The promise of Mills's (1959) classic sociological imagination for criminology is revisited and assumptions about the adequacy and usefulness of fiction in terms of its analytical and explanatory potential are challenged. The criminological imagination, as a quality of mind, analytic framework and method of knowledge production, provides an ideal meta-framework with which to consider fiction. The theories of Jack Katz (1988) and the symbolic interactionists further develop Mills's concept of biography, while the Birmingham School (Clarke, Hall, Jefferson, & Roberts, 2006) expands on Mills's concept of society; integrating these within the meta-framework of the criminological imagination produces a reflexive analysis of Native Son, a classic novel by Richard Wright (2005). In so doing, fiction is demonstrated to be a legitimate object of criminological inquiry that challenges criminological conventions, clarifies and critiques criminological concepts, and creates and communicates criminological knowledge.

There is no other organization quite like the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and its precursor, the North-West Mounted Police (NWMP). Created in 1873 to establish a lawful government presence in the newly acquired territories of the North-West, the organization grew from 300 to 1000 men between the years of 1883 and 1887. Facing such important challenges as the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway and the 1885 Northwest Campaign, the historiography has found that the organization had succeeded in enforcing the law, lending credence to the romantic myth of the mounted police. This research seeks to understand who joined the mounted police, and how their time in the force influenced the organization. This quantitative study looks at the birthplace, provincial provenance, religion, age, and time spent in the force to understand the enlisted men and commissioned officers who became "Mounties". Recruiters sought out English-speaking farmers from Ontario, but men from all walks of life, including medical professionals, labourers, and even a circus clown, joined the organization. The constables and non-commissioned officers were primarily unskilled workers. In the end, the majority of these men served less than a single service term, making their time in the force more like temporary employment than a career. While political patronage influenced the appointment of commissioned officers, efforts were made to ensure a representation of men from all Canadian provinces and territories. Most officers had previous military experience and enjoyed many more benefits than the enlisted men, including a pension system, which helped explain why almost 80 percent made a career of the mounted police. This study, based on an exhaustive review of over 1200 personnel files, will reshape our understanding of who these Mounties were and contribute to the history of law enforcement in western Canada.

This study represents the first attempt to evaluate the predictive validity of the Level of Service Inventory-Ontario Revision (LSI-OR; Andrews, Bonta, & Wormith, 1995) on young offenders. The LSI-OR is a risk/need assessment measure designed to assess risk of recidivism and other offender problems, and to classify offenders for supervision and treatment (Andrews & Bonta, 1998). Although the scale has been used with young offenders, it has not yet been adequately validated with this population. The sample consisted of 154 16- to 18-year old, Caucasian, male, young offenders from Northern Ontario, who had been sentenced to custody or community (probation) terms. Following a 3.8-year follow-up period, 50.6% of the sample had been reconvicted, with 20.1% for a violent offence. Recidivists scored significantly higher than nonrecidivists on the LSI-OR total score and on six of the eight risk and need subscales. Correlations between the LSI-OR total score and general and violent recidivism were .46 and .31, respectively. ROC analyses indicated significant effects for LSI-OR total and combined scales with general offending (AUCs of .77 to .80) and with violent offending (AUCs of .72 to .74). Controlling for location (custody-community), hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed the LSI-OR's incremental predictive validity for general, violent, and nonviolent recidivism. The General Risk/Need and Responsivity Sections made unique contributions to the final model of binary nonviolent recidivism. General Risk/Need contributed to the prediction of binary violent recidivism. Among the General Risk/Need subsections, Criminal history and Leisure/recreation as well as Criminal history and Education/employment uniquely contributed to the model of nonviolent and violent charges, respectively. The results support the use of the LSI-OR instrument with 'older' young offenders, especially those in the community, but should be cross validated on another (larger) sample of 16- to 18-year old offenders. Future research exploring the role of young offenders' responsivity concerns, in particular their motivational problems and use of denial/minimization, is suggested because these items also discriminated between recidivists and nonrecidivists in the current study.

This study examined estimates and predictors of recidivism of 587 convicted male sex offenders who had been assessed at the Sexual Behaviors Clinic (SBC) and who were followed over a 20 year period. Subjects were grouped into three broad categories based on the index offense: (1) 85 offenders against female adults (rapists); (2) 206 extrafamilial child molesters (CM); and (3) 295 incest offenders. Demographic information, historical variables, characteristics of the index offence, and clinical information were collected from medical records. Offense data were collected from Canadian Police Information Center (CPIC) records. The percentage of rapists, CM, and incest offenders who re-offended sexually over the 20 year period was 24.4, 22.8, and 9.8, respectively. The percentage of rapist, CM, and incest offenders that recidivated violently was 37.2, 34.0, and, 20.0, respectively. The percentage of rapists, CM, and incest offenders that committed any new offense was 56.4, and 46.1, 27.5, respectively. The CM group appeared to take the longest to re-offend sexually and violently, and seemed to be at greatest risk to reoffend 10 to 15 years following release. Offenders who committed a new sexual offence, new violent offence, or any new offence were differentiated by means of univariate analyses. Age of offender, historical criminal factors (e.g., age at first offense, history of prior offenses), and scores on the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised repeatedly differentiated between recidivists and non-recidivists. Stepwise logistic regression analysis assessed which factors were useful in predicting sexual recidivism and violent recidivism. Sexual recidivism among rapists was best predicted by never being married at time of assessment and the presence of historical charges, whereas violent recidivism was best predicted by marital status, childhood history, historical criminal charges, and psychopathy. Sexual recidivism among CM was predicted by the number of years of education, high level of force during the initial offence, arousal to deviant and violent activities with children, historical offences, and psychopathy. Violent recidivism was predicted by the age of the offender at the time of assessment, years of education, historical offences, and psychopathy. Sexual recidivism among the incest group was predicted by the offender's age, an index of his alcohol use during his index offence, and the degree of psychopathy. Violent recidivism was predicted by the combination of the offender's age, family history of alcoholism, alcohol use at time of index offence, age when criminal history began, general alcohol use, and psychopathy. Implications of findings and suggestions for future directions of sex offender research are presented.

The self-regulation model is an offence process model designed specifically for sexual offenders. It was developed as a result of theoretical and practical problems with the traditional relapse prevention approach to sexual offender treatment and from empirical evidence identifying variability in the offence chain among sexual offenders. The self-regulation model is a nine-phase process with four distinct pathways to sexual offending that represent the combination of offence-related goals (approach versus avoidance) and self-regulatory strategies selected to achieve the goal (passive/automatic versus active/explicit). In the present study, I evaluated the validity and utility of the self-regulation model in a sample of275 adult male sexual offenders treated within the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC). First, the concurrent validity of the study variables utilized as part of the overall assessment battery was examined in order to elucidate the relationships among the various treatment needs targeted by the CSC's sexual offender programs. Following this, differences among individuals following diverse self-regulation pathways were investigated, as was, within-treatment change following participation in CSC's sexual offender programs. Results showed that self-regulation pathway was differentially associated with risk to re-offend and several treatment needs. Finally, in terms of post-treatment change, moderate to large sized improvements were noted for dynamic risk assessment measures as well as several self-reported treatment targets. These changes were, in some cases, differentially associated with self-regulation pathway, suggesting that offence pathway is a clinically relevant variable when evaluating treatment change and in conceptualizing sexual offender treatment. Implications of these findings for the effective assessment and rehabilitation of sexual offenders are discussed.

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