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18 J. Res. Crime & Delinquency 1 (1981)

handle is hein.journals/jrcd18 and id is 1 raw text is: EDITOR'S COMMENTS The beginning of a new year is an appropriate time to credit the two Associate Editors of the Jour- nal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, who have alternated in super- vising the development of the Journal. My life as Editor has been made inestimably easier because of the superb work of Michael Gottfredson and Rita Warren, from the School of Criminal Justice here in Albany, in pro- ducing a quality journal. One of the few tasks for which I am responsible is the preparation of a brief preface to each edition; a task that requires the employment of a skill common to university presidents, namely, a capacity to recognize line- arity in retrospect. One often sees demonstration of this skill when univer- sity presidents explain how particular programs or efforts that succeeded were the result of careful planning, prescient decision making, and superb managerial technique. While failure most often is attributed to chance, rarely is success. With a journal, such linearity in retrospect is witnessed when an editor explains how a particular set of articles was chosen as a result of a coherent and carefully crafted plan. And so it is with this edition. The first paper accepted for publication in this edition of the journal was submitted by Irving Spergel, Frederic Reamer, and James P. Lynch; and because of its significance, it was designated the lead article. This is an important effort because it describes the results of a carefully designed and well-executed study focused on a major policy concern, namely, the de- institutionalization of offenders. The authors demonstrate how a statewide effort to employ less drastic alternatives for status offenders had substan- tial and unanticipated effects on the organization and operation of the juve- nile justice and social service systems in that state. Many youths were sim- ply relabeled; there was a much broader use of the justice and service sys- tems; and there was a decrease in the diversion of youths from the courts. The study also indicates that neither secure detention nor community- based programs had much effect on the subsequent behavior of status or delinquent offenders. The authors conclude that we need to expand our research perspective to include the likely responses of the organizational environment that may enhance or defeat a particular intervention in a vari- ety of ways. Quite independently, and shortly after the first article was accepted, we decided in collaboration with our publisher, the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, to introduce a section designated NCCD Research Review, which would be organized by the staffs of one of JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN CRIME AND DELINQUENCY, JANUARY 1981 1

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