Matching Items (32)
Description
The link between childhood neuropsychological deficits and early-onset offending--the assumed precursor to life-course persistent offending--has been well established, yet the underlying mechanisms facilitating this relationship are less understood. Support is growing for the claim that self-control is a key mechanism that links neuropsychological deficits to early-onset offending. Despite this, findings are mixed with regard to the mediating effect of self-control in the relationship between neuropsychological deficits and antisocial behavior. These studies largely support the notion that self-control exerts a mediating effect on neuropsychological deficits when the offending being studied is less serious. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY), the present study seeks to build upon the existing literature by examining whether self-control mediates the relationship between neuropsychological deficits and two types of early-onset offending--low and high risk--as a means of testing core tenets of Gottfredson and Hirschi's (1990) and Moffitt's (1993) criminological theories. Findings show that while self-control and neuropsychological deficits independently predict general early-onset offending, these effects vary as a consequence of early-onset offender type. The results point to the need for future research to explore the possibility that the early-onset offender group that leads to persistent offending could be more precisely defined. Examining early-onset offending as a single construct limits our ability to make inferences about those offenders that are the most persistent in their offending patterns and, arguably, more likely to continue offending over the life-course.
ContributorsInfante, Arynn (Author) / Burt, Callie H (Thesis advisor) / Decker, Scott (Committee member) / Young, Jacob Tn (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
Over the past 40 years, the rate at which women are incarcerated has increased dramatically. Of the 111,000-plus female inmates currently in prison, most will be returned to the community and reenter the labor market. Despite its significance in prisoner reentry and in how ex-offenders remain crime-free, previous research finds that employers are unwilling to hire employees with a criminal record. Moreover, Pager (2003) and Pager, Western, and Bonikowski (2009) found that White job applicants with a prison record were more likely to be interviewed or hired than Black or Hispanic applicants without a record. These troubling findings regarding the effect of race/ethnicity, however, are from research that focuses on men's employment. Given the already low job prospects of ex-prisoners makes it more difficult for women with a prison record to find employment, who also face labor market barriers on account of their race/ethnicity and gender. This dissertation research uses two audit methods with an experimental design to examine the independent and interaction effects of race/ethnicity and incarceration on the likelihood women job applicants will advance through the hiring process. Job applications were submitted online and in-person. The effect of race/ethnicity varied by the method used to apply for jobs. When applying for jobs online, Black women had lower odds of employment than White women. Hispanic women, however, had higher odds of employment than White women when food service jobs were applied for in-person. The effect of a prison record was significant in both experiments; the effect was direct online, but conditioned by ethnicity in-person. Hispanic women with a prison record were less likely than White women with a prison record to advance through the hiring process. The results point to the importance of understanding how women are disadvantaged by incarceration and how mass incarceration contributes to racial/ethnic inequality through its effect in the labor market. Several recommendations follow for future research and policies concerning prisoner reentry and the use of criminal record information by employers.
ContributorsOrtiz, Natalie Rose (Author) / Decker, Scott (Thesis advisor) / Spohn, Cassia (Committee member) / Holtfreter, Kristy (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
Since Gottfredson and Hirschi proposed the general theory of crime, the direct link between self-control and delinquency has gained strong empirical support, and low self-control is now considered as a significant predictor of individual delinquent behaviors. However, the indirect link between self-control and delinquency still remains understudied. This study fills this void by introducing thoughtfully reflective decision making (TRDM), an important factor intimated by rational choice theory, as the mediator of the relationship between low self-control and delinquency. Using self-reported data from the city of Changzhi, China, this study finds that self-control is closely related to TRDM, low self-control is a significant predictor of general and non-violent delinquency, and TRDM does not mediate the effect of low self-control on delinquency. Findings from this study largely support the generalizability of self-control theory under the Chinese cultural environment, and also suggest that it might be fruitful to test other criminological theories in the Chinese context. The study's findings and their implications for theory and research are discussed.
ContributorsZhang, Wenrui (Author) / Wang, Xia (Thesis advisor) / Decker, Scott (Committee member) / Sweeten, Gary (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
The literature on hopelessness suggests youth living amid impoverished conditions, social disorganization, and limited resources are more likely to experience increased feelings of hopelessness. Similarly, many of the aforementioned aspects are considered, in some capacity, in the research on gangs. Though a considerable amount of gang literature alludes to the fact that loss of hope may be present, it neither directly addresses it nor references it. This study attempts to converge the present literature on hopelessness among minority youth to minority youth in street gangs. This is done using data obtained from an earlier evaluation of the Mesa Gang Intervention Project, using self-report data from 197 youth, asking questions about socio-demographic information, gang activity, education, employment, crime and delinquency, family and individual crisis, and self-reported detention. Findings implicate a connection exists between gang membership and increased levels of hopelessness. Moreover, results suggest education and self-esteem help to reduce loss of hopelessness.
ContributorsRedner-Vera, Erica N (Author) / Katz, Charles M. (Thesis advisor) / Decker, Scott (Committee member) / Roe-Sepowitz, Dominique (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
The prison classroom offers a transformative educational opportunity for incarcerated and non-incarcerated students alike. The current study uses place-conscious educational theories and the intergroup contact theory to examine how a prison education program can offer deeply impactful experiences for students. Using a pre/post-intervention survey design, this thesis analyzes differences in attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions about crime and criminal justice between and within groups of incarcerated (n=24) and university (n=20) students participating in two semester-long prison-based criminal justice courses in Arizona. Results show that prior to participating in the Inside-Out Prison Exchange programs, inside students had less favorable views about the criminal justice system compared to outside students, and outside students had less favorable attitudes about people who are incarcerated. Throughout the course, positive attitudes toward the criminal justice system increased for inside students and positive attitudes about incarcerated people increased among outside students, such that at the end of the course, the differences in attitudes between the two groups were no longer significant. Additionally, outside students’ punitive attitudes decreased throughout their participation in the course. Overall, the magnitude of the changes experienced by each student group were different, such that outside students experienced more significant changes in attitudes and beliefs about crime and criminal justice than did inside students.
ContributorsPhilippon, Cassandra Nicole (Author) / Wright, Kevin (Thesis advisor) / Telep, Cody (Committee member) / Young, Jacob (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
Child advocacy centers provide a safe, child-friendly environment for the forensic interview and subsequent investigation of child victimization cases. However, very little research has examined the effects of burnout, secondary trauma, and organizational stressors on forensic interviewers. The goal of the present project was addressing the following research questions. Do forensic interviewers experience burnout and secondary trauma associated with their profession? How do organizational stressors mitigate or increase these effects among forensic interviewers? Data was collected by conducting an online survey of forensic interviewers working at child advocacy centers across the United States. Specifically, burnout was measured with the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory, and secondary trauma was measured with the Secondary Traumatic Stress Scale (STSS). The current study utilized bivariate correlations, and OLS regression models to analyze the effects of burnout, secondary trauma, and organizational stressors on forensic interviewers. The results indicate burnout and secondary trauma among interviewers in the sample. Job support, funding constraints, and heavy caseloads all influence the outcome measures. Policy recommendations include continued education, training, and mental health services for forensic interviewers. Future researchers should conduct qualitative interviews and expand on variables within the current dataset such as note taking, peer evaluations, and forensic interviewing protocols in order to gain further insight into this population.
ContributorsStarcher, Destinee (Author) / Stolzenberg, Stacia (Thesis advisor) / Telep, Cody (Committee member) / Young, Jacob (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
In the artificial intelligence literature, three forms of reasoning are commonly employed to understand agent behavior: inductive, deductive, and abductive. More recently, data-driven approaches leveraging ideas such as machine learning, data mining, and social network analysis have gained popularity. While data-driven variants of the aforementioned forms of reasoning have been applied separately, there is little work on how data-driven approaches across all three forms relate and lend themselves to practical applications. Given an agent behavior and the percept sequence, how one can identify a specific outcome such as the likeliest explanation? To address real-world problems, it is vital to understand the different types of reasonings which can lead to better data-driven inference.
This dissertation has laid the groundwork for studying these relationships and applying them to three real-world problems. In criminal modeling, inductive and deductive reasonings are applied to early prediction of violent criminal gang members. To address this problem the features derived from the co-arrestee social network as well as geographical and temporal features are leveraged. Then, a data-driven variant of geospatial abductive inference is studied in missing person problem to locate the missing person. Finally, induction and abduction reasonings are studied for identifying pathogenic accounts of a cascade in social networks.
This dissertation has laid the groundwork for studying these relationships and applying them to three real-world problems. In criminal modeling, inductive and deductive reasonings are applied to early prediction of violent criminal gang members. To address this problem the features derived from the co-arrestee social network as well as geographical and temporal features are leveraged. Then, a data-driven variant of geospatial abductive inference is studied in missing person problem to locate the missing person. Finally, induction and abduction reasonings are studied for identifying pathogenic accounts of a cascade in social networks.
ContributorsShaabani, Elham (Author) / Shakarian, Paulo (Thesis advisor) / Davulcu, Hasan (Committee member) / Maciejewski, Ross (Committee member) / Decker, Scott (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
The tough on crime movement in the United States was prevalent in the 1970's through 1990's; however, it seems to have never left Arizona. Arizona has the 6th highest prison population in America. According to the Arizona Department of Corrections, there are over 42,000 people incarcerated in Arizona and about half of those people have been in prison before. Other states populations are going down; ours is going up. While rising prison populations may not directly affect everyone in Arizona, they do have an indirect effect on everyone in Arizona. Recommendations to reduce correctional populations are often limited to "silos" of the correctional system. This is problematic, as only attending to one area of the system invites the other areas to block that progress. Seven steps that involve the entirety of Arizona's criminal justice system could help reverse the effects of Arizona's "tough on crime" era and reduce correctional populations. These steps should occur before, during, and after prison.
ContributorsBrinJones, Natalie Rae (Author) / Wright, Kevin (Thesis director) / Decker, Scott (Committee member) / Fizer, Greg (Committee member) / School of Criminology and Criminal Justice (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
Recidivism rates in the United States are alarmingly high. The vast number of inmates who re- offend upon release and re-enter into correctional facilities upsets people and many individuals focus their blame on the private and public prisons. Currently, the research that is available on private and public prisons is unpersuasive because it creates a harsh polarization between the two prison systems. The benefits as well as the detriments of each sector are explained in great detail, but all of the current research is lacking one thing: insider experience. The majority of the available research is conducted by people behind a computer screen or behind the binding of a book. While a wide variety of different articles, short stories, and journals have been published and are readily available to eager readers and researchers, these arguments repeat themselves and fail to weigh the complex merits of each system against the other; specifically, each body of work is lacking knowledge from people who have experienced both private and public prisons from an internal perspective. To compensate for this lack of ethnographic research, the current study allows the reader to get an internal perspective of public and private prisons. This was done by interviewing two wardens who have served on the federal, state, and private levels as well as touring a private correctional facility in Arizona. These experiences paved the way for novel research to be conducted and was used as a tool to weave the complicated web of private and public prisons in the United States. Findings, interviews, and ideas for the future of prisons are discussed.
ContributorsTometich, Drake (Author) / Wright, Kevin (Thesis director) / Young, Jacob (Committee member) / School of Criminology and Criminal Justice (Contributor) / School of Social and Behavioral Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
Interpersonal racial discrimination is positively associated with poor mental health outcomes in a number of marginalized groups across the United States (Brondolo, et al., 2008). This paper examines how racial discrimination affects the self-esteem, self-worth, and racial pride of Latinas using interview data from a purposive sample of students. The objectives of this study are: (a) to better understand the effects of racial microaggressions on young Latinas’ construction of self, (b) to explicate how these self-perceptions influence deviant behavior and maladaptive thought processes, drawing on strain and discrimination literatures, and (c) to examine the protective mechanisms Latinas employ with friends and family as a response to racial discrimination. Findings indicated that respondents experienced racial discrimination through a variety of channels, from negative stereotypes to feeling a distinct prejudice in academic settings. Participants utilized numerous coping mechanisms to deal with such encounters, most of which emphasized the importance of drawing strength from Hispanic values, culture, and language during times of adversity.
ContributorsBarstow, Callie Elizabeth (Author) / Burt, Callie (Thesis advisor) / Decker, Scott (Committee member) / Wang, Xia (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015