Steven P. Lab

An Analysis of Juvenile Correctional Treatment

The state of the evidence concerning correctional treatment prompts a vast array of differing opinions. One extreme position posits that “nothing works” while the other end of the continuum claims that some programs have very positive effects. The present study surveyed the professional literature appearing between 1975 and 1984 (inclusive) in order to evaluate the current state of knowledge on juvenile correctional treatment. The impact of treatment on recidivism was the primary consideration in a simple ballot-box analysis of reports published in professional journals. The results indicated that juvenile correctional treatment fared no better than in earlier reviews. In general, at least half of the studies reported negative or no impact on recidivism and many of the positive findings were based on dubious, subjective evaluations.

A Meta-Analysis of Juvenile Correctional Treatment:

Debate over the effectiveness of correctional treatment has been raging for over a decade. The view that “nothing works” dominates in the mind of the public and relies on many early reviews of the literature for support. The most contemporary approach to analyzing the state of the evidence on correctional treatment is the use of meta-analysis. Meta-analysis is a technique that reanalyzes data found in original research reports and arrives at a common measure for all of the studies. The present analysis of research reports published from 1975 to 1984 does not provide encouraging results. The results show that interventions have little positive impact on recidivism and many appear to exacerbate the problem. Indeed, the analysis in this article could be considered overly lenient in its interpretation of the results. It appears that the earlier evaluations that claim that “nothing works” are close to the conclusion to be drawn from more recent evaluations of juvenile treatments.

Research Note: An Evaluation of Juvenile Sexual Offender Treatment

Although interest in the treatment of juvenile sexual offenders has increased significantly in recent years, there are still few programs specifically geared toward these youths and few of the existing programs have been evaluated. This article presents an evaluation of one court-based program. The results show that youths handled in the program fare no better than youths processed through normal, nonoffense specific programming. These results suggest that the growth of interventions has proceeded without adequate knowledge of how to identify at-risk youths, the causes of the behavior, and the most appropriate treatment for juvenile sexual offending.

Climatological conditions and crime: The forecast is…?

A common question among both academicians and practitioners concerns the relationship between the weather and crime. Although early researchers, including Durkheim, introduced climatological factors in their discussions of human behavior and deviance, contemporary criminology tends to ignore these factors as possible contributors to changes in crime despite the ease with which weather variables fit into the routine activities and sociobiological perspectives. The present study investigates the weather-crime relationship, using daily weather figures (e.g. precipitation, humidity, temperature, barometric pressure) and crime data for a large eastern city. The results are discussed in terms of both direct and indirect effects on levels of deviance and the potential usefulness of the analysis for future sociobiological and environmental design approaches to crime control.

Community characteristics and in-school criminal victimization

The problem of crime in schools is one that receives a great deal of attention in the media and by the general public. Attempts to understand the problem often make reference to the impact of the neighborhood in which the school is found. Research rarely measures the surrounding environment and its impact on crime and victimization in the school. This article reports on an effort to uncover the influence of the surrounding environment on in-school victimization. Data from surveys of students, census and official crime data for the area, and a windshield survey of the neighborhood were used. The results suggest that the surrounding neighborhood has little impact on in-school victimization. Implications of this result on further research and school policy were examined.

Crime prevention, politics, and the art of going nowhere fast

When one raises the issue of crime prevention with virtually any audience, there is universal agreement that preventing crime and victimization is a desired goal. Who would argue against the idea that society should be a safer place, that individuals should be secure in their homes, that people should not fear going to the store or out for enjoyment, or that crime harms the quality of life in our communities? I have never heard anyone argue against these sentiments. Rather, whenever the issue of crime is discussed there is a consensus that something should be done to solve the problem. This is certainly true when any politician or policy maker addresses the crime problem. Indeed, after any serious/heinous crime is committed or the media picks up on a crime topic, politicians and governmental representatives are quick to step up to the microphone, declare how much they abhor the action, and vow that they will do something to bring the offenders to justice and to prevent such things from reoccurring. This takes place even when the crime occurs in a far-off location. Interestingly, we hear these types of comments and calls for action on a regular basis, yet there is no clear agenda for the prevention of crime in the United States (and many other countries). There is no set crime prevention policy in the United States, except to investigate the crime, arrest and prosecute the offender, and punish the individual for his or her transgression. This is not what most people expect when they ask for crime prevention. At best this amounts to preventing recidivism,

Patterns in Juvenile Misbehavior

The juvenile and criminal justice systems respond to youthful misbehavior as the onset of continued delinquency and increasing risk to society. Support for this assumption is far from clear. Existing career research fails to adequately consider the patterns and persistance of juvenile activity. The present study develops police contact histories for three birth cohorts of individuals. The analysis reveals that most careers concentrate in status and victimless offenses and roughly two-thirds of all juveniles desist before a fourth offense. The present results closely resemble many of Wolfgang et al.s (1972) findings and some of the same conclusions are reached in the two studies.

Who is missing? The realities of the missing persons problem

Abstract Each year vast numbers of Americans are reported missing. Most return safely after a short period. Others, however, do not. Despite the extent of the problem, the topic of missing persons has been much neglected by academic researchers. This exploratory study examined the police records of a large eastern city for 1984. It provides a descriptive analysis of the background characteristics of persons reported missing and the circumtances surrounding their disappearance and their return.

Crime prevention participation:An exploratory analysis

Most past research on crime and crime prevention has focused on their occurrence in urban settings. Relatively little attention has been given to crime and citizen crime prevention in small town/rural areas. The present study uses secondary data from the National Crime Survey: Victim Risk Supplement, 1983 to investigate citizen participation in five crime prevention domains within large urban areas and small town/rural areas. The results suggest that, while there are some similarities in citizen participation, various factors have different degrees of impact in different locations. Further, differences in crime prevention participation are more a function of the type of crime prevention than of the size of the local population.

Urban and Rural Attitudes toward Participating in an Auxiliary Policing Crime Prevention Program

Researchers and practitioners have noted the importance of citizen crime prevention, but little attention has been focused on the crime prevention behavior of rural residents. This article compares urban and rural attitudes toward participation in an auxiliary policing program. Using data from the 1982 ABC News Poll of Public Opinion on Crime, a probit regression analysis reveals that the models explaining participation for urban and rural respondents are similar. Differences between the present results and those of past studies suggest that the present results are more reliable than past analyses.