Criminal Justice: Annotated Bibliography on Penal Systems and Bias

This annotated bibliography analyzes four research articles related to criminal justice. The first article examines the long-term consequences of juvenile incarceration on adult functioning, highlighting the impact on future incarceration, substance abuse, and public assistance. The second article investigates retributive considerations in parole proceedings, focusing on how parole boards make decisions and the influence of admitting guilt. The third paper explores the complexities of calculating sentence severity, introducing a model based on the proximity of punishment to penal state actions. The fourth article examines systematic bias in offender risk assessments, evaluating how classification errors impact prediction accuracy. Each annotation provides a summary of the author's main points, purpose, findings, strengths, and weaknesses of the research, providing a comprehensive overview of the criminal justice system and its related challenges.

Annotated Bibliography Assignment
Part I: Introduction
The assignment deals with the analysis of the Criminal Activities and its effects. The factors that
involves criminal assessments processes and juvenile imprisonment has been discussed.
Therefore, the effect of imprisonment and its causes are analyzed based on the thorough research
of the journals that provide insights to the conditions of the criminals. The proceedings and the
modes of punishment has been analyzed based on the penal policies, penal severity and the
sentencing processes. Also, the Risk Assessment factors has been discussed for carrying on
examination on systematic bias.
Article 1
Part II: Annotations:
Citation:
Gilman, A., Hill, B., & Hawkins, K. (2015). When Is a Youth’s Debt to Society Paid?
Examining the Long-Term Consequences of Juvenile Incarceration for Adult
Functioning. Journal of Developmental and Life-Course Criminology, 1(1), 33-47.
I. Summary of the author’s main point. (30 words)
The author’s main point are the involvement of the ideas regarding the incarceration of the youth
which provides a deep impact in their growth and dealing with adolescence.
II. The purpose of the work. (30 words)
The purpose of the research was to study and examine the long term consequences regarding the
imprisonment of the youths and how that impacts on their adulthood.
III. The author(s) main findings? (30 words)
The author focuses on the Life Course Consequences that the youth has to face, due to the
incarceration processes. Furthermore, the three mechanisms has been identified based on how the
criminal label operates and affects the future of the children.
IV. The strengths of the research. (30 words)
The research paper provides a propensity score analysis regarding the address of the selection
bias. The study breaches the gap between the effects of juvenile incarcerations and the social
transitions. This have facilitated the research regarding the treatment effect of the incarceration
processes.
V. The weaknesses or biases of the material. (30 words)
The sample size, is one of the prime weaknesses of the research paper. It is due to the reason that
the sample size been hampered and those who have contacts with the police have rapidly
decreased the sample size for the research.
1

Article 2
Citation:
Assy, R., & Menashe, D. (2015). Retributive considerations in parole proceedings. Criminal
Justice and Behavior, 42(8), 883-892.
Annotation:
I. Summary of the author’s main point.
The authors sough to determine how parole boards make their parole release decisions and what
influence their decision-making process.
II. The purpose of the work.
The article briefly discussed various issues with parole proceedings and their decision making.
The study looked at several cases where the convicted prisoners, especially sex offenders were
penalized (denied parole) for not claiming guilt or innocents at parole hearings. To test this
hypothesis, the authors looked at “The Catch 22 in Israel’s” parole process.
III. The author(s) main findings?
They found that prisoners were faces with tough choices, where if they insist in denying their
crimes, they would not be eligible to participate in treatment and hurt their chances for parole
release. The authors note that not only does this suggest that the person may have to admit to
crime that they did not commit, but also forces the person to lie about their guilt and remorse.
IV. The strengths of the research. (25 words)
The research has highlighted the possible interactions regarding the retribution as well as
prevention, this gives a clear idea regarding the admitting of guilt and the repentance of the
criminals. Thus the research paper have highlighted the situation for the innocent prisoners and
projected the tough choices that they have to go through.
V. The weaknesses or biases of the material. (25 words)
The risks assessments that have been identified, is related towards involving of the various
modes of sessions and ideas. It needs clear assessment of the problems for the research. The
dynamic variables and the common static has not been clearly explained.
Article 3:
Citation:
Hayes, D., (2018). Proximity, pain, and State punishment. Punishment & Society, 20(2)
235-254.
Annotation:
I. Summary of the author’s main point.
As stated by the author, the paper tried to study about the complications faced while
calculating the strictness of sentences presenting the distinction in penal subjects of individuals,
which, was considered as the main challenge to the proportionality-based reasons of penalties
II. The purpose of the work.
As a result, the author tried to build a model that analyzed the reasons for the penalties in
respect to pain and then he classified them under the proximity for penal state.
III. The author(s) main findings? (25 words)
The better and systematic understanding of the various types of human errors and biases of the
criminal justice professionals are discussed thoroughly in the research. The processes of giving
2

death sentence practice and the penal policy regarding the proximity model has been highlighted
as well.
IV. The strengths of the research. (25 words
The fundamental challenges facing attempts regarding the penal objectivists and the subjectivists
regarding the question of what that constitutes the punishment. It focuses on the binary terms
which are subjectivists and objectivists, which constitutes the punishment.
The subjective and the objective measurements of the punishment have been highlighted based
on the various subtle and different approaches regarding the variability of punishments.
V. The weaknesses or biases of the material. (25 words)
The implication regarding the sentencing of the practices have been confirmed regarding the
change of perspectives of the practice, but the proximity based account for the penal severity has
not been given exact highlight and importance.
Article 4:
Citation:
Ho, A., Lesneskie, E., & Hsu, K-H. (2018). What we don’t know may hurt us: An
examination of systematic bias in offender risk assessments. Deviant Behavior,
39(12)
Annotation:
I. Summary of the author’s main point.
The authors tried to examine how often the information classified by the risk assessment
supervisor found to be lacking.
II. The purpose of the work.
The paper aims to find out at what extent validity of foreseeing risk gets impacted because of
the systematic errors.
III. The author(s) main findings?
The JCP instrument was used to identify the major information related to risk. The authors
found after completing the analysis that classification error effects strongly on both the offenders
as well as the society.
IV. The strengths of the research. (words 30)
The importance of the various types of processes and examination ideas regarding the criminal
justice decisions are highlighted reflecting on the areas that needs to be assessed based on the
mode of conduct of the examination.
V. The weaknesses or biases of the material. (words 30)
The factors of risk aversions are not analyzed properly, which impacts on the assessment
processes. Furthermore, the ideas regarding the health assessments has not been fully recognized.
Also, the consequences of public safety and personal freedom has not been properly discussed.
3