SAGE Journal Articles

Click on the following links. Please note these will open in a new window.

Journal Article 1: Warner, B. D., & Coomer, B. W. (2003). Neighborhood drug arrest rates: Are they a meaningful indicator of drug activity? A research note. Journal of Research on Crime and Delinquency, 40(2), 123-138. doi:10.1177/00224278022251018

Abstract: Criminologists have long debated the validity of arrest data as a measure of crime at the aggregate level. It has been argued that arrest data may reflect differences in police behavior across neighborhoods rather than differences in offending rates. Consequently, criminologists have generally come to favor less processed data. Unfortunately, official counts of drug offenses are generally available only in terms of arrests, making official drug data particularly susceptible to validity questions. In this study, the authors examine the validity of drug arrest data at the neighborhood level by analyzing the extent to which police arrest rates for drug trafficking can be accounted for by survey measures of the frequency of drug trafficking, as well as neighborhood-level variables thought to be associated with police discretion. Findings suggest support for the use of drug arrest data as a meaningful measure of the relative level of visible drug activity among neighborhoods.

 

Journal Article 2: Wagstaff, G. F. (2008). Hypnosis and the law: Examining the stereotypes. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 35(10), 1277-1294. doi:10.1177/0093854808321669

Abstract: The traditional view of the hypnotized person as someone in a state of automatism, possessed of transcendent powers, is still popular among the general public. This has obvious implications for legal issues concerning possible coercion through hypnosis and the use of hypnosis for interviewing witnesses. However, it is now the opinion of most researchers that hypnosis does not induce a state of automatism, and caution should be exercised when employing hypnotic procedures to facilitate memory. It is concluded that better progress will be made in countering public misconceptions about hypnosis, and in benefiting from research on the applications of hypnotic interviewing procedures, if more effort is made to use concepts and terminology that relate hypnotic phenomena to everyday behavior and experience.