Catálogo de publicaciones - revistas

<jats:p> Over the past decade, a considerable literature has emerged within criminology stemming from the collection of social network data and the adoption of social network analysis by a cadre of scholars. We review recent contributions to four areas of crime research: co-offending networks, illicit networks, gang-rivalry networks, and neighborhoods and crime. Our review highlights potential pitfalls that one might encounter when using social networks in criminological research and points to fruitful directions for further research. In particular, we recommend paying special attention to the clear specifications of what ties in the network are assumed to be doing, potential measurement weaknesses that can arise when using police or investigative data to construct a network, and understanding dynamic social network processes related to criminological outcomes. We envision a bright future in which the social network perspective will be more fully integrated into criminological theories, analyses, and applications. </jats:p>

<jats:p> The randomized experiment has achieved the status of the gold standard for estimating causal effects in criminology and the other social sciences. Although causal identification is indeed important and observational data present numerous challenges to causal inference, we argue that conflating causality with the method used to identify it leads to a cognitive narrowing that diverts attention from what ultimately matters most—the difference between counterfactual worlds that emerge as a consequence of their being subjected to different treatment regimes applied to all eligible population members over a sustained period of time. To address this system-level and long-term challenge, we develop an analytic framework for integrating causality and policy inference that accepts the mandate of causal rigor but is conceptually rather than methodologically driven. We then apply our framework to two substantive areas that have generated high-visibility experimental research and that have considerable policy influence: ( a) hot-spots policing and ( b) the use of housing vouchers to reduce concentrated disadvantage and thereby crime. After reviewing the research in these two areas in light of our framework, we propose a research path forward and conclude with implications for the interplay of theory, data, and causal understanding in criminology and other social sciences. </jats:p>

<jats:p> Criminologists have long focused their attention on the inner-city street corner and neglected the suburban cul-de-sac. Crime in the suburbs should be of greater criminological concern. Cities are no longer centrally located. Suburbanization has impacted not only where most Americans live but also the types and reasons for crime. We begin this review with an overview of the unique structures of the suburb and the rise of the suburban city. We complicate the image of the dangerous city and the safe suburb and examine broad trends in crime and safety within each. The reasons and types of suburban crimes are further related to the decentered, diffused, and less public places of suburbia. Types of crime are described and prospects for future research into the structure and culture of suburbanization as they relate to comparative criminological research are discussed. </jats:p>

<jats:p> In this review, we consider theory and research focused on girls’ and women's violence, with an emphasis on studies that inform long-running debates about whether uniquely gendered explanations are required to understand such behaviors. The review emphasizes potentially malleable social processes and influences as well as studies that have explored neighborhood, family, and peer-based sources of risk. We also examine contemporary research on precursors of a specific type of aggression—intimate partner violence—where self-reports of perpetration have been found to be similar across gender, but research has consistently shown that the consequences are generally more serious for female victims. Our review draws on findings from analyses of large-scale survey data as well as qualitative approaches that explore meanings and motivations. The results point to significant areas of overlap, as well as some distinctive patterns in gender, support learning, and intersectionality theories, and identify potentially fruitful areas for additional research. </jats:p>

<jats:p> Online crime has increased in severity and frequency over the past two decades. However, although several scientific disciplines have commonly employed criminological theories to explain this phenomenon, mainstream criminology has devoted relatively scant attention to the investigation of cyber-criminals and their victims. Drawing on this assumption that more criminological attention should be given to this important type of crime, this article presents an interdisciplinary review of the current state of research on cyber-dependent crimes (i.e., crimes that require the use of computer technology to exist, such as hacking). We begin with a brief discussion of the ecosystem of cyber-dependent crimes and the key actors who operate within it, including the online offenders and enablers, targets and victims, and guardians. Next, we review empirical scholarship that pertains to each actor while distinguishing between nontheoretical research and theoretically driven studies. We then detail methodological and theoretical avenues that should be pursued by future research and discuss why criminological research should lead policy initiatives and guide the design of technical tools that improve the scientific community's ability to generate a safer and more secure cyber-environment. We conclude by discussing potential ways in which cyber-dependent crime research could pave the way for the advancement of mainstream criminological theory and research. </jats:p>

<jats:p> Over the past 50 years, researchers in the United States and abroad have debated the inherent inequities within justice systems that contribute to the underreporting of crime to the police. Our review summarizes existing knowledge about victim reporting and outlines new directions in theory and empirical research that situate this work within a broader perspective on victim help-seeking. We begin with a short review of the historical development of research on victim reporting and its implications for research and social policy. We then review and critique major explanations of victims’ reporting behavior and outline a new integrated multilevel framework. This model draws on the broader help-seeking literature to study police notification and other forms of victim help-seeking as interrelated systems that respond to social-contextual factors and feedback effects. We conclude by outlining the core empirical implications of this multilevel theoretical framework and illuminating the most significant data and research needs. </jats:p>

<jats:p> Peer influence occupies an intriguing place in criminology. On the one hand, there is a long line of theorizing and empirical work highlighting it as a key causal process for delinquency. On the other, there is a group of theoretical skeptics who view it as one of the most notorious examples of a spurious link. After discussing these perspectives, this review takes stock of our intellectual advancements in understanding peer influence over decades' worth of research toward this endeavor. We conclude that although there have been important gains, essential questions and gaps remain. Toward this aim, we offer some lines of future work that we believe offer pathways to yielding the greatest added value to the discipline. </jats:p>

<jats:p> Although jails are both common and consequential, affecting millions of individuals annually, they are a relatively understudied aspect of the criminal justice system. In this review, we first document the prevalence of jail incarceration, highlighting how jail incarceration has risen in tandem with the more commonly examined prison incarceration. Next, we describe the population of individuals in jail, paying particular attention to the heterogeneous and disadvantaged nature of this population. We document how jail incarceration is measured, demographically and in household surveys, and argue that jail incarceration has lasting and profound consequences for individuals, families, and communities. We conclude the review by suggesting directions for future research. Given the common nature of jail incarceration—in conjunction with the fact that jail incarceration creates, sustains, and perpetuates inequality—a better understanding of the prevalence, correlates, and consequences of jail incarceration is critical for fully understanding the link between the criminal justice system and inequality. </jats:p>

<jats:p> Research on inequality in punishment has a long and storied history, yet the overwhelming focus has been on episodic disparity in isolated stages of criminal case processing (e.g., arrest, prosecution, or sentencing). Although theories of cumulative disadvantage exist in criminology, they are seldom adapted to account for treatment in the criminal justice system. We provide an overview of the concept of cumulative disadvantage in the life course and review evidence on the development of cumulative disadvantages across stages of the criminal justice system. In doing so, we appraise the empirical research on policing, prosecution, and the courts and consider how these largely separate bodies of scholarship are inherently connected. We conclude with a call for future research that focuses more explicitly on the ways that life-course disadvantages shape contact with the criminal justice system and how these processes work to perpetuate patterns of disadvantage within the system and in subsequent life outcomes. </jats:p>

<jats:p> Since the early 2000s, state and local policy makers, practitioners, and advocates accelerated existing federal efforts to reform the youth justice system and dramatically reduce the number of youth detained in the juvenile justice system. States across the country achieved these drops through policy changes that created fiscal disincentives and legal roadblocks to state custody. Yet recent research shows that youth of color and LGBQ-GNCT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, questioning, gender-nonconforming, and transgender) youth continue to be overrepresented in many juvenile justice systems throughout the country. In this review, we interrogate these disparities more deeply in an effort to ( a) advocate for continued and increased efforts to reduce racial disparities in the juvenile justice system; ( b) break the silence around the experiences of LGBQ-GNCT youth in the system, which are overwhelmingly youth of color; and ( c) encourage a deeper appreciation of sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression and how they intersect with race when it comes to serving youth in the justice system. </jats:p>