Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Ideology Of The Carceral State: Examining The Prison Through Film, Ryan Phillips

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

Mass incarceration began almost fifty years ago and has proliferated to the point that the United States is the world leader in incarceration. Much work has been done that examines the history and nature of mass incarceration and the carceral state. However, an area that has received far less attention is how people think about prisons. To address this gap, I ground my analysis in the works of Louis Althusser, Slavoj Zizek, and Mark Fisher to formulate “Carceral Realism”, which I argue is the ideology of mass incarceration. To better understand the nature of this ideology, I employ a content …

Community Dynamics And Crime In Rural West Virginia Communities, Holly V. Ryczek, Robert Nicewarner

Mountaineer Undergraduate Research Review

There is a tendency for sociologists and criminologists to study crime in urban contexts rather than in rural areas and places outside small towns. Therefore, some suspect that theories of urban crime do not necessarily fit these rural areas. For example, collective efficacy in urban neighborhoods has been found to be inversely related to crime and fear of crime. In rural areas, this connection has been difficult to study because rural places are structured differently than urban neighborhoods. In this study, we expand the notions of collective efficacy in neighborhoods by introducing community dynamics. We show how latent psychodynamic processes …

Early Survivor Voices And Primary Sources. Modern Slavery: A Documentary And Reference Guide By Laura J. Lederer, Sandra Morgan

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

No abstract provided.

Reducing Crime Through The Theatre: An Analysis Of Foluke Ogunleye’S Jabulile, Nkiruka Jacinta Akaenyi

International Review of Humanities Studies

This study examines the connection between family conditions and the criminal behaviours of children. Over the years, drama has been used to address the socio-political, economic and security challenges in different societies. The goal of these dramatists is to chart the way forward for a harmonious political, economic and social system. It is in this wise that, Foluke Ogunleye used her knowledge of drama to address serious issues affecting the progress and stability of the nation. This study finds that the explosion of crime in the nation is linked to the fragile family system surrounding the children’s upbringing by their …

Urban Neoliberal Debt Peonage: Prisoner Reentry, Work, And The New Jim Crow, Francis B. Prior

Sociology and Criminology Department Faculty Works

In this study, I analyze the experiences of people leaving prison and jail, using the concept of urban neoliberal debt peonage. I define urban neoliberal debt peonage as the push of race-class subjugated (RCS) formerly incarcerated people into the low-wage labor market. I argue that urban neoliberal debt peonage is a social process of economic extraction from and racial control of RCS groups structured by state bureaucracies and corporate employers. I provide evidence for this argument using participant observation and interview methods in a large northeastern U.S. city at an employment-oriented prisoner reentry organization that I call “Afterward.” People came …

The Formation Of Identity Narratives Within Racialized Space, Eva Alphonse

Departmental Honors Projects

Evelyn Alphonse and Dr. Ryan LeCount, Department of Sociology, Hamline University 1536 Hewitt Ave, St Paul, MN, 55104

Previous research has made it clear that neighborhoods shape individuals’ experiences, perceptions, and identities. Past studies on neighborhood stigma focused primarily on the perception that communities of color and their residents are dangerous or disadvantaged. Another smaller body of work explored how living in criminalized spaces affects residents themselves. This research primarily looked at how neighborhood stigma has materially affected residents, such as through decreased job opportunities. The present study expanded on the previous literature by investigating how living in stigmatized spaces …

He’S ‘Like A Math Magician’: One Man’S Path Towards Clemency, Steven Vago

Capstones

This is a profile on Bobby Ehrenberg, an incarcerated person who recently applied for clemency after turning his life around. https://medium.com/@steven.vago/hes-like-a-math-magician-one-man-s-path-towards-clemency-9bcea1cfdfdc

The Yakuza: Organized Crime In Japan, Darlene N. Moorman

The Downtown Review

Examining organized crime groups should not be purely economic; in other words, the culture, social structure, political contexts, and so on, are also critical in an insightful analysis of any organized crime group. For this paper, the Japanese yakuza are considered both in an economic viewpoint, such as how they make money, but also in other areas, such as its syndicates' notable cultural contributions and specific social characteristics. Moreover, this paper explores the dynamic changing of the organization overtime, especially in regards to its shifting relationship with the Japanese government.

The Female Face Of Misogyny: A Review Of Decriminalizing Domestic Violence: A Balanced Policy Approach To Intimate Partner Violence By Leigh Goodmark And The Feminist War On Crime: The Unexpected Role Of Women's Liberation In Mass Incarceration By Aya Gruber, Dianne L. Post

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

No abstract provided.

Covid-19 And Stay-At-Home Orders: An Application Of Routine Activity Theory In Philadelphia, Jessica M. Brain

Undergraduate Research

The coronavirus pandemic changed the routines of people all over the world. Because of the implementation of government stay-at-home orders, people started doing more of their daily activities from home. This explores the impact coronavirus had on burglary counts in Philadelphia. Data were used from OpenDataPhilly to compare both non-residential and residential burglary counts from April through June 2019 and April through June 2020, a latter time frame, a period when routine activities were likely significantly altered as many more people stayed at home. It was anticipated that as more people stay at home and Philadelphia would experience fewer residential …

The Effects Of Admission To Jail On Crime Rate In Mclean County, Illinois, Derek Conley

Stevenson Center for Community and Economic Development—Student Research

The relationship between crime and incarceration is growing in interest in the United States. The United States incarceration rate is often double or triple the rate of other Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. The hardline approach the United States has taken on crime has many citizens and academics questioning its effectiveness on achieving safer communities. Traditional theory suggests incarcerating individuals for deviant behavior reduces the crime rate through the mechanisms of incapacitation, deterrence, rehabilitation, and retribution. However, some scholars believe concentration of incarceration in neighborhoods disrupts the social fabric of the neighborhood and produces the opposite of …

Immigrants And Crime, Daniel L. Stageman

Publications and Research

The gap between public perception of immigrant criminality and the research consensus on immigrants’ actual rates of criminal participation is persistent and cross-cultural. While the available evidence shows that immigrants worldwide tend to participate in criminal activity at rates slightly lower than the native-born, media and political discourse portraying immigrants as uniquely crime-prone remains a pervasive global phenomenon. This apparent disconnect is rooted in the dynamics of othering, or the tendency to dehumanize and criminalize identifiable out-groups. Given that most migration decisions are motivated by economic factors, othering is commonly used to justify subjecting immigrants to exploitative labor practices, with …

Immigration And Crime In The News, 2014-2018: Do Focusing Events And Policy Windows Affect Framing?, Abigale Rongey

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Although an abundance of literature demonstrates that immigrant populations are less crime-prone than the native-born population, the majority of Americans believe that immigration inherently threatens the security of the United States. Because Americans are not well versed in the complex issues of immigration and crime, public opinion is undoubtedly influenced by media outlets’ crafted narratives that simplify circumstances and events into easily digestible material. The current study examines how media behavior changes and responds to social and political events by examining “frames” utilized in articles that produce narratives about immigration and crime. Using content analysis of over 1,700 articles published …

Reflective Writing In Prisons: Rehabilitation And The Power Of Stories And Connections, Sandeep Kumar

VA Engage Journal

The United States has the highest rate of incarceration in the world. Even though the rate of crime is dropping, incarceration rates remain fairly steady. What’s more, recidivism (i.e., re-offending after conviction for other crimes) is also very high in the US. If offenders continue to offend, even after completing their sentences in a correctional system designed to address their underlying criminal activity, what is the point of having such a system? Can the system be made more accountable and better? Have we considered all the options for criminal reform? This article explores these questions using effective rehabilitation principles to …

Does Imprisonment Have An Effect On Crime Rates?, Diana E. Mendez

Student Publications

Since the 1790s, prisons in the United States were built with the means of reducing crime rates through the usage of incapacitation, deterrence, and rehabilitation. However, while it may seem intuitive to assume that higher incarceration rates yield lower crime rates, it is not regularly the case. Using the 2016 States dataset, I examine the effects of incarceration rates and its influence on crime rates in the United States; I suggest that states with higher incarceration rates will have higher crime rates than states with lower incarceration rates. Therefore, the evidence concludes states with high incarceration rates generate higher rates …

Effects Of Religion On Crime In Hampton Roads, Alaina Yvonne Bierdz

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

The influence of religion in society has been debated for hundreds of years. Renowned scholars like Max Weber and Émile Durkheim formed frameworks in which to study the relationship between religion and crime. The frameworks are based on the idea that religion promotes desirable behavior in society, while also controlling undesirable behavior. Although religion can be studied across many disciplines, this report examines the relationship between religion and crime. More specifically, the impact of religion on crime in the Hampton Roads area in Virginia. It has been thought that religiosity decreases crime. Using social bond theory as the theoretical perspective, …

Public Perceptions Of Crime Trends : Measurement, Perceived Causes, And Behavioral Consequences, Luzi Shi

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

In the U.S. the public is persistent in believing in worsening crime trends, despite the fact that the crime rate has been falling since the early 1990s. This dissertation is a comprehensive examination of the measurement, perceived causes, and behavioral consequences of crime trend perceptions. It is composed of three interrelated studies. The first step to understanding crime trend perceptions is to have accurate measurement. In the first study, I identify the limitations of existing measurement of crime trend perceptions and argue that it is important to measure perceptions of short-term and long-term crime trends separately. Using three samples, I …

The Effects Of A Proactive Policy-Driven Migration On Neighborhood Crime, Tyler Scott Bellick

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The immigrant crime-relationship is one of the most vigorously debated and contentious public policy concerns in present society. The majority of scholarship investigating this link demonstrates that immigrants are no more crime prone than the native-born population, and in fact, may even suppress levels of neighborhood crime. A limitation of this body of scholarship is that it tends focus on immigration, overall, or specifically Latino immigration, failing to account of potentially important between-group differences in offending. The present study addresses this gap by examining the effects of a government-driven Guyanese migration on neighborhood crime rates at five cross-sections. Exploratory analyses …

The Illegal Wildlife Trade: Through The Eyes Of A One-Year-Old Pangolin (Manis Javanica), Lelia Bridgeland-Stephens

Animal Studies Journal

This paper explores the literature on the illegal wildlife trade (IWT) by following the journey of a single imagined Sunda pangolin (Manis javanica) through the entire trading process. Literature on IWT frequently refers to non-human animals in terms of collectives, species, or body parts, for example ‘tons of pangolin scales’, rather than as subjective individuals. In contrast, this paper centralizes the experiences of an individual pangolin by using a cross- disciplinary methodology, combining fact with a fictional narrative of subjective pangolin experience, in an empathetic and egomorphic process. The paper draws together known legislation, trade practices, and pangolin biology, structured …

Framing Crime And Social Problems: How Students Perceive The Legality Of Digital Piracy, Jordan Henson

Online Theses and Dissertations

The current information age has seen a shift from analog product manufacturing to the production of intellectual property (e.g., software and digital media); property that is stolen at alarming rates. Much of the research concerning the modern phenomenon of digital piracy, as defined by Al-Rafee and Cronan (2006, p. 237) as “the illegal copying/downloading of copyrighted software and media files,” has stemmed from various fields, including business, ethics, marketing, and information systems. What is lacking in the literature is a notably criminal justice lens in which to view a controversial topic that is growing in popularity among the media and …

Unh Students’ Attitudes Toward University Of New Hampshire Police, Angela R. Hurley

Honors Theses and Capstones

This study examines undergraduate students from the University of New Hampshire attitudes towards campus police, specifically how student experience with campus police affects their attitudes toward them. There were a total of 113 respondents from the University of New Hampshire that answered an online survey. The survey looked specifically at the relationship between students' experience and attitudes towards UNH police, hypothesizing that students who had perceived fair encounters with campus police would be more likely to contact them in an emergency and have more positive attitudes toward them . Multivariate analysis shows perceptions of witnessing an interaction and being approached …

Causes, Prevention, And Macro-Level Effects Of Juvenile Substance Abuse, Nicole Neiman

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This project will evaluate the prevalence, types, causation, and effects of juvenile substance abuse. Looking into this, the reader can understand the factors that lead to juvenile substance abuse and the further affects that juvenile substance abuse can have on the user, the juvenile justice system, the community, and society as a whole. Some of the factors to be taken into consideration include physical/sexual abuse, mental health disorders, familial situations, socioeconomic status, age, gender, peer influence, and other demographics. Furthermore, the reader will also understand how juvenile substance abuse relates to crime. Research will be done to review the drug-crime …

Fabricated Forensics: Examining An Undergraduate Population’S Ability To Detect Fallacies In Crime-Based Media, Conner Davis

Senior Capstone Theses

My research examines the effects of general education on students’ perspectives of the CSI effect. The CSI effect is a phenomenon in which people’s perceptions of criminal investigation are distorted from the truth because of the media’s portrayal of criminal investigation. The study sample includes undergraduate students enrolled in a Mid-Atlantic University. To quantify the degrees in which subjects are susceptible to the CSI effect, the subjects will be measured on their ability to identify basic forensic investigation flaws portrayed in three different television series. Subjects were given a worksheet, exposed to a fifteen-minute video compilation, and were told to …

Ensuring Victims’ Rights And Inspiring Hope Through Community Collaboration, Evelyn Rodriguez Martinez

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Numerous crime victims who qualify for Victim Witness Assistance Program services through the San Benito County District Attorney's office are not accessing the resources. Research done to support this project revealed that countless crime victims did not utilize the services offered by the program during the time of their victimization. The project conducted was an outreach presentation, which included all the services provided by the Victim Witness Assistance Program, victims’ legal rights, and the qualifications for the California Victim Compensation Board. The outreach presentation was developed to increase awareness of victims’ rights and the Victim Witness Assistance Program to community …

Is Emerging Adulthood Influencing Moffitt’S Developmental Taxonomy? Adding The “Prolonged” Adolescent Offender, Christopher Salvatore, Travis A. Taniguchi, Wayne Welsh

Christopher Salvatore

The study of offender trajectories has been a prolific area of criminological research. However, few studies have incorporated the influence of emerging adulthood, a recently identified stage of the life course, on offending trajectories. The present study addressed this shortcoming by introducing the "prolonged adolescent" offender, a low-level offender between the ages of 18 and 25 that has failed to successfully transition into adult social roles. A theoretical background based on prior research in life-course criminology and emerging adulthood is presented. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health analyses examined the relationship between indicators of traditional turning …

Stranded Behind Bars: The Failure Of Retributive Justice (Research Materials), Holy Cross Libraries

Library Resources for Campus Events

A bibliography of resources available through the Holy Cross Libraries which provide additional information related to "Stranded Behind Bars: The Failure of Retributive Justice," a lecture by Erin Kelly, professor of philosophy at Tufts University and author of “The Limits of Blame: Rethinking Punishment and Responsibility” (Harvard University Press, 2018), who explains how retributive justice exaggerates the moral meaning of criminal guilt, normalizes excessive punishment, and distracts from shared responsibility for social injustice.

The lecture was sponsored by the Rev. Michael C. McFarland, S.J. Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture, and was held at the College of the Holy Cross …

Women And Crime, Samantha M. Caimi

Undergraduate Research

This paper examines the role of gender in three high profile criminal cases involving women. Each case highlights different circumstances of women involved in crime and the consequences of a justice system that does not acknowledge and address the role of gender in women’s criminal involvement. First, Cyntoia Brown’s case demonstrates the challenges specific to poor girls of color. Second, the case of Yeardley Love delineates the danger women face in their relationships with male intimate partners. Finally, the highly controversial case of Casey Anthony illustrates the societal pressure on women as mothers and the need to address potential biases …

Testing A Theoretical Model Of Perceived Audience Legitimacy: The Neglected Linkage In The Dialogic Model Of Police–Community Relations, Justin Nix, Justin T. Pickett, Scott E. Wolfe

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Objectives:

Democratic policing involves an ongoing dialogue between officers and citizens about what it means to wield legitimate authority. Most of the criminological literature on police legitimacy has focused on citizens’ perceptions of this dialogue—that is, audience legitimacy. Consequently, we know little about how officers perceive their legitimacy in the eyes of the public and the antecedents of such perceptions. Pulling together separate strands of literature pertaining to citizen demeanor, hostile media perceptions, and danger perception theory, we propose and test a theoretical model of perceived audience legitimacy.

Method:

We conducted two separate studies: the first a survey of 546 …

Gambling-Related Harm And Criminal Activity - Combining Population-Based Finnish Gambling Harms Survey With Register Data, Kalle Lind

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

Problem gamblers are at-risk of committing non-violent property crimes to fund their gambling. Not just problem gamblers, but gamblers more broadly may experience gambling-related harm. The presentation outlines the background and results of a first wave data (n=7186) of the longitudinal Gambling Harms survey. In 2016, 0.9 percent of the respondent had experienced at least one social deviance harm, such as feeling outcast from religious or cultural community. Based on the survey, 0.2% had committed a crime due to their gambling.

The aim of the study is to explore gambling-related harm as well as criminal charges based on criminal records. …

Merciless: Psychopathic Criminals And How The Criminal Justice System Can Protect Us From Them, Dilara Gingerich

Student Symposium

For my presentation, I will discuss an independent study I did with Dr. Durst in the Fall of 2018, in which I wrote about psychopaths and ways the criminal justice system (CJS) can protect society from them. I will first briefly define psychopathy and explain the personality traits associated with it. I will dedicate the rest of my time to explaining ways I believe the CJS can use information about psychopathy to protect society from criminals with that condition. Psychopathy is a subtype of antisocial personality disorder (APD) that is characterized by a lack of empathy and remorse, manipulative and …