Magnus Seng

Identifying Subgroups at High Risk of Dropping Out of Domestic Batterer Treatment The Buffering Effects of a High School Education

This study identifies the subgroups of domestic batterers who are at a low or high risk of failing to complete domestic batterer cognitive behavioral treatment. The sample is composed of 355 domestic batterers ordered to complete treatment, with 31.8% not completing treatment. Three subgroups of batterers were identified as having at least a 60% chance of treatment failure: (a) unemployed generalized aggressors, (b) high school dropouts ordered into substance abuse treatment, and (c) unemployed offenders ordered into substance abuse treatment. Furthermore, a high school education, even when offenders are unemployed or living in poverty, buffers the negative effects of a substance abuse problem among court-mandated batterers required to participate in both domestic violence treatment and substance abuse treatment. Two thirds of substance-abusing high school graduates completed both domestic violence and substance abuse treatment, compared to only one third of the substance-abusing high school dropouts. Implications are discussed.

A Comparison of Female and Male Probationers

Abstract A majority of women convicted of crimes are sentenced to probation. Although proportionately more women than men receive probation, little is known about female probationers. The current study is one of the few to compare the backgrounds and case outcomes of women probationers with those of men. Statewide probation discharge data were used to examine differences between male and female probationers on their individual characteristics, offense and sentencing variables, and case outcomes and to explore the effect of gender on case outcomes. A number of gender differences were identified across the probationer, sentencing and case outcome variables examined. In addition, gender had a statistically significant influence on both new arrests and technical violations, after controlling for other variables such as age, race, income, prior involvement in the criminal justice system, conviction offense and sentence length.

THE CRIME AWARENESS AND CAMPUS SECURITY ACT: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS

ABSTRACT There is a growing concern in this nation about the nature and extent of crime on our college campuses. In the past, one problem has been identifying how much crime occurs on campuses because of underreporting. To remedy this, the U.S. Congress enacted the Crime Awareness and Campus Security Act of 1990, which requires colleges and universities to collect and disseminate statistics on crime on campuses beginning in September, 1991. This paper presents a critical analysis of this legislation and suggests that this Act will not only fail to remedy the crime reporting problem, but will actually add to the confusion. In addition, the paper comments on other important goals stated in the act.

On‐scene victim assistance units within law enforcement agencies

Purpose – The major purpose of this paper is the review of the administration and operation of four on‐scene victim assistance units within law enforcement agencies in one Canadian and three US cities. The primary purpose is to learn how these units operate and the extent to which there are accepted by the officers involved. An additional purpose is learn how many departments nationally had such units.Design/methodology/approach – The basic methodology includes telephone interviews with key personnel in each unit, an on‐site examination of the Denver, Colorado unit, and a brief survey of large city police departments to learn the extent of on‐scene units in major US cities.Findings – A review of the administration and operation of each unit reveals that each unit is well managed, integrated into the departments structure, and staffed with paid staff who are members of the department and volunteers. Key to the success of each unit is extensive training of victim specialists and a clear understanding betwe...

THEFT ON CAMPUS: AN ANALYSIS OF LARCENY-THEFT AT AN URBAN UNIVERSITY

ABSTRACT Larceny- theft is the most frequently reported index crime in the United States, in virtually all 50 states and on most college campuses. Larceny-theft, (herein after referred to simply as theft) is the unlawful taking of property in which no use of violence, force or fraud occurs. It thus differs from embezzlement, “con games”, forgery or similar crimes. In 1993, 7.8 million of the 14.1 million index crimes reported in the Uniform Crime Report were thefts (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1994). Review of state by state data reveals that theft is also the most prevalent index crime in each of the 50 states (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1994:68-78). More germane to the focus of this paper is that theft is also the most frequently reported crime at all but eight of the 431 college and universities which reported crime data for inclusion in the Uniform Crime Reports in 1993, (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1994:158-167). This pattern of the prevalence of theft among index crime statistics has...