Browsing by Subject "Criminology"

Now showing 1 - 10 of 10
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    Child soldiers: an end in sight for Africa?
    (2009-12) Meyer, Karen Joy
    This paper discusses the problem of child soldiering, specifically the child soldiering occurring on the continent of Africa. It gives a detailed overview of all aspects of child soldiering and the conflicts involving child soldiers in African countries. This paper explores the push-pull factors that lead children to become child soldiers. It follows these child soldiers from life within the armed group to life upon leaving the armed group, where upon these children enter rehabilitation centers, and finally seek reintegration back into society. It also looks at the reasons for some of the conflicts involving child soldiers, pointing out how part of this crisis stems from colonialism. This paper also asks the question of how to stop this crisis, and examines what developed nations are doing to stop child soldiering while claiming that the ultimate responsibility for the issue lies within Africa.
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    Classic rape and police reporting: how much has changed since the advent of rape reform law?
    (2011-06) Hautala, Dane Steven
    Abstract summary not available
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    Emergence of indigenous gangs in the Upper Midwest: an inquiry into the lives of gang-involved youth.
    (2011-06) Feldmeier, Jenna Kathleen
    The current study seeks to examine the empirical correlates of historical trauma and gang awareness and involvement. These correlates emanate from historical trauma and are compounded by present day struggles and include: attitudes toward school, parental warmth and support, parental monitoring, substance use, and cultural loss. The data from this project is from an 8-year lagged sequential study with the first wave beginning in 2002 which focuses on four American Indian reservations in the Northern Midwest and four reserves in Canada. The sample for this analysis consists of 695 children aged 11 to 15 years old on American reservations and Canadian First Nation Reserves. The sample contains 350 adolescent males and 345 adolescent females. Results show that gender and parental warmth and support have no effect on gang involvement and awareness. Age, location, attitudes toward school, parental monitoring, substance use, and cultural loss were correlated with gang involvement and awareness.
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    An evaluation of a Midwestern Police Academy.
    (2012-05) Weber, Amber Ann Marie
    The purpose of this research was to examine and evaluate the 2009 police recruit academy at the Duluth Police Department (DPD) in Duluth, MN, from the perspectives of those involved and gauge which components of the academy were 1) sufficient; 2) unnecessary; or 3) in need of further explanation (or needed to be added); and 4) how the community policing ethos of DPD, in connection with adult learning practices, aided training. This research was conducted because this was the first formal academy at DPD and all eleven recruits had successfully completed training that year. Fifty-two officers at DPD were contacted about participating in interviews; forty-three officers responded, with an additional three who volunteered. During interviews, officers were asked questions about their opinion on aspects of the academy, based on their category (recruit, lieutenant/sergeant, field training officer, or coordinator/instructor). Further, statistics were compiled on all officers hired from 1999-2009 by sending out sixty-seven emails (sixty-one officers responded) and going through the employee files of thirty-one additional previous employees in reference to each officer’s schooling and prior experience. The primary results of the interviews revealed five themes, including the perceived success of the academy, the hands-on approach used, the reasons surrounding the creation of the academy, the “good candidate versus good training” debate, and the department and community benefit of this program. A statistical analysis of the compiled data indicated a moderately strong significant relationship between retaining the recruits and 1) prior experience, and separately, 2) schooling. An analysis was also done on a combined variable of experience and/or schooling, versus neither variable; no significant relationship was found between the variables in this case. A section was also included on the author’s firsthand experience going through the second academy (in 2010) at DPD and a discussion comparing the 2009 and 2010 academies. The principal conclusions included that the success of the recruits through training had to do with both the quality of the candidates as well as the provided training, and that a higher level of training, even if it does not prevent all candidates from being washed out, is a great tool to any agency.
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    Gendered careers in changing social and institutional contexts: criminology in the post-WWII era
    (2009-03) Flood, Sarah M.
    This dissertation is simultaneously a study in the sociology of science, especially criminology, the life course, and gender relations in academia. I examine careers of male and female criminologists spanning nearly six decades in the post-WWII United States from a life course perspective, focusing on both careers stages and career trajectories as well as investigating differences by cohort membership, gender, and graduate department affiliation. Survey and interview data along with detailed information about crime-related scholarship published in leading sociology and criminology journals illustrate the unfolding of careers over time and offer insights into how and why careers progressed as they did. Cohort membership helps us understand how large scale changes affected individual opportunities and experiences, though career mobility and trajectories were largely stable over time. While gender initially appeared to play a limited role in the careers of male and female scholars, explicit attention to work and family life in the analysis of career trajectories demonstrated how the lives of scholars are clearly gendered at their intersection. Graduate department differences reflected both the concentration of specialized training programs in non-Research 1 institutions and the career opportunities available. My work illustrates the strengths of the life course approach, considering specific historical, social, and institutional contexts, demonstrating the interlock of work and family life, and showing the importance of early career experiences for institutional mobility and career trajectories. At the same time, my findings also contribute to our knowledge about the history and sociology of criminology, the empirical examination of careers, and work in the stratification of science.
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    "He was truly listening to what I was saying": an in-depth look at domestic violence surrogate dialogues.
    (2010-11) Peters, Julie A.
    Domestic violence surrogate dialogues are another valuable piece added to the list of resources that are available for survivors of domestic violence. This qualitative research examines a surrogate dialogue program in Duluth, Minnesota. It reports on offender, survivor, and facilitator perspectives on the experience. The dialogues aid in healing for both the survivor and offender, allow them to experience empathy, feel empowerment, experience healing, and move on with their lives. These dialogues enhance the coordinated community response and assist survivor and offender in writing the final chapter on the violence they have experienced.
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    Motivations to mentor ex-offenders
    (2014-10) Gingery, Nicole Buehrer
    Correctional agencies, scholars and offenders alike have stressed the importance of positive support for someone being released from incarceration. When community members provide support, reintegrative shaming can occur, whereby the offender is welcomed back into the community through displays of forgiveness for their harmful actions. Using qualitative data from the Community Offender Reentry Program, mentors' motivations to work with the incarcerated were explored - a topic largely unaddressed in previous research. Common motivations were identified in the study, including prior exposure to the criminal justice system or incarcerated population. Implications for mentor recruitment are also discussed.
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    Prescribing the problem: a multi-theoretical approach to predicting illicit stimulant use at the University of Minnesota-Duluth.
    (2010-10) Smith, Ryan Bernard
    Illicit prescription stimulant use by college students has been a rapidly growing problem across college campuses throughout the United States in the past decade. Students are abusing drugs such as Adderall and Ritalin at an alarming rate for academic improvement, recreational use and in some cases as a dieting agent. Past research has focused largely on the amount of students abusing these drugs and has neglected using criminological theory to determine what type of student uses these prescription stimulants and why they began using. To address this gap in literature, this researched examined survey data from a Midwestern university in Minnesota. It was found that variables from both social learning theory and social control theory predicted the illicit use of stimulants. School importance was not found to be a key predictor in stimulant use. These results are valuable in understanding illicit prescription stimulant use and demonstrate the need for further research using criminological theory.
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    Rural employers' propensity to hire ex-offenders.
    (2010-04) Kleinedler, Jeffrey Lee
    Summary abstract not available.
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    Women, sex work and agency.
    (2010-12) Campe, Margaret Irene
    This paper explores women's agency through the annalysis of qualitative works on women who have engaged in sex work or offending. I draw from feminist pathways theory, symbolic interactionism, and post-structalism to interrograte the question of women's agency in a patriarchal culture. Supplementing thes theoretical perspectives are qualitative life history works, which let women explain from their perspective the circumstances leading up to their criminal offending or engagement in sex work. I analyze how cumulative victimization and multiple marginality influence choice, and subsequently how these factors lead women to negotiate choice and agency through sex work and offending. Women who engage in sex work and offending still have agency, no matter how limited. Yet explanations of offending behavior and sex work tend to rely solely on vicitimization narratives. exposing this agency reveals both the power of structural oppression in shaping choices, but also the unique and subversive ways women assert power within these constraints.