Bachelor of Arts (BA), Ohio University, 2022, Sociology

Previous research indicates that the experiences of family members of the condemned warrants further exploration, as comparatively very little sociological analysis has been conducted on this population. This project further examines an element of their experience which has not yet been fully explored – the ways family members of death row inmates experience the U.S. criminal justice system. Further, this research aims to explore the potential of these family members as victims, through an analysis of the formal definition of victimhood as characterized by victimologists. The research for this thesis is conducted using qualitative methods, including interviews and content analysis. I code these interviews to develop a set of theme categories established by family members; the coding method utilized is informed by Polletta's (2011) narrative criminology literature. Implications for resources to provide family members of the condemned, as well as suggestions for adaptations to the interactions between family and the criminal justice system are explored

Committee: Amanda Cox Ph.D. (Advisor); Howard "Ted" Welser Ph.D. (Advisor) Subjects: Criminology; Sociology

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2020, Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services: Criminal Justice

OBJECTIVES. This study addresses a shortcoming in the facility measurement approach used in some studies of crime and place. That is, researchers tend to treat facilities as though they have a homogenous crime risk despite research indicating there is significant variation in crime across facilities. In this study, I propose and examine a series of eight empirically rooted alternative measures of risky facilities. I assess what, if any, impact each has on the outcomes of models of robbery and theft at street blocks in Cincinnati, Ohio, as compared to the more commonly used homogenous risk measure. METHODS. To compare facility risk measures, I use a series of nearly identical negative binomial regressions to model the effects of sixteen facility types on robbery and theft at street blocks. Models vary only in their operationalization of facility risk. I use model comparison statistics (AIC, BIC) to determine if any of the proposed facility risk variables offer an improved model fit over the homogenous facility crime risk approach. For those that result in an improved fit, I assess model coefficients and significance to determine if the conclusions differ meaningfully from those derived from the homogenous facility crime risk approach. RESULTS. Of the eight proposed measures, only the continuous measure created using calls for service within a 500ft buffer area offered an improved model fit, and only for robbery. The conclusions drawn from the proposed measure regression results largely mirrored those of the homogenous facility count regression results. A number of other models that did not have an improved fit were impacted by multicollinearity, possibly due to the presence of co-located facilities with shared addresses. CONCLUSION. A continuous crime risk variable created using calls for service data within an approximately one block buffer area of facilities may act as an acceptable alternative measure of facility robbery risk in future studies of crime (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Cory Haberman Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Martin Andresen Ph.D. (Committee Member); John Eck Ph.D. (Committee Member); Pamela Wilcox Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Criminology

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2019, Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services: Criminal Justice

Architectural journalist Jane Jacobs is arguably one of the most influential figures in urban social sciences and city planning. Yet, she has received minimal attention in the criminological literature. I argue this stemmed from her ideas being linked to those of Oscar Newman. However, these initial interpretations of her ideas—namely that street safety is achieved through surveillance by residents—do not appear to take her contextual examples into account. This mistake is important because it obscures a vital source of social control in urban environments. In this dissertation I examine Jacobs' work and argue that she regarded shopkeepers (i.e., place managers) as the primary source of informal social control. While past interpretations assume Jacobs had a resident-focused explanation of crime, I propose that she had an owner/manager-focus in her writing. From this I unite her work with recent theories of place management into a Neo-Jacobian perspective of place and neighborhood crime. The theory highlights how deliberate decisions and actions taken by property owners and government agencies give rise to neighborhood crime. I then test the theory with three studies using a mixed methods approach. The first study examines the mechanisms of property ownership and neighborhood crime through qualitative interviews in Walnut Hills, a neighborhood in Cincinnati, Ohio that is currently under redevelopment. Next, I conduct a time series analysis to examine how place-based redevelopment influences neighborhood crime in the same neighborhood. The last study tests the notion that there are at least two distinct crime generating processes operating within neighborhoods and that each possess different causal mechanisms. The results suggest that people external to neighborhoods can wield immense control within neighborhoods through property ownership. Moreover, the political decisions that impact the economic vitality of businesses can have a strong influence on crime. How (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: John Eck Ph.D. (Committee Chair); J.C. Barnes Ph.D. (Committee Member); Kate Bowers Ph.D. (Committee Member); Pamela Wilcox Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Criminology

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2024, Sociology

A lack of consensus about how cannabis policies may influence demographic changes and social problems has had life-altering consequences for the U.S. populous as cannabis-related offenses continue to result in punitive sanctions for many. The purpose of this dissertation is to explore cannabis policy changes over a 15-year period, spanning 2006 to 2020, alongside a variety of measures capturing population change, social-structural disadvantage, and arrest rates for a national sample of U.S. counties. The data used include the American Community Survey, National Incident Based Reporting System, U.S. Census, and a primary collection of state- and county-level efforts to legalize and/or decriminalize cannabis over time. Overall, I find that the influence of cannabis legalization on arrest rates seems to vary depending on the level of legalization and the type of arrest—with significant conditioning effects contingent on the proportion of Black residents in a county. I also find that sanctions associated with first-time possession offenses exert an independent—and often interrelated—effect on arrest rates over time. This dissertation offers keen insight for the continued development of what Wheeldon and Heidt (2023) refer to as “cannabis criminology,” while offering a critical, policy-focused perspective on drug reform policy.

Committee: Danielle Kuhl Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Kristen Rudisill Ph.D. (Other); Eric Cooke Ph.D. (Committee Member); Stephen Demuth Ph.D. (Committee Member); Monica Longmore Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Criminology; Public Policy; Sociology

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2024, Sociology

Criminologists have long observed that most criminally active individuals eventually terminate their offending (Laub and Sampson, 2001; Bushway and Paternoster; Rocque, 2017). Yet, despite decades of scholarship (see Rocque, 2017 for a thorough review), the causes of desistance remain poorly understood. As a result, scholars continue to study the myriad social and developmental factors that are theoretically related to desistance. One of these factors, employment, has received considerable attention within life-course criminology and recidivism research (Lageson and Uggen, 2013). The idea that acquiring and maintaining employment reduces offending is rooted in classic criminological theories, including Sampson and Laub's (1990;1993) age-graded theory of informal social control and rational choice theory. The former views employment as a form of “turning point” in the life course, while the latter conceptualizes employment and offending as trade-offs. Identity theories of desistance, on the other hand, view identity change as the most important cause of desistance and contend that employment likely plays a minor role in the process desistance (Giordano et al., 2002; Paternoster and Bushway, 2009). Leveraging rich data from the Pathways to Desistance Study (N = 1358), this dissertation advances research on desistance by scrutinizing these competing perspectives. Focusing on employment, chapter 2 explores whether employment must be of a certain quality to influence offending. Latent class analysis derives a typology of employment quality from nine measures capturing important aspects of employment quality, including wages, satisfaction, stability, and benefits. The best fitting solution distinguished four types of employment, categorized by various configurations of the nine employment characteristics. After weighting each case according to its propensity for selection into higher quality employment, these employment categories were used to predict self-reported offe (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Paul Bellair Dr. (Advisor); Michael Vuolo Dr. (Committee Member); Steven Lopez Dr. (Advisor) Subjects: Criminology; Sociology

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2024, Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services: Criminal Justice

Social media (e.g., Instagram) has become a significant part of the daily lives of many people. Used for individual photograph and video content creation and distribution, Instagram allows users to connect with individuals across the world. While Instagram has age-restriction policies requiring users to be 13 years of age or older, it is commonplace for parents to run an underage user's Instagram account, for underage users to claim parental representation, or for underage accounts to slip through Instagram's age restriction policies. Photos of young girls can often garner negative and/or sexualized attention, specifically from adult men. The sexualization of young girls is further compounded by the entertainment industry and the growing concept of social media influencers, who are content creators with authority and sway over large audiences that represent a unique version of celebrity. The growing popularity of underage influencers has resulted in adults, specifically adult males, viewing pictures and videos of young girls. While not all viewership of child female Instagram influencers can be considered victimization, the current study expands on existing social media cybervictimization research by characterizing the viewership of sexualized child content by adult men as a gateway to potential future victimization of these children. Using routine activities theory, the current study examined the convergence of potential victims (underage female influencers), potential offenders (adult male Instagram followers), and a lack of capable guardianship (lack of parental monitoring or the perception of parental monitoring). This theoretical framework was used to assess if parental monitoring of underage female influencers' profiles was associated with a reduced percentage of adult male Instagram followers relative to profiles without parental monitoring. A sample of n = 950 female Instagram influencers 17 years of age or younger was constructed using an AI-powered (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Joseph Nedelec Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Erica Fissel Ph.D. (Committee Member); John Eck Ph.D. (Committee Member); Leah Butler Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Criminology

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2024, Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services: Criminal Justice

Despite the broad perception that rurality is simply a uniform “non-urban” entity, rural communities comprise a diverse array of geographic, socioeconomic, and demographic landscapes. The purpose of this dissertation is to provide an in-depth exploration of the distinct nature of different rural communities, with a specific focus on the role of county-level predictors of fatal opioid overdose related to despair, healthcare challenges, and narcotic availability. As a comprehensive assessment of the opioid epidemic in rural America, this study assesses these predictors across three specific dimensions of rurality: Region (e.g., Appalachia, the Northeast, and the Midwest), Level of Rurality (e.g., adjacency to metropolitan areas versus more rural/isolated), and Racial Composition and Economic Reliance. Findings reveal pivotal insights into the differential impact of the opioid epidemic across rural America and emphasize the complexity of factors that have influenced this crisis. Not only do opioid overdose deaths themselves differ widely across rural dimensions, the burdens of disadvantage and community health challenges are unevenly distributed across rural America. Moreover, multivariate results reveal that while some factors like opioid prescription rates are more ubiquitous predictors of opioid overdoses, other factors like disadvantage have differential effects that are dependent on rural context.

Committee: Ben Feldmeyer Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Pamela Wilcox Ph.D. (Committee Member); Francis Cullen Ph.D. (Committee Member); J.C. Barnes Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Criminology

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2024, Sociology

Decades of misconduct and crime committed by law enforcement officers throughout the United States have been uncovered by investigative journalism, independent commissions, and ethnographic research. Theoretical studies identify that individual and cultural factors are significantly related to an officer's participation in criminal behavior. There exists a lack of complete understanding of how an officer's community and environment may influence their participation in police crime. The purpose of this dissertation is to advance the field of criminology by expanding the structural level understanding of police crime through a theoretical lens and quantitative approach on a national scale. Drawing from social disorganization theory, five nationwide datasets are merged to construct a longitudinal, panel dataset that describes police crime throughout American counties. Using a structural level theoretical perspective, this project broadly explores how the characteristics of American counties may be associated with the criminal behaviors of police officers. The tenets of social disorganization theory suggest that counties with antecedents of social disorganization (such as characteristics of poverty, transient populations, and low educational attainment) should be associated with higher counts of police crime and general crime. Three research questions are investigated in this dissertation. The first two analytical chapters ask the following research questions: First, do county level variables correlate with counts of police crime? Second, are the correlates of general crime the same for police crime at a structural level? I construct and compare mixed-effects models regressing police crime and general crime onto county level variables. A comparison of these models informs a discussion about the structural similarities and differences between police crime and general crime. These findings inform the final analytical chapter, which explores the potentially interwoven (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: John H. Boman IV, Ph.D (Committee Chair); Danielle Kuhl Ph.D (Committee Member); Wendy Manning Ph.D (Committee Member); Thomas J. Mowen Ph.D (Committee Member); Philip Matthew Stinson J.D., Ph.D. (Committee Member); Starr E. Keyes Ph.D (Committee Member) Subjects: Criminology; Sociology

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2023, Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services: Criminal Justice

Criminologists also have investigated the racial and ethnic disparities in criminal outcomes in offending, criminal and victimization. However, the focus has been on White and Black populations and neighborhoods, and, more recently, to Hispanic/Latino populations. Other racial minorities -- Asian, Native Americans and Native Indian, Hawaiian Pacific Islander, multiracial, and all others -- are often either excluded in the studies or considered as a homogenous group, despite significant variances between these groups. Furthermore, disparities in victimization across racial/ethnic groups have received limited attention from scholars, hindering the development of effective crime prevention programs tailored to different racial/ethnic groups. This also results in a lack of understanding of victimization disparities and the lack of development and discussion of victimology theories on these disparities. In light of these issues, this dissertation aims to examine gaps in victimization rates and risks across diverse racial groups in the United States, using a nationally representative sample, and to propose routines activities that may decrease victimization risks among racial/ethnic minorities. This study first reviews literature on the racial/ethnic disparities in crime victimization and explanations based on routine activity theory. Then, I propose an alternative explanation for the disparities. Based on the review, the disparities in victimization rates and risks among the groups are estimated using 5 years of NCVS data (2017-2021). With the same data, the impact of routine activities on different racial/ethnic groups is tested using descriptive and difference-in-differences tests. The proposed hypothesis of shielded routines is tested using a qualitative pattern matching method, in a case study of Korean immigrants and Americans in Cincinnati, OH, US. The analysis of annual victimization rates reveals notable differences across various racial and ethnic groups (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: John Eck Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Min Xie Ph.D. (Committee Member); Brittany Hayes Tsygansky Ph.D. (Committee Member); J.Z. Bennett Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Criminology

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2022, Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services: Criminal Justice

Several areas of research demonstrate an association between how an individual walks and how they are perceived---including how vulnerable they may be. The current project takes the next step to test the association between walking style and the perception of a walker's vulnerability using an experimental design. Walking style is determined using two researcher-manipulated walks characterized by specific patterns of movement: organized and disorganized. To isolate walking style, walkers are presented using point-light displays. This project includes two independent studies and examines (a) the impact of walking style on the perception of walker vulnerability, (b) the methodological impact of using point-light versus full-light, and (c) if contextual factors such as environment and walker sex impact perceptions of the walker. Results from the two studies indicate that walking style can impact an observer's perception of a walker; organized walks are perceived as less vulnerable than disorganized walks. In addition, the results show that point-light videos receive lower scores on vulnerability measures compared to full-light video, and that women are perceived as more vulnerable than men.

Committee: J.C. Barnes Ph.D. (Committee Member); Alex Piquero Ph.D. (Committee Member); Brittany Hayes Tsygansky Ph.D. (Committee Member); John Eck Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Criminology

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2022, Sociology

In the United States, school discipline remains a central fixture in the lives of students, teachers, administrators, and (by extension) families, peers, and romantic partners. Previous work has shown a robust association between exclusionary school punishment (i.e., suspensions, expulsions) and a variety of negative immediate and long-term outcomes. Much of the previous work, however, fixates on the punished individual, forgoing the role that key network actors outside of delinquent peers play in attenuating or exacerbating these pathways from school punishment to offending. This re-conceptualization lends support from the life course perspective and the potential role that “linked lives” play alongside turning points in altering individual life trajectories. Using the Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study (TARS), this dissertation examines the connection of formal punishment experiences from family and romantic partners (both school punishment and arrest/incarceration) to both immediate and long-term consequences stemming from individual school punishment experiences. Analyses begin with using regression techniques to test how family punishment experiences impact school attachment in adolescence, exclusionary school punishment, and adult criminal justice contact. Next, analyses focus on the role of romantic partner punishment experiences and test how relationship punishment matrices influence deviance amplification across adolescence and relationship quality. Finally, analyses tests the connection between cumulative network punishments and offending as it differs across race/ethnicity and gender. Full results indicate partial support for this reconceptualization of viewing punishment outside of the individual context. Formal punishments for parents and siblings have the potential to influence the process of detachment from school and criminal justice contact across adolescence and into adulthood. However, romantic partners' school discipline and arrest histo (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Monica Longmore PhD (Advisor); Peggy Giordano PhD (Committee Member); Paul Schauer PhD (Other); Thomas Mowen PhD (Committee Member); Wendy Manning PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Criminology; Sociology

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2022, Art History (Fine Arts)

Physiognomy is the pseudoscientific study of the causal relationship between a person's exterior body and their inner character. Physiognomy was largely accepted in Victorian society and had a tremendous impact on both the arts and sciences of the period. One of the areas we can see evidence of this is in illustration, particularly in the way good and evil characters are designed. The fairy tale illustrator Arthur Rackham shows this strong contrast in the way that his characters are portrayed. His protagonists are serene and idealized, incorporating beauty standards of the Victorian Era. His villains are grotesque, often with animalistic features which make each creature seem like an evolutionary missing link. By incorporating principles of physiognomy, Arthur Rackham used a visual shorthand to identify which characters were good and evil in fairy tale illustrations.

Committee: Samuel Dodd (Committee Member); Jennie Klein (Committee Chair); Charles Buchanan (Committee Member) Subjects: Aesthetics; Anatomy and Physiology; Art Criticism; Art Education; Art History; British and Irish Literature; Criminology; European History; Evolution and Development; Fine Arts; History; Science History; Womens Studies

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2021, Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services: Criminal Justice

Environmental criminology and empirical research suggest that certain facilities and characteristics of the street network facilitate crime opportunities. These facilities are often referred to as potentially criminogenic facilities because the routine activities associated with their specific functions are thought to create crime opportunities. However, some scholars have contended that it is not the type of facility, but the traffic generated by them, that is responsible for their associations with crime. A separate body of research has linked the betweenness of streets, or their usage potential, to elevated crime levels, suggesting that busier streets are associated with more crime opportunities. This dissertation seeks to determine whether the density of facilities, a proxy for busyness, or specific types of facilities are the more robust predictor of robberies in Cincinnati, OH. The current study also assesses how the betweenness of streets influences the relationship between facilities and robbery. In addition, the potential interrelationship between facility density, street block betweenness, and robberies is examined using a path model. Results suggest that the busyness of facilities appears to be a more robust predictor of robberies than their individual types, but a handful of individual facilities were linked to elevated robberies even after accounting for the business of streets. The path model indicates that 1) facility density and betweenness are both positively associated with robberies, 2) betweenness is linked to a higher density of facilities, and 3) a significant portion of the effect of betweenness on robberies is indirectly transmitted through facility density.

Committee: Cory Haberman Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Lucia Summers (Committee Member); Christopher Sullivan Ph.D. (Committee Member); Ben Feldmeyer Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Criminology

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2021, Sociology

Research within the field of criminology on the “age-crime curve” demonstrates that the onset of offending begins around the age of 12, peeks around age 17, and begins to decline as individuals transition into adulthood. This general pattern of offending behaviors has received significant support from a wide range of studies. While the trends in offending are well documented, theories explaining the transition and subsequent declines in offending are still highly debated within criminology, with the primary foci centered around either external turning points (e.g., marriage, employment, and parenthood), or internal changes (e.g., cognitive transformations and identity shifts). While theories focused on external and internal changes have each received support, both perspectives – at least implicitly – suggest desistance is a much larger latent process. In other words, a single event (e.g., marriage) or even a cognitive change is likely one small part of a much more comprehensive process of unobservable change over time. Coupling perspectives on external and internal changes with scholarship on adulthood, I propose a new and enhanced method to capturing the latent movement into adulthood via markers of adult status, and examine how these latent markers relate to changes in offending as a process that unfolds over time. Drawing on 11 waves of data and around 1,350 adjudicated youth from the Pathways to Desistance dataset, I use Item Response Theory modeling strategies to construct measures for Latent Adult Behaviors (LAB) and Latent Adult Cognitions (LAC). Theoretically, LAB operates as a stake in conformity which strengthens one's bond to society through adult behaviors. Similarly, LAC functions as a conventional commitment to adult-like cognitions, thus iv strengthening one's social bond and suppressing criminal offending. Results of a series of mixed-effects models reveal that between-person differences and within-person changes in LAB are associated with increas (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Thomas Mowen Ph.D. (Advisor); Marlise Lonn Ph.D., NCC (Other); John Boman Ph.D. (Committee Member); Stephen Demuth Ph.D (Committee Member); Danielle Kuhl Ph.D (Committee Member) Subjects: Criminology; Sociology

PHD, Kent State University, 2020, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Sociology and Criminology

Prevalence of nonmedical use of prescription drugs (NMUPD) has risen dramatically during the past two decades. Studies meeting the demand for empirical research on this phenomenon have mainly identified individual-level drivers of NMUPD. While such identification assists in understanding these trends, few studies have considered the social drivers of NMUPD. This is surprising given 1) prevalence varies according to neighborhood type (i.e., rural, urban, suburban) and 2) the wealth of empirical and theoretical literature connecting social factors to health behaviors, deviant behavior, and use of other illicit substances. The goal of this dissertation is to situate the NMUPD as a social problem by investigating its structural sources and social determinants. I use social disorganization theory (Sampson and Groves 1989; Shaw and McKay 1942) and associated “neighborhood effects” frameworks (Brooks-Gunn et al. 1993; Gephart 1997; Leventhal and Brooks-Gunn 2000), to frame the NMUPD epidemic as a product of social-structural (i.e., macro) forces that are mitigated by community-level mechanisms. Using two waves of data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), I generate logistic regression models testing the effects of macro-level predictors on individual odds of NMUPD, as well as the intervening roles of collective efficacy (Fagan, Wright, and Pinchevsky 2014; Sampson, Raudenbush, and Earls 1997; Theall et al. 2009), depressive symptoms (Aneshensel and Sucoff 1996; Ross 2000), and access to healthcare (Browning and Cagney 2002; Ross and Mirowsky 2001) in this relationship. Findings highlight the neighborhood context as a source of variation in NMUPD. Results indicate that living in a disorganized neighborhood is associated with increased odds of engaging in NMUPD and highlight neighborhood residential instability as an important risk factor. Further analyses reveal that this association is stratified, with female residents bearing the most su (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Robert L. Peralta Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Richard E. Adams Ph.D. (Committee Member); Kele Ding Ph.D. (Committee Member); Stacey Nofziger Ph.D. (Committee Member); Starr Solomon Ph.D. (Committee Member); Peggy C. Stephens Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Sociology

Master of Science in Criminal Justice (MSCJ), Bowling Green State University, 2020, Criminal Justice

The undergraduate major of criminal justice may be succumbing to effects of student-consumer attitudes, especially considering that criminal justice as an academic study does not currently benefit from the rigors associated with accreditation. Many students are selecting universities with lower costs of attendance and in locations of the country with lower costs of living with the rising costs of higher education. Criminal justice education may also be associated with the CSI-effect. Popular entertainment such as television shows like CSI has shown aspects of the criminal justice system to have more dramatized expectations from the general public. With an expected undergraduate enrollment drop-off by the middle of this decade, it may be likely that criminal justice education is already shifting its curriculum to mirror false expectations of the criminal justice system by way of the CSI-effect. Criminal justice as an academic study can appeal to consumeristic students with consumer-style courses. Although there is some previous research on criminal justice education, studies on the existence of consumerism in criminal justice education are lacking. The current study is an exploratory analysis of the existence of consumer-style courses in criminal justice education and explores 2,957 individual courses from 119 undergraduate degree-earning institutions. Results show that consumer-style courses do exist, but currently in small numbers. More traditional, content based, and standardized courses on the other hand, exist in high numbers, accounting for over half the sample size. Implications for both results are discussed in the manuscript.

Committee: Melissa Burek PhD (Advisor); John Liederbach PhD (Committee Member); Catherine Pape MSCJ (Committee Member) Subjects: Criminology

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2020, Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services: Criminal Justice

This dissertation explores the relationship between neighborhood structural characteristics and homicide counts in New Orleans. These structural characteristics include concentrated disadvantage, neighborhood instability, and demographic characteristics, with each rooted in prominent theories within community criminology. Research conducted over the past 30 years has consistently shown that the socioeconomic characteristics of a community (e.g., census tract, neighborhood, precinct, or city) affect the homicide patterns within that community, with some characteristics facilitating violence while others impeding it. These relationships often differ based on whether one examines gang- or non-gang related homicides. However, this area of research is limited by the reliance on conflicting conceptualizations of measures and the use of only a few metropolitan areas as study sites. Thus, further research is needed to validate existing theoretical frameworks. To do this, this dissertation uses panel count regression models to examine the relationship between the socioeconomic and demographic factors and homicide counts within New Orleans across a seven-year period. The results show that the structural characteristics of the neighborhoods influence homicide counts consistently. However, these relationships vary across the types of homicide.

Committee: Nicholas Corsaro Ph.D. (Committee Chair); James Frank Ph.D. (Committee Member); Cory Haberman Ph.D. (Committee Member); M. Murat Ozer Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Criminology

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2020, Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services: Criminal Justice

Crime hot spots are the result of offenders repeatedly perceiving and exploiting criminal opportunity at the same location. Theory supports the notion that offenders interact with their proximal environment; in fact, some have suggested proximal offenders condition the criminogenic effects of some types of facilities. Empirical tests have failed to clearly integrate measures of offenders and criminal opportunity in explanations of crime concentrations. The current dissertation integrated measures of likely offenders, from information on formally incarcerated persons, and criminal opportunity to explain concentrations of robbery and theft from auto across street blocks in Cincinnati. In addition, it tests whether exposure to offenders conditioned the effects of criminogenic facilities. Overall, findings show exposure to likely offenders is important to account for in explanations of crime concentrations. Not only do the likely offender measures have significant main effects, but they interact with some criminogenic facilities to create higher crime counts, beyond the independent effects of likely offender and facility measures.

Committee: Cory Haberman Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Elizabeth Groff Ph.D. (Committee Member); Edward Latessa Ph.D. (Committee Member); Christopher Sullivan Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Criminology

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2019, Sociology

Social support is important for successful reentry of incarcerated individuals into society. In the present study, I use data from the Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative (SVORI) to examine the relationship between family contact in prison and post-release family social support and conflict. I focus on possible gender differences in this relationship and control for baseline pre-release levels. Using a social bond perspective, I hypothesize that in-prison family contact in the form of visitation, phone calls, and receiving letters improves post-release family social support and reduces family conflict. Furthermore, I posit that the association between family contact in prison and post-release family social support and conflict will be stronger for women than men. I use OLS regression to analyze these hypotheses and Von Hipple's suggested multiple imputation to handle missing data. I found that in-prison family contact was positively related to family emotional, instrumental, and interactional support and negatively related to family conflict. However, I did not find support for my gendered hypothesis. I discuss future research possibilities and potential policy implications.

Committee: Stephen Demuth PhD (Advisor); Danielle C. Kuhl PhD (Committee Member); Thomas J. Mowen PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Sociology

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2019, Sociology

Research on the causes and consequences of handgun ownership is constrained by the limited availability of large, representative, and longitudinal survey data that contain robust measures of social, psychological, and contextual measures thought to be associated with gun ownership and use. As a result, despite serious societal debate about handgun ownership and public concern about handgun violence, we know surprisingly little about why people own handguns, the social context of handgun ownership, or the effect of handgun ownership on crime, particularly the role it might play in intimate violence. The goal of this project is to examine more fully than has been done in the past factors that influence handgun ownership, and the consequences of owning handguns in the United States. I examine how socialization and culture, fear and victimization, political ideology, participation in crime and violence, and urban versus rural upbringing influence handgun ownership, and I test whether the presence of a handgun in the home is associated with intimate partner violence. I use data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health to examine handgun ownership across two chapters. In chapter 1, I find that the strongest predictors of handgun ownership are socialization and culture. I find that having access to a gun in the home during adolescence, ever serving in the military, and ever being in a gang are all predictors of handgun ownership. I tested six hypotheses, and found support for all of them. This study also suggests that the gender effect, with men being more likely to own guns than women, is partially mediated by criminality and violence. In chapter 2, I examine the impact of handgun ownership on intimate partner violence and find only weak evidence that handgun ownership is related to IPV. I find that handgun ownership is significantly associated with increased odds of mutual IPV only at the zero order, and when other factors are included the effe (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Stephen Demuth Ph.D (Advisor); Danielle Kuhl Ph.D (Committee Member); Monica Longmore Ph.D (Committee Member); Raymond Swisher Ph.D (Committee Member); Laura Stafford Ph.D (Other) Subjects: Criminology; Social Psychology; Sociology