Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Implementing Gang & Gun Violence Reduction Strategies In Las Vegas, Nevada: Hot Spots Evaluation Results, Nicholas Corsaro, Robin S. Engel, Tamara D. Herold, Murat Yildirim

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

The gang and gun violence reduction project implemented in Las Vegas consisted of three components: hot spots deployment, focused deterrence, and place network investigations. This report focuses on the development, implementation, and evaluation of the hot spots strategy.

Schools And Crime: An Empirical Analysis Of School Safety Measures, Heather Gilmore

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

During the 2015-2016 academic year, more than three-fourths of public schools reported having a violent, property, or other crime on their campuses (Musu-Gillette et al., 2018). While most students do not experience victimization (Musu-Gillette et al., 2018), a large portion schools do report criminal activity on campus. The desire for improved school strategies on crime is warranted, particularly as student populations continue to grow, increasing to 56.6 million students (NCES, 2018). The focus, however, has remained primarily on violence and specific types of school security measures. The purpose of this study is to close the gaps in the literature and …

Policing Protests: An Exploratory Analysis Of Crowd Management Policies, Logan P. Kennedy

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Several policing strategies have been used to manage protest crowds over the past 50 years. Research suggests that escalated force and command and control strategies were utilized until the 1990’s (Bourne, 2011; Schweingruber, 2000), while negotiated management has emerged as a prominent protest management strategy within recent decades (Gillham, 2011; Gillham & Noakes, 2006). While literature describes the general evolution of protest strategies over time, there has been no systematic documentation of police approaches to crowd management.

This study examines police policies governing protest management to identify current U.S. police practices. The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) provides …

Dissociation Between The Growing Opioid Demands And Drug Policy Directions Among The U.S. Older Adults With Degenerative Joint Diseases, Pearl Kim Phd, Takashi Yamashita Phd, Mph, Ma, Jay J. Shen Phd, Seong-Min Park Phd, Sung-Youn Chun Phd, Sun Jung Kim Phd, Mhsa, Jinwook Hwang Md, Phd, Se Won Lee Md, Georgia Dounis Dds, Ms, Hee-Taik Kang Md, Phd, Yong-Jae Lee Md, Phd, Dong-Hun Han Dds, Phd, Ji Eun Kim Phd, Hyeyoung Yeom Md, David Byun Do, Tsigab Bahta Md, Ji Won Yoo Md

Public Health Faculty Publications

We aim to examine temporal trends of orthopedic operations and opioid-related hospital stays among seniors in the nation and states of Oregon and Washington where marijuana legalization was accepted earlier than any others. As aging society advances in the United States (U.S.), orthopedic operations and opioid-related hospital stays among seniors increase in the nation. A serial cross-sectional cohort study using the healthcare cost and utilization project fast stats from 2006 through 2015 measured annual rate per 100,000 populations of orthopedic operations by age groups (45–64 vs 65 and older) as well as annual rate per 100,000 populations of opioid-related hospital …

Dental Age Estimation Of A Southern Nevada Hispanic Non-Adult Population Employing The London Atlas To Evaluate Archival Orthodontic Cone Beam Computed Tomography (Cbct) Images, Haley Buchanan

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Age estimation is of societal importance for legal, forensic, and clinical reasons. The London Atlas of Human Tooth Development and Eruption, hereafter referred to as the London Atlas, was introduced as an improved method for determining dental age estimation. The London Atlas was developed from panoramic images of 528 living British Caucasian and Bangladeshi males and females aged 2 to 24 years and panoramic images of 176 archival human skeletal remains, aged 32 in utero to 2 years old, from two specimen collections (AlQahtani, Hector, & Liversidge, 2010). Further investigation is warranted to determine validity of the atlas’s use in …

Police Use Of Force And Officer Injury: A Closer Examination Of The Impact Of Taser Deployment And Contextual Factors, Jason Kuzik

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Using secondary data from the Henderson Police Department (NV), a study was conducted to explore the contextual relationships of officers, subjects and situational characteristics related to use of force encounters. A series of research questions examine the combinations of contextual factors (i.e., officer demographics, subject demographics, and event-specific characteristics) that are associated with different types of police use of force (e.g., Taser, non-Taser), officer injuries and subject injuries. Univariate analysis, Bivariate analysis and Conjunctive Analysis of Case Configurations examine the data and identify contextual profiles associated with police use of force. The analysis shows that there is variation in the …

Stop Running In Laps: Evaluating The Lethality Assessment Program's Effectiveness In Reducing Repeat Intimate Partner Violence, Dory A. Mizrachi

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Repeat victimization is a phenomenon which is generally understood as the pattern and prevalence of victimization. This is an important factor for local authorities in their attempt to develop innovative policies and practices to facilitate predicting and preventing crimes. Thus, many police departments around the country, including the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) have adopted the Lethality Assessment Program (LAP). This is a risk assessment tool used by responding officers on domestic violence calls that intends to prevent future risk of lethal violence to victims of domestic violence by assessing their risk of lethality and providing immediate referrals to …

Is Easier, Better? A Reevaluation Of The Use Of Non-Remodeled Bone As A Histological Predictor Of Age-At-Death From The Femoral Midshaft Using Gis Software, Mariah Elaine Moe

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Traditional macroscopic methods for estimating age-at-death from human skeletal remains have been highly successful in practice but are notoriously inadequate when aging individuals over the age of 50 years. Skeletal histology has the potential to overcome these challenges to narrow the gap in age estimation and more accurately address older individuals.

Primary bone is produced during normal growth and development. Once fully matured, individuals undergo the lifelong process of remodeling wherein primary bone is replaced with microstructures called secondary osteons. As individuals age, the amount of primary bone tends to decrease. This study reexamined the use of percentage of primary …

Missed Opportunities: The Effect Of Cps Involvement On Trafficking Victims In The Delinquency System, Kelly Rae Stout

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Children and youth involved in the child welfare system are an incredibly vulnerable population that could potentially have an increased risk for being sexually exploited. In 2014, Federal Public Law 113-183 mandated that all child protective service (CPS) agencies in the United States improve services of commercially sexually exploited children and youth (CSEC). This federal directive requires that states and counties train their staff in identifying and helping children who have been or are at risk for being trafficked. To explore this complex issue, quantitative methods were used. The data were analyzed for CPS engagement among the CSEC victims identified …

Attitudes Toward Marijuana Legalization: Temporal And Thematic Trends, Daniel James Krystosek

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This dissertation examines historical changes in marijuana legalization attitudes between 1974 – 2018, using a qualitative study of pro-legalization social movements in marijuana culture and quantitative analyses of measures from the General Social Survey (GSS). The main research question asks what themes have been prevalent in pro-legalization social movements (e.g., libertarianism, anti-establishment and anti-drug-war, medical/cancer patient advocacy, market incentives), how these themes have changed over the past several decades, and whether they connect to trends in legalization attitudes in the (GSS).

The first part of this study is qualitative, employing thematic content analysis of the most prominent national pro-marijuana publication. …

Analysis Of Spheno-Occipital Synchondrosis (Sos) Fusion In A Contemporary Southern Nevada Subadult Hispanic Population Using Archival Cone-Beam Computerized Tomography (Cbct) Images, Megan Baker

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study employs the three-dimensional visualization capability of cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) to investigate the relationship between chronological age and timing of fusion of the spheno-occipital synchondrosis in a male/female subadult Hispanic population of Southern Nevada. The sample includes cross-sectional data of 374 orthodontic patients (166 males and 208 females) aged 8-20 years. The SOS is scored by a four-stage scoring system as completely open (stage 0), less than half fused (stage 1), more than half fused (stage 2), or completely fused (stage 3) as visualized in the midsagittal plane in the CBCT image. The relationship between SOS fusion stage …

Fans Gone Wild: An Interdisciplinary Review Of Spectator Violence, Ryan Radmall

Graduate Research Symposium (2018 - present)

Spectator violence refers to physical violence that occurs at special events within entertainment venues. This phenomenon can be problematic for event attendees, promoters, and security at these events.

Exploring The Women’S Needs And Risks Assessment (Wrna) In The Czech Republic, Tereza Trejbalova, Emily J. Salisbury

Graduate Research Symposium (2018 - present)

The focus of practitioners and academics alike has been shifting towards gender-responsive treatment of justice-involved women. One instrument that accounts for the realities of justice-involved women is the Women’s Needs and Risks Assessment (WRNA). In order to inquire about its validity outside the US, this tool was piloted in the Czech Republic in 2016 with 148 women prisoners. The study examined whether the WRNA is valid in the Czech Republic, and how well it predicts the disciplinary infractions of incarcerated women with different cultural backgrounds. Results suggest external validity of the WRNA as several of the gender-neutral (e.g., antisocial friends) …