Criminology Commons^™

Aging On Parole: An Empirical Analysis Of Reentry, Reintegration, And Life Satisfaction, Angela Silletti Murolo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

As the prison population grays, so too does the people leaving prison. In New Jersey and New York, 35% and 26% of people on parole are over the age of 50 respectively. While older persons have lower recidivism rates compared to younger persons, there are physical, mental, and societal challenges that come with advancing age that can make reentry and reintegration a particularly difficult experience compared to younger persons. The aim of this dissertation is to explore the experiences of older adults on parole and the parole officers that assist them in their reentry and reintegration.

This study is unique …

Mitigating The Harm Of Public Mass Shooting Incidents Through Situational Crime Prevention, Emily Greene-Colozzi

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation used environmental theoretical frameworks to understand how public mass shooting incidents are impacted by aspects of the crime situation and opportunity. Predatory, public shootings perpetrated by individuals with evidence of mass intent were examined in the United States between 1966 and 2019. This project progressed in several distinct steps with discrete aims: (1) establish an open source database of public mass shooting incidents meeting definitional criteria; (2) perform statistical analysis, including latent class analysis, regression modeling, and structural equational modeling to assess research questions; and (3) perform comparative case studies and crime script analysis to assess situational crime …

Carceral Calisthenics: Physical Culture In The Hood, Albert L. De La Tierra

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

How do racialized men who reside in structurally marginalized locales that are putatively regarded as “the hood” navigate and manage their social conditions? This dissertation sheds light on this question by treating “street workout,” a physical culture centered around calisthenics exercises performed in public space, as an empirical site for generating a situated understanding of how some Black men assert themselves in social space at the same time that they are asserted upon by social forces. Taking an ethico-onto-epistem-ological stance that refuses the colonial gaze (a ubiquitously employed optic that dehumanizes racialized people), this dissertation asks: (1) What embodied practices …

Credible Messengers: An Exploratory Analysis Of What Makes Them "Credible", Jason Szkola

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The use of credible messengers to deliver violence reduction programs has spread rapidly since it was first used in a criminal justice context by Cure Violence in 2006. Despite the rapid growth in the use of credible messengers and the accompanying evaluations of these programs, there is no clear operationalization of what a credible messenger is, aside from vague definitions contained in the evaluation literature. This research explores what it means to be credible from the perspectives of the Credible Messengers themselves. The research used a mixed method approach wherein qualitative interviews were used to identify traits that the Credible …

Identifying Successes And Barriers In A Child Advocacy Center: An Examination Of Five Service Areas, Amber Krushas, Teresa C. Kulig, Emily M. Wright, Ryan E. Spohn, Lynn Castrianno

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Despite widespread support for coordinated responses to child maltreatment, little research examines the successes and barriers faced by child advocacy centers (CACs). The current study examines perspectives on program operations within a large CAC in the Midwest across 14 focus groups, including both internal CAC staff (N =32) and external agency partners (N = 37). Universal successes and barriers were identified across all service areas. Still, the findings indicate a need to also consider the unique factors affecting each service area. The importance of these findings is discussed for those working in arenas that provide services to youth and families …

Understanding The Challenges Of Cryptography-Related Cybercrime And Its Investigation, Sinyong Choi, Katalin Parti

International Journal of Cybersecurity Intelligence & Cybercrime

Cryptography has been applied to a range of modern technologies which criminals also exploit to gain criminal rewards while hiding their identity. Although understanding of cybercrime involving this technique is necessary in devising effective preventive measures, little has been done to examine this area. Therefore, this paper provides an overview of the two articles, featured in the special issue of the International Journal of Cybersecurity Intelligence and Cybercrime, that will enhance our understanding of cryptography-related crime, ranging from cryptocurrency and darknet market to password-cracking. The articles were presented by the winners of the student paper competition at the 2022 International …

Dynamics Of Dark Web Financial Marketplaces: An Exploratory Study Of Underground Fraud And Scam Business, Bo Ra Jung, Kyung-Shick Choi, Claire Seungeun Lee

International Journal of Cybersecurity Intelligence & Cybercrime

The number of Dark Web financial marketplaces where Dark Web users and sellers actively trade illegal goods and services anonymously has been growing exponentially in recent years. The Dark Web has expanded illegal activities via selling various illicit products, from hacked credit cards to stolen crypto accounts. This study aims to delineate the characteristics of the Dark Web financial market and its scams. Data were derived from leading Dark Web financial websites, including Hidden Wiki, Onion List, and Dark Web Wiki, using Dark Web search engines. The study combines statistical analysis with thematic analysis of Dark Web content. Offering promotions …

Kerberoasting: Case Studies Of An Attack On A Cryptographic Authentication Technology, D Demers, Hannarae Lee

International Journal of Cybersecurity Intelligence & Cybercrime

Kerberoasting, an attack vector aimed at the Kerberos authentication protocol, can be used as part of an adversary’s attack arsenal. Kerberos is a type of network authentication protocol that allows a client and server to conduct a mutual verification before providing the requested resource to the client. A successful Kerberoasting attack allows an adversary to leverage the architectural limitations of Kerberos, providing access to user password hashes that can be subject to offline cracking. A cracked user password could give a bad actor the ability to maintain persistence, move laterally, or escalate privileges in a system. Persistence or movement within …

The Social Murder Of Victoria Salazar: Neoliberal Capitalism And Working Class Precariousness In El Salvador, Steven Osuna

Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis

On March 27, 2021, a Salvadoran refugee named Victoria Salazar was brutally killed by police in the Mexican resort town of Tulum, Quintana Roo. In this article, I introduce a “proletarian feminist analysis” to the study of Central American displacement and forced migration to argue that Victoria Salazar’s death is a “social murder.” Although Mexican police murdered Victoria Salazar, I contend that the social degradation and working-class precariousness in El Salvador and Mexico, all shaped by neoliberal capitalist relations of exploitation and afflicting cisgender and trans women in distinctive ways, set the conditions for Ms Salazar’s social murder.

How Mental Health Problems, Adverse Childhood Experiences, And Other Risk Factors Impact Recidivism Rates Among Juvenile Offenders, Ashley Elizabeth Brooks

Student Theses and Dissertations

Between the years of 1985 and 2008, there was a 43 percent increase in juvenile delinquency cases that were processed in the juvenile courts (National Center for Juvenile Justice, 2011). Based on this increase, the juvenile justice system’s ability to function could be diminished. It is important to properly rehabilitate individuals in order to reduce recidivism rates, and society cannot rehabilitate individuals if they do not know the influential factors of reoffending. This research focuses on influencing factors of reoffending among youth centering on recidivism rates of juvenile offenders by utilizing a secondary data set collected by Dr. Jeffrey Lin …

The Impact Of Appearance On Transgender Victimization, Tabrina M. Bratton

Theses and Dissertations

Trans people experience disproportionate rates of victimization compared to cisgender people. This disparity persists despite the finding that many of the same predictors of cisgender victimization have been identified for transgender victimization (e.g., age, race, income, employment, sex work participation, homelessness), which suggest transgender-specific factors may be at play. Some scholars have proposed that transgender victimization is due to their non-conforming appearance. The purpose of this dissertation was to expand our understanding of anti-trans violence by concentrating on the relationship between appearance and sexual and recent physical victimization. This dissertation builds upon the existing transgender victimization literature by focusing on …

Trauma Exposures Across The Life Course For Individuals Who Experience Incarceration, Maria Morrison

Brown School Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

The U.S. incarcerates more people than any other country in the world, with 2.2 million people currently behind bars, 60% of whom are people of color. At the same time, there is an unprecedented political consensus to develop strategies for reducing the incarcerated population and safely returning the majority of incarcerated individuals to society. While there has been a substantial research focus on the potential of this population to commit acts of violence post-release, this tells only half the story. This dissertation hopes to provide a more complete picture of the role of violence in the lives of individuals released …

How Domestic Violence Affects Incarcerated Women, Michelle Ryman

University Honors Theses

The incarceration of women has grown seven times since the 1980s, with up to 90% of incarcerated women being survivors of domestic violence. Women are five times more likely to be abused by an intimate partner. Intimate partner violence leads to unhealthy coping mechanisms like drug abuse and violence against perpetrators. While coercion in IPV can contribute to violent retaliation and drug abuse, it can also lead to criminal behavior prompted by the perpetrator. Whether IPV shows itself as violent attacks, sexual assault, coercion, financial withholding, threats, isolation, psychological abuse, or any other behavior that allows one person to control …

The Effects Of Gang Membership And Transitions In A Gang On Within-Individual Changes In Offending., Leon Sergio Garduno

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Researchers have established that joining a gang exposes individuals to factors and environments that promote and increase antisocial and illegal behaviors, which decrease after leaving the gang (Decker & Van Winkle, 1994; Melde & Esbensen, 2014; Thornberry, Krohn et al., 1993). Scholars, by analyzing qualitative data, bivariate statistics, and by comparing gang members with non-gang members, have found that as individuals join and leave a gang they experience changes in the frequency with which they carry firearms, sell drugs, and engage in property crimes (Bjerregaard & Lizotte, 1995; Hagedorn, 1994; Thornberry et al., 1993). Researchers also have established that within-individuals’ …

Repeating Patterns: Does Emotional Child Abuse Lead To Intimate Partner Abuse?, Kathryn R. Henry

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Childhood abuse and intimate partner abuse (IPA) are serious issues in the United States This study examines the correlation between emotional childhood abuse and IPA. Anyone regardless of gender, race, or socioeconomic status may be a victim of childhood abuse or IPA. One in seven children are victims of childhood abuse, which results in a lifetime cost of $428 billion. The costs of IPA are even higher and estimated by the CDC (2020) to be near $3.6 trillion as 25% of women and 20% of men have been victims of IPA. Previous research has found a connection between childhood maltreatment …

Intimate Partner Femicide: An Exploratory Study In The Rio Grande Valley, Zoraya Berlanga Aguilar

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to explore the cases of Intimate Partner Femicide Victims from the Rio Grande Valley. By developing a cohesive understanding and assistance towards fostering knowledge and promoting social justice. Given the close proximity to the border, and hearing of femicide cases from both the Rio Grande Valley and Mexico marked my interest as Intimate Partner Violence is an ongoing Public Health Issue. Intimate Partner Violence is the leading cause of Intimate Partner Femicide. First specific project to contribute to limited research on intimate partner femicide in the Rio Grande Valley. A non-probability purposive sample of …

Court Actor Decision-Making: The Influence Of Victim Characteristics On Legal Outcomes In Cases Of Bias Homicide, Taylor June

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

While most states in America have passed laws permitting harsher punishments for those convicted of hate (or bias) crimes, there has been no research to date on the adjudication of these defendants, including how legal and extralegal attributes of bias crime shape prosecutorial and judicial decision-making. This gap in research is likely due in part to the limitations of official data on bias crimes. Fortunately, new data on legal outcomes for bias homicide offenders who target victims because of their race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or homed status have become available from the open-source database known as …

Examining The Escalation To Violence At Political Protests: A Conjunctive Analysis, Austin C. Barber

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Despite extensive sociological research on the broader causes of collective violence, there has been much less research on the situated nature of more recent violence committed by individuals attending protests and rallies, such as Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests and the 2021 Stop the Steal rally at the U.S. Capitol. To fill this gap in research, I draw from the tenets of Environmental Criminology and the Situational Crime Prevention (SCP) perspective to quantitatively examine individual-level and incident-level risk factors most associated with contemporary forms of collective violence. After exploring situated differences across ideological movements, I ask how do risk factors …

What You See You Perceive: Public Opinions Of Potential Negative Consequences And Support For Officer Body-Worn Cameras, Jordyn Marian Sanders

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Officer-body worn cameras (BWCs) are used in policing to provide visuals from the perspective of the officer during interactions with the community. BWCs are often promoted for the ability to improve the relationship between the community and police by providing accurate and transparent accounts of the interactions. Millions of dollars have been spent to distribute BWCs to police departments across the Unites States, with an estimated 80% of departments implementing the devices through various policies and procedures (White & Malm, 2020). Most studies on BWCs have provided empirical evidence showing the potential benefits of the devices in policing (Lum et …

The Experiences Of Sexually Abused Women With Disabilities Who Consulted Services In Zimbabwe: The Intersection Of Disability, Gender, And Poverty, Tafadzwa Oswell Rugoho, Michael Ashley Stein, Pamela Wright, Jacqueline E. W. Broerse

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

Women have experienced sexual abuse, and very few of them report to the police or seek other services, such as medical attention. This study aims to gain insight into the barriers women with disabilities face when accessing police, health, and counseling services after experiencing sexual abuse. Barriers such as long distances, physical barriers at service sites, communication barriers, gender issues, lack of confidence in the service providers, and an overall lack of resources were reported. In a study undertaken in Zimbabwe, women with disabilities encountered intersecting barriers such as the intersection of disability, and gender, poverty, unemployment, and low levels …