Monica K. Miller

Child Abduction, AMBER Alert, and Crime Control Theater

Intense interest in disturbing child abductions by the mass media, public safety organizations, and the public has helped sustain a socially constructed mythology and sporadic “moral panic” about the presumed pervasiveness of this threat to children. The result has often been reactionary “memorial” legislation enacted in response to sensational cases. A recent example is the Americas Missing Broadcast Emergency Response (AMBER) Alert system, which is designed to interrupt serious child kidnappings in progress by soliciting citizen tips to help officials quickly rescue victims. Drawing on available empirical evidence and theoretical considerations, the authors contend that AMBER Alert has not achieved and probably cannot achieve the ambitious goals that inspired its creation. In fact, AMBER Alert is arguably an example of what could be called crime control theater. It is a socially constructed “solution” to a socially constructed problem, enabling public officials to symbolically address an essentially intractable threat. Despite laudable intentions, AMBER Alert exemplifies how crime control theater can create unintended problems, such as public backlash when the theatrical policy fails and a distorted public discourse about the nature of crime. Considerations for the future of AMBER Alert in particular, and the concept of crime control theater in general, are discussed.

A Preliminary Examination of AMBER Alert's Effects:

AMBER Alerts are public announcements designed to elicit citizen tips that could help rapidly recover abducted children before they can be harmed by their kidnappers. Using various media accounts as a data source to garner a convenience sample of 275 alerts, the authors gathered basic information, including victim–offender relationship, recovery time, and the direct effects of the alert. AMBER Alert does appear to provide some positive benefits in recovering abducted children, although the evidence suggests that the alerts are not often used in “stereotypical” stranger abduction cases, and rarely do they appear to have the effect of possibly saving lives. The alerts appear most likely to be “successful” in familial abduction situations instead of the more menacing stranger abduction cases for which they were intended. Policy implications are discussed.

Relationships Between Support for the Death Penalty and Cognitive Processing A Comparison of Students and Community Members

Cognitive Experiential Self-Theory (CEST) posits that individuals process information rationally (measured by Need for Cognition [NFC]) or experientially (measured by Faith in Intuition [FI]). This study investigated whether information processing traits (NFC and FI) and states (CEST logic problems) are related to general death penalty attitude and sentencing verdict—and whether these relationships differed for students versus community members. FI and NFC were related to sentencing verdicts. An increase in FI was related to a higher likelihood of a death sentence; an increase in NFC was related to a higher likelihood of a life sentence. CEST logic problems were related to sentencing verdicts and general attitudes. However, these relationships were moderated: For community members, but not students, a decrease in rational processing was related to a higher likelihood of a death sentence and support for the death penalty. Results have implications for psychology and the legal system.

The effects of deliberations and religious identity on mock jurors’ verdicts:

Jurors may be biased toward defendants because of their group status or similarities/differences. Deliberation may minimize bias by forcing jurors to rationalize their decisions. In two experiments, mock jurors read that, at the time of the crime, the defendant was: engaged in Christian prayers, Islamic prayers, or TV watching (control). Study 1 described a crime stereotypically associated with Muslims (bombing a transportation center); Study 2 used a crime associated with fundamentalist Christians (bombing an abortion clinic). Participants gave predeliberation and postdeliberation verdicts. Findings for both studies are similar, despite the stereotypicality of the crime. There was a general leniency effect—the more participants saw themselves as similar to the defendant, the less certain they were of guilt. Deliberation made jurors less likely to convict Muslim and Christian defendants, but not control-group defendants. Religious identity of the defendant had no direct effect on verdicts. Findings have implications for juror bias, crime stereotypicality, and the effects of jury deliberation.

The Influence of Accounts and Remorse on Mock Jurors' Judgments of Offenders

Defendants often provide accounts that minimize their responsibility for the accused offense. Jurors attribute responsibility to defendants and decide legal outcomes based on the given account. The current research examined the effects of accounts (i.e., excuse, justification, denial, and no explanation) and the defendant’s remorse display (i.e., remorseful, remorseless) on mock jurors’ judgments. Participants acquitted the defendant in the denial condition most often and recommended the most lenient punishment in the justification condition. The remorseful defendant was found guilty more frequently than the remorseless defendant in the no explanation and (marginally) excuse conditions. Limitations and future research are discussed.

From Damsels in Distress to Sexy Superheroes

Video games are an important form of media that have the potential to impact gender role attitudes. Sexist portrayals of characters may affect gender behaviors and attitudes. As such, it is important to discover how characters, particularly females, are portrayed in video games. The current study examined video game magazines analyzing the portrayal of female video game characters and how this portrayal has changed in the last twenty years. Results indicate a growing trend toward a decreased benevolent sexism portrayal and an increase in a hostile sexism portrayal over time.

The psychology of AMBER Alert: Unresolved issues and implications

Abstract The AMBER alert system is likely affected by a number of psychological processes, yet remains understudied. The system assumes people will remember Alert information accurately and notify police, but psychological research on related phenomena (e.g., memory, willingness to help) indicates that people may not be able or willing to act in ways the promote the success of the system. In addition, the system is intended to deter child abductions, however, the system could prompt copycat crimes from perpetrators seeking publicity. The system could also cause a precipitation effect in which a perpetrator who sees the Alert could decide to murder the child immediately to avoid capture. Policy recommendations are made based on psychological research and theory, although more research is needed to develop the most effective system possible.

An Examination of Sex Offender Registration and Notification Laws: Can Community Sentiment Lead to Ineffective Laws?

Crime control theater (CCT) refers to popular laws which appear to offer simple solutions to address serious crimes but are not empirically effective. Sex offender registration and notification laws meet each of the CCT criteria: reactionary response to a moral panic, unquestioned acceptance and promotion, appeal to mythic narratives, and empirical failure. These laws have resulted in unintended consequences including violence directed at offenders’ families, inability for offenders to reintegrate into society, misuse of the laws on unintended populations, and others. A theoretical explanation for why community sentiment toward CCT laws remains positive utilizes social cognitive mechanisms of schemas and heuristics in combination with cognitive-experiential self-theory. These theories suggest that people utilize cognitive shortcuts and emotive processing in forming their reactions to crime. Understanding how these theories work can help prevent adoption of CCT laws and promote more effective laws.

Barack Obama vs Bristol Palin: why the President’s sex education policy wins

The federal government has exponentially increased funding for abstinence‐only sex education over the last few decades, a position supported by former vice‐presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s daughter Bristol. Unfortunately, empirical research indicates that abstinence‐only education is ineffective and may have negative consequences for adolescents. Despite encouragement of abstinence, adolescents continue to engage in sexual relationships, indicating that a different approach to sex education should be supported. This situation raises a number of justice issues because it is important for the government to fund sex education curricula that instruct adolescents on how to protect themselves from pregnancy and STDs. The majority of parents also disagree with the federal funding of abstinence‐only education and support more comprehensive education. This indicates that funding abstinence‐only education is diametrically opposed to community sentiment. Federal funding of abstinence‐only sex education is also problematic as such policies violate a number of adolescents’ constitutional rights. Therefore, the federal government must revise its current sex education policies. President Obama’s proposed plan has the potential to overcome many of these issues associated with abstinence‐only education.

How Victim and Execution Impact Statements Affect Mock Jurors’ Perceptions, Emotions, and Verdicts

Abstract This study examines the effects of Victim Impact Statements (VISs) and Execution Impact Statements (EISs) on death-qualified mock jurors through a 2 (VIS/no VIS) by 2 (EIS/no EIS) between-subjects design in which participants read a capital murder trial and completed an online survey. The VIS and EIS had no effect on verdicts, but the VIS increased participants’ negative emotions as well as perceptions of the victim and those who gave impact statements. Conversely, the EIS increased positive emotions and perceived remorsefulness of the defendant. Lastly, the VIS and EIS interacted to influence perceptions of the victim. Implications for victims and the legal system are discussed.