Exploring change in local criminal justice systems: An examination of the implementation of the Justice Reinvestment at the Local Level model in three U.S. counties
Year of Dissertation:
2012
Tough on crime policies in the U.S. began to emerge in the 1970s and steeply escalated through the 1980s and 1990s, prompting massive growth of correctional populations and criminal justice costs. Although many of these policy and legislative reforms were enacted at the federal and state levels, they have trickled down and greatly affected localities across the country. The recent economic downturn has exerted additional pressures on local governments. These factors have prompted the development of a number of planned change strategies designed to curb the escalating growth and related costs in criminal justice systems. One such approach, Justice Reinvestment at the Local Level (JRLL), targets the implementation of a planned change model within local criminal justice systems. This dissertation employs qualitative and quantitative data from three case studies to test if the JRLL planned change strategy supports the Lewin-White planned change schema. Lewin's model involves three phases: unfreezing, changing, and refreezing. White advances this three-step process, arguing that for the purposes of full system change the final phase of Lewin's model requires a commitment to an iterative and experimental process. This study analyzed data from two waves of stakeholder interviews and surveys to assess if change was evident in areas pertaining to the Lewin-White model. Mixed results from the three JRLL case studies are somewhat consistent with this schema, and serve as an intermediate benchmark for success, indicating that the JRLL model has promise to affect full system change in the three study sites and potentially elsewhere as well.
Developing Theoretical Propositions of Far-Right Ideological Victimization
Year of Dissertation:
2012
This study develops theoretical propositions of far-right ideological victimization using empirical data from the Extremist Crime Database, a unique, relational database that collects information on criminal activities, both ideological and routine, committed by domestic extremists in the United States. Data related to far-right ideological homicide events was collected, cleaned, and analyzed on the individual, situational, and macro-levels of analysis. Ideological victims were compared to other types of homicide victims, such as far-right non-ideological victims and "routine" homicide victims. Univariate, bivariate, and multivariate statistical analyses were conducted to determine whether far-right ideological victims were similar or different to any of the comparison groups. After presenting the empirical results, theoretical propositions of far- right ideological victimization were formally stated, focusing on the concept of differential identity. It is argued that the presence and magnitude of differential identity on multiple levels of analysis can help to explain and predict ideological victimization risk. The study ends with a discussion of its contributions, limitations, and policy implications.
American Sports Fans: What Makes Them Tick, and Sometimes Explode, and What Attributes of the Arena Contribute to Fan Incidents
Year of Dissertation:
2010
This study of fan behavior at professional sporting events in select United States (U.S.) cities addresses three points: theoretical explanations of fan violence (from Europe and the U.S.); amount and type of fan violence/aggressive behavior occurring at professional sporting events and what characteristics of the arena contribute to incidents (examined across sport and city); and suggested measures for individual organizations and cities to combat the problem. In the U.S., fan violence is typified by a November 2004 incident during a National Basketball League game at the Auburn Hills Arena in Michigan that involved fans and players and led to multiple arrests and the suspension of some National Basketball Association players. This event is now commonly referred to as the "Basketbrawl." Yet, despite increased attention paid to fan behavior in the U.S., little research has been conducted on the behavior of spectators at professional sporting events. This study begins to fill this gap by examining the seriousness (assault versus non-assault) of arrests at sporting events in the U.S. Using a binary logistical regression model; the research shows that offender demographics are predictors of crime seriousness. However, the characteristics of the stadium, such as parking structure and whether the stadium was indoor or outdoor, were not. The research serves as a starting point to examine other attributes of the stadium and implement policies to keep incident numbers down and less serious.
Intimate Partner Violence: An Examination of Ecological Factors
Year of Dissertation:
2009
Intimate Partner Violence has commonly been examined using an individual-psychological or a socio-structural perspective. Little research has examined IPV using an integrated approach. Specifically, little research has focused on understanding IPV in the context of neighborhood or ecology. In ecological studies the units of analysis are spatially defined population aggregates (Anselin, Cohen, Cook, Gor and Tita 2000). The Steering Committee for the Workshop on Issues in Research on Violence against Women, National Research Council clearly identifies the need for ecological research in relation to IPV: "The committee recommends research to estimate the extent of variation in violence against women among census tracts or small neighborhoods, police precincts or districts, or other theoretically meaningful social area aggregations. Research should also be aimed at determining which features of area composition influence rates and types of violence against women." (Kruttschnitt, McLaughlin and Petrie, 2004, p5). The present study, therefore, uses both individual level and community level data to understand the features of area composition that influence IPV. A combination of primary data from survey participants and secondary data from the Census, Infoshare, New York Police Department (NYPD) and the Domestic Violence Research Unit of the NYS Division of Criminal Justice Services were modeled using Hierarchal Linear Models (HLM) software. The data were also geo-coded on electronic maps using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software. Multi-level binomial regression results indicate no neighborhood effects for the survey sample, whereas Moran's I tests using Geoda software indicate significant spatial clustering of IPV rates in police precincts. Further, regression analysis shows that concentrated disadvantage (b=.55), immigrant concentration (b=-.22) and community violence (b=.31) significantly predict IPV rate in police precincts accounting for about 71 percent of variance in the model.
SERVING AT THE PLEASURE OF THE MAYOR: AN EXPLORATION OF POLITICAL INVOLVEMENT IN NEW YORK POLICE COMMISSIONER DEPARTURES 1901-2001
Year of Dissertation:
2010
In 1901 New York City abolished the bi-partisan Board of Police Commissioners and replaced it with a single headed police commissioner. This legislation was intended to remove politics from policing and affixed a police commissioner's term at five years absent removal for the public interest by the mayor. Through a
Don't I Have a Right to Bail? A Study of Bail Decisions/Outcomes and Their Effects of Plea Bargaining and Sentencing
Year of Dissertation:
2011
DON'T I HAVE A RIGHT TO BAIL? A STUDY OF BAIL DECISIONS/OUTCOMES AND THEIR EFFECTS ON PLEA BARGAINING AND SENTENCING
Situational Surveillance Control
Year of Dissertation:
2009
This research considers the adoption, design, implementation, and oversight of digital surveillance technologies in the daily and critical functions of the Belleville Police Department. This agency has custom designed and implemented a digital surveillance and data management system which has since been adopted by forty police departments across its state--including the State Police; moreover, Belleville's data systems interface with the principal national and state-level criminal justice databases, as well as with data sources external to the criminal justice system. The agency provided, to the extent permissible by law, complete access to the agency's employees and systems, as well as all available historical data and records relating to the creation and development of the system. The researcher collaborated with the agency's employees in an extended ethnographic study of their digital surveillance technologies and processes in order to empirically assess associated potential and actual harms, issues, problems, and vulnerabilities. This study concludes by proposing ways that harm reduction models, such as Situational Crime Prevention, can be applied to digital surveillance technologies to improve oversight and accountability.
Pathogen Detection Using the Luminex Multi-analyte System
Author:
Andrew Schweighardt
Year of Dissertation:
2012
The causative agents of anthrax, botulism, tularemia, and plague are so destructive that they could be used maliciously by bioterrorists. Microscopical and biochemical methods of identifying pathogenic bacteria are often inaccurate and time-consuming. Genetics-based alternatives surpass traditional detection methods in terms of speed and accuracy, but often lack the capacity for multiplexing.
Military Interrogations: Best Practices & Beliefs
Year of Dissertation:
2012
This study was designed to address some of the gaps in knowledge about interrogations conducted by military interrogators and provide information about methods from their perspectives, based on their experiences. Kassin et al. (2007) conducted the first self-report survey of best interrogation practices and beliefs of law enforcement officers and this study followed that model, using a different population from which to obtain the sample: military interrogators. Like that study, this survey asked participants to address and self-report on a number of issues, some in common with law enforcement and others that apply specifically to military interrogations. Participants were asked to estimate, rate and self-report on seven facets of their work: (1) their ability to detect truth or deception; (2) their own opinions and practices with regard to 13 of the general approach techniques authorized by the U.S. Army Interrogations and Intelligence Field Manual; (3) the importance of rapport building to extract information from a subject; (4) the applicability of law enforcement techniques to interrogations of terrorists; (5) the frequency, length and timing of interrogations; (6) training, and (7) their observations, if any, of others using torture or unapproved techniques during interrogations and, if so, with what frequency. Like the law enforcement study, the goal here was to obtain common practices, observations, and beliefs about interrogations directly from military interrogators. Subsequent research can test the interrogation methods that the subjects of this study believe are the most effective and focus on practices and beliefs unique to the military context. This study begins to shed light on interrogation practices currently in use by the United States military. This study empirically supports, for the first time, the hypothesis that experienced interrogators favor rapport-building approaches over all other available techniques.
Supreme Convolution: Gregg v. Georgia and the Nature of Supreme Court Decision Making
Year of Dissertation:
2010
Few issues evoke more impassioned debate than capital punishment. While death penalty supporters view it as a just and even necessary sanction, opponents see a profound symbol of American barbarism. The 1976 Supreme Court case of Gregg v. Georgia, 428 US 153, which authorized the modern death penalty, is one of the most controversial decisions in the Court's history. Not only did Gregg contain a variety of conflicting opinions, but it failed to fully clarify how the death penalty should be properly readministered. While Gregg's consequences have been subject to extensive analysis, surprisingly few scholars have explored the case itself at any length. This project analyzes Gregg through both archival research and oral history. It then situates this decision within the controversial discourse on what factors motivate judicial opinions. The study concludes that justices decide according to a variety of criteria, and therefore offers support for a mixed theory of judicial decision making.