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Elliott et al.'s essay is part of what is now a series of papers in Criminology and Public Policy on contrasting ways that the evidence base on effective interventions with juvenile offenders can be used to improve juvenile justice programming. Their paper has two themes—(a) a defense of the model programs approach as promoted by the Blueprints for Healthy Youth Development evidence‐based program registry, and (b) an attack on the Standardized Program Evaluation Protocol scheme for assessing programs for juvenile offenders and the meta‐analysis on which it is based. I address both those themes in this commentary in the context of the broader cross‐disciplinary conversation about ways to apply research evidence to improve the effectiveness of the programs used in actual practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research summary: In the past, the Canadian government followed in the footsteps of its American counterpart by enacting "sex offender laws." Since the 1990s, however, the Canadian criminal justice system has taken a different approach to the issue of sex offender recidivism (SOR), focusing on treatment, rehabilitation, and community risk management. This evidence‐based approach has been criticized for not doing enough to prevent convicted offenders from sexually reoffending. This criticism has not been addressed empirically, leaving open the question of whether this Canadian policy shift is associated with changes in the rate of sexual recidivism. The present study uses a meta‐analytic framework to look at 185 Canadian‐based studies involving over 50,000 offenders, making it possible to combine 226 sexual recidivism rates. After controlling for factors such as follow‐up length and the independence of samples, weighted pooled recidivism rates have declined since the 1970s by more than 60%. This trend may have gone unnoticed because it is not related to the year of publication but to the period in which the data were collected. Policy implications: The findings have significant implications for criminal justice practices including the importance of using risk assessment tools that are regularly calibrated to reflect the evolution of sexual recidivism rates over time. Although the current study cannot provide firm conclusions about the factors responsible for this gradual drop, several hypotheses are discussed. Knowledge‐based criminal justice practices, better training for professionals, and improvements in treatment programs may have had a subtle and cumulative impact on sexual recidivism rates. The importance of examining period effects on SOR using a comparative and international perspective is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research summary: For centuries and even millenia, street lighting has been among the most ubiquitous capital investments that societies have made in public safety. Recent research by Chalfin et al. (2021)—the first randomized experiment that studies the effect of street lighting on public safety—demonstrated that a tactical street lighting intervention in New York City's public housing developments led to a 36% reduction in serious criminal activity during nighttime hours in the 6 months after the new lights were rolled out. But do the effects endure? In this study, we examine the longer‐term effects of the same street lighting intervention using 3 years of outcome data. We show that the effects of the lighting intervention persist over time. Critically, the intervention reduced crime without eventually leading to a larger number of arrests. Policy implications: As street lighting requires a large up‐front capital investment, the attractiveness of enhanced lighting to policy makers depends critically on whether its public safety benefits will be long lasting. These findings provide some assurance that the impact of street lighting can endure beyond their initial installation. Because the lighting intervention reduced crime without increasing the number of arrests, it did not reduce crime by widening the net of the criminal justice system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Summary: We examined the impact of Raise the Age (RTA) in Massachusetts, which increased the maximum jurisdictional age for its juvenile court in late 2013. Using statewide re‐arraignment data and a difference‐in‐differences research design comparing affected 17‐year‐olds to unaffected 18‐year‐olds, we find that RTA increased recidivism for affected 17‐year‐olds. The observed increases in recidivism were especially large for 17‐year‐olds without prior justice involvement. This result may stem from the more extensive use of pretrial supervision or the diminished deterrence of prosecution within the Massachusetts juvenile justice system. Policy Implications: This study demonstrates that prosecuting older adolescents as juveniles can exacerbate rather than reduce future justice involvement. This finding highlights the ongoing risk of unanticipated and iatrogenic impacts of criminal justice interventions. It also suggests the need for caution in further expansions of RTA until evidence of anticipated programmatic benefits can be confirmed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Summary: Progressive chief prosecutors, campaigning on platforms calling for reducing prison populations and racial/ethnic disparities, have been elected in numerous jurisdictions across the United States in recent years. Yet, there is no empirical research that compares case outcomes between jurisdictions headed by progressive and traditional chief prosecutors. In this research, we utilize a cumulative case outcome approach that tracks cases from arrest to disposition to examine whether cases prosecuted under progressive chief prosecutors receive less punitive sanctions and exhibit smaller racial/ethnic disparities. We find that cases adjudicated in progressive jurisdictions are more likely to end without a felony conviction and less likely to result in a prison sentence. Racial but not generally ethnic disadvantage is evident in case outcomes, and racial disparities are smaller in jurisdictions led by progressive chief prosecutors. Policy Implications: The election of progressive prosecutors is a radical departure from earlier approaches aimed at controlling prison populations and mitigating racial disparities. Instead of restricting the discretion of criminal justice actors, voters are relying on progressive, reformist prosecutors to use their enormous discretion in less punitive and more egalitarian fashions. This research indicates that progressive chief prosecutors do, in fact, reduce prison use and racial disparities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Summary: We explored the extent to which the implementation of a pretrial risk assessment instrument (PRAI) corresponded to changes in the pretrial processing of defendants using multiple administrative data sources from a large county in the southeastern United States. Our findings revealed little evidence of reductions in detention lengths or increases in the use of nonfinancial forms of release following the tool's adoption. This was largely attributable to the exercise of judicial discretion, as judges frequently departed from the tool's recommendation using alternatives that were more punitive and often included financial conditions—particularly for Black and Latino defendants. Furthermore, the exercise of discretion was linked to increased rates of pretrial failure. Policy Implications: PRAIs were adopted on a massive scale with the understanding that they are evidence‐based and geared toward efficiently and equitably reducing pretrial populations; however, we are lacking the evaluative work to determine their impacts. Our findings suggest that PRAIs may not only undermine reform efforts, but may worsen disparities, if communities fail to complete the up‐front work of discussing their expectations for pretrial decision making, including the conditions under which financial constraints may be justifiable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Summary: This study offers a localized test of the bifurcation hypothesis, which suggests that jurisdictions adopting decarceral policies for lower‐level offenses often do so at the expense of increased punitiveness toward more serious offenses. Relying on fresh data from Florida, we examine how adopting a new diversion program targeting low‐level traffic offenses affects overall prosecutorial diversion decisions. The new program is associated with an estimated 8% decrease in the odds of diversion to existing programs. Analyses of marginal effects suggest that the new program reduced diversion for more serious offenses by up to 43%. Although having a prior record disadvantaged defendants overall, defendants with more prior arrests experienced less of a diversion penalty after the new program; but defendants with more prior prison sentences were treated even more punitively after program implementation. Policy Implications: In support of the bifurcation hypothesis, the effects of a new prosecutor‐led diversion program for low‐level offenses were attenuated by decreased diversion usage for other programs targeting more serious offenses. New diversion policies should focus on the adoption of programs that expand the pool of divertible cases rather than focusing only on minor offenses. Prosecutors should also critically examine prior record considerations in diversion offers, which disqualify defendants from many diversion programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research summary: This study estimates disparities in driving under the influence (DUI) convictions relative to the frequency with which racial/ethnic groups engage in alcohol‐impaired driving. We use had‐been‐drinking crashes and self‐reported alcohol‐impaired driving to approximate alcohol‐impaired driving frequency for racial/ethnic groups in California from 2001 to 2016. DUI conviction and had‐been‐drinking crash data are from a sample of 72,368 California men aged 21–49 in 2001. Self‐reported alcohol‐impaired driving rates are from male Californians who responded to the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. Relative to race/ethnicity‐specific estimated rates of engaging in alcohol‐impaired driving, Latino/Hispanic men had higher rates of DUI conviction than White men. This suggests racial bias plays a role in DUI convictions, with White men experiencing a lower probability of conviction than Latino/Hispanic men who engage in similar behavior. Policy implications: These findings suggest actions aimed at reducing individual and structural biases could lead to more equitable DUI conviction rates. Such actions could include limiting discretion at each level of the criminal justice system, for example, by providing prescriptive guidance to officers on when to stop drivers or using local had‐been‐drinking crash rates to determine sobriety checkpoint and saturation patrol locations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the discussion on health crisis associated with COVID-19, its lockdowns, and reopenings coming in between of America's reckoning with racial and social justice. Topics include steady increase in specific forms of violence including primarily homicides/community gun violence and domestic violence; and operations leading to an initial police pullback in stops, traffic citations, and arrests.

Research Summary: Criminal justice practitioners increasingly seek out efficient means of community supervision supplanting face‐to‐face interactions with practices that are less onerous to administrators and clients. We examined the differential impact of remote supervision for low‐risk probationers by race. Remote reporting greatly reduces or eliminates in‐person meetings where race would be salient; however, it also creates conditions where an officer may rely more heavily on heuristics. We found the program drastically reduced violations, but also exacerbated the racial discrepancy in reporting high discretion violations. Policy Implication: The study illustrates how integrating an empirical test of racial discrepancies into program evaluation can illuminate conditions that amplify implicit bias. Our findings illustrate how a program with unequivocally positive outcomes for low‐risk probationers overall can further amplify racial disparities, particularly when the probation officer has more discretion. By creating a statistically equivalent group of clients who receive probation‐as‐usual, our evaluation strategy measures this bias by comparing consequences for which an agent has high discretion against those for which they have low or no discretion for program participants. This approach is replicable across many criminal justice practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

President Biden has called for reform of the criminal justice system to ensure fair treatment of people who are transgender who come into contact with the criminal justice system. He has done so in a context in which criminologists, public health researchers, and others, including journalists and advocates, have produced a growing body of research that documents the over criminalization and differential incarceration of people who are transgender as well as the high rates of victimization of transgender women who are incarcerated. Accordingly, this article describes a growing literature on the sexual victimization experienced by transgender women who are incarcerated; focuses analytic attention on the housing contexts in which this kind of discriminatory gendered violence emerges and takes shape; points to some emergent policy responses related to these concerns; and calls for original research that, if conducted, could advance the criminological literature in meaningful ways and set the stage for evidence‐based prison policy and practice related to what is now predictably high rates of violence against transgender women who are incarcerated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Summary: Scorecards have become an increasingly common tool for public policy decision making about important issues in education, finance, and health care. Few scorecards have been applied in criminal justice and none has been developed to highlight racial disparities in incarceration. We constructed county‐level scorecards for racial disparities in incarceration rates for the New York State Permanent Commission on Sentencing. Using detailed data on felony cases in New York State between 2000 and 2014, including the specific penal law criminal offense, features of the underlying charges, and criminal history, we assembled a set of White defendants within each county that collectively resembled Black and Hispanic defendants in that county. Statewide, Black defendants were more likely to receive prison sentences than similar White defendants (43% vs. 40%). Some individual counties had much greater racial disparities with relative risks of prison as high as 1.36. We found similar results for Hispanic defendants. Policy Implications: Early institutional support for our scorecard receded once racial disparities were flagged in specific, named counties. The scorecard was never deployed by the Commission. Commission members and the research team met with individual counties but the Commission was disbanded during this process. New York State still lacks a formal sentencing commission. We recommend future scorecard efforts come from legislative or executive mandates, requiring rigorous methods and public presentations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A key take away from Elliott et al.'s critical review is the need for a program of more rigorous comparative research to assess the two main evidence‐based models for guiding juvenile justice interventions. Additionally, a sound measure of this research should be whether or not the different models are able to achieve (and sustain) population impacts. Both of these are important issues facing the evidence‐based movement in juvenile justice today, and the purpose of this essay is to make the case for greater attention to each one. The decision‐tree method and computer simulation modeling represent two rigorous approaches, and their use could benefit immensely understanding of the comparative effectiveness of the different models. It will also be important to consider other existing models as part of a program of comparative research. The risk‐need‐responsivity model and Communities That Care are two examples. A key criticism of evidence‐based interventions, whether they are brand‐name programs or generic practices, is the limited research demonstrating their ability to achieve population impacts. Some of the views undergirding this criticism are warranted. At the same time, advancements in the science of implementation over the last two decades bolster support for scaling up evidence‐based interventions and attaining impacts at the population level. Efforts underway in several states provide additional support for the ability to scale‐up evidence‐based juvenile justice interventions and achieve population impacts. Expanding the scope and accelerating the pace of this work begins by building on the progress so far as well as a renewed political will. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyze the disparate effects of a recent California sentencing reform on the arrest, booking, and incarceration rates experienced by California residents from different racial and ethnic groups. In November 2014, California voters passed state Proposition 47 that redefined a series of felony and "wobbler" offenses (offenses that can be charged as either a felony or misdemeanor) as straight misdemeanors, causing an immediate 15% decline in total drug arrests, an approximate 20% decline in total property crime arrests, and shifts in the composition of arrests away from felonies towards misdemeanors. Using microdata on the universe of arrests in the state in conjunction with demographic data from the American Community Survey, we document a substantial narrowing in interracial differences in overall arrest rates and arrest rates by offense type, with very large declines in the interracial arrest rate gaps for felony drug offenses. We see declines in bookings rates for all groups (conditional on being arrested), though we find a larger decrease for white arrestees. This relatively greater decline for white arrests is largely explained by differences in the distribution of arrests across recorded offenses. Despite the widening of racial gaps in the conditional booking rate, we observe substantial declines in overall booked arrests that are larger for African Americans and Hispanics relative to Whites and Asians. For some offenses (felony drug offenses), interracial disparities in jail booking rates narrow by nearly half. Finally, we use data from the American Community Survey to analyze changes in the proportion incarcerated on any given day and how these changes vary by race and ethnicity. For these results, we present trends for the time period spanning the larger set of policy reforms that have been implemented in the state since 2011. We observe sizable declines in the overall incarceration rate for African Americans, with the largest declines observed for African American males. The one quarter decline in total correctional populations in the state coincided with sizable narrowing in interracial differences in incarceration rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Summary: In criminal justice risk forecasting, one can prove that it is impossible to optimize accuracy and fairness at the same time. One can also prove that usually it is impossible optimize simultaneously all of the usual group definitions of fairness. In policy settings, one necessarily is left with tradeoffs about which many stakeholders will adamantly disagree. The result is a contentious stalemate. In this article, we offer a different approach. We do not seek perfectly accurate and perfectly fair risk assessments. We seek politically acceptable risk assessments. We describe and apply a machine learning approach that addresses many of the most visible claims of "racial bias" to arraignment data on 300,000 offenders. Regardless of whether such claims are true, we adjust our procedures to compensate. We train the algorithm on White offenders only and compute risk with test data separately for White offenders and Black offenders. Thus, the fitted, algorithm structure is the same for both groups; the algorithm treats all offenders as if they are White. But because White and Black offenders can bring different predictors distributions to the White‐trained algorithm, we provide additional adjustments as needed. Policy Implications: Insofar as conventional machine learning procedures do not produce the accuracy and fairness that some stakeholders require, it is possible to alter conventional practice to respond explicitly to many salient stakeholder claims even if they are unsupported by the facts. The results can be a politically acceptable risk assessment tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Summary: In late 2014, California voters passed Proposition 47 that redefined a set of less serious felony drug and property offenses as misdemeanors. We examine how racial and ethnic disparities in criminal court dispositions in San Francisco change in the years before (2010–2014) and after (2015–2016) the passage of Proposition 47. We decompose disparities in court dispositions into components resulting from racial/ethnic differences in offense characteristics, involvement in the criminal justice system at the time of arrest, pretrial detention, criminal history, and the residual unexplained component. Before and after Proposition 47, case characteristics explain nearly all of the observable disparities in court dispositions between racial and ethnic groups. After the passage of Proposition 47, however, there is a narrowing of disparities in convictions and incarceration sentences that is driven by lesser weight placed on criminal history, active criminal justice status, and pretrial detention in effecting court dispositions Policy Implications: The findings from this study suggest that policy reforms that scale back the severity of punishment for criminal history and active criminal justice status for less serious felony offenses may help narrow inter‐racial and inter‐ethnic inequalities in criminal court dispositions. Efforts to reduce racial and ethnic inequalities in mass incarceration in other states should consider reforms that reduce the weight that criminal history, pretrial detention, and active probation status has on criminal defendants' eligibility for prison for less serious drug and property offenses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Summary: We assess the predictive validity and differential prediction by race of one pretrial risk assessment, the Public Safety Assessment (PSA). The PSA was developed with support from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation (LJAF) to reduce the burden placed on vulnerable populations at the front end of the criminal justice system. The growing and disparate use of incarceration is one of the most pressing social issues facing the United States. The implementation of risk assessments has provided fuel for both sides of the reform debate with proponents arguing that the use of these assessments offers a policy mechanism to alleviate populations and bias. Risk assessment critics, however, argue that the use of the assessments exacerbates bias and does not improve decision‐making. By examining a statewide data set from Kentucky (N = 164,597), we found the PSA to have predictive validity measures in line with what are generally accepted within the criminal justice field. The differences we found indicate the PSA scores for failure to appear (FTA) are moderated by race, but these differences do not lead to disparate impact. Policy Implications: We point to data limitations and the need for localized risk assessment studies, and we emphasize that risk assessments are decision‐making tools that require ongoing refinement. Risk assessment developers, opponents, and proponents would do better to focus on the reality of risk assessments as probabilistic models. The results of these assessments cannot predict with certainty, and they are not inherently biased. Rather, criminologists and policy makers need to understand the uncertainty that comes with any predictive model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Summary: Daniel Kahneman (2011) wrote, "There are distinctive patterns in the errors people make. Systemic errors are known as biases, and they recur predictability in particular circumstances. ... The availability of diagnostic labels for [these] biases make [them] easier to anticipate, recognize, and understand." In this article, we examine the systemic nature of human error in the context of officer‐involved shootings—one of the most visible and controversial aspects of the U.S. criminal justice system—and we seek to provide a common language for discussing, recognizing, and understanding these tragic outcomes. Policy Implications: The resulting typology offers a framework for a systems‐based approach to researching and investigating police shooting errors that, in turn, could provide a powerful vehicle for reform, improved officer decision‐making, and ultimately better outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Summary: In this historical review of prison privatization, we identify interconnected events in the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom and their distinctiveness from other nations. The political and economic catalysts for the post‐1980 reemergence of privatization are also analyzed. Privatization exists on a continuum from ancillary service delivery to full custodial operations and management. As privatization seems to have lost some of its momentum, it is unclear whether its advent has produced the intended system‐wide improvements. Policy Implications: Modern privatization spawned an enormous amount of research in which a comparison of the private and public sectors was attempted. Despite the plethora of research, the findings are mainly inconclusive. Policy makers should focus on privatization as a subset of mainstream prisons research, with investigation of system‐wide key issues like confinement quality, preparation for release, and accountability. These matters bear, in turn, on outcomes such as reduced recidivism and the ability to lead a useful life postrelease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Summary: The results reported in a large amount of the criminology literature reveal that hiring police officers leads to reductions in crime and that investments in police are an efficient means of crime control compared with investments in prisons. One concern, however, is that because police officers make arrests in the course of their duties, police hiring, albeit efficient, is an inevitable driver of "mass incarceration." In this article, we consider the dynamics through which police hiring affects downstream incarceration rates. Policy Implications: Using state‐level panel data as well county‐level data from California, we uncover novel evidence in favor of a potentially unexpected and yet entirely intuitive result: that investments in law enforcement are unlikely to increase state prison populations markedly and may even lead to a modest decrease in the number of state prisoners. As such, investments in police may, in fact, yield a "double dividend" to society by reducing incarceration rates as well as crime rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Summary: We report on the findings of an updated systematic review and meta‐analysis of the effects of closed‐circuit television (CCTV) surveillance cameras on crime. The findings show that CCTV is associated with a significant and modest decrease in crime. The largest and most consistent effects of CCTV were observed in car parks. The results of the analysis also demonstrated evidence of significant crime reductions within other settings, particularly residential areas. CCTV schemes incorporating active monitoring generated larger effect sizes than did passive systems. Schemes deploying multiple interventions alongside CCTV generated larger effect sizes than did schemes deploying single or no other interventions alongside CCTV. Policy Implications: The results of this systematic review—based on 40 years of evaluation research—lend support for the continued use of CCTV to prevent crime as well as reveal a greater understanding of some of the key mechanisms of effective use. Of particular salience is the continued need for CCTV to be narrowly targeted on vehicle crimes and property crime and not be deployed as a "stand‐alone" crime prevention measure. As CCTV surveillance continues to expand its reach in both public and private space and evolve with new technology, policy will benefit from high‐quality evaluations of outcomes and implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the economic implications of Honest Opportunity Probation with Enforcement (HOPE) from the Demonstration Field Experiment (DFE). Topics include target of HOPE at persons which are on probation and at a higher risk of being returned to prison; effect of HOPE DFE on criminal justice-system costs which include increase in incarceration and residential treatment costs; and effect of reduction in drug use on individual and public costs.

The article offers information on the author's view on crime and justice studies. Topics include, meaningful role in public debates on crime and justice; criminal justice policy researchers must prepare and disseminate their work in ways that are more suitable to the policy-making audience; and strengthen the role of research findings in the formulation of crime and justice policy.

The article informs on the 50th anniversary of the report by the U.S. President's Crime Commission. Topics discussed include an account of country's criminal justice environment; efforts of the commission in making policy development for providing community access to justice; and efforts of American Society of Criminology ion providing the same.

Abstract: In The Challenge of Crime in a Free Society, the U.S. President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice under President Johnson in 1967 acknowledged the influential role that prosecutors play but lamented the fact that their highly discretionary charging and plea bargaining decisions were often made haphazardly and inconsistently. The Commission called for more transparency and accountability in charging and plea bargaining processes. I examine the exercise of prosecutorial discretion in the 50 years since the publication of the Commission's report, with a focus on the results of research and changes in policy and practice. Although the charging and plea bargaining processes have not been subject to the type of scholarly scrutiny directed at judges’ sentencing decisions, the research that has been published in the past several decades has become more theoretically grounded, methodologically sophisticated, and transdisciplinary. In terms of policy, decisions handed down by the Supreme Court since the 1960s have provided some minimal regulation of charging and plea bargaining, and the reforms embraced by state and federal prosecutors have affected the exercise of prosecutorial discretion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Fifty years ago, the U.S. President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice saw drugs as a modest but growing problem for the criminal justice system. The reemergence of heroin occupied the Commission's attention. Many recommendations are admirable, such as a focus on public health interventions and a concern about the appropriateness of criminal prohibitions on marijuana use. Throughout the past 50 years, the problem has both massively expanded and changed in many ways; the principal drug of abuse has shifted multiple times, as has the populations most affected by them. Policy, largely stuck on tough enforcement for 30 years, is now moving in a direction more consistent with the Commission's views. Researchers have made only modest advances in understanding what enforcement can do to reduce drug use and related problems, but society has made some progress in developing interventions that have both a sound theoretical base and the promise of avoiding the unintended negative consequences of the highly punitive system of the 1980s and 1990s. A Commission in 2018 would face a much different and larger problem that has transformed many aspects of criminal justice. Investing in more data collection and evaluation research would be among its major recommendations, as would an admission of considerable uncertainty about what to do with the latest twist in the U.S. drug problem, the addition of the much more dangerous fentanyls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Fifty years ago, the U.S. President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice under President Johnson did not frequently mention race and ethnicity in its discussion of and recommendations for the criminal justice system, but it did have a lot to say about race and crime. Through the use of arrest rates to measure racial differentials in criminal involvement, the Commission concluded that Blacks commit more crime as a consequence of Black people living in greater numbers in criminogenic “slum” conditions. To address racial differences, the Commission favored the Great Society programs of Johnson's War on Poverty. Contemporary criminologists continue to debate the racial distribution of crime, the causes of crimes, and the best policies to reduce crime and racial differentials. The Commission did not anticipate the current debate among scholars regarding how much racial disproportionality exists in the criminal justice system and its causes and consequences. The policies that led to mass incarceration have been significant drivers of continued criminal justice racial disparity. Those policies are inconsistent with the recommendation in The Challenge of Crime in a Free Society (1967), upending the pursuit of a more fair and just system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The U.S. President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice added a Task Force on Science and Technology as somewhat of an afterthought because there had then been very little interaction between science and technology and the criminal justice system (CJS). The task force focused on the CJS as a whole and interactions among its parts, with an important emphasis on analysis of the operating systems and on the important potential role of information systems as the technology advanced. The potential applications of contemporary information and electronic technologies is considerable, especially for assessing risk and needs of identified offenders and for providing relevant information wherever needed. There is urgent need for scientific evaluation of many of the positive and negative aspects of the operation of the CJS and of the potential for new technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay, highlighting importance of integrity in criminology research programs in implementing evidence-based programming and practices in the U.S., is presented. Topics discussed role of evidence-based practices in improving correctional programs; characteristics of effective correctional programs; and translating research into practice remains a challenge.

The article discusses the role of risk assessment used by employers in the employment screening setting, which is also used in the criminal justice arena to determine corrections, parole decisions and prison programming. According to the author, criminal background checks are an important part of recruitment procedure for big companies which makes it difficult for people with criminal records to find a job.

The article discusses the use of recidivism and criminal behavior prediction in the employment settings by employers as it is used in the criminal justice system. According to the author, criminologists assist decision makers in the criminal justice system like judges, police and correctional staff regarding policy advice pertaining to criminal behavior prediction. The author suggests that such prediction used in employment decisions are partly logical and philosophical.

Research Summary Just four decades ago, the predominant narrative in crime prevention and rehabilitation was that nothing works. Since that time, criminologists have accumulated a wide body of evidence about programs and practices in systematic reviews. In this article, we summarize what is known in seven broad criminal justice areas by drawing on 118 systematic reviews. Although not everything works, through our 'review of reviews,' we provide persuasive evidence of the effectiveness of programs, policies, and practices across a variety of intervention areas. Policy Implications It is time to abandon the idea that 'nothing works,' not only in corrections but also in developmental, community, and situational prevention; sentencing; policing; and drug treatment. Nevertheless, key gaps remain in our knowledge base. The results of systematic reviews should provide more specific guidance to practitioners. In many areas few randomized evaluations have been conducted. Finally, researchers, through their studies and systematic reviews, must pay more attention to cost-benefit analysis, qualitative research, and descriptive validity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Summary The results of recent empirical research have shown that juveniles do not achieve complete psychosocial maturity until postadolescence and that processing juveniles as adults in the criminal justice system can be associated with elevated rates of criminal recidivism. In response to these as well as other concerns, several states have recently raised their legal ages of majority in the hopes of reducing juvenile offending rates. Connecticut enacted one such law change when it raised its age of majority from 16 to 17 in 2010 and then from 17 to 18 in 2012 for all but the most serious offenses. The effect of Connecticut's policy change on juvenile crime is examined in this study. To discern between changes in juvenile offending and changes in the propensity of police to arrest youthful offenders in the aftermath of a law change, we use two methodological approaches. Synthetic control methods are used to generate triple-differences estimates of the effect of Connecticut's policy change on juvenile arrests and overall crime rates by using a weighted average of other U.S. states as a natural comparison group. Next, by analyzing National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) data for a subset of Connecticut's local jurisdictions, we examine changes in age-specific juvenile arrests and changes in age-specific juvenile offending. The resulting evidence suggests that no discernable change in juvenile offending occurred. In addition, evidence exists that in some Connecticut jurisdictions, officer, rather than juvenile, behavior was impacted by this law change. Policy Implications Although raise-the-age policies may remain desirable for other policy reasons, no robust evidence of their effects on crime is yet available. Given the absence of such evidence of crime effects, policy makers interested in raise-the-age policies for their crime-reduction benefits might consider focusing on other juvenile justice policy initiatives with demonstrated crime-reduction benefits. Nevertheless, policy makers interested in these policies for other policy reasons can rest assured that there is no evidence that these policies exacerbate juvenile crime. The results of this study also suggest that the effects of 'raise-the-age' policies on crime will be difficult to separate from recent declining trends in juvenile crime and arrests as well as from changes in police arrest decision making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses research published within the issue that examined the effect of Connecticut's policy change on juvenile crime. Topics covered include the changes in juvenile offending and in the propensity of police to arrest youthful offenders in the aftermath of a law change, the crime reduction benefits of raise-the-age policies, and implications for policy makers and researchers.

Research Summary The relationship between reliability and validity is an important but often overlooked topic of research on risk assessment tools in the criminal justice system. By using data from the Minnesota Screening Tool Assessing Recidivism Risk (MnSTARR), a risk assessment instrument the Minnesota Department of Corrections (MnDOC) developed and began using in 2013, we evaluated the impact of inter-rater reliability (IRR) on predictive performance (validity) among offenders released in 2014. After comparing the reliability of a manual scoring process with an automated one, we found the MnSTARR was scored with a high degree of consistency by MnDOC staff as intraclass correlation (ICC) values ranged from 0.81 to 0.94. But despite this level of IRR, we still observed a degradation in predictive validity given that automated assessments significantly outperformed those that had been scored manually. Additional analyses revealed that the more inter-rater disagreement increased, the more predictive performance decreased. The results from our cost-benefit analyses, which examined the anticipated impact of the MnDOC's efforts to automate the MnSTARR, showed that for every dollar to be spent on automation, the estimated return will be at least $4.35 within the first year and as much as $21.74 after the fifth year. Policy Implications Although it is unclear the degree to which our findings, which are somewhat preliminary, are generalizable to other offender populations and correctional systems, we believe the results are sufficiently promising to warrant greater interest in automating the assessment of risk and need. We anticipate many, if not most, correctional systems may need to invest in upgrading their IT infrastructure to support the use of automated instruments. But we also anticipate this investment would deliver a favorable return for our results suggest that automation reduces inter-rater disagreement, which in turn improves predictive performance. Even if automation did not improve performance, the increased efficiency it produces would create reinvestment opportunities within correctional systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses research published within the issue that examined the effects of automating recidivism risk assessment on reliability, predictive validity and return on investment (ROI). Topics covered include the use of risk assessment instruments in the context of criminal justice, the concept of inter-rater reliability or rater consistency, and potential areas of future research.

The article discusses research published within the issue that examined the effects of automating recidivism risk assessment on reliability, predictive validity and return on investment (ROI). Topics covered include the development, validity and reliability of the Minnesota Screening Tool Assessing Recidivism Risk (MnSTARR), offender risk assessment generations and other variations, and mixed methods of offender risk assessment.

The author critiques the swift, certain and fair (SCF) punishment aspect of Hawaii's Opportunity Probation with Enforcement (HOPE) probation program from the behavioral science perspective. He notes that HOPE's punishment are not swift enough to take advantage of the disproportionate influence of immediacy of certain punishments. Considering prospect theory, he adds that small probability of severe punishment have more considerable influence if that consequence is perceived as "possible."

Research Summary More than 1,500 probationers in four sites were randomly assigned to probation as usual (PAU) or to Honest Opportunity Probation with Enforcement (HOPE), which is modeled on Hawaii's Opportunity Probation with Enforcement (Hawaii HOPE) program that emphasizes close monitoring; frequent drug testing; and swift, certain, and fair (SCF) sanctioning. It also reserves scarce treatment resources for those most in need. The four sites offered heterogeneity in organizational relationships and populations as well as implementation that was rated very good to excellent-thus, providing a robust test of the HOPE supervision model. Recidivism results suggest that HOPE/SCF supervision was not associated with significant reductions in arrests over PAU with the exception of a reduction in drug-related arrests in one site. There were significant-albeit conflicting-differences in time to revocation, with survival models suggesting shorter times to revocation in two sites and longer times to revocation in one site. Policy Implications HOPE-or the more general SCF approach to community supervision-has been widely praised as an evidence-based practice that reduces substance use, violations, new arrests, and revocations to prison. Substantial reductions in return to prison have been associated with claims of significant cost savings for HOPE/SCF over PAU despite the need for additional resources for warning and violation hearings, drug testing, and warrant service. Results from this recently completed, four-site randomized control trial (RCT) showed that recidivism arrest outcomes were largely similar between those on HOPE/SCF probation and those on PAU and are consistent with findings from the Delaware Decide Your Time (DYT) RCT reported in this issue. No differences in arrests between HOPE and PAU probationers suggest that HOPE can be implemented to provide greater adherence to an idealized probation in which violations are met with a swift (but non-draconian) response without compromising public safety. Nevertheless, the larger numbers of revocations for HOPE probationers in two sites, coupled with the additional expenses for drug testing, warrant service, and so on associated with HOPE, also suggest that overall cost savings may not be realized. Although additional research is needed to determine whether there are groups for whom HOPE may be more effective than PAU, HOPE/SCF seems unlikely to offer better outcomes and lower costs for broad classes of moderate-to-high-risk probationers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author examines the sustainability of swift, certain and fair (SCF) correction programs that aim to prevent recidivism among probationers. He notes that SCF is not a homogenous program that can be implemented in any jurisdiction and that SCF principles are only applicable in situations determined by local conditions, institutions, customs and opinions of officials and participants. He also added that sustainable SCFs have agile rules and sanctioning practice as essential elements.

The author examines the sustainability of swift, certain and fair (SCF) probation programs to reduce recidivism among probationers and costs to the government. He summarizes the achievements of Hawaii's Opportunity Probation with Enforcement (HOPE) program and describes its adoption around the world. He concludes that although SCF differs from orthodox probation, to be sustainable, it will require participating community to change its fundamental orientation to criminal justice.

An essay is presented on the mathematical models used by criminologists as statistical representation of social phenomenon. It helps on the clarification of policy analysis and scientific inquiry. The author hopes for the understanding on the interpretation and arguments on the models for better communication.

The article discusses prioritizing sexual assault kits for forensic testing in the U.S. It states that the existence of large numbers of unsubmitted sexual assault kits has become a big problem for the criminal justice system of the country. It also states that kits containing valuable forensic evidence are never submitted to a crime laboratory for screening and testing.

The author discusses the impact of incarceration on family relationships. Topics discussed include changes in family relationships before and after incarceration, association of the quality of family relationships after release of a prisoner with his characteristics, and importance of social connections for successful reintegration after incarceration.

An essay is presented on the study regarding the police use of deadly force and the factors that influence it in the U.S. It examines how the study offered intriguing findings about the curvilinear relationship between deadly force and community violence and raises compelling questions about the role of race and crime in deadly force decision making. It also highlights the importance of having a national police deadly force database in the country.

The article focuses on the significant contributions of criminologist C. Ronald Huff in criminal justice administration in the U.S. It explores Huff's three major lines of clear influence that focused on formative work on the idea and importance of wrongful conviction, research and recommendations on youth gangs, and education about public policy. It also recognizes Huff's substantial contributions in crime and justice, as well as prisons and corrections.

The August Vollmer Award Address is intended to focus on contributions to justice and the recipient's research and policy experiences. This is a story of one person's career focusing mainly on research with 'considerations of use.' After receiving a formal education in psychology, social work, and sociology, as well as experience as a practitioner, the author's academic career has primarily focused on the link between research and criminal justice policy and practice. This is the story of that journey and how it was aided by events that could not have been foreseen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Summary Existing studies examining the crime impacts of stop, question, and frisks (SQFs) have focused on large geographic areas. Weisburd, Telep, and Lawton (2014) suggested that SQFs in New York City (NYC) were highly concentrated at crime hot spots, implying that a microlevel unit of analysis may be more appropriate. The current study aims to address the limitations of prior studies by exploring the impact of SQFs on daily and weekly crime incidents in NYC at a microgeographic level. The findings suggest that SQFs produce a significant yet modest deterrent effect on crime. Policy Implications These findings support those who argue that SQFs deter crime. Nonetheless, it is not clear whether other policing strategies may have similar or even stronger crime-control outcomes. In turn, the level of SQFs needed to produce meaningful crime reductions are costly in terms of police time and are potentially harmful to police legitimacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author reflects on the life and works of former-professor C. Ronald Huff, who won the Vollmer Award for 2015 from the American Society of Criminology in the U.S. He explores Huff's leadership skills, criminal justice experience, and original researchers that informed both scholarship and public policy on gangs, gang-related crime, and delinquency. The author also recognizes Huff's significant contributions in policy recommendations and expanded thinking on wrongful convictions.

The author discusses the criminal justice system in the U.S. Topics discussed include the law on sex offenders, the social aspects of criminal justice system, and the quality of life management. Also mentioned are the social justice management, the occupational safety and health management, and the law on violent crimes.