Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Must Be 18 Or Older: How Current Domestic Violence Policies Dismiss Teen Dating Violence, Rebecca Pensak

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Building Legal Competency: Foundations For A More Effective Criminology And Criminal Justice Discipline, Claire Nolasco, Rolando V. Del Carmen, Kevin F. Steinmetz, Michael S. Vaughn, Aneta Spaic

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications (Archived)

This article argues for the need to build legal competency in the discipline of criminal justice and criminology through incorporating law courses in its PhD program curriculum, whether as black letter law (i.e. criminal law, criminal procedure, courts), sociology of law, or socio-legal studies (i.e. law and society courses). Through requiring law courses as a necessary and integral part of the curriculum, and recognizing the mainstream impact of these courses, the discipline stands to enrich the field of legal studies in criminology and criminal justice. The discipline’s need and demand for law trained tenure track faculty with PhD credentials can …

Child Abductors Who Have Killed Their Victims: A Theoretical Approach To Spatial Analysis, Tonya M. Desa

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Despite the intense and prolonged public attention received when a child is abducted and killed, there are major gaps in the academic literature. One of the gaps pertains to the distances traveled by the offender between key crime locations. The overall aim of this study was to provide information concerning typical travel distances of offenders. This project utilized an archival data set compiled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime. The database constructed for this project consisted of 72 victims who were abducted and murdered by 68 offenders. The date range for these …

Pennsylvania Academic Career/Technical Training Alliance Initiative: Engaging Youth In School And Work, Marna Goodman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This research offers a feasibility study on the effectiveness of the Pennsylvania Academic Career Technical Training Alliance (PACTT) at engaging youth in school and work upon return to the community. The sample included adjudicated youth from Allegheny County, Pennsylvania committed to PACTT-affiliated residential facilities and who discharged between July1, 2011 and June 31, 2012. An overview of the PACTT Initiative, with specific attention to its core elements, is presented and examined in the context of Ecological Systems Theory. Secondary data was analyzed using logistic regression to measure the overall impact of the five PACTT elements, dosage of PACTT elements, and …

The Impact Of Police Misconduct In Kings County On New York City's Civil Liability 2006-2010, Brian A. Maule

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The confluence of police misconduct and civil liability is an issue of growing concern for many communities throughout the U.S. today. The gravamen of the issue is evident in increases in the number of lawsuits alleging police misconduct and the civil liability that results from these lawsuits.

In New York City during the period 1997-2005 the cost for police misconduct went from $27.9 million in 1997 to $40.4 million in 2005 (Thompson, 2007). Concerns over these increases have resulted in efforts to curb both the number of lawsuits brought against the New York Police Department and the civil liability to …

Inmate-, Incident-, And Facility-Level Factors Associated With Escapes From Custody And Violent Outcomes, Bryce E. Peterson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Introduction: Preventing escapes from custody is a critical function of prisons, jails, and the individuals who run these correctional facilities. Escapes are a popular topic in the news, among lawmakers, and in public discourse. Much of this interest stems from the widespread notion that escapees pose a serious threat to public safety, as well to the safety of correctional staff and law enforcement officers tasked with preventing and apprehending them. However, despite the importance of preventing escapes and minimizing violence, there has been very little empirical research on these issues in the past several decades. Extant research has also been …

21st Century Tattoo Identification And Information Sharing Thesis, Christina Smith

Master’s Theses and Projects

Currently existing is minimal research on the concepts: tattoo identification procedures and information sharing challenges among law enforcement. This research contributes to the literature by examining: how Massachusetts police officers feel about tattoo identification, how they catalog tattoos, and the effectiveness of their technology to share information among departments about suspect’s tattoos. This research is unique because it evaluates whether or not tattoo identification procedures affect information sharing challenges.

Tattoos have a history dating back at least 5,000 years, in fact, an archeological find in the 1990s, was a mummy with 57 tattoos (Kent & Graber, 2012). Presently, tattoo popularity …

Generation Istalk: An Examination Of The Prior Relationship Between Victims Of Stalking And Offenders, Paige Ann Heinrich

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Stalking is a growing issue in the United States faced by many each year. The proliferation of social media sites has made cyberstalking a new form of social harassment and potential victimization. The purpose of this study was to examine the prevalence of traditional and cyberstalking on a medium sized college campus in the Southeastern United States. Included was an examination of the impact of the victim-offender relationship, to whom victimization was reported, and gender patterns of social media use. In total, 1,040 undergraduate/graduate students were surveyed using a multistage cluster sampling method. Results showed that cyberstalking was more prevalent …

The Assessment Of Capable Guardianship Measures Against Bullying: Victimization In The School Environment, Heather Correia

Master’s Theses and Projects

It has been shown that increased security alone has not had a positive effect on the rate of bullying in schools. This study will empirically test the effectiveness of school resource officers as a variable of capable guardianship and its correlation with the rate and quality of bullying in schools. This research will determine if having capable guardianship, formal or informal, in the school system will have an effect on the deterrence of physical and nonphysical bullying in grade schools and high schools. This research suggests an increase in guardianship roles, will reduce the amount of bullying offenses in grade …

Creating Activating Events For Transformative Learning In A Prison Classroom, Cheryl H. Keen, Robert Woods

Walden Faculty and Staff Publications

In this article, we interpreted, in light of Mezirow’s theory of transformative learning, interviews with 13 educators regarding their work with marginalized adult learners in prisons in the northeastern United States. Transformative learning may have been aided by the educators’ response to unplanned activating events, humor, and respect, and assumed roles of role model, and counselor. Teachers presented activating events they perceived supported resistant learners to alter their meaning schemes and revise their frames of reference. Administrators of educational programs for marginalized adult learners can help prison educators develop these pedagogical practices. Practitioners and researchers may wish to explore humor …

2015 Annual Campus Security And Fire Safety Report, University Of Nebraska-Lincoln, University Police, University Of Nebraska-Lincoln

University of Nebraska-Lincoln, University Police

2015 Annual Campus Security and Fire Safety Report, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Safety and security information for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, including crime and fire statistics for the 2014 calendar year, and the information required by the Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act of 1989. All data are submitted to the United States Department of Education according to law.

Challenging The Political Assumption That “Guns Don’T Kill People, Crazy People Kill People!”, Heath J. Hodges, Mario Scalora

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Every time an infamous mass shooting takes place, a storm of rhetoric sweeps across this country with the fury of a wild fire. “Why are we letting these people carry guns?” “Why were they not hospitalized?” “The government needs to crack down on this issue!” What is the government’s response to these cries of concern? Politicians and the media attempt to ease public fears by drawing tenuous connections among a handful of poorly understood tragedies. The salient commonality is that these high-profile shooters had some history of mental illness. A cursory review of the Internet will paint a troubling picture …

Ua1c11/63 Mike Mcdowell Photo Collection, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Photographs of WKU Police Department personnel, students and activities taken by Mike Dowell.

Science 208 Forensic Science Ii: Death Analysis Spring 2015, John Moore

General Science

No abstract provided.

Science 208 Forensic Science Ii: Death Analysis Fall 2015, John Moore

General Science

No abstract provided.

Science 108-001 Essentials Of Forensic Science Fall 2015, Christina Beatty

General Science

No abstract provided.

Formation Of The Radical Self: Constructs Of Change In Western Youth To Acts Of Terrorism On Home-Soil, Robyn Torok

Australian Security and Intelligence Conference

The terrorist attack on a member of the Police service by a 15 year old boy in late 2015 sent shock waves not only through Australia but also throughout the world as the realisation of Islamic State targeting teenagers becomes a reality. This paper uses a blend of theoretical and empirical evidence to examine how the radicalised self is formed. Insights from various frameworks including: developmental psychology (teenage identity formation and role confusion), Foucault’s technologies of the self, governmentality and sociological issues including the perceived gap between Muslim values and those of the West. Coupled with these theoretical frameworks are …

Police Crime: The Criminal Behavior Of Sworn Law Enforcement Officers, Philip M. Stinson

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

This essay examines the criminological conceptualizations and research on police crime, that is, the criminal behavior of sworn law enforcement officers. It starts with an overview of the conceptualization of police crime as it relates to organizational and scholarly perspectives of social deviance. Police deviance is often conceptualized to include various misconduct, corruption, and/or crime committed by police organizations and police officers. This essay focuses on police crime resulting in the arrest of a sworn law enforcement officer and is organized within a conceptual framework that incorporates five types of police crime: sex-related police crime, alcohol-related police crime, drug-related police …

Elite Deviance, Organized Crime, And Homicide: A Cross-National Quantitative Analysis, Carol L.S. Trent

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Both elite deviance, committed by the upper echelons of society, and organized crime threaten development and the rights and security of people across and within nations; however empirical research on these topics is limited, especially in the field of criminology. This study addresses this gap in the literature by testing hypotheses derived from Simon’s symbiotic theory of elite deviance, which posits that direct and indirect relationships exist between elite deviance, organized crime, and conventional crimes exist (2008). The intervening effects of national culture and political economic ideology are also considered.

To test the research hypotheses, this study uses homicide rates, …

The Plight Of Being Unrecognized In The United States: Should Undocumented Immigrants Be Licensed To Drive In Florida?, Jennifer Wilford

HIM 1990-2015

The United States of America is facing an important decision. Should illegal immigrants be allowed to obtain driver’s licenses? Thus far ten states and the District of Columbia as well as Puerto Rico have passed laws permitting this to come into fruition. The purpose of this thesis is to gain an understanding of the significance that licensing laws have on this country. This thesis will compare the views and beliefs of both the proponents and opponents to this law. This thesis also discusses how Florida is deeply affected due to its large Hispanic immigrant population. This issue is laden with …

Ua12/8 Annual Campus Safety & Security Report, Wku Police

WKU Administration Documents

A statement of current campus policies regarding procedures for students and others to report criminal actions or other emergencies occurring on campus and policies concerning the institution's response to such reports.

Quantitative Assessment Of The Effects Of Microbial Degradation Of A Simple Hydrocarbon Mixture, Jessica Kindell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Ignitable liquids consist of either a single organic compound or a complex organic mixture. In regards to fire debris analysis, the analyst is responsible for determining if an ignitable liquid residue is present. However, when extracted from soil-containing fire debris evidence, chemical degradation from microorganisms is observed to result in the loss of compounds based on chemical structure. It can also happen when the evidence container is stored at room temperature before analysis. This can present a challenge to the fire debris analyst when identifying and classifying the ignitable liquid residue based on the criteria established by standard test methods. …

The Challenges Of Seizing And Searching The Contents Of Wi-Fi Devices For The Modern Investigator, Dan Blackman, Patryk Szewczyk

Australian Digital Forensics Conference

To the modern law enforcement investigator, the potential for an offender to have a mobile device on his or her person, who connects to a Wi-Fi network, may afford evidence to place them at a scene, at a particular time. Whilst tools to interrogate mobile devices and Wi-Fi networks, have undergone significant development, little research has been conducted with regards to interrogating Wi-Fi routers and the evidence they may contain. This paper demonstrates that multiple inhibiting factors exist for forensic investigators when attempting to extract data from Wi-Fi routers at the scene. Data volatility means the Wi-Fi router cannot be …

Excusing Murder? Conservative Jurors’ Acceptance Of The Gay Panic Defense, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Jessica Salerno, Bette L. Bottoms, B. L. Harrington, Dave Kemner

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

We conducted a simulated trial study to investigate the effectiveness of a “gay-panic” provocation defense as a function of jurors’ political orientation. Mock jurors read about a murder case in which a male defendant claimed a victim provoked the killing by starting a fight, which either included or did not include the male victim making an unwanted sexual advance that triggered a state of panic in the defendant. Conservative jurors were significantly less punitive when the defendant claimed to have acted out of gay panic as compared to when this element was not part of the defense. In contrast, liberal …

The Online Sex Sting, Michael Cryan

Undergraduate Review

The Youth Internet Safety Surveys are indicative of a small subset of minors who have had contact with sexual offenders in person. Internet sex stings serve to target these adults through the use of police deception, but their use has been on the decline. Sexual offenders are a heterogeneous group; laws often mistakenly lump these various members together. This paper discusses different sources that can take responsible action to prevent online predators from reaching minors and the issue of vigilantism against offenders. Our current laws on sexual predators do not reflect the deeper, more prevalent issue of acquaintance rape.

A Phenomenological Analysis Of African American Students, Delinquent Behaviors And Future Academic Achievement, Jack S. Monelland, Brittany Spencer

Contemporary Issues in Juvenile Justice

No abstract provided.

Six Northeast Los Angeles Residents Indicate Reasons Local Youth Join Gangs And Offer Suggestions For Lowering Violence, Fernando Parra, Frank Malgesini, Emma Escobedo, Anna C. Ballesteros

Contemporary Issues in Juvenile Justice

No abstract provided.

The Argument For Moving Away From Residential Placement For Most Juvenile Offenders, Marika Dawkins

Contemporary Issues in Juvenile Justice

No abstract provided.

High Times: Is The Federal Legalization Of Marijuana Next? What The Food And Drug Administration Could Learn From Its Existing Regulations, Christopher B. Erly

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

This student comment examines the efficacy of marijuana being regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. The author discusses and applies potential FDA regulatory models that could be used to regulate marijuana. The comment concludes marijuana could be easily regulated under the current Food and Drug Administration regulatory scheme and suggests that marijuana should be regulated in a manner akin to tobacco rather than as a drug.

Aggregate Correlates Of Status Offender Case Outcomes Across Counties, David A. Bowers, S.E. Costanza

Contemporary Issues in Juvenile Justice

No abstract provided.