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Articles 1 - 30 of 113
Full-Text Articles in Criminology
Exploring Intersectional Differences In Employment And Desistance, Rachel Novick
Exploring Intersectional Differences In Employment And Desistance, Rachel Novick
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
Employment is critically important to the re-entry process for most recordholders, as a standard condition of their community supervision agreement, as a turning point, and as a way to solidify new prosocial identities in the desistance process. However, seeking and maintaining gainful employment is easier for some recordholders than others. Prior research suggests that applicant race and gender impacts employment opportunities and outcomes. It is also the case that desistance may look different based on the race and gender of the recordholder. Thus, it may be the case that the relationship between desistance and employment varies for recordholders of different …
Constructing, Integrating, And Testing The Choice Set For Models Of Offender Decision-Making, Matthew Kijowski
Constructing, Integrating, And Testing The Choice Set For Models Of Offender Decision-Making, Matthew Kijowski
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
Models of offender decision-making are premised on a rational actor weighing the perceived options within their choice set. One will choose to engage in a behavioral option that provides them with the greatest benefits and fewest costs as compared to the other perceived options. Even though the choice set is the foundation from which offender decision-making is built, criminologists, and offender decision-making scholars specifically, have assumed the choice set without directly measuring it. Without appraising the choice set, a multi-step process of decision-making is collapsed into a single step. This precludes an understanding of the composition of the choice set, …
Public Opinion On Compensating Different Types Of Wrongful Convictions, Sishi Wu
Public Opinion On Compensating Different Types Of Wrongful Convictions, Sishi Wu
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
People who are wrongfully convicted are a unique vulnerable group. However, not all exonerees get compensated for their time in prison. This research explores public opinion on compensating wrongful convictions from erroneously rejected affirmative defenses and from false guilty pleas. Using a randomized survey experiment of 1,000 US adults, this research found that (1) most respondents supported wrongful conviction compensation, regardless of wrongful conviction types and plea status. (2) Wrongful conviction types matter. People supported compensating exonerees in the self-defense case as much as in the wrong person case. The amount of compensation people gave in the mistaken self-defense case …
The Age, Period, And Cohort Effects On Crime Rates In The Republic Of Korea, Byunggu Kang
The Age, Period, And Cohort Effects On Crime Rates In The Republic Of Korea, Byunggu Kang
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
The age–crime relationship has been a theoretical and empirical puzzle for criminologists for decades. Although the age–crime curve is often considered a stylized fact, a large body of research suggests that the age–crime relationship is dynamic under the influence of age, period, and cohort effects. The impact of these effects can vary across different social contexts, as the consistency or variability in socio-economic and cultural factors experienced by consecutive generations or populations differs in each context. Thus, the extent to which age, period, and cohort effects contribute to the age–crime relationship in various social contexts is a question that requires …
Race And Ethnicity In Juvenile Justice Sentencing: The Role Of Static And Dynamic Community Threat, Victoria Lynn Nelson
Race And Ethnicity In Juvenile Justice Sentencing: The Role Of Static And Dynamic Community Threat, Victoria Lynn Nelson
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
Research consistently finds that Black and Hispanic youth are overrepresented at various stages of juvenile justice processing. However, less research has considered the role of community characteristics in juvenile justice processing, and much of this research has been mixed. This is particularly concerning given the explicit reliance on extralegal factors, and on the local organization of juvenile justice systems which likely make them considerably more vulnerable to community anxieties. Racial threat theory posits that as “threatening” populations increase, they begin to threaten economic and political resources of the dominant group. As this happens, the dominant group will retaliate with discriminatory …
When Payday Is Not Enough : The Impact Of Small Loan Regulation On Reported Crime In Cincinnati, Ohio, Colleen D. Mair
When Payday Is Not Enough : The Impact Of Small Loan Regulation On Reported Crime In Cincinnati, Ohio, Colleen D. Mair
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
Legislators have largely regarded payday lending, a type of alternative financial service through which borrowers obtain unsecured loans for fast cash, as predatory and detrimental for already vulnerable areas. Critics of this industry suggest that the use of payday loans creates a cycle of debt that can lead to several negative outcomes, including an increase in crime in the areas in which they are located. In an effort to address the negative effects of payday lending, several laws have been passed to regulate or eliminate traditional payday lending. Despite these intentions, prior research has produced mixed results about whether or …
Morality, Context, And Crime Decision-Making, Shaina Herman
Morality, Context, And Crime Decision-Making, Shaina Herman
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
Recent criminological advancements increasingly aim to better understand criminal behavior in context. This is particularly true regarding how perceptions of legal sanction risk are anchored in reality and influence offending decisions. Yet research on extralegal considerations such as morality has not kept pace. The current dissertation integrates criminological morality literature, with psychological research on Self Concept Maintenance Theory (SCMT) and moral identity, into a perspective on moral decision-making dynamics that integrates personal and situational factors. I utilize three data collections containing randomized experiments to investigate the situational malleability of moral evaluations and the interrelatedness with moral identity and criminal intentions. …
Lay Judges Vs. Lawyer Judges : How Much Difference Can A Law Degree Make?, Jingyi Fei
Lay Judges Vs. Lawyer Judges : How Much Difference Can A Law Degree Make?, Jingyi Fei
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
With about 13.2 million misdemeanor cases processed through the criminal justice system each year, an increasing number of researchers has shifted their interests from felony courts to lower criminal courts (Smith & Maddan, 2019). One aspect of these lower criminal courts that is of particular interest is the eligibility of non-lawyers to run for and hold judgeships. Although New York and 18 other states have permitted the employment of lay judges, court reformers have long questioned their ability to safeguard defendant’s due process rights. However, at no point in the history of agitation against lay judges have their critics sought …
Public Opinion And The Morality Of Drug Use : Experimental And Time-Series Analyses, Benjamin Kuettel
Public Opinion And The Morality Of Drug Use : Experimental And Time-Series Analyses, Benjamin Kuettel
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
Trends in public opinion research suggest that Americans are becoming more liberal with respect to drugs. This research is limited by the absence of a reliable and valid indicator of drug sentiment, which inhibits our understanding of how and why public opinion toward drugs evolves over time. Recent studies also suggest that Americans are morally approving of drug use in certain contexts and are supportive of “harm reduction” or other progressive drug policies viewed as solutions to the drug war, but the underlying reasons as to why are not completely understood. This dissertation uses time-series analysis and two survey experiments …
Spatio-Temporal Analyses Of The Relationships Between Stop, Question And Frisk And Crime In New York City, Haemi Won
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
Previous research has shown mixed findings on a deterrent effect of Stop, Question and Frisk (SQF) on crime. As SQF is one of the most fundamental methods of police crime control, an accurate examination of the relationship between SQF and crime is critical. This dissertation examined spatio-temporal interactions of crime and those of SQF respectively, and then the spatial relationships between SQF and crime at microgeographic level, controlling for the effect of the street network. Using inhomogeneous cross K function with the exact location x-y coordinates of each point of both SQF and crime, this dissertation explored the spatio-temporal relationships …
Adolescent Maltreatment, Substance Use, And Self-Efficacy : A Test Of General Strain Theory Among A Sample Of Clinical Youth, Sonya Worthington
Adolescent Maltreatment, Substance Use, And Self-Efficacy : A Test Of General Strain Theory Among A Sample Of Clinical Youth, Sonya Worthington
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
The relationship between adolescent maltreatment and delinquency has been of growing interest to social control, social learning, strain, and family-oriented theorist since the 1980’s. While ‘social control’, ‘social learning’, and ‘traditional strain’ theories dominated early delinquency research literature surrounding the association, the past few decades have experienced a shift from these sociological theories to those more social-psychological in nature, lending much support, credibility, and acceptance of Agnew’s General Strain Theory (GST). GST offers a theoretical framework for understanding micro-level and macro level factors that influence the likelihood of delinquency. In short, GST contends some individuals engage in criminal and deviant …
An Iterative Theory Of The Legislative Process : A Case Study Of The New York State Commission On Prosecutorial Conduct, Kimberly M. Bernstein
An Iterative Theory Of The Legislative Process : A Case Study Of The New York State Commission On Prosecutorial Conduct, Kimberly M. Bernstein
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
Prosecutors wield the power of the criminal justice system (Medwed, 2014) and the ability to deprive a person of their constitutional rights (Imbler v. Pachtman, 1976). With such power, it is unsurprising that a leading cause of miscarriages of justice is prosecutorial misconduct (e.g., Joy, 2006; Ridolfi & Possley, 2010). New York State became the first state in the country to respond to this issue with a specialized Commission on Prosecutorial Conduct (CPC). The goal of the CPC is to serve as an official mechanism for holding District Attorneys and Assistant District Attorneys accountable by challenging convictions and handing down …
The Dark Figure Of Wrongful Convictions : How Intake Decisions Impact Exonerations, Jennifer Weintraub
The Dark Figure Of Wrongful Convictions : How Intake Decisions Impact Exonerations, Jennifer Weintraub
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
Innocence organizations contributed to 45% of exonerations in the year 2020, and account for nearly 25% of all U.S. exonerations. Yet little is known about these organizations, including a review of their intake criteria and procedures, how they select their intake criteria and procedures, or how those choices influence the landscape of known wrongful convictions. The contents of these intake decisions as well as how they are chosen have implications for what is currently known about wrongful convictions nation-wide. In this study, 19 innocence organizations represented by 24 innocence organization staff and leaders completed qualitative interviews to address this gap …
Addressing The Scale Issues In Spatial-Temporal Analysis Of Crime : An Integrative Framework And Empirical Findings, Mohammed Abdulrazak Alazawi
Addressing The Scale Issues In Spatial-Temporal Analysis Of Crime : An Integrative Framework And Empirical Findings, Mohammed Abdulrazak Alazawi
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
Based on a critical review of existing literature in the spatial-temporal analysis of crime, three challenges have been identified: spatial-temporal scaling, theorizing spatial patterns for different types of crime, and the micro interaction between space and time. The spatial-temporal scaling issue is related to choosing the appropriate geographic unit of analysis. The theoretical issue concerns the lack of an integrative approach that can integrate the benefits of each theoretical perspective and identify broader processes to explain the resulting spatial patterns for different types of crime. Also, examining and explaining the variation of the micro space-time interactions for different types of …
The Racial And Partisan Underpinnings Of Attitudes Toward Police In A Time Of Protest, Andrew Thompson
The Racial And Partisan Underpinnings Of Attitudes Toward Police In A Time Of Protest, Andrew Thompson
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
Racial and ethnic differences in policing attitudes have generally been examined through the group position or other conflict perspectives. This perspective contains a limitation, especially when considering recent trends in racial and policing attitudes. Racial attitudes have been liberalizing for over a decade among White political liberals and moderates, while Republicans’ racial attitudes have been relatively stagnant. These divergent trends may have accelerated since the murder of George Floyd. While racial attitudes (including attitudes about the police) have been polarizing along political lines, the group position model suggests that racial attitudes and policy preferences among dominant group members, regardless of …
Exploring Group-Threat And Police-Involved Homicide : A Spatial Analysis Of Police Involved Homicide In Us Counties, Kyle Demori Maksuta
Exploring Group-Threat And Police-Involved Homicide : A Spatial Analysis Of Police Involved Homicide In Us Counties, Kyle Demori Maksuta
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
The recent advent of the Black Lives Matter movement has reinvigorated criminological inquiry into police violence. Recent advances in spatial analysis have opened new opportunities for understanding the spatial relationship between social structure and police violence. Spatial analysis is both statistically and substantively important to our understanding of police-involved-homicide (PIH), yet few studies have attempted to marry recent advances in spatial econometrics to this topic. The current study introduces spatial Durbin modeling (SDM) as a particularly useful approach to studying the spatial relationships between variables associated with group threat theory and PIH. Previous research has demonstrated the connections between group …
Longitudinal Examination Of Contextual Risk, Promotive Factors, And Psychosocial Functioning Using Structural Equation Modeling With A Sample Of Serious Adolescent Offenders, Daniel J. Knauer
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
Mental health problems, including substance use problems, are more prevalent among adolescent criminal offenders than among the general population and are associated with an elevated risk of re-offending. It is important to understand what factors are associated with serious adolescent offenders’ future mental health and re-offending outcomes to promote their positive development. This study examined potential mechanisms behind established relationships between risk factors for mental health and criminal offending and psychosocial outcomes while integrating ecological theory and a risk and protective framework. To do this, a mediation model was examined using structural equation modeling in which contextual risk was hypothesized …
Roaring Tiger Or Bounce Tigger? : Examining Corruption Seriousness Perception In China From A Socio-Cultural Perspective, Yunhan Zhao
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
Recent years have witnessed a steadily increasing scholarly interest in perceptions of corruption, particularly in terms of level and prevalence. However, previous studies have largely overlooked perceived seriousness as another unique dimension of corruption perception. Furthermore, previous studies seeking causes of corruption perception have failed to consider cultural factors at either the individual or aggregate level as potential predictors. To fill the gap, the current dissertation employs the 2014 Chinese Family Panel Studies and other relevant data to explore the relationships between corruption seriousness perception and cultural factors. This dissertation strategically examines two individual cultural attachments (i.e., Confucianism and Legalism …
Sins Of Our Fathers : Assessing Parental Incarceration As A "Turning Point" In The Lives Of Young Adults, Melissa Elizabeth Noel
Sins Of Our Fathers : Assessing Parental Incarceration As A "Turning Point" In The Lives Of Young Adults, Melissa Elizabeth Noel
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
Coupled with other disadvantages, parental incarceration negatively impacts outcomes for children. Researchers have examined the consequences of parental incarceration mainly for children and adolescents, but it remains unclear about the long-term consequences as these children emerge into adulthood. Parental incarceration can affect social relationships and life attainments, increase labeling and stigmatization, and influence perceptions about society for young adults. Thus, this research study sought to examine parental incarceration as a “turning point” in which life outcomes of young adults are weakened or strengthened through this experience. Semi-structured interviews with 19 young adults were conducted and analyzed to examine: (1) whether …
When Life Gives You Diversity... : A History Of Racial Diversity And Conflict In Four Philadelphia Neighborhoods, 1960 - 2015, Jeaneé C. Miller
When Life Gives You Diversity... : A History Of Racial Diversity And Conflict In Four Philadelphia Neighborhoods, 1960 - 2015, Jeaneé C. Miller
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
The U.S. population has changed significantly since the 1950s, becoming markedly more racially diverse. Still, a large portion of America’s neighborhoods remain racially segregated – even in large, racially diverse cities, such as Philadelphia (Logan & Stults, 2011). As a result, there is a well-established body of research that has shown that residential segregation consistently produces negative effects for neighborhoods (Massey & Denton, 1993). In response, many scholars and policymakers have suggested that the most promising response to inequality due to segregation is racial residential integration (Denton, 2010; Ellen, 2000; Galster, 1992; Roisman, 2008). However, social science research has produced …
Public Perceptions Of Crime Trends : Measurement, Perceived Causes, And Behavioral Consequences, Luzi Shi
Public Perceptions Of Crime Trends : Measurement, Perceived Causes, And Behavioral Consequences, Luzi Shi
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
In the U.S. the public is persistent in believing in worsening crime trends, despite the fact that the crime rate has been falling since the early 1990s. This dissertation is a comprehensive examination of the measurement, perceived causes, and behavioral consequences of crime trend perceptions. It is composed of three interrelated studies. The first step to understanding crime trend perceptions is to have accurate measurement. In the first study, I identify the limitations of existing measurement of crime trend perceptions and argue that it is important to measure perceptions of short-term and long-term crime trends separately. Using three samples, I …
What's Your Plea (Culture)? : Processes And Rationales Underlying And Shaping Plea Decision-Making : A "Courtnography" And Interviews With Defendants, Defense Attorneys, And Prosecutors, Reveka Vladimirovna Shteynberg
What's Your Plea (Culture)? : Processes And Rationales Underlying And Shaping Plea Decision-Making : A "Courtnography" And Interviews With Defendants, Defense Attorneys, And Prosecutors, Reveka Vladimirovna Shteynberg
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
The reality is that “criminal justice today is for the most part a system of pleas, not a system of trials,” as Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote for the majority in Lafler v. Cooper (2012). Despite this heavy reliance on plea bargaining in the U.S. criminal justice system, the nature of plea bargain decisions remains elusive. Although there has been influential and important research in which defendants and court actors were interviewed about the plea decision process, this research was mostly conducted 40 to 50 years ago about a different court system than the one that exists today; a nation …
The Aftermath : Perceptions Of Employment And Livelihood Among Former Crack Cocaine Dealers In Upstate New York, Charletta Latrice Robinson
The Aftermath : Perceptions Of Employment And Livelihood Among Former Crack Cocaine Dealers In Upstate New York, Charletta Latrice Robinson
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
Starting in the 1980s, the crack cocaine epidemic disproportionately affected African American males. The justice system incarcerated thousands of African American males, often multiple times for selling crack cocaine during their adolescence and adult lives. On release from prison, this population often does not fit well with the environment to which they return, leading to subsequent incarceration. Using the ecological theory as a lens, this study concerns the goodness of fit between African American males incarcerated repeatedly for selling crack cocaine and the home environment within an Upstate New York community after their release. In this study, I explored the …
The "Matthew Effect" In Punishment: : Do Previous Sanctions Foster More Sanctions In The Future?, Yinzhi Shen
The "Matthew Effect" In Punishment: : Do Previous Sanctions Foster More Sanctions In The Future?, Yinzhi Shen
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
Societal response to crime is a topic at the heart of criminology. In contrast to a vast literature on the hidden social consequences of formal sanctions on individuals, family and communities, few studies have examined the ramifications of a formal sanction on future interactions with the criminal justice system over the individual life course. Applying a cumulative disadvantage (CDA) perspective, my dissertation contributes to the understanding of whether and how a prior punishment affects an individual’s trajectory of future punishments over the life course. Theoretically, I elaborated two conceptualizations of CDA processes and highlighted the overlooked value of applying CDA …
The Effects Of A Proactive Policy-Driven Migration On Neighborhood Crime, Tyler Scott Bellick
The Effects Of A Proactive Policy-Driven Migration On Neighborhood Crime, Tyler Scott Bellick
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
The immigrant crime-relationship is one of the most vigorously debated and contentious public policy concerns in present society. The majority of scholarship investigating this link demonstrates that immigrants are no more crime prone than the native-born population, and in fact, may even suppress levels of neighborhood crime. A limitation of this body of scholarship is that it tends focus on immigration, overall, or specifically Latino immigration, failing to account of potentially important between-group differences in offending. The present study addresses this gap by examining the effects of a government-driven Guyanese migration on neighborhood crime rates at five cross-sections. Exploratory analyses …
Family Instability As A Turning Point In The Life-Course : An Examination Of Whether And How Family Instability And Specific Types Of Family Instability Directly And Indirectly Influence Delinquency, Walter Shelley
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
“A family’s resources and the doors they open cast a long shadow over children’s life trajectories…This view is at odds with the popular ethos that we are makers of our own fortune.” (Alexander, Entwisle, & Olson, 2010, pg. 1). Perhaps no aspect about an individual’s life is not shaped in some way by their family. In fact, it could be surmised that families set the stage for all later outcomes in the life-course. An event in a family such as family instability could play an important role in shaping an individual’s behavior and outcomes in their life course. However, heterogeneity …
Human Error In Police Involved Shootings, Paul L. Taylor
Human Error In Police Involved Shootings, Paul L. Taylor
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
Police use of deadly force has become one of the most contentious and controversial aspects of the U.S. criminal justice system. Yet, the vast majority of police shootings never rise to the level of public consciousness (Zimring, 2017). Instead, the public discourse and controversy tends to center on a handful of cases that appear excessive and/or are difficult to understand (Pickering & Klinger, 2016). As a result, these cases have a disproportionate impact on the public’s perception of police legitimacy and competence, particularly when it comes to their use of deadly force (Gua, 2014). The outcomes of many of these …
"What's Past Is Prologue" : Exploring Confinement As A Setting For Change In Social Support And Criminal Activity, Audrey Opal Hickert
"What's Past Is Prologue" : Exploring Confinement As A Setting For Change In Social Support And Criminal Activity, Audrey Opal Hickert
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
Confinement is a major part of the criminal justice apparatus worldwide. Despite its widespread use, research is just beginning to address the mechanisms by which confinement could change individuals and impact post-release outcomes. In prior research, examinations of average effects of confinement may mask considerable and important heterogeneity. Therefore, variation within confinement samples should be explored on numerous life dimensions, including collateral consequences and metrics of criminal activity beyond simple “yes” or “no” recidivism. Confinement is a life-course event, meaning it can broadly shape future trajectories for those who experience it (Pettit & Western, 2004; Sampson & Laub, 2016). Building …
Individuals With Developmental Disabilities And Criminal Incompetence : An Analysis Of Predictors To Restoration, Ashley Cahill
Individuals With Developmental Disabilities And Criminal Incompetence : An Analysis Of Predictors To Restoration, Ashley Cahill
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
Competency to stand trial is a concept of jurisprudence preventing the adjudication of individuals who lack the capacity to understand the proceedings against them and which prevents them from assisting in their own defense because of mental disease or “defects”. In the criminal justice system, defendants found incompetent to stand trial are remanded to the care of the mental health system for a period of time to restore their competence. The determination of competency to stand trial is by far the most common psychiatric evaluation requested by criminal courts, and is especially critical for defendants with developmental and intellectual disabilities.
Stereotypes And Phenotypes : Using Machine Learning To Examine Racial Implicit Bias In Sex Offender Criminal Case Processing, Christine M. Walsh
Stereotypes And Phenotypes : Using Machine Learning To Examine Racial Implicit Bias In Sex Offender Criminal Case Processing, Christine M. Walsh
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
The role of offender race/ethnicity and potential bias in criminal case outcomes is a popular topic both culturally and academically. Although a common research subject, the existing literature remains inconsistent and limited when focusing on sex offender sentencing outcomes. This dissertation uses data collected from the New York State public sex offender registry on white, black, and Hispanic males to examine the effect of offender racial/ethnic phenotype on two sentencing outcomes: sentence type and sentence length. Offender phenotype is measured through three facial features: nose width, lip fullness, and eye shape. These facial features were chosen from existing literature, however, …