Christina Mancini

Sex Crimes, Children, and Pornography Public Views and Public Policy

“Get tough” approaches for responding to sex crimes have proliferated during the past decade. Child pornography in particular has garnered attention in recent years. Policy makers increasingly have emphasized incarceration as a response to such crime, including accessing child pornography. Juxtaposed against such efforts is a dearth of knowledge about “get tough” policies for responding to sex crimes, particularly those targeting children, and how most appropriately to respond to such crimes. The authors examine data from a national telephone survey of Americans to explore views toward sex crimes, with a special emphasis on crimes against children. The findings indicate the public supports tough responses to child sex crimes, but they also support treatment of sex offenders. Also, despite views that incarceration is an appropriate response to possessing child pornography, several social and demographic cleavages in such support exist. The authors discuss these findings and their implications for policy and research.

It Varies From State to State An Examination of Sex Crime Laws Nationally

Sex crime laws seemingly have proliferated recently as part of a national “get tough” shift in criminal justice policy. However, to date, there exists no systematic account of these state-level legislative changes. Accordingly, the “tough on sex crime” characterization of states may be understated or incorrect. It may also gloss over variability in the types of laws enacted and the implications such variability has for the generalizability of assessments of these laws. Drawing on an analysis of state laws, we identify considerable variation in the type, intensity, and design of sex crime laws among states. Results suggest that not all states have uniformly embraced these reforms, that considerable caution is warranted when generalizing from evaluations of particular laws, and that the continuing expansion of sex crime policy making will make it increasingly difficult, especially in the absence of a commensurate body of empirical research, to identify the effects of specific policies.

Resiliency to Victimization: The Role of Genetic Factors

There is a burgeoning line of criminological research examining the genetic underpinnings to a wide array of antisocial phenotypes. From this perspective, genes are typically viewed as risk factors that increase the odds of various maladaptive behaviors. However, genes can also have protective effects that insulate against the deleterious effects of environmental pathogens. The authors use this logic as a springboard to examine whether four different genes protect against victimization in a sample of youths determined to be at risk for being victimized. Analysis of data drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) revealed that certain genetic polymorphisms protected adolescents from victimization. The authors conclude by discussing the complex ways in which genes and the environment can promote resiliency to victimization.

Marriage and Involvement in Crime: A Consideration of Reciprocal Effects in a Nationally Representative Sample

Some theories contend that marriage leads to desistance from crime. Indeed, many studies have reported married persons are less involved in crime. Research has developed under the testable assumption that marriage affects criminal behavior but that criminal involvement does not affect marital propensity (i.e. no selection effect). The current study tests this assumption in two ways. First, we examine a cross-lagged path model where prior marital status is allowed to influence future crime and prior crime is allowed to influence future marital status. Second, we analyze a reciprocal effects model where the contemporaneous influence of marriage on criminal activity is examined while also estimating the influence of criminal behavior on marriage. The findings reveal mixed support for the effect of marriage on crime. The marriage effect is observed in one of the cross-lagged models but not in the reciprocal effects models. Implications for both theory and policy are considered.

Whites’ Concern about Crime: The Effects of Interracial Contact

In recent decades, crime has emerged as a prominent policy focus nationally. Accordingly, a large literature on public views about crime has developed, one strand of which highlights the racialization of crime as a factor central to public opinion and policy discourse. Drawing on this work and studies on the effects of interracial contact, the authors seek to advance theory and research on public opinion about crime.To this end, they draw on data from an ABC News and Washington Post poll to test competing hypotheses about the effects of interracial friendship among Whites on concern about local and national crime. The results suggest that interracial contact increases concern about crime among urban Whites.The authors discuss the implications of these findings for theory, research, and policy.

Public (Mis)Understanding of Crime Policy: The Effects of Criminal Justice Experience and Media Reliance

Scholars attribute the public’s low level of knowledge about sentencing and corrections to its lack of extensive criminal justice experience and consequent reliance on the media for justice-related information. However, scant research exists that evaluates how criminal justice experience affects media consumption, or how such consumption may influence knowledge about sentencing laws or the extent of imprisonment. To extend this literature, we develop and test three hypotheses about the relationships between prior criminal justice experience, reliance on the mass media for information about crime and justice, and knowledge about criminal punishment. Analysis of data from a random telephone survey of 1,308 adult Floridians reveals that individuals with prior criminal justice experience are less likely to rely on the media for crime-related information. The evidence also shows that media reliance is associated with lower levels of knowledge about criminal punishment, and that this effect is particularly strong for female respondents.

The Good, the Bad, and the Incomprehensible: Typifications of Victims and Offenders as Antecedents of Beliefs About Sex Crime

Public opinion has played a critical role in the development of sex crime laws. However, little scholarly work has focused directly on the origins of negative attitudes toward sex offenders. We address this research gap by developing and testing a theoretical account of such views. Drawing on recent national survey data, we examine the extent to which typifications about sexual victims and offenders—believing sex crime typically affects children and female victims and is committed by strangers—explain beliefs about the reformability of sex offenders, harm inflicted on victims, and the causes of offending. Results indicate that judging children to be typical targets of sex crimes is a key determinant of public views. We discuss the implications of our findings.

Mandatory Reporting (MR) in Higher Education College Students’ Perceptions of Laws Designed to Reduce Campus Sexual Assault

Mandatory reporting (MR) policies concerning sexual assault victimization now extend to institutions of higher education. The laws are new and thus controversial since relatively little investigation into their impact has occurred. Additionally, since the laws require disclosure to police, at times, even in instances where victims object, opponents have expressed concerns about potential unintended effects, such as diminished victim autonomy. Perhaps, though, the most glaring question involves how college students perceive the policies. Because students are the focus of the laws, this investigation evaluates student opinion about MR, including approval for the policy, the likelihood of personally reporting under MR, perceptions of faculty compliance, and expected outcomes of MR laws. Findings suggest overwhelming support for MR, substantial likelihood of personally reporting assault under the law, and strong belief in faculty compliance. Not least, although students recognize both the positive and negative possibilities of the law, higher percentages believed in the law’s potential benefits (e.g., increase university accountability). Implications for research and policy are discussed.

Whites’ Perceptions About Black Criminality A Closer Look at the Contact Hypothesis

Scholars have documented how media accounts and policy discourse have presented Blacks and criminality as virtually synonymous, a phenomenon termed the racialization of crime. However, despite extant research on the contact hypothesis—which holds that relationships with members of other groups should reduce stereotypes—no studies have examined whether different indicators of interracial contact (IC) affect Whites’ perceptions of Black criminality; by extension, no research speaks to whether IC effects are contingent on types of racialized views, or whether the amount of IC impacts perceptions. To advance scholarship, this study uses survey data to analyze the extent to which each type of IC is associated with Whites’ views of Black criminality. It then examines whether IC differentially predicts beliefs in crime versus non-crime-related stereotypes. Finally, it assesses whether the amount of IC influences stereotype endorsement. Consistent with the contact hypothesis, results indicate a generalized stereotype-reducing impact of IC, with some caveats.

Examining Factors That Predict Public Concern About the Collateral Consequences of Sex Crime Policy

Sex crime policies have been associated with unintended effects. One involves harassment of registered sex offenders. Despite this finding, and the prominent role of the public in reentry efforts, few studies have examined public opinion about this collateral consequence. By extension, virtually no scholarship has investigated predictors of concern. From a utilitarian perspective, it follows that among those who rely on the registry or who feel sex offenders are driven to reoffend, concern about the registry’s unintended effects will be reduced. In testing this hypothesis the study draws on responses from a national public opinion poll conducted in 2005—a critical time when state registries and online registry websites became increasingly available. Findings support an instrumental or utilitarian argument. Use of the registry and pessimism about offender rehabilitation significantly decreased public concern about registries’ negative outcomes. Implications for research and offender reentry debates are discussed.