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Living A Nightmare: A Study On The Reluctance Of Native American Women To Report Violent Crimes To Police, Misty Marie Neal

Theses and Dissertations

To address this problem, this study will explore, if at all, the differences and relationships between Native American women’s reluctance to report a violent crime to the police with their perception of police, previous interactions with police, prior victimization, tribal affiliation, and specific demographic factors. The population for this research will be Native American women from federally recognized tribes between 18 and 55 years of age. In addition, the participant's marital status, sexual affiliation, religion, level of education, and geographic location will be examined. From this population, a sample size of 500 - 600 participants will be constructed for this …

Exploring The Influence Of School Location On School Resource Officers’ Perceptions Of Their Roles And Priorities, Larry A. Potts

Theses and Dissertations

Despite the widespread presence of school resource officers (SROs) in public schools for decades, their proper roles and priorities have remained unsettled because those roles are often varied, complex, conflicting, and ambiguous. The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand how SROs perceive their roles and priorities and whether school location influences those perceptions. Qualitative research methods provided opportunities for one-to-one interviews with SROs and their supervisors. Two elements embedded in the design consisted of a descriptive questionnaire provided to the SROs before their interviews, and a qualitative interview question designed to elicit a percentage estimate response from SROs. …

Blue Lives Matter: Public Perception In Texas, Nohely Karyme Lozano

Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, Blue Lives Matter, a pro-policing movement, was established across the United States. The movement sheds light on the attacks and killings of police officers while on the line of duty. Also, it raises awareness of the dangers and risks law enforcement agents face while on duty and off duty. Throughout the years, the movement has gained many supporters across the nation. However, it has been controversial, and many considered it as a countermovement to Black Lives Matter. To bridge the gap in the literature, the researcher investigated the perception of Texans towards the movement. Moreover, the research …

Depolicing: An Empirical Analysis, Jacob Terrell Foster

Theses and Dissertations

Depolicing occurs when law enforcement officers disengage from proactive police work. In recent years, the term depolicing has become more popular with many seeing the phenomenon as negative. Prior literature has identified various predictors of such behavior. The current inquiry uses secondary data from a survey to further examine the predictors of depolicing. Respondents consisted of police officers from four different U.S law enforcement agencies. Results indicate that officers who experience higher levels of both public scrutiny and liability concerns are more inclined to depolice. Also, results indicate that experiencing higher levels of both public scrutiny and liability concerns are …

Job Stress Effects On Job Satisfaction And Attrition In 9-1-1 Call Centers, Damarys Jaile Gilligan

Theses and Dissertations

In 9-1-1 call centers across the nation the personnel shortage has become a crisis. The nature of the job of a 9-1-1 telecommunicator is stressful due to the high volume of emergency calls. This applied dissertation was designed to learn if there is a relationship between job stress, burnout levels, and job satisfaction in 9-1-1 telecommunicators. This was a nonexperimental quantitative survey research with a correlational approach. The population was a nonprobability convenience sample recruited through the Survey Monkey Audience platform. Data was collected at one point in time. A total of 37 participants took part in the study. All …

Should States Adopt Overdose Immunity Laws?, Jordan Norton

Theses and Dissertations

From 2014-2015, the CDC saw a 72.2% increase in death rates related to synthetic opioids other than methadone, and a 20.6% increase in heroin related death rates. States have looked to one another for policy examples that would bring these numbers down. One of the earliest of these policies came out of 2001 in New Mexico with the first Naloxone Access Laws (NALs) followed by Drug Overdose Immunity Laws (DOILs) in 2007. These laws sought to remove barriers to people administering Naloxone and calling emergency responders due to overdoses, granting immunity to callers and overdose sufferers. This study looked at …

Walking The Tightrope: A Qualitative Study Of Women In Law Enforcement Navigating Their Work-Life Challenges, Yanira E. Resendez

Theses and Dissertations

This study aims to explore the work-life challenges that women face in male-dominated professions, specifically in the criminal justice system. The purpose of this study is to analyze the work-life challenges women face while working in the criminal justice system, a traditionally male-dominated field. Amidst the myriad of challenges, women bring a unique face to policing and other professions within law enforcement and legal professions; understanding women’s work experiences and how they articulate and implement strategies to manage the varying challenges is critical in evaluating women’s position within the law enforcement culture and the pulse of the legal profession. Employing …

The Deaf & Law Enforcement Listening Though Deaf Eyes: A Grounded Theory Approach, John L. Garner

Theses and Dissertations

This paper examines the perceived and practical schism between deaf society and the police when the deaf attempt to obtain police services. The paper challenges current police culture and operating procedures, which tend to marginalize deaf society and largely ignore the mandates contained in the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This qualitative research project is focused upon perceived law enforcement practices and culture through a multi-layered study of police customs, law, policy, and standard operating procedures as experienced, perceived, and reported by deaf individuals.

A constructivist grounded theory approach was used to examine the way law enforcement is perceived by …

Confidence In Law Enforcement When African-Americans Are Underrepresented On The Force: An Exploratory Study, Charles E. Maclean

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the prediction that when African-Americans are underrepresented among sworn officers in a community’s local law enforcement agencies compared to the African-American proportions in that community’s overall population, African-American civilians’ confidence in their local law enforcement agencies may suffer, leading to impaired respect for law, reduced civilian cooperation with law enforcement, and civilian impressions of weakened procedural justice and fairness. With low civilian confidence, the argument goes, one could expect an enhanced sense of disenfranchisement among the underrepresented sub-populations.

The purpose of this study is to consider the impact of underrepresentation of African-Americans among sworn officers serving a …

Increasing Awareness Of Autism Spectrum Disorders In Law Enforcement In Hispanic Communities, Annette M. Cano

Theses and Dissertations

The aim of the present study was to study autism awareness amongst law enforcement officers (LEO) and first responders (FR) serving the Rio Grande Valley (RGV). A 17-question survey was conducted to collect demographic data, knowledge, and level of training that officers and responders have when serving individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

Job Satisfaction, Organizational Stress And Use Of Force Attitudes Among Patrol Officers In North Carolina, Zachary James Lechette

Theses and Dissertations

This applied dissertation was designed to examine whether relationships existed between self-reported job satisfaction, organizational police stress and attitudes toward the use of force among urban non-supervisory local law enforcement patrol officers in North Carolina. A quantitative study of patrol officers (N = 137) from across North Carolina was conducted over a one-month period in the summer of 2018.

The researcher administered a combined survey instrument measuring job satisfaction, organizational police stress and use of force attitudes to local law enforcement patrol officers in North Carolina. The researcher administered the survey to participants at six different local law enforcement agencies …

Does A Criminal Justice Degree Produce Law Enforcement Officers?, Bryan Keith Murray

Theses and Dissertations

Police departments are being asked to diversify their ranks in a job field dominated by White males. Hispanics are predicted to be the majority-minority by 2043, few studies were conducted to explore whether Hispanic students majoring in criminal justice will pursue a career in law enforcement agencies upon graduation. Therefore, it is necessary and important to investigate the willingness of Hispanic students perusing a career in law enforcement agencies and what kind of factors behind this pursuit. This research anonymously surveyed 203 students currently enrolled in a four-year Hispanic university. Gender and the liberalizing effect served as the independent variables. …

Predictors Of Attitudes Towards Law Enforcement Among Hispanics Living In The U.S.-Mexico Border Region, Ivan Avila

Theses and Dissertations

Previous research has shown that minorities hold negative attitudes towards members of law enforcement. Contact with law enforcement has been shown as a major predictor of attitudes towards law enforcement among minorities. Research on this subject has primarily focused on Blacks’ attitudes towards police. Hispanics have been the focus of only a small amount of research on police contact and attitudes towards law enforcement. This study examined contact and attitudes towards several law enforcement entities: local police, state troopers, and border patrol agents. The current study took place along the U.S.-Mexico border, an area with a high population of Hispanics, …

Effect Of Negotiator Active Listening Skills On Crisis (Hostage) Negotiations, Karen Guszkowski

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of active listening skills on perpetrator response style in crisis negotiations. The extant literature boasts the utility of negotiations in crisis situations for law enforcement that came about in response to cataclysmic events such as the Attica Prison Riots (1971), Munich Massacre (1972), and the Williamsburg incident (1973). Various crisis negotiation models assert the importance of active listening skills in crisis negotiations; given the recent and voluminous media attention on police, this research aimed to provide further support for a cultural shift in police departments around the country to provide …

Process Evaluation Of The Basic Training Program At A State Corrections Academy In The Southeast, Wendy Dawn Williams

Theses and Dissertations

This applied dissertation was designed to provide law enforcement and corrections administrators with current information about the components of basic training that can affect the retention of newly employed trainees during basic training. Attracting qualified applicants for law-enforcement jobs is a challenging task, and the preemployment screening and hiring processes are very expensive for agencies already plagued with reduced budgets. By the time a trainee actually makes it to basic training, a great deal of time and money has already been invested by the agency, and the trainee becomes an investment. When more than 20% of trainees exit a basic …

An Assessment Of Campus Police Departments Across Mississippi's Public Community And Junior Colleges, Brad D. Boggs

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to provide an assessment of campus police departments throughout the 15 public community and junior colleges in Mississippi. This research could provide Mississippi community and junior college administrators the opportunity to observe and appraise the overall safety of their respective campuses in comparison to safety practices of the other campus police departments in the state. This study will lay the foundation for further research of campus police departments and can assist administrators and boards of trustees of Mississippi’s public community and junior colleges with annual and long-range planning efforts. This study included campus police/security …

Measuring Community Consensus In Facial Characterization Using Spatial Databases And Fuzzy Logic, James Lee Mastros

Theses and Dissertations

Spatial databases store geometric objects and capture spatial relationships that can be used to represent key features of the human face. One can search spatial databases for these objects, and seek the relationships between them, using fuzzy logic to provide a natural way to describe the human face for the purposes of facial characterization. This study focuses on community perception of short, average, or long nose length. Three algorithms were used to update community opinion of nose length. All three methods showed similar trends in nose length classification which could indicate that the effort to extract spatial data from images …