Ray Surette

The thinking eye

Purpose – To discuss and review the shift to computer enhanced self‐monitoring CCTV surveillance systems of public spaces and the social implications of this shift.Design/methodology/approach – A review of the research and evaluation literature concerning CCTV surveillance systems culling out the history of public space CCTV systems and the concerns associated with first and second generation CCTV surveillance.Findings – The main difference between first and second generation surveillance is the change from a “dumb camera” that needs a human eye to evaluate its images to a computer‐linked camera system that evaluates its own video images. Second generation systems reduce the human factor in surveillance and address some of the basic concerns associated with first generation surveillance systems such as data swamping, boredom, voyeurism, and profiling. Their enhanced capabilities, though, raise new concerns, particularly the expansion of surveillance and its intrusiveness.Research limitations/implications ...

Self-Reported Copycat Crime Among a Population of Serious and Violent Juvenile Offenders

A unique population of juveniles, serious and violent juvenile offenders (SVJOs), has emergedas a public concern. A corollary concern is the effect of the mass media on juveniles. Addressing both issues, an exploratory study of copycat crime and the medias role in copycat crimes generation among a sample of SVJOs is conducted. The studys goals are to measure the prevalence of self-reportedcopycat crime in SVJOs and examine the correlates of self-reported copycat criminal behaviors. Concerning prevalence, about one fourth of the juveniles reportedthat they have attempteda copycat crime. The correlates of copycat behavior include a set of media and peer-related attitudes. Academic and demographic characteristics are not foundto significantly relate to copycat crime. Additional research on specific media, such as video games, as well as offender/nonoffender comparisons is suggested.

Public information officers: The civilianization of a criminal justice profession

Abstract Criminal justice Public Information Officers (PIOs) are a unique criminal justice specialty and key gatekeepers in the production of crime and justice information. The findings of a 1998 survey of the Florida PIO professional association members and nonmembers are reported. The results show that a typical PIO is a middle-aged, sworn, college-educated male. PIOs have also shifted away from criminal justice and communication degrees to reflect a broader, more diverse set of disciplines. Comparing association members with nonmembers, civilian PIOs, especially those from larger agencies, concentrate in the states professional association while sworn PIOs, particularly from smaller agencies, dominate the nonmember ranks. Professional association member PIOs also tend to be assigned a greater range of job tasks and to spend more time on those tasks than the nonassociation members. The results suggest that a civilian/sworn dichotomy reported in prior research remains significant for PIOs and has come to overlap with a professional association member/nonmember division. The implications for criminal justice agencies and for the PIO as a criminal justice career are discussed.

Recurrent Issues in Efforts to Prevent Homicidal Youth Violence in Schools: Expert Opinions

Developmental research on social influences on adolescents can guide practices aimed to prevent homicidal youth violence. School shootings have repeatedly raised questions about the contributory role of bullying and entertainment violence, how news media publicity might produce copycat crimes, and whether stiffer criminal sanctions might have a deterrent effect. This article presents the thoughts and recommendations of a group of experts on these topics summarizing the current knowledge base. In brief, bullying reduction programs may be a useful early prevention effort. Television and video games with violent themes can encourage aggressive behavior, but these media can be used to teach more prosocial behavior as well. The potential copycat effects of highly publicized crimes might be diminished with more restrained reporting, although more research is needed. Finally, there is substantial evidence that increased criminal sanctions for youthful offenders have not had a deterrent effect.

CCTV and Citizen Guardianship Suppression: A Questionable Proposition

An untested hypothesis regarding closed-circuit television (CCTV) is that the use of CCTV surveillance systems causes the loss of informal citizen guardianship activities in camera-surveilled public spaces. This hypothesized effect is empirically tested in two ways. In the first approach, an examination of survey responses between respondents who were aware, without prompting, of a public space surveillance camera system (24.4% of the respondents) and those who were not aware of the cameras is undertaken. The expectation is that preexisting knowledge of the cameras will be associated with attitudes associated with a self-reported reduced willingness to exercise guardianship actions. In the second approach, time series data sets of calls for service in a CCTV-surveilled area and a comparison control zone are examined. Neither method revealed empirical evidence of a degrading of informal citizen guardianship activities following the installation of CCTV cameras.

Media echoes: Systemic effects of news coverage

This paper examines the effect of massive media coverage on a judicial system by analyzing 3,453 felony cases tried over a 10-year period. The cases span five years preceding and five years following two heavily covered daycare child abuse trials in Miami, Florida. Significant case-processing shifts provide evidence of coverage “echo” effects, which have been hypothesized to exist in the literature but have not been established empirically. High-profile case publicity echoes are thought to reverberate through judicial systems and to condition them to process similarly charged but nonpublicized cases differently than they would have been processed otherwise. Because they affect nonpublicized low-profile cases, news media echoes expand the effects of news coverage on the judicial system far beyond single high-profile cases. Although a significant echo is found in this study, it does not extend to all possible processing effects. The need to empirically study other media echoes in other jurisdictions is indi...

Public information officers: A descriptive study of crime news gatekeepers

Criminal justice public information officers have emerged as a new criminal justice specialty and key gatekeepers in the flow of crime and justice information to news agencies and the public. Despite their gatekeeping role, they have not been examined regarding their specific attitudes, backgrounds, training, or tasks. As an initial step in addressing this deficiency, the results of a survey of Florida public information officers are reported. Public information officers divide into two groups of civilian and sworn officers. Sworn public information officers tend to be males who have educational backgrounds in criminal justice and little or no media-related experience prior to becoming public information officers. Civilian public information officers tend to be females who have educational backgrounds in communications and often have prior media-related experience. Irrespective of these differences, both groups agree about their daily tasks and the skills needed to perform their tasks and on an additional number of attitudes concerning their work. One of the more important differences between sworn and civilian public information officers is in the greater job satisfaction that civilian public information officers hold (despite being generally paid less) when compared with their sworn officer counterparts. Exploration of the difference in job satisfaction reveals that it is associated more with perceptions of a positive relationship with the media, the impact the public information officer feels he or she has in the agency, and their level of education than with either civilian or sworn status. Lastly, the overall results suggest a number of research hypotheses to pursue. Both theoretically and pragmatically of interest is whether a sworn/civilian structural division in the profession results in differences in the gatekeeping function of public information officers. The crucial issue concerns the generation of crime and justice news and whether sworn and civilian public information officers select different crimes or package the same crime differently for news dissemination and public consumption.

A test of a crime and justice infotainment measure

Abstract In recent years, a new term which combined aspects of both news and entertainment into a single format had been introduced into the crime and justice media vocabulary— infotainment . Media history reflected information and entertainment as usually presented separate and distinct. Early television programming, for example, could easily be recognized and classified as news or entertainment, but recently, the line between news and entertainment had become blurred. Beginning in the late 1980s, contemporary infotainment programs like Geraldo or Unsolved Mysteries began to appear on television and the genre had increased steadily in popularity. Since the 1980s, it had become more difficult for television viewers and media consumers in general to identify what was news and what was entertainment. This article presents a brief history of crime and justice infotainment and develops and tests a measurement refinement of crime and justice infotainment programming. Additionally, it offers research directions for exploring the impact of such programming.

Immigration and Its Impact on American Cities.

Preface Examining the Impact of Immigration on City Government Documenting Immigration Immigrant Decisions: Using a Field Survey Using the Experts: A Delphi Survey Effects of Immigration on Municipal Revenue and Expenditures: Estimates and Implications Immigration Forecasts Immigration and Municipal Services: Interpreting Projected Impacts Appendix A: Field Survey Instrument Appendix B: Delphi Survey (First Round) Appendix C: Delphi Survey (Second Round) Bibliography Index

Roles and Responsibilities: Analyzing Local Leaders’Views on Jail Crowding From a Systems Perspective

Jail crowding is a substantial concern for many local jurisdictions. Although several authors have suggested a system-wide approach to reduce crowding, relatively little is known about how top local criminal justice officials viewthis issue. Using interviews and surveys of criminal justice leaders in a large southern metropolitan county, this study examined perspectives on jail crowding and perceived interagency relationships. Consistent with prior studies, the respondents agreed that jail crowding is a problem and that the consequences of crowding extend beyond the correctional facility. Greater discord was observed on issues of agency responsibility for changing policies to effect reductions in crowding. Findings are interpreted within the context of a “loose coupling” framework of criminal justice organizations.