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A Qualitative Case Study Of Police Officers' Perception Of Sexual Offender Registration, Tracy Lee Veri

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Although many research studies about sexual offender registration exist, there is no qualitative study on the perspective of police officers whose job duties include the implementation of Sex Offender Registration and Notification (SORN) laws. The purpose of this case study was to explore specific police officers' perceptions of sex offender registration. Six police officers were hand selected for face-to-face interviews based on their unique job duties that included responsibilities and training related to the implementation of the sexual offender registration and community notification protocols. Festinger's cognitive dissonance theory provided the theoretical framework for this research study. According to study findings, …

Traffic Enforcement, Policing, And Crime Rates, Marc Weiss Weiss

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Law enforcement agencies believe that traffic enforcement, in addition to reducing fatalities associated with automobile collisions, may also reduce the incidence of public order crimes. The academic literature, though, has largely failed to address this phenomenon. The purpose of this correlational study was to use Kelling and Wilson's broken windows theory to evaluate whether a statistically significant relationship exists between traffic enforcement rates and public order crimes in South Carolina. Secondary data from 5 counties were acquired from the South Carolina Department of Public Safety and the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division for the time period 2008 through 2012. Statistically …

Predictability Of Delinquency Through Psychosocial And Environmental Variables Across Three Generational Status Groups, Margaret Frances Sabia

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Issues such as the rapid growth of the immigrant youth population and delinquency among adolescents generate public safety concerns among the U.S. population. However, delinquency intervention strategies for immigrant youth in the United States remain scant, which is problematic because these youth face acculturative challenges that increase their risk for maladaptive outcomes. This quantitative, cross-sectional study addressed a research gap regarding the differential influence of risk factors in predicting delinquency across 3 generational statuses. The theoretical framework guiding the study consisted of acculturation theory, the immigrant paradox, and differential association theory. Two research questions were evaluated using a stratified random …

The Question Of Homeland Security In Rural America, Manuel Gonzalez

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Following the issuance of the National Preparedness Guidelines in 2009 by the Department of Homeland Security, it remains unknown whether homeland security programs have been consistently implemented in the nation's rural areas. Research findings have been inconsistent and inconclusive on the degree of implementation. Two problems may result from inadequate implementation of these programs: weakened national security from the failure to protect critical infrastructure in remote areas and a threat to public safety in rural towns. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore and describe the reasons for possible noncompliance through purposeful interviews with 10 law enforcement …

The Relationship Between Juvenile Sex Offender Registration And Depression In Adulthood, Sharon E. Denniston

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Accounts of sexual abuse appear daily in the media. Rightfully, this issue demands attention. Juveniles may be victims; they may also be offenders who are subject to sex offender registration and notification (SORN) policies. Growing research finds that SORN policies fail to achieve intended public policy outcomes. Little is known, however, about the unintended consequences of SORN for juvenile offenders. This study contributed to a more comprehensive understanding of the effects of these policies on this population. Merton's concept of manifest and latent functions of purposive social action and an alternate non-criminogenic form of Lemert's secondary deviance proposition provided the …

Family Continuity And Multiple Incarcerations Among African American Women, Dorenda Karen Dixon

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Scholars have studied incarceration among women in the United States of America for more than a decade, but few studies have explored the influence of repeated incarcerations among African American women and their family relationships. The research question for this study examined how African American women describe the effects of multiple incarcerations on family trust relationships and their ability to reintegrate into the family system and society. This multiple case study was conducted in Chicago, Illinois, and drew a sample of 4 African American women released from prison with histories of multiple incarcerations. The study explored their perspectives through a …

Social Disorganization Theory: The Role Of Diversity In New Jersey's Hate Crimes, Dana Maria Ciobanu

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The reported number of hate crimes in New Jersey continues to remain high despite the enforcement of laws against perpetrators. The purpose of this correlational panel study was to test Shaw & McKay's theory of social disorganization by examining the relationship between demographic diversity and hate crime rates. This study focused on analyzing the relationship between the level of diversity, residential mobility, unemployment, family disruption, proximity to urban areas, and population density in all 21 New Jersey counties and hate crime rates. The existing data of Federal Bureau of Investigations' hate crime rates and the U.S. Census Bureau's demographic diversity, …

Texas Sheriff Perceptions Of The Militia Movement, John F. Fisher

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

With the election of President Barack Obama, the United States has seen a steady increase in the number of right-wing militia groups. The Southern Poverty Law Center and the Department of Homeland Security have claimed that the various militia groups are a dangerous domestic terrorism threat. Law enforcement perceptions of the threat that these militia groups pose served as the focus of inquiry in this multiple case study. These perceptions were explored through the theoretical frameworks of groupthink, Credulous Bayesianism, and nudge theory. A purposeful sample of 12 local sheriffs in Texas were interviewed in an attempt to identify common …

Experiences Of Nonincarcerated African American Male Youth With An Incarcerated Male Sibling, Fred Nana Biney

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Approximately half of all incarcerated individuals in the United States are young African American men. Researchers have documented that nonincarcerated siblings may commit a crime when their sibling is in prison. The current study addressed literature regarding the experiences, and coping strategies of nonincarcerated young African American men who live in the inner city, and have a male sibling in prison. Guided by Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory, this interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) study explored the lived experiences and coping strategies of African

American male youth with a brother in incarceration. Purposive sampling was used to select 3 nonincarcerated African American …

Addressing School Failure And Recidivism Among 10-13-Year-Old Incarcerated Juveniles: A Case Study, Beverly Savoy Nolan

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Early involvement in delinquent behavior coupled with large academic deficiencies increase the chances of long-term offending over a lifetime. A 2012 Texas report on recidivism rates and types of judicial-related programs offered showed that 1-year reoffense rates for youth in secure placement rose slightly from 41.9% in 2007 to 43.3% in 2010. The primary purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine how a Texas-based juvenile probation department coordinated services to address the needs of incarcerated juveniles who are at risk of school failure and recidivism. Maslow's hierarchy of needs framework and Moffitt's developmental classification framework served as the …

Penalty Enhancement Laws And The Reporting Of Patient Assaults On Emergency Department Nurses, Thomas Runkle

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Assaults on emergency department nurses by patients are higher than any other occupation in the private sector. Professional nursing organizations have lobbied for penalty enhancement laws that increase the categorization of assaulting a nurse on duty from a misdemeanor to a felony. As of 2015, 32 states have implemented these laws. Yet, low assault reporting rates by nurses remains a problem, and little is known about whether penalty enhancements improved reporting rates. The purpose of this correlational study was to evaluate the impact of penalty enhancement laws on self-reporting of assault on emergency department nurses in 6 Mid-Atlantic cities. Constructs …

Gender-Specific Programming And Quality Improvement Ratings Of Florida Residential Delinquency Programs For Girls, Katrina Smith

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Female delinquency and adult female incarceration rates increased from the 1980s until the early 2000s. Many of these women and girls have been victimized, and their unresolved victimization issues may have led them to criminal behavior which may not be adequately addressed in the juvenile and criminal justice systems. The theoretical framework for this study consisted of 3 developmental theories (pathways, trauma, and addiction theories) that facilitated an understanding of the impact of victimization and criminality in these women and girls' lives. Florida's Department of Juvenile Justice implemented changes to address the victimization issue in the 10 female gender-specific programs …

The Use Of Minors In Material Support Of Terrorist Organizations, Teresa Maria Feliciano

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Adult criminals' use of minors to commit crimes associated with the support of terrorist organizations is a significant problem in the United States. Despite strict laws prohibiting adult offenders from exploiting youth, these individuals aggressively pursue minors to commit crimes associated with the support of terrorist organizations. This quasi-experimental, cross-sectional study used resource dependency theory to explore the likelihood that adult criminal offenders in the U.S. will use minors for crimes that are associated with the support of terrorist organizations, based on crime typology, country of origin, and location of crime. Data were collected from a crime database maintained by …

A Qualitative Exploration Of The Use Of Contraband Cell Phones In Secured Facilities, Margaret E. Henderson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Offenders accepting contraband cell phones in secured facilities violate state corrections law, and the possession of these cell phones is a form of risk taking behavior. When offenders continue this risky behavior, it affects their decision making in other domains where they are challenging authorities; and may impact the length of their incarceration. This qualitative phenomenological study examined the lived experience of ex-offenders who had contraband cell phones in secured correctional facilities in order to better understand their reasons for taking risks with contraband cell phones. The theoretical foundation for this study was Trimpop's risk-homeostasis and risk-motivation theories that suggest …

The Impact Of Gender And Focal Concerns Theory On The Treatment Of White-Collar Defendants By Federal Judges, Brandon Michael Roberts

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Previous research found gender to be a primary consideration of judges in terms of actions towards defendants. Blameworthiness, the combined effect of criminal history, offense severity, and the defendant's role in the criminal event, is also known to impact judge's actions. Little, though, is known about how gender and blameworthiness, combined, may be related to judges' actions towards white-collar defendants. The purpose of this case study, therefore, was to explore whether defendant gender and blameworthiness impact judicial actions towards defendants charged with white-collar crime(s) in a federal district court of New York. The theoretical framework was Demuth and Steffensmeier's theory …

Grandparent Support And Juvenile Delinquent Youth, Anita Marie Taboh

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Juvenile delinquency is a social issue which has been shown to have a significant cost to society in a variety of ways which include community safety, the cost of arrest, charges, and court processes, as well as the damage done in families and to the youth through the label of juvenile delinquent or Person in Need of Supervision (PINs). One important area in treatment and discharge planning for youth designated as either juvenile delinquent or Persons in Need of Supervision is the inclusion of supports to help youth change the trajectory from these behaviors into more socially acceptable activities and …

Identifying Business Risk Factors Of Identity Theft, Robert K. Minniti

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Businesses are under pressure to identify and control risks affecting profitability, including the risk of fraud. Identity theft, a type of fraud, costs businesses, governments, and individuals in excess of $56 billion a year. In order to develop good internal controls to help prevent and detect fraud, it is necessary to identify the risks to the business, but business owners are not always aware of what risk factors relate to identity theft. A nonexperimental research design formed the basis of this research study. The population for this study was data from all 50 U.S. states, represented via government databases maintained …

Domestic Violence Intervention Program Facilitators' Motivation For Working With Repeat Offenders, Elaine Marie Barclay

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Domestic violence (DV) rehabilitative program facilitators administer the same treatment programs to males who reoffend. When DV facilitators administer the same unsuccessful treatment programs to repeat offenders, facilitators may lose intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to perform their job. For this study a hermeneutic phenomenological methodology approach was used to explore the phenomenon of DV facilitators' motivation. Self-determination theory was used to frame the influence of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation on DV facilitators who administer treatment programs to repeat offending males. A recruitment flyer was placed in the DV organization, data were collected from 7 participants through face-to-face or telephone interviews …

A Phenomenological Inquiry Into Identity Change On The Path To Long-Term Criminal Desistance, Leah B. Mazzola

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Growing federal attention to addressing collateral damages of the era of mass conviction and mass incarceration has led to millions in funding allocated to support successful reentry for offenders in contact with the justice system. In line with this initiative, federal agencies have recently turned to criminal desistance research to build on earlier recidivism studies and to inform successful reentry programs. In an effort to contribute to opportunities for future research within the desistance paradigm, this study was designed to explore the identity change process of the offender from deviant to prosocial, a continuously emerging concept within the desistance literature …

False Confessions From The Viewpoint Of Federal Polygraph Examiners, Bradford Beyer

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

While confessions are a powerful form of evidence, innocent people sometimes confess to crimes they did not commit. Many researchers have studied false confessions through laboratory experiments with university students or by focusing on proven cases of false confession. These approaches have led many researchers to form a conceptual framework that law enforcement interrogative methods are a key cause of false confessions. A gap exists in the literature as few researchers have queried law enforcement about false confessions or consulted with officers who specialize in interrogation. For this study, a qualitative case study approach was used to explore the experiences …

No More Mind Games: Content Analysis Of In-Game Commentary Of The National Football League’S Concussion Problem, Jeffrey Parker

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

American (gridiron) football played at the professional level in the National Football League (NFL) is an inherently physical spectator sport, in which players frequently engage in significant contact to the head and upper body. Until recently, the long-term health consequences associated with on the field head trauma were not fully disclosed to players or the public, potentially misrepresenting the dangers involved in gameplay. Crucial to the dissemination of this information to the public are in-game televised commentators of NFL games, regarded as the primary conduits for mediating in-game narratives to the viewing audience. Using a social constructionist theoretical lens, this …

Echoes, Sarah Abigail Adleman

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

When I was sixteen, my mother was killed one evening while running on the bayou behind our house in Houston. The man, who is now on Death Row in Texas, beat, raped, and then strangled her to death. Writer Mary Cappello says of Creative Nonfiction, to compose discursively requires that we turn in the direction of the discourses that have made us who we are rather than start from a place of what we think happened to us in the course of our lives. She goes on further to say, Creative nonfiction appreciates the power of prepositions. Instead of writing …

The Persistent Fear Of Crime In A Safe Metropolitan Area: The Continual Impact Of Social Disorganization, Guillermo Rivas

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

While the association between physical and social disorder on crime have been established (Skogan, 1990), it is less clear how they influence fear of crime. Fear of crime is important to consider given that is can decrease both physical and mental health (Gee & Payne-Sturges, 2004). Utilizing data based on a randomly selected household survey in El Paso County, Texas (N= 1,070) I seek to examine the influence of physical and social disorders and social cohesion on fear of crime. OLS linear regression results illustrate the persistent impact of physical and social disorders regardless of neighborhood characteristics of poverty and …

White Faces In A Black Movement: Why Their Voices Matter, Chauncey L. Alcorn

Capstones

This story follows the lives of two white activists in New York's Black Lives Matter movement. It examines the largely ignored impact white activists have had on the BLM movement and also explores the history of white activists in the abolitionist and Civil Rights movements. The climax details a highly-publicized spat between rival Black Lives Matter organizations that happened during a Dec. 4 protest to commemorate the one-year anniversary of Officer Daniel Pantaleo's non-indictment in Garner's death. My main character, a white male, was blamed for causing the rift and was asked to step down from his leadership position in …

Green Criminological Concerns & Philosophical Beliefs, Alexander Allen Anderson

Criminology & Criminal Justice Theses - Archive

The purpose of this research project was to test the philosophical argument that people who maintained a dualistic mindset or sustained a belief in the existence of the soul would be less concerned with environmental crime. A survey was collected from a sample of 332 individuals at the University of Texas at Arlington in Arlington, Texas. The survey asked individuals to select on a likert scale how concerned they were with environmental harm. Preceding these, individuals were asked to answer either yes, no, or I don’t know on questions concerning their philosophical beliefs, looking for indicators of dualistic thinking and …

California Police Sexual Misconduct Arrest Cases, 2005-2011, Philip M. Stinson, Zachary J. Calogeras, Natalie L. Dichiro, Ryan K. Hunter

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

This report was prepared at the request of the California Research Bureau. The data are from a larger study on police crime in the United States. Police crimes are those crimes committed by sworn law enforcement officers given the general powers of arrest at the time the offense was committed and/or at the time when the officer was arrested. These crimes can occur while the officer is on- or off-duty and include offenses committed by state, county, municipal, tribal, or special law enforcement agencies. Police crimes damage the occupational integrity of police officers, the organizational legitimacy of the employing law …

How To Incite Crime With Words: Clarifying Brandenburg’S Incitement Test With Speech Act Theory, Bradley J. Pew

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Reel Or Reality? The Portrayal Of Prostitution In Major Motion Pictures, Raleigh Blasdell

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examined media portrayals of street-level prostitution. The objectives of this research were twofold. The first was to examine the nature of the film industry’s portrayal of females engaging in street-level prostitution in the United States in the following areas: 1) entry into sex work; 2) the economic need behind the women’s involvement; 3) experiences of childhood victimization; 4) presence and role of pimps; 5) drug/alcohol abuse; 6) victimization; and 7) mental/physical health. The second objective was to determine if this media coverage is analogous to extant research on these aspects of prostitution culture.

The Unified Film Population Identification …

Adam Calverly, Cultures Of Desistance: Rehabilitation, Reintegration, And Ethnic Minorities, Whitney Threadcraft-Walker

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"Third in an international series investigating desistance and rehabilitation, Adam Calverly’s Cultures of Desistance builds on the extant desistance literature through a comparative analysis of the impact of micro-, meso-, and macro- level factors on the processes associated with criminal disengagement on Indian, Bangladeshi and Black/Dual Heritage offenders in the Brixton neighborhood of London. The author has previously established expertise in the area of ethnicity and desistance through such as Understanding Desistance from Crime: Emerging Theoretical Directions in Resettlement and Rehabilitation (2005) co-authored with Steve Farrell and Black and Asian Offenders on Probationers (2004). Much of the data presented in …

Variations In Patrol Officers’ Concerns About Racial Profiling Across Communal Contexts, Paul Reck

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"Numerous studies have explored the issue of racial profiling, but only a few studies have examined how officers view racial profiling and whether such views affect officers’ patrolling of racial minorities. These latter studies generally have found that officers rationalize and dismiss the issue of profiling. However, studies pertaining to citizens’ perceptions of the police and studies identifying policing imperatives that officers associate with particular spaces suggest that there are characteristics of communities that may play an important role in shaping officers’ perceptions of profiling and patrolling of racial minorities. The current study, which is based on ethnographic ride-along interviews …