Alyssa W. Chamberlain

Offender Rehabilitation: Examining Changes in Inmate Treatment Characteristics, Program Participation, and Institutional Behavior

The efficacy of offender rehabilitation has been a topic of much debate over the past few decades. While much of the corrections literature has focused on program effectiveness, less attention has been placed on the expansion and delivery of services to incarcerated offenders, and whether the advances that have been made with regard to rehabilitation have changed the nature of treatment delivery to inmates. Using data from three time points collected as part of the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) survey of state inmates, this paper examines the criminogenic needs of offenders and how those needs have changed over time, the role inmate needs play in driving participation in institutional programs, and whether inmates with unmet treatment needs commit a disproportionate number of institutional infractions. The results suggest that inmate needs have changed substantially over the past decade, with the most extensive needs concentrated in a small proportion of inmates. Consequently, correctional institutions are not always been able to match offenders to the appropriate services, which may have a direct impact on institutional safety.

Is Investor Purchasing of Foreclosures Related to Neighborhood Crime? Evidence From a Phoenix Suburb

Little is known about how investors purchasing foreclosures during the recent U.S. housing crisis are affecting neighborhood crime. While they may decrease crime by reducing vacancies or bettering neighborhood conditions, they may increase it by escalating neighborhood turnover. Combining local police department data on calls for service with foreclosure, home sales, and sociodemographic data, this research uses longitudinal modeling to assess the relation between the purchasing of foreclosures by investors and calls for service in neighborhoods in Chandler, Arizona, a Phoenix suburb where investors are renting former foreclosures. Neighborhoods where foreclosures were more often purchased by investors had more calls for service about violent crime the following year.

Mass Reentry, Neighborhood Context and Recidivism: Examining How the Distribution of Parolees Within and Across Neighborhoods Impacts Recidivism

Recent scholarship focuses on the role neighborhood context plays in reoffending. These studies lack an examination of how the size of the parolee population at the neighborhood-level impacts individual recidivism. We examine how the size and clustering of parolee populations within and across neighborhoods impacts individual-level recidivism. Using data from parolees returning to three Ohio cities from 2000 to 2009, we examine how concentrations of parolees in neighborhoods and in the surrounding neighborhoods impact the likelihood of reoffending. We also examine whether parolee clustering conditions the relationship between neighborhood-level characteristics and recidivism. Results show concentrated reentry increases recidivism, while parolees in stable neighborhoods are less likely to recidivate. Also, the positive effect of parolee concentration is tempered when parolees return to stable neighborhoods. These findings suggest that augmenting resources available in neighborhoods saturated by parolees, as well as bolstering residential stability in these same neighborhoods might reduce reoffending.

Does GPS Improve Recidivism among High Risk Sex Offenders? Outcomes for California’s GPS Pilot for High Risk Sex Offender Parolees

Abstract The supervision and monitoring of sex offenders has been one of the most hotly contested areas in corrections policy in recent years. The public has called for greater levels of offender scrutiny as the result of heinous acts perpetrated by sex offenders, while critics point to recent legislation with onerous housing restrictions coupled with public censure that prevent many offenders from reentering successfully into society. The current study provides a test of the effectiveness of GPS monitoring for high risk sex offender parolees over and above surveillance and monitoring provided by specialized sex offender caseloads. Using data from a GPS pilot program, 94 high risk sex offenders monitored by GPS and 91 high risk sex offenders on specialized caseloads were followed for 12 months. GPS sex offenders were less likely to be found guilty of failing to register as non-GPS sex offenders and marginally less likely to abscond– reflecting relative success in meeting two goals of sex offender legislation- knowing where sex offenders are and making sure they are registered. Additionally, GPS offenders were less likely to be found guilty of committing a new criminal violation; however we observed no significant differences in the type of new crime violation.

Housing Disinvestment and Crime in a Phoenix Suburb: Exploring the Differential Effects of Investors and Owner-Occupants

External investment in neighborhoods can inhibit crime. However, during the housing crisis, many investors were foreclosed upon, triggering large-scale community disinvestment. Yet the impact of this type of disinvestment on crime is currently unknown. Combining data on crime incidents with foreclosure, home sales, and sociodemographic data, this research assesses whether the foreclosure of properties owned by investors has an effect on crime in neighborhoods in Chandler, Arizona, a suburb in the heavily affected Phoenix region. Neighborhoods with a greater proportion of foreclosures on investors (FOIs) have higher total and property crime rates in the short term. In Hispanic neighborhoods, a greater proportion of FOIs result in lower rates of crime. Results suggest that neighborhood stabilization efforts should consider the role of investors in driving short-term crime rates, and that police and code enforcement strategies might prioritize neighborhoods with a high proportion of investor foreclosures.

Relative Difference and Burglary Location Can Ecological Characteristics of a Burglar’s Home Neighborhood Predict Offense Location?

Objectives: Neighborhood characteristics predict burglary targets, but target attractiveness may be colored by the conditions in which a potential offender resides. We test whether relative differences in concentrated disadvantage, racial/ethnic composition, and ethnic heterogeneity influence where burglars offend, controlling for distance. From a relative deprivation perspective, economically advantaged areas make more attractive targets to burglars residing in disadvantage neighborhoods, but a social disorganization perspective predicts areas lower in social cohesion are most attractive, which may be neighborhoods with greater disadvantage. Methods: Drawing upon a unique sample of cleared burglaries in the City of Tampa, Florida from 2000 to 2012, we utilize discrete choice modeling to predict burglar offense destination. Results: Offenders target neighborhoods that are geographically proximate or ecologically similar to their own. When accounting for relative differences, burglars from all neighborhood types are more likely to target highly disadvantaged or heterogeneous neighborhoods. Conclusions: Burglars generally select targets that are similar to their residence. However, when suspects do discriminate, there is evidence that they target neighborhoods that are worse off relative to their own on characteristics such as residential instability, disadvantage, racial composition, and racial/ethnic diversity. These neighborhoods are associated with lower social control and lower risk of detection.

Foreclosures and crime: A city-level analysis in Southern California of a dynamic process

Although a growing body of research has examined and found a positive relationship between neighborhood crime and home foreclosures, some research suggests this relationship may not hold in all cities. This study uses city-level data to assess the relationship between foreclosures and crime by estimating longitudinal models with lags for monthly foreclosure and crime data in 128 cities from 1996 to 2011 in Southern California. We test whether these effects are stronger in cities with a combination of high economic inequality and high economic segregation; and whether they are stronger in cities with high racial/ethnic heterogeneity and high racial segregation. One month, and cumulative three month, six month, and 12-month lags of foreclosures are found to increase city level crime for all crimes except motor vehicle theft. The effect of foreclosures on these crime types is stronger in cities with simultaneously high levels of inequality but low levels of economic segregation. The effect of foreclosures on aggravated assault, robbery, and burglary is stronger in cities with simultaneously high levels of racial heterogeneity and low levels of racial segregation. On the other hand, foreclosures had a stronger effect on larceny and motor vehicle theft when they occurred in a city with simultaneously high levels of racial heterogeneity and high levels of racial segregation. There is evidence that the foreclosure crisis had large scale impacts on cities, leading to higher crime rates in cities hit harder by foreclosures. Nonetheless, the economic and racial characteristics of the city altered this effect.

The Impact of Structural Disadvantage on the Gender-Gap and Sex-Specific Rates of Nonlethal Violent Victimization

This study examined the gendered impact of structural disadvantage and economic inequality on two forms of nonlethal victimization (assault and robbery). Compared with research on the gendered impact of structural disadvantage on perpetration, few studies have examined the differential susceptibility of men and women’s risk of victimization. We use data from the City of Los Angeles (2001-2007) to examine the relative influence of neighborhood characteristics on both the gender gap in victimization as well as sex-specific measures of assault and robbery victimization. In general, we largely find that neighborhood disadvantage and economic inequality do little to explain the gender gap in victimization; however, structure plays a more significant role in understanding sex-specific victimization rates, but the relationship varies by crime type.

Neighborhood crime, the housing crisis, and geographic space: Disentangling the consequences of foreclosure and vacancy

ABSTRACT In the wake of the U.S. housing crisis, a flurry of research has examined the consequences of foreclosure for crime, and much of the literature suggests that foreclosure impacts crime through vacancy. We suggest that foreclosure and vacancy have distinct crime processes and their effects should be examined in tandem. Furthermore, the spatial distribution of foreclosure and vacancy, particularly in surrounding neighborhoods, may have different consequences for crime. We examine these questions using quarterly neighborhood data from Cleveland, Ohio, from 2006 to 2011 for both property and violent crimes. We find that foreclosures only impact crime through the broader nearby area, whereas vacancies appear to only be of consequence within the focal neighborhood. Our findings suggest distinct and spatialized differences between foreclosures and vacancies in their consequences for crime.

Sex, Race, and Place: Taking an Intersectional Approach to Understanding Neighborhood-Level Violent Crime across Race and Sex

Objectives: We draw upon theories of social disorganization, strain, and subculture of violence to examine how sex and race/ethnicity intersect to inform nonlethal violent offending at the macrolevel. Methods: Using neighborhood-level incidents, we examine (1) the structural correlates of male and female nonlethal violence and (2) whether ecological conditions have variable impacts on the prevalence of White, Black, and Latino male and female offenses above and beyond differential exposure to disadvantage. We use multivariate negative binomial regression within a structural equation modeling framework which allows for the examination of the same set of indicator variables on more than one dependent variable simultaneously while accounting for covariance between the dependent variables. Results: We find few significant differences in the salience of disadvantage on female and male violence across race and ethnicity although some differences emerge for White men and women. Structural factors are largely sex invariant within race and ethnicity. Conclusions: Despite expectations that disadvantage would have differential effects across sex and race/ethnicity, we uncover only minor differences. This suggests that structural effects are more invariant than variant across subgroups and highlights the importance of investigating both similarities and differences when examining neighborhood structure, intersectionality, and criminal behavior.