Criminology & Criminal Justice Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2758
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Item Neighborhood Transition and the Criminalization of Minorities(2019) Triece, Molly; Xie, Min; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study investigates the relationship between neighborhood transition and criminalization in Washington, D.C. census tracts. The main hypothesis predicts that racially diversified census tracts will experience increases in formal social control (a.k.a. criminalization) of minority and low-income groups due to social tension between race groups. Existing ethnographic literature links neighborhood levels of racial diversity to various forms of criminalization but quantitative literature on the topic is sparse. This study uses demographic census data and official stop-and-frisk data to examine how changes in neighborhood racial composition affect police stop-and-frisk practices in Washington, D.C. The longitudinal nature of the data and the spatial methods employed build upon the existing body of quantitative criminalization research. Findings indicate that increases in racial diversity are associated with increases in the criminalization of black individuals, particularly in tracts that were predominantly black at the beginning of the study period.Item IMMIGRATION EFFECTS ON FAMILY STRUCTURE AND HOMICIDE VICTIMIZATION FOR GROUPS WITH DIFFERENT RACE AND ETHNICITY STATUS(2019) Luna, Mathew; Xie, Min; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Guided by the immigrant revitalization theory, this paper will argue that improvements in family structure play a role in the immigration-crime relationship. The data used in this study were obtained from the National Vital Statistics System, the American Community Survey, and the decennial census. This paper uses cross-sectional and longitudinal models to investigate whether family structure plays a role in the immigration-crime relationship. The longitudinal models will look at changes in homicide data from 2007 and 2017. Findings from the longitudinal models show no support to indicate that family structure plays a role in the immigration-crime relationship. However, findings from Black and White non-Hispanic cross-sectional models do show some support for the argument that family structure does play a role in the immigration-crime relationship.Item When “Tough” Cops Divert and “Soft” Cops Charge: Trait Attitudes vs. State Situational Narratives in a Focal Concerns Process of Police Decision-Making(2019) Slothower, Molly P; Sherman, Lawrence; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Research Question Do police officers’ overall “tough” or “soft” attitudes toward crime and defendants determine how they handle discretionary cases, or does each officer look at the elements in each case to see whether they should act “tough” or “soft” in the given situation? This study tests whether police decisions to divert cases from prosecution into diversionary out-of-court disposals are driven by “trait attitudes”—each officer’s overall “tough” or “soft” attitudes toward defendants, which are stable characteristics of each officer regardless of the situation—versus officers’ “state attitudes”—their narratives about the meaning of specific elements present in each case as they make decisions. Methods Thirty-four officers in a large urban force completed attitudinal surveys and 20 case study vignettes. For each vignette, officers recorded: each relevant element (e.g. criminal history, alcohol involvement); whether each element pushed them toward prosecution or diversion, and why; and whether they would prosecute or divert the case. Officers recorded 2,241 elements across 645 case responses. Using primarily hierarchical logistic regression models, this study tests the impact of trait attitudes versus state narratives on recommended case outcomes. Results Officer decision-making was more influenced by officers’ interpretations of whether elements signaled each defendant was “reformable” or “incorrigible” than by their overall “tough” or “soft” attitudes. Officers often disagreed on how they interpreted the same elements in the same cases, leading to different outcomes. State narratives were strong predictors in most models regardless of officers’ overall attitudes, including predicting diversion. Trait attitudes had little or no impact in most models, except for one subset of officers—officers in the “toughest” quartile of attitudes were more likely to perceive defendants as incorrigible and less likely to divert. Implications This study provides evidence against the theory that officers are primarily driven by their overall attitudes toward defendants, and instead suggests their narratives interpreting case elements are important drivers of differences between officers in decision-making—officers try to pick the "correct" outcome in each case using these narratives. Therefore, research and police departments should explore officers’ interpretation of situational elements, and test mechanisms to provide feedback regarding accuracy of assumptions.Item INTEGRATING OFFENDING VERSATILITY INTO THE BALANCE PERSPECTIVE OF PEER INFLUENCE(2019) Pheasant, Benjamin; McGloin, Jean M; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The balance perspective advocates for scholars to consider peer influence as both reciprocal and relative, asserting that adolescents will alter their behavior when there is an imbalance in delinquency with a peer. McGloin (2009) found support for balance when applied to frequency of offending. There is reason to suspect that this drive for behavioral homeostasis should emerge with regard to an adolescent’s offending versatility, as well. This thesis uses the AddHealth data to explore whether adolescent alter their offending versatility to achieve behavioral “balance” with a best friend, and friendship stability moderates this relationship. The results provide support for the balance perspective and suggest that respondents alter their offending versatility to become more similar to their best friend over time.Item The Effects of Marijuana Legalization on Adolescent Alcohol Consumption(2019) Montano, Ashley Nicole; Dugan, Laura; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Among researchers, there has been a long-standing debate on the issue of whether alcohol and marijuana are used as substitutes or complements of one another. In other words, does the increased usage of one decrease the usage of the other (substitution) or does usage of both substances simultaneously increase (complements)? The primary purpose of this study is to identify whether a suggested substitution or complementary effect exists among adolescent drinking patterns following the recent emergences of increased marijuana legalization. To explore these effects, data is used from 38 different states included in the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System between the years 1995 and 2017. The primary analysis finds limited support for a substitution effect and no evidence of a complementary effect among adolescents. This study also includes a supplementary analysis providing implications for the direction of future research on the apparent relationship between alcohol and marijuana usage patterns.Item Situational Perspectives of Maritime Piracy(2019) Jiang, Bo; LaFree, Gary D; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The emergence of maritime piracy has caused a great deal of concerns among various dimensions of our society. However, with few exceptions prior research has been hampered by a lack of theoretical underpinning and access to the most appropriate statistical methods. While there are nuances of piracy that can be considered quite unique, in general it can be situated within a broader framework of offending based on outcomes that seemingly share many of the same qualities. My dissertation attempts to improve our understanding of the crime by testing three core tenets of situational perspectives in the context of piracy. Three research questions motivated by LaFree and Birbeck (1991)’s conceptualization of a situation are examined – 1) To what extent does the study of maritime piracy support the central tenets of environmental criminology and crime and harm concentration at places; 2) How do offender motivation, target suitability and the absence of capable guardians and their convergence impact the instantaneous risk of piracy in South East Asia; and 3) To what extent do economic conditions of fishermen impact the instantaneous risk of piracy in East Africa and South East Asia. I rely on the IMO-GISIS database from 1995 to 2014, as well as auxiliary data from various organizations to tackle these questions. First, exploiting spatial econometrics methods, I find that there is statistically significant spatiotemporal patterns of concentration of hot spots and harm spots. Second, results from survival analyses indicate that the hazard ratios of the measures of high motivation, absence of capable guardians, suitable targets and their convergence are greater than 1 and significant in both the Malacca Strait and South China Sea. The series of robustness tests based on both frequentist and Bayesian statistics provide similar conclusions. Third, using a two-stage semiparametric approach, I find that there is statistically significant evidence to show that economic conditions of the fisherman-pirate adversely impact the instantaneous risk of ships being attacked in East Africa and the Malacca Strait and South China Sea. A robustness check based on an alternative specification supports the finding. I conclude with the implications of the research for theory, social policy and future research.Item EXAMINING THE EFFECT OF RETAIL MARIJUANA OUTLETS ON CRIME IN THEIR LOCALITIES AND THEIR NEIGHBORING AREAS(2019) Liu, Alex; Reuter, Peter; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)With the growing legalization of marijuana across the United States, there is also increasing concern with the effect that marijuana dispensaries may have on the communities they are established in. This study focuses on the effects that these dispensaries may have on crime, not only in the immediate communities they are located in, but also the surrounding communities. Drawing from arguments from crime pattern theory, locations have certain characteristics that can promote or discourage crime from occurring in and around those locations. In order to test this, geospatial econometric methods that have not been fully explored in the field of criminology are used to test this relationship. Using data collected from the State of Washington and City of Tacoma, this study finds several interesting effects of marijuana dispensaries on crime rates, and lists several implications and future directions for both researchers and policymakers.Item The Impact of Age Composition in Explaining the International Homicide Decline - A Seven-decade Longitudinal Study(2019) Renno Santos, Mateus; Lynch, James; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Since 1991 the homicide rate of the United States declined by more than 40%. Such a dramatic change in the crime rate of any country, particularly one of the size of the United States, is highly unusual. Numerous studies have proposed explanations for this event, yet experts agree that the causes of the homicide decline are still a mystery. Recent comparative research found that many countries worldwide experienced very similar homicide declines as the United States’, suggesting that the homicide decline was actually an international event. This finding has several implications for the study of crime trends. In particular, it shifts the search of causes from domestic policies, to shared international phenomena. This study tests whether changes in the relative size of countries’ youth populations, an event that is occurring globally, explain international homicide trends since 1960, including the international homicide decline of more recent decades. While strong theories exist predicting a relationship between age composition and homicide trends, empirical studies on the topic have consistently found a null association between the two variables. This dissertation contextualizes that literature, discussing how its shortcomings may have artificially created a contradiction between the expected and the observed effect of age composition on homicide trends. To investigate this topic, this study makes use of a novel dataset on international homicides from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, spanning the previous seven decades. These data were combined to other sources to provide evidence that changes in the homicide rates of countries are largely driven by the size of their youth population, and that the international homicide decline has been a consequence of a global process of population aging. Moreover, by showing that the effect of age composition is most visible at the safest countries of the world – in the absence of competing criminogenic forces driving the homicide trend – this study also explains why the most violent countries are failing to accrue the safety benefits of the aging of their populations, and are not themselves experiencing homicide declines.Item Examining the Association Between Social Media and Violent Extremism: A Social Learning Approach(2018) Sahani, Shradha; LaFree, Gary; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In recent years, the use of social media has become more prevalent across the United States. Social media, through the use of personalization algorithms, allows for exposure to extremist content and is able to create intimate groups, where like-minded individuals can communicate with each other. This study considers that, though some traditional theorists posit that learning only occurs in face to face contexts, the elements of learning described in social learning theory may also be present online. Using a set of logistic regressions to test the association between exposure to social media and personalization algorithms and violent extremism, I find (1) exposure to social media and to personalization algorithms is positively correlated with violent extremism and (2) the relationships between exposure to social media and personalization algorithms and violent extremism are explained by age, foreign fighter status and the year of extremist behavior. I discuss the implications of these findings for theory, future research and policy.Item BUILDING A BASELINE: UNIFYING SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL METHODOLOGIES TO UNDERSTAND ARCHAEOLOGICAL LOOTING IN EGYPT(2019) Fabiani, Michelle Rose Dippolito; Dugan, Laura; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Archaeological looting – the illegal excavation or removal of an antiquity from the ground or structural complex of an archaeological site – is a persistent issue in many countries. National and international laws, agreements, conventions, and statutes all proscribe the looting transporting, possession, and sale of antiquities illegally removed from archaeological sites. Looting has also generated a lot of academic attention, with scholarship developing in archaeology, sociology, criminology, and law (among others). Despite such legal proscriptions and scholarly contributions to understanding this phenomenon, current efforts have been unable to produce tangible solutions for preventing this crime. Not only has there not yet been extensive scholarship to understand the link between looting and contextual forces, there is a dearth of research on the most effective ways to study these interconnected variables. Using a framework of routine activity theory, this dissertation proposes a new possible approach that considers spatial, temporal, and spatio-temporal relationships to establish baseline data on patterns of archaeological looting attempts in Lower Egypt from 2015 to 2017 relative to sociopolitical, economic, and environmental stress — and to begin to address this research gap. Specifically, this dissertation proposes a methodology for collecting and coding data on archaeological looting attempts from satellite imagery. It then applies a series of spatial (clustering, proximity), temporal (SEM, VAR, ARDL), and spatio-temporal methods (clustering, hot spots analysis, spatial time series) to these data to demonstrate the importance of analyzing this phenomena multidimensionally.