Digital Commons Network^™

Security Districts In New Orleans, Kara Chin, Emily Siegel

Capstones

We did an investigative study of security districts in New Orleans. For nearly 20 years, neighborhoods in the city’s wealthier sections have voted to impose higher taxes only on themselves for additional security that benefits their own neighborhoods. These added patrols supplement the city’s often-criticized police. Last year, security districts raised nearly $6 million in additional revenue that isn’t shared with the rest of the city. No other major city has implemented a publicly funded law enforcement system that allows voters to funnel tax dollars for additional security that is not shared with the city at large.

State Failure In Venezuela, Marcus Littman

Master's Theses

The role of the state is to provide political goods such as security and an environment conducive to economic growth. The Venezuelan state is failing to provide both security and conditions capable of producing economic growth. The government has exacerbated both by enacting failed policies. I measure the economic crisis in Venezuela based on the rates of inflation, falling foreign currency reserves, the food and medical supply shortage, falling government spending, and negative GDP growth. I measure the security crisis based on the escalating rate of kidnapping, human trafficking, drug sales, smuggling, theft, gun distribution, and homicide. In this thesis, …

Crime And Culture : A Thematic Reading Of Sherlock Holmes And His Adaptations., Britney Broyles

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on the adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes character and stories into the television shows Sherlock and Elementary on air today. The project will consider three central questions: 1) Why is this Victorian detective hero still popular in the twenty-first century and what has remained constant and still resonates with modern audiences? 2) Both television shows transport Holmes in time by setting their narratives in the present day; therefore, what has been changed in this process of adaptation? 3) How do these changes represent shifts in our cultural thinking about important aspects of humanistic inquiry? The …

Policing Postsecondary Education: University Police Legitimacy And Fear Of Crime On Campus, Christina N. Barker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Assessing the perceptions that students have of the university police officers charged with ensuring student safety is important to maintaining the overall safety of the campus. The current study sought to assess the relationship between student perceptions of university police and the fear of crime felt by students while on campus. Data collection was conducted through a survey methodology using a convenient sample of students in which a self-report survey was sent to the university email addresses of all students enrolled in a southeastern university (n=260). Through the employment of a scale developed to assess the perceptions of university police …

Conflict And Cooperation: Western Economic Interests In Ottoman Iraq 1894-1914, Jameel N. Haque

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation investigates underutilized U.S. archival sources in order to discuss certain aspects of late Ottoman history in Baghdad and Basra, between 1894 and 1914. Since these sources have been underutilized, their inclusion will widen the scope of possible historical investigation in the study of Late Ottoman Baghdad and Basra. This research will suggest that, in this period, there was an expanding role/presence for America and Americans that is not currently reflected in the historiography. This should, of course, be qualified since Americans and American interests in the region, although on the increase, were still significantly less than those of …

Can Noncompliant Behavior Explain Racial/Ethnic Disparities In The Use Of Force By The Nypd? An Econometric Analysis Of New York's Stop-And-Frisk, Omari-Khalid Rahman

Theses and Dissertations

This paper seeks to analyze spatiotemporal variations in NYPD policing patterns in an attempt to identify the causal mechanism(s) driving the observed racial/ethnic disparities; specifically, it addresses questions of how changing neighborhood demographics influence the decision-making of NYPD officers/precincts as it relates to their controversial Stop-and-Frisk policy.

Communication Surrounding College Campus Crime: Sexual Assault Influencing Factors, Policies, And Decision-Making Outcomes, Rachel Seymour

Journalism

This study includes research, data, and expert opinions regarding sexual assaults on college campuses, in particular California Polytechnic State University. The information presented in this study includes topics such as sexual assault rates, reports, cultural factors, policies, and prevention strategies.

The Relationship Between Executive Dysfunction And Criminality In Forensic Psychiatric And Correctional Populations, Erin J. Shumlich

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Crime has immense social and economic impact. Understanding and treating the underlying factors of criminal behavior is essential to creating an overall safer society. Deficits in executive functioning — inhibition, cognitive shifting, and working memory — have been implicated as a factor contributing to criminal behavior. Method: Manuscript 1 examines the relationship between executive dysfunction and severity and frequency of criminal behavior of forensic psychiatric patients, individuals who committed crime under the influence of a severe mental disorder. Manuscript 2 compares the executive functioning of two unique criminal populations — forensic psychiatric patients and correctional offenders. Results: Poorer executive functioning …

Baby Cribs In Prison Cells: Assessing Opinions About Prison Nursery Programs By Humanizing Incarcerated Mothers, Erin Ostheimer

Honors Theses

Through my research, I analyzed prison nursery programs in the United States. Prison nurseries are programs that exist in nine states that allow mothers who are pregnant when they are incarcerated to keep their infants with them in prison for a finite amount of time. Previous scholarship on the topic has shown that prison nurseries are effective in reducing rates of recidivism and fostering a bond between mother and infant. My research explored the question of why these programs are so rare given their success. I assessed Union College student and professor attitudes about maternal incarceration to better understand how …

Sensationalism In Newspapers: A Look At The Reporter And Amandala In Belize 2010 – 2014, Deseree L.P. Cain-Arzu

Theses

Belize has been named among the list of 10 most violent countries in the world. The news media in Belize have been known to use crime stories as headlines in both electronic and print, but there has never been a formal study to determine how prevalent and sensational. This research seeks to address the question of whether two of Belize’s most-read newspapers, the Reporter and the Amandala, have more sensational stories in their headlines, and how these stories compare to government and other human interest news. A sample of 120 front-page headlines/stories spanning a five-year period – from January 2010 …

Fear Of Crime And It’S Effect Upon Opinions Of The Police Related To Police Professionalism And Police Efficiency: A Secondary Data Analysis, Brittany Bourne

Criminal Justice

Understanding what effects opinions of the police is vital to police officers and departments as it has been found that police are more likely to reach their goals if they have support, cooperation and trust from the citizens within the areas they work. That said, this secondary data analysis investigates whether or not fear of crime has an effect on an individual’s opinion of the police related to aspects of police professionalism and police efficiency. Initial results have shown that the higher an individual’s fear of crime is, the more likely they are to view police professionalism and efficiency more …

Gis And Location-Based Crime Risk Analysis: Summer Internship With Location, Inc., Zhilan Deng

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

My internship with Location, Inc. took place from May 20th, 2015 to August 24th, 2015. I worked with one direct supervisor, Jonathan Glick, as well as the CEO of Location, Inc. Andrew Schiller. I have four main responsibilities during the summer: 1) collecting U.S. crime point data, 2) geocoding and processing crime point data; 3) collecting and processing Canada Crime statistics and demographic data; 4) updating school performance data and U. S. crime statistics. This report includes the introduction of Location, Inc., where I did my internship, the details of my responsibilities in Location, Inc., and my assessment to Location, …

War On Drugs: Examining The Effects On Social Disorganization And Crime In Cities, Ruben Ortiz

Master’s Theses and Projects

The work of Shaw and Mckay (1942) paved the way for researchers to study inner-city crime by focusing on the environment and its effects on residents. Social disorganization, characterized by weakened institutions led researchers to analyze and predict patterns of crime in urban areas. Researchers argue that social disorganization theory arguments developed from this approach, but lost appeal among researchers due to limited empirical tests. The theory experienced a renewed interest in the 1980s, as structural factors (e.g. poverty, heterogeneity, residential mobility, racial inequality, and family disruption) were considered, all of which allowed researchers to study patterns of crime in …

Determinants Of Local Police Protection Expenditures: A Panel Study Of Large City Governments, Zachary A. Carter

Culminating Projects in Economics

Since the 1980’s, justice system expenditures in the United States have increased nearly 300%, adjusting for inflation. And though rates of violent and property crimes have decreased by close to 50% since the 1990’s, total arrests have fallen by only 20% in the same period. The relationship between crime and police expenditures has yet to be answered to a definitive degree. This paper attempts to identify the social and economic factors that drive the changes in per-capita police spending of 140 large city governments in the United States, for the eight year period of 2005 to 2012. A fixed-effects panel …

Essays On The Economics Of Rental Housing And Crime, Larhonda Renee Ealey

Dissertations - ALL

Essays on the Economics of Rental Housing and Crime

My dissertation consists of three chapters in the area of applied microeconomics. The first chapter exploits the mass evacuation of thousands of New Orleans residents to numerous counties throughout the South in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to identify the impact of migration on rents and estimate supply elasticities in local rental housing markets. The second chapter follows with an investigation of the impact that the evacuations on crime in the destination counties. The analyses in the first two chapters are conducted using data from American Community Survey and the Federal …

Does Crime Correlate With Fear?: Analyzing The Spatial Relationship Between Perceptions Of Safety And Crime Using Sketch Maps And Geographic Information Systems (Gis) In The Main South Neighborhood Of Worcester, Ma, Marina Khananayev

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

The relationship between reported crime and residential perceptions of safety is understudied and inconclusive due to its highly complicated nature. This study seeks to narrow this gap by using sketch maps collected from residents about their safety and crime data. Two methods, one visual, the other statistical (Bivariate LISA), were tested using data from sketch maps drawn by about 95 survey respondents and crime data spanning three years (2011-2014). Data was disaggregated by gender, age, and length of residency. Visual analysis of results show that perceptions of safety occur at a fine scale. Respondents marked sketch maps at varying scales …

Remains To Be Seen: Execution And Embodiment In The Early English Atlantic World, Erin M. Feichtinger

Dissertations

This dissertation explores the development of capitalism in the early English Atlantic World (1580 - 1752) and the manipulation of the legal system to criminalize the laboring body in order to more fully exploit the productive output of labor.

The Relationship Between Increased Police Patrols And Violent Crime Rates In Seven United States Cities, Victor Sylvester Kabia

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Large, metropolitan areas across the nation have experienced high rates of violent crime over the past 2 decades. As a consequence, law enforcement agencies have increased patrol efforts, but little is known about whether the decrease in violent crime rates was correlated to increased police patrols or to the economic variables of unemployment, inflation, level of education, unemployment compensation, and homeownership. The purpose of this non-experimental, correlational study was to examine the nature of the relationship between increased police patrols, the 5 economic variables, and violent crime rates in 7 large US cities for a 10-year period. The theoretical framework …

Fear No Evil: Making Sense Of Intersectionality And Fear Of Crime Amongst Blacks In High Crime Neighborhoods, Melinda Jackson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The extant literature on fear of crime has relied almost entirely upon quantitative data and was criticized as atheoretical due to its focus on the demographic characteristics associated with vulnerability. Emerging qualitative research on fear of crime has begun to overcome this limitation by drawing upon an intersectional lens, but quantitative assessments have yet to fully incorporate this theoretical development. The current study addresses this limitation by analyzing qualitative data collected through semi-structured interviews and quantitative data collected as part of a large-scale survey. The primary goal of this dissertation is to take an intersectional approach to understand the relationships …

Análisis De Los Determinantes De La Victimización En Las Principales Ciudades De Colombia Durante El Periodo 2012 – 2015, Jhonatan Harley Suárez González, Ismael Martínez León

Economía

La criminalidad en Colombia ha experimentado un crecimiento importante en los últimos años, generando una pérdida de bienestar y de calidad de vida en la población. Es por ello que se debe realizar un análisis económico para determinar los factores que influyen para que una persona sea víctima de un delito en cualquiera de las principales ciudades del país.En el siguiente trabajo de grado se presenta un recuento histórico de la criminalidad en Colombia. Posteriormente con base en información recolectada por el DANE se presentan cifras de delitos cometidos referentes a hurto a personas, hurto a vehículos y hurto a …

Examining The Strain-Crime Relationship Among African American Women: An Empirical Test Of Agnew's General Strain Theory, Nathan Lowe

Theses and Dissertations--Sociology

Agnew’s (1992; 2006) general strain theory (GST) has become one of the foremost theories to explain crime in contemporary criminology. While it has undergone several empirical tests over the years, there remain many understudied aspects of the theory. The current study addresses some of these aspects by longitudinally exploring the relationship between multiple types of strain and drug and non-drug crime among a sample of African American women.

Data for this study were collected as part of a larger study on how drug use and criminality are related to health disparities, particularly HIV, and service utilization among African American drug-using …

Paper Me, Matthew David Whitehurst

All ETDs from UAB

Paper Me is an autobiographical collage. It contains memoir essays, personal essays and comedic essays. Dark humor and sarcasm are the vehicle for the narrative voice throughout the collage. The narrative is arranged in a pseudo-chronological order, and traces a line through dotted memories: from the first memory as a child in pre-school, to the death of a friend after college. Addiction, Paternal Relationships, Politics, Absurdity/Humor, Poverty, Sociology and Philosophy are recurring themes in this collection. This is the author’s attempt to concretize a world view, as informed by personal experience, and to impart that experiential knowledge on the larger …

Crime In The Nfl: Does An Arrest History Lead To Better Performance?, Austin D. Crist

CMC Senior Theses

Teams in the National Football League will do whatever it takes to win football games, even if that means having players with a criminal arrest history on their roster. However, does being arrested result in improved performance? Do NFL players with an arrest history perform better than those without one? I examine the effect a criminal arrest record has on player performance in the NFL from 2000-2014, using the top 30 ranked players within each position group. The position I chose to analyze were: Quarterbacks, Running Backs, Wide Receivers, Defensive Linemen, Linebackers, and Defensive Backs. My findings show that having …

The Use Of Minors In Material Support Of Terrorist Organizations, Teresa Maria Feliciano

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Adult criminals' use of minors to commit crimes associated with the support of terrorist organizations is a significant problem in the United States. Despite strict laws prohibiting adult offenders from exploiting youth, these individuals aggressively pursue minors to commit crimes associated with the support of terrorist organizations. This quasi-experimental, cross-sectional study used resource dependency theory to explore the likelihood that adult criminal offenders in the U.S. will use minors for crimes that are associated with the support of terrorist organizations, based on crime typology, country of origin, and location of crime. Data were collected from a crime database maintained by …

No Crime By Design? Crime Deterrence And Urban Design Reform In The Usa After World War Ii, Cason Leafe Hall

Senior Projects Spring 2016

This project connects three important periods in the development of design against crime in public housing, all building on one another and connected in their own ways. Tracing the discourse from the earliest approaches of policy-making following the Great Depression in the 1940s, development of the architecturally based Defensible Space theory in the 1970s, and finally the change in policing protocols called for Broken Windows theory in the 1990s, this project demonstrates that crime and public housing are inexorably linked, though are often times not viewed in conjunction with one another.

"You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive": Using Fx's Justified To Form A Cultural Understanding Of Crime In Harlan County, Kentucky, Morgan Stone

Online Theses and Dissertations

Rural southern violence has long been a sensationalized issue. From the Hatfield and McCoy feud to Deliverance, social issues unique to the rural south have received a significant amount of focus within modern popular culture. One of the most recent and popular examples of southern culture and violence is the television network FX’s Justified, set in Harlan County, Kentucky. The storyline follows US Marshal Raylan Givens as he is sent back to Kentucky after a misstep during his tenure in Miami. After arriving in his home state, he finds himself constantly drawn back to his hometown of Harlan, Kentucky, whether …

Essays On The Externalities Of The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act Of India, Satadru Das

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation, I offer two distinct studies on the welfare externalities of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) of India. The MGNREGA is an employment guarantee scheme implemented in rural India since 2006 and is the world’s largest public works project. In the first study, I look at the effects of the MGNREGA on crime in India. I use crime statistics from National Crime Records Bureau of India to create a district level panel between 2002 and 2012 to estimate the effects of the program on various violent and property crimes. I also create a district …