While there is a substantial body of placed-based evaluations of drug enforcement strategies, little is known about the nature and effectiveness of the routine tactics used by local police to target individual drug offenders. This study used a mixed-method approach to build on existing research on the efficacy of drug enforcement by documenting the nature and consequences of street-level drug enforcement at the local level. First, a focus group of drug enforcement experts was conducted to identify the tactics used to generate arrests and various types of evidence believed to strengthen drug cases. Next, official data in the form of police reports and court records were coded from one year of proactive felony drug arrests in a large, urban police department. The relationship between offender-focused drug enforcement tactics and various court outcomes (e.g., felony prosecution, formal conviction, and incarceration) were examined through logistic regression analyses. Results indicate traffic stops were the most frequently used tactic to generate felony drug arrests. However, buy-walks were more effective than traffic stops at receiving felony prosecutions. In contrast, search warrants were significantly less likely to result in prosecution. Implications for research and policy are discussed.

Studies show that family structure is an important factor in explaining delinquency among adolescents (Price & Kunz, 2003). There is a lack of research, however, pertaining to cohabitation. The main goals of this study are to determine if there are variations in delinquency between cohabitating and other family types, and to examine the extent to which parental social control measures account for the variation in delinquency by family structure. Data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) are used for the purposes of this study (n = 4,389). While there are no significant differences in violent delinquency between cohabitating families and other family types, results indicate that adolescents from cohabitating families have a greater odds of engaging in nonviolent delinquency compared to those from 2- biological-parent families, although reaching only marginal significance. This difference, however, is explained once parental social control factors are accounted for in the models.

This thesis attempts to document and illuminate the growing issue of prescription drug abuse among the elderly population. The average elder in the U.S. takes at least one prescription drug per day, depending upon their health status. Likewise, elders that suffer from multiple chronic conditions are more likely to take multiple prescription drugs. As the lifespan of humankind grows well into their 90's and older, even more elders will be placed on prescription drugs. As part of this study, a narrative literature review was conducted to summarize the topic of prescription drug abuse amongst the elderly. The findings suggest that elderly white women over the age of 80 years old are more likely to take prescription drugs that lead to a higher risk of bodily injuries and death. This study is critically important and essential since the current generation that meets the age requirement to be considered elderly is the "Baby Boomer" generation. The "Baby Boomer" generation, defined as individuals born between 1946 and 1964, is considered one of the largest generations recorded in modern times. This study will be useful for practitioners, residential care facilities, policymakers, and family members to have better oversight and communication with elders suffering from chronic conditions that take prescription drugs to cure their illnesses.

This thesis analyzed the effects of sexual victimization among college women. Previous research has found that victimization has several negative effects. This thesis was designed to add to this literature by addressing how sexual victimization effects both behavior and academic performance. Results indicated that there was a significant relationship between sexual victimization and behavior changes, the type of victimization experienced had a different impact on the victim based on the type of victimization they experienced, and that academic performance was significantly affected by sexual victimization.

The involvement of women in human trafficking within the United States has received limited research attention. Human trafficking encompasses labor, sex, and organ trafficking (Roberts, 2012). In 2009 the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reported that women play a significant role in human trafficking. Nagel and Johnson (1994) conclude that, historically, female offenders have stayed at the edge of the criminal justice system. Generally, theories about prosecution and conviction outcomes derive from the study of male offenders. Women can be involved in all aspects of the human trafficking organizations, from the recruitment, to the supervision of prostitutes and to the finances. Pulling from the chivalry theory framework, this study used data sourced from the FBI on human trafficking offenders and their sentencing outcomes to compare the discrepancies between men and women. The current research adds to the existing literature by examining the gender discrepancy on human trafficking case outcomes. The analysis measures how gender influences court-related decisions.

The Markle Task Force on National Security in the Information Age was created to produce recommendations on how to best leverage intelligence and information to improve security without compromising existing civil liberties. Their second report proposed that the government set up an information-sharing network using currently available technology to improve our ability to prevent terrorist attacks, while protecting civil liberties. The Markle recommendations have been incorporated into the recent Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004. The proposition is that the Markle task force recommendations are sufficient to achieve the required data integration in the United States. To affirm or falsify the proposition, three existing systems will be reviewed: Alabama's Law Enforcement Tactical System Portal (LETS), Florida's Statewide Data Sharing Effort (FINDER), and Orange County, Florida's Integrated Criminal Justice System. This study found that there is no overall model for national intelligence analysis that incorporates the capabilities that law enforcement has for collection and analysis in with the federal capabilities for collection and analysis. This may ultimately limit the regional systems' success. Recommendations for potential initial models are made. In addition, recommendations for improvement in each regional system are provided. Finally, further research is needed to refine a national intelligence analysis model that can be supported by a distributed information sharing network.

The purpose of this research was to examine the influence of police organizational culture on officers' perception of integrity in the Turkish National Police (TNP). Adopting an organizational rather than an individualistic perspective, this study focused on police organizational culture to investigate the causes of integrity problems in the TNP. While focusing on police organizational culture, this study also aimed to determine to what extent officers' perceptions of integrity are influenced by personal and occupational attributes such as age, gender, rank, income, educational level, years of employment, and assignment type. The research was conducted in Turkey's two largest cities, Istanbul and Ankara, as well as the largest city of southeastern Turkey, Diyarbakir. Three hundred officers, consisting of 200 regular police officers and 100 ranked officers, were selected from each city, making a sample size of 900 in total. With a total of 507 respondents, after eliminating cases with missing values, the study achieved a 57% response rate. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothesized relationships, since it is the most appropriate statistical method for testing hypotheses based on relations among latent and observed variables. This method enabled the researcher to measure the perception of police integrity and the perception of police organizational culture with their multiple indicators, providing rigorous measurements for both constructs. The results of the statistical analysis supported the research hypothesis. The findings showed that officers' perception of police organizational culture negatively influenced their perception of integrity. It was also found that officers' age and educational level also had a statistically significant influence on their perception of integrity.

Serial murder investigations are normally hard for police to handle because of problems that appear internal and external to the police department. While the traditional techniques of investigating a crime (presence witness or witnesses, collecting evidence, and obtaining a confession from the suspect) are helpful in normal situations, their rare application to serial murder cases is only further complicated by other issues. This recognition of investigative issues is critical for not only apprehending these dangerous types of individuals but also for preventing more murders. Case studies of six serial killers have been examined to clarify the issues, using the traditional techniques of investigation as a reference. The data have been interpreted in terms of the factors present in helping to apprehend the offender as well as the problems that hindered the investigation. A final discussion of solutions and the identification of other problems that have not been previously addressed in other works are offered. It is imperative to take note of these issues and work to diminish and/or resolve them for more effectively pursuing serial killers. With acknowledgement of where law enforcement is deficient, a larger effort can be made to not only minimize but possibly even eliminate the errors within an investigation.

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.

A Specialized or Super Intensive-1 (SI-1) supervision level refers to a contact requirement imposed on special needs offenders (SNOs) under Texas parole supervision. SI-1 supervision requires greater contact with parole officers and treatment providers than supervision levels used on regular offenders (ROs), yet little is known about whether SI-1 supervision offenders violate terms of their parole or commit new crimes at a different rate compared to the regular offender population in the State of Texas. Reconstruction theory and the social construction of reality were used as theoretical underpinnings of this study, which examined whether differences in offenders' supervision levels created statistically significant differences in technical or new law violations in Texas parole hearings. A random sample of 200 SNOs and ROs data were analyzed using a 2-way ANOVA. Results indicated a positive and statistically significant difference between level of supervision and technical violations, with SI-1 offenders committing a greater number of violations of non-criminal terms of parole, but with SI-1 offenders being less likely than the regular offender population to commit new crimes. These findings challenge the social construction that SI-1 offenders introduce a higher element of risk to the community regarding new criminal activity. The positive social change implications of the study include policy recommendations to the Texas legislature and Texas Department of Criminal Justice to refocus resources on improving outcomes related to technical parole violations, including a reduction in SNOs' contact standards, which in turn, promote fiscal responsibility and improvements in public safety for the people of the state of Texas.