Social Control, Law, Crime, and Deviance Commons^™

Prone To Prejudice: Trans Experiences And Structural Harm In The U.S. Prison System, Margaret-Maria Pemu

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study examines transgender individuals' experiences within the justice system. This study seeks to illuminate the complex realities of incarceration using social constructionism and reflexive thematic analysis. The social constructionist perspective offers a framework for understanding how gendered identities are shaped, constrained, and policed within institutional contexts. The analysis of narratives from Large Reddit communities allows this study to examine how transgender individuals make sense of and survive correctional environments. A comprehensive analysis of the data generated the following six major themes: (1) Solitary Confinement Universally Induces Horror, (2) Discriminatory Treatment Leads to Disillusionment with the Criminal Justice System, …

The Role Of Geographic Area On Juvenile Delinquency: Evidence From The 2023 National Survey On Drug Use And Health, Sara G. Remy

Sociology and Criminology Undergraduate Honors Theses

This study explores the relationship between geographic area and juvenile delinquency, with particular attention to how this relationship varies across the following settings: large metropolitan areas, small metropolitan areas, and rural areas. Using nationally representative data from the 2023 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), the analysis focuses on youth under the age of 18 and incorporates additional social factors such as parental involvement, gender, grade level, and race/ethnicity. Results from my negative binomial regression models demonstrate that geographic area did not play significant role in delinquency overall. Income showed notable variation by geographic setting: in rural areas, …

“Cry Harder!”: How Parents Traffic Their Children Through Forced Child Begging And Child Labor, Abigail K. Bellocchio

Sociology and Criminology Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis examines the complex intersection of socioeconomic and cultural factors influencing forced child begging, a form of human trafficking, across different global regions. Through comprehensive literature analysis and examination of data from the Global K-anonymized Dataset from Counter-Trafficking Data Collaborative (2021), this research reveals a critical gap in human trafficking discourse: the absence of a unified definition and understanding of forced child begging. Despite affecting millions of children worldwide, forced child begging remains fragmented in academic literature, scattered across disciplines including child welfare, anthropology, and media studies rather than being centrally addressed in anti-trafficking frameworks. The research identifies that …

Examining The Motivational Circumstances Of Bias-Motivated Violence And The Likelihood Of Fatal Outcomes, Kathleen R. Sucher

Sociology and Criminology Undergraduate Honors Theses

Bias-motivated violence has emerged as an increasingly urgent social problem in the United States, with recent years witnessing significant rises in hate crimes against multiple marginalized groups. Although prior research has recognized that bias crimes are not motivated by a single factor, gaps remain in understanding how motivational circumstances relate to fatal outcomes and how situational factors differ between types of bias attacks. Using descriptive and bivariate analyses of cases from the Bias Homicide Database (2015-2022), this study examines the relationship between motivation, fatal outcomes, and incident characteristics in bias-motivated murders and attempted murders. Findings show that while predatory motivations …

A Spatiotemporal Analysis Of Violent Crime In Little Rock, Arkansas From 1999-2022, Nicole Rogers

Data Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Little Rock, Arkansas is not only the capital and largest city in Arkansas, but it has one of the highest crime rates amongst cities with over 100,000 people in the country. According to the US Census in 2020, Little Rock had a population of 202,591. In the same year, Little Rock Police Department recorded 3,567 cases of violent crime, leading to a violent crime rate of 1,805 violent crime occurrences per 100,000 people. For perspective, Chicago’s violent crime rate was approximately half of that of Little Rock during the same time period. Crime, like other social phenomena is unevenly distributed …

The Role Of Female Offenders In Sex Trafficking Rings, Caroline Johnson

Sociology and Criminology Undergraduate Honors Theses

This study examines the role of female offenders in sex trafficking rings. Using the Human Trafficking Study database, I found 502 cases that had clear information coded about convictions, sentences, and genders. It was hypothesized that women typically receive a lower sentence than men do. Bivariate analysis revealed that to be true. In addition, I compared conviction rates between the two genders, finding that women are more likely to plead guilty in comparison to men.

Using a smaller sample with additional information, I also isolated the roles that women play in a sex trafficking ring. I found that 48% were …

Human Trafficking: Physical And Non-Physical Force Factors And Their Links To Victim Industry, Mary Caroline Kerr

Sociology and Criminology Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper examines the occurrence of different types of physical and non-physical force factors with two distinct human trafficking industries: sex trafficking and labor trafficking. This research’s main goal is to identify if there are specific uses of force that are more likely to be used in either sex or labor trafficking. The Human Trafficking Study, a database housed at the University of Arkansas, is used as a sample for this study. Two-sided, two sample proportion tests were conducted to establish if there is a statistical significance between the amount of physical force used in sex trafficking and the amount …

Characteristics Of Bias Homicides Against The Lgbtqia+ Community, Jeff Gruenewald, Katie Ratcliff

Research Projects

Background: Five people were killed and at least 17 injured on November 19, 2022 just before midnight at Club Q, an LGBTQIA+ club in Colorado Springs, CO. The shooting ended after a 22-year-old gunman wielding an AR-15 style rifle was disarmed by club patrons. Federal, state, and local law enforcement officials continue to investigate the mass shooting. The alleged shooter has been charged with murder and hate crimes.

Examining The Escalation To Violence At Political Protests: A Conjunctive Analysis, Austin C. Barber

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Despite extensive sociological research on the broader causes of collective violence, there has been much less research on the situated nature of more recent violence committed by individuals attending protests and rallies, such as Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests and the 2021 Stop the Steal rally at the U.S. Capitol. To fill this gap in research, I draw from the tenets of Environmental Criminology and the Situational Crime Prevention (SCP) perspective to quantitatively examine individual-level and incident-level risk factors most associated with contemporary forms of collective violence. After exploring situated differences across ideological movements, I ask how do risk factors …

Print News Media And Prisoner Reentry: An Exploratory Study Of Local Newspapers In 2018, Sydney Gaughan

Sociology and Criminology Undergraduate Honors Theses

In hopes to fill gaps on this subject, the current study uses ethnographic content analysis on newspaper articles while investigating the following research questions: (1) How does local news media portray recidivism by reentering prisoners? and in turn, (2) What are some characteristics of those news articles associated with the likelihood of local media using specific portrayals or “frames”?

There are several reasons to examine these research questions. First, this research aims to convey how local news media might use their positions to create narratives for public consumption that foster worry and panic. This study can shed light on the …

Impacts Of Post-Incarceration Programming For Women's Lives And Local Communities, Megan Greenslade

Sociology and Criminology Undergraduate Honors Theses

Previous research on reentry programming has focused mostly on male inmates and less attention is given to female inmates. In Arkansas, where female reentry rates have recently increased, research is needed to add to the conversation surrounding effective programming for previously justice-involved women, its impact on their lives and behaviors, and how this can influence the likelihood of recidivism. This qualitative study also aims to discover whether reentry programming can have a positive impact on the local community. Residents and staff at a local Northwest Arkansas transitional housing facility for previously justice-involved women were interviewed to analyze the effects of …

The International Perception Of The Irish Republican Army And Chechen Insurgency, Henry Forteith

International and Global Studies Undergraduate Honors Theses

This purpose of this project is to examine how the labels used to describe the Irish Republican Army and Chechen insurgency changed after certain acts of violence. This paper begins by describing the history of imperial subjugation of Ireland and Chechnya, as well as examining the similarities between the actions and motivations of the IRA and Chechen insurgency. Then, to study the change in language to describe these groups, two searches were conducted into the New York Times and International Newsstream databases. The first search examined articles about the IRA and Chechen insurgency published between 1998 and 2009, while the …

Law Enforcement Policy And Personnel Responses To Terrorism: Do Prior Attacks Predict Current Preparedness?, Bryce Kirk

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Terrorism has been on the mind of the American people and politicians alike since the 9/11 attacks over two decades ago. In the years since, there has been a massive shift in law enforcement priorities from community-oriented policing (COP) to homeland security-oriented policing. This was especially evident in the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shortly after the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon in 2001, which was established to aid law enforcement entities with terrorism preparedness. While prior literature has addressed a variety of factors that have contributed to terrorism preparedness, very little research has …

Voluntary Contacts With Police: Do Differences In Perceptions Of Police Still Exist?, Regan Harper

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Publicized police misconduct and brutality over the past decade have contributed to increased tensions between the police and community. Exposure to these encounters can result in negative perceptions of police and have serious policy implications for funding of police departments. Although prior research has focused on previous contacts with police, little is known about how voluntary contacts with police can shape an individual’s perceptions. Given the recent death of George Floyd and movement to “defund the police,” the current study aims to determine whether there are demographic differences in perceptions of police among those who have experienced prior voluntary contacts …

Seditious Conspiracy Charges In The American Terrorism Study (Ats), Katie Ratcliff

Research Projects

In January 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Seditious Conspiracy charges against members of the anti-government extremist group Oath Keepers in connection to the January 6th (2021) siege of the U.S. Capitol Building. Several have entered not guilty pleas and a trial is expected in July 2022.

To provide context, this brief offers an overview of 11 Seditious Conspiracy cases included in the American Terrorism Study (ATS) since 1980. In total, these cases involve nine groups (a.k.a."cells" or "plots") and 78 defendants charged with Seditious Conspiracy (18 USC§ 2384), a relatively rare charge that comprises less than one half …

Rethinking Immigration Justice: Mexican Community Activism While Serving Migrants In Transit., Angélica Villagrana

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research study focuses on the externalization of migration control and its effects on staffmembers of community organizations that serve Central American migrants in transit. While literature on migration enforcement places emphasis on border control and internal removals, research on new forms of migration enforcement has paid little attention to the extension of border control beyond physical borders. This study employed an ethnographic approach to address the overarching question of how community organizers have responded to the adoption of US practices on extraterritorial migration control by the Mexican government while serving migrants in transit. Data collected provide empirical evidence contextual …

Extreme Far-Right Murder-Suicide Attacks In The U.S. And Germany: A Comparative Storyline Analysis, Hayden Lucas

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Despite increasing empirical research on suicide terrorism since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, prior studies have focused primarily on radical Islamic terrorism in non-Western contexts. As a result, less is known about how murder-suicide attacks committed by other ideological movements unfold, particularly the extreme far-right in North America and Europe. Researchers have begun to theorize the social and psychological processes believed to play a role in the radicalization of suicide terrorists. However, the observable, situational processes shaping radicalized individuals when planning, preparing for, and executing suicide terrorism remain underexplored. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to identify intervention points by …

Racialized Reality: Crime News And Racial Stereotype Framing, Warrington Sebree

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Research shows that crime news is a primary mechanism for shaping public consciousness surrounding legal order, social morality, and threats present in their citizens communities. This research explores how news media influences negative attitudes towards criminal justice reform and Black identity. Utilizing Framing Theory, this study focuses on whether negative stereotypes in crime news triggers racial prejudice and bias towards African Americans. Participants of this study will consist of current students at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. The findings suggest that knowing the race of a potential criminal assailant influences respondents’ attitudes towards presumptions of guilt, future criminality, and criminal …

Caring Against The Carceral: How Families Mediate The Social Death Of Incarceration, Jessica Claire

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Incarceration, especially in the United States, is deeply related to issues of racism, poverty, and citizenship. These particular experiences are the result of a history of biopolitical control affecting Black and brown communities and have a quintessential origin in enslavement. Those who are incarcerated are isolated, dishonored, and powerless as a result of the criminalization of race and poverty. These observations led to questions surrounding the particular impact families may have on the experiences of those who are incarcerated. Families of Incarcerated Loved ones, or FOILs, mediate incarceration through intentional socialization which has the potential to counteract the realities of …

Examining The Demographic And Situational Characteristics That Predict News-Media Coverage Of Bias Homicides:, Caitlin Tidwell

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Recent trends indicate that incidents of hate crime have become increasingly more violent since 2017, resulting in an overall increase in incidents of bias homicide specifically. Knowledge of bias crime among the general public largely derives from news media sources and, unfortunately, research that illustrates how the media covers and/or portrays bias crime incidents remains underdeveloped. Using theories of strategic news making, the current study examines the types of bias homicide incidents that receive media coverage by constructing a unique database of newspaper articles from prominent, national papers for 216 bias homicides that occurred between 2000 and 2019 drawn from …

Victims Of Anti-Asian Bias Homicides In The United States, 1990-2019, Jeff Gruenewald, Katie Ratcliff

Research Projects

Background: Asians have increasingly becometargets of bias crime since China was publicly linkedto the COVID-19 virus outbreak. Acts of violencetargeting persons because of their Asian descent arenot new and have included brutal attacks resulting inthe death and elevated levels of fear across Asiancommunities.

Less Than Half Of Racially-Motivated Homicides Result In Official Hate Crime Charges, Jeff Gruenewald, Katie Ratcliff

Research Projects

Background: On February 23, 2020, Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man, was gunned down while jogging near his Georgia home. Portions of the physical altercation were caught on camera by one of the three men charged in the murder. The shooter reportedly uttered a racial epithet at Arbery as he lay in the street dying. Georgia is one of the four states without hate crime laws in the United states, but the FBI is currently investigating the shooting as a potential hate crime.

Extreme Ideologies, Situational Factors, And Terrorists’ Target Selection, Evan Mudgett

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the current study is to examine how ideology and situational factors shape terrorist target selection in the United States. While a growing number of studies have examined target selection by terrorists, the current study is the first to consider how combinations of factors present situated opportunities for terrorists to select particular types of targets as opposed to others. Guided by the situational crime prevention approach, this study relies on data from the American Terrorism Study (ATS) to measure attributes of incidents perpetrated by far-right and Islamic extremists and target selection. The outcomes of interest include government versus …

Show Me St. Louis: Risk Assessment Through An 80-20 Framework, Hannah K. Steinman

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Researchers of crime and place have long explored the uneven distribution of crime within the built environment and repeatedly identified where crime is concentrated. The longstanding question pertaining to crime at the micro-level, is why crime concentrates. This study operates within environmental criminology, through an 80-20 framework, to explore the spatial distribution of crime across streets with crime generators and attractors in St. Louis, Missouri to fill this gap in the literature. A conjunctive analysis of case configurations is used to identify unique high and low-crime street profiles. Crime data from 2018 – 2019 are used from the St. Louis …

30 Years Of Deadly Hate And Bias Crimes, Jeff Gruenewald, Katie Ratcliff, Taylor June, Grayson Goyer, Haley Pyle

Research Projects

The Bias Homicide Database (BHDB) is an open-source, relational database housed in the Terrorism Research Center (TRC), which is located in the J.W. Fulbright college of Arts and Sciences at the University of Arkansas. Created in 2003, the TRC harnesses science and data analytics to promote safer communities, inform evidence-based policies, and train the next generation of law enforcement and intelligence professionals. The TRC also hosts the Crime and Security Data Analytics Lab.

This brief was prepared by Terrorism Research Center (TRC) staff. The TRC is a non-profit, nonpartisan research organization.

Community College Students’ Perceptions Of Law Enforcement, Jason L. Sharp

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to extend our understanding of public perception towards law enforcement. Students from three different Kansas community colleges were surveyed about their perceptions of law enforcement effectiveness and professionalism, and what might impact those perceptions.

A total of 159 community college students responded to the survey. The majority of the respondents were female (78%), and Caucasian (77.4%). Respondent’s age represented the following percentage breakdowns: 29.6% being 18-19 years old, 27.7% being 20-24 years old, and 30.8% being 25-34. Resulting in 88% of respondents being between the ages of 18-34 years old.

Mean and standard deviation …

Prison Release, Religious And Civic Contexts, And Recidivism, Samuel Carlson Thomas Iv

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Under the veil of mass incarceration many of the prisoners will be released, then later readmitted for another crime or parole/probation violations, which falls under the definition of recidivism. Criminologist have attempted to shed light on indicators that explain why some individual prisoners have higher likelihoods than others. I attempt to understand the specific context (at the county level) in which prisoners are released in one point in time and see if the context in which they are released can help explain their likelihoods of recidivating, specifically in the context of religious and civic organizations. I use data from the …

Rape Myths And Consent In College-Aged Southern Students, Amy Leanne Cofer

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Rape and sexual assault are problematic issues for women on college campuses. Internal and external consent play a role in understanding sexual assault because sexual assault is defined as "nonconsensual sexual activity obtained through force, threats, intoxication, or intimidation." Factors related to understanding consent may include attitudes regarding sexual assault and rape, known as rape myths, which are defined as attitudes and false statements concerning rape that are widely known and accepted, mainly served to justify male sexual aggression towards women. The southeastern United States is known for being religiously and politically conservative, where gender roles are intertwined with a …

Political Motive And Bail: The Effect Of Prosecutorial Strategies On Pretrial Decisions In Federal Terrorism Trials, Michael John Clanton

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to understand how prosecutorial strategies affect pretrial decisions in U.S. terrorism trials and how pretrial decisions in turn affect the disposition of those trials. This research builds off of the work of Smith and Damphousse (1996) which compared terrorism indictees to traditional federal offenders. They found that the use of explicit politicality as a prosecution strategy was a significant predictor of both disposition and the sentence length in terrorism trials. This study focuses on the question of whether the use of an explicitly political prosecution strategy impacts pretrial decisions in terrorism cases and whether …