Criminology Commons^™

Biosocial Criminology Versus The Constitution, Karen E. Balter

Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection)

The continually emerging field of biosocial criminology provides a basis for productively merging biology with sociological reasonings for criminal behavior. Mainstream research in criminology focuses on environmental factors as the sole reason individuals exhibit antisocial behavior patterns and may ultimately commit crimes. Criminological research has travelled in this direction for decades. The current climate within this community subscribes heavily to the notion that biology has very little to do with why people behave the way they do, and if it did, government control would be the norm. The nature of biocriminology opens a door through which constitutional issues may enter. …

Discourses Of Deception: (Re)Examining America's War On Drugs, Benjamin Steven Boyce

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

America's war on drugs is a failed experiment that has caused more damage than it will ever prevent. From its original design to its contemporary manifestations, the war on drugs is a conflict that remains firmly rooted in white supremacy. In contemporary Western societies, the rhetoric of both political leaders and mass-mediated narratives becomes the raw material of subjective reality. Since the war on drugs began nearly a century ago, the spectacle of mass media has been consistently utilized by white political elites as a vehicle of misinformation - as a well-oiled machine for spreading the false social narrative that …

Voices From Detention: An Exploration Of Undocumented Immigrants’ Journeys, Michaela Malboeuf

Spring Presentation of Undergraduate Research

Distinct differences exist between the phrases “criminal” and “immigrant” but moral panic has caused people to gravitate to use one term to address illegal immigration; Crimmigration. The current study seeks to contribute to the limited field of qualitative research on illegal immigration commonalities in migration experiences and characteristics of the immigrant. Qualitative semi structured interviews of detained men in an Immigration Detention Center will be conducted in efforts to illustrate the migration and detainment experience. This exploratory research contributes to the reformation of current immigration legislation and social perceptions of immigrants in the United States in hopes to eliminate the …

Disagreement In Assessing Neighboring And Collective Efficacy: The Role Of Social Distance, Adam Boessen, John Hipp, Seth Williams

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Works

Whereas existing research typically treats variability in residents’ reports of collective efficacy and neighboring as measurement error, the authors consider such variability as of substantive interest in itself. This variability may indicate disagreement among residents with implications for the neighborhood collectivity. The authors propose using a general measure of social distance based on several social dimensions (rather than measures based on a single dimension such as racial/ethnic heterogeneity or income inequality) to help understand this variability in assessments. The authors use data from wave I (2001) of the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey (n = 3,570) to aggregate …

The Confluence Of Language And Learning Disorders And The School-To-Prison Pipeline Among Minority Students Of Color: A Critical Race Theory, Shameka N. Johnson, Bahiyyah Muhammad

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

The Incarceration Nation: Interpreting The United States Imprisonment Rate, Robert Sharp

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This research paper begins by establishing the importance of studying the United States’ incarceration rate. Overall mass imprisonment and racial disparities in sentencing are two of the main concerns when discussing this issue. Previously published literature has indicated various contributory factors to the racial disparity in sentencing, such as judge’s discretion, educational attainment, and policy implementation. This paper tests five hypotheses that assess which factors influence the incarceration rate. The independent variables are overall minority population, public ideology, educational attainment, unemployment, and poverty. Each hypothesis predicts positive or negative relationships between the United States incarceration rate and the corresponding independent …

"A Bunch Of Tough Hombres": Police Brutality, Municipal Politics, And Racism In South Texas, Brent M. S. Campney

History Faculty Publications

“Everybody knew the McAllen police were a bunch of tough hombres, especially the Boys on C shift,” reported the Dallas Morning News on March 29, 1981. “Working the midnight-to-8 a.m. shift along the border is like being at war, the cops said. You have to be tough. The Boys on C shift worked at being tough.” Many of the “Boys” wore black T-shirts with gold letters bearing “the legend, ‘C Shift Animals.’ They even had their own slogan: ‘Kick…and Ask Questions Later.’ ” Only days earlier, the public had become aware of their misdeeds, revealed in six years of booking …

Nebraska Revised Statutes: Selected Provisions Pertaining To Child Welfare, Juvenile Justice, And Vulnerable Adults, 2018 Edition, Kathryn A. Olson

Center on Children, Families, and the Law (and Related Organizations): Publications

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. Duty and Power of DHHS Regarding the Protection of Children 1 (Sections 43-707 and 43-708)

II. General Social Services Provisions 2 (Sections 68-1202 through 68-1212 and 85-2501)

III. Family Policy and Family Finding 7 (Sections 43-532 through 43-534; and Sections 43-2201 through 43-2209)

IV. Child Protection and Family Safety Act (includes Alternative Response provisions) 11 (Sections 28-710 through 28-727 and 81-3136)

A. Child Abuse Mandatory Reporting Provisions 11 (Sections 28-710 through 28-717)

B. Central Registry of Child Protection Cases 16 (Sections 28-718 through 28-727, and 81-3136)

V. Child Abuse and Neglect Investigation and Treatment Teams 21 …

Government And Nongovernmental Collaboration To Build Community Resiliency Against Terrorism In Oklahoma City, Kimberly K. Heltz

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The way communities build resiliency and prepare for acts of terrorism is ambiguous in the United States; best practices remain unclear. Due to mobility and advancements in communication technologies, individuals and organizations share information, incite anger, recruit, and act on ideological grievances with ease. Such grievances are bolstered by the political and social exclusion of disparate groups through poorly designed policies and ineffective government structures. Using a combination of social constructivism and systems thinking theories, this case study explored collaboration efforts between government agencies and nongovernment experts in Oklahoma City, OK, identifying best practices as a result of lessons learned …

An Evaluation Of Juvenile Lifers In Pennsylvania Pre And Post Act 33 Of 1995, Kieshia Martin

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Act 33 of 1995 is an amendment to Pennsylvania's Juvenile Act (2008). This amendment changed jurisdictional boundaries for juvenile offenders who committed violent crimes with weapons. As a result, youth who committed violent crimes with weapons were automatically transferred to the adult criminal justice system. Using punctuated equilibrium as the theoretical foundation, the purpose of this study was to determine if Act 33, as a punctuating event, resulted in an increase in the number of youth transferred to the adult criminal justice system and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole in an urban county in Pennsylvania. Secondary data …

Length Of Pretrial Detainment For Inmates With Mental Illness, Maria Pereira-Sosa

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

There has been an increase in the number of individuals with mental illness being housed in correctional facilities over the last 50 years. In this study, the length of pretrial detention was compared for inmates who have a mental illness and are compliant with psychiatric medications, inmates who have a mental illness and are noncompliant or not prescribed psychiatric medication, and inmates with no mental illness. I also examined if inmates who have a mental illness have less severe charges and if there was a difference in the classification of mental health diagnoses for inmates who are and are not …

Gun-Free Zones: A Geographical Opinion Study On Attitudes Toward Gun-Free Zones And The Safety Impact On Residents, Sean Grier

School of Criminal Justice Theses and Dissertations

Gun violence is a pandemic problem in the United States, resulting in over two thirds of all homicides each year. Consequently, gun related policies have been fiercely debated within the political spectrum, with the 20th century seeing a dramatic increase in gun control legislation. Gun-free zones are designated areas that strictly prohibit all private citizens from carrying a firearm, even those with concealed weapon permits. The statistics indicate that numerous instances of gun related mass shootings have occurred within the confines of these gun-free zones (schools, movie theatres, government installations, etc.). However, little research exists to understand whether citizens actually …

From School To Prison: Assessing The Impact Of Non-Systemic Contributors To The School-To-Prison Pipeline, Jonathan W. Glenn

School of Criminal Justice Theses and Dissertations

The school-to-prison pipeline is an expansive issue that impacts the educational and criminal justice systems in the United States. Traditionally, the research has linked the prevalence of the pipeline to factors based within school systems. These systemic factors include the use of zero tolerance policies, exclusionary disciplinary practices, and the presence of school resource officers. The proposed study aims to assess the impact of factors that perpetuate the school-to-prison pipeline that are non-systemic in nature.

For the purposes of this study, the non-systemic contributors to the school-to-prison pipeline to be assessed are parental socialization, child self-control, learned noncompliance, child resilience, …

Brother’S Keeper: Self-Discovery, Social Support, And Rehabilitation Through In-Prison Peer Mentorship, Rebekah Zwick

School of Criminal Justice Theses and Dissertations

Correctional practices in New York State largely support a punishment paradigm, a framework in which men and women are incarcerated to suffer punition, with little consideration given to understanding the causes of criminality or means to rehabilitate the offender. The growing awareness of correctional failures have necessitated efforts to re-evaluate the justice system, with no consensus regarding which rehabilitative methods work. Correctional philosophy and practice provides few substantive opportunities for transformative rehabilitation; therapeutic peer programming to address deficiencies in pro-normative socialization and provide peer support are virtually nonexistent.

For many formerly incarcerated men who build successful lives for themselves within …

An Exploratory Study Of Selected Policy Diffusions In Judicial Settings, Renee Ann Pistone

School of Criminal Justice Theses and Dissertations

Canon and Baum’s (1981) pioneering study examined diffusion of 23 plaintiff-oriented tort doctrines among the state court systems in 1876-1975 provided an early model to study judicial innovation. Meanwhile, Berry and Berry’s (1990) later model featured event history analysis (EHA) that was relevant for this dissertation which sought to explain political behavior. This dissertation used archival data only and was a quantitative research design that was descriptive and exploratory of the judicial policy adoption process. The researcher used quantitative archival data and described what sociological, political, and criminological factors had impacted policy adoptions over time and explored the possible associations …

Suspicion, Suspicion: Police Perceptions Of Juveniles As The “Symbolic Assailant”, Andrea R. Coleman

School of Criminal Justice Theses and Dissertations

Jerome Skolnick’s (2011) "symbolic assailant" is a result of police attributing particular demeanor, gestures, language, and a style of dress to people they believed were most likely to commit violent crimes. The challenge became when police applied these characteristics to specific groups such as juveniles. Literature published before and after Skolnick (2011) indicated police were more likely to stop, arrest, interrogate, or surveille juveniles based on their demeanor, gestures, style of dress, lack of respect, deference to authority, the severity, and remorse for their offenses in addition to race. However, current research indicated race, gender, and Socioeconomic Status (SES) determined …

Millennial Generation Law Enforcement Academy Recruits And Their Perception Of Mental Health, Jeffrey M. Mcgill

School of Criminal Justice Theses and Dissertations

The traumatic and cumulative stresses associated with a law enforcement career are well documented both empirically and anecdotally. While previous generations have acknowledged and coped with these stressors with varying levels of success, research shows that the millennial generation has reported more mental health issues than any generation in history. Since suicide is the single leading cause of death for United States law enforcement officers in recent years, addressing mental health should be a priority of all agencies. The introduction of millennial generation law enforcement officers creates the potential for increased mental health needs within the field. 25 millennial-aged Florida …

Blacks In Policing And Organizational Change: A Comparison Of Departments’ Participation In Community Oriented Policing Activities, David Pernell Taylor

School of Criminal Justice Theses and Dissertations

Civil unrest in the1960s pitted Black citizens and police officers against each other (Kerner Commission, 1968). The Kerner Commission examined race relations and recommended the hiring of more Black officers to patrol Black neighborhoods. Recent shooting deaths of unarmed Black males primarily by White officers has led to renewed calls for police reform (Scholsser, Cha-Jua, Valgoi & Neville, 2015). This quantitative secondary analysis study utilizes data from the 2013 LEMAS survey to compare local police departments from three states (N=184) to examine whether police departments with a Black chief and/or a higher rate of Black officers reported more participation in …

Men's Violence Against Women: A Comparative Review Of Which Programs Work Best, Yeliani R. Valdez

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

One in four women have been a victims of Domestic Violence (DV) in their lifetime by an intimate partner. Men's violence against women is a public health issue that continues to persist today. Much of the larger conversations remains in finding the best solutions and allocating resources in order to reduce men's violence against women. Men's violence against women has impacted various families' and allowed a cycle of violence to persist.

There are a variety of treatment options for men who batter women in the literature. The most prominent ones include anger management, incarceration, couples counseling and batterer interventions programs. …

From Doldrums To Progressing Knowledge: Identifying Stifling Issues In Criminological Theory Building And Testing, Christopher M. Campbell, Melanie-Angela Neuilly

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications and Presentations

In the explanation of crime, although each social science has a primary focus of theoretical development, there are a number of areas where disciplines unwittingly parallel one another. Such parallel development promotes unnecessary competition among theories and prevents them from progressing knowledge. Additionally, theorists often discard related concepts presented by other disciplines, if they considered at all, which is indicative of an imbalance in the disciplinary frame of reference (e.g., psychology over sociology). Such imbalance and lack of cross-referencing impedes the ability of theories to adequately explain and understand criminality. This paper revisits how the theorizing of crime may benefit …

Predicting Staff Assault In Juvenile Correctional Facilities, Howard Henderson

Center for Justice Research Reports

This study examines the predictive utility of the community-based Positive Achievement Change Tool–Prescreen (PACT-PS) for staff assault in a sample of 787 state-committed male youth. Bivariate and multivariate analyses indicated the PACT-PS failed to predict staff assault across racial/ethnic groups. Notably, this study also found youth with serious delinquent histories and prior commitments improved the PACT-PS’s ability to predict staff assault. Limitations of this study, suggestions for future research, and practical implications are discussed.

Predictive Analytics In The Criminal Justice System: Media Depictions And Framing, Kar Mun Cheng

Honors Program Theses

Artificial intelligence and algorithms are increasingly becoming commonplace in crime-fighting efforts. For instance, predictive policing uses software to predetermine criminals and areas where crime is most likely to happen. Risk assessment software are employed in sentence determination and other courtroom decisions, and they are also being applied towards prison overpopulation by assessing which inmates can be released. Public opinion on the use of predictive software is divided: many police and state officials support it, crediting it with lowering crime rates and improving public safety. Others, however, have questioned its effectiveness, citing civil liberties concerns as well as the possibility of …

“It Ruined My Life”: The Effects Of The War On Drugs On People Who Inject Drugs (Pwid) In Rural Puerto Rico, Roberto Abadie, C. Gelpi-Acosta, C. Davila, A. Rivera, Melissa Welch-Lazoritz, Kirk Dombrowski

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Background—The War on Drugs has raised the incarceration rates of racial minorities for non-violent drug-related crimes, profoundly stigmatized drug users, and redirected resources from drug prevention and treatment to militarizing federal and local law enforcement. Yet, while some states consider shifting their punitive approach to drug use, to one based on drug treatment and rehabilitation, nothing suggests that these policy shifts are being replicated in Puerto Rico.

Methods—This paper utilizes data from 360 PWID residing in four rural towns in the mountainous area of central Puerto Rico. We initially recruited 315 PWID using respondent-driven sampling (RDS) and collected data about …

Assessment Of The Impacts Of Marijuana Legalization In Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Michael Lynch

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As marijuana legalization expands in the United States, communities that are shifting rapidly from prohibition to legalization are impacted greatly. As South Dakota remains one of the only states in the nation that has not engaged the marijuana reform movement in any manner, it is vital to assess potential impacts marijuana legalization might have on the state. Although there are several marijuana impact reports that analyze potential health and economic impacts of legalization, few address political and criminological implications that impacted areas undergo as a result of this policy change. Subsequently, there is a need to analyze the impacts of …

The Role Of Shame: A Creative Look At Justice, Gabrielle Lory

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The current criminal justice system is often brought under scrutiny for its perceived lack of procedural justice, low rates of victim satisfaction and a pattern of sentencing disparities among populations of racial minorities and people of low socioeconomic status (Palmer, 2015; Hamilton, 2017; Cornwell & Waite, 2009). Alternative justice programs have been growing in number for decades, as well as continually developing their processes to improve outcomes for victims and ameliorate sentencing disparities. This study examines the extant literature on alternative sentencing programs, specifically restorative justice programs, to provide empirical evidence contributing to the development of a creative justice framework …

The Formation Of A Citizen-Police Encounter And Its Effect On Dispositional Outcomes For Traffic Stops In A City And County Jurisdiction, Darby A. Semenza

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This research extends Donald Black’s (1976) theory of law to a large, more diverse sample of traffic stops than previous research. The theory suggests that with every citizen-police encounter, there is social distance separating the two parties. This distance is based on observable characteristics of both the officer and citizen involved. Specifically, their gender, age, race, demeanor, and whether they differ across these variables or not. A large difference in “social distance” increases the likelihood that an officer will cite a motorist; while a small distance reduces this likelihood. Social distance is the amount of diversity between two parties in …

The Effects Of Common Methods Of Soft Tissue Removal On Skeletal Remains: A Comparative Analysis, Emily Silverman

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The removal of soft tissue from skeletal remains is a process familiar to a wide array of scientific fields and the methods used to perform it are likewise numerous yet inconsistent. In forensic investigations and crime labs across the country, there lacks a standardization for this process. This lack of standardization pairs with a distinct lack of literature on the potential benefits and risks associated with each method as well as basic information on the proper amount of additives, temperatures, or time estimations. In a forensic context, human remains may be the only evidence available, which makes any damage or …

Developing A Cyberterrorism Policy: Incorporating Individual Values, Osama Bassam J. Rabie

Theses and Dissertations

Preventing cyberterrorism is becoming a necessity for individuals, organizations, and governments. However, current policies focus on technical and managerial aspects without asking for experts and non-experts values and preferences for preventing cyberterrorism. This study employs value focused thinking and public value forum to bare strategic measures and alternatives for complex policy decisions for preventing cyberterrorism. The strategic measures and alternatives are per socio-technical process.

Media Exposure And Social Response As Predictors Of Citizen's Attitudes Toward Police, Tara A. Garrison

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Police-involved deaths of African Americans have increased over the past two decades, with continued high-profile media exposure. The problem is that extant research provided only a partial understanding and disparate focus about how media exposure, social responses, social media use, and attitudes towards police were possibly related to citizens witnessing acts of police-initiated actions against African Americans in the United States. The purpose of this quantitative study was to assess the predictive nature of media exposure, social response, and social media use concerning citizens' attitudes towards police. The two theories supporting this study and shaped this hypothetical system are media …

Causes Of Recidivism Among Mentally Ill Prerelease Offenders From The Perspective Of Former Correctional Mental Health Professionals, Rina Desiree Deneice Bradley Brown

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The move toward reducing the prison population was driven by an increase in the number of reentry programs that focused on the needs of the offender, such as the provision of stable housing, employment, education, and sustaining strong familial bonds. While the literature supported these areas as being effective in reducing recidivism, there was no consensus that they were effective for offenders with mental illness (OMI). The purpose of this qualitative study was to analyze the impact of prerelease services for the OMI population from the perspective of former correctional mental health professionals who provided these services. The research questions …