Kevin F. Steinmetz

Message Received: Virtual Ethnography in Online Message Boards

As the Internet begins to encapsulate more people within online communities, it is important that the social researcher have well-rounded ethnographic methodologies for observing these phenomena. This article seeks to contribute to methodology by detailing and providing insights into three specific facets of virtual ethnography that need attention: space and time, identity and authenticity, and ethics. Because the Internet is a globalized and instantaneous medium where space and time collapse, identity becomes more playful, and ethics become more tenuous; understanding these aspects is crucial to the study of online social groups. A second focus of this article is to apply these notions to the study of online message boards—a frequently used medium for online communication that is frequently overlooked by methodologists.

Under the Pixelated Jolly Roger: A Study of On-Line Pirates

Digital piracy—a type of copyright infringement—is a global phenomenon that allegedly contains grave economic consequences for intellectual property industries. Its pervasiveness has produced a global piracy subculture. This article describes our study of digital pirates who actively participate in an on-line discussion board dedicated to copyright infringement. It explores their motivations, techniques of neutralization, and contradictions within a community-wide belief system. Motivations among this group include a desire to share content, to sample content before purchasing, to acquire intellectual property that is unaffordable, and to subvert copyright law. We then apply Sykes and Matzas (1957) techniques of neutralization. Finally, we discuss contradictions within this groups belief systems; specifically acceptance and rejection of capitalism and state power and formal control.

Assessing the Boundaries Between Criminal Justice and Criminology

There has long been a debate about what, if anything, differentiates criminology and criminal justice programs. Both grew about of sociology and, to a lesser degree, law and political science. In the 1970s and early 1980s, debate arose over the scope and limits of the two. That debate has faded today but the perceptions emanating from that controversy linger. The current study seeks to reopen the debate and invite disciplinary reflection. Two sources of data are analyzed: (1) doctoral program curricula and (2) articles in the top-tier disciplinary journals. Results show criminology courses are well represented in criminal justice doctoral programs, while criminal justice courses constitute a comparatively smaller part of criminology doctoral programs. In top-tier disciplinary journals, criminology articles are more prevalent than criminal justice articles. Plausible explanations are advanced. It is hoped that these findings provide a new springboard for further research and discussion that will lead to a better understanding and delineation of these allied disciplines.

The case of Bradley Manning: state victimization, realpolitik and WikiLeaks

While the case of WikiLeaks release of classified documents and its founder, Julian Assange, has garnered much popular attention, the formal social control reactions to the alleged involvement of Private First Class Bradley Manning has remained, relatively glaringly absent from the media, public and political discussions. Moreover, while scant criminological attention has been given to the extradition of Assange on sexual charges and the situation of WikiLeaks, there has been no analysis of the control mechanisms that were placed on Manning in an effort to cease the release of US documents and his activity as a whistle-blower. This examination fills this void by adding to the literature on states’ responses to whistle-blowers by highlighting states’ mechanisms including retaliation and redirection to obscure its criminality as well the theoretical framework of realpolitik. While realpolitik has been used previously to explain motivations for state crime, it has not been applied as an explanation for the implementation of controls. Not only is the preservation of state legitimacy and practices of realpolitik central to the reactions of the government to this case of whistle-blowing, but that the responses denied a presumption of innocence and have violated basic human rights tenants, the Uniform Code of Justice, the US Constitution, thus making this a case of state victimization.

On the Precipice of Intersectionality The Influence of Race, Gender, and Offense Severity Interactions on Probation Outcomes

This analysis examines the impact of established predictors on probation failure utilizing a large randomly selected sample of adult probationers. Initial findings suggest that race, gender, location, offense severity as well as risk assessment scores significantly predict probation failure. This study then examines interaction effects between race and gender as well as race and offense severity. Results indicate such interactions may matter in studying probation failure, despite reason to be cautious about their interpretation. Importantly, the results of the interaction model suggest that the interaction between being an African American and male is a significant predictor of probation failure. Additionally, being a Hispanic felon was also statistically significant. Theoretical, practical, and research implications are discussed alongside study limitations.

Inequality on probation: An examination of differential probation outcomes

ABSTRACT The effect of race, gender, offense type, location, assessment scores, as well as key interaction terms based on race were examined on multiple probation outcomes. Extending the racial equity research to offenders supervised within the community, results suggest that African American males fare worse on multiple supervision outcomes. In addition, the research found that women were less likely to receive alternative probation outcomes. Suggestions are put forth for the continuance of research on racial inequities for offenders sentenced to a term of community supervision. The study ends with a call for increased attention to various inequality issues confronting criminal justice.

“The Greatest Crime Syndicate since the Gambinos”: A Hacker Critique of Government, Law, and Law Enforcement

The current study presents a content analysis of articles, editorials, short stories, and book reviews from the widely read and disseminated hacker zine 2600: The Hacker Quarterly, which were examined for author discussions of governments, law, law enforcement, and government officials. A total of five themes were uncovered. The first three themes are part of a hacker critique of governments that describe these institutions as controlling, as incompetent or inadequate, and as creators of collateral damage. Then, exceptions to the hacker critique are presented and their significance assessed. Finally, solutions to the problems the authors discuss are presented.

A Probation Profanation Race, Ethnicity, and Probation in a Midwestern Sample

Racial and ethnic disparities in criminal justice have received increasing scrutiny recently. Little attention, however, has been directed toward understanding inequality in the area of probation. The current study addresses this dearth through two analyses of 14,365 probation cases. The first involves a logistic regression analysis, which examines race/ethnicity against probation failure. Using probation success as a control outcome, the second analysis uses a multinomial regression to examine the effects of race and ethnicity across four types of probation failure—administrative failure and revocations resulting from technical violations, new felonies, and new misdemeanors. Across both models, racial/ethnic categorization were found to be significantly and positively associated with probation failure outcomes. In addition, the standardized coefficients indicate that Black and Hispanic racial/ethnic categorization presented a moderate to strong effect sizes across outcomes studied. The strongest effect sizes for these two variables were found in the multinomial model within the administrative failure outcome. Across both models, other racial categorization (Asian/Pacific Islander or Native American/Alaskan Native) was statistically significant but consistently produced some of the weakest effect sizes. Potential explanations for these findings are offered along with a discussion of study limitations, future research suggestions, and policy implications.

Building Legal Competency: Foundations for a More Effective Criminology and Criminal Justice Discipline

This article argues for the need to build legal competency in the discipline of criminal justice and criminology through incorporating law courses in its PhD program curriculum, whether as black letter law (i.e. criminal law, criminal procedure, courts), sociology of law, or socio-legal studies (i.e. law and society courses). Through requiring law courses as a necessary and integral part of the curriculum, and recognizing the mainstream impact of these courses, the discipline stands to enrich the field of legal studies in criminology and criminal justice. The discipline’s need and demand for law trained tenure track faculty with PhD credentials can only be met through consistent law course offerings.

Impediments of Labor Contracts on Prison Administrators’ Response to Staff–Inmate Sexual Misconduct

Sexual violence in adult correctional facilities led to the enactment of the 2003 Prison Rape Elimination Act as one approach to reducing this form of institutional violence. The current study examined collective bargaining agreements governing correctional agencies to identify impediments that may impact administrators’ responses to sexual violence, specifically in instances of allegations of staff–inmate sexual misconduct. In addition, structured interviews and focus groups with correctional administrators and labor representatives were used to develop policy recommendations. Contract language and interview participants demonstrated that a myriad of cultural and structural characteristics of prisons as well as pragmatic considerations may serve to inhibit the implementation of some policy changes. Interview participants identified several insights about contemporary prison settings and modifications that may aid in reducing some forms of institutional violence.