John J. Kerbs

The Impact of Demographic Variables on Public Opinion Regarding Juvenile Justice: Implications for Public Policy:

This article examines data from a 1991 national public opinion survey on attitudes toward juvenile crime/justice. Specifically, it explores the relationship between demographic variables and opinions toward trying juveniles in adult courts, giving them adult sentences, and sentencing them to adult prisons. The findings indicate that a majority of typical respondents favor trying juveniles in adult courts for serious felonies. Additionally, punitive attitudes toward juveniles decrease up to a certain age, usually around 50, and then increase. Findings also show that African-American parents are more supportive of punitive juvenile justice policies than other racial/ethnic groups with and without children.

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.

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.

(Un)equal Justice: Juvenile Court Abolition and African Americans:

Many academics now call for the abolition of juvenile court jurisdiction over delinquency adjudications. This article examines Barry Felds assumptions behind his call for juvenile court abolition and the potentially adverse impact of the criminal court alternative in the lives of young African Americans. Three assumptions are examined: (1) criminal courts can provide the same or greater substantive and procedural protections compared to the current juvenile court; (2) criminal courts can provide shorter sentences for reduced culpability, with fractional reductions of adult sentences in the form of an explicit youth discount; and (3) treatment strategies are of dubious efficacy, and the possibility of effective treatment is inadequate to justify an entirely separate justice system. This article finds that these assumptions are erroneous and that the juvenile courts abolition may very well be harmful to young African Americans due to false assumptions concerning both juvenile and criminal courts.

Scales for perceived risk of student-on-student victimization in grades 7 through 10: A psychometric analysis of the adolescent index on school safety

Although past research has developed scales for the incidence, prevalence, and fear of student-on-student victimization (SSV), little is known about the scaling of perceived risk (i.e., the cognitive appraisal of the chances of experiencing SSV). Hence, this study examined self-report survey data for the perceived risk of SSV as measured in the Adolescent Index for School Safety (AISS). Children in grades 7 through 10 (n=337) in a single Florida public school completed the AISS. Factor analyses using Maximum Likelihood Estimation with Oblimin Rotation identified nine unique factors for perceived risk. Reliability analyses found standardized Cronbach Alphas that ranged from .64 to .91, and seven out of the nine identified scales were above .80, which suggested good to excellent internal consistency. Future research should examine the content validity, construct validity, and predictive validity for the AISS and other self-report surveys of SSV dynamics.