Digital Commons Network^™

Introducing The Remote Mentoring Of Undergraduate Research Students (Rementurs) Workshop Series: Initial Evaluation And Plans For Wider Implementation, Elizabeth Sargent, Abid Shaikh, Karla-Sue Marriott, Taysia Porter, Dawn N. Cannon-Rech, Shainaz M. Landge

Justice Studies Faculty Publications

The primary objective of the Remote Mentoring of Undergraduate Research Students (ReMentURS) workshop series is to design a remotely available professional development training that will provide rigorous research concept and skills introduction to incoming undergraduate research students. This pilot run eight-week remote learning workshop series includes digital presentations, informational videos, virtual demonstrations, and aligned comprehension checks to foster student mindsets towards becoming independent research scientists. Preliminary assessment of the of ReMentURS program reveals that participants self-report gaining a variety of skills through the series and are likely to use the content in their future course and research laboratories. ReMentURS material …

Knowledge Transfer And Teaching Public Administration: The Academy Model, Michael Hall

Justice Studies Faculty Publications

Since the beginnings of Public Administration in the US and its accompanying education in other parts of the world, government and policy have become more complex. The education in Public Administration created a professional pathway to public service. The addition of education to Public Administration came out of the Progressive Movement in the United States to make knowledge in Public Administration more important in the face of corruption brought on by patronage appointments. When nonprofits became part the US public sector as elsewhere along with nonprofit healthcare, the complexity expanded enormously, requiring professionals to know more in what has become …

Fear Of Crime, Incivilities, And Collective Efficacy In Four Miami Neighborhoods, Marc L. Swatt, Sean P. Varano, Craig D. Uchida, Shellie E. Solomon

Justice Studies Faculty Publications

Purpose: Extant literature indicates that individual perceptions of collective efficacy and incivilities are important in explaining fear of crime. These studies, however, often implicitly assume that the relationships between key variables do not differ between neighborhoods. The purpose of this research is to examine the relationship between perceptions of collective efficacy, perceptions of incivilities, and fear of crime and determine whether these relationships are constant between neighborhoods.

Methods: Surveys were conducted using a sample of residents from four neighborhoods within Miami-Dade County. Structural equation models were used to examine the relationships between perceptions of collective efficacy, perceptions of incivilities, and …

Correlates And Consequences Of Pre-Incarceration Gang Involvement Among Incarcerated Youthful Felons, Sean P. Varano, Beth M. Huebner, Timothy S. Bynum

Justice Studies Faculty Publications

Objective: The primary aim of the study is to document the prevalence and variation in types of pre-incarceration gang membership among a sample of incarcerated felons. The second goal is to consider if and how pre-incarceration gang involvement affects institutional behavior. Materials and Methods: This study builds on the existing literature by considering if and how different types of pre-incarceration gang involvement effect prison misconduct. This relationship is examined while controlling for attitudinal measures and pre-prison social characteristics that may condition entrance into gangs and involvement in serious prison misconduct. The study includes a sample of 504 youthful adults incarcerated …

Communities As Allies, Joseph Schafer, Sean P. Varano, Nicholas Libby

Justice Studies Faculty Publications

A popular axiom attributed to British policing is the police are the public and the public are the police. Inherent in this term is a blurring of the distinction between the police and the public they serve; the police are cast as being little different from the citizenry and citizens are cast into a role of responsibility for the safety and well-being of the community. In effect, communities are framed as allies in the fight to ensure safe and secure neighborhoods. Across space and time this idea has held uneven sway within American policing ideologies. This essay considers the relationship …

The Case For Clear And Convincing Evidence: Do Our Laws Value Property Over Children?, Tricia P. Martland

Justice Studies Faculty Publications

Our laws reflect our values. What we value, we make laws to protect. In this article, Tricia Martland describes the child custody statute in North Dakota, which is the only state to use “clear and convincing” standard of evidence. This means that children will not be placed with parents with a history of domestic violence unless there is clear and convincing evidence of their rehabilitation. Other states deem the clear and convincing standard too stringent. Yet this standard is often used with regard to property title. Do our laws indicate that we value things over children? Changing policy to apply …

Interoperability And Information Sharing, Sean P. Varano, Thomas J. Dover

Justice Studies Faculty Publications

Communication and information sharing are two of the most pressing issues facing the public safety community today. In previous chapters of this volume, authors have made note of the changing public safety landscape as it relates to the need for enhanced information and intelligence sharing among a broad cross-section of organizations. Public safety organizations, particularly law enforcement agencies, have been quick to adopt emerging technologies that have allowed for greater communication and information sharing capacities. While substantial improvements have been made over the decades that enhanced communication and information sharing, many challenges remain in the move to seamlessly integrated communication …

Corporatization Of Higher Education: The Move For Greater Standardized Assessment Programs, Robert P. Engvall

Justice Studies Faculty Publications

This book addresses the on-going push for greater assessment in higher education, within the larger societal context in which a push for accountability and transparency has been rather selectively imposed. Addressing this context is done by means of addressing the specific higher education assessment literature, as well as such topics as unionization in higher education and the increase in “merit pay” schemes that diminish the collective power of union members and radically change the concept of academic freedom on college campuses. It addresses “dead weight” faculty that burden our institutions and drain our resources away from where they could be …

A Tale Of Three Cities: Crime And Displacement After Hurricane Katrina, Sean P. Varano, Joseph A. Schafer, Jeffrey M. Cancino, Scott H. Decker, Jack R. Greene

Justice Studies Faculty Publications

When Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in August 2005, it greatly disrupted both the physical and social structures of that community. One consequence of the hurricane was the displacement of large numbers of New Orleans residents to other cities, including Houston, San Antonio, and Phoenix. There has been media speculation that such a grand-scale population displacement led to increased crime in communities that were recipient of large numbers of displaced New Orleans residents. This study was a case study of three cities with somewhat different experiences with Katrina's diaspora. Time series analysis was used to examine the pre- and post-Katrina …

Bad Moon On The Rise? Lunar Cycles And Incidents Of Crime, Joseph A. Schafer, Sean P. Varano, John P. Jarvis, Jeffrey M. Cancino

Justice Studies Faculty Publications

Popular cultures in Western societies have long espoused the notion that phases of the moon influence human behavior. In particular, there is a common belief the full moon increases incidents of aberrant, deviant, and criminal behavior. Using police, astronomical, and weather data from a major southwestern American city, this study assessed whether lunar cycles related with rates of reported crime. The findings fail to support popular lore, which has suggested that lunar phase influenced the volume of crime reported to the police. Future research directions examining qualitative rather than quantitative aspects of this problem may yield further inform the understanding …

Why This Isn’T About Me: A Somewhat Responsible Response To An Unsolicited Academic Response And The “Academic Response Phenomenon”, Robert P. Engvall

Justice Studies Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Constructing Crime: Neighborhood Characteristics And Police Recording Behavior, Sean P. Varano, Joseph A. Schafer, Jeffrey Michael Cancino, Marc L. Swatt

Justice Studies Faculty Publications

It has long been acknowledged that police officers have substantial levels of discretion in their day-to-day activities. There is a well developed body of literature that considers how this discretion is exercised across a broad array of situations including the decision to arrest, use force, and grant citizen requests for official action. Using both social disorganization and conflict theories as conceptual models, the purpose of this study was to determine if neighborhood characteristics affect police reporting behavior across a wide cross-section of reported call types. The findings indicated that reporting behavior widely varies across crime types with a greater percentage …

Bike Patrol, Chris Menton

Justice Studies Faculty Publications

Police bicycle usage has grown to a point where bicycle patrols are a known phenomenon. Physical and mental advantages for the officer, superior tactical capabilities and statistically higher levels of interaction with the public head the litany of reasons to increase police bicycling.

Bicycle Patrols: An Underutilized Resource, Chris Menton

Justice Studies Faculty Publications

Foundational research on police use of bicycles for patrol. A participant/observation research design was used. A five-city, 32-shift study on the output of police bicycle patrols was conducted. Same and similar ride-alongs were conducted with bicycle and automobile patrols. All contacts (n1/4 1,105) with the public were recorded and coded. These data included: number of people, tenor, seriousness and origination for each contact.

Police Criminal Charging Decisions: An Examination Of Post-Arrest Decision-Making, Scott W. Phillips, Sean P. Varano

Justice Studies Faculty Publications

Scholars have encouraged studies of police decision-making to move beyond the arrest decision into research that broadens the understanding of police behavior. The criminal charge placed by officers against offenders is largely an untouched area of study. Examining criminal charging decisions goes beyond simple dichotomous decisions, such as arrest, but instead explores the area of police leniency or punitiveness. Randomly constructed vignettes describing a domestic violence incident were given to officers from four agencies. Officers indicated the criminal charges they would likely list against an offender if they were to make an arrest. Serious criminal charges were often supported by …

Street Outreach Workers: Best Practices And Lessons Learned, Scott H. Decker, Tim S. Bynum, Jack Mcdevitt, Amy Farrell, Sean P. Varano

Justice Studies Faculty Publications

Street outreach workers are an important part of the Senator Charles E. Shannon Jr. Community Safety Initiative (CSI) comprehensive gang and youth violence reduction strategy in Massachusetts1. Street outreach involves the use of individuals to “work the streets,” making contact with youth in neighborhoods with high levels of gang activity. These individuals are generally not employed by the criminal justice system agencies but rather are based in community service organizations or other non- governmental agencies. Street outreach workers provide an important bridge between the community, gang-involved youth, and the agencies (whether social service or law enforcement) that respond to the …

Bicycle Patrols Versus Car Patrols, Chris Menton

Justice Studies Faculty Publications

How do police bicycle patrols compare with police motor patrols? In this study, both were observed under similar conditions in five cities with populations of more than 100,000. All contact the police officers had with public was recorded and coded. The results show that a higher amount of contact with the public was experienced by police officers patrolling on bicycles.

Routine Crime In Exceptional Times: The Impact Of The 2002 Winter Olympics On Citizen Demand For Police Services, Scott H. Decker, Sean P. Varano, Jack R. Greene

Justice Studies Faculty Publications

Despite their rich theoretical and practical importance, criminologists have paid scant attention to the patterns of crime and the responses to crime during exceptional events. Throughout the world large-scale political, social, economic, cultural, and sporting events have become commonplace. Natural disasters such as blackouts, hurricanes, tornadoes, and tsunamis present similar opportunities. Such events often tax the capacities of jurisdictions to provide safety and security in response to the exceptional event, as well as to meet the “routine” public safety needs. This article examines “routine” crime as measured by calls for police service, official crime reports, and police arrests in Salt …

Gangs, Guns, And Drugs: Recidivism Among Serious, Young Offenders, Beth M. Huebner, Sean P. Varano, Timothy S. Bynum

Justice Studies Faculty Publications

The primary goal of this study is to understand the factors that best explain recidivism among a sample of 322 young men aged 17 to 24 years released from prison in a Midwestern state. Specific attention is paid to the predictive validity of gang membership, gun use, and drug dependence on the timing of reconviction and the current research on desistance frames the analyses. Results from a series of proportional hazard models indicate that race, gang membership, drug dependence, and institutional behavior are critical factors in predicting the timing of reconviction. Contrary to expectations, gun use was not related to …

Police Information Systems, Sean P. Varano, Jeffrey M. Cancino, James Glass, Roger Enriquez

Justice Studies Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

An Ecological Assessment Of Property And Violent Crime Rates Across A Latino Urban Landscape: The Role Of Social Disorganization And Institutional Anomie Theory, Jeffrey Michael Cancino, Sean P. Varano, Joseph A. Schafer, Roger Enriquez

Justice Studies Faculty Publications

The present research put forth an integrated theoretical framework aimed at providing a more holistic community- level approach explaining crime across a heavily populated Latino city. Guided by social disorganization and institutional anomie theory, this study used several data sources and OLS regression techniques to examine the impact of social disorganization, economic and noneconomic institutional characteristics on rates of property and violent crime across 1,016 census block groups in San Antonio, Texas. While several findings emerged, interactions between alcohol density and concentrated disadvantage were significant and positively associated with property and violent crime. Interactions between welfare generosity and concentrated disadvantage …

Examining The Effectiveness Of Bicycle Patrols Versus Automobile Patrols In Charlotte, North Carolina, And Hartford, Connecticut, Chris Menton

Justice Studies Faculty Publications

The use of police bicycle patrols has become widespread. After one hundred hours of observation and data gathering, this study concluded that the bicycle patrol performs effectively in most dimensions of patrol duties. Bicycle patrol officers are more approachable for pedestrians and for those members of the public in motor vehicles.

Safety And Security At Special Events: The Case Of The Salt Lake City Olympic Games, Scott H. Decker, Jack R. Greene, Vinc Webb, Jeff Rojeck, Jack Mcdevitt, Sean Varano, Tim Bynum, Peter K. Manning

Justice Studies Faculty Publications

Special events offer the potential for considerable threats to public safety. Perhaps no other special event rivals the Olympic Games in scope, duration, and potential for threat to communities, participants, and dignitaries. This paper reports on the results of a study of safety and security at the Salt Lake Olympic Games by a team of researchers with wide-ranging access to operations, personnel and documents from the security effort at the 2002 Winter Games. This paper focuses on three specific areas: changing definitions of safety and security during the Games; the development and maintenance of organizational structures and interaction; and lessons …

Exploring The Drugs-Homicide Connection, Sean P. Varano, John D. Mccluskey, Justin W. Patchin, Timothy S. Bynum

Justice Studies Faculty Publications

Although research generally assumes a close relationship between drugs and violence, very little is known about the many different roles drugs can play in criminal events. Drug related as an event classification scheme is relatively common in homicide research, as well as other areas of inquiry, and is usually understood to be an important component in the causal processes of criminal events. Yet such classification schemes often suggest a simple, unidimensional construct. In reality, drug-related crimes are com-plex events. The purpose of this researchwas first to disaggregate the concept of drug-related homicide by providing an event classification scheme that conceptualizes …

Academic Identity : Place, Race, And Gender In Academia Or Is It Really All Academic?, Robert P. Engvall

Justice Studies Faculty Publications

Is higher education part of the solution to the vexing problems facing the world today? How will higher education deliver on its promises in the 21st century? How will it respond to student needs and demands for a practical education at the same time it satisfies academia’s lofty vision of learning for learning’s sake? How might it reconcile these seemingly irreconciable beliefs? Who makes the decisions determining what subjects are “favored” and which are less favored, or even disfavored? This book attempts to cover all these questions because they all interconnect.

I'Ll Show You Mine, If You Show Me Yours : A Brief And Preliminary Examination Of Parental Report Cards, Robert P. Engvall

Justice Studies Faculty Publications

This article examines the recently introduced phenomenon of parental report cards,taking a preliminary look at some of the reasons,both real and perceived, behind the concept. Increased parental involvement in the education of children is as universally applauded as apple pie and motherhood. Educators and parent-teacher organizations have, for years, encouraged greater involvement on the part of parents—encouragement that in the past seldom ventured beyond simple and generic letters from a principal or superintendent or, in some instances, a more personalized letter from a teacher. Parents have long been urged, but have never actually been required, to participate in their children’s …

The Anti-Gang Initiative In Detroit: An Aggressive Enforcement Approach To Gangs, Timothy S. Bynum, Sean P. Varano

Justice Studies Faculty Publications

Over the period of the intervention and operation of the-AGI project, there was a considerable decline in gun crimes in the target precincts, whereas the number of such offenses rose in the comparison precinct. This was particularly the case in the Ninth Precinct, where a statistically significant reduction of gun crimes occurred. Perhaps more importantly, this reduction represented 112 fewer gun crimes, and thus a commensurate fewer number of victims, per month in this precinct. Given the design of this study and available data, these results cannot be directly attributed to the intervention. However, there is a strong indication that …

Belonging To The World: Women's Rights And American Constitutional Culture By S. Vanburkleo, Robert P. Engvall

Justice Studies Faculty Publications

This book examines how women have been governed historically and considers place and identity within our constitutional culture. Workplace, economic and even marital equality are all of a focus of this book

Deviant Homicides: An Empirical Analysis Of Deviant Homicides In Chicago, Sean P. Varano, Jeffrey Michael Cancino

Justice Studies Faculty Publications

A survey of the literature suggests that victim-offender relationship and motive are two primary characteristics that have traditionally been used to disaggregate homicide events. Previous research has clearly identified normative homicide characteristics as expressive motives between intimates and instrumental motives between strangers. However, the present research examines the prevalence of deviant homicides, or homicides with nonnormative characteristics, in Chicago. The authors test the hypothesis that deviant homicides are more likely among individuals with weak ties to social institutions. Results of a logistic regression analysis support the hypothesis that the likelihood of deviant circumstances is significantly greater when homicides involve Hispanics, …

All That Appears Isn't Necessarily So: Morality, Virtue, Politics, And Education, Robert P. Engvall

Justice Studies Faculty Publications

In recent years, the frequency of social critics’ attacks upon our collective “loss of virtue” has heightened. Such attacks on our “failures” now occur so routinely that we often treat the message as so obvious that it need only be mentioned to be accepted. This book attacks that message, not so much for its content, as for its method of delivery. In other words, the author is setting out to attack not the message, but the messenger since the message “virtue” is too complicated for a person to fully understand.