Criminology Commons^™

Genealogy Of The Concept Of "Hate Crime": The Cultural Implications Of Legal Innovation And Social Change, Roslyn Myers

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The term "hate crime" is new to legislative and public discourse, as well as legal and social science scholarship. A decade after the concept of a "hate crime" was introduced in Congress, the 2009 Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act (HCPA), to punish criminal actors who target victims because of their characteristics (race, color ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, gender, gender identity, or disability). Using relevant archival sources, this project uses genealogical qualitative methods to examine the interplay of cultural elements manifested in this provocative term, which reflect dominance and subjugation among social groups (In- and Out-Groups) …

The Effects Of Employment On Recidivism Among Delinquent Juveniles, Leigh Kassem

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Current research indicates an association between intense adolescent work (twenty hours or more per week) and delinquent behavior. It has been widely speculated that this relationship is spurious, occurring only as a result of other factors which are common to both offending and intense employment. The current study attempts to fill a gap in the literature by utilizing the Pathways to Desistance dataset to examine the evolution of the relationship between work and self-reported offending in a longitudinal sample of juvenile offenders. Work intensity and consistency, social capital, and expectations for success were analyzed as potential predictors of recidivism or …

A Cross-Sectional Exploration Of Household Financial Reactions And Homebuyer Awareness Of Registered Sex Offenders In A Rural, Suburban, And Urban County., John Charles Navarro

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As stigmatized persons, registered sex offenders betoken instability in communities. Depressed home sale values are associated with the presence of registered sex offenders even though the public is largely unaware of the presence of registered sex offenders. Using a spatial multilevel approach, the current study examines the role registered sex offenders influence sale values of homes sold in 2015 for three U.S. counties (rural, suburban, and urban) located in Illinois and Kentucky within the social disorganization framework. Homebuyers were surveyed to examine whether awareness of local registered sex offenders and the homebuyer’s community type operate as moderators between home selling …

Examining The Processes Of Social Construction On Decision-Making In Domestic Violence Probation Review Hearings, Danielle M. Romain

Theses and Dissertations

In domestic violence courts, judges and other court actors are often trained on one particular model of understanding domestic violence: the Duluth model of violence as power and control. There are, however, different theories and discourses about the causes and nature of domestic violence. Further, specialized domestic violence courts, which have become more prevalent since the 1990s, employ a problem-solving approach to domestic violence, focusing on offender accountability, rehabilitation, and victim safety. Whether these courts reduce violence and increase safety is less clear. Further, limited research exists on how offenders are processed through these courts, including post-sentencing decision-making. Given the …

Moral Time And Homicide Investigations., David Stuart Lapsey Jr.

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Previous literature explores the many dimensions of homicide investigations, including case and individual characteristics, evidence and investigative activities. However, little research delves into situational characteristics and their relationship to specific homicides, charge severity sought by prosecutors and sentence length given to homicide offenders. The current study sampled homicide cases (N=68) to gather baseline information and data regarding judicial outcomes. Donald Black’s Theory of Moral Time (2011) is tested and utilized as the study’s conceptual framework for the study’s hypotheses.

Swaying The Jury: The Effect Of Expert Witness Testimony On Jury Verdicts In Rape Trials, Christina E. Ball

Senior Capstone Theses

With the reliance on rape myths to form opinions towards rape victims, the use of expert witnesses is of increased importance. Rape myths may give jurors misinformed notions about why, how, or to whom rape happens. This indicates a need for educational expert testimony in rape jury trials. It is proposed the use of this testimony will help dispel these myths and social biases towards victims of rape. This paper explores the need for expert witness testimony and the relationship between expert witness and jury. It discusses what type of testimony may be presented and who qualifies as an expert. …

Local Immigration Enforcement Entrepreneurship In The Punishment Marketplace, Daniel L. Stageman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The contemporary neoliberal economic order plays a significant role in American social organization and policy-making. Most importantly, neoliberal ideology drives the creation and imposition of markets in public goods and services and the valorization of free market ideology in cultural life. The neoliberal ‘project of inequality’ is in turn delimited and upheld by an authoritarian system of punishment built around mass incarceration, surveillance, and an unprecedented level of social control directed at the lowest strata of American society – a group that includes both the urban underclass, and unauthorized immigrants.

This study lays out the theory of the punishment marketplace …

The Fear Factor: Exploring The Impact Of The Vulnerability To Deportation On Immigrants' Lives, Shirley P. Leyro

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This qualitative study explores the impact that the fear of deportation has on the lives of noncitizen immigrants. More broadly, it explores the role that immigration enforcement, specifically deportation, plays in disrupting the process of integration, and the possible implications of this interruption for immigrants and their communities. The study aims to answer: (1) how vulnerability to deportation specifically impacts an immigrant’s life, and (2) how the vulnerability to deportation, and the fear associated with it, impacts an immigrant’s degree of integration. Data were gathered through a combination of six open-ended focus group interviews of 10 persons each, and 33 …

Perceived Credibility Of Child Witness Statements Based On Age And Gender, Beverly M. Griffor

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Although a great deal of empirical research and theoretical analysis has been done on in relation to jury perception of the credibility of child witnesses, virtually none of it has focused on the impact of age and gender of child witnesses alone on juror perceptions. This study expands on the existing body of knowledge on juror bias by exploring the connection between the perceived credibility of a child witness and the age or gender of that witness. Participants were given a choice between two children of different ages and/or genders. The participants were asked about the believability of the identified …

The Justified Lawman: Cowboy Killings In The Modern Era, Joel Franklin Harman

Online Theses and Dissertations

Stereotypes advanced by the popular media, do not necessarily have the power to directly determine an individual's ways of thinking, but do help frame and reinforce already existing cultural beliefs, particularly within the context of the seemingly innocuous narrative fictions of cable television. These narratives not only simplify complex ideas, but also can further entrench or justify harmful social relations. My contention here, is that the popular television program Justified does precisely this by normalizing police violence and the ways that the police underpin and reproduce profoundly disparate class and racialized social order. While in many ways a typical police …

Jailhouse Informants In Canadian Criminal Courts, Olena Beshley

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Criminal justice systems in Canada and around the world have been established to deal with matters that require attention, punishment, and justice. An important function of criminal justice systems is the evaluation of evidence presented in the court of law. Evidence from jailhouse informants who testify that they have been privy to confessions of crimes is a contentious issue. Much of the scholarly literature available to date on wrongful conviction cases focuses on causes of insufficient and unreliable evidence obtained through different techniques and from different sources. Despite the high number of investigations into wrongful conviction cases, the subject of …

Older Indigent Women’S Economic Crimes: Subsuming Feminism In Favour Of A Human Rights Explanation, Patricia Joan Rhodes

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Many people today believe the concept of gender inequality is outmoded, irrelevant and unnecessary in Western societies that are deemed egalitarian. As a consequence, feminism as a movement with gender equality at its core has often been proclaimed ‘dead’,a relic of the past. Feminist perspectives, nevertheless, have produced differing points of view about the sources of gender inequality affecting crime rates and criminal behaviour.

For the last 50 years or so, women and girls have been the subject of criminological research that has largely evolved from sociological perspectives and specifically from feminism. Although gender intersects with other social realities and …