Examining Racial and Ethnic Disparity in Prosecutor's Bail Requests and Downstream Decision-making.

Although research into prosecutorial and judicial decision-making has been conducted for the past three decades, a great deal still remains unknown. Most research focuses on the 'back end' of the adjudication process, leaving decision points prior to the final phases unanalyzed. Drawing on unique data from the New York County District Attorney's Office that tracks 43,971 felony complaints, this research explores racial and ethnic disparity at multiple decision points during case processing, with a focus on the prosecutor's initial bail request. A combination of regression modeling and path analysis were applied, revealing that the effects of race and ethnicity vary by decision point. Black defendants demonstrated increased bail requests and likelihood of indictment. However, together with Latino defendants, they were less likely to be detained prior to trial compared with White defendants. Despite identifying a mix of positive and negative cumulative effects, we found significant indirect effects of black defendants via bail request that contribute to the unwarranted racial disparities in both pre-trial detention and indictment outcomes. Insights gleaned from this research help prosecutors understand how their initial actions influence final outcomes, as well as contributing to the national conversation on the use of cash bail.

Improving Voluntary Compliance through Problem-Oriented Governance: A Case Study of South Korea's Efforts to Increase the COVID-19 Vaccination Rate.

Drawing on the literature of problem-oriented governance (POG) and social motivation for voluntary compliance, this study discusses how South Korea's efforts to cultivate distributed cognitions and build core capabilities of POG-reflective improvement, collaborative, and data analytic capabilities-contribute to the citizens' voluntary compliance with the current vaccination policy by improving trust and confidence. A systematic content analysis and documentation review of relevant policies, situation reports, after-action reports, official briefings, and news articles provide significant implications for both theories and practices of policy compliance and governance for effective and efficient management of many wicked problems like the COVID-19 pandemic.

Assessing a Faith-Based Program for Trauma Healing Among Jail Inmates: A Quasi-Experimental Study.

This paper assesses a faith-based, short-term program for trauma healing among incarcerated individuals, "Correctional Trauma Healing Program" (CTHP). We hypothesized that participation in the CTHP would reduce negative consequences of lifetime trauma: symptoms of PTSD, state depression, state anger, suicidal ideation, and the risk of interpersonal aggression. We also hypothesized that the reduction, if found, would be partly attributable to anticipated program outcomes (a decrease in vengefulness and an increase in religiosity, forgiveness, perceived forgiveness of God, gratitude to God, and perceived positive impact of the Bible). To test our hypotheses, we conducted a quasi-experimental study of 349 jail inmates in Virginia. Manifest-variable structural equation modeling was applied to analyze data from pretest and posttest surveys. As hypothesized, the CTHP reduced the negative consequences of trauma by increasing religiosity and other positive attributes and decreasing vengefulness directly and/or indirectly via increased religiosity. Implications and limitations of our study are discussed.

Within-Individual Effects of Dropping out of School on Violent Victimization Among Serious Adolescent Offenders.

Despite a recent decrease in both school dropout and victimization rates, many harsh and exclusionary school policies continue to push school-aged adolescents out of school. This study combines two research areas-school dropout and violent victimization-by investigating if dropping out of school increases the chance of violent victimization. It is hypothesized that a change in the opportunity structure associated with risky lifestyles and routine activities accounts for the link between school dropout and violent victimization. Drawing on longitudinal panel data collected from a relatively homogenous sample of 1354 serious adolescent offenders who are predominantly minorities (75%) and males (86%) and fixed-effects models which enhance the causal validity of the findings by using the same individuals as their own counterfactuals over time, this study shows that dropping out of school leads to the perpetuation of violent victimization, primarily due to a change in the opportunity structure associated with risky lifestyles and routine activities. By uncovering the pathway between school dropout and victimization, this study contributes to the knowledge base on the impact of school dropouts, the source of violent victimization, and the causal mechanism underlying the link between dropping out of school and violent victimization-all of which are relatively understudied despite their significant implications for theory and policy.

The Role of Family Support in the Explanation of Patterns of Desistance Among Individuals Convicted of a Sexual Offense.

Despite the growing body of research on desistance from crime, there have been comparatively few studies that have focused specifically on desistance from sex offending. Much remains unknown about whether the findings from the general desistance literature are applicable to individuals convicted of a sexual offense. The current study explores this issue. Given the well-established importance of the social support network in the process of desistance from crime, this research focuses on the influence of indicators of family support on reoffending outcomes. We also examine the sustained effects of family ties on offending behavior over time. In addition, we look beyond traditional measures of social bonds (i.e., marital status and employment) and assess the impact of the stability of family support on reoffending outcomes. The current research explores the criminal career trajectories of a sample of 318 Canadian individuals convicted of a sexual offense and released back into their communities. Analyses yielded two distinct groups of offenders: one displaying a very low rate of reoffending that continued to decline over the follow-up period, and the other showing a higher rate of reoffending but also with steady declines throughout the observation period. Findings showed that while marriage was not significantly associated with reoffending, stable family support was significantly linked to reduced reoffending. We also found evidence of a sustained effect of family support on reoffending over a 3-year period. These findings underline the importance of expanding beyond the traditional measures of social bonds conventionally used in desistance studies.

Cast into doubt: Free will and the justification for punishment.

Criminal punishment is justified on either retributive or consequential grounds. The retributive justification is premised on a common-sense view of free will: offenders can freely choose to commit crimes and so deserve blame for their actions. The consequentialist justification, in contrast, is not necessarily premised on the free will concept, but rather justifies punishment when it is the most cost-effective way of preventing crime. Science elucidating the mechanistic causes of human behavior has thrown the notion of free will into doubt, leading some to predict a shift in public support away from retribution towards consequentialism. Past research shows that free will doubt weakens support for retribution, but less is known about its effects on support for consequentialism, or about whether these effects differ across the crime severity spectrum. In this study, we explore the effects of free will doubt on support for retribution and consequentialism in response to three different categories of crime - drug crime, property crime, and violent crime - which have been shown to evoke varying levels of emotion. We find clear inconsistencies across the crime spectrum. For high affect crime, free will doubt weakens support for retribution via blame, and increases support for consequentialism. For low affect crime, free will doubt weakens support for retribution to an even greater extent, yet also decreases support for consequentialism via blame. These findings suggest that, as science reveals the mechanistic causes of criminal behavior, support for criminal punishment will decrease, especially with respect to less serious crimes.