Criminology Commons^™

An Exploration Of Crime By Policewomen, Philip M. Stinson, Natalie E. Todak, Mary Dodge

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

The current study explores criminal conduct by policewomen. This information is increasingly relevant as police departments hire more women, especially if the crimes committed by policewomen differ from those of policemen. News searches identified 105 cases depicting arrests of policewomen. A content analysis was performed. Findings indicate differences exist between crimes committed by policemen and policewomen, as well as by policewomen and women in general. Crime by policewomen is most often profit-motivated. Policewomen had fewer years of service and lower ranks, committed less violent crimes, and were more likely to receive suspensions for off-duty crimes compared to their male peers.

Police Integrity Lost: Preliminary Findings Of A National Study Of Law Enforcement Officers Arrested, Philip M. Stinson

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

This presentation presents preliminary research findings of a study on the nature and extent of police crime in the United States. It provides information on the factors that influence how a law enforcement agency responds to arrests of its officers. The data indicate that civil rights litigation is a correlate of police misconduct.

Drink, Drive, Go To Jail? A Study Of Police Officers Arrested For Drunk Driving, Philip M. Stinson, John Liederbach, Steven L. Brewer, Natalie E. Todak

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

The purpose of the current study is to provide empirical data on cases of police driving under the influence (DUI) of alcohol and/or drugs. It identifies events that may have influenced the decision to arrest, including associated traffic accidents, fatalities, officer resistance, the refusal of field sobriety tests, and the refusal of blood alcohol content (BAC) tests. The study is a quantitative content analysis of news articles identified through the Google News search engine using 48 automated Google Alerts queries. Data are analyzed on 782 DUI arrest cases of officers employed by 511 nonfederal law enforcement agencies throughout the United …

'Scared Straight' And Other Juvenile Awareness Programs For Preventing Juvenile Delinquency, Anthony Petrosino, Carolyn Turpin-Petrosino, Meghan E. Hollis-Peel, Julia G. Lavenberg

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Background: 'Scared Straight' and other similar programs involve organized visits to prison by juvenile delinquents or children at risk for criminal behavior. Programs are designed to deter participants from future offending through firsthand observation of prison life and interaction with adult inmates. These programs remain in use despite research questioning their effectiveness. This is an update of a 2002 review.

Objectives: To assess the effects of programs comprising organized visits to prisons by juvenile delinquents (officially adjudicated, that is, convicted by a juvenile court) or pre-delinquents (children in trouble but not officially adjudicated as delinquents), aimed at deterring …

A Study Of Drug-Related Police Corruption Arrests, Philip M. Stinson, John Liederbach, Steven L. Brewer, Hans Schmalzried, Brooke E. Mathna, Krista L. Long

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Purpose – The purpose of the study is to provide empirical data on cases of drug-related police corruption. It identifies and describes incidents in which police officers were arrested for criminal offenses associated with drug-related corruption.

Design/methodology/approach – The study is a quantitative content analysis of news articles identified through the Google News search engine using 48 automated Google Alerts queries. Statistical analyses include classification trees to examine causal pathways between drugs and corruption.

Findings – Data were analyzed on 221 drug-related arrest cases of officers employed by police agencies throughout the United States. Findings show that drug-related corruption involves …

The Nature Of Crime By School Resource Officers: Implications For Sro Programs, Philip M. Stinson, Adam M. Watkins

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

School resource officers (SROs) have become a permanent presence in many K-12 schools throughout the country. As a result, an emerging body of research has focused on SROs, particularly on how SROs are viewed by students, teachers, and the general public. This exploratory and descriptive research employs a different focus by examining the nature of crimes for which SROs were arrested in recent years with information gathered from online news sources. The current findings are encouraging insofar as they reveal that SROs are rarely arrested for criminal misconduct. When SROs were arrested, however, they are most often arrested for a …

Research Brief One-Sheet No.5: Police Criminal Misuse Of Conductive Energy Devices, Philip M. Stinson, Bradford W. Reyns, John Liederbach

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

The purpose of the research is to explore and describe the nature and character of arrest cases that involve the criminal misuse of TASERS by police officers through a content analysis of news articles. The research specifically focuses on factors that were common among the arrest events involving CEDs, especially with regard to the actions and motivations of the arrested officers and how the situational context appeared to influence the criminal misconduct of police officers.

Research Brief One-Sheet No.6: Officers Arrested For Drunk Driving, Philip M. Stinson, John Liederbach, Steven L. Brewer, Natalie E. Todak

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Cases involving police who drive drunk are part of the larger problem of driving under the influence (DUI). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that alcohol-impaired traffic accidents kill over 10,000 people annually, accounting for nearly one-third of all traffic-related deaths in the United States (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2011). But, cases that involve police who drive drunk (or, Police DUIs) should also be recognized as a phenomenon that presents unique problems. Police DUI's have the potential to weaken public trust and the legitimacy of strategies designed to mitigate drunk driving, because the drunk driver in …

Fox In The Henhouse: A Study Of Police Officers Arrested For Crimes Associated With Domestic And/Or Family Violence, Philip M. Stinson, John Liederbach

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

The problem of violence within police families has been increasingly recognized as an important socio-legal issue, but there is a lack of empirical data on what has commonly been referred to as officer-involved domestic violence (OIDV). There are no comprehensive statistics available on OIDV and no government entity collects data on the criminal conviction of police officers for crimes associated with domestic and/or family violence. Prior self-report officer surveys are limited by the tendency to conceal instances of family violence and the interests of officers to maintain a "code of silence" to protect their careers. The purpose of the current …

Chaid Analysis Of Drug-Related Police Corruption Arrests, Philip M. Stinson, John Liederbach, Steven L. Brewer, Hans Schmalzried, Brooke E. Mathna, Krista L. Long

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Purpose- The purpose of the study is to provide empirical data on cases of drug-related police corruption. The study identifies and describes incidents in which police officers were arrested for criminal offenses associated with drug-related corruption.

Design/methodology/approach- The study is a quantitative content analysis of news articles identified through the Google News search engine using 48 automated Google Alerts queries. Statistical analyses include classification trees to examine casual pathways between drugs and corruption.

Findings- Data are analyzed on 221 drug-related arrest cases of officers employed by police agencies throughout the United States. Findings show that drug-related corruption involves a wide …

Drunk Driving Cops: A Study Of Police Officers Arrested 2005-2010, Philip M. Stinson, John Liederbach, Natalie E. Todak, Steven L. Brewer

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Police officers are generally exempt from law enforcement (Reiss, 1971) and it is widely known that police officers who drive drunk are rarely arrested, even when they are pulled over in a traffic stop for driving drunk. Using data from a larger study on police crime arrests, this is an exploratory study of 763 cases from years 2005-2010 of on- and off-duty police officers arrested for driving under the influence (DUI). The officers arrested for DUI were employed by nonfederal law enforcement agencies located in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Preliminary findings indicate that almost half of …

Off-Duty & Under Arrest: A Study Of Crimes Perpetuated By Off-Duty Police, Philip M. Stinson, John Liederbach, Tina L. Freiburger

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

The findings of independent commissions and research derived from a data-set of career-ending misconduct among New York Police Department (NYPD) officers suggests that police engage in a wide variety of crimes while they are off-duty including domestic violence, bar fights, drunk driving, burglary, and sex offenses (The Mollen Commission, 1994; Fyfe & Kane, 2006; Kane & White, 2009). The off-duty misbehavior of police is an important concern for police agencies exposed to potential liability costs, and scholars engaged in debates about whether studies on police deviance should include acts committed while an officer is technically off-duty. The problem for scholars …

Research Brief One-Sheet No.4: Officer-Involved Domestic Violence, Philip M. Stinson, John Liederbach

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Officer-Involved Domestic Violence (OIDV) refers to instances of domestic and/or family violence that occur within police families. OIDV has been recognized as an important issue for both police scholars and practitioners. The movement to recognize OIDV gained momentum through the last two decades, beginning with exploratory research that linked police stress and family violence (Johnson, 1991). The movement also involved enactment of the Violence Against Women Act (1994) and the Lautenberg Amendment to the federal Gun Control Act that prohibits individuals—including police officers—from owning or using a firearm if they are convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence. The …

Police Crime & Less-Than-Lethal Coercive Force: A Description Of The Criminal Misuse Of Tasers, Philip M. Stinson, Bradford W. Reyns, John Liederbach

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

This study explores and describes the nature and character of cases that involve the criminal misuse of TASERs by police officers through a content analysis of newspaper articles. The news-based content analysis identified 24 police officers who were arrested for crimes that involved inappropriate use of TASERs over a 65 month period from January 2005 through May 2010. Data on these cases are presented in terms of: a) the arrested officer, b) victim characteristics, and c) the situational context of these events. The news-based content analyses were used to identify and describe some factors that were common among these events, …

Research Brief One-Sheet No.2: Off-Duty Crime By Police Officers, Philip M. Stinson, John Liederbach, Tina L. Freiburger

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Virtually all of the existing data on the off-duty misconduct of police officers describes the misbehavior of New York Police Department (NYPD) officers (see e.g. Fyfe and Kane, 2006; Kane and White, 2009). These data indicate that a significant portion of police misconduct emanates from behavior that occurs off-duty, including domestic violence, bar fights, drunk driving, burglary, and sex offenses. The NYPD data are agency-specific however; so very little is known about the nature and character of off-duty misconduct perpetrated by police employed by other police agencies. The purpose of this study is to explore off-duty police crime in the …

Research Brief One-Sheet No.3: Police Drug Corruption: What Are The Drugs Of Choice?, Philip M. Stinson, John Liederbach, Steven L. Brewer, Hans Schmalzried, Brooke E. Mathna, Krista L. Long

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Police scandals during the 1980s and 90s exposed dramatic cases of drug-related corruption in a number of large American cities. The scandals in New York City culminated in the establishment of the Mollen Commission which focused on the investigation of corruption within the New York City Police Department (NYPD). The two year investigation identified a nexus between police misconduct and the operation of local drug markets, in particular cocaine and crack. A handful of scholarly studies from the same period provide the basis for most of our knowledge on the problem of drug-related police corruption. Data from these studies are …

Research Brief One-Sheet No.1: Late-Stage Police Crime: Is It An Exit Strategy?, Philip M. Stinson, John Liederbach, Tina L. Freiburger

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

The study focuses on crimes committed by experienced police officers who are approaching retirement. Police scholars have traditionally been interested in the formative experiences that occur near the beginning of an officer's career, wherein the expectations of "rookie" cops clash with on-the-job realities to promote cynicism, personal anomia, and potential attachment to delinquent police subcultures. The literature suggests that officers will tend to "get into trouble" earlier in their career rather than later; but, the occurrence of "late-stage" misconduct committed by experienced police officers presents a challenge to existing assumptions regarding the relationship between experience and various forms of police …

Bad Cops At Home: An Exploratory Study Of Officer-Involved Domestic Violence, Philip M. Stinson, John Liederbach

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Officer-involved domestic violence is a problem that should concern researchers, policymakers, the policing community, and the general public. Yet there is very little research in the area and no official data is available to discern the nature and prevalence of domestic violence in police families. Victims are reluctant to report officer-involved domestic violence and often feel helpless in the criminal justice system where the abuser is employed. This is complicated by provisions of the Lautenberg Amendment of 1996 which prohibit anyone convicted of a crime of domestic violence from carrying a firearm. This study explores 324 cases of state and …

A Content Analysis Of Criminal Justice Policy Review, 1986-2008, Philip M. Stinson, Jennifer L. Huck, Jason D. Spraitz

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Academic disciplines have been characterized as static institutions that do not change or conform to outside forces. Abbott (1999) and Silbey (2000) have discussed this issue in relation to how the history of refereed journals in the social sciences can provide information on department, institution, and disciplinary changes that often wear a false guise of continuity. This paper analyzes the content of Criminal Justice Policy Review by replicating the methodology Silbey (2000) used to study the content of Law & Society Review in terms of editorship, authorship, article contents, method and mode of research, and article topics. The results indicate …

Pesach N. Rubenstein Cheats The Hangman: A Case Study Of Punishment And The Death Penalty At Brooklyn’S Raymond Street Jail, Philip M. Stinson

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

This paper tells the story of Pesach Rubenstein and how he cheated the hangman in 1876. Rubenstein was charged, tried, and convicted in Kings County, New York, for the 1875 murder of his 19 year-old cousin, Sarah Alexander. The Rubenstein case is noteworthy in that it received unprecedented media attention in the 1870s, involved the use of rudimentary forensic evidence at the trial, and divided the community on issues of religion, ethnicity, immigration (the victim and defendant were recent Jewish immigrants from Poland), and imposition of the death penalty. Using a case study approach to analyze the trial transcript, newspaper …

Exit Strategy: An Exploration Of Late-Stage Police Crime, Philip M. Stinson, John Liederbach, Tina L. Freiburger

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

There are no exhaustive statistics available on the crimes committed by law enforcement officers, and only a small number of studies provide specific data on police crimes. The purpose of the current study is to examine the character of police arrests known to the media. Cases were identified through a content analysis of news coverage using the internet-based Google^TM News search engine and its Google News Alerts search tool. The study focuses on the crimes committed by experienced officers who are approaching retirement. The occurrence of these late-stage crimes presents a challenge to existing assumptions regarding the relationship between …

Evaluation Of Adult Lucas County Treatment Alternatives To Street Crime, Inc. (Tasc): Outcomes Related To Program Completion, Melissa W. Burek, Christine M. Englebrecht

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

The central purpose of this research was to evaluate the Lucas County, Ohio Treatment Alternatives to Street Crime (TASC) program for adult clients. The principal investigator was Associate Professor of Criminal Justice Melissa W. Burek, Ph.D. from Bowling Green State University (BGSU) in conjunction with Stacey Rychener, Ph.D., Director of the Center for Evaluation Services and associates at BGSU. Co-author of the report that follows was Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice Christine Englebrecht, Ph.D., also of BGSU. Data collection for the project began in January 2009 and completed in late March of same year.

We had three general objectives for …

A Cross-Cultural, Comparative Analysis Of The Domestic Violence Policies Of Nicaragua And Russia, Jo-Ann Della Giustina

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

This is a cross-cultural comparative analysis of the domestic violence policies of Nicaragua and Russia. While these two countries have striking differences, they both had socialist revolutions that established workers and farmers governments. The Soviet Union was the main economic and political support for Nicaragua following the 1979 Frente Sandinista Para Liberacion Nacional (FSLN--Sandinista Front for National Liberation) revolution.

This article examines the domestic violence policies of post-Soviet Russia and Nicaragua. While both countries have serious domestic violence problems, only Nicaragua is taking an aggressive stance to eradicate the problem. The Russian government barely even acknowledges that there is a …

Rethinking The Definition Of Police Crime: The Relationship Of Sex, Drugs, Violence And/Or Greed To Virtually All Police Crime, Philip M. Stinson

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Dirty Cops: Patterns Of Offending In Sex Crimes By Sworn Law Enforcement Officers, Philip M. Stinson

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Criminality Of Police Officers, Philip M. Stinson

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Policing And Social Control Of Public Marijuana Use And Selling In New York City, Bruce D. Johnson, Andrew Golub, Eloise Dunlap, Stephen J. Sifaneck, James E. Mccabe

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

This article analyzes the history of policies by New York City government and police enforcement strategies to socially control marijuana use and sales in public locations—that is in the streets; parks; and quasi-public settings such as bars, restaurants, and stores. This particular article is organized around the laws, regulations, and enforcement associated with two central civic norms: (1) Users should not smoke marijuana in public settings (streets, parks) or in quasi-public settings such as stores, bars, restaurants, offices, etc. and (2) Persons should not sell marijuana in public and quasi-public settings. Occasionally, the authors make reference to marijuana use and …

The Challenge Of Prison Overcrowding And Recidivism, Pearl Jacobs

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

The state of Connecticut is currently dealing with a growing prison population. Ex-offenders face enormous obstacle trying to reconnect with society and get a job. They have no skills and lack a family support system.Their lack of preparation for successful reintegration into society places them at risk to become repeat offenders. Overcrowding in prisons produces individuals unable to cope or survive in free society.

Many of the recommendations of The Ex-Offender Employability Task Force of the State of Illinois relate to ex-offender employment and are worthy of consideration in employment programs in Connecticut.

We will have a safer and more …