VOICES FROM CRIMINAL JUSTICE
ARTICLE QUESTIONS
I. POLICE
A. PRACTITIONERS
1. Conti, Norman. “A Visigoth System: Shame, Honor, and Police Socialization.”
1. “The Visigoths were a Germanic tribe where leadership was determined by suffering.
Whoever could take the most punishment got to be the leader.” Explain how this
statement relates to police academy recruits.
2. Why do police academy staff emphasize obedience to authority during training?
3. What is meant by the “normal career” of police academy recruits?
4. The term “rite of passage” is an important part of the process of becoming a police
academy graduate and police officer. How does this concept help explain the recruit
socialization process?
2. Vera Sanchez, Claudio G. and Dennis P. Rosenbaum. “Racialized Policing: Officers’
Voices on Policing Latino and African American Neighborhoods.”
1. How does studying police experiences with minority community members explain
their discretionary use of legal authority?
2. Do police, according to this study, exhibit racial and class biases when interacting in
minority communities? If so, why?
3. What characteristics of African American and Latinos do police officers discuss when
describing their opinions about these minority citizens?
3. Stenross, Barbara and Sherryl Kleinman. “The Highs and Lows of Emotional Labor:
Detectives’ Encounters with Criminals and Victims.”
1. What are the difficult parts emotionally for detectives in their interactions with victims
on cases they are investigating?
2. Why do police detectives claim they like to deal with seasoned criminals as opposed to
interacting with victims?
3. Do crime victims have a realistic perception of how detectives handle cases?
4. Pogrebin, Mark R. and Eric D. Poole. “Vice Isn’t Nice: A Look at the Effects of
Working Undercover.”
© Taylor and Francis 2015
1. What are some of the negative consequences of undercover work?
2. What are some of the dangers of undercover police forging too close a relationship
with their informants?
3. What difficulties do undercover officers face when returning to the uniform division of
the police department?
5. Pogrebin, Mark R., Mary Dodge, and Harold Chatman. “Reflections of AfricanAmerican Women on their Careers in Urban Policing: Their Experiences of Racial and
Sexual Discrimination.”
1. Discuss the difficulty African-American policewomen experienced during their tenure
on the force. Distinguish between gender discrimination and racial discrimination.
2. The study found that police managers tolerated racially disparaging remarks made by
white officers but were less tolerant of sexist remarks. Why do you think this was the
case?
3. How did the employment of African-American policewomen improve the status of
black policemen among white officers?
4. Compare and contrast the relationship that African-American female police officers
have with white female officers, to that they have with white male officers.
B. OUTSIDERS
6. Gau, Jacinta M. and Rod K. Brunson. “Procedural Justice and Order Maintenance
Policing: A Study of Inner-City Young Men’s Perceptions of Police Legitimacy.”
1. How does aggressive policing erode trust in police for youth, especially minority
youth?
2. Discuss and evaluate the policy recommendations of the authors.
3. How did the law violating behaviors of participants influence their perceptions of
police?
7. Durán, Robert. “Urban Youth Encounters with Legitimately Oppressive Gang
Enforcement.”
1. How did the youths Duran spoke with think police treated minority youth?
2. According to the youths, how did police determine who were and who were not gang
members?
© Taylor and Francis 2015
3. According to the author, how do “mainstream” assumptions about minority youths
choosing to look like gang members contribute to continued unequal treatment of youths
based on ethnicity?
8. Stretesky, Paul, Tara O’Connor-Shelley, Michael J. Hogan, and N. Prabha Unnithan.
“The Role of Law Enforcement in Making Sense of the Unimaginable.”
1. Did any of the participants ever find closure from their murder cases?
2. How common are unsolved murder cases in the US?
3. How does inability to close the murder case or gain acceptable assistance from the
justice system affect the behavior and emotions of family members?
9. Stephens, B. Joyce and Peter G. Sinden. “Victims’ Voices: Domestic Assault Victims’
Perceptions of Police Demeanor.”
1. What police response does the current version of the Family Protection and Domestic
Violence Intervention Act require?
2. What type of police response was described by the one male victim?
3. What are the four types of demeanors perceived by victims?
10. Buchbinder, Eli and Zvi Eisikovits. “Between Normality and Deviance: The
Breakdown of Batterers' Identity Following Police Intervention.”
1. How does continued interaction with police as domestic violence offenders affect the
way that batterers perceive police?
2. How do the accounts of batterers serve to justify or explain their behavior?
3. Is it possible that police intervention could increase future domestic violence? Why or
why not?
II. JUDICIAL
A. PRACTITIONERS
11. Bowen, Deirdre M. “Calling Your Bluff: How Prosecutors and Defense Attorneys
Adapt Plea Bargaining Strategies to Increased Formalization.”
1. Legal actors adapt to court organizational rules in order to accomplish efficiency and
justice. Can these two factors be accomplished by plea bargaining?
2. In what ways does the prosecutor have most of the power in plea bargaining?
© Taylor and Francis 2015
3. What does the author of this article mean when she stated that the organizational
structure creates “an atmosphere of cooperation under organizational conflict” for
defense attorneys?
4. What is meant by the term “trial penalty”?
12. Harris, Alexes. “The Social Construction of ‘Sophisticated’ Adolescents: How Judges
Integrate Juvenile and Criminal Justice Decision-Making Models.”
1. How do judges selectively take parts of juvenile case histories to construct their
decisions to decide if a youth should or should not stay in the juvenile justice system?
2. How do the juvenile court work groups’ values, stereotypes, and perceptions enter into
the decision-making process for youths who come before this court?
3. Which types of cases get transferred to criminal court for defendants who are under the
adult legal age?
4. Why are youths who are raised in single parent homes, are of color, and from lower
socioeconomic backgrounds viewed in an unfavorable light by juvenile court personnel
and more likely to be transferred to criminal court?
13. Frohmann, Lisa. “Discrediting Victims’ Allegations of Sexual Assault: Prosecutorial
Accounts of Case Rejections.”
1. Complaint filing is an important stage in the prosecution of a case, but some cases of
sexual assault will not go on to be adjudicated by the courts. In what particular sexual
assault cases do district attorneys reject them for prosecution?
2. Should prosecutors have the sole discretion to not prosecute a sexual assault case even
though they believe the actual crime was committed?
3. Should a rape victim’s personal life and criminal acquaintances be reasons for case
filing?
4. Is there too much emphasis by prosecutors on winning cases that causes them to reject
certain sexual assault case filings, or are they being practical in their decisions?
14. McIntyre, Lisa J. “But How Can You Sleep Nights?”
1. How does criminal defense work serve the purpose of upholding the law and
guaranteeing, at least in appearance, that the playing field is even for defendants?
2. What moral dilemmas do defense attorneys face in their work with accused criminal
defendants?
© Taylor and Francis 2015
3. The two perspectives – the adversarial model, which is based on constitutional issues
of due process, and the bureaucratic model, which is based on superficial ceremonies of
due process – and the presumption of innocence or guilt. Which model do public
defenders operate under and what are the characteristics of that model?
4. McIntyre claims that all lawyers she interviewed think of themselves as trial lawyers,
but most of their work with defendants is based on plea bargaining. How do public
defenders resolve this dilemma?
15. Rosecrance, John. “Maintaining the Myth of Individualized Justice: Probation
Presentence Reports.”
1. What part does a defendant’s prior criminal record and current offense play in the
probation officer’s sentencing recommendations?
2. What is the myth of individualized justice and how does the probation presentence
report help to maintain it?
3. Rosecrance found that there were three stages used in the presentence investigation:
trying the defendant; gathering further information; filing the report. How does each of
the stages clarify the decision making process used by probation officers?
4. Probation recommendations take into consideration the opinions of their supervisors,
district attorneys, and judges. How does this influence their sentencing
recommendations?
B. OUTSIDERS
16. Konradi, Amanda. “Preparing to Testify: Rape Survivors Negotiating the Criminal
Justice Process.”
1. What policy suggestions were offered by the author?
2. According to the author, how is this type of research different from the majority of
prior rape survivor based research?
3. What are the six types of victim court preparation techniques found in this study?
17. Guzik, Keith. “The Agencies of Abuse: Intimate Abusers' Experiences of
Presumptive Arrest and Prosecution.”
1. Did the author’s results garner support for the domestic violence policies and
procedures in question? If so, how? If not, why not?
© Taylor and Francis 2015
2. Why are plea bargains for intimate abusers particularly important in the county under
study?
3. Why did some of the participants find the programs unhelpful?
18. Goodrum, Sarah. “Expecting an Ally and Getting a Prosecutor.”
1. The author lists three reasons why research regarding loss of a loved one to murder is
helpful in gaining insight into victims’ experiences with prosecutors. Describe these
reasons.
2. What types of information do family members of murder victims generally expect
from prosecutors?
3. What is a common complaint of murder victims’ family members regarding the
criminal justice system?
19. Fischer, Michael, Brenda Geiger, and Mary Ellen Hughes. “Female Recidivists Speak
about their Experience in Drug Courts while Engaging in Appreciative Inquiry.”
1. Why are the authors’ methods unique as a program assessment?
2. How did the women’s experience with this current drug court compare to their
experiences with previous drug courts?
3. What did the women say was the most important requirement for success in a drug
court program?
20. Hans, Valerie P. and Krista Sweigert. “Jurors’ Views of Civil Lawyers: Implications
for Courtroom Communication.”
1. Why is it important for jurors to like the trial attorneys on either side of the case?
2. Do opening trial remarks by trial lawyers affect the way jurors perceive the case
throughout the trial?
3. What part did judicial instructions play in jurors’ decision of the trial?
III. CORRECTIONS
A. PRACTITIONERS
21. Stojkovic, Stan. “Accounts of Prison Work: Corrections Officers’ Portrayals of Their
Work Worlds.”
© Taylor and Francis 2015
1. What excuses do correctional officers provide in their attempt to explain their selective
enforcement of prison rules?
2. What are reasons officers account for accommodating inmate violation of prison rules?
3. Correctional officers explained their work problems as a result of changing prison
policies which expanded prisoner’s rights and reduced their discretionary decisionmaking practices and their right to discipline prisoners as they felt necessary. Why did
officers perceive an erosion of their authority?
4. According to line officers, prison administrators caused them relational problems with
inmates due to their frequently changing policies that caused uncertainties and divisions
between officers and inmates in their charge. Why did correctional managers often
change policies? Were they aware of the problems it caused for officers?
22. Riley, John. “Sensemaking in Prison: Inmate Identity as a Working Understanding.”
1. How do sense-making activities on the part of correctional officers produce a working
understanding of prisoners that is an important factor of social control in the prison?
2. Why is it important for officers to not use offensive speech and devalue the inmates
they are controlling? What type of problems can such behavior toward inmates cause?
3. Often officers rely on informal strategies for inmate violation of institutional rules as
opposed to a formal response and punishment. Why do officers utilize such informal
discretional decisions?
4. What part does the inmate confidential register play in reinforcing the negative view of
prisons by experienced officers?
23. Poole, Eric D. and Mark R. Pogrebin. “Gender and Occupational Culture Conflict: A
Study of Women Jail Officers.”
1. What adjustment and work strategies did female jail officers use to survive this
occupation?
2. Why are many male deputy jail officers so critical of women deputies?
3. Why do female jail deputies avoid making risky discretionary decisions when working
with jail inmates as compared to male officers?
24. Gaarder, Emily, Nancy Rodriguez, and Marjorie S. Zatz. “Criers, Liars, and
Manipulators: Probation Officers’ Views of Girls.”
1. Do probation officers understand gender and culturally specific needs and
programming for girls?
© Taylor and Francis 2015
2. Often, girls are not related according to the reality of their lives, and probation officers
express frustration and hostility toward them for not responding favorably to the
programs offered to them. How would you explain this occurrence?
3. The authors call for programs that stress relationship building and incorporate how
culture influences girls’ delinquent behavior. What is their rationale for requesting these
types of programs?
4. Should probation departments incorporate gender specific programs for juvenile male
probationers also?
25. Crank, John P. “The Construction of Meaning during Training for Probation and
Parole.”
1. How do tropes (stories) transfer information and provide an organizational
understanding to probation and parole officers in POST training?
2. In a national climate of crime control activity, due process considerations become less
important and temptations to circumvent these constitutional protections for probationers
and parolees by probation and parole officers becomes realized. Why does this occur?
3. Crank notes in this article that the corrections’ goals have shifted from offender
reintegration to the maintenance of control and surveillance over offenders on probation
and parole. How did POST training adapt to this changing ideology?
4. What does the author mean by the term “organizational culture”? How did POST
training staff attempt to change the organizational culture of probation and parole
practices to a more controlling ideology?
B. OUTSIDERS
26. Schmid, Thomas J. and Richard S. Jones. “Ambivalent Action: Prison Adaptation
Strategies of First-Time, Short-Term Inmates.”
1. What are the different stages of adaptation associated with short-term incarceration?
2. How are short-term prisoners viewed by other inmates?
3. How did Schmid and Jones gain an insider’s view of the adaptation process of shortterm inmates?
27. West-Smith, Mary, Mark R. Pogrebin, and Eric D. Poole. “Denial of Parole: An
Inmate Perspective.”
1. What were the most common and least common complaints filed by inmates?
© Taylor and Francis 2015
2. Why did the inmates think parole board members were actually denying their appeals?
3. What advocacy group assisted in collecting this data?
4. How does the literature support or refute the claims of the authors?
28. Tewksbury, Richard. “How Registered Sex Offenders View Registries.”
1. How did offenders suggest the registry could be improved?
2. How do you think it could be improved? Or should it remain as it is?
3. What types of distinctions did the participants make regarding their identity or label as
a sex offender?
29. Christian, Johnna. “Riding the Bus: Barriers to Prison Visitation and Family
Management Strategies.”
1. How did family members cope with the strain of visiting prisoners and manage to
continue the visits?
2. What are some direct and indirect costs of visiting a prisoner?
3. In what ways did the family members feel duty-bound to the prisoners?
30. Snyder, Zoann K. “Keeping Families Together: The Importance of Maintaining
Mother–Child Contact for Incarcerated Women.”
1. What criticisms did the women express about the program?
2. How did these mothers attempt to maintain contact with their children?
3. What did the women inmates see as the most pressing concerns they will face once
released?
© Taylor and Francis 2015