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"Scott H. Decker"
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Competing for control : gangs and the social order of prisons
\"Certainly, prisons are dangerous places that impact the communities as well as the lives of inmates and those who work there. Over the last several years, prison gangs have made headlines across the country. The 2013 inmate hunger strike in California-involving over 30,000 inmates-was organized by members of black, Latino, and white gang members housed in solitary confinement for indeterminate sentences (K. A. Reiter 2016); the Executive Director of the Colorado Department of Corrections was executed at the doorstep of his home in 2013 by a recently-released 211 Crew prison gang member (Prendergast 2014); and a multi- jurisdictional task force led to the indictments of nearly 75 Aryan Brotherhood of Texas gang members, some of whom were implicated in the blowtorch removal of a gang tattoo, the inspiration for a Sons of Anarchy episode (Schiller 2016). These are just a few of the events that illustrate the significance of prison gangs for society\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
The handbook of gangs
Pulling together the most salient, current issues in the field today, The Handbook of Gangs provides a significant assessment by leading scholars of key topics related to gangs, gang members, and responses to gangs.
eBook
Criminology and public policy : putting theory to work
\"In the field of criminal justice, public policy is designed to address the problems brought on by criminal behavior and the response to that behavior. However, too often, the theories carefully developed in the academy fail to make their way into programs and policy. The editors and contributors to this second edition of Criminology and Public Policy highlight the recent development of \"translational criminology\" to address the growing movement in criminology to use the results of criminological research and theory to better inform policy and practice. The essays in Criminology and Public Policy propose an in-depth look at both theory and practice and how they are integrated across a number of key criminal justice problems--from racial and environmental concerns to gun control and recidivism rates as well as police use of force and mass incarceration. The end result is an essential volume that blends both theory and practice in an effort to address the critical problems in explaining, preventing, responding to, and correcting criminal behavior. Contributors include: Robert K. Ax, Michelle N. Block, Anthony A. Braga, Rod K. Brunson, Jennifer Carlson, Ronald V. Clarke, Shea Cronin, Megan Denver, Kevin M. Drakulich, Grant Duwe, Amy Farrell, Cheryl Jonson, Charis E. Kubrin, Justin Kurland, Megan Kurlychek, Shannon Magnuson, Daniel P. Mears, Robert D. Morgan, Kathleen Powell, Danielle Rudes, Cassia Spohn, Cody Telep, Natalie Todak, Glenn Trager, Jillian J. Turanovic, Sara Wakefield, Patricia Warren, David Weisburd, Michael D. White, Rob White, Lauren Wilson and the editors\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
On Gangs
Gangs are multifaceted and varied, so any attempt to understand them cannot be restricted to a singular approach.On Gangs provides a diverse and comprehensive survey of the available theories for understanding this social issue as well as the broad range of responses to it.
eBook
The imprisonment-extremism nexus: Continuity and change in activism and radicalism intentions in a longitudinal study of prisoner reentry
There is considerable speculation that prisons are a breeding ground for radicalization. These concerns take on added significance in the era of mass incarceration in the United States, where 1.5 million people are held in state or federal prisons and around 600,000 people are released from prison annually. Prior research relies primarily on the speculation of prison officials, media representations, and/or cross-sectional designs to understand the imprisonment-extremism nexus. We develop a tripartite theoretical model to examine continuity and change in activism and radicalism intentions upon leaving prison. We test these models using data from a large probability sample of prisoners ( N = 802) in Texas interviewed in the week preceding their release from prison and then reinterviewed 10 months later using a validated scale of activism and radicalism intentions. We arrive at three primary conclusions. First, levels of activism decline upon reentry to the community ( d = -0.30, p < .01), while levels of radicalism largely remain unchanged ( d = -0.08, p = .28). What is learned and practiced in prison appears to quickly lose its vitality on the street. Second, salient groups and organizations fell in importance after leaving prison, including country, race/ethnicity, and religion, suggesting former prisoners are occupied by other endeavors. Finally, while we identify few correlates of changes in extremist intentions, higher levels of legal cynicism in prison were associated with increases in both activism and radicalism intentions after release from prison. Efforts designed to improve legal orientations could lessen intentions to support non-violent and violent extremist actions. These results point to an imprisonment-extremism nexus that is diminished largely by the realities of prisoner reentry.
Journal Article
Survey research with gang and non-gang members in prison: operational lessons from the LoneStar Project
Prisons have been described as the final frontier for research on gangs and gang members. Criminological research in prisons is rare due to restricted access to facilities, concerns about harsh public scrutiny, and worries about security. There are added challenges for survey research involving prison gang members, as it is believed that gang norms inhibit reliable and valid responses and discourage participation in research. This article introduces the Study of Trajectories, Associations, and Reentry—the LoneStar Project—which involved interview-based surveys with 802 prison inmates in Texas, over 45% of whom were officially classified as gang members. We assess the prospect for conducting interview-based survey research with gang members in prison. We detail the planning and implementation phases of this study, assess whether gang members can be surveyed in prisons with fidelity, report descriptive statistics on gang and non-gang members, and identify five key operational lessons from this study. Our results revealed that gang members would not only participate in research, but that the methodological characteristics of their survey responses were indistinguishable statistically and substantively from those of non-gang prison inmates. We also determined that strong researcher-practitioner relationships, a nimble yet consistent research team, and a heavy emphasis on rapport building allowed this project to be carried out with few disruptions in a prison environment. These results are promising for future research in prisons, especially with gang members.
Journal Article
Drug Smugglers on Drug Smuggling
Drug Smugglers on Drug Smugglingfeatures interviews with 34 convicted drug smugglers -- most of them once major operators -- detailing exactly how drugs are smuggled into the U.S. from Latin America. These sources provide tangible evidence of the risks, rewards, and organization of international drug smuggling.Quoting frequently from their interviews, Decker and Chapman explain how individuals are recruited into smuggling, why they stay in it, and how their roles change over time. They describe the specific strategies their interviewees employed to bring drugs into the country and how they previously escaped apprehension. Over-all, the authors find that drug smuggling is organized in a series of networks which are usually unconnected.This extraordinarily informative book will be of particular interest to law enforcement officials and policymakers, but it will appeal to anyone who wants to know how the drug business actually works.
eBook
The Boston Special Youth Project Affiliation Dataset
The Boston Special Youth Project (SYP) Affiliation dataset is a large, bipartite network representing interactions among 166 gang members from seven gangs for nearly three years. The project was conducted from June 1954 to May 1957 and represents one of the most elaborate gang intervention programs ever conducted. The SYP was a “detached-worker program,” where an adult (typically a graduate student from one of the surrounding universities) was assigned to an area (local parks, housing projects) to establish and maintain contact with and attempt to change the behaviors of the gangs. These workers collected detailed field notes (“contact cards”) documenting the activities of study gang members. However, the social network data collected on the contact cards were never analyzed by SYP staff. After the death of the project leader, Walter Miller, in 2004, the materials from the project became available to a team of researchers (faculty, graduate, and undergraduate students) in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Arizona State University. These researchers electronically scanned and digitized the contact cards, and began the process of creating a network from the cards. From these cards, a bipartite network was created where 166 individuals (i.e. gang members) were connected to 33,653 events (i.e. contact cards).
Journal Article
Validating Self-Nomination in Gang Research: Assessing Differences in Gang Embeddedness Across Non-, Current, and Former Gang Members
Objective The study of gang members is closely linked to the self-nomination method. It is timely to revisit the criterion validity of self-nomination, as recent theoretical and empirical advancements in gang disengagement necessitate further differentiating current from former gang members. This study assessed differences in gang embeddedness—a construct that taps individual immersion within deviant social networks—across three groups: current gang members, former gang members, and those individuals who have never joined a gang. Methods Data gathered in 2011 from a high-risk sample of 621 individuals in five cities were used to assess the validity of the self-nomination method. Standardized differences in a mixed graded response model of gang embeddedness were evaluated across the three statuses of gang membership. Results Self-nomination was strongly related to embeddedness in gangs, even after controlling for demographic, theoretical, and gang-related factors. The strongest predictor of gang embeddedness was self-nomination as a current or a former gang member, although current gang members maintained levels of gang embeddedness about one standard deviation greater than former gang members. Self-nomination was also the primary determinant of gang embeddedness for males, females, whites, blacks, and Hispanics. Conclusion The results of this study provide strong evidence in support of the use of self-nomination to differentiate between non-gang and gang members as well as current and former gang members, adding to a body of research demonstrating that self-nomination is a valid measure of gang membership.
Journal Article