Criminology & Criminal Justice Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2758
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Item The Link Between Impulsivity, Suicide Ideation, and Illegal Behavior in College Students(2011) Freeland, Rachel Miriam; Dugan, Laura; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Michael Gottfredson and Travis Hirschi's general theory of crime posits that persons with low self-control are more likely to engage in criminal, as well as, analogous behaviors. This thesis attempts to explore the relationship between low self-control, as measured by impulsivity, illegal behavior, and suicide ideation, an analogous behavior, in a college student population. Data are taken from the College Life Study, a longitudinal study that examines the health behaviors of one cohort of first-year college students. Using multinomial logistic regression, the results indicate that the more impulsive students are also those who show signs of suicide ideation and illegal behavior or just illegal behavior without suicide ideation. However, when examining suicide ideation alone, there is not a statistically significant relationship with impulsivity. Thus, Gottfredson and Hirschi's theory is only partially supported by this thesis.Item The Association of Early Conduct Problems and Early Marijuana Use in College Students(2007-12-06) Falls, Benjamin Jacob; Wish, Eric D; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)While several studies have documented a strong association between early conduct problems and adolescent drug use, similar research has not been conducted among college students. The current study examines the association between early conduct problems and early marijuana use in a sample of 1,076 college students. A new early conduct problem scale is developed for purposes of analysis. Regression models are developed to test the strength of the association, holding constant covariates that have been shown in prior research to be related to marijuana use. Results reveal a significant positive association between early conduct problems and early marijuana use even after controlling for the covariates. The new scale produces results similar to a previously accepted scale studying early conduct problems in a non-college sample. The results have important prevention implications and suggest the importance of early interventions for reducing the risk for early marijuana use.