Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Is It Better To Be Tough, Or Is Consistency Key? A Multilevel Analysis Examining The Effects Of School Disciplinary Procedures On Perceptions Of Climate And Safety Among Students And Teachers, Erica Nicole Bower

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

Though delinquency and violence have been steadily decreasing in American schools, research suggests that discipline use has not followed that same downward trend. This raises questions to why schools are reliant on certain disciplinary practices if rates of student misbehavior are not increasing. Due to zero tolerance mandates, schools often take a harsh approach to punishment, yet are also inconsistent in the punishment of similar misbehavior among students, which often leaves students feeling frustrated and sometimes, unsafe. How do school disciplinary decisions affect the ways in which school actors, such as students and teachers, perceive their schools’ environments? This broad …

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 …

“Acts Of Pure Evil”: The Portrayal Of Mass Shooting Events On Online Media Platforms, Elizabeth Twitty

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

As media continues to integrate into everyday life, it is essential to critically examine the media and the messages that are forwarded to the public, who often lack personal knowledge of crime and justice issues, and thus rely on news media to glean information. This effort, also called media criminology, seeks to understand the media and the effect it has on understanding societal issues. This project forwards media criminology by examining online news articles, as media criminology has historically focused on traditional media formats, such as newspaper and television. Online news has surpassed these traditional formats and has become a …

Abandoned Allies: A Case Study Analysis Of The Special Immigrant Visa Program, Sarah Pedigo Kulzer

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

Employing a qualitative case study approach, the current study aims to critically analyze the U.S.’s use of the Special Immigrant Visa program in Iraq and Afghanistan by examining the individuals it serves, the agencies through which services are rendered, and the state’s vested geopolitical interests in the program. Engaging in active participation, I observed and interacted with those who work within, assist, or utilize the services of Commonwealth Catholic Charities’ refugee resettlement program, including case workers, service providers, and resettlement clients themselves. Examined through the lens of neoliberal harm, the theoretical frameworks of realpolitik and Simmel’s (1950) concept of the …

Wrath And Relationships: Homicide Weapon Choice And Victim Offender Relationships, Joseph Gonnella

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to examine the influence that victim-offender relationships and the event circumstances have on homicide weapon choice. From Cornish and Clarke’s Rational Choice theoretical perspective, offenders go through decision- making processes to determine which weapon will be the most effective to meet their goal, based on the circumstances of the event. This study examined the use of three weapon types: firearms, knife/ blunt objects, and personal weapons, amongst victim-offender relationships such as acquaintance, intimate, non-intimate family/friend, and strangers along with circumstances such as homicides committed as the result of a felony, and homicides committed as …

The Impact Of Parent And Peer Socialization On Juvenile Delinquency, Ebony I. Pender

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

Juveniles often make decisions based on socialization and behaviors that are taught at a young age. Socialization experiences which can either protect or lead to adverse outcomes such as juvenile delinquency. It is extremely important to examine the role of socialization in delinquency due to the large number of youths currently involved in criminal acts. There are many violent and nonviolent crimes that are committed by youth under the ages of 18. For example, in 2018, there were 728,280 arrests of youths under the age of 18. A significant number of those, 46,410, were for violent index crimes with 141,500 …

Courageous Endurance: The Lived Experiences Of Trans Folx And The Criminal Legal System, April Carrillo

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

The field of criminology and criminal justice have widely ignored the experience of being a trans person and interacting with the criminal legal system, despite the reality that trans folx experience discrimination and harm at the hands of criminal legal practitioners. This dissertation explores these experiences, as well as how trans folx navigate a myriad of other issues to include their identity and institutional discrimination. Trans folx are not guaranteed many protections or rights in the United States which leaves them at an especially vulnerable position when entering the criminal legal system. Essentially, trans folx are forced to navigate a …

The Role Of Religiosity In Drug Use: A Social Integration Perspective, Lindsey Dianna Thomas

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between religiosity and drug use among civilian, noninstitutionalized individuals over the age of 18 in the United States within the theoretical framework of Durkheim’s social integration theory. Focusing on the three aspects of religiosity, practice, belief, and affiliation, this study used logistic regression models to determine the relationship between drug use, specifically the use of marijuana/hashish, cocaine, and heroin, and religiosity. Control variables were incorporated into these models in order to separate the effects of religiosity from demographic variables. The research determined that individuals who reported higher measures of religiosity, …

Indian Media Narratives In Gang Rape, Astha Bhandari

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

Violence against women is a worldwide phenomenon, and while brutal crimes shock us, it is nothing exceptional. This social construction of violence against women is displayed through the media's language. The language then portrays structures of power dynamics, fueling patriarchal discourse, where masculinity becomes the king, and femininity denigrated, birthing a rape culture. This study explores the impact of media reporting of gang rape cases of women in India and investigates the media reporting of nine different gang rape cases, post 2012 Delhi gangrape.

The research looks to identify the media semantics used in portraying the victims in the print …