Criminology & Criminal Justice Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2758
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Item An Experimental Evaluation of After School Program Participation on Problem Behavior Outcomes: Does Pre-Existing Risk Moderate the Effects of Program Participation?(2009) Cross, Amanda Brown; Gottfredson, Denise C; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Background: Some prevention programs negatively affect participants. Previous research indicates that peers can cause these negative effects. However, little is known about which students may be most vulnerable to negative peer effects in prevention interventions. Purpose: This study tests the effect of participation in an after-school program (ASP) on student outcomes of peer delinquency, problem behavior and antisocial attitudes and beliefs for students of differing pre-test levels of risk for those outcomes. Drawing on social learning theory, this study examines whether low- and moderate- risk students in the intervention are more likely to acquire delinquent behaviors and beliefs in the ASP than their already-delinquent counterparts. Participants: 447 middle school students attending underperforming schools in Baltimore County, Maryland. Intervention: The data are drawn from an experimental evaluation of an after school program which operated in five middle schools in Baltimore County during the 2006-2007 academic year. The overall evaluation of the program found null effects on the wide range of measured outcomes (including academic achievement and delinquency). I explore whether the lack of beneficial program effects is partially attributable to negative effects among low and moderate risk participants who absorbed negative beliefs and behaviors from high-risk peers in the ASP. Research Design: Randomized, controlled field trial. Findings: Results indicate that low- and moderate- risk youth are not more likely to experience negative outcomes than high-risk youths. On the contrary, low-risk participants are less likely to experience negative effects than high-risk participants. Students who began the program with elevated negative peer influences grew in this characteristic if they often participated in the ASP but declined in negative peer influences if they less often attended the program. Implications for universal prevention are discussed.Item GUN ACCESS AND FEMICIDE: A DIFFERENTIAL IMPACT OF FIREARMS ON INTIMATE KILLINGS(2005-05-03) Cross, Amanda Brown; LaFree, Gary; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Studies of intimate partner homicide have repeatedly suggested that gun accessibility increases the risk that a confrontation between intimates will end in the death of one partner, usually the woman. In the larger arena of gun accessibility research, experts have posited opposing conclusions about how gun accessibility affects the risk of homicide in the population overall. This thesis is an attempt to build a bridge between literature linking gun access to increased intimate partner homicide and literature exploring the affect of gun availability on homicide in general. Based on previous research, the current study poses the following hypotheses: (I) Gun accessibility is a stronger predictor of intimate partner homicide than non-intimate partner homicide and (II) Gun accessibility is a stronger predictor of intimate partner homicide of women than intimate partner homicide of men. My analysis is consistent with hypothesis II but offers no support for hypothesis I.