Contemporary American capital punishment contains many processual elements, such as the prisoner's last meal and the cleansing of his body immediately before death, that serve no concrete, practical purpose but share a nature with ritual practices. In this project, I utilize a hermeneutic phenomenological lens to identify and list these ritual elements. I also use concepts drawn from the structural functionalist tradition to both analyze the specific purposes the elements serve within individual parts of the death penalty and to discuss the overarching result of the inclusion of these elements within the process as a whole. Ultimately, I find that the ritual elements present in the capital punishment process serve a social control purpose, insulating and reinforcing the death penalty as a whole. Ritual works to do this by controlling the behavior and image of the prisoner and emotionally soothing both participants of the process and the public at large.

The primary goal of this study was to analyze existing racial profiling data collected and reported by law enforcement agencies in Texas. The internet-based data used was obtained through TCOLE, as it is the state mandated repository in which all law enforcement agencies must submit their annual racial profiling reports to. In analyzing a collection requirement of these reports, this study sought to determine how frequently law enforcement officers know the race or ethnicity of drivers prior to traffic stops. Furthermore, the study sought to determine if there are differences in the rates of race or ethnicity known prior to stops across Texas geographical regions, county population sizes, agency types, as well as between counties with and without interstate thoroughfares. This analysis consisted of 3,250,984 traffic stops conducted by 1,186 law enforcement agencies in 2014. Findings revealed that law enforcement officers rarely know the race or ethnicity of drivers prior to traffic stops, as was consistently found across all measures. Findings and implications are discussed.

The primary goal of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a program being run by the Bedford Police Department’s Repeat Victimization Unit on domestic violence and mental health and mental retardation. The study sought to determine whether the program was effective in reducing instances of repeat victimization in domestic violence and MHMR victims. Additionally the program investigated whether or not the program was effective at reducing victimization severity, and which demographic could be identified as the most victimized. Participants consisted of 157 domestic violence and MHMR victims in the city of Bedford, Tx between November 11, 2012 to July 30, 2013. Findings indicate that levels of repeat victimization for domestic violence and MHMR are relatively low regardless of whether the victim received services through the repeat victimization program or not. Additionally the severity of these repeat victimizations remains relatively constant regardless of whether services were received through the program or not. Implications and findings are discussed.

From the 1920s until the 1950s, brothers, Sam and Rosario Maceo, ran an influential crime family in Galveston, Texas. The brothers’ success was largely due to Galveston’s transient population, the turbulent history of the island, and the resulting economic decline experienced at the turn of the 20th century. Their success began during Prohibition, when they opened their first club. The establishment offered bootlegged liquor, fine dining, and first class entertainment. After Prohibition, the brothers continued to build an empire on the island through similar clubs, without much opposition from the locals. However, after being suspected of involvement in a drug smuggling ring, the Maceos were placed under scrutiny from outside law enforcement agencies. Through persistent investigations, the Texas Rangers finally shut down the rackets in Galveston in 1957. Despite their influence through the first half of the 20th century, on the island and off the island, their story is largely missing from the current literature.

This thesis is an evaluation of two coping skills programs and their effects on inmates' mental health status. The original computer coping skills program designed for the general population was modified to address the specific needs of an incarcerated population.This thesis evaluated the differences in the mental health status of the two treatment groups compared with the control group and with each other to assess the effectiveness of the two programs. The results of this study showed substantial improvement in the mental health status for the two treatment groups. There are indications from this study that specialty software designed specifically for inmates may result in lower levels of depression than non-tailored software.

Research has shown that the police industry has entered into an era of homeland security. However, whether the core functions of policing have significantly changed since September 11, 2001, has been the topic of considerable debate. Using secondary data, the research identifies variables that are most influential in predicting whether Texas police chiefs understand their departments’ homeland security roles and responsibilities. The data was originally obtained in 2007 through self-administered surveys of police chiefs attending the Texas Chief Leadership Series (TPCLS) and the New Chief Development Program (NCDP).

The primary goal of this study was to investigate the awareness and prevalence of Spice and K2 usage among a population of college students, as well as the demographics of such users. The study also sought to determine whether or not students prefer these products over natural cannabis, in addition to examining the most popular methods of obtainment and the most commonly reported side effects of K2 and Spice usage. Participants consisted of 643 undergraduate students enrolled at the University of North Texas during the fall 2011 semester. Findings indicate that while students exhibit a relatively high awareness of K2 and Spice, usage of these products is not a prevalent occurrence. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Research suggests that roughly 25% of women and 10% of men within the United States were sexually abused at some point during childhood. With such high rates of victimization affecting society, the current study explores a population of children under the age of 6 who were suspected of being sexually victimized and thus admitted to a children’s advocacy center (CAC) for evaluation. This investigation contributes to the literature concerning child sexual abuse (CSA) by exploring the characteristics of these alleged victims, the characteristics of their suspected offenders, the alleged victim’s familial demographics characteristics, and by looking at the data pertaining to the incarceration rates of the suspected offenders identified within the sample.

Life without parole for juvenile offenders is a controversial issue across the globe. Recently, the United States stands alone as the only country in the world that allows juvenile offenders to be sentenced to life time confinement without the possibility of parole. Furthermore, the U.S. has seen an increase in juvenile waivers and blended sentences, which has resulted in harsher penalties for juvenile offenders who have committed serious and violent crimes. This analysis examines scientific evidence that shows juveniles are different from adults in terms of brain development, rational decision making abilities, and maturity levels. These findings have questioned the reasoning behind imposing adult punishment on adolescent behavior. This analysis also presents the legal arguments suggesting that juvenile life without parole is unconstitutional and violates the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. Arguments for and against life sentences were also presented. This study concludes with a discussion of policy implications, whether the U.S. Supreme Court should abolish juvenile life without parole sentencing practices and explores the possible future direction of juvenile sentencing in the United States.

This thesis examines the role of psychopathy in violent female offending, and explores DSM-IV personality disorders that may also be a factor. Past research on female offenders and psychopathy suggest that this is a valid construct when looking at female offenders. This study was driven by two questions: which personality disorders are most common in adult female offenders who are psychopathic, and are adult female offenders who are psychopathic more likely to have been convicted of a violent offense than those who are not psychopathic, but have at least one personality disorder. The results indicate that Cluster B personality disorders were the most common, and Cluster C the least common. The results also showed that those women who were psychopathic were no more likely to have been convicted of a violent crime than those who had at least one personality disorder, but were not psychopathic. Treatment implications and the direction of future research are discussed.

Serious and violent juvenile offenders cause a disproportionate amount of harm to society, yet this population receives very little attention within the realm of empirical research. This research study examined the recidivism outcomes of 296 serious and violent offenders previously exposed to rehabilitative treatment in the Capital and Serious Violent Offender Program provided by the Texas Youth Commission. This group of juveniles was followed for three years following their release from institutionalization. This analysis revealed that 52% of those released were rearrested at least once during the follow-up period for any offense, while 48% of those released desisted from crime altogether. Of those 296 released, 34% were rearrested for at least one new felony offense. The analyses indicate that those involved in various forms of institutional misconduct during institutionalization were significantly more likely to recidivate. African-American race and institutional misconduct in the form of rule infractions emerged as the most consistent predictors of recidivism for this sample. This study concludes with a discussion of policy implications and risk assessment related to the decisions that are made to release this population of violent juvenile offenders.

During the last 25 years in law enforcement in the United States, there has been a universal practice of foot and/or bicycle patrols used to accomplish the goal of police patrol enforcement and the philosophy of community policing in metropolitan areas. These tactics of patrol have also been used in police departments in and around the State of Texas. This report is a research project on six major metropolitan police departments in the State of Texas, analyzing their allocation of foot and/or bicycle patrol units within their urban cities. The study assesses their early history in using these two police tactics to address criminal activity and their progression from foot patrol to bicycle patrol. The findings of this research support the proposition that major Texas police departments have adopted the practices and philosophies of other major urban police departments around the US, by using foot and/or bicycle patrols in their cities. There is evidence that major Texas police departments were using foot patrol during the early 1980s in support of community policing and gradually phased out this practice in the early 1990s to adopt the new enforcement tactic of policing on a bicycle.

This national study, focusing on job satisfaction within juvenile facility directors, was conducted by the means of a survey. The study is longitudinal in nature; the survey was conducted in 1995 and 2000. Other past studies have focused on line level employees, guards, and the juveniles, but few have concentrated on juvenile facility directors. Literature on directors is currently lacking, this continuous study will give a better ongoing perspective of their attitudes and beliefs. Findings from this particular study will help to address current concerns inside of the system, starting at the apex. The survey's goal is to correlate factors that have a direct impact on their job satisfaction. Results indicate that staff issues have a dramatic impact on a director's job satisfaction.

This research seeks to understand the reasons for failures of Bill Clinton, Yasser Arafat, and Ehud Barak's Camp David Summit that was held in July, 2000. The Summit was arranged to complete the last phase of Oslo Peace Process. Numerous researches have attempted to reveal the facts of the summit but, so far, they have failed to present the complete details of what happened before, during, and after the summit. This research explores all aspects of the problem including the various variables that would have had effected the breakdown of the Middle East peace process. Finally, the researcher determines the parameters needed to maintain a substantial peace in the Middle East and what proposed strategies might be followed in order to avoid the previous mistakes in future peace negotiations.

Comprising many airplanes, airports, aircrew, and employees, aviation industry is a large sector that is very vulnerable to attacks, whether it is from terrorists or criminals. Aviation history is fraught with examples of airport bombings, hijackings, and sabotage terrorist attacks. The most destructive of which is the tragedy of September 11, 2001, the cornerstone of today's aviation security policies. This study uses risk assessment tools to determine the dimensions of danger and threats against the aviation industry and addresses how vulnerable the aviation sector is. After vulnerabilities and threats are examined, possible impacts of attacks against the aviation security are discussed. This study also explores the pre and post September 11 policies that governments and policy makers develop to reduce risks in aviation sector. In addition, it discusses weaknesses and strengths of these policies which surfaced during the implementations. Finally, this study proposes some recommendations based on vulnerabilities and threats of aviation security.

In the last four decades, hostage situations have rapidly increased in the world due to the threat of terrorism and other social problems. The goals of hostage takers are to achieve certain political, criminal, and/or social benefits through hostage situations. It is not only a police problem but also a governmental problem. Police apply either negotiation or tactical intervention in hostage situations to recover hostages without bloodshed or loss of life. Success in this endeavor is based on effective negotiation. The purposes of this study are to analyze the major actors and their roles in hostage situations, to identify effective negotiation strategies and tools, and to provide some future recommendations for governments, police agencies, and researchers for peaceful resolutions in hostage situations.

Although Turkey is a country with strong social cohesion, figures of runaway children in Turkey are increasing dramatically. This research focused on the factors that cause children to run away and on interaction programs to intervene and/or prevent this problem. Until recently, Turkish family life was able to avoid such problems, but with the effect of westernization and social mobility in Turkey, the basic family structure has become more like the family structure in the western countries. Studies reveal that runaway episodes happen in all families regardless of such factors as economic, race, or geographic situations. Teenagers run away for several reasons; however, early intervention is highly suggested by studies to mitigate the problem. Although, parent-child conflict plays a significant role as a reason for youth leaving home, on the other hand family interaction still remains the best alternative to the problem.

This research examines agency data for participants in a truancy intervention program. Previous literature provides mostly descriptive information and fails to examine the effects of truancy intervention efforts. The analysis provides a profile of truant participants referred to the program and factors that correlate to successful completion of the program requirements. The results will be applicable to the study program as evaluation research and will be generalized for application to other truancy programs. Directions for future truancy research will be suggested based on the need to continue to evaluate truancy reduction efforts.

International criminality has been a challenging phenomenon for national police forces for years. States have developed international police cooperation relations and extradition instruments in order to fight international criminal activity. This treatise explores the reasons for the rise in transnational organized crime activities in Europe and presents an in-depth explanation concerning the emergence, mandates, and structures of multilateral police collaboration systems such as Interpol, Trevi, Schengen, and Europol. Since the extradition has become an inseparable part of international policing, this study examines the improvements in extradition procedure and emphasizes the importance of extradition. Finally this study compares traditional (European Convention on Extradition of 1957) and new (European Arrest Warrant) extradition systems.

Terrorism has been claimed to be a major problem by hundreds of thousands of people in the international arena for years. Either it has been very difficult to determine and understand the reasons for terrorism, or those reasons have never been studied because of the immediate threat of terrorism. This research analyzed the recruitment process of terrorists by studying the DHKP/C terrorist organization and by answering the following questions. The first is "What factors are correlated with joining a terrorist organization?" And the second is "What is the recruitment process of the DHKP/C?" IN the course of this research, I used specific reports written by DHKP/C members and personal experience to come to better understanding of the motivation behind terrorism and the process by which people are recruited in the terrorist organizations.

This research paper addressed the following question: Do select case studies conform to Dr. Freda Adler's theory regarding socio-economic influences on female criminal behavior or dispute her theory? My research involved three female criminals: Karla Faye Tucker, Andrea Yates, and Susan Smith. I addressed Adler's theory in detail, other theories, the makeup of the female criminal and various female crimes. This study provided evidence that all three case studies conform to Adler's theory. nIn accordance with Adler's theory, each of these three females committed crimes of accessibility. None of the three individuals sought to commit a premeditated act or to murder unknown victims. They were motivated by emotions arising at a point in time when access/opportunity presented itself.

The primary goal of this thesis is to provide a comparative analysis of the institutional and organizational mechanisms designed to monitor and control political corruption at the national level. The paper will provide comparisons of these arraignments and control systems across three nations. The thesis will identify differences across countries in terms of organizational and institutional political corruption control mechanisms, and use the CPI index to suggest and identify those control mechanisms that appear to be present in nations with low CPI measurements. Finally, the thesis will conclude with the discussion concerning the future prospects for controlling political corruption in Turkey based on the comparative analysis described above.

Definition of privacy has changed by the changes and improvements in information and surveillance technologies. These changes and improvement need new legal decisions for new kinds of privacy invasions. This study explores the scope of privacy right, particularly when a technological surveillance has occurred by law enforcement agencies. It focuses in particular on increasing law enforcements' surveillance technologies and devices that have the potential to impact citizens' information privacy. These increasing changes in surveillance technologies have important implications both for law enforcements and citizens. This study also discusses increasing law enforcement surveillance for the public's security, changes of the laws that allow law enforcements to use new surveillance powers as a war on terrorism, and the citizens concerns of information privacy. A particular attention is given to the recent public opinion surveys which show citizens' increasing privacy concerns. Finally, a set of recommendations to figure out security-privacy debate and reduce the privacy concerns of the citizens is offered.

When we looked at different issues in terrorism such as definitions, descriptions and motivations, groups and supporters, tactics, strategies, and victims of terrorists and terrorist activities, we see that terrorism is an issue that can occur at any time, and in any place, and it seems that the terrorism threat will still exist in the future. It is almost impossible to stop all terrorist activities all over the world, but it is possible to formulate an anti-terrorism policy that can keep terrorist activities at a minimum level and prevent planned terror activities by a well developed intelligence network. It seems that to establish a good intelligence collection system an approach in which HUMINT and TECHINT are interdependent with each other is necessary. By using a combination of human and technical intelligence collection methods, intelligence agencies can become more effective and efficient against terrorism.