Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Scope Of The Death Penalty, Austin Bullock

Master of Arts in Criminal Justice Leadership

The problem I will explore in my paper is the death penalty’s role in the criminal justice system and the feasibility of it as a solution versus the current alternative of lifetime prison sentences. I will also address subtopics that fuel the death penalty versus life imprisonment debate including the effectiveness on recidivism and ethical considerations.

Implementing A Personal Wellness Program For Law Enforcement, Lee Schroeder

Master of Arts in Criminal Justice Leadership

Law enforcement is trained to handle any and every situation they may encounter when patrolling the streets. From civil cases, domestic, de-escalation, going hands-on with subjects, to having individuals at gunpoint. Law enforcement is in an occupation that can go from 0-100mph in a matter of seconds. With all the training that can make the outcomes more desirable, one aspect has been on the afterburner that is almost as important as other training. With the staggering statistic regarding law enforcement officers committing suicide, it would make sense that law enforcement should be given more training on coping abilities and even …

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 …

De-Escalation: A Necessity For The Survival Of Law Enforcement, James Ross

Master of Arts in Criminal Justice Leadership

The topic of de-escalation has gained a great deal of attention in recent years due to a high number of high-profile tragic events that involved great bodily harm or the use of deadly force. De-escalation tactics are nonphysical skills used to prevent a potentially dangerous situation from escalating into a physical confrontation. There is no shortage of news stories highlighting the conflict between law enforcement officers, law enforcement agencies, and the general public. Many times, conflict can be eliminated or reduced by breaking down barriers that may exist between law enforcement agencies and the communities they serve. Many agencies have …

First Responder Mental Health, Ryan Malcolm

Master of Arts in Criminal Justice Leadership

Over the past several years, there has been a drastic change in the training and response for police officers responding to mental health related calls. Recently, there is also a growing focus on responding to the mental health of police officers. Reported police officer suicides are increasing at a drastic rate, with jumping from 172 in 2018 to 228 in 2019. While this does not necessarily mean the rates of officer suicides are rising, the number of reported suicides is and attention is growing. Due to the inherit traumatic nature of the job, police officers are more susceptible to Post …

Tasers And Use Of Force: Hitting A Moving Target, Michael A. Keeley

Master of Arts in Criminal Justice Leadership

Law enforcement officers experience dynamic and sometimes dangerous encounters while performing their duties. To combat this, society gives them the authority to use reasonable force to accomplish their lawful objectives and law enforcement agencies provide them the tools and the training to effectively manage the incident. The use of force by law enforcement officers is guided by factors locally, state-wide, and nationally through policy, statute, and regulation. Law enforcement administrations have an impact on the use of force by an organization’s members through formal means such as policy, and informal means such as organizational culture. Administrative views are guided by …

Police Intersection With Those Without Homes, David O'Connor

Master of Arts in Criminal Justice Leadership

This paper aims to explain how law enforcement locally and nationally are policing those experiencing homelessness. This paper will be taking a look at historical and current data as it relates to those experiencing homelessness, look at some of the predicators that may lead to homelessness, and evaluate how law enforcement agencies are making decisions as it relates to policing this ever-growing community. As it relates to their interactions with those experiencing homelessness, case law, process, and executive orders are all elements that law enforcement must stay apprised of. A few cases that are starting to provide guidance will be …

Legalizing Marijuana, Psilocybin Mushrooms, And Mdma For Medical Use, Nicholas Duneman

Master of Arts in Criminal Justice Leadership

Knowing the countries drug history will allow the reader to understand how policies have changed throughout our countries short history. The Drug Enforcement Administration Drug Schedule, the Uniform Code of Military Justice, Department of Defense policies, the Air Force’s drug policies and the Department of Veterans Affairs policies is what is holding back the legalization of medical marijuana, psilocybin mushrooms, and Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) for treatment options for federal employees, current military members, and veterans who suffer from chronic pain and Post-traumatic stress disorder. Being a change agent within your organization will help push for drug reform within the federal government. …

The Delicate Balance: Police In Our Schools, Mark Hanneman

Master of Arts in Criminal Justice Leadership

School resource officers (SROs) face the arduous task of balancing expectations from both police and school administrations. This paper will serve to provide an overarching view of the circumstances surrounding SROs and the job they are tasked to complete. Administrative stakeholders will be identified, unique considerations for the duality of administrations within the SRO position will be considered, and administrative strategies to mitigate the potential for conflict will be explained. A formulated action plan will analyze the impact of ethical principles within work as an SRO through the lens of fellow officers, the school district community, students, parents of students, …

Reducing Civilian Deaths While In Police Custody, Richena Rogers

Master of Arts in Criminal Justice Leadership

Civilian death while in police custody has been on an upward trend and continues to make the news across the United States. Minorities seem to be the ones who suffer this fate more frequently than Caucasians (DeGue, 2016). This shows the injustice, inequality, and double standard within our law enforcement system. To begin the healing process and restore trust between civilians and law enforcement agencies change needs to happen that corrects the apparent injustices and prejudices being perpetuated within law enforcement agencies. The public should not fear their local police agencies and minorities should not fear dying while interacting with …

The Juvenile Injustice System Of Minorities, Sanjuanita Rodriguz

Master of Arts in Criminal Justice Leadership

The History of juvenile justice started out to be something that would help juveniles grow into being strong and educated children. Instead, it has been used to incarcerate young adults who are uneducated, have mental disabilities, and even sentence them to lifetimes behind bars for offences that are not against the law, but are status offences.

Mission statements, Personal Development Programs and Communication within facilities are a starting point that need to be improved before we can even start repair the damage. The current juvenile justice system is failing and has many issues including racial disparities within the system. The …

The Ethical Principles Of Financial Wellness And Coaching For Law Enforcement, Eric Scovil

Master of Arts in Criminal Justice Leadership

The implementation of wellness programs in law enforcement today is quickly becoming a primary focus of departments throughout the nation. Implementation of a financial coaching program as a component of a holistic officer wellness program can serve to greatly reduce one of the single largest causes of stress in society; money. One of the hallmarks of successful public safety is planning and preparation for the unknown. Individuals armed with practical knowledge and well-defined financial plans are better suited to confront personal and professional decisions with a clear mind and eyes fixed on the future. Successful implementation of a financial coaching …

Mental Health Response For Law Enforcement, Adam Meierding

Master of Arts in Criminal Justice Leadership

Law enforcement has been responding to mental health crisis calls for as long as it has been a profession. Police officers are asked to respond and solve difficult problems. using a variety of tools. This paper will identify what tools law enforcement is currently using to deal with these difficult calls and also the different techniques police officers should be using as our response continues to change. With ever-changing expectations from the public, along with rapidly evolving case law, this paper will show why law enforcements’ response to mental health crisis calls needs to change and what law enforcement needs …

Combating Police Officer Suicide With Department Wellness Programs, Ryan Prail

Master of Arts in Criminal Justice Leadership

The purpose of this paper is to explore the rising rates of law enforcement suicides and how departments are trying to curtail those numbers with department wellness programs. The research will explore the emotional survival of those who work in law enforcement. It is a topic that is at the forefront in the profession. This will be an overview of how organizations are trying to help their employees with their mental and physical health. It is known in the corporate world that having healthy and happy employees leads to a better working environment and more productivity. The information in this …

Pope Francis, Fratelli Tutti, The Death Penalty, And War, John Sniegocki

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Criminal Justice Update - February 2021, Haley B. Shultz

Criminal Justice Updates

The Criminal Justice Update is a monthly newsletter created by the Adams County Bar Foundation Fellow providing updates in criminal justice policy coming from Pennsylvania's courts and legislature as well as the US Supreme Court.

Contents:

• Updates from PA Governor's Office (no updates this month)
• Updates from the PA Legislature
• Updates from the Courts
• U.S. Supreme Court (no updates this month)
• PA Supreme Court: Criminal Law & Procedure
• PA Superior Court: Criminal Law & Procedure

School Shootings: What’S The Plan?, Sherrell L. Quintero

Master of Arts in Criminal Justice Leadership

The purpose of this research review was to gather the information that will help make changes with evidence-based approaches to help prevent and intervene with these horrendous crimes that have impacted the United States. Inspired by students' and staff member's outcries, these tragic events that attack the most innocent victims must be taken into complete consideration to guarantee their safety. This research review explores the concerns and issues as they relate to policies, code of ethics, strategies, safety planning, and training that have proven to work in preventing any future attacks. States and school officials have implemented programs, security measures, …

The Use Of Coping Skills In The Juvenile Justice System, Alexandria Stepka

Master of Arts in Criminal Justice Leadership

The juvenile justice system doesn’t have the proper rehabilitation tools. Inside private companies, there are different coping skills, methods and practices that continue to change with society. A few years down the road, people will continue to adapt but need to know the best options to do so. Ethically, a company will fail without structure. Each one has their own set of morals in need of a leader and group of followers. History has proven the inaccuracy in punishment and false documentation. By constant change and confidence, society can avoid these issues and make stronger delinquent counseling programs. Inside these …

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 …

Straight From The Source: Examining Gender Differences In Inmate Advice For Avoiding Prison Sexual Victimization, Beatriz Amalfi Marques, Ashley G. Blackburn, Shannon K. Fowler, Janet L. Mullings, Maria L. Lecuna

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"Once incarcerated, inmates face a myriad of potential threats to their physical and emotional wellbeing. The threat of being sexually or otherwise victimized while in prison breeds anxiety and fear among inmates, especially those who are new to the prison environment. In response, inmates have developed strategies to avoid victimization. The present study, utilizing self-report questionnaires, asked a sample of male and female inmates in a large Southern prison system about the advice they would give to another newly incarcerated inmate to avoid being sexually assaulted. A thematic analysis of inmates’ open-ended responses revealed male and female inmates have different …

Caught In-Between: A Video Essay Of Masculine Identity And Methamphetamine Use In The Rural South, Heith Copes, Jared Ragland, Adam Forrester

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

Since the Great Recession in 2007, rural employment rates have been steadily increasing. According to a 2020 United States Department of Agriculture report, rural unemployment has been at its lowest in over a decade. However, such aggregate trends overlook an important aspect of work—its meaningfulness. In many small towns throughout the Southern United States, much of the available work pays little and demands much on the body. As a result, meaningful employment is often out of reach for some men living in the rural South.

Opening The “Black Box” Of Federal Illegal Reentry Sentencing: A Non-Participant Observational Analysis Of Sentencing Constraints And Judicial Discretion, Kevin Buckler

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"Judicial discretion in sentencing has historically produced disparities in criminal sentencing outcomes. In an effort to address disparity at the federal level, in 1984, the U.S. Congress passed legislation that led to the creation of the U.S. Sentencing Commission and subsequently the adoption of federal sentencing guidelines. Studies show that even among similarly situated defendants (in terms of offense score and criminal history category) disparities have persisted regardless of the sentencing guidelines. An understudied source of disparity is the combined and interactive role of judges, prosecutors, and defense attorneys in the application of the guidelines and the statutory framework that …

Miriam Boeri, Hurt: Chronicles Of The Drug War Generation, Kathleen E. Padilla

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

In 1971, President Nixon officially declared the War on Drugs. Flash forward to 2020 and the prison population is approximately 2.3 million people, with 1 in 5 of those individuals having been incarcerated for a non-violent drug offense (Wagner & Wagner, 2020). Among those caught up in drug offenses stemming from the policies enacted during the War on Drugs, the majority are baby boomers. Baby boomers are those that are born between the years 1946 and 1964, and whose current population is approximately 73 million, the second largest generation aside from Millennials (Census, 2019). By the start of the 21st …

Forced Interactions With Sheriff Deputies Over Time And Their Influence On Stigma And Self Identities Among Individuals Convicted Of Sex Crimes, Lisa L. Sample, Brooke Cooley, Tusty Ten Bensel, Carin Hyter, Brett Hurley

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"This paper examined the perceptions of convicted sex offenders and their interactions with law enforcement over time. Specifically, we focused on how formal interactions influenced stigma management and self-identity transformation. For decades, scholars have proposed that identities and behaviors often result from interactions with others. Sex offender registration and notification laws force interactions between registrants and police agents for years, if not a lifetime. Given that desistance from sex offending is dependent on prosocial identity transformation, we analyzed interviews with 63 registrants to uncover how interactions with police promote or inhibit identity transformation over time. Our findings suggested interactions with …

Interpersonal Interaction Between Prisoners And Officers In Prisons: A Qualitative Meta-Synthesis Exploring Prison Officer Wellbeing, Davinia Rizzo, Belinda Davey, Melanie Irons

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"The wellbeing of prison officers has primarily been understood as a function of contextual variables such as their workplace and the nature of their role. Yet the research suggests the officers’ gender and tenure are the only statistically significant predictors of wellbeing for this population (Butler, Tasca, Zhang, & Carpenter, 2019). These findings suggest that variables at the person level may be more important than contextual variables. As such, we conducted a qualitative, meta-synthesis to explore how interpersonal interactions between prisoners and prison officers may affect the health and wellbeing of prison officers. Following a systematic review of the literature, …

Military Service And Offending Behaviors Of Emerging Adults: A Conceptual Review, Christopher Salvatore, Travis Taniguchi

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Focusing on the United States, this paper examines the impact of military service for the cohort of individuals that have experienced the social factors that characterize emerging adulthood as a unique stage in the life course. We argue that military service, as a turning point, may act differently in contemporary times compared to findings from past research. This difference is driven by changes in military service, the draft versus volunteer military service, and the prevalence of emerging adulthood. As a background, we describe emerging adulthood, examine how emerging adulthood relates to crime and deviance, explore the impact of military life …

The Basha's Tools? Imagining Alternative Justice Futures In Egypt, Farah Ghazal

Theses and Dissertations

The dominant approach to addressing violence against women in Egypt today is carceral, or relying on the punitive instruments of the state to achieve justice (most visibly represented by the prison and police). While carceral responses are perhaps unsurprisingly advocated by state feminism, they are also promoted by what would typically be described as anti-state actors. This paradoxical entanglement takes place during what I identify as the 'carceral moment', a period marked by the intensification of political and social repression and during which incarceration appears more readily available as a solution to remedy perceived problems of governance. I argue that, …

Digitizing And Disclosing Personal Data: The Proliferation Of State Criminal Records On The Internet, Sarah Lageson, Elizabeth H. Webster, Juan Sandoval

Criminal Justice & Criminology: Faculty Publications & Other Works

Digitization and the release of public records on the Internet have expanded the reach and uses of criminal record data in the United States. This study analyzes the types and volume of personally identifiable data released on the Internet via two hundred public governmental websites for law enforcement, criminal courts, corrections, and criminal record repositories in each state. We find that public disclosures often include information valuable to the personal data economy, including the full name, birthdate, home address, and physical characteristics of arrestees, detainees, and defendants. Using administrative data, we also estimate the volume of data disclosed online. Our …

Digitizing And Disclosing Personal Data: The Proliferation Of State Criminal Records On The Internet, Sarah E. Lageson, Elizabeth H. Webster, Juan R. Sandoval

Criminal Justice & Criminology: Faculty Publications & Other Works

Digitization and the release of public records on the Internet have expanded the reach and uses of criminal record data in the United States. This study analyzes the types and volume of personally identifiable data released on the Internet via two hundred public governmental websites for law enforcement, criminal courts, corrections, and criminal record repositories in each state. We find that public disclosures often include information valuable to the personal data economy, including the full name, birthdate, home address, and physical characteristics of arrestees, detainees, and defendants. Using administrative data, we also estimate the volume of data disclosed online. Our …