Criminology Commons^™

Broken Windows, Police, &Traffic Safety, Carol Servino

Graduate Research Symposium (GCUA) (2010 - 2017)

Abstract This research explores application of the “broken windows” theory of public disorder and urban decline to the pattern and problem of police officer fatalities in motor vehicle crashes. It contextualizes the influential theory into a 45-year timeline of significant events related to legislative efforts and traffic safety behavioral safety programs in the United States. It finds one police agency that reported fewer crimes and fewer crashes after implementing a community-wide Safe Streets program designed around “broken windows” theory in 1997. It pays particular attention to states with the highest percentages of law enforcement officer fatalities in motor vehicle crashes, …

Examining The Role Of Life Satisfaction And Negative Emotionality In A Social Disorganization Framework, Jeremy Waller, Timothy C. Hart

Graduate Research Symposium (GCUA) (2010 - 2017)

At the core of the social disorganization perspective is the notion that neighborhood structural factors (i.e., socio-economic status, residential mobility, racial heterogeneity, family disruption, and urbanization) disrupt a community’s ability to self-regulate, which in turn leads to crime and delinquency.

Exogenous neighborhood characteristics believed to be causally linked to crime and delinquency are consistently derived from official Census data and endogenous community characteristics are typically measured from self-reported surveys.

The body of literature supporting the social disorganization explanation of criminogenic places is growing and supports the idea that neighborhood structural determinants of crime influence residents’ feelings of social capital and …

Victimology, Emily Adler

Emily S. Adler

Until recently, the family sociology literature has been characterized by a conspicuous absence of research on marital violence. Efforts to fill this gap are evidenced by a growing body of material in the area. It is in this context that Victimology's Special Issue on Spouse Abuse and Domestic Violence makes a worthwhile contribution to the effort to expose the problem and propose solutions.

Heavy Handed: A Multi-Level Approach To Understanding Regional Variation In The Use Of Force By Police, Zachary R. Young

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Using data from the Survey of Inmates in State and Federal Correctional Facilities, 2004 (ICPSR 4572) from the United States Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics, the goal of this paper is to determine whether or not there are regional variations in the way in which American police officers use force at the time of arrest. Specifically, this paper suggests that lower levels of police-suspect violence are present in the Southern United States owning to a culture of violence. Conversely, higher levels of police-suspect violence are likely to be found in the Northern United States as a result of …

Book Review: Securing The Cloud: Cloud Computer Security Techniques And Tactics, Katina Michael

Associate Professor Katina Michael

With so much buzz around Cloud Computing, books like this one written by Winkler are much in demand. Winkler’s experience in the computing business shines through and as readers we are spoiled with a great deal of useful strategic information- a jam packed almost 300 page volume on securing the cloud.

Book Review: The Basics Of Information Security: Understanding The Fundamentals Of Infosec In Theory And Practice, Katina Michael

Professor Katina Michael

Dr Jason Andress (ISSAP, CISSP, GPEN, CEH) has written a timely book on Information Security. Andress who is a seasoned security professional with experience in both the academic and business worlds, categorically demonstrates through his book that underlying the operation of any successful business today is how to protect your most valuable asset- “information”. Andress completed his doctorate in computer science in the area of data protection, and presently works for a major software company, providing global information security oversight and performing penetration testing and risks assessment.

The Changing Nature Of Homicide And Its Impact On Homicide Clearance Rates: A Quantitative Analysis Of Two Trends From 1984-2009, Lauren Korosec

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The following analyses uses the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Supplementary Homicide Report (SHR) data from 1984 to 2009 to examine factors that predict whether a homicide will be cleared or not (N=439,542). Two theories inform the current study: 1) Black’s theory of law (discretionary variables) proposes that characteristics of the victim, such as age or race, influence how diligently police work to solve a homicide; and 2) non-discretionary theories propose that characteristics of the homicide act, such as geographic location and weapon use, are more important to the solvability of a homicide. Preliminary analyses of clearance rates indicate decreasing …

The Martin Institute Prints, Spring 2012, Stonehill College Martin Institute

The Martin Institute: Prints

No abstract provided.

In Memoriam: Associate Professor Dr Elaine Lawrence, Katina Michael

Associate Professor Katina Michael

Despite being a graduate of the rigorous Bachelor of Information Technology at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) in 1996, I was unfortunate in that I missed being taught by Associate Professor Elaine Lawrence who began working at UTS in 1990 as a Lecturer in Computing Science. Dr Lawrence became a senior lecturer in 2000, and subsequently an associate professor in 2006. Our paths crossed in 2002 when I was tasked to deliver a new course entitled “eBusiness Principles” in my first year of lecturing at the University of Wollongong, and after an initial scurry to find an adequate textbook, …

High Expectations And Some Wounded Hopes: The Policy And Politics Of A Uniform Statute On Videotaping Custodial Interrogations, Andrew E. Taslitz

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

Much has been written about the need to videotape the entire process of police interrogation of suspects. Videotaping discourages abusive interrogation techniques, improves police training in proper techniques, reduces frivolous suppression motions, and improves jury decision making about the voluntariness and accuracy of a confession. Despite these benefits, only a small number of states have adopted legislation mandating electronic recording of the entire interrogation process. In the hope of accelerating legislative adoption of this procedure and of improving the quality of such legislation, the Uniform Law Commission (ULC) ratified a uniform recording statute for consideration by the states. I was …

Is Emerging Adulthood Influencing Moffitt’S Developmental Taxonomy? Adding The “Prolonged” Adolescent Offender, Christopher Salvatore, Travis A. Taniguchi, Wayne Welsh

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The study of offender trajectories has been a prolific area of criminological research. However, few studies have incorporated the influence of emerging adulthood, a recently identified stage of the life course, on offending trajectories. The present study addressed this shortcoming by introducing the "prolonged adolescent" offender, a low-level offender between the ages of 18 and 25 that has failed to successfully transition into adult social roles. A theoretical background based on prior research in life-course criminology and emerging adulthood is presented. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health analyses examined the relationship between indicators of traditional turning …

Biased Visual Attention To Out-Group Members' Skin Tone Does Not Lead To Discriminatory Behavior, Sathiarith Chau

Honors Projects

According to the racial phenotype theory, the extent to which members resemble or depart from the physical prototype of a particular race will determine how strongly the perceiver associates them with preconceived racial stereotypes. For Blacks, skin color was predicted to be a primary feature attended to and those with dark skin were more negatively stereotyped. The current study aimed to explicitly measure visual attention during judgment of faces through the use of eye-tracking. Past methodologies measuring the attention to skin tone and its relationship to stereotype judgment were not directly measured. The study used a mixed model design: Label …

The Impact Of Neighborhoods On Intimate Partner Violence And Victimization, Gillian M. Pichevsky, Emily M. Wright

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Research on intimate partner violence (IPV) and victimization is widespread across disciplines. To date, the majority of research underscores the importance of individual-level factors to explain IPV, thereby neglecting the significance of macro-level elements. Nevertheless, research suggests that the characteristics of the neighborhood where an individual lives are important for fully understanding IPV. This review focuses on the effects of neighborhoods and macro-level context on violence between intimate partners, specifically identifying empirical studies that have examined contextual predictors of IPV utilizing the major tenets of social disorganization theory. The authors note consistencies and differences across research results and describe study …

A Cross-National, Longitudinal Test Of Institutional Anomie Theory, Marc Alan Kittleson

Masters Theses

Institutional anomie theory, developed by Messner and Rosenfeld (1994), explains variations in crime rates across geographic areas and time as resulting from the interrelationship between social institutions and culture. Their theory predicts that when the institution of the economy dominates all other social institutions, and when norms and values focus heavily on monetary success, crime rates will be higher than when there is less dominance of the economy. Institutional anomie theory has been tested using a number of different methods and data from county-level to international-level aggregates. This study addresses the research question of whether variations in crime victimization can …

Cj Times Volume 6, Issue 2, Department Of Criminal Justice

CJ Times (Newsletter)

No abstract provided.

The Correlation Between The Three Reading Fluency Subskills And Reading Comprehension In At-Risk Adolescent Readers, Craig Courbron

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this study was to determine which of the three reading fluency subskills were most strongly correlated with reading comprehension in adolescent at-risk readers. The participants were 82 adolescent males (ages 13-19) who had been committed to a juvenile detention facility. Archival data from a two-year period was collected from a maximum security juvenile detention facility in a rural section of the Northeastern United States. The Measures of Academic Progress test was used to collect reading comprehension data; the Qualitative Reading Inventory-4 test was used to collect reading speed and reading accuracy data; the Multidimensional Fluency Scale was …

Deliver Us From Evil - Police Tactical Psychology Bulletin, Rodger E. Broome Phd

Rodger E. Broome

There is no hero or protector without a menace from which to protect or save others. Therefore, it is essential to understanding our adversaries better so that we may better appreciate our service to our citizens

Assessment Of Firesetters, Rebekah Doley, Bruce Watt

Bruce Watt

Extract This chapter will equip readers with the information required to screen and assess arsonists effectively using a number of modalities. The appropriate tools are presented and discussed, along with the evidence base underlying them. The focus of the discussion is on risk assessment, recidivism and dangerousness. In particular, these issues are discussed with reference to mental health and psychiatric patients as arsonists. The terms ’arson’ and ’firesetting’ will be used interchangeably throughout this chapter; the term ‘arson’ is commonly acknowledged to have a legal definition, while firesetting describes the behaviour itself.

Assessment Of Firesetters, Rebekah Doley, Bruce Watt

Rebekah Doley

Extract This chapter will equip readers with the information required to screen and assess arsonists effectively using a number of modalities. The appropriate tools are presented and discussed, along with the evidence base underlying them. The focus of the discussion is on risk assessment, recidivism and dangerousness. In particular, these issues are discussed with reference to mental health and psychiatric patients as arsonists. The terms ’arson’ and ’firesetting’ will be used interchangeably throughout this chapter; the term ‘arson’ is commonly acknowledged to have a legal definition, while firesetting describes the behaviour itself.

Power And Excitement In Arson: The Case Of Firefighter Arson, Rebekah Doley, Kenneth Fineman

Rebekah Doley

Extract Perhaps more than most crimes, the crime of arson is often shrouded in anecdotal descriptions concerning what actually motivates the offender. Arson in any form is repugnant, but even more so when the individual involved is a serving member of the fire service. Fire department personnel and the community alike abhor incidents of this nature. Although the incidence of fire-fighter arson is low in comparison with the total number of currently serving fire-fighters, the impact on community faith and fire service morale is disproportionately great. The integrity of the service is demonstrated in the performance of its personnel. While …