Criminology Commons^™

Neighborhoods And Intimate Partner Violence Against Women: The Direct And Interactive Effects Of Social Ties And Collective Efficacy, Emily M. Wright, Marie Skubak Tillyer

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

This study examines the impact of several indicators of neighborhood social ties (e.g., residents’ interactions with each other; residents’ ability to recognize outsiders) on intimate partner violence (IPV) against women as well as whether neighborhood collective efficacy’s impact on IPV is contingent upon such ties. This study used data from 4,151 women (46% Latina, 33% African American, 17% Caucasian, on average 32 years old) in 80 neighborhoods from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods. We estimated a series of random effects hierarchical Bernoulli models to assess the main and interactive effects of neighborhood social ties and collective efficacy …

Demeanor, Race, And Police Perceptions Of Procedural Justice: Evidence From Two Randomized Experiments, Justin Nix, Justin T. Pickett, Scott E. Wolfe, Bradley A. Campbell

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

President Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing recently endorsed procedural justice as a way to restore trust between police and communities. Yet police–citizen interactions vary immensely, and research has yet to give sufficient consideration to the factors that might affect the importance officers place on exercising procedural justice during interactions. Building on research examining “moral worthiness” judgments and racial stereotyping among police officers, we conducted two randomized experiments to test whether suspect race and demeanor affect officers’ perceptions of the threat of violence and importance of exercising procedural justice while interacting with suspicious persons. We find that suspect race …

An Analysis Of Oregon Youth Authority Populations: Who Receives Treatment And What Factors Influence Allocation Of Treatment Resources?, Rebecca Arredondo Yazzie

Dissertations and Theses

Service provision in both adult and juvenile correctional settings is an understudied phenomenon. Research has evaluated the use of evidence-based practices (EBP) in the treatment of mental health and substance abuse among adults and juveniles. Young, Farrell, Henderson and Taxman (2009) highlight the role of organizational factors including climate and culture, opportunities for staff training, resources, administrator attitudes and interagency collaboration in the application of EBP in correctional settings. The Oregon Youth Authority (OYA) aims to provide services to youth under the guise of EBP. Literature in the field of juvenile justice is limited in scope in areas of organizational …

Seaport Vulnerability To Criminal Networks: A Mixed Method Approach To Measuring Criminological Vulnerability In The Top 30 U.S. Container Ports, Leonid Lantsman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Seaports form a unique space for criminological examination. As the locus points for the majority of international and domestic trade criminal network access to a port can provide outsized benefits. While ports are physical spaces they are underlined by complex systems incorporating public and private agencies, companies and small entities. Underlying the administrative and logistical activity at the port is a jurisdictional web of public and private security regulatory agencies. The complexity of the environment creates vulnerabilities that criminal networks can use to gain access to ports. This dissertation developed a Seaport Vulnerability Framework (SVF), developed from the rational choice …

Violent Video Games And Attitudes Towards Victims Of Crime: An Empirical Study Among Youth, Lavinia Mclean, Mark D. Griffiths

The ITB Journal

Previous research has indicated that playing violent video games may be associated with an increase in acceptance of violence and positive attitudes towards perpetrators of crime. This study is the first to investigate the relationship between playing violent video games and attitudes towards victims of crime. A total of 206 young people (aged 12-24 years) completed measures of attitudes towards victims and violent video game exposure. The results suggest that exposure to violent video games is associated with less concern being reported for victims of crime. Young people who play more violent video games reported less concern for general victims …

Book Review: Prostitution Narratives: Stories Of Survival In The Sex Trade, Edited By Caroline Norma And Melinda Tankard Reist, Abigail Bray

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

No abstract provided.

Commemorating A Decade In Existence Of The International Journal Of Cyber Criminology: A Research Agenda To Advance The Scholarship On Cyber Crime, Fawn T. Ngo, K. Jaishankar

Criminology Sarasota Manatee Campus Faculty Publications

The International Journal of Cyber Criminology (IJCC) is an interdisciplinary journal published biannually and devoted to the study of cyber crime, cyber criminal behavior, cyber victims, cyber laws and cyber policy. Ten years back in 2007, IJCC was launched by its founder Publisher and Editor-in-Chief K. Jaishankar with its website www.cybercrimejournal.com and with its launch a new sub-academic discipline of Criminology, Cyber Criminology is born. IJCC is an unique Diamond open access international journal, where the authors or the readers need not pay and open to all and it is freely accessible. IJCC is indexed in prestigious databases such as …

Practitioners' Views On Service Needs For Justice Involved Youth, Juan C. Llamas, Robin L. Chandler

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to assess practitioners’ views of service needs for juveniles involved with the justice system. In the United States, every year there are thousands of youth committed to detention institutions for delinquent acts. As a result, children as young as nine years of age up until adulthood have a difficult time integrating back into the community. In many instances, youth who have been involved with the justice system have a greater likelihood of recidivism due to their inability to adapt to their environment. Further, when youth enter the system, many times they are not receiving …

Charging A Police Officer In Fatal Shooting Case Is Rare, And A Conviction Is Even Rarer, Philip M. Stinson

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Computer Forensics And Irish Law, Anthony Keane

The ITB Journal

They say that ignorance of the Law is not a defence but how many people could really say that they have any idea of the legislation regarding compute use. The answer is not many and therefore most computer users do not know if their activities are considered illegal or illegal, other then the obvious ones that appear from time to time in the news media and normally involve fraud, theft or child pornography. This paper is a short overview and discussion of the Irish legislation that can be applied to computer activities and how “computer crime” is dealt with in …

End Of Life Care For The Incarcerated, Codie Robinson

Dialogue & Nexus

As the prison population ages, a new need has come to light – caring for those who are in the final stage of life. This paper will examine the current end of life services provided to those in prison throughout the United States. After a general awareness of the system is presented, a more complete discussion of end of life care for prisoners will be considered, in light of ethics, social justice, and the Christian perspective. The two care options presented, hospice care and compassionate release, are observed through these lenses. In order to make a decision on how to …

Rape Culture, Victim Blaming, And The Role Of Media In The Criminal Justice System, Lily K. Thacker

Kentucky Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship

Rape culture and the practice of victim blaming are inherently linked phenomena, and both are prevalent in American society. The existence of a rape culture which normalizes sexual violence and blames rape victims for the attacks against them strongly affects the American criminal justice system, influencing both the outcomes of rape trials and the treatment of rape victims. In particular, the media’s methods of discussing and portraying rape are examined as primary sources for the perpetuation of rape culture, and the effects of these media representations of rape on the outcomes of real rape trials are also examined. The problematic …

Chicago 7, Morgan Patterson

Student Scholarship

During the late 1960s, Americans were experiencing many struggles not only within our borders, but outside of them as well. Whether or not that be with citizens themselves and making their individuality more apparent, or the way the American people were thinking and dealing with situations. With the ever changing society, the government must also change. However, with new rules being put into play and new laws being enforced, the people began to rebel on the government. During this time in our history, two major events were taking place and this sparked a lot of involvement from the people of …

Solitary Confinement: Social Death And Its Afterlives, Jen Rushforth

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

No abstract provided.

How Japan’S Cultural Norms Affect Policing: A Side-By-Side Comparison With The United States, Katrina Tran

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

The ways of policing have been critiqued throughout the years—some have advocated for a direct approach while others value diplomatic techniques. Consideration is emphasized by how culture affects policing in the United States and Japan. In the United States, the customs of policing involve violence, individualism, pragmatism, social mobility, and low power distance, whereas Japan encourages non-violence, face-saving, conservatism, and high power distance. The difference in these cultural norms reflects how policing is conducted in these two countries. To understand how policing in these two countries are different, this paper examines the difference of cultural norms and its impact on …

Body-Worn Cameras: Reducing Citizen Complaints And Improving Relationships, Julie Bui

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

Video recordings of police-citizen interactions, most notably those obtained from the dashboard cameras (dashcams) of police cars, have been successful in objectively capturing police-citizen exchanges. However, since police-civilian interactions do not solely occur in front of police cars, dashcams present significant limitations. Off-camera violent, and sometimes fatal, encounters (such as the notorious Ferguson case) have fueled increased public support for body-worn cameras. This is especially true in cases with conflicting accounts from the officer(s), victim(s), and witness(es). Requiring officers to wear bodycams may reduce incidents of force and citizen complaints, and increase officer accountability. This paper will present peer-reviewed research …

Mass Shootings And The Media: How Race And Ethnicity Influence Media Coverage, Emily Wheeler

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

Topics related to crime and the criminal justice system comprise a majority of topics discussed in the media. This study explores how media coverage of mass shootings varies based on the racial or ethnic identity of the shooter. Topics examined include popular beliefs and misconceptions about the race of mass murderers, the role mass media plays in influencing public perceptions about race and crime related topics, and the alarming rate at which the public recognizes and accepts the media as a reliable source of information when official data sources provide a much different picture. Further analysis of the Columbine High …

Civil Forfeiture: The Failure Of The Courts, Thomas Senst

Honors Program Theses and Projects

No abstract provided.

Rehabilitation Or Social Isolation? The State’S Struggle With Juvenile Sex Offender Laws, Elyce C. Hall

Honors Program Theses and Projects

No abstract provided.

Examination Of Parole Revocation Decision-Making Policy Thru The Lens Of Organizational Theory: Qualitative Analysis, Ashley Furtado

Master’s Theses and Projects

Mass incarceration is primarily caused by harsh sentencing policies. But another contributing factor is the recidivism of parolees. There are several definitions of recidivism including relapse into behaviors associated with crime (technical violations), or committing crime. Criminal Justice agencies are organizations whose behavior may be better understood by looking at organizational theory. Organizational theory is a self-correcting model in which outcomes of prior decisions provide feedback to influence future decision in organizations. This study utilizes organizational theory to explore the relationship between the open systems theoretical model and the tolerance of risk of parolees. Seek to answer whether correctional populations …

Detroit Crime Trends: Examining Large Business Labor Practices, Sarah R. Mcguire

Master’s Theses and Projects

This study examines the relationship between the changes in large company employment of the top twenty-five large businesses in Detroit and the crime rate from 2012 to 2014. Previous research has asserted that a significant correlation exists between unemployment and crime but does not investigate the effects of large company employment in a city in relation to crime. This study seeks to fill this gap and address the relationship between changes in large company employment, relative to conditions of social disorganization, and changes in the crime rate. It builds upon Blau and Blau’s (1982) work on the structural contributors to …

Identifying Correlates In Anti-Semitic Incidents On College Campuses In The U.S., Jessica Morris

Master’s Theses and Projects

American colleges experienced approximately 5% of anti-Semitic incidents nationwide in 2014. These incidents included harassment, verbal taunts and physical attacks. This study will seek to identify the possible correlating factors of these incidents and others like it. The factors examined are the presence of Jewish student organizations, pro-Israel student organizations, pro-Palestine student organizations, pro-Pease organizations, Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) support and resolutions, as well as the campus location in relation to hate groups in the state. The significance of these factors being present on campuses is examined utilizing information from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), Anti-Defamation League (ADL), …

Student Perceptions Of Active Shooters On Campus, Barry T. King

Master’s Theses and Projects

This study examines the level of fear Bridgewater State University students experience about becoming a victim of a violent attack on campus by an active shooter. Since 1996, nearly 60 school shootings have taken place in American schools, resulting in hundreds of deaths. This study examines the impact on students' fearfulness in the wake of the most recent mass murders happening on college campuses at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University.

Empirical Challenges To Studying Terrorism And Homicide, Joseph K. Young, Erin M. Kearns

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

The study of terrorism has bridged multiple scholarly domains. Terrorism is discussed within political science as a form of political violence (Crenshaw 1981) related to civil conflict (Findley and Young 2012) and interstate war (Findley, Piazza, and Young 2012). Terrorism is studied within criminology as a form of criminal violence along with homicide and assault, and under political crime as a form of oppositional action put alongside sedition and treason (J.I. Ross 2006). In scholarly work, it is becoming increasingly more common to see works on terrorism connected to political violence (e.g., Thomas 2014) or political crimes (e.g., Chermak, Freilich, …

Intimate Partner Violence And The Overlap Of Perpetration And Victimization: Considering The Influence Of Physical, Sexual, And Emotional Abuse In Childhood, Tara N. Richards, Marie Skubak Tillyer, Emily M. Wright

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Using data from Wave 4 of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, this study examined the independent relationship of childhood maltreatment type (emotional, sexual, physical) on IPV victimization and perpetration; then mutually exclusive categories of IPV involvement (victimization, perpetration, and victimization/perpetration) were investigated. IPV victimization and perpetration were assessed using items from the revised Conflict Tactics Scales. A series of binary regression models and multinomial regression models were estimated. Models were stratified across gender. Results uncovered significant relationships between child physical abuse and IPV victimization as well as IPV perpetration for males and females, but this effect …

Examining The Extent And Impact Of Surveillance On Animal Rights Activists, Cassandra Boyer

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In the post-9/11 era, the USA PATRIOT Act provided law enforcement agencies broad powers to investigate citizens believed to be potential or perceived domestic terrorist threats. Preceded by the Animal Enterprise Protection Act (AEPA) of 1992, the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA) of 2006 delivered to these same agencies laws under which animal rights (AR) activists could be charged as domestic terrorists. Considered to be potential domestic terrorist threats under the Green Scare era, AR activists became prioritized as state-sponsored surveillance subjects.

This thesis seeks to determine the extent of surveillance on AR activists as well as its impact in …

Cooling Down Crime Hot Spots: Impact Of Saturation Patrol On Crime Hot Spots In Las Vegas, Nevada, Rachel Ware Stephensen

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

As law enforcement agencies embrace technology, hot spots policing has enjoyed popularity. The esteem of the strategy is not without warrant, as many studies show its effectiveness. The policing strategy simply involves focusing police resources on a specific area or areas of concentrated crime. An abundance of policing tactics exists to address problems within these areas. Many studies tout significant crime reductions in hot spot areas, with some police treatments proving more effective than others. Other studies discuss trepidation regarding geographically focused police efforts. Therefore, law enforcement’s strategy in an area must involve careful consideration of the associated benefits and …

International Responses To Human Trafficking: A Comparative Secondary Data Analysis Of National Characteristics, Olivia Germaine Tuttle

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Human trafficking is a rising international issue that has become a key concern for human rights organizations and governments throughout the world. As such, new policies are being developed and implemented to combat the problem. A guiding standard for these policies is the United Nations (UN) 2003 Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, which established a formal definition of human trafficking. While the UN Protocol was a significant step in the fight against human trafficking, it is limited by its framework, which focuses heavily on criminalization and punishment of traffickers. Recent discourse and …

The Sources Of Behavioral Reinforcement : An Examination Of Nonsocial Reinforcement Theory., Heather Tolle

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation attempts to gain a better understanding of the means by which deviant behavior is perpetuated. Nonsocial reinforcement theory proposes that behavior is reinforced by psychological, physiological, and social rewards of the behavior. This reinforcement of the behavior causes the frequency of the behavior to increase. Specifically, when an individual uses marijuana, the psychological and physiological rewards gained from the behavior can lead the individual to continue using marijuana over time. This dissertation will test this reciprocal impact of increased psychological and physiological responses leading to an increase in the behavior. Data from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth …

The Dangers And Self Protective Behaviors Of Ride Share Drivers., M. Angela Schwendau

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Ride-sharing companies have sprung up in various countries around the world, starting in the United States, in the past five years (Uber, 2015). These entrepreneurial upstarts have invaded the transportation industry with contract drivers and no regulations. As independent contractors, these drivers are not afforded the rights and protections as employees. Therefore, they question whether the companies, Uber and Lyft, are concerned about their safety and security. The closest profession to ride share drivers are taxicab drivers, who are considered to have one of the most violent jobs in the United States (Richardson & Windau, 2003). Specifically, they have a …