Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice/ La Revue canadienne de criminologie et de justice pénale
Volume 59, Issue 1, January 2017
ARTICLES
Validating the Predictive Accuracy of the Static Factors Assessment (SFA) Risk Scale for Federally Sentenced Offenders in Canada
L. Maaike Helmus and Trina Forrester
The Static Factors Assessment (SFA) is used by the Correctional Service of Canada to assess criminal risk. It includes 137 items in three sub-components: the Criminal History Record (CHR), Offence Severity Record (OSR), and Sex Offence History Checklist; the first two sub-components are examined in this study (109 items). Although the SFA has been used for all federal offenders for nearly 20 years, there are no studies examining its ability to predict community outcomes. This study included 8,767 federal offenders within a five-year follow-up period, and it examined revocations without an offence, readmissions for any offence, and readmissions for a violent offence. The overall SFA, CHR, and OSR were related to recidivism outcomes, although the sum of the items in the CHR significantly out-predicted the overall SFA rating. Most items in the CHR had significant predictive accuracy, whereas roughly half the OSR items were predictive; nonetheless, the OSR added positive incremental validity to the CHR. The SFA overall rating and the CHR and OSR sub-components are valid for offender risk assessment with Canadian federal offenders, although the current results suggest that improvements to the SFA should be undertaken. http://bit.ly/cjccj591a
Social Networks as Predictors of the Harm Suffered by Victims of a Large-Scale Ponzi Scheme
Rebecca Nash, Martin Bouchard, and Aili Malm
Ponzi schemes are a type of social network where investors are recruited by a variety of social actors. This study uses network analysis to investigate whether the type of social tie that influenced victims of the Eron Ponzi scheme to invest is associated with the different harms victims experienced from their involvement in the fraud. The results reveal that trust in social ties is associated with increases in many of the types of harm reported by victims. The findings also reveal that victims who were influenced to invest by multiple types of social ties generally reported lower levels of harm. http://bit.ly/cjccj591b
The Pains of Incarceration: Aging, Rights, and Policy in Federal Penitentiaries
Adelina Iftene
The number of aging people in prison has been on the rise in the last few decades. Their heightened needs place burdens on correctional institutions that have not been encountered before. This article presents the results of a study conducted with 197 older prisoners. This study’s findings identify issues raised by chronic pain in older prisoners and the management of this pain in a prison setting. Correctional Service Canada (CSC) does not acknowledge older prisoners as a vulnerable prison group, and correctional policies thus tend not to include age (and its implications) as a variable worthy of consideration. Data from this study raise some under-explored issues about the matter of aging behind bars that are in need of future research. If the findings are confirmed in the future, the CSC might find its policies challenged in court. To prevent that from happening, a systematic reform of the CSC’s policies – in particular, the medical ones – will need to be undertaken, with the goal of making them age-sensitive. http://bit.ly/cjccj591c
Crime and Public Transportation: A Case Study of Ottawa’s O-Train System
Jordana K. Gallison and Martin A. Andresen
The following research seeks to provide insight into the phenomenon of crime and public transit systems. We utilize a case study, the O-Train in Ottawa, to determine whether the presence of an O-Train station predicts crime in the surrounding neighbourhood. Crime data were obtained from the Ottawa Police Service between January 2006 and December 2006 to help identify potential clustering of offences in close proximity to the O-Train stations. Geo-spatial measures (e.g., local Moran’s I) were used to help determine whether certain offences were more prominent in areas that hosted an O-Train station, and we then used this outcome variable in a logistic regression. Our results show that the presence of an O-Train station is related to an increase in theft of vehicle, but not to robbery or commercial burglary. http://bit.ly/cjccj591d
RESEARCH NOTE / NOTE DE RECHERCHE
Replication and Reproduction in Canadian Policing Research: A Note
Laura Huey and Craig Bennell
In this paper, the authors discuss the importance of replication and reproduction studies to building an evidence base in policing research. This evidence base, they note, is important to the task of informing sound policy and practice in policing and in relation to community safety efforts more generally. Despite the recognized value of such work, a scoping analysis of peer-reviewed Canadian policing research published over the past 10 years reveals that very few researchers engage in research aimed at replicating other studies. Potential remedies are suggested in the paper’s conclusion. http://bit.ly/cjccj591e
CJCCJ Online
The Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice publishes quarterly coverage of the theoretical and scientific aspects of the study of crime and the practical problems of law enforcement, administration of justice and the treatment of offenders, particularly in the Canadian context. Since 1958, this peer-reviewed journal has provided a forum for original contributions and discussions in the fields of criminology and criminal justice. The CJCCJ emphasizes original scientific research. Recent issues have explored topics such as the Youth Criminal Justice Act, wrongful convictions, criminology research in Canada, and punishment and restorative justice. The Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice appeals to anyone needing to keep abreast of recent criminological findings and opinions: justice administrators, researchers and practitioners and academics.
Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice Online is a fully searchable electronic resource and includes a comprehensive archive of regular and special themed issues - including over 500 articles and reviews. http://bit.ly/cjccj_online http://bit.ly/cjccjAoP
Special issues - now available at CJCCJ Online
Essays to Honour the Life and Work of Dr. Carol LaPrairie(CJCCJ 56:4, 2014)
Antisocial Behaviour and the Automobile (CJCCJ 56:2, 2014)
A Festschrift in Honour of Anthony N. Doob (CJCCJ 55:4, 2013)
Articles Commemorating the Work of Jean-Paul Brodeur (CJCCJ 53:3)
Symposium on Racial Profiling and Police Culture (CJCCJ 53:1)
Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice is also available online at Project MUSE - http://bit.ly/cjccjPM
Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice
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posted by T Hawkins, UTP Journals