Criminology and Criminal Justice Commons^™

Exploring The Social Trend Of Household Computer Ownership In Affecting The United States 1990'S Crime Drop, Alison Kimberley Bogar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

During the 1990’s the world witnessed a crime drop throughout all categories of crime. Many researchers have sought to seek an explanation for this drop; however, there has been a lack of concrete findings to fully explain this phenomenon. The purpose of this study is to explore a further reasoning as to why this drop occurred, specifically throughout the United States. An unexplored factor to explain this phenomenon is the increase of household computer ownership during the 1990’s. During this decade, household computers and the internet became prevalent throughout the nation. This study utilized secondary data from the Uniform Crime …

Environmental Factors And School Disorder: The Role Of Urbanicty, Brandon S. Coffey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to explore the differential impact of various environmental and organizational factors on levels of school misconduct. Although we have a general understanding of this relationship, little effort has been made to determine whether the effects are influenced by urbanicity. The current study utilizes data from the 2007-2008 School Survey on Crime and Safety to address this gap in the literature by utilizing a series of negative binomial regression models that seek to determine differences between predictive factors in urban and rural settings. Results indicate that disorganization has a similar effect within urban and rural …

Policing Postsecondary Education: University Police Legitimacy And Fear Of Crime On Campus, Christina N. Barker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Assessing the perceptions that students have of the university police officers charged with ensuring student safety is important to maintaining the overall safety of the campus. The current study sought to assess the relationship between student perceptions of university police and the fear of crime felt by students while on campus. Data collection was conducted through a survey methodology using a convenient sample of students in which a self-report survey was sent to the university email addresses of all students enrolled in a southeastern university (n=260). Through the employment of a scale developed to assess the perceptions of university police …

Testing Specific Deterrence In The National Basketball Association: An Application Of Beccaria's Theory Of Deterrence, Michael Mccutcheon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

While the concept of deterrence has been applied to punishment in America’s criminal justice system, the empirical data is mixed on whether is effectively deters crime. This lack of consensus may be a result of missing elements from deterrence theory; namely, that punishment is often neither swift nor certain. Similar to the criminal justice system, professional sports leagues aim to control behavior of athletes by having guidelines that, when violated, result in punishment. However, these punishments are delivered much quicker and there is a higher level of certainty. The current study examines specific deterrence in the National Basketball Association by …

The Forgotten Signature: An Observational Study On Policy Of Securing Identity In Prevention Of Identity Theft And Credit/Debit Card Fraud At Retail Store Pos Terminals, Belinda R. Wilson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Identity theft and credit and bank card fraud is increasing in America and worldwide. Given the current statistics of its prevalence and practices around the world, many in government are starting to take critical notice due to its impact on a nation’s economy. Limited amounts of research have been conducted regarding the practices of applying the Routine Activities Theory (Cohen & Felson, 1979) to better equip store managers in understanding the critical need for capable and effective point of sale guardianship for in-store prevention of credit or bank card fraud due to identity theft. This research has used qualitative observational …

The Effects Of Gender, Race, And Age On Judicial Sentencing Decisions, April Miller

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Previous research has found significant effects of gender, race, and age on sentencing decisions made by state and local court judges (e.g. Johnson, 2003; Mustard, 2001; Steffensmeier, Ulmer, & Kramer, 1998). The current study used criminal district court data from two counties in western North Carolina to further research of the effects of the aforementioned variables on sentencing. Using knowledge acquired from past studies, the hypotheses for the current study asserted that younger offenders, male offenders, and nonwhite offenders would be more likely to be found guilty of their offense and receive fines than their respective offender counterparts. The results …

Measuring The Level Of University Student Knowledge On The U.S. Drug Policy And Harms Associated With Illicit Drug Use: A Replication Study, Ashley E. Williams

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The purpose of this thesis project is to measure the level of knowledge that university students have regarding state and national illicit drug classifications in the United States and associated penalties with these classifications, as well as the harms resulting from consuming illicit drugs. This particular study, which is to be conducted as a replication study to Higson’s campus-based study on the UK drug policy, focuses on a different campus population in regards to the U.S. drug policy. Replication studies such as these are beneficial to previous studies because such additional research will not only strengthen the findings and correct …

Assessing Victim Blame: Intersections Of Rape Victim Race, Gender, And Ethnicity, Kirsten A. Piatak

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The current study sought to assess the impact of the race, gender, and ethnicity of rape victims on college students’ propensity to assign culpability to victims. Using a sample of college students (n=279) from a mid-sized Southeastern university, respondents were given a set of six different vignettes, varying only by victim characteristics. These vignettes featured alcohol-facilitated sexual assault between acquaintances, a common occurrence in college environments. Respondents were asked to evaluate the culpability of the victim through a blameworthiness scale. Through the incorporation of the Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale, this study also measured the respondents’ propensity to assign blame …

18th Century Anarchism And Its Effect On Modern Day Domestic Terrorism, Mary A. Scott

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Anarchism is a political and socioeconomic force that has driven violent methods of social and political change for centuries. Relating Anarchism to these violent acts demonstrates a deep-seeded link to terrorism. Anarchism is one of the main forces behind modern day terrorism due to its long history alongside the ever evolving term terrorism. By connecting these two concepts, domestic terror groups can be better analyzed and understood, and future attacks from within the United States may be prevented.

Controlling Juvenile Behavior: An Empirical Test Of Hirschi's Attachment And Involvement, Samantha M. Lower

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The current study is focused on the influence of Hirschi’s Social Control Theory on juvenile delinquency. Specifically, I examined if attachment and involvement reduced delinquency among youth using a secondary data analysis of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). The results indicated that attachment to parental and/or non-parental adults does significantly affect delinquency, but voluntary involvement in conventional activities does not.

When Women Kill, Giovanna C. Lima

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The media is one of the strongest influences on how society views the criminal justice system and all actors therein. This is especially true for offenders of violent crime. Notably, women who kill are rare. However, when women do murder someone, the media tends to over expose them and portray them in different ways. The current study is intended to examine how the media portrays women murderers. In particular, this research is focused on how fictional and true crime programs portray female killers. Do they portray them in a positive or negative light? Do they portray them realistically? Are true …

The Effects Of Family Structure On Juvenile Delinquency, Alisha B. Parks

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Studies show that family structure is an important factor in explaining delinquency among adolescents (Price & Kunz, 2003). There is a lack of research, however, pertaining to cohabitation. The main goals of this study are to determine if there are variations in delinquency between cohabitating and other family types, and to examine the extent to which parental social control measures account for the variation in delinquency by family structure. Data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) are used for the purposes of this study (n = 4,389). While there are no significant differences in violent delinquency …

Examining Juvenile Delinquency Contributors Through Life-Course And Strain Theory, Caitlin E. Burns

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

For years the causes of juvenile delinquency have drawn a lot of attention from the scientific community and have become a widely studied concept in research literature. Causes of juvenile delinquency have become an important aspect of criminological study because with the knowledge of what contributes to delinquency, the scientific community can possibly slow down the continuous act of offending, also known as continuity, through implementation of prevention strategies. Criminological theory is used to define and help understand why certain contributors are the foundation for juvenile delinquency, along with the continuity of crime for an adolescent but also what factors …

Media Influences And Student Attitudes Toward Law Enforcement Figures Within Northeast Tennessee, George T. Ford Iv

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to analyze student attitudes toward various law enforcement figures and to obtain a better understanding of public relations, police effectiveness, and media influences in Northeastern Tennessee. This literature review provided a preliminary analysis of related works to advance the accuracy in conducting and examining future studies. The fields that deserve the most analysis are the underlying dimensions associated with public attitudes about police effectiveness, the media’s impact on public attitudes toward police, and the individual, external, and contextual variables that influence public attitudes toward police.

An Analysis Of The Handwriting Of Elderly Chinese Subjects., Dongfang Liu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Nowadays, one of the issues of concern that brought on by the aging population is legal disputes that have been increasing in number every year. One core problem in these legal disputes involves handwriting identification. There are however not many previous studies in China that have been concentrated on this field. Hence, the study on elderly Chinese subjects' handwriting has an extremely broad potential value for its application for academic usage and practical meaning. This study uses an empirical technique, gathering first hand data and analysing them by employing proper methods. There are 7 handwriting features and characteristics that have …

Forensic Gunshot Residue Distance Determination Testing Using Identical Make And Model Handguns And Different Ammunitions., Stanley Keith Hodges

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The determination of how far a firearm was from a victim or target when it was discharged is a frequent request to crime laboratories. This determination requires test firing the firearm at various distances to compare gunshot residue patterns made during the test with patterns on the victim or target. Crime laboratories stipulate that the same firearm and ammunition used in commission of the crime must be used for this testing; however, little empirical evidence exists supporting this requirement. It was the purpose of this study to determine if there were any significant differences using different firearms and different ammunition …

Intimate Violence: The Effects Of Family, Threatened Egotism, And Reciprocity., Jessica Lynne Holt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study was undertaken in an attempt to investigate the impact of family, threatened egotism, and reciprocity on a person’s use of intimate violence. Threatened egotism proposes that aggression is the result of high but unstable self-esteem, which is conceptualized as high self-esteem coupled with high narcissism. Self-report questionnaires were administered to randomly selected cluster samples of 423 college students, 147 males and 276 females. The mean age is approximately 22 with 93% indicating they are White and 7% non-White. While no support was found for threatened egotism, violence witnessed in the family of origin and reciprocity were found to …

Juvenile Commitment Rate: The Effects Of Gender, Race, Parents, And School., Mitchell Andrew Thompson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to analyze those factors that affect the commitment rate of juveniles and how outside variables such as gender, race, parents, and school attendance affect the commitment rate of crime and delinquency. The variables used for this study came from the Gang Resistance Education and Training (G.R.E.A.T.) data collected by Esbensen and Osgood (1999). The analysis revealed that females are more likely to have a higher commit rate than males, that Whites have a higher commit rate than other races, that those juveniles living with their father have a lower commit rate than those living …

A Qualitative Study: Gendered Perceptions Of Bullying Among Adolescents At A Boys And Girls Club., Beverly Small Chandley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Bullying is a form of peer violence needing extensive research to help understand the differences in gender for the prevention of such behavior. Most research has been performed in school settings and in a quantitative manner. This study was conducted by six researchers in an after-school facility with a qualitative approach. A minimum of 15 hours per researcher was spent observing behaviors and 20 interviews were performed. A grounded theory approach was used for the analysis of data which tend to show more similarities than differences in the way children bully as well as their perceptions of bullying.

Marijuana Use By Juveniles: The Effects Of Peers, Parents Race, & Drug Abuse Resistance Education., Daniel J. Moeser

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to analyze the factors that affect the use of marijuana by juveniles and how outside influences such as peer pressure, race, parental influence, and prevention programs such as the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) contribute to the use of marijuana by juveniles. All of the variables used in this study came from the Gang Resistance Education and Training (G.R.E.A.T.) data collected by Esbensen and Osgood (1999). The analysis indicated that juveniles are most influenced by their peers such as friends, that African American juveniles would be less likely than Whites and Hispanics to become …

Justice For All?: Victim Satisfaction With Restorative Justice Conferences., Sarah Anne Behtz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

While the process of restorative justice is fairly new, several programs have been implemented globally and found to be effective in various aspects over the past 30 years. Very little empirical research has been gathered from these global programs though members of the criminal justice community as well as members of the general public have expressed interest in learning more about the programs and effectiveness and opinions of the programs. This study takes a closer look at what victims have expressed as being important to them regarding the criminal justice system, and satisfaction with how their cases are handled in …

Juveniles' Attitudes Toward The Police As Affected By Prior Victimization., Joshua A. Hardin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to analyze juveniles' attitudes toward the police and how their attitudes were affected by prior victimization and delinquency, controlling for race, gender, and city of residence. All variables used in this study came from the Gang Resistance Education and Training (G.R.E.A.T.) data collected by Esbensen (1999). The analysis indicated that females held more favorable attitudes toward the police than males, Whites held more favorable attitudes toward the police than non-Whites, and juveniles living in small rural/suburban areas held more favorable attitudes than those living in large urban areas. The major finding of this study …

Using The Survey Of Inmates Of State And Federal Correctional Facilities To Compare Female And Male Inmate Characteristics., Jacqueline Anita Black

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the differences between female and male prison inmates using the Survey of Inmates of State and Federal Correctional Facilities, 1997. Variables examined included current offense, criminal history, drug use history, victimization history, program participation in the institution, disciplinary infractions in the institution, family history, and interaction with family while in prison. Results indicate that male inmates have worse criminal histories and longer sentences than female inmates. Female inmates have more extensive drug use histories, greater victimization histories, more program participation in the institution, and more criminality in their families of origin than …

Police Officers' Perception Of The Validity Of The General Theory Of Crime., William Jaison Giesler

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study measured police officers perception of the validity of General Theory of Crime. Using a sample of 117 officers and an adapted version of the Grasmick et al. (1993) self-control scale, this study measures the level of agreement officers exhibit that low self-control traits are present in property and violent offenders. Measurement is also performed to determine variation in officers agreement based on the personal characteristics gender, age, education, experience, and rank.

Findings indicate officers show agreement with self-control items across the six dimensions of self control traits, as well as significant variation in agreement with the property offender …

Oleoresin Capsicum: An Analysis Of The Implementation Of Pepper Spray Into The Law Enforcement Use Of Force Continuum In A Selected Police Department., Lydia Denise Adkins

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study focused on the use of oleoresin capsicum (OC) as a means of force and also tested the effectiveness of OC.

A medium-size police agency was studied from 1991-2001. The following reports were collected for analysis: excessive force reports, reports of officers injured during arrests, use of hands-on restraint, and use of police baton.

This study revealed an increase in reported incidents of excessive force and a reduction in the number of officers injuired making arrests while using various defensive techniques.

Implementing OC into the force continuum remains a solid decision in review of this research. This study has …

The Combined Effects Of Criminal Justice Intervention On Domestic Violence: A Re-Analysis Of The Minneapolis Intervention Project., Nadia A. Bebawy

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Over the past 20 years, a plethora of research has been conducted on the effects of arrest in reducing recidivism of domestic violence offenders. The findings of such research have been varied. This study uses data from the Minneapolis Intervention Project to test the effectiveness criminal justice sanctions (i.e., arrest, jail, counseling, and the combination) on reducing recidivism of male domestic violence offenders. Results from bivariate analysis found that the criminal justice sanction of arrest and jail was related to recidivism. However, criminal justice sanctions could not predict recidivism.

Athletic Participation: A Test Of Learning And Neutralization Theories., Mario Bernard Hankerson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Athletics has been regarded as a means of encouraging youth to build character, discipline, and develop healthy habits. However, literature has emerged that asserts athletics do not prevent deviant behaviors, but instead, influence one to commit deviant acts. As such, this research examined effects of athletics on the commission of deviant behaviors via learning and techniques of neutralization theories.

Subjects for this project included 325 college students from a southern regional university. Data were generated through the use of a self-report questionnaire, which measured variables pertaining to self-reported deviant behaviors including perceptions of peer deviance, neutralizing indicators, and sports participation. …

Role Of Police, Prosecutors And Defense Attorneys In Traffic Accident Investigation And Adjudication In Chattanooga, Tennessee., Karen L. Beisel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study provides, via personal interviews, a qualitative examination of police, district attorneys, public defenders and private attorneys who were involved in traffic accident investigation and criminal court adjudication in Chattanooga, Tennessee. These data were compiled to develop a profile of the actors and their involvement in the process of a criminal charge stemming from a traffic accident. The literature suggests that the actors work as a team to process a case from investigation to adjudication; however, the actors in Chattanooga, Tennessee were fragmented in their handling of a case. This study collectively examines police and attorneys in relation to …

Involvement In Sports And Engagement In Delinquency: An Examination Of Hirschi's Social Bond Theory., Randy Hass

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Sports have been proposed as a means of reducing participation in delinquency. One criminological theory that would support this hypothesis is Travis Hirschi's social bond theory. The involvement element of that theory proposes that engaging juveniles in non-delinquent activities reduces engagement in delinquency. However, the relationship between sports and delinquency has not been adequately tested. Data from the first wave of the National Youth Survey were examined by ordinary least squares regression to determine if there was evidence supporting school sponsored sports programs as a means of reducing delinquency. No evidence was found to support the research hypothesis. Involvement in …

Characteristics Of Recidivism Among Intensive And Regular Probationers., Jennifer Joseph

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined characteristics of 100 intensive probationers and 100 regular probationers to have a better understanding of why some probationers recidivate and others do not. Logistic analysis was used to analyze the following variables: age, race, gender, employment status, level of education, convicted offense, prior misdemeanor arrests, prior felony arrests, history of drug abuse, and type of probation. It was discovered that age, prior misdemeanor arrests, and offender category were significant variables correlated to recidivism. These findings are consistent with prior research and provide information that can be helpful to probation and parole officers in their supervision of offenders …