Criminology Commons^™

Perceptions And Treatment Decisions For A Drug Offender Based On Social Class, Cocaine Type, Personal Characteristics, And Compassionate Love: A Vignette Study, Yasmin A. Odeh

Theses and Dissertations

Problem: The shift from a focus on rehabilitation to the more punitive, “tough on crime” approach to illegal behavior in the U.S. has been enacted in no small way by policies connected to the use and abuse of drugs. The disparities between crack and powder cocaine—two chemically similar substances—have headlined this shift (Vagins and McCurdy 2006). However, research is scarce on laypeople’s approval of deterrence approaches for drug offenses, including as a function of types (e.g., powder vs. cocaine possession). This study examined people’s perceptions of prosecutorial decisions for drug offenders—whether they are punished, rehabilitated, or both—and whether people perceived …

Offenders’ Perspectives On Acquisitive Crime Targets And Stolen Goods Disposal Methods, Joseph Clare, Liam Quinn, Natalie Gately, Suzanne Rock

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This paper examines offenders’ perspectives about acquisitive crime targets and stolen goods markets in Australia that have not been comprehensively reviewed since 2005. Over the last 18 years there have been significant changes in the rates of property crime, reductions in cash usage, and rapid movements to online markets as a disposal outlet, that motivate this updated analysis. In late 2022, n = 107 detainees in a Western Australian police watchhouse were interviewed about their property offending frequency, offence preferences, target selection, disposal methods, and estimated financial return for targeted goods. Results demonstrated (a) meaningful shifts towards shoplifting and away …

The Continued Insignificance Of Genocide In Criminological Inquiry, Grace Allbaugh, Susan Woollen, Jacqueline L. Schneider, Joanne Savage

Faculty Publications - Criminal Justice Sciences

This study aimed to explore publications appearing in criminology journals that studied the crime-type of genocide. The study of crime encompasses a wide range of topics. Largely, it is confined to traditional forms of crime like assault, murder, rape, robbery, burglary, and theft that take place at the local level. Criminologists have been studying international crimes, such as human trafficking, terrorism, piracy on the high seas, and wildlife trafficking amongst other crimes that span geo-political boundaries. What remains somewhat a mystery is the sparse research by criminologists worldwide on the crime of genocide. Our research explored the presence of studies …

Editor-In-Chief's Note, Surekha Rao

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

Reviewers And Referees

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

George C. Roberts Award Recipients

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

Call For Papers

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

Disentangling The Relationships Among Gender, Neighborhood Disadvantage, Depression, And Delinquency, Brooklyn Giovinazzo

SURF Posters 2025

The association between gender and crime or delinquency, with males committing more crime and delinquency than females, has been well-established in the criminological literature (e.g., Lauritsen et al. 2009; Kruttschnitt, 2013; Steffensmeier & Allen, 1996). This relationship has been consistently found across offenses, except for prostitution, across data sources, and over time. Despite this consistent association between gender and crime, or more broadly gender and deviance, this relationship is not fully understood. In part, this lack of understanding is a result, until relatively recently, of the paucity of research on girls’ deviance and delinquency. More recent research has demonstrated areas …

Analyzing Car Theft Trends In Central Texas: A Comparative Study Of Waco, College Station, And Killeen, Daniel Njogu

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This study examines motor vehicle theft (MVT) trends from 2019 to 2023 in three Central Texas cities—Waco, College Station, and Killeen—using temporal analysis, geospatial hotspot mapping, and make/model data. In Killeen, thefts generally rose over the period, with notable peaks in October and on Mondays. College Station saw an overall decline in thefts but experienced a seasonal spike each March, and Waco’s thefts increased until around 2021 before beginning to fall. Local festivals—such as the Spirit of Texas in College Station and the Heart O’ Texas Fair in Waco—appear to coincide with these seasonal upticks. Hyundais and Kias were most …

Escala De Machismo Para Personas Con Antecedentes De Violencia Doméstica (Mm-Vd), Paul Carrola, Eunae Han, Johana Rocha, Alberto Castro Valles, Maria Nieves Gonzalez Valles, Jorge Ramon Lozano Martinez, Juan Alejandro Anguiano

Departmental Papers (Counseling & Special Ed.)

Machismo has been investigated as an important factor in preventing and

remediating domestic violence. This study aimed to understand how to

measure culturally based gender biased attitudes of Mexican men with a

history of domestic violence and ultimately assist interventions for this pop-

ulation in the United States and Mexico.

Faith Amid Chaos: Does Religiosity Buffer Youth Delinquency In Disordered Neighborhoods?, Mason T. High

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This study examines whether religiosity moderates the relationship between neighborhood disorder and delinquent behavior among juvenile offenders. Drawing on Social Disorganization Theory and Neighborhood Disorder, the study hypothesizes that religiosity, both as an attitude and as a behavior, serves as a protective factor against delinquency in disordered neighborhoods. Using data from the Pathways to Desistance study, this research employs Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression with and without interaction terms to assess how individual perceptions of disorder interact with religiosity in influencing minor and major delinquency. Results indicate a significant positive association between perceived neighborhood disorder and delinquency, reinforcing the notion …

News Mediated Reporting And Governmental Narratives About The Enforcement Of Elite Criminality: Exploring The Social Construction Of Financial Frauds And Discrepancies In Punishment, Dominic J. Zicari

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines how financial crime enforcement decisions are socially constructed through a qualitative content analysis of news articles and government communications pertaining to two specific cases: the Enron scandal of 2001 and the subprime mortgage crisis of 2008. The study was guided by a theoretical framework that utilizes Barak’s (2017) theory of state-routinized crime control. The rigorous analysis of 394 news articles and government communication documents revealed that the media and the state rarely framed the subprime mortgage crisis as a criminal issue. Although the Enron scandal was frequently described as financial crime, journalists and government communicators were often …

How Do Documentaries Depict The Experiences Of Juveniles In Correctional Facilities?, Emma Decker

Honors Program Theses

The juvenile justice system is an entity that is separate from the criminal justice system, with the intended purpose of accommodating the unique needs of juveniles. This system has the primary goals of rehabilitation and punishment, with an emphasis on rehabilitation. Most of the general population has had little to no contact with the juvenile justice system.. In order to fill this gap, a great portion of the public relies on media representation to build up a foundation of knowledge. This can include gaining information from news sources as well as crime based tv shows and documentaries. Little research has …

Attitudes Toward Juvenile Offenders: How Juvenile Justice Personnel Perceive Juvenile Recidivism, Morgan Barnette

Honors Program Theses

This study examined the relationship between juvenile justice personnel and the predictive factors of juvenile recidivism. With rising juvenile crime rates across the country, investigation into the causes of juvenile recidivism has also risen. However, not much research has been dedicated to the way juvenile justice personnel view juvenile recidivism. This study surveyed a sample of six juvenile justice personnel including judges, a lawyer, a probation officer, and a detention officer. The survey explored the types of crimes juveniles are perceived to be committing, the frequency of interactions with repeat offenders juvenile justice personnel are having in their respective professions, …

Macroeconomics, State Action, Civic Trust, And Homicide: The Causes And Consequences Of Interpersonal Violence In Latin America, Guillermo Escano

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) represent 8 percent of the global population but about one-third of global homicides, yet interpersonal violence in the region receives limited attention in the English-language literature. This dissertation contains three distinct studies of the causes and consequences of crime and violence in LAC. The first study examines the predictive effects of inflation on robbery, burglary, and homicide rates in Argentina, which possesses one of the highest robbery rates worldwide and has endured high inflation – and, at times, hyperinflation – for years. I obtained annual crime data for 1973-2022 from the National Criminal Information …

Street Outreach And Reentry: The Role Of Community Violence Intervention In The Reintegration Of Returning Citizens, Hilary Jackl

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Amidst ongoing efforts to reduce the nation’s prison population, as well as calls to defund the police and invest in civilianized public safety strategies following the murder of George Floyd, community-based violence intervention (CVI) strategies have been increasingly recognized as a critical means by which to ameliorate the United States’ enduring gun violence problem without exacerbating the harms of overpolicing and mass incarceration. However, most contemporary CVI research has assessed program impacts on neighborhood rates of gun violence and has produced conflicting findings, leading scholars to call for the need to examine a wider range of program-related functions and outcomes. …

How Do Young Adults With Drug Use Disorder (Dud) Utilize Treatment? Exploring And Examining Lived Experiences Towards Treatment Completion In Indonesia, Dewi Kartikawatiningsih

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

In Indonesia which has the highest rate of drug addiction in Southeast Asia, there is currently little knowledge about how young adults perceive the barriers faced when completing treatment or how treatment providers' perspectives influence their treatment completion. Understanding and identifying barriers to treatment completion is essential to making drug treatment more effective. The purpose of this study is to explore the perspectives and live experiences of young adults with DUD and their addiction counselors to develop a deeper understanding of treatment needs. This study interviewed 33 clients and 15 counselors from the rehabilitation center of the Badan Nasional Narkotika …

Philosophers On Prison Abolitionism: Theory Versus Practice, Piero Moraro

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Philosophers have long been debating the moral justifiability of punishment. However, they have seemingly ignored the adjacent question concerning the moral justifiability of incarceration, as demonstrated by the dearth of philosophical work on prison abolitionism. This silence is puzzling, given that, on closer examination, many philosophers implicitly (or even explicitly) endorse the core assumptions of prison abolitionism. By discussing some examples in the recent literature in philosophy of punishment, I argue that philosophers support prison abolitionism in practice, but not in theory. They endorse the practical strategies in the abolitionist agenda, yet refuse to engage with the normative assumptions that …

Appearances Can Be Deceiving: How Naturalistic Changes To Target Appearance Impact On Lineup-Based Decision-Making, Dominic T. Jordan, Adrian J. Scott, Donald M. Thomson

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The present study examined the influence of appearance, procedure and position on identification decisions, post-decisional confidence ratings and estimates of discrimination and confidence-specific accuracy. Regarding appearance, the study examined the combined influence of three naturalistic changes that occur day-to-day (i.e. a reduction in cranial hair length, the removal of stubble, and a change of clothing), two of which have not been considered before in a lineup-decision context. Participants (N = 350) completed four experimental lineups which involved: viewing a target person, completing a brief distractor task, and making an identification decision and a post-decisional confidence rating from a photographic lineup. …

Victim-Offender Relationships And Their Influence On Crime Brutality And Sentencing Outcomes In Capital Homicide Cases, Samantha Jane Trowbridge

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

This study examines capital murder cases in Missouri from 1976 to 2022 to explore how victim-offender relationships relate to both the brutality of homicides and sentencing outcomes. It addresses three main questions: What are the different types of victim-offender relationships in these cases, and how frequently does each type occur? How do these relationships influence sentencing outcomes, particularly the likelihood of receiving the death penalty versus life without parole? And which types of relationships are associated with the highest and lowest levels of brutality? The study uses official court records and applies a coding process to analyze relationship type, sentencing …

Nature, Nurture, And Serial Murder: A Biocriminological Analysis Of Jeffrey Dahmer And Aileen Wuornos, Dori W. Jal

Honors Thesis

In recent years, there has been an increase in public fascination with serial killers, however current criminological explanations continue to focus on social and psychological factors, lacking commentary on potential biological implications. This thesis addresses a gap in the literature by examining how biological processes, specifically epigenetic, neurobiological, and endocrinological mechanisms, interact with environmental stressors to shape serial homicidal behavior. The goal is to determine whether serial murder can be more effectively understood through a biosocial framework that integrates biological vulnerability with lived experience, rather than relying on singular explanatory models.

Using a qualitative multiple-case study methodology, this research analyzes …

Navigating The Digital Frontier: New Perspectives On Cybercrime And Governance, Christopher S. Kayser, Thomas Dearden, Katalin Parti, Sinyong Choi

International Journal of Cybersecurity Intelligence & Cybercrime

No abstract provided.

Modus Operandi And Blockchain Analysis Of Romance Scams: Cryptocurrency-Driven Victimization, Amy Lim, Kyung-Shick Choi

International Journal of Cybersecurity Intelligence & Cybercrime

No abstract provided.

The Legal Response To The Intrusion Into Digital Identity In Social Media, Maria González-García Vinuela

International Journal of Cybersecurity Intelligence & Cybercrime

No abstract provided.

A Study Of Pattern Of Cybercrime Abuse Of Individual Internet Users In Umuahia North Lga, Abia State Of South-Eastern Nigeria, Ogochukwu Favour Nzeakor, Rita Ngozi Okafor, Chibuike Ndubuisi Nwoke

International Journal of Cybersecurity Intelligence & Cybercrime

Although a number of studies exist on cybercrime and its abuses, little is known about the pattern of cybercrime abuses individual Internet users experience in Nigeria, especially the south eastern region. Using data collected via various methods, this study examines the pattern of cybercrime abuses of individual Internet users in Umuahia, Abia State, of South Eastern Nigeria. The result of the analysis of 1,067 samples drawn from 223,134 Internet users in Umuahia North LGA of Abia Sate showed that: while most users are victims of stolen ICT-gadgets (19%), fraud related offences (17%), and hacking (15%); they rarely fall victims of …

Is The Defendant Mad Or Bad? The Association Between Mental Health, Race And Sex In Sentencing In Federal Courts, Tracy Sohoni, Sylwia Piatkowska, Briana Paige

Sociology & Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Although US courts regularly sentence individuals with mental health problems, to date, there has been little research on whether mental health indicators are related to sentencing decisions. The focal concerns perspective suggests that sentencing decisions reflect perceptions of the blameworthiness of the defendant, concerns about protecting the community, and practical considerations. Potentially, mental health issues could serve as a mitigating factor in sentencing decisions by making defendants seem less culpable for their actions and more deserving of assistance rather than punishment, and/or due to concerns about practical considerations related to higher costs of incarceration or of exacerbating current mental health …

Pre-Migration Victimization And Fear Of Violent Crime Among New Arrivals In Chicago / Victimización Y Miedo Al Crimen Violento En El País De Origen De Los Migrantes Recién Llegados A Chicago, Cristian L. Paredes, Keyla Navarrete, Anna E. Bullock, Brianna Hernandez, Raymond A. Akumbilim

Sociology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

This project explores the situations and experiences of new arrivals/asylum seekers who have recently arrived in Chicago. Chicago has experienced a significant increase in the number of newcomers, due to Operation Lone Star, launched by Texas Governor Greg Abbott in March 2021. Since August 2022, Governor Abbott has bused more than 30,000 migrants to Chicago. The City of Chicago has acknowledged its responsibility to welcome everyone regardless of immigration status, adopting a proactive stance toward this humanitarian emergency. However, newcomers still struggle to get access to basic needs in the city. We have conducted a face-to-face, cross-sectional survey to collect …

An Interpretative Phenomenological Study Of Sexual Assault Investigations In Sexual Assault Response Teams (Sarts), Caitlyn Marie Clark

Theses and Dissertations

This applied dissertation was designed to provide further insight into sexual assault investigations and response from the lived experiences of Sexual Assault Response Team and Task Force criminal justice professionals. There has been limited research on Sexual Assault Response Teams (SARTs), Multidisciplinary Teams (MDTs), and Sexual Assault Task Force (SATF) units, specifically encompassing the lived experiences of their members. This interpretative phenomenological study sought to explore these collaborative multidisciplinary teams from the lived experiences of the criminal justice professionals who represent them and to analyze the factors of sexual assault investigations and response that these members find significant.

In this …

Implications Of The Second Chance Act For African American Females And Reentry: A Content Analysis Rooted In Critical Race Theory And Intersectionality, Tumia Romero

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This dissertation examines the content of the Second Chance Act (SCA) to understand its potential impact on the reentry of African American females into society, highlighting the intersectionality of race and gender within the criminal justice system. Despite the SCA’s intentions to facilitate the reintegration of incarcerated individuals, its language and implementation have mainly remained gender-neutral, not addressing the unique challenges faced by African American females. This study employs a qualitative content analysis approach to examine the Second Chance Act, assessing its effectiveness in addressing the social determinants and barriers to reentry that are specific to African American females. According …

Explaining Mass Shooting Motivations: A Case Survey Analysis Of Us Mass Shootings (2006-2024), Isaiah H. Harris

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Research on the motivations behind mass shootings remains inconclusive as these events often lack a singular or explicit cause. The motivations of mass shooters are complex, shaped by the interplay of psychological, social, and ideological factors. While some attacks are clearly driven by extremist beliefs, others appear to stem from less defined forces such as depravity or sadistic intent. Existing typologies, such as Langman’s (2009) analysis of school shooters, offer valuable insight but are limited in scope. This study expands upon previous research by examining U.S. mass shootings from 2006 to 2024 to determine whether such events are more frequently …