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Law Enforcement and Corrections

Theses/Dissertations

2017

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Full-Text Articles in Law

Are Dhs Technology Grants For Local Police Departments An Effective Tool Against Terrorism?, Erika Mcginty Aug 2017

Are Dhs Technology Grants For Local Police Departments An Effective Tool Against Terrorism?, Erika Mcginty

Student Theses

This paper examines the effectiveness of allocating funds to the nation’s police departments for the prevention of domestic terrorism, as is done annually through the Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Grants Program. The program, administered by the Federal Emergency Management Administration, has distributed billions of dollars since its 2003 inception in equipment, software, and technology services based on the recipient police agencies’ own risk assessments of local terrorism. Much of the technology desired by police consists of systems of mass surveillance; this thesis focuses on implementations of surveillance video cameras or CCTV, license plate readers, and unmanned aerial vehicles. …


Intutitve Decision-Making: Engagement, Agency, And Leverage, Roger E. Callese Jul 2017

Intutitve Decision-Making: Engagement, Agency, And Leverage, Roger E. Callese

All Capstone Projects

This project explored law enforcement decision-making through the review of decision-making literature, consideration of the Critical Decision Model (CDM), and semistructured interviews with law enforcement officers. In 2016, the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) recommended the adoption and use of the CDM by law enforcement officers as a new way to approach tactical decisions. A review of the CDM suggests a linear, rational, weighing of options by officers. While this may be an excellent tool for slowly developing situations, for pre-mortems, or for debriefing, the CDM step four (identify options and determine best course of action) and step five (act, …


The Impact Of Incarceration And Societal Reintegration On Mental Health, Veronica Wicks Jun 2017

The Impact Of Incarceration And Societal Reintegration On Mental Health, Veronica Wicks

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine ex-offender’s beliefs on the impact of incarceration and societal reintegration on mental health. The study is a qualitative design using interviews that were audio recorded and transcribed for analysis. The study sought to address the relationship between perceptions of mental health and experiences of incarceration and reintegration among formerly incarcerated individuals. The following themes emerged from participant responses: incarceration challenges, mental health stigma, and rehabilitation service accessibility. The findings of this study may contribute to social work practice by providing awareness to the factors impacting ex-offenders’ mental health and interventions needed. The …


Radio Dispatch Cognitive Abilities And Working Memory, David A. Buitron Jun 2017

Radio Dispatch Cognitive Abilities And Working Memory, David A. Buitron

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Public safety radio dispatchers incontrovertibly have to manage multiple tasks at any given time, from relaying lifesaving information to field units, to simultaneously overseeing several monitors and keeping up with the radio transmissions in a timely manner. Interestingly, however, the underlying cognitive abilities necessitated for performing such tasks have not been thoroughly investigated. To begin understanding the cognitive faculties that underlie dispatching tasks, we gauged cognitive ability measures relevant to dispatcher duties and introduced Working Memory Capacity (WMC) as underlying the differentiation on performance. The four general dispatcher cognitive factors identified by Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) literature, were …


Mindfulness And Law Enforcement: An Effective Approach To Implementing Mindfulness For First Responders, Gina White May 2017

Mindfulness And Law Enforcement: An Effective Approach To Implementing Mindfulness For First Responders, Gina White

Mindfulness Studies Theses

An increasing number of studies show that people employed as first responders in high trauma service jobs tend to experience a high level of stress, at work and after hours. Studies suggest that constant exposure to job related stress leads to both physical and mental dysregulation. This study looks at the effects of implementing mindfulness tools and techniques to those working in law enforcement. Other works on this topic report mindfulness as a successful tool to increase wellbeing to a broad spectrum of populations. The methodology used in this study was designed specifically for first responders. The data findings were …


Tattoos And Criminal Behavior: An Examination Of The Relationship Between Body Art And Crime, Daniel D. Dajani May 2017

Tattoos And Criminal Behavior: An Examination Of The Relationship Between Body Art And Crime, Daniel D. Dajani

Student Theses

This thesis investigates the relationship between having tattoos and crime. A review of past research concerning tattoos, crime and other forms of deviancy demonstrates that a relationship exists to some extent. This thesis gathers new data concerning tattoos and crime and adds to the knowledge base by examining the alterations in the correlation and what may be causing said alterations. This thesis utilized the survey method and participants were recruited via a mix of in-person and online strategies. We aimed to garner participation from a varied group of respondents that would ensure data relevant to the study would be produced …


Behavioral Health Unit: Case Study At The Portland Police Department, Anne Sedlack Apr 2017

Behavioral Health Unit: Case Study At The Portland Police Department, Anne Sedlack

Thinking Matters Symposium Archive

There are 8,000 law enforcement agencies in the United States. 1,000 have some form of specialized policing and response presence - which means that they have at least a few officers who are crisis intervention trained (CIT). 200 of these law enforcement agencies have some form of program that is beyond a few police officers trained in CIT. In 2016, there were 6 departments that were awarded a grant from the Department of Justice and Bureau of Justice Assistance. These six are currently learning sites dedicated to studying the affects of having a behavioral health specialized co-response team. The Portland …


Factors Affecting Mental Health Seeking Behaviors Of Law Enforcement Officers, Vincent M. Haecker Feb 2017

Factors Affecting Mental Health Seeking Behaviors Of Law Enforcement Officers, Vincent M. Haecker

Dissertations

The intent of this study was to elicit perspectives from law enforcement counselors, clinicians, chaplains, and peer group leaders for factors affecting law enforcement officer’s (LEOs) seeking mental health assistance. The law enforcement and mental health communities have gone to great lengths to ensure assistance is available to LEOs in an effort to counter the stress and trauma associated with the policing profession. Past studies attempted to elicit LEOs attitudes on mental health services, generating mixed results and were unable to establish why available services were underutilized. This study employed a qualitative methodology to elicit perspectives on this phenomena from …


The Fear Factor: Exploring The Impact Of The Vulnerability To Deportation On Immigrants' Lives, Shirley P. Leyro Feb 2017

The Fear Factor: Exploring The Impact Of The Vulnerability To Deportation On Immigrants' Lives, Shirley P. Leyro

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This qualitative study explores the impact that the fear of deportation has on the lives of noncitizen immigrants. More broadly, it explores the role that immigration enforcement, specifically deportation, plays in disrupting the process of integration, and the possible implications of this interruption for immigrants and their communities. The study aims to answer: (1) how vulnerability to deportation specifically impacts an immigrant’s life, and (2) how the vulnerability to deportation, and the fear associated with it, impacts an immigrant’s degree of integration. Data were gathered through a combination of six open-ended focus group interviews of 10 persons each, and 33 …


The Rhetoric Of Inmates: Identification Processes In The San Quentin News, Alexandra Stepanov Jan 2017

The Rhetoric Of Inmates: Identification Processes In The San Quentin News, Alexandra Stepanov

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The intent of this thesis is to create a new heuristic for processes of identification. Currently, Burke's identification theory only accounts for his definition of successful identification. This thesis explores how Burke's initial identification theory interacts with other theories that contribute to identity formation. Specifically, Fernheimer's identification half-steps, Reynold's ethos as location theory, and Kerschbaum's commodification of difference will be used to build on Burke's theory and develop a new heuristic. The new heuristic will be applied to the San Quentin State Prison's inmate-run newspaper, the San Quentin News, to explore how inmates are utilizing rhetorical identification strategies to change …


"Can We Clean Their Guns For Em'?" Frame Analysis Of Media Coverage Surrounding The Killing Of African Americans By Police, A Comparison Of Four U.S. And International News Sources, Jeffrey Longhurst Jan 2017

"Can We Clean Their Guns For Em'?" Frame Analysis Of Media Coverage Surrounding The Killing Of African Americans By Police, A Comparison Of Four U.S. And International News Sources, Jeffrey Longhurst

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Instances of unarmed African Americans being killed when encountering police officers have come to the forefront of the discussion about race and race relations in the U.S. This study investigates media framing to determine if there are elements of racism in media frames surrounding these events. This study seeks to determine the extent that the tenets of Critical Race Theory apply in news when comparing stories Fox News and CNN online articles with articles by Al Jazeera and BBC. The two cases chosen were the killings of Micheal Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and Freddie Gray in Baltimore, Maryland. Using critical …


Different Not Less: An Evaluation Of The Autism Training Curriculum For The Kentucky Department Of Criminal Justice Training, Joseph Aaron Ellis Jan 2017

Different Not Less: An Evaluation Of The Autism Training Curriculum For The Kentucky Department Of Criminal Justice Training, Joseph Aaron Ellis

Online Theses and Dissertations

Autism spectrum disorder is one of the largest growing neurological behavioral disabilities in the United States, with a rise in diagnoses from 2012 (1 in 88) to present day (1 in 68). Studies have shown that individuals with disabilities are more likely to be victimized. Thus, the increasing diagnoses of ASD increases the chance that a victim of crime will have ASD. Police officers should have a working and growing knowledge of ASD from day one, for this reason. This exploratory study uses a literature review of autism spectrum disorder in order to develop an evaluation to analyze the curriculum …


The Justified Lawman: Cowboy Killings In The Modern Era, Joel Franklin Harman Jan 2017

The Justified Lawman: Cowboy Killings In The Modern Era, Joel Franklin Harman

Online Theses and Dissertations

Stereotypes advanced by the popular media, do not necessarily have the power to directly determine an individual's ways of thinking, but do help frame and reinforce already existing cultural beliefs, particularly within the context of the seemingly innocuous narrative fictions of cable television. These narratives not only simplify complex ideas, but also can further entrench or justify harmful social relations. My contention here, is that the popular television program Justified does precisely this by normalizing police violence and the ways that the police underpin and reproduce profoundly disparate class and racialized social order. While in many ways a typical police …


Moderating Effects Of Resilience And Recovery On The Stressor-Strain Relationship Among Law Enforcement Officers, Austin Hearne Jan 2017

Moderating Effects Of Resilience And Recovery On The Stressor-Strain Relationship Among Law Enforcement Officers, Austin Hearne

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationships between individual resilience, recovery from work, and the relationship between stressors and strains in a sample of police officers. I primarily plan to test whether individual resiliency and recovery moderates the relationship between law enforcement-related organizational and operational stressors and strains such as burnout, sleep disturbances and poor general well-being. I hypothesize that individual resiliency and recovery will both moderate the stressor-strain relationship, so that officers who exhibit higher resiliency and engage in appropriate recovery will experience less strain from the stressors of their occupation. Additionally, I hypothesize that recovery …


Bad Cops Or Bad Training? How Police Officer Training Impacts Use Of Force Incidents., Kendra Bengtson Jan 2017

Bad Cops Or Bad Training? How Police Officer Training Impacts Use Of Force Incidents., Kendra Bengtson

Departmental Honors Projects

There has been growing tension between the police and public for allegations of excessive use of force, racism, and insufficient knowledge of mental illness. The purpose of this project is to examine how officers are trained to use force and what changes in training are still needed to limit using force. This project involved a comprehensive literature review on training, use of force, racial bias and mental illness. Additionally, seven in-depth interviews were conducted with individuals involved in the policing community, and four hours of use of force training and forty hours of de-escalation training were observed. This project found …


Use Of Force: A Split-Second Decision, Samantha Mcnulty Jan 2017

Use Of Force: A Split-Second Decision, Samantha Mcnulty

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This paper discusses the compliance and measures taken by Summit County, Ohio police departments in their efforts to meet use of force policy standards set by the Ohio Collaborative Community-Police Advisory Board. This board was established by Kasich's Executive Order 2015-04K to create standards on what the departments' use of force or response to resistance policies should contain and determine the Ohio departments which comply with the certification standards.


Police Officer Followership, Bradley W. Gronke Jan 2017

Police Officer Followership, Bradley W. Gronke

All Capstone Projects

The problem within the River Grove Police Department is that the majority of our leadership is getting close to retirement and there is minimal leadership training available for our patrol officers that will soon fill those leadership roles. Action research with the River Grove Police Department explored this problem. Utilizing a foundation of theoretical framework based upon followership, career development, and leader-member exchange three objectives were identified and accomplished through this research. This research identified that there was not a positive linear relationship between followership typology, age and years of experience groups. It also identified if there was a perception …


Secondary Employment By Western Australia Police Officers: Factors Influencing Multiple Jobholding And The Relationship To Organisational Commitment, Hamish Mckenzie Jan 2017

Secondary Employment By Western Australia Police Officers: Factors Influencing Multiple Jobholding And The Relationship To Organisational Commitment, Hamish Mckenzie

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The purpose of this study was to determine if there is a significant relationship between secondary employment by Western Australia police officers and organisational commitment. The study also examined whether there was a relationship between secondary employment of Western Australia police officers and, gender, work location, employment hours, rank and tenure. Finally, the study sought to understand why Western Australia police officers undertook secondary employment. A mixed methods approach to research was undertaken with 5756 Western Australia police officers sent a survey adapted from Meyer and Allen’s Three-Component Model (TCM) Employee Commitment Survey (2004). This survey tool is based on …