Criminology & Criminal Justice
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Item TOP MANAGEMENT TEAM GENDER DIVERSITY AND ITS EFFECT ON DIFFERENT TYPES OF ORGANIZATIONAL OFFENDING(2022) Layana, Maria Cristina; Simpson, Sally S; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study addresses a gap in the current corporate crime literature by giving special attention to the characteristics and role of the top management team (TMT) in facilitating or mitigating illegal conduct. I ask how changes in certain demographic characteristics of the TMT unit, particularly gender composition, affect various forms of corporate offending over time. Specifically, 1) In what ways are changes in TMT gender characteristics related to corporate illegality over time? 2) What is the nature of the relationship between TMT gender diversity, corporate offending, and other key characteristics of women executives? 3) What is the temporal order of these relationships? 4) How do other TMT and corporate characteristics influence the relationships between TMT gender diversity and firm offending? Stemming from the strategic leadership literature, Hambrick and Mason’s (1984) Upper Echelons (UE) perspective serves as the primary theoretical framework guiding this study. This dissertation focuses on two types of corporate illegality: environmental and financial (i.e., accounting fraud, bribery, and anticompetitive acts) using a universe of firms listed on the S&P 1500 from 1996 through 2013.Item THE ROLE OF ROMANTIC PARTNERS IN THE PROCESS OF WOMEN'S REENTRY IN CHILE(2020) Larroulet Philippi, Pilar; Simpson, Sally S; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Despite the growth of reentry literature in recent decades, little is known regarding the role romantic partners play in the process of transition back into the community. There is a well-developed literature regarding the “good marriage” effect on desistance, but studies have been conducted mostly with male samples, in the United States, and in times and social contexts where being married is considered normative. For females, however, the feminist literature points to the romantic partner as a potential source of criminogenic influence. Whether being in a romantic relationship will have any positive impact on females’ reentry is still an open question, as is whether that impact would be conditional on the characteristics of those relationships and specific partners. Even more, until now, we know relatively little about who those partners are and how often women change partners after release. The present dissertation seeks to address these gaps using data from the study “Reinserción, Desistimiento y Reincidencia en Mujeres Privadas de Libertad en Chile” [Reintegration, Desistance, and Recidivism Among Female Inmates in Chile]. The study follows a cohort of 207 women released from prison in Santiago, Chile over one calendar year. The results confirm the prevalence of not-married relationships among female reentering society, and show a great deal of heterogeneity in the characteristics of those relationships and partners. The analyses also reflect an important level of change in partnership in the twelve months following release. Further, the type of partners to whom women have access varies significantly by different groups of female offenders, as defined by their pathways into prison. Regarding recidivism, the results show that being involved in a romantic relationship is not associated with the chances of recidivism. However, when the specific characteristics of the relationships and partners are considered, partners’ behaviors are a consistent correlate of recidivism. As a whole, the results challenge the generalizability of life course criminological theory and highlight the need to incorporate a feminist perspective into research on reentry and desistance.Item THE EFFECTS OF GENDER ON PHYSICAL CHILD ABUSE AND NEGLECT SENTENCING IN MARYLAND CIRCUIT COURTS(2018) Lafferty, Jennifer Margaret Bewton; Simpson, Sally; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Researchers have identified child abuse as a major social problem in the United States, yet research on physical child abuse and neglect sentencing is limited. Prior to this study, sentencing research has mostly overlooked physical child abuse and neglect as a distinct crime. As physical child abuse and neglect are so contrary to traditional notions of femininity, studying the effects of gender on sentencing for these narrowly defined crimes presents an opportunity to focus on females as countertypes. The findings here imply that the effects of being female (a countertype) increases for the most serious crime, first degree child abuse, in both the decision to incarcerate and on the sentence length.Item OPIOID ABUSE AMONG ADOLESCENTS WHO OFFEND: RISK FACTORS AND THE ROLE OF GENDER(2018) Hickman, Shelby Nichole; Gottfredson, Denise; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In this paper, I explore risk factors for opioid use and abuse among juvenile justice system-involved adolescents convicted of a serious offense; a group known to experience high rates of substance abuse and dependence. Using the Pathways to Desistance dataset, I assess whether risk factors for substance use that includes opioids are distinct from the risk factors for other illicit substance use that does not including opioids (non-opioid substance use). I also explore how, if at all, the motives and patterns of opioid use are distinct for male and female adolescent offenders. I identify older age, white race, and clinically significant mental illness as significant risk factors for substance use including opioids relative to non-opioid substance use. I do not find any distinct risk factors for adolescent females’ opioid use relative to their male peers.Item Refocusing on Gender: Can Focal Concerns Theory Explain Gender Disparities in Sentencing Outcomes?(2015) Richardson, Rebecca; Johnson, Brian D; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Focal concerns theory argues that sentencing decisions reflect judges' beliefs about three primary considerations: blameworthiness of the defendant, protection of the community, and practical concerns. This perspective has been used as the theoretical foundation in an abundance of research and has proven particularly useful as a framework for explaining sentencing disparities related to offenders' demographic characteristics. Little work, however, has been able to incorporate perceptual measures of the three focal concerns into studies of sentencing outcomes and social inequality. This study uses a dataset that combines official county court records with case-level judicial surveys to conduct a more direct test of the focal concerns theory of judicial decision-making. It measures judicial assessments of each focal concern for each court case and then evaluates the extent to which these assessments explain gender disparities in two sentencing decisions: the decision to incarcerate, and the determination of sentence length.Item The Ecology of the Reentry Process: A Gendered Analysis of Community Influences(2014) Alper, Mariel; Simpson, Sally S; Nakamura, Kiminori; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Utilizing original data on a large sample of male and female first-time parolees in Pennsylvania (N=10,579), this dissertation examines parole violations and police arrest recidivism outcomes to assess how community characteristics influence men and women's recidivism during parole. It adds to the literature by examining specific types of technical violations and arrests, including those that do not result in revocation, as they can serve as indicators of the difficulties parolees encounter after prison such as substance abuse and employment difficulties. Additionally, this dissertation adds to the literature by examining whether community effects vary by gender and by race/gender. The findings support the importance of several community characteristics that have been implicated in prior research and uncover previously unexamined gender and gender/race differences. Additionally, the effect of community characteristics varies by the type of recidivism that is examined, suggesting that the way recidivism is conceptualized and measured matters. Disadvantage in the community was associated with higher odds of arrests for men, but lower odds of technical violations. While the availability of service providers increased the odds of monetary violations for both men and women, they were associated with higher odds of employment violations for women and lower odds for men. Offender concentration in the community was associated with higher odds of several types of technical violations for men, including treatment violations, and lower odds of treatment violations for women. On the other hand, offender concentration was also associated with lower odds of drug violations and police arrests for men. For both men and women, lower informal social ties were associated with higher odds of most types of technical violations. Several race-specific effects for men and women were also found. Policy and theoretical implications of these findings are discussed. For example, community effects may be more nuanced than previous theories have suggested and theoretical explanations should incorporate gendered experiences and intersectionality. Additionally, investing in parolees' communities can aid offender reintegration and reduce recidivism and risk assessments should more systematically incorporate community characteristics. Further, findings from this project suggest the need to avoid practices that unintentionally increase recidivism and punitiveness for parolees.Item A Longitudinal Study of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines: A Decade of Balancing Judicial Discretion and Unwarranted Disparity (1993-2003)(2007-04-27) Sharp, Barbara Ann; Wellford, Charles; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This research focuses on judicial decision-making in the federal courts to determine whether unwarranted disparities persist, and also to gauge the change, if any, that occurs over time. Three sentencing outcomes were analyzed: the in/out incarceration decision, the length of term of incarceration decision, and the judicial downward departure decision. Eleven consecutive fiscal years of data from all 94 federal district courts were used to assess the effects of a defendant's gender, race and ethnicity, mode of conviction, offense type, district court location, and year of sentencing on the sentencing outcome. The results of the study were presented along two dimensions, namely as overall aggregate findings concerning the effects of these factors, and secondly, as findings concerning the effects of these factors on each individual fiscal year to measure the changes in the influence of these factors over time. The aggregate findings show that female defendants are treated more leniently while black and Hispanic defendants were hampered in all three sentencing outcomes--Hispanics more so for the incarceration decision, and blacks more so for the length-of-term and the judicial downward departure decision. The mode of conviction was found to be highly significant, penalizing those defendants who were convicted at trial. The influence of the offense type categories, the fiscal year of sentencing, and many of the district court variables were also significant. The findings from the temporal analysis indicate that gender became less significant over time in the incarceration decision as the probability of going to prison increased for all defendants. The probability of Black and Hispanic defendants being incarcerated and of their length-of-term changed over time, but their likelihoods for receiving downward departures did not. The only change noted for the mode of conviction was for judicial downward departures, but the change was an even greater decrease in the likelihood of receiving this type of departure. Additional findings suggest that defendants sentenced for immigration offenses are treated differently at sentencing, and that differences in these three sentencing outcomes vary by district court and by the fiscal year in which the sentencing occurred.Item Female Gang Membership and Desistance: Motherhood as a Possible Exit Strategy? A Quantitative Analysis of Fleisher and Krienert (2004)(2006-09-07) Varriale, Jennifer Anne; Bushway, Shawn; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study sought to evaluate differential gang processes as they vary by gender through a quantitative analysis of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1997. Specifically, this investigation explored the role of motherhood as a potential exit strategy for female gang membership, which had been previously examined in the qualitative work of Fleisher and Krienert (2004). In fact, Fleisher and Krienert (2004) noted that sixty-three percent of their sample had attributed pregnancy or "settling down" as the primary reason for desistance. All in all, this investigation found no support for Fleisher and Krienert's (2004) assertions of the causality of motherhood as a potential desistance mechanism, nor for the magnitude of their sixty-three percent finding.