Criminology Commons^™

Policing For The Community, Jeffrey Munoz

Senior Honors Projects

As a society, we are currently in a period of time where the community reflects their dissatisfaction with law enforcement by staging protests, organizing groups who demand change and unfortunately at times displaying a degree of violence towards authority. These issues are products of controversial police shootings like those of the killings of Tamir rice, Freddie Gray and Eric Garner in which all demonstrated a reasonable degree of uncertainty. The fact of the matter lies within the officers’ actions as they manifest an inherent racial bias seen one to many times by populations that have been oppressed throughout history. The …

Future Of Criminal Justice In America, Andrew Karanikolis

Senior Honors Projects

Throughout history, a civilization’s attitudes toward the law, crime, and punishment have served as indicators of its morality and commitment to progress. What then, I wonder, will history say about the American Civilization? Might they ask why the wealthiest nation in the world also has the highest incarceration rates?

This is but one of the critical questions I was left with after my internship at the Rhode Island Attorney General’s Office. America currently houses over 2.5 million inmates in state and federal prisons across the country. Despite the noticeable decline in crime (particularly violent crime) over the past decade, prison …