Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Using Social Disorganization Theory To Explore Neighbourhood Effects On Violent Crime: A Case Study Of The City Of Brantford, Ontario, Ni-Shan Ho

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The purpose of this study was to explore neighbourhood characteristics related to social disorganization theory and to ascertain whether socioeconomic disadvantage, family disruption, residential instability and young population structure were predictive of neighbourhood violent crime in the city of Brantford, Ontario, as a case study. A two-step analysis was conducted using data derived from the National Household Survey (NHS), the 2011 census and the Brantford Police Service records management system (BPS-RMS). A descriptive analysis of Brantford’s 21 census tracts (CT) was conducted to explore patterns of social disorganization variables and violent crime in each of the city’s 21 CT neighbourhoods. …

Correctional Officers "Through The Looking Glass": Understanding Perceptions And Their Impact On Personal And Professional Identity, Emma Mistry

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

ABSTRACT

The external and institutional stressors that correctional officers face while performing their duties, such as managing a demanding workload, staffing shortages, and monitoring potentially dangerous inmates, have received some attention in the literature. However, researchers have not examined correctional officers’ perceptions of how others view their role and professional identity—whether prisoners, their families, or members of the general public—and how these perceptions are believed to influence an officer’s perspective of their work and their well-being. To explore this gap in the literature, this project seeks to analyze whether or not correctional officers sense these perceptions while performing their duties …

Jailhouse Informants In Canadian Criminal Courts, Olena Beshley

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Criminal justice systems in Canada and around the world have been established to deal with matters that require attention, punishment, and justice. An important function of criminal justice systems is the evaluation of evidence presented in the court of law. Evidence from jailhouse informants who testify that they have been privy to confessions of crimes is a contentious issue. Much of the scholarly literature available to date on wrongful conviction cases focuses on causes of insufficient and unreliable evidence obtained through different techniques and from different sources. Despite the high number of investigations into wrongful conviction cases, the subject of …

Based On Actual Events: Surveillance, Fear And Crime Control In Found-Footage Horror Films, Cassandra Persaud

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

In recent years, found-footage horror films have reappeared with increasing popularity, leading to its recognition as the current horror subgenre du jour. Its amateur style of filmmaking has allowed the subgenre to explore public concerns around the growth of technology, the use of surveillance, and crime control. Found-footage horror films offer a unique platform for analysis as they are framed around presenting the ‘footage’ in the film as factual or reality. In this research study, themes and narratives around the use of surveillance and the production of the docile body in found-footage horror films were examined. The study involved an …

Meeting The Needs Of Victims: An Examination Of Victims' Coping Strategies And Victim Services In Canada, Jenniffer Olenewa

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Victimization creates harms that can take an emotional and financial toll on victims and their communities. As a result of the trauma, many victims will have physiological, safety, and emotional needs that require support. All community members benefit when victims can receive support that meets the needs generated by the harms of a victimization. This mixed-methods study using Canadian data examines what factors contribute to victims engaging in behavioural changes to meet their safety needs, and explores how Victim Service workers view their role in assisting victims to meet their needs. Using data from the 2014 General Social Survey, Study …

Exploring The Pluralization Of Community Safety: A Qualitative Analysis Of The Perceived Operation And Implications Of Situation Tables, Taylor Knipe

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Recent attention has been placed on the sustainability of policing, in that, increasing demands for public safety have been met with decreasing police budgets. The acknowledgement of this problem by Public Safety Canada has initiated the push towards new collaborative models of community safety. These collaborative models are often referred to as Situation Tables, which seek to mitigate acutely-elevated risks of crime and/or victimization in the community through multi-sectoral intervention. The present study explores how the lived experiences of those working on the frontlines of one Situation Table, the Community Partners Risk Intervention Table (CPRIT), fit within the broader community …

Policing And The Dirty Underbelly: Understanding Narratives Of Police Deviance On Social Media Platforms, Amanda Lancia

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Policing organizations have been quick to adopt the use of social media as a community-policing and investigative tool. However, the user-generated content on social media platforms can pose a risk to police legitimacy, police accountability, and their role as the ‘authorized knowers’. This thesis explores how social media problematizes the social problems game and how social media challenges the police as the ‘authorized knowers’. Through the analysis of two case studies - #myNYPD campaign and the Walter Scott shooting – it was found that social media users can use social media platforms to construct claims against and challenge police in …

Representations Of Stranger And Non-Stranger Homicide: A Qualitative Content Analysis Of Canadian News Media, Gabriella L. Leone

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The news media play a significant role in shaping public narratives about homicide by the particular incidents that journalists choose to report – or not report – on. Newspapers, in particular, lack the benefit of constant imagery, special effects, and live-action reporting that T.V. news reports have, and, as a result, forces newspapers to construct sensational and newsworthy homicide stories in order to be competitive and gain readership. To achieve this, newspapers often disproportionately report on bizarre and atypical homicide incidents, which most frequently involve a stranger or unknown assailant. While there is substantive literature surrounding the newsworthiness of homicide …

Twerking, Alcohol, And Fame: The Construction Of Disney Celebrities In The Media, Carla R. López

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The mass media expanded intrusion of cameras into the public and private lives of celebrities has contributed to the public's fascination with Hollywood celebrities. Specifically, this cultural obsession has been increasingly centered on female celebrity's increased deviancy and criminal behaviours. Although numerous studies have been completed discussing the cultural fixation of Hollywood celebrity culture and the audience’s attachment to these celebrities, few have provided insight into the media construction of cultural narratives surrounding Disney celebrities. To fill the gap in the literature, I will assess how female celebrity deviance and sexuality is constructed in the media by examining the media …

You Will Be Punished: Media Depictions Of Missing And Murdered Indigenous Women, Caitlin Elliott

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The following thesis focuses on media depictions of Canada’s missing and murdered Indigenous women, a list that carries upwards of 1,200 names. The news coverage of these stories is reminiscent of television crime dramas in their depictions of minority victims of crime, specifically in regard to victim blaming. In order to examine this relationship, the present study compares coverage of missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canadian news articles to depictions of victims, particularly minority female victims, within crime procedural television shows. An ethnographic content analysis (ECA) was conducted in order to parse out common themes between news articles featuring …

Pregnancy, Birth, And Mothering Behind Bars: A Case Study Of One Woman's Journey Through The Ontario Criminal Justice And Jail Systems, Sarah Fiander

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

As more people come under the direct or indirect control of the carceral nation state, it is important to analyze those systems and bodies that contribute to its construction and conservation. Moreover, it is necessary to assess the ability of these social institutions to meet the needs of the individuals under their supervision, as well as to establish a standard of care to which operators of jails, prisons, and other carceral facilities may be held accountable. Criminalized women represent an acutely marginalized segment of the prison population whose distinct gendered needs have been habitually overlooked. The present study aims to …

No More Mind Games: Content Analysis Of In-Game Commentary Of The National Football League’S Concussion Problem, Jeffrey Parker

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

American (gridiron) football played at the professional level in the National Football League (NFL) is an inherently physical spectator sport, in which players frequently engage in significant contact to the head and upper body. Until recently, the long-term health consequences associated with on the field head trauma were not fully disclosed to players or the public, potentially misrepresenting the dangers involved in gameplay. Crucial to the dissemination of this information to the public are in-game televised commentators of NFL games, regarded as the primary conduits for mediating in-game narratives to the viewing audience. Using a social constructionist theoretical lens, this …

More Than Stone And Iron: Indigenous History And Incarceration In Canada, 1834-1996, Seth Adema

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This dissertation examines Indigenous (First Nation, Métis, and Inuit) history as played out in Canadian prisons. It argues that in the prison, processes of colonialism, decolonization, and neocolonialism took place simultaneously. In the nineteenth century, the prison was built as part of a network of colonial institutions and polices. It was imagined, designed, and built by representatives of the Canadian state alongside other colonial institutions, drawing on similar intellectual traditions. It maintains the imprint of this colonial origin. Prisons also became arenas for Indigenous cultural exchange and cultural creation, which in most cases subverted the logic of the prison. This …

Hunting For 'Paper Gangsters': An Institutional Analysis Of Intelligence-Led Policing In A Canadian Context, Crystal Weston

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Contemporary police departments are facing immense pressure to preserve public safety while also remaining fiscally accountable. As a response to economic pressures, police services are turning to intelligence led policing (ILP). ILP promises ‘smarter’ and more efficient policing with the use of advanced technologies and data analysis for decision-making. The present study examines ILP implementation in one urban Canadian police department. Through in-depth interviews with fifteen patrol and middle-management members, fifty-five hours of observation, and an analysis of organizational documents, I examine how ILP reform has been understood and enacted by patrol officers on the ground. From this analysis, I …

Exploring Interactions Between Police And People With Mental Illness, Krystle L. Shore Ms.

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Contact between people with mental illness (PMI) and police is on the rise. The current study analyzed a six-month period of official police data (N = 400 occurrences) to provide a description of the PMI that came into contact with police and the typical characteristics and outcomes of these encounters. Results indicated that these interactions were initiated by family members and are taking place at home. Police are most commonly resolving the situations formally with apprehensions under the Mental health Act (55%), however only half of the time these apprehensions result in the PMI being admitted into hospital care, …

Critical Champions Or Careless Condemners? Exploring News Media Constructions In Cases Of Wrongful Conviction, Katherine Rozad

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Countless incidences occur throughout the world each and every day. However, only a few of these occurrences are deemed newsworthy by the media. One area of information quite often categorized as “newsworthy” is that surrounding crime. Within crime-related news coverage are occasionally cases of wrongful conviction – miscarriages of justice in which the innocent are labeled “guilty” and wrongly punished. Despite decades of research in both the areas of crime and media, as well as wrongful conviction studies, no research to date has examined the way that cases of wrongful conviction are constructed in the media from the beginnings of …

Pro-Anorexia/Bulimia Interactions Online: Problematizing Complex Cultural Phenomena, Nicole D. Schott

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

In the West, and increasingly globally, individuals, particularly women, are fixated on weight loss, driven by the goal of achieving a culturally-desired, and aggressively marketed, "skinny" female physique. There are online forums where individuals refer to themselves or their eating disorders as "pro-ana" and "pro-mia". Individuals who post on these sites both align with, and challenge, what medical and mental health professionals define as serious mental health problems that result in severe, sometimes fatal, medical complications. This thesis specifically focuses on interactions with, and within, the pro-ana/mia culture on the social media websites Tumblr and YouTube. Over sixteen months, and …

Juror Perceptions Of Eyewitness Identification Evidence, Timothy G. Wykes

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Jurors rely on eyewitness testimony in deciding a defendant’s guilt or innocence. Archival analyses of hundreds of post-conviction DNA exonerations have identified eyewitness misidentification as the highest individual factor contributing to wrongful convictions (Innocence Project, 2014). Internationally, criminal justice systems have employed procedural safeguards (PSs) to educate juries on factors affecting eyewitness identification accuracy. Two such safeguards include the introduction of eyewitness expert testimony during trial proceedings and the reading of cautionary instructions by a presiding judge. In an independent factorial design, this research sought to examine the effects of a model judicial caution drafted by the Ontario Judicial Council …

Fight The Dead, Fear The Living: Post-Apocalyptic Narratives Of Fear, Governance And Social Control, Samantha Lynn Kolpin

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Post-apocalyptic narratives and themes have become increasingly popular in film, television and graphic novels. By imagining a society without the state, post-apocalyptic narratives are able to explore concerns about current forms of governance and social control. The post-apocalyptic narrative is particularly relevant in a post-9/11 society where public concerns about security and governance are prominent. In this study, I examined the potential allegorical function of the zombie narrative found in Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead. Specifically, this project involves an ethnographic content analysis of issues 1-100 of The Walking Dead graphic novel series. Analysis focused on the allegorical purposes of …

Policing Diversity With Diversity: Exploring Organizational Rhetoric, Myth, And Minority Police Officers' Perceptions And Experiences, Justin K. Szeto

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Police services are responding to the current realities of diversity. Specifically, police services attempt to adopt diversity policies, initiatives, and practices as a way to reflect community representation. The present study examines how minority police officers’ perceive and experience organizational diversity. While diversity is a broad term encompassing such variables as race, sex and sexual orientation, the present study focuses primarily on racial diversity. Through in-depth interviews with 12 Canadian police officers and 1 diversity trainer, as well as descriptive statistical data pertaining to the last 15 years of recruitment trends, the perceptions held by participants suggest that police services …

"Emotional Landscapes" And The Value Of Sex: Exploring The Lived Experiences Of Sex Workers' Clients, Zoey K. Jones

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Clients of sex workers face criminalization and stigmatization in Canada and across the globe; they are commonly depicted by their stereotypes in entertainment and news media and have become a more visible population with the advent of the internet and online erotic review boards. However, these people are infrequently represented by their own voices and stories in academic research and, as such, the reality of being a client is not encompassed by the existing literature. An accurate and comprehensive understanding of the sex industry is particularly important in the twenty-first century, as the laws surrounding sex work in Canada – …

An Attributional Perspective In The Study Of Crime Seriousness And Criminal Sentencing, Bikram Dasgupta

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

There is a need at present to understand the basis of seriousness judgments and the following sentence recommendation with respect to judicial decision-making. The defensive attribution model (cf. Jones & Davis, 1965) suggests that assessments of responsibility are strongly influenced by perceived intent freedom and duration factors, along with the material consequences of act. One’s attitude toward punishment has also been implicated as strongly related to the resulting sentencing decision imposed upon the offender. The role of these factors in seriousness and sentencing respectively was explored in the present research. The study also observed the role of three situational factors …