The wrongful conviction of factually innocent people is a growing concern within the United States. Reforms generated by this concern are predicated in part on the views of justice system participants. The authors surveyed judges, police officials, prosecutors, and defense lawyers in Michigan regarding their views of why wrongful convictions…

Blacks and Whites perceive American social institutions in very different terms, and views of the police are no exception. Prior research has consistently demonstrated that race is one of the most salient predictors of attitudes toward the police, with African Americans expressing more dissatisfaction than Whites. The purpose of this research is…

This study contributes to the body of knowledge of police-citizen contacts by investigating perceptions and behaviors during encounters that result in physical resistance and force. The authors use the accounts literature as a way to understand police-citizen interactions. The data include interviews with citizens who resisted or were accused of…

Data from surveys of juvenile court probation officers in four states are analyzed to understand professional orientations toward two seemingly contrasting goals of contemporary juvenile justice systems: punishment and treatment. These self-reported juvenile probation officer orientations are considered in relation to three clusters of variables…

Prior research examining punitive attitudes has typically focused on the United States and citizens' support for the death penalty or American "get-tough" criminal policies. Yet, little is known as to how punitive attitudes and their sources vary internationally. Using Germany as a case study, this article expands the scope of…

Guided by Anderson's theory of the code of the street, this study explored social mechanisms linking individual-level disadvantage factors with the adoption of beliefs grounded in the code of the street and with drug trafficking and gun carrying--the co-occurring behavior shaping violence among young men in urban areas. Secondary data were…

There is broad consensus that the strains of imprisonment and unsupported release affect offenders' mental health and operate to the detriment of their chances of successful reintegration. Drawing on data from 208 male inmates, the authors examine the mediating and moderating influences of social support on the links between inmates' perceptions…

"Get tough" approaches for responding to sex crimes have proliferated during the past decade. Child pornography in particular has garnered attention in recent years. Policy makers increasingly have emphasized incarceration as a response to such crime, including accessing child pornography. Juxtaposed against such efforts is a dearth of knowledge…

This study examined the extent to which race and age individually and jointly determined juvenile justice case outcomes at intake and judicial disposition among males in one county juvenile court in the state of Iowa. Using an interpretation of the symbolic threat thesis and the emphasis on stereotyping as the theoretical framework, we discovered…