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The Criminalization Of Poverty: The Impact Of Cash Bail System On Black Women In New Orleans, Salome Kushindana

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Research on bail practices has shown that most of the people are in jail because of their inability to pay bail set by the court. A 2016 study by the Vera Institute of Justice concluded that the use of the cash bail system disproportionately impacts poor black people in Orleans Parish Prison, the entity that serves as the principal driver of the mass incarceration. With a focus on poor black people in Orleans Parish Prison, the experiences of the impact of the cash bail system on poor black women are still missing.

Using semi-structured interviews and qualitative method of data …

Opioid Use And Abuse In The United States, James Pellerin

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Opioids have quadrupled the number of unintentional drug overdose deaths since 1999 and are now among the leading causes of death in the United States. Though some reform has recently occurred, the United States continues to operate largely under a punitive criminal justice model despite unsuccessful legislative schemes and voluminous research stemming from a previous war on drugs. This thesis serves to explore the history and extent of opioids in the United States and to analyze salient catalysts responsible for creating an epidemic of abuse. While private and governmental coalitions have formed to develop successful interventions and treatments, they are …

It's About Time: Length Of Incarceration, Gang Membership, And Recidivism Among Illinois Prison Releasees, Henry Douglas Otto

Master's Theses

This study explored the effect of time spent incarcerated on recidivism among a sample of individuals released from IDOC facilities from 2011 to 2014 (N = 72,716). Gang members were compared to non-gang members in order to evaluate the potentially heterogeneous nature of the effect of length of stay on recidivism within the competing frameworks of deterrence theory and social learning theory. The samples were further split into separate analyses based on the current felony class, and length of stay was operationalized as incarceration in months and split into quartiles based on the distribution of each felony class sample. The …

Examining Recidivism And Correlates Of Yasi Scores Among Youth Released From Idjj, Claire Fischer

Master's Theses

There are two main purposes of this research: 1) to provide the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice (IDJJ) with an updated picture of recidivism and 2) to determine how YASI risk/needs/protective domains and risk scores relate to post-release recidivism. To date, the research that is available regarding youth recidivism is fraught with methodological concerns (i.e., inconsistency in measurement). Moreover, there have been no systematic analyses of the YASI in Illinois since its implementation within the IDJJ. Thus, the present research will attempt to fill in the gaps by assessing rates of juvenile recidivism, the degree to which needs identified by …

Public Support For The Death Penalty In A Red State: The Distrustful, The Angry, And The Unsure, Lisa Kort-Butler, Colleen M. Ray

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Set against the backdrop of Nebraska’s 2015 legislative repeal of the death penalty and the 2016 electoral reinstatement, we examined public support for capital punishment. Using two years of statewide survey data, we compared respondents who preferred the death penalty for murder, those who preferred other penalties, and those who were unsure, a respondent group often excluded from research. To understand what distinguishes among these groups, we examined media consumption, instrumental and expressive feelings about crime, and confidence and trust in the government regarding criminal justice. Results revealed that those who preferred the death penalty expressed more anger about crime …

Police Use Of Twitter: 21st Century Community Policing, Nicole Coomber

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

With the advancement of social media platforms like Twitter increasingly being woven into the everyday activities of society members, police services, in an attempt to stay relevant and reflective, have begun adopting Twitter into their work initiatives. The present study examines the perceptions Canadian police officers regarding their use of Twitter as a community policing tool. Through semi-structured interviews with police officers and administrative staff operating official police Twitter accounts, and constructivist grounded theorizing, this research provides an in-depth examination of the perceptions of police officers who use Twitter as a part of community policing initiatives. Specifically, the study explores …

“We’Re All In This Together:” Exploring The Effectiveness And Responsiveness Of Nonprofits In Promoting The Socioeconomic Integration Of Refugees, Brittany Keegan

Theses and Dissertations

When a person is forced to flee their home due to violence or the fear of persecution, they must seek refuge elsewhere – either within the borders of their home country or in a new country. Those who travel to another country in search of safety and protection are known as refugees, and as world conflicts continue, the number of refugees around the world is steadily increasing. As refugees integrate into their new communities, they often receive support from nonprofit organizations once government assistance has ceased. This mixed method study uses 60 open-ended, first-person interviews with refugees and nonprofit service …

Police Officer Perceptions Of Organizational Justice And Body-Worn Cameras: A Civilizing Effect?, Carolyn Naoroz Ph.D.

Theses and Dissertations

This research sought to understand the potential association between officer perceptions of organizational justiceand officer perceptions of body-worn cameras (BWCs). A questionnaire was administered to a convenience sample of 362 officersfrom the 750 sworn personnel from the Richmond Police Department in Richmond, VA, yielding a response rate of 91% and representing 44% of the Richmond Police Department’s sworn employees. This study extends prior work by partially replicating a previous BWC survey conducted by leading body-worn camera scholars, utilizing a large sample from an urban mid-Atlantic police department. This study also extends prior work on officer perceptions of organizational justice …

Exploring The Community Impact Of Community-University Partnerships, Stacey D. Muse

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The field and movement of community engagement in higher education is one way for institutions of higher education to fulfill the public good mission. Community engagement practices have shifted to valuing democratically engaged partnerships between the community and campus (Saltmarsh, Hartley, & Clayton, 2009). However, the research on community engagement reveals a lack of understanding of community voice and perspective on if and how community-campus partnerships make a difference for community-based organizations partnered with institutions of higher education. This embedded case study begins to fill these gaps in the literature by examining the voice and perspective of community-based organizations partnered …

Sexism, Just-World Beliefs, And Defensive Attribution: Relationship To Online Discourse And Child Sexual Abuse, Andrea M. Barbis

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Research has shown that individuals' willingness to believe a disclosure of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) is related to just-world beliefs, ambivalent sexism, and defensive attribution. However, researchers do not know whether these variables relate to posts made in response to online articles describing CSA. Negative or disbelieving posts may impact not only the author, but also readers who view these comments via hindrance of disclosures, increased self-blame, and avoidance of help seeking. In this quantitative study, just-world, ambivalent sexism, and defensive attribution theories provided the theoretical basis used to determine whether just-world beliefs, ambivalent sexism, and defensive attribution influenced comments …

Effect Of Administrative Practices On Law Enforcement Officers' Emotional Intelligence Performance, Iberkis Faltas

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Between 2001 and 2017, the Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) received 295,616 allegations of police misconduct involving New York Police Department (NYPD) officers' use of force, abuse of authority, discourtesy, and offensive language (FADO). The purpose of this study was to explore the influence of administrative disciplinary actions on officers' emotional intelligence and performance in relation to citizen complaints of police misconduct. The central research question addressed how administrative practices influence law enforcement officers' behavior in relation to emotional intelligence-based performance. The theoretical construct for this study is based on the emotional intelligence theories of Bar-On, Goleman, and Mayer, DiPaolo …

Citizen Perceptions Of Institutional Disparities And The Reintegration Of Nonviolent Drug Related Offenders, Terrance Hinton

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In 2017, Louisiana had the highest incarceration rate in the nation with 1,420 of every 100,000 adult males being placed in a state or local penitentiary. To address this issue, a series of criminal justice reforms were passed within the Louisiana legislature that released thousands of former offenders back into the community. The purpose of this qualitative study is to understand the attitudes, thoughts, and opinions of citizens in a single Louisiana city regarding ex-offender re-integration and disparities within the criminal justice system. March and Olsen's Rational Choice Institutionalism was used to explain how environment impacts individual perception and choices …

Stress And Coping Abilities Of Swat Personnel In A Metropolitan Area Of Florida, Pedro Corpas

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

For decades, stress has been scientifically studied and found to have effects on the law enforcement community. Furthermore, scholars have thoroughly studied the correlation between stress and the law enforcement occupation which has been proven to affect their well-being. Although there is currently ample literature on stress and police officers, to date there has been little research on factors associated with stress and SWAT police officers. Using Lazarus and Folkman's cognitive theory of stress and coping as the foundation, the purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore how SWAT police officers cope with stress while on duty and off …

Media Exposure And Social Response As Predictors Of Citizen's Attitudes Toward Police, Tara A. Garrison

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Police-involved deaths of African Americans have increased over the past two decades, with continued high-profile media exposure. The problem is that extant research provided only a partial understanding and disparate focus about how media exposure, social responses, social media use, and attitudes towards police were possibly related to citizens witnessing acts of police-initiated actions against African Americans in the United States. The purpose of this quantitative study was to assess the predictive nature of media exposure, social response, and social media use concerning citizens' attitudes towards police. The two theories supporting this study and shaped this hypothetical system are media …

Causes Of Recidivism Among Mentally Ill Prerelease Offenders From The Perspective Of Former Correctional Mental Health Professionals, Rina Desiree Deneice Bradley Brown

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The move toward reducing the prison population was driven by an increase in the number of reentry programs that focused on the needs of the offender, such as the provision of stable housing, employment, education, and sustaining strong familial bonds. While the literature supported these areas as being effective in reducing recidivism, there was no consensus that they were effective for offenders with mental illness (OMI). The purpose of this qualitative study was to analyze the impact of prerelease services for the OMI population from the perspective of former correctional mental health professionals who provided these services. The research questions …

Government And Nongovernmental Collaboration To Build Community Resiliency Against Terrorism In Oklahoma City, Kimberly K. Heltz

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The way communities build resiliency and prepare for acts of terrorism is ambiguous in the United States; best practices remain unclear. Due to mobility and advancements in communication technologies, individuals and organizations share information, incite anger, recruit, and act on ideological grievances with ease. Such grievances are bolstered by the political and social exclusion of disparate groups through poorly designed policies and ineffective government structures. Using a combination of social constructivism and systems thinking theories, this case study explored collaboration efforts between government agencies and nongovernment experts in Oklahoma City, OK, identifying best practices as a result of lessons learned …

Correlating Residual Stress With Personal And Professional Characteristics In Aircraft Pilots, Erik Eckblad

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Every day aircraft pilots must successfully resolve significant inflight situations and then manage the possibility of residual psychological and physiological stress. Previous research has shown primary attention is given to presignificant event training and stress management, however there remains an important gap in the current literature regarding postsignificant event stress within the aviation profession. The purpose of this cross-sectional quantitative study was to use the observational lens of stress theory and survey U.S. pilots who have experienced an inflight emergency, looking for correlation between factors such as age, gender, flight experience, and training against a pilot's self-reported level of residual …

Probation Officers' Attitudes On Illinois Electronic Monitoring Program For Drug Offenders, Erika J. Jones-Dilworth

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Probation Officers' Attitudes on Illinois Electronic Monitoring Program

For Drug Offenders

by

Erika Jones-Dilworth

MPA, Governors State University, 2009

BS, Governors State University, 2007

Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree of

Doctor of Philosophy

Public Policy & Administration

Walden University

November 2018

Understanding The Perceptions And Decision-Making Behaviors Of First Responders In The Context Of Traumatic Events And Ptsd, Sunday O. Olatunji

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Previous researchers have indicated that first responders are in an ever-changing environment, and unfortunately, the prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among first responders is increasing. This study sought to better understand first responders' perceptions of emergency preparedness protocols and training, as well as the prevalence of PTSD. This study also examined first responders' thoughts, decision making processes, and protective actions information, communications necessary during situations of emergency preparedness for traumatic events, and how PTSD impacted this process. A sample of 16 first responders of various ages was recruited for the purpose of this study. The participants were made up …

The Effect Of Various Police Enforcement Actions On Violent Crime: Evidence From A Saturation Foot-Patrol Intervention, Eric L. Piza

Publications and Research

The current study tests the crime prevention effect of different police actions conducted during a foot-patrol saturation initiative in Newark, New Jersey. Police actions were categorized into two typologies: enforcement actions (i.e., arrests, quality of life summonses and field interrogations) and guardian actions (i.e., business checks, citizen contacts, bus checks, and taxi inspections). Logistic regression models tested the effect of enforcement and guardian actions on crime during daily (i.e., 24-hr) periods as well as the intervention’s operational (6:00 p.m.-2:00 a.m.) and nonoperational (2:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.) periods. Analyses were conducted twice, once for the Operation Impact target area and once for …

The History, Policy Implications, And Knowledge Gaps Of The Cctv Literature: Insights For The Development Of Body-Worn Video Camera Research, Eric L. Piza

Publications and Research

Closed-circuit television (CCTV) and body-worn video cameras (BWVCs) have rapidly spread throughout policing. Such widespread deployment has heightened the importance of identifying best practices for both of these technologies. The research community has worked toward the identification of such best practices, with bodies of knowledge emerging for both CCTV and BWVCs over recent decades. Given its earlier emergence, research on CCTV is more developed. Nonetheless, the BWVC literature is quickly becoming robust, with BWVC research developing at a much more rapid pace than research on most other police technologies. This essay reviews the CCTV and BWVC literatures across four main …

Facilitators And Impediments To Designing, Implementing, And Evaluating Risk-Based Policing Strategies Using Risk Terrain Modeling: Insights From A Multi-City Evaluation In The United States, Eric L. Piza, Les W. Kennedy, Joel M. Caplan

Publications and Research

The contemporary policing literature contains numerous examples of partnerships between academic researchers and police agencies. Such efforts have greatly contributed to evidence-based policing by increasing the knowledge base on effective strategies. However, research has demonstrated that successful collaboration between researchers and practitioners can be a challenge, with various organizational and inter-agency factors presenting difficulties at various stages of the process. Additionally, applied research can oftentimes face implementation challenges when the time comes to convert research into practice. The current study contributes to the literature by discussing researcher/practitioner partnerships and program implementation in the context of a multi-city risk-based policing project …

Reentry Practitioners' Perceptions Of Constraints During Ex-Offenders' Job Search Process, Crystal Raquel Francis

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Unemployment among formerly incarcerated citizens is a complex problem that continues to grow. Previous reentry studies describe the collateral effects of incarceration on employment from the perspective of formerly incarcerated individuals, yet little academic research exists regarding reentry practitioners' perceptions of constraints during the job search process. Using Goldratt's theory of constraints as the foundation, the purpose of this case study of reentry and employment in a mid-Atlantic state was to explore from the perspective of practitioners, the types of constraints individuals with criminal records face during the job search process, the most difficult phase of the job search process, …

Employer Attitudes And Beliefs About Hiring Post Incarcerated Offenders In Mississippi, Ora Starks

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Employer Attitudes and Beliefs About Hiring Post-Incarcerated Offenders in Mississippi

by

Ora Starks

MS, Criminal Justice, 1999

BS, Criminal Justice,1994

Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree of

Doctor of Philosophy

Human Services Program

Criminal Justice Specialization

Walden University

May 2018

A Case Study Of Overcrowding In A County Jail In The Southeast United States, Marquice Robinson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

For the past several decades, the county jail in a large metropolitan city in the southeast United States has been overcrowded, which has resulted in violence within the jail, excessive costs to the Sheriff's Office, and a requirement of Federal oversight of the jail from 2005 to 2015. In spite of these events, little is understood about why jail overcrowding is prevalent in the county and what impacts overcrowding may have on the communities around the jail. Using Shaw and McKay's social disorganization theory as the foundation, the purpose of this case study was to understand the unique circumstances around …

Advocating Ideal Type Policy For Police Officer Wellness Based On Body Mass Index As A Predictor Of Self-Reported Occupational Stress, Louis Chiappetta

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Scholars have validated both the damaging presence of police officer stress and separately, their increasing obese condition in the United States. Previous studies of police officers focus on stress or body weight, but not these variables conjointly. The purpose of this study was to inform policy creation by examining the problem of officer stress in relation to the calculated body mass index (BMI) values and to gain insight into stress outcomes. Lazarus and Folkman's stress-coping theory served as the research lens to examine if BMI would significantly contribute to the percent change of R2 variance accounted for in the predictive …

Improving Recruitment And Retention Of Volunteer Firefighters, Jason Decremer

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The number of active volunteer firefighters has been steadily dropping in the state of Connecticut for several years. At the same time, the number of public service calls for fire departments has been on the rise. This problem impacts fire protection and municipalities that rely on volunteer fire departments. The purpose of this narrative study was to explore why volunteer firefighter numbers have been declining, the extent to which recruitment and retention programs are used in volunteer fire departments, and how these programs contribute to a fire department's ability to recruit members. Perry's public service motivation model provided the theoretical …

Public Perceptions Of Homelessness In Humboldt County, John Thomas Krapf

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Homelessness is a social and political issue of great importance in the United States. For every 10,000 people in the U.S. 17 are experiencing homelessness (Bishop et al. 2017). Despite being a consequence of structural factors in the economy such as a lack of affordable housing and livable wages, the news media often frames the issue as an outcome of individualistic factors such as deviant characteristics, criminality, and personal flaws like drug addiction and mental illness. This study examines public perceptions of homelessness in Humboldt County. To explore this question, I conducted a content analysis of 94 articles on homelessness …

Community-Based Initiatives For Neighborhood And Community Rehabilitation: A Case Study Of The Mission District, San Francisco, California, Francesca Monique Gallardo

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Through the case study of San Francisco, CA’s Mission District, this research project addresses how community-based affordable housing development is operationalized to rehabilitate communities and neighborhoods experiencing effects of gentrification, mass displacement, and cultural dilution. My goals were to identify how the processes of building a sense of community, trust, and cohesion- rehabilitating and critical to affordable housing development efforts in the Mission District? And, how are nonprofit community development organizations engaging with these processes in collaboration with citizen and community partners? The final objective is to provide evidence-based strategies to assist other at-risk minority communities and neighborhoods in the …

Grassroots Vs. Big Oil: Measure P And The Fight To Ban Fracking In Santa Barbara County, California, Corrie Grosse

Environmental Studies Faculty Publications

In 2014, volunteers in Santa Barbara County, California, collected over 20,000 signatures in three weeks to qualify an anti-fracking initiative for the November election. The initiative, Measure P, met over six million dollars in opposition from oil corporations. Despite mobilizing 1,000 volunteers, the proponents of the measure failed to garner enough votes for success. Drawing on 43 in-depth interviews and participant observation with environmental groups before, during, and after the campaign, this article examines the strengths and weaknesses of grassroots organizing behind Measure P. Organizers, especially during the signature drive, successfully garnered broad-based support in the southern part of the …