Gary Zajac
Biographic Data
| ID | 1699095 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Gary Zajac |
| GIVEN NAMES | Gary |
| FAMILY NAME | Zajac |
| SIGNATURE | ZAJAC G |
| AFFILIATIONS | Pennsylvania State University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 13 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 91 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 13 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1996 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Bridge Over Troubled Waters? Certified Recovery Specialist Support and Community Reentry
Peer support services, including certified recovery specialists (CRSs), have been of increasing interest to treatment scholars. However, if and how such services assist justice-involved individuals with substance use disorders during community reentry is less understood. This pilot study provided CRS services to both reentrants and their family members during the transition from close custody confinement to community supervision, a perilous perio…
A longitudinal mixed methods social network analysis to evaluate a peer-led housing program for older men returning from incarceration
Geographic Arbitrariness in Capital Punishment
The U.S. criminal legal system is highly localized. This reality extends to what U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer called "geographic arbitrariness" in the implementation of the death penalty. The inhabited institutions perspective, augmented with concepts from Weber's sociology of law, frames our analysis of how a local process that is not arbitrary-prosecutors' interpretations of statutory aggravating factors-result in geographic arbitr…
Racialized Victim Gender Differences in Capital Decision Making in Pennsylvania
The death penalty has historically been used to communicate moral outrage and fear about the murders of some kinds of victims more than others. A large body of research has inquired into the effects of defendant race, and to a lesser extent victim race in capital punishment. However, there is much less research on how victim gender influences capital punishment decisions, and even less research on how victim gender and race might intersect to inf…
Geographic arbitrariness? County court variation in capital prosecution and sentencing in Pennsylvania
Research Summary The death penalty remains one of the most controversial issues of criminal punishment not only because of racial/ethnic disparities, wrongful convictions, and inadequate defense representation but also because of the potential for geographic arbitrariness. The key empirical proposition embedded in the concept of geographic arbitrariness is that localities react to legally and procedurally equal capital cases in much different way…
Where "Old Heads" Prevail
Research on inmate social order, a once-vibrant area, receded just as U.S. incarceration rates climbed and the country's carceral contexts dramatically changed. This study returns to inmate society with an abductive mixed-methods investigation of informal status within a contemporary men's prison unit. We collected narrative and social network data from 133 male inmates housed in a unit of a Pennsylvania medium-security prison. Analyses of inmate…
Outcome Findings from the Hope Demonstration Field Experiment
Research Summary More than 1,500 probationers in four sites were randomly assigned to probation as usual (PAU) or to Honest Opportunity Probation with Enforcement (HOPE), which is modeled on Hawaii's Opportunity Probation with Enforcement (Hawaii HOPE) program that emphasizes close monitoring; frequent drug testing; and swift, certain, and fair (SCF) sanctioning. It also reserves scarce treatment resources for those most in need. The four sites o…
Implementation and Outcomes in Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Among Female Prisoners
A body of evidence has emerged over the past several decades about “what works” in rehabilitating criminal offenders (Andrews and Bonta, 2003; MacKenzie, 2006; MacKenzie and Zajac, 2013). Much of this evidential basis is summed up in the risk–need–responsivity (RNR) framework (Andrews and Bonta, 2010), which by now should be sufficiently well known that I will not bother with a summary of it in this brief introductory piece. The “what works” and …
Knowledge Creation, Utilization and Public Policy
Moral Positions and Academic Conduct
To what extent are our practices consistent with values that we espouse? --R. A. Smith Introduction This article explores intersection of ethics and professionalism in academia. Specifically, we examine what it means to be both ethical and professional as an academician. Although we focus primarily upon college and university faculty members, we believe that our observations and conclusions have relevance for broader range of roles and actors in …
The Moral Context of Participation in Planned Organizational Change and Learning
Planned change and learning are often presented as necessary and beneficial organizational activities, especially during times of environmental flux. Although change can be imposed as a diktat from above, the literature often suggests that employees and others should become involved in such change. Thus, the organization is faced with questions about obligations to involve employees, clients, customers, and citizens in such change. This study exa…
The Spirit of Watchfulness
Organizational learning from ethics failure in the public service is a form of organizational moral agency that promotes ethical public service. We draw upon three streams in the literature to develop an exploratory model of organizational ethics learning. First, we review literature concerning moral agency and learning by individuals and organizations to substantiate an organizational expression of moral agency. Second, we draw upon concepts fro…
Beyond Hammurabi
This article expands the conceptualization of ethics failure in the study and practice of the public service. Various definitions of ethics failure are tied to the two central approaches, internal and external, to controlling ethics failure. The historical antecedents of these approaches are also discussed. Recent criticisms from the literature of conventional formulations of ethics failure, which focus on financial fraud and its legal controls a…
Where "Old Heads" Prevail
Research on inmate social order, a once-vibrant area, receded just as U.S. incarceration rates climbed and the country's carceral contexts dramatically changed. This study returns to inmate society with an abductive mixed-methods investigation of informal status within a contemporary men's prison unit. We collected narrative and social network data from 133 male inmates housed in a unit of a Pennsylvania medium-security prison. Analyses of inmate…
Outcome Findings from the Hope Demonstration Field Experiment
Research Summary More than 1,500 probationers in four sites were randomly assigned to probation as usual (PAU) or to Honest Opportunity Probation with Enforcement (HOPE), which is modeled on Hawaii's Opportunity Probation with Enforcement (Hawaii HOPE) program that emphasizes close monitoring; frequent drug testing; and swift, certain, and fair (SCF) sanctioning. It also reserves scarce treatment resources for those most in need. The four sites o…
Moral Positions and Academic Conduct
To what extent are our practices consistent with values that we espouse? --R. A. Smith Introduction This article explores intersection of ethics and professionalism in academia. Specifically, we examine what it means to be both ethical and professional as an academician. Although we focus primarily upon college and university faculty members, we believe that our observations and conclusions have relevance for broader range of roles and actors in …
Beyond Hammurabi
This article expands the conceptualization of ethics failure in the study and practice of the public service. Various definitions of ethics failure are tied to the two central approaches, internal and external, to controlling ethics failure. The historical antecedents of these approaches are also discussed. Recent criticisms from the literature of conventional formulations of ethics failure, which focus on financial fraud and its legal controls a…
The Spirit of Watchfulness
Organizational learning from ethics failure in the public service is a form of organizational moral agency that promotes ethical public service. We draw upon three streams in the literature to develop an exploratory model of organizational ethics learning. First, we review literature concerning moral agency and learning by individuals and organizations to substantiate an organizational expression of moral agency. Second, we draw upon concepts fro…
Geographic arbitrariness? County court variation in capital prosecution and sentencing in Pennsylvania
Research Summary The death penalty remains one of the most controversial issues of criminal punishment not only because of racial/ethnic disparities, wrongful convictions, and inadequate defense representation but also because of the potential for geographic arbitrariness. The key empirical proposition embedded in the concept of geographic arbitrariness is that localities react to legally and procedurally equal capital cases in much different way…
Geographic Arbitrariness in Capital Punishment
The U.S. criminal legal system is highly localized. This reality extends to what U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer called "geographic arbitrariness" in the implementation of the death penalty. The inhabited institutions perspective, augmented with concepts from Weber's sociology of law, frames our analysis of how a local process that is not arbitrary-prosecutors' interpretations of statutory aggravating factors-result in geographic arbitr…
The Moral Context of Participation in Planned Organizational Change and Learning
Planned change and learning are often presented as necessary and beneficial organizational activities, especially during times of environmental flux. Although change can be imposed as a diktat from above, the literature often suggests that employees and others should become involved in such change. Thus, the organization is faced with questions about obligations to involve employees, clients, customers, and citizens in such change. This study exa…
Beyond Hammurabi
This article expands the conceptualization of ethics failure in the study and practice of the public service. Various definitions of ethics failure are tied to the two central approaches, internal and external, to controlling ethics failure. The historical antecedents of these approaches are also discussed. Recent criticisms from the literature of conventional formulations of ethics failure, which focus on financial fraud and its legal controls a…
The Spirit of Watchfulness
Organizational learning from ethics failure in the public service is a form of organizational moral agency that promotes ethical public service. We draw upon three streams in the literature to develop an exploratory model of organizational ethics learning. First, we review literature concerning moral agency and learning by individuals and organizations to substantiate an organizational expression of moral agency. Second, we draw upon concepts fro…
The Moral Context of Participation in Planned Organizational Change and Learning
Planned change and learning are often presented as necessary and beneficial organizational activities, especially during times of environmental flux. Although change can be imposed as a diktat from above, the literature often suggests that employees and others should become involved in such change. Thus, the organization is faced with questions about obligations to involve employees, clients, customers, and citizens in such change. This study exa…
Knowledge Creation, Utilization and Public Policy
Moral Positions and Academic Conduct
To what extent are our practices consistent with values that we espouse? --R. A. Smith Introduction This article explores intersection of ethics and professionalism in academia. Specifically, we examine what it means to be both ethical and professional as an academician. Although we focus primarily upon college and university faculty members, we believe that our observations and conclusions have relevance for broader range of roles and actors in …
Implementation and Outcomes in Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Among Female Prisoners
A body of evidence has emerged over the past several decades about “what works” in rehabilitating criminal offenders (Andrews and Bonta, 2003; MacKenzie, 2006; MacKenzie and Zajac, 2013). Much of this evidential basis is summed up in the risk–need–responsivity (RNR) framework (Andrews and Bonta, 2010), which by now should be sufficiently well known that I will not bother with a summary of it in this brief introductory piece. The “what works” and …
Outcome Findings from the Hope Demonstration Field Experiment
Research Summary More than 1,500 probationers in four sites were randomly assigned to probation as usual (PAU) or to Honest Opportunity Probation with Enforcement (HOPE), which is modeled on Hawaii's Opportunity Probation with Enforcement (Hawaii HOPE) program that emphasizes close monitoring; frequent drug testing; and swift, certain, and fair (SCF) sanctioning. It also reserves scarce treatment resources for those most in need. The four sites o…
Where "Old Heads" Prevail
Research on inmate social order, a once-vibrant area, receded just as U.S. incarceration rates climbed and the country's carceral contexts dramatically changed. This study returns to inmate society with an abductive mixed-methods investigation of informal status within a contemporary men's prison unit. We collected narrative and social network data from 133 male inmates housed in a unit of a Pennsylvania medium-security prison. Analyses of inmate…
Geographic arbitrariness? County court variation in capital prosecution and sentencing in Pennsylvania
Research Summary The death penalty remains one of the most controversial issues of criminal punishment not only because of racial/ethnic disparities, wrongful convictions, and inadequate defense representation but also because of the potential for geographic arbitrariness. The key empirical proposition embedded in the concept of geographic arbitrariness is that localities react to legally and procedurally equal capital cases in much different way…
Racialized Victim Gender Differences in Capital Decision Making in Pennsylvania
The death penalty has historically been used to communicate moral outrage and fear about the murders of some kinds of victims more than others. A large body of research has inquired into the effects of defendant race, and to a lesser extent victim race in capital punishment. However, there is much less research on how victim gender influences capital punishment decisions, and even less research on how victim gender and race might intersect to inf…
Bridge Over Troubled Waters? Certified Recovery Specialist Support and Community Reentry
Peer support services, including certified recovery specialists (CRSs), have been of increasing interest to treatment scholars. However, if and how such services assist justice-involved individuals with substance use disorders during community reentry is less understood. This pilot study provided CRS services to both reentrants and their family members during the transition from close custody confinement to community supervision, a perilous perio…
A longitudinal mixed methods social network analysis to evaluate a peer-led housing program for older men returning from incarceration
Geographic Arbitrariness in Capital Punishment
The U.S. criminal legal system is highly localized. This reality extends to what U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer called "geographic arbitrariness" in the implementation of the death penalty. The inhabited institutions perspective, augmented with concepts from Weber's sociology of law, frames our analysis of how a local process that is not arbitrary-prosecutors' interpretations of statutory aggravating factors-result in geographic arbitr…
Political science (12 works) · Sociology (10 works) · Law (9 works) · Psychology (9 works) · Law (8 works) · Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis (7 works) · Criminology (6 works) · Social Psychology (6 works) · Computer Science (5 works) · Crime Patterns and Interventions (5 works)