Criminology Commons^™

Honor, Courage, Commitment: Understanding Sexual Assault In The United States Navy, Caitlin Veronica Muldoon

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

Recently, sexual assault within the military community has been drawing the attention of the media, military leaders, politicians and every day citizens. Criminologists however have traditionally not addressed this crime, and have specifically not addressed sexual assault within the US Navy. This dissertation seeks to address the current gap in literature by examining the sociocultural workplace climate of the US military and its possible contribution to the occurrence of sexual assaults. Utilizing original data obtained by NCIS, regression models were ran to evaluate sexual assault victim and offender demographics. The surprising findings were then discussed within the context of possible …

Law Enforcement Innovation And Diffusion: A Network Analysis Of Police Accreditation, Jeremiah Paul Johnson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study seeks to identify network structures capable of predicting innovation uptake among law enforcement organizations. Utilizing a mixed-methods approach, diffusion is studied through the lens of a single innovation, state law enforcement accreditation. Quantitative data culled from a variety of social artifacts in two New England states are used as a basis for the study. Relational data extracted from meetings held by a private police chief's association over an 11 year period were used to construct an affiliation matrix. Social network analysis demonstrates that actors with high levels of centrality are more likely to self-select state accreditation enrollment than …

The Effects Of Frequent Exposure To Violence And Trauma On Police Officers, Ternarian Warren

Ternarian A Warren PhD

Police officers who maintain negative or traumatic information in long-term memory are vulnerable to mental illness, unstable emotional and behavioral responses, interpersonal problems, and impaired social relationships. The cognitive theory suggests that police officers externalize various negative or maladaptive behaviors as a result of frequent exposure to traumatic events. Researchers have found that police officers tend to either not seek mental health treatment, try to fix their own mental health problem, or if in treatment will not be forthcoming with internalized thoughts of psychological distress. The intention of this research was to examine the relationship between police officers' frequent exposure …

Elusive Peace, Security, And Justice In Post-Conflict Guatemala: An Exploration Of Transitional Justice And The International Commission Against Impunity In Guatemala (Cicig), Daniel W. Schloss

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Guatemala has, until today, struggled to achieve security and justice following the end of nearly half a century of civil war in 1996. One specific institution, the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), has been implemented to rectify many of the Guatemalan state’s difficulties in establishing and maintaining the rule of law. In this thesis, I look to better explain CICIG’s role in Guatemala relative to security and justice in a post-conflict setting: I define CICIG as an institution potentially capable of building societal trust, and I explain how the inclusion of procedural justice within transitional justice can help …

Evaluation Of The Community Safety Initiative: Assignment Of Rapid Co-Ordinators, Matt Bowden

Reports

No abstract provided.

Reporting The Crisis: Baltimore, #Freddiegray, And The News And Social Media Reaction, Jeffrey Ross

Jeffrey Ian Ross Ph.D.

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Realignment On Property Crime: Perspectives Of Chiefs Of Police, Daniel S. Llorens

Dissertations

Realignment, instituted in October 2011, was California’s latest effort at prison reform by realigning responsibility for prisoners labeled nonviolent, non-serious, and non sex-related from the state to counties. Many of these offenders were in state prison upon conviction of property crime offenses. Realignment had a net decarcerative effect on offenders. Simultaneously, California cities’ officer staffing levels shrunk during the great recession. To determine what impact realignment may have had on property crime in small California cities, and to identify effective response strategies, property crime and officer staffing data was analyzed and a survey administered to the chiefs of those cities. …

Human Intelligence In Federal Terrorism Cases, Noah James Schneider

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Though it has often been quipped that the September 11th attacks changed "everything", domestic policy alterations were among the most significant changes after 9/11. Specifically, the 2002 Ashcroft Attorney General Guidelines and the 2008 Mukasey Attorney General Guidelines were two of the most impactful policy changes following 9/11. These Attorney General Guidelines changed the way the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigated terrorism in the United States in addition to making counterterrorism the FBI's top priority. One of the ways the FBI prevents terrorism is through the use of undercover agents and confidential informants. How the 2002 and 2008 Attorney …

The Consequences For Children Of Incarcerated Parents., Lashawn Ford

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

There have been many controversies within the United States regarding the criminal justice system. One of the most common notions is the lack of support we give to the victims of crime. Generally, we associate the term “victim” with individuals who are directly harmed by the crime; however, we rarely consider the families of incarcerated offenders as victims (Light and Campbell 306). According to the U.S. Department of Justice, over fifty percent of state and federal inmates have at least one child under eighteen years of age (Glaze and Maruschak 1). This paper will focus on the effects incarceration can …

Developing Capacity And A Culturally Appropriate Mindfulness Intervention For Inner City Survivors Of Violence, Stephanie Hartwell, Anna Andrews

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

This project examines the acceptability and cultural relevance of Mindfulness for low-income communities of color most affected by urban/gun violence. The burden of violence extends to classmates, friends, family members, and communities through adverse effects on parenting, quality of life, economic productivity, and social cohesion.

Kittens And Nutella: Why Women Join Isis, Samantha K. Smith

What All Americans Should Know About Women in the Muslim World

On February 18, 2015 CNN published a reported stating that Western women were leaving their homes to join ISIS because of a social media campaign featuring pictures of kittens and Nutella. This reported propagated the notion that women who join jihadist organizations are brainwashed or feeble minded. The reality is not so simple. This paper explores the motives women may have for joining ISIS through comparison to the motivations that drove women to partake in other violent jihadist organizations' activities.

Challenges In Implementing Restorative Justice Practices In The United States, Erin Roaza

Capstone Collection

The purpose of this study was to research the challenges that restorative justice practices come across in their institutional and implementation phases within the United States. The modern concept or philosophy of Restorative Justice has been around for about four decades since the 1970s or 80s. There have been multiple studies made to prove that restorative justice practices might reduce recidivism incarceration costs, while also creating a more fulfilling experience for all parties involved, including minimizing feelings of revenge from the victim. So why has the United States criminal justice system not made more advancements to incorporate more restorative justice …

Inmate-, Incident-, And Facility-Level Factors Associated With Escapes From Custody And Violent Outcomes, Bryce E. Peterson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Introduction: Preventing escapes from custody is a critical function of prisons, jails, and the individuals who run these correctional facilities. Escapes are a popular topic in the news, among lawmakers, and in public discourse. Much of this interest stems from the widespread notion that escapees pose a serious threat to public safety, as well to the safety of correctional staff and law enforcement officers tasked with preventing and apprehending them. However, despite the importance of preventing escapes and minimizing violence, there has been very little empirical research on these issues in the past several decades. Extant research has also been …

Challenging The Political Assumption That “Guns Don’T Kill People, Crazy People Kill People!”, Heath J. Hodges, Mario Scalora

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Every time an infamous mass shooting takes place, a storm of rhetoric sweeps across this country with the fury of a wild fire. “Why are we letting these people carry guns?” “Why were they not hospitalized?” “The government needs to crack down on this issue!” What is the government’s response to these cries of concern? Politicians and the media attempt to ease public fears by drawing tenuous connections among a handful of poorly understood tragedies. The salient commonality is that these high-profile shooters had some history of mental illness. A cursory review of the Internet will paint a troubling picture …

"The Classical School, Deterrence Theory, And Zero Tolerance" An Analysis Of A Mandatory Zero Tolerance Sanctioning Policy In Relation To The Classical School Of Criminology And Deterrence Theory, Adam Saeler

School of Criminal Justice Theses and Dissertations

Mandatory sentences, and especially those that promote severe detention lengths, have become a popular mechanism in the fight against crime, but are they effective? Certain Sanctions, an adult probation-based sanctioning mandate, is an example of one such mandatory policy that emphasizes harsh sanctions in order to promote reduced future criminality. The philosophy behind such a device fits well into the theoretical framework of deterrence theory in that quick, severe sanctions ought to reduce future criminality. However, little research exists regarding the effectiveness of such a mandatory probation-based sanction policy with regards to the reduction of future criminality. Furthermore, the impact …

Influences Of Csi Effect, Daubert Ruling, And Nas Report On Forensic Science Practices, Timothy Patrick Scanlan

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The media exaggerates the capabilities of crime laboratories while it publicizes the wrongdoings of individual forensic scientists. Such portrayals skew the perspectives of jurors and hinder expert witness testimony. Complicating the problem are separate, but related, phenomena that influence how forensic laboratories conduct casework. These phenomena are Cole and Dioso-Villa's conceptualization of the unrealistic expectations of forensic science created by fictional television, known as the CSI Effect; the Daubert ruling on the admissibility of expert testimony; and some federal policy changes as a result of a National Academy of Sciences (NAS) report that impacted requirements for the daily operation of …

The Effects Of Frequent Exposure To Violence And Trauma On Police Officers, Ternarian A. Warren

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Police officers who maintain negative or traumatic information in long-term memory are vulnerable to mental illness, unstable emotional and behavioral responses, interpersonal problems, and impaired social relationships. The cognitive theory suggests that police officers externalize various negative or maladaptive behaviors as a result of frequent exposure to traumatic events. Researchers have found that police officers tend to either not seek mental health treatment, try to fix their own mental health problem, or if in treatment will not be forthcoming with internalized thoughts of psychological distress. The intention of this research was to examine the relationship between police officers' frequent exposure …

Racism Vs. Social Capital: A Case Study Of Two Majority Black Communities, Bruce W. Strouble

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Several researchers have identified social capital as a means to improve the social sustainability of communities. While there have been many studies investigating the benefits of social capital in homogeneous White communities, few have examined it in Black homogeneous communities. Also, there has been limited research on the influence of racism on social capital in African American communities. In this dissertation a comparative case study was used within a critical race theory framework. The purpose was to explore the role of racial oppression in shaping social capital in majority African American communities. Data were collected from 2 majority Black communities …

Broadening Campus Threat Assessment Beyond Mass Shootings, Brandon A. Hollister, Mario Scalora

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Record reviews of public figure, primary/secondary school, and workplace threateners and attackers displayed the importance of noticing pre-incident behaviors and intervening to prevent violence. General crime prevention strategies did not appear applicable. Similarly, campus threat assessment research has considered targeted violence as distinctive and unable to be reviewed within general collegiate samples, which has related to questions about the prevalence, predictiveness, applicability, and reporting of pre-incident behaviors. This article applies general criminological and crime prevention findings to these questions and presents campus threat assessment methodologies informed by these fields. With college student surveys, pre-incident behaviors have appeared predictive of general …

Justice: 1850s San Francisco And The California Gold Rush, Paul H. Robinson, Sarah M. Robinson

All Faculty Scholarship

Using stories from the 1848-1851 California gold miners, the 1851 San Francisco vigilante committees, Nazi concentration camps of the 1940s, and wagon trains of American westward migration in the 1840s, the chapter illustrates that it is part of human nature to see doing justice as a value in itself—in people’s minds it is not dependent for justification on the practical benefits it brings. Having justice done is sufficiently important to people that they willingly suffer enormous costs to obtain it, even when they were neither hurt by the wrong nor in a position to benefit from punishing the wrongdoer.

This …

Powerlessness Within A Budget-Driven Paradigm: A Grounded Theory Leadership Study From The Perspective Of Michigan Corrections Officers, Timothy Michael Eklin

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This study explored the lived-experiences of 15 correctional officers and 5 sergeants working in adult state-operated prison facilities in Michigan. In particular, this qualitative grounded theory study revealed the impact that budget driven decision-making had on the lives of correctional officers: its effect on institutional custody, security, and safety. The study finds that many recent policy changes resulted in a sense of powerlessness expressed by the participants of the study. Participants found themselves in a precarious position, situated in between the prison population and the administration. Having an understanding of how correctional officers make meaning of their work in relation …

Predicting Job Performance In Correctional Officers With Pre-Employment Psychological Screening, Shelley S. Hyland

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

There is substantial cost in the hiring and training of a correctional officer, with a high rate of turnover compounding these costs. While pre-employment psychological screening is suggested as one method to prevent these losses, mandates to screen are not as common in corrections as they are in law enforcement. Further, minimal research has examined the validity of psychological testing in correctional officers. This dissertation examined pre-employment psychological screening for 421 correctional officers hired by one of three upstate New York sheriff's departments. Assessments were conducted by Public Safety Psychology, PLLC from March, 1997 to June, 2012. T scores and …

Critical Factors In Police Use-Of-Force Decisions, Orville Nickel

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This study investigated law enforcement officers' perceptions of the legal, normative, and practical considerations that are implicit in their decisions when faced with using physical force. Law enforcement officers observe and protect fundamental human rights. A significant problem, however, is that physical force is sometimes misused, impacting public confidence in police services. The study was framed by Durkheim's conflict theory and Beirie's concepts of police corporate culture and social control. It used a grounded theory method and predeveloped case scenarios presented to 2 male focus groups of 7 and 6 participants respectively, and 2 female focus groups of 5 and …

Abstract Uneducated Injustice: A Social Cognitive Approach To Understanding Juror Misconduct And Verdict Errors, Melinee Melissa Marie Calhoun

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

A continual problem in the adjudication of crime in the United States is the continued occurrence of erroneous convictions and acquittals. This problem impacts the victims of crimes as they endure emotional and mental distress of additional investigations and new trials. Defendants are impacted by errors in verdicts because of the loss of freedom while being factually innocent. These errors may occur because jurors may not be knowledgeable of their role, right and responsibilities. Without regard to the judge's minimum instruction, the jury is not provided direction on the purpose and limitations of their roles. Guided by the social cognitive …

The Deterrent Effect Of Disciplinary Segregation On Prison Inmate Misconduct, Joseph William Lucas

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Although a widely used practice, it was previously unknown whether disciplinary segregation is actually effective at modifying prison behavior. This quantitative, retrospective observational study tested deterrence theory and explored the effectiveness of disciplinary segregation in deterring subsequent prison inmate misconduct among those subjected to it (N = 228). It compared a cohort of male inmates incarcerated by the Oregon Department of Corrections who had spent time in disciplinary segregation in 2011 and/or 2012 with a comparison cohort who had not spent any time in disciplinary segregation. Three models were tested, each with the outcome variable operationalized in a different way: …

Public Safety Impact Of Electronic Monitoring Of Texas High-Risk Offenders, Paul Utu Aliu

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The use of electronic monitoring (EM) as a tool to supervise high-risk offenders has increased in the field of criminal justice in the state of Texas. Although EM is now widely used to supervise high-risk offenders to prevent them from committing further crimes, it is unclear whether EM has achieved the purpose of reducing reoffenses during parole supervision. Hirschi's social bond theory, which was later developed into social control theory, was used as the framework for this general qualitative study to explore retired parole officers' perceptions concerning whether EM is successful in preventing high-risk offenders from committing additional crimes. Interview …

Attitudes Of Returning Citizens In Government-Managed Post-Release Programming, Zachary D'Jon Weaver

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Nearly 700,000 prisoners return to communities annually, and approximately two-thirds are rearrested within 3 years of release. The cyclic pattern of recidivism presents risks to both returning offenders and the communities that accept them. Reentry research tends to include the voice and experiences of juveniles, community members, and service providers, and narrowly focuses on the socioeconomic conditions of adult ex-offender populations pre- and post-release. Few researchers have explored the attitudes of those returning citizens or the perceived impact on treatment success, as related to employment-based, post-release reintegration programs. This study investigated the attitudes of 32 participants of Project Empowerment, the …

Discounting And Criminals' Implied Risk Preferences, Murat C. Mungan, Jonathan Klick

All Faculty Scholarship

It is commonly assumed that potential offenders are more responsive to increases in the certainty than increases in the severity of punishment. An important implication of this assumption within the Beckerian law enforcement model is that criminals are risk-seeking. This note adds to existing literature by showing that offenders who discount future monetary benefits can be more responsive to the certainty rather than the severity of punishment, even when they are risk averse, and even when their disutility from imprisonment rises proportionally (or more than proportionally) with the length of the sentence.

The Influence Of A Juvenile's Abuse History On Support For Sex Offender Registration, Cynthia J. Najdowski, M. C. Stevenson, J. M. Salerno, T. R. A. Wiley, B. L. Bottoms, K. M. Farnum

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

We investigated whether and how a juvenile’s history of experiencing sexual abuse affects public perceptions of juvenile sex offenders in a series of 5 studies. When asked about juvenile sex offenders in an abstract manner (Studies 1 and 2), the more participants (community members and undergraduates) believed that a history of being sexually abused as a child causes later sexually abusive behavior, the less likely they were to support sex offender registration for juveniles. Yet when participants considered specific sexual offenses, a juvenile’s history of sexual abuse was not considered to be a mitigating factor. This was true when participants …

Punishment: Drop City And The Utopian Communes, Paul H. Robinson, Sarah M. Robinson

All Faculty Scholarship

Using stories from the utopian non-punishment hippie communes of the late 1960's, the essay challenges today’s anti-punishment movement by demonstrating that the benefits of cooperative action are available only with the adoption of a system for punishing violations of core rules. Rather than being an evil system anathema to right-thinking people, punishment is the lynchpin of the cooperative action that has created human success.

This is Chapter 3 from the general audience book Pirates, Prisoners, and Lepers: Lessons from Life Outside the Law. Chapter 4 of the book is also available on SSRN at http://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=2416484).