This study examined the prison behavior and postrelease recidivism of more than 14,000 inmates released from Texas prisons in 1991 and 1992. Comparisons were made between participants and nonparticipants in prison education programs on a variety of behavioral outcomes. The findings suggest that these programs may be most effective when intensive efforts are focused on the most educationally disadvantaged prisoners. Implications for correctional education policy and correctional program research are discussed.

This study identified risk factors for prison victimization in Taiwan with an application of Western literature and assessed the extent of its applicability in an Eastern context. The sample was drawn from four male prisons located in Northern, Central, Southern, and Eastern Taiwan; a total of 1,181 valid surveys were collected. The results generally support the major findings of the extant Western studies. Crowding, however, was not significantly associated with the risk of victimization in any of the statistical models, which might be related to the different experiences and living conditions in the free community between Taiwanese and American inmates. This study generated clear policy implications, which may reduce prison victimization and engender a greater sense of well-being in the prison environment.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between Chinese police cadets’ background, motivations and educational perceptions and their attitudes toward common police roles. Design/methodology/approach – Self-administered questionnaires were collected from 382 Chinese police cadets. Based upon predisposition and socialization theories, personal background, career motivation and attitudes toward education were examined as statistical explanations of cadets’ attitudes toward order maintenance, preventative patrol, law enforcement, and community building as elements of the police role. Findings – Cadets who recognized more value in their practical and academic education also significantly favored the transitional and contemporary police roles (preventative patrol, law enforcement, and community building), which are taught as part of their college curriculum. But educational perceptions had no effect on order maintenance, which is a more historical role, and not emphasized by the police college. Cadets from lower SES backgrounds and those receiving outside influence to select a policing career tended to support traditional police roles whereas cadets with a relative in policing tended to show greater support for contemporary policing roles. Research limitations/implications – This study is limited by being a cross-sectional study of a single police college. Future studies should incorporate a longitudinal element to follow the perceptions of cadets from their school experience into the policing profession and should be conducted in other settings to assess generalizability. Practical implications – The impact of higher education on police cadets appears to be better measured as a function of their perceived importance of education (engagement) rather than measuring their exposure to it. The effectiveness of police training and education may be enhanced by adopting teaching methods that better engage learners. Social implications – Better alignment between police officers’ attitudes toward their roles and duties and contemporary police standards and practices will assure more effective and responsible police action and delivery of police services to the community. Originality/value – This study is among the first to demonstrate that Cadets who hold higher regard for practical and academic education are significantly better aligned to the policing roles emphasized by their educational program.

This study seeks to extend the theoretical explanation of victims’ crime reporting behavior to a social-structural framework by partially using Black’s Behavior of Law theory in a non-western context. Black’s theory of law postulated that police reporting varied according to five aspects of social life: stratification, morphology, culture, organization and social control. Drawing on the most recent victimization survey conducted in Taiwan, this study focuses on victim reporting of assault, robbery and larceny. Some findings replicated the expectations proposed by Black’s propositions, but others were contrary to expectations. Female robbery victims reported to the police approximately three times more than males. The plausible reason might involve the notion of relational distance taken from Black’s morphology perspective. It was also found that the severity of infraction was positively related to crime reporting. The coexistence of a strong effect of the variable ‘crime seriousness’ and the statistical significance of Black’s social dimensions might imply that Black’s theory has value in forming the broad social context of social action but is insufficient as an explanation of individual behavior.

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