Paul E. Tracy

Designed to enable practitioners and students to evaluate a variety of real-life emergencies from every angle, this full-featured third edition of Case Studies in Disaster Response and Emergency Management provides clear, thorough, step-by-step descriptions of more than 100 major disasters or emergencies. Arranged chronologically, the case studies explore incidents from around the globe, including natural disasters, industrial accidents, epidemics, and terrorist attacks. A series of questions offered alongside each case study encourages the reader to think critically about the problem at hand, to evaluate courses of action, and to understand both anticipated and unforeseen outcomes of decisions that are made. This hands-on approach invites practitioners and students to apply theoretical emergency management techniques in a safe test environment. Case Studies in Disaster Response and Emergency Management, Third Edition provides readers with the most modern and current case studies in disaster response and emergency management. The book can be used in group project settings, as individual homework assignments in training courses for first responders, law enforcement, and government employees, or to complement existing emergency management textbooks in Public Administration, Public Management, and Public Affairs programs.

This book tackles the important issue of the effects of co-occurring substance abuse and mental health disorders on criminal offenders as they make the transition from incarceration back into society. It provides estimates of the prevalence of these disorders among criminal justice populations, and examines the various screening and assessment instruments used to diagnose co-occurring disorders. The volume further offers an inside look at an experimental community reentry program at a jail facility and uncovers how co-occurring disorders jeopardize the transition back into the community for offenders who suffer from them. It incorporates a historical account of the reentry issue to show how the current reentry problem is rooted in criminal justice policies dating back to the 1980s. As such, the text will be a valuable resource for criminal justice and criminology students, as well as practitioners in the corrections field, particularly those who work with inmates or released individuals with substance abuse and mental health disorders.

Designed to enable practitioners and students to evaluate a variety of real-life emergencies from every angle, this new edition of Case Studies in Disaster Response and Emergency Management provides clear, thorough, step-by-step descriptions of more than 50 major disasters or emergencies. Arranged chronologically, the case studies involve incidents from around the globe, with topics including natural disasters, industrial accidents, epidemics, and terrorist attacks. A series of questions throughout each case study encourages the reader to think critically about the problem at hand, to select a course of action, and to then see the results of the decisions that were made. This hands-on approach invites practitioners and students to apply learned theoretical emergency management techniques in a safe test environment. Case Studies in Disaster Response and Emergency Management, 2e provides readers with the most modern and current case studies in disaster response and emergency management and can be used in group project settings, as individual homework assignments in training courses for first responders, law enforcement, and government employees, or to complement existing emergency management textbooks in Public Administration, Public Management, and Public Affairs programs.

It takes courage to do research on crime and delinquency. Such research is typically conducted in an atmosphere of concern about the problem it addresses and is typically justified as an attempt to discover new facts or to evaluate innovative programs or policies. When, as must often be the case, no new facts are forthcoming or innovative programs turn out not to work, hopes are dashed and time and money are felt to have been wasted. Because they take more time, longitudinal studies require even greater amounts of courage. If the potential for discovery is enhanced, so is the risk of wasted effort. Long-term longitudinal studies are thought to be especially risky for other reasons as well. Theories, issues, and sta­ tistical methods in vogue at the time they were planned may not be in vogue when they are finally executed. Perhaps worse, according to some perspectives, the structure of causal factors may shift during the execu­ tion of a longitudinal project such that in the end its findings apply to a reality that no longer exists. These fears and expectations assume an ever-changing world and a corresponding conception of research as a more or less disciplined search for news. Such ideas belittle the contributions of past research and leave us vulnerable to theories, programs, policies, and research agendas that may have only tenuous connections to research of any kind.

Delinquency in a Birth Cohort, published in 1972, was the first criminologi­ cal birth cohort study in the United States. Nils Christie, in Unge norske lovorertredere, had done the first such study as his dissertation at the University of Oslo in 1960. Professor Thorsten Sellin was the inspiration for the U. S. study. He could read Norwegian, and I could a little because I studied at the University of Oslo in my graduate years. Our interest in pursuing a birth cohort study in the United States was fostered by the encouragement of Saleem Shah who awarded us a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to begin our birth cohort studies at the University of Pennsylvania by investigating the delinquency of the 1945 cohort. We studied this group of 9,945 boys extensively through official criminal history and school records of their juvenile years. Subsequently, we followed up the cohort as adults using both adult arrest histories and an interview of a sample of the cohort. Our follow-up study was published as From Boy to Man, From Delinquen­ cy to Crime in 1987.

Based on a comprehensive study of three counties in Texas, this work examines the idea of differential handling of minority youth offenders. Traditional wisdom indicates that minorities are over-represented in the juvenile justice system due to racism and discrimination within the system itself. The author refutes this logic by challenging current studies and examining the results of the Texas study. The findings suggest that minorities are represented in the juvenile justice system in greater numbers than their majority offender counterparts due to their greater involvement in criminal activity, not to any differential treatment they may receive at crucial decision points within the system. Allegations of racial bias against the juvenile justice system are often supported by the federal government, which suggests that minorities continue to be targeted more frequently for arrest, prosecution, conviction, and imprisonment merely because they are persons of color. Drawing on new research, the author addresses racial disparity in the juvenile justice system and contends that previous research suffers methodological and statistical analysis problems, resulting in the mischaracterization of the issue of racial bias. The present study argues that most minority juveniles receive different case outcomes because of the severity of their current offense, and both the length and severity of their prior delinquency careers. Tracy's research ultimately indicates that rather than being discriminatory, the juvenile system is, instead, reacting to a particular type of delinquent using legally permissible guidelines.

It takes courage to do research on crime and delinquency. Such research is typically conducted in an atmosphere of concern about the problem it addresses and is typically justified as an attempt to discover new facts or to evaluate innovative programs or policies. When, as must often be the case, no new facts are forthcoming or innovative programs turn out not to work, hopes are dashed and time and money are felt to have been wasted. Because they take more time, longitudinal studies require even greater amounts of courage. If the potential for discovery is enhanced, so is the risk of wasted effort. Long-term longitudinal studies are thought to be especially risky for other reasons as well. Theories, issues, and sta­ tistical methods in vogue at the time they were planned may not be in vogue when they are finally executed. Perhaps worse, according to some perspectives, the structure of causal factors may shift during the execu­ tion of a longitudinal project such that in the end its findings apply to a reality that no longer exists. These fears and expectations assume an ever-changing world and a corresponding conception of research as a more or less disciplined search for news. Such ideas belittle the contributions of past research and leave us vulnerable to theories, programs, policies, and research agendas that may have only tenuous connections to research of any kind.

This volume describes the findings of a longitudinal, birth cohort study of juvenile delinquency in Puerto Rico. Carried out under the auspices of the Puerto Rican Senate's Special Crime Commission, the book represents a new type of birth cohort study, based on the classic work done in Philadelphia. The authors have traced Puerto Rican children born in 1970, both male and female, through the greater San Juan police departments, charting the incidence of delinquency and the number of recurring offenders. These findings are compared to the Philadelphia studies of 1945 and 1958. The book begins its examination with a discussion of the background for the current study. Literature on juvenile delinquency in Puerto Rico is reviewed, official statistics are cited, and a discussion of the birth cohort and the importance of longitudinal studies is provided. Chapter 2 addresses the prevalence of delinquency, and chapter 3 details its incidence, severity, and types of offenses. Succeeding chapters cover such areas as age and delinquency, delinquent recidivism, and police and court dispositions. The volume concludes with a section on cohort comparisons, a summary of the findings, and some policy implications and suggestions for legislation. A group of appendices is also included. This work will be an important addition for courses in criminology and sociology, as well as a valuable resource for college and university libraries.