Search results

The objective of this study was to systematically review and statistically synthesize all available research that, at a minimum, compared participants in a restorative justice program to participants processed in a more traditional way using meta-analytic methods. Ideally, these studies would include research designs with random assignment to condition groups, as this provides the most credible evidence of program effectiveness.

The systematic search identified 99 publications, both published and unpublished, reporting on the results of 84 evaluations nested within 60 unique research projects or studies. Results were extracted from these studies, related to delinquency, non-delinquency, and victim outcomes for the youth and victims participating in these programs.

These data are part of NACJD's Fast Track Release and are distributed as they were received from the data depositor. The files have been zipped by NACJD for release, but not checked or processed except for the removal of direct identifiers. Users should refer to the accompanying readme file for a brief description of the files available with this collection and consult the investigator(s) if further information is needed.

The main aim of this research is to study the criminal mobility of ethnic-based organized crime groups. The project examines whether organized crime groups are able to move abroad easily and to reproduce their territorial control in a foreign country, or whether these groups, and/or individual members, start a life of crime only after their arrival in the new territories, potentially as a result of social exclusion, economic strain, culture conflict and labeling. More specifically, the aim is to examine the criminal mobility of ethnic Albanian organized crime groups involved in a range of criminal markets and operating in and around New York City, area and to study the relevance of the importation/alien conspiracy model versus the deprivation model of organized crime in relation to Albanian organized crime. There are several analytical dimensions in this study: (1) reasons for going abroad; (2) the nature of the presence abroad; (3) level of support from ethnic constituencies in the new territories; (4) importance of cultural codes; (5) organizational structure; (6) selection of criminal activities; (7) economic incentives and political infiltration. This study utilizes a mixed-methods approach with a sequential exploratory design, in which qualitative data and documents are collected and analyzed first, followed by quantitative data. Demographic variables in this collection include age, gender, birth place, immigration status, nationality, ethnicity, education, religion, and employment status.

Two main data sources were employed: (1) court documents, including indictments and court transcripts related to select organized crime cases (84 court documents on 29 groups, 254 offenders); (2) in-depth, face-to-face interviews with 9 ethnic Albanian offenders currently serving prison sentences in U.S. Federal Prisons for organized crime related activities, and with 79 adult ethnic Albanian immigrants in New York, including common people, undocumented migrants, offenders, and people with good knowledge of Albanian organized crime modus operandi. Sampling for these data were conducted in five phases, the first of which involved researchers examining court documents and identifying members of 29 major ethnic Albanian organized crime groups operating in the New York area between 1975 and 2013 who were or had served sentences in the U.S. Federal Prisons for organized crime related activities. In phase two researchers conducted eight in-depth interviews with law enforcement experts working in New York or New Jersey. Phase three involved interviews with members of the Albanian diaspora and filed observations from an ethnographic study. Researchers utilized snowball and respondent driven (RDS) recruitment methods to create the sample for the diaspora dataset. The self-reported criteria for recruitment to participate in the diaspora interviews were: (1) age 18 or over; (2) of ethnic Albanian origin (foreign-born or 1st/2nd generation); and (3) living in NYC area for at least 1 year. They also visited neighborhoods identified as high concentrations of ethnic Albanian individuals and conducted an ethnographic study to locate the target population. In phase four, data for the cultural advisors able to help with the project data was collected. In the fifth and final phase, researchers gathered data for the second wave of the diaspora data, and conducted interviews with offenders with ethnic Albanian immigrants with knowledge of the organized crime situation in New York City area. Researchers also approached about twenty organized crime figures currently serving a prison sentence, and were able to conduct 9 in-depth interviews.

This study explored the life-course experiences of criminally involved veterans. The topics of maladaptive behavior patterns, criminal conduct, diverging demographic and social statuses, impacts of mental illness, social support, substance use, propensity for criminal involvement before entering the military, and combat exposure, of the veterans were explored. The project aimed to uncover common links to problematic life-course outcomes thematically shared across cohorts of criminally involved veterans and/or differences between cohorts of veterans resulting in unique needs across the life-course.

This study included three aims of analysis:

1. To explore the life-course experiences of veterans who are in the criminal justice system by assessing the perspectives of this particularly important group - those under the control of the criminal justice system, but also navigating their problems while living in the community.
2. To document the ecological momentary day-to-day experience of these individuals, in order to better understand how experience shapes normative daily behavior, mood fluctuation, self-esteem, and psychological well-being.
3. To explore the relationships of these individuals tapping into the perspectives of family/social networks members who are closest to the criminally involved veterans to better understand how deviance impacts family and social support systems - in addition to considering the complex dynamics of these relationships.

Users should note that this study included interviews, provided in qualitative transcripts. The associated qualitative data is currently not included in this release, but will be provided at a later date.

The study is comprised of interviews from 227 Hispanic males aged 45 or older living in the area of Houston, Texas to address the gaps in knowledge on the social factors and health consequences of injection heroin use among aging Mexican American males. Specifically, the study investigated how the life course transitions of incarceration and drug treatment and drug abuse and family trajectories affect both the heroin career status and health consequences of these aging Mexican American men.

The study used a cross-sectional, field-intensive outreach methodology augmented with respondent-driven sampling. Recruitment was focused in two Houston neighborhoods that are predominantly Mexican American areas with high rates of crime, poverty, and psychosocial challenges. Trained Outreach Specialists familiar with these communities identified community gatekeepers and gained their trust through continued presence in the community and ongoing dialogue about the study. These gatekeepers then helped identify individuals meeting the inclusion criteria: Mexican American men aged 45 years or older with a history of injection drug use for at least 3 years. The men were then classified into one of three groups: current injectors (current group), former injectors not in treatment (former group), or former injectors currently enrolled in methadone maintenance treatment programs (MMTP group).

The second part is a second survey asking questions about social networks the respondent participates in. Questions ask the respondent to answer on one individual in their network and answer questions about that person and their interaction with them. Questions include basic demographics, history injecting drugs and sexual contact with the person.

Since 2001, Vermont Department of Corrections (DOC) sex offender treatment providers and probation and parole officers have scored every adult male sex offender under community supervision on three measures of static (unchangeable) risk at intake (i.e., Static-99, RRASOR-Rapid Risk Assessment for Sex Offence Recidivism, and VASOR-Vermont Assessment of Sex Offender Risk) and one measure of dynamic (changeable) risk (i.e, SOTNPS) at intake and then every six months thereafter. This project conducted record reviews to verify the accuracy of the risk assessment scores and examined how scores on the Sex Offender Treatment Needs and Progress Scale (SOTNPS) and one or more of these static risk instruments can be combined into an overall model of risk assessment. An empirically derived decision-making model was created to assist correctional administrators, probation and parole officers, and treatment providers in allocating and delivering supervision and treatment services based on an individual's treatment needs and risk to sexually re-offend.

Three hypotheses were tested. First, it was expected that one or more static risk measures (Static-99R, Static-2002R and VASOR) would predict sexual recidivism with moderate accuracy in the sample. Second, a dynamic risk measure, Sex Offender Treatment Needs and Progress Scale (SOTNPS), or a subset of risk factors contained in this measure would also predict sexual recidivism with moderate accuracy and be sensitive to the changes in dynamic risk over time. Third, a combined static and dynamic risk measure would predict sexual recidivism more accurate than either measure alone.

These data are part of NACJD's Fast Track Release and are distributed as they were received from the data depositor. The files have been zipped by NACJD for release, but not checked or processed except for the removal of direct identifiers. Users should refer to the accompanying readme file for a brief description of the files available with this collection and consult the investigator(s) if further information is needed.

The purpose of this research was to examine the influence of neighborhood social disorganization on the risk of homicide victimization, with focus on how community effects changed once individual-level characteristics were considered. This research integrated concepts from social disorganization theory, a neighborhood theory of criminal behavior, with concepts from lifestyle theory and individual theory of criminal behavior, by having examined the effects of both neighborhood-level predictors of disadvantage and individual attributes which may compel that person to behave in certain ways. The data for this secondary analysis project are from the 2004-2012 National Center for Health Statistics' (NCHS) National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) linked National Death Index-Multiple Causes of Death (MDC) data, which provided individual-level data on homicide mortality. Neighborhood-level (block group) characteristics of disadvantage that existed within each respondent's place of residence from the 2005-2009 and 2008-2012 American Community Surveys were integrated using restricted geographic identifiers from the NHIS.

As a syntax-only study, data included as part of this collection includes 38 SAS Program (syntax) files that were used by the researcher in analyses of external restricted-use data. The data are not included because they are restricted archival data from the NHIS from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention combined with publicly available American Community Survey (ACS) block group level data.

The purpose of the Probation/Parole Officer Interactions with Women Offenders project was to better understand the nature of probation/parole agent interactions with substance-involved women offenders and the degree to which these interactions predict women's recidivism, rules violation, and changes in their crime-related needs. Other purposes were to examine whether (1) women's feelings of self-efficacy, anxiety, and reactance that may be elicited by the agent-offender interactions explained (i.e., mediated) the link between the nature of these interactions and women's outcomes; (2) the amount of communication about needs predicted outcomes; (3) initial levels of needs and quality of women's social networks moderated the relationship between agent-offender interactions and outcomes; (4) agents' and women's experience of their relationship were similar, and whose perspective (agent or offender) best predicted offender outcomes; and (5) particular agent attributes (e.g., years of experience, self-reported typical style of interacting with clients) predicted agents' average effectiveness across clients.

Seventy-three probation and parole agents with women-specific caseloads were sampled and recruited from 16 Michigan counties; and then 402 offenders meeting participant criteria were recruited from the caseloads. At recruitment of agents, a survey collected information about their characteristics. Two or three months later, client needs and social networks were measured in an interview with the offenders. At month 5, agent and woman reports of relationship and communication were measured, and woman reports of reactions to these were measured. A survey was used to collect agent data, and an interview was used to collect offender data. At month 8, psychosocial outcomes, treatment engagement, crime-causing needs, and official outcomes (e.g., arrest) were measured. For the 24 months from the start of supervision, official data were collected on arrests and convictions.

These data are part of NACJD's Fast Track Release and are distributed as they were received from the data depositor. The files have been zipped by NACJD for release, but not checked or processed except for the removal of direct identifiers. Users should refer to the accompanying readme file for a brief description of the files available with this collection and consult the investigator(s) if further information is needed.

Within the past fifteen years, policymakers across the country have increasingly supported criminal justice reforms designed to reduce the scope of mass incarceration in favor of less costly, more evidence-based approaches to preventing and responding to crime. One of the primary reform efforts is the Justice Reinvestment Initiative (JRI), a public-private partnership through which state governments work to diagnose the primary drivers of their state incarceration rates, reform their sentencing policies to send fewer nonviolent offenders to prison, and reinvest the saved money that used to go into prisons into alternatives to incarceration, instead.

This mixed-methods study sought to assess public opinion about the justice reinvestment paradigm of reform and to determine whether exposure to racialized and race-neutral cues affects people's willingness to allocate money into criminal justice institutions versus community-based social services in order to reduce and prevent crime.

These data are part of NACJD's Fast Track Release and are distributed as they were received from the data depositor. The files have been zipped by NACJD for release, but not checked or processed expect for the removal of direct identifiers. Users should refer to the accompanying readme file for a brief description of the files available with this collection and consult the investigator(s) is further information is needed.

This collection is composed of archived news articles and court records reporting (n=6,724) on the arrest(s) of law enforcement officers in the United States from 2005-2011. Police crimes are those crimes committed by sworn law enforcement officers given the general powers of arrest at the time the offense was committed. These crimes can occur while the officer is on or off duty and include offenses committed by state, county, municipal, tribal, or special law enforcement agencies.

Three distinct but related research questions are addressed in this collection:

1. What is the incidence and prevalence of police officers arrested across the United States?
2. How do law enforcement agencies discipline officers who are arrested?
3. To what degree do police crime arrests correlate with other forms of police misconduct?