UMD Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/3
New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a given thesis/dissertation in DRUM.
More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.
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Item INVESTIGATING THE ‘STICKINESS’ OF STIGMA FOLLOWING A FRIEND’S POLICE CONTACT(2020) Tinney, Erin; Jacobsen, Wade; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The consequences of police contact for youth have been established in the prior literature (e.g., Kirk & Sampson, 2013), yet the potential for guilt by association after police contact has not been thoroughly explored. The current study examines how a youth’s police contact may increase the likelihood of a friend’s police contact after controlling for behavior and other characteristics that are associated with justice system involvement. This study expands upon labeling theory and the concept of “stickiness” by testing whether guilt by association could act as a status characteristic that is “sticky” in two ways. Using longitudinal data from a sample of rural youth, I find that a friend’s police contact is associated with an increase in the likelihood of one’s own contact after accounting for other predictors of police contact. Thus, this study provides additional evidence that police contact may be harmful for youth and their social network.Item Community change, school disorder, school social bonds, and youth gang involvement(2013) Yiu, Ho Lam (Eva); Gottfredson, Gary D; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Kirk and Laub (2010) observed that community effects on crime should be studied as dynamic processes as communities change. The present research examined schools' role in regulating youth behavior and how community change affects school climate (School Disorder and School Social Bonds; SSB) using social disorganization and social bonds theories. G. Gottfredson, Gottfredson, Czeh, Cantor, Crosse, and Hantman (2000) collected data from a large, national probability sample of schools to examine youth gang problems and school-based intervention and prevention programs. I examined a subsample (N = 269) of these schools. Variables were collected from school rosters and self-report questionnaires. School variables were modeled as latent variables derived from the variance in student responses that is attributed to the school to which the student belonged. Community variables were constructed from the 1990 and 2000 Census data. Multilevel latent variable structural modeling allowed for the examination of individual and community effects on self-reported gang participation. I argued that school characteristics were related to its community's characteristics, and that school variables contributed to student-reported gang involvement. School characteristics were also hypothesized to mediate the relation between community change and a student's likelihood of gang involvement. Some hypotheses were supported by this research. Findings lend support for the extension of social bonds theory to the school-level. Significant student predictors of the probability of gang involvement included Personal Victimization, Social Bonds, Fear, minority status, and age. At the group-level, SSB and School Disorder explained significant variance in gang involvement in the hypothesized directions, net of all other variables already in the model. A partial mediation of the relationship between School Disorder and the likelihood of gang involvement by the student variables was found. The community change variables were somewhat independent of the school characteristics measured. School-based gang prevention efforts may benefit from a climate characterized by prosocial bonds and low social disorganization, especially for schools in communities that have high levels of concentrated disadvantage and communities projected to experience demographic change. Practical applications of these findings in schools include smaller student-to-teacher ratios and implementing rules that are fair and clear.Item How Incarceration Affects Juveniles: A Focus on the Changes in Frequency and Prevalence of Criminal Activity(2005-05-27) Giguere, Rachelle Marie; Bushway, Shawn D; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)There has been a longstanding debate over the effectiveness of correctional institutions. Some argue that incarceration deters offenders while others argue that the experience of being incarcerated causes individuals to continue in their life of crime. Resolving this debate is of particular importance for young individuals when there is a national push for the increased treatment of youth as adults. Using NLSY panel data, this study focuses on how the criminal offending of a sample of incarcerated youth changes over time in relation to incarceration while including a control group of youth who are not incarcerated but are similar in demographics. Close attention is paid to overcome past problems with validity. The findings suggest that incarceration does little to stop criminal paths or future contacts with the criminal justice system, but perhaps may even have harmful effects on youth, particularly drug sellers, over the short term.Item Understanding the Mechanisms Responsible for the Positive Impact of After-School Programs(2005-04-27) Courtney, Shannon; Gottfredson, Denise C; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)After-school programs have gained considerable attention for their potential to reduce delinquency after school. The current study assessed the factors related to effective after-school programming utilizing survey data from a recent evaluation of after-school programs. Program participation was responsible for reducing property, violent, and general offending, but not substance use. Further analysis concluded that the hypothesized increase in parental supervision, increase in positive peer influence, and reduction in unsupervised time were insufficient to explain the ability of after-school programs to elicit behavioral improvements. After-school programs were also found to be equally effective for youth from high and low income families.