John R. Hepburn

The Effect of Gang Affiliation on Violent Misconduct Among Inmates During the Early Years of Confinement

The pattern of inmate involvement in violent misconduct is established in the early years of imprisonment, yet few studies have looked at the predictors of violent misconduct during the first months or years of imprisonment, and none have studied the effects of gang affiliation during this time period. This study of 2, 158 male inmates who were confined for at least 3 years in a southwestern state prison system finds that gang affiliation has an effect on violent misconduct among inmates beyond the individual risk factors generally attributed to youth and prior criminal history. These findings suggest the need for additional research to clarify the linkage between gang affiliation and inmate violence, with implications for current efforts to supervise gang-affiliated inmates.

Measuring the Continuum of Force Used by and Against the Police

Prior empirical research on the police use of force has conceptualized force in tenrs of simple dichotomnies: lethal force vs. nonlethal force, physical force vs. nonphysical force, and excessive force vs. nonexcessive force. The research has numerous measurement and definition problems and typically has used unsystematic samples. Police professionals employ the concept of a continuum of force; this concept addresses the legal requirements and policy preferences that all use of force by police should be proportionate to the amount of force used against themn. This concept has neither been operationalized as a quantifiable measure nor subjected to empirical research to determine the frequency with which officers encounter specific forms and amounts of resistance. This article reports on a pilot effort to develop explicit measures of the nature and extent of force used by and against police officers. These measures are derived fromn specific behaviors and are formuilated to represent traditional notions of physical force as well as contemporary concepts of the continuum of force. In addition, a prototype mneasure that incorporates some metric qualities is presented. These measures are illustrated with data from 1,585 adult custody arrests in Phoenix, Arizona.

Recidivism Among Drug Offenders: A Survival Analysis of the Effects of Offender Characteristics, Type of Offense, and Two Types of Intervention

The determinants of recidivism are increasingly becoming the focus of public concern. This study explores the relative effect of type of intervention, offender characteristics, and type of incident offense on time to a petition to revoke probation and time to a probation revocation. Our analysis of intervention effects includes both parametric and nonparametric estimation procedures. Estimating five distributional forms of survival and a proportional hazard model for each measure of recidivism, the analysis indicates no difference in the effect of a program of drug monitoring and treatment, compared to drug monitoring only, for either of the two measures of recidivism. In addition, findings indicate that younger offenders and African American offenders have a shorter time to a petition to revoke probation. We also found a reduced time to failure for a probation revocation for African American offenders and offenders with a prior arrest record. Our findings offer empirical support for a reconsideration of the type of intervention effective in deterring offenders while on probation.

Prosecutorial discretion to defer criminalization: The effects of defendant's ascribed and achieved status characteristics

This research contributes to a further understanding of prosecutorial discretion by exploring tenets of casual attribution theory and etiology of bias theory as each informs an uncertainty avoidance perspective on the prosecutors decision to divert felony drug defendants from criminal prosecution and into a treatment program. The sociolegal consequences of the exercise of this early screening decision are expressed by both conflict theorists and labeling theorists. Our analysis involves estimating main effects and interaction effects of defendant ascribed status and achieved status on the likelihood of diversion. The findings indicate partial support for hypotheses derived, from the theoretical perspectives pursued. In addition these findings point to a more complex model of the subjective nature of the exercise of prosecutorial discretion, a model that benefits from understanding the salience of minimizing uncertainty in the decision to criminals.

Race and the Decision to Arrest: An Analysis of Warrants Issued

Both the conflict perspective and the labeling perspective provide a the oretical base for the hypothesis that nonwhites are more likely than whites to be arrested on less than sufficient evidence. All 1974 adult arrests (N = 28,- 235) in a large midwestern city are analyzed to assess the relationship between race and the subsequent issuance of a warrant by the prosecutors office. Con trols for type of offense, age, sex, and racial composition of neighborhood are introduced, yet nonwhites continue to have a larger proportion of arrests which are not upheld by the issuance of a warrant. These results are discussed in terms of the conflict and labeling perspectives.

Correctional officers’ perceptions of equitable treatment in the ‘masculinized’ prison environment

Research suggests that employee perceptions of an organization’s support for policies that promote an equitable work environment may differ significantly by race and gender groups. This study examines such perceptual differences and their attitudinal effects on employee experiences within the unique context of a prison setting. Significant differences in correctional officer perceptions of policies are found to exist by race and gender groups. Contrary to expectations, all race and gender groups perceive strong organizational support for equal treatment policies. Moreover, the work experiences of White males are not negatively affected by perceptions of organizational support for equal treatment as had been hypothesized.

The Effect of the Threat of Legal Sanction on Program Retention and Completion: Is That Why They Stay in Drug Court?

Drug courts routinely rely on the threat of legal sanction to motivate drug-using criminal offenders to enter and complete community-based treatment programs. In light of the high failure rates among drug court participants, what is the effect of the threat of legal sanction on program retention and completion? A quasiexperimental research design was used to study program retention and completion within two adult drug courts that employed the same staff to administer identical treatment and supervision programs in the same jurisdiction. One court relied on a 120-day suspended sentence to coerce program participation, whereas the other court was prohibited by law from imposing a jail sentence on its participants. Using alternative measures of program retention, a single measure of program completion, and controls for salient sociodemographic and criminal history factors, the analysis found no differences in program retention or completion between the two courts.

Relationship Strategies in a Coercive Institution: A Study of Dependence among Prison Guards:

Prison guards augment the limitations of their formal authority over prisoners by the informal control derived from an arrangement of reciprocity with prisoners. This well-documented dependence relationship generates a pattern of mutual accommodation between guards and prisoners to maintain order and stability within the prison. Contemporary analysts suggest, however, that guards are reacting to recent changes in US prisons by increased resistance to a dependence relationship and an attempt to assert their limited authority over prisoners by becoming less accommodative and more repressive. Survey data are examined to assess the relationship between level of institutional authority, dependence and the outcomes of accommodation or repression. The findings are discussed in terms of the need for dependence relationships in a coercive institution.

Probation revocation: A proportional hazards model of the conditioning effects of social disadvantage

Most studies find that offenders age, gender, ethnicity, prior arrest record, severity of the current offense and level of supervision significantly influence time to probation failure. There is little evidence to show that treatment interventions significantly affect either the likelihood of failure or the time to failure. We propose that an offenders prior record and lower education level — indicators of social disadvantage — directly affect the mean time to a probation revocation. Further, we suggest that social disadvantage may condition the effects of other offender characteristics, incident offense characteristics, and treatment intervention on failure time. Using a proportional hazards model of probation revocation, we find that intervention increases the risk of failure, as well as partial support for our hypothesis of the conditioning effect of offenders social disadvantage.

Recidivism Among Drug Offenders Following Exposure to Treatment

The contemporary debate about punishment versus treatment for drug-using criminal offenders often revolves around the pragmatic issue of the extent to which treatment is more effective than punishment at reducing the probability of subsequent criminal behavior. Although there is growing evidence that treatment works, it is equally apparent that the effects of exposure to treatment vary by offender characteristics, offense characteristics, and the degree of program involvement. Using data on 3,328 drug-using offenders eligible for diversion from prosecution to a community treatment program, multivariate survival models indicate significant differences in the time of rearrest during a 5-year follow-up period, suggesting that the act of entering treatment is a signal of the offender’s readiness for treatment and that the time to rearrest is affected by exposure to treatment. The findings are discussed in terms of current efforts to use the threat of legal sanction to motivate criminal offenders into drug treatment.