Criminology Commons^™

Change Matters: Binge Drinking And Drugging Victimization Over Time In Three College Freshman Cohorts, Leah C. Butler, Bonnie S. Fisher, Rachael Schilling, Nicole V. Lasky, Suzanne C. Swan

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

The “once bitten, twice shy” (OBTS) hypothesis argues that crime victims who change their involvement in risky lifestyle behaviors reduce their likelihood of experiencing repeat victimization. Tests of this hypothesis have yielded weak to mixed results, which may be due to methodological issues. We address these methodological issues by testing the OBTS hypothesis for repeat drugging victimization with survey data from a panel of three freshman cohorts at three large, public universities. Supportive of the OBTS hypothesis, the multivariate results show that, on average, those not drugged at Time 1 or Time 2 and those drugged at Time 1 and …

A Randomized Controlled Trial Of The Impact Of Body-Worn Camera Activation On The Outcomes Of Individual Incidents, Jessica Huff, Charles M. Katz, E. C. Hedberg

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Objectives

Evaluate the impact of body-worn cameras (BWCs) on officer-initiated activity, arrests, use of force, and complaints.

Methods

We use instrumental variable analysis to examine the impact of BWC assignment and BWC activation on the outcomes of individual incidents through a randomized controlled trial of 436 officers in the Phoenix Police Department.

Results

Incidents involving BWC activations were associated with a lower likelihood of officer-initiated contacts and complaints, but a greater likelihood of arrests and use of force. BWC assignment alone was unrelated to arrests or complaints; however, incidents involving officers who were assigned and activated their BWC were significantly …

Biased Coverage Of Bias Crime: Examining Differences In Media Coverage Of Hate Crimes And Terrorism, Adam Ghazi-Tehrani, Erin M. Kearns

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

News media differentially cover violence based on social identity. How does media bias apply to terrorist attacks—typically “upward crimes” where perpetrators hold less power than targets—that are also hate crimes—typically “downward crimes”? We compare coverage of incidents that are both terrorist attacks and hate crimes to coverage of incidents that are just terrorism in the U.S. from 2006 to 2015. Attacks that are also hate crimes receive less media attention. Articles are more likely to reference hate crimes when the perpetrator is unknown and more likely to reference terrorism when the perpetrator is non-white in some models.

The Effects Of Police Contact And Neighborhood Context On Delinquency And Violence, Joselyne L. Chenane, Emily M. Wright, Yan Wang

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

We examined both main effects and cross-level effects of prior criminal justice contact on delinquency and violence. Using multilevel longitudinal data from the Project on Human Development on Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN, 1994–2001), this paper addresses a lack of clarity on the effect of police contact on delinquency and violence. We found that police contacts (three types) were associated with increases in delinquency and violence. These effects remained robust after controlling for individual‐level covariates such as low self‐control. Importantly, the effect of jail contact on the number of delinquent acts a youth engages in was stronger in neighborhoods with high levels …

Body-Worn Cameras And Transparency: Experimental Evidence Of Inconsistency In Police Executive Decision-Making, Brandon Tregle, Justin Nix, Justin T. Pickett

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Body-worn cameras (BWC) have diffused rapidly throughout policing as a means of promoting transparency and accountability. Yet, whether to release BWC footage to the public remains largely up to the discretion of police executives, and we know little about how they interpret and respond to BWC footage – particularly footage involving critical incidents. We asked a nationally representative sample of police executives (N=476) how supportive they were of legislation that would mandate releasing BWC footage upon request as public information, and presented them with an experimental vignette about BWC capturing one of their officers fatally shooting an [armed/unarmed] [Black/White] suspect. …

On The Challenges Associated With The Study Of Police Use Of Deadly Force In The United States: A Response To Schwartz & Jahn, Justin Nix

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

In response to Gabriel Schwartz and Jaquelyn Jahn’s descriptive study, “Mapping fatal police violence across U.S. metropolitan areas: Overall rates and racial/ethnic inequalities, 2013–2017,” I provide three reflections. First, the framing of this issue is vitally important. Second, police-involved fatalities represent a nonrandom sample of all incidents involving police use of deadly force (i.e., physical force that causes or is likely to cause death), and unfortunately, we lack comprehensive data on use of deadly force that does not result in fatalities. Finally, to make sense of who is killed by the police, researchers must also identify who was exposed to …

Gun Victimization In The Line Of Duty: Fatal And Non-Fatal Firearm Assaults On Police Officers In The United States, 2014-2019, Michael Sierra-Arévalo, Justin Nix

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Research Summary

Using open‐source data from the Gun Violence Archive (GVA), we analyze national‐ and state‐level trends in fatal and nonfatal firearm assaults of U.S. police officers from 2014 to 2019 (N = 1,467). Results show that (a) most firearm assaults are nonfatal, (b) there is no compelling evidence that the national rate of firearm assault on police has substantially increased during the last 6 years, and (c) there is substantial state‐level variation in rates of firearm assault on police officers.

Policy Implications

GVA has decided strengths relative to existing data sources on police victimization and danger in policing. …

How Social Dominance Orientation Shapes Perceptions Of Police, Belen Lowrey-Kinberg, Hillary Mellinger, Erin M. Kearns

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Purpose

There remain several underaddressed issues in the procedural justice literature. The authors draw from a rich body of psychological research on how the sociopolitical orientation to group inequality influences individual views on government and apply this to perceptions of procedural justice.

Design/methodology/approach

This study uses a laboratory-style experimental design to examine the extent to which social dominance orientation (SDO) shapes how people view the language of law enforcement. Four treatments are tested: procedural justice, rapport, deference, and direct.

Findings

The authors find that, overall, exclusively emphasizing rapport – as opposed to procedural justice, deference, or directness – is not …

Who Are The Mavens Of Bystander Intervention? Implications For The Social Diffusion Of Intervention Norms, Leah C. Butler, Bonnie S. Fisher

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

A recent randomized controlled trial reported that Green Dot (GD)—a bystander intervention training program that targets popular opinion leaders for intensive training—reduced school-level interpersonal violence perpetration and victimization. Expanding GD’s targeted group members to include “mavens” of bystander intervention—those who spread bystander intervention norms to others by communicating with peers—may increase the effectiveness of such training. Self-report data collected from students at the 13 intervention high schools in Kentucky are analyzed to identify characteristics of those who engage in discussions with peers about preventing interpersonal violence. Findings show that students who engage in more frequent bystander behaviors are more likely …

5 Reasons Police Officers Should Have College Degrees, Leana A. Bouffard, Gaylene Armstrong

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Following several deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of police, President Donald J. Trump issued an executive order on June 16 that calls for increased training and credentialing to reduce the use of excessive force by police.

The order did not mention the need for police to get a college education, even though higher education was identified in the 2015 President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing as one of six effective ways to reduce crime and build better relations between police and the communities they serve.

As researchers who specialize in crime and punishment, we see …

Attitudinal Changes Toward Body-Worn Cameras: Perceptions Of Cameras, Organizational Justice, And Procedural Justice Among Volunteer And Mandated Officers, Jessica Huff, Charles M. Katz, Vincent J. Webb, E. C. Hedberg

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Little is known about officer perceptions of body-worn cameras (BWCs), and whether perceptions change following implementation within their agencies. BWC deployment varies, with some agencies mandating officers to wear BWCs and others using volunteers. Researchers have yet to assess attitudinal differences between volunteers and mandated officers. This study addresses these gaps using data from an evaluation of BWCs in the Phoenix Police Department to examine officer perceptions of the utility of BWCs, perceptions of organizational justice, and support for using procedural justice. We use inverse propensity weighted difference-in-difference models to examine changes in officer perceptions over time between randomly selected …

Redemption At A Correctional Turning Point: Public Support For Rehabilitation Ceremonies, Leah C. Butler, Francis T. Cullen, Alexander L. Burton, Angela J. Thielo, Velmer S. Burton Jr.

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

The authors studied the extent to which the American public would support the implementation of rehabilitation ceremonies, including certificates. Using a national-level survey they commissioned YouGov to undertake, the authors examined public views about the redeemability of offenders--whether they believe that those convicted of felonies are intractably criminal or have the potential to change for the better. Results of the survey indicate substantial belief in offender redeemability and support for rehabilitation ceremonies and certificates.

Perceptions Of Danger, Tolerance Of Delinquency, And Economic Disadvantage: Examining Neighborhood Influences On Child Physical Abuse, Marijana M. Kotlaja, Abigail A. Fagan, Emily M. Wright

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Background

Social disorganization theory posits that both structural and social features of a particular geographic unit are associated with criminal behavior. Despite many tests of social disorganization theory, few studies have assessed its relevance to child abuse.

Objective

This study seeks to explain neighborhood variation in child maltreatment. The goal of the current study is to fill this gap by investigating whether or not child physical abuse is related to neighborhood economic disadvantage, perceptions of the dangerousness of the neighborhood, and norms regarding delinquency.

Participants and Setting

Data were drawn from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods …

Veteran Treatment Court Clients’ Perceptions Of Procedural Justice And Recidivism, Cassandra A. Atkin-Plunk, Gaylene Armstrong, Nicky Dalbir

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Studies surrounding the effectiveness of veterans’ treatment courts (VTCs) are now emerging. Absent from this scholarship is an examination of the presence of procedural justice within VTCs and the influence of procedural justice on future criminal behavior of VTC clients. To begin this dialogue, this study surveys 41 clients enrolled in two VTCs in a Southern state. We explore client perceptions of procedurally just treatment by their judge and assigned supervision officer. Using an average follow-up time of 20 months, this study also examines the effects of perceptions of procedural justice on recidivism of court clients. Results find VTC clients …

Responding To Crossover Youth: A Look Beyond Recidivism Outcomes, Emily M. Wright, Ryan E. Spohn, Michael Campagna

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Crossover youth are involved in both child welfare and juvenile justice systems. The Crossover Youth Practice Model (CYPM) promotes collaboration between these systems to inform decision making between the two agencies and better serve these youth. Yet, few outcome evaluations of the CYPM exist, especially those that assess outcomes beyond recidivism, such as case dispositions, case closure, or placement or living situations. This study examined whether the CYPM (n = 210) decreased recidivism and increased system/case responses and positive outcomes among youth within 9–18 months after the youth’s initial arrest relative to a comparison group of crossover youth ( …

Belief In Redeemability And Punitive Public Opinion: “Once A Criminal, Always A Criminal” Revisited, Alexander L. Burton, Francis T. Cullen, Velmer S. Burton Jr., Amanda Graham, Leah C. Butler, Angela J. Thielo

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

In 2009, Maruna and King presented results from a British survey showing that the public’s belief in the redeemability of people who committed offenses curbed their level of punitiveness. Based on a 2017 national survey in the United States (n = 1,000), the current study confirms that redeemability is negatively related to punitive attitudes. In addition, the analyses reveal that this belief predicts support for rehabilitation and specific inclusionary policies (i.e., ban-the-box in employment, expungement of criminal records, and voting rights for people with a felony conviction). Findings regarding measures for punishment and rehabilitation were confirmed by a 2019 …

Understanding Body-Worn Camera Diffusion In U.S. Policing, Justin Nix, Natalie Todak, Brandon Tregle

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

By 2016, approximately one half of American police agencies had adopted body-worn cameras (BWCs). Although a growing body of research has examined the impact of BWCs on outcomes such as use of force, complaints, and perceptions of police, few have considered how and why some agencies adopted BWCs, while others have not. With guidance from the diffusion of innovations paradigm, this study explores variation in BWC adoption by police agencies. Drawing on a survey administered to a national probability sample of 665 municipal police executives in the spring of 2018, we found agency size, region, and the demographic composition of …

Exploring Gendered Environments In Policing: Workplace Incivilities And Fit Perceptions In Men And Women Officers, Rachael Rief, Samantha S. Clinkinbeard

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Research indicates that women are still underrepresented in policing and that police culture is not fully accepting of its sisters in blue. As police organizations strive toward building an inclusive workforce, we must understand how women, already in the field, view their place and experiences within their jobs, organizations, and workgroups. Thus, in the current research, we use a comparative sample (n¼832) of male and female officers to examine perceptions of fit in the job, organization, and workgroup, and how these perceptions relate to reports of workplace incivilities. Findings indicate that women "fit in" with the job and the broader …

Sometimes A Joke Is Not Just A Joke: Examining The Role Of Humor On Police Officers’ Workplace Experiences, Rachael Rief

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Masculinity is pervasive in the field of policing, present in both the culture and organizational structure. As women continue to represent a low number of all sworn law enforcement officers, research has begun considering how culture and structural conditions interact with gender to affect women’s experiences in policing. This research suggests that many informal and formal practices in police culture, including the use of gendered jokes or sexist humor, work to exclude women and highlight the importance of gendered aspects of the job. However, little research has explored the extent to which humor and joking behavior explicitly interacts with women’s …

Wait, There’S Torture In Zootopia? Examining The Prevalence Of Torture In Popular Movies, Casey Delehanty, Erin M. Kearns

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Roughly half of the U.S. public thinks that torture can be acceptable in counterterrorism. According to recent research, dramatic depictions of torture increase public support for the practice. Yet we do not know how frequently—and in what context—torture is depicted across popular media. What messages about the acceptability and effectiveness of torture do Americans receive when they watch popular films? To address this question, we coded each incident of torture in the twenty top-grossing films each year from 2008 to 2017 to analyze how torture is portrayed in terms of its frequency, efficacy, and social acceptability. Results show that the …

Why Do Some Terrorist Attacks Receive More Media Attention Than Others?, Erin M. Kearns, Allison E. Betus, Anthony F. Lemieux

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Terrorist attacks often dominate news coverage as reporters seek to provide the public with information. Yet, not all incidents receive equal attention. Why do some terrorist attacks receive more media coverage than others? We argue that perpetrator religion is the largest predictor of news coverage, while target type, being arrested, and fatalities will also impact coverage. We examined news coverage from LexisNexis Academic and CNN.com for all terrorist attacks in the United States between 2006 and 2015 (N=136). Controlling for target type, fatalities, and being arrested, attacks by Muslim perpetrators received, on average, 357% more coverage than other attacks. Our …

Yalda, A Night For Forgiveness, John C. Lyden

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Yalda, A Night for Forgiveness (2019) directed by Massoud Bakhshi.

Into The Deep, Jodi Mcdavid

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Into the Deep (2020) directed by Emma Sullivan.

Why Do Officers Support Community Policing? A Cross-Departmental And Cross-Temporal Comparison, Mary Shupard, Erin M. Kearns

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Community policing is often seen as a way to repair fractured relationships between law enforcement and the public. Despite its relationship-building promise and widespread department-level adoption, individual officers show varying levels of support for community policing which can harm policy implementation. Why are some officers more supportive of community policing than others? Prior research suggests that demographic factors such as the officer's gender, race, age, and education can explain this variance. Across these studies, however, there are several contradicting or non-replicating findings. Conflicting findings may result from differences by department or differences in methodology or temporal variance – but most …

Are Domestic Incidents Really More Dangerous To Police? Findings From The 2016 National Incident Based Reporting System, Justin Nix, Tara Richards, Gillian M. Pinchevsky, Emily M. Wright

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

It is widely believed among police officers that domestic incidents are among the most dangerous incidents to which they respond. However, most research in this area suffers from the “denominator problem,” where prior studies have focused on incidents resulting in harm to police officers and failed to account for incidents not resulting in harm. Such methodologies can produce drastically misleading results. This paper uses data from the 2016 National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS) to overcome the denominator problem. We examine the probability of (1) an officer being assaulted and (2) an officer being injured or killed when responding to …

Less Safe In The Ivory Tower: Campus Sexual Assault Policy In The Trump Administration, Leah C. Butler, Heejin Lee, Bonnie S. Fisher

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Since the late 20th century, the federal government has regulated colleges’ and universities’ handling of campus sexual and gender-based violence (CSGBV). Although the arc of history has bent toward establishing greater protections for victims of such violence, new proposed regulation by the U.S. Department of Education under the Trump administration focuses more heavily on ensuring due process rights for students accused of CSGBV. Most recently, in November 2018, U.S. Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos submitted a proposed rule change to the regulation of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. This article provides the historical context for this …

Employing An Intentional Mentoring Model For Delinquent Youth., Anne M. Hobbs

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Proceedings & Presentations

Employing an Intentional Mentoring Model for Delinquent Youth Delinquent youth often do not receive the opportunity to be mentored. This is especially true for youth who have committed serious law violations and are detained. In Nebraska, the Youth Rehabilitation and Treatment Centers (YRTCs) are the highest level of care for delinquent youth within the state. Under Nebraska law, a youth is committed to the YRTC only after all community-based services and every level of probation supervision has been exhausted (Sec. 43-286). In 2011, the Juvenile Justice Institute (JJI) agreed to teach a course on mentoring delinquent youth and to match …

Racial Differences In Conceptualizing Legitimacy And Trust In Police, Erin M. Kearns, Emma Ashooh, Belen Lowrey-Kinberg

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Scholarly debate on how best to conceptualize legitimacy and trust in police has generally assumed these conceptualizations are stable across demographics. Recent evidence, however, suggests that this may not be the case. We examine how the public conceptualizes legitimacy and trust in police, how public conceptualizations relate to academic debate on these terms, and how public views differ between and within racial groups. This work is exploratory, though it is rooted in differences found in theoretically driven empirical work on the subject. Data are from online, national samples of White (N = 650), Black (N = 624), and …

Understanding Offender Needs Over Forms Of Isolation Using A Repeated Measures Design, Michael Campagna, Melissa Kowalski, Laurie A. Drapela, Mary K. Stohr, Elizabeth Thomposn Tollefsbol, Youngki Woo, Xiaohan Mei, Zachary Hamilton

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

A number of studies find that solitary confinement is associated with mental impairment. Yet, confinement dosage and which individual and exogenous variables lead to mental impairment have received less attention. This study of 2 years of data on disciplinary segregation male inmates employs a repeated measures design to examine how isolation affects mental health and psychological needs. The findings indicate that the duration of disciplinary segregation and incarceration, incidence of homelessness, and other individual-level factors had deleterious effects on mental health and psychological needs. Vocational programming and a high school education were found to be protective factors for psychological needs.

Testing A Theoretical Model Of Perceived Audience Legitimacy: The Neglected Linkage In The Dialogic Model Of Police–Community Relations, Justin Nix, Justin T. Pickett, Scott E. Wolfe

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Objectives:

Democratic policing involves an ongoing dialogue between officers and citizens about what it means to wield legitimate authority. Most of the criminological literature on police legitimacy has focused on citizens’ perceptions of this dialogue—that is, audience legitimacy. Consequently, we know little about how officers perceive their legitimacy in the eyes of the public and the antecedents of such perceptions. Pulling together separate strands of literature pertaining to citizen demeanor, hostile media perceptions, and danger perception theory, we propose and test a theoretical model of perceived audience legitimacy.

Method:

We conducted two separate studies: the first a survey of 546 …