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Crime and justice: A review of research— Volume 17
Journal
of Criminal
Pergamon
CURRENT PUBLICATIONS
Jeffrey
Justice, Vol. 22. No. 5, pp. 469-473. 1994 CopyrIght 0 1994 Elsevier Science Ltd Printed in the U.S.A. All rights reserved 0047.2352/94 $6.00 + .OO
ABSTRACTS
A Ahonen
inmates as prisoners of war. The criminalization technique denies political legitimacy and treats political inmates as ordinary criminals. Under the third method, normalization, division, and a certain level of violence is considered to be ordinary. The authors argue that normalization seeks to minimize conflict within the prisons, engages constructively with politically motivated prisoners, and may better manage political violence without hindering political progress. Michael Tonry discusses the development of sentencing commissions in the third essay of this book. Despite the controversy surrounding the federal sentencing guidelines developed by the U.S. Sentencing Commission, state-level commissions have developed sound sentencing policies that are supported by criminal justice practitioners. Issues that future commissions must address include guidelines for noncustodial sanctions, guidelines for misdemeanor convictions, tying of sentencing policy to corrections resources, and control of plea bargaining. In the fourth article, Barry C. Feld argues that the American juvenile court has been transformed from a treatment-based, informal welfare agency to a scaled-down criminal court. In many respects, however, the juvenile does not receive the same protections afforded to an adult offender in criminal court. Feld examines three ameliorative approaches:
Crime and Justice: A Review of Research-Volume 17 edited by Michael Tonry The University of Chicago Press (5720 South Woodlawn Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60637), 1993, 499 pp., hardcover-$42.50. This collection of eight review essays reports on state-of-the-art research into corrections and sentencing issues. In the first essay, Warren Young and Mark Brown examine the reasons for differences in imprisonment rates within industrialized nations. Jurisdictions having large prison populations do not proportionately send more persons to prison, but rather impose longer terms of confinement. Variations in conviction rates, prison capacity, and unemployment rates do not account for much of the observed differences between nations. Young and Brown argue that the variations cannot be attributed simply to differences in penal philosophy, but are driven by a variety of sociocultural factors that comprise a given society’s penal values. In the second article, Brian Gormally, Kieran McEvoy, and David Wall discuss the use of the prison system to manage politically divided prisoners. The historical development of the prison system in Northern Ireland illustrates three contrasting management methodologies. Reactive containment consists of suppression and negotiation, treating 469
470
Current Publications
restructuring the court to meet its original therapeutic purpose, instituting due process safeguards within the existing system, or processing young offenders in criminal courts with certain modifications of substantive and procedural law. The latter approach would include means for allowing a finding of reduced criminal culpability based upon juvenile status and would provide for procedural safeguards beyond those provided to adult defendants. The fifth essay, by Joan Petersilia and Susan Turner, reports on an evaluation of intensive supervision programs used to monitor those placed on probation or parole. The RAND Corporation conducted a randomized field experiment, using data from fourteen jurisdictions, to assess a national, intensive supervision demonstration project. The programs, generally, were well implemented, except in the area of drug treatment availability. Intensive supervision probation did not decrease the frequency or seriousness of new arrests, but technical violations and jail terms increased. Close surveillance and frequent drug testing resulted in increased incarceration rates in comparison to routine supervision. The sixth article, by David Weisburd, Anthony Petrosino, and Gail Mason, assesses the effect of research design on the outcome of randomized experiments used to study coercive treatment conditions. The authors examined the designs of seventy-six previously published experimental studies, evaluating each in terms of its statistical power, or the likelihood that a test will lead to the rejection of a “no effect” hypothesis. Contrary to conventional thought that larger sample sizes increase statistical power, these authors found little relationship between sample size and statistical power. On the other hand, smaller sample sizes do not yield a better chance of finding statistically significant differences between experimental and control groups. These findings point to a need for improved research strategies for increasing sample sizes while maintaining the essential distinctions between experimental and control groups.
Abstracts
In the next paper, David P. Farrington presents an analysis of prior research on bullying, the repeated psychological or physical oppression of a less powerful person by a more powerful one. Bullying behavior is highly prevalent. In several studies, half of all children were bullies and over half were victimized by bullies. Boys bully more than girls, and bullies are generally aggressive, tough, strong, confident, and impulsive. Boys and girls are equally victimized; victims of bullying are generally unpopular, lonely, rejected, anxious, depressed, unwilling to retaliate, and hold low self-esteem. Bullying occurs particularly when adult supervision is lacking. Research suggests that bullying is a predecessor of further violent crime. Prevention strategies are aimed at improving the empathy of the bully, improving the social skills of the victim, and improving adult supervision and other environmental conditions. The last article in this work discusses criminal victimization theories, in which the roles of the victims in the criminal incidents are explored. Robert F. Meier and Terance D. Miethe point out that lifestyle-exposure and routine activities theories illustrate how opportunities for criminality arise out of routine patterns that increase the proximity to motivated offenders, increase the exposure to dangerous situations, enhance the attractiveness of crime targets, and reduce the level of guardianship. The authors argue that prior research has lent some support to such theories, but the value of research was limited by inadequate proxy measures of key concepts, few statistical controls, and a lack of multilevel, contextual analysis. While the current theories of victimization highlight the inextricable link between victims and offenders within an ecology of crime, they do not provide sufficient information about the conditions of offending to permit adequate predictions of crime. Future refinements of victimization theories should include attention to the social contexts in which crimes are committed.
of Criminal
Pergamon
CURRENT PUBLICATIONS
Jeffrey
Justice, Vol. 22. No. 5, pp. 469-473. 1994 CopyrIght 0 1994 Elsevier Science Ltd Printed in the U.S.A. All rights reserved 0047.2352/94 $6.00 + .OO
ABSTRACTS
A Ahonen
inmates as prisoners of war. The criminalization technique denies political legitimacy and treats political inmates as ordinary criminals. Under the third method, normalization, division, and a certain level of violence is considered to be ordinary. The authors argue that normalization seeks to minimize conflict within the prisons, engages constructively with politically motivated prisoners, and may better manage political violence without hindering political progress. Michael Tonry discusses the development of sentencing commissions in the third essay of this book. Despite the controversy surrounding the federal sentencing guidelines developed by the U.S. Sentencing Commission, state-level commissions have developed sound sentencing policies that are supported by criminal justice practitioners. Issues that future commissions must address include guidelines for noncustodial sanctions, guidelines for misdemeanor convictions, tying of sentencing policy to corrections resources, and control of plea bargaining. In the fourth article, Barry C. Feld argues that the American juvenile court has been transformed from a treatment-based, informal welfare agency to a scaled-down criminal court. In many respects, however, the juvenile does not receive the same protections afforded to an adult offender in criminal court. Feld examines three ameliorative approaches:
Crime and Justice: A Review of Research-Volume 17 edited by Michael Tonry The University of Chicago Press (5720 South Woodlawn Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60637), 1993, 499 pp., hardcover-$42.50. This collection of eight review essays reports on state-of-the-art research into corrections and sentencing issues. In the first essay, Warren Young and Mark Brown examine the reasons for differences in imprisonment rates within industrialized nations. Jurisdictions having large prison populations do not proportionately send more persons to prison, but rather impose longer terms of confinement. Variations in conviction rates, prison capacity, and unemployment rates do not account for much of the observed differences between nations. Young and Brown argue that the variations cannot be attributed simply to differences in penal philosophy, but are driven by a variety of sociocultural factors that comprise a given society’s penal values. In the second article, Brian Gormally, Kieran McEvoy, and David Wall discuss the use of the prison system to manage politically divided prisoners. The historical development of the prison system in Northern Ireland illustrates three contrasting management methodologies. Reactive containment consists of suppression and negotiation, treating 469
470
Current Publications
restructuring the court to meet its original therapeutic purpose, instituting due process safeguards within the existing system, or processing young offenders in criminal courts with certain modifications of substantive and procedural law. The latter approach would include means for allowing a finding of reduced criminal culpability based upon juvenile status and would provide for procedural safeguards beyond those provided to adult defendants. The fifth essay, by Joan Petersilia and Susan Turner, reports on an evaluation of intensive supervision programs used to monitor those placed on probation or parole. The RAND Corporation conducted a randomized field experiment, using data from fourteen jurisdictions, to assess a national, intensive supervision demonstration project. The programs, generally, were well implemented, except in the area of drug treatment availability. Intensive supervision probation did not decrease the frequency or seriousness of new arrests, but technical violations and jail terms increased. Close surveillance and frequent drug testing resulted in increased incarceration rates in comparison to routine supervision. The sixth article, by David Weisburd, Anthony Petrosino, and Gail Mason, assesses the effect of research design on the outcome of randomized experiments used to study coercive treatment conditions. The authors examined the designs of seventy-six previously published experimental studies, evaluating each in terms of its statistical power, or the likelihood that a test will lead to the rejection of a “no effect” hypothesis. Contrary to conventional thought that larger sample sizes increase statistical power, these authors found little relationship between sample size and statistical power. On the other hand, smaller sample sizes do not yield a better chance of finding statistically significant differences between experimental and control groups. These findings point to a need for improved research strategies for increasing sample sizes while maintaining the essential distinctions between experimental and control groups.
Abstracts
In the next paper, David P. Farrington presents an analysis of prior research on bullying, the repeated psychological or physical oppression of a less powerful person by a more powerful one. Bullying behavior is highly prevalent. In several studies, half of all children were bullies and over half were victimized by bullies. Boys bully more than girls, and bullies are generally aggressive, tough, strong, confident, and impulsive. Boys and girls are equally victimized; victims of bullying are generally unpopular, lonely, rejected, anxious, depressed, unwilling to retaliate, and hold low self-esteem. Bullying occurs particularly when adult supervision is lacking. Research suggests that bullying is a predecessor of further violent crime. Prevention strategies are aimed at improving the empathy of the bully, improving the social skills of the victim, and improving adult supervision and other environmental conditions. The last article in this work discusses criminal victimization theories, in which the roles of the victims in the criminal incidents are explored. Robert F. Meier and Terance D. Miethe point out that lifestyle-exposure and routine activities theories illustrate how opportunities for criminality arise out of routine patterns that increase the proximity to motivated offenders, increase the exposure to dangerous situations, enhance the attractiveness of crime targets, and reduce the level of guardianship. The authors argue that prior research has lent some support to such theories, but the value of research was limited by inadequate proxy measures of key concepts, few statistical controls, and a lack of multilevel, contextual analysis. While the current theories of victimization highlight the inextricable link between victims and offenders within an ecology of crime, they do not provide sufficient information about the conditions of offending to permit adequate predictions of crime. Future refinements of victimization theories should include attention to the social contexts in which crimes are committed.