Legal Studies Commons^™

Bullying: An Adult Perspective From Educators Who Work Predominately With African American Students, Rebecca A. Robles-Piña, Anthony Harris, Rachel Porias

Contemporary Issues in Juvenile Justice

A survey of 31 teachers and counselors who work predominantly with African American students about bullying revealed these findings: Analyses by individual questions indicated that participants (a) disagreed that bullies and victims were of any particular ethnic group, (b) were unsure about whether gender impacted bullying and whether bullying had decreased (c) agreed that pairing loners with other students was a good intervention and that victims tended to be students with special needs, and (d) strongly agreed that bullies have feelings of power and control. Analyses by categories and demographic characteristics indicated no statistically significant differences for gender and job …

Assessment Practices In Residential Treatment Facilities For Juvenile Offenders, Liz Marciniak, Diane T. Marsh

Contemporary Issues in Juvenile Justice

Given the high prevalence of mental disorders among juvenile offenders, as well as the link between untreated disorders and delinquent behavior, there is a critical need for standardized, cost-effective, and clinically effective procedures to identify youth with mental health problems. Surveys were sent to staff in juvenile residential facilities throughout Pennsylvania to examine statewide assessment practices, including the background and training of staff, the standard intake procedures used in these facilities, and the role of assessment in treatment planning. Although results provide evidence of some common statewide assess-ment practices, there was significant variability in the use of specific procedures. Suggestions …

An Examination Of Female Youth Gangs, Tiffiney Y. Barfield-Cottledge, Myrna Cintron, Jonathan Sorensen

Contemporary Issues in Juvenile Justice

Cohen's subculture of delinquency theory (1955) posits that male youth gangs exist largely as the result of the status frustration experienced by rejected adolescents in their search for middle class acceptance. Cohen concluded that social and structural factors, particularly neighborhood and school environments, impacted youth gang prevalence. While many studies related to the existence of youth gangs have been conducted, few have focused specifically on female youth gangs. In the current study, an examination of female youth gangs was conducted using self-report data gathered for the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (1997-2001). Contrary to arguments that gendered-specific criminological theories are …

Television Violence Prevention Versus Juvenile Violence Prevention: Any Connections In Parental Control?, Sharlette Kellum

Contemporary Issues in Juvenile Justice

Animated features, like children's cartoons, are considered by some to be the most violent shows on televi-sion, with approximately 25 to 50 acts of violence per hour (Dietz and Strasburger, 1991). Cartoons, unlike other shows that portray violence, present instances of violence to children in an "acceptable" way, which teaches children from zero to 17 years of age that hurting people is tolerable. Television violence has been linked to juvenile aggression, which has been linked to juvenile violence. In researching several studies, the author found that many of the preventions mentioned in the television violence studies were also mentioned in …

Which Sexual Abuse Victims Receive A Forensic Medical Examination? : The Impact Of Children's Advocacy Centers, Wendy A. Walsh, Theodore P. Cross, Lisa M. Jones, Monique Simone, David Kolko

Sociology

Abstract

Objective

This study examines the impact of Children's Advocacy Centers (CAC) and other factors, such as the child's age, alleged penetration, and injury on the use of forensic medical examinations as part of the response to reported child sexual abuse.

Methods

This analysis is part of a quasi-experimental study, the Multi-Site Evaluation of Children's Advocacy Centers, which evaluated four CACs relative to within-state non-CAC comparison communities. Case abstractors collected data on forensic medical exams in 1,220 child sexual abuse cases through review of case records.

Results

Suspected sexual abuse victims at CACs were two times more likely to have …

Slavery In The 21st Century, Paul R. Rickert

Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper briefly examines the modern practice of slavery. It attempts to demonstrate that slavery is a larger problem than most understand, does exist in the United States, and will outline some effective means to combat it.

The Inaugural Issue Of The Journal Of Knowledge And Best Practices In Juvenile Justice And Psychology

Contemporary Issues in Juvenile Justice

No abstract provided.

Policing And Social Control Of Public Marijuana Use And Selling In New York City, Bruce D. Johnson, Andrew Golub, Eloise Dunlap, Stephen J. Sifaneck, James E. Mccabe

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

This article analyzes the history of policies by New York City government and police enforcement strategies to socially control marijuana use and sales in public locations—that is in the streets; parks; and quasi-public settings such as bars, restaurants, and stores. This particular article is organized around the laws, regulations, and enforcement associated with two central civic norms: (1) Users should not smoke marijuana in public settings (streets, parks) or in quasi-public settings such as stores, bars, restaurants, offices, etc. and (2) Persons should not sell marijuana in public and quasi-public settings. Occasionally, the authors make reference to marijuana use and …

Democracy And Delinquency: An International Comparison Of Youth Violence Associated With Alternative Lifestyles, Beliefs, And Practices, Gordon A. Crews, Angela West Crews

Criminal Justice Faculty Research

This presentation discusses youth crime and violence within the context of evolving democracy. The focus is to compare Turkish juvenile crime to that experienced in the United States and the United Kingdom (e.g., extent, characteristics, causes, solutions, etc.). During the mid-to late 1990s, Turkey’s juvenile crime rate skyrocketed, although rates have decreased in recent years. Increases seen during the 1990’s may be a natural by-product of Turkey's historical efforts to become and maintain a democratic society, and part of the price Turkey has to pay to join the European Union. Juvenile crime (and other social problems, such as suicide) may …

Evaluating Sex Offenders Under Sexually Violent Predator Laws: How Might Mental Health Professionals Conceptualize The Notion Of Volitional Impairment?, Cynthia Calkins Mercado, Robert F. Schopp, Brian H. Bornstein

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

This paper examines the significance of the Supreme Court’s Hendricks and Crane decisions, with focus given to how mental health professionals may conceptualize the notion of volitional impairment. The Hendricks decision authorized postsentence civil commitment for sex offenders having a mental abnormality or personality disorder, rendering them likely to engage in future acts of sexual violence. In the Supreme Court’s majority opinion, Justice Thomas implied that the Kansas Act was legitimized by limiting the class of offenders eligible for this specialized form of commitment to those who are “unable to control” their dangerousness. In Crane, the Court ruled that …

Delinquency And Gun Violence: The Intervening Role Of Values Toward Guns, Ryan E. Spohn

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

The current research project examines the intervening role of values towards gun possession and gun use in predicting involvement of high school-aged males in general delinquency and gun-related delinquency. As the first step of the project, we examine the factors that influence the values that the youth have towards gun possession and gun use. The most important factors producing positive values towards guns are a need for protection, having friends who carry guns, being a gang member, and being a victim of a gun crime. In contrast, frequency of church attendance reduces such values. As the next step, we examined …

Social Worker Or Cop? Measuring The Supervision Styles Of Probation & Parole Officers In Kentucky And Missouri, Angela D. Crews, Richard P. Seiter

Criminal Justice Faculty Research

This study surveyed probation and parole officers in Missouri and Kentucky to determine their supervision styles along a “casework to surveillance” continuum. These self-ratings were correlated with officer self-reports of how they spend their time on the job engaged in various casework or surveillance activities. Additionally, volunteering officers were interviewed to provide clarification on their perceptions regarding the distinctions between a casework approach and a surveillance approach. Results indicate that officers spend more of their time engaged in casework activities, but perceive themselves as more surveillance oriented. Style varied significantly by sex of officer, with female officers spending significantly more …

Killing For The State: The Darkest Side Of American Nursing, Dave Holmes, Cary H. Federman

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The aim of this article is to bring to the attention of the international nursing community the discrepancy between a pervasive ‘caring’ nursing discourse and the most unethical nursing practice in the United States. In this article, we present a duality: the conflict in American prisons between nursing ethics and the killing machinery. The US penal system is a setting in which trained healthcare personnel practices the extermination of life. We look upon the sanitization of death work as an application of healthcare professionals’ skills and knowledge and their appropriation by the state to serve its ends. A review of …

Columbine School Massacre, Eric S. Yellin

History Faculty Publications

On 20 April 1999, in one of the deadliest school shootings in national history, two students at Columbine High School in Littleton, Jefferson County, Colorado, killed twelve fellow students and a teacher and injured twenty-three others before committing suicide. Eric Harris, age eighteen, and Dylan Klebold, age seventeen, used homemade bombs, two sawed-off twelve-gauge shotguns, a nine-millimeter semiautomatic rifle, and a nine-millimeter semiautomatic pistol in a siege that began shortly after 11 A.M.

Cultural Awareness Sensitivity Training, William L. Underwood

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

In this study, employees of the Federal Correctional Institution in Ashland, Kentucky; the Federal Medical Center in Rochester, Minnesota; and the Federal Correctional Institution in Milan, Michigan were surveyed to determine the need for a Cultural Awareness Sensitivity Training program for staff within the United States Bureau of Prisons. In addition, if the need for this program was established, the Cultural Awareness Study was formulated to determine the scope and breadth of the coverage of the program. The respondents were asked to answer 72 questions in the following areas: (1) diversity training; (2) need assessment; (3) staff demographics; (4) inmate …

The Emerging Problem Of Preppie Gangs In America, Gordon A. Crews

Criminal Justice Faculty Research

The purpose of this presentation is to examine the growing problem of "Preppie Gangs" in America. Involved youngsters generally come from the affluent upper class and participate in activities similar to traditional gang members. However, they tend to operate in a much safer environment than traditional street gangs and are predominantly "rich white kids". This paper will examine how these groups are currently manifesting themselves as Delinquent Gangs (Mimicking Other Street Gangs), Ideological Gangs (Specific Ideology or Belief System), or Occultic Gangs (Alternative Belief System Connections). Finally the unique issues of activities, causes, and solutions will be discussed .

A Space For Co-Constructing Counter Stories Under Surveillance, María Elena Torre, Michelle Fine, Kathy Boudin, Iris Bowen, Judith Clark, Donna Hylton, Migdalia Martinez, 'Missy', Rosemarie A. Roberts, Pamela Smart, Debora Upegui

Publications and Research

Using our experiences as members of a participatory action research committee (from the City University of New York Graduate Center and the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility) documenting the impact of college in a maximum security prison, this essay illustrates the power of Participatory Action Research in the construction of counter stories. We raise for discussion a set of theoretical, methodological and ethical challenges that emerged from the co-production of counter stories under surveillance: the creation of a critical space for producing 'counter knowledge'; the co-mingling of counter and dominant discourses, the negotiation of power over and within research in prison, …

Juvenile Gangs In Schools: Characteristics, Causes, And Possible Solutions, Gordon A. Crews

Criminal Justice Faculty Research

The purpose of this seminar is to acquaint participants with the ever-changing characteristics, often conflicting issues of causation, and various proposed solutions to the myriad of problems associated with gangs in schools. Special attention is given to the evolving nature of gangs in K-12 educational institutions (e.g., new types of juvenile groups developing and their associated behavior). Traditional subjects such as gang recruitment, initiation, and criminal activity are examined by discussing the many ways they manifest themselves in the school setting. Finally, a conceptual framework is presented by which a school can identify, understand, and begin to address a potential …

Costing Child Protective Services Staff Turnover, Michelle Graef, Erick L. Hill

Center on Children, Families, and the Law: Faculty Publications

This article details the process used in one state to determine the financial costs to the child welfare agency accrued over the course of one year that were directly attributable to CPS staff turnover. The formulas and process for calculating specific cost elements due to separation, replacement and training are provided. The practical considerations inherent in this type of analysis are highlighted, as well as the use of this type of data to inform agency human resource strategies.

Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design: An Analysis Of The Boulevard Mall, Kenneth Mac Leod

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Many case studies have been published that report a decrease in crime as a result of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED). Although methodologies and results of some studies have been questioned, there is agreement that the designed environment can influence human behavior.

Data in this study were accumulated by the investigation of a local mall. Mall management and head of security reported a decrease in all types of crime after improving and adding security measures for customers and store employees. My hypothesis was the mall provided a high number of CPTED features which would result in a low number …

A Comparative Study Of Black And White Girls' Delinquency, Kenya Larae Covington

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

In this research, I examined the similarities and differences between black and white female delinquents. A secondary analysis of the Survey of Youth in Custody, 1987 data was utilized to answer the following research questions: (1) What factors contribute to each group's delinquency the most? (2) Are the factors that contribute to black girls' delinquency significantly different from those factors that contribute to white girls' delinquency? The study was guided by previous research on race and female delinquency, girls' victimization, the role of the family and school performance. The independent variables victimization, family structure, family function and school performance were …

Waco Tragedy Product Of Groupthink, Aubrey Immelman

Psychology Faculty Publications

This opinion column employs the eight symptoms of groupthink specified by Irving Janis to evaluate whether the tragic end to the 1993 FBI siege of David Koresh’s Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas — which culminated in deaths of 76 civilians — could have been the product of groupthink.

Corrections In Crisis : Report Of The Governor's Blue Ribbon Commission On Corrections, Maine Governor's Blue Ribbon Commission On Corrections

Maine Collection

Corrections In Crisis : Report of the Governor's Blue Ribbon Commission on Corrections.

Augusta, Me., The Commission, December 1985

"This Commission was funded through the 1984 Appropriations Act, P.L. 1983, Ch. 824, Pt. A."

Contents: Preamble / Summary of Recommendations / Community Corrections Recommendations / Sentencing Recommendations / Correctional Management Recommendations / Selected Legislative Issues / Conclusion

Toward A Critical Theory Of Female Criminality, Ann Curry Thompson

IUSTITIA

Twentieth-century theories about female criminality are the weakest link in conventional criminology, representing the most conservative and unscientific thinking about human nature and social organization. Traditional thinking about female criminality reflects the general inability of conventional theorists to examine categories of sex, race, and class oppression as determined by the basic social structure of a particular society and as they relate to deviance and crime. The result has been that female deviance has been analyzed solely in light of assumptions about women's biological nature. Whether there is indeed something distinctive about female crime which can be explained apart from a …

Sanctions And Deviance: Another Look, Herbert Kritzer

IUSTITIA

In the past several years, there has been an extended dialogue in the literature concerning the question of the efficacy of sanctions as a means of deterring criminal behavior. There is some convincing evidence that threatened sanctions can and do deter some forms of behavior, such as parking violations and income tax evasion. Do these findings extend to other forms of behavior which our society has defined as criminal? This issue is considered by Gibbs in an article which appeared to find a clear link between the certainty and severity of sanctions and the murder rate. Gibbs' article stimulated additional …

0116: Scrapbooks (Crime), 1874-1892, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

Scrapbook consisting of newspaper clippings, flyers, broadsides and posters related to crimes in the late 19th century. Scrapbook is believed to have been compiled by the late James W. Kinnarney (1866 (?) - 1963), a former Louisville, KY police officer.

The Significance Of Treater Competence In Either Behavior Modification Or Transactional Analysis Treatment Of Juvenile Offenders, Paul Mccormick

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Results of the Youth Center Research Project were almost equally favorable for each other's two schools. The parole-violation rates of the wards released from both institutions dropped from 43% to 31%, a considerable improvement when compared with the two control California Youth Authority schools continuing failure rate of 46%. These figures were for twelve-month parole-exposure periods. But the study’s major hypotheses were not verified. The more mature youths did not do better with TA than with B Mod, and the lower-maturity wards did no better with B Mod. In fact, one classification of higher-maturity wards did a little better with …

A Comparison Of Incarcerated And Non-Incarcerated Women Based On The M.M.P.I., Rose Marie Carter

Masters Theses

The field for research on women offenders provides an extensive opportunity for scientific investigation. Many writers (Gibbons, 1971; Cunningham, 1964; Sutherland, 1968) have discussed the causes of crime and their resulting social implications. Organized mass presentations of the movement of crime among women is negligible. Today female incarcerates make up approximately 11 per cent (Lerner, 1972) of the total number in state and federal penitentiaries. Previous research (Cunningham, 1964) on female felons found poor self-concept, excessive dependency and pathological emotionality to be a consistent pattern in women criminals. Other research (Apfeldorf, 1971; Guze, 1959) found criminal and non-criminal groups could …

An Examination Of The Relationship Between Social Class And Crime, Carl H. Plath

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.