Criminology and Criminal Justice Commons^™

Breaking Point: Exploring Side Bets, Support, And Pension Investment As Predictors Of Turnover Intention In Urban Policing, Kenneth M. Quick, Kevin T. Wolff

Publications and Research

Guided by Becker’s side-bet theory, this study examines turnover intentions among officers in the New York City Police Department by assessing pension investment and affective commitment as accumulated organizational “side bets,” alongside job satisfaction, perceived organizational support, and workplace conditions. Data was drawn from an online survey of 1,454 officers. Population weights based on gender, race/ethnicity, and rank were applied to improve representativeness. Weighted multinomial logistic regression models examined predictors of turnover intention, while second-difference tests of average marginal effects (AMEs) assessed whether workplace factors operated differently across tenure groups. Results indicate that perceived organizational attitudes and workplace conditions significantly …

Ice Arrests In The Mountain West, 2025, Cason Noll, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Criminal Justice

This fact sheet presents data from the Prison Policy Initiative briefing on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrest data for the five Mountain West states of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah from January to October of 2025.  This fact sheet reports the number of ICE arrests by location and arrest rates per 100,000 residents in each Mountain West state.

Race, Ethnic, And Gender Disparities In Human Trafficking Risk, Identification, And Investigation, Emily D. Walker

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Youth and human trafficking remain significant and complex issues. Existing literature suggests that trafficking risk, victimization, and identification are shaped by structural and social context, creating differential impacts across demographic groups, such as racial, ethnic, and gendered groups. Yet, current research has yet to fully capture the complexity of victimization across groups. This dissertation consists of three interconnected studies examining youth trafficking investigations. Using a mixed-methods approach and administrative data from Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF), this dissertation address three objectives (1) examining potential variation in documentation of trafficking risk, victimization, and narrative framing of youth trafficking investigations …

In Search Of Protective Factors Against Gun-Carrying For Black Male Youth: A Dissertation- Sectional And Longitudinal Analysis Of Secondary Data, Kevin Edward Antwi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the relationship between risk and protective factors and gun carrying among Black male youth using both individual-level and population-averaged effects. Grounded in the risk and protective factors framework and the ecological systems model, the study explores how protective factors at the individual, peer, school, and community levels influence gun carrying at a single point in time and over time. This research aligns with the Grand Challenges of Social Work by preventing gun violence and informing prevention efforts. Using the baseline and 11 waves of data from the Pathways to Desistance Study, the analysis identifies factors that reduce …

Perceptions Of Legitimacy In Three Forms Of Probation Supervision For People With Serious Mental Illness, Sophia Sarantakos, Emily Claypool

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"In the context of criminal-legal community supervision, standard and specialized probation officers are often tasked with coordinating services for adults diagnosed with serious mental illness (SMI) on their caseloads. The coordination of services varies across different programs including traditional probation, specialty probation, and mental health court. Given the proliferation of programs focused on mental health in the criminal-legal system, the perspectives of front-line workers or street-level bureaucrats in criminal-legal agencies are a rich source of information about what is happening on the ground and could provide insights into the potential translational barriers of policy to practice. A deeper examination of …

From Acrimony To Forgiveness: How Adolescents Make Sense Of Childhood Maltreatment, Katherine Irwin

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"This paper examines 16 adolescents’ narratives about the abuse they experienced during childhood. To date, most research examining child abuse (CA) survivorship and recovery has been conducted with adults who look back on their early experiences. Consequently, this study fills gaps in our knowledge by offering a youth-centered view of survivors’ efforts to cope with CA. The data come from a 12-year qualitative study of a group counseling program for high school students in Hawaiʻi. The findings revealed that a minority (n = 2) of the teens had negative views of their lives and futures, while the majority (n = …

A Content Analysis Of The Sutherland Address, 2001-22: A Qualitative Exploration, Phillip Shon

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"Previous indicators of scholarly influence have been primarily quantitative, measuring a scholar’s influence through citation counts. This body of literature has overlooked the reflections of distinguished scholars, such as the recipients of the Sutherland Award, in the discipline as a form of scholarly influence. The current paper examines the Sutherland Address from 2001 to 2022. The key findings indicate that the majority of Sutherland Addresses reproduced existing sociological canons, while a minority of Sutherland Award winners explicitly rejected Sutherland’s sociological assumptions and their influence on criminology. Such findings suggest that Sutherland exerts a hidden influence on the recipients of the …

A Qualitative Analysis Of Gender Inequality In Southeast Missouri Law Enforcement Agencies, Madeline Marie Whistler, Christopher Bradley, H. Hamner Hill

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"Does gender inequality impact the careers of female law enforcement officers in the Southeast Missouri region? Using a qualitative single instrumental case study, seven cis-gendered female law enforcement officers who were employed at local law enforcement agencies within the Southeast Missouri region were interviewed to investigate the central research question. Four themes emerged from the data that illustrated their experiences: sexual exploitation and harassment, a lack of work-life balance, the presence of gender stereotypes, and patriarchal hierarchy and male dominance in the workplace. The findings suggest that the experiences of female law enforcement officers are heavily impacted by the behavior …

A Plea For Open Access To Qualitative Criminology: With A Python Script For Anonymizing Data And Illustrative Analysis Of Error Rates, Scott Jaques, Andrew Wheeler

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"Qualitative researchers are expected, sometimes required, to publish their data open access (OA). This is for the sake of science, impact, and social justice. Yet, understandably, qualitative criminologists are worried about what this means for their workload and their ability to protect subjects’ confidentiality. To be solutions-oriented, we developed an open-source Python script for anonymizing qualitative data. It uses named-entity recognition and fuzzy-rule based merging to identify and replace personally identifiable information (PII) with unique pseudonyms. This tool doesn’t eliminate the need for manual work, but it reduces the cost and associated risk. In this article, we describe and explain …

The Unspoken And The Unseen: An Analysis Of Victim Gender And Linguistic Framing Of Sexual Assault In Judicial Discourse, Sarnika Ali

Quantitative Social Science Undergraduate Senior Theses

Sexual assault is a profound legal and social crisis. However, it is also fundamentally a linguistic one. The words used, or conspicuously not used, to describe victims, perpetrators, and their actions are not neutral arbiters of fact. They are powerful mechanisms that shape perceptions of harm, attributions of blame, and assignments of credibility. The central battleground for survivors is credibility, and while a “credibility discount” is often applied to female victims, the male victim is rendered nearly invisible. This research is therefore guided by one central, overarching question: how does a sexual assault victim’s gender influence the judicial language used, …

The Unexpected Gift: Using Hip-Hop And Autoethnographic Methods To Challenge The “Symbolic Death” Discourse Of A Child’S Autism Diagnosis, Adam Ellis

Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture

This article explores the social construction of autism through an autoethnographic account of parenting an autistic child in Canada. Drawing on Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’s grief model, neurodiversity scholarship, and post-traumatic growth theory, the paper examines how parents may experience grief, uncertainty, and the collapse of imagined futures following an autism diagnosis, while also arguing that much of this distress is produced by ableist and deficit-oriented social systems rather than autism itself. Using arts-based research, including a rap song and music video, the article explores: (1) what it is like to receive an autism diagnosis as a parent; (2) the grieving process …

A Systematic Review Of Restorative Justice In Criminal Contexts, Sigifredo Castell Britton

Journal of Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences

Restorative justice has gained growing attention within criminal justice reform as a practical alternative to approaches centered only on punishment. It emphasizes accountability, dialogue, and community reintegration, offering a different way to understand how change in behavior takes place. This systematic review examined quantitative evidence from 34 studies, selected from an initial pool of 112 records identified through databases such as Google Scholar, ProQuest, JSTOR, and institutional repositories. The studies assessed a range of interventions, including victim-offender mediation, diversion programs, community conferencing, and in-prison initiatives, which allowed comparison across different settings and populations. Across these studies, 79.4% reported statistically significant …

Preparing An Annotated Bibliography For A Criminal Justice Class, Fabiola Ceballos-Durham

Open Educational Resources

This assignment introduces students to the research process in criminal justice by requiring them to locate, evaluate, and annotate scholarly and credible sources related to their assigned topic. Through the use of library databases, web evaluation techniques, and APA citation style, students develop information literacy skills while identifying key findings, gaps, and areas of interest within the existing literature. The completed annotated bibliography serves as a foundation for the Final Term Research Project by helping students refine a research focus and begin building a reference base for future assignments.

The Power Of Perception: Latine Threat Narratives And Immigration Control In The United States, Nina Gallo

University Honors Theses

Despite America's rich history as a self-proclaimed "nation of immigrants," immigration policy in the United States has functioned as a tool of social control designed to systematically exclude and restrict groups of people that pose a perceived threat to national identity and safety. This perceived threat has effectively been communicated through harmful narratives that stratify immigrant communities from the rest of society. Through this framing, support for punitive immigration policies thrives. Currently, Latine immigrants and their families have been the target of discriminatory immigration policies and enforcement tactics. No work to date has synthesized the current state of the immigration …

Investigating Potential Bias In Public Acceptance Of Restorative Justice: The Influence Of Situational And Offender Characteristics, Kiara Haynes

Student Theses

Restorative Justice has been an emerging justice mechanism in the U.S. since the 1970s that advocates are working to expand more widely throughout the justice system. Due to victims and the broader community of the offender being an integral part of the Restorative Justice process, it is critical to consider the general public's support of this novel justice mechanism, as well as the influence that social biases among the public may have on the experience of defendants going through the system. The study conducted examined the effect that social biases toward an offender's personal characteristics have on attitudes and opinions …

Teaching Peace Where Borders Divide: Interdisciplinary Praxis In A Criminal Justice Program, Lucas Espinoza

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

This article describes a criminal justice senior-level undergraduate course, CRIJ 4350: Peace, Nonviolence, & Justice, at a Hispanic-serving institution known as the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. The course centers five key frameworks: critical pedagogy, intersectionality, decolonial theory, restorative and transformative justice, and trauma-informed care, as this course departs from carceral models of justice education. Grounded in theory, literature, and research from criminal justice, criminology, peace and conflict studies, sociology, political science, ethics/philosophy, social justice, human rights, and critical pedagogy, the course centers student reflection from course evaluations, relationships, and experiences of a faculty member. …

“I Have A Voice”: Bridging The Communication And Sensemaking Gap Between Restorative Justice Practice And Program Implementation, Stefan Cocorelis

Dissertations

Restorative justice (RJ), a philosophy, practice, and movement inspired by local, largely Indigenous traditions, has increasingly been introduced in modern criminal justice systems as an alternative process to more comprehensively address harmful incidents, heal harms, and meet victim’s needs. While RJ implementation growth is encouraging for its advocates, there remain significant questions around formalized RJ practice. Specifically, little is known about the decision-making process in implementing and administering RJ programming within criminal justice. This dissertation aimed to contribute to the understanding of RJ practice and implementation efforts within criminal justice systems by putting emphasis on practitioners already working directly in …

Examining Whether The Relationships Between Specific Psychiatric Diagnoses And Both Adolescent Suicide And Reoffending Are Moderated By Sex, Michael T. Baglivio, Katherine Jackowski, Brooke Neupaver, Grayson Black, Bailee Perry, Kevin T. Wolff

Publications and Research

The current study examines the relationships between specific psychiatric diagnoses and both adolescent suicide and reoffending, the implications of adverse childhood experiences on these outcomes, and assesses whether these relationships are moderated by sex. Using a multilayer multiyear statewide sample of 6,515 adolescents who completed juvenile justice residential placements, logistic regression and moderation models were used to examine these relationships. Findings demonstrate that the rate of suicidal ideation was 2.5 times higher for female youth, while the recidivism rate was 1.7 times higher for males. Psychiatric diagnoses prevalence ranged from 65.9% for conduct disorder to less than 1% for personality …

Rape Shield Laws: A Call For Reform, Ava Cunningham

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

Rape shield laws were originally created during the 1970s to prohibit the admission of a victim’s past sexual history as evidence in court. Such laws aimed to prevent prejudicial questioning that could alter the jury's perceptions. However, they are deeply rooted in gendered biases, do not ensure fairness in the courtroom, and fail to keep pace with advancing technology. This paper argues that a thorough reexamination of rape shield laws is necessary to address these limitations and achieve impartial legal outcomes. Authors of the justice community display widespread support for reform of such laws. Researchers such as Flowe et al. …

The Prison Industrial Complex And The Exploitation Of Prisoners Through The 13th Amendment, Lindsey Adams

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

This paper analyzes the relationship between the government and the private prison industry, specifically examining how the exception clause in the Thirteenth Amendment permits conditions resembling modern-day slavery through exploitative prison labor. Neoliberalism and the War on Drugs have contributed to mass incarceration in the United States, which has led to an increase in prison labor. Mass incarceration has disproportionately affected people of color and those living in poverty. To address these issues, more intensive vetting processes are needed at all levels of law enforcement, particularly during hiring, to reduce racial bias and improve accountability.

The Impact Of Stigmatization On Professional Responses And Support For Trafficked Youth: A Qualitative Content Analysis, Kate R. Sandoval

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

Child trafficking is among the most underreported and misunderstood crimes that affects vulnerable populations. Trafficked youth are often criminalized by law enforcement because they are ill-equipped in identifying them, resulting in arrest and involvement in the system. Signs of victimization are overlooked by healthcare providers, who are typically the first to interact with trafficked youth. As a result, very few investigations are carried out, and victims are discouraged from seeking support. The role of stigma is important in understanding how perceptions and responses to trafficked youth are formed, which impacts their outcomes. This study examined how stigmatization influences professional responses …

Record Clearance: Practical And Essential Justice Reform, Brendan Krepchin

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

Record clearance is the process of expunging and reducing offenses listed on an individual’s Record of Arrests and Prosecutions (RAP). The current regime of laws surrounding the issue of record clearance is a patchwork of state laws that permit and restrict the process depending on the offense, the sentence, and multiple factors pertaining to the judicial process. The mere existence of a RAP sheet creates barriers to achieving any number of goals established at the individual or societal level. This article argues that record clearance should be universally proportional to circumstances across all levels of the justice system, as it …

Militarized Policing In Democratic Societies: Origins, Firearms Proliferation, Impacts, And The Erosion Of Democratic Governance, Carlos Alcantar

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

Police militarization has become a global trend in recent decades across many democratic societies, often justified as a necessary improvement in policing to address contemporary threats. This shift not only changes police agencies’ equipment but also their organizational structure, training, operations, and culture, raising concerns about its impact on democratic policing practices, public safety, and civil liberties. This study examines the historical and structural developments behind this trend, focusing on military-grade equipment transfers, firearms availability, and the global diffusion of militarized security models as key drivers. Using a qualitative comparative case analysis, the research finds that police militarization is shaped …

The Night Stalker: The Killer Who Learned To Kill, Briana Farias

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

Richard Ramirez’s criminal career can be best understood through Akers’ Social Learning Theory, which explains deviance as a learned behavior shaped by social interactions. This paper analyzes Ramirez’s childhood exposure to abuse, violent role models, and criminal reinforcement to demonstrate how his behavior may have developed over time. It draws on empirical studies demonstrating that social learning influences offenses such as adolescent drug abuse, gang affiliation, stalking, and sexual aggression. The analysis suggests Ramirez’s violence was not random, but the product of a social environment that rewarded violence. The paper concludes that understanding learned violence is essential for prevention efforts, …

Fallen Through The Cracks: The Experiences Of Dually-Involved Youth, Kaylee Dawn Faria

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Dually-involved youth (DIY) are a uniquely disadvantaged population, simultaneously involved with both the juvenile justice and child welfare systems. Information regarding the system experiences of DIY and how they compare to their single-system, juvenile justice-only involved (SSY) counterparts is sparse, particularly through a criminal justice lens. Additionally, no research on the within-individual differences between DIY pre- and post-DIY identification is currently available. The present study seeks to bridge current gaps in the literature by (a) establishing a baseline comparison of DIY and SSY in Clark County, Nevada, (b) assessing depth of system penetration differences via case processing outcomes, and (c) …

Vocational Training, Employment, And Recidivism: Examining Job Satisfaction As A Mediator, Gianni Brianna Lopez

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of job satisfaction in mediating the relationship between employment, vocational training, and recidivism. Recidivism remains a major issue in the United States, with a substantial portion of formerly incarcerated individuals returning to criminal behavior and, in many cases, being reincarcerated. The relationship between work and crime has been well established, however not all jobs are equal, and the protective effects of employment can vary across jobs. Employment has been cited as one of the most important factors in reducing recidivism, yet many individuals face barriers to securing stable and quality …

Event Day, Crime Day? A Study Of Event-Driven Crime And Enforcement In Las Vegas, Anna Nakazawa

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Las Vegas is an international tourist destination that welcomes millions of visitors each year. Allegiant Stadium, located in Las Vegas, is an NFL venue south of the Strip that hosts a wide variety of events. The aim of this study was to explore the impact of events on the environmental backcloth within a 10-minute walking distance from the stadium. Calls for service (CFS) and proactive police enforcement were measured and compared across event days and non-event days from 2022 to 2024. The findings from this study demonstrate that event days experience disproportionately more calls and enforcement than non-event days, with …

Factors Influencing K-12 School Homicide Casualties, Melvin Alexander Vargas Melgar

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Kindergarten through 12th-grade (K-12) school homicides, defined as homicides that occurred on the property of a school serving kindergarten through 12th-grade students, account for about 2% of all youth homicides, but are still a serious problem in the United States. From 2000 to 2024, 372 K-12 school homicide incidents have occurred, in which 783 victims were killed and injured. However, prior research tends to either generally focus on youth homicides, school violence, or high-profile school shootings with multiple victims. This study aims to add to the literature by examining various incident-level factors of K-12 school homicide incidents that may influence …

Protest Policing And Legitimacy: A Comparative Analysis Of Myanmar And The United States, Khaing Sandee Lynn

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Political protests garner immense attention during academic, socio-political, and policy discourse discussions. More specifically, the manner in which government, police, and protestors interact during protest events is heavily observed and debated. Research shows that legitimacy is established when power-holders act in accordance with legal frameworks and various political and institutional norms. With focus on the intersection of legitimacy and protest policing, the current study aims to explore how political, legal, and institutional legitimacy influence police compliance with state and institutional directives, and protestor compliance with police directives in two distinct sociopolitical contexts.

For this purpose, qualitative data was collected through …

Bodies Under Command: A Feminist-Foucauldian Narrative Analysis Of Institutional And Cultural Betrayal In Military Sexual Misconduct, Chelsea Wheeler

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The military continues to experience alarming rates of sexual aggression, reaching epidemic levels. While all people can experience sexual aggression, women, compared to men, are more likely to experience this, despite women making up only 17 percent of the military. Throughout history, the military has demonstrated several instances of reactive attempts at combating the concerns of sexual aggression; however, these attempts have not been successful. From a feminist-Foucauldian lens, this dissertation research explores narratives of service members to gain a more in-depth understanding of the systemic dynamics that contribute to institutional and cultural betrayal in sexual victimization experiences. Additionally, this …