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Traditional Regression Methods Versus The Utility Of Machine Learning Techniques In Forecasting Inmate Misconduct In The United States: An Exploration Of The Prospects Of The Techniques, Fawn T. Ngo, Ramakrishna Govindu, Anurag Agarwal

Criminology Sarasota Manatee Campus Faculty Publications

In the U.S., prison administrators often rely on risk assessment instruments to place and supervise inmates, as well as manage, plan and allocate resources. Hence, any improvement in the accuracy performance of risk assessment instruments is likely to result in significant benefits for offender classification and rehabilitation, management systems, and public safety. To date, researchers have explored the relative predictive performance between regression and non-regression methods and the overall evidence is inconclusive. In this study, we seek to advance the debate regarding the efficacy of traditional regression methods versus the utility of machine learning techniques in forecasting inmate misconduct by …

Mental And Physical Health In Prison: How Co-Occurring Conditions Influence Inmate Misconduct, Daniel C. Semenza, Jessica M. Grosholz

Criminology Sarasota Manatee Campus Faculty Publications

Background: Research has shown that inmate misconduct is related to a range of demographic factors and experiences with the criminal justice system. Poor mental and physical health has also been associated with inmate misconduct, although no research has examined the relationship between co-occurring conditions and misconduct in prison populations.

Methods: We rely on data from the 2004 Survey of Inmates in State Correctional Facilities (N = 14,499) and use negative binomial regression models to examine the relationship between types of co-occurring mental and physical conditions and misconduct.

Results: The results demonstrate that people in prison dealing with concurrent mental and …

Same-Sex And Opposite-Sex Stalking In The United States: An Exploration Of The Correlates Of Informal And Formal Coping Strategies Of The Victims, Fawn T. Ngo

Criminology Sarasota Manatee Campus Faculty Publications

The purpose of the current study is to explore the correlates of informal and formal coping strategies in same-sex and opposite-sex stalking contexts. More specifically, using four sex dyads - female victims who were stalked by a male (M-F), male victims who were stalked by a female (F-M), female victims who were stalked by a female (F-F), and male victims who were stalked by a male (M-M) - this study examined the effects of three incident and four victim and offender characteristic variables on six informal and formal coping strategies. The results reveal more similarities than differences in terms of …

Sexting: Current Research Gaps And Legislative Issues, Fawn T. Ngo, J. Jaishankar, Jose R. Agustina

Criminology Sarasota Manatee Campus Faculty Publications

'Sexting, the portmanteau of Sex and Texting, has become a hot topic of debate between the legislators, researchers, educators, parents and teens' (Jaishankar, 2009, para 1). In spite of the considerable and growing body of literature on sexting, there are significant gaps in the current research. A review of research to date also reveals a dearth of cross-national and cross-cultural research on the topic of sexting. Notably, legal and ethical issues abound with the current method for punishing and deterring adolescents who engage in sexting as some countries view sexting as a form of child pornography. Hence, the imperative need …

Commemorating A Decade In Existence Of The International Journal Of Cyber Criminology: A Research Agenda To Advance The Scholarship On Cyber Crime, Fawn T. Ngo, K. Jaishankar

Criminology Sarasota Manatee Campus Faculty Publications

The International Journal of Cyber Criminology (IJCC) is an interdisciplinary journal published biannually and devoted to the study of cyber crime, cyber criminal behavior, cyber victims, cyber laws and cyber policy. Ten years back in 2007, IJCC was launched by its founder Publisher and Editor-in-Chief K. Jaishankar with its website www.cybercrimejournal.com and with its launch a new sub-academic discipline of Criminology, Cyber Criminology is born. IJCC is an unique Diamond open access international journal, where the authors or the readers need not pay and open to all and it is freely accessible. IJCC is indexed in prestigious databases such as …

Contemporaneous And Lagged Effects Of Life Domains And Substance Use: A Test Of Agnew's General Theory Of Crime And Delinquency, Fawn T. Ngo, Raymond Paternoster

Criminology Sarasota Manatee Campus Faculty Publications

This study presents a partial test of Agnew’s general theory of crime and delinquency. Relying on a sample of adolescents and employing measures of the self, family, school, and peers domains, this study examines the contemporaneous and lagged effects of these four life domains on the likelihood of consuming alcohol and using marijuana. This study also assesses the contemporaneous and lagged effects of the life domain variables on themselves and on one another. Overall, the results lend support for Agnew’s general theory. The results also reveal several notable puzzles and underscore the complexity of this potentially important contemporary theoretical perspective.

Cybercrime Victimization: An Examination Of Individual And Situational Level Factors, Fawn T. Ngo, Raymond Paternoster

Criminology Sarasota Manatee Campus Faculty Publications

Using a sample of college students, we apply the general theory of crime and the lifestyle/routine activities framework to assess the effects of individual and situational factors on seven types of cybercrime victimization. The results indicate that neither individual nor situational characteristics consistently impacted the likelihood of being victimized in cyberspace. Self-control was significantly related to only two of the seven types of cybercrime victimizations and although five of the coefficients in the routine activity models were significant, all but one of these significant effects were in the opposite direction to that expected from the theory. At the very least, …