<p> Decisions made by street-level police officers during encounters with the public have an immediate and long-lasting effect. Bad choices can cause a loss of trust, respect, and legitimacy for the police in a community and lay a foundation for violent confrontations between officers and citizens. Layers of culture that shape human decisions consist of social and institutional culture, including interactions that shape an individual&rsquo;s culture and beliefs and demographics and technology that affect cultural development. Police culture (which includes these layers of culture and factors like rank, units, and history) shapes attitudes and opinions about communities and people in a police jurisdiction, leading to barriers to officers&rsquo; acceptance of training initiatives to implement new methods of dealing with the public. Understanding police culture is the first step in making positive changes in police decision-making and improving trust, respect, and legitimacy between officers and the community. Acker&rsquo;s theory of social structure social learning provided the theoretical framework for understanding police culture, which could lead to positive changes such as training programs that address police culture&rsquo;s influence on decision-making. A qualitative research method with a phenomenological approach for interviewing officers was used to investigate police culture and how it affects decision-making. Results indicated that officers think of culture as a family or brotherhood and not a culture. The most significant impact on decision-making is experience. These findings can lead to positive social change by making officers stakeholders in developing training in positive social relationships with the community. </p><p>

The collation and use of criminal records by the state has conventionally been regarded as essential for the prevention and detection of crime, the administration of justice and the maximisation of public safety. For instance: the police may check the criminal records of suspects to determine whether they are ‘known offenders’; those working in the judicial sphere may investigate the prior ‘form’ of witnesses and defendants to adduce ‘bad character’ or determine an appropriate sentence; and educational authorities and social services departments may conduct criminal background checks to determine the ‘suitability’ of individuals to work with or foster children. Whilst not disputing that these official functions provided the original justification for the state’s development of criminal record repositories during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, this thesis argues that other unofficial and quasi-penological functions are now served in the present by the collation, retention and dissemination of criminal background information. This contention is examined through a critical history of legal rehabilitation in England and Wales as introduced under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974. This legislation determines if, when and under what circumstances a previous criminal record can be deemed ‘relevant’ for a number of purposes. Effectively, it regulates the extent to which a wide range of social actors can permissibly treat people with convictions less favourably than those in society without any criminal background. The thesis argues that legal rehabilitation as a social practice determines the boundaries of redemptive possibility in late-modern society by enacting a discriminatory biopolitics which uses criminal records as a moral apparatus to regulate life chances. Underpinned by neoliberal and authoritarian governmentalities, this biopolitics distinguishes a ‘law-abiding citizenry’ - constructed as deserving of access to social goods - from a ‘denizen class’ of convicted people whose ‘punishment’ is perpetuated through exposure to various exclusionary conducts.

<p>Law enforcement is responding to an ever-increasing number of large-scale critical incidents involving an adversary who has killed or is attempting to kill innocent citizens. These incidents include active shooters, terrorist attacks, hostage situations, snipers, and other associated conflicts. The initial response phase of these incidents is an extreme challenge for law enforcement response organizations. Moreover, little academic research has been conducted concerning this phase and the issues occurring within it. This thesis intends to help address this gap in the research and provide important insight into the factors and dynamics at play during this time period with a focus on the major issues that are occurring. An analysis of 15 after- action reports from these large-scale events was conducted and used to formulate useful percentages on the primary errors occurring during these events. The results of the analysis were also utilized to create the framework for the timeline of the initial response phase. The ultimate goal of this research thesis is to provide useful information for these events by drawing attention to primary issues for future incident commanders and law enforcement first responder consideration.

<p> Few studies focus on substance use among the 60 distinct ethnic groups that comprise the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) population, and epidemiological surveys on substance use either omit or aggregate AAPIs. As a result, the extent and breadth of AAPI substance use is minimized, and AAPI substance use is often ignored. However, recent studies indicate an increase in AAPI drug use, particularly ecstasy/molly consumption at electronic dance music (EDM) events, and nearly half of all drug-related fatalities at EDM events were AAPIs. To illuminate the hidden patterns of AAPI drug use and identify risk factors of substance-related harms, this project describes rich data from 14 intensive interviews. Using a qualitative approach with a snowball sampling technique, this study explains the onset, persistence, and desistance of AAPI drug use and explores the settings and factors that shape pleasurable and harmful use. </p><p> The findings suggest a normalized drug culture is present among AAPIs, which influences <i>all</i> aspects of Asian American drug use. More importantly, pervasive drug use among Asian American peer groups shaped AAPI drug use. Peers impacted the onset, persistence, and setting of drug use, and peers influenced positive and negative AAPI experiences. Grounded in the narratives in this study, peer-to-peer education and drug checking programs for AAPIs, particularly at EDM festivals, should be implemented to reduce risks and promote desistance.</p><p>

<p> In the United States, recidivism rates among juvenile offenders continue to grow year after year, despite decades of research to understand the problem, including more recent efforts by the courts to focus on alternatives to incarceration. More contemporary research efforts have suggested that targeting specific risk factors, particularly mental health issues, in juvenile offenders is an effective method for not only reducing recidivism, but the successful completion of probation programs. In virtually all juvenile justice systems across the country, offenders are given a mental health assessment when entering the system, although utilizing the results is neither mandate not nor consistently applied in many cases. This study sought to understand, from the perspective of probation officers in one county in Arizona, why the assessments are not more widely and consistently used. Specifically, this study sought to answer the following research question: How do probation officers for juveniles describe the barriers to implementation of mental health assessments in case planning? This study used a generic qualitative methodology, interviewing current juvenile probation officers. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, analyzed, and ultimately identified three primary themes: lack of training, overwhelming caseloads, and an overall problem with the perceived value of the assessments. Subsequently, these themes are indicators of barriers that probation officers face in their jobs when it comes to implementing mental health assessment results in case planning. Ultimately, this study provided new insight into why juvenile probation officers do not more consistently utilize mental health assessment results and offers implications for future research to expand the population, scope, and understanding of this research topic.</p><p>

<p> Even as electronic payments and virtual currencies become more popular, checks are still the nearly ubiquitous form of payment for many situations in the United States such as payroll, purchasing a vehicle, paying rent, and hiring a contractor. Fraud has always plagued this form of payment, and this research aimed to capture the scope of this 15^th century problem in the 21^st century. Today, counterfeit checks originating from overseas are the scourge of online dating sites, classifieds forums, and mailboxes throughout the country. Additional frauds including alteration, theft, and check kiting also exploit checks. Check fraud is causing hundreds of millions in estimated losses to both financial institutions and consumers annually, and the problem is growing. Fraud investigators and financial institutions must be better educated and armed to successfully combat it. This research study collected information on the history of checks, forms of check fraud, victimization, and methods for check fraud prevention and detection. Check fraud is not only a financial issue, but also a social one. Uneducated and otherwise vulnerable consumers are particularly targeted by scammers exploiting this form of fraud. Racial minorities, elderly, mentally ill, and those living in poverty are disproportionately affected by fraud victimization. Financial institutions struggle to strike a balance between educating customers, complying with regulations, and tailoring alerts that are both valuable and fast. Applications of artificial intelligence including machine learning and computer vision have many recent advancements, but financial institution anti-fraud measures have not kept pace. This research concludes that the onus rests on financial institutions to take a modern approach to check fraud, incorporating machine learning into real-time reviews, to adequately protect victims.</p><p>

This thesis provides an original investigation into the status of violent veterans in the United Kingdom post 9/11. Drawing upon a series of interviews conducted during 2011-2014, it frames the problem through the focused lens of Veteranality. Veteranality is understood here to be the regulation and rehabilitation of veteran offenders within the criminal justice framework, with a conscious attempt to understand the limitations of governing regimes by foregrounding questions of political agency. It looks directly at the tensions and conflicts veteran offenders experience as they move from a war paradigm to one of criminal justice on domestic soil. Central here is the ethical decision to “give voice” to the veterans by allowing them to narrate their own experiences prior, during and after war, which proves crucial to the study. As violent veterans expose the limits of juridical approaches to their crimes, so they add further empirical weight to the claims that times of war and peace are less easily demarcated and set apart. Embodying the normalisation of violence in new security terrains, their testimonies present significant challenges and demand a thorough rethinking of the violence of warfare in the 21st Century.

<p> The response to civil disturbances has historically been the aggressive use of force or <i>escalation</i> with tactics such as the use of police dogs, armed federal troops during war protests, and police field forces. These types of tactics can escalate tensions between protestors and police and only add to the violence and destruction of the incident. To reduce the violence between protestors and the police and the destruction often associated with civil disturbances, it is necessary to examine the need to include de-escalation techniques in the responses. This study utilized 3 theoretical frameworks, the chaos theory, the behavioral decision theory and the strain theory, all which complement each other in interpreting the opinions and experiences of participants and civil disturbance responses. The research questions were used to determine the influence of experience, training, personal biases or external influences on decision making and elicit the opinions of respondents in how they would respond to a civil disturbance. Twenty-five respondents responsible for policy or response decisions regarding civil disturbances from southern U.S. state emergency management and law enforcement agencies took part in the survey. The results of a cross-tabulation analysis determined that there is a need for the inclusion of de-escalation techniques and that they would be effective in civil disturbances. The results also showed that an aggressive response was the preferred method to restoring or maintaining order, but there was a need to examine changes in response tactics. This study may be beneficial and provide a social impact through policy changes, which may lead to a lessening of the severity and scope of an incident.</p><p>

Preventing money laundering is a major international problem. Several attempts, from the national to the international level, have been made to address and prevent money laundering. These are often frustrated by the dynamic nature of the crime itself. However, regardless of its reach and dynamism in illegal or legal transactions, which are often intertwined, individual nations need to address the issue of money laundering to signify to an international audience and legitimate commercial interests their intent to tackle money laundering and thus illustrate that public and private state run organisations in the financial and law enforcement sectors are honest and professional, and that their country is a ‘place to do business’. This thesis, therefore, presents an evaluation of the strategies and future directions of money laundering in Dubai, as it is a ‘new’, dynamic place in which to conduct business and the financial centre of the Middle East. It examines the various ways in which legislation and law enforcement in Dubai are struggling with and tackling the issues and problems of money laundering in the face of organised crime and terrorism. In this thesis, the concepts of money laundering and financial crimes in Dubai, with a special focus on strategies as well as future direction of control, are explored in some depth. This work has established that Dubai has a substantial anti-money laundering framework; however, it suffers from some weaknesses. These weaknesses are caused by the poor relationship between anti-money laundering units, the Anti-Organised Crime Department of the Dubai police, the financial sector and the Central Bank of Dubai. This situation is particularly evident when it comes to sharing information on those suspected of money laundering in Dubai. The ‘lack of a relationship’ is illustrated by primary research, as is the fact that other nations have (i.e. the UK) developed a more intelligence-led approach and partnerships in their quest to prevent money laundering where possible in their jurisdiction. This thesis highlights the progress that is needed in Dubai and the UAE to prevent money laundering, and as such is an original contribution to knowledge in an under-researched field in the Middle East.

<p> Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) and schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD) are conditions characterized by frontal lobe deficits. Past research has shown increased violent and aggressive behavior in both conditions; however, few studies have examined the mechanisms driving this relationship, particularly in non-athlete or non-veteran populations. The current study examined the neurodegenerative effects of repeated mTBI over time on cognitive flexibility and stability deficits in a homeless population. Additionally, we investigated the mediating effects of these deficits on the impact of both repeated lifetime mTBI and presence of an SSD on violent crime. Consistent with expectations, the number of lifetime mTBIs positively predicted violence levels across multiple measures of violent crime, however cognitive flexibility and stability deficits did not mediate this relationship. Furthermore, comorbidity of mTBI and SSD increased the frequency of violent crimes greater than either condition alone. Implications for risk assessment, intervention strategies and violence reduction are discussed.</p><p>