Background: Between 70 million and 100 million Americans have a record of interaction with the criminal legal system, a group facing stigma and discrimination in civic participation, housing, employment, and education. Justice-impacted people face collateral consequences in the community, making reentry programs essential to success at…

Allegations of sexual misconduct may prompt districts to enter into non-disclosure or settlement agreements with alleged perpetrators in exchange for a recommendation. Non-disclosure settlements typically limit how much information districts can share with other districts. This process, often referred to as "passing the trash," can be…

Criminal justice education is a relatively new program in higher education in many countries, and its curriculum and parameters remain unsettled. An exploratory study investigated whether threshold concepts theory provided a useful lens by which to explore student understandings of this multidisciplinary field. Eight high-performing final-year…

The actions and consequences of sexual offenders continue to be a topic of great discussion among researchers, clinicians, policymakers, and the community-at-large. Much of this discussion has centered on how offenders should be managed once released to the community. Legislatures have been quick to enact statutes identifying and limiting the…

Recent scholarship in genre studies has extended its focus from studying single genres to multiple genres, as well as how these genres interact with one another. This essay seeks to contribute to this growing scholarship by adding a new concept, "intermediary genre". That is, a genre that facilitates the "uptake" of a genre by…

Elizabeth Scott and Laurence Steinberg explore the dramatic changes in the law's conception of young offenders between the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twenty-first. At the dawn of the juvenile court era, they note, most youths were tried and punished as if they were adults. Early juvenile court reformers argued strongly…

This article analyzes the civil commitment models for treating sexually violent predators (SVPs) and analyzes recent civil commitment laws. SVPs are commonly defined as sex offenders who are particularly predatory and repetitive in their sexually violent behavior. Data from policy literature, a survey to all states, and a review of law review…

Drug courts routinely rely on the threat of legal sanction to motivate drug-using criminal offenders to enter and complete community-based treatment programs. In light of the high failure rates among drug court participants, what is the effect of the threat of legal sanction on program retention and completion? A quasiexperimental research design…

Presents an evaluative study of adult criminal diversion programs. The results of the study indicate that the diversion programs result in a decline in both the number and proportion of cases fully prosecuted. (IM)

Undergraduate social work and criminal justice students completed 1 of 4 vignettes that were identical with the exception of the age and gender of the vignette's subject. In each vignette, the subject interacted with an opposite-sex 24-year-old waiter or waitress. Following each vignette, respondents answered 20 items relating to the age, gender,…

Describes current phallometric test practices in relation to criminal justice, and community responses to these cases. Concludes that the available research evidence does not offer clear support for the use of phallometric data in clinical and legal decision-making processes, particularly with respect to men who have not admitted offenses. (RJM)

Five million people in the United States are under the supervision of the criminal justice system, 1.5 million in prisons or jails, the rest on probation or parole, and the inmate population continues to grow. Taxpayers spend billions of dollars each year on prisons and jails, yet the solution to crime problems remains elusive. To assist in…