Criminology Commons^™

Police Professionalism: Another Look At The Issues, Samuel Walker

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The concept of professionalism is frequently used as a frame of reference for evaluating the organizational status of the American police. Observers generally conclude that the police lack most of the essential features of professional status. This paper questions the utility of using such a standard for evaluating the police. The professions of medicine, law and education are themselves in a state of flux. In particular, the crucial concept of professional autonomy appears increasingly incompatible with the goal of public accountability. Rather than expect the police to strive toward the traditional forms of professionalism, we should think in terms of …

The Dysfunctional Dialectics Of The Prison, Richard A. Ball

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

According to the functionalist perspective, the survival of an organization is a matter of functions performed. A dialectical framework allows us to deal with the fact that durability is not necessarily connected with functionality. Organizations may be built on retrogressive accomodations which amount to dysfunctional dialectics. The prison represents an example in that it has developed as a polarity of commonweal and service organization, and is divided against itself. The coercive structure results in compliance patterns of an alienative nature. The basic dialectical units are roles which divide prisoners by emphasizing power relationships. Staff authority is weakened by a process …

Crime Victims And Public Social Policy, Joe Hudson, Burt Galaway

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The administration of criminal law has traditionally Ignored the role of the victim and focused on the criminal offender. Increasingly, however, social policy and programs are beginning to take Into consideration the situation of the crime victim. Programs designed to focus on offender restitution to crime victims are being developed and Implemented at various stages of the criminal Justice system. At the same time, programs of state compensation to crime victims are being Implemented in an Increasing number of jurisdictions.

Police And Social Workers As Members Of New Crisis-Management Teams, Karl Schonborn

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

A variety of programs have emerged of late which involve the close collaboration and cooperation of police and social workers in order to deal with family crises. By pooling their respective skills and resources, police and social workers hope to respond more effectively to the diverse situations and challenges presented by family crises. Several of these programs are reviewed here and one is probed in depth. Also, various questions are raised regarding some of the possible problems associated with this kind of collaboration.

Police As Social Service Workers?, Robert Green

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This is a subject area that is not easily or directly approached, for the state of the knowledge rests primarily upon educated guesses, intuitive hunches and intellectual speculation. Little hard empirical data is available. We are still trying to determine how many police departments we have, let alone understand them. The most extensive surve of the criminal justice system ever attempted in this country concluded in 1967 that we had more than 40,000 departments (President's Commission, 1967). Using more sophisticated sampling techniques, L.E.A.A. reported in 1970 that the number was closer to 14,900; by 1975, however, varying its sampled population …

Community Milieu Approach: Resource For Criminal Justice System, Jack Sarmanian, Peter Knox

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Never before in our history has there been such a need for sophisticated programming to deal with the deviant patterns of behavior that are becoming so prevalent in our society. Violent acting out, and a myriad of other self-destructive and socially unacceptable behaviors are emerging which demand immediate attention. This article is devoted to describing the approach of a community-based counseling/rehabilitative program that has responded to the dilemma.

Adolescent Counseling in Development was created several years ago to answer the specific need of a community experiencing a tremendous increase in the use and abuse of drugs. The program has continued …

A Rehabilitation Model For The Adult Offender, Morton Zivan

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

In the face of ever-increasing crime rates, corrections has come under considerable criticism, simultaneously being called too lenient by same and too harsh by others. The historical facts clearly shrew that corrections has been a monolithic and simplistic response to one of our most complex social problems. Retributive punishment has been the single guiding objective, and incarceration has been the principal medium. That this approach has been a multi-billion dollar unmitigatedly tragic failure is evidenced by the fact that of the 90% of offenders who ultimately return to the cammunity after release from prison, an estimated 65% recidivate (U.S. Dept. …

Psychodramatic Treatment Techniques With Prisoners In A State Of Role Transition, Kenneth Byrne

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

One of the inevitable results of incarceration is the difficulty faced by the offender at the time of his release in his re-entry to a free society. He must adjust to a system which in today's rapidly changinq, technological world, has often chanoed drastically since the time of his entry. The prisoner has had an extended period of time in the prison community in which to warm up to the role of inmate, with its concommitant behavior. (Johnson, Savitz & Wolfgang, pp. 383-496).

Evaluating Explorations And Demonstrations For Planning In Criminal Justice, Leonard Rutman

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Excerpt from the full-text article:

This paper has emphasized the importance of evaluative research as an integral component for both explorations and demonstrations, particularly for its contribution to planning in criminal justice. In so doing, an attempt has been made to differentiate the purposes and, consequently, the appropriate research strategies for evaluating these projects. The research of explorations aimed to facilitate the process of conceptualizing and operationalizing "innovative" services into testable demonstrations. To increase the validity and generalizability of individual demonstration projects, replications in different places under varying conditions are needed. According to Wholey, however, many small studies have been …

Behavioral Science Influences On Legislation: The Case Of Delinquency Prevention, Albert S. Alissi

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Excerpt from the full-text article:

This paper will discuss some of the issues and problems which arise in the field of delinquency prevention where there is over-riding public interest and concern and calls for action to prevent delinquency, but where the problem is elusive and where the variables are not easily isolated and controlled through experimental procedures. What, in fact, constitutes the body of knowledge in the field? What uses can be made of behavioral science materials where there has been little or no experimental successes, or data upon which to build action programs? What credence should be given to …

The Convergence Of The Interactionist And Behavioral Approaches To Deviance, Stuart A. Kirk, Eileen D. Gambrill

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper compares two theoretical perspectives on deviance, the behavioral and interactionist. Although these two perspectives arise from separate disciplines and intellectual traditions, we will argue that their approaches to the study of deviance in general and to mental illness in particular share many basic similarities, as well as some important differences, and that an analysis of each helps us understand the limitations and strengths of the other.

The behavioral and interactionist perspectives are chosen for examination for three reasons. First, it is our opinion that these two theoretical approaches represent the most creative recent work by sociologists and psychologists …

Interorganizational Conflict: The Case Of Police Youth Bureaus And The Juvenile Court, C. David Hollister, Joe Hudson

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Police departments, juvenile courts, training schools, and a variety of welfare organizations together constitute the network of agencies formally instituted to deal with juvenile deviance.I Because each of the organizations has an interest in reducing deviance, it is sometimes assumed that they share the same goals and work closely and cooperatively with each other. The purpose of this paper is to report on an exploratory study of inter-organizational relations at one link in this network: relations between police youth bureaus and the juvenile court.