Research by Author & Topic

Publications by William Adams on Crime and Justice

This study examined the prosecution of the commercial sexual exploitation of children and youth (CSEC) in the United States. The research took the form of a national analysis of federal prosecutions since the passage of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) in 2000, answering the following research questions: (1) Is the United States enforcing existing federal laws related to CSEC? (2) What are the key features of successfully prosecuted CSEC cases? (3) Have the U.S. courts increased penalties associated with sexual crimes against children? (4) What are the effects of CSEC legislation on service providers who work with victims? This assessment provides policy makers with a means of assessing the effects of legislation aimed at combating CSEC.

The study compared traditional crime solving to biological evidence techniques in hundreds of cases where biological evidence was available. When conventional investigative techniques were used, a suspect was identified 12 percent of the time, compared to 31 percent of the cases using DNA evidence. In eight percent of cases built on traditional evidence alone a suspect was arrested, compared to the 16 percent arrest rate in DNA cases. The average added cost for processing a single case with DNA evidence was about $1,397. Each additional arrest-an arrest that would not have occurred without DNA processing-cost $14,169.

Third in an annual series, this report provides statistics that describe defendants processed at different stages of the Federal criminal justice system for the 12-month period ending September 30, 2000. The data presented are compiled from the Bureau of Justice Statistics' Federal justice database which is maintained by the Urban Institute for the U.S. Department of Justice.

This document reports findings from evaluations of 23 law enforcement training projects, which were set up in accordance with the Family Violence Prevention and Services Act of 1984. The training projects were evaluated via three methods: (1) project summaries containing descriptive information on important process and outcome variables; (2) case studies to explore these variables through site visits to six model sites; and (3) surveys of victims in two states to assess their experiences with law enforcement services.

This report evaluates the effects of systemwide drug testing based on the experience of the Multnomah County Drug Testing and Evaluation Program (DTE) to determine whether DTE reduces criminal activity and increases compliance with court orders among defendants or offenders released under court supervision. The authors describe their research on the potential utility of drug testing programs, discuss the key components of systemwide drug testing, and provide details on DTE. Included are the conceptual framework that guided the evaluation and a description of study methodology. The report concludes with a discussion of the effect of DTE during pretrial, probation, and parole.