Mandated accreditation of crime laboratories is a fairly new phenomenon. The state of Texas was the first to require that crime laboratories be accredited in order to be able to present evidence in a criminal proceeding. The laws that govern this are Texas House Bill 2703 and Texas House Bill 1068. The goal of this study is see how the enactment of these laws impacted crime laboratories. There are 42 crime laboratories that are accredited in the state of Texas. This study was conducted by the use of telephone survey interviews. Results indicated that mandated accreditation is a step in the right direction to ensure that objectivity is maintained during the processing and evaluation of physical evidence.

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.

Electronic surveillance for foreign intelligence purposes was largely unregulated prior to 1978. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (hereinafter "FISA") was enacted to implement a judicial authorization process for foreign intelligence electronic surveillance that would effectively balance competing needs for national security and civil liberty under the Fourth Amendment. This study examines the evolution of FISA and its effectiveness under the Fourth Amendment, as assessed by federal reviewing courts and scholars since the statute's enactment. The study concludes that the FISA electronic surveillance authorization process has been effective in providing a constitutional mechanism to obtain foreign intelligence information.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.