C. Ronald Huff

Guilty Until Proved Innocent: Wrongful Conviction and Public Policy

Few problems can pose a greater threat to free, democratic societies than that of wrongful conviction—the conviction of an innocent person. Yet relatively little attention has been paid to this problem, perhaps because of our understandable concern with the efficiency and effectiveness of the criminal justice system in combatting crime. Drawing on our own database of nearly 500 cases of wrongful conviction, our survey of criminal justice officials, and our review of extant literature on the subject, we address three major questions: (1) How frequent is wrongful conviction? (2) What are its major causes? and (3) What policy implications may be derived from this study?

The Gang Intervention Handbook.

Nationally recognized professionals join Dr. Goldstein and Dr. Huff in this unparalleled presentation of gang intervention strategies and tactics. Covers psychological, contextual, and criminal justice interventionsThe book focuses on both preventive and rehabilitative approaches and special intervention parameters such as cultural sensitivity, public policy issues, and balancing the needs of gang youth with the needs of society.

Youth Gangs and Public Policy

Recent studies have begun to document the changing organizational forms of youth gangs in the United States. The emergence/re-emergence of these gangs, often accompanied by increased violence and involvement in drug use and/or trafficking, poses major public policy issues. However, little empirical research has been conducted on this subject, and very few studies have been based on interviews with gang members as well as official data and the perspectives of public officials. This article summarizes the results and recommendations of a two-year study of youth gangs in Ohio, focusing primarily on in-depth case studies of Cleveland and Columbus gangs.

Wrongly convicted : perspectives on failed justice

Written from a cross-disciplinary perspective, the essays in this collection are divided into four sections: the causes of wrongful convictions; the social characteristics of the wrongfully convicted; case studies and personal histories; and suggestions for change in the criminal justice system.

Crime in the country: The vulnerability and victimization of rural citizens

Abstract While a considerable body of research, theory, and statistics has developed concerning the “urban crime problem” in America, crime in rural areas has been comparatively neglected. This study addresses that neglect by refining and extending National Crime Panel victimization survey techniques to elicit the victimization experiences, perceptions, fears, and actions of residents of a highly representative rural county in the midwestern United States. The implications of this study are discussed, including the need to educate rural citizens concerning crime prevention in order to reduce their vulnerability to continued victimization. The data suggest that the romanticization surrounding rural America may help mask the fact that increasing diffusion of criminal behavior, along with increasing homogenization of our society, have significantly eroded the rural/urban dichotomy which has dominated criminological inquiry.

Crime in the Suburbs A Structural Model

Structural models of suburban violent and property crime rates are developed, utilizing elements of both ecological and criminological theory. The analysis of the models is based on data for 645 suburbs for which official crime data were available. Major findings were: (1) the effects of age composition on crime rates were largely spurious; (2) the per centage of low-income population was a key variable in explaining both violent and property crime rates; (3) percentage of black population had both direct and indirect effects on violent crime rates but no effects on property crime rates; and (4) suburban physical characteristics (size, density, employment/residence ratio, and region) also exerted both direct and indirect effects on crime rates. Implications for the develop ment of ecological and criminological theory are discussed, as are some of the policy implications.

Public Opinion and Criminal Justice Policy Formulation

This article examines the use of public opinion in the formulation of criminal justice policy by state government agencies. Although democratic political ideology suggests that government must be responsive to the people, the complexities of modern society make difficult the determination of how best to assess and utilize public opinion in the policy process. This article addresses that issue by examining the results of a study that generated four databases: (1) a national survey of 147 state government agencies; (2) a random sample of 805 citizens located in a large, representative state; (3) a survey of 31 interest groups; and (4) a survey of 133 state legislators. The study suggests that methods currently used to assess public opinion may be unreliable, while the public opinion poll, which offers significant advantages, is an underutilized tool in state criminal justice policymaking.

Persistence of Suburban Violent Crime Rates: An Ecological Analysis

Abstract A lagged endogenous variable structural model of 1970 suburban violent crime rates is constructed and evaluated using a sample of 252 large suburbs for which 1960 and 1970 official crime data were available. It was found that suburban crime rates are persistent, that employment specialization and percent low income affect change in violent crime rates, and that suburban age, density, employment specialization, percent low income, percent Black, and region have substantial indirect effects on 1970 crime rates through earlier areal crime rates. Despite theoretical expectations, population growth and age composition exerted no significant direct or indirect effects on violent crime or changes in violent crime rates.

Research With Considerations of Use

The August Vollmer Award Address is intended to focus on contributions to justice and the recipients research and policy experiences. This is a story of one persons career focusing mainly on research with “considerations of use.” After receiving a formal education in psychology, social work, and sociology, as well as experience as a practitioner, the authors academic career has primarily focused on the link between research and criminal justice policy and practice. This is the story of that journey and how it was aided by events that could not have been foreseen.

Book Review: Decker, S. H., & Weerman, F. M. (Eds.). (2005). European Street Gangs and Troublesome Youth Groups. Lanham, MD: AltaMira, Pp. 338

ipants; however, this was equally apparent, if not more so, for nonparticipants. Likewise, offending reduced more dramatically during the program for those who remained outside education, training, and employment than for those who gained such opportunities, suggesting that factors other than social inclusion—or indeed mentoring per se—helped the desistance process. The jury is still out. The book concludes that not all the positive change in these young people’s lives could be attributed to mentoring and that offering opportunities for change alone would not necessarily mean that change will inevitably occur. This conclusion led, in the penultimate chapter, to an attempt to understand how change happens—not so much what works as how it works. The authors explore a model of motivation and behavioral change that identifies key stages of change against an individual’s preparedness or otherwise for such change. The important message from this analysis is that individual commitment to change is a key factor, thus suggesting that compulsory mentoring—indeed other forms of compulsory criminal justice intervention—may prove counterproductive. Both Tim Newburn and Michael Shiner are well-established academics in the field of youth crime and have written extensively on the problems facing young people in the United Kingdom, notably from the police, substance misuse, and crime. Although this book is highly specialized—in focusing on mentoring—it nevertheless encompasses a vast array of topics of interest to academics not only in criminal justice but also in youth policy and wider sociological and psychological fields.