Criminal Justice & Political Science

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Research from the Department of Criminal Justice & Political Science. The department website may be found at https://www.ndsu.edu/cjps/

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Browsing Criminal Justice & Political Science by browse.metadata.department "Criminal Justice"

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    Differences in DUI Punishments and Recidivism Between Transfers Among Municipal and District Court
    (North Dakota State University, 2021) Menke, Alexander
    The relationship between court transfers and punishment differences, as well as changes in recidivism, have been seldomly researched. This paper adds to the body of research by comparing punishments from DUI cases heard in municipal court and DUI cases heard in district court. The differences in recidivism between the defendants whose cases were heard in municipal and district court are also compared. A systematic sample of DUI offenders from Fargo and West Fargo, North Dakota make up the experimental and control groups. The 511 non-transfer cases are analyzed against the 402 transfer cases using crosstabulations and logistic regression techniques. The results of the analyses suggest mild support for transferring to district court and no support for any change in recidivism. Specific details of the results are discussed below, as well as the limitations of the study.
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    An Examination of the Relationship Between Individual Risk Factors and Drug Court Success: An Application of the Risk, Needs, Responsivity Model
    (North Dakota State University, 2010) Richardson, Katie Ann
    Research has documented that drug courts can and do work; however, recent attention has focused on how individual characteristics may be related to program success and post program recidivism. It was the purpose of this study to further examine how participant characteristics may impact post program recidivism by applying the Risk, Needs and Responsivity framework. A sample of 104 drug court participants and a matched sample of similar offenders who received treatment as usual was used to test the hypotheses that those who possess certain risk factors may be less likely to recidivate post program because they have been appropriately matched to drug courts-a high intensity treatment experience. Gender and group membership were also explored as potential moderators of the relationships between individual risks and post program recidivism. Results found no support for the hypotheses, and no evidence was found suggesting an interaction effect. Among the entire sample of drug court participants and comparison group members, only the control variable age was significantly related to post program recidivism; those who were older were less likely to recidivate. Among only a subsample of completers, group membership was the only variable significantly related to post program recidivism; those who were drug court participants were less likely to recidivate.
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    Exploratory Analysis of Mass Shooting Offenders in U.S. Journalism
    (North Dakota State University, 2022) Davis, Dominic
    Mass shootings are commonplace in media. The media reports as to why the events happened, often within days or hours. These reasons attributed often lead to political debates on how to deter future mass casualty events. The portrayal by the media is important because their perceptions influence the perceptions of their audience. As of beginning this thesis, there is a lack of research utilizing qualitative analysis to analyze the offender reports using large datasets from the media. This thesis is an exploratory analysis and examines the number of times the offender's name is mentioned to determine whether there are sufficient conditions for the copycat effect. This thesis also explores the attributed wording used in the media articles of mass shooting offenders within the initial 30 days of the shooting. Finally, coverage between the newspapers and events is discussed as well to explore whether certain shootings were provided significantly more coverage.  
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    An Exploratory Study of the Perceptions of Effectiveness for Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Training for Law Enforcement
    (North Dakota State University, 2022) Harmon, Natalie
    This study is designed to explore a possible solution to a variety of the current issues in the law enforcement field. The purpose of this study is to assess the views through purposive sampling of ten key informants in the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and law enforcement field on the potential impact that routine Jiu Jitsu style training for officers would have. The current study outlines personal experiences for officers with prior Jiu Jitsu style training. This assessment also discusses the key informant's thoughts on benefits, limitations, and recommendations of the theoretical implementation of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu training for law enforcement officers. Overall, each participant provided a unique perspective through the series of twelve questions. There was unanimous support for the idea with the central themes of ‘adding another tool’ for officers to use and increasing officer confidence.
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    Integrating the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) and the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) Approaches for an Enhanced Police Performance Measurement System
    (North Dakota State University, 2021) Lee, Myungwoo
    An effective performance measurement system is an integral part of modern police management. Police agencies have measured their performance against a very restricted set of crime-focused indicators, such as crime rates, arrests, response times, and clearance rates. Police performance should be measured across multiple dimensions to capture public values produced by modern police agencies. This study set out to present an enhanced performance measurement system for police agencies by integrating the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) and Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) approaches. The BSC provides the theoretical foundation for building a comprehensive performance measurement framework, while the DEA provides the analytical tool to test the theoretical framework. Integrating the DEA and the BSC approaches can create many synergy effects because they are complementary to each other. A case-study approach was used to assess the feasibility of the integrated performance measurement system; to critically examine the ways in which performance information can be used for performance management in police agencies; and to put forward some recommendations regarding its successful application in practice. Police stations under the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency (SMPA) were chosen for conducting this case study. The Dynamic-Network (DN) DEA, with assumptions of input-orientation, variable returns-to-scale (VRS), and slack-based measure (SBM), was run to estimate the proposed police performance measurement model. The DN DEA presented the overall performance over the entire observed period as well as dynamic changes of the perspective-period performance. The DN DEA also presents the practical ways in which inefficient police stations become more efficient by reporting the specific benchmarking objects and the target input and output levels for the inefficient police stations. When network and dynamic dimensions, derived from the BSC, are incorporated in a DNDEA model, a more comprehensive information can be obtained and thus enables accurate estimate of organizational performance as well as identify potential improvements in more detail.
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    NDSU's Back on TRAC Program: Policy Recommendations
    (North Dakota State University, 2010) Gonzales, Carmen Caitlin
    Alcohol and other drug use by college students has been considered by college administrators to be problematic for many years, but strategies in place were not effective or were being under-utilized. Data taken from both the NDSU CORE Survey on Alcohol and Other Drug Use as well as the national CORE survey indicate that many students use alcohol as their drug of choice; 71 % of those surveyed reported using alcohol within the 30 days prior to survey administration. In 2006, North Dakota State University was selected as a pilot institution for the Back on TRAC program. Back on TRAC utilizes a holistic approach based on the drug court model and public health and combines this approach with rewards and sanctions for compliance with program requirements to provide treatment for substance abuse to college students. The program was implemented in 2008, and since then, 8 students have participated in Back on TRAC at NDSU. Based on the Back on TRAC program used at NDSU, three recommendations have been made to increase the provision of services to program participants. These recommendations were developed using information collected about the program currently in place at NDSU, as well as information collected about the Back on TRAC program at Colorado State University, Oklahoma State University, and Texas A&M.
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    An Outcome Evaluation of Centre Incorporated’s Responsive Risk Reduction for Women Program
    (North Dakota State University, 2022) Ursino, John
    Research on gender-responsive correctional programming has yielded mixed results. Contemporary literature proposes practices aimed at increasing the efficacy of gender-responsive programming. Prior research has highlighted differential characteristics between female and male offenders, leading some scholars to suggest that correctional programming that is constructed to respond to needs and risks that disproportionately affect female offenders is needed to address the growing female incarcerated population. The current study seeks to expand upon the literature of such programs by conducting an outcome evaluation of a gender-responsive community-corrections program in Fargo, North Dakota that serves biological female offenders. The study provides contextual information about the current issue, reviews the literature regarding the current state of the incarcerated female population, and discusses the theoretical bases for gender-responsive programming. The study then provides an overview of the methods used for the outcome evaluation and discusses the findings and possible implications of the study.
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    Pretrial Services: Exploring What Works and Policy Implications
    (North Dakota State University, 2022) Waller, Vanessa
    As the view on mass incarceration around the United States is further explored, there has been a need for alternatives to jail. Specifically, pretrial services programs are an opportunity for recently charged defendants to be released from jail while being supervised in the community. Pretrial services programs find eligible defendants in local jails and collect information regarding the case to determine an appropriate release plan. Once the individual is released from jail, their risk assessment score is utilized to create a supervision plan along with the conditions imposed by the court during the bail hearing. This policy paper discusses previous literature regarding the effectiveness of pretrial services programs. Multiple policy recommendations are suggested, including assessing clients’ risks and needs as well as utilizing assessment tools to determine supervision. Finally, a proposed program evaluation design is presented.
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    Voter Disenfranchisement
    (North Dakota State University, 2010) Peterson, Timothy Walter
    This paper examines the policy of voter disenfranchisement and how it disproportionately affects minorities. Voter disenfranchisement is the denial of voting rights to the criminally convicted. The research indicates African Americans are significantly disproportionally affected by this policy when compared to white Americans. Currently, the United States Supreme Court has allowed states to incorporate their own policy for disenfranchising felons residing in their state. The recommendation of this paper is to create a uniform policy for voter disenfranchisement among the fifty states, which would allow for any eligible voter living in the community to vote. The policy would only deny voting to those that are incarcerated. This recommendation is based on the belief that voting is a fundamental right and that the current policy disproportionately affects minorities. Also, implementation of this policy would be cost effective for states because tracking disenfranchised community members would no longer be needed. 111