Assessing Risk in North Dakota Juvenile Probation: A Preliminary Examination of the Predictive Validity of the Youth Assessment and Screening Instrument

2020 ◽  
pp. 001112872095002
Author(s):  
Adam K. Matz ◽  
Adrian R. Martinez ◽  
Elizabeth Kujava

This exploratory research examines the predictive accuracy of the Youth Assessment and Screening Instrument adopted by the North Dakota Juvenile Court through a retrospective review of assessment and court records. While studies of YASI from New York, Virginia, and Canada provide some confidence in the instrument’s predictive validity, questions remain concerning its accuracy among female and other specialized populations. This study finds a moderate effect for the instrument’s predictive accuracy in relation to general reoffending from a random sample of juvenile probationers (AUC = 0.66, p = .002, 95% CI [0.56, 0.75], N = 139), but results were notably weaker for females compared to males. Further research is needed on its accuracy among African American and Native American youth.

Author(s):  
Federico Varese

Organized crime is spreading like a global virus as mobs take advantage of open borders to establish local franchises at will. That at least is the fear, inspired by stories of Russian mobsters in New York, Chinese triads in London, and Italian mafias throughout the West. As this book explains, the truth is more complicated. The author has spent years researching mafia groups in Italy, Russia, the United States, and China, and argues that mafiosi often find themselves abroad against their will, rather than through a strategic plan to colonize new territories. Once there, they do not always succeed in establishing themselves. The book spells out the conditions that lead to their long-term success, namely sudden market expansion that is neither exploited by local rivals nor blocked by authorities. Ultimately the inability of the state to govern economic transformations gives mafias their opportunity. In a series of matched comparisons, the book charts the attempts of the Calabrese 'Ndrangheta to move to the north of Italy, and shows how the Sicilian mafia expanded to early twentieth-century New York, but failed around the same time to find a niche in Argentina. The book explains why the Russian mafia failed to penetrate Rome but succeeded in Hungary. A pioneering chapter on China examines the challenges that triads from Taiwan and Hong Kong find in branching out to the mainland. This book is both a compelling read and a sober assessment of the risks posed by globalization and immigration for the spread of mafias.


2002 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregg J. Wiche ◽  
K.G. Guttormson ◽  
S.M. Robinson ◽  
G.B. Mitton ◽  
B.J. Bramer
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