Public Policy Commons^™

Effective Social Media Use By Law Enforcement Agencies: A Case Study Approach To Quantifying And Improving Efficacy And Developing Agency Best Practices, David T. Snively

Master of Public Administration Practicums

In the wake of protests against law enforcement for an array of reasons, law enforcement officers and agencies have a responsibility to recognize and utilize the available mediums of communication with which they may best develop a connection to the communities they serve. Furthermore, law enforcement agencies must be informed that established, traditional methods of news dissemination – such as press conferences and printed articles – are now both ineffective and under-utilized, replaced in large part by social media live-time reports. For that reason, law enforcement agency executives must address both the responsibility to provide appropriately timed updates to critical …

How Being Right Can Risk Wrongs, Paul H. Robinson, Sarah M. Robinson

All Faculty Scholarship

This is a chapter from the new book The Vigilante Echo. Previous chapters have made clear that some vigilantism can be morally justified where the government has failed in its promise under the social contract to protect and to do justice. But this chapter explains how even moral vigilante action can be problematic for the larger society. Vigilantes may try to do the right thing but are likely to lack the training and professional neutrality of police. They may be successful, but only on pushing the crime problem to an adjacent neighborhood. Because their open lawbreaking may seem admirable …

How The City Of Indianapolis Came To Have African American Policemen And Firemen 80 Years Before The Modern Civil Rights Movement., Leon E. Bates

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study explores a series of events that occurred in the spring of 1876. The relationship between the Indianapolis city government, the Marion County Courts, the Indianapolis Police Department, and the African American community came together to usher in changes never before envisioned. The Indianapolis Police Department (IPD) was formed in 1855, then disbanded 12 months later in a political dispute. From 1857-to-1876, the IPD was all white. These changes took place as the Reconstruction era was coming to a close. The first Ku Klux Klan was at its apex, terrorizing black communities, and Jim Crow was coming into its …

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 …

#Therighttoremainsilent: Police Department Adoption And Deployment Of Social Media, 2010-~2015, Paul Geary

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Police have a complex myriad of ever-changing responsibilities and fluid expectations from the public, and traditional media has performed a largely ambivalent self-appointed oversight and agenda-setting function vis-à-vis police for decades. But in the last five years, the second wave of the first new mass communications medium since the 1940s, social media, has democratized both that oversight function as well as traditional media's agenda-setting ability. Meanwhile, police have been characterized as slow to adapt to change and to adopt new practices in response to a changing world. This work analyzed police agency social media adoption and explained the rate at …

Abuse Us And Lose Us: Regional Effects Of Disarming Domestic Violence Offenders, Dory Mizrachi

Graduate Research Symposium (GCUA) (2010 - 2017)

Domestic violence is among one of the most underreported crimes in the United States. Yet, national and international estimates suggest that approximately one in three girls/women will experience domestic violence. Research also demonstrates that this form of gendered violence is commonplace in the lives of millions of women and that it has deleterious outcomes, such as intimate partner homicide. It was not until recent decades that several legislations have been enacted to combat this critical problem. The Lautenberg Amendment, also known as the Domestic Violence Gun Ban of 1996 provided an essential addition to the Gun Control Act of 1968. …

The Benefits Of Child Contact While In Prison On Educational Program Participation And Employment Outcomes, Déshané Velasquez

Georgia State Undergraduate Research Conference

No abstract provided.

Federal Civil Rights Litigation Pursuant To 42 U.S.C. §1983 As A Correlate Of Police Misconduct, Philip M. Stinson, Steven L. Brewer Jr, Theresa M. Lanese, Mallorie A. Wilson

Philip M Stinson

Police officers acting in their official capacity are subject to being sued in federal court pursuant to 42 U.S.C. §1983 for violating constitutional rights under the color of law. Using data obtained in a larger study on police crime in the United States, names of more than 5,500 nonfederal sworn law enforcement officers who were arrested during the years 2005-2011 were checked against the civil case party master name index of the federal courts’ Public Access to Courts Electronic Records (PACER) system. Findings indicate that more than 20% of the police officers who were arrested for committing one or more …

Research Brief On Eti School To Work Curriculum Models, John Pawasarat, Lois M. Quinn

ETI Publications

The Employment and Training Institute prepared technical assistance studies on job opportunities and training priorities for new labor force entrants based on findings from its annual job openings surveys of employers in the Milwaukee Region and studies of labor market institutional data. These reports have been used by the U.S. Department of Labor (for the planned Milwaukee Job Corps center) and Milwaukee Area Technical College to develop new training programs to meet changing needs of local employers. Curriculum materials aided Milwaukee Public Schools students, families and counselors.

Research Brief On Eti Neighborhood Indicators Studies, John Pawasarat, Lois M. Quinn

ETI Publications

The Milwaukee neighborhood indicators reports were developed by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Employment and Training Institute with funding from the Greater Milwaukee Foundation and the City of Milwaukee to provide independent, timely and ongoing assessment tools to measure short-term and long-term progress toward improving economic and employment well-being of families in central city Milwaukee neighborhoods. Indicators tracked changes by neighborhood since 1993, prior to the beginning of state and federal welfare payment cuts, and demonstrate the advantages of using administrative and institutional databases to measure dimensions of urban life. In 2001 the Brookings Institution identified the ETI neighborhood indicators approach …

Research Brief On Eti Prison Studies, John Pawasarat, Lois M. Quinn

ETI Publications

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Employment and Training Institute worked with the Wisconsin Department of Corrections and state Department of Public Instruction in the 1980s to improve educational programs at state correctional facilities incarcerating juveniles. In the 1990s ETI assisted the Milwaukee County Executive’s Youth Initiative to identify youth populations in need of intervention if future incarceration was to be prevented. From 2007 to 2016 ETI research and technical assistance focused on employment needs of Milwaukee County adult males who had been incarcerated in Wisconsin Department of Corrections (DOC) facilities.

Employment And Training Institute Community Engagement Report: 2013-2016, Lois M. Quinn, John Pawasarat

ETI Publications

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Employment and Training Institute was established in 1978 to address the workforce and education needs of low-income and unemployed workers and their families through applied research, policy development, community education, and technical assistance. This paper summarizes the community engagement work of the Employment and Training Institute in 2013 through 2016. The work focused on employment, education, race and poverty issues facing the city and state, including mass incarceration of black males, prison and jail barriers to employment, driver’s license needs of workers and teens, poverty and limited job opportunities impacting central city families, apprenticeship opportunities for …

Recording Of Custodial Interrogations: Policies And Practices, Laura Rubino

Wayne State University Theses

Within the last century, interrogation practices throughout the United States have notably changed. Police interrogations went from physical harm (i.e., the third degree) to psychologically suggestive techniques. These psychologically coercive techniques put suspects at risk of giving a false confession, which is one of the contributing factors in wrongful convictions. One remedy to reduce false confessions is to electronically record interrogations. Very little is known about the specific policies and practices of electronic recordings during interrogation within law enforcement agencies. Policies and practices vary by state and by agency, which makes it difficult to identify agencies that do electronically record …

Perceptions Regarding Public Safety In Portland’S King Neighborhood, Kris R. Henning, Greg Stewart

Criminal Justice Policy Research Institute Research Research Briefs

The Portland Police Bureau (PPB) is partnering with Portland State University (PSU) and neighborhood groups to develop new strategies for improving police-community relations and reducing crime. Our most recent initiative seeks to provide residents with greater voice in where PPB officers work in their neighborhood and what steps the City takes there to address public safety concerns.

The King neighborhood in Northeast Portland was chosen as the starting point for this work following a recent gang related shooting at King School Park. Officers from North Precinct had already begun outreach to the community and they wanted additional input from the …

The Relationship Between Juvenile Sex Offender Registration And Depression In Adulthood, Sharon E. Denniston

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Accounts of sexual abuse appear daily in the media. Rightfully, this issue demands attention. Juveniles may be victims; they may also be offenders who are subject to sex offender registration and notification (SORN) policies. Growing research finds that SORN policies fail to achieve intended public policy outcomes. Little is known, however, about the unintended consequences of SORN for juvenile offenders. This study contributed to a more comprehensive understanding of the effects of these policies on this population. Merton's concept of manifest and latent functions of purposive social action and an alternate non-criminogenic form of Lemert's secondary deviance proposition provided the …

The Question Of Homeland Security In Rural America, Manuel Gonzalez

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Following the issuance of the National Preparedness Guidelines in 2009 by the Department of Homeland Security, it remains unknown whether homeland security programs have been consistently implemented in the nation's rural areas. Research findings have been inconsistent and inconclusive on the degree of implementation. Two problems may result from inadequate implementation of these programs: weakened national security from the failure to protect critical infrastructure in remote areas and a threat to public safety in rural towns. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore and describe the reasons for possible noncompliance through purposeful interviews with 10 law enforcement …

Texas Sheriff Perceptions Of The Militia Movement, John F. Fisher

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

With the election of President Barack Obama, the United States has seen a steady increase in the number of right-wing militia groups. The Southern Poverty Law Center and the Department of Homeland Security have claimed that the various militia groups are a dangerous domestic terrorism threat. Law enforcement perceptions of the threat that these militia groups pose served as the focus of inquiry in this multiple case study. These perceptions were explored through the theoretical frameworks of groupthink, Credulous Bayesianism, and nudge theory. A purposeful sample of 12 local sheriffs in Texas were interviewed in an attempt to identify common …

Social Disorganization Theory: The Role Of Diversity In New Jersey's Hate Crimes, Dana Maria Ciobanu

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The reported number of hate crimes in New Jersey continues to remain high despite the enforcement of laws against perpetrators. The purpose of this correlational panel study was to test Shaw & McKay's theory of social disorganization by examining the relationship between demographic diversity and hate crime rates. This study focused on analyzing the relationship between the level of diversity, residential mobility, unemployment, family disruption, proximity to urban areas, and population density in all 21 New Jersey counties and hate crime rates. The existing data of Federal Bureau of Investigations' hate crime rates and the U.S. Census Bureau's demographic diversity, …

What's Wrong With Sentencing Equality?, Richard A. Bierschbach, Stephanos Bibas

All Faculty Scholarship

Equality in criminal sentencing often translates into equalizing outcomes and stamping out variations, whether race-based, geographic, or random. This approach conflates the concept of equality with one contestable conception focused on outputs and numbers, not inputs and processes. Racial equality is crucial, but a concern with eliminating racism has hypertrophied well beyond race. Equalizing outcomes seems appealing as a neutral way to dodge contentious substantive policy debates about the purposes of punishment. But it actually privileges deterrence and incapacitation over rehabilitation, subjective elements of retribution, and procedural justice, and it provides little normative guidance for punishment. It also has unintended …

The Use Of Minors In Material Support Of Terrorist Organizations, Teresa Maria Feliciano

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Adult criminals' use of minors to commit crimes associated with the support of terrorist organizations is a significant problem in the United States. Despite strict laws prohibiting adult offenders from exploiting youth, these individuals aggressively pursue minors to commit crimes associated with the support of terrorist organizations. This quasi-experimental, cross-sectional study used resource dependency theory to explore the likelihood that adult criminal offenders in the U.S. will use minors for crimes that are associated with the support of terrorist organizations, based on crime typology, country of origin, and location of crime. Data were collected from a crime database maintained by …

Traffic Enforcement, Policing, And Crime Rates, Marc Weiss Weiss

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Law enforcement agencies believe that traffic enforcement, in addition to reducing fatalities associated with automobile collisions, may also reduce the incidence of public order crimes. The academic literature, though, has largely failed to address this phenomenon. The purpose of this correlational study was to use Kelling and Wilson's broken windows theory to evaluate whether a statistically significant relationship exists between traffic enforcement rates and public order crimes in South Carolina. Secondary data from 5 counties were acquired from the South Carolina Department of Public Safety and the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division for the time period 2008 through 2012. Statistically …

Technology Distractions On Patrol: Giving Police Officers A Voice, Andrew David Dasher

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Distraction while using mobile technology devices such as a cell phone or tablet computer is a common occurrence within the civilian population of the United States. U.S. police officers are increasingly utilizing these types of devices within the patrol environment. However, little is known as to how distraction affects police officers while they interact with these devices in the course of their daily duties. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how officers process potential officer safety issues on patrol, while interacting with mobile technology, by questioning participants' perception of distraction. This was accomplished through a phenomenological paradigm …

Penalty Enhancement Laws And The Reporting Of Patient Assaults On Emergency Department Nurses, Thomas Runkle

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Assaults on emergency department nurses by patients are higher than any other occupation in the private sector. Professional nursing organizations have lobbied for penalty enhancement laws that increase the categorization of assaulting a nurse on duty from a misdemeanor to a felony. As of 2015, 32 states have implemented these laws. Yet, low assault reporting rates by nurses remains a problem, and little is known about whether penalty enhancements improved reporting rates. The purpose of this correlational study was to evaluate the impact of penalty enhancement laws on self-reporting of assault on emergency department nurses in 6 Mid-Atlantic cities. Constructs …