The Superstition That Enslaves Virgin Girls In Ghana: An Exploration Of The Origins, Evolution, And Practice Of Trokosi,
2023
Aberystwyth University, Wales, UK
The Superstition That Enslaves Virgin Girls In Ghana: An Exploration Of The Origins, Evolution, And Practice Of Trokosi, Emmanuel Sarpong Owusu
Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence
Trokosi is a religious practice in some parts of West Africa where young virgin girls are sent to fetish shrines to become sex slaves as part of rituals meant to prevent a communal calamity supposedly provoked by the transgressions of members of the girls’ family. This study offers additional insight into the concept, origins, evolution, and practice of trokosi, highlighting the cultural, socio-economic, and legal contexts of this practice in Ghana. This goal is achieved by reviewing pertinent literature and interviewing 10 participants: academics; activists; traditional leaders; and ordinary community members. The study establishes that trokosi, which is …
Exploring Facilitators, Barriers And Concerns Of Police Using Social Media When Investigating Missing Children,
2023
University of Manchester
Exploring Facilitators, Barriers And Concerns Of Police Using Social Media When Investigating Missing Children, Eleanor Howlings, Reka Solymosi
International Journal of Missing Persons
Missing person investigations involve the collection of information to ensure the person is located as fast as possible, minimising their exposure to harms. Social media is a valuable source of information in police investigations both to learn about the missing person, and to appeal for information to the public. To ensure social media is used safely and effectively, we must understand the concerns and experiences of investigating officers. In this pilot study, we analysed interviews from 8 experts who investigate missing children to identify the facilitators and barriers of using social media. We also identified concerns raised by officers around …
Can Undergraduate Artists With No Training In Forensic Art Produce Accurate Age Progressions?,
2023
Texas A&M University-San Antonio
Can Undergraduate Artists With No Training In Forensic Art Produce Accurate Age Progressions?, William B. Erickson, James Lampinen, Charlie Frowd, Gregory Mahoney
International Journal of Missing Persons
When children go missing and remain missing for long periods of time, authorities sometimes retain forensic artists to age progress the last known picture to provide an estimate of the current appearance. In the present research, undergraduate artists with no training in forensic art were asked to age progress images of children to an adult appearance. Similarity of age progressions produced by undergraduate artists were as similar to the corresponding targets as were age progressions produced by practicing forensic artists. However, age progressions produced by undergraduate artists were rated as being more similar to description matched foils than were the …
Volusia County, Fl Mental Health And Substance Use Disorder Treatment Gap Analysis,
2023
University of Central Florida
Volusia County, Fl Mental Health And Substance Use Disorder Treatment Gap Analysis, Amy Donley Phd, Jacquelyn Reiss, Caroline Austin
Institute for Social and Behavioral Science (ISBS)
The University of Central Florida's Institute for Social and Behavioral Science (ISBS) partnered with Volusia County to undertake a gap analysis focused on mental health and substance use disorder treatment. Specifically, we designed a study to determine the capacity of treatment options, identify barriers to seeking treatment, and illuminate what works particularly well. The gap analysis results can guide future decisions on allocating resources best to ensure that treatment is accessible to all in need.
Incarcerated Bodies – Embodied Autoethnography In Prison,
2023
Al-Quasemi Academic College, University of Haifa
Incarcerated Bodies – Embodied Autoethnography In Prison, Shulamit Kitzis
The Qualitative Report
Prison is a study field in which everyone – inmates, guards, and prison researchers – experiences powerful sensory stimuli comprised of sounds, sights, and smells in a crowded, closed space. Yet traditional academic research has socialized researchers to “wash away” their physical and emotional feelings for fear they would jeopardize the scientific nature and validity of their studies. Nevertheless, at times in a prison setting, the researchers’ bodies are the only tool that enables them to document what goes on; so much so that ignoring their bodies and emotions leads to a loss of valuable information. Using embodied autoethnography (EA), …
Shared Responsibility: Conceptualising How A Public Health Approach May Enhance Police Response To Missing Persons,
2023
University of Edinburgh
Shared Responsibility: Conceptualising How A Public Health Approach May Enhance Police Response To Missing Persons, Katie Gambier-Ross, Joe Apps Dr, Sarah Wayland Dr
International Journal of Missing Persons
When a person is reported missing there are substantial costs for the individual, their family and society. This paper conceptualises the experience of missing persons episodes, through a public health approach. This then allows police, stakeholders and the community to engage in discussions about who is vulnerable to going missing by intervening in a way that addresses risk. Historically, a missing persons episode involves an absence, typically followed by police involvement in consultation with next of kin with establishing the whereabouts of the missing person being the primary focus. Yet, the risk factors of going missing relate more to the …
Minor Role: Youth Under Age 18 And New York City Violence,
2023
CUNY John Jay College
Minor Role: Youth Under Age 18 And New York City Violence, Jeffrey A. Butts, Sheyla A. Delgado, Richard A. Espinobarros
Publications and Research
Media outlets attribute recent concerns about increased violent crime in New York City to the behavior of juveniles and associate the increase with New York State's policy governing the handling of 16 and 17-year-olds in family courts rather than adult criminal courts. This databit explores age differences in violent crime arrests and shooting victimizations in New York City and finds the recent concerns to be misplaced.
Perceptions Of Law Enforcement Officers Regarding Eyewitness Identification Policies: A Survey Of Chief Executive Officers (Ceos) Of Arkansas Police Agencies.,
2023
Arkansas State University
Perceptions Of Law Enforcement Officers Regarding Eyewitness Identification Policies: A Survey Of Chief Executive Officers (Ceos) Of Arkansas Police Agencies., Chadwick Shane Henson
Student Theses and Dissertations
Eyewitness identification evidence is extremely dependent on the processes utilized by law enforcement to acquire and uphold the evidence. Unquestionably, research has led to a variety of significant findings regarding the ways in which law enforcement obtains identification evidence from eyewitnesses. Despite these findings and academics' best efforts to disseminate their results to public agencies, policymakers, and important law enforcement personnel using a variety of evidence, changes to policy and practice have been slow to come about, if they have come at all. Using a sample of Chief Executive Officers (CEO) of police agencies in Arkansas (N = 69), we …
Safety Behind The Computer Screen: Gauging Public Perceptions About Teacher Student Sexual Abuse,
2023
University of Arkansas Little Rock
Safety Behind The Computer Screen: Gauging Public Perceptions About Teacher Student Sexual Abuse, Kilby E. Raptopoulos
Theses and Dissertations
Female sex offenders are often portrayed in the media more leniently than male sex offenders, which could influence the way the public perceives these offenders. Further, the media is not always accurate in how they portray sex crimes either which can translate to misconceptions among the public specifically regarding sex offenders. The purpose of this research was to explore media coverage of teacher student sexual abuse in relation to the public’s reaction to these news stories. The current study utilized news stories to analyze reader comments on a news website to understand 1) how teacher sex offenders are portrayed, 2) …
The Process Of Sexual Misconduct By Male Teachers And Staff In K-12 Institutions,
2023
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
The Process Of Sexual Misconduct By Male Teachers And Staff In K-12 Institutions, Mollee Steely Smith
Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence
Despite the increased media attention of teachers who engage in sexual misconduct with their students, research on such incidents remains limited, specifically on how these incidents are initiated and evolve. The purpose of the current study was to examine the nature of sexual abuse incidents by K-12 teachers who engaged in sexual misconduct with students by focusing on the onset, progression, and conclusion of these cases. Data included 10 secondary narrative interviews with male sex offenders who used their position as school employees to target and engage in sexual misconduct with their students in 2014 in a southern state. All …
Bearer Negotiable Instruments: Addressing A Financial Intelligence Gap And Identifying Criminogenic Weaknesses,
2023
CUNY Graduate Center
Bearer Negotiable Instruments: Addressing A Financial Intelligence Gap And Identifying Criminogenic Weaknesses, Hollis B. Kegg
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Bearer Negotiable Instruments (BNI) are a long-standing category of financial instruments used to transfer large amounts of money in ways that may not be subject to regulation, reporting, tracking, review, or oversight. There is limited information available on BNIs, and no evidence that any studies have been undertaken on BNIs alone, much less reported. Increasingly, BNIs are being used for illegal purposes including money laundering. This study gathers information about their characteristics, nature, purpose, legal status, and numbers. It also focuses on the crime risks associated with BNIs, the crime opportunities they facilitate, and the criminal weaknesses in the financial …
Hentai And The Pornification Of Childhood: How The Porn Industry Just Made The Case For Regulation,
2023
Wheelock College
Hentai And The Pornification Of Childhood: How The Porn Industry Just Made The Case For Regulation, Gail Dines, Mandy Sanchez
Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence
One of the most popular genres of online pornography today is hentai, sexualized animation, and cartoons in the style of Japanese anime. Data from Pornhub, the world’s best-known pornography website, as well as a recent report from a British regulatory agency and our research, show that much of hentai appeals to children and depicts child-like characters engaged in sexual violence. In almost every instance, this violence targets female characters. Hentai, we show, encourages adults to see minors, especially girls, as legitimate targets of sexual violence. Until the day when these depictions of sexual violence are eradicated, we call for three …
A Structural Examination Of Organizational Justice, Self-Legitimacy, Employee Engagement, And Civic Engagement In Police,
2023
University of Arkansas Little Rock
A Structural Examination Of Organizational Justice, Self-Legitimacy, Employee Engagement, And Civic Engagement In Police, Mary Isis Wuestewald
Theses and Dissertations
Recently, the concept of police self-legitimacy has spurred research interest. Several studies have demonstrated beneficial outcomes associated with officers who are confident in their own authority. The current dissertation builds on this emerging area of study by examining the influence of organizational justice on police self-legitimacy, as well as self-legitimacy’s impact on employee engagement and civic engagement in police officers. Survey data were gathered from a sample of 1,391 officers from variously sized agencies across seven regions of the United States. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses. The results indicate that organizational justice is a key component …
Investigating Key Risk Factors Across Violent And Non-Violent Extremists In The United States,
2023
CUNY Graduate Center
Investigating Key Risk Factors Across Violent And Non-Violent Extremists In The United States, Leevia Dillon
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Problem Statement: This study investigated risk factors commonly highlighted by prior studies and risk assessment tools (e.g., Violent Extremism Risk Assessment Version 2 (VERA-2) and Extremism Risk Guidance 22+ (ERG22+)). It compared the risk factors across and within two groups – violent extremists (i.e., jihadists and far-right extremists) and non-violent extremists (i.e., jihadists and far-right financial/material support crime extremists) in the U.S. Jihadists and far-rightists are the two greatest security threats facing the U.S., and the findings can aid counterterrorism efforts on assessment development, identifying effective risk factors across varying groups, and assessing violence risk. Research Questions/Objectives: This study aimed …
From Prostitution To Sex Trafficking: Dilemmas Of Victim Service Workers Helping Chinese Immigrant Women At The Courts,
2023
CUNY Graduate Center
From Prostitution To Sex Trafficking: Dilemmas Of Victim Service Workers Helping Chinese Immigrant Women At The Courts, Yen-Chiao Liao
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
This study aims to explore the policy ambivalence towards commercial sex trade, resulted by prostitution laws and anti-trafficking policies in the United States. It focuses on Chinese immigrant women and those who served them in the Human Trafficking Intervention Courts (the HTICs) in New York City. Specifically, it investigates the process of Chinese immigrant women becoming potential “victims” of sex trafficking from the perspectives of the service workers, the social workers and the public defenders. Though research on human trafficking seems to be exploding for the past decades since the passage of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) in 2000, …
National De-Escalation Training Center - Year 1 In-Person Data Archive,
2023
Fort Hays State University
National De-Escalation Training Center - Year 1 In-Person Data Archive, Morgan Steele
Criminal Justice Research Data
This dataset includes the demographics, education, perceptions, and assessment of de-escalation skills of law enforcement officers, and other professionals, which were collected as a part of in-person de-escalation training. Many of these trainings were funded as a part of the Office of Community-Oriented Policing Services (U.S. Department of Justice). All of the data is anonymous, and can be linked based on the trainee generated identification number. This data was collected across three separate activities. The first was a pre-training survey that included questions about the trainees' demographics, perceptions, and experiences, and was collected via a Qualtrics survey link. The second …
The Theorizing Of Terrorism Within Criminology,
2023
Center for Courts and Corrections Research
The Theorizing Of Terrorism Within Criminology, Daren Fisher, Erin M. Kearns
Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications
Objectives. While terrorism studies were once castigated as atheoretical and unempirical, criminology has been well suited to apply theories of crime to terrorism and to then test those theories with rigorous methods and robust data. The present study takes stock of how criminologists have theorized about terrorism and tested those theories over time in 13 of the discipline’s leading journals. Methods. The study systematically examines theoretical framing, hypotheses, methodological approach, focus within criminology and criminal justice, and policy recommendations in terrorism-focused articles. Results. While terrorism has become more central within top journals, sparse attention has been paid to many criminological …
Finding Forensic Evidence In The Operating System's Graphical User Interface,
2023
Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College
Finding Forensic Evidence In The Operating System's Graphical User Interface, Edward X. Wilson Mr.
LSU Master's Theses
A branch of cyber security known as memory forensics focuses on extracting meaningful evidence from system memory. This analysis is often referred to as volatile memory analysis, and is generally performed on memory captures acquired from target systems. Inside of a memory capture is the complete state of a system under investigation, including the contents of currently running as well as previously executed applications. Analysis of this data can reveal a significant amount of activity that occurred on a system since the last reboot. For this research, the Windows operating system is targeted. In particular, the graphical user interface component …
Raising The Cyber Guard: Analyzing The Cost And Use Of The National Guard In Local Municipal And State Cyber Defense,
2023
Saint John's University, Jamaica New York
Raising The Cyber Guard: Analyzing The Cost And Use Of The National Guard In Local Municipal And State Cyber Defense, Hunter Lacroix
Theses and Dissertations
Cybersecurity is a national priority for the Homeland Security enterprise. Yet, despite a prioritization at the federal level, municipal and state governments have struggled to incorporate the National Guard in cyber incident response. Cyber incidents strain municipalities and states, which have spent significant resources to mitigate cyber threats. The glaring gap in the National Guard’s role in municipal and state cyber incident response warrants two key questions as to why the National Guard isn’t more readily used. “Is it cost prohibitive to use National Guard assets when compared to private entities?” Or “is there an underlying sociological disconnect regarding the …
A Study Of Public Opinion: The Importance Of Mental Illness Diagnosis And Perceptions Of Recidivism On Parole Eligibility,
2023
Western Kentucky University
A Study Of Public Opinion: The Importance Of Mental Illness Diagnosis And Perceptions Of Recidivism On Parole Eligibility, Emily Pedigo
Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects
The present study examined the impact a mental illness diagnosis has on parole eligibility mediated by the participants’ perceptions of whether the prospective parolee would commit future crimes if released. Participants watched a video vignette of an individual charged with second degree manslaughter and diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, antisocial personality disorder, or bipolar disorder while incarcerated. Results indicated that a diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder indirectly reduced parole success compared to bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder when mediated by participants’ perceptions of whether the convict would recommit a crime following release.
