There is an increasing recognition that incarceration time, instead of a period characterized by intermittency or lulls in offending, is for many a period of continued involvement in misconduct and other problematic behaviors. Yet, despite mounting evidence on the offending patterns of incarcerated adults, little research attention has been paid to the institutional behavior of incarcerated delinquents. The current research explored the institutional misconduct careers of 2,520 serious and violent delinquent offenders incarcerated in a large southern juvenile correctional system. Analyses revealed that the study cohort engaged in more than 200,000 instances of minor misconduct behaviors and nearly 19,000 instances of major misconduct behaviors during their incarceration. Multivariate analyses examining the incidence of major, minor, and assaultive institutional misconduct revealed that offenders with more extensive delinquent backgrounds had an increased expected rate of misconduct, net the effects of a number of variables. Implications for research and practice are explored.

This literature scoping review compared recidivism rates of moderate- and high-risk sexual offenders who received cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) oriented treatments. Ten empirical studies from 2001 to 2014 were selected for review that met the following criteria: (a) Treatment program included a CBT-based intervention with a comparative intervention; (b) participants included adult, male, moderate- and high-risk sexual offenders only; and (c) follow-up data for up to 12 months. Data were analyzed using a summative metric for recidivism rate comparisons ( N = 3,073 for CBT and N = 3,588, for comparison approaches). Sexual offense recidivism rates varied from 0.6% to 21.8% (with CBT) and from 4.5% to 32.3% (with comparison intervention). The within-sample median rate of violent recidivism with a history of sexual offense was 21.1% (with CBT) versus 32.6% (comparison). Sexual offenders had a general felonies (within-sample) median recidivism rate of 27.05% (with CBT) versus 51.05% (comparison). The evidence supports the conclusion that CBT in its various forms is an efficacious treatment modality to prevent offense recidivism by sexual offenders. Suggestions for future research are considered.

Relationship violence is a common problem faced by adolescents in the United States. In general, adolescents are at higher risk for relationship victimization than adults (Silverman, Raj, Mucci, & Hathaway, 2001), and females between the ages of 16 and 24 years are at the highest risk of relationship victimization (Rennison, 2001). This study uses data from the 2007 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance (YRBSS) System (or referred to as Youth Risk Behavior Survey [YRBS]; N = 11,781) of adolescents between the ages of 14 and 17 years to estimate two logistic regression models on the association between relationship violence and suicidal behaviors controlling for variables such as sexual assault and drug use. The findings indicated that victimized adolescents are at higher risk for planning and/or attempting suicide compared to nonvictimized adolescents. Implications for research and practice are explored.

One of the most significant changes to juvenile justice processing in recent decades has been blended sentencing. Unlike traditional juvenile court or adult court waiver processes, blended sentencing statutes provide authority to juvenile or adult court judges to sanction delinquent offenders with juvenile and adult dispositions. Although state variations abound, most blended sentencing schemes feature a fail-safe postadjudication stage where decisions are made to suspend or invoke the adult portion of the original blended sentence. Based on data from 1,504 serious and violent male delinquents sanctioned via a blended sentencing statute, this study explored the relationship of a battery of delinquent background, commitment offense, and postadjudication institutional misconduct variables on decisions to invoke or suspend the adult portion of a blended sentence. Results of the analysis revealed that commitment offense type, age at commitment and, to a lesser extent, institutional misconduct behavior weighed most heavily in decisions to invoke the adult portion of the blended sentence.

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Responses in investigations of drug and sex traffic related crimes often originate in the Dark Web. Internet and cybercrimes are increasingly becoming reliant on criminal justice practitioners to help solve them. However, while the demand for criminal justice participation in cyber investigations increases daily, most law enforcement agencies or state law enforcement accrediting bodies are lagging in their educational and training opportunities for new police officers entering the law enforcement fields. This article discusses the need incorporate education courses covering the Dark and Deep Web in the law enforcement curriculum. A review of existing cyber-criminal justice programs in Texas (N=28) and nationally suggests that most colleges, with a cyber program, have yet to develop courses/programs in understanding and investigating the dark web on the internet. The federal government and a few companies have limited training on the Dark Web for law enforcement officers. The Dark Web serves as the new “Criminal Neighborhood” for illegal activity and needs to be better understood so it can be investigated. This research outlines the need for police officers and police investigators to learn the geographies of the Dark Web.

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Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the characteristics of gas stations where skimmer attacks occurred in a sample of Texas gas stations between 2019 and 2021. This paper seeks to contribute to the literature related to payment card fraud at the gas pump by providing one of the first examinations of the gas stations where gas pump skimming is known to have occurred. Design/methodology/approach Using data collected from a Texas state regulatory agency between 2021, the authors examine characteristics of gas stations where a gas pump skimming was detected. Findings Results suggest that the presence of a surveillance camera system was significantly related to gas pump skimmer detection for gas stations in both urban and rural areas. Europay chip readers were not present in any of the pumps where a skimmer attack was detected. Originality/value Gas pump skimming is a form of payment card fraud that costs upwards of US$11bn a year in the USA alone. Gas pump skimming occurs when electronic devices are illegally installed fuel pumps to capture data or record cardholders’ personal identification numbers. This is among the first studies to use data obtained from a state agency with specific information regarding each individual occurrence of gas pump skimming. As such, the paper makes a unique contribution by exploring specific characteristics of gas stations where skimming and ultimately payment card fraud, occurred.