The key issue here is that the students who left with 1 or 2 publications in top journals that were independently authored were the most intellectually gifted and landed higher than those students with 10 collaboratively published pieces. CCJ PhDs never learn how to have an independent thought because theory isn�t valued. Instead it�s a numbers game of �wow this finding held in this town, let�s test it again with statewide data, and then with regional data, and then with national data!� As if somehow sampling theory is sensitive to this stoopid arbitrary populations.
Where are these students with 1 or 2 solo publications in top journals right out of graduate school? It's incredibly rare, and most of those "independently authored" papers tend to have a lot of help from faculty mentors. The truth is that the faces and names you see at the top of the field are all there because they were mentored to be there. There is no way of getting around that fact. It is practically impossible to work your way to the top of the field without star professors connecting you with people and opportunities. Professors at teaching institutions are often looked at as less than those at R1s when in many cases faculty at teaching institutions intellectually run circles around R1 faculty, but they just didn't get the same pushes and opportunities.
At least Nix, McLean et al. already published independently in top journals like C&D before publishing with their esteemed mentors. Goes to show that policing scholars don't just have the connections but are smart too.