And even though the riders were pushing a message of peace, police said they broke the law. "There's less chance of being stopped, less chance of being caught and punished if you're with a large group that overwhelms the capacity of law enforcement to intervene," sociologist Jeffrey Butts said. The group ride trend has become, at times, menacing, resulting in confrontations with police officers and other drivers.
Criminologist Jeffrey Butts argues that Rogers' ability to remain composed likely diminished any concern. ... "We try to protect civil liberties; we try to protect the freedoms we all enjoy while also creating a safety net or buffer for people who are in serious trouble, and we're just not very good at it."
Criminologist Jeffrey Butts says the system is flawed. "The problem is that law enforcement people should not be asked to do that -- to screen people and to assess whether they pose a threat to themselves or others. That should be done by a clinician of some kind."
November 26, 2013 - 7:00 a.m. (CST) A growing number of stories involving teens punching random people, knocking them unconscious, are being reported across the country. Joy Cardin’s guest criminologist discusses the “Knockout Game,” why he says the media is reacting “hysterically” to the matter, and what can be done about it.
"The Knockout Game" is a phenomenon where teens assault strangers by trying to knock them out with one punch. Is this a new trend? Is the media making it worse? Jeffrey Butts, director of the Research and Evaluation Center at John Jay College of Criminal Justice at CUNY assesses the patterns behind this story and how it's being addressed by the media.
Even critics of [shock incarceration] agree that this kind of commitment among the staff is valuable. Jeffrey Butts directs the Research and Evaluation Center at John Jay College. Butts says that if the only contribution of this program is to make the staff focus on structure, and having a theory that they follow so that their behavior is consistent and they respond consistently to people and incidents as they come up, then this is preferable to a facility or correctional program with no structure and no plan. "But that does not mean that there is some magic potion that they’ve discovered," says Butts.
Today, we will talk to Laura Saunders, a child and adolescent psychologist from Hartford Hospital’s Institute of Living. She’ll tell us how violence affects the development of both children and their families. We’ll also talk with Jeffrey Butts, a researcher at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and Lou Gilbert, the director of a Hartford program that works with children who’ve witnessed violence, as well as Robert Plant, a Department of Children and Families director of community services, who can talk about what that state organization is doing with this population.
Research shows that young people who participate in youth court or teen court programs may have lower rates of recidivism. Adults involved in the programs attribute much of their success to the influence of positive peer pressure and the value of giving young people a voice in the process. Joining Radio Times host Marty Moss-Coaneus to tell the story of youth courts are Jeffrey Butts of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, who has evaluated teen court programs across the country; and attorney Gregg Volz, who has implemented school-based youth courts in Chester.
The number of kids sent to youth prison from Cook County declined dramatically between 1997 and 2004. According to a new report out today from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, that’s thanks to a cluster of reforms that divert youth away from pretrial detention and into more community-oriented forms of supervision. Jeffrey Butts is a research fellow at the University of Chicago’s Chapin Hall Center for Children. He’s looked at the numbers behind the report, and done some crunching of his own. He says policy reforms are only part of the reason for the decrease.
The FBI says violent crime rates are rising. The increase is occurring as the gap between rich and poor is the widest its been since World War II. Steve Henn looked into whether expanding economic inequality could be causing crime to increase. ... But Criminologists say in some ways, this is all kind of predictable. Jeffrey Butts: "The transition zones between wealth and poverty are where the opportunities for crime are greatest."
[T]here's been only a small increase in girls who commit an assault that involves a weapon or causes a serious injury. Jeffrey Butts of the Urban Institute says these facts challenge the idea that a change in girls' behavior is the major reason for the rise in arrests and detentions. "Behavior changes contribute somewhat to it, but very slightly," Butts says. "The largest reason for the change is that the juvenile justice system itself is becoming less paternalistic -- meaning that police officers, prosecutors, judges are less likely to treat someone differently because she's female than they may have 20 to 30 years ago."
Noah [Adams] talks with Jeffrey Butts, a juvenile crime specialist at the Urban Institute about ways to combat the cycles of crime and violence found in places like the public housing neighborhoods in Baltimore. Butts says one approach is to focus on place rather than person. He also describes alternative methods of dealing with juvenile offenders, including restorative justice programs. Finally, he and Noah talk about the role that concerned citizens -- like Ms. Sylvia Holland of Baltimore -- play in keeping their communities safe.
