J. Robert Lilly

Electronic Monitoring of the Drunk Driver: A Seven-Year Study of the Home Confinement Alternative

This article evaluates the success of a program using electronic monitoring (EM) as the “front end” of a probation term for drunk drivers during three different program phases lasting over 7 years. The data indicate that EM was implemented with few equipment problems or client complaints and was very cost-effective, with nearly all the clients completing their EM period successfully. There was no evidence of any “add-on” effect, nor was there much evidence of selection bias by gender, age, race, or socioeconomic status. Probation success declined, however, during the post-EM probation period.

Profit and Penality: An Analysis of the Corrections-Commercial Complex

The economics of imprisonment has been examined in a plethora of theoretical and empirical studies. As intriguing, stimulating, and policy-changing as these have been, they generally have not been connected to social contexts broader than prison overcrowding, legal issues, and conservative ideology. This article attempts to respond to this lack of attention by offering a descriptive analysis of one neglected topic of penality. It examines some of the business-related aspects of the American penal system and concludes that because that system operates largely by purchasing goods and services, the connections among crime, punishment, and business must be considered.

The Menace of Margarine: The Rise and Fall of a Social Problem

This paper examines the rise and fall of legislation controlling margarine in the United States in an effort to understand the development of definitions of the substance as a social problem. While instrumental maneuvering by interest groups such as dairy farmers had much to do with the evolution of the problem, the definition of margarine was also affected by expressive, symbolic connotations. These forces were in turn influenced by economic circumstances including business cycles, and by two world wars. Margarine gained in popularity as it found political allies and as nutritionists and home economists, supported by advertising, began to portray it differently. Restrictive legislation was repealed in 1950 after both the Second World War and shifts in the respectability of margarine consumers produced a crisis leading to federal redefinition.

The Potential Use of Home Incarceration for Drunken Drivers

The development of “slammer laws,” which require mandatory jail terms for drivers convicted on charges of drinking-and-driving, represents an emotional response to a serious but misunderstood problem. As an alternative to this and other unsuccessful policies now in use, we suggest that consideration be given to the potential utilization of some form of Home Incarceration. An examination of some prevalent myths about the “drunken driver” is followed by a review of recent research that has provided a different picture of the problem. Theoretical considerations are outlined and special attention is given to the obstacles impeding enforcement of various alternate sentences. Home Incarceration is then examined in terms of potential advantages and disadvantages as a sanction for “drunken drivers.”

Social Control and Dogs: A Sociohistorical Analysis

Between the 1991 Gulf War and the 1996 bombing at the Atlanta Olympics Centennial Park, the public is becoming increasingly aware of the potential dangers of public spaces at home and abroad. Federal efforts designed to deal with the threat of terrorism and to quell fear have included the 1996 Anti-Terrorism Act with its provisions for severe penalties for terrorism along with funds for the increased use of high-tech surveillance equipment. At the local level including courts, hospitals, and schools, physical barriers and bomb- and weapon-detecting monitors have become commonplace. Dogs often are overlooked in the efforts to protect public space. This article addresses the history of dogs as an agent of social control and offers suggestions for further research.

Death Penalty Resistance in the US

In recent years popular support for the death penalty in the US has begun to wane. This article discusses some of the reasons for this development including evidence that innocent individuals have been put to death. Other reasons involve legal debates about executing the mentally retarded, racial disparity and LWOP (Life Without Parole) as an alternative.

Home Incarceration: An International Alternative to Institutional Incarceration

This work undertakes to examine the potential use of home incarceration as an alternative sentence. Beginning with a theoretical consideration of the purposes of sentencing, it proceeds to an examination of home incarceration in terms of both advantages and disadvantages. Advantages include a good degree of fit with other alternatives, potential for use at various stages of the sentencing process, ease of initiation by either offender or official, reasonable expectation of adoption, and a history of latent use. Problems include both legal questions and administrative issues. Close examination indicates that home incarceration is well worth investigating as a viable sentencing alternative.

Dirty Details: Executing U.S. Soldiers During World War II

Research on military capital punishment is a neglected topic in criminology. This article is part of a long-term examination of the capital executions of U.S. soldiers, especially those of World War II. It briefly describes the crimes, defendants, and victims for 18 military executions that took place in England from 1943 to 1945, and it analyses the details of these executions and the burials that followed. The executions were ignominious and well organized mechanical rituals performed by soldiers who overall experienced only one execution. The executions became increasingly truncated events as the military became more familiar with them. After the current U.S. Supreme Court decides the constitutionality of this punishment in Loving v. U.S., 94-1996, military executions may resume after an absence of 35 years.

On the State of Criminology: A Review of a Classic

Of the many introductory textbooks on criminology published in the United States so far, not one has been &dquo;born again&dquo; in as many editions as has the venerable representative of that group which is the subject of the present essay., We greet Criminology in its latest, tenth, edition on the occasion of its fifty-fourth anniversary since the first edition appeared in 1924. This is the sixth edition published since the untimely death of the senior author twenty-nine years ago.2 If any introductory criminology textbook can justly lay claim to having served as the rabbit hole through which most American criminologists &dquo;fell&dquo; into the study of crime and justice, Sutherland and Cressey’s Criminology is that volume. The new edition is a thorough and scholarly summary of a vast multitude of labors in criminology. Thus, the relatively brief notice usually given new editions of textbooks is inappropriate for this American classic. In preparing this essay, we have taken our cue from the prefatory statement that the book is &dquo;about ideas rather than cops and robbers or the mechanics of criminal-law administration&dquo; (p. vi). Although our respective areas of specialization are different, we share teaching and research interests in the sociology of law and believe that the ideas presented in Sutherland/Cressey are fundamental to the discipline of criminology and deserve extended consideration. Obviously, a detailed consideration of every idea presented in the book is

Book Review: Electronic Monitoring of Offenders: Key Developments Issues in Community and Criminal Justice—Monograph 5

plaints bodies were to perform these functions separately, openly and transparently in association with each other and the police department. The New World of Police Accountability is an invaluable text for understanding how policy and practice in the closely connected fields of police accountability and complaints have developed. Although coverage is limited to the US situation, Walker’s technique of separating elements out, tracing their history and then demonstrating their connections makes this useful reading for all those with practice and research interests in police accountability.