Timothy S. Bynum

Citizen Perceptions of Police Services: Race, Neighborhood Context, and Community Policing:

Studies considering perceptions of the police have traditionally focused on very broad outcome measures (e.g., global views of the police). In an era of community policing, it is imperative to consider how the public perceives the police and police services using measures reflecting this alternative paradigm of policing. In addition, recent research suggests that perceptions of the police are formed within the context of respondents’neighborhood cultures and contexts. This research examines factors predicting citizen perceptions of police services in a Midwestern community, incorporating variables reflecting respondents’ demographic traits, experiences, and neighborhood contexts. The analysis tests the predictive power of these factors using both traditional outcome measures and perceptions of police services based on community-policing criteria. The findings demonstrate the need for multidimensional constructs of citizen perceptions of police services and highlight important dimensions of public perceptions of community policing.

A tale of two cities: Gangs as organized crime groups

This article examines the extent to which street gangs are becoming organized crime groups. Active gang members were asked about gang structure and organization, gang activities, and relationships ...

Reducing Chronic Absenteeism: An Assessment of an Early Truancy Initiative.

Chronic school absenteeism has been identified as a precursor to undesirable outcomes in adolescence, including academic failure, school dropout, and juvenile delinquency. In spite of its effect on adolescent functioning, little research has been conducted to identify effective methods of truancy reduction, particularly among elementary-aged students. This article presents the assessment of an initiative developed to reduce truancy in three elementary schools. Findings suggest that the program was successful in substantially reducing absenteeism among those with chronic attendance problems. Implications for future programs targeting at-risk youth are discussed.

Exposure to Community Violence and Childhood Delinquency

Community-level factors such as disadvantage, disorder, and disorganization have been linked to a variety of antisocial and illicit activities. Although crime and deviance tend to concentrate in areas with these characteristics, not all residents of disorganized neighborhoods participate in proscribed activities. This study examines the relationship between exposure to community violence and involvement in assaultive behavior and weapon carrying among a sample of at-risk youth. Findings demonstrate that controlling for the effects of neighborhood disadvantage as well as other common correlates of delinquency (e.g., family supervision and structure, school attachment, and peer delinquency), youth who witnessed more violence in their neighborhoods were more likely to self-report assaultive behavior and weapon carrying. This research has important implications for the study of delinquency by further identifying the social costs of community violence.

Parents, Friends, and Serious Delinquency: An Examination of Direct and Indirect Effects Among At-Risk Early Adolescents

Family context has been identified as a central domain in the study of delinquency, particularly during early childhood. As youth enter adolescence peer associations become a much stronger influence. Using a sample of preadolescent youth, this research examines the effect of family and peer relationships on delinquency. Specifically, path analysis is used to test the effects of family structure, parental supervision, and parental attachment on serious delinquent behavior to determine if a youths family life has a unique effect on serious delinquent behavior, or if familial relationships are mediated by peer associations. Findings suggest that parental variables are indirectly related to subsequent, serious delinquency, whereas delinquent peer association exerts a strong, direct effect. The study offers insight into the roles that a youths family life and peer associations play in explaining delinquent behavior. In addition, the findings highlight the need for interventions that encourage pro-social relationships among youth.

A Meta-Analytic Assessment of Delinquency-Related Outcomes of Alternative Education Programs

Although the alternative education movement continues to grow, uncertainty is present across the literature regarding the effectiveness of these programs. Prior reviews have found that alternative schools improve school performance, attitudes toward school, school attendance, and self-esteem, while decreasing delinquency. However, these reviews have been unable to determine the magnitude of these effects or examine potential correlates of success. The present study used meta-analysis to quantitatively summarize prior empirical research on alternative schools. The meta-analysis findings show that alternative education programs have a small overall effect on school performance, attitudes toward school, and self-esteem but no effect on delinquency. Furthermore, alternative education programs that target a specific population of at-risk delinquents or low school achievers produce larger effects than programs with open admissions.

Patterns of entry, professional identity, and attitudes toward crime-related education: A study of criminal justice and criminology faculty

Abstract In the field of crime-related education, examination of the characteristics of teaching, research, and institutional differences has recently been a concern. This study examines full-time faculty ( N =929) and their patterns of entry, including academic degree held, academic major, past academic and agency experience, and type of institution; and the extent to which differing methods of access are associated with attitudes toward research, scholarship, agency practice, academic collegiality, and orientation toward crime-related study. Dual paradigms seem to exist in crime-related education: one centering on teaching, field practice, and professionalism; the other on research, scholarship, and the more traditional values of academe.

The Effect and Implications of Sex Offender Residence Restrictions

Research Summary We evaluated the efficacy of sex offender residence restrictions in Michigan and Missouri using a quasi-experimental design with propensity score matching. First, we examined the implementation of the laws and found that sex offenders in both states were less likely to live in restricted areas after the implementation of the laws than the prerestriction sample, but the differences were not statistically significant. In our outcome analysis, we find little evidence that residence restrictions changed the prevalence of recidivism substantially for sex offenders in the postrelease period. In Michigan, trends indicate that the implementation of the laws led to a slight increase in recidivism among the sex offender groups, whereas in Missouri, this effect resulted in a slight decrease in recidivism. Technical violations also declined for both groups in Missouri. The small effect sizes, inconsistent results across states, and the null results between sex offender and non–sex offender models cast doubt on the potential usefulness of the laws to influence individual patterns of recidivism broadly. Policy Implications The results caution against the widespread, homogenous implementation of residence restrictions. Instead, we advocate individualization in sex offender programming and call for the development of risk-centered models of residence restrictions that draw on the established literature. In addition, the research highlights the practical challenges in defining restricted areas, enforcing restrictions, and promoting successful returns to the community. Furthermore, a call for reframing the focus of sex offender reentry to include collaborative treatment groups and enhanced communication and services between key stakeholders is made. Finally, we close with a discussion of several best practice models that provide alternative housing sources for individuals sentenced under residence restrictions without a suitable home plan.

CITIZEN INVOLVEMENT IN THE COPRODUCTION OF POLICE OUTPUTS

ABSTRACT It is often implied that citizens’ attitudes toward the police are a determinant of their willingness to engage in the coproduction of police outputs. This relationship, however, has been subjected to only limited empirical scrutiny. Using data from a three wave panel survey conducted in a large metropolitan area, this study examines the determinants of coproduction with particular emphasis on the causal role of citizens’ attitudes toward the police. The study provides little support for the hypothesis which links citizens’ attitudes to citizen willingness to engage in coproductive behaviors. Instead, a variety of other individual level variables appear to have a much greater effect on citizen willingness to engage in coproductive behaviors.

On the Efficacy of Targeted Gang Interventions: Can We Identify Those Most at Risk?

One of the explicit goals of many recent and ongoing criminal justice interventions is to target youth most at risk for involvement in serious, chronic, and violent offending. While targeted programs appear promising at the conceptual level, data limitations have made systematic evaluations of the efficacy of such practices difficult to achieve. The current study helps to fill this void in the literature by examining the relative risk of youth targeted for prevention and intervention services with a comparable sample of youth from the general school population in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. Results suggest that youth targeted by the program under study were significantly less at risk in three of the four risk domains examined, and in seven of the twelve associated subdomains. Further, the nontargeted sample had higher accumulated risk than the targeted sample, which is a robust predictor of gang involvement. Implications for targeted prevention and intervention programs are discussed.