Envisioning Justice: The Complex Journey of Cold Case Homicide Survivors

2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (6) ◽  
pp. 1102-1123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashley Wellman ◽  
Marian Borg
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Family Members ◽  
The United States ◽  
Constructivist Approach ◽  
Homicide Survivors ◽  
Justice Process ◽  
Criminal Justice Process ◽  
Cold Case ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Social Constructivist Approach

While police make an arrest in the majority of homicide cases occurring annually in the United States, a portion remain unsolved and are eventually classified as “cold cases.” Family members of the victims are not only left grieving the loss of their loved ones, but also plagued by the knowledge that the murderer has yet to be officially identified or held accountable. How do these family members—cold case homicide survivors—navigate their open-ended journey through grief? Using a social constructivist approach, we analyze in-depth interviews with 24 cold case homicide survivors to describe the unique dimensions of their experience, including how their hopes are tied to understandings of achieving justice for their loved ones. Three themes emerge from their narratives: a certainty that the killers will be identified; a demand for the harshest punishment possible; and an underlying anxiety about what the identification of the offender will ultimately mean for them. We consider the implications of survivors’ expectations for the future, especially for their relationships with the police, other family members, and the criminal justice process in general.

scholarly journals Beyond Religious Rigidities: Religious Firmness and Religious Flexibility as Complementary Loyalties in Faith Transmission

Religions ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 111 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Dollahite ◽  
Loren Marks ◽  
Kate Babcock ◽  
Betsy Barrow ◽  
Andrew Rose
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Family Functioning ◽  
Intergenerational Transmission ◽  
Family Relationships ◽  
Religious Affiliation ◽  
Family Members ◽  
The United States ◽  
Research Center ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Practical Implications

Research has found that intergenerational transmission of religiosity results in higher family functioning and improved family relationships. Yet the Pew Research Center found that 44% of Americans reported that they had left the religious affiliation of their childhood. And 78% of the expanding group of those who identify as religiously unaffiliated (“Nones”) reported that they were raised in “highly religious families.” We suggest that this may be, in part, associated with religious parents exercising excessive firmness with inadequate flexibility (rigidity). We used a multiphase, systematic, team-based process to code 8000+ pages of in-depth interviews from 198 Christian, Jewish, and Muslim families from 17 states in all 8 major religio-cultural regions of the United States. We framed firmness as mainly about loyalty to God and God’s purposes, and flexibility as mainly about loyalty to family members and their needs and circumstances. The reported findings provided a range of examples illustrating (a) religious firmness, (b) religious flexibility, as well as (c) efforts to balance and combine firmness and flexibility. We discuss conceptual and practical implications of treating firmness and flexibility as complementary loyalties in intergenerational faith transmission.

Objectivity and Advocacy in Forensic Psychiatry after Ake v. Oklahoma

1987 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-188
Author(s):  
C. Robert Showalter ◽  
W. Lawrence Fitch
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Forensic Psychiatry ◽  
United States Supreme Court ◽  
The United States ◽  
Mental Condition ◽  
United States Supreme ◽  
The Public ◽  
Justice Process ◽  
Criminal Justice Process ◽  
Proper Subject

In its landmark opinion in Ake v. Oklahoma, the United States Supreme Court enunciated a broad right to psychiatric assistance for criminal defendants who raise the defense of insanity or whose mental condition is relevant to sentencing in a capital case. Recognizing such assistance as essential to the proper functioning of the adversary process in cases in which an issue concerning the defendant's mental condition has been raised, the opinion may be read to pose an ethical dilemma for the psychiatrist who regards his or her assessment as objective and, hence, not a proper subject for adversarial presentation or inquiry. The authors contend, however, that rather than inviting psychiatrists to compromise their objectivity in these cases, in fact the Supreme Court's ruling challenges psychiatrists to demonstrate and assure their objectivity by revealing and explaining the bases for their opinions, thereby enhancing their utility in the criminal justice process and, ultimately, their credibility in the minds of the public.

Home Detention with Electronic Monitoring: Comparing Pretrial and Postconviction Programs

1990 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 521-536 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael G. Maxfield ◽  
Terry L. Baumer
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Electronic Monitoring ◽  
The United States ◽  
Preliminary Results ◽  
Client Population ◽  
Similar Program ◽  
Justice Process ◽  
Criminal Justice Process ◽  
Two Populations

Since its introduction, electronically monitored home detention has become a common disposition throughout the United States. At the present time individuals at virtually every point in the criminal justice process are being monitored. This article describes studies of two populations. Preliminary results are presented from an evaluation of a pretrial home detention program. Salient differences are noted between the pretrial program and a similar program for convicted offenders delivered by the same agency, in the same jurisdiction. It is concluded that the nature of the client population significantly affects the design, delivery, and impact of electronically monitored home detention programs.

Out of Sight, Out of Mind: An Exploratory Examination of Institutionalization and Consumption

1996 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 278-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Bettina Cornwell ◽  
Terrance G. Gabel
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Consumer Behavior ◽  
Rapid Growth ◽  
Consumer Choice ◽  
Observational Studies ◽  
Family Members ◽  
The United States ◽  
Pertinent Literature ◽  
Depth Interviews

Despite rapid growth and increased levels of consumer choice within the institutionalized population in the United States, the consumption behaviors of nearly 3.5 million people, and those who support them both during and after institutionalization, have been largely ignored. Through analysis of pertinent literature and the presentation of findings from a series of in-depth interviews and observational studies, the authors examine the widespread effects of institutionalization on the consumer behavior of institutionalized and post-institutionalized persons, as well as of their friends and family members. The authors offer suggestions as to how marketers, consumer researchers, and public policymakers can more effectively and responsibly respond to the needs of consumers affected by institutionalization.

The Criminal Justice Process as a Rite of Passage

1992 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 22-24
Author(s):  
Livingston Sutro
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
The United States ◽  
Federal State ◽  
Rite Of Passage ◽  
Local Authorities ◽  
Justice Process ◽  
Criminal Justice Process ◽  
State And Local

Crime in the 1990s continues to be a massive problem in the United States. Federal, state, and local authorities expend tremendous resources to combat crime and punish criminals, but nothing seems to stem the tide. Psychologists and sociologists have identified what they consider to be the sources of crime, and some measures have been taken to implement their suggestions, yet crime is no less prevalent.

Arbitrariness and Discrimination under Post-Furman Capital Statutes

1980 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 563-632 ◽  
Author(s):  
William J. Bowers ◽  
Glenn L. Pierce
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Capital Punishment ◽  
United States Supreme Court ◽  
The United States ◽  
Present System ◽  
United States Supreme ◽  
Treat Ment ◽  
Death Sentences ◽  
Justice Process ◽  
Criminal Justice Process

Drawing on a wide variety of data sources, this study examines arbi trariness and discrimination under capital statutes in Florida, Georgia, Texas, and Ohio, which are responsible for roughly 70 percent of the. death sentences imposed nationwide in the five years following the United States Supreme Court's Furman decision. It finds that there are gross dif ferences in the treatment of potentially capital offenders by race of of fender and victim and by judicial circuits within states. These are (1) inde pendent of aggravating felony-related circumstances, (2) present at both presentencing and sentencing stages of the criminal justice process, (3) uncorrected by the postsentencing appellate review process, (4) unaltered by the form and restrictiveness of capital statutes among states, and (5) remarkably similar to the best documented patterns of differential treat ment by race of offender and victim under pre-Furman capital statutes, now ruled unconstitutional. These findings show that the present system of capital punishment is inconsistent with the constitutional standards of the Furman and Gregg decisions of the United States Supreme Court, but is instead consistent with historically prevailing extralegal influences which compromise and displace the legally prescribed functions of such punishment and are an enduring source of arbitrariness and discrimina tion.

scholarly journals Mercy towards decarceration: Examining the legal constraints on early release from prison

Incarceration ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 263266632097780
Author(s):  
Alexandra Cox ◽  
Dwayne Betts
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Family Members ◽  
The United States ◽  
Early Release ◽  
The Us ◽  
Legal Constraints ◽  
Release From Prison

There are close to seven million people under correctional supervision in the United States, both in prison and in the community. The US criminal justice system is widely regarded as an inherently unmerciful institution by scholars and policymakers but also by people who have spent time in prison and their family members; it is deeply punitive, racist, expansive and damaging in its reach. In this article, we probe the meanings of mercy for the institution of parole.

Shame and blame: Secondary stigma among families of convicted sex offenders

2021 ◽  
pp. 174889582110173
Author(s):  
Douglas Evans ◽  
Adam Trahan ◽  
Kaleigh Laird
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Sex Offenders ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Sex Offender ◽  
Family Members ◽  
The United States ◽  
Formerly Incarcerated ◽  
Research Attention ◽  
Sex Offender Registry

The detriment of incarceration experienced by the formerly incarcerated has been increasingly explored in the literature on reentry. A tangential but equally concerning issue that has recently received more research attention is the effect on family members of the incarcerated. The stigma of a criminal conviction is most apparent among families of convicted sex offenders, who experience consequences parallel to those of their convicted relative. Drawing from interviews with 30 individuals with a family member incarcerated for a sex offence in the United States, this study explores manifestations of stigma due to familial association. The findings suggest that families face negative treatment from social networks and criminal justice officials, engage in self-blame and that the media’s control over the narrative exacerbates family members’ experiences. Given the pervasiveness of criminal justice system contact, the rapid growth of the sex offender registry in the United States, and the millions of family members peripherally affected by one or both, justice system reforms are needed to ensure that family members are shielded from the harms of incarceration and registration.

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