Master of Arts in Psychology, Cleveland State University, 2022, College of Sciences and Health Professions

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are associated with a variety of negative outcomes, including criminal and violent behaviors (Milaniak & Widom, 2015). Prior research indicates that antisocial personality traits such as callousness may play a mediating effect on the relationship between ACEs and criminality (Baglivio et al., 2020). Further, the developmental period in which childhood maltreatment occurs may be related to greater criminality (Thornberry et al., 2010). This research project aims to examine how ACEs relate to criminality in emerging adults, with consideration of antisocial personality traits and the developmental period of experiencing childhood abuse. This study hypothesizes: (A) Both higher reported maltreatment ACEs and household dysfunction ACEs will uniquely relate to criminal activity. (B) A prevalence of antisocial traits (i.e., callousness and cold-heartedness) will mediate the relationship between maltreatment ACEs and criminality, relating to an increased engagement in criminality. (C) Among those who experienced physical, psychological, or sexual abuse, the age of onset of abuse will moderate the relationship between maltreatment and criminality, with adolescent occurring abuse leading to a higher engagement in criminal activity and violence. Through online data collection of emerging adults (N=343), results indicated that maltreatment ACEs associated with higher criminality, however, this study failed to establish a mediation model of antisocial traits between maltreatment ACEs and criminality. Among individuals who experienced emotional abuse, the developmental period of experiencing abuse moderated the relationship between maltreatment and criminality, with those experiencing childhood-limited abuse and low-maltreatment being at the lowest risk for engaging in crime. Researchers should continue to examine how the combination of specific ACEs may contribute to criminal outcomes. Future research should also explore the development and (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Elizabeth Goncy (Committee Chair); Tawana Jackson (Committee Member); Ilya Yaroslavsky (Committee Member) Subjects: Clinical Psychology; Psychology

Bachelor of Arts (BA), Ohio University, 2021, History

In this thesis, I will explore the three main roles that women played in the Yugoslav Wars of 1991-2001: perpetrator, bystander, and victim. Through examining these roles, I hope to draw an equal amount of attention to each of these roles and add new insight to current scholarly discourse on this subject. Furthermore, examining women in Yugoslavia will also reveal how gender influences modern conflicts, especially regarding sexual violence and the justice system. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate that women, whether perpetrators, bystanders, or victims, experienced the war differently from men because of gender norms, because women were symbols of the nation, and because the identity of womanhood and their physical differences made them especially vulnerable to sexual violence. Furthermore, the Yugoslav Wars served as a turning point for understanding and prosecution of wartime rape, with the international community finally recognizing it as an intentional, organized strategy and as a crime against humanity. After examining primary documents from the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, reading first-person accounts, listening to interviews from witnesses and participants, and consulting a wide variety of secondary and tertiary sources, I hope this project will prove useful not only to researchers hoping to better understand the Yugoslav Wars, but also those seeking to understand the gender dynamics of conflict and the crucial role of identity politics in modern warfare.

Committee: Steven Miner Dr. (Advisor); Miriam Shadis Dr. (Advisor) Subjects: European Studies; History; Political Science

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2020, Law, Justice & Culture (College of Arts and Sciences)

Historically, African Americans have been subjected to differential treatment under the law in many aspects, including police, prisons, and in respect to this research, wrongful convictions. An explanation of why African Americans are disproportionately represented among those wrongfully convicted is that contributors to wrongful conviction that involve perceived criminality, such as racial bias, eyewitness error and official misconduct, are more common in cases of African American exonerees. This experimental study examines the effects of perceived criminality and cultures of racial hostility on the contributors to wrongful convictions in 2,141 male exonerees. The present research aims to examine how contributors to wrongful conviction that involve perceived criminality differ between white and male exonerees, and further how those contributors differ in cases of black men in areas that have greater legacies of lynching versus areas that do not. This study attempts to expand upon previous research that has examined racial threat theory, specifically the threat of black crime hypothesis, and the impact of lynchings on the current criminal justice system. Using data from the National Registry of Exonerations and the Tuskegee Institute Archives, this quantitative study used logistic regression models to predicted the probability of experiencing the six different contributors to wrongful conviction. The results from this study indicate that official misconduct and mistaken witness identification (two contributors that involve perceived criminality) are more likely among black exonerees than white exonerees, and more so in states with greater legacies of lynching.

Committee: Amanda Cox (Advisor) Subjects: African American Studies; Criminology; Cultural Anthropology; Law; Social Research

BA, Oberlin College, 2017, Sociology

This research project aims to interrogate the rationale behind Black men's disproportionate engagement in crime and violent behaviors. To do this, I aim to debunk hypermasculinity as the media and Police's predominate rationale for Black men's participation in violence and crime. Although narratives of hypermasculinity have become more insidious across time and space since the slavery era, they still contribute to the pervasive perception of Black men as savage hoodlums who are undeserving of success outcomes. The concept of hypermasculinity asserts that Black men have a biological, innate disposition to incite harm. To deracialize and demystify current stigmas of hypermasculinity that plague Black men, I conducted fifteen in-depth interviews of Black-identifying, young men from the Southside of Chicago who have participated in illicit behaviors. Due to the proliferation of gun violence that is negatively impacting Black men's life chances, Chicago emerges as an important sociological site. In addition, the Southside of Chicago is a case study for understanding larger social phenomena such as the systematic killing of marginalized people and urban violence and inequity. From my interviews, I discovered how these men's efforts to combat the war enacted against them by racist structures and institutions were circumscribed by the racialized pigeonhole of the label `hypermasculine'.By exposing Black men's rationale for engaging in illicit behaviors, contemporary race scholars will have a new avenue for examining the social context as a production site for their uneven engagement. Moreover, Black men's motivations for engaging in illicit behaviors will provide a nuanced lens to understanding the multifactorial and contingent nature of criminality. I argue that Black men's disproportionate engagement in gun violence and crime is out of necessity and not desire. The hypotheses that ground this argument are threefold: (1) The labeling process associated with hypermasculinit (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Clovis L. White (Advisor); Greggor Mattson (Advisor); Daphne John (Advisor) Subjects: Sociology

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2017, Sociology (Arts and Sciences)

This thesis examines the two top greenhouse gas emitters in the United States, Duke Energy and American Electric Power. Social constructionism, framing, greenwashing, state-corporate crime framework, and techniques of neutralization theories are used to understand the manner in which these corporations construct claims about sustainable business practices, criminality, and the political climate. This research uses qualitative content analysis methods to explore the claims-making of these corporations, specifically in regards to the global issue of man-made climate change. I argue that Duke Energy and American Electric Power mislead consumers, investors, and the general public; they construct an appearance of being a proactive entity that values sustainability, compliance, and efficiency. In truth, both have multiple civil and criminal cases and millions of dollars in fines and violations due to violations of environmental regulatory laws; and many of the changes made to their business practices are only to meet minimum standards of federal law. They also have a large influence within the politics, as exemplified with the polluter-industrial complex. Further, this research discusses the importance of holding corporations responsible for the harms produced, which affect ecosystems, animals, and society.

Committee: Stephen Scanlan (Committee Chair) Subjects: Sociology

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2015, Sociology

Prior research suggests that sexual minorities [e.g., lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) identified individuals] are more susceptible than their heterosexual peers to behaviors such as substance use, criminality, and suicidality during both adolescence and young adulthood. Such scholarly work has examined the underpinnings of this association (Marshal et al. 2009; Fedewa & Ahn 2011; Safren & Steimberg 1999). Perhaps the most prominent explanation, minority stress theory suggests that due to discrimination and stigma, subjective age (i.e., one's sense of maturity) is increased by membership in the disadvantaged sexual minority group, while psychosocial maturity (i.e., the mental and emotional competence that accompanies genuine adult development) is stunted in sexual minority groups. Subjective age and psychosocial maturity, both aspects of adult identity, have been shown to influence adolescents' risk behavior and young adults' mental health (Galambos et al. 1999; Benson 2014). Yet no research links these two components of adult identity to risk behavior during the transition to young adulthood. Additionally, little work has been done to consider whether sexual minority youth's increased probability of risk behavior is due to differing levels of adult identity formation. Using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (n=11,404; 53.6% female; ages 18 to 26 years), this study explores how two key components of adult identity, subjective age and psychosocial maturity, influence levels of substance abuse, criminality, and suicidality. This study further examines whether subjective age and psychosocial maturity differ between sexual minority young adults and their heterosexual peers, and additionally explores whether the relationships between subjective age and psychosocial maturity and risk behavior vary by sexual minority status. Results from ordinal and logistic regression analyses indicate that psychosocial maturity is significantly associated with reduced (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Corinne Reczek PhD (Advisor); Dana Haynie PhD (Committee Member); Chris Knoester PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Sociology

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2014, Leadership and Change

The United States of America has more than 2.3 million persons incarcerated in state and federal prisons. In 2011 more than 700,000 prisoners were released from prisons back into the communities, mostly urban, from where they came. Upon their attempt to reenter society, persons released from prison are faced with overwhelming odds threatening their successful reentry at every critical element necessary for life and wellbeing—food, housing, health care, treatment for drug addictions, employment, counseling, family support and close personal relationships. This research reflects the voices of African American men who tell their personal stories of criminal life, imprisonment, recidivism, and the point at which they turned from crime to desisting—breaking the cycle of recidivism. African American Men Who Give Voice to the Personal Transition from Criminality to Desistance discusses the attractions of criminal life, challenges to desisting and finally making it through society’s unforgiving social, economic and political gauntlet. Narrative is story and narrative inquiry is a way to understanding and valuing lived experiences through story. Narrative inquiry methodology is the qualitative methodology used in reflecting the stories as voiced by the participants in this study. This dissertation is accompanied by 16 MP4 video files and a Dissertation Summary [PDF]. Six of the MP4 files are embedded in the Dissertation PDF and 10 are embedded in the Dissertation Summary. All are accessible as supplemental files. The electronic version of this dissertation is at AURA http://aura.antioch.edu/ and OhioLink ETD Center, www.ohiolink.edu/etd

Committee: Carolyn Kenny PhD (Committee Chair); Annie E. Booysen DBL (Committee Member); Aretha F. Marbley PhD (Other) Subjects: African American Studies; African Americans; Black Studies; Criminology; Social Psychology; Sociology

Master of Science in Criminal Justice, Youngstown State University, 1999, Department of Criminal Justice

In today's society there are two distinct systems of justice, the adult system and the juvenile system. Each system has its own procedural process. These systems are not only different procedurally, but each has different policies, procedures, and sanctions that are imposed. Within the adult system, there is a group of people with different problems and needs that must be addressed from a different standpoint than the rest of the adult population. That group is the geriatric or elderly population. There is an age variable that should be factored into the justice process when adjudicating and sanctioning the elderly for criminal behavior. In analyzing adult criminal behavior, society tends to address behavior through standard criminological theoretical content analysis and administer justice accordingly. This justice can be, and is often, biased. The classification of inmates into four quadrant typology by age and length of sentence shows an appearance of age biases in relationships to resource allocation, behavior, and programming. This study proposes and supports the use of this four quadrant typology that would acknowledge an age variable when studying age specific problems within the criminal justice system that addresses the special needs of the elderly.

Committee: James Conser (Advisor) Subjects: Sociology, Criminology and Penology

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2009, Arts and Sciences : Germanic Languages and Literature

My dissertation,Criminals and Artists: Detecting the Artist in German Crime Literature of the Twentieth Century, examines how German speaking authors of the twentieth century reflect upon their identity as artists through writing about criminals both real and fictional. Moreover, each case represents a response to a specific era. This project begins with Thomas Mann's crime novel Die Bekenntnisse des Hochstaplers Felix Krull. Mann's work draws on a long, but rarely examined tradition of linking the criminal to the artist that stretches back to Plato and forward to Michel Foucault. Mann's novel establishes the nexus in which the artist and the criminal are united. Felix Krull, a confidence man, is a unique case because he is simultaneously a criminal deceiving society for one's personal gain, and an artist, performing a role for an audience like a masterful actor. This novel not only uncovers points of intersection for the criminal and the artist, but also reveals the surprising function the public / audience has in differentiating the two.This study also considers a little known and short-lived series of reports on contemporary criminal cases by a variety of authors called the Außenseiter der Gesellschaft. Die Verbrechen der Gegenwart edited by Rudolf Leonhard. The specific volumes discussed are Der Mord am Polizeiagenten Blau by Eduard Trautner, Karl Otten's Der Fall Strauβ, and Freiherr von Egloffstein by Thomas Schramek. This group is responding to the criminalization of the artist in the Weimar Republic which threatens their own personal freedom and livelihood. Interestingly, they discuss contemporary criminal cases without the aid of fiction to defend the freedom of speech and combat the labeling of artists as criminals. The artist and the criminal are also linked by seriality. An analysis of the fictional serial killer in Doron Rabinovici's novel Die Suche nach M, provides a new way to approach the main characters of the work which illuminates new insights to (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Todd Herzog (Committee Chair); Katharina Gerstenberger (Committee Member); Richard Schade (Committee Member) Subjects: German literature; Literature

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2001, Nursing : Doctoral Program in Nursing

The purpose of this study was to investigate possible predictive factors for juvenile criminality. This study was nested within a prospective cohort study that looked at two groups of inner city children at ages 4, 5, and 6 years old in 1991, 1992, and 1993, and ages 11, 12, and 13 in 1999. The subjects were randomly chosen from children referred to the Department of Health and Human Services (Child Protection Services) of Hamilton County Ohio for allegations of child abuse. The subjects were those subsequently substantiated as being high risk for continued abuse, and placed into either a foster home or a relative's home for protection (N = 77). Subjects (N = 20) were obtained from the Juvenile Justice database. The controls (N = 57) had no records with the Juvenile Justice System. The current study utilized an observational case control design. The information on potential factors was hand collected from the DHHS family based multi-record keeping system. Multivariate analysis yielded a model consisting of three factors suggestive as predictors for criminal behaviors in these groups. The three factors were (1) the age of the allegation (Odds Ratio 1.26) (2) the number of years from the initial allegation to initial placement (Odds Ratio 1.43), and (3) the subsequent placement into long term foster care after the initial placement (Odds Ratio 9.83). Descriptive data indicated that 88.3% of the children suffered more than 3 types of child abuse (Physical, Sexual, Neglect (including Psychological Maltreatment), and Witnessing Domestic Violence) and that 74 out of 77 of the mothers had a mental illness that had not been treated. This study has implications for early intervention in high-risk child abuse cases, and for investigation of identification and treatment of mental disorders in this population.

Committee: Dr. Elizabeth Betemps (Advisor) Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing