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Higher Education is experiencing a new challenge. Academic institutions are attempting to maintain scholarly standards and quality education while programs are being curtailed, government funding is being cut, the number of students is increasing and the number of full-time faculty members is decreasing. The structure of education itself is being "put to the test". In response to such strains, Metropolitan College of New York (MCNY) has begun the process of rethinking education, its core, its purpose and the populations that have access to it. Therefore, MCNY has met the new challenges by developing an inventive undergraduate liberal arts program model that emanates from a student-centered approach to teaching and learning and focuses on social justice. The curriculum aims to address our students' most critical learning needs in order to improve their levels of accomplishment, prepare them for successful careers, stimulate their ability to contribute to and improve the world, and prepare them for life-long learning. In this paper, reader's will be introduced to MCNY's liberal arts core curriculum model, an abilities driven, information literate, interdisciplinary approach that integrates specific disciplinary knowledge and skill areas into each course's design; while maintaining a student-centered approach. How the curriculum represents a student-centered approach toward social justice will be a focus of the paper. More than any other knowledge and skill area, the experience of MCNY undergraduates indicates a clear need to master mainstream Western literacies. These competencies improve student learning abilities, contribute to better learning outcomes, expand career goals and give students, who have been marginalized within society, by the necessary tools to both make their living, and use words to improve the world and promote social justice. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This proposal addresses two questions fundamental to understanding public opinion and drug sentencing in New York State. First, are drug sentences consistent for African-American, Latinos and Whites in New York State? Secondly, are drug sentences in New York State just forms of punishments for non-violent offenders? This study would seek the general public's perception of New York State's Rockefeller Drug Laws and its connection to the prison industrial complex? The researcher would seek to evaluate the former and if the growth of prisons is good public policy by interviewing/contacting a random sample of 1000 adults aged 18 and older by either phone, face to face interview or self-reported questionnaires. The respondents would be given various scenarios from nonviolent (drug use) to violent crime (rape, murder) and would be asked to choose from different forms of punishment. The former would allow the researcher to evaluate perception of just punishment for nonviolent drug crimes. Previous studies suggest that the public believes that mandatory minimums, which fuel the prison industrial complex, for nonviolent drug crimes are a bit harsh, although there are some who may contend that the laws are just. According to the majority of the public, the nation's drug sentencing policy is seen as an ineffective policy enacted for less than noble reasons, yet harsh policy continues despite the fact that public opinion and policy should correspond. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we will examine changes in underground economic activity since the mid-1990s among low-income African-American drug users in New York City. Published research suggests that the current generation of young adults in New York tends to avoid hard drugs such as crack and heroin and to favor marijuana and alcohol instead. The decline in hard drug use has also been linked to the reduction in crime in New York. We will analyze interview data from two ethnographic studies, one conducted between the mid-1990s and 2002, the other between 2003 and 2006. Preliminary analysis indicates that respondents in the later study tend to be younger and less likely to use crack. They are also less likely to rely on public assistance as a primary source of income. However, they appear to be equally involved in underground economic activity, although they are less likely to be involved in sex-related hustles than were respondents in the earlier study. In this paper we will examine these differences and investigate the extent to which they are related to declining crack use, changes in social welfare policy and increased law enforcement. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Operation Spotlight, a New York City criminal justice initiative, was announced in June 2002. This program is designed to target active recidivist misdemeanor offenders who have appeared multiple times in the Citys Criminal Court system within a year of a current misdemeanor arrest. Operation Spotlight provides all court participants with pre-arraignment notification that an arrestee fits the targeting criteria, with the goal of changing court practices to ones more responsive to both the offense and patterns of offending of this population. This paper reports on a study of the programs court impact during its first year of operation. It provides an overview of the volume, offense and offender characteristics, and Criminal Court processing and outcomes, in the cases of defendants identified in the first full year of the programs operation. The paper then analyzes changes in Criminal Court decision making brought about by Operation Spotlight, comparing a dataset of cases used during the program-planning process with those in the programs first year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Upon release from New York State prison systems, African-American and Latino HIV/AIDS-infected male parolees insisted that they would do anything to avoid another incarceration. For these men, re-incarceration was regarded as certain death from AIDS-related critical illnesses. Most parolees were highly motivated to simultaneously overcome the common challenges of re-entry as well as the dilemmas and challenges related to managing the virus in order to prolong their lives. In response to these difficulties, most HIV/AIDS-infected parolees included in my study participated in two re-entry, drug and HIV/AIDS community-based treatment organizations. Both organizations were mandated to address the following multiple problems parolees were likely to encounter: re-entry problems, substance abuse and crime, employment, housing, management of the virus in order to survive. In my paper,I examined how HIV/AIDS-infected parolees perceived the extent to which these community-based treatment programs had an important bearing on their post-prison performance and achieving the status as long-time HIV/AIDS-infected survivors. Since this paper concerns parolees' subjective perceptions and assessments of their experiences, in depth unstructured interviews were administered to: HIV/AIDS-infected African-American and Latino parolees who had been clients of the Living Well Program located in Bronx, New York and the Altamont Program based in Albany, New York. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theoretical models that view police agencies as rational bureaucratic actors suggest that neighborhood crime levels will be associated with police activities, such as the level of order-maintenance policing. However, urban police departments exist in a diverse social, institutional and political environment that place competing demands on the agency, with various levels of influence. For example, neighborhoods have different preferences around crime control strategies as well as different levels of influence over public police agencies. As theories of political or democratic control propose, these factors likely shape the way police agencies distribute activities and outputs. Using longitudinal data on New York City police precincts, this paper examines the extent to which neighborhood political preferences around crime control and levels of participation influence the use of order-maintenance policing net other possible explanations. Analyses reveal that while crime is an important predictor of the level of order-maintenance policing, political variables also impact police agencies in complex ways. The paper concludes by discussing the implications for understanding police agency behavior, as well as how the findings inform the field's view of the two major historical police reforms: "professionalism" and "community policing." ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper is part of a larger study that will use both individual level and community level data to understand the features of area composition that influence IPV. For this paper, data from the New York City (NYC) Mayor's Office to Combat Domestic Violence website were geo-coded on electronic maps using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software to examine spatial clustering of IPV in police precincts. This research is essentially a replication in New York City of the research of Miles Doan (1998) conducted in Duval County, Florida. Miles Doan (1998) research used police reported domestic violence data and their thematic maps revealed that census tracts with rates above the 75th percentile of assaultive violence between intimates are clustered in certain parts of the city. They also found that the median rate of IPV was about nine times higher in concentrated poverty census tracts compared to other census tracts. The present paper examines the results for NYC and similar to Miles-Doan research finds that police precincts with IPV rates above 75th percentile are clustered in certain parts of the city. The results also indicate that the median rate of IPV in NYC is about three times higher in concentrated poverty tracts. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As jurisdictions move away from treating juvenile delinquents and status offenders similarly in a legal context some, including New York City, are grappling with the fact that many of the interventions that have been developed for status offenders may also be appropriate for juvenile delinquents. Furthermore, there is anecdotal evidence that these populations may overlap considerably. To better understand the relationships between these populations, this paper attempts to measure the extent of the overlap between the delinquency and status offender populations in New York City, and determine whether different outcomes occur for juvenile delinquents with status offender history. By merging administrative data sets from child welfare, probation, and court agencies, we develop a sample of status offenders and juvenile delinquents petitioned to the New York City Family Court in 2004. Using data ranging from 1999 to 2006, we are then able to track these populations to look at their involvement in various systems before and after the 2004 petition event. From these data, this paper provides estimates of co-occurring intakes into these agencies and family court appearances, and identifies how different trajectories into the status offender and delinquency system impact dispositional outcomes. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An important aspect of postindustrial cities has been the development of large nighttime economies as downtown regeneration strategies. With this has come a shift in how urban nighttime spaces are regulated. This paper uses the case of the Lower East Side of Manhattan's nightscape to examine this shift in nightlife regulation. The nightscape first developed through a deregulation of liquor licensing that permitted a dense concentration of bars resulting in economic growth for as well as negative quality of life conditions within the area such as noise and litter. Rather than deal with these disorderly conditions as other forms of "broken-windows"-style urban regulation do, the new flexible nightlife regulation permits and effectively co-opts them as integral aspects of nightscapes and contemporary urban culture. In this paper I examine how the Lower East Side's nightscape was constructed through deregulation and how its current conditions are shaped by flexible regulation. The new nightlife regulation serves as a window for understanding the complex ways in which cities construct nightscapes and provides a new insight into the regulation of public space. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ten years after the mob's Apalachin conference in upstate New York, implementation of a new strategy for prosecuting leading racketeers was undertaken by the United States Justice Department. The 'Buffalo Project' evolved in 1966 from an organizational template innovated by Attorney General Robert Kennedy. Its success introduced creation of the Strike Force program. This paper discusses historical pathways leading to the first Strike Force unit in Buffalo, New York in January 1967. It summarizes previous initiatives to concentrate intelligence and investigatory resources, reflects upon contributions of Attorneys General Nicholas Katzenbach and Ramsey Clark and Henry Petersen (Chief of the Organized Crime and Racketeering Section (OCRS)), and discusses some of the early cases prosecuted by Buffalo Strike Force chief Robert Peloquin and his staff of attorneys and investigators. This celebratory paper is based on extensive research of the Strike Force program, soon to be published in a comprehensive history, and the experiential reflections of many attorneys, investigators, and Justice Department officials who worked in the program over its 23-year run. William S. Lynch was one of those dedicated officials, serving nearly seven years as Chief of OCRS from 1969 to 1975, directing the program through years of expansion and consolidation. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is well known that many returning prisoners will be arrested for a new crime after release from prison. This paper examines formerly incarcerated persons' forecasts of rearrest in the next three years for themselves as well as for the "average person" released from prison using a 5-point Likert scale ranging from "very unlikely to get arrested" to "very likely to get arrested." In addition, a discrepancy score (i.e., self-enhancement bias) was computed by subtracting respondents' personal forecast from the forecast for the average prisoner. A sample of approximately 225 formerly incarcerated persons engaged in some form of reintegration-related programming in New York State completed the questionnaire. The relationship between forecasts of rearrest and a variety of variables thought to be related to recidivism (e.g., age, criminal history, criminal attitudes, social bonds, etc.) will be examined using correlation analysis and OLS regression analysis. In particular, this paper will determine if the same or different variables explain forecasts of rearrest for the respondent personally, the average prisoner, as well as for the self-enhancement bias. Implications of the findings of optimistic versus pessimistic forecasts of success for rehabilitation programming and prisoner reintegration policy and practice will be discussed. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How does democratization affect the institutions and functions of criminal justice? In countries where reform of police and courts is an important aspect of democratization, what is the role of the public? How do democratizing countries regard public participation in policing, sanctioning, and crime prevention? Where are meaningful efforts to involve the public occurring, and what can we learn from them? This paper will be a preliminary report on a review of public-empowering developments in democratizing countries in Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe. It will serve to introduce the development of an international database on such efforts that will be maintained at the City University of New York (John Jay College) doctoral program in criminal justice. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The School Violence Prevention Initiative (SVPI), aiming to reduce juvenile delinquency and violence in and around schools, is currently being implemented in five middle schools in Nassau and Westchester Counties (NY). Each school chose a program for implementation appropriately designed to address its unique behavioral problems; three chose Peacemakers and two chose Second Step. The Peacemakers program, identified by the Department of Education as "promising," addresses violence-related attitudes in students and provides training in skills such as anger management, problem solving, and assertiveness. The program employs active learning and writing to instruct participants. Second Step, rated "exemplary" by the Department of Education, aims to reduce aggression by teaching empathy, impulse control, and anger management and by combating behaviors that are warning signs of violence and aggression, including bullying and threatening. Second Step ties lessons to academic learning requirements such as science and math. This paper will review the implementation process for Peacemakers and Second Step and will provide a discussion of preliminary evaluation outcomes. Evaluation measures include changes in incident levels at each school, changes in attitudes and behaviors of students as identified through participant interviews and surveys, and assessments of instructors' opinions on program outcomes and successes, also gathered through interviews and surveys. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Center for Sex Offender Management (CSOM), a project of the Office of Justice Programs, provides technical assistance to the grantees of the Bureau of Justice Assistance's Sex Offender Management grant program. Donna Reback, CSOM Consultant, serves as the technical assistance provider for both the Massachusetts and New York projects. In this presentation she will tie the other two papers together, providing a broader perspective on sex offender management. Observations, recurring themes, and emerging trends will be discussed. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Each year, an average of 400 youths between the ages of 13-17 are arrested, indicted and held in one of the New York City's Department of Juvenile Justice's (DJJ) secure facilities. Of those that are sentenced to serve time with the Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS), 76% of these youths will be rearrested within a year. DJJ works together with the OCFS to provide youth with more opportunities and safer conditions than New York's adult corrections population; yet, more than three-quarters of them are not being prepared to readjust to their communities upon release. A small percentage of youth who receive indictments in Supreme Court and Family Court are given the chance to participate in New York's various community based "alternative-to-incarceration" programs. Many judges look at these programs as a "second chance" for youth who otherwise may never recover from the stigma of a criminal record. Youths who complete these programs have an average recidivism rate as low as 18%. Alternative to Incarceration programs are far greater in reducing recidivism, preparing young men and women for productive living, and protecting the community. This paper argues that "tough on crime" approaches to juvenile justice actually reduces public safety, and more resources should be poured into community-based crime prevention and rehabilitation in order to address crime in the communities most affected. Included will be a comprehensive ethnographic exploration and determination of how these programs work after years of qualitative research in various ATI programs around New York City. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of the current Marijuana Enforcement Policy in New York City. It describes the legislation, civic norms, and etiquettes being promoted. This includes a clear delineation of the specific policies NYPD has been enforcing, with a focus upon arrests and detention for about 24 hours. The potential benefits of this enforcement policy (relatively little public marijuana smoking, compliance with civic norms) are compared with the disadvantages (ethnic disparities, focus upon low income communities, criminal record accumulation, etc.). Several specific recommendations for changes in NYPD marijuana control policy are made with a focus on reducing short-term detention, ethnic disparities, and criminal record accumulation-while also maintaining widespread user compliance with civic norms against public marijuana smoking. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will discuss the methodological limitations of using official statistics in a comparative case study of homicide in London and New York at the close of the 20th Century. The study is undertaken in an endeavour to account for the relatively high level of homicide in the USA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New York Citys Port Authority Bus Terminal was a dismal place in the late 1980s. Crime, homelessness, and drug use were rampant. The Port Authority Police Department began Operation Alternative in December 1991. Unlike other stories of New York City crime reduction, this successful program in crime prevention remains largely unknown to the outside world. This paper tells how the intractable problems of Port Authority were solved and how a Broken Windows approach to policing resulted in a quantitative reduction in crime. Qualitative data are gathered from police officers and management working at Port Authority in the late 1980s and early 1990s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under certain conditions, homicide is treated not as a deviant act, but a heroic one. Even when not committed in the course of a war or in self-defense, some killings are praised rather than punished. One category of such killings might be called heroic homicides because they involve the slaying of enemies, personal or collective. Historical examples include bounty killings, vigilante slayings, and lethal lynchings. A famous modern instance (though it is an attempted rather than an actual homicide) is the 1984 shooting by Bernhard Goetz of four young black man in a New York City subway. Yet clearly not all killings of enemies are treated as meritorious. Drawing on the theoretical perspective known as pure sociology and on a large cross-cultural study of the response to homicide in human societies, this paper addresses the conditions under which people who slay enemies will tend to be rewarded for their actions. Rather than focus on legal sanctions, the analysis concentrates on communal responses, or the trial in the court of popular opinion. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has consistently shown that racial minorities report less favorable evaluations of the police than their white counterparts. The majority of studies, however, have been conducted with African Americans. In addition, the literature on police-citizen relations in Latina/o communities has narrowly focused on Mexicana/o and Chicana/o residents and has therefore failed to recognize important ethnic/racial differences. This paper examines Puerto Rican and Dominican neighborhood residents' experiences with and perceptions of community policing efforts in New York City. Study findings highlight that respondents believe that poor or limited communication, collaboration, and outreach methods undermine positive police-community relations. Further, study participants emphasized that police administrators should develop initiatives that consider the importance of language barriers and immigration status for establishing effective partnerships in Puerto Rican and Dominican neighborhoods. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last decade, the juvenile justice system has focused increasing attention on the mental health needs of delinquent youth who come to the attention of Family Courts. New York City, like other jurisdictions, has witnessed significant efforts to address mental health issues, including the development of a juvenile reentry initiative. With collaboration among government partners, community based organizations and researchers as its foundation, this initiative was designed to provide released youth and their families with immediate case management and intensive mental health services. This paper describes the process of program planning and development and highlights the challenges that were overcome to successfully implement the community-based reentry program, paying particular attention to issues related to client engagement, judicial reticence, family and youth risk factors, and coordination among multiple systems. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New York City is known as the city that never sleeps and night clubs are the popular venues which give the city's its deserved reputation exciting social settings and hedonistic enjoyment. Unfortunately, binge and underage drinking, disorderly conduct, and violence are often part of this nightlife culture establishments which can create unwanted levels of danger and risk for patrons and security alike. Although this nightlife culture is endlessly written about in the popular media, there is limited academic research on the nightlife and in particular almost nothing on the culture of bouncers either in New York City or elsewhere in the United States. In this paper I describe and analyze the primary roles of bouncers as they enforce rules and regulations within three of the city's most popular nightclub establishments located in the Bronx and in Manhattan. Employing a cross-sectional study of 15 interviews with bouncers and ancillary staff plus participant observations over a seven month period I show how the structure relates to the night club culture and the problems and contradictions faced by the local political establishment as it tries to regulate an industry built on excess and transgression. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers themes relevant to policing and multiculturalism within London's Metropolitan Police Service and the New York Police Department. It includes an analysis of "diversity programs" within the police forces, as well as a review of completed and ongoing empirical research with street-level officers and senior officials. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines co-offending networks using arrest records of a large police precinct in New York City (2002-06). It focuses on the tie and individual-level covariates of criminal involvement. In addition to the exploration of multilevel models, this research also studies the dynamics of co-offending ties over time. Results show significant patterns of homophily (e.g., ties among individuals with the same demographic attributes) as well as relatively low specialization in the range and seriousness of offenses. Although the longitudinal analysis of these networks is challenged by its heightened instability, there is some indication of significant structural patterns such as the transitivity of co-offending ties. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of social networks has emerged as a central narrative in the literature on crime and the organization of urban communities. However, only a small number of studies in this area of inquiry have measured actual social exchanges among individuals. Further, very few works have examined the properties of personal networks using a multi-level approach accounting for tie covariates, individual-level predictors and contextual variables. This paper contributes to the literature on neighborhood effects and networks by developing multi-level models of social exchanges based on the analysis of survey data collected in the South Bronx. Specifically, it shows that structural properties of personal networks are significantly associated with contextual characteristics—both in terms of neighborhoods and also in terms of dyadic interactions. More importantly, this research also shows the important network effects of criminal offending, victimization, and incarceration. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Project Greenlight was an intensive, short-term, prison-based offender reentry program jointly operated by the New York State Department of Corrections, Division of Parole and Vera Institute of Justice. The program was delivered in an eight-week period before release and incorporated multiple program elements including cognitive skills programming, drug relapse prevention, housing and employment assistance, pre-release planning and providing a network of community-based support networks. Prior analyses have shown that the one-year failure rates of intervention participants were significantly worse than those of two different control groups. In this paper, I examine two separate issues. First, I extend the prior analyses to look at the two-year recidivism rates of the intervention and control groups. Second, and more importantly, given the emerging literature on how intensive interventions may be harmful for lower-risk individuals, I construct risk measures and examine variations in failure by risk. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Launched in January 2005, Bronx Community Solutions (BCS) is an initiative that seeks to apply underlying community court principles, such as a reduced reliance on short-term jail sentences for low-level offenses, throughout a busy, strained urban courthouse serving a population of over 1.3 million (the Bronx Criminal Division). The goal of the project is to provide the courts with increased sentencing options for non-violent offenses such as drug possession, prostitution, and shoplifting, and to systematically connect offenders to social services that may help them address underlying and complex social problems. By combining punishment (community service) with help (drug treatment, job training, counseling), Bronx Community Solutions seeks to increase compliance rates and decrease recidivism rates among participants. Program participants represent approximately 23% of misdemeanant arrestees in the Bronx in 2005 and 2006. A quasi-experimental design was implemented, comparing participants to similarly situated defendants processed prior to program implementation. Samples were matched on court processing, demographic and criminal history characteristics. Analyses consider: 1: How trends in sentencing, compliance, and recidivism vary in the Bronx between 2004 and 2006, and 2. whether or not, and how, compliance and/or recidivism rates differ between BCS and non-BCS misdemeanant offenders during this time period. Finally, the paper concludes with a discussion of substantive and applied implications of the findings. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

General Strain Theory (GST) explores negative relationships one is involved in and the responses they produce (Agnew, 1992). GST assumes that negative affect from these relationships results in pressure for negative behavior, and thus can result in delinquent acts, including crime and violence. By applying the theory to a qualitative dataset of over 400 young, violent men from the New York City Youth Violence Study (NYCYVS) (as previously described by Wilkinson, 2003), this paper will look at how individuals' reported strain and ways of adapting to strain are related to respective involvement in violent events. The life history interviews of urban minority crime-involved youth revealed multiple sources of strain across multiple life and relationship domains. Preliminary analyses have shown emotionally-adaptive adolescents to be less violent than behaviorally-adaptive adolescents. Also noted is the lack of cognitive adaptation to strain among violent youth. While all adolescents from the initial subsample had experienced what Agnew and most others would agree to be strain, the interviewees did not seem especially distressed by their pasts as a whole. Continued analyses of these data will provide a nuanced picture of the storylines of violent male youth. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For more than 20 years, the relationship between disorder and crime has been the focus of a contentious debate in criminology and policing. Wilson and Kelling's "Broken Windows" essay emphasized the importance of policing "the little things" in the prevention of serious crime, motivating many cities to integrate an order-maintenance component into their community policing startegies. However, critics question the suggested causal links between disorder and crime, citing difficulties in the measurement of disorder, and in modeling the suggested "developmental sequence" that the theory asserts.In this paper I study the "Broken Windows" hypothesis, focusing on conditions in New York City throughout the 1990s. Combining data on neighborhood disorder from the New York City Housing and Vacancy Survey (HVS) with police measures of violence, I use a series of ordinary least squares, fixed effects, and change models to assess the link between physical neighborhood disorder and crime in subsequent years. I also perform an Instrumental Variables analysis leveraging a citywide renovation initiative of the late 1980s and 1990s, to determine whether the randomly scheduled renovations lead to a reduction in disorder, and whether this reduction can causally be linked to violent crime. I find that while disorderly neighborhoods tend to also be high in crime (evidenced by strong cross-sectional associations) this relationship can be explained by citywide trends in crime and disorder, and unobserved, time-invariant properties of neighborhoods. This suggests that addressing conditions of disorder, without other efforts to improve neighborhoods, are unlikely to significantly reduce crime. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data on gun use among adolescents in violent events is generally lacking. This is especially disconcerting among urban minority youth where at least half of such adolescents report they and their peers own guns (Huff, 1998; Slovak, 2002). Data for this project come from the New York City Youth Violence Study (NYCYVS). Interviews were conducted with 417 active violent male offenders from two disadvantaged New York City neighborhoods in the mid 1990s (see Wilkinson and Fagan, 1996, 2001; Wilkinson, 2003). This paper focuses on the peer section of the interview. Focal respondents were asked to report about nature, duration, and quality of their friendships and group associations, peers involvement in gun carrying, gun use in interpersonal disputes, gun use in crime, involvement in drug selling, involvement in others types of crime, and their involvement in prosocial activities such as work and education. Using this data we consider reports on peers'gun use and involvement in delinquency. We hypothesize that respondents who are comparatively more embedded in networks of peers who carry and use guns will also report greater involvement in serious gun violence. The analysis will focus on delineating the nuances of peer influences on specific criminal behaviors. Consistent with Wilkinson and Fagan's (2001) study of the respondents, we find that adolescents' believe having a gun is not good, yet most of their peers carry guns. As a result, the adolescents' peers are more likely to react to everyday situations using gun violence. Additional analyses will examine the nature of the respondents' relationships with their peers and provide context to our peer gun findings. We will further discuss how the results can be used to inform violence intervention policy and directions for future research. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sampson and Laub's age-graded informal social control theory has generated arash of recent attention vying to become the prominent explanation for criminalinvolvement across the life-course. It, however, has spawned a number ofcriticisms and an equivocal body of research. Many of these criticisms havecentered on whether their findings from their reanalysis of the Glueck data - adataset consisting of all white males born in the late 1920's and early1930's - can be generalized to other racial groups, females, and historicalperiods. Using latent growth curve analyses, the current project exploreswhether marriage, a factor highlighted by Sampson and Laub, is related todesistance from substance abuse among a sample of African Americans born in the 1950-1960s in Harlem, New York City. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This presentation addresses the conventional wisdom surrounding graffiti writing and the production of crime. For years criminologists have uncritically utilized the "Broken windows" theory to argue that graffiti provides a context for more serious crimes to occur. I begin by testing the links between graffiti and crime comparing the crime statistics in two different New York City neighborhoods, (Prospect Heights, Brooklyn and Soho, Manhattan) with visual sociological evidence of the actual amount of graffiti in each neighborhood. Next I show how despite the actual amount of graffiti, graffiti writing is used symbolically in the media to brand a space "bad" or "good". This presentation will show that the ubiquity of graffiti tags in Manhattan neighborhoods like Soho, (in which there were zero homicides in 2006) do not provide a context for crime but rather is actually good for business. Graffiti writers transform everyday space into "cool" space, and thus this act of criminal mischief gives consumers the impression that their forays into downtown super-hip boutiques are not only consumption experiences in which goods are purchased, but also a marker of identity. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has yet to consider adequately how policymakers perceive and use evidence of public opinion in penal policymaking. Prior work has indicated that political elites tend to misperceive public opinion on crime control, but it remains unclear just how such misperceptions are formed and what impact they have on policymaking. Using data from an interview study, this presentation will consider narratives of policymakers in New York State on how they perceive and use evidence of public opinion in crime policy reform. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The heterogeneous nature of New York City encompasses a mix of many different racial, religious, and ethnic groups with different ideals and status quos. Many New Yorkers have embraced this diversity. Yet, there remain some who wish to maintain a homogeneous community. In some cases, this desire leads to violent, hate-driven criminal acts. This study is a cross-sectional examination of the variation in racially motivated anti-White hate crime on the community district level in New York City. According to Federal Bureau of Investigation's statistics from 1995-2002, Whites are the second most targeted group for racially motivated hate crime. This study will employ a correlational research design to examine the relationship between the independent variables of economic despair, demographic change and minority hate crime with incidents of anti-White hate crime. Multivariate linear regression will be used to analyze the data. Hate crimes data was collected from the New York City Bias Crime Unit (1987-1995). Economic despair and demographic change data was obtained from the 1980 and 1990 United States Census. This study will fill a major gap in the literature by examining how factors influencing anti-White hate crime may differ from factors influencing anti- Minority hate crimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on the Hispanic race is limited due to the late recognition of Hispanics as an ethnic group. Research on Hispanic attitudes towards police shows both positive and negative feelings. The literature shows that Hispanics are willing to work with police, informal interaction and diversity amongst the police creates a positive affect. Cultural differences, police misconduct, and racial profiling negatively influence Hispanics. This research examines the attitudes of Hispanics towards law enforcement in Buffalo New York. By examining the types of contacts and relationships people have with officers; this project hopes to ascertain whether Hispanics are satisfied or dissatisfied with police and the reasons for those feelings. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2006, the New York State Unified Court System opened three pilot sex offense courts to improve the court system's response to sex offenders. The goals of these courts are to create a comprehensive approach to case resolution, increase sex offender accountability, enhance victim and community safety, and increase satisfaction among stakeholders in terms of communication, judicial case processing, and post-disposition services and monitoring. The Center for Court Innovation is conducting a process and impact evaluation of these pilot projects. This presentation will provide preliminary process evaluation results. The results will be based on a 5-year pre-sex offense court analysis of court and probation data and baseline interviews with sex offense court-related stakeholders. The 5-year pre-sex offense court analysis will examine defendant and victim characteristics, arrest information, the extent of unified judicial appearances, the use of pre-sentence investigation reports, the use of pleas, the use of sex offender-specific conditions in sentencing, case processing time, and violation and misconduct calendaring (i.e., how the courts respond to offender noncompliance). The baseline interviews will focus on assessing stakeholder perceptions and satisfaction with: communication, judicial case processing, use of sex offense-specific conditions, prevalence and response to misconduct reports and violations, victim services, victim and community safety, and the planning process for the pilot sex offense courts. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On any one day it is estimated that 200,000 people with mental health problems are held in US prisons and jails. Corrections systems are not designed to be therapeutic environments and are often poorly equipped to provide treatment for mental illness. New York is ahead of the curve in developing services for the forensic mentally ill population and is the first jurisdiction in the country to mandate discharge planning services, as part of the Brad H class action ruling. The City's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) and Department of Corrections (DOC) are collaborating to screen inmates as they enter custody, provide services to those who need medication or counseling while incarcerated and to build a bridge to services in the community upon release. Researchers at the Vera Institute of Justice are using data from DOC and DOHMH to describe psychiatric problems, criminal history, recidivism and the provision of supportive services to a cohort of jail inmates. This research aims to identify services with the best chance of reaching those who are most at risk, to help them escape the cycle of re-offending. This presentation will describe some of challenges inherent in providing these services and document successes. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New York State is now in the process of institutionalizing integrated domestic violence courts, in which a single judge hears all criminal, family and divorce matters for a family experiencing domestic violence. The hypothesized advantages of such a model - more informed judicial decision-making, more coherent case outcomes, and improved victim safety and satisfaction - are leading increasing numbers of jurisdictions in the United States and United Kingdom to implement it in some form; yet those advantages have yet to be proven.This process and final outcome evaluation examines the adjudication of families' criminal domestic violence, civil and matrimonial cases in the Suffolk County Integrated Domestic Violence (IDV) Court, which has been in operation since 2002. Through court observations, interviews with stakeholders and litigants, and data analysis, the evaluation assesses the realization of the court's promise, assessing such issues as consistency of court orders across cases, litigant access to representation on civil cases, increased offender accountability and access to services for children. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In New York City, arrests for smoking marijuana in public view (MPV) grew from under a thousand in 1990 to become the most common misdemeanor charge from 2000 through 2003. The 50,000 MPV arrests in 2000 accounted for 15% of all NYC arrests. A sequence of maps indicates that there was a major shift over time in the location of these arrests. From 1992 to 1995, the largest percentage of MPV arrests were made by NYC transit police (13%-36%), who patrol the city's subway system. This is consistent with the NYPD's emphasis on quality-of-life (QOL) policing, arresting persons for those minor behaviors that affect other's enjoyment of public spaces. However in 1996, MPV arrests by NYC transit police dropped to 3%; the NYC housing police (who patrol low-income public housing projects) became the leading enforcer (11%); and high enforcement regions outside of Manhattan emerged. This geographical pattern suggests that MPV enforcement had shifted from QOL policing to general drug abuse control with its largest impact in low-income areas. Of further note, the vast majority (82%) of MPV arrestees throughout this growth period 1992-2003 were either black or Hispanic. The authors suggest that NYC consider scaling back its MPV enforcement, in light of the large impact on minorities in low-income areas and the program's decreased emphasis on improving the city's quality of life. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Youthful victims of relationship violence represent a particularly vulnerable group, given their age, lack of experience, and reluctance to bring their victimization to the attention of officials. Moreover, there is some evidence that, even when adolescent victims wish to prosecute a violent intimate partner, adolescent perpetrators are unlikely to be convicted. The Brooklyn Youthful Offenders Domestic Violence Court (YODVC) is a specialized court part designed to address the special issues raised by adolescent domestic violence cases. The stated goals of the YODVC include using the court's authority to provide specialized programming to adolescent perpetrators of relationship violence, holding adolescent perpetrators accountable, changing the behavior of these defendants, and providing adolescent victims of relationship violence with access to advocacy and other specialized services. This impact evaluation employs a quasi-experimental, pre-post design, measuring the impact of the YODVC on both dispositions and outcomes as compared to analogous cases processed in Brooklyn in the year preceding the opening of the YODVC. In addition, although there is no comparison group for the YODVC victims, the study examines the efforts of the court to increase outreach to this population. As other courts begin to initiate similar programs, this evaluation will be particularly timely and will help to shape future initiatives. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Juvenile fear of crime in the school setting is an increasing social problem. Although many studies have been conducted that measure actual crime levels in school settings, the direct causes of fear of criminal victimization among juveniles has been virtually ignored. Using a representative sample of 70 urban inner-city high school students between the ages of 12 and 20, this study assessed, the direct influence of coping mechanisms and the formation of social bonds in relation to younger juveniles heightened fear of crime and actual victimization levels. It was hypothesized that younger juveniles (under 16 years of age) would have higher fear of crime and victimization levels in their school environment, when compared to their slightly older peers (16 and over) who may have experienced the same type of victimization. To permit direct comparison we used; responses to three measures: 1) A Modified Version of the Ways of Coping Checklist (Halstead et al., 1993), 2) A Baruth Protective Factors Inventory (Baruth & Carroll, 2002), and 3) A School Fear Survey that was generated from two sources, the School Crime Supplement (NCVS, SCS, 2001) and May's (1999) Adolescent Fear Survey. Our findings and implications will be discussed during the presentation. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Subsequent to September 11, 2001 the federal government implemented a strategy to inform law enforcement about the potential threat of terrorist attack. The Homeland Security Alert System (HSAS), commonly known as the terror alert level, was developed by the Office of Homeland Security and was introduced in March of 2002. It includes five color-coded levels indicating the threat of a terrorist attack: low (green), guarded (blue), elevated (yellow), high (orange), and severe (red). The HSAS has never been below "elevated," and has been raised to "high" nationwide five times since its inception. Due to the changes in police and possibly civilian behavior that accompany a raised terror alert level, an examination of the relationship between the fluctuation in the HSAS and levels of crime offers an opportunity to consider the possible deterrent effect of police, and can be interpreted in a larger routine activities framework. In a recent article Klick and Tabarrok (2005) reported that, in Washington DC, property crimes decreased during "high" HSAS periods, but violent crimes did not. Using data from the City of Niagara Falls, the current analysis will replicate and extend Klick and Tabarrok's (2005) work, and results will be placed within a routine activities framework. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services received a planning and implementation grant from the Bureau of Justice Assistance under the Sex Offender Management Grant Program. This program provided an opportunity for New York State to comprehensively assess existing sex offender management practices and implement strategies borne out of this comprehensive assessment. A remarkable collaboration of diverse stakeholders including law enforcement, prosecutors, defense attorneys, victim advocates, supervision agencies, and treatment providers assembled to oversee both phases of this grant program.During the planning phase of the grant, strengths and critical gaps in the existing system of sex offender management were identified through the development of a system map, documentation of formal and informal governing policies, analysis of the offender population, and comprehensive assessment of practices statewide. Following the planning phase, strategies will be implemented to enhance public safety through a coordinated continuum of supervision and services. In this session, general findings will be discussed in relation to data collected from multiple agencies during the planning phase of the grant and the subsequent development of policy recommendations for the improvement of sex offender management in New York State. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From 1996-2005 New York experienced significant demographic change. At the same time both reported crime and hate crime declined. This presentation will examine both demographic and crime data as well as changes in New York's response to hate crime since its hate crime unit was formed in 1980. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sexual offending has always been a topic of interest. However, few studies have focused on knowledge and perception of sexual offending. While all aspects of sexual offending are important, it is vital to recognize gaps in citizens' knowledge and perception of community registration and notification. This study focuses on knowledge of laws among students at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. A paucity of research exists in regards to citizens' knowledge of laws pertaining to sex offenders and those studies that have been conducted can not be generalized to the population of New York. As preliminary research, this study suggests findings applicable to New York. A significant issue related to knowledge of sexual offending is the idea that citizens have a false sense of security regarding released offenders. This is in part because of methods used by politicians and the media when disseminating information to the public. A false sense of security causes individuals to let their guard down around the very individuals they should be concerned about. However, studies have shown that the majority of sexual offenders are known to the victim and are not the atypical "stranger" that the public is concerned about. This study enhances the body of research by illustrating this idea; findings suggest that criminal justice students are lacking in their knowledge of laws pertaining to sexual offenders. The researcher provides ideas as to how to better educate students, as well as members of the public, about laws pertaining to sexual offenders. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pilot research has revealed two major markets for marijuana in New York City, which we label as designer and commercial. This dual market is clearly evident in most marijuana publications (High Times, Cannibible, etc.) and widespread perception of variations in quality among users. This presentation analyzes data collected about retail level purchases of marijuana. A hundred retail purchases were weighted and self-reports by purchasers provided important independent variables. Each purchase was weighed to the nearest hundredth of a gram; the price per gram was computed. Data analysis documents whether users get as many grams as they thought they had purchased and provides variation regarding weights and price/gram of various retail units. Designer marijuana was typically purchased thru private dealers and delivery services by middle and upper income consumers, occasionally it was available in street markets. Designer marijuana was often sold in plastic "cubes," and typically cost $50 for just under 2.5 gm, although lower priced designer units were also encountered Designer marijuana typically cost about $8-15 more per gram than comparably priced commercial marijuana. Street marijuana sellers often sold nickels and dimes-usually commercial-in public locations in uptown New York City (Harlem, Northern Manhattan, Bronx), but this was rarely present in lower Manhattan. In contrast, designer marijuana was never sold for $5-all nickels were commercial grade. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Over 75 % of NYC arrests are misdemeanors, with most disposed at arraignment by guilty pleas and jail sentences or probation. Bail is set for most of those pleading innocent, and failure to post bail leads to incarceration (often for significant periods) with potentially serious consequences for these individuals and their families. Methods: We analyzed public defender records for 28 Bronx misdemeanants pleading innocent and where bail was set (median $1250), comparing data for 14 posting bail and 14 who did not on charges, prior offenses, case disposition, and sentences. Findings: Those who could not post bail were younger (median 31.5 vs. 39.5), had more prior misdemeanors ( median 7 vs. 1.5 ) , and more drug offenses ( 30% vs. 14%); but fewer felonies ( median = 1.5 vs. 3), and fewer assault charges( 0 vs. 30% of cases) than those posting bail. At 7 months follow-up 9 of 14 bailed cases (64%) were still open, had been dismissed, acquitted, or relieved. Of 14 unable to make bail, 13( 93%) had pled guilty and been incarcerated ( 11) or mandated to drug treatment( 2) for a median of 45 days . Conclusions: Misdemeanants making bail rarely go to jail, but most who cannot are immediately incarcerated for several weeks, destabilizing their employment , school , treatment programs, or supportive housing, risking removal of children ,and threatening their immigration status. Current bail policies cause great damage and should be revised to prevent these consequences. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is designed to examine the history and development of Chinese underground banks (ch'ien-chuang) located in the Chinatown districts of New York City and Philadelphia and their involvement in the financial elements of illegal Chinese immigration. The data for this study comes from interviews with fifty illegal immigrants residing in New York City and Philadelphia. Special attention will be paid to the motivations of illegal immigrants and smugglers to use the ch'ien-chuang. This research will also attempt to explore the criminal justice implications for policing the ch'ien-chuang in the United States. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Monroe County, NY Mental Health Court (MMHC) was established in early 2003 by the local county supervising judge. Unlike other courts reported in the literature (e.g., Kings County, NY; Clark County, WA; Broward County, Fla), the MMHC had no dedicated staffing, funding, or formal connection to the mental health system during its first 3 years of operation. Our study examined the MMHC outcomes compared to the recently published outcomes of the Clark County MHC. We found similar results for key MHC indicators: re-arrest, inpatient days, and outpatient mental health service utilization. The production of similar outcomes with widely disparate court resources raises an important question: Are there optimal staffing levels for MHC's to achieve optimal levels of expected outcomes while using roughly similar best practice approaches? With over 115 MHC's operating across the country, this critical issue is faced by many counties with limited resources. The resourcefulness and resolve of local unfunded courts can result in outcomes similar to those courts with relatively generous staffing and budget, yet may evolve by necessity into unintended entities which change frequently as MHC court staff burn out or court operations merge with other treatment courts. It is important to examine these non-funded courts and develop realistic staffing guidelines along with expectations of cost effectiveness and client outcomes for well-intentioned but budget-strapped counties. We discuss the findings from Monroe County in relation to the need to establish an optimal ratio of dedicated MHC staff to achieve optimal client and systems outcomes. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first American criminological theory by Shaw and McKay was developed through hand mapping juvenile delinquencies in Chicago. However, criminologists seem to have left out spatial dimensions of crimes since then. Criminologists' efforts seem to be dominated by explanations of criminality and not criminal events. Although the development of routine activities theory and environmental criminology has contributed to our theoretical understanding of spatial distributions of crime, empirical testing in this area has been rather limited. This research attempts to fill such gaps by empirically and quantitatively testing criminal offenders' target selection processes. Arrest records containing offenders' residences, crime incident locations, and demographic characteristics will be obtained from the Buffalo Police Department, NY. Using a conditional logit model, the dependent variable of interest in this research is neighborhoods that have been targeted by residential burglars. From the arrest records, distances that the offenders have traveled for their commission of crime are included as an independent variable. Furthermore, such concepts as attractive targets and levels of guardianships are operationalized from census data in 2000. Implications of our finding will be discussed in regard to effective policing and crime prevention strategies. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]