2011 - 2016 Faculty Publications
2016
Reactions to crime: A multilevel analysis of fear of crime and defensive and participatory behavior
Author(s):
Yue "Wilson" Yuan, Ph.D. and Susan McNeeley, Ph.D.
This study examines the associations between fear of crime and individual constrained behavior. Specifically, to address the inconsistent findings of previous research, we investigate how emotional fear of crime and perceived risk of victimization are associated with the use of defensive behaviors. We also extend previous research by examining the relationships between fear of crime and perceived risk and participatory behavior. The results of multilevel models based on survey data from Seattle show that fear of crime was positively associated with three individual defensive behaviors, and perceived risk was negatively associated with two participatory behaviors. The results suggest that emotional fear increases individualistic target-hardening behaviors, while perceptions of risk reduce participation in community-wide crime-prevention activities.
Publishing information:
Yuan, Y., & McNeeley, S. (2016). Reactions to crime: A multilevel analysis of fear of crime and defensive and participatory behavior. Journal of Crime and Justice, 39(4), 455-472.
La détection de communautés au sein de réseaux criminels en ligne et ses implications pour les recherches en co-délinquance.
Author(s):
Bryce Westlake, Ph.D. and Martin Bouchard, Ph.D.
Publishing information:
Bouchard, M., & Westlake, B. (2016). yu In R. Boivin & C. Morselli (Eds.), Les réseaux criminels. Montreal: Les Presses de l’Université de Montréal.
Criminal Careers in Cyberspace: Examining Website Failure within Child Exploitation Networks
Author(s):
Bryce Westlake, Ph.D. and Martin Bouchard, Ph.D.
Publically accessible, illegal, websites represent an additional challenge for control agencies, but also an opportunity for researchers to monitor, in real time, changes in criminal careers. Using a repeated measures design, we examine evolution in the networks that form around child exploitation (CE) websites, over a period of 60 weeks, and determine which criminal career dimensions predict website failure. Network data were collected using a custom-designed web-crawler. Baseline survival rates were compared to networks surrounding (legal) sexuality and sports websites. Websites con- taining CE material were no more likely to fail than comparisons. Cox regression analyses suggest that increased volumes of CE code words and images are associated with premature failure. Websites that are more popu- lar have higher odds of survival. We show that traditional criminal career dimensions can be transferred to the context of online CE and constitute some of the key determinants of an interrupted career.
Publishing information:
Westlake, B.G., & Bouchard, M. (2016). Criminal careers in cyberspace: Examining website failure within child exploitation networks. Justice Quarterly, 33(7), pp. 1154-1181. doi: 10.1080/07418825.2015.1046393.
Liking and hyperlinking: Examining reciprocity and diversity in online child exploitation network communities.
Author(s):
Bryce Westlake, Ph.D. and Martin Bouchard, Ph.D.
The online sexual exploitation of children is facilitated by websites that form virtual communities, via hyperlinks, to distribute images, videos, and other material. However, how these communities form, are structured, and evolve over time is unknown. Collected using a custom-designed webcrawler, we begin from known child sexual exploitation (CE) seed websites and follow hyperlinks to connected, related, websites. Using a repeated measure design we analyze 10 networks of 300+ websites each – over 4.8 million unique webpages in total, over a period of 60 weeks. Community detection techniques reveal that CE-related networks were dominated by two large communities hosting varied material –not necessarily matching the seed website. Community stability, over 60 weeks, varied across networks. Reciprocity in hyperlinking between community members was substantially higher than within the full network, however, websites were not more likely to connect to homogeneous-content websites.
Publishing information:
Westlake, B.G., & Bouchard, M. (2016). Liking and hyperlinking: Examining reciprocity and diversity in online child exploitation network communities. Social Science Research, 59(September), pp. 23-36. doi: 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2016.04.010.
Formal controls, neighborhood disadvantage, and violent crime in U.S. cities: Examining (un)intended consequences
Author(s):
Allison Martin, Ph.D., Emily M. Wright, Ph.D., and Benjamin Steiner, Ph.D.
Purpose
This study examines the intended and unintended effects of formal social controls on violent crime within and across U.S. cities.
Methods
Using data from the National Neighborhood Crime Study, we assess whether greater police arrest activity and jail incarceration risk are associated with lower violent crime rates across cities. We also investigate whether greater use of these formal social controls exacerbates the relationship between extreme neighborhood disadvantage and violent crime.
Results
Results from multilevel analyses show that some formal controls (jail incarceration risk) reduce violent crime across cities, but other formal controls (police arrest activity) amplify the relationship between extreme neighborhood disadvantage and violent crime within cities.
Conclusions
Two main conclusions can be drawn from our analyses. First, we found evidence that some formal controls do reduce violent crime, while others do not. Second, our results support scholars' arguments that formal controls have unintended consequences (e.g., Clear, 2007, 2008; Rose & Clear, 1998), specifically, by amplifying the effect of extreme neighborhood disadvantage on violent crime.
Publishing information:
Martin, A., Wright, E. and Steiner, B. (2016). Formal controls, neighborhood disadvantage, and violent crime in U.S. cities: Examining (un)intended consequences. Journal of Criminal Justice, 44(1), 58-65. DOI: 10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2015.12.005
2014
Home away home: Better understanding of the role of social support in predicting cross-cultural adjustment among international students
Author(s):
Yoko Baba, Ph.D.
This study investigated the relationship among stress factors, social support, and cross-cultural adjustment among international students. Results showed that social support was directly related to cross-cultural adjustment and also acted as a partial mediator of the stress factors and cross-cultural adjustment. However, social support did not buffer the negative effects of the stress factors on cross-cultural adjustment.
Publishing information:
Baba, Y. & Hosoda, M. (2014). Home away home: Better understanding of the role of social support in predicting cross-cultural adjustment among international students. College Student Journal 48, 1, 1-15.
2013
A Diseased Body Politic: Nativist discourse and the imagined whiteness of the USA
Author(s):
This article is an interdisciplinary attempt to theorize how racism functions in the most recent wave of nativist discourse to produce whiteness and the nation. First, I begin with a review of the current scholarship on the nativist debate about immigration. Second, I show how ‘racist dirt fixations’ work in a new colour-blind racist manner with the geographic scales to make sense of the wide range of dissimilar images in nativist discourse. Finally, I argue that nativist discourse creates a naturalized portrait of a white national body in danger from the criminal immigrant who represents dirt, disgust, abjection and disorder and produces racial tensions, anxieties and nightmares about borders and crossings at each scale.
Publishing information:
April 26th, 2013 | Cultural Studies, iFirst, April 22, 2013: DOI.1080/09502386.2013.789068
2012
Dr. De Giorgi Publishes Chapter
Author(s):
Alessandro De Giorgi, Ph.D.
The project of interpreting contemporary forms of punishment means exploring the social, political, economic, and historical conditions in the society in which those forms arise. The SAGE Handbook of Punishment and Society draws together this disparate and expansive field of punishment and society into one compelling new volume.
Headed by two of the leading scholars in the field, Jonathan Simon and Richard Sparks have crafted a comprehensive and definitive resource that illuminates some of the key themes in this complex area – from historical and prospective issues to penal trends and related contributions through theory, literature and philosophy. Incorporating a stellar and international line-up of contributors the book addresses issues such as: capital punishment, the civilising process, gender, diversity, inequality, power, human rights and neoliberalism.
This engaging, vibrantly written collection will be captivating reading for academics and researchers in criminology, penology, criminal justice, sociology, cultural studies, philosophy and politics.
Publishing information:
October 26th, 2012 | (2012) Punishment and Political Economy in The SAGE Handbook of Punishment and Society. Edited by Jonathan Simon and Richard Sparks
Women, Alcoholics Anonymous, and Related Mutual Aid Groups: Review and Recommendations for Research
Author(s):
Sarah E. Ullman, Ph.D., Cynthia J. Najdowksi, Ph.D., and Ericka B. Adams, Ph.D.
Recent literature reviews and meta-analyses have supported the effectiveness of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) in helping membersstop drinking and maintain sobriety. Despite the extensive bodyof research on AA, less attention has focused on differences inthe efficacy of the program for and experiences of women as compared to men. Such a focus is warranted given that there are significant gender differences in the development and progression of alcoholism, impact of drinking, and response to treatment. This review synthesizes results of extant research on women in AA and similar mutual aid groups focused on problem drinking to describe the state of knowledge and make suggestions for future research. Critiques of the ability of AA and 12-Step programs to address women’s needs are also reviewed, as are attempts to respond to those critiques. Understudied issues, including the role of victimization histories (which are more prevalent in women who abuse alcohol), are also discussed.
Publishing information:
October 11th, 2012 | Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly, 30:443–486, 2012. DOI: 10.1080/07347324.2012.718969
"We Are Like Prey” How People Negotiate a Violent Community in Trinidad and Tobago
Author(s):
Ericka B. Adams, Ph.D.
Urban communities in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago have transformed into war zones; citizens report that crime and violence are the primary problems incapacitating their communities . Research has focused on the heightened levels of national homicide rates, gang violence, and juvenile delinquency. However, often ignored is how violence is negotiated and compromises the lives of citizens in Trinidad and Tobago. Using a grounded theory approach and 30 semistructured interviews with community members, this article investigates citizens’ responses to violence in an underprivileged predominantly Black community in Northwest Trinidad. Results suggest that the social and environmental context of the neighborhood fosters residents’ refusal to report witnessed violence, women’s implementation of self-imposed ecological imprisonment, and residents’ use of strategies (e.g., building walls) to create distance between them and other community members. Policy implications involve enhancing citizens’ sense of security and revitalizing bonds between community members.
Publishing information:
October 11th, 2012 | Race and Justice October 2012 2: 274-303, doi:10.1177/2153368712452434
Controle de Imigracao, Pos-Fordisimo, E Less Eligibility. A Economia Politica Da Punicao E Do Hiperencarcamento Dos Imigrantes Na Europa
Author(s):
Alessandro De Giorgi, Ph.D.
Publishing information:
August 29th, 2012 | Discursos Sediciosos (Forthcoming)
Fearing yellow, imagining white: media analysis of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882
Author(s):
The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was a watershed event in the context of race, nation, and the law because it denied Chinese immigration into the USA for over 80 years. This paper analyses the media coverage of the Chinese in the San Francisco Chronicle during the year of the Act’s passage. The theoretical framework of ‘Purity and Danger’ provides a starting point in analyzing how whiteness and nation are constructed as ‘pure’, while Chinese immigration is constructed as a ‘danger’ within a symbolic, racial and political manner. Discourse analysis was applied to the data for an intersectional investigation of race, class, gender, and nation, to determine how the discourse is organized thematically, as well as uncover ideological meanings in relation to how ‘fearing yellow’ also reflected ‘imaging white’ in media discourse.
Publishing information:
August 29th, 2012 | Social Identities: Journal for the Study of Race, Nation and Culture (August 9, 2012)
Female Sexual Offending
Author(s):
Danielle Arlanda Harris, Ph.D.
This chapter provides an overview of the nature and extent of sexual offending by women. It reviews the many typological approaches that have been developed to explain female sexual offenders, including descriptions of what might considered “typical” examples of each classification. In addition, the chapter focuses more specifically on the differential treatment that male and female sexual offenders receive in the news media and in the criminal justice system owing to their crimes.
Publishing information:
July 12th, 2012 | Violent Offenders: Theory, Research, Policy, And Practice. Edited by Matt DeLisi and Peter J. Conis. Jones and Bartlett Learning. Chapter 12: 207-220.
Toward a typology of sexual burglary: Latent class findings
Author(s):
Amélie Pedneault, Ph.D., Danielle Arlanda Harris, Ph.D., and Raymond A. Knight
Purpose
To understand fully the nature of residential burglary one must examine the situational context, and offender’s behavior during the burglary. Although several behaviors appear to be distinctly related to sexual burglaries, including voyeurism, fetishism, sexual violence, and sexual murder, a systematic typology of the characteristics of residential sexual burglary is lacking. The purpose of the study was to develop a typology of residential sexual burglary.
Methods
The present study investigated 224 incidents of residential burglary with recorded sexual components. A typology classifying these incidents was developed using Latent Class Analysis.
Results
Three types of sexual burglary were identified. Fetishistic noncontact burglaries typically occurred in unoccupied houses and involve fetishistic behavior, but no theft, violence, and weapon. Versatile contact burglaries were characterized by rapes occurring in apartments and involving theft, violence, and weapon. Finally, perpetrators of sexually oriented contact burglaries raped their victim in houses but these incidents rarely involved theft, violence, or weapon. Previous offenses were also analyzed; the three distinct types of burglary appear to be embedded in different prior offense histories. The practical implications are discussed.
Conclusions
This research underscores the importance of examining the situational context and offender’s behavior during a residential burglary with sexual components.
Publishing information:
July 1st, 2012 | Journal of Criminal Justice, 40(4): 278-284
Reader/Commentator: Author Meets Reader — The Toughest Beat by Joshua Page
Author(s):
Alessandro De Giorgi, Ph.D.
Joshua Page's new book The Toughest Beat: Politics, Punishment, and the Prison Officers Union in California (published February 2011) is a phenomenal, thorough and concise account of the meteoric rise of the California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA) from a professional club to a powerful political actor playing a seminal role in shifting the correctional continuum in California toward punitivism. The book examines the CCPOA's political machinations, its alliances with victim unions and law enforcement actors, its contribution to the passage of the Three Strikes Law, and its resistance to prison privatization efforst. On the panel, the author and readers will discuss the criminological, cultural, and socio-political implications of the CCPOA's powerful lobbying. A must-read (and must-attend) to all interested in crime, penology, and state politics.
Publishing information:
June 7th, 2012 | Reader/Commentator: Law & Society Association Annual Meeting, Honolulu, HI.
Building a Sociology of Crimmigration: Securitization in Modern Times
Author(s):
Alessandro De Giorgi, Ph.D.
In Boaventura de Sousa Santos’ words, society can no longer exist without forms of control. In the last few years we have seen the proliferation of surveillance cameras, voice interceptions, databases for control, legislation and other measures taken to monitor and control the population.
Crimmigration control has also been a way to control the foreign population. Controlling immigrants through criminalization has been seen as contributing to increased national security. At a time when the birth rate is decreasing and the active population is in deep need, mainly in Europe there are likely to be rising controls. More prisons, centers of detention and alternatives to detention have been serving this securitization.
Will the future of immigrants be subject to growing controls? Is crimmigration serving this purpose securitization? Is securitization in crimmigration reserving a place for Human Rights? What is the best way to deal with this situation?
Publishing information:
June 7th, 2012 | Discussant: Law & Society Association Annual Meeting, Honolulu, HI.
Returning to the homeland: The migratory patterns between Brazil and Japan for Japanese-Brazilians
Author(s):
Yoko Baba, Ph.D. and Claudio Vera Sanchez, Ph.D.
Migration to well-off countries has been well documented. However, the reasons why migrants return to their home countries, which often face severe economic disadvantages, are examined less frequently. The return migration of Japanese-Brazilians (Brazilian citizens of ethnic Japanese descent) who migrate to Japan and return again to Brazil has not been studied to any great extent. To understand the factors associated with Japanese-Brazilians’ return migration, using Gmelch’s (1983) model of push and pull factors, we examined what motivated Japanese-Brazilian migrant laborers to return to Brazil from Japan. With a mixed method including in-person interviews, a total of n=47 Brazilian migrants to Japan were sampled in São Paulo, Brazil. The present examination resulted in a pattern similar to the one Gmelch (1983) observed in his study on Irish and Newfoundlander return migrants. In the current study, pull factors were more important than push factors in terms of repatriation. Personal and social pull factors were stronger reasons compelling migrants return to Brazil than were economic or familial factors. Nevertheless, familial and economic reasons were also reported as important motivators for returning to Brazil in our interviews. Limitations are also discussed.
Publishing information:
May 7th, 2012 | Journal of International and Global Studies, 2012, 3(2): 1-31.
Travels in the Sociology of Punishment
Author(s):
Alessandro De Giorgi, Ph.D.
Publishing information:
April 26th, 2012 | Paper presented at the Center for Applied Research on Human Services/College of Applied Sciences and Arts Research Forum, San Jose State University
Punishment and Political Economy
Author(s):
Alessandro De Giorgi, Ph.D.
The project of interpreting contemporary forms of punishment means exploring the social, political, economic, and historical conditions in the society in which those forms arise. The SAGE Handbook of Punishment and Society draws together this disparate and expansive field of punishment and society into one compelling new volume.
Publishing information:
April 19th, 2012 | The SAGE Handbook of Punishment and Society (2012). Editors, Jonathan Simon and Richard Sparks
San Francisco’s Arrest Rates of African Americans for Drug Felonies Worsens
Author(s):
William Armaline, Ph.D. and Mike Males, Ph.D.
The following publication details a 40+ year pattern of San Francisco’s racially discriminatory arrest practices against African Americans, which recently increased in intensity. Specifically, the publication finds:
- African Americans experienced felony drug arrest rates 19 times higher than other races in San Francisco, and 7.3 times higher than African Americans elsewhere in California.
- San Francisco’s explosion in drug felony arrests of African Americans, during the 1995-2009 period, did not occur elsewhere in the state, nor for other racial categories in the city.
- The city’s African American female youth account for over 40% of the felony drug arrests of African American female youths in California, and have arrest rates 50 times higher than their counterparts in other counties.
- More than half of all youth drug felonies involved African Americans, who constitute 9% of the city’s youth; and one-third Latino males, who comprise 11% of the city’s youth.
- Despite disproportionately high drug arrest rates among young African Americans in San Francisco, of the more than 2,000 residents and nonresidents in the city who have died from abuse of illicit drugs in the last decade, 6 in 10 were non-Latino Whites, and more than 7 in 10 were age 40 and older.
The Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice (CJCJ) respectfully recommends that the San Francisco Human Rights Commission and San Francisco Board of Supervisors investigate and respond to these racially disparate trends of policing and arrest. It is arguable that this violates the human rights of African Americans under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) and the anti-discriminatory clause of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), both signed and ratified by the United States. This publication concludes with three recommendations for consideration by the San Francisco Human Rights Commission and Board of Supervisors, to investigate and adequately address the concerns highlighted throughout this publication.
Publishing information:
April 10th, 2012 | Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice
Discussant — Beyond the Walls and Cages: The Militarized and Carceral Grounds of US Immigrant Detention
Author(s):
Alessandro De Giorgi, Ph.D.
Immigrant detention is a paradoxical infrastructure of removal. In 2011, the US Department of Homeland Security removed almost 400,000 people from the country using a network of 250 detention facilities across the United States. Post 9/11 border security is only one impetus for the expanding detention system. This talk situates immigration enforcement in the landscape of US imprisonment and war-making. Understanding immigration detention’s place within longer histories of criminalization and militarization is important for forging concerted organizing strategies that can challenge walls, cages, and the war-making that sustains them.
Publishing information:
April 3rd, 2012 | Institute for the Study of Societal Issues, UC-Berkeley
Sacrificed on the Altar of Public Safety: The Policing of Latino and African American Youth
Author(s):
Claudio Vera Sanchez, Ph.D. and Ericka Adams, Ph.D.
Past research has grounded young people’s experiences with the police in their neighborhoods and schools, yet lacking from the literature is how the interconnection between these two domains contributes to the hypercriminalization of Latino and African American youth. Forty interviews were conducted with nondelinquent Latino and African American youth who reside in disadvantaged and high-crime neighborhoods. Youths’ reports suggest a tidal wave of violence throughout their neighborhoods and schools, coupled with heavy surveillance and policing. Policy implications are discussed in terms of the school to criminal justice pipeline prevalent in disadvantaged neighborhoods.
Publishing information:
April 3rd, 2012 | Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 27(3): 322-341
Control De La Inmigracion, Post-Fordisimo Y Menor Eligibidad: Una Critica Materialista De La Criminalizacion De La Inmigracion En Europa. — Spanish
Immigration Control, Post-Fordism Ans Less Eligibility: A Materialist Critique Of The Criminalization Of Imigration In Europe.
Author(s):
Alessandro De Giorgi, Ph.D.
The apparent de-bordering of the western world under the impulse of the economic globalization
has been paralleled by a simultaneous process of re-bordering latecapitalist societies
against global migrations. This re-bordering is part of a broader punitive turn in
the regulation of migration which has emerged, particularly in the European context,
since the mid-1970s. On the one hand, non-western immigrants are targeted by prohibitionist
policies which in fact contribute to the reproduction of their status of illegality;
on the other hand, the systematic use of incarceration (together with administrative
detention and deportation) as the main strategy in the ongoing war against unauthorized
immigration configures a dynamic of hipercriminalization of
immigrants, whose result is the intensification of their socioeconomic and political
marginality across Europe. Following the materialist criminological approach known
as political economy of punishment, this article suggests that these punitive strategies
should be analyzed against the background of an increasingly flexible and de-regulated
neoliberal economy: in the context, the hipercriminalization of migrations contributes
to the reproduction of a vulnerable labor force whose insecurity makes it suitable
for the segmented labor markets of post-Fordist economies.
Publishing information:
March 15th, 2012 | Critica Penal y Poder, 2: 139-162. (Spanish)
Comparison Of Collection Methods From Touch Samples On Metals And Wearer Samples From Simulated Mixtures On Clothing
Author(s):
Steven B. Lee, Ph.D. with Corissa J. Harris, Amanda J. Cardenas, and Brooke Barloewen
Publishing information:
February 20th, 2012 | American Academy of Forensic Sciences Proceeding 18: 85-86.
2011
Optimizing Human Semen Stain Detection Using Fluorescence
Author(s):
Steven Lee, Ph.D. and Kelly Conroy
Human semen fluorescence has been observed for many years and is currently used as a presumptive screening test in forensic laboratories. The purpose of this project is to determine if a new set of fluorescence filters can be utilized with a forensic alternate light source (ALS) to improve the detection of semen stains. To establish a baseline, a four year old positive control sample of semen deposited on a white tissue was examined under the Spectrum 9000, a forensic ALS, at six different discrete excitation filter settings. The stain was then viewed through various long pass, short pass, and band pass filters covering a range of wavelengths as well as yellow and orange goggles (480 nm long pass, 545 nm long pass respectively). Photographic documentation and visible qualitative evaluation of preliminary results indicate excitation wavelengths include 570 nm, whereas previous reports indicate semen excitation from 300-500 nm. Fluorescence emission filters in the 510-590 nm range allow the stain to be easily detected by the eye. Since fluorescence was observable at lower wavelengths that are blocked by the orange goggles commonly used in forensic laboratories, there is potential for capturing more of the visible fluorescence. The results establish a baseline for a white substrate for the project, and the photos taken of the stain through the various filters will be analyzed using image analysis software to determine quantitatively if the unique discrete filters are indeed better than the methods currently employed in forensic labs for detecting semen stains.
Publishing information:
October 11th, 2011 | American Academy of Forensic Sciences Proceeding 18: 77-78.
The border action network and human rights: Community-based resistance against the militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border
Author(s):
Sang Hea Kil, Ph.D., Jennifer Allen, and Zoe Hammer
Publishing information:
October 10th, 2011 | In Our Own Backyard: Human Rights, Injustice, and Resistance in the US (Eds. Armaline, William T., D.S. Glasberg, and B. Purkayastha.). Philadelphia, PA: UPenn. Press.
Human Rights in Our Own Backyard
Author(s):
William T. Armaline, Ph.D., Davita Silfen Glasberg, Ph.D., and Bandana Purkayastha, Ph.D.
Human Rights in Our Own Backyard examines the state of human rights and responses to human rights issues, drawing on sociological literature and perspectives to interrogate assumptions of American exceptionalism. How do people in the U.S. address human rights issues? What strategies have they adopted, and how successful have they been? Essays are organized around key conventions of human rights, focusing on the relationships between human rights and justice, the state and the individual, civil rights and human rights, and group rights versus individual rights. The contributors are united by a common conception of the human rights enterprise as a process involving not only state-defined and implemented rights but also human rights from below as promoted by activists.
Publishing information:
October 10th, 2011 | University of Pennsylvania Press
Evaluation of Sunday Friends: The Working Alternative to Charity
Author(s):
James Daniel Lee, Ph.D.
Sunday Friends is a non-profit organization in San José, California, that provides multiple activities for families that are in need of financial support. Most families are Latino (the majority of Mexican descent) and bilingual. Participants and program volunteers convene to form a community at Lowell Elementary School on two Sundays each month. When family members participate in activities designed to educate, improve skills, and encourage improved self-concepts and pro-social values, they earn tickets that they can redeem for items that they need and want from the “Treasure Chest,” the Sunday Friends store. Activities include educational games, food preparation, “Thank You Letter” writing, English-as-a-Second-Language programs, crafts for the community, and education, including financial literacy.
The program’s central focus is to empower families to break out of poverty. A specific guiding principal is the “Developmental Assets” approach promoted by the Search Institute in Minneapolis (http://www.search-institute.org/). This approach encourages individuals and organizations to work together toward a common goal of supporting the healthy development of all children and youth. Healthy development is conceptualized as consisting of the development of external assets (i.e., support, empowerment, boundaries and expectations, and constructive activities) and internal assets (i.e., commitment to learning, positive values, social competencies, and positive identity).
Like those before it, the 2011 evaluation’s primary focus was on whether Sunday Friends was succeeding at fostering Developmental Assets for children. Also like before, other indicators of success that were utilized were perceptions of program effectiveness in areas such as education and family cohesion, satisfaction with program activities, and reports of healthy eating habits. Added to this year’s evaluation were assessments focused on the program economy, social capital, and whether program attitudes and behaviors are evident in participants’ daily lives.
Questionnaire data were gathered from family members (adults and youth) during program activities through face-to-face interviews. The interviews were conducted by SJSU students and volunteers to the research team (including bilingual interviewers). The families were recruited in person by research team members onsite. Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish; the choice of interview language was made by respondents. More experienced and dedicated Sunday Friends volunteers were selected by program staff for participation in the evaluation; they were recruited by program staff and research team members onsite and via email. They completed questionnaires through an online survey platform. In all, 46 children and youth, 49 parents or guardians, and 75 volunteers participated in the survey.
Across surveys of the three targeted groups, (1) children and youth, (2) parents or guardians, and (3) volunteers, there are consistent results. Families and volunteers report that Sunday Friends is effectively engaging them and meeting its goals. Overall, every group reports positive experiences at Sunday Friends. Favorable results are found on every dimension of self-concepts and pro-social characteristics. Effects appear to extend beyond momentary participation in the Sunday Friends program.
The evaluation concludes that Sunday Friends has an atmosphere of respect, helpfulness, and friendliness that, with an effective economy, contributes to participation in positive activities. The program fosters Developmental Assets, positive educational attitudes, social capital (particularly bridging social capital), and healthy eating. Data are consistent with success at teaching a positive work ethic and English Language skills. Finally, volunteer recruitment and utilization appears to be quite effective. The volunteers are very well liked, respected, and viewed as role models. In addition, the volunteers report gaining meaningful experiences and positive pro-social changes as a result of their participation. The program appears to make an important contribution to the lives of all involved, the young persons, adults, and volunteers.
The results presented here should be interpreted with the caution that there is bias because all persons surveyed were self-selected, continuing participants, or they were program-selected committed volunteers. In addition, cross-sectional data like those used here cannot detect changes over time. Despite these cautions, each group’s data and triangulation across family and volunteer surveys reveal patterns that are consistent with Sunday Friends accomplishing its goals. It is safe to conclude that Sunday Friends’ community-based approach to empowering parents and youths is achieving some success.
Publishing information:
July 15th, 2011 | Report to Sunday Friends, San José, CA.
Racialized Policing: Officers’ Voices on Policing Latino and African American Neighborhoods
Author(s):
Claudio G. Vera Sanchez, Ph.D. and Dennis P. Rosenbaum
Conflict between the police and minorities is a consistent theme in inner city neighborhoods. Most studies focus on minorities’ attitudes toward the police and overlook police experiences and perceptions, thus neglecting a vital element in understanding this relationship. The objective of this study was to understand how police officers socially construct race within Latino or African American neighborhoods. A total of N = 40 police officers were interviewed. Through qualitative analysis, police officers’ comments reveal that they may not racialize but instead moralize African American neighborhoods; alternatively, police officers voiced positive racializations for the Mexican neighborhood. The implications of these findings for future research and police–minority relations are further discussed.
Publishing information:
April 29th, 2011 | Journal of Ethnicity in Criminal Justice, 9, 152-178
Postrelease Specialization and Versatility in Sexual Offenders Referred for Civil Commitment
Author(s):
Danielle A. Harris, Ph.D., R. Knight, S. Dennison, S. Smallbone
Offense specialization and versatility has been explored previously in the prior criminal records of sexual offenders. The present study expanded these findings by examining offense specialization and versatility in the postrelease offending of a sample of sexual offenders referred for civil commitment and released. Criminal versatility (not limiting one’s offending to sexual crime) both before and after commitment was the most commonly observed offending pattern in the sample. Specialist offenders (those for whom sexual offenses constituted more than half of their total number of previous arrests) were more likely than versatile offenders to specialize in sexual offending on release, perhaps indicating that specialization is a stable offending tendency. When compared by referral status, recidivism records indicated that offenders who were committed for treatment were more likely than observed, noncommitted offenders to specialize in sexual offending on release. When compared by offender classification, child molesters and offenders with mixed aged victims were much more likely than rapists and incest offenders to specialize in sexual offending on release.
Publishing information:
April 16th, 2011 | Sexual Abuse: a Journal of Research and Treatment. 23(2), 243-259
Immigration And “operations”:the Militarization (And Medicalization) Of The Us-Mexico Border
Author(s):
The recent dramatic expansion of the field of transnational studies has reshaped discourses across the humanities and social sciences and created the opportunity for extensive multi-regional exchanges. Traversing Transnationalism intervenes into these developments by offering essays from scholars working both within and outside the metropolitan “centre”, and by reorientating the axis of research towards geopolitical and cultural formations located beyond the normal sites of production of globalization discourse. This interdisciplinary collection has a broad scope: it engages directly with a variety of literary and non-literary texts, diverse socio-cultural configurations, and the politics, theorization and aesthetics of transnationalism. It is of interest to both readers interested in how transnational discourses have been articulated in specific contexts and circumstances, and readers looking for an intervention into debates on transnationalism that draws attention to its complex, plural character.
Publishing information:
March 10th, 2011 | Traversing Transnationalism: The Horizons of Literary and Cultural Studies, Eds. Ronit Frenkel, Pier Paolo Frassinelli, and David Watson. Rodopi Press (Netherlands).
Dr. Harris Presents Reseach at Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences in Toronto, Ontario
Author(s):
Danielle Harris, Ph.D.
Dr. Danielle Harris recently presented her research on criminal careers of sexual offenders at the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences in Toronto, Ontario.
Publishing information:
March 1st, 2011 | Using Life History Plots to visualize the criminal careers of chronic sexual offenders. Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, Toronto, ON: March 2011.
Assessing a novel room temperature DNA storage medium for forensic biological samples
Author(s):
Steven B. Lee, Ph.D., Kimberly C. Clabaugh, Brie Silva, Kingsley O. Odigie, Michael D. Coble, Odile Loreille, Melissa Scheible, Ron M. Fourney, Jesse Stevens, George R. Carmody, Thomas J. Parsons, Arijana Pozder, Arthur J. Eisenberg, Bruce Budowle, Taha Ahmad, Russell W. Miller, Cecelia A. Crouse
The ability to properly collect, analyze and preserve biological stains is important to preserving the integrity of forensic evidence. Stabilization of intact biological evidence in cells and the DNA extracts from them is particularly important since testing is generally not performed immediately following collection. Furthermore, retesting of stored DNA samples may be needed in casework for replicate testing, confirmation of results, and to accommodate future testing with new technologies.
A novel room temperature DNA storage medium, SampleMatrix™ (SM; Biomatrica, Inc., San Diego, CA), was evaluated for stabilizing and protecting samples. Human genomic DNA samples at varying amounts (0.0625–200ng) were stored dry in SM for 1 day to 1 year under varying conditions that included a typical ambient laboratory environment and also through successive freeze–thaw cycles (3 cycles). In addition, spiking of 1–4× SM into samples prior to analysis was performed to determine any inhibitory effects of SM. Quantification of recovered DNA following storage was determined by quantitative PCR or by agarose gel electrophoresis, and evaluation of quantitative peak height results from multiplex short tandem repeat (STR) analyses were performed to assess the efficacy of SM for preserving DNA.
Results indicate no substantial differences between the quality of samples stored frozen in liquid and those samples maintained dry at ambient temperatures protected in SM. For long-term storage and the storage of low concentration samples, SM provided a significant advantage over freezer storage through higher DNA recovery. No detectable inhibition of amplification was observed at the recommended SM concentration and complete profiles were obtained from genomic DNA samples even in the presence of higher than recommended concentrations of the SM storage medium. The ability to stabilize and protect DNA from degradation at ambient temperatures for extended time periods could have tremendous impact in simplifying and improving sample storage conditions and requirements. The current work focuses on forensics analysis; however this technology is applicable to all endeavors requiring storage of DNA.
Publishing information:
February 16th, 2011 | Forensic Science International: Genetics Volume 6, Issue 1 , Pages 31-40, January 2012
Dr. Roy Roberg publishes 5th edition of Police & Society
Author(s):
Roy Roberg, Ph.D., Kenneth Novak, Gary Cordner, and Bradley Smith
Now in its fifth edition, Police & Society offers a descriptive and analytical look at the process of policing, from police behavior and organization to operations and historical perspectives. Focusing on the relationship between the police and the community and how it has changed throughout the years, Roy Roberg, Kenneth Novak, Gary Cordner, and new coauthor Brad Smith explore the most important theoretical foundations and incisive research on contemporary policing practices.
Features of the Fifth Edition
Discussion of many new topics including procedural justice, recruitment strategies for females and minorities, social media/social networking, and predictive policing
Enhanced coverage of criminal procedure, officer stress and safety, intimate partner violence, brutality/extralegal police aggression, and more
Expanded glossary of key terms:
Engaging boxed features: ”Inside Policing” boxes that discuss real-world police issues and “Voices From the Field” interviews–six of which are new to this edition–with nationally recognized experts
Superior supplements:
A revised and expanded Instructor’s Manual and an interactive Student Study Guide on CD (packaged with the text)
Publishing information:
February 11th, 2011 | Oxford University Press, 2011
Children Behaving Badly?: Peer Violence Between Children and Young People
Author(s):
Veronica M. Herrera, Ph.D. and Stuewig, J.
Children Behaving Badly? is the first publication to directly address the complexity of peer violence from a range of disciplines and perspectives. It provides important insights into theoretical understanding of the issue and produces significant and far reaching implications for policy and practice developments. It is based on up-to-date research evidence and includes some unpublished findings from recognized experts in multidisciplinary fields. It challenges many populist and damaging representations of youth violence and the associated narratives of modern youth as essentially "evil."
Publishing information:
February 5th, 2011 | Wiley-Blackwell Publishing. Chapter 11.
Dr. Steven Lee Presents Research at 2011 American Academy of Forensic Sciences Meeting
Author(s), respectively:
- Steven Lee, Ph.D.
- Steven Lee, Ph.D. and Dinaro, E., Trogdon, C.
- Steven Lee, Ph.D. and Baker, B., Trogdon, C.
Steven Lee recently attended and presented his research at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences Meeting in Chicago.
Publishing information:
- February 1st, 2011 | Bio Sample Storage in the 21st Century and beyond: The Cold War is Over, Get S.M.A.R.T. (Sample Management At Room Temperature). Chaired a workshop held at the 2011 American Academy of Forensic Sciences Meeting in Chicago.
- February 1st, 2011 | Optimizing DNA Storage at Room Temperature: Teflon Tubes Vs. Polypropylene Tubes. Poster presentation at the 2011 AAFS Meeting held in Chicago, IL.
- February 1st, 2011 | Analysis of N-4 STR Repeat Slippage with Amplification Enhancer on Low-quantity DNA Samples. Poster presentation at the 2011 AAFS Meeting held in Chicago, IL.
Expectations of change: the congruency between Beat Officers and Supervisors and its impact on programmatic change
Author(s):
Mark E. Correia, Ph.D. and David A. Jenks, Ph.D.
While much effort has been put forth to understand the ongoing transformation of police agencies (e.g., toward community policing, implementation of innovative practices), few researchers have looked at those mechanisms involved in the change. Drawing upon data collected from an innovative agency, this study assesses the changes in expectations held by Beat Officers and Sergeants after a year in a newly‐implemented geographical beat system. Our findings suggest that congruency is more dynamic than previous studies have shown and that a geographical patrol strategy can increase officer’s community policing activities.
Publishing information:
January 16th, 2011 | Police Practice & Research: An International Journal, 12(1): 16-34.
