Ronald Helms

Toward a Political Model of Incarceration: A Time-Series Examination of Multiple Explanations for Prison Admission Rates

This study examines yearly shifts in prison admissions since 1950. The effects of political and economic determinants are investigated with measures of economic inequality, political variables, and unemployment. The delayed effects of broken families are measured with a lagged moving average of out-of-wedlock births. The findings show that inequality due to the presence of the rich and past out-of-wedlock birth rates matter, but unemployment is not related to prison admissions. The strength of the Republican Party and a presidential election year dummy also explain shifts in incarcerations. The results suggest that earlier work omitted theoretically important explanations.

The Political Context of Sentencing: An Analysis of Community and Individual Determinants

Most studies of jail or prison sentence length focus on whether offender characteristics produce sentencing differentials after legal effects have been controlled, but the findings in the literature have not been consistent, probably because most studies have been based on a few jurisdictions. To see if political effects explain these discrepancies, this study of 337 jurisdictions in seven states analyzes interaction effects between external political influences and offender attributes after holding constant multiple individual and environmental factors. To adjust for censoring, Tobit is used to analyze the length of sentences, while state differences are held constant with state-specific dummy variables. When interaction terms are not included, the results are consistent with prior research. But the inclusion of political interactions produces findings suggesting that African Americans and males receive longer sentences when local courts are embedded in conservative political environments where a law-and-order presidential candidate received more votes. These results support theoretical claims that punishment is an intensely political process.

Federal Subsidies and Evidence of Progressive Change A Quantitative Assessment of the Effects of Targeted Grants on Manpower and Innovation in Large U.S. Police Agencies

This research reviews the history of police change, documents law enforcements sustained effort to maintain legitimacy through change, and serves as a backdrop for an empirical assessment of recent efforts by law enforcement to adopt meaningful change. This research quantitatively assesses the effects of federal funding on two outcomes: the percentage change in police employment between 1993 and 1999 and an index of progressive policing practices that reflect the community-oriented policing (COP) philosophy. The authors use regression with robust standard errors and a sample of 177 municipal police agencies staffed with 100 or more full-time officers to assess competing explanations for variation in these outcomes. Findings support claims that federal assistance grants contributed to progressive changes for the recipient agencies. Organizations receiving manpower grants increased hiring to a noteworthy extent, and innovation grants were closely associated with reforms in street-level practices. Targeted federal assistance helped municipal police agencies make progressive changes consistent with the COP model.

Modeling the Politics of Punishment: A Contextual Analysis of Racial Disparity in Drug Sentencing

This study uses Tobit to assess contextual punishment determinants for a large sample of felony drug cases that reached final disposition in 1990. After statistically holding constant ascribed and legal variables, the authors find that punishments for African American defendants in drug-related cases varied by social and political context. African American defendants adjudicated in jurisdictions characterized by a large Black population received reduced punishments; but in jurisdictions that were characterized by strong law-and-order political support, Black defendants received longer sentences. After introducing these interactions, Blacks faced on average reduced penalties for drug crimes. Blacks were the recipients of adjusted sentencing but not in the uniformly harsh direction proposed by much of the sentencing research. In sum, the results of this research add to the growing literature documenting the political foundations of punishment patterns in the U.S. criminal courts.

Race, politics, and drug law enforcement: an analysis of civil asset forfeiture patterns across US counties

The research on civil asset forfeiture has been largely anecdotal and has taken a politicised approach. Most accounts use specific cases to support their claims that widespread use of forfeiture is generated by dubious or ‘hidden’ law enforcement motives. Yet there are plausible theoretical reasons to believe that structural contexts condition the choice of mechanisms favoured by the law enforcement agencies. This research emphasises structural explanations for variation in the ratio of asset forfeiture dollars to drug arrests. Regression estimates show that agency complexity, black population size, economic inequality due to the presence of high income earners and local Republican Party political support in past elections are strong predictors of variation in this ratio indicator. This study highlights the selective use of asset forfeiture and arrest. The evidence presented here supports wider claims that the application of alternative mechanisms of local law enforcement do not operate in a social, economic and political isolation but rather their selective use is shaped by patterns of local inequality.

Locally Elected Sheriffs and Money Compensation A Quantitative Analysis of Organizational and Environmental Contingency Explanations

This study uses OLS and a large sample of U.S. counties to empirically assess diverse explanations for pay allocated to local sheriffs. After statistically holding constant effects of agency size and functional specialization, including jail operations, this study isolates diverse environmental sources of variation in money wages allocated to the elected sheriff. A strong tax base helps local sheriffs, as does income inequality associated with the presence of high income earners, but local conservative political support is associated with reduced wage allocations. High crime rates and local unemployment are closely associated with expanded money wages, but pay is limited in counties with a large impoverished population. The empirical results are consistent with an environmental contingency model. One implication from this analysis is that county sheriffs are compensated at rates that reflect patterns of uncertainty in the organizations localized external environment.

Street Gangs and Aggregate Homicides: An Analysis of Effects During the 1990s Violent Crime Peak

This study contributes to the body of research examining why city-level violence rates peaked in 1993. Taking homicide data from that year, we introduce an indicator for active street gangs along with indicators derived from common structural explanations of homicide rates. We assess whether gang presence is empirically associated with homicide variation across 154 U.S. central cities. Consistent with conceptual claims, correlational evidence demonstrates that active gangs were a significant source of homicides across this sample of cities. As a secondary concern, we assess structural conditions that were likely to predict gang formation within cities during the crime peak.

Boom to Bust or Bust to Boom? Following the Effects of Weed and Seed Zoning in New Britain, Connecticut, from 1995 to 2000

This article addresses the effects of weed and seed zoning operations on arrests and calls for assistance in New Britain, Connecticut, during the 24-month before and 36-month after the inception of operations. Data are taken from New Britain police dispatch statistics and applied to a study of arrests and citizen calls for assistance across 738 U.S. Census block collection units (BCUs). The article employs tests of significance to assess the overall effects of zoning on these police activities across pre- and post-intervention periods and uses both weighted displacement quotient (WDQ) and exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA) models to test for possible displacement associated with zoning. Results indicate that weed and seed zoning was significantly associated with displacement of arrest activity in pre- and post-intervention time periods but displayed no relationship with displacement of calls for assistance (CFAs). Though WDQ analyses do not indicate proximity effects, local indicators of spatial association (LISA) maps show noteworthy changes in the spatial clustering of arrest activity over time. Of principal concern here is the idea that weed and seed may prompt changes in the geography of crime without actually reducing crime rates. An ancillary concern is whether significantly higher arrest rates within weed and seed zones represent advances in community policing.

Service Learning and Criminal Justice Students: An Assessment of the Effects of Co-Curricular Pedagogy on Graduation Rates

Service learning courses provide meaningful community service for students in order to assist them with the integration of theory and practice. A partnership with local high schools allows students in a large criminal justice program on the west coast to serve as mentors for students who are referred to the program by school counselors and/or social workers. Data on student performance are used to assess whether the exposure to service learning improves matriculation. All criminal justice students who participated in the program were included in this analysis. The impact of this pedagogy is highlighted by using a randomized sample of criminal justice students who have not participated in this particular course. Findings from this program assessment indicate that race and gender are not strong predictors of graduation. Students with high GPAs and those taking service learning courses are more likely than their low GPA and no service learning course counterparts to obtain a degree.

The Impact of Political Context on Local Law Enforcement Resourcing: An Analysis of Deputy Employment Rates in US Counties

Determinants of municipal law enforcement have been studied intensively, but county deputy rates have rarely been the focus of research attention. This study uses a sample of 190 sheriffs offices and OLS regression methods to assess diverse environmental and internal organizational explanations for variation in the strength of law enforcement agencies in US counties. The results show that Sheriffs agencies with highly differentiated functional units, retain deputies at higher rates than their counterparts in less complex organizations. Where agencies capture a larger percentage of the county budget, law enforcement personnel are increased as well. Perhaps the most important results are that agencies in economically unequal counties, and those operating in counties where voters were strongly supportive of law and order political appeals, employed deputies at the highest rates. These results reinforce research claims that political influences and unequal social environments are key factors affecting local social control arrangements.