The purpose of this preliminary study is to determine if sentencing disparities exist between male and female teachers who have been convicted of sexual misconduct with a student in Maricopa County, Arizona over a ten-year period. The hypothesis is that male teachers convicted of sexual misconduct with a student will receive harsher punishment than their female counterparts. In addition, this research will analyze the sentencing decisions of Arizona judges and prosecutors through plea-bargaining when compared with the presumptive sentence set by the Arizona Legislature. Issues that will be addressed include: a brief review of gender disparities in sentencing, sex offender sentencing, Arizona's rules of criminal procedure, and a review of the Arizona Revised Statutes pertaining to sexual crimes as well as the Arizona Supreme Court sentencing guidelines. The data set consists of fifteen different Maricopa County teachers who committed a sexual offense against a student and were convicted of that offense from February 2000 through September 2009. According to the results of this study, male teachers do receive harsher penalties than their female counterparts within Maricopa County.

It is hypothesized that procedural justice influences citizens' satisfaction with the police. An alternative argument holds that police performance measures, such as perceptions of crime and safety, are more salient. This study empirically investigates the predictive validity of both theoretical arguments. Using mail survey data from 563 adult residents from Monroe County, Michigan, a series of linear regression equations were estimated. The results suggest that procedural justice is a robust predictor of satisfaction with police. In contrast, several police performance measures failed to predict satisfaction with police. Overall, these findings support Tyler and Huo's (2002) contention that judgments regarding whether police exercise their authority in a procedurally-just fashion influence citizens' satisfaction with police more than fear of crime, perceptions of disorder, and the like.

Most criminological theories are tested using samples of adolescents. Consequently, there is ample evidence regarding the correlates of criminal behavior committed by teenagers. The problem, however, is that there is relatively little information regarding the correlates of criminal offending committed during late life. This limits the ability to assess the generalizability of some of the leading theories in criminology. To fill this void in the literature the present study used a sample of 2,000 elderly people (i.e., 60 years of age and older) from Arizona and Florida to examine three issues: (1) the role of general and specific routine activity measures in the explanation of criminal activity in late life, (2) the invariance of low self-control across various subgroups of the elderly sample, and (3) the generality of self-control theory and routine activity theory. The analyses revealed several important findings. First, general routine activity measures are better predictors of general criminal offending than specific indicators. However, specific routine activity measures still matter in the explanation of specific types of crimes. Another important finding of this study was that low self-control has an invariant effect on criminal offending across gender, race/ethnicity, and age. Finally, self-control theory and routine activity theory are general frameworks that explain criminal behavior committed by older people in much the same manner as among teenagers. Routine activity does not mediate the link between low self-control and offending. Rather, both low self-control and routine activity exert independent effects on late life criminal activity, net of statistical controls. The present study concludes with a discussion of the findings situated in the literature and provides policy implications that stem from the results.

Contemporary theories of trauma identify the creation of a coherent trauma narrative and therapeutic exposure to trauma memories as potential recovery mechanisms. These factors are often inherent to the disclosure process, resulting in a parallel theoretical framework for experimental research that conceptualizes disclosure as a therapeutic intervention. The present investigation examined the moderational impact of disclosure following trauma on the link between trauma severity and symptoms of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Disclosure status (discloser or nondiscloser), highest extent of disclosure, and length of delay to first disclosure were tested in a series of moderated regression models among a sample of female physical and sexual assault victims (N = 1087). Findings indicate that engaging in more detailed disclosure is associated with a modest beneficial impact on PTSD, but that the majority of nondisclosers have lower symptom levels than disclosers. There is also evidence for a small subset of nondisclosers that remain at heightened distress. A unique effect was found for disclosure delay, such that for physical assault, delaying disclosure is associated with a progressively weakening negative relation between time since the trauma and PTSD. At extreme delays, the association may become positive. Findings have implications for theories of trauma recovery and therapeutic interventions, including concerns about early interventions that emphasize disclosure. Future research may benefit from focusing on nondisclosing trauma victims to gain greater insight into recovery processes.