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 Explaining Resilience to Peer Influence: The Role of Decision-Making(2020) Deitzer, Jessica; McGloin, Jean M; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Researchers often discuss deviant peers as if they are a deterministic risk for an adolescent's own delinquency. There is a strong, consistent link between the two, especially in adolescence. Yet, some adolescents act counter to predictions and display resilience to deviant peer influence. Paternoster and Pogarsky’s (2009) concept of thoughtfully reflective decision-making (TRDM) may add to our understanding of resilience to deviant peer exposure; individuals who make slow, deliberate decisions may be more likely to avoid the pitfalls associated with deviant peers, perhaps by selecting out of deviant social networks. In this dissertation, I use longitudinal data from the PROSPER Peers project in the context of adolescents in rural schools to 1) identify and describe a group of youth that displays resilience to deviant peer influence and 2) investigate whether decision-making skills differentiate those who demonstrate resilience from those who do not. I leverage structural equation modeling (SEM) to examine the role of TRDM in fostering resilience to deviant peer influence. Specifically, I test whether TRDM moderates the impact of deviant peer exposure on resilience directly or indirectly, through prompting changes to the adolescents’ social networks. I estimate SEM models that test these relationships using interaction and multigroup models separately for each starting wave. I find evidence that TRDM promotes resilience to deviant peer influence across waves. My results also provide evidence of a nonlinear interaction between deviant peer exposure and TRDM, whereby TRDM is most protective for adolescents with a high degree (but not entirely) deviant peer group in for analyses starting in 6th or 7th grade. I do not find evidence of a consistent association between TRDM and a change in adolescents’ proportion of deviant peers at the next wave or any partial or full reduction to the direct impact of TRDM on resilience when including this indirect pathway. Thus, I conclude that TRDM does not appear to have an indirect impact on resilience through prompting prosocial change to adolescents’ friend groups. Finally, I discuss the limitations of my study, along with its implications for theory, practice, and future research.Item The utility of NGO interventions: Influences on terrorist activity.(2015) Hodwitz, Omi; Dugan, Laura; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Terrorism studies have increased following the attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001. While a great deal of research has focused on the influence of state-sponsored counterterrorism strategies on terrorist activities, limited attention has been directed towards examining the influence of non-state actors on terrorist organizations (TOs). This dissertation seeks to assess the role that an influential but often overlooked player may have on terrorist activity: the non-governmental organization (NGO). Many TOs and NGOs engage in similar campaigns, primarily providing services or advocating for a shared constituency or minority that experiences suffering at the hands of a majority, usually the state. Both TOs and NGOs require the support of the constituents in order to maintain group legitimacy, fundraise, and recruit. In addition, both vie for media attention in order to publicize the issue, radicalize the larger community, and exert pressure on the state. Public support and attention is limited and difficult to acquire, placing TOs and NGOs in competition. As such, within the rational choice and game theoretic frameworks, when faced with an NGO competitor, TOs are hypothesized to adjust their activities in order to gain constituent support, media attention, and to eliminate the competition. Using data from the Global Terrorism Database (GTD), this dissertation assesses the influence that Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, International Committee of the Red Cross, and local NGOs have on TOs in Algeria, Lebanon, and Turkey between 1987 and 2011. Results from autoregressive Poisson and negative binomial models demonstrate limited support for the hypothesized relationships. NGOs appear to have a marginal influence on TO activities in Algeria, an extremely limited impact in Lebanon, and no relationship in Turkey. Overall findings suggest two conclusions: NGO activities, in general, do not appear to escalate TO violence and NGO campaign activities specifically focused on de-escalating TO violence appear to be ineffective in these three countries. Replication is needed in additional countries to substantiate these findings.Item An Explanatory Model of Motivation for Cyber-Attacks Drawn from Criminological Theories(2013) Mandelcorn, Seymour Mordechai; Modarres, Mohammad; Mosleh, Ali; Mechanical Engineering; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)A new influence model for Cyber Security is presented that deals with security attacks and implementation of security measures from an attacker's perspective. The underlying hypothesis of this model is that Criminological theories of Rational Choice, Desire for Control, and Low Self-Control are relevant to cybercrime and thereby aid in the understanding its basic Motivation. The model includes the roles of Consequences, Moral Beliefs such as Shame and Embarrassment together with Formal Sanctions in deterring cybercrime, as well as role of Defense Posture to limit the Opportunity to attack and increase the likelihood that an attacker will be detected and exposed. One of the motivations of the study was the observation that few attempts have been made to understand cybercrime, in the context of typical crime because: (a) an attacker may consider his actions as victimless due to remoteness of the victim; (b) ease to commit cybercrimes due to opportunities afforded by the Internet and its accessibility, and readily available tools and knowledge for an attack; and (c) vagueness of cybercrime laws that makes prosecution difficult. In developing the model, information from studies in classical crime was related to Cybercrime allowing for analysis of past cyber-attacks, and subsequently preventing future IS attacks, or mitigating their effects. The influence model's applicability is demonstrated by applying it to case studies of actual information attacks which were prosecuted through the United States Courts, and whose judges' opinions are used for statements of facts. Additional, demonstration of the use and face validity of the model is through the mapping of the model to major annual surveys' and reports' results of computer crime. The model is useful in qualitatively explaining "best practices" in protecting information assets and in suggesting emphasis on security practices based on similar results in general criminology.