Legal Theory Commons^™

Fear Of Crime, Incivilities, And Collective Efficacy In Four Miami Neighborhoods, Marc L. Swatt, Sean P. Varano, Craig D. Uchida, Shellie E. Solomon

Justice Studies Faculty Publications

Purpose: Extant literature indicates that individual perceptions of collective efficacy and incivilities are important in explaining fear of crime. These studies, however, often implicitly assume that the relationships between key variables do not differ between neighborhoods. The purpose of this research is to examine the relationship between perceptions of collective efficacy, perceptions of incivilities, and fear of crime and determine whether these relationships are constant between neighborhoods.

Methods: Surveys were conducted using a sample of residents from four neighborhoods within Miami-Dade County. Structural equation models were used to examine the relationships between perceptions of collective efficacy, perceptions of incivilities, and …

Communities As Allies, Joseph Schafer, Sean P. Varano, Nicholas Libby

Justice Studies Faculty Publications

A popular axiom attributed to British policing is the police are the public and the public are the police. Inherent in this term is a blurring of the distinction between the police and the public they serve; the police are cast as being little different from the citizenry and citizens are cast into a role of responsibility for the safety and well-being of the community. In effect, communities are framed as allies in the fight to ensure safe and secure neighborhoods. Across space and time this idea has held uneven sway within American policing ideologies. This essay considers the relationship …

Interoperability And Information Sharing, Sean P. Varano, Thomas J. Dover

Justice Studies Faculty Publications

Communication and information sharing are two of the most pressing issues facing the public safety community today. In previous chapters of this volume, authors have made note of the changing public safety landscape as it relates to the need for enhanced information and intelligence sharing among a broad cross-section of organizations. Public safety organizations, particularly law enforcement agencies, have been quick to adopt emerging technologies that have allowed for greater communication and information sharing capacities. While substantial improvements have been made over the decades that enhanced communication and information sharing, many challenges remain in the move to seamlessly integrated communication …

The Self-Regulation Model Of Sexual Offending: Validation And Relationship To Offender Type And Criminal Versatility/Specialization, Alejandro Leguizamo, Danielle Harris, Mackenzie Lambine

Arts & Sciences Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A Tale Of Three Cities: Crime And Displacement After Hurricane Katrina, Sean P. Varano, Joseph A. Schafer, Jeffrey M. Cancino, Scott H. Decker, Jack R. Greene

Justice Studies Faculty Publications

When Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in August 2005, it greatly disrupted both the physical and social structures of that community. One consequence of the hurricane was the displacement of large numbers of New Orleans residents to other cities, including Houston, San Antonio, and Phoenix. There has been media speculation that such a grand-scale population displacement led to increased crime in communities that were recipient of large numbers of displaced New Orleans residents. This study was a case study of three cities with somewhat different experiences with Katrina's diaspora. Time series analysis was used to examine the pre- and post-Katrina …

Bad Moon On The Rise? Lunar Cycles And Incidents Of Crime, Joseph A. Schafer, Sean P. Varano, John P. Jarvis, Jeffrey M. Cancino

Justice Studies Faculty Publications

Popular cultures in Western societies have long espoused the notion that phases of the moon influence human behavior. In particular, there is a common belief the full moon increases incidents of aberrant, deviant, and criminal behavior. Using police, astronomical, and weather data from a major southwestern American city, this study assessed whether lunar cycles related with rates of reported crime. The findings fail to support popular lore, which has suggested that lunar phase influenced the volume of crime reported to the police. Future research directions examining qualitative rather than quantitative aspects of this problem may yield further inform the understanding …

Police Criminal Charging Decisions: An Examination Of Post-Arrest Decision-Making, Scott W. Phillips, Sean P. Varano

Justice Studies Faculty Publications

Scholars have encouraged studies of police decision-making to move beyond the arrest decision into research that broadens the understanding of police behavior. The criminal charge placed by officers against offenders is largely an untouched area of study. Examining criminal charging decisions goes beyond simple dichotomous decisions, such as arrest, but instead explores the area of police leniency or punitiveness. Randomly constructed vignettes describing a domestic violence incident were given to officers from four agencies. Officers indicated the criminal charges they would likely list against an offender if they were to make an arrest. Serious criminal charges were often supported by …

Gangs, Guns, And Drugs: Recidivism Among Serious, Young Offenders, Beth M. Huebner, Sean P. Varano, Timothy S. Bynum

Justice Studies Faculty Publications

The primary goal of this study is to understand the factors that best explain recidivism among a sample of 322 young men aged 17 to 24 years released from prison in a Midwestern state. Specific attention is paid to the predictive validity of gang membership, gun use, and drug dependence on the timing of reconviction and the current research on desistance frames the analyses. Results from a series of proportional hazard models indicate that race, gang membership, drug dependence, and institutional behavior are critical factors in predicting the timing of reconviction. Contrary to expectations, gun use was not related to …

Police Information Systems, Sean P. Varano, Jeffrey M. Cancino, James Glass, Roger Enriquez

Justice Studies Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

An Ecological Assessment Of Property And Violent Crime Rates Across A Latino Urban Landscape: The Role Of Social Disorganization And Institutional Anomie Theory, Jeffrey Michael Cancino, Sean P. Varano, Joseph A. Schafer, Roger Enriquez

Justice Studies Faculty Publications

The present research put forth an integrated theoretical framework aimed at providing a more holistic community- level approach explaining crime across a heavily populated Latino city. Guided by social disorganization and institutional anomie theory, this study used several data sources and OLS regression techniques to examine the impact of social disorganization, economic and noneconomic institutional characteristics on rates of property and violent crime across 1,016 census block groups in San Antonio, Texas. While several findings emerged, interactions between alcohol density and concentrated disadvantage were significant and positively associated with property and violent crime. Interactions between welfare generosity and concentrated disadvantage …