Digital Commons Network^™

Neighborhood Conditions, Youth Exposure To Violence, And Substance Use, Ashley Jimenez

Master of Science in Criminal Justice Theses & (Pre-2016) Policy Research Projects

Vast research has been conducted on exposure to violence and its consequences. Among the many consequences of exposure to violence is substance use. Using the Pathways to Desistance data, this study seeks to examine whether exposure to violence impacts substance use among adolescents, whether neighborhood social disorder impacts substance use, and whether exposure to violence mediates the relationship between neighborhood social disorder and substance use. The test of mediation on these variables has never been conducted before. Findings of these analyses revealed that exposure to violence as a victim and witness were both found to increase the frequency of alcohol …

Christmas Criminals: A Routine Activity Approach To Crime On U.S. Holidays, Wyatt Lam

James Madison Undergraduate Research Journal (JMURJ)

Based on Cohen and Felson’s 1979 routine activity theory, this study examines crime rates on prominent U.S. holidays. Little research exists that analyzes crime patterns on holidays, despite the mass disruption of routine activities. Using data from the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), this study compares the average daily number of offenses per state on 15 holidays with the average daily number of offenses per state on non-holiday weekdays for the 2016 calendar year. The crimes under investigation are economically motivated crimes: burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, and robbery. Holidays are divided into groups for analysis based on where activities …

Biased Coverage Of Bias Crime: Examining Differences In Media Coverage Of Hate Crimes And Terrorism, Adam Ghazi-Tehrani, Erin M. Kearns

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

News media differentially cover violence based on social identity. How does media bias apply to terrorist attacks—typically “upward crimes” where perpetrators hold less power than targets—that are also hate crimes—typically “downward crimes”? We compare coverage of incidents that are both terrorist attacks and hate crimes to coverage of incidents that are just terrorism in the U.S. from 2006 to 2015. Attacks that are also hate crimes receive less media attention. Articles are more likely to reference hate crimes when the perpetrator is unknown and more likely to reference terrorism when the perpetrator is non-white in some models.

The Effect Of Program Staffing Difficulties On Changes In Dynamic Risk And Reoffending Among Juvenile Offenders In Residential Placement, Kevin T. Wolff, Katherine E. Limoncelli, Michael T. Baglivio

Publications and Research

Recently there has been growing concern regarding the staffing challenges that plague the U.S. correctional system. This study examines whether staffing challenges within residential facilities are associated with changes in dynamic risk and the likelihood of reoffending among a sample of serious juvenile offenders returning to the community from residential placement. Using administrative data on 2,022 youth who completed a court-imposed placement, in combination with information drawn from a provider’s human resources database, we employ several analytical techniques to untangle the effects of staffing difficulties on youth outcomes. Results indicate that the rate of unscheduled absences was associated with changes …

Making Methods Relevant: Undergraduate Research Methods And The Content Analysis Project, Kevin E. Courtright, David A. Mackey

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, Innovative Pedagogy (2018-2020 archives)

Teachers of undergraduate research methods classes may struggle at times to keep their courses engaging and to have students view the material as relevant to the occupations they will soon enter. This article discusses a content analysis assignment and how it offers a way for students to demonstrate critical thinking and acquire data analysis skills. Through the use of multiple high-impact learning practices, the assignment requires students, individually or in a group, to identify data appropriate for content analysis and then, with faculty guidance, develop research questions, manage the data, conceptualize and operationalize themes, perform content analysis, draw conclusions from …

The Internet Never Forgets: Image-Based Sexual Abuse And The Workplace, John Schriner, Melody Lee Rood

Publications and Research

Image-based sexual abuse (IBSA), commonly known as revenge pornography, is a type of cyberharassment that often results in detrimental effects to an individual's career and livelihood. Although there exists valuable research concerning cyberharassment in the workplace generally, there is little written about specifically IBSA and the workplace. This chapter examines current academic research on IBSA, the issues with defining this type of abuse, victim blaming, workplace policy, and challenges to victim-survivors' redress. The authors explore monetary motivation for websites that host revenge pornography and unpack how the dark web presents new challenges to seeking justice. Additionally, this chapter presents recommendations …

Dirty Johns: Prosecuting Prostituted Women In Pennsylvania And The Need For Reform, Mckay Lewis

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

Prostitution is as old as human civilization itself. Throughout history, public attitudes toward prostituted women have varied greatly. But adverse consequences of the practice—usually imposed by men purchasing sexual services—have continuously been present. Prostituted women have regularly been subject to violence, discrimination, and indifference from their clients, the general public, and even law enforcement and judicial officers.

Jurisdictions can choose to adopt one of three general approaches to prostitution regulation: (1) criminalization; (2) legalization/ decriminalization; or (3) a hybrid approach known as the Nordic Model. Criminalization regimes are regularly associated with disparate treatment between prostituted women and their clients, high …

The Effects Of Police Contact And Neighborhood Context On Delinquency And Violence, Joselyne L. Chenane, Emily M. Wright, Yan Wang

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

We examined both main effects and cross-level effects of prior criminal justice contact on delinquency and violence. Using multilevel longitudinal data from the Project on Human Development on Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN, 1994–2001), this paper addresses a lack of clarity on the effect of police contact on delinquency and violence. We found that police contacts (three types) were associated with increases in delinquency and violence. These effects remained robust after controlling for individual‐level covariates such as low self‐control. Importantly, the effect of jail contact on the number of delinquent acts a youth engages in was stronger in neighborhoods with high levels …

Body-Worn Cameras And Transparency: Experimental Evidence Of Inconsistency In Police Executive Decision-Making, Brandon Tregle, Justin Nix, Justin T. Pickett

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Body-worn cameras (BWC) have diffused rapidly throughout policing as a means of promoting transparency and accountability. Yet, whether to release BWC footage to the public remains largely up to the discretion of police executives, and we know little about how they interpret and respond to BWC footage – particularly footage involving critical incidents. We asked a nationally representative sample of police executives (N=476) how supportive they were of legislation that would mandate releasing BWC footage upon request as public information, and presented them with an experimental vignette about BWC capturing one of their officers fatally shooting an [armed/unarmed] [Black/White] suspect. …

The Sensitivity Of Repeat And Near Repeat Analysis To Geocoding Algorithms, Cory P. Haberman, David Hatten, Jeremy G. Carter, Eric L. Piza

Publications and Research

Purpose: To determine if repeat and near repeat analysis is sensitive to the geocoding algorithm used for the underlying crime incident data.

Methods: The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department provided 2016 crime incident data for five crime types: (1) shootings, (2) robberies, (3) residential burglaries, (4) theft of automobiles, and (5) theft from automobiles. The incident data were geocoded using a dual ranges algorithm and a composite algorithm. First, descriptive analysis of the distances between the two point patterns were conducted. Second, repeat and near repeat analysis was performed. Third, the resulting repeat and near repeat patterns were compared across geocoding …

Not All Factors Are The Same: Examining Institutions Among Sex Offenders Throughout The Life-Course, Brooke Cooley

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation focused on the quality of institutions relative to theories of life-course and desistance. Specifically, this study focused on the quality of marriage, parenthood, and employment and whether the quality of these institutions inhibited or encouraged sexual offending/reoffending and how these factors influenced individuals’ offending behavior over time. While there is an abundance of literature relative to institutions and general offending, little is known about how these institutions impact sexual offending. The purpose of this dissertation was to fill this gap in the extant literature by qualitatively examining how the institutions of marriage, parenthood, and employment influenced sexual offending/reoffending …

Faith In Trump, Moral Foundations, And Social Distancing Defiance During The Coronavirus Pandemic, Amanda K. Graham, Francis T. Cullen, Justin T. Pickett, Cheryl Lero Jonson, Murat Haner, Melissa M. Sloan

Criminal Justice & Criminology: Faculty Publications

Purpose:

Over the past several months, the coronavirus has infected more than six million Americans and killed nearly 200,000. Governors have issued stay-at-home orders, and prosecutors have filed criminal charges against individuals for defying those orders. And yet many Americans have still refused to keep their distance from their fellow citizens, even if they had symptoms of infection. The authors explore the underlying causes for those who intend to defy these norms.

Methods:

Using national-level data from a March 2020 survey of 989 Americans, the authors explore intentions to defy social distancing norms by testing an interactionist theory of foundation-based …

The Situational Context Of Police Sexual Violence: Data And Policy Implications, Philip M. Stinson, Robert W. Taylor, John Liederbach

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

The horrors of sexual crimes perpetrated by law enforcement officers are laid bare in this study of 669 cases of police sexual violence. Here, authors Philip Matthew Stinson, Robert W. Taylor, and John Liederbach identify three scenarios in which law enforcement officers inflict sexual violence upon their mostly-female victims: 1) “driving while female,” 2) child predation, and 3) involvement in the sex worker industry. Especially sobering is the fact that, as opposed to law enforcement doing its solemn duty to report criminality on the part of fellow police officers, “citizens rather than police initiated the detection of the crimes in …

Spheres Of Identity: Theorizing Social Categorization And The Legitimacy Of Criminal Justice Officials, Kwan-Lamar Blount-Hill

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Identity is of central importance in the subjective experience of justice and assessments of legitimacy. In this study, the researcher explores whether perceptions of legitimacy are constructed differently across social group identity, particularly where social groups differ in relation to government (e.g., outgroup or ingroup). The analyses are conducted using data from a procedural justice study conducted in two U. S. cities. The findings suggest evidence of a generally similar construction of legitimacy though with important dissimilarities based on social group. Additionally, certain respondents’ narratives follow common narrative scripts in describing interactions with police, suggestive of a shared master narrative …

Thrown Off Course: School Suspension And Its Consequences For Students’ Educational Trajectories And Outcomes, Celina Cuevas

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Purpose: The literature on exclusionary school discipline has repeatedly documented disparities in its use and its relationship to various negative outcomes, causing the use of suspensions to become a pressing concern in the United States. The goal of this dissertation is to add this body of literature by being the first to examine the educational trajectories youth take after first being suspended, and how the effect of school punishment on trajectories may be more severe for subgroups of students disproportionately affected by school discipline and often underserved in school settings.

Methods: New York City Department of Education data is used …

Examining Racial And Ethnic Disparity In Prosecutor’S Bail Requests And Downstream Decision Making, Connor Concannon

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Rigorous academic research into prosecutorial and judicial decision making has been taking place for over three decades, but a great deal remains unknown about the mechanics of prosecution. A majority of the work done by prosecutors occurs outside of public view, and most research focuses on the ‘back end’ of the adjudication process, leaving unanalyzed numerous decision points made upstream of the final plea and sentencing outcomes. Using unique data from the New York County District Attorney’s Office that tracks 43,971 felony complaints, this research examines racial and ethnic disparity at multiple decision points during case processing, with a focus …

Caregivers’ Expectations, Reflected Appraisals, And Arrests Among Adolescents Who Experienced Parental Incarceration, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Melissa Noel

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

This research sought to identify a potential process by which intergenerational crime occurs, focusing on the effect of parental incarceration on adolescents’ subsequent arrests. We drew from Matsueda’s work on reflected appraisals as an explanatory mechanism for this effect. Thus, the present research examined whether caregivers’ and adolescents’ expectations for adolescents’ future incarceration sequentially mediated the effect of parental incarceration on adolescents’ actual arrest outcomes. Propensity score matching was used to examine this effect in a sample of 1,735 15- to 16-year-olds using NLSY97 data. Parental incarceration was positively related to caregivers’ expectations of adolescents’ future arrest. Moreover, caregivers’ expectations …

Fear Of Crime On Campus: An Analysis Of Perceived Risk And Constrained Behavior, James Nathaniel Hurst

Theses and Dissertations

Fear of crime has often been measured as how afraid a person is of criminal victimization within their neighborhood yet, problems inherently arise with utilizing static measures for dynamic concepts. Predominant among such issues lies the environmental and temporal aspects of fear, as it is known that fear is not experienced equally at all places nor by all people. Recent analyses focusing on fear’s spatio-temporal nature have found within-neighborhood fluctuations at specific places and times, however, these studies only addressed emotional fear. Perceived risk represents another facet of fear. As campuses appear to have heightened levels of perceived risk, the …

A Vehicle For Crime: Ridesharing And Victimization, Lacey Roughton

Theses and Dissertations

Ridesharing services that allow the exchange of transportation services between a private vehicle owner and a passenger via smartphone applications (e.g., Uber, Lyft, and others) have revolutionized the way people travel within cities, however, ridesharing may be associated with changes in victimization risks. Few empirical studies have explored the possible connection between ridesharing and crime. This study examined the relationship between ridesharing and crime in Chicago and explored the types of crimes that occurred during ridesharing, the situational characteristics of those crimes, and how many crimes in ridesharing resulted in arrest. Crimes within taxi cabs, similar to ridesharing, were assessed …

Institutional Anomie Theory: Does Market Mentality Mediate Normative Flexibility?, Christopher David Cassity

Theses

Institutional Anomie Theory argues instrumental crime and violence are a result of weakened social controls that are caused by an imbalance of values favoring the economy. Anomie causes a new moral standard to emerge, one that encourages normative flexibility to achieve goals. The emphasis on the economy permeates into noneconomic institutions that cause them to adopt economic principles and weakens them. The result of this process is that individuals may develop market mentality. Past research has considered normative flexibility to be embedded within market mentality. However, this assumption has not been formally tested. The concepts may be theoretically distinct and …

Health Implications Of Incarceration And Reentry On Returning Citizens: A Qualitative Examination Of Black Men’S Experiences In A Northeastern City, Jason M. Williams, Sean K. Wilson, Carrie Bergeson

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

While a great deal of research captures the lived experiences of Black men as they navigate through the criminal legal system and onto reentry, very little research is grounded in how those processes are directly connected to their health. Although some research argues that mass incarceration is a determinant of poor health, there is a lack of qualitative analyses from the perspective of Black men. Black men face distinct pathways that lead them into the criminal legal system, and these same pathways await them upon reentry. This study aims to examine the health implications associated with incarceration and reentry of …

When Should Law Forgive?, Jerry Kendall

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Cultivating And Reporting Of Campus Threats, Louis K. Falk, Douglas Stoves, Audrey W. Falk, Hilda Silva

Communication Faculty Publications

The consumption of media has been established as one of the elements responsible for changing the general population’s perceptions. Specifically, cultivation theory (depending on the amount of media use) points to an enhanced representation of a characterization conveyed through the media. This depiction has the potential to create an inaccurate portrayal (stereotype) leading to an increased level of anxiety. The proliferation of reported incidents (real or perceived) associated with mass shootings in the U.S. over the last 20 years is an example. This paper traces the relatively recent coverage of mass shootings in the U.S. by the media and the …

Sins Of Our Fathers : Assessing Parental Incarceration As A "Turning Point" In The Lives Of Young Adults, Melissa Elizabeth Noel

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Coupled with other disadvantages, parental incarceration negatively impacts outcomes for children. Researchers have examined the consequences of parental incarceration mainly for children and adolescents, but it remains unclear about the long-term consequences as these children emerge into adulthood. Parental incarceration can affect social relationships and life attainments, increase labeling and stigmatization, and influence perceptions about society for young adults. Thus, this research study sought to examine parental incarceration as a “turning point” in which life outcomes of young adults are weakened or strengthened through this experience. Semi-structured interviews with 19 young adults were conducted and analyzed to examine: (1) whether …

(Non-Consensual) Sex, Drugs & Rock N’ Roll: Sexual Harassment And Violence At Live Music Events, Miliaikeala Sj. Heen

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Music concerts and festivals draw millions of attendees in the United States and internationally annually. Half of the U.S. population goes to live music events each year, with 33% going to concerts and 18% going to festivals (Nielsen Music 360, 2017). Despite the fact that these events provide security for the safety of both performers and attendees, the context of these events may facilitate various forms of sexual violence. Research has revealed high levels of harassment, groping, and other forms of unwanted sexual behavior at music festivals and concerts. The current study will utilize a national survey to examine unwanted …

Getting Up: An Ethnography Of Hip Hop Graffiti Writers, Their Art, And Perceptions Of Society's Reactions., Theodore Malone

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This ethnographic analysis of the modern hip hop graffiti writing subculture connects the separate but complementary theoretical constructs of serious leisure (Stebbins 1982), dark leisure (Smith and Raymen 2016), recreational specialization theory (Bryan 1977), and edgework (Lyng 1990) and situates the writer “standpoint” (Smith 1987) in terms of interrelations of policy and written discourse. Past research found that writers were motivated by fame and status, to express artistic skills, and to control and destroy space (Brewer and Miller 1990). Others found that writers sought to express contestant notions of style and resist economic and political authority (Ferrell 1996; 2006), and …

Eyewitness Recall And Identification Accuracy: Effects Of Stress In An Extreme Haunt And A Haunted House, William Blake Ridgway

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The impact of stress on eyewitness recall and identification accuracy has been studied extensively but with somewhat inconsistent results. Understanding the effects of stress are important if they are to be generalized to victims or witnesses of real crimes. This study consisted of two experiments that used an extreme haunt and a haunted house to examine attendees’ ability to recall details of and identify actors encountered, as a function of state anxiety and in the context of Deffenbacher’s (1994) catastrophe model of memory performance under anxiety. The results showed that physiological (i.e., heart rate) and psychological (i.e., State Anxiety Inventory) …

Implicit Attitudes, Explicit Attitudes, And Priming: A Preliminary Analysis Of Factors Affecting Use Of Force Decisions, Christopher Allen Forepaugh

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study examines the effects of priming, situational factors, and attitudes on deadly force decision making. A small sample of undergraduates completed high-fidelity deadly force simulations. Simulation results were compared across experimental conditions and various attitudinal and demographic factors. Participants were generally accurate when assessing the threat posed by suspects. Participants primed to expect a threat were more accurate in their decisions but were no more likely to shoot an unarmed suspect. Participants were more accurate when responding to unarmed suspects. Participants more likely to exhibit implicit bias were less accurate. Several attitudinal and demographic traits were associated with deadly …

The Sidewalk Less Traveled: Evaluating Change In Community And Police Perception., Jennifer Lee Hall

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

For a police department to provide efficient and effective services to the community, they must obtain the support of the public, continuously cultivating and maintaining positive perceptions from the citizens being served. Various methods, such as walking patrols, have been implemented to increase public support and trust in police, which, in turn, contributes to a cooperative relationship between community and law enforcement. When opinions of law enforcement are precarious or police departments fall out of favor with the surrounding community, police officers can feel isolated if their work is unsupported. This often leads to the development of a strong bond …

The 23: Racial And Other Demographic Differences In The Assignment Of Risk Factors For Individuals Found Not Guilty By Reason Of Insanity In Virginia, Dominique Raquel Blanchette

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity (NGRI) acquittees uniquely walk the line of involvement in both the criminal justice and mental health systems, both of which have literature indicating the presence of underlying racial biases related to practices and outcomes. The current study examined 366 forensic charts from an inpatient psychiatric hospital in Virginia to examine potential differences in the number of risk factors assigned for NGRI acquittees based on a variety of demographic variables. Information about demographic characteristics, psychiatric history, and criminal history was recorded and analyzed. It was hypothesized that younger age, male gender, a psychotic diagnosis, violent …