Intergenerational Transmission of Crime

A few days ago in class we discussed the intergenerational transmission of crime. I was not able to get into as much detail as I would have liked due to time restrictions and our use of a textbook, but I wanted to provide additional reading materials for those interested in this topic. These could be useful sources if you need to write a research paper on this topic or just have a genuine interest in the topic.

• Labeling and Intergenerational Transmission of Crime: The Interaction Between Criminal Justice Intervention and a Convicted Parent (Besemer, Farrington, & Bijleveld, 2017)

• Family factors in the intergenerational transmission of offending (Farrington, Coid, & Murray, 2009)

• Parental criminality, family violence and intergenerational transmission of crime within a birth cohort (Junger, Greene, Schipper, Hesper, & Estourgie, 2013)

• Intergenerational transmission of criminal behaviour: Conviction trajectories of fathers and their children (Besemer & Farrington, 2012)

• Linked Lives: The Intergenerational Transmission of Antisocial Behavior (Thornberry, Freeman-Gallant, Lizotte, Krohn, & Smith, 2003)

Peer-reviewed Open-Access Journals

Peer-reviewed Open-Access Journals

One of the favored outlets for scholarly work among criminologists, whether they are faculty or graduate students, are peer-reviewed journals. Many of them exist, and many of them do not have submission fees in the field of criminology. I will write another post at a later date addressing journal submission fees in more detail. Likewise, I will provide my own perception of journal rankings in a later post too. This entry will specifically talk about open-access journals in the fields of criminology and criminal justice. Open-access journals are journals that make their articles available online to the general public as soon as they are published. While some open-access journals charge extreme submission/publication fees or have questionable review processes, there are others that have prestigious editorial boards, stringent review process, and do not charge extreme submission/publication fees. This post will focus on some interesting criminology and criminal justice journals that make valuable contributions to the discipline. 

Open-access journals became more readily available because journals can now be published in their entirety online, without the need of ink, paper, or printing services. Another thing that makes open-access journals attractive to scholars is that they often fill niche areas of interest. Areas of interest that may not receive the attention they deserve in larger journals might find a home in these types of journals that cater to specific areas or methods of research.

Here is a list, in no particular order, of open-access journals relevant to criminology and criminal justice. Brief descriptions of their value or contribution to the discipline are discussed. If anyone cares to add one I may have missed, do not hesitate to comment, and I will be happy to add it to the list. After all, the internet is a large place and I might have missed something.

• Journal of Qualitative Criminal Justice and Criminology - As the name implies, this journal caters to criminal justice and criminology articles that use qualitative research methods. Arguably, this was desperately needed in the discipline because many journals seem to favor accepting articles that use advanced quantitative methods. I strongly recommend this journal.

• Internet Journal of Criminology - This might be the most interesting journal on the list. It is an intriguing option because it uses an "open" peer review process to review articles. I have yet to see this type of review process with any other criminology or criminal justice journal.

• International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy - This blind peer-reviewed journal is free to download and also does not charge publication fees. It's website boasts that it provides an outlet for critical studies concerning the challenges confronting criminal justice systems all over the world.

• The Journal of Criminology,Criminal Justice, Law & Society - This interdisciplinary peer-reviewed journal seeks to publish papers about the causes of crime, crime prevention, crime control, as well as papers about the social institutions and individuals involved in the criminal justice system.

• Critical Issues in Justice and Politics - This peer-reviewed journal that is published once a year bridges the divide between political science, criminal justice, and criminology.

• Crime Science - Crime Science is an interdisciplinary peer-reviewed journal that publishes research articles, theoretical articles, systematic reviews, and even short contributions about current policy issues, crime trends, and justice practices. I stumbled across this journal because they have many articles that have been examining the crime decline nationally and internationally.

• Health & Justice - As the name implies, this interdisciplinary journal bridges the gap between criminal justice research and health studies. It also publishes shorter scholarly contributions as well as meta analyses, as well as original research.

• Journal of Prison Education and Reentry - This peer-reviewed journal focuses on prisoner education and reentry.

• Law, Crime & History - This might be one of the most interesting journals I have stumbled across because of how it seeks to bridge the gap between history, law, and criminal justice studies.

APA Citation

APA CITATION AND WHERE TO GO FOR HELP

One of the most common issues I deal with as a teacher is students needing help with APA citation. APA is the citation style used by the American Psychological Association. APA citation is commonly required in many undergraduate and graduate social science programs. I was lucky and had professors that taught me APA early, and they regularly reinforced the importance of properly citing sources. Truly, APA citation is not as difficult as it appears. All it really takes, is practice and repetition. Occasionally, there will be some harder to cite sources that you come across (citing court cases immediately comes to mind), but those are rare and there are resources to help give you quick answers. I will review those resources shortly.

First, I want to warn against using websites or applications that cite material for you. I will not provide links to these sites because they are unreliable and consistently have errors. Plus, any little change in APA style might not be quickly reflected in these applications. In fact, there are some applications that have easy to spot problems that "out" the students using them when I am reading their papers. Plus, you go to college to learn, so you might as well learn APA citation.

So, where can you go for help?

• The best overall source for help with APA citation is without a doubt, the APA Purdue OWL (Purdue Online Writing Lab). I consider the Purdue OWL to be the best source of help for APA citation questions. They provide a user-friendly menu to find solutions for your problems, and also provide a "sample APA paper" that is very useful for comparing to your own research paper.

• Another decent source for help is the APA Style Help page. They also have their own blog.

• A third resource I have found is provided at Baker College's website. They have a useful APA Guide that includes links to APA tutorials and other resources. Again, I warn against using the links they provide for automatic citation applications.

 To conclude, APA may seem difficult to learn, but it is not ac scary as it may initially seem. While you may not ever truly master the citation style, you can easily learn the basics. As always, practice makes perfect. Thank you for reading.

For more information on my education, research interests, and publications, please check out Daniel Kavish on the web. you can also check out a short biography page for Daniel Kavish here.

Labeling Theory Research

What sparked my interest in criminology was the 2009 ASC (American Society of Criminology) article of the year - "The Labeling of Convicted Felons and Its Consequences for Recidivism"by Ted Chiricos, Kelle Barrick, William Bales, and Stephanie Bontrager about labeling theory and deferred adjudication. It challenged me to think about the deficiencies of conventional theories of crime, the possibilities of different alternatives to incarceration, and the consequences of felony convictions on future educational and occupational success.

Other noteworthy labeling theory research:

• Official Labeling, Criminal Embeddedness, and Subsequent Delinquency: A Longitudinal Test of Labeling Theory (Bernburg, Krohn, & Rivera, 2006) 

• Labeling, life chances, and adult crime: The direct and indirect effects of official intervention in adolescence on crime in early adulthood (Bernburg & Krohn, 2003)

• Interactionist Labeling Formal and Informal Labeling's Effects on Juvenile Delinquency (Kavish, Mullins, & Soto, 2016)

• Reflected appraisals, parental labeling, and delinquency: Specifying a symbolic interactionist theory (Matsueda, 1992) 

• Labeling effects of first juvenile arrests: Secondary deviance and secondary sanctioning (Liberman, Kirk, & Kim, 2014) 

• Unintended Consequences of Being Stopped or Arrested: An Exploration of the Labeling Mechanisms Through Which Police Contact Leads to Subsequent Delinquency (Wiley, Slocum, & Esbensen, 2013)

 Labeling theory is one of the most interesting theories in criminology and criminal justice. Politicians, the media, and general public tend to believe in a philosophy of deterrence. Thus, labeling theory challenges conventional thought and reasoning concerning the criminal justice system. I encourage readers to check out the labeling theory research listed above. These articles provide a great foundation for undergraduate research papers and serve well as assigned reading for courses about juvenile delinquency and criminal justice sanctioning.