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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Russian Cultural Factors Related To Perceived Criminal Procedure Fairness: The Juxtaposition Of Policy And Practice, Olga B. Semukhina Jan 2007

Russian Cultural Factors Related To Perceived Criminal Procedure Fairness: The Juxtaposition Of Policy And Practice, Olga B. Semukhina

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between the Russian culture and citizens' perceived fairness of the new Criminal Procedural Code of Russia of 2001 (CPC of 2001). The CPC of 2001 is a key policy in the Russian criminal law reform with the purpose of implementing adversarial procedure elements in Russia. The existing literature has documented the lack of public support along with observed violations of the CPC's major provisions which as made this an important area for study. It is theorized that the apparent contradiction between the underlying values of the Russian culture, and CPC's …


Airport Security: Examining The Current State Of Acceptance Of Biometrics And The Propensity Of Adopting Biometric Technology Fo, Kristine Sumner Jan 2007

Airport Security: Examining The Current State Of Acceptance Of Biometrics And The Propensity Of Adopting Biometric Technology Fo, Kristine Sumner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 propelled the issue of aviation security to the forefront of the U.S. domestic agenda. Although hundreds of individual airports exist in the U.S., the travel activities at each of these airports combine to holistically comprise an aviation system that represents a significant portion of the U.S. social and economic infrastructure. Disruption at one airport resulting from a criminal act, such as terrorism, could exert detrimental effects upon the aviation system and U.S national security (9/11 Commission, 2004). Each U.S. airport is individually responsible for various aspects of security including the control of physical …


Advances In Fire Debris Analysis, Mary Williams Jan 2007

Advances In Fire Debris Analysis, Mary Williams

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Fire incidents are a major contributor to the number of deaths and property losses within the United States each year. Fire investigations determine the cause of the fire resulting in an assignment of responsibility. Current methods of fire debris analysis are reviewed including the preservation, extraction, detection and characterization of ignitable liquids from fire debris. Leak rates were calculated for the three most common types of fire debris evidence containers. The consequences of leaking containers on the recovery and characterization of ignitable liquids were demonstrated. The interactions of hydrocarbons with activated carbon during the extraction of ignitable liquids from the …


Analysis Of Mitochondrial Dna Coding Region Snps By Pyrosequencing, Kyle Robert Carl Parker Jan 2007

Analysis Of Mitochondrial Dna Coding Region Snps By Pyrosequencing, Kyle Robert Carl Parker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

To date, the use of mitochondrial DNA in forensic analysis has relied on the presence of variations in the control region to differentiate between samples. One problem that this analysis has shown is the occurrence of common Haplogroup H haplotypes or identical sequences. Thus, there is a need to enhance the distinguishing power of this type of analysis. One option has been to investigate the mitochondrial coding region for polymorphisms that could differentiate between samples with identical control region haplotypes. The goal of this study has been to identify polymorphic coding region sites for development in a Pyrosequencing assay that …


Death Penalty Knowledge, Opinion, And Revenge: A Test Of The Marshall Hypotheses In A Time Of Flux, Gavin Lee Jan 2007

Death Penalty Knowledge, Opinion, And Revenge: A Test Of The Marshall Hypotheses In A Time Of Flux, Gavin Lee

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis tests the three hypotheses derived from the written opinion of Justice Thurgood Marshall in Furman v Georgia in 1972. Subjects completed questionnaires at the beginning and the end of the fall 2006 semester. Experimental group subjects were enrolled in a death penalty class, while control group subjects were enrolled in another criminal justice class. The death penalty class was the experimental stimulus. Findings provided strong support for the first and third hypotheses, i.e., subjects were generally lacking in death penalty knowledge before the experimental stimulus, and death penalty proponents who scored "high" on a retribution index did not …


Criminal Mobility Of Robbery Offenders, Joe Drealan Jan 2007

Criminal Mobility Of Robbery Offenders, Joe Drealan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The current paper addresses the mobility and willingness to travel of robbery offenders. A five-sector robbery typology was constructed, consisting of: personal robbery, commercial robbery, carjacking robbery, home-invasion robbery, and robbery by sudden snatching. Defining mobility as the straight-line distance between the offender's home residence and the location of the robbery offense, the extent of criminal mobility for each type of robbery offense was analyzed. Using geographical information system (GIS) technologies and, more specifically, geocoding software programs, the latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates of the offender's home and offense's location was determined. It was found that a subset of robbery offenders …


Forensic Analysis Of C-4 And Commercial Blasting Agents For Possible Discrimination, Katie Steele Jan 2007

Forensic Analysis Of C-4 And Commercial Blasting Agents For Possible Discrimination, Katie Steele

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The criminal use of explosives has increased in recent years. Political instability and the wide spread access to the internet, filled with "homemade recipes," are two conjectures for the increase. C-4 is a plastic bonded explosive (PBX) comprised of 91% of the high explosive RDX, 1.6% processing oils, 5.3% plasticizer, and 2.1% polyisobutylene (PIB). C-4 is most commonly used for military purposes, but also has found use in commercial industry as well. Current methods for the forensic analysis of C-4 are limited to identification of the explosive; however, recent publications have suggested the plausibility of discrimination between C-4 samples based …