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Racial Bias And The American Criminal Justice System: Race And Presentencing Revisited

Marvin D. Free, Jr.

A controversy within criminology involves the extent to which race affects criminal processing. Investigators on different sides of the issue have relied predominantly on studies of sentencing, leaving largely unexplored the less visible area of presentencing. After a discussion of nine of the most prevalent shortcomings in this research, the article critically examines the contemporary presentencing literature to ascertain the extent to which the discrimination thesis (DT) receives empirical support. It reviews the findings from 52 studies done since 1970 that employ multivariate statistics. Special attention is devoted to critiquing the methodological shortcomings of studies that support the nondiscrimination thesis (NDT) and the implications of these weaknesses for the race/criminal processing nexus are discussed. [Access full text via SpringerLink]

A Neo-Marxist Explanation Of Organized Crime

Alfried Schulte-Bockholt

This essay examines the relationship between criminal organizations and socioeconomic elites. The author argues that criminal organizations acquire ideological preferences as they evolve and integrate into elite structures. This paper demonstrates the conditions under which elites turn to Fascist parties, reactionary militaries, or organized crime groups, for assistance against counter-hegemonic groups. This analysis is based on Marxist, Frankfurt School and Gramscian concepts and is augmented by examples of such alliances between elites and crime groups from Europe, Latin America and Asia. [Access full text via SpringerLink]

Toxic Crimes: Examining Corporate Victimization of the General Public Employing Medical and Epidemiological Evidence

Michael J. Lynch and Paul Stretesky 

This article examines the issue of corporate harm and violence using evidence from medical literature and related studies that focus on the health consequences associated with toxic waste, pesticide and dioxin exposure. These studies provide a useful alternative measure of the harms produced by corporate crimes of violence that are unmeasured in more traditional sources of data.  Further, the kinds of health consequences associated with modern industrial production of toxic waste products can be thought of as “criminal” in the broadest sense since alternative, nontoxic methods of production are often available.  Examples of these alternative methods of production are provided, along with a discussion of the impact current practices have on minority health. [Access full textvia SpringerLink]

Toward A Victimology Of State Crime

David Kauzlarich, Rick A. Matthews & William J. Miller 

State crimes have been studied by criminologists for nearly three decades. While far from stagnant, research and theory in this area of criminology have not developed at the pace one may have expected a decade ago. In an attempt to rejuvenate the study of state crime,  we first identify and review the various types of victims and victimizers of state crime identified in the criminological literature. By employing a previously created  typology of state crime, we discuss how individuals and groups of individuals can be identified as state crime victims in both domestic and international contexts. We then highlight the common themes  involved in the victimizations and offer six inductively generated propositions intended to facilitate future developments in the victimology of state crime. [Access full text via SpringerLink]

Review of One of the Guys: Girls, Gangs, and Gender by Jody Miller

Randall G. Shelden

There has been a continuous debate in criminology about the role of gender in crime, ranging from the notion that women are helpless creatures and mere pawns of their biology to the notion that women are becoming just like the men, perhaps even more violent.  "Girl's do it too" is a common refrain among the sensation-seeking media as they search for the bizarre and unusual (e.g., gang girls with razor blades in their mouths).  Throughout the past 80 years or so, much has been written about gangs and the role of girls has generally been overlooked, until recently.  The usual theoretical thinking about girls has been of the variety of "mix girls into the pot and see what happens."  Fortunately, One of the Guys adds to a growing list of serious research on girls and gangs. [Access full text via SpringerLink]

Review of Gun Violence: The Real Costs by Philip Cook and Jens Ludwig

Dale J. Ardovini-Brooker

Cook and Ludwig present a critical, in-depth examination of how gun violence harms American society. They state, 'the goal is to document how gun violence reduces the quality of life for everyone in America". The authors present this book from an economic perspective, focusing later on the cost of illness perspective from a public health standpoint to create an idea of the real costs of gun violence. [Access full text via SpringerLink]