James F. Quinn

societal reaction to sex offenders: a review of the origins and results of the myths surrounding their crimes and treatment amenability

Examination of societal reaction to sexual offenders reveals a history of harshness exemplified by the sexual psychopath laws of the 1930s. The latest round of legal attempts to control sex offenders uses Severe sentencing laws, civil commitment procedures and community notification statutes to confine and shame sex offenders. This paper shows these laws to be based on popular beliefs about the predatory nature of these men, the probability of their re-offense and their amenability to treatment rather than the facts about the sex offenses and offenders. The severe reaction to sexual offenders is a vindictive one based on myth and misunderstanding that serves many interests. The paper exposes the contradictory myths and skewed emotions that guide our view of sex crimes and compares these with the facts about re-offense rates and the effects of treatment.

PATHOLOGICAL INTERNET COMMUNITIES: A NEW DIRECTION FOR SEXUAL DEVIANCE RESEARCH IN A POST MODERN ERA

This article explores the impact of the Internet and related technologies on the nature of deviant behavior, deviant communities, and the future of deviance research. The idea that pathological communities, once largely suppressed by time, space, and societal restraints, can now create and use virtual communities is focal. Those new communities may expand their numbers and/or pathology, while reinforcing their rationales for rule violations. Investigation of these new virtual communities is especially complex for both conceptual and methodological reasons: identity is hard to ascertain in cyber-settings; nationality, ethnicity and other background traits and standard (e.g., random) sampling methods are not feasible. Nonetheless, the impact of communications technology on the creation and expansion of pathologically deviant communities requires exploration to determine whether, for example, immersion and social support lead to satiation-catharsis, more aggressive real-time behavior, and/or increases in the depth and number of pathological sexual preferences.

Leathers and Rolexs: The Symbolism and Values of the Motorcycle Club

The article describes the spectrum of motorcycling groups before focusing on the symbolism and values of modern outlaws or one percenters. Factors unique to the edgework of motorcycling are linked to the appearance and demeanor of bikers and their most extreme expression of American societys shadow side among one percenters. The persona of the largest one percent clubs are outlined using the aphorisms and symbols of the subculture. The values reflected in these symbols are linked to those of the larger society as is the evolution of the subculture. Also discussed are the nature of interclub alliances and rivalries.

Red Light Districts on Blue Screens: A Typology for Understanding the Evolution of Deviant Communities on the Internet

Sexual deviance was traditionally divided into normal, pathological, and sociological behaviors by Gagnon and Simon (1967). Quinn and Forsyth (2005) modified that typology by adding cross-cutting continuums describing the normative status and social organization of behaviors in order to keep pace with changing sexual mores and technology while bolstering its empirical rigor. This article extends that model based on the original typologys use in research while making heuristic suggestions about the nature of communities based on sexually deviant desires and the issues they pose for research. The revised typology matches “popular,” “tolerated, ” and “pathological” deviance with levels of communities (isolated, virtual, and direct contact) in a pair of scales that can be expanded or truncated to facilitate different research goals.

ideology and the stagnation of aoda treatment modalities in america

The disease model of alcoholism was adopted by the American Medical Assoication in 1956, and the intervening 47 years have seen the development of increasingly varied and sophisticated types of evidence for the biological sources of addiction to Alcohol and other drugs of abuse (AODA) . However, a synthesis of 12-step treatment with a confrontational and moralistic version of cognitive psychology remains the modal approach to AODA treatment, despite its inability to even engage many addicts. Simultaneously, the growing evidence for therapies that teach self-regulation of biopsychological processes, which treat clients supportively while encouraging their recognition of the problems and building their desire to change, has been largely ignored by practitioners. The epitome of this self-regulation approach, neurofeedback therapy, has been all but ignored despite reports of high success rates. This paper examines the confluence historical economic and ideological factors that maintain this divergence between knowledge and practice from the perspective of Gusfields notion of moral passage based on deviant labels.

A case study method for teaching theoretical criminology

We describe a method of introducing students to criminological theory through the use of case histories. This method uses the assumptions of various criminological theories to match theories with cases for illustrating how theories explain real-life events. It was designed to stimulate interest in theory among students and to develop their ability to synthesize explanations. The method has the latent function of encouraging students to use rigorous logic and theory construction methods. It also introduces some ideas usually relegated to methodology courses.

The effects of media exposure on alcohol consumption patterns in African American males.

Abstract Objectives: The study examined the role of media exposure, ethnicity, mood/affect, socio-demographic factors and religion on alcohol consumption patterns. Methods: Secondary analysis of the General Social Survey (GSS), 1972-2002 cumulative data file was used to provide quantitative estimates of the relationship between media exposure, ethnicity, mood/affect, socio-demographic factors and religion. The sample consisted of (n = 13,742) White subjects and (n = 2,192) African American subjects. Results: Watching television and reading the newspaper were significant predictors of alcohol use. Watching television had a positive significant effect on alcohol use and abuse; but only in the absence of religiosity. Race did not have a significant effect on alcohol use or abuse. The survey year had significant effects on media use. Conclusion: This research has significant policy implications in explaining predictors of alcohol use and abuse as well as protective factors for this behavior.

Dysphoria and electronically monitored home confinement

The use of electronics to control and punish offenders in the community has rapidly expanded in the last decade. However, the effects of electronically monitored home confinement on the mental health of offenders have not been adequately investigated. This article presents the findings of a study designed to probe the effects of electronically enforced home confinement on the level of dysphoria experienced by offenders under community supervision. The article presents data on reported levels of dysphoria among electronically monitored felony probationers and parolees residing in two large metropolitan areas in the southwestern United States. The results indicate that there is no evidence of any change in level of reported dysphoria as a result of electronically monitored home confinement.

Police perceptions of the severity of local gang problems: An analysis of noncriminal predictors

The results of a survey of municipal police departments in nine states are used to examine the effects of gang and city traits on police perceptions of the severity of the gang problem in their jurisdiction. The study is a preliminary and heuristic inquiry into some of the factors that color police perceptions of gangs. The data are especially relevant to small and medium‐sized cities in the south central region of the United States. Analysis indicates that only the size of the gang and its organizational level are clearly significant, although race is more prominent than was expected. The analysis probes the relationships among these variables and raises questions about the origins of police perceptions and the dynamics of gang development.

Drugs and Crime: An Empirically Based, Interdisciplinary Model

ABSTRACT This article synthesizes neuroscience findings with long-standing criminological models and data into a comprehensive explanation of the relationship between drug use and crime. The innate factors that make some people vulnerable to drug use are conceptually similar to those that predict criminality, supporting a spurious reciprocal model of the drugs–crime relationship. Simultaneously, police pressure and penalty severity, the principal tools of the drug war, inflate the cost of drugs, which drives most drug-related crime. Concluding that much drug war rhetoric is the misleading product of a moral panic, this perspective supports a harm reduction approach to ameliorating the drug war.