Profiles in Change: An Alternative Look at the Marshall Hypotheses∗

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall once argued that informed opinion would oppose the death penalty for all but those who support it for retributive reasons. We examine the validity of these claims with data from a series of one‐group pre‐test–post‐test designs which stem from a formalized learning outcomes assessment for several courses on the death penalty. Results show solid, but imperfect, support for these claims. The analysis then proceeds by profiling those who changed their opinions consistent with these claims, those who did not change their opinions, and those whose opinions changed in a manner opposite to these claims.     

Teaching Biosocial Criminology I: Understanding Endophenotypes Using Gottfredson and Hirschi’s Self‐Control Construct

Criminology is experiencing a paradigm shift in theory and research that articulates a more interdisciplinary, biosocial mode of inquiry. Unfortunately, however, graduate‐level criminal justice education rarely encompasses biosocial training. The current review is the first in a series of works that seeks to fill this biosocial training void by providing instruction on concepts in the biological sciences and neurosciences that have direct relevance to criminal justice education and criminology. Here we introduce endophenotypes and demonstrate their relevance to the study of crime using the self‐control construct from Gottfredson and Hirschi’s general theory. Because biosocial criminology is in its nascent stage, it is critical that biosocial criminologists provide service and instruction to their social science‐trained colleagues.     

Public Opinion of Genetic and Neuropsychological Contributors to Criminal Involvement

There is a lack of research that has examined public opinion on the importance of biosocial influences for understanding the potential causes of criminal and delinquent involvement. We address this gap in the current study by surveying a nationally representative sample of adults about the importance of biosocial factors for influencing criminal behavior. Results indicate that the public believes the environment matters more than genetic factors for determining whether someone becomes a criminal. However, the data also reveal an overall acceptance of the importance of neuropsychological factors for influencing criminal behavior. An ordered logistic regression analysis was also estimated to examine potential differences in opinion across demographic categories. The results revealed that income, gender, marital status, and employment status are significantly associated with whether a respondent supports the role of biosocial factors in crime causation. Implications of the findings are discussed.     

“Ain't no faggot gonna rob me!”: Anti‐gay attitudes of criminal justice undergraduate majors

This study examines the attitudes of undergraduate criminal justice majors towards gays and lesbians. A sample of 1055 undergraduate students including both criminal justice majors and non‐majors were surveyed at four universities. The analysis indicates that criminal justice undergraduate students are unique in the degree to which they hold negative attitudes towards gays and lesbians     

The pains of imprisonment: Exploring a classic text with contemporary authors

While classic texts on the prison have long been an important resource for those teaching courses on corrections, prison life has changed dramatically since many of these works were written. For this reason, some instructors may choose to drop classic texts in favor of more recent works. This essay examines recent firsthand accounts of prison written by Ted Conover, Victor Hassine, and Leonard Peltier and argues that such works may be used in conjunction with classic texts to provide students with an exciting, contemporary, and theoretically sophisticated account of prison life. By comparing these recent works to a particular classic text, Sykes's Society of Captives, this essay illustrates this potential for symbiosis and demonstrates some of the ways in which new works provide opportunities to extend our understanding of the classics. When used with classic texts, recent firsthand accounts offer instructors opportunities to illustrate and explain the significance of abstract concepts, to examine issues of continuity and change in corrections theory, and to encourage critical thinking on important issues.     

The formal report project as shared‐document collaboration: A plan for co‐authorship

The four‐phase project described here is based both on current social theories of writing and on contemporary studies of writing on the job and in the classroom. Phase one suggests methods for team organization, phase two the proposal submission, phase three the individual discussion chapter component, and phase four group components and team editing. Both teacher and student provide input for report evaluation. The author's survey of 29 formal report groups found positive attitudes toward both the formal report and collaborative writing.     

Examining the Validity of Standards-Based Assessments for Initially Fluent Students and Former English Language Learners

To date, assessment validity research on non-native English speaking students in the United States has focused exclusively on those who are presently English language learners (ELLs). However, little, if any, research has been conducted on two other sizable groups of language minority students: (a) bilingual or multilingual students who were already English proficient when they entered the school system (IFEPs), and (b) former English language learners, those students who were once classified as ELLs but are now reclassified as being English proficient (RFEPs). This study investigated the validity of several standards-based assessments in mathematics and science for these two student groups and found a very high degree of score comparability, when compared with native English speakers, for the IFEPs, whereas a moderate to high degree of score comparability was observed for the RFEPs. Thus, test scores for these two groups on the assessments we studied appear to be valid indicators of their content knowledge, to a degree similar to that of native English speakers.     

Stunted Desegregation in Los Angeles

This report is an independent evaluative study of administrative decentralization in the Cleveland Public Schools carried out under contract with the Cleveland Board of Education. The study reviewed the history of decentralization, synthesized the literature on its contemporary development since 1970, summarized its emergence in Cleveland since 1980, and then focused intensively on events during 1984‐1985, Year 3 in that system's scheduled reorganization.

Relevant documents were reviewed from February through May of 1985. Then, 18 administrators, 6 from each of 3 levels, were interviewed in depth in March. In June, 18 other administrators and 14 teachers at 7 schools were interviewed as well. A questionnaire was sent to 335 administrators and 433 teachers, and 444 were returned, for a response rate of 58 percent. The project did not include Board members or parents and community leaders from School‐Community Councils.

Respondents gave fairly high ratings to the value of decentralization for Cleveland and were especially favorable toward the value of increased autonomy for school principals, school control over teacher selection, and school‐community councils. They rated the success of decentralization as of 1985 as no more than average, however, and they gave average ratings to the effort's overall impact thus far on school improvement. Most of those surveyed estimated the system was at the half‐way mark on the road to 100 percent implementation.

Teachers and field administrators generally regard the Board and the central administration as sources of obstacles to the evolution of decentralization. Most teachers have yet to become involved in the effort and this disinvolvement, combined with a more negative attitude by about half of the central staff, depressed the ratings of success and progress overall. In addition, there is a racial effect. White educators in Cleveland are less positive than Black educators toward decentralization.

The study found that the technical aspects of administrative decentralization are in excellent working order; that cluster directors, principals, and key subgroups of senior administrators at headquarters are very enthusiastic about the reorganization and its aims; and that school‐based teacher selection has been working quite well. However, some organizational obstacles remain to be surmounted: central staff lack incentives to let go of old bureaucratic procedures; too few pathways exist for widescale teacher participation; and cluster offices have too many paperwork duties and too few resources to allow them to carry out all of their work effectively. Many assistant principals, moreover, have not been delegated parts to play in decentralization. The implication of this study is that much has been accomplished on decentralization during Year 3, but the notion that the change can be fully installed in three years is in itself unrealistic.

The study concluded by recommending a reform in Cleveland's current practices of selecting principals so that the very best leadership can be secured in future years. It further recommended that organizational rather than technical planning be undertaken in order to integrate the four great changes now in progress in the system: desegregation, decentralization, educational improvement, and fiscal retrenchment. Some final suggestions were also discussed for improving the more affective aspects of decentralization, such as teacher morale and central staff participation in the field.