Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Marijuana-Related Crime In Oregon Following Legalization Of Recreational Use, Ana Alicia Soto

Dissertations and Theses

In this decade we are seeing the legalization of recreational marijuana occurring across the nation, with new legislation being passed every year. This necessitates research into what works within the regulatory framework of states where MJ has been legalized. This study sets out to look at Oregon's implementation of recreational marijuana and its impact on marijuana-related offenses. Using NIBRS, we examine marijuana-related offenses across 13 counties with crime data from 41 agencies in Oregon from pre-legalization to post-legalization (2010 to 2019). This study uses elements of legalization, licenses, and production to analyze the association between these aspects and offenses that …

Police Union Contracts And Impediments To Accountability: A Case Study Analysis Of Ppa Bargaining Agreements, Elizabeth Ott

University Honors Theses

Despite a growing widespread recognition that police unions represent a major component of policing and have major influences on aspects of policing such as disciplinary procedures, day-to-day management, and police-community relations, they have until recently been largely ignored by police scholars. In light of significant gaps in knowledge regarding police unions and the impacts that they have on law enforcement behavior and police accountability, this paper utilizes a case study approach to analyze all existing union contracts between the Portland Police Association (PPA) and the City of Portland in order to explore the prevalence of particular contract provisions that critics …

Higher Education For All Law Enforcement Officers, Johana Constantino Madrigal

University Honors Theses

In this brief prospectus, the focus is on the many arguments for why it should be a requirement for all law enforcement officers to have a higher education background. Given light to recent events, the importance for more highly trained and educated officers has become more dire as people call for justice in an attempt to right the wrongs that have been done. The articles found all address the manner in which higher education can help with better judgement calls, analyze and respond to situations better, and the overall perception officers have, who have a form of higher education, on …

When I Was A Young Girl: Gender And Race In The Life Archives Of Criminal Transportation, Nick Townsend

University Honors Theses

In the eighteenth and nineteenth century, the carceral system in England shifted away from corporal punishment and moved towards containing and policing those deemed criminal in different ways. One notable way was transportation, the practice of moving convicts out of the imperial core into a colony. This practice became a way to remove "lesser" populations from England and regulate social behavior while also expanding the British Empire and allowed convicts a new purpose in expanding the carceral state. This developed alongside the broader trends of racialization and colonization in the British Empire, which drew a global color line separating "white" …

Identifying The Cost Of Preventable Chronic Disease In Prison: Can Illness Prevention Of Adults In Custody Save Money?, Molly Bineham

Dissertations and Theses

This study investigates the cost of preventable health problems and ailments when compared to other costs of incarceration. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of imprisonment on the costliest chronic illness. The health of adults in custody related to the general population and the overall fiscal cost of the deadliest chronic illness among incarcerated adults is discussed. Linear regression is used to analyze the occurrence of heart disease and diabetes among adults in custody while controlling for other factors. The results of this analysis provide insight that chronic diseases like heart disease and diabetes should be …

Quarantine Ethics: From Past To Covid-19, Chrystal Barnes

OHSU-PSU School of Public Health Annual Conference

Quarantines have been a preventative measure for reducing communicable disease spread for centuries. The method of implementation can vary widely and to some extent requires some level of judgement from enforcing powers, often state police power. As such, historically, some quarantines have been unfairly enforced based on discriminatory practices. COVID-19 has brought about the most widespread and extended quarantine in U.S. history, which makes evaluating the ethics all the more critical. In addition, it is well established that COVID-19 impacts have disproportionately caused harm to populations, such as those who are of a low socioeconomic status and people of color. …

Discrimination Against People Of Color In America’S Cash Bail System, Dolores Yanez

University Honors Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to describe how the current bail system in America is discriminatory and unjust for people of color (POC). The American criminal justice system is represented as a system run by procedural justice, which entails government officials being genuinely concerned about the fairness and transparency of the process by which decisions are made. This presumes that every American will be treated with the same respect and dignity, and that they will be given the same opportunities regardless of their socioeconomic status, racial or ethnic backgrounds. America’s cash bail system and its impact on people of …

Legal Financial Obligations & Rehabilitation: How The Ability To Pay Fines And Fees Disproportionately Affects Citizens Based On Socioeconomic Status, Bailey R. Code

University Honors Theses

In the United States, legal financial obligations (LFO's), also known as monetary sanctions or criminal justice financial obligations, refer to the fines and fees that result from an individual’s involvement in the criminal justice system. Today, these fines and fees have become the most common form of punishment used by the United States' legal system. This paper answers the following research question: How can the ability to pay legal financial obligations shape the rehabilitation of incarcerated people in the United States?

Legal Financial Obligations are harmful to those entangled within the justice system, as shown by their cyclical nature and …

Pathways Of Crime: Measuring Crime Concentration Along Urban Roadways, Kathryn Wuschke, Martin A. Andresen, Patricia L. Brantingham

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications and Presentations

Some urban spaces are associated with disproportionate numbers of criminal events, while other areas are relatively free from disorder and crime. The relationship between urban space and crime concentration has received increased attention in recent years, with the location quotient frequently presented as a tool to identify and quantify such concentration. This measure has several limitations, with one significant concern surrounding the choice of denominator with which to standardize local and global rate calculations. In response, we present a new methodological adaptation to the location quotient, improving the measurement of crime concentration along linear features. To test this adaptation, we …

Policing In An Era Of Sousveillance: A Randomised Controlled Trial Examining The Influence Of Video Footage On Perceptions Of Legitimacy, Megan Mohler, Christopher M. Campbell, Kelsey S. Henderson, Brian Renauer

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications and Presentations

Controversial incidents of police-citizen interactions, coupled with advancements in internet media technology has created a new dynamic of how public perceptions of the police might be influenced. This paper reports results of an experiment examining how videos of police-citizen interactions found on social media platforms might influence civilian perceptions of legitimacy and procedural justice. Using 173 randomly assigned participants and a pre/post-test design, we compare perceptual effects of positive, negative, and neutral depictions of police-citizen interactions. Results indicate all media had an effect on perceptions of legitimacy, with negative content yielding the largest effects, significantly diminishing global perceptions of legitimacy, …