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Articles 1 - 13 of 13

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Education & Crime: A Study In Student Perceptions Of Culpability, Larry Curtis Long Dec 2011

Education & Crime: A Study In Student Perceptions Of Culpability, Larry Curtis Long

Masters Theses

Criminological research has long been concerned with how stereotypes of offender race and gender affect perceived culpability and policy formation. Using data collected from a college student population that were administered six vignettes written in the form of police blotters that depicted different crimes being committed by offenders with differing educational characteristics, this study seeks to identify whether or not an offender’s educational characteristics affect their perceived culpability. Although the data indicates that offender’s are seen as culpable regardless of their educational characteristics, it is evident that some degree or sociopathy is assessed to offender’s that are seen as educated …


Psicopatologia E Poder. Uma Lição De "Mentes Perigosas", Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha Oct 2011

Psicopatologia E Poder. Uma Lição De "Mentes Perigosas", Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

Por vezes, incomoda-se até ao insuportável o cidadão, ou o trabalhador, ou o morador comum, com as atitudes de um político, de um patrão ou de um capataz, ou mesmo de um colega, de um autarca, enfim, de uma autoridade ou de um agente da autoridade. Primeiro, são comportamentos suaves e calculistas antes de obter o poder e, uma vez com ele, passam a ver-se práticas autoritariamente aberrantes, despóticas, e até criminosas. Analisamos muitas vezes essas práticas como "mau feitio", "má disposição", e, se formos magnânimos, como o preço da eficiência. Mas em que medida o "mau carácter" não é …


The Sex Ratio Tipping Point: An Exploration Of Crime During Frontier America, Steven Matthew Stearmer Aug 2011

The Sex Ratio Tipping Point: An Exploration Of Crime During Frontier America, Steven Matthew Stearmer

Theses and Dissertations

Prior research confirms that the number of men in a population is associated with elevated levels of crime. The connection between higher numbers of males relative to females and crime is far less studied in larger aggregate populations, and the nature of the relationship is less clear. This study seeks to answer three questions: are unbalanced sex ratios associated with crime at the state level? At what level does the skew begin to matter? How quickly is the impact observed? These questions are examined through analysis of a novel longitudinal dataset of social characteristics and crime indicators for frontier American …


A Comparison Of The Transition Of Denver Neighborhood Crime From 2000 To 2010, David Muenkel Jul 2011

A Comparison Of The Transition Of Denver Neighborhood Crime From 2000 To 2010, David Muenkel

Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones

The purpose of this project was to study crime in the City of Denver, Colorado and show how crime moves between neighborhoods over time. The study involved looking at crimes aggregated at the neighborhood level to determine how crime transitioned within the City of Denver from 2000 to 2010. The crime data was also compared with calls for service to determine how police activity and citizen reporting related to crime in the City of Denver. The results indicated that the City of Denver, while increasing in population from 554,636 in 2000 to 600,156 in 2010 had a reduction in the …


A Study Of Intergenerational Crime From A Sociological Standpoint, Anna Robosson Jun 2011

A Study Of Intergenerational Crime From A Sociological Standpoint, Anna Robosson

Social Sciences

The focus of this project will be the patterns and causes of intergenerational crime within the United States. Ultimately, the goal of the project is to explain the phenomenon, as it is becoming a rising problem in the country.


The Juvenile In-Justice System, Kasey Susan Franks Jun 2011

The Juvenile In-Justice System, Kasey Susan Franks

Social Sciences

No abstract provided.


Are All Immigrants Criminals? Societal Perceptions Across Select Social Groups, Catherine F. Tindall May 2011

Are All Immigrants Criminals? Societal Perceptions Across Select Social Groups, Catherine F. Tindall

Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the perceptions toward immigrant criminality in Utah of four distinct social groups: state legislators, immigrants, law enforcement personnel, and incarcerated immigrants. Each group was examined separately and found to have a variety of perceptions among their members. Themes emerged that provided insight into the overlap and complexity of these differences across social groups. Legislators appeared the most dichotomous: some believed immigration and crime to be positively correlated, especially for undocumented immigrants, while others perceived no such connection. Among immigrants, perceptions were extremely diverse, but generally represented by reference to an unsubstantiated stereotype that immigrants committed crime at …


Primetime Crime And Its Influence On Public Perception, Katherine E. Stott May 2011

Primetime Crime And Its Influence On Public Perception, Katherine E. Stott

Senior Honors Projects

Since the television became more readily available to the American public in the 1940s and 50s, television shows have captured the attention of the nation. While television programs and televisions themselves have changed since then there are a few constants, one being the continued popularity of crime shows. From Sunday to Saturday during ‘prime time’ on just the four major networks, there are over fifteen hours of crime programming. The shows aim to entertain, leading them to show many inaccuracies about crime and the justice system in America. Studies have shown that most white Americans receive their information about crime …


Jean Hampton’S Theory Of Punishment: A Critical Appreciation, Richard Dagger Apr 2011

Jean Hampton’S Theory Of Punishment: A Critical Appreciation, Richard Dagger

Political Science Faculty Publications

Jean Hampton’s work first came to my attention in 1984, when the summer issue of Philosophy & Public Affairs appeared in my mailbox. Hampton’s essay in that issue, “The Moral Education Theory of Punishment,” did not persuade me—or many others, I suspect—that “punishment should not be justified as a deserved evil, but rather as an attempt, by someone who cares, to improve a wayward person” (Hampton 1984, 237). The essay did persuade me, though, that moral education is a plausible aim of punishment, even if it is not the “full and complete justification” Hampton claimed it to be (Hampton 1984, …


Republicanism And The Foundations Of Criminal Law, Richard Dagger Jan 2011

Republicanism And The Foundations Of Criminal Law, Richard Dagger

Political Science Faculty Publications

This chapter makes a case for the republican tradition in political philosophy as a theory that can provide a rational reconstruction of criminal law. It argues that republicanism offers a reconstruction of criminal law that is both rational and plausible. In particular, it shows that republicanism can help us to make sense of three important features of criminal law: first, the conviction that crime is a public wrong; second, the general pattern of development of criminal law historically; and third, the public nature of criminal law as a cooperative enterprise. To begin, however, it explains what republicanism is and why …


Voices Of Latino/A Immigrants In Southeast Michigan: Beyond The Criminal/Victim Dichotomy, Maya Barak Jan 2011

Voices Of Latino/A Immigrants In Southeast Michigan: Beyond The Criminal/Victim Dichotomy, Maya Barak

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Following humanitarian, social justice, and labor organizing traditions that readily incorporate Latino immigrants’ voices into their work, and drawing upon postmodern, feminist, and activist schools of thought, this study illuminates the history of immigration policy and discourse in America and the Latino community’s knowledge and expertise about life as an undocumented Latino immigrant in Southeast Michigan. The development of increasingly restrictive immigration policies is traced, paying special attention to the adaptation of a criminal justice/enforcement models to the realm of immigration control and the concurrent criminalization of undocumented immigrants. The effects of current immigration and immigrant-specific policies on criminal offenses …


A Comparative Analysis Of Genocidal Rape In Rwanda And The Former Yugoslavia: Implications For The Future, Jessica Kruger Jan 2011

A Comparative Analysis Of Genocidal Rape In Rwanda And The Former Yugoslavia: Implications For The Future, Jessica Kruger

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This work examines the genocidal rape policies that occurred in the Rwandan and former Yugoslavian conflicts. Traditionally, rape has been considered an unfortunate yet inescapable consequence of war. In the early 1990s, the Hutu and Serbian regimes developed a new tactic and utilized rape as a genocidal weapon. Following a comparative analysis framework, the present study will examine the similarities and differences of the genocidal rape in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia. Five points of comparison were established: perpetrators, victims, global economics, social disorder, and militias. Results of this analysis show that Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia possessed common pre-genocidal …


Unstoppable? : A Closer Look At Terrorism Displacement, Henda Yao Hsu Jan 2011

Unstoppable? : A Closer Look At Terrorism Displacement, Henda Yao Hsu

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Since T.A Repetto first introduced crime displacement in 1976, situational crime prevention researchers have long been challenged by the assumption that displacement is an unavoidable consequence of focused crime prevention measures. Despite evidence that criminals do not inevitably shift their offending behavior in response to crime prevention initiatives, recent efforts to extend situational prevention to terrorism have been met with criticisms of displacement. This study examines whether terrorists displace their attacks by changing their methods once the opportunities to carry out acts of terrorism are blocked. To accomplish this, the author examines, through the use of the newly synthesized Global …