Criminology & Criminal Justice Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2758
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Item THE CRIMINAL CONDUCT OF RADICAL ENVIRONMENTAL AND ANIMAL RIGHTS GROUPS: A RATIONAL CHOICE PERSPECTIVE(2010) Carson, Jennifer Varriale; LaFree, Gary; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In this dissertation, I examine whether members of radical environmental and animal rights groups are deterred by legal sanctions, morality, both, or neither. From a rational choice framework, I hypothesize that members of these groups weigh costs and benefits and act based on expected utility. I measure an increase in costs through three federal sentencing acts targeted at reducing the criminal behavior of these groups and hypothesize that this legislation decreased the total, serious, and ideologically-specific activity of extremists. I also contend that two terrorist events, the nearly fatal tree-spiking of George Alexander and the assassination of Hyram Kitchen, also increased the costs of criminal conduct for members of radical eco-groups. I evaluate interviews with twenty-five activists and analyze a database of 1056 incidents through both time-series and series hazard modeling. The interviews yield support for the rational choice perspective, particularly in regards to micro-level considerations of legal sanctions and morality. My quantitative findings indicate that the legislation was influential, albeit varying in direction by the method employed. Specifically, the time-series models yield significant increases in the frequency of criminal conduct after the legislation, while the series hazard analyses demonstrate a decrease in the hazard of an attack. I also find that the two major terrorist events did not significantly impact the criminal conduct of these groups. I conclude that members of radical environmental and animal rights groups are rational actors whom consider the moral evaluation of a given act and are susceptible to an increase in costs as measured through legislative efforts, but not as operationalized as a response to high profile attacks.Item SUBJECTIVE STRAIN, ANGER, AND DELINQUENCY: EVIDENCE FROM SOUTH KOREA(2010) Lee, Daiwon; Petras, Hanno; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Even though GST presents a comprehensive theoretical framework that includes mediation and moderation effects, most previous GST studies tested only portions of the theory, failing to depict and assess the theoretical mechanism as a whole. Moreover, the majority of previous studies utilized an objective and cumulative measure of strain to examine GST, which may have masked the varying individual strain effects on delinquency. Using the longitudinal data of 3,449 South Korean adolescents from the Korea Youth Panel Survey (KYPS) and structural equation modeling techniques, the current study aims to address these important gaps by examining the dynamic relationships among five individual types of subjective strains, anger, four potential conditioning factors, and delinquency, so as to more clearly articulate pathways from strains to delinquent externalization. A number of interesting findings have emerged from the current study. Firstly, not all five types of strain were influential on the delinquency. Only the parental and material strains were strong predictors of future delinquency for South Korean adolescents. Secondly, findings concerning the mediation hypothesis revealed that anger served as a significant intervening factor in the relations between strain and delinquency across all strain models. Lastly, a series of multi-group analyses - aimed to not only examine the moderating effects of various potential factors on the strain-delinquency link, but also to identify their locations of moderation - revealed no support for the GST conditioning hypothesis. Theoretical implications, future inquiry considerations, and policy suggestions are discussed with respect to the findings of current investigations on major tenets of GST.Item State Instability and Terrorism(2010) Fahey, Susan; LaFree, Gary; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)I explore the relationship between political instability and terrorism in this dissertation, using the Global Terrorism Database (GTD), which contains both domestic and transnational terrorism. I use the Political Instability Task Force data to measure political instability. Breakdown theory suggests that the occurrence of political instability should increase levels of terrorism within a state, because when a rapid social change, such as political instability, occurs, there is a severing of social bonds that tie individuals to society. The effects of the disruption in controls should be to increase levels of non-routine collective action, of which terrorism is a form (Durkheim, 1930 [1951]; Useem, 1998). In addition, different types of instability ought to invite different levels of terrorism based on the degree of disruption to the societal controls. There are four types of political instability: ethnic war, revolutionary war, genocide and adverse regime change. Further, I extrapolate two theoretical extensions from the breakdown model. The first extension is that more instability episodes should produce more terrorism within a state. The second extension is that when two or more instability episodes occur within a year, this increased temporal density should produce more terrorism than when one instability episode occurs within a year. I test the theoretical framework using the negative binomial regression model with country and time fixed effects. The first model contains control variables that measure country demographics, governance and contiguity to an unstable nation with 147 states from 1970-2005. The second model examines the effects of control variables that measure the population age structure and social and economic development in a smaller sample of 116 states and years from 1981-2005. The third model adds ethnic minority group characteristics from the Minorities at Risk (MAR) dataset and contains 82 countries from 1990-2005. This three-sample strategy allows me to speak to the omitted variable and sample selection biases that may impact the results. Empirical results demonstrate that political instability is an important predictor of terrorism incidents. The breakdown model itself is supported, but the extensions are not supported. Further research is needed to delineate the boundaries of the instability-terrorism relationship.Item Are Immigrants Crime Prone? A Multifaceted Investigation of the Relationship between Immigration and Crime in Two Eras(2010) Bersani, Bianca; Laub, John H.; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Are immigrants crime prone? In America, this question has been posed since the turn of the 20th century and more than 100 years of research has shown that immigration is not linked to increasing crime rates. Nevertheless, as was true more than a century ago, the myth of the criminal immigrant continues to permeate public debate. In part this continued focus on immigrants as crime prone is the result of significant methodological and theoretical gaps in the extant literature. Five key limitations are identified and addressed in this research including: (1) a general reliance on aggregate level analyses, (2) the treatment of immigrants as a homogeneous entity, (3) a general dependence on official data, (4) the utilization of cross-sectional analyses, and (5) nominal theoretical attention. Two broad questions motivate this research. First, how do the patterns of offending over the life course differ across immigrant and native-born groups? Second, what factors explain variation in offending over time for immigrants and does the influence of these predictors vary across immigrant and native-born individuals? These questions are examined using two separate datasets capturing information on immigration and crime during two distinct waves of immigration in the United States. Specifically, I use the Unraveling Juvenile Delinquency data and subsequent follow-ups to capture early 20th century immigration and crime, while contemporary data come from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1997. Three particularly salient conclusions are drawn from this research. First, patterns of offending (i.e., prevalence, frequency, persistence and desistance) are remarkably similar for native-born and immigrant individuals. Second, although differences are observed when examining predictors of offending for native-born and immigrant individuals, they tend to be differences in degree rather than kind. That is, immigrants and native-born individuals are influenced similarly by family, peer, and school factors. Finally, these findings are robust and held when taking into account socio-historical context, immigrant generation, immigration nationality group, and crime type. In sum, based on the evidence from this research, the simple answer to the question of whether immigrants are crime prone is no.Item Using Procedural Justice to Explore the Relationship betweeen Victim Satisfaction with Police and Victim Participation in Prosecution(2010) Greenman, Sarah; Dugan, Laura; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This thesis uses procedural justice to explore the relationship between victim satisfaction with the police and victim participation in prosecution. Prior procedural justice research has focused either on offenders or on limited sections of the criminal justice process. Expanding upon prior research by using victims and the entire criminal justice process, this thesis hypothesizes that increased victim satisfaction with the police leads to increased victim participation in prosecution and that this effect weakens throughout the prosecution process. Conversely, this thesis hypothesizes that increased victim satisfaction with the prosecutor leads to increased participation in prosecution and that this effect strengthens throughout the prosecution process. Using logistic and Tobit regressions this thesis finds some support for the hypotheses of this thesis: procedural fairness, police, and prosecutors all have an impact on victim participation. Future research can further delineate the questions that remain: when, how, and for whom satisfaction has the largest impact.Item Mechanisms of Juvenile Transfer: Variations in Incarceration and Sentence Length in Criminal Court(2010) Samuelson, Benta Katrine; Johnson, Brian D.; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The judge's ability to transfer a juvenile to adult court through judicial waiver has been in existence since the inception of the juvenile court in 1899. In response to increases in violent juvenile crime, state legislatures created and expanded juvenile transfer policies in the mid to late 1990's. Although many of these policies have been in effect for almost 15 years, there is little empirical work examining how type of transfer can affect sentencing outcomes in adult court. This study examines three of the most common juvenile transfer mechanisms (judicial waiver, statutory exclusion, and direct file) and their sentencing outcomes using a large, multi-jurisdictional sample. Results from this study indicate that juveniles transferred through direct file have the highest likelihood of incarceration while youths transferred through statutory exclusion face the harshest incarcerative sanctions. Findings regarding legal and extralegal characteristics are discussed as well as limitations and suggestions for future research.Item The Pretrial Process in Baltimore City: An Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Predicting Flight Risk(2010) Ferguson, Sharlene Anne; Paternoster, Ray; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study examines and provides a preliminary update to Baltimore City's Bail- Risk Assessment Scales. It is based on a sample of 757 recent arrestees in Baltimore City, and specifically examines factors relating to current charge severity, prior record, substance use, and community stability and their impact on Failure to Appear (FTA) in court in conjunction with guidelines set forth by the National Association of Pretrial Services Agency (NAPSA) and the American Bar Association (ABA). Results suggest that Baltimore City's Bail- Risk Assessments can be condensed into one scale and be made more simple and effective. Additionally, the results suggest that Baltimore City uses and applies reasonable risk factors, but the measures are inappropriate. Finally, the results suggest that future risk assessments must be tailored to the population for which they are applied.Item Investigating the Relationship Between Micro and Macro Levels of Efficacy and Their Effects on Crime(2010) Ahlin, Eileen M.; Paternoster, Raymond; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The concepts of self-efficacy and collective efficacy have both been used by scholars to explain involvement in individual-level crime. Scholars have found that both types of efficacy are related to crime at the individual level. However, little research has examined the relationship between self-efficacy and collective efficacy and its influence on youths' involvement in crime. Using the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN) data, this study focuses on the independent influences of self-efficacy and collective efficacy on involvement in crime among youths ages 9 to 19, and examines the potential moderating effect of collective efficacy on the relationship between self-efficacy and crime. The relationship between self-efficacy, collective efficacy, and crime is addressed by asking three questions. First, does a general measure of youth's self-efficacy influence their involvement in crime? Second, does a macro level measure of collective efficacy influence youths' involvement in crime? Third, does collective efficacy moderate the relationship between self-efficacy and crime? To control for the contexts in which youths live and individual-level factors that can influence involvement in crime, and may influence efficacy, neighborhood context, family context, and individual-level demographic variables are also examined. Using Hierarchical Linear Modeling, the analyses indicate mixed support for a relationship between efficacy and individual-level involvement in crime. First, a significant negative relationship exists between self-efficacy and crime. Second, no significant effects emerge between collective efficacy and crime. Third, collective efficacy completely moderates the relationship between self-efficacy and crime, but not in the expected direction. After controlling for collective efficacy, the significant negative relationship between self-efficacy and crime is nullified. The conclusion then is that a general measure of self-efficacy influences a youth's involvement in crime, while a macro level measure of collective efficacy does not. Areas of future research and implications for theory and policy are discussed.Item Local Economic Investment and Crime: Neighborhood Change in Washington, DC(2009) Matsuda, Mauri; Piquero, Alex R; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The purpose of this analysis is to shed light on the relationship between large-scale economic investment and crime in Washington, DC neighborhood clusters (N=39) from 2001 to 2007. Using panel data and a two-way fixed effects analytic strategy, results indicate that investment in large scale economic development projects (in millions of dollars) and crime rates (per 1,000) are inversely related controlling for disadvantage and time effects. Further analyses indicate that the relationship is dependent on a number of investment related factors, including major use of investment project (e.g. industrial, retail), financing source (public versus private), construction type (new versus renovation), as well as outcome variable (i.e. violent versus property crime). Residential investment has the strongest and most consistent relationship with both violent and property crime suggesting that the changes which accompany residential investment may be responsible for reduced crime. Theoretical mechanisms and future research directions are discussed.Item Alternatives to punishment: Counterterrorism strategies in Algeria(2009) Lesniewicz, Amber Lee Stoesser; LaFree, Gary D; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Rational choice theory has been one of the key theories used to explain the effectiveness of counterterrorism policies (Dugan, LaFree & Piquero, 2005; Enders & Sandler, 1993; 2003; Frey, 2004; LaFree, Dugan & Korte, 2009). These investigations have examined policies focused on increasing the costs of committing political violence, such as criminalization, increased police presence, and government strikes. However, few investigations have looked at policies that increase the benefits of not committing political violence such as negotiations and amnesties. In this study, I investigate the effectiveness of counterterrorism policies that seek to increase the benefits of not committing terrorism. I use Algeria as a case study and examine three counterterrorism policies between 1994 and 2004. One of the policies is a traditionally deterrent policy that increases the consequences of committing terrorism while the two other policies represent alternatively deterrent policies that increase the benefits of not committing terrorism. To analyze these policies, I use ARIMA modeling (N=120 months) and the Global Terrorism Database to determine whether each policy led to a significant change in overall attacks and the proportion of fatal attacks. While researchers have found mixed results when studying the effectives of traditional deterrence counterterrorist measures (Dugan, LaFree & Piquero; Enders & Sandler, 1993; Enders, Sandler & Cauley, 1990; LaFree, Dugan & Korte, 2009), I found that the Civil Concord Act, an amnesty program, as well as the Rome Platform, a negotiation policy, were related to a significant reduction in terrorism in Algeria.