The purpose of this study was to understand how offender age impacted residential substance abuse treatment (RSAT) program success in reducing rates of recidivism for offenders exiting the judicial system. Despite passing legislation in the 1980s and 1990s, which increased the penalties for certain crimes, offender recidivism remains high, with no apparent drop in the number of incarcerations and re-incarcerations, resulting in high costs and threats to the safety and quality of life experienced within communities. Social learning theory, behavioral decision theory, and biologically based theories of behavior were the theoretical foundations. Archival data collected from a RSAT grant program at between January 1, 1999 and June 6, 2001 were examined. Data related to participant scores on the Level of Service Inventory Revised (LSI-R), acquired prior to program placement and upon program completion, were compared with the number of incarcerations before and after program completion; charges for convictions already decided and/or pending convictions, age at admission(s) and age at the time of the offender's first offense, and types of offenses (domestic or sexual) committed were explored in a factor analysis. Negative correlations identified included: sex offenders and their age at admission and between LSI-R scores and completing the RSAT program. Positive correlations identified included: new convictions and completing the RSAT program, age at admission to program and age of first offense, and date of first offense and sex offender variables. Implications for positive social change include reduced rates of recidivism among offenders with substance abuse problems.

In this thesis, I traced the history of the Major Crimes Act of 1885, focusing on United States Supreme Court cases regarding the Act's enforcement and its constitutionality. In particular, analysis focused on how the USSC's decisions affected Native Americans within the field of criminal law, both as defendants and victims, and how these decisions prove to be contradictory or unjustly detrimental in nature. There is also focus on the ongoing issues in the state of Oklahoma resulting from the Major Crimes Act's enforcement that have begun to spread from a state-level crisis into a nationwide problem. The thesis concludes with proposed ideas for how these ongoing issues may be resolved, as well as how the Major Crimes Act may need to be amended or repealed and replaced in order to do so.

Assessing the effect of race on crime is an important topic of criminology and criminal justice research. Prior investigations have sought to uncover if racial disparities exist within certain aspects of the criminal justice system, such as arrests, trials, and sentencing. The existing scholarship, however, has largely focused on assessing differences between Black and Hispanic offenders in relation to White offenders. There has been little academic exploration to examine if racial disparities exist among American Indian offenders during criminal justice processing. To address this gap in knowledge, this study analyzes data collected from the United States Sentencing Commission to assess if American Indians receive different sentencing outcomes, when compared to other racial groups. The findings from a series of binary logistic and ordinary least square regression analyses suggest that American Indians are sentenced to prison more often than White, Black, and Hispanic offenders, but receive similar sentence lengths compared to Whites and shorter sentence lengths compared to Blacks and Hispanics. The implications of these results are discussed.

No description available.

The purpose of the research was to investigate the difference in attributions of offenders and magistrates about the factors that led to offending behaviour. Difference in beliefs between offenders and magistrates, about seriousness of some common offences and factors believed to be motives for offending, justification of offending and neutralisation of responsibility for offending were also investigated. The effect that differences in attributions between offenders and magistrates and how these influence the way in which offenders are dealt with in the criminal justice system was investigated. The attitude of criminal justice system professionals, and magistrates towards offenders was also investigated to find out if they affect court sentencing decisions, and the treatment and punishment imposed in an attempt to reduce offending. My research has shown, that offenders and magistrates hold significantly different attributions about the factors that influence people to offend, and about offence seriousness. Offenders and magistrates also hold significantly different beliefs about motives for offending, justification of offending and neutralisation of responsibility for offending. The UK Government Crime Reduction Policy since 1997, has been strongly related to the ‘What Works’ approach. This has influenced sentencing policy and the treatment of offenders. A major strand of the policy has been the introduction and implementation of the What Works’ approach and the use of Cognitive Behavioural Accredited Programmes within the Probation Service and Prison Service to change the behaviour of offenders and reduce recividism (Harper and Chitty 2005). Based on my research findings recommendations are made in the final chapter of the thesis for modifications to the present approach, and the treatment of offenders.

No description available.

America has the highest incarceration rate in the world with an estimated 2.2 million inmates, and more than five million American children have at least one parent in jail (Murphey, 2015). Prior to imprisonment, many parents are employed, contribute economically to family life, and are engaged in parenting their children. Parent-child relationships that may have been strong pre-incarceration may not thrive once the parent goes to jail due to limited communication and the inmate’s inability to provide financial support for his/her family. Further, once the parent is released from prison, s/he faces fewer options for employment with a criminal history. Developmental programs in prison such as job training and parenting skills exist to mediate these negative outcomes. Although program participation is associated with a 20% likelihood of increased employment among inmates, little research explores the motivating factors behind program participation (Visher, Debus, & Yahner, 2008). This study poses three research questions that explore child contact and program participation as factors of increased employment post-release. In detail, the first research question explores factors related to child contact in prison, focusing on the history of parent-child financial support prior to incarceration. The second research question explores the relationships between child contact in-prison and program participation. Finally, this paper tests a third research question to explore child contact and program participation as factors of employment outcomes post- release. Interesting findings from the study suggest that parental inmates with frequent child contact in-prison are likely to have been their child(ren)’s primary source of financial support prior to incarceration. Inmates with frequent reports of child contact are also more likely to participate in developmental programs during their sentences and more likely to be employed post-release. These associations may exist because parental inmates have a sense of responsibility after being in touch with their children. Therefore, policymakers should consider removing contact barriers that complicate phone access and visitation privileges between parental inmates and their minor child(ren).

Research has shown that the police industry has entered into an era of homeland security. However, whether the core functions of policing have significantly changed since September 11, 2001, has been the topic of considerable debate. Using secondary data, the research identifies variables that are most influential in predicting whether Texas police chiefs understand their departments’ homeland security roles and responsibilities. The data was originally obtained in 2007 through self-administered surveys of police chiefs attending the Texas Chief Leadership Series (TPCLS) and the New Chief Development Program (NCDP).

Historians of English crime and criminal justice agree that females are more leniently treated by the criminal justice system. Fewer females are prosecuted for unlawful activities, and, when they are, they are more readily acquitted, or receive lighter sentences than males. However, reasons for this remain elusive. References to the paternalism of those involved in the system, together with notions about masculinity and femininity in a patriarchally ordered society, have been offered in the absence of other more focused and systematic evidence.;This thesis follows a systematic enquiry about three crimes which attributed the death sentence - shoplifting, pickpocketing, and uttering forged Bank of England notes. The period of the study covers the 1780s to the 1830s, and is centred on London and Middlesex. It considers involvement in each crime by gender. The approach seeks to avoid the over-generalisation resulting from synthesis of statistics for a wide variety of offences, and to allow a clearer view of how men and women operated in committing offences. This systematic approach follows the offenders involved in the three crimes through the criminal justice system, so far as it is possible to do so, since the public trial and sentencing at the Old Bailey were not the end of the decision-making story. Previous studies have largely neglected to follow-through to the stage of commutation of sentences and pardons where influences on the decision-makers differed from those on decision-makers at earlier stages of the system.;In particular, this thesis focuses on the gendered context of the specific behaviour of male and female offenders in the selected offences, on the effects of a patriarchal system of justice, and on the needs of the State to make political decisions about the disposal of offenders.

Depuis la fin des années 1990, la question de la récidive criminelle est présente dans le débat public. Des lois pénales visant à endiguer ce phénomène judiciaire sont promulguées. À partir de 2002, elles deviennent significativement répressives et leur production s’accélère. Cette politique pénale engendre une contestation forte dans les milieux judiciaires,universitaires et intellectuels ainsi que dans les partis politiques de l'opposition et chez certaines personnalités politiques de la majorité en désaccord avec le gouvernement. La politique, les lois et les débats ou réactions qu'elles engendrent dans la société se passent aujourd'hui difficilement de leur pendant médiatique. Nous interrogeons donc certains médias pour comprendre le sens qu'ils confèrent à l'activité législative des gouvernements à l'encontre de la récidive criminelle et aux réactions qu'elle provoque. Ainsi, la thèse montre en quoi les médias du corpus présentent la question de la récidive criminelle et de sa prise en charge comme un double cycle. L'un va du fait divers criminel – en récidive - à la loi pénale. L'autre va de l'activité politique à propos de la récidive à sa contestation. Elle explique également en quoi le processus de médiatisation, impliquant l’interaction de divers acteurs, favorise cette répétition. Derrière cette hypothèse à deux versants, se posent d'un côté la question du sens contenu dans les productions journalistiques et ce qu'il révèle de l'évolution de notre justice pénale et de l’autre celle de la construction de ce sens. La thèse propose donc d'observer la « scène médiatique » constituée par le corpus puis d’explorer les mécanismes de sa co-construction par les journalistes et les acteurs aux prises avec la question de la récidive criminelle. / Recidivism has been debated as a public issue since the end of the 1990's. Criminal laws are enacted in order to contain this phenomenon. As of 2002 they start growing significantly repressive and ever more numerous. This criminal policy leads to major protestation among the legal, academic and intellectual worlds, as in the political opposition parties or among political figures disagreeing with the government though in the majority. Policies, laws and the debate or reactions they generate in the society hardly go without their mediatic side. Hence, we shall analyse some media to understand the meaning they give to the governments’ legislative activity against criminal recidivism and what meaning these media give to the reactions this activity creates.This dissertation shows by which means the media of our corpus set both the issue of criminal recidivism and the way it is taken care of as a double-cycle. One cycle goes from a criminal re-offense in the back page news to a criminal law. The other goes from the policy about recidivism to its contesting. It also explains where in media exposure – along which several players are involved - proceeds with this recurrence. This two-sided hypothesis points out two questions. First of all what is the meaning within this journalistic content and what does it tell about the evolution of our criminal justice ? Then, how is this meaning made? Thus, this dissertation shall first observe the « media scene » delimited by the corpus, and then examine the mechanism of its co-production by journalists and the different players coping with criminal recidivism.