Theses and Dissertations from UMD
Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2
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 give thesis/dissertation in DRUM
More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.
Browse
5 results
Search Results
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 Facilitators and Barriers of Neighborhood Social Integration(2024) Fuchs, Joelle; Gard, Arianna M; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Social isolation has reached concerning rates, particularly in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic. Social integration can combat social isolation and loneliness and promote feelings of belonging. Social integration within the neighborhood context (e.g., chatting with neighbors, participating in local organizations) can be used combat loneliness, but less is known about the process of social integration across various social identities. The current study examines variability in the patterns and mechanisms of neighborhood social integration across sociodemographic characteristics (e.g., developmental stage-social role, ethnic-racial identity, and housing tenure). Thematic analyses were conducted on interviews with 29 residents of Wards 4 and 5 of Washington, D.C. Results suggested that youth were far less socially integrated with their neighborhoods due to gentrification-induced transience and school choice programming. Despite sociodemographic differences in the perceived facilitators and barriers to neighborhood social integration, many residents called for more community programming and shared spaces to facilitate neighborhood connections.Item Examining Neighborhood Income Differences and Prosecutorial Charge Reductions(2018) Hernandez, Raquel Aida; Johnson, Brian D; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Recent studies find the socioeconomic status (SES) of a defendant’s home neighborhood acts as an extralegal factor in sentencing. However, little is known about how movement between low-SES and high-SES neighborhoods to commit crimes can shape the exercise of prosecutorial discretion. The social class of both a defendant’s home neighborhood and victimized neighborhood may be relevant in prosecutorial decision-making. This study examines how the SES of home and victimized neighborhoods influences the likelihood of a defendant receiving a charge reduction. Data from the New York County District Attorney’s Office provide detailed information on prosecution and sentencing for a large sample of criminal offenders, many of whom travel to commit crimes in neighborhoods other than their own. Results indicate low to high moving offenders were less likely to receive a charge reduction. Findings are discussed as they relate to theories of prosecutorial decision-making and perspectives on social inequality in punishment.Item DO NEIGHBORHOOD HOUSING MARKET TYPOLOGIES MATTER? MEASURING THE IMPACT OF THE HOME PARTNERSHIP INVESTMENT PROGRAM IN BALTIMORE, MARYLAND(2011) Boswell, Lynette Katrina; Chen, Alexander; Urban and Regional Planning and Design; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Since the late 1990s, neighborhood housing market typologies (NHMTs) have become a popular policy tool used by cities to evaluate neighborhood housing markets. NHMTs support place-based interventions, and are used to guide municipal investments as cities target resources based on neighborhood conditions. The assumption is that the effectiveness of local investment strategies to trigger neighborhood change is linked to existing neighborhood conditions. However, this assumption has not been tested explicitly in terms of neighborhood housing markets. This study examines the following key question: does the impact of public investments on nearby home sale prices vary across neighborhood housing markets? This dissertation consists of three related essays examining the utility of NHMTs in Baltimore, Maryland. Essay one examines the theoretical foundation of and development of NHMTs. Essay two focuses on the HOME Partnership Investment Program (HOME Program) and examines whether the impacts of this program on surrounding sale prices vary across neighborhoods housing markets. Essay three discusses the implications of encouraging cities to target investments in proximity to neighborhood amenities, such as parks and transit nodes, and uses spatial econometrics to determine if and how amenities in different housing markets impact surrounding home sale prices. This study finds that NHMTs do matter to assess the impact of housing program investments and urban amenities on nearby sale prices of homes located in different housing markets. In this analysis, neighborhood housing market types are identified using a cluster statistical methodology based on a combination of indicators, including property values, neighborhood-wide property conditions, and socioeconomic characteristics of households. To examine public investments and urban amenities, separate hedonic price functions are estimated for each market type. Results of these analyses suggest that HOME Program investments and urban amenities affect surrounding home prices, and when estimated from separate price functions, the results show significant differences across market types.Item Local Economic Investment and Crime: Neighborhood Change in Washington, DC(2009) Matsuda, Mauri; Piquero, Alex R; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The purpose of this analysis is to shed light on the relationship between large-scale economic investment and crime in Washington, DC neighborhood clusters (N=39) from 2001 to 2007. Using panel data and a two-way fixed effects analytic strategy, results indicate that investment in large scale economic development projects (in millions of dollars) and crime rates (per 1,000) are inversely related controlling for disadvantage and time effects. Further analyses indicate that the relationship is dependent on a number of investment related factors, including major use of investment project (e.g. industrial, retail), financing source (public versus private), construction type (new versus renovation), as well as outcome variable (i.e. violent versus property crime). Residential investment has the strongest and most consistent relationship with both violent and property crime suggesting that the changes which accompany residential investment may be responsible for reduced crime. Theoretical mechanisms and future research directions are discussed.