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The existing research on inmate visitation disproportionately focuses on the social ties between mother and child within a traditional face-to-face engagement at state prisons. This overreliance on a certain type of visit has limited empirical assessments of the visitation process. The current study features a purposive sample of 47 ( n = 47) visitors to a remote visitation center linked to a county jail. Qualitative responses indicate that respondents held positive perceptions of staff and the facility itself. Visiting sessions were complex, with visitors displaying an assortment of individual needs, previous visitation experiences, and goals for the visit. Participants did experience a loss of privacy and they employed strategies to retain a personal sense of privacy. Technology was highly valued by visitors, with frustrations being common when technology failed. However, the use of a remote visitation coupled with technology served as a positive and effective modality for jail visitation.

Background: Rates of self‐harm are high among prisoners. Most research focuses on the vulnerable prisoner, and there is little on the impact of these behaviours on staff.\ud \ud Aims: To investigate staff perceptions of self‐harming behaviours by prisoners, including their views on its causes, manifestation, prevention in institutions, and impact on them.\ud \ud Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 administrative and 21 therapeutic prison staff who are responsible in various ways for prisoners who self‐harm. Their narratives were explored using interpretative phenomenological analysis.\ud \ud Results: Despite prison staff being experienced with prisoners' self‐harming behaviours, including severe acts of self‐harm, they were apt to reject any negative impact on their own mental health or well‐being. This denial of negative impact was accompanied by perceptions of the inmate's actions being manipulative and attention seeking. Prison staff also perceived institutional responses to self‐harming behaviours by prisoners as being mixed, ambiguous, or showing preference for relying on existing suicide protocols rather than task‐specific guidance.\ud \ud Conclusions: Although staff gave explanations of prisoner self‐harm in terms of “manipulative behaviour”, prisoners' self‐harm is, in fact, complex, challenging, and often severe. This staff perception may reflect denial of impact of often distressing behaviours on them personally and their own coping mechanisms. This could be feeding in to a perceived lack of clear and effective institutional responses to the self‐harm, so further research is needed to determine how staff could broaden their views, and respond more effectively to prisoners. Psychologically informed group work and/or reflective practice are among the candidates for such help for staff.

The most significant change to impact the pedagogy of criminal justice students in recent years has been the development of online classes. Online coursework is now a commonly accepted method of accessing criminal justice students and the sustained growth in online classes is expected to continue in the future. However, there is currently a lack of research that focuses on online classes in criminal justice. In response, we present and assess the modest literature regarding criminal justice online classes and highlight important themes. This leads into a presentation of important considerations along the following pedagogical continuum: Planning the online course (i.e. asynchronous timing, technological developments), implementing the online course (i.e. maintaining an online presence, managing student interactions and expectations), and identifying effective means to measure learning outcomes (i.e. measuring success, quality matters). Policy implications for online coursework that are likely to impact fu...

Stafford and Warr (1993) reconceptualized general and specific deterrence into a single theory in which individuals' propensities to engage in crime are based on a combination of personal and vicarious experiences with being punished and avoiding punishment. The current study extends prior tests of this conceptualization of deterrence by expanding the definition of vicarious experience, analyzing extralegal as well as legal consequences, examining multiple types of offending behavior, and drawing its data from a sample of work release facility inmates. The results fail to support legal deterrence as an explanation of offending for this sample but suggest the importance of extralegal consequences.

Scant research is currently available on the characteristics that criminology and criminal justice (CCJ) departments believe are important for academic job applicants. The current study uses a nationally representative sample of faculty members to assess the perceived importance of a wide array of applicants’ attributes, to explore the extent of agreement about valued attributes among current criminal justice and criminology faculty members, and to analyze correlates of these ratings. We find that many characteristics are considered at least moderately important. At the extremes, involvement in research, publishing, and teaching stand out as particularly important, and demographic characteristics are relatively unimportant. We also find considerable consensus among faculty regarding the value of various candidate attributes. We discuss our implications in terms of what they reveal about preparing for the job market and about the discipline of criminal justice more broadly.

Interactions between correctional agents and the offenders they supervise are assumed to be highly contingent upon latent power dynamics. Yet, currently there is little research that differentiates the bases of power used by correctional personnel. The present study drew on a classic typology to examine the role of power in probation supervision. Perceptions of power and their impact on probationers' compliance were examined using data collected from self-report surveys and case files of 376 misdemeanor probationers. Although the results for perceived power were similar to those of prior research, the current study's findings largely did not support the expected relationship between bases of power and compliance with the conditions of probation. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.

Despite the widespread use of probation in the United States, little is known about how offenders perceive this sentence or the officers who provide their supervision. The present research measures and evaluates perceptions of the probation process, specifically probationers' perception of their probationer officer, and examines characteristics associated with these perceptions. The sample consisted of 347 probationers drawn from a large urban county office. A self-administered survey was utilized to reveal probationers' views of their probation officer. Overall, the probationers expressed positive feelings regarding their probation officers. They were fairly satisfied, and a majority of probationers felt officers were fair, competent, helpful, and clear. Perceptions were more positive among clients who were supervised by an officer of their own race.

Although personal opinions and anecdotal evidence abound, there is a dearth of systematic research into the characteristics that academic criminology and criminal justice departments seek in job candidates. The current study uses a nationally representative sample of faculty members to assess the extent to which a wide array of attributes affects whether an applicant for an assistant professor position would be invited for an on‐campus interview. Using hierarchical linear modeling, we find that several applicant characteristics are related to the likelihood of an interview and that some of these relationships are conditioned by the characteristics of the faculty who decide whether to extend an invitation. We discuss the implications of our findings for the nature of the discipline, and for mentoring doctoral students, designing PhD program experiences, and hiring new colleagues.

Beyond considerations of relative punitiveness, very little is known about how offenders understand the experience of serving a probation sentence. The current study surveyed offenders currently on probation to assess the extent to which they believed their sentence was rehabilitative, incapacitative, deserved, and a deterrent to future offending. Perceptions that probation served no purpose and that it represented a game of manipulation and impression management were also investigated. The results showed that most probationers believed that their sentence was a deterrent, and it was rehabilitative and deserved. They also felt that probation served multiple purposes, and a minority of respondents perceived that there was no point to being on probation. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Most of the available research on jails focuses on large institutions, located in urban areas. In this study we empirically consider whether this emphasis shortchanges our understanding of jails by comparing 2,638 rural and urban jails on four dimensions: jail size and use, inmate characteristics, staff characteristics, and inmate services. Our results reveal several important cleavages between rural and urban jails. Based on our findings and a conception of jails as influenced in meaningful ways by their social, political, and organizational contexts, we suggest avenues for future research on local incarceration.

Stafford and Warr (1993) reconceptualized general and specific deterrence into a single theory in which people's tendencies to commit crimes are based on a combination of personal experiences and vicarious experiences with being punished and avoiding punishment. The authors make a significant contribution to the deterrence literature by considering the effect of punishment avoidance when testing deterrence theory. The present study tests the applicability of Stafford and Warr's reconceptualized theory. The results reveal only partial support for deterrence. We discuss the implications of our findings and make suggestions for future research on deterrence theory.

Stafford and Warr (1993) reconceptualized general and specific deterrence into a single theory in which people's tendencies to commit crimes are based on a combination of personal experiences and vicarious experiences with being punished and avoiding punishment. The authors make a significant contribution to the deterrence literature by considering the effect of punishment avoidance when testing deterrence theory. Despite the theoretical appeal of this model, few studies have assessed its empirical merit. The present study tests the applicability of Stafford and Warr's reconceptualized theory by examining people's intentions to drink and drive. The results reveal only partial support for deterrence. We offer suggestions on how future research can clarify why some findings are inconsistent with deterrence theory.

WHAT IS PUNISHMENT? The punishment of offenders is a central feature of our criminal justice system and highlights the coercive nature of criminal justice. This topic is of great concern to researchers, government officials, correctional employees, and the general public. These stakeholders have varying opinions pertaining to the proper use and justification of punishment. However, before a critical examination can take place, it is necessary to define punishment.