Criminology & Criminal Justice Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2758
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Item WHAT'S RACE GOT TO DO WITH IT?: EXAMINING THE IMPACT OF RACE ON THE IMMIGRATION-CRIME RELATIONSHIP(2024) Henry, Diomand; Vélez, Maria B; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Existing literature on immigration and crime suggests a negative correlation betweenimmigration and neighborhood crime rates. However, the influence of race on this relationship has been understudied. This thesis addresses this gap by examining the immigration-crime relationship at the neighborhood level with a focus on the racial background of the foreign born population and the dominant racial composition of the community. Utilizing data from the National Neighborhood Crime Study II (NNCS2) and the 2008-2012 American Community Survey, this study incorporates race in three ways: categorizing immigrants by racial group (Black, White, Latino, and Asian), analyzing the impact of immigration across distinct racial neighborhoods (Black, White, Latino, and Multi-Ethnic), and examining the interaction between the racial groups of immigrants and neighborhood types on crime rates. The findings reveal that: (1) consistent with prior literature, immigration is associated with lower neighborhood crime rates; (2) the strength of this relationship varies across different racial backgrounds of immigrants and (3) the relationship differs across varying levels of racial composition at the neighborhood level, indicating that race significantly influences the immigration-crime dynamic. Overall, the results underscore the critical importance of incorporating race into discussions about immigration and crime.Item Understanding the Unthinkable: A Comparative Analysis of Mass Shooters, Homicide Offenders, and Violent Extremists Using Criminological Theory(2024) Yanez, Yesenia A.; LaFree, Gary; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)As mass shootings continue, the need for more theoretically driven solutions grows. Criminologists can offer tremendous insight, though they should be wary of applying existing theories to this relatively new phenomenon. In this dissertation, I explore how mass shootings fit into our understanding of crime and violence. I begin by describing mass shooter demographics and motives over time. I then compare mass shooters to homicide offenders and violent extremists. Focusing on social control and general strain variables, I find that mass shooters are significantly different than single-victim homicide offenders in terms of common correlates of crime. Mass shooters and violent extremists, on the other hand, show fewer differences and greater definitional overlap. Finally, I consider how mass shooting definitions shape our perception of mass shooters. Considering these results, I conclude that a mass shooter’s path to violence does not resemble that of a common homicide offender but rather one of a violent extremist. Future scholars can thus reimagine existing criminological theories to help explain mass shootings and provide solutions that are more appropriate.Item Federal Probation Officers and Sentencing Disparity: Examining the Role of Extralegal Factors in Guidelines Calculations(2024) Mullaly, Cara; Johnson, Brian; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Over the years, the relationship between extralegal factors and federal sentencing disparity has attracted a significant amount of research attention. Much of this work, however, has focused on judicial and prosecutorial decision-making, largely ignoring other influential actors. One such actor is the federal probation officer. Using data from the U.S. Sentencing Commission, this study explores the relationship between extralegal factors and federal probation officer’s guidelines calculations. This study uses a theoretical framework that combines focal concerns and causal attributions to argue that federal probation officers attribute the causes of criminal activity differently across demographic groups, shaping their perception of the defendant’s blameworthiness and dangerousness and ultimately resulting in differing guidelines calculations. Findings showed mixed support for the hypotheses in this study. After discussing the results and limitations of the current study, I provide direction for future study of federal probation officers and their influence on federal sentencing outcomes.Item Perpetuating Disadvantage: An Investigation of Racial Bias Embedded in Criminal History Records(2024) Houlihan, Sean Patrick; Johnson, Brian D; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Criminal history records are an integral component of the criminal legal system. They are typically seen as unbiased measures of prior offending that inform assessments of an individual’s dangerousness and risk of reoffending. Criminal records are incorporated into the decision-making calculus of legal actors such as police, prosecutors, and judges. Moreover, they have significant influence in the development of legal policies across all sectors of the system. In consequence, individuals with criminal history records face significant disadvantages in the likelihood of contact with the legal system and subsequent criminal punishment. Scaling legal decision making and policy to an individual’s prior criminal history is largely implemented to focus resources on apprehending and punishing the most dangerous offenders. For this to be accomplished effectively, criminal history records are required to be unbiased representations of prior offending. However, the collective evidence of racial and ethnic inequality in the criminal legal system calls into question the neutrality of criminal history records. Rather than being unbiased, criminal history records may instead be a source of systemic racism, as these records are merely reflections of criminal legal outcomes often shown to be subject to racial and ethnic inequality.Utilizing a framework that outlines the pathways for decision making and policy structures to produce inequalities in legal outcomes, the current dissertation examines the extent to which criminal history records contain racial and ethnic bias. Theoretical predictions are tested using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97). Specifically, NLSY97 data are used to test for racial and ethnic differences in outcomes related to criminal records, net of self-reported engagement in delinquency. The results provide mixed evidence of racial and ethnic disadvantage in outcomes related to arrest, conviction, and incarceration. Evidence of inequality in the outcomes of interest is more consistent across race than across ethnicity. Both racial and ethnic inequalities, when evidenced, were mediated by external factors. In particular, measures of individual risk factors and socioeconomic status strongly mediated the relationship between race, ethnicity, and legal outcomes. Despite nuances, findings from the current study largely support the theoretical supposition that criminal history records are not unbiased measures of prior offending but are instead imperfect proxies that are influenced by inequalities in the apprehension and punishment of individuals in the criminal legal system. Future research is needed to further explore the extent to which criminal records are embedded with bias and compound racial and ethnic inequality.Item WOMEN IN ORANGE: HOW WOMEN IN PRISON ADAPT, NAVIGATE RELATIONSHIPS, AND MAINTAIN IDENTITY(2023) Philippon , Cassandra Nicole; Porter, Lauren; Ellis, Rachel; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The body of literature describing women’s prisons and the adaptations of women in prison largely overlook the role femininity plays in structuring life in the single-sex space of a women’s prison. Virtual, semi-structured interviews were conducted with fifty-six women housed at a women’s prison in Arizona. Participants described providing care for others and care for the self. Life in the prison was therefore structured primarily around care, which refers to a feeling of concern or interest, providing for the needs of someone, or paying close attention to doing something to avoid harm.Item Typologies of Forced Labor Exploitation in Brazil(2021) Hickman, Shelby Nichole; Simpson, Sally; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Forced labor exploitation is the most common element of present-day institutional slavery. Despite the pervasive nature of this crime, little is known about the ways that perpetrators recruit workers and keep them in exploitive situations. Further, forced labor exploitation cases are rarely brought forward for prosecution and even more rarely receive a conviction. In this dissertation I examine the characteristics of forced labor exploitation in Brazil. Additionally, using a Focal Concerns framework, I examine the factors that influence the decision making of key investigative and court practitioners involved in processing forced labor exploitation cases. To do this, I analyzed administrative data from all (n=1,764) forced labor exploitation cases processed in the criminal and civil court systems in Brazil between 2008 and 2020. I also conducted 28 interviews with labor inspectors, federal police, and judges and prosecutors from the civil and criminal court systems. Using latent class analysis, I identified three typologies of forced labor exploitation: degrading conditions and debt servitude, degrading conditions, and degrading conditions and weapons and surveillance. I then examined the factors associated with different typologies of forced labor exploitation as well as the association between type of forced labor exploitation and sentencing outcomes. Respondents described several factors that increase uncertainty in forced labor exploitation cases, including: subjective interpretations of the criminal code, lack of formal training in handling forced labor exploitation cases, and uncertainty about who should be held accountable in larger organizational schemes. Interview participants further reported that cases that include physical violence, weapons, and ostensive surveillance are more likely to receive a conviction. In my analysis of the administrative data, I find that cases in the degrading conditions and weapons class are no more likely to receive a criminal conviction; however, cases in the degrading conditions and weapons class that received a conviction received more severe punishments. I discuss ways to improve investigation and prosecution of forced labor exploitation cases based on the study findings as well as potential alternatives to criminal court processing that may be more effective in reducing the burden of forced labor exploitation.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 UNDERSTANDING THE PROCEDURAL JUSTICE IMPLICATIONS OF MACRO-LEVEL POLICE POLICIES: EVIDENCE FROM LONGITUDINAL POLICE AND JUVENILE OFFENDER DATA(2016) Collins, Megan Eileen; Loughran, Thomas A; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In response to a series of high profile conflicts between police and the communities they serve, President Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing recommended that law enforcement agencies adopt procedural justice as a guiding principle to inform their policies. While there is general agreement about the importance of procedural justice in shaping an individual’s view of their encounters with police, it remains unclear how the many police policies that are already in place affect citizens’ perceptions of police procedural justice. This dissertation seeks to understand how a common police policy—sending more officers to the areas with the most crime—impacts perceptions of procedural justice, so that policies formed with the goal of enhancing perceptions of procedural justice might be better informed. This study exploits quasi-experimental conditions that resulted from the selective implementation of the Philadelphia Police Department’s 2008 Crime Fighting Strategy (CFS) in only nine of their twenty-three police districts. In doing so, the effect of sending more police officers to high crime areas on perceptions of police procedural justice can be estimated. While many have sought to estimate the impact of more police on offending and delinquency externalities, this particular question has not yet been researched. Further, this research focuses specifically on the perceptions of serious adolescent offenders; this is critical, as offenders were ostensibly the intended target of the CFS, many of whom experience frequent and high stakes interactions with police. Findings indicate that serious adolescent offenders’ perceptions of procedural justice based on personal experiences do not operate in tandem with perceptions based on vicarious experiences, with the two measures displaying opposite signs when correlations with district level crime and socio-economic factors were estimated. The CFS did not appear to influence significant changes in adolescents’ perceptions of procedural justice when the treatment and control districts were compared, or when within-individual changes were estimated. Further, perceptions did not necessarily update as a function of moving from one district to another, as many of the individuals who remained in a single district also updated their perceptions. Implications and limitations of these findings are discussed.Item Patterns of Collective Desistance from Terrorism(2015) Miller, Erin Elizabeth; LaFree, Gary; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)To better understand why perpetrator organizations desist from terrorist violence, we must first understand how perpetrator organizations desist from terrorist violence. With this research I aim to improve our empirical understanding of patterns of collective desistance from terrorism in support of a robust research agenda to advance theory and policy on this topic. First, I review the existing scholarly literature on collective desistance to identify conceptual and practical limitations. Second, I describe several key challenges for empirical analysis of collective desistance from terrorism. Third, I leverage more than 40 years of event data from the Global Terrorism Database to analyze patterns of desistance among 632 organizations that carried out terrorist attacks between 1970 and 2013. In doing so, I use descriptive statistics and brief qualitative case studies to critically evaluate the results of this relatively large-N analysis and illustrate its strengths and limitations. Fourth, I expand the analysis to consider how characteristics of perpetrator organizations’ terrorist activity relate to patterns of desistance. Finally, I conclude with a discussion of the implications of this study for research, theory, and policy, as well as the limitations and opportunities for improvement and expansion upon the current research.Item The utility of NGO interventions: Influences on terrorist activity.(2015) Hodwitz, Omi; Dugan, Laura; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Terrorism studies have increased following the attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001. While a great deal of research has focused on the influence of state-sponsored counterterrorism strategies on terrorist activities, limited attention has been directed towards examining the influence of non-state actors on terrorist organizations (TOs). This dissertation seeks to assess the role that an influential but often overlooked player may have on terrorist activity: the non-governmental organization (NGO). Many TOs and NGOs engage in similar campaigns, primarily providing services or advocating for a shared constituency or minority that experiences suffering at the hands of a majority, usually the state. Both TOs and NGOs require the support of the constituents in order to maintain group legitimacy, fundraise, and recruit. In addition, both vie for media attention in order to publicize the issue, radicalize the larger community, and exert pressure on the state. Public support and attention is limited and difficult to acquire, placing TOs and NGOs in competition. As such, within the rational choice and game theoretic frameworks, when faced with an NGO competitor, TOs are hypothesized to adjust their activities in order to gain constituent support, media attention, and to eliminate the competition. Using data from the Global Terrorism Database (GTD), this dissertation assesses the influence that Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, International Committee of the Red Cross, and local NGOs have on TOs in Algeria, Lebanon, and Turkey between 1987 and 2011. Results from autoregressive Poisson and negative binomial models demonstrate limited support for the hypothesized relationships. NGOs appear to have a marginal influence on TO activities in Algeria, an extremely limited impact in Lebanon, and no relationship in Turkey. Overall findings suggest two conclusions: NGO activities, in general, do not appear to escalate TO violence and NGO campaign activities specifically focused on de-escalating TO violence appear to be ineffective in these three countries. Replication is needed in additional countries to substantiate these findings.