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As we struggle to find a solution to reduce mass shootings, discussion runs a wide gamut of proposals from gun control, to target hardening, to mental health services but will any be truly effective? Perhaps the answer lies not in focusing on our gun culture and mental health services but on our culture at large and how we perceive society and community by taking a cue from the Philippines.  For July 2022 at criminaljusticeaccess.com, in Opinions and Editorials, be sure to check out “Are we missing the discussion of anomie and its role in mass shootings?”

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For November at criminaljusticeaccess.com, be sure to check out Research Briefs and explore an improved understanding of jurors’ assessment of eyewitness testimony, learn about profiling efforts to distinguish between single victim and serial rapists, understand how marijuana using mental health professionals relate risk to their marijuana using clients, and consider crime incident risk factors that support the use of tactical officers as opposed to their reported over-use.

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For the month of May, at criminaljusticeaccess.com, I’ve posted 2019 UCR crime data (2020 data is not available). For 2019, the FBI summary concludes “For the third consecutive year, the estimated number of violent crimes in the nation decreased when compared with the previous year’s statistics. In 2019, violent crime was down 0.5 percent from the 2018 number. Property crimes also dropped 4.1 percent, marking the seventeenth consecutive year the collective estimates for these offenses declined. The 2019 statistics show the estimated rate of violent crime was 366.7 offenses per 100,000 inhabitants, and the estimated rate of property crime was 2,109.9 offenses per 100,000 inhabitants. The violent crime rate fell 1.0 percent when compared with the 2018 rate; the property crime rate declined 4.5 percent.”

While overall numbers and rates have declined, within the individual index crimes, data on murder shows that while they have been declining since a peak in 2016, they showed a slight increase from 2018 to 2019, comparing CIUS 2018 to 2019. However, there is a discrepancy as the 2019 CIUS states there has been a slight decrease from 2018 and references a higher number of offenses occurring in 2018 than was stated in the 2018 version. Rape offenses have been on a steady rise since 2014, though the slight increase from 2018 to 2019 is flattening the slope of the trend. Robbery offense numbers had been relatively steady from 2014 to 2016 but started to drop in 2017. That trend continues with a slight decrease in robberies from 2018 to 2019. Aggravated assault offenses having been relatively steady from 2016 to 2018 following a rise in previous years, experienced another rise between 2018 and 2019.

Burglary offenses continue their sharp decline but the decline between 2018 and 2019 was not as large as the previous two years. Larceny and theft offenses have also been on a steady decline and 2019 was no exception. Motor vehicle thefts, having been on the rise since 2014, plateaued in 2017 and declined both in 2018 and 2019. Arson as well has seen a slight decline in both 2018 and 2019.

Check out 2019 US Crime Data for more details.

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For March 2021 at CJ Access (criminaljusticeaccess.com), the accent is on sexual violence. Check out Research Briefs to gain some insight into the risk factors for child sex trafficking and exploitation, understand the link between violent cognitive frameworks and violent behavior, explore the little researched area of male sexual victimization that occurs by being forced to penetrate someone, in both its connection to intimate partner violence and in the experiences of those victimized, and finally look into whether a restorative justice approach is appropriate in sexual and family violence cases.

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The current social narrative proclaims there is systemic racism in policing. While racial disparities in police interactions are well documented, disparities don’t equal discrimination and in the areas of arrest and use of force, research has shown little evidence of racial bias. Find out why in At Issue for February 2021 at criminaljusticeaccess.com where I explore whether there is evidence for systemic racial bias in policing.

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Welcome to the New Year everyone. This month at CJ Access check out a new policing-focused posting under Research Briefs. Find out what police officers think about body worn cameras (BWCs), what factors affect their decision to charge and arrest on stalking behaviors in domestic violence, and how likely officers are to adhere to a “blue code of silence”. Also explore a longitudinal study to see if there is any support for claims of a “war on cops”, examine the factors that increase the likelihood of injury to subjects and officers in use of force incidents, and investigate the claim that witness and suspect interview transcriptions distort and contaminate oral testimony and confessions when used in court.

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While there was no posting for August, for September at CJ Access be sure to check out “Analysis of a Traffic Stop” under For Discussion, as I break down the recent traffic stop between Moorhead, MN police and a local BLM organizer. I examine what both parties did right and wrong and how adopting different behaviors and attitudes could make these encounters less confrontational. Links is provided to the dash cam videos and police reports as well.

Also under Editorials and Opinions in “A Free Cup of Coffee”, I briefly examine and critique a couple of prevalent theories regarding police corruption, the Rotten Apple Theory and the Structural (Rotten Barrel) Theory and suggest an interaction exists between the two as well as examining what remedies might exist to address police corruption.

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There was no posting for June, but for July 2020, in the  Editorial and Opinion section, I question the current rush to police reform with Careful Examination Not Defunding Needed in Police Reform

Also this month in Research Briefs, discover whether formal criminal sanctions deterred or promoted future juvenile misconduct in a British twins study, understand how Adverse Childhood Trauma scores can both be used and misused in determining the needs and risks of those affected, explore the racial differences, including those of Asians and American Indians, in juvenile homicide offenders, examine the concept of “social death” as a way of understanding honor killings in Turkey, and finally, investigate how a simple Excel formula and social psychology theories may provide a framework for accurate crime hotspot forecasting

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For May at CJ Access check out Editorials and Opinions where I examine whether the National Firearms Act has outlived its usefulness. Current firearms designs, the criminality, or lack thereof, associated with NFA weapons, and a faulty registration system used in prosecutions suggest it’s time to amend the National Firearms Act.

And on the Original Research front, I’m going to be starting a new research project utilizing unused data from my dissertation in an exploratory study of beat officer patrol patterns. During the ride-alongs with 59 officers, I tracked the patrol car movement throughout their patrol for approximately six hour periods. I have turn by turn directions, as well as the location in the beats for the calls for service, and self-initiated stops. I’m planning on analyzing this patrol and stop geographic and time data to examine questions such as;

Do some officers cover more area than others working the same beat and shift and is there a similarity in areas that officers think they should patrol?

How do the patrol patterns of each beat differ by shift?

Do some shifts on the beats engage in broader beat coverage and do some beats get broader coverage than others?

Determining the level of patrol based on the number of passes through areas of the beat and in areas surrounding calls for service and self-initiated stops and do officers focus their patrol closer to areas where they receive calls for service?

Data cleanup and operationalization is going to be first on the list and I’ll be providing updates as the research progresses.

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This month at CJ Access it’s a Research Brief roundup featuring perceptions and how we perceive crime victims, perpetrators, suspects, and the police. So, explore whether victims’ ambiguous cues and level of physical attractiveness affect the labeling of offenses as sexual assault. Investigate the way bystanders perceive sexual assault and domestic violence and the factors that influence whether they intervene. Find out if factors that typically influence perceptions of police legitimacy in large cities work the same in a medium size city and check out an international view of how lay people perceive the truthfulness of suspects’ alibis. Also in Research Briefs, look into which restrictive firearm policies, if any, may reduce the number of mass shootings and be sure to follow up with research that discusses the differences in mass violence data sources, their limitations, and potential research directions.

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For March, be sure to check out these two features:

At Issue-An examination of stop and frisk, particularly in the context of the NYPD, to explore the particulars of the program, whether it is effective as a crime prevention program, and whether the NYPD program infringed on the 4th and 14th amendments and exhibited racial bias

Editorials and Opinions-My reaction piece to At Issue-Stop and Frisk Practices where I explore the necessity for stop and frisk, and how the practice of stop and frisk can be preserved and revised while minimizing racial discord

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This month at CJ access were looking at issues of race, police shooting, and police performance so be sure to check out:

Research Briefs-exploring the connection between race, minority dense neighborhoods, and fatal shootings by the police; using better benchmarks to generate more accurate data on racial disparities in fatal officer involved shootings; constructing and utilizing a typology of police shooting errors; and using detailed police officer performance metrics to analyze their performance in police-citizen encounters

For Discussion-Racial profiling is on its face viewed as discriminatory, but does the use of race or ethnicity to focus an investigation or inquiry ever have a place? What are officers’ views? From an investigative standpoint, it may be something to be used with discretion as I explore with an excerpt from my dissertation

Original Research-An academic research article from 2013 where I utilized NCVS data from 12 cities to examine the differences between races on their satisfaction with the police and whether utilizing components of Community Oriented Policing affected that level of satisfaction

Also this month, a new and improved PDF reader is installed on the site, allowing convenient full screen reading and the ability to download PDFs found in Original Research

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Here’s what going on this month to start off your new year:

Interviews From the Field-Be sure to check out my interview with Steve Baker, a decorated 28 year veteran patrol officer, where he discusses patrol work, policing, the public, and the challenges facing police officers.

Research Briefs-Going back a few years this month with some articles you may have missed including an examination of legal challenges to fingerprint and DNA evidence, a more accurate way of determining the source of blood stains, discussing the development of a school shooter profile, factors contributing to deaths in law enforcement use of chokeholds, and the use of gaze tracking in officer shooting scenarios suggests a new approach to firearms training.

Original Research-Is there a difference between sociopaths, psychopaths, and people with anti-social personality disorder? How can they be recognized? Find out by checking out this academic examination of the issue in Differentiating and Diagnosing Sociopathy, Psychopathy, and Anti-Social Personality Disorder.

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This month, at CJ Access, be sure to check out

At Issue-Reviewing the literature on School Resource Officer effectiveness and evaluation, including the measures used, whether SROs inappropriately criminalize students, and what constitutes a good SRO program

Research Briefs-looking at professional criminals with a cost benefit analysis of bank robbery, defining professionalism in marijuana cultivation, and constructing a typology for contract killers

Original Research-My 2012 Master’s thesis exploring assessments and recommendations in addressing domestic illegal firearms trafficking

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Criminal Justice Access Mission Statement

Catering to practitioners, scholars and the public, Criminal Justice Access (CJA) brings historical, original, and current criminal justice research, practitioner interviews, and crime data together in an easily accessible and user-friendly format. The field of criminal justice is broad so CJA is devoted toward focusing on issues in policing, Part One Crimes, drugs, gangs, and deviance. By aggregating and summarizing data and information from literature in the criminal justice field, CJA tries to simplify the process of keeping abreast of current criminal justice research and information. I will be publishing content monthly so check back at see what’s new.

As this is my first month of publishing, there are no archived posts, however be sure to check the site categories. For November:

Research Briefs covering a possible new role for detectives, clearance rate differences in gun homicides vs gun assaults, reluctance in talking to the police, and differences in attitudes towards stop and search

At Issue looks at marijuana driving impairment and roadside testing

For Discussion explores recognizing a beat management philosophy called beat integrity

US Crime Data focusing on seven Part One Crimes from the UCR

Original Research is featuring past academic research by the author with this month featuring my PhD dissertation, a qualitative study of patrol officer behavior and decision making

Editorials and Opinions examines a possible deviance continuum from motorcycle enthusiast to outlaw through the mechanism of differential association