates compared to offenders not receiving these sanctions. The models indicate that PO violation charges has no significant effect on the odds of conviction or recidivism rates, and these trends were not significantly different for convicted versus dismissed offenders. Findings are discussed in relation to previous research with recommendations for future areas of study.     

Problem Gambling Inside and Out: The Assessment of Community and Institutional Problem Gambling in the Canadian Correctional System

This paper reports on the results of a multi-site survey of gambling behaviour and gambling problems amongst offenders in correctional institutions in Ontario, Canada, conducted between 2008 and 2011. A total of 422 (completion rate 61.5 %) incarcerated offenders (381 male and 41 female) took part in the study including 301 federal offenders and 121 provincial offenders. Based on the Problem Gambling Severity Index of the Canadian Problem Gambling Index (CPGI/PGSI) the prevalence rate of severe problem gambling was 8.9 prior to incarceration and 4.4 % during incarceration. These numbers are substantially higher than rates found among the general public. Thirty-four percent of the sample reported gambling in prison. Half of those who suffered from gambling problems before incarceration continued to have gambling problems during incarceration. People with problems related to slot machines prior to incarceration reported fewer gambling problems during incarceration compared to other problem gamblers.     

Research on the Caretaking of Children of Incarcerated Parents: Findings and Their Service Delivery Implications

This paper reviews research findings on caretaking-related problems associated with the absence of parents from the home following incarceration. It focuses on the impact of incarceration on the welfare and adjustment of urban African American children and on the assumption of caretaking responsibilities by other caretakers, principally maternal grandmothers. Noting the complex situational difficulties involved and the potential burdens associated with surrogate parenting in general, and with this population in particular, the service-provider implications of this parenting arrangement are considered in this review. Findings indicate that problems associated with incarceration of parents tend to be intergenerational and vary considerably in complexity and severity. To the extent that they impact the children involved, these issues should be addressed in coordinated service delivery focusing on prevention.     

Predictors of short-term treatment outcomes among California's Proposition 36 participants

California's voter-initiated Proposition 36 offers non-violent drug offenders community-based treatment as an alternative to incarceration or probation without treatment. This article reports short-term treatment outcomes subsequent to this major shift in drug policy. Data are from 1104 individuals randomly selected from all Proposition 36 participants assessed for treatment in five California counties during 2004. The overall study sample was 30% female, 51% white, 18% Black, 24% Hispanic, and 7% other racial/ethnic groups. The mean+/-SD age was 37+/-10 years. Counties varied considerably in participant characteristics, treatment service intensity, treatment duration, urine testing, and employment and recidivism outcomes, but not in drug use at 3-month follow-up. Controlling for county, logistic regression analysis showed that drug abstinence was predicted by gender (female), employment at baseline (full or part-time), residential (vs. outpatient) stay, low psychiatric severity, frequent urine testing by treatment facility, and more days in treatment. Recidivism was predicted only by shorter treatment duration. Employment predictors included age (younger), gender (male), baseline employment, and lower psychiatric severity. The study findings support drug testing to monitor abstinence and highlight the need to address employment and psychiatric problems among Proposition 36 participants.     

Offended Parties and Official Reactions: Victims and the Sentencing of Criminal Defendants*

Theory and research in the field of deviance have generally neglected private parties who find the deviance of others personally offensive and problematic. This paper examines the victim's participation in the processing of criminal deviants. Using data from a sample of convicted felons, it explores the extent to which the behavior and attributes of the victim affect the sanction imposed on the defendant. The results indicate that victim characteristics affect sanctioning, but that these effects are largely indirect, being mediated by the recommendations probation officers submit to sentencing judges. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

A study of the cycle of abuse among child molesters

The current study was designed to determine whether there is support for the cycle of abuse theory among child molesters. A group of 147 sex offenders on probation were used in this study. The victims of 32 of these offenders were under the age of 10, and 19 of these offenders reported a history of childhood sexual abuse. Results indicate that being abused as a child is related to being a child molester. It was also found that the MMPI-2 did not predict the status of the subjects in regard to being abused as a child and having a victim under 10-years-old.     

Social bonds and male juvenile delinquency while on probation: An exploratory test in Hong Kong

The Hong Kong probation system is considered as the least researched component within the criminal justice system. Therefore, limited information is known about the Hong Kong probation system and offenders who are serving their probation order, especially in the juvenile population. This study is among the first to examine the differential effects of social bonds (Hirschi, 1969), measured during their probation period, on theft and violent delinquency in a saturated sample of 94 juvenile male probationers (aged 14 to 20 years) in Hong Kong. As expected, findings indicate that poor parental bonding and negative belief in the legal system are likely to increase the propensity to commit theft and violent delinquency, respectively, including the probation period. However, though not uncommon, the increase level of involvement in organizational activities is likely to result in the increase of propensity to commit violent crime, even during the probation period. This study further offers the implications for social services that target the juvenile offenders in terms of fostering a healthy parent-child bonding and a clear understanding of the criminal justice system via the enhancement of the police-youth relationship. Limitations and future research directions are also outlined.     

Serious juvenile offenders who have experienced emerging adulthood: Substance use and recidivism

Using data from the California Youth Authority, this article examines whether or not specific substance use differentially predicts recidivism for individual offense-type among a group of serious juvenile offenders who have experienced emerging adulthood. The results of the logistic regression analysis indicate that users of specific substances have a higher overall likelihood of receipt of a subsequent arrest for different offense-types when compared to other substances. Specifically, among the 524 serious juvenile offenders analyzed, one demographic, one social bond, and two substance use measures were significant indicators of an offender being arrested during the seven-year follow-up period. The social bond measure of full-time employment and substance use measure of using mind-altering drugs were significant indicators of receipt of an arrest for a non-violent offense, while being non-white and reported use of uppers/downers were significant predictors of arrest(s) for violent and both non-violent and violent offenses. Policy implications, limitations, and directions for future research are discussed.     

Legal and Extralegal Factors Affecting Minority Overrepresentation in Virginia’s Juvenile Justice System: A Mixed-Method Study

This study examined legal and extralegal factors, specifically race, and their effects on processing and sanctions for 2,233 African American and Caucasian males in Virginia’s juvenile justice system. Qualitative findings from in-depth interviews with juvenile judges, Commonwealth’s attorneys, defense attorneys, police officers, juveniles and their families triangulate the quantitative findings. Crime severity was the only factor which affected the likelihood of diversion; whereas race, grade repeated, prior record, and crime severity increased the likelihood of incarceration through two logistic regression models. Stakeholders added discussion regarding family structure and education. As social work practice intersects with juvenile justice through multiple avenues, the implications of these findings are discussed.     

A retrospective study of attitudes and triggers towards gambling of prisoners before their incarceration in Australia

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between attitudes towards gambling, triggers for gambling, and the severity of the gambling problem of convicted offenders before their incarceration. Participants were recruited through transitional managers of prisons. There were 96 referrals, of which 66 participants completed the study. Results showed that there was a significant correlation between the Gambling Attitudes and Beliefs Survey (GABS) and the Inventory of Gambling Situations (IGS) and a significant correlation between the IGS and the EIGHT Gambling Screen. However, no significant correlation was found between the EIGHT Gambling Screen and the GABS. The results indicated that attitudes towards and beliefs about gambling did not directly influence the severity of the participants’ gambling problem. Attitudes and beliefs were more closely linked to their triggers for gambling, and these triggers carried more weight in the severity of their gambling problem. These results suggest that problem gamblers need assistance in dealing with their trigger situations for gambling as well as receiving a therapeutic programme to change their attitudes towards and beliefs about gambling.     

RACE AND IMPRISONMENT DECISIONS

The possible race differences in judicial sentencing have been of long-standing interest to social scientists. We argue, however, that prior research on the issue either uses crude measures of offense severity and prior record, or, if more precise measures are employed, is limited to one or a few offenses. The Pennsylvania guidelines sentencing data used in this report allow a more rigorous test of the racial hypothesis since they include detailed information on these two most important legal variables, on other variables for statistical controls, and on a fairly comprehensive list of common law offenses, with an adequate sample size. The data—analyzed with both additive and interaction models—reveal that race (net of other factors) has a small effect on judicial decision-making as it pertains to the likelihood of incarceration but has negligible effect on the length of imprisonment decision. The small race effect at the in/out decision is accounted for by dispositional departures in sentencing that favor white defendants. Offense severity is overwhelmingly the major factor influencing judicial sentencing, followed at some distance by prior record. At the end of the report, we discuss the implications of our findings for research on sentencing and for policies aimed at reducing the high incarceration rate of black males.     

Coping while Incarcerated: A Study of Male Juvenile Offenders

The present study examines the associations between coping efforts and psychological (internalizing and externalizing symptoms) and behavioral adjustment in a sample of 373 male juvenile offenders (ages 14-17) during the first month of incarceration. Social support seeking was associated with a more rapid decline in internalizing symptoms and lower levels of externalizing symptoms. Acceptance had a stress-buffering effect with regard to internalizing symptoms, whereas denial predicted higher levels of these symptoms. The only coping variable related to violent behavior was active coping, which was associated with lower rates of violent offending among youth with any violent incidents. The importance of fostering coping skills and increasing positive coping options for incarcerated adolescents is discussed.     

Race,Substance Abuse,and Mental Health Disorders as Predictors of Juvenile Court Outcomes: Do They Vary By Gender?

Predicting juvenile court outcomes based on youthful offenders’ delinquency risk factors is important for the adolescent social work field as well as the juvenile justice system. Using a random sample of 341 delinquent youth from one Midwestern urban county, this study extends previous research by examining if race, substance abuse, and mental health disorders influence important delinquency outcomes (number of court offenses, felony conviction(s), probation supervision length, detention length, and number of probation services) differently for male and female juvenile offenders. Multivariate analysis findings revealed that race was significant only for males, and having a substance use disorder was a stronger predictor of delinquency outcomes for males; whereas, having a mental health disorder was a stronger predictor of delinquency outcomes for females. Implications for this research include the importance of early disorder identification and subsequent availability of gender-focused treatment.     

Sentencing Outcomes of Convicted Child Sex Offenders

This research examines the sentencing outcomes of convicted child sexual offenders from data collected over an eight year period. Multiple regression and nominal log linear regression are used to examine length of prison sentence, length of probation sentence, and whether the convicted offender is actually sent to prison or to probation. While many independent variables appear to be related to sentence outcome, they fall into three categories: characteristics of the offender, characteristics of the victim, and characteristics of the crime. Additionally, while many variables appear related at the bivariate level, when multivariate analysis is applied, fewer variables remain significant, and these are mostly from the characteristics of the offense.     

Sentencing outcomes of convicted child sex offenders

This research examines the sentencing outcomes of convicted child sexual offenders from data collected over an eight year period. Multiple regression and nominal log linear regression are used to examine length of prison sentence, length of probation sentence, and whether the convicted offender is actually sent to prison or to probation. While many independent variables appear to be related to sentence outcome, they fall into three categories: characteristics of the offender, characteristics of the victim, and characteristics of the crime. Additionally, while many variables appear related at the bivariate level, when multivariate analysis is applied, fewer variables remain significant, and these are mostly from the characteristics of the offense.     

A Comparison of Sexual Assault Cases with Child and Adult Victims

Researchers have suggested that sexual assault cases involving children are treated differently than cases involving adults; they have suggested that cases with child victims are more likely to be dismissed and are less likely to result in conviction or incarceration of the offender. The present study used data from Detroit Recorder's Court to compare the outcome of sexual assault cases involving children and adults. The results indicated that cases with child victims differed in important ways from cases with adult victims, and that these differences affected case outcomes. Cases with child victims were less likely than cases with adult victims to be aggravated sexual assaults. When these differences were taken into account, offenders convicted of assaulting children faced a higher risk of incarceration than did offenders convicted of assaulting adults.     

Marginal Structural Models: An Application to Incarceration and Marriage During Young Adulthood

Advanced methods for panel data analysis are commonly used in research on family life and relationships, but the fundamental issue of simultaneous time‐dependent confounding and mediation has received little attention. In this article the authors introduce inverse‐probability‐weighted estimation of marginal structural models, an approach to causal analysis that (unlike conventional regression modeling) appropriately adjusts for confounding variables on the causal pathway linking the treatment with the outcome. They discuss the need for marginal structural models in social science research and describe their estimation in detail. Substantively, the authors contribute to the ongoing debate on the effects of incarceration on marriage by applying a marginal structural model approach to panel data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (N = 4,781). In line with the increasing evidence on the collateral consequences of contact with the criminal justice system, the authors find that incarceration is associated with reduced chances of entering marriage.