Russell L. Curtis

Illegal drug use, alcohol and aggressive crime among Mexican-American and white male arrestees in San Antonio

This research explores the relationship between use of certain drugs and aggressive crimes among Mexican-American and White male arrestees in San Antonio, Texas, for 1992. This is based on a Drug Use Forecasting (DUF) sample of 534 male arrestees administered a drug urine analysis test and questionnaire by the Department of Justice and the city of San Antonio. Using a four-way asymmetrical analysis, logit-models were tested to examine the relationships between the response variable, the types of crimes charged (nonaggressive versus aggressive) and a set of exploratory variables, ethnicity (White versus Hispanic), drug test results (positive versus negative), and alcohol use (infrequent versus frequent). The logit-analysis allows the specification of a subset of relevant models to be tested for their adequacy of fit. Findings indicate a complex but interpretable pattern between drug use, alcohol use patterns, and aggressive crimes. A surprising finding was that more aggressive crimes were committed by all men testing negative for drugs. Mexican-Americans with frequent alcohol use and testing positive for drugs were twice as likely to commit an aggressive crime (a crime associated with violence) than Whites in the same subgroup. The implication of these findings for prevention strategies aimed at alcohol and other drug users involved in violent behavior is discussed.

Cutbacks, Management, and Human Relations: Meanings for Organizational Theory and Research

Retrenchments are a common occurrence in business, educaitonal, social service, and civic and public organizations in the United States. Administrative responses to the events leading to reductions have been reactive and last-resort activities typically leading to centralizations, formalization, and increased downward initiatives of communications and directives. In turn, these have tended to exacerbate the existing problems, especially those of employee morale, trust, depression, and productivity. Variations by types of organizations are presented and implications are drawn for practical consequences and solutions and for analytical contributions to organizational theory.

Outcomes of child sexual contacts: patterns of incarcerations from a national sample.

OBJECTIVE In a test of the relationships between sexual touching before puberty and later incarcerations during adolescence and adulthood, two theoretical models were examined. These models focus on examination of crime from the developmental origins of criminals and the adaptive and maladaptive outcomes of early experiences. METHOD Data were taken from the National Health and Social Life Survey to study the sexual touching and social origin variables in childhood and incarceration variable during teen years. The sample was a stratified, random sample of 3,362 adults (18 to 59 years of age) throughout the United States. RESULTS Data support inferences from the two interrelated models. Respondents reporting touching before puberty were significantly more likely to experience incarceration. They were also more likely to engage in behaviors as teenagers that were associated with an increased probability of jailing. Such behaviors include sexual promiscuity and early departure from the parental family. CONCLUSIONS These findings are consistent for first jailing as a teenager and as an adult, as well as for those with short (less than a week) or longer (a week or more) spells of incarceration. Prepubertal sexual touching has a significant and enduring effect on later adolescent and adult incarcerations.

Cynicism among juvenile probation officers: A study of subverted ideals

Abstract Since Niederhoffers pioneering work with police, much attention has been paid to cynicism in several criminal justice settings. This research has led to a concept of cynicism as multidimensional. Based on these research findings, this study investigated cynicism in a new setting—juvenile probation. The specific focus was cynicism toward the rehabilitative ideal in juvenile justice. The study found that professionalism and longevity had effects that were opposite to what has been found in other settings. Moreover, this study found that idealistic cynicism is independent of perceptions of procedural efficacy, delinquency etiology, and, importantly, JPO role performance. We take these results to be in keeping with a general conclusion that cynicism is a judgment that varies within and across settings, audiences, and philosophical ideals, which calls for continued research refined by greater appreciation of situational specificity.

Framed Attributions and Shaped Accounts: A Study of Dispositional Process in Juvenile Justice

Drawing from an actual case that was set for a revocation-of-probation hearing, and using an interactionist conception, this article analyzes how juvenile probation officers (JPOs) impute attributes, advocate dispositions, and offer justifying accounts for their recommendations. Controlling for case and context effects, it examines how these officers frame their attributions and shape the justifications of their recommendations to accomplish their dispositions. It was found that delinquent attributions, although they are negotiated with language appropriate to the ideals of individualized juvenile justice and rehabilitation, often parallel the decision-making process in the adult parole system. Although the proposed dispositions and their accompanying remedial intentions vary among the individual officers, it is demonstrated that once an officer is committed to a preferred disposition for a marginal case he or she will expend considerable and judicious effort in attempts to secure that disposition from the court. It is proposed that this individual JPO commitnent may represent the key to more successful juvenile justice intervention.

Book Reviews : Opposition To Volunteerism: an Annotated Bibliography: by Doris B. Gold. CPL Bibliographies (No. 8). June 1979, Chicago, Illinois

Several areas and sources are covered in this annotated bibliography. Sources include existing bibliographies, books (most of which appear to be peripheral to the area), periodicals, and journals as well as less readily available or distributed bulletins, reports, and newspaper (local coverage) sources. Several areas of opposition or resistance to volunteerism are identified in the sources. For one, there are existing economic and occupational associations or sectors such as unions and teachers’ organizations. Identified here are the vested interest groups which view volunteers and volunteerism as a source of livelihood competition. Another significant source of opposition, perhaps more of a visible than an ongoing structural impediment, are feminists’ groups such