Purpose: Restrictive deterrence refers to the strategies offenders use to reduce their risk in re... more Purpose: Restrictive deterrence refers to the strategies offenders use to reduce their risk in response to sanctions. It occurs when offenders reduce the frequency, severity, or duration of their offending, or displace their crimes temporally, spatially, or tactically. We summarize and synthesize qualitative research focused on restrictive de-terrence. Methods: We conduct a qualitative meta-synthesis (QMS) on research on restrictive deterrence with the aims of integrating, comparing, and translating findings across 17 studies. The studies examine restrictive deterrence in drug dealing, prostitution and auto-theft. The method reveals coherent themes and provides interpretations spanning the works to guide further investigation. Results: Offenders use strategies for avoidance and management of arrest risk and mitigation of punishment in response to sanction threats. Their advance plans and mental preparations structure crime choices. However, both their decisions and their strategies are subject to many influences including variable frictions, restricted options, and bounded rationality. Conclusions: Reductions in offending from deterrent efforts, including the frequency, duration and severity of crime is crime-contingent and partially offset by offenders becoming more embedded in criminal networks and emboldened as they perceive their adaptations as effective.
International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology
Criminologists increasingly have studied the effects of criminal justice contact on a broad range... more Criminologists increasingly have studied the effects of criminal justice contact on a broad range of offenders' adult outcomes. However, virtually all of this research focuses exclusively on street-level offenders. With the use of a unique data set that includes street-level and white-collar offenders, we investigated the odds of regaining steady employment following criminal justice contact by offender type. Specifically, we investigated the effects of age of onset, number of prior arrests, total time sentenced, timing of first arrest, and timing of first incarceration on employment stability for both types of offenders, while controlling for family background factors, race, educational attainment, and age. Overall, we found that white-collar offenders are better able to rebound following contact with the criminal justice system. However, when the accrue multiple arrests and are arrested or incarcerated before the age of 24, white-collar offenders face the same obstacles to emp...
Media Construction of White-Collar Violence Revisited: An Examination of Two Nightclub Tragedies
Deviant Behavior
Wright, Cullen, and Blankenship (199544. Wright , John P. , Francis T. , Cullen , and Michael B. ... more Wright, Cullen, and Blankenship (199544. Wright , John P. , Francis T. , Cullen , and Michael B. , Blankenship . 1995 . “ The Social Construction of Corporate Violence: Media Coverage of the Imperial Food Products Fire .” Crime and Delinquency 41 : 20 – 27 . [CSA] [CrossRef], [Web of Science ®], [CSA]View all references) examined print media constructions of a chicken-processing plant fire that killed scores of workers. They found that newspaper coverage of the fire was reluctant to describe the event as corporate violence. We examine the generalizability of Wright et al.'s study by conducting a content analysis of newspaper coverage of two events at nightclubs in Chicago, Illinois, and Warwick, Rhode Island, that left numerous people dead and injured. We found that although newspapers did discuss the extent of personal harm caused by the disasters and the potential criminal sanctions that could be imposed, they seldom made any specific claims as to the cause of the events (i.e....
Killed in the ActA Descriptive Analysis of Crime-Precipitated Homicide
Homicide Studies
By disaggregating homicide into group-specific measures, insight may be gained into the many form... more By disaggregating homicide into group-specific measures, insight may be gained into the many forms of lethal violence. In this article, the authors provide a descriptive analysis of a specific type of homicide that they refer to as “crime-precipitated homicide.” They argue that this categorization is distinct from both felony homicide and victim-precipitated homicide. Crime-precipitated homicides are those in which the victim was killed while participating in illegal behavior including predatory crimes, vice crimes, or narcotics dealing. Using the Homicides in Chicago, 1965-1995 data set, the authors describe the characteristics of crime-precipitated homicide offenders and victims including age, race, gender, and criminal histories. They also report on characteristics of the homicide event including where the homicides occur, when they occur, the type of weapon used, and the relationship between offenders and victims. Results suggest that crime-precipitated homicide is a distinct ty...
Violence features in human life, not only as actual physical confrontation but also as stories. S... more Violence features in human life, not only as actual physical confrontation but also as stories. Stories of violence are particularly important in violence-prone subcultures and among those partaking in the illegal drug economy. Drawing on narrative analysis, this study examines stories of violence among a population of incarcerated Norwegian drug dealers. Four widespread story types are identified: business narratives, intimidation narratives, moral narratives and survivor narratives. We explore the content of these stories and the work they do for tellers while keeping a keen eye on their ambiguous nature. We argue that stories and storytellers plurivocality is often missed when stories of violence are described within established criminological traditions.
Research examining offender risk reduction strategies within illicit markets focus primarily on t... more Research examining offender risk reduction strategies within illicit markets focus primarily on those operating in the real world for drugs and stolen goods. Few have considered the strategies that may be used by individuals in virtual illicit markets that are hidden from public view. This study addresses this gap through a grounded theory analysis of posts from 10 Russian and three English language web forums selling stolen data to engage in identity theft and fraud. The findings indicate that buyers employ multiple strategies to reduce their risk of loss from unreliable vendors, along with resources provided by forum administrators to manage relationships between participants. The implications of this study for law enforcement and offender decision-making research are also discussed.
International journal of offender therapy and comparative criminology, Jan 29, 2010
The relationship between religiosity and crime has been the subject of much empirical debate and ... more The relationship between religiosity and crime has been the subject of much empirical debate and testing over the past 40 years. Some investigators have argued that observed relationships between religion and crime may be spurious because of self-control, arousal, or social control factors. The present study offers the first investigation of religiosity, self-control, and deviant behavior in the prison context. We use survey data from a sample of 208 recently paroled male inmates to test the impact of religiosity and self-control on prison deviance. The results indicate that two of the three measures of religiosity may be spurious predictors of prison deviance after accounting fovr self-control. Participation in religious services is the only measure of religiosity to significantly reduce the incidence of prison deviance when controlling for demographic factors, criminal history, and self-control. We conclude with implications for future studies of religiosity, self-control, and dev...
International journal of offender therapy and comparative criminology, 2004
Criminologists increasingly have studied the effects of criminal justice contact on a broad range... more Criminologists increasingly have studied the effects of criminal justice contact on a broad range of offenders' adult outcomes. However, virtually all of this research focuses exclusively on street-level offenders. With the use of a unique data set that includes street-level and white-collar offenders, we investigated the odds of regaining steady employment following criminal justice contact by offender type. Specifically, we investigated the effects of age of onset, number of prior arrests, total time sentenced, timing of first arrest, and timing of first incarceration on employment stability for both types of offenders, while controlling for family background factors, race, educational attainment, and age. Overall, we found that white-collar offenders are better able to rebound following contact with the criminal justice system. However, when the accrue multiple arrests and are arrested or incarcerated before the age of 24, white-collar offenders face the same obstacles to emp...
Research on general strain theory has demonstrated the impact of strain on decisions to engage in... more Research on general strain theory has demonstrated the impact of strain on decisions to engage in crime and delinquency. However, people differ in their responses to strain and only some resort to crime or delinquency. There remain gaps in our knowledge of when, and under what conditions, individuals will react to strain with offending behavior. We rely on interviews with 40 incarcerated men to understand how they cope with specific prison strains, and why they make such coping choices. We find considerable variation in inmates' coping responses. They use a variety of coping strategies-behavioral, cognitive, and emotional-and only some of these strategies involve offending. Our findings indicate that responses to prison strain are partly a function of past experience with strains, including prior experimentation with coping techniques. Results highlight the unfolding nature of Lindsay Leban is a graduate student in the Department of Sociology and Criminology & Law at the University of Florida. She received her bachelor's degree in sociology from Florida Gulf Coast University. In 2012, she was selected for a National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program at UAB. She is the 2013 outstanding undergraduate student for the Southern Criminal Justice Association. Her research has been published in Justice Quarterly and Deviant Behavior. Stephanie M. Cardwell is a doctoral student in criminology at the University of Texas at Dallas. Her primary research interests include life-course/developmental criminology, juvenile delinquency, and quantitative and qualitative methods.
An impressive research literature has emerged that identifies linkages between religion and a wid... more An impressive research literature has emerged that identifies linkages between religion and a wide range of attitudes, behaviors, and life events. We contribute to this literature by exploring how women undergoing difficult life circumstances-such as incarceration, drug and alcohol addiction, domestic violence, unemployment, and homelessness-use faith to cope with and change these circumstances. To address this issue we analyze semi-structured interviews with 40 residents of a faith-based transitional center for women in the Southern United States. The residents outline a narrative of change in which they distinguish between the -old self‖ and -new self.‖ The narratives also specify the role of religiosity in facilitating change, the creation of a faith-based identity, and the strategies used for maintaining change. We conclude with implications for faithbased treatment programs, local pastors and religious congregants involved in social outreach ministry, sociology of religion scholars, and policy makers. OPEN ACCESS Religions 2011, 2 185
Reporting behavior of fraud victims and black's theory of law: An empirical assessment
Justice Quarterly, 2001
... protec-tion agency in California found that educational level was the most significant demogr... more ... protec-tion agency in California found that educational level was the most significant demographic element in deterniining who would report: those with less than a bachelor's degree were more likely to report than those with a college degree (Jesilow, Klempner, and Chiao ...
Each year millions of Americans become victims of predatory crimes. The way victims respond to th... more Each year millions of Americans become victims of predatory crimes. The way victims respond to these attacks varies from compliance with offenders' requests to physically challenging offenders. In some cases, the physical defense of self and property has lethal consequences for the initial offender. While much is known about felony murder victims and typical homicide offenders, little is known about individuals who fight back against predatory attack by using lethal violence. In this paper, we use data from the Homicides in Chicago, 1965Chicago, -1995 study to describe the characteristics of defensive homicide offenders and to determine how they compare with felony murder victims and defensive homicide offenders. Our results indicate that defensive homicide offenders are more similar to typical homicide offenders than felony murder victims, and are even more likely to have violent criminal histories and to use firearms than typical homicide offenders. Our results challenge the common perception that individuals who fight back against predatory attack are simply "law-abiding citizens." We conclude the paper with a discussion of the implications of our study for additional research and police practice.
The results are instructive for police agencies as they highlight common characteristics of fraud... more The results are instructive for police agencies as they highlight common characteristics of fraud victims and suggest methods for encouraging fraud victims to report their victimization to police.
Purpose: Restrictive deterrence refers to the strategies offenders use to reduce their risk in re... more Purpose: Restrictive deterrence refers to the strategies offenders use to reduce their risk in response to sanctions. It occurs when offenders reduce the frequency, severity, or duration of their offending, or displace their crimes temporally, spatially, or tactically. We summarize and synthesize qualitative research focused on restrictive de-terrence. Methods: We conduct a qualitative meta-synthesis (QMS) on research on restrictive deterrence with the aims of integrating, comparing, and translating findings across 17 studies. The studies examine restrictive deterrence in drug dealing, prostitution and auto-theft. The method reveals coherent themes and provides interpretations spanning the works to guide further investigation. Results: Offenders use strategies for avoidance and management of arrest risk and mitigation of punishment in response to sanction threats. Their advance plans and mental preparations structure crime choices. However, both their decisions and their strategies are subject to many influences including variable frictions, restricted options, and bounded rationality. Conclusions: Reductions in offending from deterrent efforts, including the frequency, duration and severity of crime is crime-contingent and partially offset by offenders becoming more embedded in criminal networks and emboldened as they perceive their adaptations as effective.
International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology
Criminologists increasingly have studied the effects of criminal justice contact on a broad range... more Criminologists increasingly have studied the effects of criminal justice contact on a broad range of offenders' adult outcomes. However, virtually all of this research focuses exclusively on street-level offenders. With the use of a unique data set that includes street-level and white-collar offenders, we investigated the odds of regaining steady employment following criminal justice contact by offender type. Specifically, we investigated the effects of age of onset, number of prior arrests, total time sentenced, timing of first arrest, and timing of first incarceration on employment stability for both types of offenders, while controlling for family background factors, race, educational attainment, and age. Overall, we found that white-collar offenders are better able to rebound following contact with the criminal justice system. However, when the accrue multiple arrests and are arrested or incarcerated before the age of 24, white-collar offenders face the same obstacles to emp...
Media Construction of White-Collar Violence Revisited: An Examination of Two Nightclub Tragedies
Deviant Behavior
Wright, Cullen, and Blankenship (199544. Wright , John P. , Francis T. , Cullen , and Michael B. ... more Wright, Cullen, and Blankenship (199544. Wright , John P. , Francis T. , Cullen , and Michael B. , Blankenship . 1995 . “ The Social Construction of Corporate Violence: Media Coverage of the Imperial Food Products Fire .” Crime and Delinquency 41 : 20 – 27 . [CSA] [CrossRef], [Web of Science ®], [CSA]View all references) examined print media constructions of a chicken-processing plant fire that killed scores of workers. They found that newspaper coverage of the fire was reluctant to describe the event as corporate violence. We examine the generalizability of Wright et al.'s study by conducting a content analysis of newspaper coverage of two events at nightclubs in Chicago, Illinois, and Warwick, Rhode Island, that left numerous people dead and injured. We found that although newspapers did discuss the extent of personal harm caused by the disasters and the potential criminal sanctions that could be imposed, they seldom made any specific claims as to the cause of the events (i.e....
Killed in the ActA Descriptive Analysis of Crime-Precipitated Homicide
Homicide Studies
By disaggregating homicide into group-specific measures, insight may be gained into the many form... more By disaggregating homicide into group-specific measures, insight may be gained into the many forms of lethal violence. In this article, the authors provide a descriptive analysis of a specific type of homicide that they refer to as “crime-precipitated homicide.” They argue that this categorization is distinct from both felony homicide and victim-precipitated homicide. Crime-precipitated homicides are those in which the victim was killed while participating in illegal behavior including predatory crimes, vice crimes, or narcotics dealing. Using the Homicides in Chicago, 1965-1995 data set, the authors describe the characteristics of crime-precipitated homicide offenders and victims including age, race, gender, and criminal histories. They also report on characteristics of the homicide event including where the homicides occur, when they occur, the type of weapon used, and the relationship between offenders and victims. Results suggest that crime-precipitated homicide is a distinct ty...
Violence features in human life, not only as actual physical confrontation but also as stories. S... more Violence features in human life, not only as actual physical confrontation but also as stories. Stories of violence are particularly important in violence-prone subcultures and among those partaking in the illegal drug economy. Drawing on narrative analysis, this study examines stories of violence among a population of incarcerated Norwegian drug dealers. Four widespread story types are identified: business narratives, intimidation narratives, moral narratives and survivor narratives. We explore the content of these stories and the work they do for tellers while keeping a keen eye on their ambiguous nature. We argue that stories and storytellers plurivocality is often missed when stories of violence are described within established criminological traditions.
Research examining offender risk reduction strategies within illicit markets focus primarily on t... more Research examining offender risk reduction strategies within illicit markets focus primarily on those operating in the real world for drugs and stolen goods. Few have considered the strategies that may be used by individuals in virtual illicit markets that are hidden from public view. This study addresses this gap through a grounded theory analysis of posts from 10 Russian and three English language web forums selling stolen data to engage in identity theft and fraud. The findings indicate that buyers employ multiple strategies to reduce their risk of loss from unreliable vendors, along with resources provided by forum administrators to manage relationships between participants. The implications of this study for law enforcement and offender decision-making research are also discussed.
International journal of offender therapy and comparative criminology, Jan 29, 2010
The relationship between religiosity and crime has been the subject of much empirical debate and ... more The relationship between religiosity and crime has been the subject of much empirical debate and testing over the past 40 years. Some investigators have argued that observed relationships between religion and crime may be spurious because of self-control, arousal, or social control factors. The present study offers the first investigation of religiosity, self-control, and deviant behavior in the prison context. We use survey data from a sample of 208 recently paroled male inmates to test the impact of religiosity and self-control on prison deviance. The results indicate that two of the three measures of religiosity may be spurious predictors of prison deviance after accounting fovr self-control. Participation in religious services is the only measure of religiosity to significantly reduce the incidence of prison deviance when controlling for demographic factors, criminal history, and self-control. We conclude with implications for future studies of religiosity, self-control, and dev...
International journal of offender therapy and comparative criminology, 2004
Criminologists increasingly have studied the effects of criminal justice contact on a broad range... more Criminologists increasingly have studied the effects of criminal justice contact on a broad range of offenders' adult outcomes. However, virtually all of this research focuses exclusively on street-level offenders. With the use of a unique data set that includes street-level and white-collar offenders, we investigated the odds of regaining steady employment following criminal justice contact by offender type. Specifically, we investigated the effects of age of onset, number of prior arrests, total time sentenced, timing of first arrest, and timing of first incarceration on employment stability for both types of offenders, while controlling for family background factors, race, educational attainment, and age. Overall, we found that white-collar offenders are better able to rebound following contact with the criminal justice system. However, when the accrue multiple arrests and are arrested or incarcerated before the age of 24, white-collar offenders face the same obstacles to emp...
Research on general strain theory has demonstrated the impact of strain on decisions to engage in... more Research on general strain theory has demonstrated the impact of strain on decisions to engage in crime and delinquency. However, people differ in their responses to strain and only some resort to crime or delinquency. There remain gaps in our knowledge of when, and under what conditions, individuals will react to strain with offending behavior. We rely on interviews with 40 incarcerated men to understand how they cope with specific prison strains, and why they make such coping choices. We find considerable variation in inmates' coping responses. They use a variety of coping strategies-behavioral, cognitive, and emotional-and only some of these strategies involve offending. Our findings indicate that responses to prison strain are partly a function of past experience with strains, including prior experimentation with coping techniques. Results highlight the unfolding nature of Lindsay Leban is a graduate student in the Department of Sociology and Criminology & Law at the University of Florida. She received her bachelor's degree in sociology from Florida Gulf Coast University. In 2012, she was selected for a National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program at UAB. She is the 2013 outstanding undergraduate student for the Southern Criminal Justice Association. Her research has been published in Justice Quarterly and Deviant Behavior. Stephanie M. Cardwell is a doctoral student in criminology at the University of Texas at Dallas. Her primary research interests include life-course/developmental criminology, juvenile delinquency, and quantitative and qualitative methods.
An impressive research literature has emerged that identifies linkages between religion and a wid... more An impressive research literature has emerged that identifies linkages between religion and a wide range of attitudes, behaviors, and life events. We contribute to this literature by exploring how women undergoing difficult life circumstances-such as incarceration, drug and alcohol addiction, domestic violence, unemployment, and homelessness-use faith to cope with and change these circumstances. To address this issue we analyze semi-structured interviews with 40 residents of a faith-based transitional center for women in the Southern United States. The residents outline a narrative of change in which they distinguish between the -old self‖ and -new self.‖ The narratives also specify the role of religiosity in facilitating change, the creation of a faith-based identity, and the strategies used for maintaining change. We conclude with implications for faithbased treatment programs, local pastors and religious congregants involved in social outreach ministry, sociology of religion scholars, and policy makers. OPEN ACCESS Religions 2011, 2 185
Reporting behavior of fraud victims and black's theory of law: An empirical assessment
Justice Quarterly, 2001
... protec-tion agency in California found that educational level was the most significant demogr... more ... protec-tion agency in California found that educational level was the most significant demographic element in deterniining who would report: those with less than a bachelor's degree were more likely to report than those with a college degree (Jesilow, Klempner, and Chiao ...
Each year millions of Americans become victims of predatory crimes. The way victims respond to th... more Each year millions of Americans become victims of predatory crimes. The way victims respond to these attacks varies from compliance with offenders' requests to physically challenging offenders. In some cases, the physical defense of self and property has lethal consequences for the initial offender. While much is known about felony murder victims and typical homicide offenders, little is known about individuals who fight back against predatory attack by using lethal violence. In this paper, we use data from the Homicides in Chicago, 1965Chicago, -1995 study to describe the characteristics of defensive homicide offenders and to determine how they compare with felony murder victims and defensive homicide offenders. Our results indicate that defensive homicide offenders are more similar to typical homicide offenders than felony murder victims, and are even more likely to have violent criminal histories and to use firearms than typical homicide offenders. Our results challenge the common perception that individuals who fight back against predatory attack are simply "law-abiding citizens." We conclude the paper with a discussion of the implications of our study for additional research and police practice.
The results are instructive for police agencies as they highlight common characteristics of fraud... more The results are instructive for police agencies as they highlight common characteristics of fraud victims and suggest methods for encouraging fraud victims to report their victimization to police.
We investigate how participants in the street economy of crack cocaine construct a "hustler" iden... more We investigate how participants in the street economy of crack cocaine construct a "hustler" identity by contrasting their social behaviors and styles with a dialectically contrastive crackhead identity. For those who are proximate to, or involved in, the crack cocaine economy, effort is required to avoid being labeled a crackhead. Would-be hustlers construct boundaries that separate them from others on the street through talk and behavior. We draw on interviews conducted with 28 men convicted of committing violent street crimes to explore how they distance themselves from those exhibiting distasteful symptoms of crack addiction. By examining the boundaries between these two street-based identities we increase sociological understanding of the significance of offenders' identity work for shaping their conceptions of self and other, as well as their interactions in everyday street life.
Participation in contemporary street cultures often exposes individuals to a world characterized ... more Participation in contemporary street cultures often exposes individuals to a world characterized by violence. The participants in this study admitted to frequent experience with violence and regular use of it. Many viewed violence as an appropriate response to some situations, though they often worked to avoid negative connotations of such behavior, especially ascriptions of an "authentically" violent self. Using an interactionist framework, we explore the processes by which offenders who engage in violent crimes resist being labeled as authentically violent. Drawing from data from semi-structured interviews with 30 offenders who engaged in carjackings, we analyze contrastive statements they employed to resist a violent self-concept and label. Offenders differentiated their own violent behaviors, as situational and excusable, from behaviors that characterize authentically violent others. Understanding these processes sheds light on criminal identities and gives insights into attempts to change offender behavior by altering self-conceptions.
We analyze how participants in an internet forum dedicated to the straightedge subculture articul... more We analyze how participants in an internet forum dedicated to the straightedge subculture articulate and express subcultural identities and boundaries, with particular attention to how they accomplish these tasks in a computer-mediated context. Through participant observation, "focused discussions, " and interviews, we explore the complexity of identity-making processes in terms of cyberspace and subculture, conceptualizing identification as occurring at the intersection of biography, subculture, and technology. We find that the internet influences how individuals participate in subcultural communities by analyzing their claims for authenticity and how they position themselves in relation to subcultural boundaries. This article provides insight into the dialectic relationship between participation in a subculture and in an internet community.
Fights are widespread in society, but for most people it happens once or twice and is not part of... more Fights are widespread in society, but for most people it happens once or twice and is not part of a consistent pattern or lifestyle. Using a narrative criminological framework, we study the stories of violence among people who otherwise seldom engage in violent behaviour. The young Norwegians we interviewed, emphasized that their fights emerged as a response to insults, was fuelled by drinking and could be exciting. Participants had negative evaluations of their fights, took the blame for them, talked down their importance and self-critically used humour to ridicule their involvement. Our study demonstrates the shortcomings of subcultural and neutralization theories when it comes to understanding violent behaviour among those who rarely engage in it.
This study investigates paternal identities among men who are involved in the illegal drug econom... more This study investigates paternal identities among men who are involved in the illegal drug economy in Norway. Using data from life-history interviews, we identified two paternal identities relating to the role fatherhood played in their lives and crimes: struggling fathers and absent fathers. Our analysis demonstrates the structural constraints of fatherhood for crime-involved men, which is rooted in their class positions and enhanced by being situated in hyper-masculine drug markets with little access to hegemonic masculinity. Our study offers a contribution to scholarship on marginalized fatherhood, and highlights the import of paternal identities for understanding the relationship between fatherhood and crime over the life course.
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Papers by Heith Copes