Shock Probation in Ohio

In this study of Ohio's shock probation program, base expectancy rates were developed through the use of predictive attribute analysis. These rates were used to evaluate the stated guidelines of the program; namely, that shock probation should be targeted for use with youthful first offenders. Therefore, the base expectancy rates were utilized to test a prediction which was being made by relevant decision-makers within the program (judges, probation officers). Analysis of the research sample of 1,081 shock probationers released in 1975 revealed that prior record was the best predictor of failure (reincarceration over a two year period). The shock probationers who had a previous criminal record were more than twice as likely to fail. These rates were not cross-validated and were not recommended for application in a mechanical fashion by decision-makers.

Download Full-text

Imposition of Restitution

10.1093/oso/9780190682583.003.0004 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 71-100

Author(s):

R. Barry Ruback

Keyword(s):

Contextual Factors ◽

Crime Victims ◽

The State ◽

Probation Officers ◽

Survey Study ◽

County Level ◽

Offense Type ◽

Sentencing Decisions ◽

Prior Record ◽

Relevant Factors

Chapter 4 describes seven multimethod studies that look at the imposition of restitution from the state, multi-county, and single-county perspectives and that examine both legally relevant factors (e.g., offense type, prior record) and demographic factors (race, age, gender) in judges’ decisions. Across studies, restitution was more likely to be imposed when damages could be easily estimated and proved (e.g., property crimes) and when the victim was a business. A statewide analysis of sentencing decisions indicated that a law mandating restitution significantly increased the imposition of restitution. A subsequent survey study of judges, prosecutors, and probation officers indicated general support for restitution, and an analysis of statewide county-level sentencing data indicated that contextual factors relating to crime victims were also related to the imposition of restitution. Comparisons of counties with and without specialized collection units suggested that specialized collections units were less effective at collecting economic sanctions.

Download Full-text

The Model Regime

Paying for the Past ◽

10.1093/oso/9780190254001.003.0012 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 207-220

Author(s):

Richard S. Frase ◽

Julian V. Roberts

Keyword(s):

Racial Disparities ◽

Cost Effective ◽

Nonviolent Offenders ◽

Prior Record ◽

Counting Rules ◽

First Offenders

This chapter outlines a model regime of prior record enhancement (PRE), designed to promote more rational, parsimonious, and humane sentences. It provides general principles and specific rules reflecting what is known about PRE justifications, costs, benefits, and adverse consequences. The principles specify which punishment purposes justify PRE, while also recognizing the overarching importance of maintaining proportionality to conviction offense seriousness, ensuring that PREs are necessary and cost-effective, minimizing racial disparities and imprisonment of aging and nonviolent offenders, avoiding interference with offender efforts at desistance, and striking a reasonable balance between rule and discretion. The model’s PRE counting rules exclude juvenile and misdemeanor priors, convictions more than 10 years old, upweighting of felonies based on their severity or similarity, and custody status points. First offenders receive substantial sentence mitigation, after which PRE magnitude increases modestly and is capped. High-history offenders are punished no more than twice as severely as first offenders.

Download Full-text

Criminal Records, Positive Credentials and Recidivism: Incorporating Evidence of Rehabilitation Into Criminal Background Check Employment Decisions

Crime & Delinquency ◽

10.1177/0011128719833358 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 66 (2) ◽

pp. 194-218 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Megan Denver

Keyword(s):

Program Completion ◽

Decision Makers ◽

Criminal Record ◽

Criminal Records ◽

Employment Decisions ◽

Criminal Background Checks ◽

Background Checks ◽

Background Check ◽

Criminal Background ◽

Initial Denial

Decision makers increasingly incorporate “evidence of rehabilitation” into criminal background checks. Positive credentials can decrease criminal record stigma and improve employment outcomes, but we lack research on whether rehabilitative factors used in such assessments are correlated with recidivism. The current study examines more than 1,000 state-mandated criminal background checks in the rapidly growing health care sector. Everyone in the sample received an initial denial and requested reconsideration by submitting evidence of rehabilitation. The findings indicate prior employer recommendations and program completion are positively correlated with clearance to work, but conditional on contesting in the first place, none of the evidence of rehabilitation factors are negatively correlated with recidivism. Persistently pursuing an employment opportunity through a contestation process may, in itself, signal rehabilitation and lower risk.

Download Full-text

Retributivist Perspectives on an Offender’s Criminal or Crime-Free Past

Paying for the Past ◽

10.1093/oso/9780190254001.003.0002 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 23-40

Author(s):

Richard S. Frase ◽

Julian V. Roberts

Keyword(s):

Repeat Offenders ◽

Prior Record ◽

First Offenders ◽

A Minor

Proponents of retribution (Just Deserts) as a punishment rationale sharply disagree about whether repeat offenders are more culpable for a new offense, in comparison to offenders with little or no prior record. Some retributivists assert that prior convictions should have no bearing on the offender’s culpability and deserved punishment for his latest offense. Other retributivists argue that first offenders are less culpable and deserve sentence mitigation; some of these writers would extend a lesser degree of mitigation to offenders with only a minor record. A third group of retributivists views prior crimes as an aggravating factor, justifying steady increases in punishment severity as offenders acquire more convictions. This chapter critiques each of these three approaches. It argues that first offenders deserve substantial mitigation, that sentence severity should rise only modestly with additional convictions, and that such enhancements must be “capped” to preserve proportionality to the crime being sentenced.

Download Full-text

Punishing for the Past (Sometimes): Judicial Perspectives on Criminal History Enhancements

The Prison Journal ◽

10.1177/00328855211029663 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 003288552110296

Author(s):

Rhys Hester

Keyword(s):

Criminal History ◽

Sentence Length ◽

Criminal Record ◽

Sentencing Guidelines ◽

Common View ◽

The Past ◽

Prior Record ◽

The Common

Prior criminal record is routinely cited as one of the primary determinants of sentencing, and the common view is that prior record was a leading factor in non-guidelines jurisdictions going back decades. Yet, recent findings from a non-guidelines state failed to conform to this account. This study uses interviews with judges from a non-guidelines state to understand the role of prior record in sentencing in an unstructured sentencing state. This study also reexamines some of the early sentencing guidelines formation literature and finds some indications that pre-guidelines, prior record was not universally an instrumental predictor of sentence length.

Download Full-text

EURRECAs Approach for Estimating Micronutrient Requirements

International Journal for Vitamin and Nutrition Research ◽

10.1024/0300-9831/a000071 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 81 (4) ◽

pp. 256-263 ◽

Cited By ~ 22

Author(s):

Christophe Matthys ◽

Pieter van ‘t Veer ◽

Lisette de Groot ◽

Lee Hooper ◽

Adriënne E.J.M. Cavelaars ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Reference Values ◽

Policy Decision ◽

Individual Variability ◽

The Body ◽

Decision Makers ◽

Nutrient Requirements ◽

Factorial Approach ◽

Dietary Reference Values ◽

Health Policy Decision ◽

Quantitative Integration

In Europe, micronutrient dietary reference values have been established by (inter)national committees of experts and are used by public health policy decision-makers to monitor and assess the adequacy of diets within population groups. The approaches used to derive dietary reference values (including average requirements) vary considerably across countries, and so far no evidence-based reason has been identified for this variation. Nutrient requirements are traditionally based on the minimum amount of a nutrient needed by an individual to avoid deficiency, and is defined by the bodys physiological needs. Alternatively the requirement can be defined as the intake at which health is optimal, including the prevention of chronic diet-related diseases. Both approaches are confronted with many challenges (e. g., bioavailability, inter and intra-individual variability). EURRECA has derived a transparent approach for the quantitative integration of evidence on Intake-Status-Health associations and/or Factorial approach (including bioavailability) estimates. To facilitate the derivation of dietary reference values, EURopean micronutrient RECommendations Aligned (EURRECA) is developing a process flow chart to guide nutrient requirement-setting bodies through the process of setting dietary reference values, which aims to facilitate the scientific alignment of deriving these values.

Download Full-text

Haunted by a Doppelgänger

Experimental Psychology (formerly Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie) ◽

10.1027/1618-3169/a000221 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 61 (1) ◽

pp. 12-22 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Bettina von Helversen ◽

Stefan M. Herzog ◽

Jörg Rieskamp

Keyword(s):

Relevant Information ◽

Psychological Research ◽

Decision Makers ◽

Human Judgment ◽

Rule Based ◽

New Employees ◽

High Performing ◽

Facial Similarity ◽

Similarity Effect ◽

Judgment Strategy

Judging other people is a common and important task. Every day professionals make decisions that affect the lives of other people when they diagnose medical conditions, grant parole, or hire new employees. To prevent discrimination, professional standards require that decision makers render accurate and unbiased judgments solely based on relevant information. Facial similarity to previously encountered persons can be a potential source of bias. Psychological research suggests that people only rely on similarity-based judgment strategies if the provided information does not allow them to make accurate rule-based judgments. Our study shows, however, that facial similarity to previously encountered persons influences judgment even in situations in which relevant information is available for making accurate rule-based judgments and where similarity is irrelevant for the task and relying on similarity is detrimental. In two experiments in an employment context we show that applicants who looked similar to high-performing former employees were judged as more suitable than applicants who looked similar to low-performing former employees. This similarity effect was found despite the fact that the participants used the relevant résumé information about the applicants by following a rule-based judgment strategy. These findings suggest that similarity-based and rule-based processes simultaneously underlie human judgment.

Download Full-text

Recognizing Users of the Recognition Heuristic

Experimental Psychology (formerly Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie) ◽

10.1027/1618-3169.55.6.394 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 55 (6) ◽

pp. 394-401 ◽

Cited By ~ 24

Author(s):

Benjamin E. Hilbig ◽

Rüdiger F. Pohl

Keyword(s):

Decision Makers ◽

Recognition Heuristic ◽

Inference Strategy

The recognition heuristic is hypothesized to be a frugal inference strategy assuming that inferences are based on the recognition cue alone. This assumption, however, has been questioned by existing research. At the same time most studies rely on the proportion of choices consistent with the heuristic as a measure of its use which may not be fully appropriate. In this study, we propose an index to identify true users of the heuristic contrasting them to decision makers who incorporate further knowledge beyond recognition. The properties and the applicability of the proposed index are investigated in the reanalyses of four published experiments and corroborated by a new study drawn up to rectify the shortcomings of the reanalyzed experiments. Applying the proposed index to explore the influence of knowledge we found that participants who were more knowledgeable made use of the information available to them and achieved the highest proportion of correct inferences.

Download Full-text