Criminology Commons^™

Ua1f Wku Police Department Bibliography, Wku Archives

WKU Administration Documents

Bibliography of newspaper articles and primary resources regarding the WKU Police Department.

Phenomenological Theories Of Crime, Peter K. Manning, Michael W. Raphael

Graduate Student Publications and Research

The distinctive aspect of phenomenological theories of crime is that they are based upon a stated epistemology: how things are known and a specific ontology—the nature of social reality. This specificity aligns itself with neo-Kantian concern with forms of knowing, interpretation, and meaning, as well as with 20th-century concern with perception, cognition, and the framing of events. While there are influences of phenomenological thinking on varieties of theorizing, such as symbolic interactionism, critical theory, queer theory, and gender-based theories of crime, these ideas are refractions and are inconsistent in their reference to and understanding of the foundational phenomenological works. A …

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.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 …

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 …

United States: A Global Criminal, Adam T. Noxell

Sociology Publications

The paper was written to evaluate and discuss the crimes that the US committed during the decade long war on terrorism. It look specifically at the US invasion of Iraq, the nations motives for the attack and the process leading up to the attack. The paper argues the "super power" status that the US has allowed it to disregard domestic and international laws as well as human life to pursue its exploits in the middle east.

Ua12/8 Annual Campus Security And Fire Report, Wku Police

WKU Administration Documents

This report is designed to provide students, prospective students, parents, faculty, and staff with accurate crime statistics, information on university services, and crime prevention programs. These programs are designed to help inform our campus community about safety practices that will help reduce the risk of becoming a victim of crime. These safe practices can provide individuals with vital information that they can carry with them through college and beyond, keeping them safe for the rest of their lives.

Crime Emergence And Simulation Modeling: Modeling Crime Space, Patricia Brantingham, Kathryn Wuschke, Richard Frank, Paul J. Brantingham

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications and Presentations

This chapter explores several new modeling approaches and research findings, showing how they may be used to explore and enhance theory. There is a special emphasis on Target Choice Selection, focusing on Crime Pattern Theory and the Geometry of Crime (Brantingham and Brantingham, 1978a, 1984, 1991; Brantingham and Brantingham, 1981, 1993a, 2008). This exploration is described through a series of research examples and a case study of the target choice behavior of high repeat offenders. The goal is to explore the emergence of patterns better understood against the urban backcloths for high repeat offenders. Emphasis is in this case study …

Civilian Aviation Screening: A Time-Series Analysis Of Confiscated Firearms At Screening Checkpoints, Shon Agard

Online Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the aviation screening process and sought to determine if the federalization of the screening process had any effect on the number of firearm confiscations at civilian aviation screening checkpoints. The hypothesis of the study was that airport screening firearms confiscations (per one million screenings) were lower before the U.S. government (TSA) took over screening in 2001-2002. This quantitative research required the performance of an interrupted time series analysis. Interrupted time series analysis evaluates the impact of one or more events on the values in the time series. An interrupted time series analysis attempts to determine whether an …

Forgotten Victims: A Qualitative Study Of Familial And Intimate Partner Abuse Of Male-To-Female Transgender Individuals In Central Kentucky, Allison Brooke Willingham

Online Theses and Dissertations

Previous research on intimate partner and familial abuse has focused on easily identifiable social institutions, such as "homosexual couple" or "mother/daughter." However, transgender individuals do not always fit into the binary social definitions ascribed to family relationships. Little research has provided insight into cycles of familial and intimate partner verbal or physical abuse in the lives of transgender individuals. The efforts that have been made have shocking results and demonstrate a need for further and more in-depth research. The primary purpose of this research is to gain a rich understanding of the social dynamics affecting the lives of transgender individuals …

Play Fair With Recidivists, Richard Dagger

Political Science Faculty Publications

Retributivists thus face a difficult challenge. Either we must go against the social grain, and perhaps our own intuitions, by insisting that a criminal offense carry the same penalty or punishment no matter how many previous convictions an offender has accrued; or we must find a way to justify the recidivist premium. I shall take the second route here by arguing that recidivism itself is a kind of criminal offense. In developing this argument, I shall rely on Youngjae Lee's insightful analysis of "recidivism as omission." I shall complement his analysis, however, by grounding it in a conception of criminal …

Treatment Compliance And Recidivism: Following Up On The 2000 Illinois Juvenile Probation Outcome Study, Connor Concannon

Master's Theses

This study examines the relationship between demographics, treatment completion, and recidivism in a cohort of Illinois juveniles discharged from probation. The current study expands on prior research through the examination of recidivism both while on supervision as well as ten years after discharge. Results indicate that while treatment completion is predictive of on-probation arrests, other factors appear to be stronger predictors of post-probation recidivism.

The analyses also provide a baseline to examine the impact of the conditions of probation prior to the implementation of substantive reforms to probation practices in Illinois in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Thus, the …

Al-Shabaab's American Recruits: A Comparative Analysis Of Two Radicalization Pathways, Matthew Wade Richardson

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

From 2005 to 2011, at least 41 Americans joined, or attempted to join, al-Shabaab, Somalia's preeminent terrorist organization. This thesis examines the radicalization process for al-Shabaab's American recruits by dividing the sample into two groups: non-Somali and Somali. The author employs causal flow diagramming as a means of visualizing each group's unique radicalization pathway. While most of the non-Somali recruits were motivated by political grievances and Salafism, most of the Somali recruits were motivated by identity conflict and nationalism. Considering al-Shabaab is both a religious and an ethno-nationalist terrorist organization, these results make sense. Radicalization within diaspora communities is a …

Public Attitudes Toward Crime Control In Contemporary China : A Multilevel Analysis, Yue Zhuo

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This study applies the Western sociological theories in the Chinese context and systematically explores crime control attitudes in contemporary China. This research links individual-level data from the 2005 China General Social Survey with contextual-level data from China Procuratorial Yearbooks, Chinese Population Census 2000, and China Statistical Yearbooks. A multilevel framework informed by the instrumental perspective, the constructionist/conflict perspective, and the symbolic perspective is adopted to examine the individual-level and contextual-level social factors that affect the three dimensions of public attitudes toward crime control - satisfaction, spending, and due process.

Patterns Of Adolescent Drug Offending And Their Consequences In Making The Transition To Adulthood, Matthew David Phillips

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The life course perspective in criminology acknowledges that as an individual moves through successive stages in life, a host of factors in various domains influence the individual's developmental and behavioral patterns. The criminological literature is also replete with research that suggests an individual's involvement in drug offending has negative repercussions in these domains of life. Further, specific drug offenses are thought to affect outcomes in differing ways. Drug offenders are far from a homogeneous group, and that heterogeneity can produce vastly different outcomes. From a life course perspective, adolescence then becomes a particularly important stage since this is the time …

State Homeland Security : Variation And Patterns Among The U.S. States, Lisa N. Sacco

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation examines the homeland security organizations of the 50 states, and describes what systems the states have created for homeland security policy and structure. The purpose of this dissertation is to determine how each state homeland security organization was developed, describe each organization, and ascertain if patterns of homeland security have emerged among the states. This descriptive study also uncovers philosophical differences in the states' interpretation of homeland security.

Impulsivity, Criminogenic Opportunity Structures, And Delinquency, Matt Vogel

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Impulsivity has emerged as a strong predictor of delinquency. A growing body of research suggests that neighborhood disorganization moderates the association between impulsivity and delinquency. However, there are several competing perspectives on the direction of this moderation, and the empirical research has generated a small body of discordant findings. This dissertation addresses the research linking impulsivity, neighborhood disorganization, and delinquency in two ways. First, I propose that the inconsistent findings to date might be attributed to variation in measurement and modeling strategy across earlier studies. Second, I argue that the mechanisms underlying the differential effect of impulsivity on delinquency across …

The Causes And Consequences Of Self-Protective Behaviors In Violent Encounters, Ráchael Anne Powers

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Self-protective behaviors are strategies that a victim utilizes during the course of a violent incident to either prevent its completion or to avoid or minimize physical injury. Research regarding the use of self-protective behaviors in violent incidents has focused predominantly on sexual assault, and the research that has examined non-sexual assaults has been limited with regard to the study sample, considered outcomes, and included covariates. To extend beyond prior work, this dissertation seeks to explore more thoroughly the use and consequences of self-protective behaviors in non-sexual assaults using the National Crime Victimization Survey. Self-protective behaviors were measured along two dimensions …

The Role Of Self-Esteem In The Treatment Of Youth In Residential Treatment Centers : An Examination Of Delinquency And Rearrest After Discharge From Treatment, Camela M. Steinke

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The purpose of this research was to explore the effect of self-esteem on rearrest and delinquency for a population of youth who have been committed to, and received services through, a residential treatment center.

Pay It Forward : The Effect Of Social Support On Crime, Jessica Singer

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The purpose of this research is to explore the relationship between social support and crime. In 1994, Frank Cullen wrote an innovative article which was designed to construct social support as an organizing principle for criminology. Using this work to frame this research, I hypothesize that social support will be negatively related to crime. I explore this relationship on two levels of analysis. First, I investigate the relationship between state-level support and crime rates using a dataset that I constructed from a variety of sources. Second, I investigate the relationship between individual-level support and crime and deviance using data from …

How Patrol Officers Make Decisions : Comparing A Structural Model To A Process Model, Heidi Bonner

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

A heavy research emphasis on the discretionary decision-making actions by police has led researchers to conduct a substantial amount of work regarding the individual, situational, organizational, and neighborhood influences on police behavior. The culmination of all this work results in one main conclusion - the majority of findings regarding the causes of police behavior are mixed. Further, current models of police behavior account for only a small amount of the variation.

Decisions To Exert Social Control In A Neighborhood Context : Social Dilemmas And Solutions, Shaohua Yu

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Prior literature on urban crime study has long indicated that residents' participation in informal social control activities is crucial in achieving low crime rates in urban neighborhoods. The question of what factors determine individual residents' decisions on whether or not to support collective crime prevention efforts, however, has yet to be addressed. The present study approaches this issue by bridging it with another important area of research-the study of social dilemmas-that explain cooperative tendencies in human groups. By defining informal social control as a form of collectively desirable action, the study tested the hypothesis that the solutions to social dilemmas …

Occupational Stress And The Homosexual Police Officer, David John Barton

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation analyzed occupational stress among homosexual officers. Previous researchers have investigated occupational stresses experienced by racial, ethnic and gender minority police officers; however, research has not examined the occupational stresses experienced by homosexual officers. This study utilized an internet survey to gather quantitative data that were statistically analyzed for similarities and differences in how homosexual officers perceive stressors common to all officers and stressors experienced only by minority subgroups, including discrimination. Because homosexual officers have the unique ability to disguise their minority status, this study also examined whether the officers' choices to reveal or conceal their sexual preference affected …

Grace Under Fire : Altruistic Behavior And The Risk Of Criminal Victimization, Andy Lucas Blaize Davies

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Two studies investigate whether the perceived risk of criminal victimization reduces altruistic behavior as social disorganization theory predicts it will. The first study, of 160 nation-states, suggests not. Rather, the relationship depends on national culture. In highly religious countries, for example, the perceived risk of victimization actually appears to increase altruistic behavior. The second study, an experiment conducted on samples both of undergraduate students and internet users, suggests that certain individuals for whom the risk of criminal victimization may be particularly salient - volunteers worried they may be put in harm's way, and fatalists paranoid about the inevitability of victimization …

Health Behind And Beyond Bars : Understanding The Link Between Incarceration And Health, Lauren C. Porter

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The primary aim of this dissertation is to better understand the link between incarceration and health. Drawing on a sample of young adults from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), the effect of incarceration on self-rated health, serious injury, STD infection, cold/flu symptoms, and blood pressure is assessed. The effect of incarceration on health behavior is also examined, including diet, smoking, binge drinking, and physical activity. In order to rule out selection bias, current and former inmates are compared to respondents who have been arrested (or arrested and convicted of a crime), but not incarcerated. Findings suggest …

Fighting Extremism: Strategies Used To Combat Extremism And Radicalization, Scott Michel Caldwell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Ever since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the United States has been awakened to the threat that extremist organizations pose to our national security. The greatest transnational terrorist threat to the United States right now comes primarily from extremist groups such as Al-Queda, Hamas, and Hezbollah. These extremist groups are fueled by the desire to influence political, religious, and/or ideological causes. The political "end-state" or objective of the extremist is to overthrow "heretic" governments which currently exist and replace them with Islamic governments based on the rule of the Shariah (the first book of the Quran which strongly …

Mothers In Prison: Maintaining Connections With Children, Sylvia Mignon, Paige Ransford

Publications from the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy

The significant increase in the number of incarcerated women ensures that many children must live without their mothers for some period of time. Women in prison were interviewed about their efforts to maintain relationships with their children. Mail and telephone contacts were more frequent than actual visits. Almost one half of mothers had never received a visit from their children. This article identifies challenges to the development and maintenance of contact between incarcerated mothers and their children. Recommendations are made for correctional agencies to enhance opportunities for incarcerated mothers to foster positive connections with their children.

Juvenile Injustice: Disproportionate Minority Contact In Oklahoma's Juvenile Justice System, Patrick M. Polasek

Dissertations

Statistics show that minority overrepresentation in the juvenile justice system is not a new phenomenon. The problem, however, is not going away and might even be getting worse. In 2008, the FBI's Uniform Crime Report showed that 52% of juvenile Violent Crime Index arrests, and 33% of juvenile Property Crime Index arrests, are black youths. This occurring while black youth only accounted for 16% of the youth population. These statistics illustrate disproportionate minority contact. The question is whether disproportionate minority contact has improved, and what is influencing minority overrepresentation.

In this dissertation, I examine whether minorities are overrepresented in Oklahoma's …

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 …

Playing Fair With Prisoners, Richard Dagger

Political Science Faculty Publications

Oddness aside, however, I think there is much to recommend the attempt to restore rehabilitation to a central place in the practice of punishment. Nor do I think that rehabilitation must displace retribution in that practice. Properly understood, the two aims are not only compatible but also complementary. If we are to understand them properly, though, we shall need to see them as components of a theory of punishment that is grounded in considerations of fair play. Such a theory also has the advantage of offering guidance with regard to other controversial matters of penal policy, such as the question …