Theses and Dissertations from UMD
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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.
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Item Cognitive Mechanisms of Trauma from Police Encounters among Black Individuals(2022) Yee, Stephanie Elza; Shin, Richard Q; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Black Americans historically have had a contentious relationship with police due to the violence they have endured at the hands of law enforcement (Nadal et al., 2017). Previous research has demonstrated the vast psychological consequences of intrusive police encounters (DeVylder et al., 2017). However, trauma is a largely understudied psychological outcome of police encounters for Black citizens (Bryant-Davis et al., 2017). Research on discrimination attributions for events has implicated cognitive attributions as an important predictor of the relationship between potentially racist incidents and mental health outcomes (Major & Dover, 2016). Additionally, cognitive appraisal has been identified as a very important mechanism of trauma (Sherrer, 2011). The current study seeks to fill the gaps in the literature by examining the relationships between intrusiveness of police encounters, cognitive appraisal, discrimination attributions, and trauma symptoms. Additionally, attitudes towards police are examined as a moderator on the relationship between intrusiveness of police encounters and discrimination attributions. Limitations, implications, and future directions are discussed.Item Reporting Crime to the Police: Does What the Police Do Make a Difference?(2021) Holland, Sarah; Lynch, James; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The purpose of this study was to closely examine the reasons victims call the police. Few studies have explored both satisfaction and crime reporting in the same model with police interactions. Understanding whether legitimacy or the cost-benefit analysis approach is more influential on reporting crime will help inform police policy. The study used a cross-sectional victimization sample (N=4,598) from the 1997 Law Enforcement and Administrative Statistics Survey and the 1998 Criminal Victimization and Perceptions of Community Safety Survey. Findings supported the hypothesis that having direct experiences with police were associated with increased reporting of crimes. Contrary to hypotheses, satisfaction with police had no significant relationship with reporting crime and community policing tactics were negatively related with reporting crime to the police, although this relationship may not be causal. Crime seriousness had the greatest significant association with reporting. Limitations and recommendations for future research are discussed.Item THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LEGITIMACY, TERRORIST ATTACKS AND POLICE(2011) Gibbs, Jennifer; Dugan, Laura; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Scholars often suggest that terrorism - "the threatened or actual use of illegal force and violence to attain a political, economic, religious or social goal through fear, coercion or intimidation" (LaFree & Dugan, 2007, 184) - is a battle of legitimacy. As the most ubiquitous representatives of the government's coercive force, the police should be most susceptible to terrorism stemming from perceptions of illegitimacy. Police are attractive symbolic and strategic targets, and they were victimized in over 12% of terrorist attacks worldwide since 1970. However, empirical research assessing the influence of legitimacy on terrorist attacks, generally, and scholarly attention to terrorist attacks on police are scant. The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the influence of state and police legitimacy and alternative explanations on the proportion of all and only fatal terrorist attacks on police in 82 countries between 1999 and 2008. Data were drawn from several sources, including the Global Terrorism Database and the World Values Survey. Surprisingly, results of Tobit analyses indicate that police legitimacy, measured by the percentage of the population who have at least some confidence in police, is not significantly related to the proportion of all terrorist attacks on police or the proportion of fatal terrorist attacks on police. State legitimacy was measured by four indicators; only the percentage of the population who would never protest reached significance, lending limited support for this hypothesis. Greater societal schism, the presence of a foreign military and greater economic inequality were consistently significant predictors of higher proportions of terrorist attacks on police. Some measures of violence within a country also were influential, but they were not consistent across models or with expectations. The results of the Tobit analyses were confirmed with Negative Binomial Regression Models using the number of all and only fatal terrorist attacks targeting police as the outcome. While these results suggest alternative explanations for terrorist attacks targeting police, discounting legitimacy as an explanation for such attacks or terrorism, generally, is premature. Policy implications and avenues for future research are discussed.