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In a previous study, we found that solo-offending was the primary form of offending among all ages including juveniles. We also observed that the relationship between age and crime, notwithstanding whether it was co-offending or solo-offending, was invariant across sex, race, and offense type. Based on these results, we concluded that group offending was merely incidental in circumstance and thus of little etiological significance. Zimring and Laqueur take exception to our study. Their reanalysis of our data disaggregated by offense type showed that co-offending was the dominant form of offending among juveniles for most serious crimes. However, as we discuss in this commentary, there are a number of problems with Zimring and Laqueur’s offense-specific analysis that invalidates their findings and conclusions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

From January 1979 to December 2009, the Maoist insurgent Shining Path committed a total of 9,034 violent acts in a concerted attempt to topple the Peruvian government. These acts of violence included bombings, armed assaults, and assassinations. The Shining Path's leader Abimael Guzmán was captured by the Peruvian government on 12 September 1992. Using quarterly data and an interrupted times-series AutoRegressive Integrative Moving Average (ARIMA) study design, we investigated the effect of Abimael Guzmán's capture on the ability of the Shining Path to wage its war against the Peruvian government. Maximum-likelihood results revealed that the frequency of terrorist acts committed by the Shining Path dropped by 143 incidents per quarter a short time after Guzmán was captured. The analysis also evinced a positive relationship between the lethality of attacks and the frequency of the Shining Path's terrorist activity. We conclude that targeted capture shows some promise as an effective counterterrorism strategy, at least for terrorist groups such as the Shining Path that have a top-down type of organizational structure. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

While past research has considered the effects of police organizational characteristics on various outcomes, including arrest rates, relatively little research has explored the role of the racial composition of the police and its association with race-specific arrest rates. Furthermore, no research has explored the association between arrest probabilities for Black and White offenders and police organizational factors. Using data from the 2000 National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), the 2000 Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS), and the 2000 decennial Census, the present exploratory study employs multilevel modeling to examine the association between police organizational factors including the percentage of the police force that is Black and arrest probabilities for offenders involved in 19,099 aggravated assaults and 100,859 simple assaults across 105 small cities. Results show that for simple assaults, the relative size of the Black police force is associated with the risk of arrest for both Black and White offenders. Furthermore, departments with relatively more Black police officers are found to have the largest gap in the arrest probabilities for White and Black offenders, although Whites are more likely to be arrested for assaults than Blacks, regardless of the racial composition of the police. Results also show those departments with more written policy directives, relatively larger administrative component, a higher educational-level requirement, and centralized police departments have the highest arrest probabilities. Implications of these findings and recommendations for further research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using six years of data (2011–16) drawn from the Global Terrorism Database and from other sources for 127 countries, a pooled cross-sectional time-series research design is employed to investigate whether the health of a country's labor market influences the number of terrorist incidents a country experiences. Results show a strong negative relationship between labor force participation and the frequency of terrorist incidents. Neither the youth unemployment rate nor the unemployment rate has a notable influence on predicting acts of terrorism. Findings also reveal that the percent of a country's population living in urban areas does not condition the relationship between labor force participation and terrorism. The observed effect of labor force participation has methodological consequences for how a country's labor market ought to be conceptualized in future research studies on terrorism. Such a finding also has relevant policy implications because it suggests that greater attention should be directed at devising ways for countries to enhance employment opportunities not only to improve economic conditions, but also to assist in the reduction of terrorism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The public regularly encounter law enforcement. In an era of the Blacks Lives Matter movement and associated discord with law enforcement, understanding the contours of police--public relations and its potential consequences are paramount. Using national level data of police stops, we attempt to identify factors that influence attitudes of respect and legitimacy toward the police. Findings reveal that, among other things, race impacts perceptions of law enforcement through the interracial characteristics of encounters, a context in which some citizens are more likely to question police legitimacy even after controlling for other salient factors. Policy considerations are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The absence of a consistent positive effect of the unemployment rate on the crime rate is perplexing, but it may be partly due to the countervailing effect of guardianship. Using weekly state-level data and a pooled cross-sectional time-series research design, we investigate whether the unemployment rate influences residential burglary. This study contributes to the extant literature by distinguishing between weekday residential burglaries, or those burglaries that occur between the hours of 6 am to 6 pm on weekdays, from weeknight/weekend burglaries. If unemployment increases guardianship because previously employed individuals are now at home during the workday protecting their possessions, the expectation is that the unemployment rate will have an instantaneous negative effect on residential burglaries that transpire during normal working hours. Results buttress the logic associated with the guardianship thesis in that a rise in the unemployment rate only engenders a decrease in weekday residential burglaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]