Criminology and Criminal Justice Commons^™

Research Brief One-Sheet No.6: Officers Arrested For Drunk Driving, Philip M. Stinson, John Liederbach, Steven L. Brewer, Natalie E. Todak

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Cases involving police who drive drunk are part of the larger problem of driving under the influence (DUI). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that alcohol-impaired traffic accidents kill over 10,000 people annually, accounting for nearly one-third of all traffic-related deaths in the United States (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2011). But, cases that involve police who drive drunk (or, Police DUIs) should also be recognized as a phenomenon that presents unique problems. Police DUI's have the potential to weaken public trust and the legitimacy of strategies designed to mitigate drunk driving, because the drunk driver in …

Against Neorehabilitation, Jessica M. Eaglin

Articles by Maurer Faculty

In the face of severe budget constraints, bipartisan calls for reform, dropping crime rates, and judicial intervention, states are seriously considering and implementing criminal justice reform to manage prison populations for the first time in three decades. Scholars agree that states need a guiding theory to transform emergency and short-term reforms into a long-term shift in policy and practice away from mass incarceration. Numerous scholars advocate for a return to an improved theory of rehabilitation to guide the states in implementing such reform. This return-through neorehabilitation, or the rehabilitation of rehabilitation-centers on the use of evidence-based programming and predictive tools …

Accidental Detention: A Threat To The Legitimacy Of Venezuelan Democracy, Mabel Gabriela Durán-Sánchez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The main argument of this thesis is that the penitentiary crisis in Venezuela is brought about an inept criminal justice system whose functioning (or lack thereof) further exacerbates overcrowding in penitentiary facilities as well as violates the most basic human rights. More elaborately, I argue that the unintentional (mis)use of pre-trial preventive detention, one of the consequences of the inept criminal justice system, further exacerbates the overcrowding in prisons and creates serious human rights implications. The purpose of this study is to establish a connection between the penitentiary crisis in Venezuela, with a focus on pre-trial preventive detention, and the …

Plea Bargaining, Sentence Modifications, And The Real World, Julian A. Cook

Scholarly Works

This article examines the 2011 Supreme Court decision in United States v. Freeman. At issue was whether defendants, such as Freeman, who enter a guilty plea pursuant to a binding plea agreement, are entitled to seek a modification of their sentence when the guideline range applicable to their offense has subsequently been lowered by the United States Sentencing Commission. By a five-to-four vote, the Court found that Freeman was eligible to seek a sentence reduction. However, as the article explains, the concurring and controlling opinion of Justice Sotomayor may ultimately prove to be problematic for criminal defendants generally and for …

Revulsion And Palatability: The Staying Power Of Death Penalty Rituals - Last Meals And Beyond, Angie Wheaton

Online Theses and Dissertations

The United States has a rich history surrounding capital punishment, and execution rituals are central to this history. The death penalty regime has evolved from a primarily private-based justice system to the state-carceral capital punishment system we have today. This thesis uses three historical eras as the framework for analyzing methods of executions and the rituals that surround them. Throughout each period, rituality has helped cushion the revulsion that is inherently present when taking the life of a human being. If revulsion is not managed, the legitimacy of capital punishment can be questioned. The apex of the capital punishment legitimacy …

Nowhere To Go: The Trend To Criminalize The Nation's Homeless, Jessica Anderson

Online Theses and Dissertations

The criminal justice system often uses much force in its response to the homeless population. The homeless are often targeted and have their basic human dignities trampled as law enforcement destroys their property and jails them for activity essential for human existence as those activities are criminalized. With the negative perception held by much of the criminal justice system, no homeless person can receive impartial treatment at the hands of the criminal justice system. This ethnographic study researches the trends in the criminalization of the homeless by interviewing seven respondents for their experiences and observations.

Examining The Role Of Race, Gender, And Class In African-American Police Perceptions In Rural Kentucky, Paul Maxwell Blackhurst

Online Theses and Dissertations

Prior research has consistently demonstrated the role of race in understanding racial and ethnic differences in perceptions of the police. This research has overwhelmingly shown that Blacks and Latinos hold lower levels of trust and confidence in the police than do Whites and other racial minorities. The increased skepticism of the police expressed by minority citizens is commonly associated with racial profiling and documented racial disparities in police behavior. Although policing research has empirically demonstrated the influence of race on perceptions of the police, few studies have explored police perceptions from a rural context. By employing the Citizen's Attitudes Towards …

The Upper Big Branch Mine Explosion: Occupational Hazard Or Preventable Tragedy; A Look At State-Corporate Crime, Cassandra Tate

Online Theses and Dissertations

Corporate crimes, defined as "illegal and harmful acts committed by officer and employees of corporations to promote corporate interests," have a greater impact on society than many street crimes. Corporate crime includes a range of white-collar crimes that affect employees and consumers. White-collar and corporate crimes are often ignored by the media unless there is involvement in some high profile scandal. There tends to be a paucity of research associated with coal industry related corporate crimes. This includes personal and death related events in the coal mining industry. This was evident in the 2010 explosion at the Upper Big Branch …

Factors That Contribute To Success In Policing Based On Prior Military Experience, Thomas Salem Fagan

Online Theses and Dissertations

This research attempted to determine whether current law enforcement officers with military experience felt that they were more prepared for their jobs in the agency than officers without military experience. Law enforcement officers from two police departments were selected to take a survey based on their military backgrounds. This survey was completed and the results were reviewed.

It was concluded that law enforcement officers with military experience felt that they were more prepared for the job and had an edge over other officers with no background in the military. In addition, officers with combat experience also felt that they had …

Sexual Victimization Among Sorority Women, Amanda Hinkel

Online Theses and Dissertations

Numerous studies have shown that sorority women have been found to be at greater risk for sexual victimization (including rape and sexual assault) than non-sorority women (29% to 7% respectively; Minow & Einolf, 2009) for several reasons, including: frequent contact and association with fraternity men, the prevalence of alcohol in Greek life, and the effects alcohol has on the body once it is consumed. This paper summarizes research on the circumstances that increase the likelihood that sorority women will become victims of sexual assault, sexual coercion, or rape.

Since the research has suggested that one in four college women are …

Music Piracy And Its Criminalization: Understanding The Napster Era (1999) To Present Through Donald Black's Theory Of Moral Time, Craig Robert Jankowski

Online Theses and Dissertations

In the year 1999 Napster, a provider of music downloading software, broke news headlines around the world when copyright infringement lawsuits were filed against the company. Ever since then internet music piracy has been a very controversial topic and a target for criminalization efforts. In the field of criminology there have been few attempts to apply theory to the topic of internet music piracy. Theorization of internet music piracy has mainly focused on the illegal behavior of music piracy, explaining the motivations and knowledge behind it. Something that has been neglected in theoretical work of online music piracy is its …

Predicting Inmate Economic Conflict In Female Housing Units: Individual Factors Versus Social Climate Factors, Polina Andreyevna Karpova

Online Theses and Dissertations

Despite the fact that a number of studies have focused on different types of prison victimization, very little research has investigated inmate economic conflict. This study describes the context of inmate economic conflict and examines the factors that may account for the development of this conflict in female housing facilities. The secondary data analysis study is based on validated survey data from 3499 female inmates housed in fifteen correctional facilities located in seven different states. In addition to conducting descriptive statistical analyses, inmate economic conflict scores were regressed on a range of individual-related (background) and social climate-related (environmental) variables. This …

A Deconstruction Of Dexter: An Analysis Of Noble Cause Corruption Within A Crime Drama, Alyssa Lawrence

Online Theses and Dissertations

The literature on corruption within law enforcement typically addresses factors such as brutality, dishonesty, accepting bribes, and using falsified evidence. This research project examines noble cause corruption (NCC), an area that scholarship has ignored until the last ten years. NCC is defined by Crank and Caldero (2007) as using illegal means to achieve good ends. Although NCC is not a new phenomenon it has become of greater focus in television and movies. Many recent television shows have represented NCC in a positive light, almost disguising it as if it were not present. Therefore the topic of this paper is not …

Risk To Public Safety Posed By Adjudicated Delinquent Juvenile Sex Offenders: Do They Really Need To Register, Donna Susan Mynatt

Online Theses and Dissertations

This study examined sexual and non-sexual recidivism among a sample of delinquent juvenile sexual offenders (JSOs) following commitment to a state juvenile correctional agency. Both juvenile and adult recidivism rates were studied. The results showed a low rate of sexual recidivism and a high rate of non-sexual recidivism across a 4-year follow-up period past age18. Logistic and linear regression identified 4 significant predictor variables of non-sexual recidivism. JSOs that were non-white, un-related to the victim in the initial offense, or used another location for the initial offense other than their own home, were significantly more likely to commit non-sexual recidivism. …

Police Deception: A Survey Of Eku Students, Jason Anthony Nicholson

Online Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

Police deception has been both good and bad for society. Deceptive interrogation is an effective method of gaining confessions and convictions. It is also dangerous in that it raises the potential for false confessions, damages police-citizen relationships, damages case strength, and encourages lying in other aspects of policing. The purpose of the study was to gauge the opinions of students regarding deceptive interrogation by police. A survey was administered to a purposive sample of undergraduates at Eastern Kentucky University. The survey asked questions regarding the students' level of approval toward different scenarios of police deception. It also asked some …

Cutting The Bread, Frans G. Von Der Dunk

Space, Cyber, and Telecommunications Law Program: Faculty Publications

Why the draft Treaty on the Prevention of the Placement of Weapons in Outer Space, the Threat or Use of Received Force against Outer Space Objects (PPWT) will not work—whereas the Code of Conduct for Outer Space Activities may.

Distinguished Historical Geography Lecture: Carceral Space And The Usable Past, Karen M. Morin

Faculty Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Identity Theft Among College Students, Laura B. Lucas

Masters Theses

Identity theft is prominent and is specifically affecting the general population of young adults. There is a void the in research that focuses on parental influence regarding identity theft on their college children. Prior research shows that identity theft is rapidly growing and is a problem. (Winterdyk & Thompson, 2008). The aims of this study are to enhance the awareness of identity theft, and to show the importance of identity theft education. Albert Bandura's Social Learning Theory is applied to the study as well, and is used a potential guide to understanding the effects of parental behavior and perceptions of …

Managing The Polarities Of Democracy: A Theoretical Framework For Positive Social Change, William J. Benet

Journal of Sustainable Social Impact

People around the globe have embraced democracy to bring about positive social change to address our environmental, economic, and militaristic challenges. Yet, there is no agreement on a definition of democracy that can guide social change efforts. The Polarities of Democracy model is a unifying theory of democracy to guide healthy, sustainable, and just social change efforts. The Polarities of Democracy model consists of ten elements, organized as five polarity pairs: freedom & authority, justice & due process, diversity & equality, human-rights & communal-obligations, and participation & representation. In this model each element has positive aspects and negative aspects and …

Life And Health Outside Prison, Tiffany Amorette Young

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This qualitative study explores the subjective understandings of formerly incarcerated individuals' experiences of health and healthcare prior to, during, and post release. The study incorporates in depth ethnographic interviews, participant observation, and life charting to formulate a holistic understanding of how incarceration has impacted the health and lives of the participants recruited for this study. All participants were incarcerated for a minimum of one year in the U.S. prison system. This interdisciplinary study contributes to the fields of sociology, criminology, and public health, and builds on the literature of race, health, and corrections in the United States.