April Pattavina

A Comparison of the Police Response to Heterosexual Versus Same-Sex Intimate Partner Violence

It has been argued that the police do not respond to domestic calls involving same-sex couples in the same manner as they respond to calls involving heterosexual couples. A major problem facing researchers examining the police response to cases involving same-sex couples has been the lack of adequately sized samples. In this article, the authors utilize the 2000 National Incident Based Reporting System database, which contains 176,488 intimate partner assaults and intimidation incidents reported to 2,819 police departments in 19 states. The key issue examined is whether similar cases involving same-sex and heterosexual couples result in the same police response.

An Examination of Citizen Involvement in Crime Prevention in High-Risk Versus Low- to Moderate-Risk Neighborhoods

In the following study, the authors examine factors that explain citizen participation in crime prevention activities in Boston. Using survey data from a random sample, census data, and official crime and arrest data, the authors identified a wide range of individual- and community-based indicators that could potentially explain citizen involvement in crime prevention. Findings revealed that citizen involvement in collective crime prevention does indeed vary by the risk level of a particular neighborhood, with high-risk neighborhoods demonstrating higher rates of involvement than low- to moderate-risk neighborhoods. The authors also found that the factors that explained citizen participation varied by the risk level of the neighborhood. Overall, this research demonstrated that in high-risk neighborhoods, citizen involvement in crime prevention activities is affected by the unique blend of personal, parochial, and public social control mechanisms operating in these areas.

Racial disparity and the legitimacy of the criminal justice system: exploring consequences for deterrence

Minority (over) representation in the criminal justice system remains a puzzle, both from a policy and an intervention perspective. Cross-sectional reviews of the policies and practices of the criminal justice system often find differential rates of involvement in the criminal justice system that are associated with the nature of the criminal charge/act or characteristics of the offender; however, longitudinal reviews of the race effect often show it to be confounded by procedural and extralegal variables. This review focuses on how the cumulative policies and practices of the criminal justice system contribute to churning, or the recycling of individuals through the system. In conducting our review, we describe how the same criminal justice processes and practices adversely affect select communities. The consequences of policies and procedures that contribute to churning may affect the legitimacy of the criminal justice system as a deterrent to criminal behavior. A research agenda on issues related to legitimacy of the criminal justice system aimed at a better understanding of how this affects individual and community behavior is presented.

Policy, Place, and Perpetrators: Using NIBRS to Explain Arrest Practices in Intimate Partner Violence:

This study presents the results of a multilevel analysis of arrest outcomes in intimate partner incidents reported to the police. Using NIBRS data for 2000 in combination with data from other sources, we investigate how arrest policies, levels of urbanization, incident circumstances and offender characteristics influence arrest outcomes in domestic violence incidents. Our results indicate that arrest outcomes for intimate partner violence are influenced not only by mandatory arrest legislation, but also by level of urbanization and incident circumstances. The findings demonstrate the need for continued research that considers agency-level as well as offender- and incident-level characteristics in accounting for arrest outcomes.

Justice Reinvestment in the United States: An Empirical Assessment of the Potential Impact of Increased Correctional Programming on Recidivism

Abstract Recent efforts in justice reinvestment in the United States have echoed the importance of using evidence-based practices. Legislative initiatives support the expansion of these practices and related programming to a broader array of correctional populations and settings. But the efforts to date are likely to have limited success altering the outcomes from the use of incarceration unless more attention is paid to the principles of effective interventions and access to efficacious treatment services. The most comprehensive survey of services, conducted in 2005–2006, found that less than 10% of offenders can participate in treatment services on a given day. Two simulation models are reported in this paper that demonstrate different impacts from increasing the number and type of programs offered within correctional and community correctional settings: expanding access and participation rates in programs can yield reductions in recidivism, adding treatment matching will accelerate the recidivism reduction, and by offering risk-need-responsivity (RNR) programming the reincarceration rate can be reduced by 3–6%. This paper offers four measures that can be used to gauge performance of systems undergoing justice reinvestment initiatives. Expanding correctional programming is an important, if not essential, component of undoing the impact of mass incarceration policies.

Simulation strategies to reduce recidivism

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Urban Neighborhood Information Systems: Crime Prevention and Control Applications

0 VER the last fifteen years, advances in computer technology have begun to significantly influence the way criminologists and policy makers think about crime and justice. One ofthe more influential technological advances has been the development of computer mapping and Geographic Information Systems (GIs). The adoption of computer mapping technology by many criminal justice agencies and academics has helped to move criminal justice policy and research in a direction that places increasingemphasis on the relationship betweencrime and the environmental context in which it occurs. This direction has also been supported by other important trends Sampson such as the growing body of research demonstrating a link between BunikmdGrasmick crime and the environment and the shift in policing philosophy to a Swam TaylormdHamll more communityor problem-oriented approach. These forces have created an abundance of opportunities to use the latest mapping technology in powerful ways to assist those interested in addressing Goldsmithet al. Harries 1999 public safety issues in local communities. To support community-based research, many agencies have developed some Geographic Information Systems (GIs) capacity. A basic GIs system includes individual andfor area-level data with geographic indicators along with mapping software capable of producing geographic displays of information. Some systems also include statistical tools for advanced spatial analysis. There is a

Risk-Need-Responsivity (RNR): Leading Towards Another Generation of the Model

The risk-need-responsivity (RNR) framework has great utility to the field of corrections and public policy about how best to punish and treat those involved in the justice system. The basic premise is that the decision should be grounded in responsivity—the response that will generate the most desired positive outcomes, particularly if one is interested in reducing recidivism. We have explored the RNR framework and have presented an updated RNR framework with empirically and clinically based principles. In this final chapter, we highlight six key conclusions: (1) there is an expansive body of literature supporting an RNR framework of treatment and program delivery; (2) offender risk and need assessment instruments can, with some adjustments, be used to identify primary offender risks and needs; (3) a significant treatment gap in services currently exists to address offender’s primary needs, and this gap contributes to the current high rates of negative outcomes; (4) meta-analyses of correctional treatment programs can be used to identify programs that result in significant reductions in recidivism; (5) simulation models that test RNR implementation scenarios on a large scale illustrate substantial reductions in recidivism; and (6) RNR programming can be integrated into a system of treatment delivery designed for particular jurisdictions. Future research is needed in the area of substance use disorders, measurement of criminogenic needs, identifying dosage levels, testing treatment matching strategies, and understanding how offender-level demographics should be integrated into the RNR model. Together, these will advance the next generation on the RNR framework.

Examining Connections between the Police and Prosecution in Sexual Assault Case Processing: Does the Use of Exceptional Clearance Facilitate a Downstream Orientation?

Abstract After several decades of research on how the criminal justice system handles reports of sexual assault, the attrition of cases at the police and prosecutor stages continues to draw the attention of policy makers, victim advocates, and academics. Such attrition has implications for thousands of victims and their alleged offenders each year. Current estimates show that significant rates of attrition persist and vary across jurisdictions. Recent work in two jurisdictions reveals a pattern of exceptional clearances being used to close sexual assault cases reported to the police and that prosecutors are weighing in at the arrest stage. Broadening this analysis we use incident data from a multitude of jurisdictions that report to the National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS) in combination with data from other law enforcement sources to investigate how legal and extra-legal incident factors as well as agency factors differentiate the decision to clear cases by exceptional means from clearance by arrest. We find that agency, legal, and extra-legal factors predict the use of exceptional clearance relative to arrest and discuss how these findings suggest a downstream orientation in case processing.

Applications for Examining the Journey-to-Crime Using Incident-Based Offender Residence Probability Surfaces:

Hot spot analyses generated from crime incident locations has become a popular tool for informing tactical police applications. In this article, the authors expand the incident hot spot application to include information about offender residences in relation to incident locations. It is argued that analyzing offender residence offers added utility to current spatial techniques employed in police work. The methods used to analyze offender residence data are similar to those employed in point intensity hot spot analysis but may have use in investigative as well as tactical decisions. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the use of arrest data in generating an offender residence probability surface (ORPS) linked to specific target neighborhoods in Boston, Massachusetts, and to discuss various criminal justice applications of these surfaces.