Thursday, October 18, 2007

More NCJRS Abstracts, October 18, 2007

AMONG THE LATEST RESEARCH POSTED AT http://www.ncjrs.gov/. CHECK FOR OTHER ARTICLES OF INTEREST THERE AS WELL.

NCJ 219877
John Wooldredge
Convicting and Incarcerating Felony Offenders of Intimate Assault and the Odds of New Assault Charges
Journal of Criminal Justice
Volume:35 Issue:4 Dated:July/August 2007 Pages:379 to 389

This Ohio study of felony assaults by 353 men against their female intimate partners considered whether conviction, jail, and imprisonment were related to the odds of subsequent domestic assault charges. The study found that the odds of new charges were significantly lower by an average of 20 percent for defendants who were convicted compared with those who were not convicted due to dropped charges or acquittal at trial. Findings for the effectiveness of incarceration among convicted defendants were mixed. Jail sentences were significantly related to lower odds of new charges for assault of an intimate partner; however, no significant differences in these odds were found for prison sentences and probation. Removing short-term opportunities for domestic violence by sending male offenders to jail might have been more effective than placing them under community supervision in reducing subsequent domestic violence. The cases examined were from a larger study of felony case processing in Ohio during a 2-year period of the implementation of determinate sentencing guidelines in Ohio in 1996. The women victims in the cases examined were either spouses, ex-spouses, or nonrelatives who had intimate relationships with the defendants. A 2-year followup period was used for the analysis of reoffending. Data on defendant characteristics and case outcomes were obtained from prosecutors' case files, presentence investigation reports, and official records of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. 4 tables and 58 references

NCJ 219833
Mandeep K. Dhami; Peter Ayton; George Loewenstein
Adaptation to Imprisonment: Indigenous or Imported?
Criminal Justice and Behavior
Volume:34 Issue:8 Dated:August 2007 Pages:1085 to 1100

This study investigated federally sentenced prisoners’ behavioral, social, psychological, and emotional adaptations to imprisonment as a function of the time they had served for the current prison sentence and their general quality of life before prison. Overall, the effects detected of time spent in prison and the quality of life before prison on response to imprisonment was small. A considerable proportion of the variation in adaptations was unaccounted for by the indigenous (prison environment) and imported factors that were studied along with others. Time spent in prison had a direct effect on prisoners’ participation in programs, their thoughts of needing control over their lives, their feelings of hopelessness, and their disciplinary infractions in prison. Prisoners’ quality of life before prison had a direct effect on their participation in programs, their feelings of happiness, and their prison infractions. Lastly, time spent in prison and quality of life before prison interacted to affect prisoners’ contact with their family and friends. There has always been great interest in how people adjust to prison life. The patterns of adaptation to imprisonment can have significant implications. The extent to which adaptations are influenced by the prison environment itself (indigenous) or influenced by the prisoners’ preprison characteristics (imported) has been a matter of considerable debate. This study investigated specific adaptations to imprisonment as a function of time spent in prison and quality of life before prison, with the goal of examining the relative and interactive explanatory power of these two influences. Data for the study consisted of responses on a self-administered survey completed by 712 prisoners. Tables, figure, and references

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