The Effects of Socioeconomic Contextual Factors on Racial Differences in CFSR-3 Permanency Outcomes.

We examined the role of state and county socioeconomic contextual characteristics in explaining Black-White child differences in permanency within one year of foster care entry. We estimated race-specific hierarchical linear models consisting of individual-level demographic and case characteristics of children, state and county socioeconomic contextual factors, and CFSR-3 performance-improvement plans. Findings showed that socioeconomic contextual characteristics were significantly associated with permanency for Black and White children in different ways.

Mental Illness, Gun Access and Carrying: A Test of Competing Hypotheses.

Access to firearms among individuals with mental health problems has been a source of protracted debate among policymakers, the media, and the public, writ large. At the center of this controversy are questions about the nature and consequences of gun access in the context of mental illness. The lack of substantial empirical evidence, due in part to limited access to quality data, plays a significant role in perpetuating ongoing debate.

Forecasting and Criminal Justice Policy and Practice.

We address the organization of criminal justice forecasting and implications for its use in criminal justice policymaking. We argue that the use of forecasting is relatively widespread in criminal justice agency settings, but it is used primarily to inform decision-making and practice rather than to formulate and test new policy proposals. Using predictive policing and prison population forecasting as our main examples of the range of forecasting methods adopted in criminal justice practice, we describe their uses, how their use is organized, and the implications of the organizational arrangements for the transparent, reviewable, and consensual use of forecasting.

Estimating the Relationship Between Perceived Stigma and Victimization of People With Mental Illness.

Over the past two decades, we have substantially increased our understanding of violence committed by individuals with mental illness, while comparatively less is known about the victimization experiences of this population. What has been established in the literature is that individuals with mental illness are more likely to experience victimization than the general public, and certain risk factors influence the likelihood of victimization. What remains unexplored is the possibility that a person with mental illness' perception that mental illness is stigmatized may be significantly associated with victimization experiences.

Female versus male perpetrated femicide: an exploratory analysis of whether offender gender matters.

Femicide, the murder of females (most often at the hands of males), is an understudied area in homicide research. Furthermore, femicide perpetrated by females has been all but ignored. One reason this may be is because of the rarity of homicide victimization perpetrated by females.