Criminology Commons^™

Empirically Testing The Principles Of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (Cpted) Theory: An Exploratory Investigation Of Perceived Safety In Virtual Parks And Green Spaces, Joel G. Mccormick

Theses & Honors Papers

Jeffery's Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design has become one of the leading crime prevention strategies used in many countries world wide including the United States. However, to date "Jeffery's complete CPTED model has not been subjected to empirical testing" (Paulsen & Robinson, 2005). The focus of this research is to empirically test people's perception of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) principles. This research will record the subject's perception of safety of virtual environments using three levels of CPTED design. A virtual landscape will be utilized because it allows for manipulation of the independent variable while holding the other variables …

Criminality Of Police Officers, Philip M. Stinson

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Gun Related Youth Violence: Fear Of Victimization Versus The Influence Of Significant Others, Ryan E. Spohn, Samantha Lane

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Proceedings & Presentations

Differential association/social learning theories have received considerable empirical support as an explanation of participation in delinquent acts, including violent delinquency (Heimer 1997). More recently, and primarily as a result of highly publicized school shootings in suburban high schools, fear of crime and victimization have received attention as motivators of gun-carrying and gun violence. These phenomena are generally not examined in unison, however, leaving open the question of their relative role as a cause of gun carrying and violence amongst youth. The current research project addresses this question. A major strength of the current research is the adoption of multiple measures …

Youth, Governance And The City: Towards A Critical Urban Sociology Of Youth Crime And Disorder Prevention, Matt Bowden

Articles

This article considers the historical and spatial context for the emergence of youth crime and disorder prevention initiatives in Ireland. These initiatives have to be understood in the context of their relationship to the broader ‘urban question’ and in particular the relationship of the peripheral housing estate to the rest of society and the economic sphere. More recent changes in the nature of society and the emergence of a ‘liberal creed’ have resulted in greater use of surveillance technologies for offsetting the opportunities for crime to be committed. In this context, youth crime prevention initiatives must be seen as an …

Una Investigación De Las Políticas Públicas En La Argentina Dirigidas Hacia La Prevención Del Delito En Comunidades Vulnerables: En Estudio De Caso En Villa Tranquila De Avellaneda Y El Barrio Pampa En Lanús, Camilia Lozano

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

During the decade of the ‘90’s until well into mid-2000’s, crime rates increased dramatically in Argentina. This was especially true after the socio-economic crisis of 2001, where a radical unemployment rate accompanied the growing crime rates. A public policy was thus implemented by the Ministry of Justice and Human Development in 2000 in order to attack this growing national concern. The National Plan of Crime Prevention is implemented in what will be referred to as “Vulnerable Communities”. These are marginal areas of the Province of Buenos Aires where drug use, unemployment and loitering on the streets are commonly observed. It …

Art Imitates Life: Violence And The Music Of Metal And Rap, Gordon A. Crews, Angela D. Crews

Criminal Justice Faculty Research

The purpose of this presentation is to explore the similar evolution's of Black Metal and Gangsta Rap musical genres. The authors argue the following similarities exist: 1) different cultures and statements being made, but violence is a common thread (outcomes of violence and societal responses), 2) the music and lyrics in both reflect their cultures, histories, and lives, and, 3) there is a strong musical and lyrical expression of violence related to the behavioral expression of violence among the artists and the fans in both genres. Finally, the authors question whether art imitates life or life imitates art.

Key Leadership Roles In The 9/11 Terrorist Attack, Aubrey Immelman

Psychology Faculty Publications

Personality assessment of three al-Qaida leaders in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the United States – Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and Mohamed Atta – provides evidence for a rudimentary model of the leadership roles required for a global-reach terrorist operation: (1) a narcissistic, charismatic leader devoid of core values beyond personal self-interest, adept at exploiting others in pursuit of his grandiose ambitions (e.g., bin Laden); (2) a strategic-thinking “true believer” without constraints of conscience regarding the level of violence he is willing to employ in his single-minded pursuit of mission (e.g., al-Zawahiri); and (3) unobtrusive, disciplined operatives …

The Effect Of Local Life Circumstances On Female Probationers' Offending, Marie L. Griffin, Gaylene Armstrong

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

This article examines the influence of change in local life circumstances on the short-term criminal behavior of female drug-abusing probationers. Using a binomial hierarchical generalized linear model, we examine the probability that certain “discrete life events” act to modify or change criminal behavior in the short term. The findings indicate that participants' involvement in conventional activities results in the decreased likelihood of engaging in nondrug crimes but an increased likelihood of drug dealing. Faced with this contradiction, we suggest that the dynamics of offending are altered by the nature of the criminal activity itself and the way in which gender …

Seeking Justice For Victims And Offenders: A Needs-Based Approach To Justice, Patrick M. Gerkin

Dissertations

This dissertation is a case study investigation of a victim-offender mediation program in a mid-western state. Victim-offender mediation is one form of amuch greater movement currently emerging within the criminal justice system known as restorative justice. The focus of this dissertation is to examine the connections between theory and practice with regards to mediation as a form of restorative justice.

This research fills avoid in the restorative justice literature. It offers findings based on empirical research about the issues that are central to restorative justicetheory and practice. There is a wealth of theory claiming that restorative justice can deliver a …

Assessing The Relative Effects Of State Direct File Waiver Laws On Violent Juvenile Crime: Deterrence Or Irrelevance, Benjamin Steiner, Emily M. Wright

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Juvenile waiver, or transfer, laws allow certain young offenders to be removed from juvenile court jurisdiction and prosecuted in criminal court, where the range of sanctions is presumably greater. In the past several decades, many states have modified their existing transfer statutes in order to streamline the waiver process and make it easier to prosecute juveniles in criminal court. In doing so, states have excluded certain offenses from juvenile court jurisdiction or added concurrent jurisdiction provisions to their existing waiver statutes. Concurrent jurisdiction, or direct file, statutes afford prosecutors the unreviewable discretion to charge certain juveniles in either juvenile or …

Testing Social Disorganization As It Pertains To Prostitution, Wynter Leighanne Edwards

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

The impact of crime on the community has gained notoriety within the sociological field over the last twenty years. With growing citizen concern it is important to understand the impact of crimes rates on communities. Social disorganization theory focuses on the relationship between crime and the community, however, little research has been done on social disorganization theory as it relates to victimless crimes such as prostitution. It is important to understand how variables derived from social disorganization theory explain levels of prostitution across neighborhoods. This is important because victimless crimes such as prostitution often act as precursors to greater crime …

The Masquerade Of Abu Ghraib: State Crime, Torture, And International Law, Dawn Rothe

Dissertations

On April 28, 2004, pictures of abuse and torture of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison by U.S. military personnel shocked many Americans. In the wake of the images, it became clear that several military personnel were involved in the acts of torture and abuse. This dissertation explores the interconnections of larger structural factors, state policies, and individual actors in an attempt to understand how and why torture and abuse occurred at Abu Ghraib. It builds upon an integrated theoretical model of state and corporate crime. The dissertation revises this model so that it can better address the complexities o …

Ua12/8 Annual Report, Wku Police

WKU Administration Documents

Statistical report of crimes reported to and services rendered by the WKU Police Department during the fiscal year 2005-2006. Includes some five year comparisons.

Assessing The Impact Of Ethical Training On Law Enforcement Personnel, Tina L. Lee

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the opinions of police officers in regards to satisfaction with ethics training. The participants in this study were police officers in city/municipal and county law enforcement agencies. Ethics training is very important in the field o f law enforcement because of the many temptations that officers face and the tremendous amount of authority that society gives to the police. In order to investigate officer’s satisfaction with ethics training, the Ethics Training Questionnaire (ETQ) was developed. This questionnaire contained two parts. The first part was completed by police administrators, and the second part …

Recent Efforts To Make Nebraska Juries More Representative Of Their Communities, Carly Duvall, Elizabeth Neeley

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

According to the Minority and Justice Task Force Report (2003), “the majority of Nebraskans believe that it is important that juries reflect the racial and ethnic makeup of the community.”

Improving The Amber Alert System: Psychology Research & Policy Recommendation, Monica K. Miller, Samantha S. Clinkinbeard

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

When lawmakers implemented the AMBER Alert System, they initi­ated a system designed to save the lives of missing children. However, the system might not be working as well as possible. If psychological research on related areas (e.g., memory and witness identification) extends to AMBER Alerts, it is likely that the system can be improved.

Section II of this article begins with a description and history of the AMBER Alert System, followed by a brief discussion of the effectiveness of the system. Section III continues with a review of numerous psycho­ logical studies that have important implications when applied to the …

A Macro-Level Analysis Of Divorce Rates And Juvenile Violent Crime And Drug Abuse In Virginia, Bianca Maria Conn

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

With one out of every two marriages statistically doomed to fail, we must ask ourselves: how does this affect children? This thesis examines the relationship between divorce rates in the 135 cities and counties in Virginia and rates of juvenile violent crime and drug abuse. Social disorganization, used as a main source of reference in this study, is helpful in understanding how divorce affects juveniles at the community level. Family disruption, due to parental divorce, supports the notion that there is less juvenile supervision in the home and in effect the community, which leads to juvenile delinquency.

The three different …

Implementing Community Policing Successfully: An Analysis Of The Degree Of Police Engagement With The Philosophy And Practice Of Community Policing, Robert G. Muladore

Dissertations

The police community in the United States began to adopt the philosophy of community policing in the early 1970s as a solution to rising crime rates. Since that time a great many police departments have officially stated that they have embraced and practice this concept. When later studies began to question theeffectiveness of community policing in reducing crime rates, measures such as reduction of citizens' fear of crime and citizen's attitudes toward policebecame the secondary measures of success of this philosophy. Few comprehensive studies have specifically looked at the degree of congruence betweenpolice agency adoption of the community policing philosophy …

Factors That Influence Domestic Violence Convictions In "No Drop Policy" Trials, Kim D. Akinyanju

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors that significantly influence conviction rates in domestic violence no drop policy trials. Literature heavily supports the position that factors.-such as physical evidence, police officer testimony, and cooperative victim testimony can help prosecutors increase conviction rates. This research utilizes data collected by Smith et al. (2001) on domestic violence trials in four cities that have implemented the no drop policy. Analyses revealed that various types of physical evidence do not significantly influence convictions in no drop policy trials. Cooperative victim testimony, however, does significantly influence conviction rates and in addition significantly …

The Floating Population And Crime In Contemporary China, Jonathan Wade Lopez

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

Since the late 70's in China there has been a dramatic increase in both the floating population and criminal activity. Members of the floating population, numbering between 79 and 145 million, live apart from their place of official permanent household registration (hukou) and are ineligible for the state-sanctioned social and economic benefits which accompany permanent hukou status. Although the literature and the media suggest that the floating population is to blame for the marked increase in criminal activity, few statistical studies examine the relationship between these two phenomena. This study used data from an extensive population based survey conducted in …

Traumatic Experiences Contributing To Juvenile Delinquency: A Look At Gender Differences, Alexis L. Correia

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

This study investigates the following two research questions: To what extent, if any, do traumatic experiences contribute to juvenile delinquency? To what extent, if any, does gender affect the relationship between trauma and juvenile delinquency? The extent of trauma was reviewed to include various studies relating to the impact trauma has on juveniles. Robert Agnew's General Strain Theory provided support for the differences that exist between males and females when it comes to trauma contributing to juvenile delinquency. Gender differences in emotional response to strain were reviewed, focusing on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The data that provided support for the …

Juvenile Court Probation Supervised Youths: At Risk In Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Christopher A. Mallett

Social Work Faculty Publications

Focuses on the increasing court cases of juvenile delinquents which are being processed in the U.S. Average of 1.2 million youths who are adjudicated delinquent and subsequently monitored by the juvenile justice system each year; Legal implication of the term probation; Risks involved in the juvenile justice system including family conflicts, addiction disorders, school problems and trauma.

A Case-By-Case Comparison Of The Classification Of Law Enforcement And Vital Statistics Data On Homicide, Marc Riedel, Wendy C. Regoeczi

Sociology & Criminology Faculty Publications

This study uses data from the California Linked Homicide File as a basis for evaluating the validity and reliability of homicide data. Case-by-case comparisons of variables reported by both agencies indicate that agreement between law enforcement and vital statistics data is highest with classifying homicides and victim gender and race and lowest with classifying victim age, manslaughters, and police justifiable homicides. The findings from a multilevel analysis examining what types of cases are unable to be linked over the two data-collection systems reveal that homicides involving Hispanic victims, weapons other than handguns, and family members other than intimate partners and …

Review Of Double Jeopardy: Adolescent Offenders With Mental Disorders. Thomas Grisso. Reviewed By James W. Callicutt., James W. Callicutt

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Book review of Thomas Grisso, Double Jeopardy: Adolescent Offenders with Mental Disorders. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2004. $29.00 hardcover.

Loyalty's Reward — A Felony Conviction: Recent Prosecutions Of High-Status Female Offenders, Michelle S. Jacobs

UF Law Faculty Publications

Between 2001 and 2004, six high-status women were charged with crimes in connection with corporate criminal cases. The public is familiar with some of them, although not all of their cases have been covered equally in the press. With the exception of an occasional article now and then mentioning the exploding rates of female incarceration, women's crime tends to be invisible to the public eye. The statistical data the government collects and analyzes on women and crime will be discussed. This article will focus on the prosecution of the individual cases of Lea Fastow, Betty Vinson, and Martha Stewart. Their …

Women, Drugs, And Crime, Angela M. Moe

Sociology Faculty Publications

Throughout feminist criminological scholarship, a concerted effort has been focused on understanding the backgrounds, criminal contexts, and programming needs of criminalized women. It is clear that criminalized women enter the justice system with a host of interconnected experiences and issues, ranging from childhood victimization, sexual assault, and intimate partner abuse, to homelessness, poverty, and illness. While these contribute to the motivations and rationales of women’s criminality, they are often aggravated by drug addiction. In a variety of ways, drug use is interlaced with women’s efforts to survive on a daily basis. This article examines the role drugs play in criminalized …

Exploring Demographic, Structural, And Behavioral Overlap Among Homicide Offenders And Victims, Lisa M. Broidy, Jerry K. Daday, Cameron S. Crandall, David P. Sklar, Peter F. Jost

Sociology Faculty Publications

Criminologists tend to focus their attention on the dynamics of offending, paying limited theoretical and empirical attention to the well-established relation between offending and victimization. However, a number of criminological theories predict similarities in the correlates and etiology of victimization and offending, suggesting substantial overlap across offender and victim populations. Empirical research confirms this overlap across offender and victim populations, at least among those involved in nonlethal incidents. This research explores whether similarities between offender and victim populations extends to homicide, using criminal justice, health care, and U.S. Census data linked to homicide offenders and victims in Bernalillo County, New …

Criminalized Mothers: The Value And Devaluation Of Parenthood From Behind Bars, Angela M. Moe, Kathleen J. Ferraro

Sociology Faculty Publications

With the number of incarcerated women rising in the United States, scholarship and activism has focused more explicitly on the backgrounds, criminal contexts, and programming needs of the imprisoned population. This article focuses on motherhood and relies on qualitative life-history interviews with thirty women in a southwestern detention center. The women’s narratives are used to further our under-standing of the ways in which motherhood (1) resonates with incarcerated women’s self-perceptions, (2) relates to their motivations for crime, and (3) informs therapeutic programming within the carceral3 environment. In order to address the needs of a critical, yet often ignored, correctional population, …

Ua12/8 Departmental Update, Wku Police

WKU Administration Documents

WKU Police departmental newsletters for 2006.

Ua1c11/91/3 Wku Police Department Photograph, Wku Police

WKU Administration Documents

Composite photograph of members of the WKU Police Department. Top row l to r: Roman Guitierrez, Robert Boyden, Amanda Hulen, Rick McBrayer, Kimble Johnson, Mike Miciotto, Craig Sutter, Dominic Ossello, Brian Ward, Brandon Miller. 2nd row l to r: Mike Dowell, Mike Wallace, Robert Deane, Jerry Phelps, Kerry Hatchett. 3rd row l to r: Ricky Powell, Joe Harbaugh, Mike Waldrop, Jody Burton, Lee McKinney, Pete Rich, David Skinner, Rafael Casas. 4th row l to r: Brenda Carver, Pam Pryor, Stephanie Shreve, Phyllis Skees, Pat Murphy, Nancy Kinkade, Connie Myers, Donna Hearld, Diann Crump.