Criminology & Criminal Justice Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2758
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Item Dissecting the Dark Figure of Dis/ablist Violence: Intersectional Variations in Reporting Across Dis/ability Types(2023) Castillo, Isabella Elena; Hitchens, Brooklynn; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Individuals with dis/abilities are at a heightened risk for lifelong violent victimization. Although victimized by the same types of crimes as non-dis/abled individuals, a deeper examination reveals dis/abled individuals experience unique circumstances that increase opportunities for victimization and barriers to reporting. Using data from the National Crime Victimization Survey from 2017-2020, the present study seeks to understand how intersecting identities (dis/ability, race, ethnicity, and gender) affect the likelihood of reporting violent victimization to the police across types of dis/ability (hearing, vision, cognitive, and physical). Findings indicate statistically significant associations between Black individuals with cognitive dis/abilities and other or mixed racial/ethnic females with cognitive dis/abilities with reporting outcomes. Results inform policy and practice regarding the critical need for solutions that consider the impact intersecting identities have on reporting violent victimization across dis/ability types.Item SOCIAL SUPPORT AND HELP-SEEKING: WHEN DO ELDERLY VICTIMS OF CONSUMER FRAUD NOTIFY AUTHORITIES?(2021) Gu, Ziyue; Simpson, Sally S.; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Research on victim help-seeking behavior examines factors that could encourage victim’s crime reporting behavior. While most studies focus on the incident and victim demographic characteristics of traditional street crimes, the reporting patterns of fraud victims have been overlooked. The research question of this thesis assesses how different types of social support affect the decisions of reporting their fraud victimization incidents to the police and to other government agencies among the elderly fraud victims. Using data from a 2010-2011 Consumer Financial Exploitation survey of 2,000 randomly selected elderly individuals who were 60 years and older, the current study analyzes the impact of social support on victim reporting with logistic regression models. The findings suggest that although there are nuances based on the types of reporting behavior, in general, when elderly fraud victims receive higher levels of social support, they are more likely to report their victimizations to authorities.Item Examining the Association Between Mental Illness and Victimization Risk in Community and Prison Settings(2018) Kozlowski, Meghan Michelle; Porter, Lauren C; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Research suggests that persons with mental illness are at risk for physical and sexual victimization both in the community and while incarcerated. However, there is less understanding of the risk factors that explain these relationships. Using data from the Survey of Inmates in State Correctional Facilities (2004), the current study tests the relationship between mental illness and victimization and explores possible risk factors that may contribute to victimization across groups and environments. Findings suggest that inmates with mental illness are more likely to be victimized than their counterparts without mental illness in community and prison settings. Results from stepwise regression models suggest that the mental health-victimization relationship is partially attributable to setting-specific risk factors such as homelessness or prison program involvement. Future research interested in better understanding the vulnerability of persons with mental illness should consider the salience of environmentally-specific risk factors in explaining victimization risk.Item Pathways to assistance for victims of intimate partner violence(2015) Stabile, Rebecca Michelle; Dugan, Laura; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Efforts to understand disclosure of abuse for victims of intimate partner violence have largely focused on characteristics of disclosure rather than the consequences of disclosure. Past research has found that disclosure of abuse to formal and informal sources of support is common among victims of intimate partner violence (Fanslow & Robinson, 2010), however little research exists that attempts to explain the effect that disclosure has on a victim’s ability to survive abuse. This thesis draws upon arguments from Edward Gondolf’s survivor theory (Edwards & Gondolf, 1988) and contends that the act of disclosing is an important step in seeking help from public services in order to escape or reduce abuse. It posits that the effect of disclosure of abuse varies across a number of characteristics. Using National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey data, this thesis finds that the effect of disclosure on the likelihood that a victim receives needed services varies across type of support to whom the victim discloses, type of service needed, and seriousness of violence.