Matching Items (213)
Description
People who participate in correctional treatment programming are viewed as making positive steps towards their reentry into society. However, this is often assessed through a simple “yes” or “no” response to whether they are currently participating without much emphasis on how, why, or to what degree that participation is meaningful for reentry preparedness. The present study aims to a) identify to what extent there is variation in the degree to which women participate in programming and are prepared for reentry, b) identify the characteristics that distinguish highly-involved programmers from less involved programmers, c) identify the characteristics that distinguish women who are highly-prepared for reentry from women who are less prepared, and d) assess whether levels of involvement in programming relates to levels of reentry preparedness. The sample comes from interviewer-proctored surveys of 200 incarcerated women in Arizona. Two indices were created: one for the primary independent variable of program involvement and one for the dependent variable of reentry preparedness. Logistic and multivariate regressions were run to determine the indices’ relatedness to each other and the characteristic variables. The two indices did not have a statistically significant relationship with each other. However, variation across them is found. This indicates that programmers may not be a homogenous group and that they may engage with programming to varying degrees based on a multitude of indicators.
ContributorsRodriguez, Bianca (Author) / Wright, Kevin (Thesis advisor) / Young, Jacob (Committee member) / Telep, Cody (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020
Description
Academic deviance is a potentially detrimental behavior for students and universities alike in that it causes credit to be given to individuals where it is not due. Furthermore, it is a common occurrence, with around half of college students admitting to engaging in this behavior at least once. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between perfectionism, strain, and academic deviance. In doing this, this study uses data from a primary data collection effort in Arizona State University, with a final sample of 696 students, to answer three research questions: Are there differences in the likelihood of engaging in academic deviance by maladaptive perfectionists, adaptive perfectionists, and non-perfectionists? Are there differences in the perceptions of the wrongness of academic deviance between maladaptive perfectionists, adaptive perfectionists, and non-perfectionists? Are there differences in how context dependent maladaptive perfectionists, adaptive perfectionists, and non-perfectionists view academic deviance the wrongness of academic deviance? Ordered logistic regression are used to access these research questions. Results suggest that neither perfectionism nor strain were a significant factor in determining the likelihood that a participant would engage in an academically deviant behavior, or how wrong they believed that behavior to be. However, perfectionism did seem to have a mild impact on how context dependent individuals felt the wrongness of their behaviors, meaning that if the cause of the strain was due to the professor’s actions, students viewed academic deviance as less wrong, and self-control explained at least part of this effect. Strain, on the other hand, did not have a significant effect. Overall, the results suggest some legitimacy to the use of general strain theory to explain the potential relationships, given the relationship between perfectionism and context dependency. Additionally, the results support policy implications designed to reduce maladaptive thoughts and subsequently academic deviance, such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Future research should examine the link between perfectionism and other types of academic strain.
ContributorsAllen, Savanna Marie (Author) / Pizarro, Jesenia (Thesis advisor) / Fine, Adam (Committee member) / Young, Jacob (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020
Description
General theories of crime have frequently been used to explain a variety of offending and victimization experiences for a wide range of samples. However, feminist criminologists question whether the same causal mechanisms exert similar effects for males and females—a criticism that points to the need for sex-specific analyses. Toward that end, this dissertation examines variables derived from several different general theories of crime in three separate studies. Each of the studies uses split-sample analyses to investigate potential sex-based differences. The first study uses three-level meta-analytic methods to determine if predictor variables derived from general theories explain victimization for both adolescent males (n = 138,848) and adolescent females (n = 176,611). Additionally, it examines both within-dataset and between-dataset differences. The second study uses a sample of high school students in Arizona (n = 2,738 males, n = 2,932 females). It examines the role of parental social ties in explaining the overlap of adolescent dating violence (ADV) offending and victimization. The third study uses two waves of a longitudinal dataset of high-risk adolescents (n = 182 males, n = 203 females). It focuses on the relationship between negative emotions and delinquency, and the role of avoidant coping. In each of the studies, both gender-neutral and gender-specific explanations of offending and victimization were found. In the first study, while predictor variables derived from criminological theory explained victimization for both males and females, larger effect sizes were found for risky lifestyle variables. In the second study, an overlap between ADV offending and victimization was found for both males and females, and social ties explained some of the overlap. However, paternal attachment was only significant for females, and involvement was only significant for males. In the third study, avoidant coping was associated with an increase in substance abuse, and anger was associated with an increase in violent behavior for both males and females. Avoidant coping partially mediated the relationship between anger and substance use, but only for males. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.
ContributorsPusch, Natasha (Author) / Holtfreter, Kristy (Thesis advisor) / Reisig, Mike (Committee member) / Fine, Adam (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020
Description
Discretion is central to policing. The way officers use their discretion is influenced by situational, officer, and neighborhood-level factors. Concerns that discretion could be used differentially across neighborhoods have resulted in calls for increased police transparency and accountability. Body-worn cameras (BWCs) have been promoted to further these goals through increasing oversight of police-citizen encounters. The implication is that BWCs will increase officer self-awareness and result in more equitable outcomes. Prior researchers have largely evaluated the direct impact of BWCs. Researchers have yet to examine the potential for BWCs to moderate the influence of neighborhood context in individual incidents.
To address this gap, I use Phoenix Police Department data collected as part of a three-year randomized-controlled trial of BWCs to examine variation in police discretion. These data include over 1.5 million police-citizen contacts nested within 826 officers and 388 neighborhoods. I examine two research questions. First, how do proactivity, arrests, and use of force vary depending on situational, officer, and neighborhood contexts? This provides a baseline for my next research question. Second, examining the same contexts and outcomes, do BWCs moderate the influence of neighborhood factors on police behavior? As such, I examine the untested, though heavily promoted, argument that BWCs will reduce the influence of extralegal factors on officer behavior.
Using cross-classified logistic regression models, I found that situational, officer, and neighborhood factors all influenced proactivity, arrest, and use of force. BWCs were associated with a lower likelihood of proactivity, but an increased likelihood of arrest and use of force. Officers were more proactive and were more likely to conduct arrests in immigrant and Hispanic neighborhoods. The moderating effects suggest that officers were even more likely to proactively initiate contacts and conduct arrests in immigrant and Hispanic neighborhoods when BWCs were activated. However, after BWCs were deployed, use of force was significantly less likely to occur in black neighborhoods. Given that high-profile police use of force incidents involving black suspects are often cited as a major impetus for the adoption of BWCs in American police agencies, this finding is a key contribution to the literature.
To address this gap, I use Phoenix Police Department data collected as part of a three-year randomized-controlled trial of BWCs to examine variation in police discretion. These data include over 1.5 million police-citizen contacts nested within 826 officers and 388 neighborhoods. I examine two research questions. First, how do proactivity, arrests, and use of force vary depending on situational, officer, and neighborhood contexts? This provides a baseline for my next research question. Second, examining the same contexts and outcomes, do BWCs moderate the influence of neighborhood factors on police behavior? As such, I examine the untested, though heavily promoted, argument that BWCs will reduce the influence of extralegal factors on officer behavior.
Using cross-classified logistic regression models, I found that situational, officer, and neighborhood factors all influenced proactivity, arrest, and use of force. BWCs were associated with a lower likelihood of proactivity, but an increased likelihood of arrest and use of force. Officers were more proactive and were more likely to conduct arrests in immigrant and Hispanic neighborhoods. The moderating effects suggest that officers were even more likely to proactively initiate contacts and conduct arrests in immigrant and Hispanic neighborhoods when BWCs were activated. However, after BWCs were deployed, use of force was significantly less likely to occur in black neighborhoods. Given that high-profile police use of force incidents involving black suspects are often cited as a major impetus for the adoption of BWCs in American police agencies, this finding is a key contribution to the literature.
ContributorsHuff, Jessica (Author) / Katz, Charles M. (Thesis advisor) / Wallace, Danielle (Committee member) / Maguire, Edward R. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020
Description
This study examined the effects of victim characteristics and past life experiences on attributions of blame to human trafficking victims in hypothetical scenarios. Specifically, this study investigates the main and interaction effects of the victim’s race, age, and victimization disclosure on outsider’s perceptions of blameworthiness. A factorial vignette survey that provided information about a victim altering her race (Black or White), current age (15 or 21), and availability of victimization disclosure was given to a university-based sample (N = 592). Utilizing three-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) for the analysis, the results showed that the main effects of the victim’s age and victimization disclosure significantly influenced attributions of blame. The results also indicated that there are significant two-way and three-way interactions. The conclusion highlights the importance of these findings as well as avenues for future research and potential programming.
ContributorsPuckett, Audrey Lynn (Author) / Maguire, Edward (Thesis advisor) / Fox, Kate (Committee member) / Roe-Sepowitz, Dominique (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020
Description
The presence of restorative justice (RJ) in the United States has grown steadily within the last five decades. The dynamics of RJ programs are meant to more holistically address the harms caused by crime in comparison to the traditional criminal justice system (CJS). Yet, evaluative research has provided inconsistent evidence of their effectiveness and the quality of empirical study has gone untested. The current study sought to fill the gaps within past research by examining how success has been measured, assessing the rigor of study methodology using the Maryland Scientific Methods Scale (SMS), and determining the impact of RJ programs on recidivism, victim satisfaction and restitution compliance using meta-analysis. A systematic search of past literature identified a sample of 121 studies whose dependent measures were coded, and methodological designs were rated using the SMS. Most studies failed to include community-based measures of success or measures which reflect the goals of RJ to undue harms and restore relationships. SMS scores were well distributed within the sample. Despite restricted sample sizes, meta-analyses used extracted data from 35 case-control, quasi-experimental and experimental studies to generate 43 unique treatment contrasts and 3 summary effects. Meta-analytic findings favored RJ treatment over CJS control groups across all dependent measures. Heterogeneity between subsequent arrest studies was scrutinized using subgroup analysis. The fewest subsequent arrests were associated with adult offenders, mandated participation, mediation and hybrid programs, and the most rigorous methodologies. Findings support continued efforts to improve the methodological rigor of evaluations, targeted focus on specific program types and delivery characteristics. Future meta-analyses would benefit from the inclusion of non-American RJ program evaluations to enlarge pooled sample populations and better detect moderating influences. Other suggestions for research design improvements include the use of more holistic and stakeholder-centric measures for success, use of continuous measures, and refined indicator variables for heterogeneity testing (e.g., crime type severity, characteristics of program fidelity). The author recommends continued use of these programs, specifically with adult offenders and incidents of serious crime toward a better understanding of the true impacts of RJ on stakeholders. More detailed results, study limitations and implications are discussed herein.
ContributorsErnest, Kyle (Author) / Fox, Kate (Thesis advisor) / Decker, Scott (Committee member) / Stolzenberg, Stacia (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
Social media has become a significant aspect of American life and culture.
Criminal groups including extremists of various ideological milieus have found social
media useful in their recruitment efforts. Further, these online spaces allow extremists to
easily interact with one another, reinforcing each other’s radical perspectives. Little
research has examined social media’s role in radicalization and fewer studies have tested
the differences between the radicalization processes of individuals espousing disparate
ideologies. Using Profiles of Individual Radicalization in the United States, a data set of
804 extremist men, this study sets out to determine whether the role of social media in the
radicalization process varies between Islamist and far right extremists using social
learning as a theoretical framework. The results indicate no significant difference
regarding the role of social media in radicalization between Islamists and far rightists.
Additionally, the odds of having radical friends and family were much lower for Islamists
than far rightists, suggesting only partial support for social learning theory as an
explanation of radicalization.
Criminal groups including extremists of various ideological milieus have found social
media useful in their recruitment efforts. Further, these online spaces allow extremists to
easily interact with one another, reinforcing each other’s radical perspectives. Little
research has examined social media’s role in radicalization and fewer studies have tested
the differences between the radicalization processes of individuals espousing disparate
ideologies. Using Profiles of Individual Radicalization in the United States, a data set of
804 extremist men, this study sets out to determine whether the role of social media in the
radicalization process varies between Islamist and far right extremists using social
learning as a theoretical framework. The results indicate no significant difference
regarding the role of social media in radicalization between Islamists and far rightists.
Additionally, the odds of having radical friends and family were much lower for Islamists
than far rightists, suggesting only partial support for social learning theory as an
explanation of radicalization.
ContributorsStewart, Connor James (Author) / Young, Jacob (Thesis advisor) / Decker, Scott (Committee member) / Telep, Cody (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
Officials employed in the criminal justice system have a duty to serve, protect, and uphold the law. Nevertheless, previous research has found problematic drinking and illegal substance use exists among criminal justice system employees. Criminal justice employees may be more likely to use substances due to strains or due to increased access to drug. On the other hand, self-selection and screening processes may result in a pool of employees who fewer substances than the general population. Using waves 1 through 17 of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, the current research examines substance use patterns of criminal justice system employees, assessing how their rate of substance use compares to a nationally representative sample, and how their substance use changes once employed with the criminal justice system, this research surveys the alcohol and illicit drug use of people who went on to work in the criminal justice system and how their substance use compares to the general population. In addition, this research compares police officer substance use to the general population. When compared to a nationally represented sample, criminal justice system employees consistently use illegal substances at lower rates. However, the prevalence of alcohol use among police officers specifically is higher when compared to the general population and increases once employed with the criminal justice system. Information from this research can be used to help agencies with employee selection procedures and employee assistance programs for current employees.
ContributorsRobin, Angela Evelina (Author) / Sweeten, Gary (Thesis advisor) / Scott, Michael (Committee member) / Decker, Scott (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
Policing is often described as a craft in which officers develop their own working style through a process of apprenticeship and time spent handling unique citizen interactions. For police, experience is thought to be integral in nearly every facet of their role including developing suspicions, making discretionary decisions, defusing potentially dangerous situations, or using coercion. With that being said, the study of police experience itself has received scarce attention and a number of limitations are present within the work that does exist. The current study advances police research on multiple fronts. First, it centers on reframing police experience in a more precise manner, with special attention paid to identifying and detailing how shift, crime area, duty assignment, and training experiences accumulate and vary across officers. Second, it examines the impact of police work experiences on officers’ perceptions of confidence. Third, an additional qualitative approach is included to provide context for how work experiences impact officers’ confidence in performing job related tasks. Using data collected from a large metropolitan police department located in the western portion of the United States, the results add much to what is known about how police experience is acquired throughout a career and how it is related to officer self-efficacy. Independent variables such as officer tenure, the number of shifts an officer has worked in their career, the completion of additional in-service training, and duty experience were all significant predictors of increased confidence in performing different service-oriented, order-maintenance, and law enforcement tasks. To explain these findings, the officers’ qualitative responses largely focused on how exposure and repetition at handling unique situations made these experiential factors important to the development of confidence. Finally, these results are translated into a number of policy recommendations and avenues for future research.
ContributorsSomers, Logan J. (Author) / Terrill, William (Thesis advisor) / Telep, Cody W (Committee member) / Young, Jacob Tn (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
Although the earliest discussions on deliberate self-harm can be traced in medical literature as early as the mid-1800s, it wasn’t until the 1960s when the psychiatry community became interested in studying self-harming behavior (Favazza, 1998). Since then, psychiatrists and psychologists alike have spent time researching self-harm behaviors and evaluating treatment methods for individuals who engage in self-harming behaviors. The vast majority of the existing research focuses on patients in the community who self-harm. However, little research has been dedicated to examining self-harming behaviors among the incarcerated population. This dissertation seeks to fill the gap in the literature by analyzing self-harming behaviors among prison inmates in Arizona. Based on record reviews, data was gathered on every self-harm event that happened between September 1, 2018 until September 30th, 2019 by the inmate population incarcerated within the state of Arizona’s 16 state and private prisons. During the 13-month study time period, a total of 2,845 self-harm events were gathered, which were produced by 647 inmates. The results indicate that a large portion of the deliberate self-harm events that occurred in the prison setting served a functional purpose for those who engaged in the self-harm. Specifically, offenders who engaged in deliberate self-harm behaviors did so to obtain a desired outcome or for some kind of secondary gain. The results also indicated that many offenders engaged in deliberate self-harm to obtain a transfer to a safe housing location, and that the number of self-harm event these offenders engaged in decreased once they were transferred to their coveted housing location.
ContributorsRaak, Jessica Leigh (Author) / Fradella, Henry F. (Thesis advisor) / Hepburn, John R. (Committee member) / Wright, Kevin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021