Addressing the School-to-Prison Pipeline: Examining Micro- and Macro-Level Variables that Affect School Disengagement and Subsequent Felonies

Abstract

This study examines the School-to-Prison Pipeline (STPP) by identifying individual legal and extra-legal variables and school-level factors that predict juvenile/criminal justice involvement using 2006–2012 matched data from education and justice systems (n?=?21,457). The role of school disengagement is also assessed, measuring unexcused absences that follow suspensions in the previous academic year. For the court-involved subsample (n?=?7349), after controlling for student behavior, demographic, and school-level factors; extra-legal racial differences remain a significant factor in determining higher counts of felonies with African American and Multi-racial students at increased likelihood (1.65 and 1.86 times, respectively for the higher latent class) of juvenile/criminal justice involvement as compared with White students. And, although White students were found to either be more disengaged or equally disengaged when compared with students of color, sharp differences in criminal justice involvement and outcomes exist by race/ethnicity. These findings suggest that addressing the STPP will require future research and focus on more than individual-level behaviors (school disengagement and school-based offenses) and attention to the impact of extra-legal variables and systemic implicit bias.     

Build the social justice bridge: participatory photography with the international group work community

ABSTRACT

“Build the Social Justice Bridge” was a participatory photography project that engaged international group workers in an assessment of group work as a social justice profession. Inspired by principles of photovoice research, the project invited social work students, educators, and practitioners from around the world to contribute photographs and brief narratives that represented the relationship between group work and social justice. The photographs were exhibited during the opening session of the 2018 Symposium of the International Association for Social Work with Groups (IASWG) in South Africa, where more than 200 participants from ten countries reflected on the meaning of the photos for the group work community. In viewing the photos, symposium participants identified a common vision of social justice as well as culturally-specific approaches to group work. Implications are drawn for the internationalization of professional knowledge.     

Patterns of offending behaviour over time for different groups of children in relation to time spent in and out of care

Children who spend time in care are more likely to have an official record of offending behaviour than the general population. However, there is a lack of longitudinal research on the timing, severity, and volume of offending in relation to time spent in and out of care. Furthermore, differences in patterns of offending by identifiable groups in care are rarely a focus of research. This study is both longitudinal and identifies 8 groups within the care population with different volumes of recorded offending: ranging from a mean of 41.75 (prolific) to 1.60 (low). Substance misuse, gender, and reasons for referral to care were associated with different patterns of offending in and out of care. The study is primarily based on a subsample of 64 children who had offended whilst in care. The subsample represents 38.5% of a cohort of children who had been in care or were taken into care over a particular period (2008–2011) in one local authority. The placements and recorded offences of the 64 children were tracked for a further 2 years (2011–2013). The study highlights future areas of research and the need for more tailored responses to different groups within the care system.     

Restorative justice for delinquents in Hong Kong: current practices and challenges

ABSTRACT

In Hong Kong, juvenile justice embraces mainly disciplinary welfare and rehabilitative philosophies. Various statutory measures are applied to juvenile offenders, including police cautioning, community-based treatment programmes and custodial sentencing options. However, no statutory restorative measure has yet been incorporated into the mainstream criminal justice system in Hong Kong. Several non-governmental organisations are developing innovative strategies to prevent problematic adolescents from slipping into delinquency and are willing to apply restorative practices to help delinquents desist from engaging in criminal careers. This study begins with main features of restorative justice, and it highlights the preventive and correctional services for delinquents in Hong Kong. The study also questions the explanations offered by the government for not implementing restorative justice. By comparing restorative options for juveniles in some Asian jurisdictions, the study advocates for an earlier introduction of restorative justice for the benefits of juvenile offenders.     

Evaluating New Zealand’s restorative promise: the impact of legislative design on the practice of restorative justice

ABSTRACT

Restorative justice is regarded in modern criminal justice systems as one approach to address inadequacies in the conventional justice model. New Zealand has become a leader in implementing legislatively mandated restorative procedures. This reputation is due in part to a handful of supportive statutes: the Sentencing Act 2002, the Victims’ Rights Act 2002, the Parole Act 2002, the Corrections Act 2004 and subsequent amendments to those acts. In this article, I evaluate the practices bolstered by these acts and how effectively they operate, accounting for how legislative design may contribute to achievements and shortcomings in New Zealand's restorative justice programmes. I supplement the results by comparing New Zealand's efforts to those in Vermont, a U.S. state similarly well-regarded for its restorative policies. The evaluation of each jurisdiction's restorative justice programme is based on metrics for restorative success from Bazemore and Schiff (2005. Juvenile justice reform and restorative justice: building theory and policy from practice. Cullompton: Willan Publishing). I employ qualitative and quantitative data, surveying existing evaluations of restorative justice in New Zealand and Vermont, collecting longitudinal statistics, and conducting interviews with restorative justice practitioners. Overall, this analysis reveals that the design of restorative justice programmes requires negotiation; it is difficult to balance the dimensions of effective restorative justice with the needs of modern justice systems.     

Restorative justice for juvenile offenders in China: Current practices and challenges

ABSTRACT

In recent decades, restorative justice has gained considerable recognition worldwide and has become a prominent option for diverting juveniles away from the traditional criminal justice system as well as delivering fair and just outcomes in the justice process. This paper provides an overview of how the criminal justice system operates for juvenile offenders in the People’s Republic of China (hereafter, China). Based on a sophisticated literature review of recent Chinese academic journal articles on restorative justice for juveniles, the paper presents an analysis of the characteristics and operational procedures of current practices. Deficits and potential future developments pertaining to Chinese restorative practices for delinquents are also discussed.     

Young Adult Outcomes of Juvenile Court–Involved Girls

ABSTRACT

The recent increase in the number of girls involved in the juvenile justice system has resulted in increased academic and public attention. Thus far, this attention has focused on entry into the juvenile justice system rather than longer-term consequences. This research helps fill this gap by examining a sample of 700 maltreated and/or impoverished juvenile court–involved females. Competing risks models were used to control for time from juvenile-court entry to adult outcomes: criminal justice system involvement, use of public mental health or substance use services, and income maintenance use. Results indicate that there are distinct predictors associated with the different outcomes, although learning disability and adolescent parenthood were associated with higher risk of both mental health/substance use services and income maintenance. Individualized services for juvenile court–involved girls are suggested. Prospective, longitudinal research is needed to investigate intrapsychic and behavioral dynamics associated with females' young adult outcomes.     

Variations in the Over-Representation of Aboriginal Young Offenders in the Criminal Justice System

It is well publicised that Aborigines, both adult and juvenile, are over-represented in the criminal justice system. However, an examination of youth offending in South Australia during the period 1 July 1979 — 30 June 1983 has indicated that the degree of Aboriginal over-representation increases rapidly as they move up through the various stages of the system. They are least over-represented at the lowest stage, namely at the Children's Aid Panel level, and most over-represented at the sentencing stage of the Children's Court in terms of the numbers sentenced to detention in a youth training centre. This raises questions about the applicability of the juvenile section of the criminal justice system to Aborigines.     

Offending behaviours of persons with schizophrenia: a case review of psychiatric halfway houses in Hong Kong

Persons with schizophrenia are believed to have a higher risk for criminal offending, especially for violent offences. Offending behaviour among schizophrenics is mediated by a variety of factors such as substance abuse and clinical symptoms. However, existing studies have failed to identify the association between those mediating factors and particular types of offence. This study examines the association between substance abuse, clinical symptoms and different types of offences among persons with schizophrenia. Three hundred and sixty eight case files of residents diagnosed with schizophrenia in four psychiatric halfway houses in Hong Kong were reviewed. Substance abuse, but not clinical symptoms, was associated with general conviction rate. Violent-related offences were found to be positively associated with paranoid delusion; persons with common thought disorders, negative symptoms and who abused substances were more likely to commit property crimes. The causes and mediating factors of various offences were different. It is concluded that attention should be given to the recent mental status, clinical symptoms and social condition in studying the offending behaviours of persons with schizophrenia.     

Multi-system factors impacting youth justice involvement of children in residential out-of-home care

Children placed in residential care are significantly over-represented in youth justice systems. Drawing on interviews and focus groups with service providers, this exploratory study examines practice factors that impact on the criminalization of this group of children across multiple services and systems, including in the residential care environment, police, lawyers, courts and youth justice systems, as well as multi-systems practice with this group in one Australian state. Positive outcomes were observed for children in residential care where well-functioning care teams existed, as well as for children in therapeutic residential care settings. However, clear limitations were identified across all phases of children's youth justice system involvement, including placement with offending peers, the criminalization of behaviours of concern, greater use of remand and detention, limited support to navigate legal and youth justice processes, challenges to service collaboration, and limited applicability of sentencing considerations. The findings indicate a pervasive level of systemic disadvantage for this group of children, and imply that a holistic strategy underpinned by affirmative action across several systems will be necessary to address the ongoing criminalization of children in residential care.     

Explaining the perceived justice of disaster relief policy: An empirical study based on the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake in China

The Chinese government issued generous relief policies after the Wenchuan Earthquake. However, according to my survey, 20.32 per cent (n = 1,949) of the earthquake victim‐survivors felt that they were treated unfairly in receiving government assistance after the earthquake. In the present study, a perceived justice framework was established to explain the victim‐survivors’ perception of justice of the disaster relief policy in China and several hypotheses were developed. The hypotheses were tested empirically using household survey data of the Wenchuan Earthquake. The empirical study found that perceived justice, which is composed of three dimensions (distributive justice, interpersonal justice and informational justice), could directly assess the effect of the disaster relief policy. The results of the empirical study also demonstrated that the most important principle of the disaster relief policy was ‘need distribution’, which was also the most important factor of perceived justice. The study concluded that it is imperative to improve victim‐survivors’ feeling of fairness, policy information delivery and their expectations management when implementing a disaster relief policy.     

The Impact of Prison Hospice

Abstract

This study reports on a qualitative national telephone survey with coordinators of 14 prison hospice programs in 11 states. The rationale behind the survey was to learn about interdisciplinary collaboration between social work and criminal justice, using prison hospice as an exemplar of this collaboration. In addition to learning that all prison hospices in the study operate using an interdisciplinary team model and that most report high quality collaboration on the hospice team, the following additional five themes emerged: administrators and wardens are very supportive while correctional staff provides mixed support to team and program; greater collaboration with those outside prison hospice is critical; collaboration through prison hospice has a positive impact on dying prisoners; collaboration through prison hospice has a positive impact on prisoner volunteers; and, collaboration through prison hospice has a positive impact on the entire culture of the prison.     

Jean Valjean Bank in Korea: an innovative approach to poor defendants sentenced to pay fines

ABSTRACT

This study aims to introduce Jean Valjean Bank in South Korea which is an innovative approach supporting poor defendants who cannot pay fines and accordingly are imprisoned. In Korea, it is reported that we have more than 40,000 Jean Valjeans annually. As a civil movement against the unfair criminal justice system, a non-governmental organisation Human Rights Solidarity (Inkwon Yondae in Korean) opened Jean Valjean Bank in 2015. Jean Valjean Bank targets poor defendants who are not able to pay fines and who are confined to prison because of non-payment of fines. As of December 2017, the Bank has loaned KRW1,024 million to 545 persons with an average loan per participant of KRW1,879,700. The Bank reported that, among the receivers, 84 persons completed redemption and 277 persons are redeeming loans to the Bank. This study concludes with implications for reforms in criminal justice system in Korea.     

Victim-Offender Mediation in the Italian Juvenile Justice System: The Role of the Social Worker

Correspondence to Anna Costanza Baldry, Department of Social and Developmental Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’, via dei Marsi, 78, 00185 Rome, Italy Summary Mediation, according to the restorative justice approach, balancesthe victims' needs against holding offenders responsible forthe harm caused and requiring them to make reparation for it.Victim-offender mediation in the Italian juvenile justice systemis not, as yet, widely implemented. Social workers, employedby the Juvenile Criminal Justice Department, are the only professionalsinvolved in mediation. Results from a national survey conducted with social workerswho are responsible for victim-offender mediation as part oftheir probation duties, show that mediation programmes remainlimited and unstructured. Individual, locally based experiences,not equally distributed around the country and mainly involvingpetty crimes, indicate that in most cases primary attentionis paid to the young offender and that the victim's interestsare not considered. Social workers claim that, although theyperceive the advantages of a restorative justice approach tocrime, they lack the skills as well as the time to undertakethis duty adequately. The research findings also address thepotential biases of offering mediation programmes as part ofa probation order, thereby affecting the independence and neutralityof mediation. This risk can be avoided if social workers actingas mediators are thoroughly trained, as in the case study ofattempted murder presented below. The case study reported shows,moreover, that mediation can be successfully undertaken evenwith serious offences and that both the victim and the offendercan benefit from it. Issues related to the implications andsocial policy impact of mediation as a social work practiceare also considered.     

Mindfulness Training for Social Service Providers in Hawaii: Context and Considerations

Abstract

Few studies exploring outcomes for mindfulness training have specifically focused on social service providers such as case managers, juvenile justice (probation/parole) officers, family court liaisons, substance abuse and mental health counselors, and school behavioral health specialists, among others. This study examined whether social service professionals across various agencies in the state of Hawai‘i would be accepting of mindfulness-based training and practices, and explored their personal practice experiences. Participants (N?=?97) received mindfulness skills training including mindful breathing, mindful walking, and the body scan. Through post-evaluation surveys, practice logs of homework practices, and reflections, they were then asked to reflect on their experiences with the practice and identify potential changes that they would attribute to mindfulness. Interpretative phenomenological and content analyses revealed that participants generally reported a high level of acceptance of the mindfulness training and practices but progress, continuity, and sustainability were slow. Findings provided some indications of mindfulness resulting in salutary effects for social service professionals, but the training structure was problematic. Future research needs to examine how institutional, cultural milieu facilitate or hinder opportunities for social service professionals to embody and embed mindfulness in daily life; this would require multimodal and qualitative methodologies that seek to highlight and understand the live experiences of social service providers.     

A Terrible Beauty

ABSTRACT

Despite their well-known etymological disparity the aesthetic remains synonymous with the beautiful. The basis of this relationship is the notion that the sensory, represented by the aesthetic, needs to be seen in terms of beauty before it can be elevated to the plane of ideas and social ethics. In truth the association undermines the potential for aesthetics to demonstrate the sensory nature of consciousness and justice. Outlining an earlier conception of aesthetics as sensual consciousness and contrasting this with the impoverishment of the beautiful as either a sensory or ethico-political concept, this article argues the case for aesthetics to be given both a distinct and superior status to the beautiful.     

Social Workers and Policy- Practice: The Role of Social and Professional Values

ABSTRACT

Although policy practice is regarded as an essential component of social work, the actual involvement of social workers in policy practice is apparently very limited. This article presents the findings of a study that seeks to explore the role of social and professional values in support by social workers in Israel for engagement in policy practice and their actual involvement in this type of practice. The findings indicate that socioeconomic orientations and professional values have an impact on social worker's perception of policy practice and the degree to which they are actually involved in the social welfare policy process. In particular, it was found that attitudes toward social justice played a major role in the social worker's perceptions of, and involvement in, policy practice.     

Criminal defendants’ family and the death penalty in China - a case analysis

ABSTRACT

The restorative justice movement has increased the rights of consciousness for crime victims and their families globally. Though the practice of family group conferences in Australia and New Zealand and the court-ordered mediation programmes in China have increasingly involved defendants and their families, their roles in the criminal justice system have not been the main focus of academic inquiries. Citing a high-profile capital case in China, the Nian Bin case, this study examines the defendant family’s strategies in seeking legal redress, managing physical, emotional and financial tolls as well as coping with the victim families, throughout their eight-year pursuit of Nian’s exoneration. Given Confucian teachings on the importance of family to the individual and the society at large, this study provides a microscopic view into various precipitating factors for a capital defendant’s family activism. It also draws broader implications for China’s criminal justice reforms and the restorative justice movement.     

China’s Anti-corruption Strategies from the Viewpoint of Criminal Justice

腐败案件的高发案率是中国当前所处的社会转型期的突出特点。为了适应治理腐 败犯罪的需要, 中国刑事司法形成了一整套独具特色的侦查体制、办案原则, 并且注 重依靠群众查办腐败案件, 注重打击重点的随时调整。中国刑事司法注重提高腐败案 件的侦查能力和加强反腐败刑事司法的规范化建设等, 这是中国反腐败策略在刑事司 法领域的具体体现。同时, 中国在反腐败刑事程序如何与国际公约对接等方面面临着 一些挑战, 这也指引着中国刑事司法改进的方向。

关键词: 反腐败 社会转型 刑事司法 司法改革

A high incidence of corruption cases is a conspicuous feature of China’s present stage of social transition. Responding to the demands of combating corruption, Chinese criminal justice has developed a unique set of investigative methods and principles for handling of such cases, placing a high value on relying on the masses to find and act on cases of corruption and promptly adjusting its focus to the key areas of such crimes. It concentrates on enhancing investigative capacity and strengthening the standardization of anti-corruption criminal justice. These practices represent the concrete embodiment in the field of criminal justice of the government’s anti-corruption strategies. At the same time, China also faces some challenges in adjusting these procedures to accord with international practice. This is one of the aims of the judicial reform in China.     

转型期中国公众的分配公平感：结果公平与机会公平

本文考察了中国公众的结果公平感和机会公平感,检验并比较了社会结构解释和相对剥夺解释在中国的适用性。研究发现,大多数公众认可结果公平和机会公平,且机会公平感高于结果公平感,但二者仅微弱相关。结果公平感由收入水平决定,机会公平感主要受教育水平影响。外资和私营单位雇员比国有和集体单位雇员更具机会公平感,城市中下层就业者对结果和机会分配均持批评态度。“个体相对剥夺”而不是“群体相对剥夺”对分配公平感有决定性影响,结果公平感只受横向剥夺影响,而机会公平感则主要受纵向剥夺影响。