Digital Commons Network^™

Locked Out And Locked Up: Assessing The Relationship Between Housing Instability And Recidivism For People With Criminal Drug Records Using A General Strain Theory Framework, Mark Paul Plassmeyer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

More than 32.5 million Americans have been arrested for drug offenses since 1996 contributing to the fact that currently nearly as many Americans have a criminal record as a college degree. After an arrest for a drug offense, often regardless of whether one is convicted, people are subject to civil penalties known as collateral sanctions. These sanctions include restrictions on access to subsidized housing, financial benefits, student loans, employment, and important aspects of civic life such as voting or holding office.

Due to recent recidivism rates - over 75% for people exiting prison with a drug record - researchers and …

The Implementation Of Restorative Justice In Iceland: A Comparison Of Police- And Expert-Led Conferencing, Hafsteinn Gunnar Hafsteinsson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

On first of October 2006 the Ministry of Justice in Iceland launch a restorative justice pilot project. Building on the pilot project data, this thesis evaluates the implementation of restorative justice into the criminal justice system in Iceland by asking victims, offenders and other participants in police- and expert-led conferencing to answer questionnaires' relating to these two types of restorative justice practices to crime. The thesis compares its results with findings from a review conducted by Paul McCold (1998) who more than a decade ago challenged concerns on police facilitated conferencing. The data examined in the present thesis support Paul …

The Expanding Definition Of Crime And Its Effect On The Individual: A Multilevel Modeling Analysis, Teresa A. Dalton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Incarceration is one of the most extreme exercises of state power. For the past twenty-five years the rates at which states have been locking up their residents have been growing at a distressing pace. While violent crime rates have been declining, arrest rates for lower-level crimes have been steadily rising. Two new indices are developed to explain the relationship between lower-level crime and violent crime--the punitive severity index (PSI) and the punitive progression index (PPI). The PSI is the ratio of low-level crime to violent crime, a static indicator of punitiveness, while the PPI is a measure of the rate …