Digital Commons Network^™

Bidding At The Prison Auction House: An Exchange Of Prisoners' And University Students' Perceptions Of Crime And Punishment, Kate J. Dubois

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

During the spring of 2006, a new program was instated at West Virginia University that provided an arena for undergraduate Criminology majors and residents of a correctional facility to discuss and learn about issues within the criminal justice system. The class took place at a correctional facility. After leaving the class, the students were expected to write a reflection paper on the discussions that took place within the classroom to return at the next session. The purpose of this research is to conduct a thorough analysis of the reflection papers of each student across the 15 weeks. The findings suggest …

Analyzing The Effectiveness Of Rehabilitation Programs, Victoria Miceli

Senior Honors Projects

Rehabilitating criminals has become a highly debated topic throughout the U.S. With the majority of criminals being repeat offenders, the correctional institution has made rehabilitation a top priority. Research over the last twenty five years has shown that some programs are more effective than others. After reviewing the body of research, I developed a modification of a widely used assessment instrument, the Correctional Program Assessment Inventory, to make it more suitable for use in Rhode Island. I used this modification together with the State of Michigan’s Program Assessment Tool to assess the degree of which four of the over 100 …

Book Review, Supranational Criminology: Towards A Criminology Of International Crimes (Alette Smeulers & Roelof Haveman Eds., 2008), Mark A. Drumbl

Scholarly Articles

Not available.

Saving Face: The Benefits Of Not Saying I’M Sorry, Brent T. White

Law and Contemporary Problems

White discusses the socio-psychological research that suggests humans invest significant emotional stake in "face"--or their "claimed identity as a competent, intelligent, or moral persons"--and apologize only when they can do so without significant "face threat." Criminal offenders, many of whom are likely to be low on self-determination, may resist apology to victims out of psychological fragility and the psychological need to preserve face rather than lack of remorse. Thus, the criminal-justice system should be cautious about punishing offenders more harshly because they fail to show external remorse--or even when they are openly defiant. This caution should be exercised whether the …

Criminal Justice And The Public Imagination, Erik Luna

Scholarly Articles

As this symposium demonstrates, criminology has much to offer criminal law and procedure. But there are limits to this endeavor, such as when public policy is distorted by powerful emotions that ignore the lessons of legal doctrine and social science. This article presents one possible response in such circumstances: expanding the interdisciplinary relationship to include literary and cultural materials usually associated with the humanities. These works can inspire the public imagination in ways that law and criminology cannot, at times offering an alternative narrative to counter emotion-driven claims of necessity, for instance, and raising the exact type of questions that …

Rape, Feminism, And The War On Crime, Aya Gruber

Publications

Over the past several years, feminism has been increasingly associated with crime control and the incarceration of men. In apparent lock step with the movement of the American penal system, feminists have advocated a host of reforms to strengthen state power to punish gender-based crimes. In the rape context, this effort has produced mixed results. Sexual assault laws that adopt prevailing views of criminality and victimhood, such as predator laws, enjoy great popularity. However, reforms that target the difficulties of date rape prosecutions and seek to counter gender norms, such as rape shield and affirmative consent laws, are controversial, sporadically-implemented, …

International Criminal Law In The 21st Century: The Crime Of Genocide In Darfur, Ethan R. Ice

Denver Journal of International Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Human Rights And Military Decisions: Counterinsurgency And Trends In The Law Of International Armed Conflict, Dan E. Stigall, Christopher L. Blakesley, Chris Jenks

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

The past several decades have seen a Copernican shift in the paradigm of armed conflict, which the traditional Law of International Armed Conflict (LOIAC) canon has not fully matched. Standing out in stark relief against the backdrop of relative inactivity in LOIAC, is the surfeit of activity in the field of international human rights law, which has become a dramatic new force in the ancient realm of international law. Human rights law, heretofore not formally part of the traditional juridico-military calculus, has gained ever increasing salience in that calculus. Indeed, human rights law has ramified in such a manner that …

State Dominance And Political Corruption: Testing The Efficacy Of An Alternate Configuration Of Institutional-Anomie Theory Cross-Nationally, Carol L. S. Trent

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Extant assessments of Messner and Rosenfeld's institutional-anomie theory (1994) have generally supported the thesis that, in social collectives where the economy dominates, non-economic institutions (i.e. the family, education, polity) are rendered feeble, unable to exert their normative controls. The cultural values of these societies place primacy on "making it" (monetary success), while at the same time placing a much weaker emphasis on the licit means of achieving these goals. The resultant state is one of anomie, conducive to crime. Messner and Rosenfeld have extended their argument stating that it is not economic dominance per se that contributes to high crime …

The Wooster Voice (Wooster, Oh), 2008-04-11, Wooster Voice Editors

The Voice: 2001-2011

This edition of the Wooster Voice, the college's student run newspaper, was published on April 11 of 2008 and it is eight pages long. Grant Cornwell will be officially inaugurated as president of the college on April 26. An article about the course "Criminology and Deviance" taught by Anne Nurse is featured on the first page. Three groups on campus sponsored a talk on undocumented immigrant workers and their rights on April 3. Earth Fest will take place on April 12, this event is organized by Greenhouse and the Artist's Voice House. Professor of History David Gedalecia assisted the production …

The Concept Of "Less Eligibility" And The Social Function Of Prison Violence In Class Society, Ahmed A. White

Publications

No abstract provided.

At His Discretion (N.): "To Be Disposed Of As He Thinks Fit; At His Disposal, At His Mercy; Unconditionally", J. Amy Dillard

All Faculty Scholarship

Review of ANGELA J. DAVIS, ARBITRARY JUSTICE (Oxford University Press, Inc. 2007) 264 pp.

A Comparison Of Sexual Assault In The U.S., Canada, And England, Catie Carson

Undergraduate Review

No abstract provided.

An Analysis Of Gender Differences In Property Crime Arrest Rates, Chanika Renee Jones

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examined the relationship between employment conditions and property-crime arrest rates of working-aged individuals, using gender-specific state-level data from 1979-2001, complied from raw arrest data of the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports and the Census Bureau's annual March Current Population Survey. These data were analyzed using Ordinary Least Squares Regression. The data was disaggregated by gender and underemployment indicators such as percent unemployed, percent subunemployed, percent low wages, and percent low hours, were utilized to test the unemployment-crime relationship. Controls for race, age, and region were also included in this analysis, as they may influence the U-C relationship. The analysis …

Understanding The Psychosocial Development Of Neighborhoods: Implications For Situational Policing, Jeri Kirby

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Community policing strategies are aimed at reducing crime and getting neighbors more involved. These goals of achieving safe neighborhoods seem just outside of the police department's reach. The police have been unable to achieve sustained satisfaction with the residents while also deterring crime and disorder. Research has suggested that collective efficacy within neighborhoods has a strong relation to the level of crime and disorder (Sampson, 1999). Assuming that neighborhoods have unique properties/characteristics, other researchers explored the idea that neighborhoods behave like groups and develop through identifiable stages (Nolan, 2004). Using qualitative methods inside the Pittsburgh Police Department and in four …

Behavioral Genetics Research And Criminal Dna Databases, D. H. Kaye

Law and Contemporary Problems

Kaye discusses DNA databanks and the potential use of such databanks for behavioral genetics research. He addresses the concern that DNA databanks serve as a limitless repository for future research and that the samples used in the databanks could be used for research into a crime gene.

Revisiting Capital Punishment: Factors That Matter When Receiving The Death Penalty (A State By State Analysis), Bridget Ann Micka

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Although the death penalty is popular by most accounts, is it really a good social policy? The purpose of this study is to add to this discussion by examining the factors that directly impact death penalty cases. The data used in this study come from the state level database which contains information on all decisions of initial capital direct, state and federal habeas corpus cases between 1973 and 1995. What are the factors that lead some state compared to others to use the death penalty more often? Some have suggested that this could be the result of a minority-majority conflict. …

Shoeprint Analysis: A Gis Application In Forensic Evidence, Michael Anthony Walnoha Jr.

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The overall intent of this study is to illustrate how GIS and crime mapping methods can be applied to forensic evidence to better understand and comprehend spatial patterns that exist in these data. This study bridges common crime mapping principles such as hot spot mapping, exploratory data analysis, and spatial statistics to spatial forensic evidence investigation. In particular, forensic shoeprint evidence is examined and spatial relationships are analyzed using both exploratory and confirmatory statistical analysis. It is found that crime mapping principles can be indirectly related to shoeprint evidence mapping. Exploratory spatial data analysis is extremely helpful in breaking up …

A Web-Based Environment For Automated Dental Identification Research, Satyasrinivas Chekuri

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS), division of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), include in its strategic plan the creation of an Automated Dental Identification System (ADIS), a Post Mortem Dental Identification System.;This project aims at designing an end-to-end web-interface to meet the requirements of ADIS like Identification, Maintenance and Bridge Modules. In Identification Mode the subject record will be uploaded by the user and the match list is obtained as result. Maintenance Mode enables uploading of reference records and to populate the database with preprocessing data. Bridge Module enables researchers from other universities to use the database designed …

Difficult Times In Kentucky Corrections—Aftershocks Of A "Tough On Crime" Philosophy, Robert G. Lawson

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

The objective of this article is to cast some light on corrections system problems brought on by elevated (and possibly unnecessary) levels of incarceration, and especially on problems that trouble the Kentucky corrections system and threaten to undermine the effectiveness of the state's justice system. Part II describes how the country came to embrace sentencing policies and practices capable of producing "a penal system of a severity unmatched in the Western world.” Part III describes Kentucky's embrace of equally harsh sentencing policies and practices and the inmate population explosion that has occurred as a direct result of those policies and …

Child Abuse And Crime: Testing In The "Cycle Of Violence" Theory, Melanie A. Cox

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This study of Child Abuse and Neglect: Testing in the "Cycle of Violence" Theory, is a demonstration of Applied Social Research in partial fulfillment of a master's degree in Sociology. It examines the Cycle of Violence theory by looking at two groups of children: an abuse/neglect group and a control group. It tests the likelihood of the abuse/neglect group to commit a crime in adulthood i.e., property crime, person crime, or public morality; while controlling for race, sex and type of abuse. Also, the odds of gender and race of the children in the abuse/neglect group, becoming a criminal offender …

An Analysis Of The Nypd's Stop-And-Frisk Policy In The Context Of Claims Of Racial Bias, Andrew Gelman, Alex Kiss, Jeffrey Fagan

Faculty Scholarship

Recent studies by police departments and researchers confirm that police stop racial and ethnic minority citizens more often than whites, relative to their proportions in the population. However, it has been argued stop rates more accurately reflect rates of crimes committed by each ethnic group, or that stop rates reflect elevated rates in specific social areas such as neighborhoods or precincts. Most of the research on stop rates and police-citizen interactions has focused on traffic stops, and analyses of pedestrian stops are rare. In this paper, we analyze data from 175,000 pedestrian stops by the New York Police Department over …

Latino Immigrant Perceptions About The U.S. Police: An Exploratory Study, Griselda Aldrete

Student Work

New population trends by Latino immigrants have caused much debate in the field of criminal justice. Lack of research and literature on this growing population has left the justice system looking for ways to properly tap into the Latino population. Among the many areas that have been overlooked is one about how Latino immigrants adapt to their new life upon arriving in the United States. In addition, no study has ever explored how immigrants deal with the criminal justice system, especially the perceptions they have about the U.S. police. This thesis is an attempt to fill this void in research …

Relationship Between Personality Styles And Drug/Alcohol Use In Prison Inmates, Anita S. Quinn Flye

Doctoral Dissertations

When assessing areas of clinical pathology and substance abuse, clinicians are not always provided with critical background information needed to assess properly and diagnosis their clients. For various reasons, full disclosure is not forthcoming during the initial intake or assessment process. Inadequate knowledge will, in turn, affect treatment planning. Valid and reliable assessment instruments are an invaluable resource for extracting additional facts. This study investigated that criterion validity between the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-III (MCMI-III) and the Substance Abuse Subtle Screening Inventory-3 (SASSI-3), as well as attempted to replicate psychopathology subgroup clusters as noted in a study by McMahon, Malow, …

The Paradox Of Criminal Justice Education In The United States: A Study Of The Perceptions Of Criminal Justice Faculty As A Paradigm Of An Academic Discipline And The Congruence With The Literature, Daniel A. Posluszny

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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The Reality Of Racial Disparity In Criminal Justice: The Significance Of Data Collection, David A. Harris

Law and Contemporary Problems

Criminologists have long debated the presence of racial disparity at various places in the criminal justice system, from initial on-the-street encounters between citizens and police officers to the sentencing behavior of judges. What is new is the use of statistics designed to persuade the public, and not just other academics and researchers, that grave racial disparities exist in the system, and that these disparities necessitate significant policy changes.

Citizenship And Severity: Recent Immigration Reforms And The New Penology, Teresa A. Miller

Journal Articles

Over the past twenty years, scholars of criminal law, criminology and criminal punishment have documented a transformation in the practices, objectives, and institutional arrangements underlying a range of criminal justice system functions that are at the heart of penal modernism. In contrast to the preceding eighty years of criminal justice practices that were progressively more modern in their belief in the rationality of the criminal offender and their concern for enhancing civilization through rehabilitative responses to criminality, these scholars note that since the mid-198''0s the relatively settled assumptions about the framework that shaped criminal justice and penal practices for nearly …

Broadly Speaking - April, 2002, Nova Southeastern University

Broadly Speaking

No abstract provided.

Broadly Speaking - January, 2002, Nova Southeastern University

Broadly Speaking

No abstract provided.

Policing Guns And Youth Violence, Jeffrey A. Fagan

Faculty Scholarship

To combat the epidemic of youth gun violence in the 1980s and 1990s, law enforcement agencies across the United States adopted a variety of innovative strategies. This article presents case studies of eight cities' efforts to police gun crime. Some cities emphasized police-citizen partnerships to address youth violence, whereas others focused on aggressive enforcement against youth suspected of even minor criminal activity. Still others attempted to change youth behavior through "soft" strategies built on alternatives to arrest. Finally, some cities used a combination of approaches. Key findings discussed in this article include:

• Law enforcement agencies that emphasized police-citizen cooperation benefited …