Legal Studies Commons^™

A Spatial Analysis Test Of Decennial Crime Patterns In The United States, Kristina R. Donathan

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Crime in the United States has steadily been decreasing since the 1990s. Social disorganization theory states that breakdowns of social institutions were the root causes of juvenile delinquency. Using exogenous variables of poverty, residential mobility, and ethnic heterogeneity, this study aims to investigate the impacts and magnitude of these variables on violent and property crime committed in the United States for adults and for juveniles. By comparing adult crime rates to juvenile delinquency rates, these findings will guide policy makers to develop effective policy tools that will provide a safer environment for the community. Using annual crime datasets, this thesis …

In It For The Long Haul: Exploring Gender Dynamics In Former Prisoner– Family Relationships, Damian J. Martinez, Andrea Leverentz

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"This article contributes to the growing body of literature on the role of families of origin in the reentry of former prisoners by focusing on a group of young men of color recently released from prison. Our in-depth interviews with young men and selected family members highlighted the ongoing importance of their family relationships for providing important emotional and instrumental support. These relationships also are gendered. In relationships with female relatives, the former prisoners’ primary role was to be there for the women in the family and thereby demonstrate their love of family and their commitment to desistance from crime, …

Kenneth D. Tunnell, Once Upon A Place: The Fading Of Community In Rural Kentucky, Travis Linnemann

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"It is difficult to think of the rural apart from rolling hills and green fields that offer a respite from the city’s disquiet. Along with images of a bucolic rurality however, is a darker anti-idyll that has loomed in the social imaginary for centuries. While the narrative is timeless, the rural’s decline is something few among us have lived or even cared to witness first-hand. However, in the pages of Kenneth D. Tunnell’s Once Upon a Place, we travel to the disregarded landscapes of rural Kentucky and witness the history of its struggles. Like looking out the window of …

Expressing Strain: A Qualitative Evaluation Of The Testimonies Of Female Sex Offenders, Jennifer L. Klein, Danielle Tolson, Cathy Collins

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"For those convicted of a sexual offense, life on the registry is not an easy one. There is a great deal of stigma associated with these offenders despite the fact they served their sentences and were released back into society. Current research examines what life is like for female sex offenders whose information is listed on the Florida Sex Offender Registry. Using Robert Agnew’s General Strain Theory as a lens to examine the registry, this article will show the stress present in the lives of the registrants. Specifically, the article will address coping mechanisms, anger, and several unintended consequences of …

Beyond Basic Needs: Social Support And Structure For Successful Offender Reentry, Andrew S. Denney, Richard Tewksbury, Richard S. Jones

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"Barriers to successful reentry have long been identified as impeding an offender’s ability to successfully reenter society upon release from incarceration. As a result, research has long examined what shared obstacles the majority of offenders often face upon reentering society. Much of the research identifies factors such as poor education, obtaining/maintaining employment, stable housing, and transportation as common barriers to successful reentry. By using in-depth interviews with ex-offenders deemed as successful that were conducted by two respective non-profit agencies, the present study explores what significant requirements, if any, successful offenders perceive to need and/or have experienced as lacking while attempting …

Editorial, Willard M. Oliver

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"When I took on the role of editor for the new Journal of Qualitative Criminal Justice & Criminology, I wanted to secure as many of the leading qualitative researchers as I could for the editorial board. While I did not know Jock Young personally, I knew of him and his reputation and writings, and I figured he was one who should be on the board. When I asked my book review editor, Kevin Steinmetz, now Dr. Steinmetz, who I should include on the board, the first two people he requested were Jock Young and Jeff Ferrell. I agreed and …

Obituary: Unapologetic Irreverence: The Life And Legacy Of William “Jock” Young (1942-2013), Robert Donald Weide

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"I first met my dear friend and mentor Jock Young as a doe faced graduate student, “full of it,” as he would have probably described me at the time. It was a quality he apparently admired in me, unlike many of my other academic mentors. Our dear friend, colleague and another cherished mentor, David Charles Brotherton, made the introduction and while Jock shook my hand, he gave me the cock-eyed look of a madman as he peered into my soul, remarking to David with a deviant smirk, “Oh look, we have another trouble maker here!” Well it takes one to …

Conceptualizing Social Recovery: Recovery Routes Of Methamphetamine Users, Miriam Boeri, David Gibson, Paul Boshears Europäische Universität Für Interdisziplinäre Studien (The European Graduate School)

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"The goal of our qualitative study was to gain a phenomenological understanding of routes to recovery from problematic drug use. In-depth interviews and drug histories were collected from 50 former methamphetamine users recruited from a U.S. metropolitan suburb who identified as having had problematic use of this drug in the past. Transcripts of the audio-recorded interviews were coded for common themes regarding types of recovery strategies or tools employed on the route to recovery. The common strategies used in all routes for recovery from problematic methamphetamine use were social in nature and did not necessarily include the cessation of all …

Heith Copes & Mark R. Pogrebin (Eds.), Voices From Criminal Justice: Thinking And Reflecting On The System, Joshua B. Hill

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"The introductory criminal justice “reader” is a difficult text to get right. The material should not be too advanced for the student (most likely a first-year undergraduate student) to understand, but also cannot oversimplify the topic and risk either insulting students or not conveying an appropriate sense of the complexity of the criminal justice system. Voices from Criminal Justice: Thinking and Reflecting on the System, a new compilation of readings published by Routledge and edited by Heith Copes and Mark Pogrebin, attempts to thread this needle in an interesting way by framing the book as a series of perspectives …

Examining The Death Penalty Insider Perspective: Capital Bench & Bar Interviews, Sherri Dioguardi

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"This study conducted semi-structured interviews with 27 death penalty insiders (9 capital judges, 9 prosecutors and 9 defense attorneys) across three states. Prior research examined whether knowledge of capital punishment correlates with death penalty support (the Marshall Hypothesis). While prior research focused on opinions of laypeople, this study interviewed those with direct, hands-on experience to explore the knowledge-based, insider perspective. The majority (80%) of interviewee-respondents did not believe the death penalty is necessary in light of Life without the Possibility of Parole as an available sentencing option, and 62% did not support capital punishment. Qualitative data analysis reveals a wealth …

An Exploratory Examination Of A Prison Disciplinary Process: Assessing Staff And Prisoner’ Perceptions Of Fairness, Ann Marie Rocheleau

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

There has been scant research on how prison disciplinary processes work in comparison to the myriad of studies on individual, situational, and prison-level factors associated with prison misbehavior. This exploratory research delved into staff and prisoners’ perceptions of a prison system’s disciplinary process. Using in-depth interviews with 25 staff and 25 prisoners as well as direct observation of classification and disciplinary hearings, this research primarily focused on perceptions of fairness. It uncovered those features of the disciplinary process that prisoners and some staff assessed as problematic and unfair. These included: the nature, consistency, and investigation of disciplinary reports, the use …

Duran, Robert J., Gang Life In Two Cities: An Insider’S Journey, Robert Donald Weide

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"In his newly published book, former gang member and probation officer Robert J. Duran provides both a compelling comparative ethnography of gang life in two middle American cities, Denver, Colorado and Ogden, Utah, as well as a needed critical analysis of both the historical and contemporary roles of colonial oppression and law enforcement practices and policies that have contributed to the formation and perpetuation of gang identities in the barrios of those cities. Although neither cites the other’s work, I think it is fair to cast Duran’s book as a counterpart to Michelle Alexander’s celebrated work The New Jim Crow …

Howard S. Becker, Outsiders: Studies In The Sociology Of Deviance, Kenneth D. Tunnell

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"While recently reviewing a manuscript submission for a sociology journal and noticing Becker’s (1963) appearance in the body of the text, I discovered, when skimming the references, that the citation read “The Outsiders.” I remember wondering just how familiar the authors may have been with Outsiders or if they had actually read it – given that they got the title wrong. After all, Outsiders has become one of those books that simply must be cited. And, with growing interest among younger scholars in field research, deviant groups, cultural criminology and inductive analysis, Outsiders has become symbolic of good work that …

A Moral Panic? A Content Analysis Of Prominent Newspapers And Their Portrayal Of Tik Addiction, Chiara Keune

Theses and Dissertations

The rise of tik (methamphetamine) in the Western Cape of South Africa was an issue of contention for government and health care officials. Tik is the label given to the homemade crystal methamphetamine in South Africa, and the primary substance of abuse for many addicts seeking help. This paper sets out to examine tik from a moral panic perspective to understand if tik is an actual threat or a moral panic phenomenon. Two prominent newspapers were examined using content analysis. The Cape Times and Cape Argus were sampled to understand the social construction of tik. A moral panic is simply …

Location, Location, Location, The Impact Of Registered Sex Offenders On Home Sale Prices: A Case Study Of Mclean County, Illinois, John C. Navarro

Theses and Dissertations

Borrowing from broken windows theory, this paper addresses the impact of sex offenders' residences on neighborhood's property values in McLean County, Illinois. Three data sets were combined to explore the relationship: the addresses of registered sex offenders (RSOs) in McLean County, Illinois, the location and property characteristics of homes sold in McLean County between December 2012 to December 2013, and variables from the 2010 U.S. Census. ArcGIS was utilized to create buffers up to 0.2 of a mile around a sold home to measure the concentration of RSOs and sexual predators (SPs) and to calculate the distance from the nearest …

Juvenile Diversion Programs: High-Risk Youth And Their Effect On Offense Targeting, Chelsey R. Warner

Political Science Theses and Capstones

One of the largest problems that plague the juvenile justice system today is how to better handle juvenile crime without causing the juvenile to revert back to that behavior, but still helping them understand and acknowledge the crime they have committed. The state of Minnesota has created juvenile diversion programs as an attempt to aid in that endeavor. These programs however are under researched. The goal of this article is to shed some light on what those programs look like and how some counties programs vary from other programs on other counties; specifically focusing on the variation between offense-targeting for …

Prevention And Management Of Stress In Policing: A Review Of The Literature, Portland State University. Criminology And Criminal Justice Senior Capstone

Criminology and Criminal Justice Senior Capstone Project

Working as a police officer can be a rewarding job, but it can also be a stressful one. Policing is one of the few professions where individuals deal with many stressors, which exceed the usual expectations of society. Although there is no way to eliminate stress and the burnout it can cause, there are methods law enforcement agencies can utilize to help officers prevent stress from worsening and to make it more manageable. This literature review contains information to help police agencies train officers about prevention and management of stress in the workplace. It is based on 29 studies from …

A Quantitative Examination Of Known Exonernations And The Factors That Have Contributed To The Wrongful Convictions Of Innocents, Meagan Andrea Semmelroth

Theses and Dissertations

Wrongful convictions have been gaining attention both in the public and academic arenas. The knowledge that has been gained about wrongful convictions has been gained mostly by looking at cases of exonerations based on factual innocence. The use of DNA in the adjudication process, mainly in helping to defend and free innocent people brought the detriments of wrongful convictions into the lives of the public through the use of media. Since this time, innocence projects have opened, more cases of exonerations have been found, and more cases of wrongful conviction have been overturned. However, the frequency with which wrongful convictions …

Los Angeles County's Criminal Street Gangs: Does Violence Roll Downhill?, Jasmin B. Randle

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

According to the 2011 National Gang Threat Assessment created by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, there are more than 33,000 gangs in the United States, cited as being responsible for nearly 48% of the violent crime in the country. Using information drawn from gang-related court cases, this study examines the nature of inter- and intra-gang violence occurring between January 1, 2002-December 31, 2011. An innovative application of network analysis will be used to hone in on rivalries, the existence of possible hierarchy, and the relational and structural characteristics of Blood and Crip gangs in Los Angeles County. Results show that …

I Hope I Don't See You Tomorrow: A Phenomenological Ethnography Of The Passages Academy School Program, Lee Adam Gabay

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study examines Passages Academy, a school program that offers educational services for court-involved youth in New York City. Looking specifically at the Department of Education teachers who work in facilities run by the Department of Juvenile Justice, this research focuses on the beliefs and behaviors that inform the teaching experience within these facilities. The critical question of how these educators negotiate the learning spaces within this school community is also examined.

The question that informs much of this study is: how are the philosophies of the various stake-holding agencies enacted daily in real classroom settings? This leads to a …

The Process Of Separation For Victims Of Intimate Partner Violence: Evaluating Risk Of Indirect And Physical Abuse Relating To Interpersonal Events, Brittany E. Hayes

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Previous research has found that risk of physical abuse increases during the process of separation (Brownridge, 2006). Given the opportunity structure changes once the separation process begins, abusers may be more likely to engage in indirect abuse when their partner begins the process. Indirect abuse is the use of third parties, such as children or family/friends, to manipulate the abused woman. In the current study, opportunity is measured with both events abused women report and relationship characteristics that increase or decrease the likelihood the victim and offender converge in time and space.

The study relies on data from the Chicago …

Assessing Sheriff’S Office Emergency And Disaster Website Communications, Philip M. Stinson, John Liederbach, L. Fleming Fallon, Hans Schmalzried

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Sheriff’s offices are an integral component of the public health emergency preparedness and response system in the United States. During a public health emergency or disaster, sheriff’s offices need to communicate with people affected by the event. Sheriff’s office websites are logical sources for information about disaster preparedness and response efforts. No prior research evaluates emergency preparedness and response resources available through sheriff’s office websites. The current research is a national study of sheriff’s office websites to assess the availability of information relating to emergency preparedness and response. A content analysis of 2,590 sheriff’s office website homepages was conducted to …

When Speech Isn't Free: Legal Barriers And Consequences Of Reporting Sexual Violence, Kevin M. Fleming

Departmental Honors Projects

Incidents of sexual violence continue to be a serious problem for society. Likewise, acts of sexual violence impose severe consequences for survivors. The consequences initially begin at the onset of the survivor’s journey to psychological recovery following the traumatic sexual assault. The consequences take on a unique set of characteristics when the survivor attempts to use the justice system to confront the perpetrator who committed the offense. These characteristics can transform an adversarial process into an isolated battle for the survivor. In the worst cases, the justice system empowers individuals who wish to silence survivors with free speech restrictions instead …

Police Sexual Misconduct: A National Scale Study Of Arrested Officers, Philip M. Stinson, John Liederbach, Steven L. Brewer, Brooke E. Mathna

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Police sexual misconduct is often considered a hidden crime that routinely goes unreported. The current study provides an empirical data on cases of sex-related police crime at law enforcement agencies across the United States. The study identifies and describes incidents where sworn law enforcement officers were arrested for one or more sex-related crimes through a quantitative content analysis of published newspaper articles and court records. The primary news information source was the Google News search engine using 48 automated Google Alerts. Data are analyzed on 548 arrest cases in the years 2005-2007 of 398 officers employed by 328 nonfederal law …

Not Just Welfare Over Justice: Ethics In Forensic Consultation, Philip J. Candilis, Tess M. S. Neal

University of Nebraska Public Policy Center: Publications

The ethics of forensic professionalism is often couched in terms of competing individual and societal values. Indeed, the welfare of individuals is often secondary to the requirements of society, especially given the public nature of courts of law, forensic hospitals, jails, and prisons. We explore the weaknesses of this dichotomous approach to forensic ethics, offering an analysis of Psychology’s historical narrative especially relevant to the national security and correctional settings. We contend that a richer, more robust ethical analysis is available if practitioners consider the multiple perspectives in the forensic encounter, and acknowledge the multiple influences of personal, professional, and …

Bankster's Paradise: The Importance Of Discourse In Creating A Haven For Criminogenic Banks In The United States, Maria Jacqueline Bordt

Online Theses and Dissertations

This work examines the ways in which language can contribute to a cultural climate in which white-collar crime is no longer considered "deviant," but rather is considered part of a normally functioning political economy. The 2012 money laundering case involving HSBC is examined in conjunction with the rhetoric of popular financial counselor Dave Ramsey. This research seeks to define how language involving the accumulation of capital is equated with virtuousness, thus constructing a myth about the criminality inherent to "legitimate" capital enterprises.

Commercial Sexual Exploitation Of Teens, Tamieka Meadows, Alexis Kennedy

McNair Poster Presentations

This research explores whether commercially sexually exploited children (CSEC) abuse drugs or face greater histories of abuse than their delinquent peers. This research will evaluate whether girls who are CSEC victims experience more abuse of drugs or experience more physical, emotional, or sexual abuse. The study also explores whether CSEC victims witnessed more abuse than non-CSEC victims. A survey of needs and issues facing delinquent girls was given to 130 girls between the ages of 13 to 18. Questions asked about their drug use, abuse history, and whether they witnessed abuse. This research found that many girls who are CSEC …

The New Scarlet Letter? Negotiating The U.S. Labor Market With A Criminal Record, Steven Raphael

Upjohn Press

This book explores the difficulties facing ex-offenders as they try to enter and remain in the U.S. labor market.

An Empirical Study Of Appointed Counsel Effectiveness In Jury Trials, James Patrick Hall

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Anecdotal evidence supports the belief among indigent individuals who are assigned defense counsel that they would be better represented by privately retained counsel. This perspective jeopardizes attorney effectiveness by reducing communication and trust between the attorney and client. Research on the effectiveness of counsel is sparse. The purpose of this quantitative study was to bridge this gap in knowledge by comparing the effectiveness of privately retained and publicly appointed counsel between 2008 and 2013, both before and after the imposition of state-wide compensation limitations on publicly appointed defense counsel. The theoretical framework was Stuntz's theory, which stresses that one part …

A Thin Blue Line And The Great Black Divide: The Inter And Intra Departmental Conflict Among Black Police Officers, Their Agencies, And The Communities In Which They Work Regarding Police Use Of Force Perception By Black Americans In A Southwestern State, Vance Debral Keyes

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the relationship between Black police officers, Black citizens, and their external environment using a group of 30 police officers and citizens to establish the connection between police officer race and perceptions by same race citizens within the context of police use of force. I use the term Black to be inclusive of African Americans as well as others of African descent without regard to their ethnicity or national origin. Criminal justice means system application whereas criminology is the study of criminal behavior. In America, there exists a history of volatility between the police and Black communities. While …