Laura J. Hickman

Dating Violence among Adolescents Prevalence, Gender Distribution, and Prevention Program Effectiveness

Relative to violence among adult intimate partners, violence among adolescent dating partners remains an understudied phenomenon. In this review, we assess the state of the research literature on teen dating violence. Our review reveals that the broad range of estimates produced by major national data sources and single studies make conclusions about the prevalence of teen dating violence premature. Similarly, our review of what is known about risk factors reveals inconsistency among studies. We assess published evaluations of adolescent dating violence prevention programs and discuss their findings and limitations. Finally, we discuss challenges to researchers in this area and suggest that additional investment in high-quality basic research is needed to inform the development of sound theory and effective prevention and intervention programs.

What Works in Adult Sex Offender Treatment? A Review of Prison-and Non-Prison-Based Treatment Programs

An evaluation of 21 sex offender prison-and non-prison-based treatment programs was undertaken using the format of the University of Maryland’s 1997 report to the U.S. Congress. Eight of the studies were deemed too low in scientific merit to include in assessing the effectiveness of the treatment. Of the remaining studies, approximately 50% showed statistically significant findings in favor of sex offender treatment programs. Of six studies that showed a positive treatment effect, four incorporated a cognitive-behavioral approach. Non-prison-based sex offender treatment programs were deemed to be effective in curtailing future criminal activity. Prison-based treatment programs were judged to be promising, but the evidence is not strong enough to support a conclusion that such programs are effective. Too few studies focused on particular types of sex offenders to permit any type of conclusions about the effectiveness of programs for different sex offender typologies.

Fair Treatment or Preferred Outcome? The Impact of Police Behavior on Victim Reports of Domestic Violence Incidents

This research is an exploratory test of two hypotheses emerging from debates about how police behavior may influence domestic violence victim reporting. From a procedural justice perspective, victims should be more apt to report victimization when previous encounters with police are viewed as procedurally fair. From a distributive justice perspective, denying victims their preferred outcome may discourage future police utilization. We find that satisfaction with police is related to both distributive and procedural justice but that re-utilization of police is conditioned by preferred outcome. Specifically, if the offender was arrested in accordance with victim preference, the victim is significantly more apt to utilize police in the future.

The Effectiveness of Cognitive Behavioral Treatment for Adult Offenders: A Methodological, Quality-Based Review

Previous research on cognitive skills treatment programs has not included a comprehensive review of the effectiveness of these programs in reducing recidivism. This article reviews recent recidivism studies for two rehabilitation programs: Moral Reconation Therapy, which attempts to reduce recidivism by increasing the moral reasoning abilities of offenders, and Reasoning and Rehabilitation, which aims to educate offenders to change underlying criminogenic thoughts and attitudes. Using the Maryland Scale for Scientific Rigor, these studies were evaluated for their methodological strength and for the program’s success in reducing the recidivism of offenders. In considering the findings and the strength of the methods for each program, this review concludes that Moral Reconation Therapy and Reasoning and Rehabilitation programs appear to be successful approaches to reducing recidivism.

An examination of measures related to children's exposure to violence for use by both practitioners and researchers

Millions of children each year are exposed to violence in their homes, schools, and communities as both witnesses and victims. As a result, evidence-based programs for children and adolescents who have been exposed to traumatic events (CEV-EBPs) have been widely disseminated but rarely evaluated in their real-world applications. One crucial aspect of conducting such evaluations is finding appropriate measures that can be of use both to the practitioner and to the researcher. This review aims to provide guidance to the field by first identifying any gaps in the availability of psychometrically tested measures for certain outcome domains and age ranges and then recommending the measures that are most appropriate for use by both researchers and practitioners. Interviews with content experts in the measurement of trauma symptoms and parent–child relationships were conducted to identify the key outcome domains for measurement that are critical to the evaluation of CEV-EBPs and the criteria for dual-use measures, defined as measures that are useful to both researchers and practitioners. A database of 46 relevant measures was created by compiling measures from existing repositories and conducting a focused literature review. Our review of these measures found that existing repositories had few measures of depression, a major gap that should be addressed. Further, there were few measures for young children ages 0–3 years (n = 15) and only a handful of measures (n = 9) had both a child and parent version of the measure. Overall, although the different repositories that currently exist are helpful, researchers and practitioners would benefit from having a single reputable source (e.g., a centralized repository or item bank) to access when searching for measures to use in evaluating CEV-EBPs. Such a tool would hold promising to narrow the current gap between research and practice in the field of children’s exposure to violence.

Is Previous Removal From the United States a Marker for High Recidivism Risk? Results From a 9-Year Follow-Up Study of Criminally Involved Unauthorized Immigrants

The present study examines the long-term recidivism patterns of a group of unauthorized immigrants identified to be at high risk of recidivism. Using a sample of 517 male unauthorized immigrants, we used three measures of recidivism to assess 9-year rearrest differences between unauthorized immigrants who have and who have not been previously removed from the United States. Results indicate that prior removal was a significant risk marker for recidivism, with previously removed immigrants showing a higher likelihood of rearrest, a greater frequency of rearrest, and a more rapid time-to-first rearrest. While the present study does not establish whether previous removal is a consistent indicator of high recidivism, it suggests that this group of unauthorized immigrants may be worthy of review and policy consideration. Much potential value for law enforcement lies in the sharing of federal immigration records with academics to further study the outcomes of unauthorized immigrants.