Gregory J. Howard

Risk Factors for Teenage Fatherhood.

Fatherhood is the consequence of a series of decisions and interactions including those surrounding the initiation and maintenance of sexual activity the use of contraception and the continuation of a pregnancy to term. Fatherhood therefore results from a social process which began months or years earlier. Data from the Rochester Youth Development Study an ongoing panel study of urban youth were used to identify early risk factors for the likelihood of becoming a teen father. The Rochester study is an ongoing panel study investigating the development of delinquent behavior drug use and related behaviors among urban adolescents in Rochester New York. The prospective study has interviewed adolescents and the adults mainly responsible for their care in waves since 1988 beginning with a sample of 1000 public school 7th and 8th graders and their families. The sample was stratified to overrepresent youth at high risk for serious delinquency and drug use. Data on respondents are also collected from school police courts and social service agencies. Findings are based upon 615 young men of average age 21 years interviewed during 1995-96 in wave 11 of the study; 121 White 386 Black and 108 Hispanic. 7 men reported becoming fathers at age 15. From that age the rate of fatherhood increases steadily until 28.5% of respondents overall had become fathers before age 20. Teen fatherhood was found to be positively related to a variety of risk factors including low social class low educational performance early sexual activity and drug use. The probability of becoming a teen father increases exponentially as the number of risk factors increases.

Garbage Laws and Symbolic Policy: Governmental Responses to the Problem of Waste in the United States

The purpose of this paper is to examine governmental responses to the environmental problem of waste in the United States. The main thesis of this paper contends that environmental laws, particularly those concerned with addressing the problem of waste, are symbolic exercises because they reaffirm the ideological commitments of the industrial-consumer process, commitments that fail to recognize basic principles of ecology and stir the problem of waste in the first instance. The thesis that garbage laws are mainly symbolic exercises is elaborated in the following manner. First, drawing from the work of other scholars who have invoked the notion of symbolic law, the chief characteristics of the concept are iden tified. Having framed the concept of symbolic law, three ideological com mitments of the industrial-consumer process — belief in human domina tion of nature, creativity as a moral pursuit, and linearity of thought - are described. These ideological commitments contribute directly to the problem of waste through the championing of unadulterated consump tion. Noting some ecological challenges raised by garbage and waste dis posal to these ideological commitments, the next section relates some basic principles of ecology that would serve well as the underpinnings for environmental policy. An examination of the federal governments Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 as well as New York States Solid Waste Management Act of 1988 confirms, however, that governmental responses to the problem of waste fail to slip free of indus trial-consumer ideological commitments. After assessing the response articulated by these two pieces of legislation, the paper concludes with some observations on symbolic law and environmental problems and with a few suggestions for informing our environmental policy with eco logical principles.

Measuring the performance of national criminal justice systems

We argue that the emergence of the nation‐state has produced a common structure of criminal justice systems across all nations, thus making it feasible to validly compare criminal justice system performance cross‐nationally. Based upon a theoretical framework derived from the literature on criminal justice performance measures, we introduce an index of national criminal justice system performance. The index measures the performance of national criminal justice systems in three areas: equity, effectiveness, and efficiency. A variety of indices has been used to rank nations in other areas, such as corruption, human rights, human development, political freedom, and informatization. Ours represents the first effort to compare quantitatively the performance of national criminal justice systems. Data for the index are derived from the Fourth and Fifth United Nations Surveys of Crime Trends and Operations of Criminal Justice Systems and from Charles Humanas World Human Rights Guide (3rd edition, 1992). Although...

Further evidence on the relationship between population diversity and violent crime

This paper seeks further evidence on the relationship between population diversity and violent crime. In an earlier paper, we elaborated on Peter Blaus theory of population diversity by developing a conception of population diversity consisting of four types: biological, structural, cultural, and dynamic. Further, we argued that each type of population diversity could be distinguished along two dimensions that we called complexity and integration. Having conceived of population diversity in this manner, we maintained that complexity of population diversity facilitates violent interactions in society while integration of population diversity minimizes violent interactions. Accordingly, we hypothesized that societies characterized by high complexity and low integration would suffer the highest rates of violent crime while those characterized by low complexity and high integration would enjoy the lowest levels of violent crime. In the analysis reported in this paper, we pursue two further questions related to this basic hypothesis. First, we ask whether the hypothecated relationship between population diversity and violent crime holds across three different measures of violent crime (i.e., homicide, rape, and robbery). Second, we investigate whether the alleged relationship between population diversity and violent crime is contingent upon the form of violent crime and type/dimension of population diversity that is considered. While our limited sample of 17 nations makes strong conclusions hazardous at best, we can say that the hypothecated relationship between population diversity and violence entertained by this research enjoyed considerable support in the analysis reported below. At a minimum, further research with a larger sample and perhaps more refined measures of the relevant concepts seems justified.

Exporting and importing criminality: Incarceration of the Foreign Born

Since previous studies have found that crime rates vary by immigrant group there is a need to dis‐aggregate immigrants by country of birth in order to obtain a more accurate representation of the relationship between migrants and crime. This study examines data from six countries (Australia, Canada, France, Italy, the Netherlands, and the U.S.A.) on the country of birth of their inmate populations. The following observations are reasonable conclusions from the data available. First, the percentages of each home countrys inmate population that is foreign‐born varies remarkably. Second, in general foreign‐born inmates tend to come from regions outside the region within which the host country was located, though in most cases from regions that were proximate. Third, given the small number of countries reporting, it is intriguing that just a small number of countries and regions can account for such a high proportion of a home countrys inmate population if one includes the numbers of a countrys citizens who are housed in foreign prisons as part of that original countrys inmate population. The paper concludes with a discussion of a number of policy implications that flow from these findings.

Explaining Differences in Comparative Criminological Research: An Empirical Exhibition

This manuscript examines the correspondence between unofficial and official measures of cross‐national crime for two violent and two non‐violent offenses. More specifically, we report on the convergence of two official measures of cross‐national crime, derived from the European Sourcebook and Interpol, and one unofficial measure of cross‐national crime, provided by the International Crime (Victim) Survey, in terms of their depiction of sexual assault, robbery, domestic burglary, and motor vehicle theft. We evidence strong correlations between the official measures of crime with an expanded sample, but the official data and victimization data were not consistently associated with one another regardless of sample size. This intriguing pattern may be explained by sample size and sample composition. A small number of countries exerted a considerable influence on our findings when we used an expanded sample of countries. We conclude that future researchers using cross‐ national data must attend to the contextual features of the specific countries that they include in their research.

A deadly mix? An international investigation of handgun availability, drinking culture, and homicide

The current research investigates the relationship between firearm availability and homicide rates in a nonrandom sample of countries considered “wet” or “dry” with respect to drinking culture. We contend that the relationship between firearm availability and homicide varies by culturally approved norms associated with alcohol consumption. The analysis indicates that firearm availability is a significantly better predictor of homicide in “dry” drinking cultures, characterized by episodic but heavy consumption of alcohol per occasion, and a poor predictor of homicide in “wet” drinking cultures, where alcohol is frequently but moderately consumed. Implications of the study are discussed.

Durkheim's comparative method and criminal justice theory

1. Criminal Justice, Criminology, and Criminal Justice Theory Part 1: The Nature, Method, and Boundaries of Criminal Justice Theory 2. Foundations of Criminal Justice Theory 3. Durkheims Comparative Method and Criminal Justice Theory 4. The Dominance of Crime and Neglect of Justice in Criminal Justice Theory Part 2: Theories of Policing 5. Explaining Police Organizations 6. Understanding Variety in Urban Community Policing Part 3: Individual and Community Level Theories of the Courts 7. Assessing Blameworthiness and Assigning Punishment 8. Courts and Communities Part 4: Testing Correctional Sector Theories: Two Examples 9. A Test of a Turnover Intent Model 10. Correctional Resources and the Structure of the Institutionalized Environment - Conclusion 11. Directions for Theory and Theorizing in Criminal Justice

Crime, criminal justice, and popular culture

Significant attention has been given, especially in nonacademic circles, to various forms of popular culture and their relationship to violence, crime, and other forms of deviance. Nonetheless, relatively little criminological thought has been directed toward this important area. In this paper we articulate the value of popular culture analyses to studies of criminal justice and criminology, and describe a new scholarly journal titled the Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture, which is dedicated to this topic.