Background & Purpose: Opioid maintenance therapy (OMT) is an effective method of treating opioid addiction. Of incarcerated individuals in the U.S., 50-85% have a history of substance abuse, and >80% of inmates with opioid addiction history do not receive treatment. The purpose of this study was to explore individuals' experiences after being tapered from OMT upon incarceration. Methods: Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was employed using in-depth interviewing of 10 participants. Results: Analysis identified six themes that captured the essence of the participants' experiences. Implications & Conclusion: Losing OMT upon incarceration was described as an extremely stressful experience for many individuals, and may create issues for both inmates and facility staff. Further research is needed to discover ways in which to improve addiction treatment in prison.

Anarchism is a political and socioeconomic force that has driven violent methods of social and political change for centuries. Relating Anarchism to these violent acts demonstrates a deep-seeded link to terrorism. Anarchism is one of the main forces behind modern day terrorism due to its long history alongside the ever evolving term terrorism. By connecting these two concepts, domestic terror groups can be better analyzed and understood, and future attacks from within the United States may be prevented.

This study provides, via personal interviews, a qualitative examination of police, district attorneys, public defenders and private attorneys who were involved in traffic accident investigation and criminal court adjudication in Chattanooga, Tennessee. These data were compiled to develop a profile of the actors and their involvement in the process of a criminal charge stemming from a traffic accident. The literature suggests that the actors work as a team to process a case from investigation to adjudication; however, the actors in Chattanooga, Tennessee were fragmented in their handling of a case. This study collectively examines police and attorneys in relation to traffic issues.

Parental attachment style is an important element when delinquent behavior seems to be an issue for a child. In the past, a number of parents have found it difficult to effectively bond with their children because most had to work long hours to provide their child with necessities. Bonding with their children was not a high priority when lower income was a factor. Some parents began to realize that bonding is an important aspect in a child's life and must be nurtured to assure that antisocial tendencies do not erupt. Many theorists have linked criminal behavior to ineffective parenting styles. These styles usually left the child insecurely attached, with no one to talk to when stress and anxiety were felt. In turn, these feelings of stress and anxiety can surface and cause the child to display deviant behaviors toward others. The Cambridge Delinquent Data were used to measure the relationship between parental attachment variables and convictions in adolescence and adulthood. Chi-square analyses were used to measure the variables. The results of the analysis revealed a significant relationship between seven of the nine parental attachment variables and convictions.

The purpose of this study was to analyze those factors that affect the commitment rate of juveniles and how outside variables such as gender, race, parents, and school attendance affect the commitment rate of crime and delinquency. The variables used for this study came from the Gang Resistance Education and Training (G.R.E.A.T.) data collected by Esbensen and Osgood (1999). The analysis revealed that females are more likely to have a higher commit rate than males, that Whites have a higher commit rate than other races, that those juveniles living with their father have a lower commit rate than those living with others, and those juveniles who do not attend school often are less likely to commit crimes and delinquent actions than those who attend more often.

The purpose of this research was to study the attitudes of police officers about handgun carry permit holders. Police officers from local police departments in Tennessee and Virginia were surveyed with a 30-question questionnaire. The questionnaire used the independent variables of sex (gender), age, marital status, and education to study officers’ opinions on the subject of handgun carry permit holders. The survey items asked police officers their attitudes about issues including carry permits in certain situations, training of the permit holder, and federal law. The research found that a majority of officers support handgun carry permit holders and that officers are not threatened by handgun carry permit holders.

The current study sought to assess the impact of the race, gender, and ethnicity of rape victims on college students’ propensity to assign culpability to victims. Using a sample of college students (n=279) from a mid-sized Southeastern university, respondents were given a set of six different vignettes, varying only by victim characteristics. These vignettes featured alcohol-facilitated sexual assault between acquaintances, a common occurrence in college environments. Respondents were asked to evaluate the culpability of the victim through a blameworthiness scale. Through the incorporation of the Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale, this study also measured the respondents’ propensity to assign blame to female rape victims and to alleviate male perpetrators of any responsibility. Results indicated that adherence to rape myth acceptance was a more significant predictor of blameworthiness than victim or respondent characteristics. This exploratory study was designed to add to the growing body of literature examining attitudes toward acquaintance rape.

Previous research has found significant effects of gender, race, and age on sentencing decisions made by state and local court judges (e.g. Johnson, 2003; Mustard, 2001; Steffensmeier, Ulmer, & Kramer, 1998). The current study used criminal district court data from two counties in western North Carolina to further research of the effects of the aforementioned variables on sentencing. Using knowledge acquired from past studies, the hypotheses for the current study asserted that younger offenders, male offenders, and nonwhite offenders would be more likely to be found guilty of their offense and receive fines than their respective offender counterparts. The results of the binary regression analysis models did not support many of the proposed hypotheses; however, significant relationships unsupervised probation, supervised probation, and active time were found with defendants who used privately retained counsel. Implications are discussed, as well as limitations and research recommendations for the future.

The purpose of this thesis project is to measure the level of knowledge that university students have regarding state and national illicit drug classifications in the United States and associated penalties with these classifications, as well as the harms resulting from consuming illicit drugs. This particular study, which is to be conducted as a replication study to Higson’s campus-based study on the UK drug policy, focuses on a different campus population in regards to the U.S. drug policy. Replication studies such as these are beneficial to previous studies because such additional research will not only strengthen the findings and correct additional errors, but new research may also explore new limitations to the data. Through survey-based research, a 40-student sample of East Tennessee State University Students (ETSU) will be asked to complete a questionnaire testing their knowledge on illicit drug policies and their harms. Such research and collection of data is important because based on student feedback, recommendations can be made in regards to educating young adults on areas such as illicit drug classifications, sentencing penalties, and potential harms.

During the 1990’s the world witnessed a crime drop throughout all categories of crime. Many researchers have sought to seek an explanation for this drop; however, there has been a lack of concrete findings to fully explain this phenomenon. The purpose of this study is to explore a further reasoning as to why this drop occurred, specifically throughout the United States. An unexplored factor to explain this phenomenon is the increase of household computer ownership during the 1990’s. During this decade, household computers and the internet became prevalent throughout the nation. This study utilized secondary data from the Uniform Crime Report and the United States Current Population survey, with support from routines activities theory, to answer the research question to find if there was a correlation between household computer use and the crime drop. The results for this study found that there was a positive correlation between household computer ownership, household internet ownership, and all realms of crime. With this, it is important to note that the social trend of household computer ownership is not the only reasoning for this phenomenon.