Glenn L. Pierce

Arbitrariness and Discrimination under Post-Furman Capital Statutes

Drawing on a wide variety of data sources, this study examines arbi trariness and discrimination under capital statutes in Florida, Georgia, Texas, and Ohio, which are responsible for roughly 70 percent of the. death sentences imposed nationwide in the five years following the United States Supreme Courts Furman decision. It finds that there are gross dif ferences in the treatment of potentially capital offenders by race of of fender and victim and by judicial circuits within states. These are (1) inde pendent of aggravating felony-related circumstances, (2) present at both presentencing and sentencing stages of the criminal justice process, (3) uncorrected by the postsentencing appellate review process, (4) unaltered by the form and restrictiveness of capital statutes among states, and (5) remarkably similar to the best documented patterns of differential treat ment by race of offender and victim under pre-Furman capital statutes, now ruled unconstitutional. These findings show that the present system of capital punishment is inconsistent with the constitutional standards of the Furman and Gregg decisions of the United States Supreme Court, but is instead consistent with historically prevailing extralegal influences which compromise and displace the legally prescribed functions of such punishment and are an enduring source of arbitrariness and discrimina tion.

Impact of legislation raising the legal drinking age in Massachusetts from 18 to 20.

On April 16, 1979, Massachusetts raised its legal drinking age from 18 to 20 years. Massachusetts was compared with New York State, exclusive of New York City and Nassau County. New York State retained an 18-year-old drinking age. Random telephone surveys with approximately 1,000 16-19 year olds in each state were undertaken prior to the laws enactment and twice at yearly intervals after the law to assess the laws impact on teenage drinking, driving after drinking, and non-fatal accident involvement. Fatal crash data reported to the US Department of Transportation by each state from April 16, 1976-April 15, 1981 were also analyzed. After the law, although the modes of procuring alcohol changed. No significant changes were observed in Massachusetts relative to New York in the proportion of surveyed teenagers who reported that they drank or in the volume of their consumption. The proportion of teenagers who drove after drinking heavily (six or more drinks at one time) did not decline in Massachusetts relative to New York. However, the frequency that teenagers reported driving after any drinking declined significantly in Massachusetts. Frequency of teenage driving after marijuana use and non-fatal teenage accidents declined at comparable rates in both states. The numbers of teenage nighttime single vehicle fatal accidents declined more in Massachusetts than New York, in the 18-19 year age group. Overall fatal accident trends among 16-19 year olds in the two states were similar.

The Strategic Prevention of Gun Violence Among Gang‐Involved Offenders

Problem‐oriented policing has been suggested as a promising way to understand and prevent complex gang violence problems. A number of jurisdictions have been experimenting with new problem‐oriented frameworks to understand and respond to gun violence among gang‐involved offenders. These interventions are based on the “pulling levers” deterrence strategy that focuses criminal justice and social service attention on a small number of chronically offending gang members responsible for the bulk of urban gun violence problems. As part of the US Department of Justice‐sponsored Project Safe Neighborhoods initiative, an interagency task force implemented a pulling levers strategy to prevent gang‐related gun violence in Lowell, Massachusetts. Our impact evaluation suggests that the pulling levers strategy was associated with a statistically significant decrease in the monthly number of gun homicide and gun‐aggravated assault incidents. A comparative analysis of gun homicide and gun‐aggravated assault trends in Lowell relative to other major Massachusetts cities also supports a unique program effect associated with the pulling levers intervention.

Understanding and Preventing Gang Violence: Problem Analysis and Response Development in Lowell, Massachusetts

Gang violence presents a major challenge to police departments in the United States. Problem-oriented policing has been suggested as a promising way to understand and prevent complex gang violence problems. Unfortunately, problem analysis, as currently practiced, is generally weak and the resulting responses usually consist of mostly traditional enforcement tactics. Academic-police partnerships can be very productive in understanding and responding to serious crime problems. Unfortunately, such collaborations are rare. The U.S. Department of Justice-sponsored Project Safe Neighborhoods initiative provides an important opportunity to facilitate academicpolice partnerships. In Lowell, Massachusetts, academics and practitioners collaborated on a problem analysis that shed important light on the nature of gang violence and led to the implementation of problem-oriented responses that have been promising in preventing gang violence.

Interpreting the Empirical Evidence on Illegal Gun Market Dynamics

Thousands of Americans are killed by gunfire each year, and hundreds of thousands more are injured or threatened with guns in robberies and assaults. The burden of gun violence in urban areas is particularly high. Critics suggest that the results of firearm trace data and gun trafficking investigation studies cannot be used to understand the illegal supply of guns to criminals and, therefore, that regulatory and enforcement efforts designed to disrupt illegal firearms markets are futile in addressing criminal access to firearms. In this paper, we present new data to address three key arguments used by skeptics to undermine research on illegal gun market dynamics. We find that criminals rely upon a diverse set of illegal diversion pathways to acquire guns, gun traffickers usually divert small numbers of guns, newer guns are diverted through close-to-retail diversions from legal firearms commerce, and that a diverse set of gun trafficking indicators are needed to identify and shut down gun trafficking pathways.

Characteristics and dynamics of illegal firearms markets: Implications for a supply-side enforcement strategy

The question of whether the illegal firearms market serving criminals and juveniles can be disrupted has been vigorously debated. Recent research suggests that illegal gun markets consist of both “point sources” (ongoing diversions through scofflaw dealers and trafficking rings) and “diffuse sources” (acquisitions through theft and informal, voluntary sales). To the extent that systematic gun trafficking is an important source of weapons for criminals and youth, focused regulatory and investigative resources may be effective in disrupting the illegal flow. In this research, we use data on traced firearms to examine one aspect of the illegal gun market that holds the most immediate promise for focused supply-side enforcement efforts—close-to-retail diversions. We find that almost one-third of traceable crime guns were recently diverted from legitimate retail firearms commerce and that nearly one-third had two or more indicators of gun trafficking involving dealers, purchasers, and possessors. We discuss the implications of these findings for understanding illegal gun markets and for developing effective supply-side enforcement strategies.

Evaluation of comprehensive violence prevention education: effects on student behavior

PURPOSE This study evaluates the impact on student behavior of violence prevention education in school settings. METHODS School records were obtained for three panels (1985, 1986, and 1987) of urban public high school students (n = 1,523) who were nonrandomly assigned to three different conditions of school-based violence prevention education: (1) in a class-specific comprehensive educational intervention, (2) as part of a school-wide violence prevention initiative, and (3) no exposure. Changes in suspension status from sophomore to junior year were tracked within exposure groups and the risk of junior year suspension was compared across exposure groups, controlling for age, gender, race, absenteeism, and previous year suspension. RESULTS The class-specific exposure, compared to a not-exposed group from the same school showed a significant 71% reduction in suspension rates (RR = .286, CI .12, .66). The school-wide exposure school shows reductions in and maintenance of very low rates of junior year suspension in each cohort year, although these are not always statistically significantly different from not-exposed groups. CONCLUSION Results indicate that violence prevention education can reduce negative school behaviors, particularly when other supportive curricula and activities are added.

Closing the digital divide: understanding racial, ethnic, social class, gender and geographic disparities in Internet use among school age children in the United States

The purpose of this study is to explore the dynamics underlying disparities in Internet use among school age children in the US. The analysis found that a broad range of demographic, geographic and economic factors significantly influence Internet use among children. Significantly, the availability of household computing resources and adult Internet users in the household were most important in explaining disparities in use among children. To expand universal Internet access, future public policy should focus on providing support for in-home access; continued support for public access at out-of-home locations such as schools, and providing technical support, training and expertise to school age children.

Linking crime guns: The impact of Ballistics imaging technology on the productivity of the Boston Police Department's Ballistics Unit

Ballistics imaging technology has received national attention as a potent tool for moving the law enforcement response to violent gun criminals forward by linking multiple crime scenes to one firearm. This study examines the impact of ballistics imaging technology on the productivity of the Boston Police Departments Ballistics Unit. Using negative binomial regression models to analyze times series data on ballistics matches, we find that ballistics imaging technology was associated with a more than sixfold increase in the monthly number of ballistics matches made by the Boston Police Departments Ballistics Unit. Cost-effectiveness estimates and qualitative evidence also suggest that ballistics imaging technology allows law enforcement agencies to make hits that would not have been possible using traditional ballistics methods.

The impact of public policy and publicity on admissions to state mental health hospitals

This paper examines the impact of broadened Washington state civil commitment standards on utilization of the states mental hospitals. Included in the analysis is an assessment of the impact of a public event (a well-publicized murder case) which was in all likelihood a precursor to the laws revision. We also examine the different ways Washingtons two state hospitals managed the dramatic increase in civilly committed patients that occurred after the revision took effect. The findings indicate that the murder case, in which the defendant had been denied voluntary admission to a state hospital prior to the killing, resulted in an increase in involuntary admissions in the county where it occurred a full year before the standards were revised. The law itself had the effect of increasing commitments throughout the state, reducing the levels of voluntary admissions, and increasing the likelihood of involuntary admission for individuals previously admitted voluntarily, thus transforming a principally voluntary system into one which was primarily involuntary. Finally, it was found that the increased demand for services mandated by the broadened commitment standards was managed differently in the two state hospitals: one imposed a cap on admissions; the other phased out voluntary admissions at a rate roughly equal to the increase in commitments. These findings illustrate both the substantive impact of broadened civil commitment law and the importance, when assessing the impact of laws, of examining public events and administrative interventions which may have significant causal links with legal interventions.