Criminology and Criminal Justice Commons^™

The Role Of Organizational Justice In Predicting Attitudes Toward Body-Worn Cameras In Police Officers, Nathaniel L. Lawshe

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Body-worn cameras are a promising new development in policing. They have been linked to positive outcomes such as decreases in use of force and complaints against officers. However, this new technology has produced a number of issues that could thwart a successful body-worn camera program implementation. One issue is the extent in which officers possess positive attitudes toward using body-worn cameras. If officers do not view body-worn cameras positively, cameras may not be used to their full potential.

A promising factor that has emerged from past research in explaining attitudes toward body-worn cameras is organizational justice. Broadly, organizational justice is …

Intimate Partner Violence And The Capacity And Desire For Self-Control, Krista Taralynne Brewer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The effect of self-control on one’s criminal offending is a product of both an individual’s capacity to exercise self-control as well as their desire to exercise self-control. The present study utilized self-report data gathered at a large urban university in Florida (n=1,307) to test the independent and interactive effects of control-capacity and control-desire on intimate partner violence perpetration. The study suggests that while both capacity and desire for control have effects on one’s likelihood of reporting IPV, these effects are independent of each other.

An Exploratory Study Of Macro-Social Correlates Of Online Property Crime, Hyojong Song

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Despite the recent decreasing trend of most traditional types of crime, online property crime (OPC), referring to crime committed online with a financial orientation such as online frauds, scams, and phishing, continues to increase. According to the Internet Crime Complaint Center, the number of reported complaints about OPC have increased by approximately sixteen fold from 16,838 cases in 2000 to 288,012 cases in 2015, and referred financial losses have also increased about sixty times from $17.8 million in 2001 to $1 billion in 2015. The increase in OPC might be directly related to advanced online accessibility due to the accelerated …

Chronic Runaway Youth: A Gender-Based Analysis, Michelle N. Jeanis

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Runaway youth often face a multitude of negative experiences during their childhood, which often leads to trajectories of psychological disorder/distress, victimization, and offending. This propensity for negative life trajectories may be exacerbated by repetitive runaway behavior. Additionally, these negatives experiences may be further shaped by the gender of the youth, thus creating distinct gendered pathways to chronic runaway behavior, victimization, and offending. This study utilized a sample of youth runaways in the state of Florida (N=295) to build upon the classification/typology research on juvenile runaways by assessing the presence of latent groups of youth based on runaway frequency. In addition, …

Adverse Childhood Experiences And Their Role As Mitigators For Youthful And Non-Youthful Offenders In Capital Sentencing Cases, Jessica R. Trapassi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and their role as mitigators in capital sentencing is an important, yet relatively unexplored, topic in criminological literature. Using data from the North Carolina Capital Sentencing Project, this study explores the role of ACEs as mitigating factors for youthful and non-youthful capital offenders: whether youthful offenders are less likely to be sentenced to death, whether or not ACEs are effective as mitigating factors, and whether ACE mitigators are more effective for youthful or non-youthful offenders. Results show that youthful capital offenders are less likely to be sentenced to death than adult capital offenders, and while ACE …

Female Incarceration And Prison Social Order: An Examination Of Gender Differences In Prison Misconduct And In-Prison Punishments, Elisa L. Toman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The dramatic increase in the U.S. prison population has renewed scholarly interest in the prison experience. Researchers have built upon and extended classic theories of inmate behavior to better understand the mechanisms that lead to inmate violence and misbehavior. Yet, scholars still consider what happens to inmates inside of prison a “black box,” due to limited systematic assessments of the prison experience. This body of scholarship is also limited by its narrow focus on males, as theories of inmate behavior have been developed around male experiences and, in turn, ignore the possibility that gender may influence prison life. Feminist theory …

A Test Of Wikström’S Situational Action Theory Using Self-Report Data On Intimate Partner Violence, Lauren Nicole Miley

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Wikstrӧm’s Situational Action Theory (SAT) proposes a general theory of crime causation that addresses two sets of interactions between individuals and their situation/environment. These interactions predict whether or not individuals choose a criminal action. The current study utilized self-report data on intimate partner violence collected at a large urban university in Florida (n=1124) to test this process by examining both direct and interactive effects proposed by the theory. Specifically, this study examines the direct effects of moral propensity, temptations/provocations, self-control and perpetual deterrence on intimate partner violence as well as the various interactions among them as derived from the theory. …

School Shootings In The United States From 1997 To 2012: A Content Analysis Of Media Coverage, Victoria N. Iannuzzi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study is a content analysis of news articles of school shooting incidents that occurred within the United States between 1997 and 2012. This paper was designed to (a) address the current profile of school shooting offenders and offenses, (b) assess a proposed typology of school shootings, (c) consider common case processing characteristics for offenders of school shootings incidents, and (d) address the potential for offender and offense characteristics to affect the amount of media coverage an incident receives. The database of “Major School Shootings in the United States Since 1997” by the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence was …

Resistance From Within: Domestic Violence And Rape Crisis Centers That Serve Black/African American Populations, Jessica Marie Pinto

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis uses feminist critical discourse analysis to find and understand the discourses embedded in the mission statements and program documents of three domestic violence and/or rape crisis centers that primarily serve Black/African American populations in three distinct geographic locations in the United States. Existing literature addresses the discourses present in domestic violence and sexual assault service provision, but no literature addresses the discourses present in the mission statements of domestic violence and rape crisis centers, leaving a considerable gap in the literature. This project uses frameworks of feminist understandings of Foucauldian discursive patriarchal power, intersectionality and material feminism to …

Delving Into The Heart Of Victimization Risk: Examining The Interactive Relationship Between Demographic Factors And Context, Amy Sheena Eggers

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

My dissertation sought to expand the study of victimization by examining non-linear relationships across victim, offender, and offense characteristics within a routine activities theory framework. Moreover, my goals were to assess victimization risk using a more realistic approach through the implementation of a situational perspective approach and conjunctive analysis. Conjunctive analysis is an analytical with both quantitative and qualitative properties, which allowed for interpretations that were detail oriented and summative. Utilizing data from the National Crime Victimization Survey, several victim (e.g., demographic factors), offender (e.g., victim-offender relationship), and offense (contextual factors) characteristics were analyzed. Conjunctive analysis was estimated for incidents …

The Guilty But Mentally Ill Verdict: Assessing The Impact Of Informing Jurors Of Verdict Consequences, Erin Elizabeth Cotrone

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In response to public opposition to the insanity defense, the Guilty But Mentally Ill(GBMI) verdict was enacted with the intention of limiting the number of insanity acquittals and alleviating the public’s concerns. Prior research suggests, however, that many jurors are making verdict decisions with limited knowledge of the dispositional consequences of the GBMI and NGRI verdicts. Further, jurors may erroneously assume that the GBMI verdict is a compromise between a NGRI and guilty verdict, which mitigates punishment. In reality, the dispositional consequences of a GBMI verdict are equivalent to or more restrictive than a guilty verdict. The current study examined …

How Mature Capitalism Turns Pollution Into Diamonds: Malagnogenesis And The Reverse-Engineering Of Harm Into Risk, Kevin P. Martyn

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, there has been a great deal of debate about the pervasiveness and persistence of neoliberal thinking. In the context of the post-2008 ‘great recession’ the resilience of neoliberalism is particularly confounding. To begin to unravel the ways in which neoliberalism is situated relative to risk, this study identifies an increasingly important neoliberal knowledge practice: malagnogenesis. Malagnogenesis is proposed herein as the production of ignorance that normalizes harm for and amongst marginalized populations. To shed light on the phenomena of malagnogenesis, this study investigated the history of leaded gasoline in the U.S. To that end, I …

The Role Of Gender In Self-Control And Intimate Partner Violence, Laura Marie Gulledge

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study focuses on the interrelationships between gender, self-control and intimate partner violence (IPV). The sample consists of 960 undergraduate and graduate university students who are currently in a dating relationship. A series of bivariate and multivariate analyses are used to: 1) determine if self-control and IPV vary across gender and 2) assess the effect of gender on the relationship between self-control and IPV. Overall, results provide partial support for Gottfredson and Hirschi’s (1990) general theory of crime. Self-control operated similarly on IPV for both males and females, supporting the gender-neutrality of their theory. However, the gender gap in crime, …

The Applicability Of Criminology To Terrorism Studies: An Exploratory Study Of Isis Supporters In The United States, Amanda Marie Sharp Parker

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the years following the 11 September 2001 attacks, research in the area of terrorism expanded exponentially. However, the changing nature of terrorism and lack of available data make it a difficult topic for criminologists to study; as academics we do not have access to the governmental data and data that is publicly available is often restricted due to the sensitive nature of national security issues. As first hand data is not available, an alternate data source, court records, may provide insight to the profile of current terrorists/terrorist supporters in the United States. Using court data from 71 cases of …

Where Is The Survivor’S Voice? An Examination Of The Individual And Structural Challenges To The Reintegration Of Immigrant Human Trafficking Survivors, Michelle Cristina Angelo Dantas Rocha

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The United States is one of the top destination countries for human trafficking, and Florida has the third highest number of reported cases of human trafficking. Despite the severity of this issue, Florida anti-trafficking legislation, reintegration programs, and awareness campaigns tend to contribute to the invisibility of the victims and undermine their recovery and reintegration into society, especially when the victims are immigrants. This project uses a multi-method approach including content analysis of anti-human trafficking campaigns to argue that portrayals of a “perfect victim” only amplify stigmatization and discrimination against immigrant victims. Through in-depth interviews and ethnographic observation highlighting the …

A Power Conflict Approach To Animal Cruelty: Examining How Economic Power Influences The Creation Of Animal Cruelty Laws, Leonard J. Genco

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The current study examines the association of macro-level economic factors and the creation or enactment animal cruelty laws across the states at a fixed time. Criminologists have postulated that economic factors influence the legal system (Chambliss and Seidman, 1971). This thesis addresses whether state-level economic and related macro-level factors influences the amount and types of state animal cruelty legislation lawmakers enact. To do so, this thesis examined animal cruelty legislation and their association with measures of agricultural and farm production, Democratic Party, Republican Party, and pro-animal interest groups across all states of the United States for the time period (2012-2013). …

The Effects Of Racial Bias On Perceptions Of Intimate Partner Violence Scenarios, Batya Yisraela Rubenstein

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore how racial bias affects perceptions of intimate partner violence (IPV). Public perceptions of IPV have been studied under numerous contexts to ascertain how characteristics of victim and the offender can affect these attitudes. A portion of this body of research has been dedicated to understanding the role of race in perceptions of IPV and a large portion of the findings have been mixed due to the interaction of biases and attitudes about race and IPV. Very few studies have looked at multiple forms of IPV in comparison with one another while also …

The Restrictive Deterrent Effect Of Warning Banners In A Compromised Computer System, Christian Jordan-Michael Howell

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

System trespassing, which refers to the unauthorized access of computer systems, has rapidly become a worldwide phenomenon. Despite growing concern, criminological literature has paid system trespassing little attention. The current study utilizes data gathered from a Chinese computer network to examine system trespasser behavior after exposure to one of three warning messages: an altruistic message used for moral persuasion (warning 1), a legal sanction threat (warning 2), and an ambiguous threat (warning 3). More specifically, the current study examines the temporal order of various keystroke commands to determine if some keystroke commands are used as a tactical skill to avoid …

Tactics Of Sexual Control And Negative Health Outcomes, Anna Elizabeth Kleppe

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Intimate partner sexual violence (IPSV) is a concerning, yet relatively understudied form of intimate partner violence (IPV). Furthermore, the majority of research regarding sexual violence fails to differentiate between different forms of control used to facilitate this violence. Although IPV has been linked to a multitude of adverse physical and health outcomes, it is less clear how these outcomes vary by type of control experienced. Using data from the 2010 National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS), the current study examines the physical and non-physical tactics used to facilitate sexual violence, and the associated health outcomes. Potential gender differences …

The Relationship Between Psychopathic Personality Traits And Lying, Jason A. Dobrow

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The current study examined the relationship between psychopathic personality traits and various forms of deception. Through the use of the Elemental Psychopathy Assessment to measure psychopathy, and several different assessment tools to measure deception, including the Multidimensional Deception Inventory (MDI), the relationship between psychopathic personality traits and deception was examined. Using an undergraduate sample of 261 participants at a large research university in the Southeastern United States, the relationship between the aforementioned constructs was explored. Results indicated that the overarching personality traits of Antagonism and Disinhibition were positively related to multiple dimensions of lying behavior. Frequency of lies told, Duping …

Disinhibition, Violence Exposure, And Delinquency: A Test Of How Self-Control Affects The Impact Of Exposure To Violence, Wyatt Brown

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the role of self-control in the relationship between exposure to violence and antisocial behavior. Specifically, this study proposes that the impact of exposure to violence changes depending on internalized factors such as self-control. Individuals with high exposure to violence but greater levels of self-control may be less influenced by the impact of exposure to violence. Conversely, individuals with low levels of exposure to violence and lower levels of self-control may be more influenced by the impact of violence. The findings from this study suggest that there is some buffering effect on the impact of exposure to violence …

The Path To Violent Behavior: The Harmful Aftermath Of Childhood Trauma, Nicholas Michael Perez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Adverse childhood experiences can lead to a number of harmful outcomes throughout an individual’s life, ranging from medical problems to criminal behavior. These traumatic experiences, comprised of different forms of maltreatment and dysfunctional household environments, can affect the development of a child in a variety of different ways. The multitude of developmental changes can produce compounding harmful effects on the child’s life and lead to acutely maladaptive outcomes. Under the perspective of developmental psychopathology, the ever-changing biological, psychological, and social dynamics of children who experience trauma can contribute to deficiencies in all aspects of their subsequent development. Each of these …

Effect Of Empathy On Death Penalty Support In Relation To The Racial Divide And Gender Gap, Brian Godcharles

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study aimed to examine previous empirical literature indicating that death penalty support contains a divide among Blacks and Whites and a gap among males and females. Previous literature has indicated that there has been a persistent racial divide and gender gap in death penalty support that has spanned over 60 years of research. Attempts to attenuate these divides have failed to fully explain why Whites are more likely than Blacks to support the death penalty and men are more likely than women to support the death penalty. This study proposes the use of empathy to control for these divides …

Reel Or Reality? The Portrayal Of Prostitution In Major Motion Pictures, Raleigh Blasdell

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examined media portrayals of street-level prostitution. The objectives of this research were twofold. The first was to examine the nature of the film industry’s portrayal of females engaging in street-level prostitution in the United States in the following areas: 1) entry into sex work; 2) the economic need behind the women’s involvement; 3) experiences of childhood victimization; 4) presence and role of pimps; 5) drug/alcohol abuse; 6) victimization; and 7) mental/physical health. The second objective was to determine if this media coverage is analogous to extant research on these aspects of prostitution culture.

The Unified Film Population Identification …

Rape, Race, And Capital Punishment In North Carolina: A Qualitative Approach To Examining An Enduring Cultural Legacy, Douglas Wholl

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Despite positive steps toward the suppression of racial discrimination in the United States capital punishment process, the enduring effects of a cultural legacy of Black oppression (e.g., slavery; segregation; lynching) and historic and systemic racial discrimination in the criminal justice system have persisted to the present day. The purpose of the current study is to explore whether this enduring cultural legacy still exists by examining whether juries in rape-involved capital murder trials in North Carolina are more likely to recommend a sentence of death when the defendant is a Black male and the victim is a White female (compared to …

An Evaluation Of The Utah First District Mental Health Court: Gauging The Efficacy Of Diverting Offenders Suffering With Serious Mental Illness, Stephen Guy Vangeem

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The decision to establish a mental health court in Utah's First District was largely a political one prompted by the growing popularity of problem-solving courts throughout the country. Because this motivation was policy-driven and not needs-driven, the court was established without an ongoing data collection schedule. As a result, barring anecdotal evidence from program participants, the current impact of the court on two key goals-- reducing recidivism and increasing community-based treatment contact--is entirely unknown. The current study aims to provide a summative program evaluation of the first sixty-eight months of specialty court operation by (1) estimating basic demographic and clinical …

Psychopathy And Perception Of Vulnerability, Barbara Joyce Dinkins

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Prior research has shown that psychopathic traits correlate with ability to make more accurate assessments of vulnerability based on nonverbal cues (Wheeler, Book, & Costello, 2009; Book, Costello, & Camilleri, 2013). The current study aims to provide further support for this finding, examine effect of criminal experience, and determine if the finding generalizes to females and non-Caucasians. An online survey was conducted, where each participant was shown several videos of people walking alone down a hallway. After each video, they were asked to rate the vulnerability of the depicted person. Higher levels of psychopathic traits (measured by the Elemental Psychopathy …

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, …

Organized Crime In Insurance Fraud: An Empirical Analysis Of Staged Automobile Accident Rings, Chris Longino

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The growing trend of insurance fraud continues to cost US consumers billions of dollars a year through increased premiums. In 2015, the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud estimated the cost of insurance fraud as being at least $80 billion dollars a year. Even though an increasing number of criminals are drawn to the low risk, high reward of insurance fraud, little criminological literature has explored this topic and the public remains relatively unaware of the extent of the problem.

One alarming aspect of insurance fraud is the involvement of organized criminal groups. These organized criminal enterprises are formed for the sole …

Tampa Electric Company's Big Bend Utility Plant In Hillsborough County, Florida: A Case Study, Lynne M. Hodalski-Champagne

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This is an in-depth analysis of coal fire burning power plants, their effects on human health and the environment. It also employed case study data from Tampa Electric Company’s Big Bend facility to examine environmental infractions at that facility. Tampa Electric Company’s Big Bend Utility Plant, violated the Clean Air Act, which led to a lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice on behalf of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection in 1997. This case study details the lawsuit, and subsequent settlement as well as Tampa Electric Company’s record of compliance since 2000. …