Criminology & Criminal Justice Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2758
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Item Race, Disadvantage, and the Probability of Arrest: A Multi-Level Study of Baltimore Neighborhoods (2016-2018)(2024) Placzkowski, Madisen; Velez, Maria; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study examines the relationship among neighborhood racial composition, concentrated disadvantage, and the probability of an arrest following a Part 1 crime report. Racial threat theory predicts that as the proportion of Black residents increases over time (dynamic proxy for racial threat), the use of formal social control will increase, while the benign neglect hypothesis predicts that formal social control will diminish in areas with relatively higher proportions of Black residents (static proxy for racial threat). I test racial threat theory and the benign neglect hypothesis for both citizen-initiated and officer-initiated Part 1 crime reports, using Baltimore Police Department crime reports and arrest data, as well as block group characteristics from the 2011-2015 American Community Survey. Through multi-level modeling and including both static and dynamic measures of racial threat, I find that proportion Black is negatively associated with the probability of arrest; concentrated disadvantage has no effect. This finding supports the benign neglect hypothesis and is robust to alternative model specifications, including controlling for victim gender and race. Implications for policy and theories in the conflict tradition are discussed.Item RACE AND GENDER’S EFFECT ON POLICE OFFICER STRESS AND BURNOUT: A CASE STUDY OF THE BALTIMORE POLICE DEPARTMENT(2021) Duka, Leila; Xie, Min; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Law enforcement is an inherently stressful profession because officers deal with unique strains. Experiencing extensive and consistent amounts of stress ultimately leads to burnout, ineffective, and inefficient officers. Guided by several theoretical frameworks, the current study will examine the gender and racial differences in police officers’ stress and burnout in the Baltimore Police Department (N = 878). Specifically, I use several OLS regressions to understand the scaled responses of the officers’ psychological stress, physical stress, and burnout levels. I found female officers are more likely and black officers are less likely to experience both manifestations of stress. Further, I found no sign of increased burnout levels for either group. When analyzing a potential moderation between these demographics, I also found no difference between minority groups. While only a case study, the conclusions drawn can help identify which officers are most vulnerable to high stress and burnout levels.Item Racial Threat, Black Empowerment, and Civilians Killed by Police: An Analysis of the Largest US Cities in 2015(2021) Sperry, Toryn; Velez, Maria; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Estimates suggest that police have killed more than 1,000 people per year for at least nearly a decade. Blacks are 3 times as likely to be killed than Whites. One potential explanation for this disparity is Blalock’s racial threat hypothesis, which posits that the dominant group in society will impose social control upon the minority group when large minority populations are perceived as threatening to the dominant group’s status. However, if a minority population is large enough, they may be empowered to counter these attempts at social control. This study examines how Black demographic and political empowerment, as well as policy comprehensiveness impact killing rates of civilians. Findings suggest that greater Black demographic and political empowerment are associated with reductions in killings rates for Blacks as well as for Whites and the total population.