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The current research sought to gain in-depth insights into the information-seeking behavior of Turkish National Police digital evidence examiners (DEEs); to explore the information sources that DEEs use and the factors affecting their decisions about source selection. Factors that affect information source selection and use by DEEs are: accreditation, workload, type of information, time, cost, availability, reliability/scientific importance, up-to-date data, prior experience with the source, relevance, interactivity and importance. The Internet was the information source most commonly used by participants during the examination stage; other sources included forums, experts, colleagues, forensic tools/kits and books. During the analysis stage, the most frequently mentioned information source was the investigation file, containing information about the elements of the crime; other sources included: personal experience, experts, detectives, the Internet, clients, professional training, the prosecutor, evidence submission forms, in-lab manuals, forums and colleagues. During the report-writing stage, most DEEs used in-lab manuals and report templates as information sources, but previously written reports, editing software, and colleagues were also used to obtain information about the format, style and language of reports as legal documents.

No description available.

No description available.

Restorative Justice (RJ) is an approach to justice which most often centres around creating a shared dialogue between stakeholders in a given offence. It is often contrasted with traditional criminal justice due to its focus on the personal involvement of those who have been directly impacted by the harm. Popular models of RJ include various types of mediation, conferencing, and circles, each with a slightly different approach toward reaching a settlement between stakeholders. Some of the main goals of RJ highlighted in the criminological literature include healing, reparation, and community-building. However, because of its nature as a diverse and contested subject over the past several decades, there are numerous understandings of RJ. Due to this frequent difficulty in defining and understanding RJ, this thesis attempts to provide some grounding on the subject through the document analysis of four Canadian RJ programs. RJ program documentation was analyzed in order to discover how these programs portray their “services” to the public. Results showed that many of the most prominent themes in the programs were also present in the literature. However, a more important facet of the discussion emerged with further analysis. Using a perspective of governmentalist versus communitarian RJ, the programs were compared to discover that the way in which a program presents itself in online documentation surely does not always encapsulate its core nature in terms of judicial, legal, and correctional involvement. Simply put, a verbal commitment to distancing oneself from the ways of the traditional criminal justice system does not necessarily signify a lack of involvement as it would suggest.

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Although criminality among mentally ill individuals is a well-documented phenomenon, limited research has focused on specific factors that need to be addressed to combat this issue. Utilizing the theoretical framework of Shaw and McKay’s (1942) Social Disorganization Theory, in conjunction with collective efficacy (Sampson et al., 1997) and social capital (Coleman, 1988), different factors were explored in an attempt to discover their relationship with recidivism. Using secondary data from Criminal Justice Drug Abuse Treatment Studies, variables such as homelessness, unemployment, and religious importance were analyzed in relation to rearrest rates from 889 parolees nine months post-release. Marriage, sex, and age were controlled for. A relationship was found between unemployment and rearrest; however, no relationship was found between rearrest and homelessness or religious importance among this sample. Results from this study could contribute to the future implementation of programs aimed at assisting mentally ill offenders who are being released from confinement.

The purpose of this single-subject case study was to determine if vocal changes can be used to implicate deceit based on a suspect’s involuntary vocal responses when placed in a high stress situation such as being interrogated for a crime. This study also identified justification for the use of SLPs in the criminal justice system for the purpose of voice analysis. 10 truthful and 10 deceitful statements were analyzed from a suspect charged with the crime of murder using the voice analysis software Praat to determine differences in vocal attributes with varying speech characteristics. These statements were analyzed in the areas of intensity, hesitations/pausing, speech rate, and disfluencies. It was found that changes in maximum intensity and total number of words per statement implicate that a person is being deceitful.

Adolescent alcohol consumption is a topic that has been well-researched to date due to the dangers it can pose. A variety of factors may work to contribute to the habits these adolescents develop. One factor that has not been extensively studied is the impact of locations on drinking decisions. Location provides a perspective on how various social factors can intersect to dictate where and when young people will choose to consume alcohol. Most previous literature has focused on the alcohol usage found at parties or bars, but the current research wishes to expand this idea to other locations, such as a friend’s house and the school setting. By identifying these locations and seeking to determine whether various factors impact drinking choices, we can better understand the problem. The current study did so by utilizing data from the Monitoring the Future (MTF) Project. Results revealed that certain locations were more common than others, and that some demographic and social characteristics may influence this fact. Results are discussed, as are limitations and suggestions for future research.

There are many ways that people can form an opinion about law enforcement even if they have had a personal interaction with someone who works in the field. This idea has always been interesting as there needs to be some type of understanding when it comes to this certain viewpoint. There can be many factors that result in having a certain perspective on law enforcement in general like their background growing up, hearsay from close relatives, friends, and whatever they have seen up close in person. This study is going to aim at a specific area of how people view law enforcement from being exposed to certain types of movies, television shows, and news outlets. This idea has been discussed but it does not really dominate too much of the political arena. This study is designed to examine the perceptions of college students, good or bad, in regard to what they were exposed to growing up watching on television that included law enforcement. Data were obtained via surveys that were given out to 104 students at East Tennessee State University. Analysis revealed that there was no significant relationship between the types of media that the college students watched that shaped their current perceptions of policing.