Search

Across multiple stigmatized groups, research suggests that stigma may negatively impact individual wellbeing. This impact often occurs through a sequential pathway that includes perceiving societal stigma, a diminished and stereotyped self-concept (i.e., internalized stigma), experiences of discrimination and rejection, and attempts to cope with stigma (e.g., secrecy or withdrawal). While prior research supports individual links within this pathway, no study has evaluated a model representing the relationships between all of these factors in relation to criminal record stigma. This study utilized cross-sectional data from an online survey of 198 adults to test the pathways through which criminal record-related stigma impacts individual quality of life. The results indicated that perceived stigma was a significant predictor of discrimination and rejection experiences, secrecy coping strategies, and decreased quality of life. There was also a significant indirect association between perceived stigma and quality of life through secrecy coping. Consistent with recent criminal record stigma research, internalized stigma was low among respondents. These findings point to the importance of reducing criminal record stigma and discrimination, so that individuals with criminal records have more opportunities to enhance their quality of life without having to withdraw from society or keep their record a secret.

We examine whether financial advisors with pre‐advisor criminal records pose a greater risk to investors than those without. We find that financial advisors with pre‐advisor criminal records are more likely to receive future customer complaints. Their complaints are more likely to receive arbitration awards or settlements and are more likely to involve large settlements exceeding $100,000. Finally, clients are more likely to suffer service disruptions from engaging advisors with pre‐advisor criminal records, even incremental to the brokerage firm being high‐risk. Although we do not have performance data of individual advisors, mutual funds of those firms that employ advisors with criminal records do not provide their clients with superior returns nor charge lower fees, suggesting that there are not compensating benefits to offset the investor harm. Overall, pre‐advisor criminal record serves as an important ex ante characteristic available to regulators, investors, and employers for risk‐assessment purposes. Nanyang Technological University Accepted version Nanyang Technological University. Grant Number: Start‐Up Grant

Although research suggests a compelling connection between juvenile delinquency and minors with learning disabilities, rarely any action is taken to thwart or prevent the continuation of this trend. This leaves minors with learning disabilities predisposed to a future with a criminal record, and left at the mercy of the juvenile justice system that fails to accommodate them. This Note proposes the nationwide adoption of problem-solving courts that implement screening procedures alongside treatment programs for children with learning disabilities. Without preventative measures and proper handling of these minors, the rise of recidivism rates, stigmatization, and the deficiency of treatment are inevitable.

Research Summary By using data on provisional employees with and without criminal records, we find that existing standards of a “reasonable amount of [arrest] risk” (derived from “time to redemption” research) for an employer to incur in hiring individuals with criminal histories prove too onerous for many employees without records to meet, let alone those with records. We then propose an alternative method of assessing arrest risk across these populations—benchmarking—and provide several alternative standards, illustrating that they (a) clear a demonstrable majority of employees without records and a sizable minority of those with a criminal history and (b) do not increase the risk incurred by employers over and above the level they already accept among employees without records. Policy Implications Our findings suggest that the almost singular importance placed on “time since last” policies when conducting criminal background checks is ill-placed as the risk of arrest across populations of employees with and without criminal histories overlaps more than the results of extant research would imply. Although future research needs to be conducted to ascertain whether our findings generalize to other employment contexts, current background check practices would be better served if they were to adopt an approach that chooses a specific threshold for comparison, which should align with an easily communicated and face-valid cost function. Furthermore, the selected standard should (a) hold all individuals to the same standard and (b) be one that a demonstrable majority of individuals without criminal records can meet.

After years of stagnation, labeling theory has recently gained new empirical support. Simultaneously, new policy initiatives have attempted to restructure criminal record stigma to reduce reintegration barriers, and subsequent recidivism, driven by labeling. For example, in a recent Department of Justice (DOJ) language policy, person-first terms (e.g., “person with a conviction”) were substituted for crime-first terms (e.g., “offender”). The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has also issued guidelines to structure how decision-makers use criminal records. Unfortunately, little is currently known about the social construction and use of criminal record stigma or the potential effects of such policy changes. In the current study, we provide two unique empirical tests. In study 1, we examine the social construction of stigma by testing DOJ's language policy with experimental data from a nationally representative sample of American adults (N = 996). In study 2, we use a separate nationwide experiment (N = 1,540) to examine how the contextualization of criminal records influences social exclusion decisions. Across both studies, we find consistent evidence of a “mark of violence.” The public perceives that individuals with violent convictions are the most likely to commit future crimes, and it is more supportive of excluding these individuals from employment. Crime-first terms exacerbate perceived recidivism risk for individuals with violent convictions.

People with concealable stigmatized identities, such as a criminal record, often anticipate stigma from others. Anticipated stigma is thought to cause withdrawal from situations in which there is the potential for discrimination, which then negatively impacts behavior and functioning. This may have implications for offenders reentering the community, possibly hindering community integration and encouraging maladaptive behavior postrelease. Drawing upon a sample of 197 male jail inmates, we examine a theoretical model in which anticipated stigma during incarceration predicts behavioral outcomes 1 year after release from jail (i.e., recidivism, substance use disorder symptoms, mental health symptoms, community adjustment) through social withdrawal. Anticipated stigma during incarceration predicted social withdrawal three months postrelease, which then predicted more mental health problems 1 year postrelease. Stigma resistance and optimism buffered the effect of anticipated stigma on social withdrawal. Race moderated multiple paths in the model, suggesting that the relations between anticipated stigma, social withdrawal, and adjustment are more pronounced for White offenders.

Research Summary This study examines three central questions about criminal record inquiries on job applications, which is a rapidly developing area in criminology and public policy. We find the following: (1) Among the 78% of employers who ask about records, specific application questions vary greatly regarding the severity and timing of offenses. (2) Applications for restaurant positions are least likely to inquire about criminal histories, whereas racially diverse workplaces and establishments in the most and least advantaged neighborhoods are more likely to ask. (3) The race gap in employer callbacks is reduced when applicants have the chance to signal not having a record by answering “no,” which is consistent with theories of statistical discrimination. Policy Implications We conclude with a call to develop standards and best practices regarding inquiries about juvenile offenses, low-level misdemeanor and traffic offenses, and the applicable time span. The need for such standards is made more apparent by the unevenness of criminal record questions across employees, establishments, and neighborhoods. We also suggest best practices for Ban the Box implementation to help combat potential statistical discrimination against African American men without records. Have you been convicted of a felony using your current name or any other name? If you do not answer this question, your application will not be considered. —Job application for laborer position at waste management company

Criminal background checks are increasingly being incorporated into hiring decisions by employers. Although originally uncompromising—almost anyone with a criminal record could be denied employment—court rulings and policy changes have forced criminal background checks to become more nuanced. One motivation for allowing more individuals with criminal records to work is to decrease recidivism and encourage desistance. In this article, we estimate the causal impact of receiving a clearance to work on subsequent arrests for individuals with criminal records who have been provisionally hired to work in certain nonlicensed health-care jobs in New York State (N = 6,648). We employ an instrumental variable approach based on a substantive understanding of the state-mandated criminal background check process. We examine age-graded effects within this group of motivated individuals and differential effects by sex in the rapidly growing health-care industry, which is typically dominated by women. Our estimated local average treatment effect indicates a 2.2-percentage-point decrease in the likelihood of a subsequent arrest in 1 year and a 4.2-percentage-point decrease over 3 years. We find meaningful variations by sex; men are 8.4 percentage points less likely to be arrested over the 3-year period when cleared compared with a 2.4-percentage-point (and nonsignificant) effect for women. Older women in particular are driving the nonsignificant results for women.

Although criminal records in the United States are more publicly accessible than ever before, we lack knowledge about how record-bearers seek to overcome the negative consequences associated with a visible criminal record as they apply for jobs, housing, and financial aid. Furthermore, although criminal histories record all arrests—and not just those that result in conviction—researchers have yet to compare how those with more extensive versus minor criminal records cope with criminal record stigma. We present interview data from a comparative study of expungement-seekers (N = 53) who have petitioned the courts to remove their criminal records from public view. One group had extensive criminal records (46 percent); the other group had more minor criminal records (54 percent). Several key findings emerged. First, both groups of participants tried, but failed, to persuade potential employers and landlords to overlook the criminal record. They also faced restricted educational opportunity. Second, participants in both groups expressed distress that criminal justice contact could follow them throughout their lives, subjecting them to ongoing stigma. However, those with extensive versus minor criminal records offered different rationales explaining why the visible criminal record history unfairly burdened them. Implications for reintegration theory and policy are discussed.

Background The relationship between substance use disorders and criminal activity is strong, and one that is not easily resolved in the criminal justice system. A better understanding of personality traits among substance misusers who commit offences could support better treatment efforts. Aims The aim of this study is to explore associations between the psychopathology of people addicted to substances who have also committed crimes. Methods We recruited 263 substance-dependent individuals (80% male, 20% female) from a cohort of people attending regional community services in Italy. They all completed an extensive evaluation of their current mental health and personality traits. Their official criminal records were obtained, and the psychopathology of those who had a criminal record compared with those who did not. Results The criminal group was more likely to perceive the external world as hostile and to consider others as responsible for their own problems and difficulties; in addition, substance-dependent individuals with criminal records showed more personality traits within the psychopathy range and fewer in the dependent personality range than the substance abusers who had never committed crimes. Conclusions These findings allow us to hypothesise that substance abusers who also have criminal convictions may have a specific personality profile. If further research were to confirm this, then it could have important implications for identifying people for particular treatment pathways and developing more effective treatments. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Hard Bargains: The Coercive Power of Drug Laws in Federal Court. By 5 Mona Lynch. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2016.Feeling low on your outrage? Then read Mona Lynch's book, Hard Bargains: The Coercive Power of Drug Laws in Federal Court, which takes the reader on a journey through the convoluted and often shocking realities of federal drug trafficking policy. The book offers an exceptionally compelling account of how drug trafficking cases are selected, processed, and adjudicated in three different regions of the country (a fourth was excluded for sensible and well- explained reasons). The result is an unprecedented account of how the federal system is geared to "suppress defiance and punish non-compliance" (4). The book makes for an absorbing read as you encounter one outrage after another; yet, Lynch maintains a scien tist's stance throughout-letting the coercive use of prosecutorial power speak for itself. She offers no hyperbole and none is needed.As Lynch teases apart "how complex and competing bodies of law get interpreted and applied in the real world" (152) she uncovers a dismaying array of consequences produced by federal prosecutors' tremendous power, including the proactive punitiveness of selecting cases precisely because they will be subject to harsh sentences. Many other troubling outcomes arise from the calculation that Lynch asserts drives all federal sentencing in drug cases: drug weight multiplied by criminal record produces the appropriate sentence (60). It turns out that both of the equation's determin- ing factors are subject to interpretation ranging from exaggeration to virtual falsification. "Relevant conduct" in drug cases, for example, includes conduct gleaned from "uncorroborated reports by informers who allege and detail past drug transactions with the defendant" (emphasis added, 27). Similarly, drug weight can be based on "historical weight" in which "informants provide information that is used to estimate drug weight for alleged past trafficking acts-they tell the case law enforcement agents how much was sold, how often, and for how long" and "no drugs have to be found or tested or 39 put on the scale" for it to affect convictions and sentencing (emphasis added, 54). Together, relevant conduct and historical weight not only can severely increase a defendant's potential maximum sentence, but they point to an even more profound concern. While the merits of shifting power from judges to prosecutors deserves substantial debate, current practice comes awfully close to bestowing prosecutors with the most powerful privilege of all: defining reality itself.A key strength of Hard Bargains is how Lynch explores this theme of prosecutorial power from a variety of methodological angles. Her innovative take on conducting a "comparative case study" entails sustained observation and inquiry across and within jurisdictions coupled with longitudinal case processing data to provide context. She also utilizes a "case analytic approach" in which she followed specific cases through adjudication. This multimethod, multi-site, historically situated analysis is precisely what is needed in order to grapple productively with the complexities of the process and substance of law. Indeed, her methodology is a contribution in and of itself. 57Lynch's concise yet insightful history of drug laws reveals details such as it being rooted in an impetus to monitor health care professionals with a focus on administrative and tax compliance. It also introduces race and racism as important themes of the book. …

A conviction for drug possession blocks some of the most common pathways through which individuals from low income families achieve upward economic mobility in the United States, such as access to higher education, entry-level employment, and military service. These considerations are of growing importance because the number of drug-related arrests have nearly quadrupled since 1980. This article estimates the effect of a conviction for drug possession on earnings mobility using a sample of individuals born between 1980 and 1984, some of the first cohorts to come of age in the context of intensive U.S. drug criminalization and enforcement. To distinguish the effect of a drug conviction from the effect of drug use or general criminality, 1 compare mobility among individuals with drug convictions to control groups who self-report significant drug use and who have had interactions with the criminal justice system that did not lead to a drug conviction. I find that relative to these groups, a drug conviction reduces the probability of transitioning upward from various points in the lower half of the income distribution by 10-15 percentage points, or as much as 50%, and that these effects are substantially stronger for non-whites than for whites. These findings suggest that a policy of decriminalizing nonviolent drug possession would substantially increase intergenerational mobility among low income populations, and this effect should be weighed alongside more conventional costs and benefits in formulating optimal drug policy. (JEL J38, J15, K42) I. INTRODUCTION Major earnings gains from one generation to the next are a relative rarity in the United States, especially at the lower end of the income distribution. Recent definitive estimates from Chetty et al. (2014) using administrative tax records indicate that individuals born to parents in the bottom quintile of the income distribution have a 33.7% chance of staying in the bottom quintile of the income distribution themselves, a 71.9% chance of staying in the bottom half, and only a 7.5% chance of attaining the top quintile. (1) A large theoretical and empirical literature has investigated possible mechanisms through which parents transmit economic status to their children, such as the genetic inheritance of traits associated with earnings and parental investments in their children's human capital (see Black and Devereux 2010 and Solon 1999 for reviews). However, even taking these biological and family-level transmission processes as fixed, both common sense and existing research suggest a few basic pathways through which individuals coming from the lower portions of the income distribution effectively achieve improved earnings. In particular, children of low income parents who realize improved economic status frequently do so by increasing their educational attainment, particularly at the postsecondary level by obtaining entry-level employment that offers human capital acquisition and internal promotion opportunities or by serving in the military, which often includes on the job training as well as access to educational financing. This study is motivated by the observation that these basic strategies for realizing upward mobility are severely hampered by a conviction for drug use. Specifically, in the United States, individuals with a drug conviction are typically ineligible for federal student aid, introducing a potentially important credit constraint for higher education. Criminal convictions have also been shown to disrupt early life human capital accumulation more generally (Aizer and Doyle 2013; Azarnert 2010), and a drug conviction makes it difficult or impossible for an otherwise qualified individual to enlist in the military. Large literatures additionally find that criminal convictions directly reduce entry-level employment opportunities, where a clean criminal record is often a primary qualification (Grogger 1995; Kling 2006; Waldfogel 1994a, 1994b; Western 2002). …

The authors analyzed whether the effect of marriage on recidivism varied by spousal criminality. For this purpose, they used propensity score matching and full population data from Statistics Denmark on all unmarried and previously convicted men from birth cohorts 1965–1985 (N = 102,839). The results showed that marriage reduced recidivism compared to nonmarriage only when the spouse had no criminal record. Similarly, marriage to a nonconvicted spouse reduced recidivism significantly more than marriage to a convicted spouse. These findings not only underline how important marriage is for social integration but also stress the heterogeneous nature of the protective effects of marriage.

Ample experimental evidence shows that the stigma of a prison record reduces employment opportunities (Pager, 2007). Yet background checks today uncover a much broader range of impropriety, including arrests for minor crimes never resulting in formal charges. This article probes the lesser boundaries of stigma, asking whether and how employers consider low-level arrests in hiring decisions. Matched pairs of young African American and White men were sent to apply for 300 entry-level jobs, with one member of each pair reporting a disorderly conduct arrest that did not lead to conviction. We find a modest but nontrivial effect, with employer callback rates about 4 percentage points lower for the experimental group than for the matched control group. Interviews with the audited employers suggest three mechanisms to account for the lesser stigma of misdemeanor arrests relative to felony convictions: 1) greater employer discretion and authority in the former case; 2) calibration of the severity, nature, and timing of the offense; and 3) a deeply held presumption of innocence, which contrasts the uncertainty of arrest with the greater certainty represented by convictions. In addition, personal contact and workplace diversity play important roles in the hiring process.

BACKGROUND: Although self-reported and official measures of criminal behaviour are highly correlated, the concordance between self-reports and official records appears to vary across the population. Few studies, however, have considered the range of individual traits and characteristics that might influence the relative accuracy of self-reports and official records. METHOD: Using data collected from the Australian Temperament Project, we investigated the concordance between official records and self-reports together with some of the factors that might influence it. RESULTS: Those with criminal records were 3.5 times more likely to report police contact than those with no criminal record. However, there were significant sources of individual-level variation in their convergence, and notably honest respondents were less likely to report an interaction with police. Those at risk of crime and delinquency were less likely to consent to official records searches. CONCLUSIONS: Many individual characteristics that predisposed individuals towards a criminal career also affected their willingness to consent to official records searches and the concordance between criminal records and self-reports. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Language: en

In society, employment is often considered to be a prerequisite to full membership and inclusion, so much so that it is considered an essential factor in the rehabilitation of offenders and their reintegration into the community. Accessing the labour market however, is arguably one of the biggest difficulties facing ex-offenders. This difficulty is best understood as a process that begins prior to incarceration. There is a substantial body of research which demonstrates that many offenders come from disadvantaged backgrounds, have poor qualifications and find it extremely difficult to acquire meaningful stable employment. On release, ex-offenders often remain ill-equipped to cope with the realities of life after incarceration, and poor employment histories and job skills, in addition to having a criminal record, create diminished opportunities for such individuals. This article seeks to examine the barriers that may exist to successful reintegration of ex-offenders through participation in the workforce.

This study conducted in the Ahvaz Correction Centre (ACC) in 2008 explored the relationship between variables such as drug abuse and sexual abuse and homelessness among children. The sample consisted of 28 children (mean age = 14.5 years) selected by snowball sampling. Data were collected by social workers practising in the ACC. The mean age of children beginning life on the streets was 11.71 years, and the group lived on the streets, on average, for 2.69 years. The group was held in the ACC, on average, for 11.68 months. Sexual abuse and drug abuse were common behaviours among the children, and robust relationships were found between these variables and age during the first experience of shelter-seeking. The children had committed crimes such as pick-pocketing, sexual abuse against other children, drug addiction and drug trafficking. It was found that many of their families had a history of conflict and/or divorce and most children had a family member with a criminal record. The children were also disadvantaged by a lack of education, with illiteracy common among them and their parents. A significant relationship was established between the children's family situation and the length of their detention (r = 0.47), while children who maintained links with their family members were less likely to return to crime after release from the centre. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. ‘A history of conflict and/or divorce and most had a family member with a criminal record’ Key Practitioner Messages In this sample of street children in Iran, half had begun living on the streets before the age of 11 years. A majority of the children had engaged in criminal behaviours, particularly the misuse of drugs. Many of these children had either perpetrated or been victims of sexual abuse while living on the streets. Criminality in the family of origin was a common finding.

While substantial sociolegal research has analyzed the deleterious effects of criminal records on life outcomes, little has examined the records themselves, or their relationship to the people they represent. In this article I take a novel tact, treating criminal records as the material, textual documentations of an individual's past. I then observe expungement seekers-people who encounter their own records-to understand their reactions. From this data, I use inductive theories of symbolic interactionism to theorize another collateral effect of the criminal record: it represents people in ways that depersonalize their social identities, and prevents them from communicating corrective self-understandings to the governing bodies that author the records. I conclude with my main theoretical contribution: "having a criminal record," literally, means having a textual proxy that the state has authored on its own terms, without input from the people whom it permanently represents, and while concealing from those people the apparatus behind authorship. As a consequence, the criminal records system serves as a barrier to reciprocal communication between ex-arrestees and a legal system that represents them in ways that they may want to contest. This "wrongful representation" is a collateral effect of having a criminal record that impedes the ability of ex-arrestees to manage or repair their relationship with the state that has punished them.Sociolegal scholars have demonstrated the socially rupturing effects of having a criminal record. People with records are barred from jobs, housing, and forms of public aid. They often cannot vote. Their personal, family, and community ties may suffer, and they are subject to increasingly elaborate types of public surveillance. Much of this work treats the criminal record as general source of information about past involvement with the criminal justice system, focusing on what happens when knowledge of such history becomes available to employers, agencies, law enforcement, and the like. In this article I document and theorize another aspect of the criminal record: it exists as a material, textual set of documents. Whether paper or electronic, records are not just sources of information; they are literal records, complete with a format, coding scheme, and typographic errors. Recognizing this material property of criminal records leads to the inquiry that I address in this article: what happens when peoples' criminal records become available to themselves, and what can this process reveal about the long term social consequences that former subjects of the criminal justice system experience?I analyze the unique legal process of expungement to show that when people encounter their criminal records, a process of truncated interaction unfolds, in which people try to re-negotiate how they appear in text, but are unable to succeed because no communicative channels exist through which subjects can advance their self-perceptions to state record-keepers. People experience this "effect" of their criminal record when they encounter them long after criminal justice involvement has terminated, and apart from their instrumental desires to manage their records in order to obtain employment or other benefits. The literal criminal record thus serves to constrain the ability of some former subjects of the criminal justice system to assert their own self-understandings, even as they comprehend the extent to which their records distort them.In the sections that follow I briefly review sociolegal literatures that begin to theorize the criminal record, but stop short of treating it as a material account that its subjects may confront face-to-face. I then discuss symbolic interactionism as the theory that emerged inductively from my fieldwork on expungement. Using ethnographic data, I document and theorize four common reactions that expungement seekers experienced when they confronted their own textual records: dispersion, categorization, conflation, and multiplication of the self. …

Sociolegal scholars suggest that regulatory encounters often are occasions for displaying a surface compliance decoupled from day-to-day practice. Yet ethnographic data from five highly regulated HIV clinics show that regulatory encounters open opportunities both for ritualism and-surprisingly-for transcending ritualism. Using a theatrical analogy, we argue that improv performance is the technology that enables regulatory inspectors and clinic staffto transcend ritualism. As regulatory encounters unfold, clinics' carefully prepared performances sometimes change into more cooperative interactions where inspectors and regulatees hash out details about how rules will be applied and even work together on reports for the regulators' supervisors. By "performing together," regulatory inspectors gain access to the clinic's backstage where they can assess clinic workers' deeper conformity to ethical and scientific norms. But such joint performances are less likely where cultural divides and material scarcity make it difficult for clinic staffto gain inspectors' trust.In 2009, the FDA began the process of disqualifying Chicago HIV specialist Dr. Daniel Berger as a clinical researcher, charging that he had "failed to protect the rights, safety and welfare of subjects under [his] care, repeatedly or deliberately submitted false information to the sponsor and repeatedly or deliberately failed to comply with the cited [federal] regulations, which placed unnecessary risks to human subjects and jeopardized the integrity of data."1 The infractions were serious: forged or missing signatures; falsified records of physical examinations, electrocardiograms, and laboratory results; enrolling of patients without adequate checks on their eligibility; and disappearance of over two hundred tablets of investigational drugs. Ultimately Berger proved that the fraud was traceable to a research coordinator who was embezzling research subjects' stipends. But Berger had not adequately supervised the employee's work and had failed to uncover his criminal record in pre-employment screening. After months of negotiations, the FDA agreed that Berger could continue conducting drug studies, with the stipulation that an outside monitor review his work.So how was the fraud uncovered? In 2008 and 2009, a clinical trials monitor noted anomalies in signatures on consent forms and other documents and reported these findings to the FDA, which began an investigation. Here the irregularities were paired with and concealed by forged signatures, making them relatively easy to uncover in routine monitoring. But noncompliance may not always occur in tandem with surface irregularities and may not be visible unless a monitor can secure access to the "backstage" of a clinic's operation. It is the process and effects of getting backstage that this article explores.Seemingly detached from the serious work of science and treatment, the regulatory encounters we discuss entail arcane rules and endless paperwork. Such regulatory work is just the place where we might expect ritualistic adherence to the "letter of the law." In fact, though, the stakes are very high and regulatory encounters can move well beyond ritualism, as Berger and his research coordinator learned. Clinical research and treatment programs are multimillion dollar enterprises. Without assurance of ethical and scientific integrity in data collection, clinical trial results cannot withstand FDA scrutiny, jeopardizing patients' access to safe and effective drugs and therapies. For government and industry sponsors, regulatory inspections provide crucial evidence that they have invested in scientifically and ethically sound research. And as Berger's case illustrates, researchers' and clinics' access to future research and treatment funding depends on demonstrated compliance with regulations. Mostly the stakes of regulation remain as background in the encounters between monitors and clinic workers. But episodically, clinic staffworried about how they could continue vital work if they lost funding and monitors reflected on their pride in ensuring the integrity of important medical research. …

Despite long-standing diagnostic controversies concerning the construct of psychopathy, it is widely considered to be a personality disorder (and likely will be deemed so in the DSM-V), emerging early in life and persisting across the life span. This chapter aims to provide practitioners with the current state of knowledge surrounding psychopathy and criminal careers. We first provide a background on the temporal stability of psychopathy, after which we examine the trajectories of different types of offenders, including young offenders, violent offenders, and sex offenders. As such, practitioners can consider the relevant section of the chapter to aid in understanding and making prognostications about the particular client at hand.

The Case of the Piglet's Paternity: Trials from the New Haven Colony, 1639-1663 Jon C. Blue. Wesleyan University Press, 2015.The Case of the Piglet's Paternity: Trials from the New Haven Colony, 1639-1663 sheds light on the social, cultural, legal, and moral lives of the Puritans. The Case of the Piglet's Paternity is named after a notorious sex case in which a man was brought to trial after having been accused of having sex with a pig and producing a piglet that looked like him in the face. From examining language use, what is revealed or left unsaid, the charges against the individual and the punishments, as well as the guiding principles and beliefs of the judges and how the court system worked, Jon C. Blue, judge of the Connecticut Superior Court, has recovered forgotten court records published almost two centuries ago and has vividly reconstructed the trials and recorded testimony. Examining thirty-three cases that occurred between 1639 and 1663, the author has written not just a legal history, a modern record of the past, but has written an engaging and intelligent microhistory of this time period and colony that nonlegal scholars can understand.Blue reveals the humans involved-from privateers to Quakers, from farmhands to shoemakers, men, women, and children. The individuals in the various cases often reappear in other ones. He points out how this colonial judicial system was both ahead of and behind its contemporary peers in England and other colonies, where it differed in its decision making process, and even how it looked as a forerunner to the current US system. The legal issues at hand range from witchcraft to bestiality to sinful behavior, and the ages of the characters vary as well. The introduction examines the creation of the colony and the judicial system at New Haven Colony in order to lay the groundwork for understanding the cases brought to trial and why they were handled the way they were or heard at all.Each of the cases is fascinating in its own way, from what it says, or doesn't say, about an individual's rights and the cultural expectations. Some cases are all too frustratingly familiar. Blue examines a sexual harassment case of Goodwife Fancy who worked for other families doing menial labor. Culturally, Goodwife Fancy had three strikes against belief in her testimony: she was female, she was of low station, and she had a criminal record. This problematic cultural bias will ring familiar to readers who pay attention to the news today. Though Goodwife Fancy's employer, Mark Meggs, was found guilty of a "'sinful and lustful attempt'" (61), and he was dealt a whipping, Goodwife Fancy and her husband were both severely whipped on the orders of the court as well. …

Objective: This study aimed to identify the pathways through which a preventive intervention targeting young low-SES disruptive boys could result in lower crime involvement during adulthood. Method: The preventive intervention was implemented when the children were between 7 and 9 years and included three components (i.e. social skills, parental practices, teacher support). Participants (N = 250) were randomly allocated to the intervention or to a control group. The tested pathways included antisocial behaviour, school engagement, parental supervision and friends’ deviancy, both during early and middle adolescence. Crime involvement was assessed in early adulthood. Results: The intervention reduced adult criminal involvement via reduced early and middle adolescent antisocial behaviours. Conclusion: This study adds to the small group of studies that have examined the mechanisms through which early preventive interventions might impact distal outcomes. Keywords: Early intervention, disruptive behaviour, explanatory pathways, criminal record, males.

Aim To examine the linkage between bullying behaviour in early childhood and any subsequent contact with the criminal justice system. Methods A Canadian sample (570 boys and 379 girls) was derived from clients who participated in the evidenced-based programme, SNAP(®) (STOP NOW AND PLAN), between 2001 and 2009. A court order was obtained to access any criminal record data on participants. The Early Assessment Risk Lists (EARL-20B and EARL-21G) and the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) were used to identify level of risk and bullying behaviour. Outcome variables included age the child first came in contact with the criminal justice system and frequency. Results Logistic and Cox regression analyses indicate that the risk of onset of criminal offence for bullies was significantly higher than for non-bullies. The hazard of criminal offence for bullies is 1.9 times (95% CI: 1.1-3.2) than that of non-bullies. This holds true even when adjusted for age, gender and other risk factors. Conclusion We found a strong linkage between bullying behaviour during childhood and subsequent criminal offending after the age of 12. Criminal convictions for bullies were nearly twice as high for non-bullies up to the child's 18th birthday. EARLs were effective in differentiating risk associated with bullying. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Language: en

Criminal record checks are being used increasingly by decision makers to predict future unwanted behaviors. A central question these decision makers face is how much time it takes before offenders can be considered “redeemed” and resemble nonoffenders in terms of the probability of offending. Building on a small literature addressing this topic for youthful, first-time offenders, the current article asks whether this period differs across the age of last conviction and the total number of prior convictions. Using long-term longitudinal data on a Dutch conviction cohort, we find that young novice offenders are redeemed after approximately 10 years of remaining crime free. For older offenders, the redemption period is considerably shorter. Offenders with extensive criminal histories, however, either never resemble their nonconvicted counterparts or only do so after a crime-free period of more than 20 years. Practical and theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.

This article reviews what international evidence exists on the impact of civil and criminal sanctions upon serious tax noncompliance by individuals. This construct lacks sharp definitional boundaries but includes large tax fraud and large-scale evasion that are not dealt with as fraud. Although substantial research and theory have been developed on general tax evasion and compliance, their conclusions might not apply to large-scale intentional fraudsters. No scientifically defensible studies directly compared civil and criminal sanctions for tax fraud, although one U.S. study reported that significantly enhanced criminal sanctions have more effects than enhanced audit levels. Prosecution is public, whereas administrative penalties are confidential, and this fact encourages those caught to pay heavy penalties to avoid publicity, a criminal record, and imprisonment. Policy Implications. Although it has yet to be proven that prosecution has a greater or lesser impact on these offenders, increased prosecution might be justified for purposes of moral retribution as well as perceived social fairness.

This article reviews what international evidence exists on the impact of civil and criminal sanctions upon serious tax noncompliance by individuals. This construct lacks sharp definitional boundaries but includes large tax fraud and large-scale evasion that are not dealt with as fraud. Although substantial research and theory have been developed on general tax evasion and compliance, their conclusions might not apply to large-scale intentional fraudsters. No scientifically defensible studies directly compared civil and criminal sanctions for tax fraud, although one U.S. study reported that significantly enhanced criminal sanctions have more effects than enhanced audit levels. Prosecution is public, whereas administrative penalties are confidential, and this fact encourages those caught to pay heavy penalties to avoid publicity, a criminal record, and imprisonment.

Participants rated hypothetical prisoners with respect to their suitability for a place on a British Home Office electronic monitoring (tagging) program. Five dichotomous variables (gender, race, previous criminal record, dependents, skill level) were combined in a factorial fashion to generate 32 descriptions. Females were favored over males; first-time offenders over those with a criminal record; individuals with dependents over those with no dependents; and the skilled over the unskilled. White participants favored White prisoners over Black, while the reverse was true for Black participants. Those with a negative attribute (criminal record) attracted lower priority ratings than did White prisoners with a record, but those with a positive attribute attracted higher ratings than did White first-time offenders.

Large numbers of individuals are involved in the criminal justice system. Upon release, most have difficulty finding employment and stabilizing economic resources, which contribute to recidivism. To date, the role of work in the lives of ex-offenders has virtually been ignored in the vocational literature. The purpose of this article is to increase awareness of this group by highlighting vocational implications of having a criminal record; reviewing existing interventions demonstrated to be beneficial (e.g., teaching skills prior to release, restorative justice interventions); and providing suggestions to more readily include this group in future practice, research, and policy. Approximately 1 in 31 people in the United States were on parole or probation or were in jail Or prison (federal or state) in 2004 (U.S. Department of Justice, 2005); a disproportionate number of these individuals arc members of underrcpresented racial/ethnic groups (Harrison & Beck, 2005). O'Brien (2002) asserted that upon release, most individuals who have criminal records (known as ex-offenders) have difficulty finding employment and are therefore unable to stabilize economic resources and become reintegrated into society. A number of researchers (e.g., Bradley, 1985; Menon, Blakely, Carmichael, & Snow, 1995; O'Brien, 2002) have documented that this inability to gain employment upon release is related to increased rates of recidivism. Others (e.g., Filella-Guiu & Blanch-Piana, 2002; Menon et al., 1995) have argued that the transition from incarceration to society is a crucial time for ex-offenders that may be significantly affected by whether they secure stable employment. Some prerelease career development program research (e.g., Vernick ck Reardon, 2001), postrelease employment program research (e.g., Chartrand & Rose, 1996), and research (e.g., O'Brien, 2001; Schaefer, Friedlander, Blustein, & Maruna, 2004; Shivy et al., 2007) investigating the role of career in the lives of individuals with criminal records has been conducted. To date, however, ex-offenders have virtually been ignored in the vocational literature as well as in traditional theories of career development. Given the large number of ex-offenders being reintegrated into communities and the link between unemployment and recidivism, there is a sizable population of men and women who are in need of services from career counselors. The purpose of this article, therefore, is to increase knowledge and awareness by (a) highlighting some implications of having a criminal record; (b) reviewing existing pre- and postrelease vocational interventions for ex-offenders in an effort to identify strategies that have been demonstrated to be beneficial; and (c) providing avenues to better include this population in practice, research, and policy initiatives. Although the consequences of crimes differ as a result of a number of factors, for the purposes of this article, we are referring broadly to individuals who are convicted of a crime and have a misdemeanor or felony criminal record. Implications of Having a Criminal Record for Ex-Offenders Researchers from a number of disciplines (e.g., Bazemore & Stinchcomb, 2004; Bradley, 1985; Chartrand & Rose, 1996; Cooke, 2004; Harris & Keller, 2005; Holzer, Raphael, & Stoll, 2003; McMurray, 1993; Menon et al., 1995; O'Brien, 2001, 2002; Petersilia, 2001; Rakis, 2005; Schaefer et al., 2004; Shivy et al., 2007) have long attempted to understand the implications of having a criminal record on the social adjustment and employment potential of individuals. These researchers (e.g., Chartrand & Rose, 1996; Harris & Keller, 2005; Pager & Quillian, 2005; Petersilia, 2001) have demonstrated that ex-offenders face considerable stigma, both overtly and covertly, from the community at large as well as from potential employers, which contributes to difficulty obtaining and maintaining employment. …

This study examined telephone bomb threats and offender characteristics in Japan (N = 101). The results showed that the most frequent offenders were middle-aged men (mean 42.6 years), motivated by desire for money (46%), resentment (26%), or diversion (24%). In the case of female offenders, most were connected with the targets (83%). Categorical principle component analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis differentiated the offenders into three themes. ‘Instrumental’ offenders telephoned the target directly (e.g. a bank or department store), demanding money by public phone. ‘Expressive/affective’ offenders motivated by resentment telephoned from their home and almost never had a criminal record. ‘Expressive/cognitive’ offenders motivated by diversion targeted railways and mostly telephoned emergency numbers. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

When can ex-offenders with no further convictions be considered as exhibiting the same risk of reconviction as non-offenders? This issue is relevant for the retention and disclosure of early criminal records, and is a controversial issue. Replicating American work by Kurlychek and his colleagues (2006, 2007), this study focusing on England and Wales broadly endorses their findings by suggesting that groups whose members have either a finding of guilt as a juvenile or a conviction between the ages of 17 and 20 years – but no further convictions – converge with the non-offending group at around the age of 30 years, while the group whose members have findings of guilt as a juvenile and convictions as a young adult prior to 21 years eventually converges with the other groups at around the age of 35 years. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are considered.

Criminal background checks have now become ubiquitous because of advances in information technology and growing concerns about employer liability. Also, a large number of individual criminal records have accumulated and have been computerized in state repositories and commercial databases. As a result, many ex-offenders seeking employment could be haunted by a stale record. Recidivism probability declines with time “clean,” so some point in time is reached when a person with a criminal record, who remained free of further contact with the criminal justice system, is of no greater risk than a counterpart of the same age—an indication of redemption from the mark of crime. Very little information exists on this measure of time until redemption and on how its value varies with the crime type and the offender's age at the time of the earlier event. Using data from a state criminal-history repository, we estimate the declining hazard of rearrest with time clean. We first estimate a point of redemption as the time when the hazard intersects the age–crime curve, which represents the arrest risk for the general population of the same age. We also estimate another similar redemption point when the declining hazard comes “sufficiently close” to the hazard of those who have never been arrested. We estimate both measures of redemption as a function of the age and the crime type of the earlier arrest. These findings aid in the development of guidelines for the users of background checking and in developing regulations to enhance employment opportunities for ex-offenders.

Previous studies in forensic patients with schizophrenia have shown that delinquent patients may outperform nondelinquent patients with regards to "theory of mind" (ToM). Findings were, however, confounded by a lack of control for executive functioning. We examined 33 forensic patients with schizophrenia regarding ToM, intelligence, executive functioning, and psychopathology. Results were compared with a nonforensic schizophrenia sample and a group of healthy controls. Both patient groups performed more poorly on most measures compared with controls. Forensic and nonforensic patients did not differ in task performance. In the forensic group ToM correlated inversely with "excitement" and cognitive symptoms. When "excitement" was covaried out, forensic patients outperformed nonforensic patients with regards to ToM. This study supports the hypothesis that schizophrenic patients with a criminal record are equally impaired in their ability to infer mental states compared with nonforensic patients, but for different reasons associated with a divergent psychopathological profile.

Purpose. This study investigated the influence of psychopath ya nd sex offender subtype on criminal history, probability of being granted conditional release ,a nd performance while on conditional release in ad iverse group of violent offenders. We predicted that psychopathic sexual offenders would be associated with relatively prolific violent and sexual offending, ah igh probability of successful conditional release applications despite their past behaviour (resulting from ‘putting on ag ood show’ in a parole hearing), and poor performance in the community. Methods. Information was gathere dv ia ac orrectional file review of 310 Canadian male federal offenders. Offenders wer ec ategorized into groups based on their sexual offence histor y( non-sex offender ,r apist, child molester ,o rm ixed rapist/molester) and Psychopath yC hecklist –R evised (PCL-R; Hare, 2003) ratings. Their offences (sexual, violent, or non-violent) and their complete conditional release histories wer ec oded. Results. Psychopath yw as associated with more violent and non-violent, but not sexual, offences. As ignificant interaction between psychopath ya nd offender subtype revealed that psychopath yw as associated with ag reater number of sex offences within child molesters. High-psychopath yo ffenders (both sexual and non-sexual offenders) wer ea bout 2.5 times more likely to be granted conditional release than nonpsychopathic offenders. Conclusions. Psychopath yi sa ssociated with more prolific sexual offending among child molesters and –d espite their extensiv ec riminal histories and high recidivism rate –a great proficiency in persuading parole boards to release them into the community. Specialized education and training in dealing with psychopathic offenders is urgently needed.

It is close to a criminological truism that the lack of a legitimate job fosters criminality and, conversely, that holding a legitimate job diminishes criminal conduct. Consequently, many criminologists and social reformers have long advocated programs to expand employment opportunities for ex-offenders, particularly for those who have served prison time. Strategies for improving employability of ex-offenders include providing ex-offenders with basic education and job-specific training, assisting in identifying potential employment opportunities, interceding on the job seeker’s behalf with prospective employers, and eliminating de jure and de facto employment discrimination against ex-offenders. Many federal and state laws make ex-offenders, or at least certain categories of ex-offenders, ineligible to obtain employment licenses or to work in organizations serving children, the elderly, and other vulnerable populations (Love, 2006). In fact, such laws have proliferated during the past two decades on account of tough-on-crime politics and heightened post-9/11 security concerns. The reentry movement has cast a bright light on these collateral consequences of conviction and has urged a wholesale review and reform of them (American Bar Association, 2004; Travis, 2005). We agree with reentry proponents that de jure prohibitions on exoffender employment are far too overbroad and that many should be repealed. In this article, however, we focus on de facto discrimination to highlight a recent trend for cities to voluntarily stop asking for criminal background information from applicants seeking city employment and, in some instances, employment with vendors who contract with the city (National Employment Law Project (NELP), 2007). By recognizing that society has much to lose by excluding ex-offenders from legitimate employment opportunities, several cities such as Boston, San Francisco, and Minneapolis have agreed to “ban the box” on initial job applications that ask applicants about past criminal convictions. These cities have committed themselves not to discriminate against ex-offenders and not to consider an applicant’s prior criminal record unless it is clearly related to the requirements of a particular position. This welcome step, if successful, might persuade other public and private employers to stop discriminating against job applicants with a criminal record.

Research Summary: This research explores the issue of old prior records and their ability to predict future offending. In particular, we are interested in the question of whether, after a given period of time, the risk of recidivism for a person who has been arrested in the distant past is ever indistinguishable from that of a population of persons with no prior arrests. Two well-documented empirical facts guide our investigation: (1) Individuals who have offended in the past are relatively more likely to offend in the future, and (2) the risk of recidivism declines as the time since the last criminal act increases. We find that immediately after an arrest, the knowledge of this prior record does significantly differentiate this population from a population of nonoffenders. However, these differences weaken dramatically and quickly over time so that the risk of new offenses among those who last offended six or seven years ago begins to approximate (but not match) the risk of new offenses among persons with no criminal record. Policy Implications: Individuals with official records of past offending behavior encounter a barrier when they try to obtain employment, even if a person's most recent offense occurred in the distant past. There are many reasons for such obstacles, but they are at least partially premised on the concern that individuals with arrest records—even from the distant past—are more likely to offend in the future than persons with no criminal history. Our analysis questions the logic of such practices and suggests that after a given period of remaining crime free, it may be prudent to wash away the brand of “offender” and open up more legitimate opportunities to this population.

The problems of prisoner reentry are by now well known to academics and policymakers. With over two million individuals currently incarcerated, and over 12 million individuals with prior felony convictions, the challenge of integrating this large and growing population has become an urgent priority. Employment is widely considered a centerpiece of the reentry process, with evidence that steady work can reduce the incentives that lead to crime (Bushway and Reuter, 1997; Travis, 2005). And yet, hindering this goal, we know that ex-offenders face bleak prospects in the labor market, with the mark of a criminal record representing an important barrier to finding work (Pager, 2003). Indeed, more than 60% of employers claim that they would not knowingly hire an applicant with a criminal background (Holzer, 1996). Overcoming the barriers to employment facing ex-offenders, then, represents an important challenge for policies aimed at effective prisoner reentry. At the same time, it is important to keep in mind that the employment of ex-offenders is not necessarily without cost. Employers bear the burden of theft and violence in the workplace, as well as the more mundane problems of unreliable staff and employee turnover. With respect to each of these concerns, a criminal record is arguably a relevant signal. Indeed, to the extent that the past is a strong predictor of the future, a conviction conveys some information about the likelihood of future illegal, dangerous, or debilitating forms of behavior. Employers thus have good reason to be cautious about hiring individuals with known criminal pasts. Any policy designed to promote the employment of ex-offenders will have to address the real and perceived risks facing employers who hire individuals with criminal records. How then can we balance our interests in promoting the employment of ex-offenders with the desire to safeguard those employers who stand at the front lines of reentry initiatives? To date, most policies focusing on exoffenders have emphasized either “promoting reentry” or “reducing risk.” The first of these approaches seeks to facilitate employment for exoffenders through various strategies, such as establishing antidiscrimination legislation, removing legal barriers, providing job training and placement services and the like. By contrast, those focused on

Illicit drug users are generally considered both patients and criminals in Taiwan. This study presents drug use behaviors and criminal recidivism of male subjects incarcerated for illicit drug use in Taiwan after detoxification at a detention center. This study also examined the relationship between drug use behaviors and subsequent recidivism. Charts and crime records of 794 male patients from the acute detoxification unit in a detention center in northern Taiwan were reviewed. These subjects were incarcerated for methamphetamine or/and heroin use. The authors examined the relationship between the variables collected during detoxification and subsequent recidivism of illicit drug use in the following 5 years after detoxification. Of 794 subjects, 539 (67.9%) were repeat offenders during the following 5 years after detoxification. Their recidivism occurred primarily within the first 2 years after being released into the community. The recidivism rate for heroin users was significantly higher than that of methamphetamine users. Aged under 30 years, a previous criminal record, and a positive urine analyses test for illicit drugs upon entering the detoxification unit were significantly associated with recidivism. Recidivism rates of illicit drug users in Taiwan after detoxification in the detention center were substantially high. The efficacy of detoxification programs at detention centers in Taiwan needs to be re-evaluated.

Violent and criminal behavior in the mentally ill remains an issue of major importance and in this context the role of comorbid substance abuse must be addressed. Data on criminal behavior in 282 men with schizophrenia and 261 men with affective disorder were studied. Samples of patients with and without additional substance abuse were compared. Also, non-abusing patients from both diagnostic groups were compared with matched controls from the general population. Substance abuse was found in half of all men in both groups of major mental disorders, and substance abusers had twice as high a probability of having a criminal record. However, compared with the matched sample from the general population, violent criminality was increased in schizophrenic patients without comorbid substance abuse, and patients with affective disorders without substance abuse had a higher probability of committing crimes against property. Men with major mental disorder have an increased probability of becoming criminal even when there is no comorbid substance abuse.

This study considers the role of organizations in relation to identity theft from three perspectives: as a site of identity use (and misuse), as detectors of identity theft, and ultimately, as a site where a fundamental social imperative exists to ensure responsible action is taken to address this form of criminality. Through investigating the organizational--individual victim dynamic, this article examines how organizations react to the possibilities of identity fraud and draws out the implications of this for individual consumers in scenarios of identity theft. The evidence presented leads to a critical examination of the issues confronting organizations in seeking to anticipate and respond to these criminal acts. ********** Identity theft threatens the very essence of an individual's sense of self and his or her capacity to participate in society. The consequences of this form of criminality are significant and wide-ranging, with current assessments of its impacts exceeding billions of dollars each year (Cuganesan and Lacey 2003; Cabinet Office [U.K.] 2002; General Accounting Office [U.S.] 1998, 2002). Available evidence indicates that identity theft is becoming increasingly attractive for perpetrators vis-a-vis other forms of crime. In the United States, for example, identity theft is described as growing at a rate of 30% per year, with its losses estimated at reaching $8 billion by 2005 (Supreme Court of the State of Florida 2002). Although improved awareness and reporting may be partially responsible, these trends are nonetheless of concern to the individual consumer. The loss of funds and/or other forms of property, a tarnished credit history, and a criminal record are all potential outcomes for the identity theft victim, with ongoing consequences for the ability to secure employment, obtain goods and services on credit, travel freely, and participate in the wider society in a generally unencumbered fashion. In fact, merely seeking to reestablish an identity can result in ongoing denial of services for the victim, such as access to existing accounts and execution of existing contracts. Investigating identity theft and the current environment of responses is thus timely. Although the formulation of identity theft responses is increasingly dominating the agenda of governments, policy formulators, legislators, and researchers, often overlooked is the important function of organizations in enabling and preventing identity theft. As discussed herein, the role of organizations in relation to identity theft is threefold: as a site of identity use (and misuse); as detectors of identity theft; and, ultimately, as a site where a fundamental social imperative exists to ensure responsible action is taken to address this form of criminality, an imperative based on the increasingly accepted notion that organizations are responsible for the long-term well-being and sustainability of the broader community (Executive Committee of World Business Council for Sustainable Development 2002; Maignan, Hillebrand, and McAlister 2002; Newson 2002). Consequently, it is important to consider organizational initiatives in formulating holistic policy responses to identity theft. While focused on issues of identity theft, this article draws from a research program seeking to measure the nature, cost, and extent of the broader construct of identity fraud. Identity theft involves an individual falsely representing him- or herself as another real person for some unlawful activity (General Accounting Office 1998; Identity Theft Assumption and Deterrence Act of 1998). In contrast, identity fraud comprises both the illegal use of a real person's identity (identity theft) as well as that of a fictitious identity (Main and Robson 2001; Cabinet Office 2002). Thus, identity theft is a narrower subset of identity fraud. Of importance are the implications of this for the organizational--individual victim dynamic. For the individual consumer to be impacted, the crime must be one of identity theft. …

Background Estimates of the probabilities of re-arrest for sex offenders apprehended in Western Australia between April 1984 and December 1994 are reported. Population and method Of the 116,151 distinct male persons arrested for the first time from 1984–94, 2785 were identified with at least one sex offence. Subjects on average were followed up for 5.7 years and assessed by criminal record, Aboriginality, bail status, age, occupation and penal intervention. Three criteria, rearrest for any, repeat sex or a violent offence are used to summarize the ‘careers’ of sex offenders. Results Overall ultimate probabilities of rearrest for any offence were 0.61, for a repeat sex offence 0.33 and for a violent offence 0.51. Probabilities of re-arrest for non-Aboriginal offenders were lower for all definitions. Younger offenders, Aborigines and those with prior arrest for non-sex offences had higher probabilities for any or violent rearrest but older offenders tended to have higher probabilities of repeat sex offending. Community supervision and imprisonment significantly reduced the ‘rate’ or speed of re-arrest. Discussion Actuarial risk assessments for low-probability high-consequence events such as dangerous recidivism are useful for identifying groups with a high probability of rearrest, assisting management of these groups and evaluating penal interventions. Copyright © 2003 Whurr Publishers Ltd.

Purpose. To investigate whether and to what extent the thematic structure of crime scene actions in arsons identified in Canter and Fritzon (1998) is replicated for juvenile firesetters and to explore whether any associations between the crime scene action themes and offender characteristics would be evident. Methods. The crime scene actions and offender characteristics of 61 male and 5 female juvenile firesetters (aged 6-17 years) were examined. The data were drawn from a larger database originally collected and content analysed in Fritzon (1998). In total, 43 dichotomous crime scene actions, 17 offender background characteristics and offender criminal record variables had been coded. Smallest space analysis was employed to examine the configuration of crime scene action and offender characteristic variables. The associations between the crime scene actions and offender characteristics, as well as the criminal record variables, were analysed using the correlation. Results. Distinct structural themes for crime scene actions were found in juvenile firesetting, similar to those identified in Canter and Fritzon (1998). Contrary to Canter and Fritzon, only two groups of background characteristics were identified, depressed and delinquent, the latter being more common and related to an instrumental form of firesetting. The expressive form of firesetting was associated with offenders' psychopathology and female gender. The presence of a crime scene action theme was associated with the offender's age. Conclusions. The structural themes of firesetting behaviour appear to transpire early. The background characteristics of juvenile firesetters indicate that juvenile firesetting is often associated with antisocial behaviour and psychopathology, deserving, therefore, disparate prevention, intervention and investigation programmes.

Objective: This study was designed to compare the rate of past criminal behavior among male patients being discharged from forensic and general psychiatric hospitals in four countries. Method: Discharged consecutive patients from eight sites, four general and four forensic psychiatric, were included and asked for participation. Transcripts of past criminal behavior were available for this study. Analyses were limited to men with schizophrenia. Results: One in five of the general psychiatric patients had a criminal record. The criminal histories of the offenders in the general and forensic hospitals were similar, except that all patients who had killed were treated in forensic hospitals. Conclusion: The results point to the need to assess the risk of violent behavior among general psychiatric patients in order to provide them with appropriate treatments designed to prevent criminal recidivism.

Policy makers are increasingly recognizing the importance of helping ex-offenders into employment. This article outlines the disadvantages faced by those with a criminal record in the labour market and evaluates several approaches to meeting the needs of ex-offenders seeking work. It finds that, despite recent policy developments, the changing nature of British public administration is undermining the ability of practitioners to respond appropriately to the needs of ex-offenders. The article concludes that the real concern of policy makers is to show that they are doing something about the social context of criminal behaviour while at the same time drawing attention away from the increasingly centralized and authoritarian nature of our public agencies.

The continuing concern to safeguard children from abuse in schools, children's homes and similar settings has led to proposals to make it an offence for those with convictions against children to even apply for work with children. The Criminal Justice and Court Services Bill will introduce ‘disqualification orders’ for such offenders. The background development of this Bill is considered, together with the way the new orders will fit with existing criminal record check arrangements, current bans and the role of the forthcoming Criminal Records Bureau, which will tie all these systems together in a ‘one-stop shop’. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.