Digital Commons Network^™

Intellectual Disability, Risk, And Recidivism In An American Sample Of Incarcerated Sexual Offenders, Perry A. Callahan

Student Theses

Research suggests that intellectual disabilities (ID) are prevalent among people who sexually offend. Those with ID may differ from their non-disabled counterparts with regard to risk factors associated with recidivism. Additionally, actuarial measures of risk, which are used to make determinations on sentencing and civil commitment, appear to differ in their predictive accuracy among individuals with and without ID. Despite this, little data exists on recidivism in this population, particularly among incarcerated individuals in the United States. The present study sought to compare individuals with and without ID on rates of re-offense, actuarial risk scores, and rates of civil commitment. …

Community Violence Intervention At The Roots (Cvi–R), Katheryne Pugliese, Paul Oder, Talib Hudson, Jeffrey A. Butts

Publications and Research

The crime and justice field recently started to label a wide array of violence prevention strategies as Community Violence Interventions. Many of these strategies depend on law enforcement and social services, but the most innovative approaches are community-centered and community-sourced. They are grassroots efforts that rely on the resources of neighborhoods and residents themselves, operating separately from law enforcement and traditional human services. Researchers from the John Jay College Research and Evaluation Center reviewed the history of community violence intervention strategies that operate at the grassroots level (or CVI-R) and examined evaluations of several community-centered approaches, providing recommendations for researchers …

Longitudinal Patterns Of Suicidality Among Heroin Users In Johannesburg, South Africa: A Need For Suicide Screening And Intervention, Nirvana Morgan, Ellen-Ge Denton, Ugasvaree Subramaney, William Daniels, Tilman Steinert

Publications and Research

Objectives: The objective of the study was to longitudinally assess the outcomes and correlates of suicidal ideation and behavior (SIB) among heroin users who attended inpatient detoxification and psychosocial rehabilitation. SIB was assessed in 300 heroin users upon entry into inpatient detoxification (baseline) as well as 3-months (t1) (n = 252; 84%) and 9-months (t2) (n = 225; 75%) post treatment. Multivariable logistic regression was used to determine the demographic, clinical and treatment related factors that increased the risk for a high SIB score.

Results: From baseline to t1 there was a significant decrease in the proportion of …

The Coercion Of The Trial Penalty, Kristen C. Akin

Student Theses

Prosecutors, defendants, and defense attorneys must make decisions as to whether to accept a plea offer or proceed to trial every day. Approximately 95% of state and federal convictions result from guilty pleas (Redlich et al., 2017; Thaxton, 2013; Gazal-Ayal & Tor, 2012; Redlich & Shteynberg, 2016; Edkins, 2011; Weatherly & Kehn, 2013; Helm et al., 2018; Gregory et al., 1978). Some estimate this number to be as high as 97% to 99% (Redlich & Bonventre, 2015; Helm et al., 2018). It is also estimated that every two seconds a defendant pleads guilty (Redlich & Bonventre, 2015). In 1980, 19% …

Elisa Validation Method For The Detection Of Ketamine In Hair, Daria A. Centonza

Student Theses

An ELISA method was developed and validated to detect ketamine in human hair samples. Ketamine is an anesthetic drug that causes memory loss, dissociative sensations, and hallucinations. Due to these adverse effects, ketamine is a common drug used in drug facilitated sexual assaults (DFSAs). It is very important to be able to detect the substances used in DFSAs over a longer period of time due to the delayed reporting of these crimes. Victims, often out of fear and from the sedative/memory loss effects of the drugs, tend to report these crimes when it is too late to use urine and …

Gender Equity Commission Priorities: An Archival Study And Prospects For The Future, Maria D' Agostino, Nicole M. Elias

Publications and Research

This research explores the priorities of the gender equity commission in New York City over forty-five years. Archival commission data was organized thematically to understand the history of gender equity and suggest future possibilities for gender equity beyond New York City. In our historical analysis, we see an expansion of the definition of gender and an adoption of an intersectional approach to gender. We identify four historical gender priorities: sexual harassment and violence, pay equity and economic advancement, health and safety, and gender recognition and celebration. To address systemic issues of gender inequity, we recommend local level administrators embed an …

Chiral Analysis Of Methamphetamine In Hair Samples, Kristen Payes

Student Theses

Methamphetamine (MAMP) is a highly addictive illicit drug typically abused for its nervous system stimulating effects. Conversely, methamphetamine has therapeutic use treating attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, controlling appetite and assisting with weight loss, and is available as the pure l-isomer in over-the-counter (OTC) nasal inhalers due to its decongestant activity. Because l-methamphetamine (l-MAMP) is available in OTC form, forensic guidelines require a sample to contain greater than 20% d-methamphetamine (d-MAMP) when classifying results as consistent with illicit MAMP use. Chiral chromatographic analysis is capable of distinguishing between l-MAMP and d-MAMP. This …

The Influence Of Parole Case Characteristics And Construal Level On Parole Decisions And Perceived Humanness, Yi Sin Goh

Student Theses

Despite the low rate of discretionary parole release in New York, much is still unknown about the processes underpinning parole decisions. The present paper delves into how aggravating and mitigating parole case characteristics (e.g. institutional behavior) relate to parole decisions and the perceived humanness of parole applicants. The paper also examines how construal level can moderate the above relationships. Finally, a moderated mediation model outlining the pattern of these relationships is posited and tested. 122 New York residents were recruited online and randomly assigned to read either an abstractly or concretely construed transcript for an interview with a parole applicant. …

Moving Beyond Niceness: Reading Bell Hooks Into The Radical Potential For The Discipline, Alex J. Moffett-Bateau, Jenn M. Jackson

Publications and Research

In honor of bell hooks’ legacy, we engage with her Black feminist scholarship to parse out what she offers to the study of Black politics. We explore the ways hooks rebuffed compulsory calls for niceness and obligatory congeniality via respectability politics. By interrogating the politics of the Black middle class, we locate hooks’ intellectual works as a repudiation of a “politics of niceness” that seeks to maintain the violent status quo of white capitalist heteropatriarchy. We then draw out why the rejection of a politics of niceness matters within broader discussions of race, power, politics, and oppression.

Sex Trafficking And Mental Health Treatments, Maria A. Georgescu

Student Theses

Currently there is no agreement amongst professionals on a specific approach for providing for victims of sex trafficking. A two-part study was conducted in order to screen mental health professionals who have experience providing for victims of sex trafficking to participate in a semi-structured qualitative interview. Through a grounded theory approach, light is shed on what mental health providers experienced with providing for victims of sex trafficking find effective.

The main findings highlight how being forced into sex trafficking young (under 18) is impactful for the course of treatment according to 100 % (n=6) of participants, meeting the patient where …

Children’S Ability To Understand And Respond To Wh- Questions About The Mechanics Of Abuse, Kaileigh P. Conti

Student Theses

One type of forensically-relevant information that can be difficult to obtain is that pertaining to the “mechanics of abuse.” More specifically, information that includes the descriptions of body positioning and clothing placement. Generally, the recommended strategy for questioning children in legal and forensic settings is to use broad invitations (e.g., “Tell me everything that happened”) and wh- questions (e.g., who, what, where, when, why, how). However, when it comes to the mechanics of abuse, there is some conflicting evidence. Some research suggests open-ended wh- questions are best in cases where the mechanics are hard to describe (e.g., intermediate clothing placement) …

Red-Collar Crime: The Field Re-Examined, Kortni Macdonald

Student Theses

Red-collar crime is an understudied phenomenon that occurs when white-collar crime turns into physical violence and/or death (also known as fraud-detection homicide). Frank S. Perri, coined the term red-collar crime following his study of 27 homicides that occurred at the same time as or before the deadly white-collar criminal occurrences. This study explores the generalizability and practicality of this definition as applied to a new set of cases. Using a case study analysis of six cases this study analyzed the behavioral characteristics of these offenders meeting Perri's definition; Characteristics such as entitlement, lack of empathy, power orientation, rationalizations, exploitations, and …

Gang Culture And Their Territorial Space: Graffiti Analysis Using Geographical Information Systems (Gis), Christian F. Delgado

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to understand gang culture and how gangs come to define their territorial space. This thesis will focus on identifying gang spaces by utilizing geographic techniques to aid in determining where high gang activity and/or crime is taking place. This will be done by point pattern, data analysis, visualization analysis, and heat mapping on complaints, arrest, shooting, and graffiti data. This research has been conducted deductively, as it will use the theories mentioned in the literature review to define hypotheses.

Gangs are known for their violent and disruptive behavior. They ravage community resources and introduce …

Meet And Run, Gia M. Binner

Theses and Dissertations

A defense for Gia Binner’s MFA Thesis, Meet and Run, argues that accessible art, known in this paper as commercial dance, is a meaningful vehicle for social change and that it has the ability to dismantle the outdated, European concert dance dominance by modeling the interdependency of both worlds.

Deficiencies Within Guatemalan Criminal Justice Institutions When Detecting And Prosecuting Sextortion Crimes, Julia A. Bolotovsky

Student Theses

Sextortion is a form of corruption involving sexual exploitation, in which requests for monetary bribes are replaced by requests for sexual acts. Within Latin America, this crime is especially pertinent in Guatemala. Therefore, this study aims to identify which factors contribute to the occurrence of sextortion within Guatemala, while also analyzing the larger realm of violence against women. Based on semi-structured interviews with local experts and civil society activists, this study argues that sextortion is enabled by deficiencies within Guatemalan criminal justice institutions when detecting and prosecuting this crime. In order to effectively counter sextortion, more emphasis needs to be …

Food Insecurity During Covid-19 In Nyc: Inefficiencies Of Governmental Responses, Jannet Musleh

Student Theses

Due to its status as a liberal welfare state, the United States has largely relied on charities to provide food assistance to its citizens. This reliance on charity became a particular issue in the context of COVID-19 as the charities were unable to efficiently feed food insecure households. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the issue of food insecurity within New York City and shown the cracks within the food emergency distribution network. There is limited research on food insecurity nested in welfare state theory that scrutinizes the failures of government. The overall aim of this paper is to explore the …

How Prospective Bias Shapes Children’S Responses To Temporal Location Questions, Tige M. Anderson

Student Theses

This study builds on McWilliams (et al., 2019) by analyzing temporal bias among children when making relative temporal judgments using recurring landmarks (e.g., birthday, holidays). Previous research has demonstrated that children display a prospective bias when making these judgments, meaning they tend to date things based on the future occurrence of the landmark (E.g, “it’s ten months until my birthday”) (McWilliams et al., 2019). Adults, by contrast, make relative judgments with landmarks based on the most proximate occurrence of the landmark. In other words, they do not prefer the future or the past (Merriwether et al., under review). Additionally, recent …

Increasing Gas Chromatography-Flame Ionization Detection Sensitivity For Carfentanyl Detection: An Examination Of Procaine At Different Concentrations And Split Ratios, Sonalia T. Balli

Student Theses

An opioid abuse crisis in recent years has contributed to many overdoses and overdose-related deaths in the United States. In 2017, fentanyl and fentanyl analogs contributed to more than half of NYC’s overdose deaths in 2017. Carfentanyl – an extremely dangerous fentanyl analogue 100 times more potent than fentanyl – is very difficult to detect in drug samples because it is typically present in concentrations lower than analytical instruments can detect at standard settings. In this work, I hypothesize that gas chromatography-flame ionization detection (GC-FID), when optimized for the detection of carfentanyl by adjusting the split ratio, is more sensitive …

Driving Under The Influence Of Drugs: Status In New York City And Development Of New Analytical Tools, Kayla Marschke

Student Theses

Driving under the influence of drugs (DUID) cases have increased in recent years. According to NHTSA, drug use among fatally injured drivers who were tested for drugs rose from 25% in 2007 to 61.4% in 2020. Knowing what drugs are used by the drivers and developing new analytical tools to detect them are essential to prevent this type of cases. The goals of this study were two-fold: 1) To investigate the prevalence of drugs and drug combinations in New York City based on data provided by the Office Chief Medical Examiner (2018-2019); 2) To develop and validate an analytical method …

Pondering Possible Psychological Pandemonium: Covid-19’S Impact On Undergraduate Students’ Distress Levels, Laura Alarcon

Student Theses

The pandemic has altered everything in its path, including a broad impact on mental health, but not everyone has been affected equally. The COVID-19 pandemic presents an opportunity to examine if previously found differences in how non-Hispanic white and Latinx populations experience anxiety persist and/or were compounded. This study investigated distress levels of Latinx and non-Hispanic white undergraduate students at a public Hispanic Serving Institution both prior to and during the pandemic. A two-way ANOVA was run on a subset of an existing database to assess changes in distress levels between the two populations and timeframes. It was hypothesized that …

Exploring Criminal Thinking Patterns And Cognitions In High Risk Sexually And Non-Sexually Violent Offenders, Ruby L. Orth

Student Theses

The current understanding of shared offense supporting attitudes between different offender types is limited. This study compares criminal thinking styles and rape supportive attitudes between high-risk offenders who have engaged in either sexual or violent behavior. A sample of 237 incarcerated male high risk sexually violent and non-sexually violent offenders participated in a study where they completed a series of self-report questionnaires including the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS) (Walters, 1995) and Bumby’s (1996) MOLEST and RAPE scales. Significant differences in criminal thinking between offender types was hypothesized. Significant overlap of rape supporting cognitive distortions, regardless of offender …

Female Prisoners, Mental Health, And Contact With Family And Friends, Katarzyna Celinska, Irina Fanarraga

Publications and Research

The present study explores the psychological symptoms of 194 female inmates housed in a northeast state prison. Imprisoned women completed Derogatis’ (2001) Brief Symptom Inventory-18 and responded to questions on the frequency of contact with family and friends via phone calls, letters, and visitations. The results showed significant correlations between psychological symptoms and modes of contact. Multiple regression models revealed that certain types of contact with family and friends had a statistically significant impact on the self-reported psychological symptoms of female inmates. Policy implications and recommendations are discussed.

Classified Information: The Newsletter Of The Lloyd Sealy Library, Lloyd Sealy Library, Cuny John Jay College Of Criminal Justice

Reports and Publications from John Jay College

Classified Information was a publication that informed the College about Library services, personnel, upcoming events, new technologies, and available resources.

Stigma Towards Offenders Diagnosed With Mental Illness, Christina N. Yocca

Student Theses

Mental health stigma is a key factor to what makes members of the community who are diagnosed with mental illness feel like outcasts to the “normal” population. This study investigated the relationship between right-winged beliefs and offenders diagnosed with mental illness. Sigma as it relates to mental health, offenders, and right-winged beliefs have been studied separately before, but there is a lack of information on the stigma that the public has towards offenders who struggle with their mental health and the possible predictors of stigma towards this group. Overall, this study aimed to further research in the intersectionality of stigmatized …

Neighbors At Risk, Jeffrey A. Butts, Gina Moreno, Richard A. Espinobarros

Publications and Research

Most New York City neighborhoods did not experience high rates of shootings in recent years, but others clearly did. Comparing crime rates across these relatively small geographic areas is important for officials considering where to invest in resources that support public safety and community wellbeing.

The Contemporary American Juvenile Justice System: Revisiting Parens Patriae, Katarzyna Celinska, Amina Cheboubi

Publications and Research

The American juvenile justice system has undergone significant transformations since its inception in the late 19th century. In this paper, the authors seek to analyze the historical context of and subsequent reforms to the juvenile system and process in order to determine whether they remain true to their origins of the legal doctrine of parens patriae. Specifically, the authors contrast rehabilitative notions of parens patriae with the “tough on crime” perspective that developed in the 1990s in response to rising crime rates. This debate is illustrated by landmark Supreme Court cases, waivers to the adult system, increases in the use …

“The Amount Of Labor We Do For Free” And Other Contradictions: A Collective Inquiry Into The Pedagogical Choices Of Cuny Adjunct And Graduate Student Instructors Who Taught With Free Of Charge Materials During The Year 2020, Sami Disu, Joanna Dressel, Jamila Hammami, Marianne Madoré, Conor Tomás Reed

Publications and Research

A collective of five CUNY researchers developed and conducted a survey-based study of how CUNY adjunct and graduate student faculty taught with free of charge materials during the year 2020. A total of 152 respondents filled out the survey. Four themes emerged from the analysis of their responses:

1. Adjunct and graduate student faculty who taught with free of charge materials at CUNY in 2020 were motivated by economic, logistical, and pedagogical benefits. They invested considerable amounts of time in both creating and selecting material.
2. Their pedagogical choices about learning materials were formed in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the …

Adapting A Conceptual Framework To Engage Diverse Stakeholders In Genomic/Precision Medicine Research, Karriem S. Watson, Elizabeth G. Cohn, Alecia Fair, Usha Menon, Laura A. Szalacha, Selena M. Carpenter, Consuelo H. Wilkins

Publications and Research

Introduction: Genomic/precision medicine offers a remarkable opportunity to improve health and address health disparities. Genomic medicine is the study of genes and their interaction with health. Precision medicine is an approach to disease prevention and treatment that considers individual variability in genes, environ- ment and lifestyle. Conclusions from studies lacking diversity may hinder general- izability as genomic variation occurs within and between populations. Historical factors, such as medical mistrust, ethical issues related to decision making, and data sharing pose complex challenges that may further widen inequities in genomic/ precision medicine if not appropriately addressed. Although few biomedical studies integrate priorities …

Individual Factors Influencing Mental Illness Stigma In The New York City Metropolitan Area, Rachel M. Terrill

Student Theses

The study of individual factors influencing mental illness stigma among communities is not widely present in current mental health research. This study examined demographic variables that influence mental illness stigma. It also utilized the Attitudes Towards Mental Illness Scale, the Reported and Intended Behavior Scale, and the Mental Illness Microaggressions Scale – Perpetrator Version to determine the presence of mental illness stigma among individuals in various areas throughout the city of New York. Analysis found that higher levels of education predict fewer stigmatizing characteristics. Older respondents were found to have higher levels of stigma than younger respondents across all measures. …

The College Experience Podcast: Connecting Student Services For College Success, Lucila Sanchez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

What do we know about orienting college students on how to successfully manage the college experience? With this podcast, I aim to answer that question. The podcast aims to serve two purposes. The first purpose is to transmit the information to the students. The secondary purpose is to support student development by increasing knowledge about a wide range of topics as well as available services and resources. The goal is for students to become more aware of how they can access and use these services most effectively and how to manage their time to access essential services that support their …