Criminology and Criminal Justice Commons^™

The Antebellum Development Of The Penitentiary Debate In South Carolina, Florence Gregorie Sloan

Student Scholarship

The early 19^th century was marked by reform movements aimed at alleviating poverty, reducing crime, decreasing illiteracy, and providing better care for the mentally ill. In the United States, as in Europe, the debate over prison reform arose from the growing public fear that the stability of social institutions and values was crumbling, especially because lawlessness abounded across the country in the Jacksonian era.[1] Reformers sought a way to save and preserve the established social order, and reformers found their cure-all solution in the establishment of penitentiaries, which were institutions that sought to transform the criminal into an …

Evaluating The Educational Impact Of Ballot Measure 11 Workshops & Youths’ Perceptions Of Justice, Ginger Ruddell

Student Research Symposium

In 1994 the State of Oregon passed Ballot Measure 11, which allows for the mandatory minimum sentencing for several types of felonies. This measure also allows for juveniles as young as 15 to be subjected to this mandatory sentencing. Due to the severity of this measure, several youth agencies throughout the state of Oregon became concerned about the consequences of mandatory sentencing on youth, and decided to create educational workshops to allow more awareness of Ballot Measure 11 sentencing. Portland Opportunities Industrialization Center (POIC), is the front runner for this workshop. Their goals are to educate/raise awareness, prevent contact with …

“Using Crowd-Sourced Data To Explore Police-Related-Deaths In The United States (2000–2017): The Case Of Fatal Encounters”, David Klinger, Brian Finch, Audrey Beck, D Burghart, Richard Johnson, Kyla Thomas

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Works

Objectives: We evaluated the Fatal Encounters (FE) database as an open-source surveillance system for tracking police-related deaths (PRDs). Methods: We compared the coverage of FE data to several known government sources of police-related deaths and police homicide data. We also replicated incident selection from a recent review of the National Violent Death Reporting System. Results: FE collected data on n = 23,578 PRDs from 2000–2017. A pilot study and ongoing data integration suggest greater coverage than extant data sets. Advantages of the FE data include circumstance of death specificity, incident geo-locations, identification of involved police-agencies, and near immediate availability of …

God, I Hope This Part Of My Life Is Over: A Focused Ethnography Of A Correctional Youth Facility’S Therapeutic Climate, Eric Meyer

Theses & Dissertations

Although all prisons have the same goal of isolating offenders from society, the precise strategies used vary from one jurisdiction to the next. Some prisons use means of punishment to gain inmate compliance. Other prisons concentrate their limited resources on rehabilitation. Contained within the following pages are details of a focused ethnography that was completed in a state correctional youth facility that housed males between the ages of 15 and 21 years, all of whom were convicted of violent crimes. This study had the objective of exploring the climate of therapy in this correctional youth facility where rehabilitative programs were …

Opioid Withdrawal Post Incarceration, Samantha Spampinato

CURCE Annual Undergraduate Conference

This literature review attempts to provide a more complete understanding of the increasing opioid concern and its detrimental effects from withdrawal in incarcerated individuals. Opioid-related fatal overdoses will significantly decrease with the implementation of opioid treatment in jails and prisons nationwide. The incarcerated populations that are typically affected by Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) include about 8.5% of Hispanics and Whites, and about 7.4% of Blacks. One solution involves Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) with the use of opioid agonists, such as methadone and buprenorphine-naloxone. These medications offer a slow release of dopamine and can reduce the patient’s opioid withdrawal effects. However, fewer …

Broadly Speaking - May, 2019, Nova Southeastern University

Broadly Speaking

No abstract provided.

For-Profit Prisons: How Lobbying Has Affected The Way America Houses Prisoners, Jacob F. Israel

Political Science Theses and Capstones

There seems to be limited research and understanding as to why for-profit prisons exist in the United States. The initial selling points used to sell private prisons to states and counties were that they would reduce recidivism and cost. Recent peer-reviewed studies have found, however, that neither are the case. This could lead one to ask why for-profit prisons are still used in America. That is what I hope to answer in this research paper. After research and analysis of campaign donations by the two largest for-profit prison corporations (collected from the National Institute on Money in State Politics) and …

Improving Information Sharing: Local Fusion Centers And Their Role In The Intelligence Cycle, Alexis Spall

Master in Management for Public Safety and Homeland Security Professionals Master's Projects

Abstract

My Master’s Project focuses on local fusion centers and the need for improved information sharing practices among law enforcement partners. After the tragic event of September 11^th in 2001, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice recognized a communication gap between law enforcement agencies and a lack of effective information sharing efforts. Fusion centers play a significant role in supporting both criminal and terrorist investigations due to their ability to act as a conduit between various law enforcement partners. Due to their important responsibilities as information sharing hubs that provide valuable analysis and dissemination of …

Female Genital Mutilation In The United States: Estimating The Number Of Girls At Risk, Phyllis Chesler

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

Female genital mutilation (FGM) destroys the capacity of women to experience sexual pleasure. It causes serious medical complications such as bleeding, painful urination, cysts, dangerous and recurrent bladder and urinary tract infections, the growth of scar tissue that make marital intercourse a nightmare and that turns childbirth into an experience of danger and torture. Due to immigration, FGM now poses a potential health crisis in the West, both in Europe and in the United States. To estimate how many girls who live in the West are at risk, one can measure the prevalence of FGM in the non-Western countries where …

Mapping Sex Offenders And Treatment Centers In Relation To Social Disorganization, Amber Amin

Master's Theses

Research shows that the clustering of Registered Sex Offenders (RSOs) is connected to social disorganization. Residential patterns disrupt the reintegration of the RSO population. Utilizing data from Queens and the Bronx, NYC, this study examines RSO clustering in the two boroughs and explores the proximity of community resources to RSO addresses that may assist reintegration. Using data from the New York Megan’s Law and census data for Queens and Bronx Counties, maps were created to study the residential patterns of RSOs. The results show clustering of RSOs in areas with variables pertaining to high social disorganization and a lack of …

Lethal Use Of Force: Insights Into Mental Illness, Robert A. Ryan

Student Theses

Fatal use of force incidents involving police officers in the United States have recently seen widespread media attention, emotionally charged rhetoric, and calls for reform. The present study examines police use of force encounters with the mentally ill given the significant proportion of incidents and wanting body of literature. The objective of this study is to examine fatal police interactions to test whether those displaying signs of mental illness in encounters with law enforcement are more dangerous than those not displaying signs of mental illness. Open source data from the Washington Post were used from 2015 to 2018 (n=3942) due …

From Standardization To Formality: Unintended Consequences Of Police Standardization Reform Of Law Enforcement In China, Lianhan Zhang

Maurer Theses and Dissertations

According to social construction theory, cases are not objective entities waiting to be discovered or revealed; they cannot exist without case-makers. Construction of a case is a subjective process of choosing, increasing, decreasing, selecting, and reshaping. Therefore, a natural gap exists between the constructed and the real world. This dissertation delves into the gap, not from the existing angle of selectiveness, but from the angle of compliance. The study uses empirical data to try to answer the following question: Since the police standardization reform of law enforcement—at least parts of them—aim at controlling the evidence-collecting process and at improving the …

Comparing The Effects Of Racial Segregation On Homicide Trends In Two Major Us Cities, Taylor Sullivan

Criminal Justice

This study focuses on the effects that racial segregation has on homicide rates. Using two major cities that have similar demographics, Chicago, Illinois and Los Angeles, California, this paper studies homicide rates at checkpoints over a span of time while also recording poverty rates and racial isolation. The Uniform Crime Report put out by the Federal Bureau of Investigation will provide data about homicides in the two cities for the respective years. Racial segregation is still an incessant issue throughout the country and causes issues through three major factors, economy, culture, and politics. These issues cause tension between minority and …

Beliefs About Police Error Leading To Wrongful Convictions And Attitudes On Police Legitimacy, Julia Melfi

Criminal Justice

This study investigates the relations between citizens’ perceptions of how police misconduct as a factor contributing to wrongful convictions is connected to attitudes towards police legitimacy. I hypothesized that there would be a negative correlation between the two variables such that the more individuals believe police error contributes to wrongful convictions, the less legitimate they perceive the police to be. I also examined how citizens’ race affects these perceptions and attitudes, too, and hypothesized that Black citizens are more likely than White citizens to believe police error leads to wrongful conviction and mistrust the police. To test the hypotheses data …

Deterring Online Music And Movie Piracy In Adults, Carolyn Solimine

Criminal Justice

Online piracy of music and movies is common, despite being a form of theft and copyright infringement. Many individuals do not realize the real-life impacts of online piracy on artists and the entertainment industry. Moreover, few perpetrators are caught or punished for their actions. This allows potential perpetrators to rationalize and neutralize their piracy-related behaviors and, thus, avoid feelings of guilt or shame. This research uses an online experimental survey to examine framing tactics that may be used to prime feelings of guilt and shame and, in turn, deter online piracy. The survey exposed participants to one of three experimental …

Explaining Juvenile Delinquency As A Product Of Personal Security, Roxanne I. Grieggs

Criminal Justice

This study seeks to understand the role that youths’ sense of personal security plays in their external engagement in deviant behavior. While there is some literature on the relationship between youth’s fear of crime or tumultuous home environments and their involvement in gangs and to some extent violence, it is scant, and studies of youths’ feelings of safety within residential facilities and their in-residence behaviors is virtually non-existent. Therefore, in this study of youth in two residential treatment centers, surveys administered to said youth are used to illustrate the potential link between youth’s perceived sense of personal security, how it …

The Power Of Prosecutors, Jeffrey Bellin

Faculty Publications

One of the predominant themes in the criminal justice literature is that prosecutors dominate the justice system. Over seventy-five years ago, Attorney General Robert Jackson famously proclaimed that the “prosecutor has more control over life, liberty, and reputation than any other person in America.” In one of the most cited law review articles of all time, Bill Stuntz added that prosecutors—not legislators, judges, or police—“are the criminal justice system’s real lawmakers.” And an unchallenged modern consensus holds that prosecutors “rule the criminal justice system.”

This Article applies a critical lens to longstanding claims of prosecutorial preeminence. It reveals a curious …

Vocational And Life Skills Monthly Data Update: May 2019, Uno Nebraska Center For Justice Research, Katelynn Towne, Michael Campagna

Reports

Grantees use an online data management system to submit data on participants served under their Vocational and Life Skills programming. This data is due monthly and reflects all services provided during the previous month to participants. Evaluators at the Nebraska Center for Justice Research work with grantees directly to manage data entry errors on an ongoing basis during monthly update calls and regular site visits.

The current data derives from an active database, from which data is being entered and updated daily. Data values, including previously submitted information, may fluctuate depending on changes made from data entry oversight. One common …

Imagining A Non-Violent World "The Be The Peace, Make A Change Project": A Rural Community Peacebuilding Initiative To End Gender-Based Violence, Nancy M. Ross

Peace and Conflict Studies

This article will profile the innovative community engagement process initiated by the "Be the Peace, Make a Change" project to end gender-based violence in Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia, and conclude with lessons learned. These lessons were summarized as "headlines" to imagine a future with new narratives for interpersonal relationships. This project was a three-year grassroots initiative of Second Story Women’s Centre, funded by Status of Women Canada. It engaged the rural communities of Lunenburg County to develop a coordinated response to violence against women and girls. It focused on the engagement of all genders, youth, and adults in exploring and …

Dental Age Estimation Of A Southern Nevada Hispanic Non-Adult Population Employing The London Atlas To Evaluate Archival Orthodontic Cone Beam Computed Tomography (Cbct) Images, Haley Buchanan

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Age estimation is of societal importance for legal, forensic, and clinical reasons. The London Atlas of Human Tooth Development and Eruption, hereafter referred to as the London Atlas, was introduced as an improved method for determining dental age estimation. The London Atlas was developed from panoramic images of 528 living British Caucasian and Bangladeshi males and females aged 2 to 24 years and panoramic images of 176 archival human skeletal remains, aged 32 in utero to 2 years old, from two specimen collections (AlQahtani, Hector, & Liversidge, 2010). Further investigation is warranted to determine validity of the atlas’s use in …