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Democracy, Prison, And Public Safety Realignment: Renewing Our Imagination, Kimberly Turner

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

The American carceral condition has waged a 200-year-old struggle where the lives of the guilty, the innocent, and the victimized have taken center stage in a debate centered on rehabilitation, reformation, and revenge. The drama has undergone a number of revisions from great scholarly authors, multidisciplinary intellectuals, and literary muses. Despite a number of new renderings, the central themes of the American prison have remained constant, and just as there have been builders of prisons, there have been forces intent on their destruction. The current state of the American carceral condition has burgeoned since the neoliberal political and economic shift …

Juvenile Diversion Programs: High-Risk Youth And Their Effect On Offense Targeting, Chelsey R. Warner

Political Science Theses and Capstones

One of the largest problems that plague the juvenile justice system today is how to better handle juvenile crime without causing the juvenile to revert back to that behavior, but still helping them understand and acknowledge the crime they have committed. The state of Minnesota has created juvenile diversion programs as an attempt to aid in that endeavor. These programs however are under researched. The goal of this article is to shed some light on what those programs look like and how some counties programs vary from other programs on other counties; specifically focusing on the variation between offense-targeting for …

Prevention And Management Of Stress In Policing: A Review Of The Literature, Portland State University. Criminology And Criminal Justice Senior Capstone

Criminology and Criminal Justice Senior Capstone Project

Working as a police officer can be a rewarding job, but it can also be a stressful one. Policing is one of the few professions where individuals deal with many stressors, which exceed the usual expectations of society. Although there is no way to eliminate stress and the burnout it can cause, there are methods law enforcement agencies can utilize to help officers prevent stress from worsening and to make it more manageable. This literature review contains information to help police agencies train officers about prevention and management of stress in the workplace. It is based on 29 studies from …

The Lancaster County Juvenile Reentry Project, Anne M. Hobbs, Ryan E. Spohn, Jenna Strawhun, Timbre Wulf-Ludden, Johanna Peterson, Sommer Fousek

Reports

In order to establish a best practice model for juveniles reentering the community, Lancaster County brought multiple agencies together in 2012 and began to develop a systematic juvenile reentry approach, which became known as the “Reentry Project.” By January 2013, Lancaster County had contracted with multiple agencies to ensure this new approach was used when youth were returning to the community.

Denormalizing Violence: Evaluation Framework For A Public Health Model Of Violence Prevention, Jeffrey A. Butts, Lindsay Bostwick, Jeremy Porter

Publications and Research

John Jay College's Research and Evaluation Center evaluated the effectiveness of the Cure Violence approach to violence reduction. Between April 2013 and February 2014, researchers began the project by visiting Cure Violence sites in New York City and Chicago, the home base for Cure Violence. The research team observed the program's operation and assessed the model's suitability for detailed evaluation. The report addresses the operations of the Cure Violence model and how it differs from other approaches for reducing gun violence. It reviews the evidence underlying these models and proposes an agenda for future evaluation research.

Line Drawing: Raising The Minimum Age Of Criminal Court Jurisdiction In New York, Jeffrey A. Butts, John K. Roman

Publications and Research

This report was designed to inform New York's 2014 state commission on raising the age at which juveniles were charged as adults in New York courts. The report includes a review of existing evidence that supports raising the minimum age of criminal court jurisdiction in New York, describes the critical role economic consequences often play in such policy debates, and suggests how lawmakers should move forward by projecting the costs and benefits of reform transparently and objectively.

Assessing Sheriff’S Office Emergency And Disaster Website Communications, Philip M. Stinson, John Liederbach, L. Fleming Fallon, Hans Schmalzried

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Sheriff’s offices are an integral component of the public health emergency preparedness and response system in the United States. During a public health emergency or disaster, sheriff’s offices need to communicate with people affected by the event. Sheriff’s office websites are logical sources for information about disaster preparedness and response efforts. No prior research evaluates emergency preparedness and response resources available through sheriff’s office websites. The current research is a national study of sheriff’s office websites to assess the availability of information relating to emergency preparedness and response. A content analysis of 2,590 sheriff’s office website homepages was conducted to …

The Bad Guys Are Using It, Are You?, Hong-Eng Koh

Australian Security and Intelligence Conference

From Occupy Wall Street to 2011 England riots to Arab Spring to Mumbai 26/11 to the ethnic cleansing rumors in India and increasingly used by pedophiles, social media is a very powerful tool for pedophiles, troublemakers, criminals and even terrorists to target individuals and even to go against the establishment. On the other hand, social media can save lives in a disaster, and its a natural extension of community policing or engagement. Community engagement is a must-have strategy for any public safety and security agency. However, this strategy requires the removal of stovepipe processes and systems within an agency, allowing …

Unpunished Criminals: The Social Acceptablity Of White Collar Crimes In America, Joseph P. Martinez

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

White collar crime is a serious issue in the United States of America, responsible for an estimated $250 billion to $1 trillion in economic damages each year. White collar crimes include: bank fraud, blackmail, bribery, counterfeiting, credit card fraud, embezzlement, extortion, forgery, insider trading, insurance fraud, investment schemes, securities fraud, tax evasion, advanced fee scams, service and repair scams, as well as Ponzi & pyramid schemes just to name a few.

There are a number of factors to consider regarding crimes, both street and white collar level including: the total cost of the damages and ripple effects that will reach …

Crime And Natural Resource Booms: Evidence From Unconventional Natural Gas Production, Timothy M. Komarek

Economics Faculty Publications

The USA has experienced a sudden expansion of oil and natural gas production due to the combination of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling. The energy extraction boom has had many localized impacts, most notably in areas with substantial shale gas reserves. This paper exploits a natural experiment in the Marcellus region to examine one channel of the so-called resource curse, the effect of resource extraction on local crime. The results show that areas experiencing a natural gas extraction boom suffer an increase in overall violent crimes, while property crimes remain similar to non-boom areas. Furthermore, the violent crime increase appears …

Determinants Of Crime In Chicago, Ross Olson

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper addresses occurrences of violent crime and their determinants in the city of Chicago using data collected at daily intervals for a period of two years. The economics of crime, in particular the price that crime imposes on society, is briefly explored along with a discussion of general policy techniques that aim to reduce the occurrence of violent crime. The empirical analysis addresses temperature, holidays (both official federal holidays and informal "party" holidays), weekends, unemployment rate, and seasonal trends. Relationships are examined between these variables and total crime, as well as with each component of violent crime: aggravated assault, …

From Community Policing And Crime Control To Security Policing And Citizen Control: Rural And Small-Town Policing In Post 9/11 America, Josh Yeager

Online Theses and Dissertations

Research is lacking on rural and small-town policing in the post 9/11 era. This is unfortunate in view of changing perceptions of threat and insecurity, the financial crisis of 2008 and curtailments placed on funding for rural and small-town police agencies. This thesis argues that the proliferation of homeland security resources and priorities has significantly shaped rural and small-town policing in recent years. Rural and small-town law enforcement agencies, often lagging behind in resources and funding as compared to their urban counterparts, have embraced homeland security agendas, priorities and technologies as a means of securing their financial goals and abilities. …

Beyond The Strait And Narrow: The Import Of Queer Criminology For Criminology And Criminal Justice, Vanessa R. Panfil, Jody Miller

Sociology & Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

[Introduction] In March 2014, as part of its community relations service, the U.S. Department of Justice held a community service training for police officers that focused on developing strategies to better prevent and respond to bias crimes against transgender citizens. While the impetus for the training was recognition that this group is disproportionately affected by hate violence (see NCAVP, 2013), attendees of the training also highlighted the tumultuous relationships transgender individuals have had with law enforcement as another impetus for change. Transgender activists and the DOJ lauded the event as an important step for improved relationships between law enforcement and …

Seeing The State: Women, Incarceration, And Social Marginality, Cesraea Rumpf

Dissertations

Based on in-depth, semi-structured qualitative and photo-elicitation interviews with 36 formerly incarcerated women, this dissertation answers three central research questions: (1) How does the state structure women's post-incarceration experiences? (2) How do these post-incarceration experiences relate to women's experiences of criminalization and incarceration? (3) How do women respond to criminalization, incarceration, and post-incarceration? By centering women's standpoint, I draw upon poststructuralist theories of the state to show how women experienced governance across multiple sites. I first examine the violence and dehumanization women experienced in their encounters with the criminal legal system and how the state labeled women as "criminals" and …

Spatial Risk Factors Of Felonious Battery To Police Officers, Joel M. Caplan, Philip L. Marotta, Eric L. Piza, Leslie W. Kennedy

Publications and Research

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the spatial influence of features of the physical environment on the risk of aggression toward law enforcement.

Design/methodology/approach – The spatial analytic technique, risk terrain modeling was performed on felonious battery data provided by the Chicago Police Department.

Findings – Out of the 991 batteries against law enforcement officers (LEOs) in Chicago, 11 features of the physical environment were identified as presenting a statistically significant spatial risk of battery to LEOs. Calls for service within three blocks of foreclosures and/or within a dense area of problem buildings pose as much …

The Growth Of Incarceration In The United States: Exploring Causes And Consequences, Jeremy Travis, Bruce Western, F. Stevens Redburn

Publications and Research

After decades of stability from the 1920s to the early 1970s, the rate of incarceration in the United States more than quadrupled in the past four decades. The Committee on the Causes and Consequences of High Rates of Incarceration in the United States was established under the auspices of the National Research Council, supported by the National Institute of Justice and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, to review evidence on the causes and consequences of these high incarceration rates and the implications of this evidence for public policy.

Our work encompassed research on, and analyses of, the …

Fight The Dead, Fear The Living: Post-Apocalyptic Narratives Of Fear, Governance And Social Control, Samantha Lynn Kolpin

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Post-apocalyptic narratives and themes have become increasingly popular in film, television and graphic novels. By imagining a society without the state, post-apocalyptic narratives are able to explore concerns about current forms of governance and social control. The post-apocalyptic narrative is particularly relevant in a post-9/11 society where public concerns about security and governance are prominent. In this study, I examined the potential allegorical function of the zombie narrative found in Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead. Specifically, this project involves an ethnographic content analysis of issues 1-100 of The Walking Dead graphic novel series. Analysis focused on the allegorical purposes of …

Exploring The Effects Of Ex-Prisoner Reentry On Structural Factors In Disorganized Communities: Implications For Leadership Practice, G. Michael Davis

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The purpose of this study is to explore the way(s) in which the disproportionate return of ex-prisoners to socially and economically disadvantaged communities impact(s) specific community structural factors identified in the study. After three decades of withstanding the enduring effects of the mass incarceration, communities stand at the edge of a new era. Economic realities, and the failure of policies designed to deter crime through imprisonment are rapidly ushering in an era of mass prisoner reentry. The complexity of the challenges surrounding the successful integration of offenders to communities requires a new leadership paradigm for justice leaders. This study posits …

Building Grounds For Release: Women’S Perceptions Of A Community Corrections Program, Andrea Cantora

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"Few studies have examined the role halfway houses play in helping women navigate the transition from prison to community. To add to this research, my article explores the perceptions and experiences of women residing at a New Jersey female halfway house upon their release from prison. In-depth qualitative interviews with 33 women that I conducted were analyzed to understand the prison to halfway house transition. The study aims to answer the following questions: How does the halfway house help and/or hinder the reentry process? How do women perceive the halfway house during this transitional phase? The results of my research …

Sex Offenders And Campus-Based Sex Offender Registration: Stigma, Vulnerability, Isolation, And The Classroom As Refuge, Richard Tewksbury

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"Inclusion on the sex offender registration list is well known to produce stigma, collateral consequences, stress, and feelings of vulnerability for offenders. In addition to state-based registries, a number of institution-specific registries are beginning to appear, including those on college campuses. By using in-depth interviews with a sample of sex offenders listed on a campus-specific sex offender registry, this study explores the experiences resulting from this label. Findings highlight the feeling of vulnerability listing imposes, as well as self-isolating efforts designed to manage the possibility of identification, exposure, and confrontation. The interactional limitations, as well as the unintended consequence of …

“Hidden In Plain Sight”: Locating The Men And Women Of The 1954 Boston Special Youth Program, Richard K. Moule Jr., Scott H. Decker

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"The growing prevalence of longitudinal research in the social sciences, coupled with technological advances, provide new opportunities for researchers to more readily find participants from earlier studies. In addition, these advances necessitate the development of new strategies and methodologies for locating and building rapport with respondents. Drawing on previous methods of subject identification and location, this paper examines techniques for locating and interviewing former gang members from the 1954-1957 Special Youth Program in Roxbury, MA. In contrast to most longitudinal studies, (1) more than 50 years have passed since the original study with no contact with respondents in the interim, …

Jamie J. Fader, Falling Back: Incarceration And Transitions To Adulthood Among Urban Youth, Kallee Spooner

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"In her first book, Jamie J. Fader presents an account of a group of young black males attempting to “fall back,” or stay out of trouble, as they return from a juvenile residential corrections facility to their communities in Philadelphia. Prior to the study, Fader spent six years evaluating delinquency programs for the city of Philadelphia and over a year working at a communitybased aftercare program that assisted youth returning to the city from reform schools. Fader gained access and insight to the structure and processes of the juvenile court system, which facilitated her research."

Assessing Youth Early In The Juvenile Justice System, Anne M. Hobbs, Timbre Wulf-Ludden, Jenna Strawhun

Academic Publications

Unnecessary involvement in the juvenile justice system generally results in negative long-term outcomes (Annie E. Casey Foundation Website, 2008). The problem lies in determining when involvement is unnecessary and when it is necessary. A juvenile’s path to detention often begins years prior. Research indicates that unnecessary court involvement may contribute to worse outcomes, which can ultimately culminate in detention (Holman & Ziedenberg, 2006). Youth who are formally processed through court are more likely to be under closer supervision, which, in turn, increases their chances of being caught violating curfew, missing school, or committing another technical violation. To test the effect …

Nebraska Sex Offender Registry Study, Ryan E. Spohn

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

The Consortium for Crime and Justice Research at the University of Nebraska Omaha was charged by the Nebraska Legislature’s Judiciary Committee to undertake a study of the Nebraska Sex Offender Registry. The primary goal of the study was to compare sex offender recidivism under the pre-LB 285 classification system that utilized risk levels derived from a psychological risk assessment instrument to sex offender recidivism under the post-LB 285 classification system utilizing Adam Walsh Act Tier Levels derived from offense severity. Additional goals include an overall examination of offender characteristics, victim characteristics, and offense characteristics among all individuals on the registry, …

Police Integrity Lost: Preliminary Findings Of A National Study Of Law Enforcement Officers Arrested, Philip M. Stinson

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

This presentation presents preliminary research findings of a study on the nature and extent of police crime in the United States. It provides information on the factors that influence how a law enforcement agency responds to arrests of its officers. The data indicate that civil rights litigation is a correlate of police misconduct.

Drink, Drive, Go To Jail? A Study Of Police Officers Arrested For Drunk Driving, Philip M. Stinson, John Liederbach, Steven L. Brewer, Natalie E. Todak

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

The purpose of the current study is to provide empirical data on cases of police driving under the influence (DUI) of alcohol and/or drugs. It identifies events that may have influenced the decision to arrest, including associated traffic accidents, fatalities, officer resistance, the refusal of field sobriety tests, and the refusal of blood alcohol content (BAC) tests. The study is a quantitative content analysis of news articles identified through the Google News search engine using 48 automated Google Alerts queries. Data are analyzed on 782 DUI arrest cases of officers employed by 511 nonfederal law enforcement agencies throughout the United …

Our Side Of The Fence: Investigating The New Nativism In The United States, Candace Griffith

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study examines the new nativism movement in the United States. Specifically I look at groups who have formed in Arizona to combat illegal crossings over the U.S.-Mexico border. The new nativism arises from the perceived inability of the government to secure the border from illegal crossing. I draw on community policing and vigilante literatures to determine whether these groups could be considered a neighborhood watch or vigilante group. Using a sequential mixed method design, I conduct semi-structured interviews and engage in participate observation in the Sonoran desert with the Arizona Border Defenders, to identify how these groups label their …

A Study Of Surveillance And Privacy Rights, Jesse T. Kittle Mr.

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study it to research the role and public perception of security surveillance on a university campus. The research measured variables such as age, gender, class standing political affiliation, and one's residence whether on campus or off campus. This study is focused on how students view security surveillance, and whether they see security surveillance as an important tool for the safety of the public or a threat to privacy. A student survey was administered to undergraduate students asking how they felt about crime on campus and whether crime was a problem that could be solved by security …

Hearts In The Wasteland: Redeeming The Moral Self In Corrections, Allison M. Hicks

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"In this article, I examine the emotional culture of prisons as perceived by prison chaplains, a population characterized by conflicting expectations and split loyalties. Expected to enforce institutional rules and punish rule violators, chaplains are also charged with the spiritual rehabilitation of their clients. Greer (2002) argues that prisons represent rich environments for exploring emotion management, being simultaneously emotionally inciting and constraining for those individuals living and working within them. To better understand this duality, I explore chaplains’ interpersonal management of inmates’ emotions. Based on qualitative interview data, I describe some of the assumptions chaplains make about inmates’ emotions and …

Building Bridges And Solving Crimes? A Critical Examination Of How Police Use The New Aged Technology Of Social Media - Specifically Facebook, Seyed Raza Mirmajlessi

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

The social media conglomerate Facebook has dramatically grown over the past few years. As a result, many law enforcement officials -- specifically police -- have taken notice. Recently, this has translated into police departments nationwide adopting Facebook in their daily efforts to improve police performance. Extensive reports from news media outlets have documented the assortment of uses Facebook provides police personnel. It has been reported that police are not only using the tool to prevent crime, but also as an innovative way to engage and interact with the community. In an era of community policing, it is vital to explore …