Frank P. Williams

The Prison Adjustment of Juvenile Offenders

While young adult offenders have traditionally been characterized as making a poor adjustment to institutional life, the juvenile incarcerated in an adult facility represents a potentially greater problem. This study examined adjustment after separating the young violent offenders into two groups: those who committed their crimes prior to age 17 and those who committed crimes between 17 and 21. Juvenile inmates were almost twice as likely to be problem inmates, resulting in their not working or earning good-time credit. They were also three times more likely than their slightly older counterparts to be in the most restrictive custody grades. With current legislation enabling the continued incarceration of juveniles in adult facilities, administrators should adopt strategies to manage this special population more effectively.

Predicting Parole Absconders

Even though parole absconders represent one of the largest groups of problem parolees, little has been written about them. Using a large sample of California parolees, the authors examine several variables for their ability to predict absconding and produce an instrument capable of classifying absconders with better than 70% accuracy.

The demise of the criminological imagination: A critique of recent criminology

While there have been some imaginative theoretical works in the past decade, little of that work has become accepted by the criminological field. Instead, the focus has been on the development of methodological and technical tools, even to the extent that theory development itself has been tied to the general movement. The argument presented here is that more useful and insightful theories are products of imagination and speculation. Thus, the current movement is largely useful for testing theories of the past, but not for developing theories of the future. Three general explanations for this state of affairs are provided: the specificity of empirical theory, the implications of the sociologies of the 1960s, and the rise of criminal justice vis-a-vis criminology. The answer to this problem lies in the development of critical and creative thought within our field and graduate schools in particular.

Radical Victimology: A Critique of the Concept of Victim in Traditional Victimology

Traditional victimology has not yet tapped the potential of radical criminology to assist in the explanation of social reactions to crime and crime victims. From the theoretical perspective of the radical framework it is possible to explore societys preference for truly innocent victims and the limited ability of the system to avenge them (i.e., through victim assistance programs). Other avenues of analysis from this perspective include the role of the victim in furthering the interests of police and prosecution agencies, as well as the interests of the media and capitalist business enterprises. A radical victimological approach can also be used to analyze the extended victimization of the offenders family by the criminal justice system.

Prison Impact Studies: Some Comments on Methodological Rigor

Many pronouncements have been made in the process of site selection for new prisons. A review of the research literature on the effect of prisons on communities reveals that most of this information is unsupported by good research design. This essay presents a critique of the methodological and research design problems of prison impact studies. Various threats to validity are explored and two complementary methodologies, a single-site time series and multisite time series, are proposed for prison impact studies. Strict attention to internal-validity concerns will provide better answers to causal mechanisms and outcomes than is currently the case.

Deterrence and social control: Rethinking the relationship

Until recent years, the operationalization of the deterrence concept has been largely legal in nature. That is, deterrence was defined in terms of certainty and celerity of arrest and severity of sanction. Contemporary research has called this narrow viewpoint into question, pointing out that legal factors are only part of the range of social-control mechanisms. One of the more important of these reformulations was found to have an analytical flaw which could have easily affected the results (Meier and Johnson, 1977). The present study corrects the analysis problems of this previous study and upholds the findings that, for a sample of adult Texas residents, extralegal factors are of more import for determining marijuana use than traditional legal deterrence. Since both legal and extralegal factors are products of the social context, deterrence may be appropriately incorporated into contemporary social- control theories.

Running on Empty: Creativity and the Correctional Agenda

This article presents a critique of contemporary correctional theories and practices, alleging that a paucity of creative ideas characterizes the field of corrections. It takes note of correctional conservatism, financial strains, and the lack of clear, well-articulated, and shared goals plaguing contemporary corrections. The article considers a number of forces that have contributed to this state of affairs. Finally, it offers some suggestions for regenerating the “correctional imagination.”

Security in the Evolution of the Criminal Justice Curriculum

This paper explores the recent interest in expanding criminal justice and criminology through research and funding initiatives and the development of curricula in security, homeland security, and security management. Parallels and distinctions are drawn between the evolution of criminal justice and more recent extensions of the field in areas that have had varying levels of success. The popularity of security studies may be due in part, to government grants and the political rhetoric of homeland security, jobs that have opened up as well as the opportunities for research, consulting, and training brought about by the events of 9/11. Pressures on the field to legitimize the study of security issues are discussed with the conclusion that various forms of security studies will serve as a subdiscipline in criminal justice for some time.

Legislative Actions Against Drunken Driving: An Assessment with Additional Evidence on the Open Container

With drunken driving as one of the major social problems of the 1980s, legislatures have attempted to resolve the issue through one, or all of three forms of legislation. First, the application of deterrence through more severe penalties has been tried in many states with little success. Second, under pressure from the federal government states have raised the legal minimum age limit for drinking in anticipation of decreases in the number of alcohol related traffic accidents and fatalities. The research on this solution also remains equivocal. Third, many states have passed open container laws in the anticipation of reductions in drunken driving. This final alternative has no research behind it and, thus, is a reaction based on faith. Because of lack of research on the open container, this study examines survey responses to both drunken driving and open container self-report questions. According to findings, the presence of an open container in a vehicle was strongly associated with both the experiences of being with a drunken driver and of driving while drunk. Previous research indicates that continued drinking during driving escalates motor impairment, thus increasing the possibility of drunken driving. The legislative avenue of prohibiting open containers may show at least as much promise in the fight against drunken driving as either deterrence or increasing the minimum drinking age.

ANOMIE THEORY AND MARIJUANA USE: CLARIFYING THE ISSUES

Abstract One of the most popular sociological explanations of drug use has been Mcrtons Anomie theory. Yet, where marijuana use is concerned, there has been little evidence of its explanatory ability. Correcting problems of previous research, this study treated anomie as a fully sociological variable and found that marijuana use displayed a curvilinear trend along the anomie index, accounting for some 10 percent of the variance. Since the highest marijuana use was displayed in user groups with medium anomie levels, we theorize that marijuana use does not directly fit the retreatist adaptation and may be better conceptualized as a mildly unconventional behavior for those who are mildly anomie. A more appropriate approach to anomie explanations to drug use may require the incorporation of different types (for example, range of illegality) of drugs in the dependent variable.