Criminology and Criminal Justice Commons^™

Search & Seizure: Historical Analysis Of The Fourth Amendment, Sarah Cummings

Honors Program Theses and Projects

This thesis is a legal analysis of the history of privacy law in the context of the Fourth Amendment. This historical analysis will focus on landmark United States Supreme Court cases involving searches and seizures from the 1886 Boyd v. United States case to the 2014 Riley v California case. Incorporated is the evolution of the Supreme Court’s analysis from the Trespass Doctrine to the Reasonable Expectation of Privacy Doctrine. Also included is how those doctrines have related to the evolution of technology. Finally, there is a discussion of the possible direction of future U.S. Supreme Court, Fourth Amendment privacy …

A Qualitative Exploration Of A Massachusetts Drug Court: How Are The 10 Key Components Applied?, Isabel Pires

Master’s Theses and Projects

With the overwhelming drug offense and policy changes that occurred in the 1980s, the criminal justice system was forced to create other methods of dealing with offenders suffering from substance abuse problems. Therefore, drug court was created as a diversion program. Drug court was first created in 1989 in Florida to offer a therapeutic method to assist offenders with substance abuse problems and criminal cases. The purpose of drug court was to prevent addicts from constant contact with the criminal justice system. Drug court professionals developed a guideline based on the therapeutic jurisprudence theory called the “10 key component”. The …

Empirical Assessment Of Lifestyle-Routine Activity And Social Learning Theory On Cybercrime Offending, Elizabeth Phillips

Master’s Theses and Projects

The Internet and its overwhelming possibilities and applications have changed the way individuals carry out many routine activities such as going to work or school, or socializing. Social networking sites such as Facebook are ideal settings for interacting with others, and unfortunately, are also ideal settings for committing cybercrimes. The purpose of this study is to investigate the occurrence of online offending against individuals, specifically harassment, stalking, impersonation, and sexting. Self-report surveys collected from a sample of 274 college students were examined using a negative binomial statistical analysis to determine possible relationships between risky online and offline lifestyles as well …

Diagnosis Of Cyber And Nonphysical Bullying Victimization: A Routine Activities Approach To Constructing Effective Preventive Measures, Kevin J. Earl

Master’s Theses and Projects

Youths can experience bullying victimization through many sources. Technology and social networking sites have provided another source in which youths can experience bullying victimization, commonly called "cyber-bullying" (Hinduja and Patchin, 2009). The purpose of this study is to apply Routine Activities Theory (Cohen and Felson, 1979) as a main theoretical framework to examine cyber and nonphysical bullying victimization. Nonphysical bullying victimization refers to having been made fun of, called names, having had rumors spread, been threatened, pushed/shoved/tripped, etc., forced to do unwanted things, excluded, or having had property destroyed. Data were derived from the 2013 school crime supplement of NCVS, …

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 …

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 …

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.