Criminal Justice Review

This article relies on research results and the reflections of professors who have been recognized for their outstanding teaching in order to identify attributes commonly associated with exemplary college and university teaching. Those attributes include having and showing enthusiasm for one's discipline and for teaching; emphasizing active, participatory learning and critical thinking skills; setting and enforcing high academic standards; genuinely caring about students; and possessing both a command of one's subject and essential teaching skills. The article presents recollections solicited informally from several criminal justice professors about their own best teachers and uses the responses to illustrate the previously identified attributes. It concludes by discussing the inspirational nature of truly outstanding teachers and suggesting how meaningful inspirational teachers can be to their students and to higher education.

Multivariate logistic regression models are estimated using survey data to test the relationship between health status and fear of crime. More specifically, this article examines the relationship between fear of crime and perception of health, versus an actual measure of health (i.e., having a physical disability or limitation). Along with sex and age, health status is considered a prominent indicator of personal vulnerability to crime. Nevertheless, support for health status as an indicator of fear of crime is contradictory, because it is the perception of health that has been measured and not actual illness or disability. Although much is known about the prevalence of fear of crime among populations who perceive themselves to be at a greater physical disadvantage, very little is known about the perceptions of individuals with physical disabilities, those who suffer from actual measurable physical limitations (such as the loss of one or more limbs or senses), as opposed to those who perceive themselves to be limited in the ability to protect themselves. Results indicate that impairment of ability has implications for fear of crime beyond the assessment of one's general health.

The central question explored in this article is whether the elements of a revised social bond, which includes religion, will have an impact on violence across developmental stages. Tests of social control theory are numerous, but criticism centers on the fact that the theory has limited explanatory power. Further, although social control theory is a popular theory, it was created without addressing a control whose importance was suggested by several of the authors from whom Hirschi borrowed—religion. The current study includes such measures in an attempt to determine whether the theory should be expanded when examining violence. The results indicate that social control theory is a poor explanation of violence. Specifically, only peer commitment was found to be significant for early adolescents. In addition, only school attachment, belief, and school and peer commitment were found to be significant for the middle developmental stage. Further, only school attachment and school commitment attained significance for late adolescents. Finally, the assertion that religion should be added to the social bond for the modeling of violence was not supported in this study, and further research is needed to ascertain the importance of such an addition.

The central question addressed in this article is whether the effects of adult social bonds vary by gender. Contrary to the social control theory, it is argued here that male offenders and female offenders do not respond to the controlling effect of adult social bonds in the same way, because they possess different levels of antisocial tendencies. The authors constructed a two-level hierarchical model using monthly data collected from 125 probationers to evaluate the effects of social bonds and drug use on criminal activities. The findings showed complex patterns. For male probationers, social bonds operated as a strong inhibitor of crime while drug use acted as a moderate facilitator of criminal activities. For female probationers, both social bonds and drug use operated as strong facilitators of criminal behavior. The results support the argument that adult social bonds affect male crime and female crime differently. Implications are presented for future research on adult social bonds as means of crime prevention and control, especially as they are related to gendered patterns of deviant association and lifestyle.

A number of studies have addressed the respective influences of such legal factors as offense seriousness, and such extralegal factors as race, on imprisonment decisions. One factor that is not easily classified as either legal or extralegal—pretrial detention—has not received as much attention as the "typical" legal and extralegal variables, although some researchers feel that pretrial detention plays a pivotal role in imprisonment decisions. This exploratory article assesses the relationship between pretrial detention and the decision to incarcerate in adult felony cases in a Florida county, controlling for various legal and extralegal factors. Results indicate that those defendants who had been subject to pretrial detention were more likely to be incarcerated, and to receive longer sentences if they were incarcerated, than defendants who had been released pending case disposition.

A remarkably persistent dispute in the criminal law concerns the relevance of a defendant's motive to his or her criminal liability. Specifically, the issue is whether a good or permissible motive should exculpate someone who has committed a criminal act. According to the orthodox rule, the defendant's motive is strictly irrelevant to liability. Recently, though, there has been a barrage of criticism aimed at this doctrine. Critics charge that the doctrine is not only false—judges do regularly consider motive—but also morally inexcusable, because a permissible motive ought to lessen the blameworthiness of the defendant. The present article defends the orthodox doctrine. It is argued both that it is factually accurate as a description of how judges behave but also, more importantly, that there is a sound moral basis for the doctrine that motives are irrelevant with respect to criminal liability. Critics have mischaracterized the role that motive plays in moral theory and practice, and careful attention to the significance of motive demonstrates that the orthodox criminal law doctrine is quite in line with our moral practices.

This article examines two related themes: the increasingly restrictive security measures in public schools and the reluctance of the courts to protect the basic Fourth Amendment rights of students. Information from academic and journalistic sources is presented regarding the impact on students from greater police presence and restrictive school security measures, including the potential harm to the learning environment. Additionally, this article reviews recent state appellate court decisions empowering police to search students using the less protective guidelines of reasonable suspicion and the "special needs" doctrine. This article also evaluates the recent United States Supreme Court decision that permits schools to conduct suspicionless drug testing of students as a condition of participating in any extracurricular activities. The results of these disciplinary policies and search tactics can be described as the "worst of both worlds," with severe penalties for even minor student misconduct without the safeguards of the Fourth Amendment.

This article reports on a survey of police officers in 14 different police agencies in four counties in the St. Louis metropolitan area. Results from a self-administered questionnaire followed by an oral interview indicate that officers reported sexual misconduct to be common and reveal a broad consensus among officers that the more serious forms of this behavior should not be tolerated. Nevertheless, none of the departments studied was found to have a formal policy specifically proscribing sexual misconduct, and criminal justice officials have done little to help control the problem, suggesting that this problem may in part be fostered by the police subculture. The conclusion explores policy implications within law enforcement and suggests the need for increased attention from researchers and from criminal justice officials and personnel.