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The purpose of this paper is to determine whether trends in arrests for heroin, amphetamine‐type substances (ATS) and cocaine can be used as indicators of trends in the use of these drugs.

The question was addressed using ARIMA models to analyse the relationship between arrests and emergency department (ED) admissions for narcotics, amphetamine type substances (ATS) and cocaine.

Strong positive correlations were found for the narcotics and cocaine series between arrests and EDs in the same month (contemporaneous correlation) and between arrests in the current month and overdoses in earlier months (lagged correlation). The contemporaneous correlation between ATS arrests and EDs was slightly less strong than the lagged correlations at two and four months. A jump in ATS EDs, was followed by a jump in arrests in the same month and then two and four months later.

Arrests for narcotics use/possession, ATS use/possession and cocaine use/possession may in some circumstances provide useful intelligence about drug trends and/or a basis for evaluating the impact of police drug law enforcement activity on the use of narcotics, ATS and cocaine when other stronger measures of drug use are not available.

Efforts to evaluate local drug law enforcement activity on illicit drug use have been hampered by poor measures of trends in illicit drug use at small area levels. This is the only study the authors are aware of that has examined the long‐term relationship between illicit drug arrests and emergency department admissions for illicit drug use.

For contemporary American young adults (aged 18–29), coresidence with parents is now the most common living arrangement. Recent research on residential transitions out of and back into the parental home shows that residential independence is still common, meaning that many young adults coreside with parents after first leaving the nest. The timing of residential independence and subsequent coresidence is often tied to other life-course outcomes, such as relationships and employment, as well as characteristics of the family context, such as family structure and financial resources. A small body of research also demonstrates that residential transitions are common following criminal justice contact experiences such as arrests and periods of incarceration. While this association does not appear to be explained by the family context, the current study argues there are several reasons to anticipate heterogeneity in coresidence patterns based on the childhood family context. Drawing on data from the 1997 cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, I find that criminal justice contact is associated with coresidence with parents during young adulthood in a fairly consistent manner across different dimensions of family context (although parental education may play a role). These findings demonstrate the power of the criminal justice system in directing or redirecting residential trajectories and have implications for both individuals with contact and their families.

Protests surrounding the 2004 Republican National Convention (RNC) resulted in over 1,800 arrests. Scholarship on repression is divided about the likely impacts of arrests on subsequent activism. Interviews with RNC arrestees are used to examine potential effects. Findings offer twists to social movements and socio-legal hypotheses: (1) while many arrestees were less willing to protest after their arrest, for many of these individuals deterrence was selective, not wholesale; (2) many factors that were expected to neutralize repressive impacts either resulted in deterrence or set the stage for radicalization; and (3) individuals who were radicalized shared strong preparation for their arrest experience.

In this chapter, we argue that the practice of electronically monitored “house arrest” is consistent with Foucault's insights into both the workings of “disciplinary power” and “governmentality” and with the self-governing notions of a conservative, neo-liberal ideology, and mentality. Our interpretive analysis of a set of offender narratives identifies a theme we call “transforming the self” that illustrates the ways in which house arrest is experienced by some clients as a set of discourses and practices that encourages them to govern themselves by regulating their own bodies and conduct. These self-governing capabilities include “enterprise,” “autonomy,” and an ethical stance towards their lives.

Using administrative, longitudinal data on felony arrests in Florida, we exploit the discontinuous increase in the punitiveness of criminal sanctions at 18 to estimate the deterrence effect of incarceration. Our analysis suggests a 2% decline in the log-odds of offending at 18, with standard errors ruling out declines of 11% or more. We interpret these magnitudes using a stochastic dynamic extension of Becker’s (1968) model of criminal behavior. Calibrating the model to match key empirical moments, we conclude that deterrence elasticities with respect to sentence lengths are no more negative than − 0 . 13 for young offenders.

Using socio-legal research on arrests and the criminal justice system, this paper contests the implicit argument in recent research on repression that arrests are “softer” than police violence. Specifically, the paper explores the physical conditions of arrest and detention, and the extent to which arrests initiate costly interactions with the legal system that punish defendants before they are even tried (or even if charges are later dropped). Using data on arrests and police practices from mine strikes in Arizona from the early 1980s and data on arrests and police practices during urban riots in the 1960s, the paper: (1) discusses the physical realities of arrest and detention; (2) outlines the array of costs that arrests impose on protesters; (3) discusses the implications of biased policing on that set of costs; and (4) examines the costs associated with mass arrests. The paper concludes this empirical analysis by questioning the commensurability of arrests with other forms of police action, including violence, against protesters.

This study investigates the effects of a broad-based policy change that altered maternal employment, family income, and other family characteristics on drug-related crime among youth. Specifically, we exploit differences in the implementation of welfare reform in the United States across states and over time in the attempt to identify causal effects of welfare reform on youth arrests for drug-related crimes between 1990 and 2005, the period during which welfare reform unfolded. We use monthly arrest data from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Uniform Crime Reports to estimate the effects of welfare reform implementation on drug-related arrests among 15- to 17-year-old teens exposed to welfare reform. The findings, based on numerous different model specifications, suggest that welfare reform had no statistically significant effect on teen drug arrests. Most estimates were positive and suggestive of a small (3%) increase in arrests.

Greater parental monitoring is commonly associated with reduced delinquent behavior in adolescents, yet less is known about the extent to which parental monitoring behavior changes after a child is arrested for the first time. The present study examines the extent to which mothers’ monitoring behaviors (i.e., parental monitoring knowledge and effort) change in association with juvenile recidivism after their sons’ first arrest, operationalized through both youth-reported recidivism and official re-arrest records. Mother–son dyads (total N = 634) across three states were interviewed in two waves over 30 months following the youth’s first arrest. Mothers who reported both more monitoring knowledge and effort at Wave 1 had sons who self-reported less recidivism and were less likely to be re-arrested at Wave 2. Repeated sons’ re-arrests were associated with a change in mothers’ monitoring behavior, as both parental knowledge and parental effort significantly increased from Wave 1 to Wave 2 when youth have been re-arrested more than once, relative to youth who had never been re-arrested. No change in monitoring behaviors were observed in association with youth-reported recidivism, and mothers who stated an intention to change their monitoring habits at Wave 1 did not necessarily do so by Wave 2. The findings point to the ability of parents to modulate their monitoring behavior to respond to chronic juvenile offending. This provide an opportunity for practitioners to work with parents to improve their monitoring skills, to ensure rehabilitative gains that result from justice system intervention are maintained in the home via parental monitoring.

Provides empirical evidence for the first time to suggest that police officers are less apt to arrest in domestic violence cases when directly comparing officers’ responses in domestic and non‐domestic assaults. Uses a sample of 92,000 police reports in a small midwestern police department of the USA. Supports the premise of disparate treatment for domestic assaults. Finds that injuries were equally likely in domestic and non‐domestic assaults; that the impact of weapons is limited. Calls for further research to clarify these issues, e.g., to re‐examine officers’definitions of injuries and weapons. Supports findings that officers are more apt to arrest when a victim requests this.

The purpose of this paper is to examine domestic violence calls for service data in one Florida county for a two-year period from July 2004 through July 2006.

Data for this study include information gathered on domestic violence calls for service during a two-year period (n=3,200). This secondary data were analyzed by logistic regression to determine statistically significant predictor variables.

This study found that severity of crime, presence of children, presence of an injunction, and victim injury increased the likelihood of an arrest. Victim race, location of call, victim alcohol use, and length of relationship did not affect likelihood of arrest.

Use of secondary data precluded examination of additional relevant variable information.

The research shows clear law violations and seriousness of the acts correlate to an increased likelihood of an arrest. Arrest research should inform police training and policy.

The research is consistent with other research that shows that law enforcement officers continue to play a significant role in responding to domestic violence crime and suggest that researchers should continue to study arrest practices. In this study, arrest was more likely when factors existed that may have indicated a more serious crime.

There is an ongoing need to examine agency-level response to domestic violence. This paper adds to the literature on the law enforcement response to domestic violence. The paper suggests areas for future research.