Criminology Commons^™

An Intersectional Examination Of Criminally Involved Women Of Color With Mental Illness, Cailin Rosemary Mcdermott

Theses and Dissertations

Women, people of color, and people with mental illness are fast growing populations in the criminal justice system. However, research tends to overlook the women of color with mental illness who exist at the intersection of these statuses. The current thesis attempts to apply an intersectional framework to the analysis of the narratives of these multifaceted women to explore the ways that their varying positions in society interact to shape unique life experiences. I analyzed a secondary data set of semi-structured life-course interviews with 65 women on a Seriously Mentally Ill (SMI) probation caseload. Implementing a grounded-inspired approach, the interviews …

The Rise And Fall Of Focused Deterrence Initiatives, Chandra Lynore Joseph

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Following the national uptick of violence across the country, societal angst has once again begun to surface. Those in positions of authority began to look to the criminal justice system for ways to address this cyclical issue. Traditionally, applying law enforcement crackdowns and increased penalties and sanctions to the offenders were the main topics of discussion. However, over the last two decades, problem-oriented policing has begun to emerge. Problem-oriented policing works to identify why things are going wrong and to frame responses using a wide variety of often untraditional approaches (Goldstein 1979). One of the problem-oriented frameworks known as the …

The Law Of Crime Concentration In Midsized Cities: A Spatial Analysis, Hannah Ridner

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The geographic concentration of crime led to the proposal of the law of crime concentration in 2015 by David Weisburd. This contribution to crime and place literature needs further research to properly define, measure, and confirm this law. This study builds upon measurement techniques used in previous studies to measure crime concentration across a random sample of mid-sized cities, estimate the expected Gini coefficient in mid-sized cities, and analyze the variation in crime concentration across mid-sized cities. Determining the expected level of crime concentration and whether it varies across cities will advance the literature by providing both a benchmark for …

The Application Of Risk–Needs Programming In A Juvenile Diversion Program, Lindsey Wylie, Samantha S. Clinkinbeard, Anne M. Hobbs

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

As “gatekeepers” into the juvenile justice system, diversion programs are positioned to prevent future delinquency. Although research on the effectiveness of diversion is mixed, the risk–needs–responsivity (RNR) model may explain how diversion programming that matches youth to services based on their risk and needs may reduce reoffending. Most RNR research has included juveniles at the deeper end of the system, fewer studies have examined RNR with early system–involved youth. The current study explored the application of risk and needs matching in a juvenile diversion program by gender and race/ethnicity. Furthermore, we estimated a survival function to estimate risk and needs …

"...Make Them Disappear With A Piece Of Paper": Understanding The Lived Realities Of Federally Unrecognized Indigenous Women In The Southeast, Brian A. Pitman

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

Indigenous women experience some of the highest rates of violence and negative health outcomes of any racial/ethnic group yet are largely ignored in social science research. This dissertation explores the lived realities of Indigenous women who are members of federally unrecognized nations and how their tribal membership impacts their experiences with a variety of criminal justice and social issues. Unrecognized nations do not have access to potential benefits, opportunities, and legitimacy that comes with federal recognition thereby creating an additional intersection to consider for some Indigenous women. Essentially, federal recognition policies seek to place further constraints on Indigenous identity, while …

Residential Mobility And The Underclass: Impact Of Moving In The 'Hood, Michael A. Hollingsworth

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

Studies of residential mobility amongst disadvantaged populations and juveniles in particular have attracted a great deal of attention with projects such as the Moving to Opportunity Study and policies aimed at reducing concentrated disadvantage by providing alternative housing assistance to low-income families. The results of these studies, however, have been inconclusive and have often not concentrated on the effects of this mobility on a broad spectrum of delinquent behaviors. Previous studies have found that residential mobility negatively affects juveniles, while other studies find that there is little effect after controlling for a wide variety of variables with scant theoretical considerations …

Spatial Analysis Of Burglary And Robbery Crime Concentration Near Mass-Transit In Portland, Bryce Edward Barthuly

Dissertations and Theses

The relationship between mass-transit and the concentration of burglary and robbery crimes is inconsistent within the available literature in environmental criminology. A number of studies have provided evidence of crime concentration at and near mass transit locations where paths intersect, referred to as a node. These empirical studies bring in environmental criminology theory with the idea that crime is clustered, and the pattern of the concentrations is substantially influenced by how and why people travel and move in a city. It is suggested that public transit allows for a large proportion of the population to move around the community along …

Where Were The Lesbians In The Stonewall Riots? The Women’S House Of Detention & Lesbian Resistance, Polly Thistlethwaite

Publications and Research

Where were the lesbians in the Stonewall Riots? They were jailed in the House of Detention for Women in Greenwich Village, New York City, two blocks away from the Stonewall Inn. Lesbians in the Women's House of Detention shouted from the windows to the rioters in the streets below, fueling the momentum of the Stonewall uprising. The women's prison was a site of lesbian confinement and resistance that inspired the 1969 uprising in Greenwich Village.

Polly Thistlethwaite is Chief Librarian at the Graduate Center, CUNY. She volunteered at the Lesbian Herstory Archives 1986 – 1997.

Forget The Olive Branch, What About The Bank Branch? An Examination Of The Relationship Between Financial Access And Community Crime, Marc D. Glidden

Theses and Dissertations

Previous literature has concluded that the structural characteristics of neighborhoods, namely measures of concentrated disadvantage, racial and ethnic heterogeneity, and residential stability, are significant predictors of the variance in crime within communities. Guided by a neighborhood approach, this study introduces a measure of access to mainstream financial institutions within the social disorganization theoretical framework. Specifically, this dissertation examines the relationship between access to banks and violent, property, and total crime rates within 3,039 counties in the United States. Findings indicate a significant association between bank access and community crime.

Our Criminal Justice System Should Not Be Our Mental Health System (But It Is), Donald Roth

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"Our criminal justice system is like the silt layer at the bottom of the ocean. If a problem isn’t taken care of higher up in society, it will eventually find its way down to the criminal justice system."

Posting about the need for criminal law reform from In All Things - an online journal for critical reflection on faith, culture, art, and every ordinary-yet-graced square inch of God’s creation.

https://inallthings.org/our-criminal-justice-system-should-not-be-our-mental-health-system-but-it-is/

Weaving The Dark Web: Legitimacy On Freenet, Tor, And I2p, John Schriner

Publications and Research

This is a book review of Robert W. Gehl's Weaving the Dark Web: Legitimacy on Freenet, Tor, and I2P (2018). The book explores these anonymity networks and the concept of legitimacy throughout. Using a multidisciplinary approach and interviews with network-builders and users, Gehl helps to demystify the dark web and critically examine these networks and technologies.

Bound By Silence: Psychological Effects Of The Traditional Oath Ceremony Used In The Sex Trafficking Of Nigerian Women And Girls, Jennifer Millett-Barrett

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

Nigerian women and children have been trafficked to Italy over the last 30 years for commercial sexual exploitation with an alarming increase in the past three years. The Central Mediterranean Route that runs from West African countries to Italy is rife with organized crime gangs that have created a highly successful trafficking operation. As part of the recruitment process, the Nigerian mafia and its operatives exploit victims by subjecting them to a traditional religious juju oath ceremony, which is an extremely effective control mechanism to silence victims and trap them in debt bondage. This study explores the psychological effects of …

Skinning The Cat: How Mandatory Psychiatric Evaluations For Animal Cruelty Offenders Can Prevent Future Violence, Ashley Kunz

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

In 2017, the Texas legislature amended Texas Penal Code § 42.092, which governs acts of cruelty against non-livestock animals. The statute in its current form makes torturing, killing, or seriously injuring a non-livestock animal a third degree felony, while less serious offenses carry either a state jail felony or a Class A misdemeanor charge.

While a step in the right direction, Texas law is not comprehensive in that it fails to address a significant aspect of animal cruelty offenses: mental illness. For over fifteen years, Texas Family Code § 54.0407 has required psychiatric counseling for juveniles convicted of cruelty to …

Understanding Trauma And Victimization In Women's Incarceration: California's Treatment Response, Marissa Tuttle-Roache

Social Sciences

The purpose of this review is to provide an exploration of past research on women's pathways to incarceration, specifically discussing how this problem affects California women. Using research from various case studies, both quantitative and qualitative, this review examines the correlation between life experiences and incarceration for women. California laws and policies that mitigate the impact incarceration has historically had on women will be discussed. This research provides a better understanding of the treatment needs of incarcerated women and the programs that could provide them with some positive resources to succeed post incarceration and avoid recidivism.

Reforming Recidivism: Making Prison Practical Through Help, Katelyn Copperud

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

While Texas has long been recognized as “Tough Texas” when it comes to crime, recent efforts have been made to combat that reputation. Efforts such as offering “good time” credit and more liberal parole standards are used to reduce the Texas prison populations. Although effective in reducing prison populations, do these incentives truly reduce a larger issue of prison overpopulation: recidivism?

In both state and federal prison systems, inmate education is proven to reduce recidivism. Texas’s own, Windham School District, provides a broad spectrum of education to Texas Department of Criminal Justice inmates; from General Education Development (GED) classes to …

Gambling-Related Harm And Criminal Activity - Combining Population-Based Finnish Gambling Harms Survey With Register Data, Kalle Lind

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

Problem gamblers are at-risk of committing non-violent property crimes to fund their gambling. Not just problem gamblers, but gamblers more broadly may experience gambling-related harm. The presentation outlines the background and results of a first wave data (n=7186) of the longitudinal Gambling Harms survey. In 2016, 0.9 percent of the respondent had experienced at least one social deviance harm, such as feeling outcast from religious or cultural community. Based on the survey, 0.2% had committed a crime due to their gambling.

The aim of the study is to explore gambling-related harm as well as criminal charges based on criminal records. …

Effect Of Pretrial Detention In Oregon: Testimony To The Senate And House Judiciary Committees, Christopher M. Campbell, Ryan M. Labrecque

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications and Presentations

What is the relationship between pretrial detention and sentencing outcomes in Oregon? This presentation examines the effect of being detained through disposition, and the effect of days spent in detention. The data shows that, controlling for all other measures, fully detained defendants are over twice as likely to be incarcerated. This probability increases the longer a person is detained. The authors believe this means that counties should continue to explore ways to reduce pretrial detention, be more selective in holding defendants over 30 days, and should examine different pretrial risk assessments.

Stop, Question, And Frisk: A Tool Of Racial Control In New York City, Justice D. Evans

Student Theses

Broken Windows policing through the utilization of Stop, Question, and Frisk has been widely used by the New York City Police Department (NYPD) since the 1990s, as guaranteed by landmark Supreme Court Case Terry v. Ohio (1968). As a result, hundreds of minority citizens have been the victim of routine stops for minor offenses through this aggressive police tactic. This study utilizes 2017 NYPD Stop, Question, and Frisk Data to determine whether broken windows policing, through stop, question, and frisk, operates as a mode of racial control for African Americans in New York City. Through the utilization of chi-square analyses, …

Untitled Screenplay, Lora A. Herman

University Honors Theses

The following document is a working copy of an untitled fictional screenplay in which the story and characters are the original work of Lora A. Herman.

In 2082 North America, the United States no longer exists as a governing entity. The vast majority of the landscape that once comprised the USA is unlivable due to irreparable advances in climate change -- flood, fire, freeze, and drought.

The remaining society has restructured itself to focus less on controlling its population and their free will, and to instead focus on maintaining the integrity of and resources for the man-made contained communities that …

The Psychos, Paula N. Stevenson

Graduate School of Art Theses

My current body of work is a series of drawings that juxtapose characters of fiction and reality in an attempt to explore the relationship between horror film and contemporary social issues. I strive to render an accurate portrayal of the face to draw the viewer into questioning the troubling narrative these characters illuminate. I focus on retelling stories of fear and horror, and crime and infamy. I want my work to convey ethical dilemmas as they are present within the relationship between horror movie antagonists and the audience (all of us). It is these concerns I attempt to visualize in, …