Objectives Public transportation systems experience dynamic changes over time to accommodate growing cities, yet evaluations of their impact on crime often focus on shorter, static periods. This study examines the long-term relationship between light rail expansion and crime, using a 20-year observation period in Charlotte, NC. We analyze changes in crime patterns near original, expanded, and planned

Purpose To examine whether various data structures, visualizations, and “nudges” impact police leader’s (lieutenant and above) strategic crime prevention decisions. Methods We utilized a multi-armed survey experiment in which police leaders (N = 1195) were randomly assigned various data visuals and “nudges” to investigate their impact on police leader’s decision-making intentions. Results When police

Objectives This study examines the extent to which “mass incarceration” has support among the American public as the lynchpin of correctional policy. Methods Three information experiments embedded in a 2023 nationwide YouGov survey of 1000 Americans tested whether providing facts about the extent and nature of incarceration impacts public opinion. Results Few Americans support the imprisonment binge;

Objectives A meta-analysis was performed on seven studies in which a treatment program that directly addressed antisocial cognition in offenders was contrasted with a no-treatment or treatment as usual control group. Methods Pre-post administrations of antisocial cognition measures were available for 2 of the 7 studies and revealed medium reductions (Cohen’s d) in pro-criminal attitudes (Criminal Sentiments

Objective This study investigates how transitioning to a single-parent family influences adolescent delinquency, examining the mediating roles of changes in parental control and environmental factors in this relationship. Methods Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, this study employs propensity score matching to reduce selection bias in examining the effects of family structure

Objectives This study uses a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to investigate the effectiveness of an automated appointment notification system used to improve initial appointment attendance for probation-mandated, nonclinical care management. Methods The RCT compared care management intake appointment attendance among individuals who received automated notifications from a control group. A total of

Objectives This study examines the relationship between pre-ejection period (PEP) reward reactivity, a peripheral marker for central dopamine reactivity during reward responding, and sexual victimization and recurring sexual victimization. Methods Electrocardiogram and impedance cardiography were recorded during a simple number-matching reward task to calculate PEP reward reactivity among 44 female

Objectives We examine attitudes toward punishment of authorities and subordinates who participate in sexual and monetary bribery. Methods A nationally representative sample of 1050 respondents were presented with vignettes in an experimental design. We manipulated the type of payoff, who requested the bribe, the gender of the participants, and how common such payoffs were in that setting. Results In

Objectives In a conceptual replication and extension of Pezdek and O’Brien (2014), we investigated eyewitness knowledge and plea-bargaining decisions among Texas attorneys. Methods Attorneys (N = 196) completed a knowledge survey and an experimental vignette that varied the quality of two identification procedures used to secure the sole piece of evidence in a case on plea-bargaining decisions. Results

Objective Legal scholars suspect that judges choose longer prison terms when they are going to suspend the sentence. This study examines this so-called sentence inflation in a controlled condition, holding case-related confounds constant. Methods I analyze the differences between suspended and unsuspended prison terms in the data from the Polish judicial exam. Each judge (N = 232) sentenced the same

Objectives Explore why people react so strongly to procedural injustice experienced by others. One possibility is that people recognise the marginalisation and psychological harm that injustice can cause. Methods An online experiment tested whether exposure to procedurally unjust police behaviour directed at crime victims would influence participants’ assessments of the subject’s marginalisation, mental

Objectives Test the spatial relationship between the locations of federally licensed firearms dealers (FFLs) and gun violence using shuttered FFLs as a counterfactual. Methods Using a quasi-experimental design, we evaluate the proximity of gun violence to (a) dealers and (b) the spatial footprints of former dealers. The locations of violence incidents between 2019 and 2021 in Los Angeles, CA, Dallas

Objectives Test whether support for a small business is lower when started by prisoners or mothers of prisoners compared to local residents or people who identify as LGBTQ. Methods We conducted a vignette experiment using a hypothetical social media post for a new business followed by closed- and open-ended questions using a national YouGov sample (N = 1300). Results Support for the business is lower

Objectives To investigate whether police deployment of door hangers providing crime prevention tips to recently victimized households and nearby households reduces property crime in treated areas. Methods A randomized field experiment was implemented by randomly assigning the intervention across six neighborhoods in Columbia, SC. The test period lasted 184 days, and the intervention effect was analyzed

Objectives This study analyzes the potential criminogenic effect of safe consumption sites (SCSs) in one of the most longstanding and expansive operational networks across Toronto, Canada. The analyses are positioned to test for changes in crime levels and both immediate and spatial effects for total, property, and violent crime events resulting from SCS implementation. Methods Staggered synthetic

Objectives Evaluate the impact of extended-release naltrexone (XR-NTX) on postrelease criminal justice contact and substance use among individuals with opioid use disorder in correctional settings. Methods A randomized waitlist-controlled trial was conducted. The treatment group (n = 47) received XR-NTX shortly before release, and the comparison group (n = 47) was put on a waitlist for treatment at

Objectives This research examines whether highlighting different harms of wrongful convictions has differential effects on public attitudes. Methods We use an online survey-experiment with 970 respondents recruited through CloudResearch’s MTurk Toolkit. Respondents were randomly assigned to one of five conditions: (1) no-information control group, (2) wrongful conviction narrative, (3) wrongful conviction

Objectives Dilapidated or neglected aspects of the built environment — such as abandoned houses or litter — are recognized across disciplines as harmful to community wellbeing and safety. Researchers utilize a variety of tools to observe these items, with Google Street View (GSV) being among the most recent advances. While GSV allows researchers to virtually visit locations without the time, cost,

Objectives While several contributing factors can lead to wrongful convictions, it is unclear whether the public perceives these methods of exonerating convicted murderers differently. Methods We distributed an online survey to a nationally representative sample of 1193 individuals. After reading a prompt about the increased attention and production of digital media on wrongful convictions and exonerations

Objectives This study examines how a defendant’s addiction, prior criminal record, race, and drug type impact public support for criminalized and medicalized sentencing approaches to illegal drug use, as well as how such support may be moderated by participants’ levels of essentialist thinking. Methods This study is a fully-crossed, randomized experiment with a lay public sample (N = 1208). Results

Objectives The aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of the Pilares community program on crime rates and crime harm in Mexico City during the period from 2019 to 2023. Methods Employing a staggered difference-in-differences methodology, we examined the effects of the Pilares program on three crime metrics—Crime Rate (CR), Crime Harm per Resident (CHIP), and Crime Harm per Victim (CHIV)—within

Objectives We analyze the impact of the “Stoppa droghandeln” (“Stop the drug trade”) program, a set of safety interventions aimed at reducing crime, particularly drug-related crimes, in a small Swedish municipality (Österåker) from 2018 to 2023. Methods We use a count-based synthetic control approach to compare police crime data before and after beginning the safety interventions (“Stop the drug trade”)

Objectives  Duan et al. (2024) published a meta-analysis in this journal claiming that the risk-need-responsivity principles are not “golden”. Methods We challenge their conclusion by pointing out some major errors in their literature search and classification of studies. Results  Central to our argument is that Duan and his colleagues incorrectly identified a significant number of RNR studies as non-RNR

Objectives Many police agencies now find it difficult to recruit and retain officers. To learn more about these issues, we used a factorial survey experiment to test whether recruitment materials inspired by the intergroup communication literature are more effective than standard police recruitment materials. Methods We showed vignettes to a sample of 378 communication students. Within the vignettes

Objectives The aim of this study was to examine the long-term effects of medication-assisted treatment after release from prison. We compared prisoners receiving medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) to prisoners receiving no MOUD, on a number of outcome variables. Self-reported drug use was confirmed with laboratory tests. Methods A sample of 247 prisoners in German prisons completed the European

Objective This paper introduces the Titanium Law of Evaluation, emphasizing the importance of implementation fidelity and local contextual adaptation in program evaluations within criminology. Method Through an examination of the past and current conversations in criminology around the role of randomized controlled trials, the paper highlights the critical but often overlooked aspect of deliberate

Objectives Restorative justice (RJ) is a victim-centered approach to addressing injustice, providing those harmed with empowerment and restitution. Yet, the application of RJ to sexual assault (SA) or domestic violence (DV) cases is rare and contentious. Method In a broad systematic review yielding 12,461 candidate reports, we identified four eligible studies relayed through five reports (N = 692 participants)

Objectives We examined the inferences authors of articles published in violence journals draw from studies about the relationship between attitudes and violent offending. Methods Participants (N = 120, 58.3% women) were randomly assigned to one of 12 hypothetical studies, which varied on research design and whether the results were intuitive or counterintuitive. Results Participants rarely incorrectly

Objective This study aims to explore susceptibility to phishing emails by analysing the visual patterns of individuals. Method A quasi-experimental study was developed, using 28 emails (13 phishing; 13 legitimate; 2 control) which were subdivided into two groups (G1; G2) and presented to the participants who looked at a set of 15 emails. The sample consisted of 70 participants. Results Phishing emails

Objective The objective of this study is to conduct the first peer-reviewed meta-analysis of the predictors of job satisfaction among law enforcement. We draw upon self-determination theory (SDT) to guide our selection of six antecedents to include in our analysis. Methods We utilize Schmidt and Hunter’s (2015) meta-analytic methods of correcting correlations individually for artifacts. We also employ

Objectives This study examines the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) to reduce the time police officers spend writing reports, a task that consumes a significant portion of their workday. Methods In a pre-registered randomized controlled trial, we test this claim within the patrol division of a medium-sized police department (n = 85) at the individual report level (n = 755). Analyses utilize

Objectives This study aims to identify effective strategies for disseminating scholarly evidence to corrections practitioners within the framework of translational criminology. Methods In this experimental study, corrections practitioners were randomly assigned to receive weekly executive summaries, full-text articles, or corrections news for five months. Data were collected through a pre-survey, a

The purpose of this response essay is to commend the authors of the article, “Evaluating the effectiveness of a fatigue training intervention for the Seattle Police Department” for calling attention to the issue of fatigue and addressing its negative impact on health and safety. We highlight the demanding role of police officers and how fatigue can have significant consequences. We also discuss how

Background Alternative responses to behavioral health emergencies are increasingly common interventions to address the overrepresentation of people with mental illness in the criminal legal and health systems. We compared costs associated with receiving a crisis response from police-as-usual versus a police-mental health co-response team that occurred as part of a randomized controlled trial. Methods

Objectives Test the effects of police compliance with the restrictions on their authority embedded in Social Contract Theory (SCT) on police legitimacy, satisfaction with the police, and willingness to obey police officers. Methods A two-stage vignette experiment. In the first, 1356 participants were randomly assigned to one of four study conditions: control, procedural justice (PJ), police performance

Objectives The current study examines the influence of gang affiliation and specific gangs on prison misconduct, particularly serious and assaultive behavior. Methods Different matching procedures were employed with a large sample of gang and nongang inmates to minimize confounding factors likely to impact the effect of gang affiliation on outcome measures. A wide array of demographic variables associated