Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Structural Changes And Neighborhood Homicide Trends In St. Louis, Missouri, 1980 - 2000: A Multi-Level And Spatial Analysis, Robert Jason Fornango

Dissertations

Social scientists have long observed strong correlations between social structure and violent crime rates at the neighborhood level. Yet little is known about the relationship between changes in social structure and violent crime trends. Furthermore, the spatial distribution of crime trends has received little attention in the literature. The dissertation explores the trajectories and spatial dynamics of neighborhood homicide rates and social structure in St. Louis, Missouri between 1980 and 2000. Multilevel growth curve models are used to describe the nature of, and variation in, census tract homicide trajectories as functions of structural characteristics and changes in those features. Exploratory …

An Analysis Of The Relationship Between Higher Education And Police Misconduct In The New Jersey State Police, Steven C. Gerding

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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Loss And Grief: A New Framework For Examining The Unanticipated Consequences Of Incarceration, Lyria Belle Hailstork

Theses & Honors Papers

This study, Loss and Grief: A New Framework for Examining the Unanticipated Consequences of Incarceration, looks at loss and grief as unexpected effects of imprisonment on those sentenced to prison. Qualitative research methods are used to form grounded theory in finding and describing these circumstances.

The conclusions resulting from this study hae been developed inductively from a collection of data yielding results that are descriptive and non-numerical. Data for this work were obtained from literature, texts, interviews, reports, feelings of individuals, and experiences of the researcher.

Grounded theory, anomie and concepts from unanticipated consequences from the theoretical framework for the …

Isolating Student, School, And Community Effects On School Weapon Carrying, Adam Michael Watkins

Dissertations

Much prior research has alluded to the importance of community conditions in shaping levels of violence in around and schools. It is interesting to find, therefore, that few studies have systematically examined the effects of broader contextual characteristics (e.g., economic disadvantage) on levels of student misbehavior in schools. This research filled a part of this void in the school violence literature by using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to identify whether social conditions in schools¿ attendance areas were statistically related to levels of student weapon carrying across a national sample of 55 high schools. Multilevel models …

Russian Cultural Factors Related To Perceived Criminal Procedure Fairness: The Juxtaposition Of Policy And Practice, Olga B. Semukhina

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between the Russian culture and citizens' perceived fairness of the new Criminal Procedural Code of Russia of 2001 (CPC of 2001). The CPC of 2001 is a key policy in the Russian criminal law reform with the purpose of implementing adversarial procedure elements in Russia. The existing literature has documented the lack of public support along with observed violations of the CPC's major provisions which as made this an important area for study. It is theorized that the apparent contradiction between the underlying values of the Russian culture, and CPC's …

Airport Security: Examining The Current State Of Acceptance Of Biometrics And The Propensity Of Adopting Biometric Technology Fo, Kristine Sumner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 propelled the issue of aviation security to the forefront of the U.S. domestic agenda. Although hundreds of individual airports exist in the U.S., the travel activities at each of these airports combine to holistically comprise an aviation system that represents a significant portion of the U.S. social and economic infrastructure. Disruption at one airport resulting from a criminal act, such as terrorism, could exert detrimental effects upon the aviation system and U.S national security (9/11 Commission, 2004). Each U.S. airport is individually responsible for various aspects of security including the control of physical …

Implications Of Sex Offender Residency Restrictions, Erin Patricia Wolbeck

Theses Digitization Project

This study examines the potential effects of sex offender residency restriction laws on both the offenders and potential victimsin Riverside County, CA. Through the use of census data and mapping software the residentially zoned areas in which sex offenders can or can not live are examined.

Healthcare Fraud And Non-Fraud Healthcare Crimes: A Comparison, Michael Ponce

Theses Digitization Project

Healthcare fraud is a major problem within the healthcare industry. The study examined medical fraud, its laws, and punishments on federal and state levels. It compared medical fraud to non-fraud crimes done in the healthcare industry. This comparison will be done on a state level. The study attempted to analyze the severity of fraud against non-fraud and that doctors would commit fraud offenses more often than non-fraud offenses.

Crime And The Sorcerer's Stone: Using Harry Potter To Teach Theories Of Crime, Julie Elizabeth Humphrey

Theses Digitization Project

The purpose of this study was to take a piece of popular culture, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and use it as a pedagogical tool in a graduate criminal theory course to serve as a pilot study. Evaluation data showed that using the Sorcerer's Stone is an effective way to teach students how to apply criminological theory hypothetical examples of behavior.

An Exploratory Study Of The Affect Of Role Strain And The Juvenile Justice System's Division In Power On Juvenile Probation Officers, Kirsten W. Parker-Smith

Theses & Honors Papers

This exploratory, qualitative study reports on the experiences of 20 participants currently working within the juvenile justice system. The study investigated whether role strain was present among juvenile probation officers (POs) in an unspecified, Mid-Atlantic state. This study examines probation officers' role as it relates to the division in power between the state agency which employs the juvenile POs and the local juvenile courts in which they work closely with local judges. The state agency's move to standardize was also explored in relation to an increase in role strain for juvenile probation officers. The expected role strain did not appear …

Artists And Crooks: A Correlational Examination Of Creativity And Criminal Thinking, Luis Daniel GascóN

Theses Digitization Project

This study explores some of the possible correlations between creativity and criminal thinking evident in the literature in an attempt to link the two forms of cognition. An understanding of the concept of Malevolent Creativity can serve the purpose of elucidating another component of the criminal personality.

Death Penalty Knowledge, Opinion, And Revenge: A Test Of The Marshall Hypotheses In A Time Of Flux, Gavin Lee

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis tests the three hypotheses derived from the written opinion of Justice Thurgood Marshall in Furman v Georgia in 1972. Subjects completed questionnaires at the beginning and the end of the fall 2006 semester. Experimental group subjects were enrolled in a death penalty class, while control group subjects were enrolled in another criminal justice class. The death penalty class was the experimental stimulus. Findings provided strong support for the first and third hypotheses, i.e., subjects were generally lacking in death penalty knowledge before the experimental stimulus, and death penalty proponents who scored "high" on a retribution index did not …

Criminal Mobility Of Robbery Offenders, Joe Drealan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The current paper addresses the mobility and willingness to travel of robbery offenders. A five-sector robbery typology was constructed, consisting of: personal robbery, commercial robbery, carjacking robbery, home-invasion robbery, and robbery by sudden snatching. Defining mobility as the straight-line distance between the offender's home residence and the location of the robbery offense, the extent of criminal mobility for each type of robbery offense was analyzed. Using geographical information system (GIS) technologies and, more specifically, geocoding software programs, the latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates of the offender's home and offense's location was determined. It was found that a subset of robbery offenders …