Public Opinion and the Death Penalty: A Qualitative Approach

Strong public support for capital punishment is arguably the number one reason why the death penalty continues to be used as a form of correctional policy in the U.S. criminal justice system. Therefore, it is fundamental that the measure of death penalty opinion be heavily scrutinized. Utilizing a methodological approach not typically employed in this area, the current study conducted six focus groups to gain a better understanding of the complexity of these opinions. During the focus groups, participants were asked to state their general beliefs concerning the death penalty, respond to scenarios, and respond to research findings regarding the death penalty (i.e., costs, deterrence, wrongful convictions, race, etc.). The findings suggest that participants\u27 views regarding the death penalty are more multifaceted than previously believed. This study further suggests that current methods used to measure public support of the death penalty fail to capture the complexity of sentiment on this issue

An Examination of the Interactions of Race and Gender on Sentencing Decisions Using a Trichotomous Dependent Variable

This study examined how race, gender, and age interact to affect defendants’ sentences using a trichotomized dependent variable. The findings indicate that the racial and gender disparity found in sentencing decisions was largely due to Black men’s increased likelihood of receiving jail as opposed to probation. The results also show that being young resulted in increased odds of receiving probation over jail for White men and for women but resulted in decreased odds for Black men. Separate analysis of incarceration terms to jail and prison further reveal that legal factors had a greater impact on prison than on jail sentence length. Overall, the results strongly support the argument that sentencing research needs to consider sentences to jail and prison separately

Research Brief One-Sheet No.1: Late-Stage Police Crime: Is it an Exit Strategy?

The study focuses on crimes committed by experienced police officers who are approaching retirement. Police scholars have traditionally been interested in the formative experiences that occur near the beginning of an officer\u27s career, wherein the expectations of rookie cops clash with on-the-job realities to promote cynicism, personal anomia, and potential attachment to delinquent police subcultures. The literature suggests that officers will tend to get into trouble earlier in their career rather than later; but, the occurrence of late-stage misconduct committed by experienced police officers presents a challenge to existing assumptions regarding the relationship between experience and various forms of police misconduct and also provides an opportunity to examine a stage of the police career that has not been the subject of much research

Off-Duty & Under Arrest: A Study of Crimes Perpetuated by Off-Duty Police

The findings of independent commissions and research derived from a data-set of career-ending misconduct among New York Police Department (NYPD) officers suggests that police engage in a wide variety of crimes while they are off-duty including domestic violence, bar fights, drunk driving, burglary, and sex offenses (The Mollen Commission, 1994; Fyfe & Kane, 2006; Kane & White, 2009). The off-duty misbehavior of police is an important concern for police agencies exposed to potential liability costs, and scholars engaged in debates about whether studies on police deviance should include acts committed while an officer is technically off-duty. The problem for scholars interested in understanding off-duty police misconduct is that virtually all of the existing data describes the misbehavior of NYPD police. The purpose of the current study is to explore the nature and character of off-duty police crime in the United States through a content analysis of news articles on arrested off-duty police officers. Data are presented in terms of the arrested off-duty officer(s), his or her agency, and case outcomes including legal and/or employment dispositions. The paper includes a discussion regarding the generalizability of existing data on off-duty police crime and the policy implications of our research

Research Brief One-Sheet No.2: Off-Duty Crime by Police Officers

Virtually all of the existing data on the off-duty misconduct of police officers describes the misbehavior of New York Police Department (NYPD) officers (see e.g. Fyfe and Kane, 2006; Kane and White, 2009). These data indicate that a significant portion of police misconduct emanates from behavior that occurs off-duty, including domestic violence, bar fights, drunk driving, burglary, and sex offenses. The NYPD data are agency-specific however; so very little is known about the nature and character of off-duty misconduct perpetrated by police employed by other police agencies. The purpose of this study is to explore off-duty police crime in the United States through content analyses of news articles on arrested off-duty police officers. The study presents data on the arrested off-duty officers and case outcomes including legal and/or employment dispositions

Exit Strategy: An Exploration of Late-Stage Police Crime

There are no exhaustive statistics available on the crimes committed by law enforcement officers, and only a small number of studies provide specific data on police crimes. The purpose of the current study is to examine the character of police arrests known to the media. Cases were identified through a content analysis of news coverage using the internet-based GoogleTM News search engine and its Google News Alerts search tool. The study focuses on the crimes committed by experienced officers who are approaching retirement. The occurrence of these late-stage crimes presents a challenge to existing assumptions regarding the relationship between experience and various forms of police misconduct, and also provides an opportunity to examine a stage of the police career that has not been the subject of much research. The paper concludes with an identification of research and policy implications, and includes a discussion regarding how our data should be interpreted within the context of existing studies on police socialization and the production of misconduct

The Impact of Race, Gender, and Age on the Pretrial Decision

There is an abundance of studies that examine judicial discretion in the final sentencing stages; however, few have examined discretion in the early stages of court decisions. Pretrial release is especially concerning as it has been strongly correlated with a final sentence of incarceration and deprives defendants of their freedom. This study examined whether race, gender, and age influence judges’ decisions to detain or release a defendant prior to trial. The results indicate that females and younger defendants were less likely to be detained. Race was not significant after economic variables were included. When examining males and females separately, race was significant for females, with Black females being the least likely to be detained. For White females, White males, and Black males, offenders aged 30–39 were more likely to be detained than their younger counterparts. Younger and older White females were not significantly more likely to be detained than their Black female counterparts

An Exploratory Analysis of the Prevalence of Teen Sexting

Sexting, which is the act of sending, receiving, or forwarding nude or sexually explicit photographs or messages using a cell phone or other electronic device, has recently generated a great deal of media attention. Across the nation, stories have emerged detailing incidents of teenagers involved in sending these messages that have resulted in prosecution on child pornography charges and some teens have been required to register as a sex offender on state sex offender registries. There have also been instances of teens committing suicide after an explicit message was shared with others beyond its intended recipient. Despite these stories, there is a lack of scholarly research on the prevalence and nature of sexting. The current research attempts to add to this scant body of knowledge by examining the nature and prevalence of sexting among a sample of teenagers to better understand the scope of the issue

Teen Attitudes Toward Sexting

Teen sexting has recently become an issue of great public concern. Despite this public concern, research has not examined teens\u27 attitudes regarding sexting. With a sample of college students enrolled in freshman level criminal justice courses, the current study examines this issue and the impact that attitudes toward teen sexting have on teens\u27 likelihoods of engaging in these behaviors