NCJ Number
178873
Journal
Crime and Delinquency Volume: 45 Issue: 3 Dated: July 1999 Pages: 372-388
Date Published
July 1999
Length
17 pages
Annotation
A case study of an alleged conflict of interest in regard to the privatization of prisons is used to call attention to what may be a need for criminologists and their professional journals to try to deal in an even-handed manner with the possibility of such conflicts.
Abstract
The authors conclude that failure to come forward and disclose what later might be regarded as bias based on financial self-interest inevitably will taint and call into question publications and statements that are not accompanied by such stipulations, however accurate the material and however pure the intent. The case study involved the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), which in 1998 merged into the Prison Realty Trust and later was named the CCA Prison Realty Trust. A facility operated by CCA was one of three institutions included in a juvenile recidivism study co-authored by Professor Charles Thomas of the University of Florida and published in the journal Crime and Delinquency. However, the author identifications did not note that Thomas became a trustee of the Prison Realty Trust in 1997, that he received a summer salary of more than $25,000 from an organization to which CCA is one of the two largest contributors, and that his co-authors were affiliated with the same industry-funded organization. Media quotations of statements by Thomas in support of private prisons have also not disclosed that Thomas has a considerable financial stake in the success of private prisons. This case and an analysis of the policies of medical and scientific journals suggest the need for similar policies in the areas of criminology and criminal and juvenile justice. 49 references