loading content..
    2. / Research / Recent Publications

Publications

2020

By Faculty

Miller, J. & Palmer, K. (2020). Juvenile probation officer decision-making in a reforming state: Assessing the application of evidence-based principles.  Criminal Justice & Behavior. 

Whereas research has shown improvements in decision-making shortly after the introduction of risk/need assessment (RNA) tools, studies of routine practice nonetheless show shortcomings in RNA utilization. The current study uses an experimental survey-based vignette method to assess juvenile probation officer decision-making several years into a sustained evidence-based effort to implement an RNA in Pennsylvania. Consistent... Learn More

By Faculty

Miller, J., & Maloney, C. (2020). Operationalizing risk, need, and responsivity principles in local policy: Lessons from five county juvenile probation departments. The Prison Journal, 100(1), 49-73

We examined the operationalization of risk, need, and responsivity principles (RNRP) in local policy in five Pennsylvania county juvenile probation departments. “Core” policies focused on officers’ assessment; decision-making about client services and supervision; engagement with system stakeholders; and intervention with clients. “Supporting” policies focused on competency development; management and supervision; and performance measurement. Policy variations... Learn More

By Faculty

Ostermann, M., Hyatt, J.M., & DeWitt, S. (2020). The influence of technical violation revocations on parole efficacy: Employing competing risks survival analyses to address methodological challenges.  Journal of Crime and Justice, 43(3), 323-341.

Failures among the community supervision population are a major contributor to prison populations. Revocations of parole supervision due to technical parole violations (TPRs) often result in the incarceration of a parolee for violating the terms of their supervised release. This study employs several strategies for integrating TPRs into the construct of recidivism, a common outcome... Learn More

By Faculty

Rengifo, A. F., Rouzbahani, D. and Peirce, J. (2020). Court interpreters and the political economy of punishment in three arraignment courts. Law & Policy.

Criminal courts in the United States engage defendants with Limited English Proficiency on a regular basis. However, we know little about how court‐appointed interpreters shape case‐level routines and dispositions, nor how these interpreters navigate their immediate courtroom environment. We draw on observations of bail hearings (N=647) conducted in 2015–16 in three arraignment courts in New... Learn More

By Faculty

Rengifo, A. F., and Slocum, L.  (2020).   The identity prism: How racial identification frames perceptions of police contact, legitimacy and effectiveness. Law & Social Inquiry.

.This article examines the role of racial identity in the configuration of opinions about the police. We argue that racial identity links social context to individual valuations of law enforcement, moderating the association between specific encounters and general views on police legitimacy and effectiveness. These propositions are assessed using data from a sample of 451... Learn More

By Faculty

Sachs, N., Veysey, B.M., & Rivera, L.M. (2020). Situational victimization cues strengthen implicit and explicit self-victim associations: An experiment with college-aged adults. Journal of Interpersonal Violence.

Contextually salient social identities are those that individuals may not think of often but that may be temporarily activated by relevant situational cues. We hypothesized that victim, one of many identities people may possess, is a contextually salient identity that operates both implicitly and explicitly. To test this hypothesis, the present research tests the effect... Learn More

2019

By Faculty

Apel, R., & Powell, K. (2019). Level of criminal justice contact and early adult wage inequality. RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences 5: 198-222.

This study explores heterogeneity in the relationship between criminal justice contact and early adult wages using unconditional quantile regression models with sibling fixed effects, estimated separately by race-ethnicity. The findings support the contention that the relationship between criminal justice contact and wages is heterogeneous in three respects: level of contact, race, and location in the... Learn More

By Faculty

Baćak, V., & Apel, R. (2019).  The thin blue line of health: Police contact and civilian wellbeing in Europe. Social Science and Medicine. 

Increasing evidence suggests that even minor forms of contact with the criminal justice system—such as being stopped by police—may be implicated in poor health. Police use of force can increase the risk of physical injury, whereas interactions accompanied by abusive rhetoric or threats can lead to psychological and emotional harm. Police contact may also have... Learn More

By Faculty

Baćak, V., Andersen, L. H., & Schnittker, J. (2019). The effect of timing of incarceration on mental health: Evidence from a natural experiment. Social Forces, 98(1), 303-328.

There is growing evidence that incarceration is associated with adverse health outcomes, but little is known about how circumstances surrounding incarceration relate to health. In the present study, we estimate the effect of timing of incarceration on mental health using panel data constructed from the Danish population registry. We exploit a 1994 criminal justice reform... Learn More

By Faculty

Baćak, V., & Kennedy, E. H. (2019). Principled machine learning using the super learner: An application to predicting prison violence.  Sociological Methods & Research, 48(3), 698-721

A rapidly growing number of algorithms are available to researchers who apply statistical or machine learning methods to answer social science research questions. The unique advantages and limitations of each algorithm are relatively well known, but it is not possible to know in advance which algorithm is best suited for the particular research question and... Learn More

By Faculty

Lynch, J., Lane, J., Berryessa, C.M. and Rottman, J. (2019). How information about perpetrators’ nature and nurture influences assessments of their character, mental states, and deserved punishment. PLoS ONE 14(10): e0224093.

Evidence of perpetrators’ biological or situational circumstances has been increasingly brought to bear in courtrooms. Yet, research findings are mixed as to whether this information influences folk evaluations of perpetrators’ dispositions, and subsequently, evaluations of their deserved punishments. Previous research has not clearly dissociated the effects of information about perpetrators’ genetic endowment versus their environmental... Learn More

By Faculty

Berryessa, C.M. and Lively, C. (2019). When a sex offender wins the lottery: Social and legal punitiveness toward sex offenders in an instance of perceived injustice. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law 25(3): 181-195.

We present 3 experimental, between-subjects studies, utilizing a lottery win scenario, that attempt to illuminate how different forms of child sex offender stigma lead to support for forms of legal and social punishment in instances of perceived injustice when a “bad” person is randomly rewarded. The first study sought to examine how the child sex... Learn More

By Faculty

Berryessa, C.M. and Goodspeed, T. (2019). The brain of Dexter Morgan: The science of psychopathy in showtime’s Season 8 of Dexter.  American Journal of Criminal Justice 44(6): 962-978.

This article identifies and discusses on the ways in which biological influences to psychopathy are thematically portrayed in the eighth season of Dexter to describe Dexter’s psychopathy, particularly focusing on fatalism and the inevitability of succumbing to one’s “biological self.” This paper, utilizing traditional content analysis, focuses on seven qualitative themes surrounding “biological fatalism” and psychopathy in... Learn More

quick links