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Is mass murder a historically new phenomenon that emerged in the 1960s? How has it changed over time? And what causes a person to commit multiple murders in a matter of hours or even minutes? This book explores these questions by examining 909 mass murders that took place in the United States between 1900 and 1999. By far the largest study on the topic to date, it begins with a look at the patterns and prevalence of mass murders by presenting rates from 1900-1999 and by describing the characteristics of mass killers. Placing the phenomenon within the broader social, political, and economic con

This study presents the results from the development and validation of a fully automated, gender-specific risk assessment system designed to predict severe and frequent prison misconduct on a recurring, semiannual basis. K-fold and split-population methods were applied to train and test the predictive models. Regularized logistic regression was the classifier used on the training and test sets that contained 35,506 males and 3,849 females who were released from Minnesota prisons between 2006 and 2011. Using multiple metrics, the results showed the models achieved a relatively high level of predictive performance. For example, the average area under the curve (AUC) was 0.832 for the female prisoner models and 0.836 for the male prisoner models. The findings provide support for the notion that better predictive performance can be obtained by developing assessments that are customized to the population on which they will be used.

In 2008, the Minnesota Department of Corrections implemented Minnesota Circles of Support and Accountability (MnCOSA), a sex offender reentry program based on the Circles of Support and Accountability (COSA) model developed in Canada during the 1990s. Using a randomized experimental design, this study evaluates the effectiveness of MnCOSA by conducting a cost-benefit analysis and comparing recidivism outcomes in the MnCOSA ( N = 31) and control groups ( N = 31). Despite the small total sample size ( N = 62), the results from Cox regression models suggest that MnCOSA significantly reduced three of the five recidivism measures examined. By the end of 2011, none of the MnCOSA offenders had been rearrested for a new sex offense compared with one offender in the control group. Because of less recidivism observed among MnCOSA participants, the results from the cost-benefit analysis show the program has produced an estimated US$363,211 in costs avoided to the state, resulting in a benefit of US$11,716 per participant. For every dollar spent on MnCOSA, the program has generated an estimated benefit of US$1.82 (an 82% return on investment).

This study evaluated the effectiveness of prison-based educational programming by examining the effects of obtaining secondary and post-secondary degrees on recidivism and post-release employment outcomes among offenders released from Minnesota prisons between 2007 and 2008. Obtaining a secondary degree in prison significantly increased the odds of securing post-release employment but did not have a significant effect on recidivism or other employment measures such as hourly wage, total hours worked, or total wages earned. Earning a post-secondary degree in prison, however, was associated with greater number of hours worked, higher overall wages, and less recidivism.

Using a retrospective quasi-experimental design, this study evaluates the effectiveness of prison-based treatment by examining recidivism outcomes among 2,040 sex offenders released from Minnesota prisons between 1990 and 2003 (average follow-up period of 9.3 years). To reduce observed selection bias, the authors used propensity score matching to create a comparison group of 1,020 untreated sex offenders who were not significantly different from the 1,020 treated offenders. In addition, intent-to-treat analyses and the Rosenbaum bounds method were used to test the sensitivity of the findings to treatment refuser and unobserved selection bias. Results from the Cox regression analyses revealed that participating in treatment significantly reduced the hazard ratio for rearrest by 27% for sexual recidivism, 18% for violent recidivism, and 12% for general recidivism. These findings are consistent with the growing body of research supporting the effectiveness of cognitive—behavioral treatment for sex offenders.

Although Megan's Law was passed more than 10 years ago, very little is known as to whether it reduces sex offender recidivism significantly. Using a retrospective quasi‐experimental design, we examine whether community notification has a deterrent effect by comparing the recidivism rates of 155 level 3 ("high public risk") sex offenders released from Minnesota prisons between 1997 and 2002 who were subject to broad notification with two separate control groups who were not. The first control group (referred to as the prenotification group) contained 125 sex offenders released between 1990 and 1996 (the 7 years preceding the implementation of the Community Notification Act) who likely would have been subject to broad community notification had the law been in effect at the time of their release. The second control group (referred to as the non‐notification group) was composed of 155 offenders (37 level 1 and 118 level 2) released between 1997 and 2002 who were not subject to broad community notification. The results from the Cox proportional hazards models reveal that broad community notification significantly reduced the risk of time to a sex reoffense (rearrest, reconviction, and reincarceration) compared with both control groups. The findings were mixed, however, for both non‐sex and general reoffending. Whereas broad community notification significantly reduced the risk of timing to both non‐sex and general recidivism compared with the prenotification group, no such effects were found in the non‐notification group analyses. We discuss the implications of these results and attempt to explain why Megan's Law seems to reduce sex offense recidivism in Minnesota.

Education and employment are both moderate risk factors for recidivism. There is a well-documented relationship between low educational achievement and antisocial behaviors. Education programming in correctional facilities is crucial for improving the educational attainment of incarcerated and re-integrating populations. A brief discussion situates policy reform efforts against a backdrop of extensive research that has documented the interaction between employment and increased educational attainment as pivotal to reducing an individual's propensity to recidivate. The policies then focus on three pillars that reduce employment barriers for returning citizens: workforce training, educational upgrading, and regulatory employment barriers. In the short-term, policymakers should study and address systemic remedial educational needs in tandem with increasing access to and occupational skills-based training that builds a skill base congruent with the current labor market for incarcerated students. In the mid-term, it is essential to match policy support with the intersecting barriers faced by returning citizens. As an example of federal policies that can help center the public workforce development system around the need to improve quality employment outcomes for returning citizens, the DOL's dormant pilot Linking to Employment Activities Pre-Release (LEAP). Finally, policymakers should target other consequential screening barriers, such as the accuracy of criminal records that employers can check and have been shown to adversely affect employment prospects.