Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Environmental Factors Influencing Urban Homicide Clearance Rates: A Spatial Analysis Of New York City, Leslie W. Kennedy, Joel M. Caoplan, Eric L. Piza, Amanda L. Thomas

Publications and Research

In this paper, we explore the conditions under which clearance rates improve by looking at the experience across New York City. Using one agency provides a control on the administrative differences that appear across other jurisdictions that have been studied, usually through cross-national analysis. Our analysis uses Risk Terrain Modeling (RTM) to identify environmental features that relate to closed versus open homicide cases using two years of New York City Police Department (NYPD) data. This analysis is supplemented with an investigation of precinct-wide social structure variables to examine how context matters in influencing closure rates.

The Effect Of Program Staffing Difficulties On Changes In Dynamic Risk And Reoffending Among Juvenile Offenders In Residential Placement, Kevin T. Wolff, Katherine E. Limoncelli, Michael T. Baglivio

Publications and Research

Recently there has been growing concern regarding the staffing challenges that plague the U.S. correctional system. This study examines whether staffing challenges within residential facilities are associated with changes in dynamic risk and the likelihood of reoffending among a sample of serious juvenile offenders returning to the community from residential placement. Using administrative data on 2,022 youth who completed a court-imposed placement, in combination with information drawn from a provider’s human resources database, we employ several analytical techniques to untangle the effects of staffing difficulties on youth outcomes. Results indicate that the rate of unscheduled absences was associated with changes …

The Internet Never Forgets: Image-Based Sexual Abuse And The Workplace, John Schriner, Melody Lee Rood

Publications and Research

Image-based sexual abuse (IBSA), commonly known as revenge pornography, is a type of cyberharassment that often results in detrimental effects to an individual's career and livelihood. Although there exists valuable research concerning cyberharassment in the workplace generally, there is little written about specifically IBSA and the workplace. This chapter examines current academic research on IBSA, the issues with defining this type of abuse, victim blaming, workplace policy, and challenges to victim-survivors' redress. The authors explore monetary motivation for websites that host revenge pornography and unpack how the dark web presents new challenges to seeking justice. Additionally, this chapter presents recommendations …

The Sensitivity Of Repeat And Near Repeat Analysis To Geocoding Algorithms, Cory P. Haberman, David Hatten, Jeremy G. Carter, Eric L. Piza

Publications and Research

Purpose: To determine if repeat and near repeat analysis is sensitive to the geocoding algorithm used for the underlying crime incident data.

Methods: The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department provided 2016 crime incident data for five crime types: (1) shootings, (2) robberies, (3) residential burglaries, (4) theft of automobiles, and (5) theft from automobiles. The incident data were geocoded using a dual ranges algorithm and a composite algorithm. First, descriptive analysis of the distances between the two point patterns were conducted. Second, repeat and near repeat analysis was performed. Third, the resulting repeat and near repeat patterns were compared across geocoding …

Immigrants And Crime, Daniel L. Stageman

Publications and Research

The gap between public perception of immigrant criminality and the research consensus on immigrants’ actual rates of criminal participation is persistent and cross-cultural. While the available evidence shows that immigrants worldwide tend to participate in criminal activity at rates slightly lower than the native-born, media and political discourse portraying immigrants as uniquely crime-prone remains a pervasive global phenomenon. This apparent disconnect is rooted in the dynamics of othering, or the tendency to dehumanize and criminalize identifiable out-groups. Given that most migration decisions are motivated by economic factors, othering is commonly used to justify subjecting immigrants to exploitative labor practices, with …

Measuring The Temporal Stability Of Near-Repeat Crime Patterns: A Longitudinal Analysis, David Hatten, Eric L. Piza

Publications and Research

This study investigates the temporal stability of identified near-repeat robbery patterns in Newark, New Jersey. With one noteworthy exception, scholars have yet to explore the temporal stability of identified spatiotemporal crime clusters. Furthermore, researchers have yet to measure the near-repeat phenomenon longitudinally. To fill this gap, this study employs a longitudinal design to measure variation in effect size and significance of identified near- repeat crime patterns across 13 “rolling” one-year time periods within a 2-year study period (January 2015–December 2016). Temporal instability was found within two out of six spatiotemporal crime clusters. Results are reported in the form of formalized …

Environmental Predictors Of A Drug Offender Crime Script: A Systematic Social Observation Of Google Street View Images And Cctv Footage, Victoria A. Sytsma, Nathan Connealy, Eric L. Piza

Publications and Research

The extent to which environmental context has been considered when developing crime scripts has been limited to descriptions of locations offenders visit during the crime. This research contributes a description of the environmental characteristics of an open-air drug market and identifies environmental facilitators and inhibitors toward offender actions during a drug selling crime script. CCTV camera footage is combined with Google Street View to determine if physical disorder, decay, and ‘crime generators’ characterize the drug market under study. Crime generators such as retail facilities and bars and liquor stores are environmental facilitators toward a drug selling crime script; and transit …

How Can Embedded Criminologists, Police Pracademics, And Crime Analysts Help Increase Police-Led Program Evaluations? A Survey Of Authors Cited In The Evidence-Based Policing Matrix, Eric L. Piza, Json Szkola, Kwan-Lamra Blount-Hill

Publications and Research

Evidence-based policing emphasizes the evaluation of interventions to create a catalog of effective programs and practices. Program evaluation has primarily been considered the purview of academic researchers, with police agencies typically uninvolved in the evaluation of their own interventions. Scholars have recently advocated for police to take more ownership over program evaluation, often arguing for an increased role of three primary entities: embedded criminologists, police pracademics, and crime analysts. While an emerging body of literature has explored these entities individually, research has yet to explore the unique contributions each can make to police-led science. The current study is a survey …

The Crime Control Effects Of A Police Sub-Station Within A Business-Improvement District: A Quasi-Experimental Synthetic Control Evaluation, Eric L. Piza, Andrew P. Wheeler, Nathan T. Connealy, Shun Q. Feng

Publications and Research

Research Summary:

The current study analyzes the crime reduction effect of a police sub-station operating within a business improvement district in Newark, NJ. Synthetic control methods were used to create a control group that was statistically equivalent to the cumulative street units in the target area. Significant reductions of burglary and motor vehicle theft were observed in the target area as compared to a synthetic control area over the post-intervention period. Robbery and theft from auto, conversely, suffered from spatial displacement. Of the six police actions included in the process evaluation, quality-of-life summonses and directed patrols increased in the post-intervention …