Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Criminology Commons™

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Social Control, Law, Crime, and Deviance

2018

Institution
Keyword
Publication
Publication Type

Articles 1 - 30 of 48

Full-Text Articles in Criminology

Psychosocial Analysis Of An Ethnography At The Cuyahoga County Public Defenders Office, Ernest M. Oleksy Dec 2018

Psychosocial Analysis Of An Ethnography At The Cuyahoga County Public Defenders Office, Ernest M. Oleksy

The Downtown Review

Too often, social science majors become jaded with their field of study due to a misperception of the nature of many potential jobs which they are qualified for. Such discord is prevalent amongst undergraduates who strive for work in the criminal justice system. Hollywood misrepresentations become the archetypes of the aforementioned field, leaving out the necessity and ubiquity of accompanying desk work. Still other social science majors struggle to identify theoretical interpretations in praxis.

Go to article

Youth Activism, Art And Transitional Artist: Emerging Spaces Of Memory After The Jasmin Revolution, Arnaud Kurze Dec 2018

Youth Activism, Art And Transitional Artist: Emerging Spaces Of Memory After The Jasmin Revolution, Arnaud Kurze

Arnaud Kurze

This project explores the creation of alternative transitional justice spaces in post-conflict contexts, particularly concentrating on the role of art and the impact of social movements to address human rights abuses. Drawing from post-authoritarian Tunisia, it scrutinizes the work of contemporary youth activists and artists to deal with the past and foster sociopolitical change. Although these vanguard protesters provoked the overthrow of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 2011, the power vacuum was quickly filled by old elites. The exclusion of young revolutionaries from political decision-making led to unprecedented forms of mobilization to account for repression and injustice under …

Go to article

Victimization Of The Homeless: Public Perceptions, Public Policies, And Implications For Social Work Practice, Marion M. Turner, Simon P. Funge, Wesley J. Gabbard Dec 2018

Victimization Of The Homeless: Public Perceptions, Public Policies, And Implications For Social Work Practice, Marion M. Turner, Simon P. Funge, Wesley J. Gabbard

Journal of Social Work in the Global Community

Homeless individuals are particularly vulnerable to victimization, sometimes resulting in fatalities. Theories of victimization prove useful to understanding the risks inherent in being homeless as well as the public’s perception of the homeless population. Problematically, public policy that criminalizes this population may exacerbate the victimization of this group. Municipalities have turned to law enforcement and the criminal justice system to respond to people living in public spaces. Programs that ensure adequate income, affordable housing, and supportive services to prevent homelessness and address the needs of those who are homeless are essential. In addition, increased law enforcement training and the implementation …

Go to article

Political Competition And Predictors Of Hate Crime: A County-Level Analysis, Eaven Holder Dec 2018

Political Competition And Predictors Of Hate Crime: A County-Level Analysis, Eaven Holder

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Research on hate crime has tended to utilize sociological frameworks to best explain the incidence of such offending, but little research has been conducted to determine whether political factors may play a role. Although Olzak (1990) touched upon the relationship between racial violence and third-party politics during the American Progressive era (1882-1914), the research did not fully articulate how political competition may influence the commission of hate crime. The current study seeks to fill this gap, while also extending concepts associated with social disorganization theory and the defended communities perspective. It does so by utilizing a longitudinal research design to …

Go to article

Falling Between The Cracks: Understanding Why States Fail In Protecting Our Children From Crime, Michal Gilad Nov 2018

Falling Between The Cracks: Understanding Why States Fail In Protecting Our Children From Crime, Michal Gilad

All Faculty Scholarship

The article is the first to take an inclusive look at the monumental problem of crime exposure during childhood, which is estimated to be one of the most damaging and costly public health and public safety problem in our society today. It takes-on the challenging task of ‘naming’ the problem by coining the term Comprehensive Childhood Crime Impact or in short the Triple-C Impact. Informed by scientific findings, the term embodies the full effect of direct and indirect crime exposure on children due to their unique developmental characteristics, and the spillover effect the problem has on our society as …

Go to article

The Critical Need For Mental Health Education To Be Mandated In New Mexico's Public Schools, Bonnie L. Murphy Nov 2018

The Critical Need For Mental Health Education To Be Mandated In New Mexico's Public Schools, Bonnie L. Murphy

Shared Knowledge Conference

Based on a review of research and best practices in mental health awareness and skills, this inquiry project argues for state legislative policies that would require mental health awareness and skills in the K-12 curriculum. Mental health affects individual accomplishments in every stage of people’s lives beginning in early childhood and throughout the life cycle. Prevention and treatment of mental illness plays a key role in the ability of an individual to cope with loss and develop resiliency and perseverance in challenging times and to make better decisions that improve the individual’s life and the lives of those around them. …

Go to article

The Uncommon Ground: Drunk Drivers’ Self-Presentations And Accountings Of Drunk Driving, Lars Fynbo Nov 2018

The Uncommon Ground: Drunk Drivers’ Self-Presentations And Accountings Of Drunk Driving, Lars Fynbo

The Qualitative Report

The paper analyses the self-presentations of three convicted drunk drivers: two women and one man. It applies symbolic interaction theory to analyze how the interviewees account of themselves and their driving under the influence (DUI) convictions. The analysis shows how uncontrolled and unpredictable features of the data generating process impacts on the interviewees’ self-presentations. One interviewee, a 28-year-old man, uses his dog and tattoos to close-in on his problem with alcohol consumption. Another interviewee, a 61-year-old woman, uses legitimate cultural scripts of being a responsible woman to neutralize the fact that she has been drunk driving frequently for many years. …

Go to article

Program Evaluation Of The Federal Reentry Court In The Eastern District Of Pennsylvania: Report On Program Effectiveness For The First 265 Reentry Court Participants, Caitlin J. Taylor Nov 2018

Program Evaluation Of The Federal Reentry Court In The Eastern District Of Pennsylvania: Report On Program Effectiveness For The First 265 Reentry Court Participants, Caitlin J. Taylor

Sociology and Criminal Justice Faculty work

This report describes the latest evaluation of the Supervision to Aid Reentry (STAR) program (hereafter referred to as Reentry Court). The success of the Reentry Court is assessed by comparing the first 265 Reentry Court participants to a group of similarly situated individuals under supervised release. Results indicate that while Reentry Court participation does not appear to influence the likelihood of new arrests, participation is associated with a significant reduction in the likelihood of probation revocations and an increase in the likelihood of employment.

Go to article

A General Mitigation For Disturbance-Driven Crimes?: Psychic State, Personal Choice, And Normative Inquiries, Paul H. Robinson Oct 2018

A General Mitigation For Disturbance-Driven Crimes?: Psychic State, Personal Choice, And Normative Inquiries, Paul H. Robinson

All Faculty Scholarship

It is argued here that the narrow provoked “heat of passion” mitigation available under current law ought to be significantly expanded to include not just murder but all felonies and not just “heat of passion” but potentially all mental or emotional disturbances, whenever the offender’s situation and capacities meaningfully reduce the offender’s blameworthiness for the violation. In determining eligibility for mitigation, the jury should take into account (a) the extent to which the offender was acting under the influence of mental or emotional disturbance (the psychic state inquiry), (b) given the offender’s situation and capacities, the extent to which one …

Go to article

Delineating Victims From Perpetrators: Prosecuting Self-Produced Child Pornography In Youth Criminal Justice Systems, Bryce Westlake Oct 2018

Delineating Victims From Perpetrators: Prosecuting Self-Produced Child Pornography In Youth Criminal Justice Systems, Bryce Westlake

Faculty Publications

Video recording technology advancements and accessibility has been paralleled by a growth in self-produced child pornography (SPCP). Although social and judicial attention has been given to instances of teenage sexting, Internet-based forms of SPCP, such as webcam/website sex tourism, have almost been ignored. While some of the proposed legislation reform has referenced video-based SPCP, the majority has focused on SPCP distributed through cellular phones; excluding that which is manifested online or through entrepreneurial efforts. The purpose of this article is to introduce non-sexting SPCP, using the case study of Justin Berry (in the United States), and to propose a broad …

Go to article

Abuse Or Be Abused: Traumatic Memory, Sex Inequality, And Millennium As A Socio-Literary Device, Kate Rose Oct 2018

Abuse Or Be Abused: Traumatic Memory, Sex Inequality, And Millennium As A Socio-Literary Device, Kate Rose

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

This article applies the research of French psychiatrist Muriel Salmona to literary analysis of Stieg Larsson’s protagonist, Lisbeth Salander, in the Millennium trilogy (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, 2008; The Girl Who Played with Fire, 2009; The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, 2010). It suggests that Larsson’s novels may be useful in raising awareness of childhood sexual abuse, through reading neglected signs linked to the neurology of traumatic memory. In the tradition of Nordic noir novels, hyperboles in Salander’s sensationalized identity serve to magnify and bring to light a misunderstood social problem. The article …

Go to article

From Ruby Ridge To Oklahoma City: The Radicalization Of Timothy Mcveigh, Allison Reese Oct 2018

From Ruby Ridge To Oklahoma City: The Radicalization Of Timothy Mcveigh, Allison Reese

Senior Theses

The Oklahoma City bombing on April 19, 1995 was a watershed moment in American history and indelibly changed the way Americans viewed terrorism and public safety. While the effects of the bombing are well-documented, not as much attention has been paid to the motivations of the bomber, Timothy McVeigh. He was spurred to action by the events of the Waco siege, where the FBI engaged in a 51-day standoff with the Branch Davidians, a small religious group suspected of owning illegal weapons. However, this was not the first incident that inspired his later actions. In 1992, the Weaver family entered …

Go to article

Bias-Motivated Homicides: Toward A New Typology, Lindsey Sank Davis Sep 2018

Bias-Motivated Homicides: Toward A New Typology, Lindsey Sank Davis

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Despite significant progress towards equal protection under the law for women, LGBT individuals, and people of color in the United States, hate crime remains a pervasive problem, and rates appear to have increased in recent years. Bias-motivated homicide – arguably the most serious form of hate crime – is statistically rare but may have far-reaching consequences for marginalized communities. Data from the Uniform Crime Reports and the National Crime Victimization Survey have suggested that, on average, fewer than 10 bias-motivated homicides occur in the United States per year; however, data from open sources indicate that the rate of bias-motivated homicide …

Go to article

Race, Xenophobia, And Punitiveness Among The American Public, Joseph O. Baker, David Cañarte, L. Edward Day Aug 2018

Race, Xenophobia, And Punitiveness Among The American Public, Joseph O. Baker, David Cañarte, L. Edward Day

Sociology Faculty Articles and Research

We outline four connections between xenophobia and punitiveness toward criminals in a national sample of Americans. First, among self-identified whites xenophobia is more predictive of punitiveness than specific forms of racial animus. Second, xenophobia and punitiveness are strongly connected among whites, but are only moderately and weakly related among black and Hispanic Americans, respectively. Third, among whites substantial proportions of the variance between sociodemographic, political, and religious predictors of punitiveness are mediated by levels of xenophobia. Finally, xenophobia is the strongest overall predictor of punitiveness among whites. Overall, xenophobia is an essential aspect of understanding public punitiveness, particularly among whites.

Go to article

Spreading Propaganda In Cyberspace: Comparing Cyber-Resource Usage Of Al Qaeda And Isis, Kyung-Shick Choi, Claire Seungeun Lee, Robert Cadigan Aug 2018

Spreading Propaganda In Cyberspace: Comparing Cyber-Resource Usage Of Al Qaeda And Isis, Kyung-Shick Choi, Claire Seungeun Lee, Robert Cadigan

International Journal of Cybersecurity Intelligence & Cybercrime

Terrorists in cyberspace are increasingly utilizing social media to promote their ideologies, recruit new members, and justify terrorist attacks and actions. This study explores the ways in which types of social media, message contents, and motives for spreading propaganda take shape in cyberspace. In order to empirically test these relations, we created a dataset with annual terrorism reports from 2011 to 2016. In our global cyberterrorism dataset, we used and connected cyber-resources (Facebook, online forum, Twitter mentions, websites, and YouTube videos) and legal documents of individual cases that were mentioned in the reports. The results show that YouTube videos were …

Go to article

Architecture Of Aggression In Cyberspace. Testing Cyber Aggression In Young Adults In Hungary, Katalin Parti, Tibor Kiss, Gergely Koplányi Aug 2018

Architecture Of Aggression In Cyberspace. Testing Cyber Aggression In Young Adults In Hungary, Katalin Parti, Tibor Kiss, Gergely Koplányi

International Journal of Cybersecurity Intelligence & Cybercrime

In order to test whether and how violence is exacerbated in online social networking sites, we utilized the BryantSmith Aggression Scale (Bryant & Smith, 2001), and included examples in the questionnaire offering solutions for 7 different hypothetical cases occurring online (Kiss, 2017). The questionnaire was sent to social work and law school students in Hungary. Prevalence and levels of aggression and its manifestation as violence online proved to be not more severe than in offline social relations. Law students were more aware than students of social work that online hostile acts are discrediting. Students of social work were significantly more …

Go to article

Undocumented Crime Victims: Unheard, Unnumbered, And Unprotected, Pauline Portillo Aug 2018

Undocumented Crime Victims: Unheard, Unnumbered, And Unprotected, Pauline Portillo

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

Abstract forthcoming

Go to article

Effects Of Senate Bill 4 On Wage-Theft: Why All Workers Are At Risk In Low-Income Occupations, Daniella Salas-Chacon Aug 2018

Effects Of Senate Bill 4 On Wage-Theft: Why All Workers Are At Risk In Low-Income Occupations, Daniella Salas-Chacon

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

Abstract forthcoming

Go to article

More Than What Meets The Eye: An Examination Of Characteristics That Impact Juvenile Justice Detention Decisions, Ashley Maria Buchanan Jul 2018

More Than What Meets The Eye: An Examination Of Characteristics That Impact Juvenile Justice Detention Decisions, Ashley Maria Buchanan

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

Research shows that disparities still exist in the juvenile justice decision-making process, but there is a gap in our understanding of neighborhood characteristics that may affect those detention decisions. Therefore, this research examines structural factors influenced by social disorganization theory to explore the impact they have on juvenile detention decisions. Neighborhood parks and recreation centers are examined as important local institutions that provide informal social control to the neighborhood. The Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) for the city of Norfolk compiled juvenile justice data, and 2016 Census data were also used to obtain neighborhood structural information. Non-White juveniles were …

Go to article

Islamic Terrorism In The United States – The Association Of Religious Fundamentalism With Social Isolation & Paths Leading To Extreme Violence Through Processes Of Radicalization., Shay Shiran Jun 2018

Islamic Terrorism In The United States – The Association Of Religious Fundamentalism With Social Isolation & Paths Leading To Extreme Violence Through Processes Of Radicalization., Shay Shiran

Student Theses

This exploratory study focuses on identifying motivations for religious terrorism and Islamic terrorism in the United States in particular. Terrorism is a crime of extreme violence with the end purpose of political influence. This crime is challenging to encounter for its multi-faced characteristics, the unusual motivations of its actors, and their semi-militant conduct. The hypothesis of this study asserts that religious terrorists are radicalized by passing from fundamental to extreme devout agendas, caused by isolation from the dominant society, and resulted in high potential to impose those agendas by extreme violence. Under the theoretical framework of subculture in criminology, this …

Go to article

Does Mental Illness Affect Societal Perception Of Sex Offenders?, Keely A. Bartram Jun 2018

Does Mental Illness Affect Societal Perception Of Sex Offenders?, Keely A. Bartram

Student Theses

Although mental illness is common in the sex offender population, it has never been examined how evidence of such may influence societal perception. In comparison to the non-sex offender population, it was hypothesized that participants would consider mental illness less mitigating for sex offenders, would be less likely to support the mental health treatment of sex offenders while incarcerated, and would consider certain mental illnesses (schizophrenia and substance abuse disorders) as particularly aggravating for this group of offenders. Respondents were asked to read a short vignette and then respond to a series of questions about culpability, sentencing decisions, and mental …

Go to article

Dropout Or Delinquent: An Ecological Analysis Of High School Attrition Rates In Correlation To Criminal Behavior, Mallory Kiley Jun 2018

Dropout Or Delinquent: An Ecological Analysis Of High School Attrition Rates In Correlation To Criminal Behavior, Mallory Kiley

Honors Theses

The high school student attrition rate in the United States is unexpectedly high. The purpose of this research is to demonstrate a correlation between high school non-completion and criminal arrest rates in order to establish the importance of improving the public school system in the country. I analyze dropout rates, crime rates, and demographic differences through an ecological study of the United States. States with high dropout rates also have high overall arrest rates, families living in poverty, and are more religious. These factors are particularly present across the Southeast United States as well as the Southwest, particularly those with …

Go to article

The Racial Oppression In America’S Mass Incarceration, Marcella Sorrentino May 2018

The Racial Oppression In America’S Mass Incarceration, Marcella Sorrentino

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

This paper seeks to expose the racial oppression embedded within the United States' practice of mass incarceration and will provide recommendations to ameliorate this discriminatory practice that harshly and inequitably impacts people of color. Many minority communities are stuck in a continuous cycle of poverty and incarceration, in part because they are targeted and oppressed by the criminal justice system more frequently than middle class white communities. Consequently, incarcerated people of color exhibit high rates of recidivism because of being stripped of resources and being sent back to impoverished, drug-ridden neighborhoods. The War on Drugs in the 1980s and the …

Go to article

Mass Incarceration: Slavery Renamed, Samantha Pereira May 2018

Mass Incarceration: Slavery Renamed, Samantha Pereira

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

This paper aims to analyze the connections between slavery and mass incarceration. It begins by giving background information regarding the topic and setting the framework to argue that slavery was never abolished, but was instead continued using mass incarceration. The paper then goes on to further explain this concept by examining the constitutional and judicial laws in the United States, slave plantations and prisons, with regard to geographical, architectural, and operational design, and finally, the role of society in both systems. The framework for continuing slavery was set with the passing of the 13th Amendment and has since been expanded …

Go to article

Effects Of Abuse On Female Offenders, Grabiela Carranza May 2018

Effects Of Abuse On Female Offenders, Grabiela Carranza

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

Between 1995 and 2005, the number of female offenders increased significantly. However, studies show that most female offenders do not commit violent crimes. Researchers have established that women that have experienced some form of abuse causes them to offend. Although women do not commit violent crimes, they still receive severe punishments. Incarceration is not a solution for reform and courts should consider the effects of abuse on female offenders. This paper illustrates how the effects of abuse correlates with female offenders, describes the effects of abuse on male offenders and how it relates to female offenders, and provides additional risk …

Go to article

Contributing Factors To Mass Incarceration And Recidivism, Nayely Esparza Flores May 2018

Contributing Factors To Mass Incarceration And Recidivism, Nayely Esparza Flores

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

The United States has been historically known for having the most incarcerated individuals in its country. Approximately 2.3 million adults can be found under some type of penal control. Since the 1960s, the number of incarcerated individuals can be attributed to decades of tough on crime policies, controversial police practices, and racism. Mass incarceration has raised significant social justice issues, especially since it has been heavily concentrated on poor, uneducated African American men. Moreover, recidivism rates in the United States are at an all time high with over 76.6% of offenders reoffending and returning to prison (National Institute of Justice, …

Go to article

The Effects Of Community Policing Practices And Related Social Demographic Variables On City Crime Rates, Keighan Richardson May 2018

The Effects Of Community Policing Practices And Related Social Demographic Variables On City Crime Rates, Keighan Richardson

Honors Projects in History and Social Sciences

Selected studies show that community policing practices help deter crime, meaning that an inverse relationship exists between the two of them. This project does an in-depth analysis of this relationship using a variety of control variables, all of which have been shown to be predictive of crime. Crime is measured as the total crime rate (violent crimes + property crimes per 100,000 population). The data are city level, and my key control variables include city size, economic inequality, race, educational level, and strength of gun laws. There are eight variables that define community policing practices; they correlate strongly in a …

Go to article

Policing For The Community, Jeffrey Munoz May 2018

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 …

Go to article

Electric Light: Automating The Carceral State During The Quantification Of Everything, R. Joshua Scannell May 2018

Electric Light: Automating The Carceral State During The Quantification Of Everything, R. Joshua Scannell

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation traces the rise of digitally-driven policing technologies in order to make sense of how prevailing logics of governance are transformed by ubiquitous computing technology. Beginning in the early 1990s, police departments and theorists began to rely on increasingly detailed sets of metrics to evaluate performance. The adoption of digital technology to streamline quantitative evaluation coincided with a steep decline in measured crime that served as a proof-of-concept for the effectivity of digital police surveillance and analytics systems. During the turbulent first two decades of the 21st century, such digital technologies were increasingly associated with reform projects designed …

Go to article

Life Course Outcomes For Juveniles: Contact With The Criminal Justice System As A Turning Point, Dominique Tauffner Apr 2018

Life Course Outcomes For Juveniles: Contact With The Criminal Justice System As A Turning Point, Dominique Tauffner

Honors Projects

This research investigated the life course outcomes of respondents who have been arrested during adolescence. Although the creation of the juvenile justice system is relatively recent, only existing for 119 years, there is a need for data on the impact this system has on society. The pre-existing knowledge and literature on juvenile delinquency and the criminal justice system often fails to capture longitudinal data. Most scholars on this issue will discuss the immediate effects of things like incarceration and placement or what influences delinquency, ignoring the long-term consequences or life outcomes of those that have been arrested prior to 18. …

Go to article

Next Last