Criminology and Criminal Justice Commons^™

Vocational And Life Skills Quarterly Report - Grant Cycle 2, Quarter 6, Uno Nebraska Center For Justice Research, Grace Sankey-Berman

Reports

The vocational and life skills grants were awarded in June and programs could begin program design and hiring, effective July 1, 2016.

During the 6th Quarter of grant cycle 2 the Vocational and Life Skills program attracted some attention from the media about the great work being done by some of our grantees.

In December Channel 8 News in Lincoln ran a story on Mental Health Association titled: Prisoners Get A Second Chance At Life http://www.klkntv.com/story/37010828/prisoners-get-second-chance-at-life

Qualitative Approach To Understanding Guardian Models Of Policing, Jacqueline B. Helfgott, Beck M. Strah, Joycelyn Pollock, Loren T. Atherley, John Vinson

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

Since 2015, there has been a growing interest and controversy regarding the “warrior” versus “guardian” models of policing. This article discusses the concept of guardian policing and uses qualitative data from an evaluation of guardian-based training in a police academy to highlight guardian concepts as understood by the trainers. Results suggest that trainers generally exhibit a widespread level of support and commitment towards the guardian model and the priorities of guardian training, view the model as consistent with what has traditionally been considered “good policing,” and believe that critics do not understand the basic elements of the model itself, …

Graffiti With A Purpose: Sexual Violence & Social Justice Conversations In University Bathroom Stalls, Rachel E. Green, Miriam Northcutt Bohmert, Amanda N. Gesselman, Rasul Mowatt, Jennifer Maher, Justin R. Garcia

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

In 2014, our university began posting educational fliers in bathroom stalls across campus in order to share resources and policies on sexual violence, which spurred numerous forms of graffiti commentary about sexual violence prevention and response. Since some scholars have argued that bathroom graffiti can be a unique form of social commentary and even resistance facilitated by the tension of doing semi-private things in semi-public spaces, we examined 429 bathroom stall fliers across 11 heavily trafficked campus buildings, and a total of 177 graffiti comments/images. We then analyzed the relationships between comments in order to answer research questions about the …

Routledge Handbook Of Graffiti And Street Art, Jeffrey Ian Ross (Editor), Andrew C. Gray

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

Expressing oneself by depicting images on public surfaces for others to view is a system of communication that has been around since the earliest societies formed and developed their own languages. This tradition of public communication has continued into the present in the form of graffiti and street art. The development of contemporary graffiti and street art is often attributed to the scenes in Philadelphia and New York City, which arose during the 1970s. In fact, it has been contended that these art forms spread to and mixed with graffiti/street art scenes across the globe due to NYC’s status as …

Criminal Genius: A Portrait Of High-Iq Offenders, James C. Oleson, Allen Copenhaver

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

Criminology has a long history of attempting to discover and explain what some researchers claim are links between biological characteristics and criminal behavior. More specifically, some criminologists have explored the potential linkages between IQ and criminal behavior (i.e. see the work of Lombroso, Beaver, and Hirschi, among others). James C. Oleson continues this line of research with his 2016 book Criminal Genius: A Portrait of High-IQ Offenders. Oleson’s work is unique in that it is the first attempt to systematically examine the potential links between individuals with high IQs and criminal behavior. To accomplish this, Oleson uses a mixture …

Susan F. Sharp, Susan Marcus-Mendoza, Kathleen A. Cameron, Elycia S. Daniel-Roberson, Across The Spectrum Of Women And Crime: Theories, Offending, And The Criminal Justice System, Aneesa A. Baboolal

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

In Across the Spectrum of Women and Crime: Theories, Offending, and the Criminal Justice System, edited by Susan F. Sharp (The University of Oklahoma), Susan Marcus-Mendoza (The University of Oklahoma), Kathleen A. Cameron (Pittsburg State University), and Elycia S. Daniel-Roberson (Texas Southern University), interdisciplinary perspectives that examine multiple dimensions of women’s offending grounded in feminist theory are presented across three sections of the book. This edited volume first focuses on theoretical perspectives of women and crime including addressing intersectional social locations related to gender, race, class, and sexual orientation. The second section examines a variety of female offenders including …

Proxy Punishment: Consequences Of Informal Sanctions Among Families Of Offenders In Japan, Mari Kita

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

This study demystifies the nature of societal reactions to crime in Japan and their consequences on the family members of those who have trouble with the law. Over a 20-month period in metropolitan areas in Japan, participant observation and in-depth interviews were conducted with 50 mothers, fathers, wives, and sisters of those who had broken the law. Major findings include the role that the media and criminal justice authorities play in triggering the informal labeling of offenders’ kin. Families’ strong ties to communities also rendered them particularly vulnerable to the effects of informal sanctions, even more so than offenders themselves. …

A Diversity Course For Criminal Justice Undergraduate Students: A Preliminary Evaluation, Nancy Hirschinger-Blank, Lori Simons, David Fernandez

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

Racially-involved police community incidents demonstrate the urgent need for educating future criminal professionals to work in a multicultural environment. We present a qualitative evaluation of a criminal justice diversity course designed to broaden university students' multicultural attitudes, knowledge, and skills. Results indicated that most students reportedly experienced a decrease in biases, described the importance of learning about cultural differences, acknowledged minorities’ negative attitudes toward the criminal justice system, and reported intentions to serve as fair and open-minded criminal justice professionals. Students also showed a significant increase in empathy across the semester.

The Deweyan Approach To Learning Victim Advocacy: Seeing Beyond Stigmas And Facilitating Second Chances, Ashley Peake Wellman, Sherri Dioguardi

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

Fundamentally, criminal justice practitioners are public safety promoters, yet safety can be compromised if a divide exists between them and the communities they serve. The best way to train future criminal justice practitioners may be found in the progressive education proposed by John Dewey in the early 20th-century. Dewey’s experiential approach, specifically service-learning, has gained traction as an effective teaching tool for broadening perspectives, deepening understanding of diverse populations, and fostering higher order reasoning, all of which are critical characteristics for criminal justice professionals as well as for all American citizens. Undergraduate students participated in service-learning during a semester-long honors …

Using Restorative Practices To Create A School District That Cares, Louis L. Fletcher Phd, Kim Boyd Psyd

National Youth Advocacy & Resilience Conference

Zero-tolerance became the rule in many school districts due to an increase in school-based violence, which served to silence student voices and led to the overrepresentation of minority students in discipline situations. Schools could adopt restorative approaches, but change cannot be sustained without fair processes at the district level. Thus, district policies should be aligned to restorative practices to increase the probability of district-wide success.

Vocational And Life Skills Quarterly Report: Quarter 7 (January-March 2018), Uno Nebraska Center For Justice Research, Johanna Peterson

Reports

The Vocational and Life Skills Program was created by Nebraska Legislative Bill 907 in 2014 with the goals of reducing recidivism and increasing employment for individuals who are incarcerated, who have been incarcerated within the prior 18 months or who are under parole or probation supervision. Participants must begin programming under these conditions, but they may continue programming as the program sees fit for his or her individual needs. Eight programs were funded in Grant Cycle 2, which runs from July 2016-June 2018. The Nebraska Center for Justice Research (NCJR) evaluation was initiated in May 2016 with the primary goal …

Vocational And Life Skills Monthly Data Update: March 2018, Uno Nebraska Center For Justice Research, Johanna Peterson

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 correct any data errors on an ongoing basis during monthly update calls and regular site visits.

Data presented below is from the most recent monthly data extract. Because this data comes for an active database with live data being entered and updated daily, data, including previously submitted information, may fluctuate depending …

Ua12/8 Violence Prevention & Response Training, Wku Police

WKU Administration Documents

Memoranda issued by WKU Police to faculty & staff regarding active shooter training, includes Run, Hide, Fight poster.

Reforming Cash Bail Bonds, Larry Nackerud, Marissa Dodson, Russell C. Gabriel, Katherine Hubbard

Working in the Public Interest Conferences

Many people charged with misdemeanors await trial while in jail because they cannot afford the bonds set by the magistrate guidelines, often for longer than the sentence if they were found guilty. Panelists discuss the historical context of cash bonds and what is currently being done to fight them.

Introducing The Police Crime Database, Philip M. Stinson, Kathleen Y. Murray

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

There are no official statistics on crime committed by sworn law enforcement officers, and the public is generally without the ability to research the incidence and prevalence of police crime in their own communities. The Police Crime database is designed to fill that gap, and provides internet-based public access to summary information on 8,006 criminal arrest cases during years 2005-2012 involving 6,596 sworn officers who were charged with one or more crimes. The arrested officers were employed by 2,830 nonfederal law enforcement agencies located in 1,302 counties and independent cities in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. This …

To Protect And Collect: A Nationwide Study Of Profit-Motivated Police Crime, Philip M. Stinson, John Liederbach, Michael Buerger, Steven L. Brewer

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

This study is part of a larger research project on police crime in the United States. Police crimes are those criminal offenses committed by sworn law enforcement officers who have the general powers of arrest. Profit-motivated police crime involves officers who use their authority of position to engage in crime for personal gain. This study reports the findings on 1,591 cases where a law enforcement officer was arrested for one or more profit-motivated crimes during the seven-year period 2005-2011. The profit-motivated arrest cases involved 1,396 individual officers employed by 782 state, local, special, constable, and tribal law enforcement agencies located …

Waiting For Justice, Jeffrey Bellin

Popular Media

One man’s seven-year wait for a trial reveals the ways mandatory minimums distort our courts.

Exploring Places Of Street Drug Dealing In A Downtown Area In Brazil: An Analysis Of The Reliability Of Google Street View In International Criminological Research, Elenice De Souza Oliveira, Ko-Hsin Hsu

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

This study assesses the reliability of Google Street View (GSV) in auditing environmental features that help create hotbeds of drug dealing in Belo Horizonte, one of Brazil’s largest cities. Based on concepts of “crime generators” and “crime enablers,” a set of 40 items were selected using arrest data related to drug activities for the period between 2007 and 2011. These items served to develop a GSV data collection instrument used to observe features of 135 street segments that were identified as drug dealing hot spots in downtown Belo Horizonte. The study employs an intra-class correlation (ICC) statistics as a measure …

Process And Outcome Evaluation Of Cuyahoga County’S Safe Harbor Project, Rachel Lovell, Misty Luminais

Begun Center for Violence Prevention Research and Education Reports and Briefs

In this research brief, we present the evaluation’s key findings and recommendations to inform and improve the Safe Harbor Project's practices and policies and to better serve Cuyahoga County youth who are victims of human trafficking.

The Invisible Scholar: Authors Of Legal Scholarship In Criminology And Criminal Justice Journals, Brenda I. Rowe, Wesley S. Mccann, Craig Hemmens

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications (Archived)

This study assesses the authorship of legal scholarship within 20 criminology and criminal justice (CCJ) journals from 2005 through 2015, examining trends over time and variation across journals in the prevalence of sole-authorship and the mean number of authors and identifying the most prolific authors of legal scholarship published in CCJ journals. The study thus sheds light on the extent of collaboration among CCJ legal scholars and identifies CCJ legal scholars who have remained largely invisible due to their focus on a marginalized subfield.