Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Race, Severe Mental Illness, And Crime: An Intersectional Look Into Stigma And Policy Implications, Elena Therese Vaudreuil

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Criminal behavior has been a long-discussed topic in the United States and often is tied to characteristics such as race and mental illness. The presumed connection between criminal behavior and being a member of a racial minority group or having a mental illness have been researched for years, however few researchers have sought to take an intersectional approach to investigate the unique experiences of people belonging to both groups in the criminal legal system. Using the lenses of attribution and intersectionality theories, the proposed studies sought to understand the effect of race that influences policy support of justice-involved people with …

Exploring The Factors That Influence Female Offending In The U.S. And Mexico, Dana Villasenor

CMC Senior Theses

Hollywood has painted a picture of the criminal woman as a sexy, sneaky, and often psychotic female fatale. This is because men run Hollywood. Much like movies, research on why women offend had historically focused on men as their stellar. However, towards the turn of the century and with the disproportionate rise in female incarceration, literature caught up to the fact that women and men do not experience the same socialization, standards, or reality and, therefore, have different reasons for and ways of offending. This research explores those reasons for women in the U.S. and Mexico and paints the picture …

Restrictive Pursuit Policies And Rising Violent Crime, Ryan Kelly

Master of Arts in Criminal Justice Leadership

Consequences can be a driving factor for why citizens follow laws in the United States. Financial and physical freedom is valued. Citizen’s behavior may change if police officers threaten to take these things away for breaking laws. Policymakers today are working to restrict when law enforcement officers can chase criminals for breaking the law. Suppose the ability of law enforcement to hold criminals accountable is restricted. Would this not lead a reasonable person to believe that criminals may think they are free to commit crimes? This paper will cover current trends in violent crime in both the United States and …

Community Supervision: Perspectives Of Probation And Parole Officers And Supervisors On Key Supervision Approaches And Policy Changes, Asianna Nelson

Dissertations and Theses

This study explores the differences across community supervision approaches in Oregon and how the implementation of state policies has influenced this field. Therefore, this study seeks to answer the following research questions: 1) How do POs and supervisors define their approach to community supervision? 2) How have POs and supervisors experienced shifts in state policy? Fourteen line staff and supervisors from seven Oregon probation and parole agencies were interviewed to answer these research questions. The findings suggest that most agencies are using evidence-based practices and implementing state policies. However, variation exists across the represented agencies in the experiences and perceptions …

Policies On The Victimization Of Enumerated Students Across The Geographic South, Matthew D. Kreutz

Honors College Theses

A high-quality school district anti-bullying policy is not enough to reduce bullying and safeguard bullying-involved individuals. When bullying policies do not successfully attain targeted results, it is difficult to know if they were implemented as planned. Victims of bullying often suffer long-term psychological problems, including loneliness, diminishing self-esteem, psychosomatic complaints, and depression. This thesis will cover theoretical evaluations and content analysis of bullying policies and their enactment at the district and state levels in the geographic South.

An Updated Look At Mental Health Services In American Public And Private Prisons, Lieren E. Tyira

Student Theses

People residing in American prisons have the legal right to mental health care while incarcerated (Justia, 2021). This is important, as the prevalence of mental disorders is high in this population (Prins, 2014), and incarceration is a psychologically damaging experience, which hinders a person’s success at rehabilitation. Numerous of issues related to the mental health services (MHSs) in both public and private prison facilities have been reported in recent years, which warrants systematic exploration. The little existing research comparing the presence of MHSs in these facilities has produced mixed results, it uses out-of-date datasets, and none has explored MHSs in …

Sacrificing Liberty For Security, Samuel Whatley Ii

Helm's School of Government Conference - American Revival: Citizenship & Virtue

This paper attempts to address ongoing problems associated with the U.S. justice system as it relates to collaboration with state and local agencies. Also, some focus areas will include management, policy, and evidence-based programs that are needing to be addressed.

Is A Rainbow Pink Or Blue? Creating Jail Policies For Transgender Inmates, Hunter Schultz

Master of Arts in Criminal Justice Leadership

The United States prison system functions on a binary of male and female inmates. Transgender, non-binary, gender non-conforming, and intersex individuals challenge the limits of these systems and their policies. This paper addresses how to create policy for transgender individuals and what the policies should include. The best practice for creating policies involves basing them in solid ethics. Looking at different ethical theories will help solve ethical dilemmas involving housing, searching, and other policies for transgender and gender non-conforming inmates. To ensure that policies coincide with the law, an examination of case law provides the legal background for these policies. …

Amsterdam Coffeeshops, Victimization, And Police Mobilization, Kim Moeller, Scott Jacques

CJC Publications

Police mobilization is a first step in the judicial process and an important source of information on offending. Whether victims mobilize police is affected by their assessment of its utility. Victims who are criminals, such as drug dealers, are known to face a different cost-benefit scenario than law-abiding persons. Dutch ‘coffeeshops’ are a unique type of dealer. They operate in a grey area, allowed by the government to sell a prohibited drug, cannabis, so long as they comply with a set of regulations. Little is known about their mobilization of police in response to victimization, including how it is affected …

The Effect Upon State Crime Rates Of The Legalization Of Recreational Marijuana In California, Robert Boxerman

Theses

This work examines criminal effects of the legalization of recreational marijuana in the state of California in 2016. While multiple states have legalized marijuana for recreational purposes, there is little empirical evidence to determine the criminal effect, if any, of introducing marijuana products into the legal market. The research analyzes crime rates pre and post legalization. Crime rates from the years 1990-2018 are taken from the California Attorney General Office “Crime in California” annual report, and consist of FBI Part I offenses: murder and non-negligent homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, motor vehicle theft, larceny-theft, and arson. Misdemeanor drug arrests, …

Public-School Systems Are Criminalizing Our Young People: Giving Voice To The Marganilized, Carrie Stoltzfus

Graduate Theses & Dissertations

A phenomenological qualitative study using Critical Race Theory and counter-storytelling was completed to investigate what K-12 public schools should be doing to keep young people out of the school-to-prison pipeline (STPP). This study took place in a large city in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. Interviews were completed with former students of the researcher who were previously incarcerated, educational professionals, and justice system professionals. Additionally, observations of the court systems and document reviews were completed in order to triangulate findings. Themes emerged around factors that lead to incarceration and the preferred practices to support young people to avoid …

Awareness And Perception Of Cybercrimes And Cybercriminals, Hannarae Lee, Hyeyoung Lim

International Journal of Cybersecurity Intelligence & Cybercrime

Awareness is a starting point to recognize, understand, or know a situation or fact, and the perception makes a difference in how to deal with it. Although the term cybercrime may not be new to the most public and the police, not all of them are well aware of the nature and extent of cybercrimes, cybercriminals, and cyber-victims, which in turn affects their perceptions of matters. The four papers in this issue of the International Journal of Cybersecurity Intelligence and Cybercrime empirically examine these important topics and discuss policy implications.

A Multiple Case-Study Approach To Examine Police Officers Perceptions On Narcan® Policies, Casey Gnann

Theses and Dissertations

In October 2017, President Trump officially declared the opioid epidemic to be a public health emergency. Reports from the CDC indicate that over 140 Americans die per day as a result of an opioid overdose (NPR, 2017). This statistic alone highlights the tragic effects of the current opioid climate. To date, an abundance of research has been conducted on opioid addicts, family members, doctors approach to addiction, etc. However, there is a gap in the research regarding law enforcement officers and their ever-changing role in the fight against opioids. As the opioid epidemic has continued to worsen, many law enforcement …

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 …

Intelligence-Led Policing: Linking Local And State Policies To Establish A Comdefinition, Chad B. Prosser

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research project studied agencies within local and state levels through their official policies in order to establish a comdefinition of ILP while establishing themes that link the predominate policing methodologies together. A definition could not be generated based on the data analyzed. Despite this, three themes emerged that link ILP agencies to agencies that implement other policing philosophies: Intelligence, Community, and Analysis. The majority of agencies do not implement ILP; however, almost all of the agencies within the sample frame of this study acknowledge or implement certain portions of the ILP methodology making it a flexible alternative to implement …

National Strategy Against Narcotics, Drug Control Policy, And Law Enforcement Experiences In Kosovo, Ferid Azemi

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This research is focused on evaluation of National Strategy Against Narcotics (NSAN) enacted in 2012 in Kosovo. The purpose of this study was to understand the impact of NSAN through visualizing data and gaining deeper insight from experiences of antidrug experts. Convergent parallel mixed methods were used to answer the main research questions. The central research questions examined the impact of strategy implementation in juvenile drug arrest reduction, and its effectiveness on Kosovo criminal justice system. Markwood's comprehensive theory of substance abuse prevention (CTSAP) was used to assess and explore the NSAN. Deidentified juvenile arrest rates taken from Kosovo official …

Bentham, Not Epicurus: The Relevance Of Pleasure To Studies Of Drug-Involved Pain, Scott Jacques

CJC Publications

There is a disproportionate focus on pain over pleasure in policy-relevant research on drugs. This is unfortunate because theories of and findings on drug-involved pleasure can be used to inform knowledge of drug-involved pain. The cross-fertilization of theories and findings is bolstered by the availability of a conceptual framework that links drug-involved pain and pleasure in a comprehensive, powerful, simple, and instrumental manner. This article proposes such a framework. It consists of four types of drug-involved pain and pleasure: drug-specific corporal; drug-related corporal; economic; and, social. This quaternary scheme is illustrated with findings from four literatures, namely those on methamphetamine …

The Use Of Public Consultation To Construct Sex Work Related Policies, Ryan Horan

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The present study is a qualitative analysis of the Online Public Consultation of Prostitution -Related Offences (OPCPRO), conducted by the Canadian Department of Justice in 2014. This research describes themes that arose within the discourses of respondents to the OPCPRO, and offers a critical examination of the use of online consultations in the production of public policy. I argue that respondents to the OPCPRO, regardless of their support or opposition for criminalization of sex work, strategically draw on values echoed within the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to frame their policy propositions as consistent with sex workers individual rights. I …

A Content Analysis Of Section 1983 Litigation Against Reserve Police Officers, Michael Ryan Broadus

Master's Theses

Police studies have well developed a demonstrative framework for detailing risks which generate financially-detrimental civil litigation – particularly regarding 42 U.S.C. §1983. Conversely, though, police studies have given little attention to the often-used but differentially-trained reserve police officer. Primarily replicating the methodologies of Kappeler, Kappeler, and del Carmen (1993) and Ross (2000), this descriptive study sought to fill this void via a manifest content approach to purposively select a sample of Section 1983 cases decided by U.S. District Courts over a 16-year period (2001-2016) to determine: (1) if significant liability was generated by reserve officers, (2) the main basis for …

The Effectiveness Of Treatment As Policy For Sex Offenders, Brooke Mayfield

Dissertations

The public’s perception of individuals who commit sexual offenses is much different than for other types of offenders. This can be seen in the passing of legislation targeting interventions specific to this population as a way to protect the public and reduce recidivism. In some states, sex offenders are required to participate in treatment as a condition for early release from prison. The impact of this policy is not well understood, and mandatory treatment is growing in popularity. This dissertation explores the impact of mandatory treatment for individuals incarcerated for sexual offenses on their recidivism over time. Missouri statute establishes …

The Prison Paradox: More Incarceration Will Not Make Us Safer, Don Stemen

Criminal Justice & Criminology: Faculty Publications & Other Works

No abstract provided.

Inextricably Bound: Strip Clubs, Prostitution, And Sex Trafficking, Dan O'Bryant

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

No abstract provided.

Law Enforcement Fitness Policies In Relation To Job Injuries And Absenteeism, Marlana Lynn Hancock

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

After employment, job-related fitness requirements vary for law enforcement agencies within North Carolina. Police academies mandate specific job-related fitness requirements for recruits as a condition of graduation. Once employed, little is known about why some law enforcement agencies in North Carolina have physical fitness policies and others do not, particularly when injury rates and healthcare costs continue to rise. To better understand this inconsistency, the current study used a mixed methods approach to examine 6 midsized law enforcement agencies in North Carolina with varying fitness policies. The policy of each agency, along with OSHA work-related injuries and absenteeism reports, were …

Effective Social Media Use By Law Enforcement Agencies: A Case Study Approach To Quantifying And Improving Efficacy And Developing Agency Best Practices, David T. Snively

Master of Public Administration Practicums

In the wake of protests against law enforcement for an array of reasons, law enforcement officers and agencies have a responsibility to recognize and utilize the available mediums of communication with which they may best develop a connection to the communities they serve. Furthermore, law enforcement agencies must be informed that established, traditional methods of news dissemination – such as press conferences and printed articles – are now both ineffective and under-utilized, replaced in large part by social media live-time reports. For that reason, law enforcement agency executives must address both the responsibility to provide appropriately timed updates to critical …

A Content Analysis Of Social Media Policies Of Police Departments And Sheriffs' Offices In The State Of Idaho: Congruency To The Model Policy, Kourtnie R. Rodgers

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The use of social media as a medium of communication has increased significantly over the past decade, and as such, there is huge potential for reaching a large audience with any information one wishes-positive or negative. Law enforcement is no exception to the social media craze. Agencies across the country have begun to use social media in their departments for public relations activities, and investigations, among other goals. The rapid growth and adoption of social media brings with it the potential for important precautionary steps to be overlooked. Due to this rapid shift in online communication and ever-increasing popularity of …

Exploring The Experiences Of Individuals Incarcerated For The Crime Of Arson, Joshua W. Polk

Honors Theses

Arson is a major crime in the United States. Despite this, there is a major gap in the existing literature regarding the reason why some individuals commit arson. There are currently no preventative policies that address the root of the problem: the arsonists themselves. The purpose of this project is to help fill the existing gap in literature and lay the foundation for future research on this topic. The participants for this study were obtained from a single prison. This study was conducted using a mixed qualitative methodology: correspondence and interviews with individuals convicted of arson. Using this qualitative method, …

Recording Of Custodial Interrogations: Policies And Practices, Laura Rubino

Wayne State University Theses

Within the last century, interrogation practices throughout the United States have notably changed. Police interrogations went from physical harm (i.e., the third degree) to psychologically suggestive techniques. These psychologically coercive techniques put suspects at risk of giving a false confession, which is one of the contributing factors in wrongful convictions. One remedy to reduce false confessions is to electronically record interrogations. Very little is known about the specific policies and practices of electronic recordings during interrogation within law enforcement agencies. Policies and practices vary by state and by agency, which makes it difficult to identify agencies that do electronically record …

Technology Distractions On Patrol: Giving Police Officers A Voice, Andrew David Dasher

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Distraction while using mobile technology devices such as a cell phone or tablet computer is a common occurrence within the civilian population of the United States. U.S. police officers are increasingly utilizing these types of devices within the patrol environment. However, little is known as to how distraction affects police officers while they interact with these devices in the course of their daily duties. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how officers process potential officer safety issues on patrol, while interacting with mobile technology, by questioning participants' perception of distraction. This was accomplished through a phenomenological paradigm …

The Greening Of Canadian Cyber Laws: What Environmental Law Can Teach And Cyber Law Can Learn, Sara Smyth

Sara Smyth

This article examines whether Canadian environmental law and policy could serve as a model for cyber crime regulation. A wide variety of offences are now committed through digital technologies, including thievery, identity theft, fraud, the misdirection of communications, intellectual property theft, espionage, system disruption, the destruction of data, money laundering, hacktivism, and terrorism, among others. The focus of this Article is on the problem of data security breaches, which target businesses and consumers. Following the Introduction, Part I provides an overview of the parallels that can be drawn between threats in the natural environment and on the Internet. Both disciplines …

Pushing For New Perspectives: Policy Model Of Criminalized Prostitution And Its Effect On Victims Of Sex Trafficking, Melanie C. Basil

Global Honors Theses

Sex trafficking has become one of the world’s fastest growing crimes, affecting nearly every single country on our globe, and is inevitably linked to prostitution. Although prostitution has been criminalized in the United States for decades, recent literature has shown that this type of prostitution has little effect on aiding the overall sweeping and devastating effects of sex trafficking on its victim’s. The current research therefore uses interviews from experts and individuals with experience in prostitution and sex trafficking to understand—from the eyes of those with actual experience—the realistic role that criminalized prostitution plays in the lives of sex trafficking …