Manuel Eisner

Long-Term Historical Trends in Violent Crime

Research on the history of crime from the thirteenth century until the end of the twentieth has burgeoned and has greatly increased understanding of historical trends in crime and crime control. Serious interpersonal violence decreased remarkably in Europe between the mid-sixteenth and the early twentieth centuries. Different long-term trajectories in the decline of homicide can be distinguished between various European regions. Age and sex patterns in serious violent offending, however, have changed very little over several centuries. The long-term decline in homicide rates seems to go along with a disproportionate decline in elite homicide and a drop in male-to-male conflicts in public space. A range of theoretical explanations for the long-term decline have been offered, including the effects of the civilizing process, strengthening state powers, the Protestant Reformation, and modern individualism, but most theorizing has been post hoc.

The Effectiveness of Two Universal Preventive Interventions in Reducing Children's Externalizing Behavior: A Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial

This article reports the effectiveness of two universal prevention programs in reducing externalizing behavior in elementary school children. A sample of 1,675 first graders in 56 Swiss elementary schools was randomly assigned to a school-based social competence intervention, a parental training intervention, both, or control. Externalizing psychopathology and social competence ratings were provided by the children, primary caregivers, and teachers at the beginning and end of the 2-year program, with a follow-up 2 years later. Intention-to-treat analyses revealed that long-term effects on teacher- and parent-rated externalizing behavior were greater for the social competence intervention than for the control. However, for most outcomes, no statistically significant positive effects were observed.

Violence between the police and the public: influences of work-related stress, job satisfaction, burnout, and situational factors

Stress of police officers is assumed to be one of the causes for an increased use of force, but to date, very few studies have tested this relationship empirically. This study examines influences of perceived work-related stress, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and burnout on the use of force by police officers in Zurich, Switzerland (n = 422). A new approach is developed by including the officers routine activities (herein referred to as job profile) and victimization experiences as two situational controls and by capturing a continuum of self-reported force used in typical operational situations. Although bivariate results show significant relationships between use of force and work stress, job satisfaction, commitment, and burnout, multivariate analyses using structural equation models show no influence of stress-related factors on the amount of force. The job profile remains the only predictor of police use of force, whereas victimization is strongly correlated with use of force.

The ‘Drug–Crime Link’ from a Self-Control Perspective An Empirical Test in a Swiss Youth Sample

The present paper explores to what extent low self-control can account for the ‘drug–crime link’, i.e. the correlation between substance use and delinquency. Based on a large representative sample of Swiss 9th grade students, we reassess the dimensionality of Grasmick et al.s self-control scale and propose a fivedimensional second-order factor model. This model is then used as a predictor of two correlated behavioural continua, one measuring overall delinquency and the other overall substance use. Results indicate that self-control is a strong and stable predictor of both types of behaviour. However, although self-control substantially accounts for the correlation between delinquency and substance use, a considerable residual correlation remains. It is argued that dynamic or ‘state-dependent’ factors are most likely to account for this residual correlation. Analyses of the predictive power of individual sub-dimensions of self-control further indicate that self-control might be reduced to the sub-dimensions of ‘risk-seeking’ and ‘impulsivity’. Results are discussed in the broader context of past research and of the ongoing theoretical debate.

Stages of Parental Engagement in a Universal Parent Training Program

This paper reports findings on parental engagement in a community-based parent training intervention. As part of a randomized trial, 821 parents were offered group-based Triple P as a parenting skills prevention program. Program implementation was conducted by practitioners. The intervention was implemented between Waves 1 and 2 of a longitudinal study, with a participation rate of 69% and a retention rate of 96%. The study finds that a practitioner-led dissemination can achieve recruitment and completion rates that are similar to those reported in researcher-led trials. Second, the study found that different factors are associated with the various stages of the parental engagement process. Family-related organizational and timing obstacles to participation primarily influence the initial stages of parental involvement. The strength of neighborhood networks plays a considerable role at the participation and completion stages of parental engagement. The general course climate and the intensity of program exposure predict the utilization of the program several months after the delivery.

Do legitimate polities have fewer homicides? A cross-national analysis

This research is concerned with developing and testing models of political legitimacy as a predictor of homicide on the cross-national level. Specifically, we used Bruce Gilley’s (2006) theoretically driven indicator of political legitimacy to examine its direct and moderating effects on homicide. This measure is available for 65 nations, and is composed of indicators representing a state’s capacity to obey its own laws (legality), the degree to which civil and political values coincide (justification), and the level of behavioral consent of the people (consent). After controlling for a number of widely acknowledged predictors, legitimacy was found to be significantly negatively related to homicide.

Effects of a Universal Parenting Program for Highly Adherent Parents: A Propensity Score Matching Approach

This paper examines the effectiveness of a group-based universal parent training program as a strategy to improve parenting practices and prevent child problem behavior. In a dissemination trial, 56 schools were first selected through a stratified sampling procedure, and then randomly allocated to treatment conditions. 819 parents of year 1 primary school children in 28 schools were offered Triple P. 856 families in 28 schools were allocated to the control condition. Teacher, primary caregiver and child self-report data were collected at baseline, post, and two follow-up assessments. Analyses were constrained to highly adherent parents who completed all four units of the parenting program. A propensity score matching approach was used to compare parents fully exposed to the intervention with parents in the control condition, who were matched on 54 baseline characteristics. Results suggest that the intervention had no consistent effects on either five dimensions of parenting practices or five dimensions of child problem behavior, assessed by three different informants. These findings diverge from findings reported by program developers and distributors. Potential explanations for the discrepancy and implications for future research are discussed.

Risk factors for aggression in pre-adolescence: Risk domains, cumulative risk and gender differences - Results from a prospective longitudinal study in a multi-ethnic urban sample:

This article reviews a range of risk factors for aggression at age 11 derived from a prospective longitudinal study on the social development of children in a large multi-ethnic sample in Switzerland. The study uses a multi-informant approach that permits reliance on combined measures of social behaviour and covers factors derived from a wide range of risk domains. Besides analysing the effects of individual risk factors, the study also investigates the effect size of cumulative risk within and across risk domains. It further analyses gender differences in risk vulnerability. Results suggest that proximal behavioural and psychological risk factors most strongly predict later aggression, whereas more distal external factors related to the family, to school and to peer relationships are less predictive. The most distal factors (perinatal risks and sociodemographic factors) are only marginally associated with later aggression. Analysis of cumulative risk suggests a strong relationship between the number of risk factors and later aggression. Finally, results support the notion of a higher risk vulnerability of boys compared with girls. Results are discussed in the context of extant research.

Conducting a Criminological Survey in a Culturally Diverse Context Lessons from the Zurich Project on the Social Development of Children

West European societies have become increasingly culturally diverse. In this article we discuss two issues that arise when conducting criminological research in diverse contexts, namely threats to study validity as a result of (a) ethnic differences in participation rates and (b) lack of cross-cultural equivalence of questionnaires in multi-language contexts. We demonstrate how these problems were handled in the z-proso study, a prospective longitudinal criminological study involving 1240 families in Zurich, Switzerland. Results suggest that recruitment efforts can significantly increase participation rates, particularly among minority members. As expected, higher participation rates are associated with a qualitative improvement in the sample: parents who needed to be personally motivated to participate tend to have children with higher rates of problem behaviour than do parents who participated spontaneously. Highest rates of problem behaviour were found for those children whose parents did not participate. Finally, the multi-method analysis reveals significant discrepancies in parent rating of child problem behaviour among migrant parents compared with teacher and interviewer rating. Closer scrutiny indicates that such differences are likely to be a result of socially desirable response behaviour among low-education parents.

Honor Killing Attitudes Amongst Adolescents in Amman, Jordan

The present study examines attitudes towards honor crimes amongst a sample of 856 ninth grade students (mean age = 14.6, SD = 0.56) from 14 schools in Amman, Jordan. Descriptive findings suggest that about 40% of boys and 20% of girls believe that killing a daughter, sister, or wife who has dishonored the family can be justified. A number of theoretically meaningful predictors were examined: Findings suggest that attitudes in support of honor killings are more likely amongst adolescents who have collectivist and patriarchal world views, believe in the importance of female chastity amongst adolescents, and morally neutralize aggressive behavior in general. Findings for parental harsh discipline are mixed: While the fathers harsh discipline is predictive of honor killing attitudes, the mothers behavior is not. Furthermore, support for honor killing is stronger amongst male adolescents and adolescents for low education backgrounds. After controlling for other factors religion and the intensity of religious beliefs are not associated with support for honor killings. Models were tested separately for male and female respondents and suggested no systematic differences in predictors. Limitations and implications are discussed.