Criminology and Criminal Justice Commons^™

The Future Of Policing, Marissa Eastwood

Criminology Student Work

No abstract provided.

Criminal Justice Update - July 2021, Patrick Mahoney

Criminal Justice Updates

The Criminal Justice Update is a monthly newsletter created by the Adams County Bar Foundation Fellow providing updates in criminal justice policy coming from Pennsylvania's courts and legislature as well as the US Supreme Court.

Contents:

• Updates from PA Governor's Office (no updates this month)
• Updates from the PA Legislature (no updates this month)
• Updates from the Courts
• U.S. Supreme Court: Criminal Law & Procedure
• PA Supreme Court: Criminal Law & Procedure
• PA Superior Court: Criminal Law & Procedure

Stigma And Juror Bias Toward Mentally Ill Defendants, Sydney Garrison

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This study examined the influence of mental illness on mock juror decisions in a criminal case. With the knowledge that mental illness continues to be highly stigmatized, I hypothesized that the presence of a mental illness in a defendant of a violent crime would have significant effects on participants’ case decisions and their perception of the defendant’s guilt. Participants in the study read a fictional vignette describing a homicide and a defendant in which the defendant’s mental illness diagnosis was varied (major depressive disorder, schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder, no mental illness). Participants were then required to answer 6 questions regarding …

An Inside View Of The Child Welfare System, Hana Abualragheb

Criminology Student Work

No abstract provided.

Criminology & Criminal Justice Professional Development Program For Undergraduates, Zinha Andrade

Criminology Student Work

No abstract provided.

A Career With The Massachusetts State Police, Michael Germano

Criminology Student Work

No abstract provided.

U.S. Immigration Policy, Glenda Nieves

Criminology Student Work

No abstract provided.

Victim Advocacy, Morrison Kristin

Criminology Student Work

No abstract provided.

Federal Emergency Management Within The Field Of Criminal Justice, Maeve Dubiel

Criminology Student Work

No abstract provided.

The Truth(S) Behind “True Crime”: Examining The Role Of Narrative In The Retellings Of The Rafay Family Murders, Samantha L. Richard

FIMS Major Projects and Creative Projects

In April of 1995, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) launched their second ever “Mr. Big” operation: one that involves an intricate interrogation technique designed to elicit a confession from suspected criminals in cases where physical evidence cannot link the accused to the crime. The targets of this operation were suspected murderers Sebastian Burns and Atif Rafay. The highly publicized case was discussed extensively through traditional news coverage, as well as in various stories of the true crime genre. Through the use of narrative theory, this paper examines the role of narrative in the retelling of the Rafay family murders. …

Incarcerated Veterans Treatment And Services, Victoria Evans

Criminology Student Work

No abstract provided.

Municipal Police Officers: Responsibilities, The Hiring Process, The Challenges They Face, And Possible Solutions, Isabella Palmeira

Criminology Student Work

No abstract provided.

The Ideology Of The Carceral State: Examining The Prison Through Film, Ryan Phillips

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

Mass incarceration began almost fifty years ago and has proliferated to the point that the United States is the world leader in incarceration. Much work has been done that examines the history and nature of mass incarceration and the carceral state. However, an area that has received far less attention is how people think about prisons. To address this gap, I ground my analysis in the works of Louis Althusser, Slavoj Zizek, and Mark Fisher to formulate “Carceral Realism”, which I argue is the ideology of mass incarceration. To better understand the nature of this ideology, I employ a content …

Budding Change, Pamela R. Metzger, Victoria Smiegocki, Kristin Meeks

Deason Center Reports

Budding Change explores what happened when Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot (DA Creuzot) radically changed his office’s policies about the prosecution of first-time misdemeanor marijuana cases. The report concludes that DA Creuzot’s 2019 policies were associated with significant reductions in police enforcement of marijuana misdemeanor laws. As a result, marijuana screening caseloads within the District Attorney’s Office declined substantially. Budding Change shows that prosecutorial policies can have a profound impact on policing behaviors.

The Abcs Of Racial Disparity, Pamela R. Metzger, Kristin Meeks, Victoria Smiegocki, Kenitra Brown

Deason Center Reports

Data show that Black and White people use marijuana at roughly equal rates. Yet in 2018, in six of Dallas County's biggest cities, Black people were vastly overrepresented in the enforcement of low-level drug crimes. With a look at enforcement trends before the election of District Attorney John Creuzot, this study launches a series of reports about how his reforms have impacted Dallas County.

The N-Sat: The Nebraska Screening And Assessment Tool, Nebraska Center For Justice Research, University Of Nebraska At Omaha

Reports

The N-SAT is intended to standardize assessment of youth referred to diversion in Nebraska. It determines risk level of further involvement (1-year) in the justice system (i.e., delinquency/ criminality). It was not purchased “off the shelf”, rather was developed by the Nebraska Crime Commission (NCC). It is free for Nebraska agencies to use, provides domain scores for referral and treatment purposes, and is more accurate than other tools used in Nebraska.

Views Of Substance Use During Pregnancy: Social Responses To The Issue, Taylor Ruddy

Theses and Dissertations

Ever since the emergence of the crack cocaine epidemic and “crack babies”, our society has been concerned with women using substances during their pregnancy. The most appropriate response to this social issue has been heavily debated. Some think that the use of criminal justice initiatives and criminalization is the most effective method in deterring women from using while pregnant, and some promote utilizing public health methods to rehabilitate addicted women. There is a wealth of research and literature around this debate, however, there has not yet been any research examining public opinion on the most appropriate ways to handle this …

Community Corrections Officer Decision-Making: An Intersectional Analysis, Amber Leigh Williams Wilson

Theses and Dissertations

Although corrections populations have been gradually declining for several years, an estimated 4.1 million adults are currently supervised in the community (Maruschak & Minton, 2020). While some states have depended on the use of community corrections as a means to reduce overcrowded correctional facilities, other states’ approaches have resulted in probation and parole policies that only contribute to the incarcerated population, primarily through probation and parole revocations. In response to these trends, researchers have begun to focus on supervision outcomes, finding evidence to suggest that individual probation and parole officers may have an impact on offender outcomes. While some of …

Weather And Crime: New York State, Yuna Kim

Student Theses

The present study assesses the degree to which temperature affects the crime rates in all 62 counties in the State of New York. Five different crimes (i.e., robbery, aggravated assault, burglary; larceny, and motor vehicle theft) for the year 2019 were selected from the Division of Criminal Justice Services of New York to be examined. The current study examined whether the rate of these crimes was associated with the changes in weather, with the assumption that higher weathers would lead to higher property and violent crimes, when controlling for the effect of various control variables. The findings suggest that the …

Increasing Accountability For Rape In Liberia: The Need For A Forensic System To Increase The Success Rates Of Prosecution, Pela Boker Wilson

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

The need for a fully functioning forensic system has been identified by the Liberian government and international partners, but it has not been addressed. This Article argues that despite a robust framework put in place to create accountability for rape, Liberia needs a system of collecting and processing forensic evidence to increase the success rate of prosecutions that currently fail due to the inadequacy of non-forensic evidence.