Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Psychology, Clinical. Sociology, Criminology and Penology. Social psychology'

The forensic artists who create suspect composite drawings of wanted criminals for law enforcement agencies are frequently exposed to the details of traumatic events. The manner and degree to which this exposure to details of violence affects the perceptions and lives of these artists comprise the basis of this phenomenological study. Interviews with 8 experienced forensic artists include inquiries about their background and training and their perceptions of the most disturbing type of crimes, and also about how they subjectively process the traumatic material received via the cognitive interviews that they conduct with victims and witnesses of violent crime. Perceptions of a more comprehensive effect of violence on society are also explored. Other pivotal aspects of this study include the manner in which memories of criminal cases are evoked, and specifically the way in which specific facial features that these artists have imaged in composites may act as triggers to these memories. The results of this inquiry reveal the varied degrees to which these forensic artists are conscious of the effects of this repeated exposure to traumatic detail. However, conscious revelations of such an impact on their lives occur frequently during the research interviews due to the narrative process of specific cases with which they had been involved. Recommended future research includes further exploration of specific facial features as triggers to traumatic memory and of the gender of the forensic artist may have on the perception of facial features and their translatable meanings within the context of a suspect composite interview.

Research suggests that sexual abuse (SA) increases the likelihood of alcohol/drug use (AOD), and that AOD increases criminality. As such, in this study 50 women completed a survey reporting their histories of SA, AOD, and criminality. Fifteen related hypotheses were formulated: age at which drug abuse began would be lower; total number of drugs used, higher; age of first crime, lower; age of first incarceration, lower; and cumulative time in prison, greater, for those with SA vs. those without, for those who did not report their SA vs. those who did, and for those who did not receive treatment for SA vs. those who did. Thirteen of 15 hypotheses trended as predicted, significantly different from chance using Chi square. Trends for those who did not report SA vs. those who did, and for those who did not receive treatment for SA vs. those who did, were universally in line with hypotheses. Hypotheses regarding those with SA vs. those without remain less clear, with three of five outcome measures trending as expected. Together, these findings suggest that it may not be an SA history in itself that predicts earlier and greater severity of AOD, earlier criminal behavior, and greater prison time; but that the lack of treatment for SA and lack of reporting of SA may predict earlier and more severe behavioral disruptions. This underscores the importance of supporting girls and women who experience SA with access to reporting and treatment to reduce the emotional and behavioral sequellae of SA.

Keywords: substance use, sexual abuse, criminality, alcohol use

The research question posed within this study is "What are the primary ecological factors that impact successful reentry of ex-offenders from incarceration to civil society?". This question is answered through a thorough study of the literature that investigates the complex relationship between the individual ex-offender and their interfacing ecological system(s). Information gleaned from secondary research will be analyzed using a thematic analysis approach. Thematic analysis is a research approach that provides a framework for identifying relevant resources and outcome information, comparing and contrasting these sources of information, and reporting on themes discovered within this extant literature. For the purpose of this study, thematic analysis was used to describe and organize the data collected and provided a framework to interpret the multifarious factors influencing prison reentry outcomes. Against the current trends of deficit-based and fragmented explanations for the growing trends in poor prison-reentry outcomes, this study introduces and promotes alternate explanations that offer a holistic approach which includes both the ex-offender and ecological system factors as relevant influences to be considered when addressing the social problem of prison reentry. Future recommendations emphasizing the vital role that psychologists play in developing policies and practices that improve prison reentry outcomes are offered, including efficacious approaches that are relevant to each level of the espoused ecological system.

Becoming employed after release is one of the most effective ways for returning citizens to successfully reintegrate into the community and to prevent recidivism. However, individuals recently released from jails and prisons face unique challenges, both personal and environmental, that impede this process. This study evaluated the effectiveness of a microtrial intervention for 47 recently released ex-offenders actively seeking employment. This intervention, tailored from the Michigan JOBS program, was designed to keep job seekers motivated. The researcher hypothesized that the intervention would increase levels of job search efficacy, self-efficacy, and job search behaviors both immediately after the intervention as well as at the two week follow-up, and that this relationship would be moderated by the personality factor of impulsivity. Previous research has linked higher levels of impulsivity with diminished follow-through and reduced engagement in goal-directed behaviors. The outcome of this study did not support this model, as impulsivity did not moderate this relationship, neither immediately after the intervention nor at the two week follow-up. Impulsivity was assessed using both self-report and behavioral measures. While it was predicted that the three measures of impulsivity would correlate highly and form a latent factor, the behavioral measure did not correlate strongly with one of the self-report measures, and therefore moderation analyses were run separately for each measure. Testing the effects of the intervention without the impulsivity moderator found that the inoculation against setbacks module increased levels of job search efficacy immediately after the intervention, but this effect faded by the two week follow-up. No other effects of the intervention by condition were found. The benefits and drawbacks of the microtrial methodology are described in greater detail, and future directions for interventions with this population are suggested.

Crime and drug use are social issues that have profound negative effects on society. Trait displaced aggression (TDA) is the tendency of an individual to respond to a provocation by aggressing against a target other than the original provocateur. The current study was the first to examine whether TDA was associated with (a) specific criminal behaviors, and (b) specific types of drug use as well as the first to assess the potential mediating effect of impulsivity on these relationships. Participants were administered self-report questionnaires assessing TDA, drug use, criminal behavior, and impulsivity. TDA was related to violent but not nonviolent crime and this relationship was mediated by impulsivity. In addition, TDA was related to the use of several specific drugs including crack, marijuana, and cocaine. Implications of these findings for reducing both crime and drug use will be discussed.

This research provides original data on the study of obsessive-compulsive personality traits in law enforcement. The study explored prevalence of obsessive-compulsive personality traits (OCPT) in law enforcement (compared to the general population) in association with the occupational need for such characteristics in that profession (orderliness, organized, attentive to detail, display restricted affect, adhere to laws and regulations, and assume leadership roles). While many studies seek to explain police personality, no literature could be found regarding prevalence of OCPT in sworn peace officers. Degree of OCPT was measured by the total mean score on the Five Factor Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory (FFOCI) and compared using a one-tailed independent samples t-test. Differences between two groups across 12 subscales were analyzed retroactively using a MANOVA for qualitative descriptions of each group. Research revealed, with statistically significant results (p<.01), that prevalence of OCPT is significantly higher overall in law enforcement peace officers when compared to non-law enforcement participants. Results from this study contribute meaningfully to police psychology within the field of forensic psychology. Results have the potential to influence supplemental assessment for peace officer candidacy screening.

Homicide followed by suicide is a relatively rare event in which one individual kills another and subsequently dies by suicide, usually shortly after the homicide (Barraclough & Harris, 2002). Intimate Partner Homicide-Suicide (also IPH-S and Murder-Suicide) occurs when a person kills an intimate partner—a current or former romantic partner or family member—and then kills him or herself. The goals of this proposal and subsequent dissertation are to determine the quality and accuracy of the media coverage of intimate partner homicide-suicide, along with identifying the geographic distribution of dyads or linked cases of intimate partner homicide-suicide. Relying on data collected from the Internet through digitized media reports on intimate partner homicide-suicide, I expect to conduct scientific analyses of paired cases or dyads to assess or examine the quality and quantity of coverage. These analyses will explore how accurately and comprehensively the media portrays the intimate, violent relationship. In addition, geographic site data will be analyzed using ESRI, software that will establish geographic distribution across the United States.

This study added to the literature on pathways to prison by examining a sample of federal inmates to assess whether the pathways identified predicted future antisocial behavior, i.e., prison misconduct and post-release criminal activity. Previous research has generally focused on only one point in the criminal justice system, either identifying pathways to prison, analyzing behavior while incarcerated, or focusing on post-release offending. This research examined all of these points. The research presented here identified both unique and overlapping pathways to prison for men and women, as well as similarities and differences in the risk factors that predicted prison misconduct and recidivism for women and men.

While the latent class models, which identified the pathways to prison, relied heavily upon indicators highlighted in the gender-responsive literature, the final misconduct and recidivism models included those factors along with traditional, gender-neutral items. The methods in this research moved beyond previous studies that relied primarily on bivariate analyses of female inmates.

Four pathways emerged for both men and women each. Three of the pathways overlapped for both groups: drug, street, and the situational offender pathways. Males and females each had one unique pathway which represented opposite ends of the criminal experiences spectrum. A first time offender pathway emerged for women; a more chronic, serious offender pathway emerged for men. When the pathways to prison were the only predictors in the misconduct and recidivism models, the pathways consistently and significantly predicted antisocial behavior. Once the socio-demographic and criminal history factors were added to the models, however, the vast majority of the pathway effects on antisocial behavior were no longer statistically significant.

Because the current literature presents mixed results as to whether the same factors predict offending for men and women, this study analyzed gendered aspects of prison misconduct and recidivism. There were more differences than similarities in the factors that significantly impacted these antisocial behaviors.

Confirmation bias occurs when a person believes in or searches for evidence to support his or her favored theory while ignoring or excusing disconfirmatory evidence and is disinclined to change his or her belief once he or she arrives at a conclusion. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine whether emotionally charged evidence and evidence presentation order could influence an investigator's belief in a suspect's guilt. The study included 166 sworn police officers (basic training recruits, patrol officers, and criminal investigators) who completed online surveys in response to criminal vignettes across different scenarios to record their measure of guilt belief. Analysis of variance was used to assess the relationship between the 3 independent variables: duty assignment (recruit, patrol, investigator), scenario condition (child and adult sexual assault), and evidence presentation order (sequential, simultaneous, reverse sequential). The dependent variable was confirmation bias (Likert-scaled 0–10 guilt judgment). According to the study results, confirmation bias was least evident in criminal investigators with more experience and training, and both emotion and evidence presentation order can influence guilt judgment. The findings generalize to criminal investigators and attest to the importance of working to include and exclude suspects and to withhold judgment until all available evidence is analyzed. Investigators benefit from this study and through their improved decision making, society benefits as well. This study will contribute to the need for professional dialogue concerning objective fact finding by criminal investigators and avoiding incidents of wrongful conviction.

Prior research indicates that human service care providers experience especially high levels of chronic workplace stress and burnout compared to workers in other professions. Chronic workplace stress is linked to a variety of poor physical and mental health outcomes. There has been significantly more research to assess and support human service care providers in education, social welfare, and health care than providers working in law enforcement such as the population considered in this case study: juvenile justice officers, JJOs. In particular, there has been little prior research on juvenile justice officers (JJOs), who have the difficult job of working closely with incarcerated youth populations.

The intended contributions of this study are: (1) developing a descriptive baseline understanding of stress among an important and understudied population of human service care providers, (2) exploring human service care provider workplace stress through a new lens of empathy and meaning and (3) piloting a training to reduce stress with a focus on facilitating empathy and meaning. This research is carried out over three phases.

The promising insights from the case study and pilot analysis include strategies to support JJOs finding meaning in their workplace. These strategies are achieved through creating opportunities for building relationships and empathy with youth and coworkers, improving the system for communication and positive feedback with management and teaching emotion regulation, mindfulness and empathic communication to improve individual coping skills.

In American juvenile law, the judicial transfer decision, or waiver of jurisdiction, is a legal maneuver by which young offenders are diverted away from the juvenile justice system and subsequently processed and adjudicated within adult systems of law. Although transfer decisions have a long history in modern American jurisprudence, social science has largely neglected to perform a comprehensive inquiry of the social psychological underpinnings of judicial waivers. The extant social psycholegal research hints to potential links between transfer decision-making and three categories of variables: (a) terror management and social information-processing, (b) uncertainty management and attributional reasoning, and (c) statutory and nonstatutory sources of influence. Two social theories (i.e., the dual-process theory of proximal/distal defenses and uncertainty avoidance/causal attribution theory), as well as the literature on judicial waivers, provided three alternative predictions about the nature of the transfer decision-making process. The first theory predicts that implicit mortality salience (MS) cues activate the experiential system, including terror-reducing distal defenses. The processing of vulnerability cues by legal decision-makers could undermine their inferences about a given case and encourage biased decision-making via extralegal analysis. The second theory presumes that the social context of legal decision-making is inherently inexact or uncertain. To the extent that cases are perceived as ambiguous, legal decision-makers could be prompted to apply attributional reasoning styles designed to manage uncertainty, manage crime and improve the likelihood of identifying satisfactory decision-making outcomes. Finally, in contrast to both social theories, research purports that transfer decisions emerge from a reconciliatory-type process which differentially weighs a wide array of statutory and nonstatutory sources of influence. In order to examine the three variable-categories within the context of an ambiguous waiver of jurisdiction hearing, a two-part experimental approach was adopted. Most legal decision-making studies that have applied terror management theory have relied on traditional mortality salience (MS) induction methodologies (e.g., death essays) without consideration of natural "social ecologies" wherein MS processes occur. Study 1, a simple four-group experiment with 192 college student participants, compared the impact of traditional MS cues (i.e., death essays) versus ecological MS cues (i.e., death-laden prosecutorial statements) on mock-juror behavior. In Study 2, a mock-waiver hearing vignette was embedded in an experimental-based survey. Sixty-four juvenile court judges provided data regarding the relations between ecological MS induction, social information-processing mode, uncertainty management, attributional reasoning orientation, legal considerations (e.g., the Kent Guidelines), extralegal factors (e.g., punishment attitudes) and judicial transfers. In Studies 1 and 2, the Smith-Cribbie-Bonferroni adjusted partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) estimator was applied for all central statistical analyses. Findings from both studies indicate that legal decision-making is not affected by vulnerability concerns. Study 1 also failed to uncover evidence that the traditional and ecological MS cues were similar (compared to control conditions) in their effects on mock-juror decision making, calling into question certain assumptions about the methods commonly used in legal-related terror management studies. Finally, data from Study 2 do not support the contention that uncertainty-managing attributional processes were active during the transfer decision-making process. Instead, waiver decisions appear to emerge out of complex interactions involving particular legal and extralegal sources of influence. These sources of influence include global and specified retributive and deterrent-based attitudes, the degree of legal experience, the perceived utility of specific Kent Guidelines and perceptions toward both the prosecution and juvenile offender. The closing chapter reviews the limitations and implications of the entire investigation.

The prevalence of sexual assault and its consequences for individuals and society has been the subject of much research and advocacy even though most cases remain unreported and when reported, rarely move through the criminal justice and legal systems. This study uses a mixed methods approach in order to understand police officer perceptions of sexual assault reports and the factors that might influence their perceptions and decision making processes. Findings indicate wide variability in police officer perceptions of reported sexual assaults as “legitimate” and perceptions of victims as credible. Officers consider reported sexual assaults involving strangers, the use or threat of a weapon, and evidence of injury, as more clearly legitimate. The majority of sexual assaults reported to the police are considered ambiguous, often because of prior relationship between the victim and suspect, substance use or intoxication, a lack of clear non-consent, and a lack of evidence in general. There is less variation in officer’s reported behavioral intentions, indicating that one’s procedural response is routine, and all reports are responded to thoroughly. Officers also show wide variability in acceptance of rape myths and attributions of blame towards the suspect. Some officers point out the propensity for false reporting in sexual assault, however, many others counter this assumption, and argue that police officers should never make judgments about the veracity of a reported sexual assault. This research has implications for the way in which first responders—often police officers, health care workers, social service providers, mental health professionals and victim advocates—take action in a dignifying manner with those who have experienced sexual assault and have reported the incident with the hopes of achieving justice.

Police officers are often the first contact a victim of rape has with the criminal justice system and may be the first people to whom rape victims disclose. To examine the extent to which police officers endorse rape myths, this quantitative study assessed their views about rape victims, along with the effects of demographics and experience. The Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale--Short Form was administered to 66 patrol officers in Southern California. The officers scored in the mid-range of this scale, which addresses seven different categories of common rape myths, such as "she lied" and "she asked for it." For some rape myths, females and ethnic majority officers indicated less endorsement of rape myths. These findings reveal a need for more in-depth research on police officers. Social workers who work with the victims of rape should advocate for increased education of law enforcement personnel about rape and its victims.

Media accounts have influenced public opinion about the insanity defense and have given rise to misperceptions about its purpose and rate of usage. This study hypothesizes that the public is more likely to implicate mental illness in irrational crimes and that the more media exposure given to the case, the more likely the public is to implicate mental illness. This study also seeks to establish current public opinion of the utility and prevalence of the insanity defense. The results of this research do not conclusively indicate that amount of media attention can be used to predict the public's tendency to implicate mental illness as a motive for crime, thus, hypothesis one was only partially supported. Meanwhile, hypothesis two, participants will be more likely to implicate mental illness in crime that they perceive to be irrational was not supported by this study. The third hypothesis, participants will be more likely to give a verdict of NGRI if they implicated mental illness as the motive for the crime, was only partially supported by this study. With the ever-growing media attention devoted to implicating mental illness in high-profile crimes, results from this study suggest that the public does not correlate the amount of media attention dedicated to high-profile cases with mental illness.

In a global context of rapidly expanding security practices, those cast as social threats are themselves often most risk of harm. In this dissertation, I develop the concept surveillance threat (ST) to describe the perception or experience of impending or actual harm faced by targeted civilians when they are stopped or screened by law enforcement. Singled out by race and other lines of sociocultural force, those stopped risk physical, legal, sexual, and spatial consequences. Yet focusing solely on the risk of harm limits the full meaning of this encounter. As I show in my research, civilians persistently struggle against these threats. Using the police practice of "stop and frisk" in New York City as a case study, I analyze ST and civilian response from the civilian perspective. In my mixed methods approach, I bring together survey and narrative data on stop and frisk, widening the unit of analysis from unidirectional harm to multidirectional struggle. Shifting attention to the interaction as a dynamic reframes these relations of power as more than a simple, imbalanced opposition. Instead, based on my findings, I theorize an embodied civilian psychology of responsiveness to threat that enables those targeted to engage the encounter as an active site of conflict. I find civilians consistently claim their rights, protect themselves and others, assert social power, construct critical knowledge, and pursue justice. Applying Abu Lughod's (1990) insight "where there is resistance, there is power," I then study how civilians enact urban civil life through their interactions with police, recognizing a collective imaginary civilians draw on to influence the conditions of their daily lives. With concern for the ways police practice is restructuring urban environments by enforcing particular raced sexualities and genders, I bring a special focus to civilian constructions of racialized, sexual, and gender-infused space.

There is substantial cost in the hiring and training of a correctional officer, with a high rate of turnover compounding these costs. While pre-employment psychological screening is suggested as one method to prevent these losses, mandates to screen are not as common in corrections as they are in law enforcement. Further, minimal research has examined the validity of psychological testing in correctional officers. This dissertation examined pre-employment psychological screening for 421 correctional officers hired by one of three upstate New York sheriff's departments. Assessments were conducted by Public Safety Psychology, PLLC from March, 1997 to June, 2012. T scores and risk estimates from the California Psychological Inventory (CPI) and Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI), DQ admission and problem points from the Personal History Questionnaire (PHQ) and Psychological History Questionnaire (PsyQ) and the psychologist's recommendation were used as predictors of supervisor rating and job status. Utilizing logistic regression and controlling for agency of hire, high ratings by the psychologist, high scores on PAR-H and low scores on BOR-S from the PAI were associated with satisfactory supervisor ratings. Multinomial logistic regression revealed that being non-White, having a lower rating by the psychologist, higher To and Ai scores and lower So scores from the CPI, and more General problem points on the PsyQ were predictive of officers who were fired compared to being currently employed. Furthermore, previous law enforcement experience, being younger, lower Gi, So and Wo scores on the CPI, higher To and Sc scores on the CPI, and lower probability of substance abuse issues as based on the PAI and PHQ were predictive of officers quitting rather than staying on the job. Limitations and future directions are discussed.

The prevalence of sexual violence on college campuses has reached an alarming level. With some reports indicating that almost 20% of women experience attempted or completed rape after entering college, the call for intervention is at an all-time high (Krebs et al., 2009). One of the more recent and successful interventions has come in the form of bystander intervention, which calls upon the people around when the potential for a sexually violent situation develops and encourages them to step up and intervene (Banyard, Plante, Moynihan, 2005). This study looked into how college student athletes were different than their non-athlete peers on measures of willingness to intervene and actual intervention behaviors in situations of sexual violence. Intervention behavior was measured in terms of total opportunities to intervene, total intervention actions, total inactions, the proportion of actions per opportunity, and the proportion of inactions per opportunity. For any effect of athlete status on bystander intention or behavior, these potential mediators were investigated: drinking behavior, rape supportive attitudes, exposure to sexual violence education, and social connectedness. A two-way analysis of variance indicated gender and athlete status main effects and interactions. Several regression models explored the relationships of the potential mediating variables with these effects. Athletes were less willing to intervene but reported more frequent intervention behavior than non-athletes. Drinking behavior mediated the relationship between athlete status and willingness to intervene. These results indicate the field of bystander intervention should tailor intervention techniques to fit the student athlete population, and further to include in this intervention a discussion of how drinking behavior inhibits willingness to intervene in situations of sexual violence.

The primary purpose of this study was to examine successful instructional practices that promote high academic achievement for at-risk students in juvenile detention centers, and possibly lead to a reduction in recidivism in the juvenile justice system. A case study was conducted at 2 Los Angeles juvenile detention centers, known as "The Sports Camp" and "The Vocational Camp." Qualitative research methods provided data triangulated from a document and artifact examination, interviews, and observations. Analysis of the data suggests that, contrary to popular belief, there are successful instructional practices that positively impact student academic achievement. However, the findings also indicate that extenuating circumstances prevent some students from taking advantage f their educational opportunities. Although the Los Angeles County Office of Education (LACOE) is committed to improving educational outcomes for incarcerated youth, there are no magic formulas or solutions. Therefore, multiple strategies will be needed to significantly improve educational outcomes for students in this nontraditional school setting.

The Internet has long been utilized by gay men and men who have sex with men (MSM) as a space for the seeking-out of deviant behaviors such as condomless sex and the use of popular "party drugs." Within criminal justice, however, there is a tendency to separate such deviant sex- and drug-related behaviors from culture; thus, these behaviors often become criminalized without recognizing the meaning they may have for the "offenders"; meaning that, in addition to being borne out of oppression and marginalization, is also borne out of stigmatizing experiences.

Through an exploration of gay culture, this thesis explores the underlying meanings of a subset of drug-seeking gay men who "party and play" (PnP). Such an analysis is important not only for criminal justice, but also for the field of cultural criminology, which seeks to inform both the criminal justice system and law enforcement professionals of the need for cultural sensitivity.