Criminology and Criminal Justice Commons^™

A Comparison Of The Mental Health Of Police Officers And Correctional Officers In Rural Appalachia, Sierra Thomas

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore perceptions of mental health among police officers and correctional officers within rural Appalachia. The main goal of this research was to better understand how the occupational demands of working in the criminal justice field can impact one’s mental health over time. Several research questions were explored, including the prevalence of various mental health problems, associated stressors, the structure of support among officers, and the perceptions of mental health treatment services. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews with 21 police and correctional officers located in rural Appalachia. Results provided a better understanding of …

Measuring Perceptions Of Safety Among Staff And Women Clients In A Prison Substance Abuse Program, Jaclyn Parker Keen

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Women who are involved in the criminal justice system have unique pathways to criminality. Prevailing themes of dysfunctional and traumatic relationships, addiction, mental illness, poverty, and having limited human and social capital dominate the women’s pathways perspective. A large body of existing research focuses on how these unique risk factors require unique treatment options for women while they are incarcerated in jail or prison settings. Entering prison can be an overwhelming experience and prison is an environment that has a high potential for conflict and violence. In order to be safe in prison it requires that women both feel protected …

Correctional Officers' Response To Stress: An Exploration Of The Associations Between Violence And Trauma Exposure, Coping Mechanisms, And Ptsd., Katie Lorraine Hughes-Taylor

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The current study examines correctional officer coping mechanisms and whether they impact the likelihood of an officer developing PTSD symptoms. Additionally, research questions focus on whether problem-focused or emotion-focused coping mechanisms moderate the relationship between exposure to trauma and PTSD symptoms. The data for the current dissertation comes from a larger National Institute of Justice grant determined to examine mindfulness as an intervention for correctional officer PTSD within Kentucky Department of Corrections. Approximately 245 officers from seven adult institutions participated in the study and completed a lengthy survey. Main variables for the current analysis include two dependent variables, both of …

Predictors Of Violent And Non-Violent Institutional Infractions Of Death Row Prisoners, Tereza Trejbalová

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Institutional misconduct has been widely researched in the criminological literature for more than 50 years, leading to an extensive knowledge about how and why different prisoners misbehave while incarcerated. Nevertheless, one correctional population has been mostly left out of these research pursuits – death row prisoners (DRPs). Although DRPs form a small fraction of the overall number of incarcerated individuals in the US, they tend to spend more than 20 years in maximum security facilities and require a considerable amount of resources. As such, it is imperative for the safety of the facility, the staff, and the prisoners themselves to …

Covid-19 And The Correctional Environment: An Analysis Of Canadian Correctional Officers’ Experiences Of Stress And Mental Health During The Pandemic, Kristina Kocsis

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This national survey research project examined the experiences of Canadian correctional officers (COs) in providing essential correctional services during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study sampled COs from several provinces across Canada (N=596) to better understand how the pandemic impacted stress and wellbeing of this population by exploring seven constructs including resiliency, workplace safety, changes in role or responsibilities, work stress, COVID- 19 related stress, perceived support, and positive mental health. The transactional model of stress and coping and the biopsychosocial model of stress were used as theoretical frameworks to investigate stress responses among COs. Respondents reported significant changes to their …

A Systematic Content Analysis Of The Justice Reinvestment Programs Across Oregon Counties, Lorena Ambriz

Dissertations and Theses

High levels of imprisonment and its associated costs have pressured criminologist and policymakers to create and establish new policies intended to reduce incarceration spending and lower the number of individuals under correctional facilities. Justice Reinvestment Initiatives (JRI) have been developed with the basic idea of redirecting the $54 billion annual incarceration spending toward rebuilding human resources and physical infrastructure of high-risk communities. These initiatives should create local programs that promote successful reentry, reduce recidivism, decrease prison usage, and improve public safety. Oregon passed the Justice Reinvestment Act in 2013, which allowed for all 36 Oregon counties to implement JRI programs …

Mental Health And In-Prison Experiences: Examining Socioeconomic And Sex Differences In The Effect Of Mental Illness On Institutional Misconduct And Disciplinary Segregation, Rachel E. Severson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Mental health problems have become a common occurrence in American correctional settings. This occurrence is not equally distributed in terms of gender; incarcerated women have higher rates of mental illness incarcerated men (Bronson & Berzofsky, 2017; James & Glaze, 2006). This phenomenon is problematic as research suggests that American correctional institutions are ill equipped to treat and manage inmates with mental health problems (Arrigo & Bullock, 2008; Bennion, 2015; Clark, 2018). This is also true in women’s prisons as they are often tasked to deal with strict budgetary restrictions and have fewer resources compared to men’s prisons (Holsinger, 2014; Stephan, …

Violent Offenders And Assaults On Staff Members, Lisa Gentry Long

Theses and Dissertations

Violent Offenders and Assaults on Staff Members. Dissertation, Nova Southeastern University, Fischler College of Education, School of Criminal Justice Department. Descriptors: Violence, violent offenders, violent inmates, corrections, prisons, assaults, correction officers, staff members.

Prison facilities are an integral part of the criminal justice system. Prisons are meant to provide punishment, deterrence and rehabilitation for inmates that are serving time. Prisons across the country are understaffed due to many reasons. It is important for staff members to be trained on how to keep themselves and inmates safe when they are behind the walls of these facilities. Staff members are in positions …

Prisoner, Prison And Situational Characteristics And Their Relationship With The Prevalence, Incidence And Type Of Prison Offending Recorded By A Sample Of Prisoners Within Western Australian Prisons, Catharine Phillips

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The importance that researchers and prison administrators have placed on ensuring that the good governance, security and safety of prisons are maintained has generated a number of studies of prison offending. Previous studies have identified several prisoner, prison and situational characteristics as relevant in regard to their relationship with the prevalence, incidence and type of prison offences committed. However, no studies have been conducted in Australia, and therefore no studies have included Aboriginal prisoners in their prisoner samples. In addition, the differences in regard to legislation pertaining to prison offending between jurisdictions is also of importance when considering the generalisability …

Assessing The Outcomes Of A Jail-Based Substance Abuse Treatment Program: A Quasi-Experimental Approach, Laura Lutgen

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Jails and the needs of their populations are often overlooked despite their nearly 11 million annual admissions. More than 700,000 inmates are housed in jail on any given day in the United States, most of whom are non-violent and not yet convicted of a crime. This large population also reflects a high-need, heavily drug-involved population with nearly 70% of all jail inmates having a diagnosable substance use disorder. These high-need individuals are likely to continue cycling in and out of jail without treatment especially as they often return to the people, places, and things that are conducive to their use. …

A Case Study Of Overcrowding In A County Jail In The Southeast United States, Marquice Robinson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

For the past several decades, the county jail in a large metropolitan city in the southeast United States has been overcrowded, which has resulted in violence within the jail, excessive costs to the Sheriff's Office, and a requirement of Federal oversight of the jail from 2005 to 2015. In spite of these events, little is understood about why jail overcrowding is prevalent in the county and what impacts overcrowding may have on the communities around the jail. Using Shaw and McKay's social disorganization theory as the foundation, the purpose of this case study was to understand the unique circumstances around …

Incarceration Of Nonviolent Offenders At The High Court In Oyo State, Nigeria, Olugbenga Rotimi Akanji

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The nonuse of community correction in the Nigeria criminal justice system has led to increased recidivism, contributed to prison congestion, introduced the risk of prison victimization, and lacked the provision of a rehabilitative structure for nonviolent offenders. The purpose of this phenomenological research study was to explore Nigerian judges' use of alternatives to incarcerations for nonviolent offenders. Dolinko retributive punishment theory provided the theoretical framework for this study. Ten participant judges comprised the study sample from a purposeful and criterion random sampling method. Data were collected from participants through structured interviews and were coded manually, sorted, and analyzed using the …

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 …

Justice Involved Veterans’ Post-Release Employment-Related Experiences, James L. Dawson

Dissertations

In 2010, the cost to U.S. taxpayers was $39 billion to incarcerate individuals in State and Federal Correctional facilities. A sub-population of these prisoners is those that have served in the U.S. military, or “Justice Involved Veterans” (JIVs). Many Veterans are eligible for federal and state funds for Career Tech. Education to assist them with obtaining employment, which research shows often contributes to keeping them from re-offending. However, recent studies of employment after prison have all been quantitative investigations that do not incorporate the voices of JIVs describing their experiences in depth. Bush’s (2011), and Bolman and Deal’s (2008) theories …

Rewiring The Anger: Learning New Responses In The Therapeutic Community, Emma Marie Burleson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Extensive research has been conducted in correctional settings on the effects that therapeutic programs that utilize cognitive-behavioral therapies have on recidivism rates and cognitive-behavioral changes among inmates. Research on anger management programs in correctional settings has shown that there are measurable effects on the anger levels of participants based on quantitative pre-testing and post-testing. The present study sought to build on this research in a unique way by conducting qualitative research to examine the personal perceptions of inmates that have graduated from a therapeutic program in a maximum security prison. The study focused on participants’ perceived changes in how they …

Predictors Of Job Satisfaction Among County Jail Correctional Officers, Richara Simmons

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Job satisfaction among jail correctional officers is important because it ensures the continuity of officers who can promote and maintain a safe environment inside the jail for all staff and inmates. Most job satisfaction studies on correctional officers, however, are focused on prison officers and not county jail officers. The purpose of this correlational study was to test and extend Herzberg's Motivation-Hygiene theory by exploring job satisfaction and motivation among jail correctional officers in Miami-Dade Florida. Survey data were collected from 149 correctional officers using Specter's (1994) Job Satisfaction Survey. Data were analyzed through correlational and multiple regression analyses. Findings …

Best Practices For Controlling Tuberculosis - Training In Correctional Facilities: A Mixed Methods Evaluation, Ellen Reynolds Murray

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

According to the literature, identifying and treating tuberculosis (TB) in correctional facilities have been problematic for the inmates and also for the communities into which inmates are released. The importance of training those who can identify this disease early into incarceration is vital to halt the transmission. Although some training has been done by public health authorities for corrections, there is little to no evaluation of such training. The aim of this mixed methods retrospective study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a training to control TB in correctional facilities. The Southeastern National Tuberculosis Center (SNTC) conducted 12 trainings between …

Predicting Solitary Confinement, Bryce Young Roby

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

Abstract The rates of incarceration in the United States have steadily increased at an average rate of 3.4% per year since 1995, requiring the majority of federal and state institutions to function at or above capacity (Haun, 2007). This influx of adults entering correctional systems has placed increased pressure on prison officials to efficiently and effectively monitor inmate behavior as maintaining the safety and security of the correctional institution is most often the highest priority of correctional administrators (Cullen, Latessa, Burton, & Lombardo, 1993). One security measure commonly implemented to manage inmate violence and disturbances is solitary confinement. This study …

The Deterrent Effect Of Disciplinary Segregation On Prison Inmate Misconduct, Joseph William Lucas

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Although a widely used practice, it was previously unknown whether disciplinary segregation is actually effective at modifying prison behavior. This quantitative, retrospective observational study tested deterrence theory and explored the effectiveness of disciplinary segregation in deterring subsequent prison inmate misconduct among those subjected to it (N = 228). It compared a cohort of male inmates incarcerated by the Oregon Department of Corrections who had spent time in disciplinary segregation in 2011 and/or 2012 with a comparison cohort who had not spent any time in disciplinary segregation. Three models were tested, each with the outcome variable operationalized in a different way: …

Adultification In Juvenile Corrections: A Comparison Of Juvenile And Adult Officers, Riane Miller Bolin

Theses and Dissertations

The growing recognition throughout the nineteenth century that juveniles were different than adults culminated in the establishment of the first juvenile court in Cook County, Illinois in 1899. By 1945, every state had developed its own juvenile justice system separate and distinct from the criminal justice system. Since its inception, the juvenile justice system has experienced two waves of adultification in which the lines between the juvenile and criminal justice systems were blurred. While a number of studies have focused on the adultification of juvenile courts, no study has examined the adultification of juvenile corrections. Thus, the present study aims …

Prison, Perceptions, And Policy: Authoritarianism And Attitudes Toward Sexual Assault Victims In U.S. Correctional Facilities, Amy Michelle Magnus

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Existing research on sexual victimization in correctional facilities has expanded since the enactment of the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) of 2003. Previous literature suggests that the prevalence of sexual victimization in prisons is unknown, yet the known ramifications of reported sexual assaults are serious for both the individuals involved and the institution. Government policies such as the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) of 2003 attempt to address the issue of sexual violence in U.S. correctional facilities. Limitations of PREA, however, derive from a lack of clear distinction between coerced and consensual behavior and how these ideas manifest and co-exist …

Redemption Or Condemnation? A Long-Term Follow-Up Of The Desistance Patterns Of Sex Offenders, Kimberly Raye Kras

Dissertations

Desistance is one of most important topics in criminology. Why some offenders stop offending and why others continue has been long been a question with far-reaching theoretical and empirical implications. Despite the extensive literature on desistance, most of the research examines offenders as a single group, an approach which might overlook differences between individuals by offense type. One offender group that has not been investigated in depth is sex offenders. Sex offenders are an important group to study because they present concerns to public safety and are the subject of much legislation and criminal justice policy. A substantial amount of …

Predicting Staff Sexual Misconduct In Female Housing Units: Individual Versus Social Climate Factors, Hannah Mae Robbins-Johnson

Online Theses and Dissertations

Staff sexual misconduct in prison has received increased attention since passage of the Prison Rape Elimination Act. As part of a larger investigation of violence and conflict in women's correctional facilities, over four thousand women prisoners from 15 facilities and 80 housing units rated the kinds of inmate and staff problems they felt existed in their housing units, including staff sexual misconduct. Due to the data being nested in housing units, we utilized multilevel regression analyses that regressed staff sexual misconduct scores on a range of individual and social climate variables. Social climate variables were found to be more influential …

Testing Orthodox Utilitarian And Extrajudical Determinants Of Incarceration In The U.S. At The State-Level, 1980-2005, Pavel V. Vasiliev

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This project is a theory-driven secondary data analysis of state-level incarceration trends in the U.S. between 1980 and 2005. I replicate and advance Smith's (2004) study of the relationship between the socioeconomic, demographic, political, electoral, and criminal justice factors and incarceration rates at the state level. The purpose of this project is to determine the empirical validity of the major explanations of the incarceration trends in the U.S. I advance Smith's (2004) study using important novel elements. First, I extend the scrutinized historic period by a decade by compiling time-series data for 1980-2005. Second, I employ a more sophisticated analytic …

Life And Health Outside Prison, Tiffany Amorette Young

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This qualitative study explores the subjective understandings of formerly incarcerated individuals' experiences of health and healthcare prior to, during, and post release. The study incorporates in depth ethnographic interviews, participant observation, and life charting to formulate a holistic understanding of how incarceration has impacted the health and lives of the participants recruited for this study. All participants were incarcerated for a minimum of one year in the U.S. prison system. This interdisciplinary study contributes to the fields of sociology, criminology, and public health, and builds on the literature of race, health, and corrections in the United States.

Gender And Programming: A Comparison Of Program Availability And Participation In U.S. Prisons For Men And Women, Courtney A. Crittenden

Theses and Dissertations

The current study examines the state of prison programming across the U.S. and whether availability of and participation in prison programs varies by gender and other key factors such as the interaction effects of race and gender, self-identified needs, and facility-level characteristics. Using Morash, Rucker, and Haarr's (1994) study, the last major study comparing prison programming for men and women in U.S. prisons, as a guide, I explore the current state of prison programming using national-level survey data. The results indicate that gender does indeed matter for both prison programming availability and participation with women having more programs available to …

The Effect Of Legal Financial Obligations On Reentry Experiences, Breanne Rae Pleggenkuhle

Dissertations

In 2010, over 700,000 offenders were released from prison (Guerino, Harrison, and Sabol, 2012), and on any given day over seven million individual are under some form of correctional supervision (Glaze, 2011). Research has documented the collateral consequences of transition such as diminished employment prospects and limited housing availability. Fiscal concerns have shifted some of the costs of prosecution and correctional supervision to the offender, resulting in accumulation of legal financial obligations. However, little research has examined of the effect of legal financial obligations on reentry outcomes. This study has two broad goals. The first objective was to document the …

Adjustment To Correctional Confinement: Investigating The Correlates Of Violence And Disorder In A Jail Environment, Fred W. Meyer Iii

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study examines the individual- and institutional-level variables that are correlated with violence and disorder within a jail facility. Previous research indicates that deviant behavior is one of the main challenges that negatively impacts the safe and effective management of correctional facilities. While many studies have been conducted on prison populations, few studies have focused upon jail populations. Using official institutional data, this study explores the factors associated with general infractions and violent misconduct among a stratified random sample of inmates (n=447) incarcerated during a one year period in a large county jail facility. The logistic regression and conjunctive analyses …

Socratic Pedagogy, Critical Thinking, Moral Reasoning And Inmate Education: An Exploratory Study, Peter Boghossian

Dissertations and Theses

This exploratory study examines the hypothesis that Socratic pedagogy is a useful tool for imparting critical thinking and moral reasoning skills to inmates. The study explores the effectiveness of a new curriculum, Introducing Socrates, which relies on Socratic pedagogy to achieve its objectives. The curriculum draws from the effective criminal justice research on cognitive education to determine its objectives, and then looks to the Platonic dialogues to find broad philosophical questions that tie into those objectives. The program also evaluates salient criticisms of Socratic pedagogy that are found in the educational and philosophical literature, and then isolates and evaluates constructs …