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Policy Implications (policy + implication)
Kinds of Policy Implications Selected AbstractsWHAT ARE THE POLICY IMPLICATIONS OF THE EVIDENCE ON CANNABIS USE AND PSYCHOSIS?ADDICTION, Issue 8 2010WAYNE HALL No abstract is available for this article. [source] THE NEW INTERNATIONAL MACROECONOMICS: SOME POLICY IMPLICATIONSECONOMIC PAPERS: A JOURNAL OF APPLIED ECONOMICS AND POLICY, Issue S1 2001MICHAEL B. DEVEREUX First page of article [source] TOWARDS CHARACTERIZING AND PLANNTNG FOR DROUGHT IN VERMONT-PART II: POLICY IMPLICATIONS,JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN WATER RESOURCES ASSOCIATION, Issue 3 2001Lesley-Ann Dupigny-Giroux ABSTRACT: Vermont is one of approximately half a dozen states for which no official drought mitigation plan exists. Given the recurring nature of this natural hazard, current contingency measures should be expanded upon into a coherent mitigation framework. The types of drought and impacts resulting from the 1998 to 1999 event were the focus of a previous article in this volume. The present article builds on the understanding of drought characteristics specific to the Vermont context and introduces the rationale behind a proposed drought planning framework. Pivotal organizations and institutions that should be involved in this process are also presented. [source] Walls of secrecy and silenceCRIMINOLOGY AND PUBLIC POLICY, Issue 3 2010The Madoff case, cartels in the construction industry Research Summary Most analysts of the causes of the contemporary credit crunch have concluded that the supervising agencies failed in their duties. The same is true for studies of several major fraud scandals, including the Madoff affair and the Dutch construction fraud. The remedy seems immediately obvious: more and better regulation and supervision. However, this line of reasoning seems somewhat simplistic by ignoring the question of how illegal activities can remain hidden for many years from supervising agencies, victims, and bystanders. This research article argues that the problem also lies in the successful concealment of illegal activities by the perpetrators and in the presence of silence in their social environment. Policy Implications The cases analyzed in this article suggest that financial misconduct also could be controlled by breaking the conspiracies of silence. The strengthening of supervision is unlikely to be effective without simultaneous efforts to encourage people to speak out and to give them incentives to want to know and to tell the truth. [source] Patterns of precursor behaviors in the life span of a U.S. environmental terrorist groupCRIMINOLOGY AND PUBLIC POLICY, Issue 3 2009Brent L. Smith Research Summary This article discusses the paucity of data available for assessing the "life span" of a terrorist group. It introduces a new methodology that allows researchers to examine when terrorist groups perform their preincident activities. The findings suggest that differences exist in the temporal patterns of terrorist groups: environmental terrorist groups engage in a relatively short planning cycle compared with right-wing and international terrorists. The article concludes by examining a case study on "the Family," which is a unique environmental terrorist group that conducted activities over a relatively long period of time. This group provides an interesting contrast to other environmental terrorists. Despite significant organizational differences, their patterns of preparatory conduct were highly similar. Policy Implications The findings suggest that (1) temporal and spatial data about preincident terrorist activity can be collected from unclassified and open sources and (2) law-enforcement agencies that are investigating environmental groups have relatively little time to observe and infiltrate their individual cells (compared with right-wing and international terrorists). Finally, the data suggest that environmental terrorists,at least so far,have engaged in attacks that are less deadly than the comparison groups. [source] The impact of after-school programs on the routine activities of middle-school students: Results from a randomized, controlled trial,CRIMINOLOGY AND PUBLIC POLICY, Issue 2 2009Amanda Brown Cross Research Summary Unsupervised after-school time for adolescents is a concern for parents and policymakers alike. Evidence linking unsupervised adolescent socializing to problem behavior outcomes heightens this concern among criminologists. Routine activities theory suggests that, when youth peer groups congregate away from adult authority, both opportunity for and motivation to engage in deviant acts increase. After-school programs are a possible solution to unsupervised teen socializing during afternoon hours and are much in demand. However, empirical research has yet to test the relationship between the availability of after-school programs and youth routine activities. This study presents evidence from a multisite, randomized, controlled trial of an after-school program for middle-school students in an urban school district. Policy Implications Youth in the treatment group engaged in less unsupervised socializing after school than youth in the control group but not as much less as would be expected if the after-school program was providing consistent supervision to youth who would otherwise be unsupervised. Additional analyses examined why the influence of the after-school program was not more pronounced. We found that, although program attendance was related to decreases in unsupervised socializing, the program did not attract many delinquency-prone youths who were unsupervised, which suggests that the students most in need of the program did not benefit. Furthermore, data obtained from a mid-year activity survey revealed that youth in the study were highly engaged in a variety of after-school activities. The addition of the after-school program into the mixture of available activities had little effect on the frequency with which students participated in organized activities after school. [source] THE MIRACLE OF THE CELLS: AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF INTERVENTIONS TO INCREASE PAYMENT OF COURT-ORDERED FINANCIAL OBLIGATIONS,CRIMINOLOGY AND PUBLIC POLICY, Issue 1 2008DAVID WEISBURD Research Summary: In this article, we present findings from an experimental study of an innovative program in fine enforcement developed by the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) of New Jersey, termed Project MUSTER (MUST Earn Restitution). The project was initiated by the New Jersey AOC as a response to concerns among probation personnel that probationers sentenced to monetary penalties often failed to meet their financial obligations. The program sought to increase payment of court-ordered financial obligations among probationers who are seriously delinquent in paying fines, penalties, and restitution, and was designed to "strengthen the effectiveness of restitution and fine sanctions by forcing those offenders who have the ability to make regular payments to do so." Project MUSTER relied on a combination of intensive probation, threats of violation to court and incarceration, and community service. We find that probationers sentenced to Project MUSTER were significantly more likely to pay court-ordered financial obligations than were those who experienced regular probation supervision. However, probationers sentenced to a second treatment group, in which the only intervention was violation of probation (one part of the MUSTER program), had similar outcomes to the MUSTER condition. These findings suggest that the main cause of fine payment was a deterrent threat of possible incarceration, which is often termed the "miracle of the cells." Policy Implications: Our study shows that it is possible to gain greater compliance with court-ordered financial obligations and that such compliance may be gained with a relatively simple and straightforward criminal justice intervention. Threats of violation of probation are an effective tool for gaining compliance with financial obligations. Given the growing interest in monetary penalties as an alternative to incarceration, these findings have particular policy importance. [source] UNITED STATES V. BOOKER AS A NATURAL EXPERIMENT: USING EMPIRICAL RESEARCH TO INFORM THE FEDERAL SENTENCING POLICY DEBATE,CRIMINOLOGY AND PUBLIC POLICY, Issue 3 2007PAUL J. HOFER Research Summary: In United States v. Booker, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the federal sentencing guidelines must be considered advisory, rather than mandatory, if they are to remain constitutional under the Sixth Amendment. Since the decision, the U.S. Sentencing Commission has provided policy makers with accurate and current data on changes and continuity in federal sentencing practices. Unlike previous changes in legal doctrine, Booker immediately increased the rates of upward and downward departures from the guideline range. Government-sponsored downward departures remain the leading category of outside,the-range sentences. The rate of within-range sentences, although lower than in the period immediately preceding Booker, remains near rates observed earlier in the guidelines era. Despite the increase in departures, average sentence lengths for the overall caseload remain stable, because of offsetting increases in the seriousness of the crimes being sentenced and in the severity of penalties for those crimes. Analyses of the reasons that judges reported for downward departures suggest that treatment of criminal history and offender characteristics are the two leading areas of dissatisfaction with the guidelines. Policy Implications: Assessment of changes in sentencing practices following Booker by different observers depends partly on competing institutional perspectives and on different degrees of trust in the judgment of judges, prosecutors, the Sentencing Commission, and Congress. No agreement on whether Booker has bettered or worsened the system can be achieved until agreement exists on priorities among the purposes of sentencing and the goals of sentencing reform. Both this lack of agreement and an absence of needed data make consensus on Booker's effects on important sentencing goals, such as reduction of unwarranted disparity, unlikely in the near future. Similarly, lack of baseline data before Booker on the effectiveness of federal sentencing at crime control makes before-after comparisons impossible. Despite these limitations, research provides a sounder framework for policy making than do anecdotes or speculation and sets valuable empirical parameters for the federal sentencing policy debate. [source] THE CRIMINOGENIC EFFECTS OF IMPRISONMENT: EVIDENCE FROM STATE PANEL DATA, 1974,2002CRIMINOLOGY AND PUBLIC POLICY, Issue 3 2007LYNNE M. VIERAITIS Research Summary: The heavy reliance on the use of incarceration in an attempt to address the crime problem has resulted in a dramatic growth in the number of state prisoners over the past 30 years. In recent years, however, a growing concern has developed about the impact that large numbers of offenders released from prison will have on crime rates. Using a state panel data set for 46 states from 1974 to 2002, this study demonstrates that although prison population growth seems to be associated with statistically significant decreases in crime rates, increases in the number of prisoners released from prison seem to be significantly associated with increases in crime. Because we control for changes in prison population levels, we attribute the apparent positive influences on crime that seem to follow prison releases to the criminogenic effects of prison. Policy Implications: Policy makers should continue to serve the public interest by carefully considering policies that are designed to reduce incarceration rates and thus assuage the criminogenic effects of prison. These policies may include changes in sentencing, changes in probation and/or parole practices, or better funding of reentry services prerelease and postrelease. [source] CULTURALLY-FOCUSED BATTERER COUNSELING FOR AFRICAN-AMERICAN MEN,CRIMINOLOGY AND PUBLIC POLICY, Issue 2 2007EDWARD W. GONDOLF Research Summary: Clinicians and researchers have strongly recommended culturally-focused counseling with African-American men arrested for domestic violence. An experimental clinical trial tested the effectiveness of this approach against conventional cognitive-behavioral counseling in all-African-American groups and in racially-mixed groups (N = 501). No significant difference was found in the reassault rate reported by the men's female partners over a 12-month follow-up period (23% overall). During that period, men in the racially-mixed groups were, moreover, half as likely to be rearrested for domestic violence as the men in the culturally-focused groups. The men's level of racial identification did not significantly affect the outcomes of the counseling options. Policy Implications: Simply adding a culturally-focused counseling group to domestic violence programs does not seem in itself to improve outcomes. In the current study, the culturally-focused counseling was an appendage to an existing agency closely linked to the criminal justice system. Culturally-focused counseling may prove to be more effective within community-based organizations tied to local services and supports. [source] INVESTIGATING RACIAL PROFILING BY THE MIAMI-DADE POLICE DEPARTMENT: A MULTIMETHOD APPROACHCRIMINOLOGY AND PUBLIC POLICY, Issue 1 2007GEOFFREY P. ALPERT Research Summary The perception and existence of biased policing or racial profiling is one of the most difficult issues facing contemporary American society. Citizens from minority communities have focused their concerns on the improper use of race by law enforcement officers. The current research uses a complex methodological approach to investigate claims that the Miami-Dade, Florida Police Department uses race improperly for the purposes of making traffic stops and conducting post-stop activities. The results are mixed in that the officer's aggregate actions do not show a pattern of discriminatory actions toward minority citizens when making a traffic stop, but results of post-stop activities do show some disparate treatment of minorities. Policy Implications Five specific policy recommendations are made to reduce the perception or reality of racial profiling by the police. First, police departments must have clear policies and directives explaining the proper use of race in decision making. Second, officers must be trained and educated in the overall impact of using race as a factor in deciding how to respond to a citizen. Third, the department must maintain a data-collection and analytic system to monitor the activities of their officers as it pertains to the race of the citizen. The fourth police recommendation involves the use of record checks in the field that can set in motion a process that results in the detention and arrest of citizens. Fifth, the completion of a record of interrogation for later intelligence has implications for the citizen. The use of this intelligence tool must depend on suspicion rather than on the race of the citizen. [source] PUBLIC PREFERENCES FOR REHABILITATION VERSUS INCARCERATION OF JUVENILE OFFENDERS: EVIDENCE FROM A CONTINGENT VALUATION SURVEY,CRIMINOLOGY AND PUBLIC POLICY, Issue 4 2006DANIEL S. NAGIN Research Summary: Accurately gauging the public's support for alternative responses to juvenile offending is important, because policy makers often justify expenditures for punitive juvenile justice reforms on the basis of popular demand for tougher policies. In this study, we assess public support for both punitively and nonpunitively oriented juvenile justice policies by measuring respondents' willingness to pay for various policy proposals. We employ a methodology known as "contingent valuation" (CV) that permits the comparison of respondents' willingness to pay (WTP) for competing policy alternatives. Specifically, we compare CV-based estimates for the public's WTP for two distinctively different responses to serious juvenile crime: incarceration and rehabilitation. An additional focus of our analysis is an examination of the public's WTP for an early childhood prevention program. The analysis indicates that the public is at least as willing to pay for rehabilitation as punishment for juvenile offenders and that WTP for early childhood prevention is also substantial. Implications and future research directions are outlined. Policy Implications: The findings suggest that lawmakers should more actively consider policies grounded in rehabilitation, and, perhaps, be slower to advocate for punitive reforms in response to public concern over high-profile juvenile crimes. Additionally, our willingness to pay findings offer encouragement to lawmakers who are uncomfortable with the recent trend toward punitive juvenile justice policies and would like to initiate more moderate reforms. Such lawmakers may be reassured that the public response to such initiatives will not be hostile. Just as importantly, reforms that emphasize leniency and rehabilitation can be justified economically as welfare-enhancing expenditures of public funds. The evidence that the public values rehabilitation more than increased incarceration should be important information to cost-conscious legislators considering how to allocate public funds. Cost-conscious legislatures may become disenchanted with punitive juvenile justice policies on economic grounds and pursue policies that place greater emphasis on rehabilitation. They may be reassured, on the basis of our findings, that the public will support this move. [source] PROPOSITION 8 AND CRIME RATES IN CALIFORNIA: THE CASE OF THE DISAPPEARING DETERRENTCRIMINOLOGY AND PUBLIC POLICY, Issue 3 2006CHERYL MARIE WEBSTER Research Summary: In 1999, Daniel Kessler and Steven Levitt published an article that purported to provide support for the marginal deterrent effects of harsher sanctions on levels of crime. Specifically, they concluded that sentence enhancements that came into effect in California in June 1982 as a result of Proposition 8 were responsible for a subsequent drop in serious crime in this state. Our article examines the analyses and findings of this article and suggests that their conclusion of a deterrent impact fails to withstand scrutiny when more complete and more detailed crime data are used and the comparability of "control" groups is carefully examined. In particular, the addition of annual crime levels for all years (versus only the odd-numbered years that Kessler and Levitt examine) calls into question the prima facie support for a deterrent effect presented by Kessler and Levitt. Specifically, it demonstrates not only that the crime drop in California began before, rather than after, the passing into law of the sentence enhancements in 1982 but also that the downward slope did not accelerate after the change in law. Furthermore, the comparability of the two "control" groups with the "treatment" group is challenged, rendering suspect any findings based on these comparisons. Policy Implications: Case studies suggesting that crime decreased after the imposition of harsh sentencing policies are often cited as evidence of marginal general deterrence. As has been demonstrated in other contexts, the question that needs to be asked is "Compared with what?" Kessler and Levitt's (1999) article demonstrates that those interested in sentencing policy need to be sensitive not only to the appropriateness of the comparisons that are made, but also to the choice of data that are presented. [source] DOES CORRECTIONAL PROGRAM QUALITY REALLY MATTER?CRIMINOLOGY AND PUBLIC POLICY, Issue 3 2006THE IMPACT OF ADHERING TO THE PRINCIPLES OF EFFECTIVE INTERVENTION Research Summary: This study analyzed data on 3,237 offenders placed in 1 of 38 community-based residential programs as part of their parole or other post-release control. Offenders terminated from these programs were matched to, and compared with, a group of offenders (N = 3,237) under parole or other post-release control who were not placed in residential programming. Data on program characteristics and treatment integrity were obtained through staff surveys and interviews with program directors. This information on program characteristics was then related to the treatment effects associated with each program. Policy Implications: Significant and substantial relationships between program characteristics and program effectiveness were noted. This research provides information that is relevant to the development of correctional programs, and it can be used by funding agencies when awarding contracts for services. [source] THE EFFECT OF COUNTY-LEVEL PRISON POPULATION GROWTH ON CRIME RATES,CRIMINOLOGY AND PUBLIC POLICY, Issue 2 2006TOMISLAV V. KOVANDZIC Research Summary: Prior macro-level studies examining the impact of prison population growth on crime rates have produced widely varying results. Studies using national-level time series data find large impacts of prison growth on crime, whereas those using state panel data find more modest ones. Critics of the former studies maintain that the estimates are implausibly large, arguing that the effects are instead due to analysts' inability to control for potential confounding factors. Conversely, critics of the latter studies argue that they underestimate the total impacts of imprisonment by failing to account for potential free-riding effects. This study uses panel data for 58 Florida counties for 1980 to 2000 to reexamine the link between prison population growth and crime. Unlike previous studies, we find no evidence that increases in prison population growth covary with decreases in crime rates. Policy Implications: Our findings suggest that Florida policymakers carefully weigh the costs and benefits of their continued reliance on mass incarceration against the potential costs and benefits of alternatives. If the costs of mass incarceration do not return appreciable benefits, i.e., a reduction in crime, it is time to reconsider our approach to crime and punishment. Other research offers evidence of crime prevention programs operating inside the criminal justice system and in communities that hold promise for reducing crime; our findings indicate that policymakers carefully consider these options as a way to achieve their goals. [source] THE CRIME-CONTROL EFFECT OF INCARCERATION: DOES SCALE MATTER?,CRIMINOLOGY AND PUBLIC POLICY, Issue 2 2006RAYMOND V. LIEDKA Research Summary: Several prominent empirical studies estimate models of a constant proportional effect of prison on crime, finding that effect is substantial and negative. A separate literature argues against the crime-reducing effect of prison but mainly on theoretical grounds. This second literature suggests that the elasticity of the prison/crime relationship is not constant. We provide a model that nests these two literatures. Using data from the United States over 30 years, we find strong evidence that the negative relationship between prison and crime becomes less strongly negative as the scale of imprisonment increases. This revisionist model indicates that (1) at low levels of incarceration, a constant elasticity model underestimates the negative relationship between incarceration and crime, and (2) at higher levels of incarceration, the constant elasticity model overstates the negative effect. Policy Implications: These results go beyond the claim of declining marginal returns, instead finding accelerating declining marginal returns. As the prison population continues to increase, albeit at a slower rate, after three decades of phenomenal growth, these findings provide an important caution that for many jurisdictions, the point of accelerating declining marginal returns may have set in. Any policy discussion of the appropriate scale of punishment should be concerned with the empirical impact of this expensive and intrusive government intervention. [source] UNDER THE BARRED UMBRELLA: IS THERE ROOM FOR A WOMEN-CENTERED SELF-INJURY POLICY IN CANADIAN CORRECTIONS?CRIMINOLOGY AND PUBLIC POLICY, Issue 1 2006JENNIFER M. KILTY Research Summary: This article examines a chain of policy directives concerning self-injury inside federal correctional facilities in Canada. Specific attention is paid to the impact of these policies on federally sentenced women. I argue that the Correctional Service of Canada's focus on risk assessment fails to address the needs of the women they confine. Instead, women's needs are reconceptualized as institutional risk factors. Policy Implications: Women who self-injure are still routinely disciplined for their behaviour in Federal Canadian prisons through admittance to administrative segregation. This policy challenges two sections of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms (s. 7 and s. 15) and must be changed. In this article, I will recommend a new women-centered approach to replace current practice. [source] BETTER GUN ENFORCEMENT, LESS CRIME,CRIMINOLOGY AND PUBLIC POLICY, Issue 4 2005JENS LUDWIG Research Summary: Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), which for the past several years has been the major federal initiative to combat gun violence, includes several elements (such as gun locks and other efforts to reduce gun availability) that research suggests are likely to have at best modest effects on gun crime. In general, enforcement activities targeted at the "demand side" of the underground gun market currently enjoy stronger empirical support. However much of PSN's budget has been devoted to increasing the severity of punishment, such as by federaliz-ing gun cases, which seems to be less effective than targeted street-level enforcement designed to increase the probability of punishment for gun carrying or use in crime. Policy Implications: PSN and other enforcement activities could be made more effective by redirecting resources toward activities such as targeted patrols against illegal gun carrying. Given the substantial social costs of gun violence, an efficiency argument can also be made for increasing funding beyond previous levels. [source] DISRUPTING ILLEGAL FIREARMS MARKETS IN BOSTON: THE EFFECTS OF OPERATION CEASEFIRE ON THE SUPPLY OF NEW HANDGUNS TO CRIMINALS,CRIMINOLOGY AND PUBLIC POLICY, Issue 4 2005ANTHONY A. BRAGA Research Summary: The question of whether the illegal firearms market serving criminals and juveniles can be disrupted has been vigorously debated in policy circles and in the literature on firearms and violence. To the extent that prohibited persons, in particular, are supplied with guns through systematic gun trafficking, focused regulatory and investigative resources may be useful in disrupting the illegal supply of firearms to criminals. In Boston, a gun market disruption strategy was implemented that focused on shutting down illegal diversions of new handguns from retail sources. Multivariate regression analyses were used to estimate the effects of the intervention on new handguns recovered in crime. Our results suggest that focused enforcement efforts, guided by strategic analyses of ATF firearms trace data, can have significant impacts on the illegal supply of new handguns to criminals. Policy Implications: The problem-oriented policing approach provides an appropriate framework to uncover the complex mechanisms at play in illicit firearms markets and to develop tailor-made interventions to disrupt the illegal gun trade. Strategic enforcement programs focused on the illegal diversion of new firearms from primary markets can reduce the availability of new guns to criminals. However, the extent to which criminals substitute older guns for new guns and move from primary markets to secondary markets in response to an enforcement strategy focused on retail outlets remains unclear. Our evaluation also does not provide policy makers with any firm evidence on whether supply-side enforcement strategies have any measurable impacts on gun violence. Jurisdictions suffering from gun violence problems should implement demand-side violence prevention programs to complement their supply-side efforts. [source] "IT'S GETTING CRAZY OUT THERE": CAN A CIVIL GANG INJUNCTION CHANGE A COMMUNITY?*CRIMINOLOGY AND PUBLIC POLICY, Issue 3 2005CHERYL L. MAXSON Research Summary: Civil gang injunctions are an increasingly popular gang suppression tactic. This article reports on the first scientific evaluation of the community impact of this strategy. San Bernardino residents in five neighborhoods were surveyed about their perceptions and experience of crime, gang activity, and neighborhood quality 18 months before and 6 months after the issuance of an injunction. Analyses indicated positive evidence of short-term effects in the disordered, primary injunction area, including less gang presence, fewer reports of gang intimidation, and less fear of confrontation with gang members, but no significant changes in intermediate or long-term outcomes except lower fear of crime. Comparison of this injunction area with a previous one suggested that improvements in neighborhood dynamics might accrue over the long term. Negative effects were observed in the secondary, less disordered injunction area. Policy Implications: This study suggests that the strategic suppression of gang member activities may translate into modest immediate improvements in community safety and well-being. Furthermore, the findings suggest that law enforcement use caution regarding the size of an injunction area and the type of gang targeted by the tactic. Coupling an injunction with efforts to improve neighborhood social organization and provide positive alternatives for gang members might substantially improve its effectiveness. [source] POLICY AND INTERVENTION CONSIDERATIONS OF A NETWORK ANALYSIS OF STREET GANGS,CRIMINOLOGY AND PUBLIC POLICY, Issue 3 2005JEAN MARIE MCGLOIN Research Summary: This study details a network analysis of the street gang landscape in Newark, New Jersey. Using individual gang members as the unit of analysis and multiple layers of associations as the linkages within the networks, the results suggest that the gangs in Newark are loosely organized with pockets of cohesion. In addition, there is variation with regard to individual connectedness within the gangs, and certain gang members emerge as "cut-points" or the only connection among gang members or groups of gang members. Policy Implications: The results lend further credence to the notion that problem analysis should precede gang interventions. In particular, the findings suggest that particular groups of gang members may be amenable to the collective accountability tactic, whereas others may become more cohesive as a consequence. Indeed, an intervention focused on individuals may be more productive in Newark. The cut-points within gangs are particularly worthy of attention, both for their capacity to act as communication agents for a deterrence message and for their potential vulnerability to the pulling levers strategy. [source] PROBLEM-ORIENTED POLICING IN PRACTICE,CRIMINOLOGY AND PUBLIC POLICY, Issue 2 2005GARY CORDNER Research Summary: Interviews and surveys were used to measure the extent of problem-oriented policing (POP) by individual police officers in the San Diego Police Department. Officers tended to engage in small-scale problem solving with little formal analysis or assessment. Responses generally included enforcement plus one or two more collaborative or nontraditional initiatives. Policy Implications: Despite 15 years of national promotion and a concerted effort at implementation within the San Diego Police Department, POP as practiced by ordinary police officers fell far short of the ideal model. It may be unreasonable to expect every police officer to continuously engage in full-fledged POP. [source] EXECUTING THE INNOCENT AND SUPPORT FOR CAPITAL PUNISHMENT: IMPLICATIONS FOR PUBLIC POLICYCRIMINOLOGY AND PUBLIC POLICY, Issue 1 2005JAMES D. UNNEVER Research Summary: The issue of whether innocent people have been executed is now at the center of the debate concerning the legitimacy of capital punishment. The purpose of this research was to use data collected by the Gallup Organization in 2003 to investigate whether Americans who believed that an innocent person had been executed were less likely to support capital punishment. We also explored whether the association varied by race, given that African Americans are disproportionately affected by the death penalty. Our results indicated that three-quarters of Americans believed that an innocent person had been executed for a crime they did not commit within the last five years and that this belief was associated with lower levels of support for capital punishment, especially among those who thought this sanction was applied unfairly. In addition, our analyses revealed that believing an innocent person had been executed had a stronger association with altering African American than white support for the death penalty. Policy Implications: A key claim of death penalty advocates is that a high proportion of the public supports capital punishment. In this context, scholars opposing this sanction have understood the importance of showing that the public's support for executing offenders is contingent and shallower than portrayed by typical opinion polls. The current research joins this effort by arguing that the prospect of executing innocents potentially impacts public support for the death penalty and, in the least, creates ideological space for a reconsideration of the legitimacy of capital punishment. [source] HOMELESS SHELTER USE AND REINCARCERATION FOLLOWING PRISON RELEASE,CRIMINOLOGY AND PUBLIC POLICY, Issue 2 2004STEPHEN METRAUX Research Summary: This paper examines the incidence of and interrelationships between shelter use and reincarceration among a cohort of 48,424 persons who were released from New York State prisons to New York City in 1995,1998. Results show that, within two years of release, 11.4% of the study group entered a New York City homeless shelter and 32.8% of this group was again imprisoned. Using survival analysis methods, time since prison release and history of residential instability were the most salient risk factors related to shelter use, and shelter use increased the risk of subsequent reincarceration. Policy Implications: These findings show both homelessness and reincarceration to be substantial problems among a population of released prisoners, problems that fall into the more general framework of community reintegration. They also suggest that enhanced housing and related services, when targeted to a relatively small at-risk group among this population, have the potential to substantially reduce the overall risk for homelessness in the group. [source] ASSESSING THE EFFECTS OF MASS INCARCERATION ON INFORMAL SOCIAL CONTROL IN COMMUNITIESCRIMINOLOGY AND PUBLIC POLICY, Issue 2 2004JAMES P. LYNCH Research Summary: This paper reviews and evaluates the existing (and limited) evidence that increases in incarceration have affected the ability of residential neighborhoods to perform their traditional social control functions. It suggests that, although comparatively weak, the evidence points to the increases in the level and clustering in social and geographic space of incarceration as contributing to changes in the social organization of affected communities by weakening family formation, labor force attachments, and patterns of social interaction among residents. At the same time, however, the paper does find support for the contention that incarceration leads to reductions in crime in affected communities. Policy Implications: To the extent that mass incarceration disrupts patterns of social interaction, weakens community social organization, and decreases the stigma of imprisonment, its longer-run effects may be to reduce its effectiveness. [source] VIOLENCE AMONG ADOLESCENTS LIVING IN PUBLIC HOUSING: A TWO-SITE ANALYSIS,CRIMINOLOGY AND PUBLIC POLICY, Issue 1 2003TIMOTHY O. IRELAND Research Summary: Current knowledge about violence among public housing residents is extremely limited. Much of what we know about violence in and around public housing is derived from analysis of Uniform Crime Report (UCR) data or victimization surveys of public housing residents. The results of these studies suggest that fear of crime among public housing residents is high and that violent offense rates may be higher in areas that contain public housing compared with similar areas without public housing. Yet, "[r]ecorded crime rates (and victimization rates) are an index not of the rate of participation in crime by residents of an area, but of the rate of crime (or victimization) that occurs in an area whether committed by residents or non-residents" (Weatherburn et al., 1999:259). Therefore, neither UCR nor victimization data measurement strategies address whether crime in and around public housing emanates from those who reside in public housing. Additionally, much of this research focuses on atypical public housing,large developments with high-rise buildings located in major metropolitan areas. To complement the existing literature, we compare rates of self-reported crime and violence among adolescents who reside in public housing in Rochester, N.Y., and Pittsburgh, Pa., with adolescents from the same cities who do not live in public housing. In Rochester, property crime and violence participation rates during adolescence and early adulthood among those in public housing are statistically equivalent to participation rates among those not in public housing. In Pittsburgh, living in public housing during late adolescence and early adulthood, particularly in large housing developments,increases the risk for violent offending, but not for property offending. The current study relies on a relatively small number of subjects in public housing at any single point in time and is based on cross-sectional analyses. Even so, there are several important policy implications that can be derived from this study, given that it moves down a path heretofore largely unexplored. Policy Implications: If replicated, our findings indicate that not all public housing is inhabited disproportionately by those involved in crime; that to develop appropriate responses, it is essential to discover if the perpetrators of violence are residents or trespassers; that policy should target reducing violence specifically and not crime in general; that a modification to housing allocation policies that limits, to the extent possible, placing families with children in late adolescence into large developments might reduce violence perpetrated by residents; that limited resources directed at reducing violence among residents should be targeted at those developments or buildings that actually have high rates of participation in violence among the residents; and that best practices may be derived from developments where violence is not a problem. [source] RIGHT-TO-CARRY CONCEALED HANDGUNS AND VIOLENT CRIME: CRIME CONTROL THROUGH GUN DECONTROL?,CRIMINOLOGY AND PUBLIC POLICY, Issue 3 2003TOMISLAV V. KOVANDZIC Research Summary: "Right-to-Carry" (RTC) concealed-handgun laws mandate that authorities issue concealed handgun permits to qualified applicants. The supposition by those supporting the laws is that allowing private citizens to carry concealed handguns in public can reduce violent crime by deterring prospective criminals afraid of encountering armed civilians. Critics of the laws argue that violent altercations are more likely to turn deadly when more people carry guns. Whether the laws cause violent crime to increase or to decrease has become an important public policy question, as most states have now adopted such legislation. The present study evaluates Florida's 1987 RTC law, which prior research suggests plays a key role in the RTC debate. Specifically, we use panel data for 58 Florida counties from 1980 to 2000 to examine the effects on violent crime from increases in the number of people with concealed-carry permits, rather than before-after dummy and time-trend variables used in prior research. We also address many of the methodological problems encountered in earlier RTC studies. We present numerous model specifications, and we find little evidence that increases in the number of citizens with concealed-handgun permits reduce or increase rates of violent crime. Policy Implications: The main policy implication of this research is that there appears to be little gained in the way of crime prevention by converting restrictive gun carrying laws to "shall-issue" laws, although the laws might still prove beneficial by (1) eliminating arbitrary decisions on gun permit applications, (2) encouraging gun safety, (3) making permit holders feel safer when out in public, (4) providing permit holders with a more effective means of self-defense, and (5) reducing the costs to police departments of enforcing laws prohibiting unlicensed gun carrying. [source] EFFECTIVENESS OF DRUG TREATMENT COURTS: EVIDENCE FROM A RANDOMIZED TRIAL,CRIMINOLOGY AND PUBLIC POLICY, Issue 2 2003DENISE C. GOTTFREDSON Research Summary: Study randomly assigned 235 offenders to drug treatment court (DTC) or "treatment as usual." Analyses of official records collected over a two-year follow-up period show that DTC is reducing crime in a population of drug-addicted offenders. DTC subjects who participated in treatment were significantly less likely to recidivate than were both untreated drug court subjects and control subjects. Policy Implications: Continued enthusiasm for DTCs is warranted. Both sanctions and treatment are important elements of the DTC model. However, DTCs will not necessarily result in cost reductions because DTC and control cases are incarcerated for approximately equal numbers of days. Implementation fidelity is important, and DTCs can be strengthened if they engage a higher percentage of their clients in drug treatment. [source] FUNDING COMMUNITY POLICING TO REDUCE CRIME: HAVE COPS GRANTS MADE A DIFFERENCE?,CRIMINOLOGY AND PUBLIC POLICY, Issue 1 2002JIHONG "SOLOMON" ZHAO Research Summary: This research examines how funding from the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS), has affected violent and property crime rates in the United States from 1995 to 1999. Drawing on six years of panel data, we examine the effects of three types of awards made by COPS to 6,100 law enforcement agencies serving more than 145 million citizens. We estimate their impact on crime reduction over time in jurisdictions receiving funding and controlling for baseline levels of crime, socioeconomic characteristics, city size, and population diversity and mobility. Our analyses suggest that COPS hiring and innovative grant programs have resulted in significant reductions in local crime rates in cities with populations greater than 10,000 for both violent and nonviolent offenses. Multivariate analysis shows that in cities with populations greater than 10,000, an increase in one dollar of hiring grant funding per resident contributed to a corresponding decline of 5.26 violent crimes and 21.63 property crimes per 100,000 residents. Similarly, an increase in one dollar of innovative grant funding per resident has contributed to a decline of 12.93 violent crimes and 45.53 property crimes per 100,000 persons. In addition, the findings suggest that COPS grants have had no significant negative effect on violent and property crime rates in cities with less than 10,000 population. Policy Implications: The findings of this study imply that COPS program funding to medium- and large-size cities has been an effective force in reducing both violent and property crime. Federal government grants made directly to law enforcement agencies to hire additional officers and promote innovations may be an effective way to reduce crime on a national scale. [source] FEDERAL LEGISLATION AND GUN MARKETS: HOW MUCH HAVE RECENT REFORMS OF THE FEDERAL FIREARMS LICENSING SYSTEM REDUCED CRIMINAL GUN SUPPLIERS?,CRIMINOLOGY AND PUBLIC POLICY, Issue 2 2002CHRISTOPHER S. KOPER Research Summary: Following reforms of the federal firearms licensing system, nearly 70% of the nation's retail gun dealers active in 1994 dropped out of business by 1998. Dropout dealers supplied one-third of guns recovered and traced by police but were linked to fewer crime guns than were other dealers, most likely because dropouts tended to be lower volume dealers. It is not clear if guns sold by dropouts had a higher probability of being used in crime, but guns supplied by dropouts did not move into criminal channels more quickly. Policy Implications: If federal reforms have reduced the availability of guns to criminals, the effect has probably been more modest than suggested by the overall reduction in dealers. Producing further reductions in the flow of guns to criminals through oversight of gun dealers will require refinement in the identification of problematic gun dealers. [source] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||