Criminology and Criminal Justice Commons^™

Employer Attitudes And Beliefs About Hiring Post Incarcerated Offenders In Mississippi, Ora Starks

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Employer Attitudes and Beliefs About Hiring Post-Incarcerated Offenders in Mississippi

by

Ora Starks

MS, Criminal Justice, 1999

BS, Criminal Justice,1994

Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree of

Doctor of Philosophy

Human Services Program

Criminal Justice Specialization

Walden University

May 2018

Local Incarceration As Social Control: A National Analysis Of Social, Economic, And Political Determinants Of Jail Use In The United States, Heather M. Ouellette

Theses and Dissertations

Previous research indicates that community context impacts social control. Several scholars have identified social, economic and political factors to be important predictors of police force size, arrests rates and incarceration rates. Few studies, however, have examined jail use as an indicator of formal social control. Millions of individuals pass through jails every year, and these local facilities are at the center of the criminal justice system, reflecting mobilization of social control by law enforcement, courts and corrections. Drawing from a social threat perspective and political framework, this study seeks to understand how community context affects local incarceration. Specifically, this study …

Stress And Coping Abilities Of Swat Personnel In A Metropolitan Area Of Florida, Pedro Corpas

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

For decades, stress has been scientifically studied and found to have effects on the law enforcement community. Furthermore, scholars have thoroughly studied the correlation between stress and the law enforcement occupation which has been proven to affect their well-being. Although there is currently ample literature on stress and police officers, to date there has been little research on factors associated with stress and SWAT police officers. Using Lazarus and Folkman's cognitive theory of stress and coping as the foundation, the purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore how SWAT police officers cope with stress while on duty and off …

Perceptions Of People's Experiences Regarding Gun Violence, Charles M. Ndikum

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Gun violence is a problem in many communities across the United States that are characterized by poverty, and lack of quality education, yet little is known about the experiences of victims of gun violence in these places. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to better understand how people who have been victims of gun violence perceive problems and solutions associated with the production, distribution, and ownership of guns. Based on the theoretical framework of Rousseau's social contract theory, this study explored gun violence from the perspectives of 10 victims whose lives were directly or indirectly affected by gun violence …

A Case Study Of Overcrowding In A County Jail In The Southeast United States, Marquice Robinson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

For the past several decades, the county jail in a large metropolitan city in the southeast United States has been overcrowded, which has resulted in violence within the jail, excessive costs to the Sheriff's Office, and a requirement of Federal oversight of the jail from 2005 to 2015. In spite of these events, little is understood about why jail overcrowding is prevalent in the county and what impacts overcrowding may have on the communities around the jail. Using Shaw and McKay's social disorganization theory as the foundation, the purpose of this case study was to understand the unique circumstances around …

The Effect Of Cultural Awareness Training On Staff In Intergovernmental Service Agreement Facilities, Steven Alan Coffman

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No system-wide diversity training exists at Immigration and Customs Enforcement Intergovernmental Service Agreement (IGSA) facilities. This study was conducted to determine if diversity training has a short-term effect on cultural awareness of staff in these facilities in the midwestern United States. This information is important to administrations in IGSA facilities when deciding to include diversity training in the annual required training of staff, as the efficacy and relevance have been unknowns. The theoretical foundation of this study is Smircich's organizational culture theory. A nonequivalent control group research design was utilized to collect survey data from 48 participants at 2 midwestern …

Probation Officers' Attitudes On Illinois Electronic Monitoring Program For Drug Offenders, Erika J. Jones-Dilworth

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Probation Officers' Attitudes on Illinois Electronic Monitoring Program

For Drug Offenders

by

Erika Jones-Dilworth

MPA, Governors State University, 2009

BS, Governors State University, 2007

Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree of

Doctor of Philosophy

Public Policy & Administration

Walden University

November 2018

The Lived Experiences Of African-American Male Exoffenders In The Northeast United States, Jacqueline Grant

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Discrimination, racism, and class bias affects the accessibility of resources available to African American males who are exoffenders. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of African American, male exoffenders' ability to access resources postincarceration. Guided by Bell and Freeman's critical race theory, a purposeful sample of 6 African American, male exoffenders were recruited from 2 reentry programs in the Northeast United States. A semistructured interview approach was employed to examine the life history, details of experience, and reflection on the meaning of the lived experience from the participants. The modified Stevick, Colaizzi, and Keen …

The Perception Of Community Oriented Policing From A Law Enforcement Organization's Perspective, James Wyatt Roberts

Doctor of Education (Ed.D)

Community-oriented policing surfaced in the 1980s as a new philosophy in policing. Despite the widespread community support for community policing, the perceptions of this philosophy from a law enforcement organization’s perspective remain unclear. This quantitative, non-experimental research study utilized a survey method to address seven research questions. One large law enforcement organization (sworn and civilian members) in Central Florida was invited to complete a survey to assist in better understanding the role of community-oriented policing and its impact on bridging the gap between law enforcement and the community. This study seeks to better understand a law enforcement organization’s perception of …

The Silence Penalty, Jeffrey Bellin

Faculty Publications

In every criminal trial, the defendant possesses the right to testify. Deciding whether to exercise that right, however, is rarely easy. Declining to testify shields defendants from questioning by the prosecutor and normally precludes the introduction of a defendant’s prior crimes. But silence comes at a price. Jurors penalize defendants who fail to testify by inferring guilt from silence.

This Article explores this complex dynamic, focusing on empirical evidence from mock juror experiments—including the results of a new 400-person mock juror simulation conducted for this Article—and data from real trials. It concludes that the penalty defendants suffer when they refuse …

Perceptions Of Reasonable Use Of Force By Probation Officers And Civilians, Timothy Loranzy Sowards

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

There is little academic research that examines whether there are differences between the ways probation officers and community members perceive the use of force on juvenile offenders. Failure to understand the differences in these perceptions negatively affected a probation department in California, which failed to address public concerns regarding the use of force in the juvenile hall, which resulted in a consent decree and a costly financial settlement. Using socialization theory as the foundation, the purpose of this study was to understand if there is a statistically significant difference between probation officers and civilians regarding their perceptions of use of …

Perspectives Of Racism Among Offenders Post Incarceration, Anna Phillips

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Racial segregation in California prisons is a primary means of maintaining control and safety for inmates and correctional staff, yet little is understood about how racial segregation in prison impacts reentry of offenders into the community. The research question examined in this study focused on how living in the racial segregation of a California State prison, for 2 years or more might influence African-American, White, and Latino men's ability to interact with other races in a culturally diverse community upon release. Using Donald Clemmer's theory of prisonization as the foundation, the purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand the …

Trauma And Juvenile Justice In Carson City, Nevada, Ali M

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The Nevada State Juvenile Justice and School systems do not currently screen or treat juveniles for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Left untreated, PTSD may contribute to behaviors that can lead to engagement with the juvenile justice system and contribute to high rates of recidivism and possible future engagement with the adult justice system. Using Erickson's theory of psychological development as the foundation, the purpose of this case study was to explore whether, from the perspectives of key stakeholders whether interventions and prevention services for juvenile justice clients in Carson City met the needs of youthful offenders also diagnosed with PTSD. …

The Role Of Organizational Justice In Police Interaction Decisions With Citizens Post-Ferguson, Joshua Lee Adams

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Recent negatively publicized police-citizen interactions in the media, followed by a subsequent rise in crime rates in the United States, has been named the Ferguson Effect. The Ferguson Effect has been explored by prominent scholars in the criminal justice community; however, little is known about how police officers in small police agencies perceive the Ferguson Effect. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore the perceptions and lived experiences of police officers regarding the Ferguson Effect in small police agencies, as well as police officers' perceptions of their own organizational justice. The theoretical framework for this study was …

Incarceration Of Nonviolent Offenders At The High Court In Oyo State, Nigeria, Olugbenga Rotimi Akanji

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The nonuse of community correction in the Nigeria criminal justice system has led to increased recidivism, contributed to prison congestion, introduced the risk of prison victimization, and lacked the provision of a rehabilitative structure for nonviolent offenders. The purpose of this phenomenological research study was to explore Nigerian judges' use of alternatives to incarcerations for nonviolent offenders. Dolinko retributive punishment theory provided the theoretical framework for this study. Ten participant judges comprised the study sample from a purposeful and criterion random sampling method. Data were collected from participants through structured interviews and were coded manually, sorted, and analyzed using the …

Police Culture And Decision-Making, Larry D. Anthony

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Decisions made by street-level police officers during encounters with the public have an immediate and long-lasting effect. Bad choices can cause a loss of trust, respect, and legitimacy for the police in a community and lay a foundation for violent confrontations between officers and citizens. Layers of culture that shape human decisions consist of social and institutional culture, including interactions that shape an individual's culture and beliefs and demographics and technology that affect cultural development. Police culture (which includes these layers of culture and factors like rank, units, and history) shapes attitudes and opinions about communities and people in a …

Factors Contributing To Juvenile Crime Leading To The Disparity Of The Risk Levels For Secure Detainment, Dawn Prystajko

Theses and Dissertations

The main purpose of this research was to explore the factors that contributed to juvenile crime which in turn caused disparity in secure detainment among juveniles. This was based upon the alternate hypothesis that there is a noticeable disparity with minority youths being more securely detained opposed to majority youths. Therefore, the research was designed to examine raw data obtained from the Juvenile Justice Services Planner/JDAI Coordinator of the excel database of juvenile arrests/detainment.

The findings revealed several key points. The finding revealed that useable data extracted from the excel database was not able to neither agree with nor support …

Developmental Patterns Of Religiosity In Relation To Criminal Trajectories Among Serious Offenders Across Adolescence And Young Adulthood, Siying Guo

Theses and Dissertations

The knowledge about the relationship between changes in both religiosity and crime over time remains limited. This dissertation aims to add to the existing body of literature and fill the gaps in prior studies by examining the religiosity-crime relationship in a sample of adjudicated adolescents studied in the Pathways to Desistance Study, a seven-year longitudinal dataset. Using Group-Based Trajectory Models and Growth Curve Models, this dissertation identifies distinctive trajectories of religious attendance, religious importance, and spirituality and their dynamic relationships with changes in different types of substance use and criminal behavior. Given the initial level of substance use and criminal …

The Importance Of Outcome Fairness: Revisiting The Role Of Distributive Justice, Kyle Mclean

Theses and Dissertations

Distributive justice, or the perceived fairness of outcomes, has played a minimal role in research into procedural justice and legitimacy in policing. However, allegations of racial bias that have contributed to the present legitimacy crisis in policing are more consistent with the concept of distributive justice than procedural justice. As such, the present study attempts to re-orient distributive justice within policing research. This study proposes that individuals infer the fairness of outcomes from the treatment that they receive from police officers. These judgments about outcome and treatment then combine to influence individuals’ perceptions of the legitimacy of police. In addition …

Association Between Perception Of Police Prejudice Against Minorities And Juvenile Delinquency, Kwang Hyun Ra

Theses and Dissertations

Criminologists have long studied police prejudice with the assumption that it is a fundamental problem resulting in discrimination against certain racial and ethnic groups. However, little research has examined how individuals’ perceptions of police prejudice (PPP) influences compliance or delinquency behavior among the public. To fill this gap, in this paper, I reviewed relations between police and racial/ethnic groups, theorized an association between PPP and juvenile delinquency, and empirically examined the association.

The long history of racial/ethnic prejudice and discrimination predisposes racial/ethnic minorities to consider themselves targets of discrimination and to feel powerless. Moreover, some minorities justify the current system …