The most common issues among incarcerated juveniles and young adults are related to deficiencies in education and lack of adequate job skills. The primary focuses of this study are to examine the interrelationship of characteristics of incarcerated young adults (e.g., race or education) with post-release employment and recidivism. Results of this 5‑year follow-up study of 1,264 adults released from correctional facilities in Indiana showed that a majority were young, African American males, who did not possess a high school diploma at the time of release. Results of a logistical analysis indicated that education and post-release employment were principal contributing factors to post-release recidivism among these young adults. It is important to mention that the youth programs under the 2014 United States Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) for those who are between the ages of 16 and 24 years old will provide pathways to literacy and vocational training programs upon release from correctional facilities. Police as Educators: Support for Possible Responses to Intimate Partner Violence Calls By Kelly R. Stout and M. Alexis Kennedy
Intimate partner violence (IPV), is a widespread problem in the United States with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimating there are 12 million victims every year (2014b). Almost 15% of women and just under 4% of men have experienced rape, physical harm, or stalking in an intimate partner relationship (Black et al., 2011). Responding to intimate partner violence calls is one of the most common yet dangerous situations for police officers. It is often a deeply personal situation, full of conflict, and one if mishandled, will bring a lot of criticism down on departments. Police departments and researchers have developed protocols that include asking proscribed risk assessment questions to assess lethality. Some of these questions are quite personal and not necessarily crime related. While research has supported the use of these assessments (Campbell, Webster & Glass, 2009), no research has looked at public support for this practice. This paper considers how gender, ethnicity and awareness about intimate partner violence influence support for asking these questions. Assessing Sexual Orientation Bias in Witness Credibility Evaluations in a Sample of Student Mock Jurors By Lisa Olson
This paper examines the role that sexual orientation plays in potential juror decision-making. This inquiry is approached through the lens of queer criminology, in an attempt to shed light on the gay and lesbian experience as witnesses within the courtroom setting. The sample included 413 undergraduate students at a mid-sized upper Midwestern university. Respondents read closing argument summaries and summaries of key witness testimony in a hypothetical trial. The summaries were written in such a way that, if the reader believed the key witness, the reader should vote to acquit. The summaries were manipulated so that the key witness for the defense varied in gender and/or sexual orientation. There was a significant main effect for witness gender, with female witnesses rated as significantly less credible than male witnesses. There was also a significant main effect for respondent gender; female respondents assigned higher credibility scores to the witnesses in comparison with male respondents. There was no significant main effect for witness sexual orientation, but there was a significant interaction effect between witness gender and sexual orientation, with lesbian witnesses being rated as less credible than gay male witnesses. There was no significant effect of witness sexual orientation on respondents’ verdicts. Book Review: Prisoner Reentry in the Era of Mass Incarceration. Daniel P. Mears and Joshua C. Cochran By Sheila Carver
Prisoner Reentry in the Era of Mass Incarceration emphasizes how the shifting political, social, economic, and academic landscape in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s contributed to the movement away from rehabilitative approaches to crime, to punishment largely focused on retribution, deterrence, and incapacitation. Such a change inevitably led to the mass incarceration of over 2.3 million individuals in America today with an additional 5 million under probation and parole supervision. Despite more punitive punishments and lengthier sentences, mass incarceration presents the problem of mass reentry as more than 93% of offenders will return to society.