Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons™
Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 17 of 17
Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Exploring Risk Factors Associated With Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Symptomatology In Police, Lori Camacho
Exploring Risk Factors Associated With Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Symptomatology In Police, Lori Camacho
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
Mental health outcomes, especially post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), in police have become more of a concern for law enforcement administrators, peers, family and friends. Using culture as a theoretical framework, the current cross-sectional, convergent mixed methods study explored the relationship between personal cumulative exposure to different types of critical incidents and likelihood of reporting PTSD symptoms in a sample of officers (n=71) from one municipal police department. This study also examined how personal cumulative exposure to different types of critical incidents and likelihood of reporting symptoms of PTSD may be moderated by the degree of perception of social support from …
A Spatiotemporal Examination Of Crime Site Selection For Commercial Burglary And Street Robbery, Devin Cowan
A Spatiotemporal Examination Of Crime Site Selection For Commercial Burglary And Street Robbery, Devin Cowan
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
The overall goal of this dissertation is to examine how the built and natural environment influences how potential criminals identify crime sites to offend within. Guided by the theoretical principles of crime site selection and crime pattern theory, this study specifically focuses on the crimes of street robbery and commercial burglary in three unique study locations—Atlanta, GA, Fayetteville, NC, and Rochester, NY. The data for this study were collected from multiple publicly available data repositories. Of these repositories, criminal incident data for the dependent variables were gathered from the National Policing Institute's Police Data Initiative. Data for the independent variables, …
"Taken In By The 'Man In A White Van' Story": The Digital Activism Efforts Of One Women's Civic Leadership Organization In Human Trafficking Awareness, Alex Rister
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
Feminist activism in the digital age leverages technology to raise awareness of, and to mobilize support for, important issues and causes. Human trafficking is one such cause, and preventing it is included as a United Nations Sustainable Development Goal to achieve gender equality and empower women and girls. This study sought to understand the digital activism strategies of one women's civic leadership organization, the Junior League, for human trafficking awareness. In addition, this project analyzed how those digital activism strategies did or did not align with social justice approaches to human trafficking and how those digital activism strategies did or …
Assessing The Relative Influence Of Interpersonal Relationship Factors On Probationer Rule Compliance, Lucas Alward
Assessing The Relative Influence Of Interpersonal Relationship Factors On Probationer Rule Compliance, Lucas Alward
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
The quality of probation officer-client therapeutic alliance (TA) can result in improvements in supervision success including reduced rearrest and non-compliance. However, less is known about how clients' perceptions of procedural justice during interactions with their probation officer (PO) influence the quality of the PO-client TA and impact supervision outcomes. While extant research supports the importance of procedural justice for shaping citizen's legitimacy beliefs and compliance to the law within policing, we know little about how and whether these concepts influence the PO-client TA in community supervision and whether they impact compliance. Using self-reported survey data collected from a sample of …
Innovation Resistance? Understanding Officer Attitudes Toward Police Innovation, Justin Smith
Innovation Resistance? Understanding Officer Attitudes Toward Police Innovation, Justin Smith
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
Over the years, innovations such as community-oriented policing, problem-oriented policing, and crime analysis have helped police agencies control, reduce, and prevent crime and disorder, and improve police and community relations. However, research shows that some officers are resistant to using these innovations in practice. Few studies have examined the causal mechanisms behind innovation resistance. This doctoral dissertation details a study that utilized a mixed method approach to partially test a framework that encompassed two theories to explain officer resistance to innovation: The Model of Consumer Resistance to Innovation from the consumer psychology and marketing fields (Ram & Sheth, 1989), and …
The Expansion Of School Resource Officers In A Florida County: A Mixed Methods Study, Melanie Soderstrom
The Expansion Of School Resource Officers In A Florida County: A Mixed Methods Study, Melanie Soderstrom
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
In the aftermath of school shootings, policymakers presented the expansion of school resource officers (SROs) in the nation's schools as a method for keeping students safe. Recently, policing in the United States has come under increased scrutiny, and several school districts across the country cancelled their SRO contracts with law enforcement agencies. Notably, these contradictory decisions have been made with limited empirical knowledge surrounding, the roles, preparedness, and impact of SROs. A county in Florida substantially expanded its SRO program in the 2016-17 school year creating a new unit within the local sheriff's office and an opportunity to investigate these …
Complex Dna Mixture Deconvolution By Single Cell Genomics: Direct Physical Cell Subsampling And High Sensitivity Dna Typing, Kaitlin Huffman
Complex Dna Mixture Deconvolution By Single Cell Genomics: Direct Physical Cell Subsampling And High Sensitivity Dna Typing, Kaitlin Huffman
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
Biological evidence is often found at crime scenes and can comprise of DNA from the victim(s) and perpetrator(s) to a crime as well as from individuals with no direct relationship to the incident. This can complicate analysis as DNA mixtures are one of the more difficult sources of biological evidence to interpret. Probabilistic genotyping (PG) has greatly aided in mixture analysis. However, even with PG, standard bulk mixture approaches do not always result in probative results as allele overlap, artifacts, or low-level minor contributors inevitably cause genotype information loss. Therefore, deconvolution of forensic DNA mixtures into their individual component DNA …
Law Enforcement Motivations For Establishing Real-Time Crime Centers: A Mixed Model Study, Frank Linton
Law Enforcement Motivations For Establishing Real-Time Crime Centers: A Mixed Model Study, Frank Linton
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
Law enforcement agencies across the United States are establishing real-time crime centers (RTCCs) at a rapid rate, yet research exploring the decisions to establish them is lacking. This study therefore attempts to fill that void by using a mixed methods approach to examine whether adaptive organizational theories, consisting of contingency theory (Lawrence & Lorsch, 1967; Woodward, 1965), resource dependency theory (Pfeffer & Salancik, 1978), and institutional theory (DiMaggio & Powell 1991; Meyer & Rowan, 1977), can be used to explain a law enforcement agency's decision to set up an RTCC. This cross-sectional mixed methods design comprised two different studies (Study …
Analysis And Characterization Of Smokeless Powders And Smokeless Powder Residues, Emily Lennert
Analysis And Characterization Of Smokeless Powders And Smokeless Powder Residues, Emily Lennert
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
The ability to associate a smokeless powder, smokeless powder residue, or organic gunshot residue (OGSR) to one another may be helpful in determining the origin of a suspected sample and aid in linking a suspect to a crime scene. In this study, smokeless powders were extracted and analyzed via gas chromatography – mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and direct analysis in real time – high resolution mass spectrometry (DART-HRMS). Subsequently, group definition was performed using hierarchical cluster analysis and principal component analysis followed by internally validated classification models. Then, smokeless powder residues were generated in-lab and extracted. Resulting residue data from each …
Reticular Design And Synthesis Of Metal-Organic Frameworks With Targeted Emergent Properties, David Fairchild
Reticular Design And Synthesis Of Metal-Organic Frameworks With Targeted Emergent Properties, David Fairchild
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
The research presented in this dissertation describes the design and synthesis of substitutional-solid-solution-based multivariate metal-organic frameworks (SSS-based MTV MOFs) with functionalized organic linkers to study their emergent properties in the crystalline solid state. The synthetic versatility and tunability of organic chemistry coupled with the predictable organization of inorganic structures enables MTV MOF systems to further the fundamental understanding of structure-composition-property relationships for the targeted design of applied materials due to their ability to control the structure, composition, and property independently. To begin, a set of terphenyl linkers with varied steric and electronic properties were crystallized as a family of UiO-type …
Spectrally-Based Color Calibration Of Microscopes For Birefringence Analysis, Olivia Feild
Spectrally-Based Color Calibration Of Microscopes For Birefringence Analysis, Olivia Feild
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
The analysis of colors is omnipresent in forensics. While their use for macroscopic evidence such as soil sees a large amount of research, their correct handling is more challenging when observed under a microscope. Either for hairs or textile fibers, their color (from melanin, dyes or for birefringence analysis) is crucial in being able to compare between fibers found at a crime scene. Typically, color is quantified using a color space, such as RGB, XYZ, L*a*b*, and L*u*v*. Unfortunately, color is very subjective and often difficult to quantify accurately, even using digital detectors. Finding true matches of colors has been …
An Examination Of Street-Level Drug Enforcement Tactics And Court Outcomes, Nicholas Paul
An Examination Of Street-Level Drug Enforcement Tactics And Court Outcomes, Nicholas Paul
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
While there is a substantial body of placed-based evaluations of drug enforcement strategies, little is known about the nature and effectiveness of the routine tactics used by local police to target individual drug offenders. This study used a mixed-method approach to build on existing research on the efficacy of drug enforcement by documenting the nature and consequences of street-level drug enforcement at the local level. First, a focus group of drug enforcement experts was conducted to identify the tactics used to generate arrests and various types of evidence believed to strengthen drug cases. Next, official data in the form of …
Examining Risk Factors Of Juvenile Delinquency And The Predictive Validity Of A Juvenile Risk Assessment Instrument Across Urban And Rural Communities, Kelly Vannan
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
Juvenile delinquency among the nation's youth is an ongoing concern. An essential task of juvenile justice workers is to identify and measure risk factors that impact a youth's likelihood of recidivating. The Florida Department of Juvenile Justice (FDJJ) utilizes the Positive Achievement Change Tool (PACT) to assess the risk for recidivism among all juveniles referred to the system. The current study examined how youths' level and types of risk, as well as the ability of the PACT to predict the odds of reoffending and the time to reoffend, vary across urban and rural communities. This study drew upon theories of …
Identifying Suicidality Correlates Among People Incarcerated In Jail, Frances Abderhalden
Identifying Suicidality Correlates Among People Incarcerated In Jail, Frances Abderhalden
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
The rate of suicidality in jail is estimated to be eight times greater than that of the general population, yet the identification of risk factors for suicidality among people incarcerated in jail has not been explored by researchers (Fazel, Grann, Kling & Hawton, 2011; Hayes, 1999; Noonan & Ginder, 2013). To date, the breadth of the literature on suicidology almost exclusively deals with the prison population or general public, and official data of completed suicides. However, when analyzing suicidality in jail and prison populations, it is evident they are not interchangeable and suicidal behaviors include more than just completed suicides. …
Prescription Drug Abuse Amongst The Elderly, Michael O'Blenis
Prescription Drug Abuse Amongst The Elderly, Michael O'Blenis
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
This thesis attempts to document and illuminate the growing issue of prescription drug abuse among the elderly population. The average elder in the U.S. takes at least one prescription drug per day, depending upon their health status. Likewise, elders that suffer from multiple chronic conditions are more likely to take multiple prescription drugs. As the lifespan of humankind grows well into their 90's and older, even more elders will be placed on prescription drugs. As part of this study, a narrative literature review was conducted to summarize the topic of prescription drug abuse amongst the elderly. The findings suggest that …
A Longitudinal Examination Of Risk Factors, Antisocial Outcomes, And Transition Patterns Across Bully Profiles, Sara Bryson
A Longitudinal Examination Of Risk Factors, Antisocial Outcomes, And Transition Patterns Across Bully Profiles, Sara Bryson
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
The current research focuses on the risk factors for bully profiles, antisocial behavior across profiles, and patterns of bullying behavior over the span of four school years. The sample was comprised of 1,817 middle school students from seven school districts. Latent profile analysis, multivariate regression techniques, and latent transition analysis were used to meet the five objectives of this study: 1) identify unique subgroups of youth based on responses to different bully experiences, 2) determine similarities and differences in risk factors that are associated with bully experiences, 3) examine antisocial behavior across identified bully profiles, 4) determine if membership in …
A Person-Centered Approach Of Dynamic Needs: Demographic Characteristics, Static Factors, And Justice-Related Outcomes Among Juvenile Offenders In Florida, Caitlin Brady
Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-
Prior research examining criminogenic risk and need suggests that dynamic factors (i.e., criminogenic needs) are best suited for intervention and treatment as they are changeable over time. Thus, dynamic factors can be targeted to reduce the likelihood of recidivism among youth in the juvenile justice system. The assessment of needs is critical as it allows for the prediction of future delinquency and the ability to provide appropriate services/treatment for juvenile offenders. Several studies have shown that youth present with multiple needs and that these needs differ by gender. Therefore, the current study utilized a sample of adjudicated youth under community …