Jennifer M. Jolley

Racial bias in child protection? A comparison of competing explanations using national data

OBJECTIVE: Cases of child abuse and neglect that involve black children are reported to and substantiated by public child welfare agencies at a rate approximately twice that of cases that involve white children. A range of studies have been performed to assess the degree to which this racial disproportionality is attributable to racial bias in physicians, nurses, and other professionals mandated to report suspected child victimization. The prevailing current explanation posits that the presence of bias among reporters and within the child welfare system has led to the current large overrepresentation of black children. A competing explanation is that overrepresentation of black children is mainly the consequence of increased exposure to risk factors such as poverty. METHODS: We tested the competing models by using data drawn from national child welfare and public health sources. We compared racial disproportionality ratios on rates of victimization from official child welfare organizations to rates of key public health outcomes not subject to the same potential biases (eg, general infant mortality). RESULTS: We found that racial differences in victimization rate data from the official child welfare system are consistent with known differences for other child outcomes. We also found evidence supporting the presence of cultural protective factors for Hispanic children, termed the “Hispanic paradox.” CONCLUSIONS: Although our findings do not preclude the possibility of racial bias, these findings suggest that racial bias in reporting and in the child welfare system are not large-scale drivers of racial disproportionality. Our data suggest that reduction of black/white racial disproportionality in the child welfare system can best be achieved by a public health approach to reducing underlying risk factors that affect black families.

Inmate-on-Inmate Victimization Among Older Male Prisoners

Research on the safety and victimization of older prisoners has been limited. This study examines quantitative and qualitative victimization data gathered from face-to-face interviews with 65 male prisoners (ages 50 and above) confined in a state-level prison system. Both victimization rates and narrative descriptions of psychological, property, physical, and sexual inmate-on-inmate episodes are presented. Content analyses suggest that younger prisoners victimize older prisoners and that a majority of older prisoners support the use of age-segregated living arrangements to prevent victimization. Future research is needed to address methodological limitations of this study and others.

A Commentary on Age Segregation for Older Prisoners Philosophical and Pragmatic Considerations for Correctional Systems

The growing number of older prisoners in state and federal prisons has fostered an important discussion in literature regarding the potential benefits of age-segregated living arrangements for older inmates. This article begins with a brief review of the reasons for Americas aging prison population. Thereafter, it uses a multidisciplinary literature review to clarify a 4-point rationale for age-segregated prisons: (a) cost savings via centralized health care for older prisoners; (b) the reduction of civil liabilities for correctional systems that centralize disability services as per requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990; (c) the advancement of prisoner safety for older inmates; and (d) the promotion of rehabilitation by advancing treatment opportunities with a group that is most likely to desist from future criminal activity (in part) due to age-related desistance from crime. Conclusions focus on age segregation within the historical context of segregation in prison based on sociodemographic characteristics.

Desistance from Intimate Partner Violence: the Role of Legal Cynicism, Collective Efficacy, and Social Disorganization in Chicago Neighborhoods

This paper examined the relationship between reported Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) desistance and neighborhood concentrated disadvantage, ethnic heterogeneity, residential instability, collective efficacy and legal cynicism. Data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN) Longitudinal survey were used to identify 599 cases of IPV in Wave 1 eligible for reported desistance in Wave 2. A Generalized Boosting Model was used to determine the best proximal predictors of IPV desistance from the longitudinal data. Controlling for these predictors, logistic regression of neighborhood characteristics from the PHDCN community survey was used to predict reported IPV desistance in Wave 2. The paper finds that participants living in neighborhoods high in legal cynicism have lower odds of reporting IPV desistance, controlling for other variables in the logistic regression model. Analyses did not find that IPV desistance was related to neighborhood concentrated disadvantage, ethnic heterogeneity, residential instability and collective efficacy.

Discretionary Decision Making by Probation and Parole Officers: The Role of Extralegal Variables as Predictors of Responses to Technical Violations

This study examines the predictors of discretionary decisions made by probation and parole officers (PPOs) when they face clients who commit technical rule violations during community supervision. Although prior studies of discretionary decisions in criminal justice systems typically focus on legal predictors of discretion (i.e., offense- and offender-based variables), this study examines extralegal predictors to include PPOs’ sociodemographical, occupational, and organizational characteristics. The study uses data collected from a national self-report survey of 332 PPOs who worked with adults and who were members of the American Probation and Parole Association in 2005. Logistic regression analyses examine extralegal predictors of PPO support for formal hearings (i.e., judicial or parole board hearings) in response to technical rule violations. Analyses identify significant occupational and organizational factors that predicted discretionary decisions. Policy implications and directions for future research are examined.

Risk, Need, and Responsivity: Unrealized Potential for the International Delivery of Substance Abuse Treatment in Prison

Drawing from a strong Canadian and U.S. base of literature and an emergent base of scholarship from the United Kingdom, this article examines the delivery of substance abuse treatment in prisons and the determinants of prisoner access to and use of services. To date, multidisciplinary research provides evidence of supply-side programs driven by organizational factors that affect access and use; in contrast, there is a dearth of literature on demand-side programs driven by prisoners’ needs. Guiding this analysis is a model for service delivery that integrates supply- and demand-side factors into a framework that traces the pathway of prisoners through programs, beginning with assessment and ending with treatment outcomes. At the core of this analysis is an expanded discussion of how prisoners’ specific needs should inform service delivery for greater reductions in rates of relapse and recidivism. Conclusions examine the legal and socioeconomic policy implications of programs that fail to provide services according to offenders’ specific needs in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States.