Criminology Commons^™

The Punishment Marketplace: Competing For Capitalized Power In Locally Controlled Immigration Enforcement, Daniel L. Stageman

Publications and Research

Neoliberal economics play a significant role in US social organization, imposing market logics on public services and driving the cultural valorization of free market ideology. The neoliberal ‘project of inequality’ is upheld by an authoritarian system of punishment built around the social control of the underclass—among them unauthorized immigrants. This work lays out the theory of the punishment marketplace: a conceptualization of how US systems of punishment both enable the neoliberal project of inequality, and are themselves subject to market colonization. The theory describes the rescaling of federal authority to local centers of political power. Criminal justice policy activism by …

Cognitive Sociology, Michael W. Raphael

Publications and Research

Cognitive sociology is the study of the conditions under which meaning is constituted through processes of reification. Cognitive sociology traces its origins to writings in the sociology of knowledge, sociology of culture, cognitive and cultural anthropology, and more recently, work done in cultural sociology and cognitive science. Its central questions revolve around locating these processes of reification since the locus of cognition is highly contentious. Researchers consider how individuality is related to notions of society (structures, institutions, systems, etc.) and notions of culture (cultural forms, cultural structures, sub-cultures, etc.). These questions further explore how these answers depend on learning processes …

Predicting Initiator And Near Repeat Events In Spatiotemporal Crime Patterns: An Analysis Of Residential Burglary And Motor Vehicle Theft, Eric L. Piza, Jeremy G. Carter

Publications and Research

Near repeat analysis has been increasingly used to measure the spatiotemporal clustering of crime in contemporary criminology. Despite its predictive capacity, the typically short time frame of near repeat crime patterns can negatively affect the crime prevention utility of near repeat analysis. Thus, recent research has argued for a greater understanding of the types of places that are most likely to generate near repeat crime patterns. The current study contributes to the literature through a spatiotemporal analysis of residential burglary and motor vehicle theft in Indianapolis, IN. Near Repeat analyses were followed by multinomial logistic regression models to identify covariates …

Cctv As A Tool For Early Police Intervention: Preliminary Lessons From Nine Case Studies., Eric Piza, Joel M. Caplan, Leslie W. Kennedy

Publications and Research

This study explores the prospect of utilizing CCTV as an early intervention mechanism to detect and disrupt street-level activity that can lead to violence. The analysis focuses on nine case studies in Newark, NJ, incorporating data from several sources, including video footage, computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system incident data, CAD event chronologies and face-to-face interviews with CCTV operators. The findings suggest that the benefits offered by CCTV, namely the instantaneous discovery and reporting of crime, may be rendered incon- sequential by the process times associated with the differential-response policy of police dispatch. Potential methods by which police can more proactively utilize …

Crime In Context: Utilizing Risk Terrain Modeling And Conjunctive Analysis Of Case Configurations To Explore The Dynamics Of Criminogenic Behavior Settings., Joel M. Caplan, Leslie W. Kennedy, Jeremy D. Barnum, Eric L. Piza

Publications and Research

Risk terrain modeling (RTM) is a geospatial crime analysis tool designed to diagnose environmental risk factors for crime and identify the places where their spatial influence is collocated to produce vulnerability for illegal behavior. However, the collocation of certain risk factors’ spatial influences may result in more crimes than the collocation of a different set of risk factors’ spatial influences. Absent from existing RTM outputs and methods is a straightforward method to compare these relative interactions and their effects on crime. However, as a multivariate method for the analysis of discrete categorical data, conjunctive analysis of case configurations (CACC) can …

The Crime Kaleidoscope: A Cross-Jurisdictional Analysis Of Place Features And Crime In Three Urban Environments, Jeremy D. Barnum, Joel M. Caplan, Leslie W. Kennedy, Eric L. Piza

Publications and Research

Research identifies various place features (e.g., bars, schools, public transportation stops) that generate or attract crime. What is less clear is how the spatial influence of these place features compares across relatively similar environments, even for the same crime. In this study, risk terrain modeling (RTM), a geospatial crime forecasting and diagnostic tool, is utilized to identify place features that increase the risk of robbery and their particular spatial influence in Chicago, Illinois; Newark, New Jersey; and Kansas City, Missouri. The results show that the risk factors for robbery are similar between environments, but not necessarily identical. Further, some factors …

The Current And Potential Role Of Crime Analysts In Evaluations Of Police Interventions: Results From A Survey Of The International Association Of Crime Analysts, Eric Piza, Shun Q. Feng

Publications and Research

Crime analysts play a pivotal role in evidence-based policing by readily diagnosing the nature of crime and disorder problems. Such analysis products are key in the design of evidence-based strategies. The role of analysts in the subsequent process of evidence-based policing, the evaluation of programs to determine what works, is less known. The current study seeks to fill this gap in the literature through a survey of the International Association of Crime Analyst Membership. Findings suggest that program evaluation lies on the periphery of the crime analysis profession. Across all measures incorporated in this study, program evaluation was emphasized less …

The Influence Of Community Areas, Neighborhood Clusters, And Street Segments On The Spatial Variability Of Violent Crime In Chicago, Cory Schnell, Anthony A. Braga, Eric L. Piza

Publications and Research

Objectives: The influence of three hierarchical units of analysis on the total spatial variability of violent crime incidents in Chicago is assessed. This analysis seeks to replicate a recent study that found street segments, rather than neighborhood units of analysis, accounted for the largest share of the total spatial variability of crime in The Hague, Netherlands (see Steenbeek and Weisburd J Quant Criminol. doi:10.1007/s10940-015- 9276-3, 2015).

Methods: We analyze violent crime incidents reported to the police between 2001 and 2014. 359,786 incidents were geocoded to 41,926 street segments nested within 342 neighborhood clusters, in turn nested within 76 community areas …

Spatiotemporal Convergence Of Crime And Vehicle Crash Hotspots: Additional Consideration For Policing Places, Jeremy G. Carter, Eric L. Piza

Publications and Research

Policing strategies that seek to simultaneously combat crime and vehicle crashes operate under the assumption that these two problems have a corollary relationship—an assumption that has received scant empirical attention and is the focus of the present study. Geocoded vehicle crash, violent crime, and property crime totals across were aggregated to Indianapolis census blocks over a 36-month period (2011-2013). Time series negative binomial regression and local indicators of spatial autocorrelation analyses were conducted. Results indicate that both violent and property crime are significantly related to vehicle crash counts, both overall and during the temporal confines of patrol tours. Relationship strength …

The Influence Of Job Assignment On Community Engagement: Bicycle Patrol And Community-Oriented Policing, Victoria A. Sytsma, Eric L. Piza

Publications and Research

The purpose of this study is to compare a specialized community-oriented policing (COP) unit to a reactive unit on officer perceptions of public contact and officer perceptions of job performance. We also compare bicycle patrol officers to motor vehicle patrol officers within these units. Using a static group comparison design, questionnaires were distributed to officers within the Toronto Police Service (n = 178). Bicycle patrol is associated with more contacts with the public and higher rates of proactive policing when compared to motor vehicle patrol and bicycle officers are more likely to rate higher on several measures of crime control. …