Criminology Commons^™

An Exploration Of Russian "Plea Bargaining": Americanization And Administratization Theses, Nathaniel Brewer

Honors Theses

This Project attempts to answer the question: Why did Russia adopt a legal practice that is seemingly inconsistent with its inquisitorial legal history? The Project examines this question through two theses posited by Máximo Langer and applying them to the Russian Federation’s Code of Criminal Procedure (“CCP”) Chapter 40. Chapter 40 of the CCP creates the Special Trial Procedure (“STP”), a summary proceeding allowing the defendant to agree to the charges they face in exchange for a reduced sentence. In inquisitorial legal systems, this sort of proceeding is not meant to occur because they are meant to be predicated on …

Undocumented Hispanics' Trust In Municipal Law Enforcement, Kendel Cole

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The purpose of the quantitative causal-comparative study was to examine the extent to which undocumented Hispanic immigrants in the United States trust municipal law enforcement differently based on whether they live in a sanctuary city or a non-sanctuary city. The research question (RQ) asks if there are significant differences in trust in municipal law enforcement among undocumented Hispanic immigrants in sanctuary cities compared to non-sanctuary cities. The Narrative Policy Framework was the theoretical foundation for the study. The study occurred in sanctuary cities and non-sanctuary cities. Sanctuary city status was the independent variable in the RQ, reflecting the self-identification of …

Famous Last Words: A Study Of Faith In Texas Death Row Inmates, Mariah Podwika

Honors Program Theses and Research Projects

Historically, final statements of condemned individuals prior to execution have shown a pattern of the presence of some type of religious sentiment. However, the justification and reasoning behind religious remarks still remains elusive given the finality of the event. The State of Texas is unique given the state provides a substantial amount of information pertaining to final statements due to the recording process of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ). Similar to rituals of recording condemned individuals’ last statements from the fourteenth century, prison wardens in Texas give the condemned an opportunity to share their last words, which are …

Toward An Insider Threat Education Platform: A Theoretical Literature Review, Haywood Gelman, John D. Hastings, David Kenley, Eleanor Loiacono

Research & Publications

Insider threats (InTs) within organizations are small in number but have a disproportionate ability to damage systems, information, and infrastructure. Existing InT research studies the problem from psychological, technical, and educational perspectives. Proposed theories include research on psychological indicators, machine learning, user behavioral log analysis, and educational methods to teach employees recognition and mitigation techniques. Because InTs are a human problem, training methods that address InT detection from a behavioral perspective are critical. While numerous technological and psychological theories exist on detection, prevention, and mitigation, few training methods prioritize psychological indicators. This literature review studied peer-reviewed, InT research organized by …

Immigration, Sanctuary Counties, And Crime: A Safety Net For Vulnerable Populations?, Carson Duca

Sociology and Criminology Undergraduate Honors Theses

The literature for the relationship between immigration and crime has been growing in recent decades, but the research on how immigration sanctuary policies are associated with crime is relatively underdeveloped. There is much theory that describes how immigration sanctuary policies could make the police more effective and efficient due to increased correspondence levels, which also has the potential to increase crime reporting rates. The current study advances the extant literature on the relationship between immigration sanctuary policies and crime. To do so, ordinary least squares (OLS) regression techniques are run to analyze how the presence of immigration sanctuary policies along …

Burnout, Stress And Its Effect On The Use Of Deadly Force, Charles Gutshall

School of Criminal Justice Theses and Dissertations

Police officers encounter significant occupational stressors that contribute to heightened levels of burnout and stress, potentially influencing their critical decision-making during deadly force encounters. This dissertation investigates the relationship between selfreported perceived stress, burnout, and the frequency of deadly force application among officers in southeastern Florida. Drawing on the Professional Quality of Life Scale, the Perceived Stress Scale, and the Restraint in the Use of Deadly Force Scale, survey responses from 202 officers were statistically analyzed using regression and descriptive techniques.

Contrary to initial hypotheses, findings revealed no significant predictive relationship between perceived stress, burnout, and the likelihood of using …

The Personality Profile Of Libya’S Muammar Gaddafi, Aubrey Immelman

Psychology Faculty Publications

This research report, prepared for the France 5 television documentary “Le Monde en face: Kadhafi, la folie d’un dictateur,” presents the results of an indirect personality assessment of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi from the conceptual perspective of personologist Theodore Millon.

Understanding The Factors Associated With The Targeting Of Prison Gangs By Specialized Gang Units (Sgus) In The United States, Bruno Aldair Zapata

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Specialized gang units (SGUs) are prominent in police departments in the United States with their sole purpose to respond to gang activity across the country. SGUs vary in the types of gangs they target, resources available, officer composition, and the types of enforcement activities they use. SGUs have encountered various controversies such as exaggerating the gang problem in the media, for distorted intelligence in their gang databases, and for racial stereotyping and harassment among Hispanics in particular. Research regarding SGUs is limited in general, but even fewer studies exist on the targeting efforts of prison gangs by SGUs. Prison gang …

“We Need To Not Fear You”: Essential Factors Identified By Sworn Officers And Civilian Staff For Implementation And Expansion Of A Co-Response Program, Mark Plassmeyer, Melissa Gute, Kim Stauss

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Fayetteville, AR, Police Department (FPD) initiated a co-response program in 2021, partnering with social workers to respond to individuals in crisis. Originally started with a University of Arkansas School of Social Work (UA) internship, the Crisis Intervention Response Team (CIRT) has grown over time. The program now includes two full-time co-response teams, two social work interns, and plans for further expansion. UA provides support for the program through continued internships, clinical supervision, and program evaluation. This article reports on one aspect of the UA program evaluation focusing on FPD employees’ perspectives on integrating social workers into their department and …

Exploring The Interactive Effects Of Officer, Subject, And Encounter Factors On Police Use Of Force Outcomes, Jeremy David Barnum

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Police use of force incidents are highly complex events that can be characterized by factors pertaining to the officers, subjects, and immediate encounter. These factors and the dynamic interrelationships between them encompass the situational context of use of force and have been widely studied in the criminological literature (Bolger, 2015). However, extant research has almost exclusively focused on identifying the main effects of situational factors on use of force with little consideration of how effects may vary across specific situational contexts. This limits our understanding of police use of force and complicates efforts to develop policy or training that ensures …

The Relationship Between Police Stress And Officer Misconduct, Leobardo Lopez-Cristobal

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Recent high-profile and controversial police-related incidents have sparked an intensified public discourse on police misconduct. This has resulted in increasing calls for greater accountability and transparency within U.S. police agencies. Much of the existing research on police misconduct centers around two competing explanations: the "bad apples" perspective, which attributes misconduct to individual officers, and the "bad barrels" perspective, which points to systemic or organizational factors (Rojek, Decker, & Wagner, 2015). However, one factor that has been underexplored in the literature is the role of police stress in influencing deviant police behavior. Previous studies suggest a potential link between police-related stress …

Perceptions Of Experiences Of Formerly Incarcerated Individuals On Community Reentry Programs To Reduce Recidivism, Kelly Sieger

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This study was conducted to identify the perceptions of experiences of formerly incarcerated individuals who have been actively involved in community-based reentry programming (CBRP). Utilizing a qualitative interview approach with previously incarcerated persons, the study’s focus was to identify the differences in literature, lived experiences, and the connection between CBRP and recidivism through the perceptions of formerly incarcerated persons who have completed CBRP. A key goal was to identify difficulties in the reentry process through the perception of lived experience and offer suggestions for improvements through the lens of actuarial justice. Using a qualitative, phenomenological approach, data was collected through …

Major Crime Trends Differ In New York City And New York State, Jeffrey A. Butts, Gina Moreno

Publications and Research

Researchers at the John Jay College Research and Evaluation Center analyzed police-reported index crimes across New York State from 2010 to 2024, focusing on trends in violent and property offenses across three regional groups: New York City, its surrounding suburbs, and Upstate New York. While violent and property crimes declined statewide through 2020, both surged in NYC and its suburbs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Upstate regions showed continued or renewed declines. Per capita crime rates reveal more modest increases in NYC and notable decreases in other areas, underscoring regional disparities in crime trends post-2020.

Higher Expectations: A Systematic Review Of Reporting The Science Of Propensity Score Modeling In Criminal Justice Studies, Christopher M. Campbell, Ryan M. Labrecque, Alicia D. Mckay

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications and Presentations

Objectives This systematic review examined the reporting practices of propensity score modeling (PSM) in criminology and criminal justice studies. Methods There were 229 articles (with 527 individual sets of PSM analyses) published between 2000 and 2022 in the top 19 ranked criminology and criminal justice journals that were identified for study inclusion. These articles were systematically coded to assess the presence of key PSM reporting elements, including covariates, estimation methods, balancing strategy, matching type, sample size, balance assessment, sensitivity analysis, and post-PSM analyses. Results The use of PSM has increased dramatically over the last two decades. Study findings suggest that …

It’S Complicated: The Level Of Risk Assigned To A Missing Person, Time They Were Missing For, And The Tasks Performed By Police Investigators., Karen Shalev, Craig Collie

International Journal of Missing Persons

This study examines the number of tasks police investigators perform by the level of risk assigned to cases and the length of time the investigations take to resolve. It analyses 40,091 solved cases from 2019 using data from eight English police forces, as part of a wider research project of missing person investigations demand on police resources. The findings show that (1) low and high risk with a search area cases have a relationship to the duration of the investigation; (2) there is a relationship between the risk classification and the number of tasks assigned to the case; (3) the …

Supporting & Protecting Repeat Missing Children From Different Residential Environments: A Scoping Review, Kirsty Bennett Dr, Petra Salisbury, Rebecca O'Keefe, Sharon Vincent, Bethany Mccarthy

International Journal of Missing Persons

Repeat missing children pose a significant financial burden onto services, including the police, social services, and health providers. Recognising that 37 to 65 percent of missing child reports each year are repeats, efforts have been made by academics and practitioners to understand this societal problem. Research has identified the risks causing children to go missing and the harms that they experience, but these focus primarily on children missing from residential care only. This PRISMA (2020) scoping review of 76 studies explores strategies implemented to prevent repeat missing episodes, and the role/influence of the home environment (e.g., with parents/guardians, and foster …

Gait Measurement Descriptions Of Human Tracks, Robert Speiden

International Journal of Missing Persons

Search and rescue missions use a variety of tools to find missing persons, one of which can be visual tracking. Trackers detect, interpret and document information about human contact with the ground. Humans typically move on two feet at various speeds. Movement as an obligate biped leaves a series of footprints that alternates from one side to the other. This pattern of footfalls is rather simple, and the footfalls can be easily divided into descriptive dimensions.

This work summarized published measurements of bipedal gait ground contact points in 70 resources. Four resource types were surveyed including 33 biomechanical gait analysis …

Nature Vs. Nurture In Albuquerque: What Breaking Bad And Better Call Saul Teach Us About How We Talk About Criminals, Max Romanowski

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul focus on the criminal transformation of their two main characters, Walter White (Bryan Cranston) and Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk). While quite similar on the surface, Walter and Jimmy’s narratives represent two different criminal transitions, evoking the classic nature vs nurture conversation. Both of these shows bring the conversation to the idea of inevitability. The nature vs. nurture argument is a popular one because it acts as a teaching tool for how we think and talk about criminal behavior. At first, it follows that since criminality was in Walter White’s nature the whole time, his …

Support Services From Prison To Home: Reentry Programs In A Midwestern State, Naima I. Lusane

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The problem addressed in this study was a gap in understanding the impact of Ohio-based reentry programs and support services for previously incarcerated offenders. Providing reentry services to ex-offenders before and after release from prison is vital in reducing the likelihood of recidivism. This study was essential because its outcomes provided valuable insights to reentry service agencies and prisons into the impact of support services on successful reentry and reducing recidivism in Ohio. The purpose of this qualitative ethnographic study was to explore how reentry programs addressed the employment, education, and housing needs of ex-offenders transiting back into society. The …

The Crime Of Luring A Minor For Contact Sexual Abuse: Exploration Of Demographic Patterns & Criminal Records Of Convicted Offenders., Bridget Diamond-Welch, Anna E. Kosloski, Christopher P. Carey, Molly Mcdade

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background

Child sexual abuse (CSA) is a significant public health problem, with a small but important subset of crimes committed by strangers, often facilitated through luring. Understanding the characteristics of individuals who engage in luring is essential for developing effective prevention and intervention strategies.

Objective

This study aimed to analyze the demographic characteristics and criminal histories of individuals convicted of luring a minor and to examine the types of crimes committed before and after conviction.

Participants and setting

The study included all individuals (N = 115) convicted of “luring a minor” between 2011 and 2021 in one county in …