Understanding Inequality and the Justice System Response: Charting a New Way Forward

This is one of a series of five papers outlining the particular domains and dimensions of inequality where new research may yield a better understanding of responses to this growing issue.This paper focuses on inequality in the justice system. Using a fact-based approach the recognizes the complexitites surrounding the issue, it argues that the system itself is implicated in the exacerbation of inequality, especially for blacks and other minorities. The first part of this paper addresses what is known about crime, offenders, and victims. The second part examines what is known about the justice system response, in particular how this response has, in fact, exacerbated inequality. The third part of this paper discusses promising directions for future research, as well as directions for future work on programs, policies, and practices to reduce inequality related to justice outcomes for youth ages 5 to 25 in the United States

After the Epidemic: Recent Trends in Youth Violence in the United States

The epidemic of youth violence in the United States peaked in 1993 and has been followed by a rapid, sustained drop. In parallel with our earlier treatment (Cook and Laub 1998), we assess two types of explanation for this drop -- those that focus on 'cohort' effects (including the effects of abortion legalization) and those that focus on 'period' effects (including the effects of the changing crack-cocaine trade). Once again we are able to reject the cohort-type explanations, yet also find contradictions with an account based on the dynamics of crack markets. The 'way out' of this epidemic has not been the same as the 'way in.' The relative importance in homicide of youths, racial minorities, and guns, all of which increased greatly during the epidemic, has remained high during the drop. Arrest patterns tell a somewhat different story, in part because of changing police practice with respect to aggravated assault. Finally, we demonstrate that the rise and fall of youth violence has been narrowly confined with respect to race, sex, and age, but not geography. Given the volatility in the rates of juvenile violence, forecasting rates is a risky business indeed. Effectively narrowing the range of plausible explanations for the recent ups and downs may require a long time horizon, consideration of a broader array of problem behaviors, and comparisons with trends in other countries.

The Sutherland-Glueck Debate: On the Sociology of Criminological Knowledge

During the 1930s, Edwin Sutherland established the sociological model of crime as the dominant paradigm in criminology and as a result became the most influential criminologist of the 20th century. This article examines Sutherland's debate with Sheldon Glueck and Eleanor Glueck about the causes of crime and the proper focus of social science research. Previously unavailable correspondence and unpublished papers are examined along with published works from the period (1925-45) when Sutherland was developing the theory of differential association and the Gluecks were launching research on criminal careers. The competing paradigms of the Gluecks and Sutherland are also placed in the socio-intellectual and institutional context in which they worked. It is shown that Sutherland's attack on the Gluecks' interdisciplinary research program was driven by: (a) a substantive version of sociological positivism that attempted to establish criminology as the proper domain of sociology, (b) a commitment to the method of analytic induction, and (c) Suther- land's rise to prominence in sociology. In addition, key aspects of the Gluecks' perspective reflecting their own professional interests in law and psychiatry further contributed to sociologists' hostile reaction. Nevertheless, the article presents evidence that the Gluecks' research on such fundamental issues as age and crime, criminal careers, and social control is more correct than commonly believed and, in fact, occupies center stage in contemporary re- search.Sociolog

Understanding Desistance from Crime

The study of desistance from crime is hampered by definitional, measurement, and theoretical incoherence. A unifying framework can distinguish termination of offending from the process of desistance. Termination is the point when criminal activity stops and desistance is the underlying causal process. A small number of factors are sturdy correlates of desistance (e.g., good marriages, stable work, transformation of identity, and aging). The processes of desistance from crime and other forms of problem behavior appear to be similar. Several theoretical frameworks can be employed to explain the process of desistance, including maturation and aging, developmental, life-course, rational choice, and social learning theories. A life-course perspective provides the most compelling framework, and it can be used to identify institutional sources of desistance and the dynamic social processes inherent in stopping crime.Sociolog

Two-Dimensional Finite Element Ablative Thermal Response Analysis of an Arcjet Stagnation Test

The finite element ablation and thermal response (FEAtR, hence forth called FEAR) design and analysis program simulates the one, two, or three-dimensional ablation, internal heat conduction, thermal decomposition, and pyrolysis gas flow of thermal protection system materials. As part of a code validation study, two-dimensional axisymmetric results from FEAR are compared to thermal response data obtained from an arc-jet stagnation test in this paper. The results from FEAR are also compared to the two-dimensional axisymmetric computations from the two-dimensional implicit thermal response and ablation program under the same arcjet conditions. The ablating material being used in this arcjet test is phenolic impregnated carbon ablator with an LI-2200 insulator as backup material. The test is performed at the NASA, Ames Research Center Interaction Heating Facility. Spatially distributed computational fluid dynamics solutions for the flow field around the test article are used for the surface boundary conditions

Thinking About Emerging Adults and Violent Crime

In response to fears of an unrelenting crime wave, dramatic changes to sentencing policy, particularly for violent offenders, occurred in the 1980s and 1990s. Today, more than half of state prisoners are serving time for a violent offense. Increases in the severity of criminal justice sanctions (e.g., decision to prosecute, reclassification of charges, use of incarceration, and lengthening prison sentences) for those convicted of violent offenses has fueled mass incarceration. Despite major reductions of crime, including violence, over the past two decades, an intense focus on violent offenders as distinct and different endures. This brief summarizes research on violent criminal behavior over the life course. We focus special attention on emerging adults because they have the highest rates of both violent offending and violent victimization. First, drawing on a large body of longitudinal research on crime, we present the known ‘facts’ about violence. Note that this research literature uses criminal justice records of those officially sanctioned as well as self-reports of offending and victimization. Second, we discuss the experiences and consequences of living with violence. Third, we conclude with policy recommendations for responding to violent crime

Systems Analysis for a Venus Aerocapture Mission

Previous high level analysis has indicated that significant mass savings may be possible for planetary science missions if aerocapture is employed to place a spacecraft in orbit. In 2001 the In-Space Propulsion program identified aerocapture as one of the top three propulsion technologies for planetary exploration but that higher fidelity analysis was required to verify the favorable results and to determine if any supporting technology gaps exist that would enable or enhance aerocapture missions. A series of three studies has been conducted to assess, from an overall system point of view, the merit of using aerocapture at Titan, Neptune and Venus. These were chosen as representative of a moon with an atmosphere, an outer giant gas planet and an inner planet. The Venus mission, based on desirable science from plans for Solar System Exploration and Principal Investigator proposals, to place a spacecraft in a 300km polar orbit was examined and the details of the study are presented in this paper

Predicting trajectories of offending over the life course:findings from a Dutch conviction cohort

Criminal Justice: Legitimacy, accountability, and effectivit