Dr. Natalie W Goulette

Scholars and practitioners continue to examine the growing pretrial detainee population. These individuals have not been convicted of a crime, and yet they sit in detention, taxing jail facilities and their limited budgets. Pretrial risk assessment tools have been created to identify individuals who can be released prior to trial, without jeopardizing community safety. The current study revalidates items included in the Florida Pretrial Risk Assessment Instrument. Results suggest that most individuals on pretrial release do not commit new offenses or fail to appear for future court hearings. Similarities and differences between the original study and the revalidation are noted. The inclusion of assessing "community ties" is also explored.

Juvenile substance use continues to be well researched. Prior research suggests that youth substance use can have far-reaching impacts. While several causes of substance use have been explored, including parental supervision and family structure, it is unclear if caregiver type can impact a juvenile’s substance-using behavior. The current study uses school-level data to examine self-reported substance use among youth who reside with both biological parents, a single parent, custodial grandparent(s), or other caregiver types. The results identify significant differences in self-reported substance use across primary caregiver types. These findings have implications for specific substance use prevention programs to target youth who reside in custodial grandparent-headed households.

Scholars and practitioners continue to examine the growing pretrial detainee population. These individuals have not been convicted of a crime, and yet they sit in detention, taxing jail facilities and their limited budgets. Pretrial risk assessment tools have been created to identify individuals who can be released prior to trial, without jeopardizing community safety. The current study revalidates items included in the Florida Pretrial Risk Assessment Instrument. Results suggest that most individuals on pretrial release do not commit new offenses or fail to appear for future court hearings. Similarities and differences between the original study and the revalidation are noted. The inclusion of assessing “community ties” is also explored.

The demographic diversity of the federal bench has emerged as a salient issue for the American public. Although research has examined the impact of judges’ race and sex on various court outcomes, including sentencing, for several decades across different levels of courts, findings remain mixed. Race and sex diversity of the U.S. District Courts has increased in recent years, coinciding with the transition from mandatory to advisory sentencing guidelines. The current study examines the impact of changes in the race and sex composition of federal trial courts on district-level sentencing outcomes for different demographic groups of offenders. The findings provide evidence that the race and sex composition of the District Courts impacts sentencing outcomes in both expected and unexpected ways.

Gang involvement and delinquency are prominent issues frequently examined in criminal justice scholarship. Research has revealed that gang involvement increases the likelihood of delinquency/crime, and that youth participate in gangs for a variety of reasons including protection, status, and a sense of belonging. Although research has found that various social and familial factors increase the probability of gang involvement, it primarily focuses on males, and little work has compared how a youth’s primary caregiver influences the likelihood of gang involvement among both male and female gang members. The current study uses school level data to examine gang involvement and primary caregiver type among male and female youth. The results identify significant differences in gang involvement among boys and girls when examining primary caretaker. The findings have implications for theory and programming in connection with youth gang involvement for both boys and girls.

Disparity in sentencing outcomes continues to garner considerable attention in the research literature. Much of the extant literature focuses on the impact of case-level, and to a lesser extent, court-level characteristics on individual sentencing outcomes. At the federal level, recent research by the United States Sentencing Commission (USSC), however, demonstrates significant disparity across U.S. District Courts in aggregate-level outcomes. Specifically, there is considerable disparity in the rates of judge-initiated guidelines departures across U.S. District Courts. The current study examines whether judicial composition and caseload characteristics impact this disparity using panel data. Results indicate that judicial sex and political composition of districts influence judge-initiated guidelines departure rates.

Extensive research has been conducted on the causes and factors associated with juvenile delinquency. Work has consistently revealed that family has a significant influence on the likelihood of youth crime. More specifically family structure and primary caregiver significantly influence the probability of juvenile delinquency in the community. But minimal work has examined the influence of family structure on the likelihood of misconduct among incarcerated youth. The current study helps to fill this gap in the literature by examining the relationship between misconduct among youth incarcerated in the California Division of Juvenile Justice and the youth's primary caregiver type (both parents, single parent, other). Results highlight a significant association between violent misconduct and primary caregiver type; youth are less likely to participate in violent misconduct if they report having both parents as their primary caregiver. The findings have theoretical implications, specifically the need to understand what influences from the community youth are importing into correctional settings. There are also implications for policy and practice; specifically, the importance of taking primary caregiver type into consideration for placement within a facility, and treatment considerations.

Purpose: Much of the prior literature examining the impact of judge race and sex on case-level sentencing outcomes remain mixed. There is a lack of research investigating how the composition of the judiciary influences sentencing. The current study attempts to fill this gap and examines the influence of the race, sex, and political composition of U.S. District Courts for two offense categories.Methods: Using data from the United States Sentencing Commission Monitoring of Federal Criminal Sentences and the Federal Judicial Center Biographical Directory, district-level sentencing outcomes for drug and economic offenders processed between October 1, 2007 through September 20, 2016 were analyzed.Results: Results indicate that judicial racial composition influences the percentage of economic cases sentenced to prison and average sentence length for both economic and drug cases, but in opposite directions. Political composition impacted the percentage of economic cases sentenced to prison while gender composition was not found to be a significant predictor.Conclusions: These findings highlight that in order to obtain a clearer picture of how judicial racial composition impacts sentencing, it is necessary to examine offense categories separately and beyond case-level outcomes.

Scholars continue to recognize the important role prosecutorial discretion plays in the criminal court system. Using a sample of felony cases referred to one Prosecutor's Office in Ohio, the current study investigates whether true or selective chivalry exists by examining main and interactive effects of defendant sex on the likelihood of reduced charges and the magnitude of these reductions using a novel approach. Results suggest that true chivalry exists between White males and females, however, no significant differences were noted between Black and White females.

Undergraduate students often struggle to produce clear and concise written assignments. Faculty in criminal justice often struggle with how to help them. The current study describes how a fully online introduction to criminal justice course was modified to be writing intensive. Students completed five writing assignments related to course content along with workbook exercises focused on grammar and syntax, formal writing, APA formatting and citations, and plagiarism. The first and final writing assignments included the same topic choices, but the final paper requirements included additional references and content. Students were encouraged to incorporate the feedback from the first assignment into the final paper. We examined whether students improved their written communication from the first writing assignment to the last. Our findings suggest that incorporating instruction on writing in an introduction to criminal justice course can produce positive outcomes for students, both lower-level and higher-level students.