Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Neighborhood Characteristics And Crime: A Test Of Sampson And Groves' Model Of Social Disorganization, Ivan Y. Sun, Ruth A. Triplett, Randy R. Gainey

Sociology & Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

In 1989 Sampson and Groves proposed a model of social disorganization. In this model, neighborhoods with low socioeconomic status, high residential mobility, racial heterogeneity, and family disruption were predicted to have sparse local friendship networks', low organizational participation, and unsupervised youth groups. These, in turn, were predicted to increase neighborhood crime rates. Although Sampson and Groves' work represents the most complete model of social disorganization to date, it has only been tested twice and then on the same data set. Using data from 36 neighborhoods from 7 U.S. cities, this study examines extensions of Sampson and Groves' model suggested by …

Social Disorganization Theory: Examining The Mediating Effects Of Social Ties And Disorder On Crime, Matasha L. Harris

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

Using study data collected for a larger research project entitled Project on Policing Neighborhoods in Indianapolis, Indiana, 1996, the relationship between social ties and disorder on neighborhood structural characteristics and crime rates was tested. Using two Structural Equation Models the mediating effects of social ties and disorder on neighborhood structural characteristics and crime received partial support from the analysis of Indianapolis data.

The results revealed that poverty and family disruption exerts a positive impact on crime rates. The results also revealed that neighborhoods with high levels of racial heterogeneity have a negative effect on social ties. As well, the study …

Mothering, Crime And Incarceration, Kathleen J. Ferraro, Angela M. Moe

Sociology Faculty Publications

This article examines the relationships between mothering, crime, and incarceration through the narratives of thirty women incarcerated in a southwestern county jail. The responsibilities of child care, combined with the burdens of economic marginality and domestic violence, led some women to choose economic crimes or drug dealing as an alternative to hunger and homelessness. Other women, arrested for drug- or alcohol-related crimes, related their offenses to the psychological pain and despair resulting from loss of custody of their children. Many women were incarcerated for minor probation violations that often related to the conflict between work, child care, and probation requirements. …

Justifications For The Probation Sanction Among Residents Of Virginia--Cool Or Un-Cool?, Brian K. Payne, Randy R. Gainey, Ruth A. Triplett, Mona J. E. Danner

Sociology & Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Perhaps as evidence of a growing cultural gap between our students and ourselves, one of the authors was recently amused when a student asked whether probation was a "cool" sanction. In this study, we begin an investigation into how cool the probation sanction is in the eyes of residents of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Specifically, we use data from a telephone survey of 840 registered voters to explore three questions. First, how often would they recommend the probation sanction in comparison to other sanctions? Second, how do they justify the sanction relative to justifications for other sanctions? Finally, are their …

Pariahs Of The Wonderful City: Crime, Representation, And The Imagined Geography Of Citizenship In Rio De Janeiro, 1977-1982, Gianpaolo Baiocchi

disClosure: A Journal of Social Theory

No abstract provided.

Crime Prevention Directory, L. Ryan, L. Caldwell

Reports

Research commissioned by the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, 2002.

Purchasing Power Profile: Zipcode 53217, John Pawasarat, Lois M. Quinn, Frank Stetzer

ETI Publications

While central city residents often have much lower family incomes than suburban residents, they typically spend much of their income on consumer purchases, providing a strong base of retail purchasing. To help identify the economic assets of central city neighborhoods and to further employment opportunities for city residents the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Employment and Training Institute prepared state-of-the-art purchasing power estimates of consumer expenditures and retail sales leakage/surplus by neighborhood. The ETI drill downs were designed to help determine the diversity of the workforce and to further economic development for underserved communities and for neighborhoods with concentrations of residents of …

Religiosity And Delinquency: A Test Of The Religious Ecology Hypothesis, S. Cory Harmon

Theses and Dissertations

Research testing the relationship between adolescent religiosity and delinquent behavior is inconclusive. Some studies show a significant negative relationship while others indicate no relationship. Stark (1996) asserts that the relationship between religiosity and delinquency is a function of community religiosity as opposed to personal religiosity. Thus, in areas of high religiosity, there will be a strong relationship, while areas of low religiosity will show no relationship. This study looks at the relationship between religiosity and delinquency of LDS youth in four different religious ecologies: Utah County (high religious ecology), the East coast (moderate religious ecology), the Pacific Northwest (low religious …

The Racialization Of Sexuality: The Queer Case Of Jeffrey Dahmer, Ian Barnard

English Faculty Books and Book Chapters

"In this article I read media and subcultural representations of Jeffrey Dahmer, the white male U.S. serial killer who gained notoriety in the late 1980s for having sex with and then murdering and dismembering men of color in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. My aim is to show the extent to which the degree of Dahmer's homosexualization in a particular representation determines Dahmer' s thinking and actions in the sphere of race, and to suggest how spiraling efforts to separate race from sexuality in the Dahmer case only further intricate the two analytic axes."

"This Province, So Meanly And Thinly Inhabited": Punishing Maryland's Criminals, 1681-1850, Jim Rice

History Faculty Scholarship

This essay examines three questions, in each case using the colony and state of Maryland as a case study. First, why did some states adopt the penitentiary so much earlier than others? Pennsylvania opened one in 1790, but South Carolina waited until 1868 to do so. Given the variations in timing, did different states establish penitentiaries for different reasons? That seems to have been the case, as a comparison of Maryland's path to the penitentiary with that of other jurisdictions will demonstrate. Second, was the penitentiary truly revolutionary? Perhaps in some places, but not in Maryland. Third, did the diverse …

A Case Against Bringing Monsters To Justice: Pinochet, Deterrence, And Personal Identity, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article presents a philosophical psychology case against subjecting former national leaders who allegedly committed atrocities committed while they were in power to adjudication through a criminal or civil justice system.

Trends. An International Criminal Court: Incompetence To Assess Another Kind Of Competence, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

The author continues his analysis of international criminal courts.

Trends. Necessity As The Mother Of Invention: International Crime In An Era Of Globalization, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

The author discusses how the increasing reach and efficiency of telecommunications and mass transport in an era of globalization pose new opportunity for international crime.

Conceptualizing The Impact Of Health Care Crimes On The Poor, Brian K. Payne

Sociology & Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Past research shows that a small percentage of health care employees commit an assortment of criminal acts while on the job. Missing from previous research, however, is an examination of the effects such acts have on the poor (i.e. the victims). This paper fills this void by considering the effects of three broadly defined health care crimes: Medicaid fraud, elder abuse, and prescription fraud. In addition to the direct victimization experiences of those served by me health care system, the physical, economic, and time losses are also considered. Implications for future research and policy are provided.

A Comparative Study Of Black And White Girls' Delinquency, Kenya Larae Covington

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

In this research, I examined the similarities and differences between black and white female delinquents. A secondary analysis of the Survey of Youth in Custody, 1987 data was utilized to answer the following research questions: (1) What factors contribute to each group's delinquency the most? (2) Are the factors that contribute to black girls' delinquency significantly different from those factors that contribute to white girls' delinquency? The study was guided by previous research on race and female delinquency, girls' victimization, the role of the family and school performance. The independent variables victimization, family structure, family function and school performance were …

Choosing Crime: The Criminal Calculus Of Property Offenders, Kenneth Tunnell

Kenneth Tunnell

How people make decisions to commit criminal acts is a growing area of research and theory. This area of criminology is usually labeled "rational choice".

Exploring Seniors Perceptions Of Crime: A Report Of A Social Survey Conducted In The City Of Nedlands, Diana Whyte, David Wiles, Tessa Tarrant

Research outputs pre 2011

In this exploratory survey we investigated the perceptions of, and fear of crime in elderly persons. Interviews were conducted with eighteen elderly residents of the City of Nedlands, an age-heterogeneous community which enjoys a high socio-economic status. Due to the small number of people interviewed the survey is qualitative in character but reflects the perceptions of a particular segment of metropolitan elderly persons. It was shown that the participants consider that there is mere crime, of a more serious and threatening nature, in present times than there was fifty years age. There was no indication of fear of becoming victims …

Murder And Capital-Punishment In The Evolving Context Of The Post-Furman Era, Ruth D. Peterson, William C. Bailey

Sociology & Criminology Faculty Publications

In view of (1) escalating national attention, and political and judicial activity centering on capital punishment during the past decade and a half, and (2) concomitant changes in homicides this paper investigates the impact of the death penalty on state homicide rates for the post-Furman period, 1973 -84 The research also addresses the debate over the relative merits of the contiguous state matching strategy versus multiple regression as a means of controlling for the influence of possible confounding factors in examining the capital punishment/homicide relationship. The two approaches yield quite similar results. Consistent with a long line of deterrence research, …

The Politics Of Crime And Criminal Justice, Erika S. Fairchild, Vincent J. Webb

Publications

This volume is about politics, crime, and criminal justice in the United States. As such, it reports on some of the fruits of an increasing amount of research that has been devoted to this topic in recent years. With the exception of one analytical essay on crime as an issue in American politics, all of the articles in the volume are based on original field research.

Crime As A Routine Activity: An Investigation, Donna Scott Munroe

Dissertations and Theses

Crime as a social phenomenon has customarily been examined as sets of occurrences which happen outside the boundaries of the legitimate social structure. Research by Lawrence E. Cohen and Marcus Felson suggests that more fruitful explanatory models of crime may be developed from the routine activity approach, an approach which regards crime as a routine activity in the same sense that everyday work may be regarded as routine activity. Such an approach is consonant with the precepts of human ecology. Human ecology as a theoretical model posits an interrelationship among the divergent parts of the social fabric. In such a …

Population Change And Crime Change, Deborah Caulfield

Publications

The relationship existing between population change and crime rates in the central city merits study. There is limited research in this area, and the vast majority of the literature focuses on the correlation between population density and crime in the Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas (SMSA). These few studies explore various types of crime in relation to population density, rather than the investigation of the relationship between population change and crime rates in the central city.

Crime In Grand Island, Nebraska, Genevieve Burch, Kathleen Nicolini

Publications

This study examined data on crime and the criminal justice system in Grand Island and Hall County, Nebraska. It was designed to address some of the questions raised by a Grand Island Chamber of Commerce task force on crime and the criminal justice system.

This report is composed of three parts. The first part analyzes data on crime and juvenile delinquency, the second examines data on the criminal justice system, and the third section summarizes the results of a telephone survey of Grand Island area residents' perceptions of crime.

Crime In Bemis Park: A Victimization Survey, Genevieve Burch

Publications

The Bemis Park Crime Survey was devised to give the residents of Bemis Park systematic information on the extent of crime and victimization in their neighborhood. The Bemis Park Neighborhood Association requested this survey, and the residents were active participants in it.

Public Opinion On The Death Penalty: The Reasons Behind The Views, Lauren Ungar

Honors Papers

Even the most outspoken proponents of the death penalty would not support its use for all of these 'crimes', but there is little consensus as to when, if ever, it should be used. Public opinion has been considered an important indicator of the death penalty's constitutionality and it is likely to be heavily considered by state and national legislators deciding whether to support upcoming bills to reinstate the death penalty. Recent public opinion polls show increasing support for the death penalty, but few researchers have asked their respondents to expand on why or under what circumstances they would favor the …

Women's Liberation: Is It Smashing The Hothouse?, Wendy Tarnoff

Honors Papers

Since this paper has concentrated on the cultural and societal influences on women's roles, and how these affect their criminal behavior, these variables rather than exclusively economic ones, will be presented now in relatively economic homogeneous contexts. The remaining discussion will, therefore, compare the patterns and trends of female criminal behavior in England-Wales and Japan with those in the United States. A final note will be made on some research done by Safilios-Rothschild in Greece concerning socio-cultural changes which have occurred in Greece, and how they have affected the commission of "honor crimes."

Toward A Critical Theory Of Female Criminality, Ann Curry Thompson

IUSTITIA

Twentieth-century theories about female criminality are the weakest link in conventional criminology, representing the most conservative and unscientific thinking about human nature and social organization. Traditional thinking about female criminality reflects the general inability of conventional theorists to examine categories of sex, race, and class oppression as determined by the basic social structure of a particular society and as they relate to deviance and crime. The result has been that female deviance has been analyzed solely in light of assumptions about women's biological nature. Whether there is indeed something distinctive about female crime which can be explained apart from a …

Christian And The Penal Law, E. L. Hebden Taylor

Pro Rege

No abstract provided.