Economic determinants of criminal behavior in young adults

Corrections

Gius, Mark. (1999). The Economics of the Criminal Behavior of Young Adults:

Estimation of an Economic Model of Crime with a Correction for Aggregate Market and Public Policy Variables. The American Journal of Economics and Sociology. October 01. Retrieved November 07, 2005 from HighBeam Research Library Web site.

Mark Gius uses a combination of individual-level and county-level data to estimate an economic model of crime for young adults. This data is similar to that used by Becker in 1968 and Trumbull in 1989, and in order to estimate a model of crime in both areas, researchers took into account the bias introduced by using aggregate-level data in conjunction with individual-level data. In order to eliminate this bias, researchers used a technique derived by Moulton in 1990.

Results from a logit regression model indicate that race, sex, and peer pressure have statistically significant effects on the probability that a young adult will commit a crime, and also suggest that police presence, as measured by county-level per capita police expenditures, does not deter young adults from committing crimes. Since Becker, there are been a plethora or work done on the economic of crime. Most of the studies attempted to ascertain the determinants of criminal behavior and/or crime rates, and use as their data aggregate measures of crime, such as county, state, or even national-level crime statistics, and aggregate measures of socioeconomic characteristics. While many of these studies have shed light on the effects of socioeconomic characteristics and institutional factors on criminal activities, there has been some criticism of the use of aggregate data to model criminal behavior, a behavior that is an individual choice about lifestyle and income-generating opportunities. Moreover, these studies do not capture all criminal activity; their data only capture reported criminal activity.

Analysis

If a legitimate activity for an individual has a greater return than all other activities, then that individual takes advantage of that opportunity. On the other hand, if an illegal activity promises the greatest return, then that individual commits the criminal act. In order to account for the returns from legitimate opportunities, the following variables are employed: unemployment rate for respondent's labor market, unemployment; urban dummy variable, urban, coded one if individual lives in urban area and zero otherwise; and income, income. It is assumed that the higher the unemployment rate is the lower the returns from legitimate activities will be, and the more likely criminal activity will occur. Moreover, it is assumed that there are greater opportunities for legitimate activities in urban areas. Individuals with larger incomes will be less likely to commit crimes.

This study is one of the first studies using an economic model of crime that finds that individual characteristics are much more important than institutional factors in the determination of the factors that affect the criminal behavior of young adults, This study is also one of the few studies that uses individual-level data and finds that police presence has no statistically-significant deterrent effect on the criminal activities of young adults. Unlike prior studies that use former convicts as their samples, the present study uses a random sample of young adults; thus the results of the present study are much more applicable to the general population of young adults. This study is one of the first in the area of economic crime modeling that takes into account the correlated disturbances of using aggregate measures in an individual-level regression estimation.

Wyckoff, Sara. (2001). Incorporating Content on Offenders and Corrections into Social Work Curricula. Journal of Social Work Education. September 22. Retrieved November 07, 2005 from HighBeam Research Library Web site.

Summary

This article offers suggestions for incorporating content on adult offenders and corrections across diverse curriculum areas, including human behavior in the social environment, practice, research, and social welfare policy. It provides educators in the field of social work with guiding principles for work with offenders and with many concrete strategies for integrating material on this often forgotten population into already existing courses. As educators strive to present material in the classroom that is relevant to the problems pressing to society today that graduates will face in diverse practice settings, one of the areas of great social importance that is often overlooked within curricula is practice in corrections with adult offender populations. Wykcoff's article present suggestions and tools for incorporating content on adult offenders and corrections into course across the social work curriculum, including areas of human behavior in the social environment, practice, research and policy courses. Wykcoff gives an overview of the historical and present day involvement of social workers in corrections to provide a context for this discussion. The author also gives an exploration of the overlap between offender populations and the individuals and families with whom the workers will come into contact in other settings in order to make clear the need for greater attention to offenders. Wyckoff also offers a rationale for utilizing an integrative curricular approach using key principles to guide social work involvement with offenders, as well as specific suggestions for content integration in major curriculum areas. These suggestions offer assistance to social work educators in their efforts to prepare students to address the complex needs of offenders and their families and to successfully interact with correctional systems on behalf of clients.

Analysis

Wyckoff offers key principles in an effort to guide the incorporation of material on adult offenders and corrections and be made explicit to students when discussing work with offenders. The topics covered in these principles include: Mental Health, Administration, Health Care,

Substance Abuse, Additional Teaching Tools, Child Welfare, Research,

Social Welfare Policy, Applying Theoretical Perspectives, Utilizing Macro Interventions, Engaging Offender-Clients, Social Work Practice, Diversity,

Human Development, and Human Behavior in the Social Environment. Incorporating the content on adult offenders and corrections into graduate social work curricula is warranted due to the pressing social problems related to this area of social welfare, the rapidly growing number of individuals under correctional supervision, and the social work profession's diminished influence in this area in the past decades. Professionals in the social work field are increasingly likely to come into contact with offenders or their family members, even outside of traditional correctional settings. Thus, students who have been introduced to the complexity of corrections and the needs of offenders will be much better prepared to work effectively with offenders and to interact with organizational systems on their behalf. Wyckoff has offered many concrete suggestions concerning the strategies for including content on offenders and corrections within HBSE, practice, research, and policy courses. Thus, the intent is that greater attention to this content in social work curricula will increase student awareness of offender populations and encourage interest in and greater readiness for this avenue of social welfare.

O'Meara-Wyman, Kathy. (2000). Privatizing and Regionalizing Local Corrections:

Some Issues for Local Jurisdictions to Consider. Corrections Today. October 01. Retrieved November 07, 2005 from HighBeam Research Library Web site.

Summary

The enforcement of anti-drug laws and the consequences of drug abuse and addiction during the past twenty-five years have profoundly impacted the criminal justice system in the United States. Increasing attention has been paid by police departments and other law enforcement agencies concerning issues of drug crimes, as legislatures have passed more and more punitive laws against the use and sale of illegal drugs. All the while access to treatment has been limited for those sub-populations of drug users who are most likely to be targeted by the criminal justice system for drug related offences. All of this has led to an increase in the numbers of drug offenders and resulted in flooded jails and prisons, and a mushrooming of court and probation caseloads. During the last twenty-five years, urban police departments have expanded their anti-drug enforcement activities and most states have legislated stiffer penalties for drug law violations.

Between 1980 and 1998, the number of arrests nationwide increased by 40%, from 10,441,000 to 14,528,300, and the largest increases have been for violation of laws prohibiting drug sales, distribution, and possession, up 168% during this time period. Between 1980 and 1998, arrests for drug law violations grew at four times the rate of increase for violent felonies, and the inmate population increased by 299%.

Overall, 79% of arrestees are drug-involved, meaning they tested positive for an illegal drug, had used illegal drugs recently, had histories of drug dependence or treatment, or were in need of treatment at the time of their arrest. In 1997, 83% of state prison inmates were substance-involved.

Analysis

Drug use is the norm among those arrested and held for arraignment. Among samples of adults arrested in Manhattan during 1998, 77% of males tested positive for any illegal drug, as did 82% of females.

Despite abundant research demonstrating that drug treatment can significantly reduce drug use and related criminal activity, access to treatment appears to be quite limited for criminal offenders relative to their need. The initial entry of a drug user into the criminal justice system is primarily controlled by a police or other law enforcement officer. Using individual discretion or official guidelines, an officer could advise or order a suspect to enter a drug treatment program, perhaps even transporting the offender to a program.

An alternative is diversion to treatment following arrest and prosecutorial review, but before charges are formally filed with the court. If the offender does well in treatment, then no charges are filed and the case is dropped. This early intervention affords potential cost savings to the criminal justice system, benefits the defendant, and allows some time for further review of the arrest circumstances and the defendant's background

At several pretrial stages there is an opportunity to provide special processing for drug offenders. Despite some individual successes, most previous efforts to engage offenders in treatment failed to serve large numbers of drug-involved offenders or were never fully implemented; comprehensive and effective treatment was rarely provided. Budgetary constraints are often cited by policy makers as limiting the expansion of treatment service for offenders. Although there are clearly many barriers to expanding access to effective treatment for substance-involved offenders, the potential payback in terms of reduced crime, incarceration, recidivism, and addiction is likely to be considerable.

Teichman, Doron. (2005). The market for criminal justice: federalism, crime control, and jurisdictional competition. Michigan Law Review. June 01. Retrieved November 07, 2005 from HighBeam Research Library Web site.

Summary

During the last few decades the United States have been engaged in an escalating war against crime, in fact between 1982 and 2001, the resources dedicated by American taxpayers to the justice system have more than quadrupled. Discounting for inflation, this number reflects a 165% real increase in spending, as well as an increase in the percentage of the American Gross Domestic Product dedicated to the justice system, while at the same time, criminal sanctions in the United States have also been on the rise. The incarceration rate has more than tripled, from 139 per 100,000 residents in 1980 to a staggering 476 per 100,000 residents in 2002, a rate increase that is in sharp contrast to other Western countries. In recent years, there has been a constant decline in the procedural safeguards granted to criminal defendants by courts in the United States, which again is in contrast to foreign countries.

Although a complex system, there is no single explanation for the phenomenon that has taken place within the American criminal justice system. Rather, it relates to American attitudes toward crime, local crime rates, and the partisan politics surrounding criminal law. This author points out how the decentralized structure of the American criminal justice system creates a dynamic process in which local communities have an incentive to increasingly harshen that system's standards. This argument builds on the insights of two parallel lines of literature that scholars have not yet combined in a complete fashion. The jurisdictional competition literature, has covered a wide array of legal fields including corporate law, environmental law, taxation, bankruptcy, trusts, and family law. The common characteristic of these studies is the treatment of the different units of a decentralized government as actors who compete among themselves to attract desirable types of activity and repel unwanted types of activity.

Analysis

For the most part, the United States has a decentralized criminal justice system. State legislatures define the majority of crimes and set out the punishments for those crimes. The first way jurisdictions may shift criminal activity to neighboring jurisdictions is by affecting the ex-ante decision about where to commit certain crimes. A second way jurisdictions can lower their crime rates is by physically removing individuals who have a higher propensity to commit future crimes. More specifically, to the extent that a community believes that past criminal activity can serve as a reliable proxy for future criminal activity, the community might wish to expel individuals with criminal records

The debate over the efficiency of jurisdictional competition is a longstanding one in the federalism literature. On one side of the debate are those who argue that competition among jurisdictions, much like other forms of competition, drives them to an efficient outcome. On the other side of the debate are commentators who point out the potential adverse effects of jurisdictional competition. They argue that in many instances jurisdictions face a collective-action problem that can be modeled as a noncooperative game such as the prisoner's dilemma.

Note that the two theories of jurisdictional competition are not mutually exclusive. In any given concrete context jurisdictions might be engaged in both beneficial competition driven by surplus-generating innovations, and undesirable competition driven by the ability to impose negative externalities on neighboring jurisdictions.

Marable, Manning. (2003). Toward a new civic leadership: the Africana Criminal

Justice Project. June 22. Social Justice. Retrieved November 07, 2005 from HighBeam Research Library Web site.

Summary

The extraordinary growth and carceral thrust of United States criminal justice policy and procedure during the past twenty-five years has led many observers to label this a "prison nation." The author notes that there is not a more fitting description for how the prison in particular, and criminal justice system in general, have emerged as dominant fixtures on our cultural, economic, and political landscape. Leaders offer mass criminalization and incarceration as simply surrogate responses to persistent poverty and unemployment, drug abuse, violence, mental health problems, failing public schools, and other dilemmas. According to this author, the ascendance of a fundamentally inhumane, fiscally absurd, and socially dysfunctional criminal justice apparatus signals the failure of societal leadership.

The author discusses how mass criminalization and incarceration have affected African-American individuals, families, and communities, particularly with respect to civic capacity and participation. The author discusses an overview of the Africana Criminal Justice Project, which is a research, education, and organizing initiative intended to help identify and eradicate dimensions of racialized social and political exclusion that are generated, reproduced, and intensified by past and present U.S. criminal justice policy. The Africana Criminal Justice Project seeks to reframe academic and policy debates on issues of race and criminal justice, and mobilize initiatives to address the crisis of racialized mass incarceration. Critical research and education initiatives within Africana Studies can contribute to this effort, but especially important will be organizing civic leadership among former prisoners themselves, and within communities facing the staggering collateral consequences of the over-development of the prison.

Analysis

Researchers have documented that more than two million adults incarcerated in 2003 in the United States, a result of over two decades of continually increasing rates and terms of incarceration. In 1972, 93 of every 100,000 adults in this country were incarcerated, and by 1998, the rate had more than quadrupled to 452 per 100,000, with many prisoners facing longer mandatory sentences. In order to house this inmate population, there are now over 1,000 state and federal prisons, an average of more than 20 facilities per state, many of these are new facilities. Nationally, approximately 700 new prisons have been built in the past 20 years alone. The U.S. prison and jail population is disproportionately comprised of young, poorly educated, under- and unemployed people of color, in fact nearly two-thirds of all state prisoners in 1991 had less than a high school education, and one-third of all prisoners were unemployed at the time of their arrest, and approximately one-half of all prisoners are African-American. The rate of incarceration among African-Americans was so high in 1989 that it surpassed even that of blacks living under the apartheid regime of South Africa. The author is concerned with the forms of civic alienation and exclusion deriving from the system, including housing, education, employment, and governance. As of 1999, approximately 13% of all black male adults were disqualified from voting due to criminal convictions. It is the author's hope to help dismantle the barriers of structural racism presently enforced by mass criminalization and incarceration, and that ultimately undermine the possibility of a truly open and democratic society.

Roberts, Dorothy E. (2004). The social and moral cost of mass incarceration in African-American communities. Stanford Law Review. April 01. Retrieved November 07, 2005 from HighBeam Research Library Web site.

Summary

The author notes that changes in crime control and sentencing policies has led to an unprecedented buildup of the United States prison population over the last thirty years, and at the end of 2002, the number of inmates in jails and prisons in the United States exceeded two million, an imprisonment rate five times as high as in 1972 and one that surpasses that of all other nations. The sheer scale and acceleration of U.S. prison growth has no parallel in western societies. David Garland states, "This is an unprecedented event in the history of the U.S.A. and, more generally, in the history of liberal democracy." Another historic record, is that most of the people sentenced to prison are black. In fact, on any given day, nearly one-third of black men in their twenties are under the supervision of the criminal justice system, either behind bars, on probation, or on parole. African-Americans experience a uniquely astronomical rate of imprisonment, and the social effects of imprisonment are concentrated in their communities. Thus, the transformation of prison policy at the turn of the twenty-first century is most accurately characterized as the mass incarceration of African-Americans.

Social scientists are increasingly applying empirical methods to understand the impact of crime control policies and to supply data to judges, legislators, and policymakers. The distinctive features of African-American mass incarceration have generated a new research agenda that reframes the typical questions asked about the racial disparity in imprisonment and that better measures the costs and benefits of prison policy. The author notes that new research also puts in striking relief the question of the morality of confining so many American citizens.

Analysis

The first feature of mass incarceration is simply the sheer numbers of African-Americans behind bars. Of the two million inmates in U.S. jails and prisons at the end of 2002, black men outnumbered white men and Hispanic men among inmates with sentences of more than one year. The massive scale of African-American citizens behind bars is matched in its enormity by the rate of black imprisonment. In 1990 the Sentencing Project first alerted the public to this alarming dimension of incarceration, revealing that almost one in four black men in the United States between the ages of twenty and twenty-nine were under control of the criminal justice system, either in prison or jail, on probation, or on parole. The author claims that the War on Drugs is responsible for this level of black incarceration, and that the explosion of both the prison population and its racial disparity are largely attributable to aggressive street-level enforcement of the drug laws and harsh sentencing of drug offenders. The population confined under these new tough drug laws is composed predominantly of young, African-American men, although whites have a higher rate of illegal drug use, 60% of offenders imprisoned for drug charges in 1998 were African-American.

The author charges that the mounting evidence of mass imprisonment's collateral damage to African-American communities demonstrates that the system is not only morally unjustifiable, but morally repugnant. The damage to social networks, the distortion of social norms, and destruction of social citizenship, serves a repressive political function that contradicts democratic norms and is itself immoral. The author hopes that the new empirical research will underscore the urgency of wrestling with this moral question before the unbridled expansion of prisons obliterates most Americans' sense of justice.

Demleitner, Nora V. (2005). Harsh Justice: Criminal Punishment and the Widening Divide Between America and Europe.(Book Review).

Michigan Law Review. May 01. Retrieved November 07, 2005 from HighBeam Research Library Web site.

Summary

In this article, the author reviews the book Harsh Justice: Criminal Punishment and the Widening Divide Between America and Europe by James Q. Whitman. Whitman claims that traditions of status and of state authority help explain the development of punishment practices, and while social and political hierarchies have led to mild punishments in Europe, a weak state and egalitarianism have caused more degrading and harsh punishment in the United States. In France and Germany, the forms of punishment and types of treatment reserved for high-status individuals in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries have been expanded to cover all criminal offenders, compared to the low-status treatment, akin to the status of slaves, that has become the norm for all criminals in the United States. According to Whitman, even though contracts have changed human relations, they have not replaced status, and status, especially its distribution, remains crucial. In the United States, the tide has turned against high-status treatment, while in Continental Europe, "there has been a revolution in favor of social honor, in favor of generalizing high status." Whitman claims this development is due largely to the fact that the United States has never treated high-status persons as criminals.

According to Whitman, to punish a person means to treat him or her as inferior, to degrade them means that punishment has become pleasurable and status elevating. While punishment occurs in Continental Europe and the United States, only in the United States has it turned into permanent degradation, claims Whitman.

Analysis

Whitman rejects the idea that all punishment necessarily amounts to status abuse, and argues that status abuse is not a feature of punishment in Europe today. In fact, claims Whitman, reverse status abuse has occurred there which accords all offenders high-status treatment. He defines criminalization to encompass conduct, which includes high-level white collar offense, terrorism-related crimes, and some sex or morals offenses. Criminalization in the United States implies the demonization of the offense and the offender, and even mala prohibitum crimes are characterized as inherently evil to justify acting against them. Europe, on the other hand, has decriminalized or even legalized an increasing number of morals offenses, such as prostitution and drug offenses. The Dutch have liberal policies concerning cannabis and the legalization of prostitution, the Swiss have drug projects, and Germany has decriminalized prostitution.

Whitman highlights three different forms of harshness of punishment: in the law, its application, and its inflexibility. Penalty provisions threatening long prison terms for drug offenders and recidivists, including non-violent criminals, have led to an unprecedented growth in the prison population, and imprisonment itself has become noticeably harsher, often reverting to nineteenth-century practices, and new, particularly degrading penalties, such as public shaming, have been introduced. High recidivism rates and frequent parole failures make it costly for states to reincarcerate these individuals. More than one-third of all parolees return to prison, making them a substantial portion of the prison population. Thus, many states have participated in reentry programs, which are designed to help released inmates readjust to society and prevent them from violating their parole and committing further offenses

Manson, Allan. (2002). Justice Behind the Walls: Human Rights in Canadian

Prisons.(Book Review). Canadian Journal of Criminology. October 01. Retrieved November 07, 2005 from HighBeam Research Library Web site.

Summary

In this article the author review Justice Behind the Walls by Professor Michael Jackson, and believes that this is an important book because it provides an accurate portrayal of how the Canadian penitentiary system operates, and is yet another stage in the examination of imprisonment in Canada from a legal perspective. Built on some thirty years of scholarly and professional experience, Jackson's book has produced a detailed account of Canadian penitentiaries that confirms, explains, and puts a human face on the system's failure to operate in conformity within its own legal framework. Jackson's book is based on hundreds of hours over a number of years that he spent observing processes and events at Kent and Matsqui Institutions and interviews with the prisoners and staff at those prisons. Manson notes that an expanded version of this book is available on the Internet at www.justicebehindthewalls.net. Viewed as a single book, Jackson's work is constructed cleverly from a number of interwoven discrete themes that inform, modify, and illuminate each other. The first part, of special interest to lawyers, is the account of the evolution of Canadian prison law, and is a valuable contribution in an area that rarely receives attention. Jackson assimilates the central cases and statutory framework established by the Corrections and Conditional Release Act and also provides the background to the development of that 1992 statute. He provides a synopsis of the impact of general administrative law developments and the implications for prisoners of the rights encompassed by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Analysis

The major thesis of the book consists of the system's failure to comply with the applicable legal norms. While Jackson makes this argument forcefully, he does not leave the matter there but moves on to the elusive issue of possible enforcement mechanisms to ensure a degree of legal accountability that is currently lacking. He describes events and people at Kent and Matsqui in human terms, and captures the conflicts, controversies, and contradictions of the modern prison in a country that aspires to achieve high levels of respect for legal and human rights.

Jackson provides physical portraits of cells, ranges, and yards that bring to life the deprivations of prison life.

The book also provides a carefully documented account of two of the principal internal processes, discipline hearings and segregation reviews. Manson notes that on another level, the book tells the personal story of Jackson, a lawyer and academic, who has dedicated much of his working life to understanding and trying to ameliorate the situations of people who have historically suffered injustice, especially prisoners and First Nations people. His traditional concern is that people are entitled to have their rights respected and injustices should be amenable to redress, and believes that the potential remedy for prisoners is litigation. Jackson, who has been involved in prison litigation for decades, concludes that although the pace of judicial review has quickened as an avenue for the vindication of rights and the prevention of abuses, litigation still remains an exceptional strategy. When Jackson speaks of human rights he is concentrating on the rights of fair process, the right to counsel, the guarantee against unreasonable search, and the fundamental obligation to ensure that punishment does not approach cruel and unusual status. This is an important contribution to our understanding of how prisons work.

Jacobs, Michelle S. (2004). Inner Lives: Voices of African-American Women in Prison.(Book Review). Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology. March 22. Retrieved November 07, 2005 from HighBeam Research Library Web site.

Summary

In this article, Jacobs reviews Inner Lives: Voices of African-American Women in Prison by Paula C. Johnson. Until recently, professionals working on women and crime had few studies that focused specifically on women's criminality, and there was little empirical data existed to support theoretical approaches. Today, a combination of factors gives women's advocates new tools to support their arguments that crimes committed by women are different than those committed by men, and not only do men and women follow different paths into crime, but their crimes also cause different types of harm to society. The treatment needs of women who offend are different than men, and large scale incarceration of women creates another set of problems, such as the increasing the number of children who live with other relatives or who are forced into foster care. The empirical data which criminologists, sociologists, and psychologists began to collect in the late 1970's and throughout the 1980's is now available, and even the Bureau of Justice now tracks and analyzes FBI statistics on women's crime. The advent of mandatory sentencing schemes and strict punishment for drug offenses has been devastating to women, and as states implemented harsher penalties, the Federal Sentencing Guidelines eliminated gender and family responsibility as factors for consideration at the time of sentencing. This policy of eliminating gender and family responsibility, combined with heightened penalties for drug related violations, has caused the level of women's incarceration to spiral upward, and in the year 1999, 1 in 109 women were under correctional supervision.

Analysis

Jacobs claims that Johnson has written about he most invisible of these incarcerated women, the African-American women. She cites statistics from the Bureau of Justice that reveal that the number of women incarcerated in the United States increased by 75% between 1986 and 1991, and of these a disproportionate number are African-American.

In 1997, African-American women had an incarceration rate of 200 per 100,000 compared to 25 per 100,000 for non-Hispanic white women. Johnson interviewed over 300 women, their family members, service providers who interact with them, and criminal justice professionals. In this book she addresses multiple audiences, each with a different level of education and knowledge about the functioning of law. Most importantly, the book is directed towards the women whose life stories are relayed, as well as the hundreds of thousands of incarcerated women who have had remarkably similar experiences. Johnson uses the book to address lawyers, judges and legal scholars who, while well versed in the law, lag behind in their understanding of the conditions facing African-American women who are accused of committing crimes. She constructs the project such that everyone in society is forced to acknowledge the humanity of incarcerated black women.

There are two appendices to the book, the first is a self-study course on African-American Women's History, which is an extensive reading list of material about African-American women. The second appendix is an actual resource guide that includes listings of legal and social support organizations, health services, groups that provide information about issues of sexual orientation, advocacy groups for female inmates and their families, and educational and literary groups which focus on female inmates.