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The criminal justice process is dependent on accurate documentation. Criminal justice professionals can spend 50–75 percent of their time writing administrative and research reports. The information provided in these reports is crucial to the functioning of our system of justice. Report Writing for Criminal Justice Professionals, Sixth Edition, provides practical guidance—with specific writing samples and guidelines—for providing strong reports. Most law enforcement, security, corrections, and probation and parole officers have not had adequate training in how to provide well-written, accurate, brief, and complete reports. Report Writing for Criminal Justice Professionals covers everything officers need to learn—from basic English grammar to the difficult but often-ignored problem of creating documentation that will hold up in court. This new edition includes updates to reference materials and citations, as well as further supporting examples and new procedures in digital and electronic report writing. / https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu_books/1178/thumbnail.jpg

Pretrial publicity is a problem that can affect the fair outcome of a trial, a right that is guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. Research has indicated that potential jurors who are exposed to negative pretrial publicity are more likely to render 'guilty' verdicts (Ruva and McEvoy, 2008). The current study will entail an analysis of pretrial publicity and a case study of attitudes and beliefs surrounding the Casey Anthony trial. Participants included 309 undergraduates at the University of Central Florida. Results indicated that the majority of participants already hold negative biases and non-deliberate exposure influenced negative attitudes and beliefs.

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The purpose of this mixed methods longitudinal study was to explore the connection between the quality of alternative education and juvenile delinquency. The study examined two alternative education disciplinary schools in the state of Florida over six academic years. The study's goals were twofold. The first goal was to determine the impact of the implementation of quality assurance (QA) in alternative education disciplinary schools. Specifically, the study focused on determining if the QA program increased the schools' use of best practices and, as a result, positively affected the likelihood that exiting students would return to mainstream public education after exiting an alternative education school. Study findings suggest that full implementation of the QA program increased students' likelihood of returning to their home schools after being released from the alternative education disciplinary school. Furthermore, the quantitative results indicate that the implementation of QA at an alternative education school does not increase students' attendance in their home schools after their return. The second goal of this study was to determine if a high quality alternative education school would improve students' positive school experiences, thus increasing their social capital and resulting in a reduction of crime as measured by a decrease in the possibility that a student would be arrested within 12 months after being released from the alternative education school. The quantitative results indicate that partial QA implementation decreased the likelihood that students would be arrested within twelve months after exiting an alternative education disciplinary school, but full and post QA implementation did not. Overall, the findings suggest that QA does not significantly impact the likelihood of an arrest within twelve months after a student exits from an alternative education school. The study concludes with discussion of the problem of youth returning to but not remaining in their regular school because of poor regular school experiences versus positive alternative education school experiences. The policy recommendations based on the results of this study are that students at alternative education schools be allowed to remain in these schools until their graduation from high school. / A Dissertation submitted to the College of Criminology and Criminal Justice in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Degree Awarded: Summer Semester, 2010. / Date of Defense: March 5, 2010. / Alternative Education, Delinquency / Includes bibliographical references. / Thomas G. Blomberg, Professor Directing Dissertation; Stacey Rutledge, University Representative; William Bales, Committee Member.

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The current study is focused on the influence of Hirschi’s Social Control Theory on juvenile delinquency. Specifically, I examined if attachment and involvement reduced delinquency among youth using a secondary data analysis of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). The results indicated that attachment to parental and/or non-parental adults does significantly affect delinquency, but voluntary involvement in conventional activities does not.

Identity theft and credit and bank card fraud is increasing in America and worldwide. Given the current statistics of its prevalence and practices around the world, many in government are starting to take critical notice due to its impact on a nation’s economy. Limited amounts of research have been conducted regarding the practices of applying the Routine Activities Theory (Cohen & Felson, 1979) to better equip store managers in understanding the critical need for capable and effective point of sale guardianship for in-store prevention of credit or bank card fraud due to identity theft. This research has used qualitative observational studies to investigate the presence of or lack of capable guardianship at point of sales transactions in large department stores where a majority of in-store credit and bank card fraud loss occurs. Findings conclude an overwhelming lack of capable guardianship at retail store POS terminals.

Past research has shown that many youths in the United States age out of foster care group homes unprepared for independent living. Lack of connections to adults, low educational attainment, and homelessness are negative outcomes that have been linked to incarceration for youth who age out of foster care. The purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to determine how well the independent variables of connection to adults, educational attainment, and homelessness predict the dependent variable of likelihood of incarceration for African American males (n = 504) within 3 years after aging out of foster care group homes. The Bridges transition model was the theoretical framework for this study. Data came from the archived National Youth Transitional Database. Logistic regression revealed that connection to adults, educational attainment, and homelessness were not statistically significant predictors ("Ï?2 = 4.64,df = 3,p > .05) " of the likelihood of incarceration for African American males within 3 years of aging out of foster care group homes. The Nagelkerke R2 value showed that the independent variables accounted for only 2.9% of variance in the model. Additional research is needed to determine what services, skills, or resources African American males may need to minimize the likelihood of being incarcerated after aging out of foster care. Findings from this study could contribute to social change by providing professionals in human services and other fields with empirical evidence that there is a need to extend the range of services provided to African American males in foster care to minimize the likelihood of them experiencing incarceration after aging out of foster care.

The purpose of this work was to compare serial homicides committed by interstate and intrastate offenders and to determine differences in behavior between them. Knowledge of such differences would enable the trained homicide detective to structure his investigation according to the killer's inferred range of action. This study used homicide data collected by the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program (VICAP), of the National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime (NCAVC). VICAP's data was voluntarily submitted by investigators working at the state, local, and federal levels. The VICAP database had information on more than 804 cases of homicides committed by 241 different, serial offenders. The VICAP data was examined in order to learn whether offender behaviors could reveal a distinction between the interstate serial offender and the intrastate serial offender. Five variables of conscious or unconscious offender behavior were selected: (1) the victim's occupation, (2) the victim's last known location, (3) the type and kind of restraints used on the victim (if any), (4) the victim's cause of death, and (5) the level of concealment of the victim at the body disposal site. Information from the attributes in these variables could be helpful to the homicide detective in an early determination of the types and kinds of investigative resources that should be applied to the case for a successful resolution. A hypothesis was formed: there is a detectable difference on the five variables in the behaviors of interstate and intrastate serial killers. The findings supported the hypothesis that there was a detectable difference between the two types of serial killers. An unexpected finding revealed that one type of offender was more deadly than the other, and thus less likely to leave behind surviving victims. viii interstate serial offender and the intrastate serial offender. Five variables of conscious or unconscious offender behavior were selected: (1) the victim's occupation, (2) the victim's last known location, (3) the type and kind of restraints used on the victim (if any), (4) the victim's cause of death, and (5) the level of concealment of the victim at the body disposal site. Information from the attributes in these variables could be helpful to the homicide detective in an early determination of the types and kinds of investigative resources that should be applied to the case for a successful resolution. A hypothesis was formed: there is a detectable difference on the five variables in the behaviors of interstate and intrastate serial killers. The findings supported the hypothesis that there was a detectable difference between the two types of serial killers. An unexpected finding revealed that one type of offender was more deadly than the other, and thus less likely to leave behind surviving victims.