Julie Horney

CRIMINAL CAREERS IN THE SHORT-TERM: INTRA-INDIVIDUAL VARIABILITY IN CRIME AND ITS RELATION TO LOCAL LIFE CIRCUMSTANCES*

We analyze month-to-month variations in offending and life circumstances of convicted felons to understand change in criminal behavior. We extend previous applications of social control theory by considering whether local life circumstances that strengthen or weaken social bonds influence offending over relatively short periods of time. We seek to determine whether formal and informal mechanisms of social control affect the likelihood of committing nine major felonies. We employ a hierarchical linear model that provides a within-individual analysis as we explore factors that determine the pattern of offending. The results suggest that meaningful short-term change in involvement in crime is strongly related to variation in local life circumstances. (Abstract Adapted from Source: American Sociological Review, 1995. Copyright

Rape law reform and the effect of victim characteristics on case processing.

Rape law reforms enacted during the past 20 years were designed to shift the focus of a rape case from the victim to the offender. Reformers and criminal justice officials speculated that changes in the rules of evidence and enactment of rape shield laws would result in less suspicion of the claims of rape victims and would make it less likely that the character, reputation, and behavior of the victim would affect decision making about the case. In this paper we examine the impact of rape law reform on the factors affecting the outcome of sexual assault cases bound over for trial in Detroit. We find little support for our hypothesis that the effect of victim characteristics on case processing decisions declined in the postreform period. Most of the victim characteristics did not have the expected effects on the likelihood of case dismissal, charge reduction, conviction, or incarceration. We did, on the other hand, find that the proportion of cases involving evidence of risk-taking behavior on the part of the victim or questions about the victims credibility increased in the postreform period.

Menstrual cycles and criminal responsibility

Since at least the turn of the century, there have been reports indicating that women have an increased tendency toward criminal behavior during certain phases of the menstrual cycle. Recently these reports have served as the basis for a proposal to expand the insanity defense to recognize the impact of menstrual cycles in diminishing criminal responsibility. This paper reviews the empirical literature on the link between menstruation and crime and raises several critical questions regarding interpretation of this data. In light of these questions it is suggested that at this time an insanity defense based on menstrual symptomology would be inappropriate.

Issues in Legal-Impact Research

Policy analysis has been defined as “finding out what governments do, why they do it, and what difference it makes” (Dye, 1976, p. 1). It involves determining the causes and consequences of public policies. Legal-impact research is a type of policy analysis that focuses on the consquences of legal changes. It poses questions concerning the impact of statutory changes, court-ordered reforms, and appellate court rulings. Did statutory changes in rape laws make arrest, prosecution, and conviction for rape more likely? Did restrictive drunk driving laws lead to a decline in the number of crash-related injuries or fatalities? In asking questions such as these, legal-impact research attempts to delineate the social, economic, and political effects of legal changes.

The Limits of Legal Reforms

Reformers clearly had high hopes for the rape law reforms, but the results of our multijurisdiction study suggest that their expectations were overly optimistic. On the positive side, judges, prosecutors, and defense attorneys in all of the jurisdictions expressed support for the reforms, which they believe have improved the treatment of rape victims. Officials in all six cities also stated that evidence of the victim’s past sexual conduct with casual acquaintances is irrelevant and is unlikely to be admitted at trial. Finally, officials in jurisdictions with strong shield laws were less likely than officials in jurisdictions with weak laws to believe that sexual history evidence of more questionable relevance should or would be admitted at trial.

The Rape Reform Movement

In the past twenty years, we have witnessed a virtual revolution in rape law in the United States. Traditional rape laws have been repealed or modified and evidentiary reforms have been enacted in all 50 states. In this chapter, we summarize the criticisms of traditional rape law. We also discuss the rape reform movement, focusing on the four most common reforms and their predicted effects.

Rape Law Reform in Six Jurisdictions

There is considerable variability in the rape law reforms adopted by the states. Some jurisdictions embraced all of the reforms described in Chapter 1, while others enacted very limited changes. Some states enacted “strong” versions of a particular reform, others enacted “weak” versions. Some reform statutes reflect feminist conceptions of rape, others reflect more traditional views (Berger, Searles, and Newman, 1988). A few legislatures passed comprehensive reform bills, whereas others adopted individual changes over a number of years.

Officials’ Evaluations of Rape Cases

The results of our time-series analyses revealed that the rape law reforms did not produce the types of instrumental results anticipated by reformers. In five of the six jurisdictions, there were no effects that could be attributed to the substantive changes in the laws. Predicted results were found only in the jurisdiction (Detroit) with the strongest and most comprehensive changes; there we found a significant increase in the number of reports of rape and in the ratio of indictments to reports.

The Instrumental Effects of Reform

Many rape reform advocates predicted that statutory changes in rape laws would affect the processing and disposition of rape cases. As discussed earlier, several aspects of the reforms led to predictions of instrumental change. Reformers anticipated that redefining the crime of rape and providing a range of charges would lead prosecutors to file charges in cases that might not have fit under traditional definitions. They also believed that definitional changes would increase convictions because the availability of appropriate lesser charges would facilitate plea bargaining and would discourage jury nullification by juries who were reluctant to convict for forcible rape.

Officials’ Attitudes toward Sexual History Evidence

In the previous chapter, we examined officials’ assessments of the importance of specific kinds of evidence, including two types of sexual history evidence, for prosecuting and for obtaining convictions in rape cases. We found that the strength of a jurisdiction’s shield law influenced assessments by the officials of the likelihood that sexual history evidence would be admitted. In this chapter, we explore officials’ judgments of sexual history evidence in greater detail. We examine the responses of judges, prosecutors, and defense attorneys to six hypothetical cases in which evidence of the victim’s past sexual conduct is at issue.