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Description
This dissertation explores the lives of women who are on the Severely Mentally Ill (SMI) caseload at Maricopa County Adult Probation in Arizona (The Phoenix metro region). The project focuses on three primary issues: (1) what are the pathways to the criminal justice and mental health systems for women on the SMI caseload (2) how does discretion and expansive formal social control (both benevolent and coercive) impact the lives of these women on the SMI caseload and (3) what are the gendered aspects to successful completion of SMI probation. To answer these questions a mixed-methods research design was employed. First, in-depth semi-structured interviews were completed with 65 women on the SMI caseload. Second, these interviews were supplemented with a case file review of each participant, and field observations (encompassing roughly 100 hours) were conducted at the Maricopa County Mental Health Court. Third, analysis also included 5.5 years of quantitative intake data from the SMI caseload, exploring demographic information and risk and assessment needs scores. The biographies of the women on the SMI caseload revealed similar histories of victimization, substance abuse, and relationship difficulty that previous pathways research has noted. Additionally, mental health problems directly impacted the path to the criminal justice system for some women on the SMI caseload. Results also showed many aspects of expanded social control for women on the SMI caseload. This expanded control appeared to be gendered at times and often created double binds for women. Finally, quantitative analysis showed that some predictive factors of SMI probation completion were gendered. Policy implications and summaries of findings are discussed.
ContributorsMulvey, Philip (Author) / Decker, Scott H. (Thesis advisor) / Spohn, Cassia (Committee member) / Holtfreter, Kristy (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
For my honors thesis project in Barrett, the Honors College, I conducted an online college survey that measured student attitudes and perceptions with regard to gender, sexual assault, and domestic violence. In doing so, I also asked students situational questions about their experiences with sexual violence. The research question for the project centered around hidden victims who have been affected by gender-based violence but have yet to report the incident to law enforcement or university officials, despite a number of prominent educational and prevention campaigns on campus and in mainstream media. At the conclusion of the Spring 2016 semester, I received 683 responses from current students at Arizona State University. For the majority of situational questions, 20-30% of individuals answered "yes" to experiencing incidents of sexual violence, many of which focused on if someone had used alcohol/drugs, threats, or physical force to obtain sexual intercourse. For the survey, 11% of women said yes to the question, "have you ever been raped?" Additionally, a significant number of students hesitate to report incidents to law enforcement or university officials because: (1) they were ashamed or embarrassed, (2) wanted to forget it happened, and (3) believed it was a private matter that they wanted to deal with on their own. With this information, university administrators can develop a better understanding of the ASU campus culture as it relates to sexual violence. Additionally, organizational and institutional efforts can be organized and designed to meet the specific needs of our student body with the goal of ultimately reducing the number of sexual assaults that take place.
ContributorsBarney, Emily Marie (Author) / Wright, Kevin (Thesis director) / Spohn, Cassia (Committee member) / School of Public Affairs (Contributor) / School of Social Transformation (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
There is little doubt that policing is a stressful occupation. Officers must manage a variety of situations, under oftentimes less-than-ideal circumstances. While departments may provide Employee Assistance Programs or a Departmental Psychologist, there is often little support for officers to utilize these services. Certainly, the culture surrounding policing has often acted as an additional barrier for officers to seek out mental healthcare services. What is more, there is a dearth of research examining the experiences of Hispanic/Latinx police officers, as compared to their White or Black counterparts. The current project was conducted in collaboration with the Las Cruces Police Department as part of a larger series of projects. These data include self-report surveys completed by 109 officers of all ranks from within the police department in 2019. I utilized a modified version of Spielberger and colleagues (1981) Police Stress Survey, Cohen’s (1994) Perceived Stress Scale, and Reisig and Mesko’s (2009) procedural justice scale, in addition to questions regarding their personal methods of coping, knowledge of services, and willingness to access services. I examined three research questions. First, what do officers in this department identify as stressful? Second, how are the officers in this department currently coping with stress, including through both prosocial and maladaptive ways? Finally, what barriers do these officers identify to accessing mental healthcare services?
Using a series of regression models, I found that officers generally ranked organizational sources of stress, such as political pressure within the department or inadequate salaries as more stressful than occupational sources of stress, such as writing traffic tickets or going to court. Additionally, while officers generally coped with stress in prosocial ways such as physical fitness or family activities, they did not access departmentally provided services. Importantly, however, these officers indicated a willingness to access specific types of services, such as educational classes or check-ups. Finally, officers predominately identified resource-related barriers, such as knowledge about services, to accessing mental healthcare services. These findings suggest that the culture within policing may be shifting to one that is less stigmatizing towards mental health services and welcome increased knowledge disbursement about such services.
ContributorsPadilla, Kathleen E (Author) / Spohn, Cassia (Thesis advisor) / Decker, Scott (Committee member) / Terrill, William (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
For 40 years, rape myth scholars have assessed the effects of rape myths on perceptions of and responses to rape, demonstrating that rape myths pose significant barriers to rape prevention efforts and contribute to attrition. Most of this research centers female victims, theorizing rape myths’ relationship to gender stereotypes and how they maintain women’s oppression. However, scholars have largely ignored the relationship between rape myths and race and how rape myths contribute to racial oppression. I used an intersectional framework to reconceptualize rape myths as tools of both gender and racial oppression. I argued that rape myths have race-specific effects on rape perceptions and case processing outcomes, that rape myths contribute to racial disparities that align with racist social hierarchies, and that their influence is structural and systemic. I used three studies to assess these assertions. First, I used a randomized vignette survey to explore how victim and perpetrator race (e.g., White, Black, and Latinx) moderate the effects of rape myths (e.g., “victim precipitation,” “accidental rape,” “women cry rape,” and the “real rape” myth), on victim and perpetrator blame in a hypothetical rape (Chapter 2). Second, I assessed how victim race (e.g., White, Black, and Latinx) moderates the effects of rape myth factors (e.g., victim precipitation, credibility issues, real rape consistency) on police case processing decisions in real sexual assault cases (Chapter 3). Third, I analyzed sex crimes detectives’ descriptions of victims, reports, and decisions to determine how rape myths influence their focal concerns (Chapter 4).
Collectively, findings indicate that rape myths contribute to racial oppression. In Chapters 2 and 3 I found that race moderated the effects of rape myths on rape perceptions and police decisions. Further, rape myths had more negative impacts for Black and Latinx victims, than White victims. Finally, in Chapter 4, I found that detectives use rape myths to evaluate victim credibility, evidence, and case viability, suggesting that rape myths’ influence is structural and systemic. In addition to implications for practitioners, these findings indicate that rape myth scholars should rearticulate rape myths and their effects intersectionally, with particular attention to intersections with race.
ContributorsCoble, Suzanne St. George (Author) / Spohn, Cassia (Thesis advisor) / Stolzenberg, Stacia (Committee member) / Wang, Xia (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022