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This study examines perceptions of fairness and attitudes of offenders toward random assignment as compared to other selection methods used in evaluation research for allocating benefits or assigning inmates to programs. Three hundred and forty‐eight inmates in three federal institutions were randomly selected and presented questionnaires which surveyed their attitudes toward four selection procedures: random assignment; need; merit; and first come, first served. By a large margin, selection according to need was chosen most frequently as the fairest method, followed in order by merit; first come, first served; and random assignment. In addition, all groups who did not choose random assignment as the fairest selection method consistently rated it as the least fair of the four. The results and analysis suggest that researchers who wish to test innovative programs using randomized experiments need to in form the participants of the meaning and value of randomization.

This research focuses on a relatively unexplored phenomenon—black female juvenile offenders. Both theoretical and research work are weak or nonexistent regarding these offenders. This paper seeks to fill some of these gaps. In addition, this research effort draws on a source of data that has in frequently been adapted to study offenders, National Crime Survey (NCS) victimization data. Utilizing NCS data from 1973 through 1981, a comparative analysis of NCS rates of juvenile offenses by black females, black males, white females, and white males is presented and discussed. A number of propositions which are found in the literature regarding black female offenders are examined. Trends in offending by black females compared with trends for other age‐race‐sex subgroups are also presented and analyzed. Finally, some implications for future theoretical and research efforts are presented

Miethe (1982) has recently argued that the consistent findings of wide‐spread consensus in the rankings of the seriousness of crimes may be more a rejection of the methodological approaches used by past researchers than of actual public sentiments. Building on Miethe's insights, this paper examines the extent to which the nature of the techniques employed to analyze data influences seriousness evaluations. The results indicate that consensus is affected by such factors as the rating task given to the subjects, how consensus is measured, and the type of offense under investigation. In turn these methodological considerations caution against using existing research as the bask either for the verification of consensus theories of justice or for the formulation of sanctioning policy.

This study tests an integrated theoretical model of delinquency on a representative sample of 341 male New Jersey adolescents. The model is a modified version of Hirschi's control theory that integrates, in part, cultural deviance theory. This study addresses two questions: (1) how well does the theory explain delinquency within different adolescent age groups? and (2) does the salience of individual components in the model differ from one age group to another? Path analysis indicates that parameter estimates vary substantially across age groups The influence of parents and the school peak considerably in midadolescence while the influence of delinquent companions is greatest among the oldest male group. The findings indicate that the processes related to delinquency change considerably as youths age through adolescence, thus implying that the issue of "age generalizability" warrants greater attention than presently given in delinquency theory and research.

In an effort to relieve its overburdened superior courts, California introduced a statutory amendment which allowed lesser felonies to be dealt with in lower‐level courts. Using an interrupted time‐series methodology, this study examines the impact of this change in law on caseloads, plea bargaining, conviction rates, and sentencing in the superior courts. After the statutory intervention there was a reduction in superior court caseloads, but the overall rate of plea bargaining remained relatively constant. However, there were substantial changes in types of plea bargains with a decline in fast pleas and a corresponding rise in slow pleas. It was also found that severity of sanctions was related to the changing caseload patterns. Policy and theoretical implications of these and other findings are discussed.

It has become almost axiomatic in sociological analyses of interactions between mental health and criminal justice personnel that their respective ideologies are inherently contradictory and produce conflict within organizations in which both groups are working. Because key components of the mental health system have changed dramatically since the seminal research in this area was conducted and because these concepts were never tested in certain criminal justice organizations, many commonly accepted generalizations about custody‐therapy conflicts warrant new examination. Interview and questionnaire data from a national sample of 43 county jails with mental health programs were analyzed. In contrast to earlier research, fundamental conflicts between mental health and correctional staff were not frequent. Rather, Pondy's concept of frictional Conflicts, which are not fundamental to either individual interactions or organizational operations, were more typical. Jails, as short‐term people‐processing organizations, cannot be assumed to fit organizational research results generated from state prisons.

AbstractGene‐environment interactions are important for the development of much human behavior. We examined the possibility that a genetic propensity to criminal behavior interacts with the type of environment in which an individual is raised. Using a cohort of adoptees, we found evidence for independent contributions of biological parent criminality (genetic influence) and urban environment rearing to prediction of adoptee criminality, but no evidence for a gene‐environment interaction involving these factors.

AbstractMessner's recent investigation of homicide and relative and absolute economic deprivation is replicated here, but cities rather than SMSA's and three years (1950, 1960, 1970) rather than one (1970) are considered. Because of tremendous intra‐unit variation for SMSAs with respect to homicides and sociodemographic characteristics (an important variation that is masked when data are aggregated on a SMSA level), cities are a preferable unit of analysis in cross‐sectional investigations of homicide. Where M e s m found a significant negative relationship between percentage of poverty (absolute deprivation) and homicides, I consistently find the opposite pattern as predicted. In both studies, however, there is only a slight and nonsignificant relationship between relative economic deprivation (income inequality) and homicides. Unlike Messner, however, I do not consider this finding surprising. At best, there is only a weak theoretical linkage between homicide and relative economic deprivation. Accordingly, the results of this investigation for both absolute and relative deprivation are neither "perplexing" nor do they warrant the "serious reconsideration of the linkages between poverty, inequality and the homicide rate" that Messner (1982: 112) calls for.

Among the more popular "political" explanations of increased crime have been the charges that courts have been coddling criminals and handcuffing the police. These accusaticms are often coupled with the general perception that if criminal defendants appeal they will usually win. During the past 20 years there clearly has been an increase in criminal defendant due process rights that have been created largely by the courts. Notwithstanding these developments, are criminal defendants more likely to win than lose on appeal, and has the probability of winning been increasing? This article examines state courts of last resort from 1870 to 1970 to determine both the odds of winning and how they have changed. It also investigates whether these trends are different for the traditional South than for the more liberal states of the Northeast. The data indicate that, in fact, defendants today are far more likely to lose on appeal than they were 100 years ago. In addition, there appears to be little regional variation in criminal appellate outcomes over the last 100 years.

OUR GANG: JEWISH CRIME AND THE NEW YORK JEWISH COMMUNITY, 1900–1940.EAST SIDE‐WEST SIDE: ORGANIZING CRIME IN NEW YORK, 1930–1950TWO CULTURES OF POLICING: STREET COPS AND MANAGEMENT COPS.

AbstractFifty offenders incarcerated in a minimum security provincial institution participated in a variety of group programs with community volunteers. Inmates were randomly assigned to one of four treatment regimes or to a control group condition. The experiment subjects participated in community group discussions with either trained or untrained volunteers, and a concurrent activity, either a self‐control program or a recreational group. A test battery was administered in a pre/post fashion and follow‐up recidivism was monitored. Two‐by‐two factorial analyses of the treatment programs revealed a significant interaction between activities. Inmates who had participated in discussion groups with trained volunteers and in a self‐control program showed the most improvement on the test battery variables. This treatment effect generalized to inmates'institutional behavior, as measured by staff ratings and disciplinary offences. However, program participation was not related to postrelease success. Nonetheless, correlations between attitude change during the period of incarceration and recidivism were found. Among offenders who increased in their identification with the delinquent subculture, those who also increased in self‐esteem experienced less follow‐up success than those who decreased in self‐esteem. These results are discussed in terms of the complex relation between client characteristics, treatment, and other program services that must be considered in evaluating correctional programs.