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Title: Alternative Education and Juvenile Delinquency.
Creator: Prior, Nicole M., Blomberg, Thomas G., Rutledge, Stacey, Bales, William, College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: The purpose of this mixed methods longitudinal study was to explore the connection between the quality of alternative education and juvenile delinquency. The study examined two alternative education disciplinary schools in the state of Florida over six academic years. The study's goals were twofold. The first goal was to determine the impact of the implementation of quality assurance (QA) in alternative education disciplinary schools. Specifically, the study focused on determining if the QA...
Show moreThe purpose of this mixed methods longitudinal study was to explore the connection between the quality of alternative education and juvenile delinquency. The study examined two alternative education disciplinary schools in the state of Florida over six academic years. The study's goals were twofold. The first goal was to determine the impact of the implementation of quality assurance (QA) in alternative education disciplinary schools. Specifically, the study focused on determining if the QA program increased the schools' use of best practices and, as a result, positively affected the likelihood that exiting students would return to mainstream public education after exiting an alternative education school. Study findings suggest that full implementation of the QA program increased students' likelihood of returning to their home schools after being released from the alternative education disciplinary school. Furthermore, the quantitative results indicate that the implementation of QA at an alternative education school does not increase students' attendance in their home schools after their return. The second goal of this study was to determine if a high quality alternative education school would improve students' positive school experiences, thus increasing their social capital and resulting in a reduction of crime as measured by a decrease in the possibility that a student would be arrested within 12 months after being released from the alternative education school. The quantitative results indicate that partial QA implementation decreased the likelihood that students would be arrested within twelve months after exiting an alternative education disciplinary school, but full and post QA implementation did not. Overall, the findings suggest that QA does not significantly impact the likelihood of an arrest within twelve months after a student exits from an alternative education school. The study concludes with discussion of the problem of youth returning to but not remaining in their regular school because of poor regular school experiences versus positive alternative education school experiences. The policy recommendations based on the results of this study are that students at alternative education schools be allowed to remain in these schools until their graduation from high school.
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Date Issued: 2010
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-0461
Format: Thesis

Title: Risk Factors of Gang Membership: A Study of Community, School, Family, Peer and Individual Level Predictors Among Three South Florida Counties.
Creator: Dhungana, Karla Johanna, Bacon, Sarah, Bales, William, Stults, Brian, College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: Recent studies have shown that the influence of gang membership is a more detrimental predictor of delinquency than the association with delinquent peers alone. A recent survey reported the existence of at least 1,500 gangs and over 65,000 gang members in Florida. Furthermore, statistics also reveal that Florida currently has the most rapidly growing gang population in comparison to all other states. This study examines and compares the predictors of gang membership in three South Florida...
Show moreRecent studies have shown that the influence of gang membership is a more detrimental predictor of delinquency than the association with delinquent peers alone. A recent survey reported the existence of at least 1,500 gangs and over 65,000 gang members in Florida. Furthermore, statistics also reveal that Florida currently has the most rapidly growing gang population in comparison to all other states. This study examines and compares the predictors of gang membership in three South Florida counties with the highest gang membership rates, Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach, by evaluating risk factors at the community, family, school, peer and individual level. Using the Florida Substance Abuse Survey Data, the study seeks to examine the risk factors predictive of gang memberships that are present in the three counties, how the exposures to multiple risk factors increase the odds of gang memberships and how they compare in exposure to risk factors. Logistic regressions are employed to identify significant predictors of gang membership net of the effects of race and gender. Implications for policy and gang intervention programs are discussed.
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Date Issued: 2009
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-0744
Format: Thesis

Title: Contextual Effects and Punishment Decisions: A Multilevel Analysis.
Creator: Arazan, Christine L., Blomberg, Thomas G., McNeece, C. Aaron, Bales, William, College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: The theoretical literature on courtroom organizations and focal concerns, in conjunction with social threat perspectives inform this contextual analysis and evaluation of determinate sentencing practices in the state of Florida. Drawing on prior theoretical and empirical research, hierarchical linear and generalized linear models are estimated to assess courtroom and community effects on individual level sentencing outcomes. This research investigates the direct effect of a variety of...
Show moreThe theoretical literature on courtroom organizations and focal concerns, in conjunction with social threat perspectives inform this contextual analysis and evaluation of determinate sentencing practices in the state of Florida. Drawing on prior theoretical and empirical research, hierarchical linear and generalized linear models are estimated to assess courtroom and community effects on individual level sentencing outcomes. This research investigates the direct effect of a variety of individual and case-level factors on the in/out prison and sentence length decisions for a sample of offenders (N=382,262) convicted in Florida courts from 1999-2002. The study also examines the direct and conditioning effects of theoretically derived contextual characteristics on the individual punishment decision. These contextual factors include features of the courtroom environment such as the size of the court, caseload pressure, and trial rates, and the broader community including race, ethnicity, concentrated disadvantage, and a variety of community level controls. The results indicate that location matters when sentenced in Florida. The likelihood of being sentenced to prison and the length of this sentence varies across counties, even after controlling for individual case and offender characteristics and a variety of contextual characteristics. Additionally, the influence of legal and extra-legal factors on the in/out and sentence length decisions varies significantly across counties. Several court characteristics, including the size of the court, caseload pressure and trial rate, and community characteristics, including racial composition, and a variety of controls all assert direct influence on a county's likelihood of in/out and mean sentence length decisions. The findings also indicate that several of the community and courtroom characteristics condition the effects of defendant and case factors on the sentencing outcomes – though often in the opposite direction than hypothesized. Overall, this research supports further development and the continued application of organizational theories to sentencing outcomes and questions the persistent reliance upon social threat measures as they are currently conceptualized in the sentencing literature. To advance both the current empirical and theoretical understanding of individual sentencing outcomes, future research must develop three-tiered models that adequately address the embedded nature of the courtroom within the broader community by applying organizational theories. The findings also highlight the need to supplement multilevel sentencing research with case studies in order to advance both the current empirical and theoretical literature.
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Date Issued: 2007
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-0226
Format: Thesis

Title: The Ethnic Typification of Crime and Support for Punitive Attitudes: An Exploratory Analysis of Arabs in Israel.
Creator: Devers, Lindsey N., Gertz, Dr. Marc, Carbonell, Joyce, Piquero, Nicole, College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: According to social threat theorists, it is the mere presence of blacks that induces a fear of crime which increases punitive attitudes and leads to the mobilization of social control. Blalock (1967) argued that social control is exerted upon minority populations that are deemed threatening. Recent work on the percent black and fear of crime has transformed this aggregate-level relationship into an individual-level measure of the presences of blacks, specifically, the racial typification of...
Show moreAccording to social threat theorists, it is the mere presence of blacks that induces a fear of crime which increases punitive attitudes and leads to the mobilization of social control. Blalock (1967) argued that social control is exerted upon minority populations that are deemed threatening. Recent work on the percent black and fear of crime has transformed this aggregate-level relationship into an individual-level measure of the presences of blacks, specifically, the racial typification of crime. The present study extends Chiricos and colleagues (2004) work on the racial typification of crime by conducting such analyses in Israel where there have historically been high ethnic tensions. The dissertation explores the relationship between the ethnic typification of crime and punitive attitudes by utilizing an Arab sample of respondents from Israel. Results indicate that the main hypothesis under examination was not supported by the regression analyses. The analyses demonstrated that concern for crime was the strongest predictor of punitive attitudes net of other control and demographic variables.
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Date Issued: 2010
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-0075
Format: Thesis

Title: Crime Across the United States since the End of the Great American Crime Decline: A Gathering Storm or Astonishingly Flat.
Creator: Wolff, Kevin Tyler, Baumer, Eric, Stults, Brian, Stewart, Eric, College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: Much scholarly attention has been given to crime trends during recent decades in which the United States and the world experienced a spike in violent crime during the late 1980s into the early-mid 1990s, followed by an unanticipated and unparalleled decline during the mid to late 1990s. These trends have been described in detail by a number of scholars that have offered explanations ranging from record increases in incarceration to the rise and fall of crack cocaine. A lack of consensus...
Show moreMuch scholarly attention has been given to crime trends during recent decades in which the United States and the world experienced a spike in violent crime during the late 1980s into the early-mid 1990s, followed by an unanticipated and unparalleled decline during the mid to late 1990s. These trends have been described in detail by a number of scholars that have offered explanations ranging from record increases in incarceration to the rise and fall of crack cocaine. A lack of consensus regarding the main factors driving these trends has kept researchers interested, and arguably stuck in this period. As a result, we lack an understanding as to what has occurred in the last decade, begging the question, "What has happened since the 1990s?" The purpose of this paper is threefold: First, to determine whether there have been any significant changes in crime across cities in the U.S. since the end of the Great American Crime Decline, as well as to explore what economic, social, and criminal justice factors may be associated with these changes. Secondly, with an eye towards theory, a commonly used variable is reconceptualized and explored in depth. Finally, the existence of a national trend is examined in the context of a large sample of U.S. cities with hopes of guiding future research in the area of crime trends.
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Date Issued: 2010
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-0876
Format: Thesis

Title: An Analysis of the Police Response to Intimate Partner Stalking.
Creator: Woodroof, Kelly, Greek, Cecil, Doerner, William, Padvic, Irene, College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: While there is a great deal of research addressing the issue of stalking, very little of the work focuses on the law enforcement response to this crime. The current study used case analysis to determine how intimate partner stalking cases reported to a metropolitan police department in southeast Florida were addressed. The study also used survey analysis to test serving Florida law enforcement officers on their knowledge and training in Florida's anti-stalking law. Additionally, respondents...
Show moreWhile there is a great deal of research addressing the issue of stalking, very little of the work focuses on the law enforcement response to this crime. The current study used case analysis to determine how intimate partner stalking cases reported to a metropolitan police department in southeast Florida were addressed. The study also used survey analysis to test serving Florida law enforcement officers on their knowledge and training in Florida's anti-stalking law. Additionally, respondents were presented with a number of scenarios to classify. Among the relevant findings was the fact that officers use a classification other than stalking in the vast majority of cases. Research additionally revealed that cases not classified as stalking received little or no follow-up. Perhaps most significantly, research revealed the fact that unwanted communication from an offender, the most common form of stalking behavior, was the form of behavior respondents were last likely to classify as stalking.
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Date Issued: 2010
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-0783
Format: Thesis

Title: Analyzing the Biosocial Selection into Life-Course Transitions.
Creator: Barnes, James C., Beaver, Kevin M., Tripodi, Stephen J., Kleck, Gary, College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: Over the past 30 years, scholars have increasingly focused on the individual-level factors that explain criminal behavior. This line of research has revealed that myriad factors influence the onset of a criminal career, the maintenance of a criminal career, and the desistance from a criminal career. The current study focused on the factors that account for desistance from a criminal career. One of the most prominent contemporary criminological theories posits that exposure to adult social...
Show moreOver the past 30 years, scholars have increasingly focused on the individual-level factors that explain criminal behavior. This line of research has revealed that myriad factors influence the onset of a criminal career, the maintenance of a criminal career, and the desistance from a criminal career. The current study focused on the factors that account for desistance from a criminal career. One of the most prominent contemporary criminological theories posits that exposure to adult social bonds such as marriage, employment, and military involvement explains why a person desists from crime. Criminological research has supported the theory, but has failed to consider the influence of genetic factors on exposure to adult social bonds and, ultimately, desistance from crime. Three key findings emerged from the analysis. First, genetic factors explained a significant proportion of the variance in nearly all of the adult social bonds analyzed. Second, genetic factors explained a significant proportion of the variance in changes in delinquency, drug use, and antisocial behavior from adolescence to adulthood. Third, once genetic factors were controlled, the explanatory power of an adult social bond on desistance from delinquency was often weakened or eliminated. The theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.
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Date Issued: 2010
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-0804
Format: Thesis

Title: Race, Ethnicity, Gender, Situational and Social Threat and the Labeling of Convicted Felons: A Study of Social Control.
Creator: Bontrager, Stephanie, Chiricos, Theodore, Tate, Richard, Bales, William, College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: Florida judges have the discretion to withhold adjudication for felony offenders sentenced to probation. This sentencing option allows offenders to retain all rights normally lost upon felony conviction within the state of Florida, including the right to vote and carry fire arms. Those who receive adjudication withheld can also legally assert that they are not convicted felons. In short, they suffer none of the associated "civil" or social penalties that generally accompany criminal...
Show moreFlorida judges have the discretion to withhold adjudication for felony offenders sentenced to probation. This sentencing option allows offenders to retain all rights normally lost upon felony conviction within the state of Florida, including the right to vote and carry fire arms. Those who receive adjudication withheld can also legally assert that they are not convicted felons. In short, they suffer none of the associated "civil" or social penalties that generally accompany criminal conviction. This research investigates the direct impact of individual characteristics such as race, ethnicity and gender on the withholding of adjudication for a sample of probationers (N=120,771) convicted in Florida courts between 1999 and 2002. The study also examines the situational influence of crime type and the cross level impact of socially threatening conditions such as black and Hispanic unemployment, racial composition and concentrated disadvantage on the effect of individual traits using Hierarchical Generalized Linear Modeling. The results indicate that blacks and Hispanics have substantially lower chances than white offenders, with similar personal and legal attributes, to receive adjudication withheld. The influence of race and ethnicity on adjudication withheld is more prominent for drug offenders and for blacks in areas of high black unemployment and for both blacks and Hispanics in places with elevated levels of disadvantage. Gender also significantly impacts adjudication withheld with female offenders significantly more likely to receive this beneficial sentencing decision when compared to male offenders. Additionally, women convicted of atypical crimes such as murder and auto theft do not enjoy the sentencing advantage that other female offenders have over males. Overall, the chance of adjudication withheld for female offenders is substantially increased in areas with stronger female earnings. The race, ethnicity and gender findings are discussed within the social threat and social control theoretical framework.
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Date Issued: 2006
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-3554
Format: Thesis

Title: American Exceptionalism: Public Opinion on Liberty as a Core American Value.
Creator: Jenks, Catherine A., Gertz, Marc, Kelley, Colleen, Chiricos, Ted, College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: The core American values of liberty, egalitarianism, and individualism have been shown to be in constant tension with one another. This project sought to address the current state of public opinion on liberty as a core American value. Several propositions related to liberty were addressed including opinion on liberty in the abstract versus concrete instances, policy areas in which liberty is most willing to be compromised, Americans' crime control orientations, and the idea that citizens are...
Show moreThe core American values of liberty, egalitarianism, and individualism have been shown to be in constant tension with one another. This project sought to address the current state of public opinion on liberty as a core American value. Several propositions related to liberty were addressed including opinion on liberty in the abstract versus concrete instances, policy areas in which liberty is most willing to be compromised, Americans' crime control orientations, and the idea that citizens are ambivalent when it comes to crime control versus due process. Data were collected via telephone interviews with citizens of Leon County, Florida. The findings of the study indicate that although citizens voice a preference for liberty in the abstract, they contradict themselves in concrete instances of liberty, namely in the area of social control. A public conscience and belief in the public good is projected until it interferes with individuals' own private property or private lives; then policy preferences err on the side of the individual. It is in these situations that ideology is compromised. Citizens are likely to experience underlying value conflict, which confounds their abilities to make decisive policy choices.
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Date Issued: 2006
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-3537
Format: Thesis

Title: A Study of Social Control in Florida: The Impact of Race and Ethnicity on the Designation of Individuals as Habitual or Career Offenders.
Creator: Hughes, Cynthia Caravelis, Chiricos, Theodore, Carbonell, Joyce, Bales, William, College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: The United States criminal justice system has continued along a path of punitive policies and practices that began in the 1980s. These punitive measures include both the expansion of existing enhancements, such as Habitual Offender laws, as well as new initiatives, such as the Florida Career Offender Registration Act. In the State of Florida, both laws allow for the application of enhanced sentences to defendants who are designated as either "Habitual Offenders" or "Career Offenders." The...
Show moreThe United States criminal justice system has continued along a path of punitive policies and practices that began in the 1980s. These punitive measures include both the expansion of existing enhancements, such as Habitual Offender laws, as well as new initiatives, such as the Florida Career Offender Registration Act. In the State of Florida, both laws allow for the application of enhanced sentences to defendants who are designated as either "Habitual Offenders" or "Career Offenders." The application of these laws is completely discretionary and as such, state prosecutors seek the designations for only a fraction of the defendants who qualify. Utilizing Hierarchical Generalized Linear Modeling, this study examines whether individual attributes, such as race and ethnicity, impact an individual's likelihood of receiving either the Habitual or Career Offender designation. Additionally, the second level of analysis incorporates county level characteristics into the equation and tests whether these characteristics have either a direct or a cross level effect on the relationship between race, ethnicity and the likelihood that an individual will receives one of the designations. Situational threat is examined as a context for individual level effects in the form of both crime types and specific crime categories. The broad theoretical framework that guides the research is grounded in the social threat and social control perspective. For the Habitual Offender outcome, results indicate that both black and Hispanic defendants have significantly higher odds of being Habitualized when compared to white defendants with similar personal characteristics and legal attributes. The race and ethnicity effect on the Habitual Offender outcome is more prominent for drug offenders and in counties with a higher number of cases per judge, higher drug arrest rate and a higher violent crime rate. Results for the Career Offender sample indicate that both black and Hispanic defendants have significantly lower odds of receiving the Career Offender designation than similarly situated white defendants. Defendants who went to trial and those accused of violent offenses are the most likely to be sentenced as a Career Offender as are defendants sentenced in counties with a higher number of cases per judge and a higher percent of Hispanic residents.
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Date Issued: 2007
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-3671
Format: Thesis

Title: Examining the Link Between Prior and Future Offending: The Moderating Effects of Amplifiers and Diminishers.
Creator: Hughes, Cresean, Hay, Carter, Stewart, Eric A., Warren, Patricia Y., College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: Criminological research has consistently found support for the notion that prior offending is one of the strongest predictors of future offending. However, the discipline has not fully explored the dynamics of this relationship – more specifically, what factors may intensify the effects of prior offending on future offending and what factors may weaken the effects of prior offending on future offending. The present study attempts to address this void by examining the potential moderating...
Show moreCriminological research has consistently found support for the notion that prior offending is one of the strongest predictors of future offending. However, the discipline has not fully explored the dynamics of this relationship – more specifically, what factors may intensify the effects of prior offending on future offending and what factors may weaken the effects of prior offending on future offending. The present study attempts to address this void by examining the potential moderating effects of various risk and protective factors on this relationship. From a neighborhood disadvantage perspective, the implications here are quite substantial. Existing research has provided support for the idea that residents living in a disadvantaged environment are more likely to engage in deviant behavior. Thus, for those individuals in these disadvantaged areas, it is important to explore what happens following one's initial participation in deviant behavior, and whether certain factors may possibly push an individual deeper into a delinquent or criminal career or on the other hand, protect and guard the individual from further engagement in offending. The results presented here suggest that there are indeed certain risk and protective factors that may amplify or diminish the effects of prior offending on future offending.
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Date Issued: 2011
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-3666
Format: Thesis

Title: School-Level Moderators of Genetic Influences on Antisocial Behaviors.
Creator: Boutwell, Brian B., Beaver, Kevin M., Eckel, Lisa, Stewart, Eric A., College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: Decades of research from numerous academic fields has provided unequivocal support that both genes and the environment are critically involved in shaping human behavior. More recently, researchers have begun to explore the manner in which genetic and environmental factors intertwine to sculpt behavioral outcomes. A growing body of evidence suggests that the expression of certain genetic tendencies may be directly moderated by exposure to certain environmental conditions. Research on the...
Show moreDecades of research from numerous academic fields has provided unequivocal support that both genes and the environment are critically involved in shaping human behavior. More recently, researchers have begun to explore the manner in which genetic and environmental factors intertwine to sculpt behavioral outcomes. A growing body of evidence suggests that the expression of certain genetic tendencies may be directly moderated by exposure to certain environmental conditions. Research on the interaction between genes and the environment is helping to shed light on the developmental origins of a number of pathological outcomes including mental illness, aggression, violence, and criminality. To this point, researchers have tended to focus almost exclusively on the capability of early-life environments to condition the effects of genes on behavior. While this line of inquiry has greatly increased the knowledge base concerning the development of deviant tendencies, there remains a need to examine whether alternative environmental pathogens condition genetic predispositions for deviance. Schools represent one type of environment that has been exhaustively examined by criminologists, and that has been consistently linked with the deviant behavior of adolescents. Currently, however, almost no evidence exists related to whether school conditions moderate genetic influences on adolescent misbehavior. Using data drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, the current dissertation addresses this question by examining the moderating effects of school environments on a range of antisocial outcomes. The results of the analysis revealed partial evidence that school-level factors condition the effects of genes on a range of antisocial behaviors. The implications of these findings for the field of criminology are discussed in detail.
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Date Issued: 2010
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-3469
Format: Thesis

Title: Once a Criminal, Always a Criminal: How Do Individual Responses to Formal Labeling Affect Future Behavior? A Comprehensive Evaluation of Labeling Theory.
Creator: Ciaravolo, Emily Beth, Hay, Carter, Pasley, Kay, Siennick, Sonja, Stults, Brian, College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: Although labeling theory has been subjected to many empirical examinations, more often than not, studies present conflicting evidence or suffer from a variety of methodological limitations. In turn, the current analyses aim to contribute knowledge and clarity by evaluating the theory in a manner that addresses some of the limitations found in prior studies. Three key research questions will guide the current analyses. First, does the formal labeling process increase subsequent criminal...
Show moreAlthough labeling theory has been subjected to many empirical examinations, more often than not, studies present conflicting evidence or suffer from a variety of methodological limitations. In turn, the current analyses aim to contribute knowledge and clarity by evaluating the theory in a manner that addresses some of the limitations found in prior studies. Three key research questions will guide the current analyses. First, does the formal labeling process increase subsequent criminal behavior? Second, are there extra-legal factors that mediate or explain this effect? Finally, is the effect of formal labeling on future behavior moderated, or conditioned, by extra-legal factors? Taken together, an assessment of these research questions should allow for a more nuanced understanding of the harmful consequences associated with the formal labeling process.
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Date Issued: 2011
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-3608
Format: Thesis

Title: Do Judges' Experiences and Indelible Traits Influence Sentencing Decisions?: New Evidence from Florida.
Creator: Hauser, William, Chiricos, Theodore, Gertz, Marc, Bales, William, College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: Judicial decision-making has been a long-standing subject of criminological inquiry. It has been the explicit focus of theory (e.g. Steffensmeier, Ulmer, & Kramer, 1998; Albonetti, 1991; Farrell & Holmes, 1991) and is implicit in discussions of unwarranted sentencing disparity, determinate sentencing, and extra-legal offender attributes such as race. Central to each of these topics is the judge's sentencing decision and the differences in sentences that flow from the use of discretion....
Show moreJudicial decision-making has been a long-standing subject of criminological inquiry. It has been the explicit focus of theory (e.g. Steffensmeier, Ulmer, & Kramer, 1998; Albonetti, 1991; Farrell & Holmes, 1991) and is implicit in discussions of unwarranted sentencing disparity, determinate sentencing, and extra-legal offender attributes such as race. Central to each of these topics is the judge's sentencing decision and the differences in sentences that flow from the use of discretion. However, few studies have actually directly examined variation in judges' sentencing behavior and how this variation corresponds to judge and offender attributes. This dissertation fills that void by using data from Florida Circuit Courts to examine how judges' indelible attributes and experiences influence their use of imprisonment. Results demonstrate that judges are far from homogenous in their sentencing behavior and, in spite of sentencing guidelines, extra-legal offender attributes continue to matter but in nuanced ways. Findings include statistically significant effects for the judges' political party affiliation, age, time on bench, sex, race, and Hispanic ethnicity; several of these effects are conditioned by offender attributes. These effects are modest in magnitude but when considered cumulatively, they result in consequential differences in the probability that an offender is imprisoned. Judges also show considerable variation in their propensity to imprison even after controlling for differences in their traits. While judge attributes like race and sex matter, they do not adequately capture the bulk of inter-judge variation in the use of imprisonment. In short, criminal sentencing remains a highly individualized activity.
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Date Issued: 2012
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-5360
Format: Thesis

Title: The Contributions of Crime Salience and Economic Insecurity to Explanations of Punitive Attitudes Toward Crime, Welfare, and Immigration.
Creator: Costelloe, Michael T., Chiricos, Ted, Rasmussen, David, Kleck, Gary, Gertz, Marc, College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: Rooted in the cultural, social, and material circumstances of the last forty years, there appears to have been an increase in the insecurities and anxieties that are being experienced by many in the working and middle class. The source of these insecurities seems to be two pronged. First, an increase in crime rates that began in the 1960s and lasted into the early 1990s elevated concerns about one's personal safety, as well as the safety and security of one's family. Though these increases...
Show moreRooted in the cultural, social, and material circumstances of the last forty years, there appears to have been an increase in the insecurities and anxieties that are being experienced by many in the working and middle class. The source of these insecurities seems to be two pronged. First, an increase in crime rates that began in the 1960s and lasted into the early 1990s elevated concerns about one's personal safety, as well as the safety and security of one's family. Though these increases have reversed themselves in recent years, media and political discourse have kept crime a salient issue for the American people. Second, the economic changes that have occurred over the past several decades have created an increasingly insecure workforce, a workforce that has experienced layoffs, downsizings, and reduced and stagnating wages and benefits. That these changes occurred on the heels of a period of increasing prosperity, diminishing inequality, and feelings of relative safety, has only served to cast the more recent circumstances in more dramatic terms. Economically, the United States has experienced significant changes over the past several decades that have created "insecurities" that are well documented and that are the result of corporate strategies to restore profit margins in the face of expanded world competition. Strategies of disinvestment, deskilling, downsizing, and immersion in the "global economy" has meant the loss of employment or reduced wages for millions of American blue-collar workers and, more recently, white collar employees. In the classic sense described by Emil Durkheim (1895), these rapid changes have forced many people into new economic circumstances, the appropriate boundaries for which are either not yet established or not well understood. In such a condition of anomic uncertainty, it is not uncommon for scapegoats to be created and a willingness to punish "others" engendered. We have seen, for example, these economic changes accompanied by an increase in punitiveness on the part of the criminal justice system. During this time, we have seen the reinstitution and use of the death penalty, we have experienced tremendous increases in incarceration rates, the increased use of juvenile waivers to adult court and we have witnessed an influx of mandatory sentencing polices such as 10-20-life and "three strike" laws. At the same time, popular and political culture appears to have taken a more broadly punitive turn. Resentment against criminals, seems only to be matched by the antipathy directed toward welfare recipients, and immigrants. What criminals, welfare recipients and immigrants may have in common is that in the eyes of some, they are perceived as "getting something for nothing" at a time when so many are either insecure in their positions or working harder for less. Moreover, many may associate these groups with similar populations, namely inner-city minorities. The perception that welfare recipients and immigrants are disproportionately involved in criminal behavior may result in an increase in support for punitive criminal and social policies directed at these groups. This research, then, explores the possibility that both crime salience and the resentments of those made insecure by labor market changes are mobilizing resources for this increase in punitiveness. Specifically, this study examines whether individual punitive attitudes toward crime, welfare, and immigration are more strongly expressed by those who report greater economic insecurity as well as those for whom crime is a salient issue. The current project also attempts to contextualize these effects by examining to what extent they are more prevalent among members of certain subgroups. For example, is the effect of economic insecurity on punitive attitudes greater for those who may be characterized as objectively vulnerable in terms of their education and income levels? Or, as some have suggested, are these sentiments most commonly held among "angry white males?" It is argued that it is they who are most likely to have perceived a deterioration in what they believed was once a guarantee of economic security and to be in search of scapegoats who can be easily blamed. The data for this study come from a survey of 2,250 randomly selected adult Florida residents that was conducted between October and December of 1997. Ordinary least squares and logistic regression are used to estimate these effects while controlling for the influence of a number of other theoretically relevant variables. The results show that both crime salience and economic insecurity are clearly not irrelevant predictors of punitive attitudes toward these three social issues.
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Date Issued: 2004
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-3366
Format: Thesis

Title: Adult Family Relationships and Desistance from Crime.
Creator: Forrest, Walter, Blomberg, Thomas G., Orcutt, James D., Hay, Carter, College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: Despite considerable evidence that certain life-course transitions can play a significant role in helping some offenders abandon crime, several fundamental issues remain unresolved. In this dissertation, I examine the links between crime and two life-course transitions related to the development of families in adulthood: cohabitation and marriage. Using data from the National Youth Survey (NYS), I investigate the extent to which both types of relationships can contribute to desistance. I then...
Show moreDespite considerable evidence that certain life-course transitions can play a significant role in helping some offenders abandon crime, several fundamental issues remain unresolved. In this dissertation, I examine the links between crime and two life-course transitions related to the development of families in adulthood: cohabitation and marriage. Using data from the National Youth Survey (NYS), I investigate the extent to which both types of relationships can contribute to desistance. I then evaluate the major theoretical mechanisms through which marriage is most likely to promote behavioral change. Finally, I examine the degree to which these relationships foster desistance for both men and women. Results indicate that marriage has the capacity to promote desistance, whereas cohabitation does not, and that the effects of marriage on crime are conditional on both the social orientation of the spouse and the quality of the marital relationship. These and other results are mostly consistent with social control and social learning theories of crime and desistance. In addition, the results of the analyses indicate that the effects of marriage on crime are similar among men and women.
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Date Issued: 2007
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-4417
Format: Thesis

Title: Social Identification and Public Opinion on White-Collar Crime.
Creator: Van Slyke, Shanna, Blomberg, Thomas G., Berry, William D., Bales, William D., College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: White-collar crime accounts for billions of dollars in annual losses but traditionally has been viewed as less serious and less deserving of harsh punishment compared with street crime. This pattern can be observed in public opinion surveys, law-enforcement resource allocations, and criminal justice system sanctioning. Scholars usually distinguish between different types of white-collar crime—bitterly noting the irony that broadened definitions of white-collar crime have perpetuated status...
Show moreWhite-collar crime accounts for billions of dollars in annual losses but traditionally has been viewed as less serious and less deserving of harsh punishment compared with street crime. This pattern can be observed in public opinion surveys, law-enforcement resource allocations, and criminal justice system sanctioning. Scholars usually distinguish between different types of white-collar crime—bitterly noting the irony that broadened definitions of white-collar crime have perpetuated status-based disparities the very concept was designed to bring to light. Some of these scholars, particularly those study public perceptions, have begun to question the conventional wisdom of widespread public apathy toward the crimes of U.S. economic and political elites. They have pointed at Watergate in the 1970s, the savings and loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s, and the wave of national corporate financial failures emerging in 2001–2002, and they have proposed that public outrage stemming from these widely publicized political and economic scandals should serve as a catalyst for sentencing reform that would more accurately tailor punishments to the harms caused. Lengthy prison sentences given to corporate executives and chairman—such as Bernie Madoff's June 2009 150-year prison sentence—seem to support the argument that a national attitudinal shift has translated into more severe punishments for white-collar offenders. But one could characterize recent severe white-collar sentences—most notably in this regard, Shalom Weiss's 840-year prison term—as aberrations that are both expressively powerful and functionally indistinguishable from a life sentence with no chance of parole. As such, far from bridging the gap between harm and punishment, these extreme reactions would also fail to represent the majority of white-collar offenders' experiences with the criminal justice system. Despite financial losses stemming from white-collar crime, most white-collar offenders are not prosecuted as criminal offenders and do not comprise the bulk of U.S. jail and prison populations. The present study addresses this paradox between harm caused, perceived seriousness and desired punitiveness, and the theoretical void in the white-collar crime literature by incorporating the concepts of ingroup favoritism and outgroup hostility from the social psychological literature on social identity theory. The study's purposes, then, are to determine whether there are observable differences in punitiveness toward white-collar and street offenders and then to test the applicability of the proposed integrated theory to explaining punitiveness by employing a representative telephone survey of 400 Floridian adults in 2008. The survey tested 10 hypotheses in several ways: An offense- and an offender-based definition of white-collar crime is used as well as nonviolent economic street crime, incarceration and disenfranchisement support serve as dependent variables; and two forms of offender identification (social and racial) and two forms of threats (offense seriousness and victim identification) are assessed. Incarceration support is modeled for six offenses: elite white-collar crime (corporate fraud and government bribery), consumer fraud white-collar crimes (false advertising and car sales fraud), and nonviolent economic street crimes (motor vehicle theft and burglary). The six offenses were then collapsed into three crime categories designed to represent three basic social status groups and to address the white-collar crime definitional debate: elite white-collar crime (high-status white-collar crime), consumer fraud white-collar crime (middle-status white-collar crime), and nonviolent economic street crime (low-status non-white-collar crime). No violent street crimes were included to enhance the comparability between the street crimes and white-collar crimes; likewise, the selected street crimes were economically motivated so they would also have the same basic motive (unlike non-violent street crimes like vandalism or drug use). Bivariate correlations revealed differences in public opinion, but the definition of white-collar crime (i.e., offense or offender based) and the measure of punitiveness (i.e., support for incarceration and for disenfranchisement) impacted the results. Multivariate logistic regression results indicate that offense seriousness had the consistent effect on increasing punitiveness for street crimes, but rarely influenced punishment recommendations for white-collar crimes—particularly those of the powerful corporate and government elites. However, little support emerged supporting the hypotheses derived from social identity theory. Rarely have past studies identified variables that are related to punitiveness toward white-collar offenders, be they theoretical or control variables. The present study, on the other hand, drew from the available research literature, identified the theoretical concept of social identification, and empirically tested this concept's association with incarceration and disenfranchisement recommendations for white-collar and street property offenders. Social identification was not always related to punitiveness; moreover, the hypothesized positive effect of social identification interacting with perceived seriousness failed to materialize. Yet social identification itself increased punitiveness in several models and this is an advancement of our knowledge about public opinion on white-collar crime—albeit an advancement in need of refinement. Theoretically, this study introduced the idea of social identity to the study of white-collar crime, a phenomenon that has long been anecdotally characterized as crime by seemingly normal and respectable individuals, but which has recently exhibited signs of increased governmental intervention and sanctioning. The unexpected findings were explained by drawing upon labeling theory and by discussing the differential roles of information in influencing punitive attitudes. A different causal model is then suggested wherein strength of incriminating evidence is predicted to moderate the effect of social identification on punitiveness toward white-collar offenders. In this revised model to be tested in future research, social identification is not predicted to interact with seriousness to influence punitiveness; rather, it is hypothesized to influence punitiveness indirectly through its influence on perceptions of guilt. The conclusion focuses upon the contradiction between the U.S. government's relative neglect of white-collar crime and contemporary empirical evidence on public punitiveness toward white-collar and street offenders. Bernie Madoff's recent 150-year is revisited, and it is concluded that recent examples of harsh white-collar crime sanctioning do not reflect a significant shift in attitudes. Instead, returning to social identity theory, it is proposed that certain offenders have gotten singled out in order to for the government send a symbolic message of intolerance toward corporate crime while at the same time, the criminogenic opportunity and motivation structures of U.S. finance capitalism are left untouched and ineffectively regulated, thus perpetuating the problem of white-collar crime.
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Date Issued: 2009
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-4563
Format: Thesis

Title: The Tattooed Inmate and Recidivism.
Creator: Waters, Kevin, Blomberg, Thomas G., Carbonell, Joyce L., Bales, William D., College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: The empirical relationship between inmates with and without tattoos upon post-release recidivism has been virtually ignored in modern criminological research. Only one published study has directly examined the relationship between inmate tattoos and recidivism (Putnins, 2002). This study tracked 898 released Australian juvenile offenders for a brief period and found support for a link between tattoos and violent recidivism. The purpose of the current study is to provide a rigorous empirical...
Show moreThe empirical relationship between inmates with and without tattoos upon post-release recidivism has been virtually ignored in modern criminological research. Only one published study has directly examined the relationship between inmate tattoos and recidivism (Putnins, 2002). This study tracked 898 released Australian juvenile offenders for a brief period and found support for a link between tattoos and violent recidivism. The purpose of the current study is to provide a rigorous empirical assessment of the consequence of inmate tattoos on the likelihood of recidivism among a large cohort of offenders released from prison. The study examines a cohort of 79,749 released inmates from Florida prisons from 1995 through 2001 and tracks them over a three year follow-up to assess the impact of several tattoo variables on recidivism. Findings reveal that released inmates with tattoos, particularly numerous and highly visible ones, are more likely to be reconvicted during the follow-up period. Further, the findings indicate that there are two distinct inmate profiles namely the younger novice to the corrections system and the older, longer-term prisoner that are distinguishable by the numbers of tattoo possessed that increase the odds of recidivism. The implications of the findings are discussed in terms of policy, theory, and future research.
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Date Issued: 2012
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-5262
Format: Thesis

Title: Unraveling the Age, Prison Misconduct, and Recidivism Relationship.
Creator: Valentine, Colby Lynne, Mears, Daniel, Radey, Melissa, Bales, William, Siennick, Sonja, College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: Age is one of the most robust correlates of prison misconduct, with younger inmates more likely to commit disciplinary infractions. There has been, however, little attention to the potential nonlinear effect of age on prison misconduct. Most research to date has assumed that the relationship is linear and modeled it as such. In so doing, prior work has been unable to identify the potential nonlinear relationship between age and prison misconduct. This dissertation thus attempts to examine the...
Show moreAge is one of the most robust correlates of prison misconduct, with younger inmates more likely to commit disciplinary infractions. There has been, however, little attention to the potential nonlinear effect of age on prison misconduct. Most research to date has assumed that the relationship is linear and modeled it as such. In so doing, prior work has been unable to identify the potential nonlinear relationship between age and prison misconduct. This dissertation thus attempts to examine the precise nature of the age-misconduct relationship. Furthermore, it addresses the call for more research that investigates how prison experiences may influence prisoner reentry outcomes. Therefore, the purpose of this dissertation is to contribute to efforts to advance scholarship and better understand the relationship between age, prison behavior, and recidivism. First, it takes a nuanced look at the potential nonlinear relationship between age and prison misconduct. The approach taken here expands on prior research by examining granular age categories to predict several types of disciplinary infractions. Next, it investigates possible interaction effects of gender and, separately, race/ethnicity on the age-misconduct relationship. Finally, it explores the relationship between age, prison misconduct, and recidivism. Specifically, it examines the relationship between age and types of recidivism and whether various types of misconduct mediate this relationship. This dissertation draws on a Florida Department of Corrections admission cohort from 1995 to 2000 and a release cohort from 1995-2002. Negative binomial regression models were used to examine the relationship between age and prison misconduct and binary logistic regression models were used to examine the relationship between age, prison misconduct, and recidivism. The findings of this study shed light on the significance of identifying and understanding the nonlinear relationship between age and prison misconduct, and, further, the mediating effect of misconduct on the age-recidivism relationship. Theory, research, and policy implications of the findings are discussed and suggestions are made regarding future research.
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Date Issued: 2012
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-5243
Format: Thesis

Title: Transcending Beyond the Schoolyard: A Multilevel Examination of the Environmental Influences and Prevalence of Traditional and Cyber Bullying Perpetration.
Creator: Dhungana, Karla Johanna, Stults, Brian, Teasley, Martell, Stewart, Eric, Siennick, Sonja E., College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: The general purpose of this study is to provide a multilevel examination of the prevalence and contextual influences of traditional and cyber bullying perpetration through a criminological perspective. Bullying and harassment in our schools has become a growing national epidemic and has caught the attention of various disciplines such as education, psychology, sociology and medicine. However, the use of criminological theories to examine the phenomenon of bullying has been limited. Given the...
Show moreThe general purpose of this study is to provide a multilevel examination of the prevalence and contextual influences of traditional and cyber bullying perpetration through a criminological perspective. Bullying and harassment in our schools has become a growing national epidemic and has caught the attention of various disciplines such as education, psychology, sociology and medicine. However, the use of criminological theories to examine the phenomenon of bullying has been limited. Given the link between deviance and bullying behaviors, leading criminological theories could provide valuable nuances to what we already know about bullying. Using a state-wide representative sample of Florida, the present study provides rich and detailed insights into bullying prevalence in Florida schools by examining the incidence rates for verbal, physical and cyber bullying, where bullying takes place as well as a comparison of involvement among various demographic groups. Using hierarchical linear modeling, the study also examines the fit of four criminological theories - social bond theory, social learning theory, general strain theory and social disorganization theory in explaining traditional and cyber bullying. Results found some distinct factors associated with each type of bullying. Furthermore, the findings indicate that while several key individual level significant effects were found, contextual level variables are still important components to consider. In particular, indirect contextual effects could determine the conditions under which certain individual-level characteristics may function. Based on the findings implications for bullying prevention and intervention programs for bullying behaviors are discussed.
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Date Issued: 2012
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-4797
Format: Thesis

Title: Procedural Justice and Legitimacy of the Police and Courts and Perceptions of Obedience Among Female Inmates.
Creator: Baker, Thomas, Gertz, Marc G., Kavka, Martin, Stewart, Eric, Hay, Carter, College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: Researchers have explored two competing ideas as to why people obey the law. Some research has taken the instrumental approach--the belief that the prospect of rewards and punishments drive behavior. Others have taken the normative approach--the belief that internalized judgments about institutions and procedures drive behavior. The latter is the focus of this dissertation. Using a sample of female inmates, this dissertation examines what effects procedural justice of police and courts, the...
Show moreResearchers have explored two competing ideas as to why people obey the law. Some research has taken the instrumental approach--the belief that the prospect of rewards and punishments drive behavior. Others have taken the normative approach--the belief that internalized judgments about institutions and procedures drive behavior. The latter is the focus of this dissertation. Using a sample of female inmates, this dissertation examines what effects procedural justice of police and courts, the institutional legitimacy of police and courts, and obligations to obey the law. Most prior literature on normative attitudes has tested the political psychology of the mass public. By examining female inmates this study moves beyond the perceptions of the general public and focuses on individuals that have had the most serious interactions with the criminal justice system. Additionally, females are an especially important demographic of interest given their growing presence in the criminal justice system.
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Date Issued: 2012
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-4709
Format: Thesis

Title: Constructing Animal Rights Activism as a Social Threat: Claims-Making in the New York Times and in Congressional Hearings.
Creator: Girgen, Jen, Chiricos, Ted, Orcutt, James, Bullington, Bruce, College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: Since the mid-1970s, the modern U.S. animal rights movement has grown in size and influence. Membership in People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the world's largest animal rights organization, for instance, has grown from fewer than 100 members in 1980 (Plous, 1991), to more than 1,800,000 "members and supporters" today (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, n.d.b), and donations to the organization indicate a similar upward trend (Charity Navigator, 2006). At the same...
Show moreSince the mid-1970s, the modern U.S. animal rights movement has grown in size and influence. Membership in People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the world's largest animal rights organization, for instance, has grown from fewer than 100 members in 1980 (Plous, 1991), to more than 1,800,000 "members and supporters" today (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, n.d.b), and donations to the organization indicate a similar upward trend (Charity Navigator, 2006). At the same time, the influence of the movement has been felt by animal users, consumers, and the government, and continues to be relevant to this day. From early campaigns leading to a considerable decrease in the numbers of animals used in product testing (Jasper and Nelkin, 1992) and a plummet in sales of fur coats (Singer, 2003), to more recent victories including concessions by McDonald's, Burger King, and other restaurants regarding their animal welfare policies (Martin, 2007), and a spate of initiatives passed at the state level banning or curtailing particular animal uses (Lubinski, 2003), the U.S. animal rights movement has had an effect on business practices, on the law, and on the nation's consciousness. Additionally, a minority faction of the movement has engaged in crimes in an effort to bring about animal liberation, resulting in millions of dollars in damage to animal use industries (Southern Poverty Law Center, 2002). This research explores the response of animal use industries and their supporters to these objective threats. I argue that opponents of the animal rights movement and their surrogates have responded to this growing and persistent threat by engaging in a campaign of claims-making, the goal and/or effect of which is to construct for the public, policy-makers, and other social control authorities an image of the animal rights movement as a social problem as well as a more serious threat necessitating social control. This project therefore combines key ideas from several different literatures, including claims-making, framing, and social movement and countermovement, and is theoretically grounded in the social threat-social control tradition. I rely on two different sources of claims—one, a sample of items published in the New York Times and the other, a sample of written statements prepared for and presented in Congressional hearings. Claims in these documents were coded and analyzed using a grounded theory approach (Glaser and Strauss, 1967). The project is guided by two different epistemic objectives. First, I examine the nature of the claims put forth by opponents of animal rights and their surrogates. My goal here is not to confirm or debunk the veracity of these claims, but rather, to uncover and understand the kinds of claims serving not only to counter the animal rights movement's assertions that animal use and abuse is a social problem, but also to construct animal rights as a threat. Second, after analyzing these claims, I offer an assessment of whether, in each sample, such claims-making is consistent with the expectations of social threat-social control theory (Blalock, 1967; Liska, 1992b). Consistent with past research informed by this theory, I expect to find that as the animal rights movement became more threatening to animal users and their supporters, there was a corresponding change in the quantity (e.g., in frequency) and/or quality (e.g., in intensity) of claims made about the movement. The research findings indicate that both primary and secondary claims-makers utilize a variety of claims, framing processes, and rhetorical strategies so as to support the status quo as it concerns animal use. Furthermore, consistent with the expectations of social threat-social control theory, in general, in both samples, the findings provide support for the idea that, as time passed and the threats by the animal rights movement increased, the number of claims in defense of animal use and claims constructing animal rights as problematic increased. Particularly noteworthy are the findings of increases in claims constructing animal rights as a threat, and indicating that increased criminal control of the movement is necessary. This research makes several contributions to the literatures it borrows from. First, this study expands conflict theory's threat hypothesis by extending it to explain the threat and control of a social movement (whereas, traditionally, this theory has been used to explain control of racial minority threat). Second, this study provides qualitative support for the idea that social control is mobilized by claims-making. Third, by demonstrating how opponents engage in claims-making activities for the purpose of constructing a social movement as a threat, this study provides a unique contribution to the social constructionism/claims-making perspective, which has tended not to examine the use of claims to construct a movement as a problem. Finally, this research is timely, in the sense that it helps explain the current focus of social control authorities on animal rights-motivated crimes and acts of "terrorism."
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Date Issued: 2008
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-4269
Format: Thesis

Title: Prison Adjustment in Female Inmates with Personality Disorders.
Creator: Kurth, Deborah Diane, Beaver, Kevin, Carbonell, Joyce, Mears, Daniel, College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: Criminological research has often overlooked an important segment of offenders' lives - incarceration. Furthermore, the existing research on inmate behavior has focused primarily on male inmates. This dissertation adds to corrections literature by using a sample of female inmates to examine relationships between personality disorders and prison adjustment. The results of the analyses indicate that personality disorders are widespread among female inmates and are somewhat associated with...
Show moreCriminological research has often overlooked an important segment of offenders' lives - incarceration. Furthermore, the existing research on inmate behavior has focused primarily on male inmates. This dissertation adds to corrections literature by using a sample of female inmates to examine relationships between personality disorders and prison adjustment. The results of the analyses indicate that personality disorders are widespread among female inmates and are somewhat associated with adjustment. Certain Cluster B personality disorders - antisocial, histrionic, and narcissistic - were associated with decreased adjustment. Dependent personality disorder, on the other hand, was associated with increased adjustment, since these inmates self-reported less misconduct than other inmates did. The remaining personality disorders did not have any significant relationships with the measures of adjustment. Other factors, such as age, sentence length, time served, and security classification, had a more consistent association with adjustment than personality disorders. When female inmates with personality disorders were examined separately, unique patterns of adjustment were found. Age was associated with an increased number of infractions that the inmate was reported by prison staff to have committed and increased self-reported misconduct. Age, however, was not significantly related to violent infractions. For female inmates with personality disorders, race was not significantly related to adjustment. On the other hand, being a parent was associated with an increased number of violent infractions reported. Limitations to this dissertation and policy implications for corrections and criminology are discussed.
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Date Issued: 2011
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-4964
Format: Thesis

Title: The Racial and Ethnic Typification of Crime: Exploring the Potential Causes of Criminal Stereotypes.
Creator: Golden, Kristin Marie, Chiricos, Ted, Gertz, Marc, Kleck, Gary, Warren, Patricia, College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: The racial typification of crime refers to the extent to which crime is represented as a Black phenomenon. Additionally, the ethnic typification of crime, where crime is represented as a Latino phenomenon, has received recent attention. Research on these concepts has found them to be predictive of punitive attitudes toward criminals. However as fairly new concepts, research has yet to clearly identify the factors that may contribute to the formation of these stereotypes. Using a national...
Show moreThe racial typification of crime refers to the extent to which crime is represented as a Black phenomenon. Additionally, the ethnic typification of crime, where crime is represented as a Latino phenomenon, has received recent attention. Research on these concepts has found them to be predictive of punitive attitudes toward criminals. However as fairly new concepts, research has yet to clearly identify the factors that may contribute to the formation of these stereotypes. Using a national sample, this paper evaluates whether three potential factors influence attitudes that express the racial/ethnic typification of crime: symbolic or modern racism, media exposure and consumption, and inter-group contact. The results reveal that group contact is the only consistent predictor of both the racial and ethnic typification of crime; group contact is positively associated with the racial and ethnic typification of crime. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.
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Date Issued: 2012
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-4869
Format: Thesis

Title: Neighborhood Structural Disadvantage, Gaining Peer Respect, and Adolescent Male Sexual Activity: An Oppositional Culture Model.
Creator: Jensen, Elise M. (Elise Maria), Stewart, Eric A., Brewster, Karin L., Mears, Daniel P., College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: Prior research on neighborhood effects has focused on structural characteristics such as socioeconomic disadvantage, ethnic heterogeneity, and residential instability, giving less attention to the cultural factors that may influence adolescent behaviors. One of the prominent studies on oppositional culture was conducted by Elijah Anderson (1990, 1999). He observed that structural conditions in disadvantaged neighborhoods created an oppositional culture that endorsed negative behaviors such as...
Show morePrior research on neighborhood effects has focused on structural characteristics such as socioeconomic disadvantage, ethnic heterogeneity, and residential instability, giving less attention to the cultural factors that may influence adolescent behaviors. One of the prominent studies on oppositional culture was conducted by Elijah Anderson (1990, 1999). He observed that structural conditions in disadvantaged neighborhoods created an oppositional culture that endorsed negative behaviors such as violence and early sexual activity. Most research has examined how gaining respect--a key aspect of the oppositional culture--leads to violence, but it has not explored adolescent male sexual activity as an outcome. This research will fill a void in the literature by addressing four research questions. The first two questions will assess whether gaining respect from peers is a significant predictor of adolescent male sexual activity and whether it varies by race. The second set of questions will assess whether the proposed effect of gaining respect from peers on adolescent male sexual activity is moderated by neighborhood disadvantage and whether it varies by race. Using data for male adolescents from Waves I and II of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (AddHealth), the results showed that the need to gain peer respect increased the likelihood of adolescent males becoming sexually active, but there were no significant racial differences in this relationship. Further, gaining peer respect's effect on adolescent male sexual behaviors was not stronger in neighborhoods with higher levels of disadvantage, nor were there significant race differences. Overall, there was limited support observed for the oppositional culture perspective.
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Date Issued: 2011
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-4929
Format: Thesis

Title: Platelet Monoamine Oxidase Activity & Antisocial Behaviors: A Multi-Faceted Meta-Analysis.
Creator: Ratchford, Marie, Beaver, Kevin M., Stewart, Eric, Bacon, Sarah, College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: Platelet monoamine oxidase (MAO) activity levels have been connected to a wide variety of antisocial behavioral outcomes. Most notably, platelet MAO has been associated with alcohol dependence, aggression, impulsive/risky behavior, and psychopathy. However, no one has sought to synthesize the extant literature to ascertain the current standing of the relationship. These analyses seek to address this deficit within the literature by examining the relationship between platelet MAO and the...
Show morePlatelet monoamine oxidase (MAO) activity levels have been connected to a wide variety of antisocial behavioral outcomes. Most notably, platelet MAO has been associated with alcohol dependence, aggression, impulsive/risky behavior, and psychopathy. However, no one has sought to synthesize the extant literature to ascertain the current standing of the relationship. These analyses seek to address this deficit within the literature by examining the relationship between platelet MAO and the aforementioned antisocial outcomes. By estimating these subsets within the published literature an overall view of the relationship, as it currently stands, is formed. It was initially hypothesize that low platelet MAO activity levels would consistently predict antisocial behaviors. However, one empirically examined, and while accounting for possible unpublished studies, the relationship appears less predictive and stable then initially believed. The results of these analyses are preliminary and further research should be conducted to determine the true nature of the relationship.
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Date Issued: 2009
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-2116
Format: Thesis

Title: Sex Crime and Punishment: An Analysis of Sex Offender Sentencing in Florida.
Creator: Shields, Ryan T., Mears, Daniel P., Radey, Melissa, Hightower, Patricia Y. Warren, Bales, William, College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: During the past two decades, policy-makers, members of the media and the general public have identified sex offending as a persistent social problem. Indeed, a wealth of get-tough legislation has been enacted to enhance punishment and closely monitor convicted sex offenders. Scholars have directed their efforts at understanding sex offending and sex crime policy. Much of this research is focused on what happens to sex offenders once they return to a community (e.g., registration and community...
Show moreDuring the past two decades, policy-makers, members of the media and the general public have identified sex offending as a persistent social problem. Indeed, a wealth of get-tough legislation has been enacted to enhance punishment and closely monitor convicted sex offenders. Scholars have directed their efforts at understanding sex offending and sex crime policy. Much of this research is focused on what happens to sex offenders once they return to a community (e.g., registration and community notification, residence restrictions). Few studies have examined sex offender punishment. This gap in the literature is notable, given the enhanced focus on sex offenders and how they are punished. The general public has argued that however sex offenders are currently punished, it is "not enough." Yet, few studies have explored sex offender punishment with regard to official sentencing. Thus, the goal of this dissertation is to advance sex offender scholarship by examining the sentencing of sex offenders in Florida. Using sentencing data from the Florida Department of Corrections, several questions centered on sex offender sentencing were examined. First, which punishment philosophy is driving sex offender punishment, and how have punishment approaches changed over time? Using Florida as a backdrop, how are sex offenders sentenced and how has that approach changed over time? What is the role of offender race and ethnicity in sentencing sex offenders? Finally, what is the effect of county racial and ethnic composition on sex offender sentencing? Results show that sex offender punishment practices are grounded in incapacitation and retribution frameworks. Indeed, evidence from Florida suggests that in recent years, sex offenders are more likely to go to prison and less likely to be sentenced to community sanctions, such as probation or community control. Further analyses examined the effect of offender race and ethnicity on sentencing outcomes and found that young adult and middle-aged black sex offenders are more likely to be incarcerated than their white counterparts. However, elderly white sex offenders are more likely to be incarcerated than their black counterparts. Finally, the relationship between county racial and ethnic composition and decision to incarcerate was examined. Results indicate that counties with larger populations of Black and Hispanic residents are less likely to sentence sex offenders to incarceration. Implications for theory and research are discussed.
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Date Issued: 2013
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-8019
Format: Thesis

Title: Controlling Other People's Children: Racial Typification of Delinquency and Whites' Views About Juvenile Justice.
Creator: Pickett, Justin, Chiricos, Ted, Taylor, John, Mears, Daniel P., Stewart, Eric A., College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: The juvenile justice system was founded on and, until recently, developed around the idea that society should afford delinquents more leniency and rehabilitative care than adult criminals because of their lower levels of physical and cognitive development, and thus diminished culpability for law violations and higher amenability to treatment. The past four decades, however, have witnessed a sustained movement to recriminalize delinquency through the enactment of policies that treat juvenile...
Show moreThe juvenile justice system was founded on and, until recently, developed around the idea that society should afford delinquents more leniency and rehabilitative care than adult criminals because of their lower levels of physical and cognitive development, and thus diminished culpability for law violations and higher amenability to treatment. The past four decades, however, have witnessed a sustained movement to recriminalize delinquency through the enactment of policies that treat juvenile offenders more like their adult counterparts. Barry Feld (1999, 2003) and others have argued that this punitive turn in juvenile justice is in part a result of the racialization of delinquency in the post-civil rights era. This study provides the first test of the key assumption underlying this thesis, namely that whites' support for getting tough with juvenile offenders is in part tied to racialized views of youth crime. Using national survey data collected in 2010, I examine whether the racial typification of delinquency is related to views about juvenile justice polices. Specifically, the analyses evaluate whether the perception that blacks commit a larger proportion of juvenile crime than whites is associated with (1) punitive attitudes toward juvenile offenders, (2) preferences for more punitive delinquency prevention policies, and (3) support for providing rehabilitation and treatment programs to youthful offenders. I also test the assumption underlying research on the relationship between modern or symbolic racism and views about crime policy that racial resentment is related to punitiveness because racists typify crime as a black phenomenon (see Unnever and Cullen, 2009; 2010). The results support Feld's argument and show that the perception that blacks commit a larger proportion of juvenile crime in comparison to whites is positively related to both punitive attitudes toward juvenile offenders and preferences for more punitive delinquency prevention policies. Additionally, and controlling for punitiveness, racial typification of delinquency is negatively related to support for juvenile rehabilitation. However, I find no evidence that racial typification of delinquency interacts with racial resentment to influence views about juvenile justice. The implications of the findings are discussed.
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Date Issued: 2011
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-5904
Format: Thesis

Title: Prison Experiences, Social Ties, and Inmate Behavior: Examining Visitation and Its Effects on Incarceration and Reentry Outcomes.
Creator: Cochran, Joshua C., Mears, Daniel P., Radey, Melissa, Bales, William D., Siennick, Sonja E., Stewart, Eric A., College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: A large body of scholarship has focused on the factors that lead to improved prison social order and prisoner reentry outcomes. Research suggests that one such factor, social ties, are especially salient for helping individuals manage the myriad of challenges they face during incarceration and during the transition back into society. For example, social ties can help inmates cope with strain (Sykes 1958; Adams 1992), they can exert informal social control (Sampson and Laub 1993), they can...
Show moreA large body of scholarship has focused on the factors that lead to improved prison social order and prisoner reentry outcomes. Research suggests that one such factor, social ties, are especially salient for helping individuals manage the myriad of challenges they face during incarceration and during the transition back into society. For example, social ties can help inmates cope with strain (Sykes 1958; Adams 1992), they can exert informal social control (Sampson and Laub 1993), they can help offset negative social stigma (Pager 2003; Uggen et al. 2004), and they can assist inmates with the practical challenges associated with reintegration back into society and after release from prison (Petersilia 2003; Visher and Travis 2003; Maruna and Immarigeon 2004; Naser and La Vigne 2006; Berg and Huebner 2011). This diverse body of research has spurred scholars to examine how the maintenance of social ties during prison contributes to in-prison and reentry outcomes (Wolff and Draine 2004; Naser and La Vigne 2006; Cobbina et al. 2012). To this end, scholars have focused on inmate visitation because it provides access to social ties during incarceration (e.g., Ohlin 1951; Glaser 1964; Holt and Miller 1972; Hairston 1988; Bales and Mears 2008; Siennick et al. 2013). Indeed, with few exceptions, visitation provides the only opportunity for inmates to have direct contact with family, friends, and community members. In so doing, it affords inmates some ability to preserve, develop, or sustain ties to social networks outside of prison, and to have sources of social capital on which to draw during and after incarceration. This dissertation contributes to scholarship on prison visitation, prison experiences, and social ties in several ways. First, it examines systematically the heterogeneity of prison visitation and advances a conceptual framework for theorizing, evaluating, and guiding visitation research. Second, it explores who is visited in prison by testing the relationship between a range of individual- and community-level factors and the frequency of visitation. Third, it explores the longitudinal patterns of visitation that inmates experience and assesses the extent to which these patterns are associated with in-prison misconduct. Fourth, and finally, it tests the effects of different visitation patterns on the likelihood of recidivism. Data for this dissertation were provided by the Florida Department of Corrections and include detailed information for all convicted felony offenders released from Florida prisons between 2000 and 2002. The data have several attributes that make them ideal for this study: they include inmates from multiple facilities across a single state, males and females, and large proportions of inmates from different racial and ethnic groups. Most importantly, and unusual in prison studies, the data contain comprehensive records of visitation events, which allow for analyses that can examine visitation experiences longitudinally. Analyses of the data point to several key findings. They highlight the heterogeneity inherent in inmate visitation, they identify several factors that are associated with visitation, and they underscore the salience of visitation for improving in-prison and post-release outcomes. More broadly, the findings underscore the need for more systematic analysis of prison experiences and their effects on prison social order and reentry. The dissertation concludes with a discussion of additional implications of the findings for theory, research, and policy.
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Date Issued: 2013
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-7751
Format: Thesis

Title: The Effects of Spatially Distal Prison Placements on Inmate Misconduct.
Creator: Lindsey, Andrea M., Mears, Daniel P., Stults, Brian J., Bales, William D., College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: Mass incarceration has led to an increased interest in prison experiences and, specifically, their effects on inmate behavior. Drawing on prior scholarship, this study examines whether the distance inmates are placed from their home communities influences their likelihood of committing in-prison misconduct. This study tests three hypotheses. The first hypothesis anticipates that distally placed inmates will engage in more in-prison misconduct. The second hypothesis expects that the effect of...
Show moreMass incarceration has led to an increased interest in prison experiences and, specifically, their effects on inmate behavior. Drawing on prior scholarship, this study examines whether the distance inmates are placed from their home communities influences their likelihood of committing in-prison misconduct. This study tests three hypotheses. The first hypothesis anticipates that distally placed inmates will engage in more in-prison misconduct. The second hypothesis expects that the effect of distance on misconduct will be greater for younger inmates. Finally, the third hypothesis predicts that social ties, measured by visitation, will mediate the relationship between distance and misconduct. These hypotheses are tested using negative binomial regression modeling and data from the Florida Department of Corrections. The models indicate a curvilinear relationship between prison distance and in-prison misconduct. That is, the individuals incarcerated close to or far from their home communities are the least likely to commit infractions. In addition, visitation only moderately diminishes this effect. Finally, the effect of prison distance on misconduct is greater for younger inmates.
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Date Issued: 2014
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-9032
Format: Thesis

Title: Unpacking the Sources of Racial Disparities in U.S. Imprisonment Rates: A County-Level Assessment of Historical Origins and Contemporary Social, Economic, and Political Conditions.
Creator: Arnio, Ashley N., Baumer, Eric P., Ihlanfeldt, Keith R., Stewart, Eric A., Warren, Patricia Y., College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: Relatively neglected in the literature on law and society has been the growing racial disparity in imprisonment observed during the era of mass imprisonment and the considerable geographic variation in the magnitude of this disparity. While some scholars have explored possible explanations for the observed racial disproportionalities during this period, they have focused on state-level patterns that mask significant within-state variation in the outcome. What is more, although the few...
Show moreRelatively neglected in the literature on law and society has been the growing racial disparity in imprisonment observed during the era of mass imprisonment and the considerable geographic variation in the magnitude of this disparity. While some scholars have explored possible explanations for the observed racial disproportionalities during this period, they have focused on state-level patterns that mask significant within-state variation in the outcome. What is more, although the few published studies examining contemporary racial disparities in imprisonment rates have documented several key correlates, they have not devoted systematic attention to the role of history in explaining the observed patterns. This dissertation advances the theoretical and empirical literature on race and social control by examining both the historical origins and more localized social, economic, and political conditions that may explain racial disparities in imprisonment observed during the past several decades. Specifically, the study develops and tests models of between- and within-county variation in the black-white imprisonment gap from the early 1980s through the mid-2000s. The dissertation is organized around three overarching empirical questions related to county-level black-white disparities in prison admission rates. First, what is the nature of the spatial distribution of county-level racial disparities in prison admission rates observed during the contemporary era? Second, which social, economic, and political factors are most germane for explaining variation in racial disparities across American counties (within states) and over time? Finally, are contemporary racial disparities in imprisonment observed since the 1980s also a reflection of historically embedded conditions (i.e., state lynching rates and historical levels of state racial disparities in imprisonment)? These questions were examined using a panel dataset constructed to capture historical context and contemporary conditions for much of the mass imprisonment era. The key dependent variable--the black-white gap in prison admission rates (the natural log of the non-Hispanic white imprisonment rate subtracted from the natural log of the non-Hispanic black imprisonment rate)--was constructed using geocoded data on prison admissions from the National Corrections Reporting Program (NCRP) and population data from the U.S. Census Bureau. The two race-specific components used to compute this measure also were considered as outcomes to inform the findings observed for the black-white gap in prison admission rates. Using methods of exploratory spatial data analysis, significant univariate spatial dependence of racial disparities in imprisonment was observed. However, subsequent analyses indicated that this dependence was explained by the spatial distribution of theoretically germane explanatory variables. Multilevel mixed model regressions revealed significant variation in the black-white gap in prison admission rates during the era of mass incarceration both across and within counties. Drawing from the theoretical literature, several hypotheses were posed to explain this variability. The results indicated some support for hypotheses drawn from perspectives of interracial contact, economic threat, and religious fundamentalism, but no support for those relating to the influence of conservative political environments on racial disparities in post-arrest criminal justice processing. More specifically, interracial contact and relative economic conditions were found to have important implications for post-arrest decision-making. Counties with relatively large and growing white populations exhibited significant increases in the prison admission rates of blacks, and decreases in the rates of white imprisonment, yielding greater black-white disparities. Additionally, the black-white imprisonment gap was found to be significantly larger where black economic disadvantage was more prominent than white disadvantage. The results also suggest that growing racial segregation in housing contributed to increased levels of imprisonment of blacks relative to whites, a finding consistent with notions that segregation promotes anti-black effect, which is then translated into greater social control against blacks. Finally, no support was found for hypotheses drawn from partisan political perspectives; conservative political environments at the state-level were not found to play a significant role in explaining county-variation in black-white disparities in prison admission rates. Findings from the analysis incorporating historical measures of social control yielded no support for the idea that the geographic distribution of contemporary imprisonment rates parallel historical lynching patterns. However, the evidence does suggest that contemporary racial disparities may be a continuation of past imprisonment patterns. Specifically, counties nested within states that exhibited greater black-white imprisonment rates in 1960 were found to have significantly greater black-white disparities during the contemporary era. This appears to be a function of relatively low white imprisonment rates where black and white imprisonment rates historically were more equal. Future research points to the need for greater attention to the national-level influences and local political conditions affecting post-arrest criminal justice decision-making. Further, while it appears that historically rooted conditions may be relevant for explaining contemporary racial disparities, focused examination of how the social control of blacks has transformed throughout penal reform is necessary.
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Date Issued: 2014
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-8934
Format: Thesis

Title: Reciprocal Irresponsibility and the Holocaust: A Theoretical Model of Organizational Behavior and Administrative Massacres.
Creator: Dallier, Douglas J., Maier-Katkin, Dan, Twiss, Sumner, Bullington, Bruce, Greek, Cecil, College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: Reciprocal irresponsibility theory explains the paradoxical behavior of ordinary, non-sadistic individuals operating within organizations that pursue injurious, malevolent, and/or criminal ends. This empirically grounded criminological theory was developed through use of a case analysis methodology focused on actors involved in perpetrating and facilitating the 'Final Solution'. Individual-level explanations concerned with psychopathy or fundamental immorality are commonly forwarded as...
Show moreReciprocal irresponsibility theory explains the paradoxical behavior of ordinary, non-sadistic individuals operating within organizations that pursue injurious, malevolent, and/or criminal ends. This empirically grounded criminological theory was developed through use of a case analysis methodology focused on actors involved in perpetrating and facilitating the 'Final Solution'. Individual-level explanations concerned with psychopathy or fundamental immorality are commonly forwarded as explanations of injurious historical calamities. However, the breadth of participation in malevolent mass social movements, exemplified by the Holocaust, renders these types of individual-level explanations causally implausible. In response, reciprocal irresponsibility theory explains the contributory behavior of low-level, working-class individuals on an organizational rather than an individual-level. Reciprocal irresponsibility theory is concerned with the relationships among individuals working within hierarchical organizations, and is explained as follows. Relationships exist within every organization between those considered 'superiors', those in intermediary positions, and those considered 'subordinates'. Within a hierarchical chain of command, 'superiors' are relieved of a sense of responsibility for crimes committed and harms inflicted when they forward orders to subordinates, and thus are not personally involved in the implementation. Individuals in subordinate roles are also relieved of a sense of responsibility because they are merely 'following orders'. An extended network of intermediaries only serves to exacerbate the resultant isolation of all actors from feelings of personal responsibility towards malevolent group ends. Thus, the compartmentalized nature of hierarchical organizations works to shield individuals on all levels from a sense of responsibility concerning their contributions towards criminal and injurious organizational outcomes. This is the consequence of an elementary social dynamic, reciprocal irresponsibility, that insulates both 'superiors', 'intermediaries', and 'subordinates' from engaging in actions that can be considered to emanate from the imposition of their free will. Thus, the organization is free to pursue malevolent ends all-the-while those within it retain conventional social ties. Importantly, this explanation is not contingent upon the existence of individual-level pathologies, insulating it from the explanatory implausibility that plagues theories at that level, given the breadth of participation in these types of socially injurious events.
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Date Issued: 2010
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-7122
Format: Thesis

Title: Contingencies in the Long-Term Impact of Work on Crime Among Youth.
Creator: Wang, Shun-Yung Kevin, Kleck, Gary, Benson, Bruce, Bales, William, College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: The impact of jobs on working American youth has not been examined thoroughly and the mechanism between employment and delinquency is not fully understood. Many prior studies that addressed the issue of youth employment and crime emphasized one variable, work intensity, and left plenty of unknown pieces in this puzzle. This study introduces the concept of 'ladder jobs' that arguably deter job holders from committing delinquent and criminal behaviors. In this dissertation, 'ladder jobs' are...
Show moreThe impact of jobs on working American youth has not been examined thoroughly and the mechanism between employment and delinquency is not fully understood. Many prior studies that addressed the issue of youth employment and crime emphasized one variable, work intensity, and left plenty of unknown pieces in this puzzle. This study introduces the concept of 'ladder jobs' that arguably deter job holders from committing delinquent and criminal behaviors. In this dissertation, 'ladder jobs' are those with significant upward-moving occupational positions on a status ladder, and, to adolescents, these jobs encompass potential to be the start of an attractive career. Three promising mediating factors, job income, job stability, and parental control, are also examined. Data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 97 and structural equation modeling are used to test hypotheses. Results indicate that 'ladder jobs' demonstrated a significant crime-decreasing effect, while employment exhibited a crime-increasing effect. In addition, the magnitude rate of 'ladder jobs' versus employment increased as youth aged; that is, the advantages of 'ladder jobs' gradually outweigh the disadvantages of employment in the sense of crime prevention. Furthermore, job income partially mediates the crime-increasing effect of employment on delinquency, and job stability partially mediates the crime-decreasing effect of 'ladder jobs' on delinquency. However, parental control, which is measured as direct supervision, does not play a mediating role between employment and delinquency. In sum, from a crime-prevention standpoint, a job that pays little now, but improves the chances of a long-term career appears to better than a dead-end job that pays comparatively well in the short-term. The findings also imply that the discussions of employment and of internships among youth should address the importance of future-oriented feature of occupations, and not just the immediate monetary gains from the employment.
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Date Issued: 2010
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-7249
Format: Thesis

Title: A Closer Look at Home Foreclosures and Crime: Examining the Criminal Consequences of Home Foreclosure on Houston Neighborhoods.
Creator: Harris, Paul Elisha, Baumer, Eric, Sirmans, Stacey, Stults, Brian, College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: The extraordinary breadth of the current home foreclosure crisis has made it a regularly discussed topic across the United States. Few cities can claim they have been unaffected by it as 94 of the nation's 100 largest metropolitan areas experienced an increase in home foreclosures in 2008. Such a rise in home foreclosure has left many curious about consequences that may appear in the wake of the largest crisis of this kind in American history. The purpose of this project is to better...
Show moreThe extraordinary breadth of the current home foreclosure crisis has made it a regularly discussed topic across the United States. Few cities can claim they have been unaffected by it as 94 of the nation's 100 largest metropolitan areas experienced an increase in home foreclosures in 2008. Such a rise in home foreclosure has left many curious about consequences that may appear in the wake of the largest crisis of this kind in American history. The purpose of this project is to better understand some of the potential criminal consequences of home foreclosure. In an attempt to answer this question, this study poses two primary research questions. The first: does a change in home foreclosures in a given neighborhood lead to an increase in crime in said neighborhood? And, in an effort to better understand the relationship between home foreclosures and crime, what other variables condition the influence of home foreclosures on crime, if any? Past theory and research suggest social disorganization and disorder theories to be the most appropriate to address this phenomenon. The merits of strain theories are discussed and the concept of suburban insulation is introduced. Finally, this study offers a preliminary look at how home foreclosures are influencing crime in Houston, Texas communities. Home foreclosure, crime, and other demographic data from Houston during the years 2005-2008 were compiled. Results from analyses employing dynamic panel models with an Arellano-Bond estimator indicate that changes in rates of home foreclosure over time do have a significant positive relationship with changes in the rates of total crime. Nonetheless, this influence is substantively minor. Lastly, higher levels of urbanization and economic disadvantage negatively impacted the influence of home foreclosures on crime.
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Date Issued: 2011
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-4239
Format: Thesis

Title: Exploring the Simultaneous Influences of Social Threat and Intergroup Contact on Racial Attitudes: Germany as a Case Study.
Creator: Cochran, Joshua, Baumer, Eric, Mears, Dan, Stults, Brian, College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: Social threat theory is a commonly used framework to explain the positive relationship between minority group size and discriminatory attitudes by members of the dominant group. A contrasting theory put forth in Allport's (1954) contact hypothesis suggests the opposite relationship; that growth in minority group size will decrease racial tension by increasing interracial contact, which works to dispel negative racial stereotypes. Using Germany as a case study, this paper assesses first the...
Show moreSocial threat theory is a commonly used framework to explain the positive relationship between minority group size and discriminatory attitudes by members of the dominant group. A contrasting theory put forth in Allport's (1954) contact hypothesis suggests the opposite relationship; that growth in minority group size will decrease racial tension by increasing interracial contact, which works to dispel negative racial stereotypes. Using Germany as a case study, this paper assesses first the separate and then the simultaneous influences of perceived threat and intergroup contact on the relationship between minority group size and discriminatory attitudes, with a secondary focus as to how citizen age conditions these and other predicting factors of discrimination. Findings from this study reveal that both intergroup contact and dominant group perceptions of threat may mediate the relationship between minority group size and discrimination, when measures of actual and citizen-perceived minority population percentages are taken into account. Additionally, this paper presents evidence of stark generational differences in levels of discrimination among German citizens, and provides support for the idea that citizen age partly conditions what is significant in predicting discriminatory attitudes.
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Date Issued: 2010
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-3573
Format: Thesis

Title: To Plea or Not to Plea: The Role of the Courtroom Workgroup in Certain and Efficient Felony Case Processing.
Creator: Metcalfe, Christi, Gertz, Marc G., Bowman, James S., Chiricos, Ted, Hay, Carter, College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: Theory and research suggests that criminal courts operate as organized communities, where both bureaucratic influences and court actor action systems play an important role in case processing (Eisenstein & Jacob, 1977; Eisenstein, Flemming, & Nardulli, 1988; Flemming, Nardulli, & Eisenstein, 1992; Nardulli, Eisenstein, & Flemming, 1988; Ulmer, 1997). Specifically, these factors are expected to impact operational certainty within the courthouse and the efficient management of cases (Heumann,...
Show moreTheory and research suggests that criminal courts operate as organized communities, where both bureaucratic influences and court actor action systems play an important role in case processing (Eisenstein & Jacob, 1977; Eisenstein, Flemming, & Nardulli, 1988; Flemming, Nardulli, & Eisenstein, 1992; Nardulli, Eisenstein, & Flemming, 1988; Ulmer, 1997). Specifically, these factors are expected to impact operational certainty within the courthouse and the efficient management of cases (Heumann, 1981; Pollitz Worden, 1990; Skolnick, 1967; Thompson, 197). While a significant amount of research focuses on the external and internal organizational influences placed on criminal courts, less attention has been devoted to the effect of workgroup interaction and influence (Hoskins Haynes, Ruback, & Cusick, 2010; Nardulli et al., 1988; Pollitz Worden, 1995). In order to address this issue, the current study uses a sample of felony plea and trial cases from a courthouse in the Southeast to assess the impact of courtroom actors on certainty and efficiency in case processing, operationalized as the decision to plea and time from arrest to case disposition. The study (1) determines the extent to which familiarity, similarity, and influence among the judge, prosecutor, and defense attorney impact certainty and efficiency, (2) assesses whether there is variation in certainty and efficiency of case processing across actors, and (3) evaluates the impact of individual court actor characteristics on variation in case processing. Attending to the limitations of prior research, the study quantifies court actor interaction and influence, focuses on an earlier phase of case processing, links court actors to their respective cases, and determines the contribution of court actors to the guilty plea system. The findings indicate that court actor familiarity and experience have important effects on certainty and efficiency in case processing. Additionally, variation in the decision to plea and time to disposition is detected across judges, prosecutors, and defense attorneys, and court actor influence is able to explain some of this variation. Contrary to expectations, the findings reveal that familiarity and influence of defense attorneys can hinder certain and efficient case processing. The implications of these findings and potential avenues for future research are discussed.
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Date Issued: 2014
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-9049
Format: Thesis

Title: Social Threat and Punitiveness: A Reconceptualization of Punishment.
Creator: Nadel, Melissa R., Bales, William, Chiricos, Ted, Stults, Brian, College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: As the incarceration rate expanded in the late 20th century, social threat theory was increasingly utilized to explain this growing punishment trend. While primarily finding support, this research has gone only so far as to examine the incarceration decision and sentencing severity. It is a common practice throughout the United States to employ what is known as gaintime in order to reduce an offender's actual time served. As a result, sentence length frequently does not reflect the true...
Show moreAs the incarceration rate expanded in the late 20th century, social threat theory was increasingly utilized to explain this growing punishment trend. While primarily finding support, this research has gone only so far as to examine the incarceration decision and sentencing severity. It is a common practice throughout the United States to employ what is known as gaintime in order to reduce an offender's actual time served. As a result, sentence length frequently does not reflect the true punishment experienced. This study seeks to assess the role of racial, ethnic, and economic threat in terms of the previously unutilized measure of the punishment experienced, rather than the punishment prescribed. By means of HLM analysis, dynamic measures of percent black, percent Hispanic, and percent unemployed within Florida's 67 counties were assessed in terms of their relationship to individual level outcomes of sentence length, time served, and percent of sentence served for all Florida inmates admitted to prison between 1990 and 2010. While there were significant threat effects found for the primary outcomes of interest, they were in an unexpected negative direction. These results necessitate further exploration of both the processes by which growth in threat groups affects punishment outcomes, and also the aspect of actual time served in prison as a separate form of social control in the threat relationship.
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Date Issued: 2014
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-9056
Format: Thesis

Title: The Influence of Antisocial Behavior on the Life Course: An Evolutionary Criminology Approach.
Creator: Nedelec, Joseph L., Beaver, Kevin M., Eckel, Lisa A., Baumer, Eric P., Stewart, Eric A., College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: The effects of delinquency and criminal behaviors during early adolescence on events over the life course have been well-established in the criminological research. A segment of this research has revealed that the apparent causal relationship between delinquency and later life course events may be due to a third exogenous confounding variable, namely: genetics. While biosocial research has illuminated the need to include recognition of the proportional influence of genetic factors and...
Show moreThe effects of delinquency and criminal behaviors during early adolescence on events over the life course have been well-established in the criminological research. A segment of this research has revealed that the apparent causal relationship between delinquency and later life course events may be due to a third exogenous confounding variable, namely: genetics. While biosocial research has illuminated the need to include recognition of the proportional influence of genetic factors and environmental factors the research lacks an overarching theoretical framework that allows precision in research and guidance for future research. An evolutionary approach may represent such a framework. Employing data from a large national sample of sibling pairs, this project seeks to assess this assertion by analyzing the influence of antisocial behaviors during adolescence on sexual and reproductive strategies over the life course. Three key findings emerged from the analyses. First, the majority of items tapping antisocial behavior and delinquency in adolescence, as well as measures of sexual, reproductive, and relationship behaviors in adulthood were shown to be influenced primarily by genetic and nonshared environmental factors. Second, multivariate analyses revealed that antisocial conduct during adolescence has an effect on sexual/reproductive outcomes in adulthood. However, when genetically sensitive methodologies are employed the association is significantly diminished. Third, even after controlling for the influence of shared genetic factors and shared environmental factors some forms of antisocial behavior in adolescence had an effect on sexual/reproductive behaviors across the life course. The findings are discussed within the context of life history theory and evolutionary psychology.
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Date Issued: 2013
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-7527
Format: Thesis

Title: Gene-Environment Interactions in the Prediction of Antisocial Phenotypes: A Test of Integrated Systems Theory.
Creator: Ratchford, Marie Angela, Beaver, Kevin M., Barrett, Anne, Stewart, Eric, Hightower, Patricia Warren, College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: Dr. Matthew Robinson (2004) proposed a new inclusive theory of human criminal behavior, entitled Integrated Systems Theory. This theory put forth by Robinson (2004) and later Robinson and Beaver (2009), hypothesizes that human behavior is far too complex for any one theory or any one behavioral discipline to accurately predict and examine; rather the study of human behavior should include factors from multiple theories and disciplines. Integrated Systems Theory hypothesizes that human...
Show moreDr. Matthew Robinson (2004) proposed a new inclusive theory of human criminal behavior, entitled Integrated Systems Theory. This theory put forth by Robinson (2004) and later Robinson and Beaver (2009), hypothesizes that human behavior is far too complex for any one theory or any one behavioral discipline to accurately predict and examine; rather the study of human behavior should include factors from multiple theories and disciplines. Integrated Systems Theory hypothesizes that human behavior is influenced by multiple factors across the life course, both biological and environmental. These proposed factors are exhaustive and include six different levels of influence, the cellular level, the organ level, the organism level, the group level, the community level, and the societal level. These factors include, but are not limited to, deviant peers, brain development, toxin exposure, genetic functioning, neighborhood characteristics, family structure, routine activities, and gender and racial inequality across the societal level. Integrated System Theory further expounds upon its hypotheses by positing that while these various factors all influence behavioral development, one key relationship also plays an important role, the interplay between genes and environment. It hypothesizes that all human behaviors are the result of interactions between genes and the environments that an individual is exposed to across the life course (Robinson, 2004; Robinson & Beaver, 2009). Currently, due to the exhaustive nature of this theory no empirical study has yet sought to test its various tenants. Therefore, this dissertation seeks to examine facets of this theory by focusing on the role played by both biological and social factors in the prediction of antisocial phenotypes. Focusing on the risks of prefrontal cortex development, cumulative genetic risk, deviant peers, maternal risk, socioeconomic status, school attachment, and neighborhood disadvantage, the influence of these contributors upon human behavior will be examined. Further, gene-environment interaction terms will be developed between cumulative genetic risk and the chosen environmental risks, to determine if these five different gene-environment interaction terms are strong contributors to antisocial phenotypes. To determine the relationship between these environmental and genetic factors in influencing human behavior, a range of antisocial outcomes will be predicted within negative binomial models. Outcomes include drug abuse, violent crime, property crime, and arrest rates. This dissertation seeks to determine if tenants of the Integrated Systems Theory are supported or refuted by the data and analyses. Results generated within the analyses indicated partial support for Integrated Systems Theory. Within the models brain development played a significant role in behavioral development. The importance of direct environmental effects were also generally supported within the data; deviant peer and school attachment emerged as some of the more robust environment contributors to antisocial phenotypes. Direct genetic effect failed to display consistent predictive power across the various negative outcomes. The importance of gene-environment interplay was generally supported within the models as well, especially when interacting with deviant peers and in the prediction of drug abuse and arrests rates. The meaning of the results, potential limitations, and contribution to the literature are discussed.
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Date Issued: 2013
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-7566
Format: Thesis

Title: Inequality of Residential Opportunity: The Role of Ecological Processes in Explaining Crime Differentials Between Black and White Neighborhoods.
Creator: Hasbrouck, Matthew B., Stults, Brian J., Miles, Rebecca, Baumer, Eric P., Stewart, Eric A., College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: Prior neighborhood crime research has sought to explain differences in crime between black and white communities using such criminological theories as social disorganization and concentrated disadvantage. While supportive in their findings, these perspectives did not explain the entirety of neighborhood crime differences. The current study attempts to add to this literature by integrating concepts from the larger urban sociological tradition from which criminology grew out of, such as spatial...
Show morePrior neighborhood crime research has sought to explain differences in crime between black and white communities using such criminological theories as social disorganization and concentrated disadvantage. While supportive in their findings, these perspectives did not explain the entirety of neighborhood crime differences. The current study attempts to add to this literature by integrating concepts from the larger urban sociological tradition from which criminology grew out of, such as spatial assimilation and place stratification. Research in this tradition has found that African Americans have not been able to translate higher levels of income into more desirable communities, including those with low crime rates, due to a dual housing market steering them away from the best residential areas in a city. By including city level measures that could either eliminate or dampen the efforts of these channeling processes, the hierarchical linear models used found support for variations in place stratification across urban and suburban areas. However, convergence in crime levels for white and black communities was dependent on the social class of the community and crime type.
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Date Issued: 2014
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-8800
Format: Thesis

Title: Illegal Immigrant Threat and Popular Support for Social Control Measures.
Creator: Stupi, Elizabeth K., Chiricos, Ted, Tillman, Kathryn, Kleck, Gary, Stults, Brian, College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: Social threat theory argues that the dominant group can be threatened in a variety of ways by minorities. Illegal immigrants are an example of one such group that has been described as posing a threat. Illegal immigrants have been identified by some as criminally, culturally, and economically problematic for native-born Americans. However, prior research on social threat has rarely examined perceptions regarding illegal immigrants. This research uses data from a telephone survey of a random...
Show moreSocial threat theory argues that the dominant group can be threatened in a variety of ways by minorities. Illegal immigrants are an example of one such group that has been described as posing a threat. Illegal immigrants have been identified by some as criminally, culturally, and economically problematic for native-born Americans. However, prior research on social threat has rarely examined perceptions regarding illegal immigrants. This research uses data from a telephone survey of a random sample of adults in the United States (N=1534) to test several of the propositions of social threat theory as they relate to illegal immigrants. Specifically, this study tests how contextual threat influences both perceptions of threat and punitive attitudes as well as how perceived threat affects support for punitive controls. Not only is this study one of the first to focus specifically on illegal immigrants, but it also examines multiple links in the theory's causal chain, making it perhaps the most thorough test to date. Overall, findings are supportive of social threat theory. Individuals who live in more threatening contexts, as indicated by a dynamic measure of the exposure of non-Latinos to Latinos, perceive more criminal, cultural, and economic threat from illegal immigrants. These individuals are also more likely to express support for both border and internal controls. Additionally, all types of perceived threat considered here are significant predictors of support for the punitive controls. Additional analyses suggest the effect of perceived threat may vary by subsample. Most notably, there is evidence of a ceiling effect for conservative respondents.
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Date Issued: 2013
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-7618
Format: Thesis

Title: The Viability of Nevada's Legal Brothels as Models for Regulation and Harm Reduction in Prostitution.
Creator: Rodgers, David H., Mears, Daniel, Siennick, Sonja, Bales, William, College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: There is evidence in the literature that regulation may be a more efficient means of harm reduction in prostitution than criminalization. However, prostitution is illegal everywhere in the United States except for eight counties in Nevada where regulated brothels are licensed. Studies indicate these brothels are effective at controlling the violence, sexually transmitted diseases, and community disorder typically associated with prostitution. What remains unknown is whether they deter demand...
Show moreThere is evidence in the literature that regulation may be a more efficient means of harm reduction in prostitution than criminalization. However, prostitution is illegal everywhere in the United States except for eight counties in Nevada where regulated brothels are licensed. Studies indicate these brothels are effective at controlling the violence, sexually transmitted diseases, and community disorder typically associated with prostitution. What remains unknown is whether they deter demand for illegal prostitution, which remains plagued by these harms. Comparisons of prostitution arrest rates among counties with and without brothels in Nevada, prostitution arrest rates among all U.S. states, and drug arrest rates among counties in Nevada were completed. While existing data are largely insufficient for evaluating the viability of Nevada's legal brothels as model alternatives to criminalization, it is clear that the brothels, which are located in Nevada's more rural areas, do not adequately address illegal prostitution in urban areas. Debate about the appropriateness of legalization will continue. Nevertheless, some consensus options, such as increasing access to resources for women trying to escape prostitution and emphasizing demand-side controls over supply-side controls, have emerged.
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Date Issued: 2010
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-1834
Format: Thesis

Title: Environmental Threat, Environmental Crime Salience, and Social Control.
Creator: Shelley, Tara O'Connor, Chiricos, Ted, Deyle, Robert, Kleck, Gary, College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: The research explores whether perceptions of environmental threat influence support for environmental controls. To fulfill this purpose, the research builds on social threat and social control theory, which initially emphasized the putative threat of minorities as a factor that can influence mechanisms of social control. I argue the relevance of threat for social control can be more broadly understood and that social threats can have a variety of origins. Indeed, there are a number of threats...
Show moreThe research explores whether perceptions of environmental threat influence support for environmental controls. To fulfill this purpose, the research builds on social threat and social control theory, which initially emphasized the putative threat of minorities as a factor that can influence mechanisms of social control. I argue the relevance of threat for social control can be more broadly understood and that social threats can have a variety of origins. Indeed, there are a number of threats that may be posed by various environmentally sensitive factors such as hazardous waste disposal, industrial pollution, and chemical spills. Using national survey data collected in the spring of 2002, I assess whether perceptions of environmental threats and environmental crime salience are related to support for social control. Since it is plausible that respondents can experience different dimensions of environmental threat, I examine three variations—threats perceived at the general or global level, threats that impact individual health and safety, and the proximity of environmental threats. I also consider two separate types of social control. The first examines support for criminal justice controls, while the second explores support for conservation/policy oriented forms of control. The research findings indicate that perceptions of environmental threat significantly increase support for environmental controls. More specifically, it appears that when environmental threats are proximate and personal, individuals are consistently more willing to endorse the use of punitive criminal justice controls. Conversely, people are not willing to support the use of punitive sanctions for general environmental threats that have no immediate or direct impact on them. In that context, conservation controls are consistently viewed as the appropriate form of control. The salience of environmental crime is also a consistent predictor of conservation and punitive controls.
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Date Issued: 2006
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-1780
Format: Thesis

Title: Crime Victim's Self-Protection.
Creator: Tark, Jongyeon, Kleck, Gary, Orcutt, James, Li, Spencer, College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: The impact of victim SP on the outcomes in a given criminal events has rarely been examined or fully understood. This study develops a new theory of victimization, which I will refer to as the Power Advantage Theory (PAT), that holds crime victimization is completed only when there are motivated offenders who have contact to victims and possess physical or psychological power advantage over the victims. Based on PAT, this study assesses the impact of 16 types of victim self protection (SP)...
Show moreThe impact of victim SP on the outcomes in a given criminal events has rarely been examined or fully understood. This study develops a new theory of victimization, which I will refer to as the Power Advantage Theory (PAT), that holds crime victimization is completed only when there are motivated offenders who have contact to victims and possess physical or psychological power advantage over the victims. Based on PAT, this study assesses the impact of 16 types of victim self protection (SP) actions on three types of outcomes of criminal incidents: whether the incident resulted in property loss, whether it resulted in injury to the victim, and whether it resulted in serious injury. Data on 27,595 personal contact crime incidents recorded in the National Crime Victimization Survey for 1992-2001 are used to estimate multivariate models of crime outcomes with logistic regression. Results indicate that self-protection in general reduces the likelihood of property loss and injury, compared to nonresistance. A variety of mostly forceful tactics, including resistance with a gun, appear to have the strongest effects reducing the risk of injury, though some of the findings were unstable due to the small numbers of sample cases of such resistance. The appearance, in past research, of resistance contributing to injury is found to be largely attributable to confusion concerning the sequence of SP actions and injury. In crimes where both occurred, injury followed SP in only 10 percent of the incidents. Combined with the fact that injuries following resistance are almost always relatively minor, victim resistance appears to be generally a wise course of action. In two auxiliary test, it was found that victims used forceful self-protection, especially weapon use and defensive gun use, in the most adverse circumstances and that victims' perceptions of the efficacy of SP were much more favorable than those implied by rates of actual post-SP injury although two measures were highly significantly correlated. These findings imply that actual effects of SP may be stronger than they appear to be in the previous study. Taken together, the results of three empirical tests generally support the hypotheses of PAT.
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Date Issued: 2005
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-1695
Format: Thesis

Title: The Effect of Incarceration and Neighborhoods on Attitudes Toward the Criminal Justice System.
Creator: Scully, Kristen L., Chiricos, Ted, Rasmussen, David, Clear, Todd, College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: This study looks at the impact of experience with the criminal justice system and attitudes towards the criminal justice system. It is the fist study to incorporate incarceration in one's neighborhood with race, concentrated disadvantage, victimization and perception of neighborhood problems in the explanation of attitudes toward the criminal justice system. To do this I use data from a community survey, crimes reported to the police, department of corrections data and census data all of...
Show moreThis study looks at the impact of experience with the criminal justice system and attitudes towards the criminal justice system. It is the fist study to incorporate incarceration in one's neighborhood with race, concentrated disadvantage, victimization and perception of neighborhood problems in the explanation of attitudes toward the criminal justice system. To do this I use data from a community survey, crimes reported to the police, department of corrections data and census data all of which have been previously collected for Tallahassee, Florida. Using a proportional grab technique I am able to give each individual a unique score on the neighborhood-level variables of crime, incarceration, concentrated disadvantage and mobility. With this I run an ordinary least squares regression finding that race, perception of neighborhood problems and percent of individuals incarcerated in one's neighborhood impact attitudes toward the criminal justice system. The most significant finding is that incarcerating individuals from a person's neighborhood generally leads to more positive attitudes. However, when a neighborhood has a very high level of incarceration, it can actually have a negative impact on person's attitudes toward the criminal justice system. This finding suggests that formal agents of control can have negative effects at the community level.
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Date Issued: 2005
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-1966
Format: Thesis

Title: Assessing the Impact of Prison Industries on Post-Release Employment and Recidivism of Florida Inmates.
Creator: Richardson, Robin L., Waldo, Gordon, Bales, William, Gertz, Marc, College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: The deskilling of labor and the loss of social networking has accounted for part of the crime problem in recent decades. Vocational training and other correctional programming is meant to reverse the effects of these problems by providing inmates with usable, legal, and employable skills. Over the last five to ten years, the role of rehabilitative services has become highly questionable. The lack of confidence in such services has led to a decline in the number and type of prison programming...
Show moreThe deskilling of labor and the loss of social networking has accounted for part of the crime problem in recent decades. Vocational training and other correctional programming is meant to reverse the effects of these problems by providing inmates with usable, legal, and employable skills. Over the last five to ten years, the role of rehabilitative services has become highly questionable. The lack of confidence in such services has led to a decline in the number and type of prison programming available to inmates. In addition, fiscal concerns on the part of privately owned correctional industries have sharpened this decline. This paper reports results of an evaluation performed on PRIDE Enterprises, one of the largest providers of privately operated inmate vocational training in Florida, in regards to its effect on inmates' post release employment and recidivism. This study found that working in the vocational program, PRIDE, significantly increases the likelihood of the participant being employed after release. This study also found that PRIDE has no direct effect on recidivism.
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Date Issued: 2005
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-1864
Format: Thesis

Title: An Assessment of Substance Abuse Treatment Programs in Florida'S Correctional Institutions for Women.
Creator: Waid, Courtney A. (Courtney Ann), Blomberg, Thomas G., Carbonell, Joyce L., Bales, William D., College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: With the "get-tough" stance of the past three decades shaping the landscape of U.S. penal policy, the rate of female incarceration has increased at a rate higher than that for males since the early 1980s (Pollock, 2002). At the turn of the 21st century, 60% of women admitted to prison, compared to 41% of male offenders, were incarcerated for drug-related offenses (Chesney-Lind, 2002; Pollock, 2002). Given this, an understanding of what causes females to relapse and/or recidivate is critical...
Show moreWith the "get-tough" stance of the past three decades shaping the landscape of U.S. penal policy, the rate of female incarceration has increased at a rate higher than that for males since the early 1980s (Pollock, 2002). At the turn of the 21st century, 60% of women admitted to prison, compared to 41% of male offenders, were incarcerated for drug-related offenses (Chesney-Lind, 2002; Pollock, 2002). Given this, an understanding of what causes females to relapse and/or recidivate is critical in the development and implementation of appropriate correctional substance abuse treatment. Interest in the efficacy of correctional substance abuse treatment programming has resurfaced after a period of years in which the doctrine of "nothing works" in offender rehabilitation was accepted. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the efficacy of substance abuse treatment programs operative for female inmates in the state of Florida released between 1995-2001. Consistent with previous research, the analyses produced mixed findings. Specifically, while institutionally-based programming did not reduce recidivism, community based programming was effective three years post-release from programming. Further evaluation (both process and outcome studies) and investment in treatment resources that can address the specific needs of females and provide a continuum of care are provided as recommendations for future research and practice.
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Date Issued: 2010
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-1365
Format: Thesis

Title: Finding the Real Odds: Attrition and Time-to-Degree in the FSU School of Criminology and Criminal Justice.
Creator: Lightfoot, Robert C. (Robert Charles), Doerner, William, Black, Catherine, Greek, Cecil, Blomberg, Thomas, College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: Attrition and Time-To Degree issues remain poorly understood in academia, and almost completely unexplored in criminology and criminal justice. Loss rates of fifty percent or more are common in the social sciences, while the success rates for criminal justice are unknown for most schools. This study attempts to investigate completion levels at the Florida State University (FSU) College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, using descriptive and inferential techniques, survival analysis, and...
Show moreAttrition and Time-To Degree issues remain poorly understood in academia, and almost completely unexplored in criminology and criminal justice. Loss rates of fifty percent or more are common in the social sciences, while the success rates for criminal justice are unknown for most schools. This study attempts to investigate completion levels at the Florida State University (FSU) College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, using descriptive and inferential techniques, survival analysis, and questionnaires. Problems with data collection impeded analysis of even basic statistical operations, resulting in the exclusion of some independent variables due to unavailability of readily obtainable information. Both the Master's and Ph.D. programs had similar attrition rates, nearly two-thirds of students completing the programs. The M.A. program was around two years, and the terminal level alone was a little over six years. Recommendations concerning data handling and retention for the College and for FSU follow, along with suggestions for national initiatives to address some of the problematic situations concerning lack of national recognition for criminology and criminal justice.
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Date Issued: 2007
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-1367
Format: Thesis

Title: Juvenile Waivers in Tennessee: Justice Officials Speak.
Creator: Massey-Anderson, Donna Marie, Bullington, Bruce, Abell, Neil, Maier-Katkin, Dan, College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: During the last 20 years, efforts to "get tough" on crime in America has resulted in the initiation of a number of punitive sanctions designed to send a message to criminal offenders and society. This new message has been "if you do the crime, you do the time." This philosophy has spilled over into the juvenile court arena as well, where more and more juvenile offenders have been transferred to the adult criminal court to receive adult punishment for their crimes. Such punitive sanctions are...
Show moreDuring the last 20 years, efforts to "get tough" on crime in America has resulted in the initiation of a number of punitive sanctions designed to send a message to criminal offenders and society. This new message has been "if you do the crime, you do the time." This philosophy has spilled over into the juvenile court arena as well, where more and more juvenile offenders have been transferred to the adult criminal court to receive adult punishment for their crimes. Such punitive sanctions are in opposition to the original foundation of the juvenile court system, a system designed more than a century ago to deal specifically with youthful offenders. Ideally, juvenile delinquents would receive the benefit of treatment and rehabilitation efforts, with the belief that, due to their young ages, they should not be handled in the same fashion as adult offenders. As violent juvenile crime escalated in the late 1980s, a more punitive response emerged in which juveniles who committed serious crimes against persons and society would be addressed in the much harsher adult court. Responding to the American public's outcry regarding the perceived juvenile crime wave, many states enacted stronger penalties for juvenile offenders and instituted various mechanisms that made the transfer of youthful offenders to the adult court easier and more efficient. Many states implemented legislative (statutory) waivers, in which the state statutes would identify which cases would be handled by the adult court. Other states provided the prosecutor's office with the ability to determine which court would have jurisdiction over the case. The state of Tennessee, however, did not increase the methods of transfer; instead, this state utilized, and continues to utilize, judicial waiver as its only form of transfer mechanism. This research addresses how justice officials in the state of Tennessee view the juvenile court, their roles in dealing with youthful offenders, and how the determination is made that decides which cases remain under the paternalistic goals of juvenile court versus those cases that are moved to the more punitive adult criminal court. The justice officials in the state of Tennessee overwhelmingly support judicial transfers in which the final decision is made by juvenile court judges, with very little support for prosecutorial or legislative waivers; this support reflects an adherence to the goals of the original juvenile court system established in 1899.
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Date Issued: 2006
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-2677
Format: Thesis

Title: Florida's Truth in Sentencing Effectiveness on Recidivism Rates.
Creator: Pate, Kerensa N., Blomberg, Thomas G., Carbonell, Joyce, Bales, William, College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University
Abstract/Description: Spohn and Holleran (2002) have stated that "little evidence exists that the crime control polices pursued during the past 20 years have produced a predicted reduction in crime (p. 336)." This sentiment has been voice by many researchers for the last 30 years. As early as 1973, the National Advisory Commission on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals, concluded that "the prison, the reformatory and the jail have achieved only a shocking record of failure (p. 358)," and recommended that "no new...
Show moreSpohn and Holleran (2002) have stated that "little evidence exists that the crime control polices pursued during the past 20 years have produced a predicted reduction in crime (p. 336)." This sentiment has been voice by many researchers for the last 30 years. As early as 1973, the National Advisory Commission on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals, concluded that "the prison, the reformatory and the jail have achieved only a shocking record of failure (p. 358)," and recommended that "no new institutions for adults should be built" (p. 358). Notably absent from the literature are studies that examine the effectiveness of sentencing policies that incarcerate offenders with their effectiveness to reduce recidivism. This study responds to this void in the prior literature on incarceration and recidivism. The purpose of this study is to explore the effectiveness of Florida's Minimum 85% Sentence Served Law on recidivism rates. Specifically, what is the effect of the 85% law on the probability of recidivism among released inmates and does the effect vary across different demographic characteristics, offense categories or prior recidivism events? The major findings are that sentencing offenders to serve at least 85% of their court-imposed sentence significantly reduces the probability of recidivism regardless of the time served incarcerated. It was found that the 85% law reduces the likelihood of recidivism among violent and drug offenders. Moreover, when evaluating the effectiveness of the 85% law across different types of offender demographic characteristics it was found that the effect of the 85% law on recidivism was statistically greater for younger than older offenders, males than females and blacks than whites. However, the 85% law had an equivalent effect on recidivism for Hispanic's and non-Hispanics. Finally, the effect of 85% law in reducing recidivism is greater for those with more prior recidivism events. The findings from this study lend support that punishment certainty may explain the consistent impact of the 85% law on recidivism rates. Since the length of sentence and numerous known recidivism factors were controlled for, certainty of punishment may explain the findings. After serving 85% of their court imposed sentence some people may reason that the cost-benefit calculation of the consequence of doing another 85% of a sentence is too costly. While the 85% law has been shown to be an effective sentencing policy, as shown by the reduction in recidivism, it has not been determined what it is about the policy that reduces the likelihood of recidivism. However, these findings do suggest that states contemplating a move towards a more determinate sentencing strategy will not necessarily experience increased prison populations and the associated increase in correctional expenditures. The differential effects presented in this study suggest policymakers could change sentencing policies to those it has the biggest impact (i.e., age 20 to 40 year olds, those with prior recidivism events and drug or violent offenses). This would potentially reduce the growing impact on the prison system while maintaining public safety. Future studies should focus on the 85% laws theoretical underpinnings, cost-effectiveness, impact on crime rates, effect on ex-offender behavior and if the results found in this study can be replicated in other states.
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Date Issued: 2010
Identifier: FSU_migr_etd-2145
Format: Thesis

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