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A Thematic Analysis Of Parenting Experiences Of Women In Prison, Pious Maedzenge, Dawn Beichner-Thomas

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

Although there is growing literature examining system-involved mothers, little is known about their parenting experiences and coping mechanisms. Using Braun and colleagues’ (2006; 2022) reflexive thematic analysis approach, this qualitative study examines the parenting experiences of forty-four mothers incarcerated in a Midwestern correctional center. The data were gathered from interviews with incarcerated mothers and included accounts of the women’s experiences before and during their incarceration. The narratives illustrate how background experiences (i.e., sexual and physical abuse, drug dependency, and childhood experiences) shape women’s experiences of mothering, perceptions of the effects of incarceration on their children, and reentry plans. Results from …

"Data Can Be Manipulated": How Prosecutors' Attitudes Toward Racial Disparities And Data-Informed Decision-Making Diverge, Maria Arndt, Rachel Silverthorn

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"Research examining prosecutorial decision-making has grown considerably in recent years. Much of this research is focused on assessing unwarranted disparities in case processing outcomes using administrative case data. Comparatively few studies analyze prosecutors' perceptions using qualitative sources. Additionally, little is known about how prosecutors view their role in reducing racial disparities or how they can use data as a decisionmaking aid despite recent innovations in prosecutorial data collection capacity. The current study addresses this dearth of scholarship by analyzing interview data from two midsized Florida State Attorney’s Offices conducted in 2018. Results suggest two main groups of prosecutors: data-positive and …

"They Say Where There’S Smoke, There's Fire; But Sometimes It's A Self-Induced Fire": Understanding Claims Of Unequal Treatment Among Mexican-American Officers In The Los Angeles Police Department, Roberto Gallardo

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"Serving as an ethnographic case study and utilizing qualitative interviews, this study focuses on Mexican-American police officers and their perceptions of claims of unequal treatment based on race/ethnicity from other officers. The study finds that officers ideologically stand firmly against racism and discrimination. When non-overt claims of unequal treatment based on race/ethnicity are encountered, officers develop negative perceptions of claiming officers. Officers revert to individualized, merit-based, and other colorblind justifications to interpret and dismiss the claims. It is argued that given the lack of the overt nature of most claims today, facilitated by the most common occupational context in which …

You In Or Out?: Reflecting On Positionality In Gang Research, Sou Lee, John Leverso

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"Positionality is an important consideration when carrying out research. An effective tool for understanding this process is reflexivity—a continual dialogue that explores the interplay between our identities and how data is collected, analyzed, and interpreted. These reflexive accounts have been used in various disciplines, including criminal justice and criminology. In advancing this important practice, we offer insight into our experiences studying a hard-to-reach population: gangs. Specifically, we document how our insider and outsider identities, as well as the space between facilitated access, were used strategically and informed our interpretations of data. We conclude by encouraging reflexivity within criminology broadly and …

Making Sentencing Meaningful: How Victims Find Justice In The Sentencing Process, Melissa Handford

Bridges: An Undergraduate Journal of Contemporary Connections

This article examines the role of victims in the criminal justice system, and how victims find justice through the sentencing process. It examines the role that providing a victim impact statement, receiving information about typical sentencing practices, and restorative or traditional sentencing play in how victims perceive justice in sentencing. Quantitative analyses were conducted analyzing the aforementioned variables and their relationship to participant perceptions of sentence effectiveness, anger, sentence harshness, and happiness, as well as their propensity to obedience. Qualitative analyses were conducted to better understand the reasoning behind victim perceptions and preferences in relation to restorative and traditional sentencing …

College Athletes And Crime: The Role Of Race, Age, And Peers And The Implications For Social Work Practice In College Sports, Emmett L. Gill Jr.

Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics

Almost every other day there is a news story about a college athletes’ involvement in an alleged crime. Indeed, one Sports Illustrated investigation found that, over an eight-month period in 2010, the number of crimes committed by college athletes averaged one every other day (Benedict, 2010). The current study is a secondary data analysis of a sample of 371 media articles documenting the arrests of college athletes between 2010 and 2015. The current study explores differences in the mean number of crimes committed by college athletes’ according to their classification, the number of perpetrators, and the perpetrators’ race across seven …

Tennessee Felon Population Update, June 2024, Tennessee. Department Of Correction.

Felon Population Reports

No abstract provided.

The Safest Suburbs In The Mountain West, 2023, Ivan Sun, Zachary Billot, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Cities & Metros

This fact sheet presents data from the Smart Asset report, “America’s Safest Suburbs – 2023 Study,” which examines the 370 safest suburbs in the United States and the 35 most affordable safest suburbs. This fact sheet focuses on data for the nine safest suburbs and most affordable safe suburbs in the Mountain West states of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, and Utah ranking among the top 100 safest suburbs in the United States.

Exploring The Relationship Between Load Shedding And Crime In Gauteng, Bhavesh Ram

Master's Theses

This study investigates the impact of load shedding, a recurring power outage phenomenon in South Africa, on crime rates in the densely populated Gauteng province. Using a novel dataset that combines Eskom's load shedding schedules with detailed crime statistics from 2015 to 2022, a fixed-effects regression model is employed to examine the relationship between blackout hours and various crime categories. Findings reveal that while load shedding does not significantly affect overall crime rates, it significantly increases the incidence of contact crimes and sexual offenses, particularly during daylight hours. Additionally, our results provide evidence that load shedding diminishes the ability of …

Inmate Assistance Programs: Toward A Less Punitive And More Effective Criminal Justice System, Erkmen G. Aslim, Yijia Lu, Murat C. Mungan

Faculty Scholarship

High recidivism rates in the United States are a well-known and disturbing problem. In this article, we explain how this problem can be mitigated in a cost-effective manner through reforms that make greater use of humane methods that help inmates rather than using more punitive measures.

We focus on Inmate Assistance Programs (IAPs) adopted by many states. Some of these programs provide inmates with valuable skill sets to utilize upon their release while others are geared towards treating mental health and substance use disorder problems. IAPs are likely to reduce recidivism by lowering ex-convicts’ need to resort to crime for …

The Kids Aren’T Alright: Examining The Spatial Concentration Of Drug Crime Near Schools In Little Rock, Arkansas, Jason Neeley

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the last two decades, violence and death stemming from drug activity has become a concern to communities across the country. Increasingly, policymakers and law enforcement agencies have sought to understand where drug activity is located, including in and around schools, and why some places are more susceptible to drug problems than others. The current study explores two related questions: (1) How do drug crimes spatially pattern around schools? and, in turn, (2) What are the neighborhood-level predictors of the concentration of drug crime? Focusing on Little Rock, Arkansas, I examine the spatial distribution of drug offenses and overdoses within …

Examining The Direct And Mediating Relationship Between Immigration, Family Structure, And Crime: A Community-Level Analysis., Obed Asare

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT Amidst debate about immigration into the United States, many in the public and varying levels of government have questioned its impact on vital social institutions of social control. Public perception often associates immigrants with increased crime, though empirical research reveals a consistently null or negative association at the community-level. Scholars have proposed that immigrants contribute to community revitalization and foster social control, at least some of which may be tied to the ways that immigration reshapes aggregate family structures across the community. However, few empirical studies examine this important relationship. The current study aims to bridge this gap in …

Crime Rate Analysis And E-Crime Prevention In Dubai Using Machine Learning., Mohammad Ahmad Hatam

Theses

Globally increasing criminal activity, such as E Crimes, presents a serious threat to both economic growth and social welfare. Nevertheless, Dubai is a safety haven in the middle of this trend, as seen by the significant decline in major and non-alarming crimes during the first quarter of 2023. This study uses an examination of the large crime dataset (about 34,567 events) from the Dubai Police Department that spans 2019 to 2021. Several main goals are to be achieved by this work by using geospatial methods, predictive modelling, correlation investigations, and exploratory analysis. First of all, it looks for complex trends …

Tennessee Felon Population Update, May 2024, Tennessee. Department Of Correction.

Felon Population Reports

No abstract provided.

The Failures Of The United States Justice System, Barry Nash, James Hall, Joseph Harris, Jalyn Williams

ENGL 1102 Showcase

This is a compilation of research papers written under a common theme of United States Justice System Failures. This was done for an assignment in an English 1102 class.

A Most Despicable Hoax: Women, Crime, And Newspapers In Depression-Era St. Louis, Nancy Stiles

Theses

This paper delves into the captivating saga of Nellie Muench, a St. Louis housewife whose life intersected with the burgeoning celebrity culture, evolving media landscape, and shifting gender dynamics of the early 20th century. Muench's involvement as a co-conspirator in the 1931 kidnapping for ransom of a wealthy doctor propelled her into the spotlight, where she navigated media manipulation to attempt to craft her own narrative. Secretly obtaining a baby and passing it off as her own child to gain jury sympathy and blackmail a rich paramour took interest in her case to sensational tabloid (and legal) heights. Drawing from …

Parental Kidnapping And Domestic Violence: The Need To Reform And Enforce State Action, Anna Ratterman

Georgia Criminal Law Review

When civil family issues intersect with criminal acts, the civil and criminal systems fail to effectuate a complete remedy. Specifically, there are few effective protections for victims of domestic violence during the pendency of domestic relations proceedings. Given the complicated gender dynamics and inequalities that have developed throughout history, it is unsurprising that the criminal and civil systems have failed to prioritize prosecution of crimes against women. Current criminal laws fail to treat domestic violence and parental kidnapping as serious crimes and instead adopt the view that domestic disputes are private issues to be handled within the family. In turn, …

Comparing Asian Immigrants Offending Rates With Other Immigrants., Shamim Ara Pia

Theses and Dissertations

Asian Americans are the fastest-growing population in the United States (U.S). They are characterized by parental attachment, school commitment, neighborhood involvement, and belief. The association between Asian immigrants and crime is multifaceted and requires an in-depth investigation. This study aims to compare the offending rates of Asian immigrants with those of other immigrants, such as immigrants from Europe, Central and South America, Australia, and Africa based on Travis Hirschi’s social bonding theory. The data for this study are drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), which is a nationally representative study of students in …

Safe Streets, Secure Futures: Preventing Violent Crime In The United States, Haley Aleman

Posters - 2024

Violent crimes inflict not only direct physical harm but can also foster cycles of fear and mental anguish throughout affected communities.

This atmosphere can hurt and impede economic and social development. Destruction of a community’s trust in law enforcement can infect other areas of life such worsening economic development. In this, we will continue our evaluation of factors contributing to violent crime rates by exploring the following hypothesis through additional study.

This hypothesis is as follows: There is a relationship between political affiliation and violent crime rates such that democratic states have higher rates of violent crime.

Tennessee Felon Population Update, April 2024, Tennessee. Department Of Correction.

Felon Population Reports

No abstract provided.

"Can I Get Some Harder Work?": Former Juvenile Offenders Narrated Educational Experiences In Juvenile Correctional Facilities, Deneil D. Christian, Joshua L. Adams, Carl M. Miedich

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

Adolescents in the juvenile justice system have a right to comparable education as their peers in public school settings. Interestingly, the existing literature indicates that this is not always the case. This study explored the experience of earning a high school diploma or equivalent in a juvenile correctional facility in Pennsylvania. We framed our study within Bandura’s social cognitive theory. This study was guided by the following research question: How do former youth offenders describe their experiences obtaining a high school diploma or equivalent in a juvenile correctional facility in Pennsylvania? This qualitative study employed a hermeneutic phenomenology research design. …

Information Trolls And Democracy: A Qualitative Examination Of Disinformation Campaigns In Canada, Rachelle Louden, Richard Frank

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

This research explores disinformation delivered during the 2019 Canadian Federal election. This study explores the methods and techniques used by the perpetrators of disinformation campaigns in the context of Canadian elections. This research also examines whether the disinformation discovered during the election falls within criminal foreign interference. Critical discourse analysis is used to qualitatively analyze 26 articles published by a Northeastern U.S. based independent news website within the ten months leading up to the election. This research finds that the use of unnamed sources, hyperbolic statements to misrepresent facts, and strategies to de-legitimize reputable institutions were the most common tools …

Thoughts Beyond Stigma-Implications For Change Reflected In The Voices Of Previously Incarcerated Citizens, Amy Frankel, Elizabeth Depoy

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

State and federal prisons release more than six hundred thousand people annually, with nearly 95% of those returning to the communities in which they resided before incarceration, albeit frequently with discomfort and marginalization, largely due to stigma (Alexander, 2020, Park & Tietjen, 2021). Programs to foster reintegration exist in almost every locale, yet recidivism remains due to many factors. Stigma has received much attention as a cause of failure for successful reentry and acclimation (Park & Tietjen, 2021). With the surge of interest and empirical study of stigma as a barrier, the voices of returning citizens can further enhance significant …

I Had Nowhere To Go: Disenfranchised Grief And Support Groups For Families Of Incarcerated Individuals, Allegra Pocinki

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

Almost two million Americans are incarcerated in state and federal prisons, juvenile corrections facilities, and local jails. While many studies have examined the impact of mass incarceration on the daily lives of wives, female partners, and children, little is known about support groups for families of incarcerated loved ones. Throughout 2021, I conducted virtual interviews with 13 respondents across the United States who created support groups for families of incarcerated individuals or are executive leaders in these organizations. I find that support groups provide space for families to grieve without judgment, can help re-frame the grief experience and provide tools …

Guns On Campus: The Impact Of Campus Carry On Student Behavior And Emotions, Inara Ramazanova, Terressa Benz, Joseph Deangelis

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

Most research on campus carry uses a quantitative approach to measure attitudes towards campus carry policies, existing or pending. Using focus group data, this paper examines self-reported impacts on behavior and emotional responses to a three-year-old campus carry law at one university in the rural west. We explore whether guns on campus impacted student-reported behavior in the classroom or on campus. Student responses were entered into qualitative analysis software, where data was categorized according to themes. The two most prominent themes were that students reported no impact on their behavior on campus while also expressing anxiety over the lack of …

Pathways To Freedom: The Evolution Of The Parole Process For Youth Lifers In California, Laura S. Abrams, Kaylyn C. Canlione, Leah Ouellet, Audrey I. Melillo

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

This paper explores the evolution of resentencing/parole mechanisms for youth lifers in California through the lens of lived experience. We use a case study approach with a triangulation of data sources, including qualitative interviews, parole hearing transcripts, and state legislation. For three purposively selected cases, we analyze the emotional experience of seeking resentencing/parole and analyze how the parole board determined suitability for release based on standard parole factors as well as “youth-specific” mitigation considerations. In all three cases, the parole board leaned heavily on standard parole factors such as demonstration of remorse and insight, compliant prison behavior, and participation in …

The Effect Of Emotion On Risk Perception And The Blackstone Ratio, Brianna Duncan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the public debate concerning crime, there are generally two opposing positions regarding error rates within guilt convictions: a greater concern for false positives (convicting an innocent person) or a greater concern for false negatives (not convicting a guilty person). Public attitudes have typically indicated that false positives should be considered worse, with a range in global surveys from 51% (Zhuo, 2021) to as high as 85% (Scurich, 2015) of the population expressing this perspective. To explore the reason behind these beliefs, the current study explores the effect of emotions. Lerner and Keltner (2000) found that fear and anger, though …

Liberty And Justice For Some: Comparing Dwi Convictions By Ethnicity, Gretel Busse, Daniel Wilkerson

FHSS Mentored Research Conference

This study observes potential disadvantages faced by minorities in the criminal justice system. Using data from DWI cases, we compare outcomes for Hispanic and white criminal defendants. Controlling for BrAC and criminal history, we find that Hispanics are more likely than whites to be convicted and incarcerated, and less likely to use a private attorney.

Tennessee Felon Population Update, March 2024, Tennessee. Department Of Correction.

Felon Population Reports

No abstract provided.

Long History Of Leniency? A Call For A Georgia Statutory Mitigation Factor For Veterans With Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Jonathan Fagundes

Georgia Law Review

In Georgia, criminal sentencing marks a critical period for convicted defendants. As the final moment before the superior court fashions a punishment, the defendant faces a pivotal opportunity to introduce mitigating evidence, including evidence of mental health challenges, life circumstances, and other facts. Where such evidence is offered, the superior court can properly issue a sentence that aligns with the purposes of punishment or other state policies. But some populations, especially veterans convicted of nonviolent offenses, are exposed to unique stressors that likely affect their culpability. The existing sentencing regime, however, does not guarantee that this mitigating evidence will even …