As the incarceration rate expanded in the late 20th century, social threat theory was increasingly utilized to explain this growing punishment trend. While primarily finding support, this research has gone only so far as to examine the incarceration decision and sentencing severity. It is a common practice throughout the United States to employ what is known as gaintime in order to reduce an offender's actual time served. As a result, sentence length frequently does not reflect the true punishment experienced. This study seeks to assess the role of racial, ethnic, and economic threat in terms of the previously unutilized measure of the punishment experienced, rather than the punishment prescribed. By means of HLM analysis, dynamic measures of percent black, percent Hispanic, and percent unemployed within Florida's 67 counties were assessed in terms of their relationship to individual level outcomes of sentence length, time served, and percent of sentence served for all Florida inmates admitted to prison between 1990 and 2010. While there were significant threat effects found for the primary outcomes of interest, they were in an unexpected negative direction. These results necessitate further exploration of both the processes by which growth in threat groups affects punishment outcomes, and also the aspect of actual time served in prison as a separate form of social control in the threat relationship. / A Thesis submitted to the College of Criminology and Criminal Justice in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. / Summer Semester, 2014. / July 8, 2014. / Includes bibliographical references. / William Bales, Professor Directing Thesis; Ted Chiricos, Committee Member; Brian Stults, Committee Member.

Etudier l'administration de la Justice et l'évaluation de sa qualité, sous l'angle d'unecomparaison européenne, c'est en quelque sorte anticiper ce que pourrait être la Justice indépendante et démocratique du 21ème siècle. En initiant les démarches comparatives sur ce thème, le Conseil de l'Europe - et plus exactement la Commission européenne pour l?efficacité de la Justice (CEPEJ) - a mis en place un cadre d'évaluation et un réseau de tribunaux référents efficace, qui lui donnentaujourd'hui une longueur d'avance sur les travaux entrepris par ailleurs. La diversité des systèmes judiciaires du Conseil de l'Europe, par son ampleur, offre des possibilités de comparaisons élargies, permettant la mise en évidence de groupes d'Etats comparables et d'indicateurs de qualité nombreux et pertinents.En Europe, citoyens et classe politique brocardent fréquemment les circonstances dans lesquelles la justice est rendue. Mais, ce n'est plus comme autrefois la décision rendue pour telle ou telle affaire qui est le plus souvent dénigrée, c'est en fait la gestion du problème par l'ensemble de la chaîne judiciaire qui est remise en cause. Les indicateurs quantitatifs se multiplient, au risque de nuire à la qualité de la justice rendue. Pour répondre aux attentes nouvelles des citoyens sans mettre en péril l'indépendance et la qualité de la Justice, les Etats d'Europe doivent eux-mêmes évoluer et installer la question de l'administration de la Justice au coeur du débat public. Dans la première partie de l'étude, la recherche d'une bonne administration de laJustice permet de mettre en évidence certains indicateurs de qualité relatifs aux différentes formes d'indépendance et de transparence de la Justice. Elle permet aussi de s'interroger sur la nouvelle place de l'usager durant le procès et sur l'attente qui lui est imposée pour traiter son affaire. Il en ressort en définitive que le souci de bonne administration joue un grand rôle dans l'indépendance organique et déontologique, tant lors de la sélection et de la nomination des magistrats que de leur entrée en fonction et de l'exercice de celle-ci. Les différents niveaux considérés, institutionnel, fonctionnel et personnel, témoignent de possiblesévolutions, y compris en France où le pouvoir exécutif joue encore un rôle important. D'autres réformes, visant à rendre l'administration de la Justice plus proches de l'usager sont également souhaitables : en favorisant la concertation et l'échange avec les usagers et les 8 partenaires des juridictions, il deviendra plus aisé de définir la place de l'usager, de répondre à ses préoccupations et de rendre son attente véritablement utile.Dans la seconde partie de l'étude, la recherche d'une bonne administration de laJustice permet de mettre en évidence de nombreux indicateurs quantitatifs et qualitatifs relevant par exemple des moyens de la Justice, de la gestion des flux, du coût et de la qualité des procédures. Le dernier titre de l'étude élabore une synthèse ainsi qu'un outil à l'usage des praticiens. Il replace les principaux indicateurs relevés au cours de l'étude au sein de divers domaines d'évaluation et indique pour chaque indicateur les méthodes d'évaluation qui paraissent être les plus appropriées. L'intérêt et le caractère novateur de cette recherche résident dans la comparaison des différents modèles judiciaires, sans se limiter à une approche purement conceptuelle, « architecturale », de l'administration de la Justice, mais en y incluant largement les critères qualitatifs et quantitatifs dégagés au sein des Working Groups des organisations internationales. La bonne administration de la Justice n'est pas seulement la justice rendue, quantifiée par les rapports d'activité des juridictions, mais également la capacité du système à faire accepter et respecter, aussi bien dans les milieux judiciaires que dans l'opinion publique, les critères de bonne justice qui ont été dégagés par le droit européen. / In a European comparative perspective, a study of administration of Justice andassessment of its quality means to anticipate what an independent and democratic Justice should be in the XXIst century. By carrying out comparative exercises in this field, the Council of Europe - and namely the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice - has created an assessment framework and an efficient network of pilot courts, which put the Commission's endeavors ahead of any similar works done by other organizations. The diversity of judicial systems that make part of the Council of Europe offers large possibilities for comparison, which allow sampling and categorizing of different States and elaboration of relevant quality indicators. In Europe, citizens and political classes criticize the circumstances under which Justice is rendered. However, in contrast with the past, the critique does not target specific decisions rendered in a particular case, but more so the administration of the case by the entire chain of the judicial mechanism. Quality indicators are proliferating, at risk of hindering the quality of Justice rendered. In order to give an adequate reply to new demands of the citizens, without infringing independence and quality of Justice, the European States should themselves assessthe quality of Justice administration and put this issue in the heart of the public debate. In the First part of the Study, the quest for fair administration of justice allows to identify certain quality indicators relating to different forms of independence and transparency of Justice. Also, it raises the question of the new place that should be conferred to the user of Justice during the process and the timeframes to which his case is subjected. The study shows that, in the end, the quest for fair administration of Justice has a great role to play in ensuring structural and ethical independence during selection and appointment of magistrates, as wellas during their entering into function and their exercise thereof. The different levelsconsidered - institutional, functional and personal - allow projecting possible ways ofevolution of the matter in Europe, including in France where the executive power still plays an important role. Reforms aiming at making Justice closer to the user are recommended: by promoting exchange between users and different partners of jurisdictions, it will become easier to define the place of the users within the Justice system, to provide an adequate 11 remedy to their problems and to make useful the time that they spent awaiting a decision on their case.In the Second part of the Study, the quest for fair administration of Justice allows to identify multiple qualitative and quantitative indicators, which relate to the case flow, to the costs, to the quality of the procedures, as well as to the financial means allocated to Justice. The last title of the study provides a synthesis and a tool for practical use: it applies the previously identified indicators to different fields of assessment and designates to every indicator the most pertinent assessment methods. The interest and the novelty of the present research reside in the comparison of the different Justice models, going beyond a purely conceptual, -architectural - approach of Justice administration and exploiting qualitative and quantitative criteria elaborated by Working Groups of international organizations. Fair administration of Justice is not only the Justice rendered and quantified by courts' activity reports. It also reflects the capacity of the Justice system to make accept and respect - by the judiciary, as well as by the public opinion - the common European criteria of "fair justice".

How we respond to legacies of past violence cannot be separated from the narratives we hold about that violence. When the state fails, for whatever reason, to take the lead in dealing with past violence and the development of a public narrative about conflict, various groups may seek to fill that space based on different agendas. The way individuals and organisations outside the state interpret and engage with processes of dealing with the past is influenced by the narratives they hold and are exposed to, and this can have positive or negative implications for long-term peace. This thesis seeks to interrogate how civil society narratives of electoral violence have shaped the transitional justice agenda in Zimbabwe, as drawn from the way they report and depict understandings of this violence, through written texts as well as the way they speak about violence in various public forums. This investigation is done through a qualitative interpretivist approach to understand the kinds of narratives of violence espoused by four civil society organisations through a categorical content analysis of their reports and in-depth interviews with four key stakeholders. The thesis concludes that while the understandings of violence are key to how we deal with the violence, these understandings have to be drawn genuinely from the experiences of those that have lived the violence, and not from agendas that seek certain ends, whether political or economic. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2020. / Social Science Research Council’s Next Generation Social Sciences in Africa Fellowship, with funds provided by Carnegie Corporation of New York SSRC and the University of Pretoria Postgraduate Research Support Grant. / Political Sciences / PhD / Unrestricted

0 / SPK / specialcollections@tulane.edu

Criminological research has often overlooked an important segment of offenders' lives - incarceration. Furthermore, the existing research on inmate behavior has focused primarily on male inmates. This dissertation adds to corrections literature by using a sample of female inmates to examine relationships between personality disorders and prison adjustment. The results of the analyses indicate that personality disorders are widespread among female inmates and are somewhat associated with adjustment. Certain Cluster B personality disorders - antisocial, histrionic, and narcissistic - were associated with decreased adjustment. Dependent personality disorder, on the other hand, was associated with increased adjustment, since these inmates self-reported less misconduct than other inmates did. The remaining personality disorders did not have any significant relationships with the measures of adjustment. Other factors, such as age, sentence length, time served, and security classification, had a more consistent association with adjustment than personality disorders. When female inmates with personality disorders were examined separately, unique patterns of adjustment were found. Age was associated with an increased number of infractions that the inmate was reported by prison staff to have committed and increased self-reported misconduct. Age, however, was not significantly related to violent infractions. For female inmates with personality disorders, race was not significantly related to adjustment. On the other hand, being a parent was associated with an increased number of violent infractions reported. Limitations to this dissertation and policy implications for corrections and criminology are discussed. / A Dissertation submitted to the College of Criminology and Criminal Justice in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester, 2011. / October 3, 2011. / Disciplinary Infractions, Inmates, Mental Illness, Personality Disorders, Prison Adjustment / Includes bibliographical references. / Kevin Beaver, Professor Directing Dissertation; Joyce Carbonell, University Representative; Daniel Mears, Committee Member.

Judicial decision-making has been a long-standing subject of criminological inquiry. It has been the explicit focus of theory (e.g. Steffensmeier, Ulmer, & Kramer, 1998; Albonetti, 1991; Farrell & Holmes, 1991) and is implicit in discussions of unwarranted sentencing disparity, determinate sentencing, and extra-legal offender attributes such as race. Central to each of these topics is the judge's sentencing decision and the differences in sentences that flow from the use of discretion. However, few studies have actually directly examined variation in judges' sentencing behavior and how this variation corresponds to judge and offender attributes. This dissertation fills that void by using data from Florida Circuit Courts to examine how judges' indelible attributes and experiences influence their use of imprisonment. Results demonstrate that judges are far from homogenous in their sentencing behavior and, in spite of sentencing guidelines, extra-legal offender attributes continue to matter but in nuanced ways. Findings include statistically significant effects for the judges' political party affiliation, age, time on bench, sex, race, and Hispanic ethnicity; several of these effects are conditioned by offender attributes. These effects are modest in magnitude but when considered cumulatively, they result in consequential differences in the probability that an offender is imprisoned. Judges also show considerable variation in their propensity to imprison even after controlling for differences in their traits. While judge attributes like race and sex matter, they do not adequately capture the bulk of inter-judge variation in the use of imprisonment. In short, criminal sentencing remains a highly individualized activity. / A Dissertation submitted to the College of Criminology and Criminal Justice in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester, 2012. / October 17, 2012. / decision-making, extralegal attributes, judicial attributes, logistic regression, multi-level models, sentencing / Includes bibliographical references. / Theodore Chiricos, Professor Directing Dissertation; Marc Gertz, Committee Member; William Bales, Committee Member.

The empirical relationship between inmates with and without tattoos upon post-release recidivism has been virtually ignored in modern criminological research. Only one published study has directly examined the relationship between inmate tattoos and recidivism (Putnins, 2002). This study tracked 898 released Australian juvenile offenders for a brief period and found support for a link between tattoos and violent recidivism. The purpose of the current study is to provide a rigorous empirical assessment of the consequence of inmate tattoos on the likelihood of recidivism among a large cohort of offenders released from prison. The study examines a cohort of 79,749 released inmates from Florida prisons from 1995 through 2001 and tracks them over a three year follow-up to assess the impact of several tattoo variables on recidivism. Findings reveal that released inmates with tattoos, particularly numerous and highly visible ones, are more likely to be reconvicted during the follow-up period. Further, the findings indicate that there are two distinct inmate profiles namely the younger novice to the corrections system and the older, longer-term prisoner that are distinguishable by the numbers of tattoo possessed that increase the odds of recidivism. The implications of the findings are discussed in terms of policy, theory, and future research. / A Dissertation submitted to the College of Criminology and Criminal Justice in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2012. / April 2, 2012. / inmate, prisoner, recidivism, tattoo / Includes bibliographical references. / Thomas G. Blomberg, Professor Directing Dissertation; Joyce L. Carbonell, University Representative; William D. Bales, Committee Member.

Age is one of the most robust correlates of prison misconduct, with younger inmates more likely to commit disciplinary infractions. There has been, however, little attention to the potential nonlinear effect of age on prison misconduct. Most research to date has assumed that the relationship is linear and modeled it as such. In so doing, prior work has been unable to identify the potential nonlinear relationship between age and prison misconduct. This dissertation thus attempts to examine the precise nature of the age-misconduct relationship. Furthermore, it addresses the call for more research that investigates how prison experiences may influence prisoner reentry outcomes. Therefore, the purpose of this dissertation is to contribute to efforts to advance scholarship and better understand the relationship between age, prison behavior, and recidivism. First, it takes a nuanced look at the potential nonlinear relationship between age and prison misconduct. The approach taken here expands on prior research by examining granular age categories to predict several types of disciplinary infractions. Next, it investigates possible interaction effects of gender and, separately, race/ethnicity on the age-misconduct relationship. Finally, it explores the relationship between age, prison misconduct, and recidivism. Specifically, it examines the relationship between age and types of recidivism and whether various types of misconduct mediate this relationship. This dissertation draws on a Florida Department of Corrections admission cohort from 1995 to 2000 and a release cohort from 1995-2002. Negative binomial regression models were used to examine the relationship between age and prison misconduct and binary logistic regression models were used to examine the relationship between age, prison misconduct, and recidivism. The findings of this study shed light on the significance of identifying and understanding the nonlinear relationship between age and prison misconduct, and, further, the mediating effect of misconduct on the age-recidivism relationship. Theory, research, and policy implications of the findings are discussed and suggestions are made regarding future research. / A Dissertation submitted to the College of Criminology and Criminal Justice in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2012. / June 19, 2012. / Age, Corrections, Prison Misconduct, Recidivism / Includes bibliographical references. / Daniel Mears, Professor Directing Dissertation; Melissa Radey, University Representative; William Bales, Committee Member; Sonja Siennick, Committee Member.

The effects of delinquency and criminal behaviors during early adolescence on events over the life course have been well-established in the criminological research. A segment of this research has revealed that the apparent causal relationship between delinquency and later life course events may be due to a third exogenous confounding variable, namely: genetics. While biosocial research has illuminated the need to include recognition of the proportional influence of genetic factors and environmental factors the research lacks an overarching theoretical framework that allows precision in research and guidance for future research. An evolutionary approach may represent such a framework. Employing data from a large national sample of sibling pairs, this project seeks to assess this assertion by analyzing the influence of antisocial behaviors during adolescence on sexual and reproductive strategies over the life course. Three key findings emerged from the analyses. First, the majority of items tapping antisocial behavior and delinquency in adolescence, as well as measures of sexual, reproductive, and relationship behaviors in adulthood were shown to be influenced primarily by genetic and nonshared environmental factors. Second, multivariate analyses revealed that antisocial conduct during adolescence has an effect on sexual/reproductive outcomes in adulthood. However, when genetically sensitive methodologies are employed the association is significantly diminished. Third, even after controlling for the influence of shared genetic factors and shared environmental factors some forms of antisocial behavior in adolescence had an effect on sexual/reproductive behaviors across the life course. The findings are discussed within the context of life history theory and evolutionary psychology. / A Dissertation submitted to the College of Criminology and Criminal Justice in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2013. / June 14, 2013. / EVOLUTIONARY CRIMINOLOGY, EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY, LIFE COURSE CRIMINOLOGY, LIFE HISTORY THEORY, REPRODUCTIVE BEHAVIOR, SEXUAL BEHAVIOR / Includes bibliographical references. / Kevin M. Beaver, Professor Directing Dissertation; Lisa A. Eckel, University Representative; Eric P. Baumer, Committee Member; Eric A. Stewart, Committee Member.

Dr. Matthew Robinson (2004) proposed a new inclusive theory of human criminal behavior, entitled Integrated Systems Theory. This theory put forth by Robinson (2004) and later Robinson and Beaver (2009), hypothesizes that human behavior is far too complex for any one theory or any one behavioral discipline to accurately predict and examine; rather the study of human behavior should include factors from multiple theories and disciplines. Integrated Systems Theory hypothesizes that human behavior is influenced by multiple factors across the life course, both biological and environmental. These proposed factors are exhaustive and include six different levels of influence, the cellular level, the organ level, the organism level, the group level, the community level, and the societal level. These factors include, but are not limited to, deviant peers, brain development, toxin exposure, genetic functioning, neighborhood characteristics, family structure, routine activities, and gender and racial inequality across the societal level. Integrated System Theory further expounds upon its hypotheses by positing that while these various factors all influence behavioral development, one key relationship also plays an important role, the interplay between genes and environment. It hypothesizes that all human behaviors are the result of interactions between genes and the environments that an individual is exposed to across the life course (Robinson, 2004; Robinson & Beaver, 2009). Currently, due to the exhaustive nature of this theory no empirical study has yet sought to test its various tenants. Therefore, this dissertation seeks to examine facets of this theory by focusing on the role played by both biological and social factors in the prediction of antisocial phenotypes. Focusing on the risks of prefrontal cortex development, cumulative genetic risk, deviant peers, maternal risk, socioeconomic status, school attachment, and neighborhood disadvantage, the influence of these contributors upon human behavior will be examined. Further, gene-environment interaction terms will be developed between cumulative genetic risk and the chosen environmental risks, to determine if these five different gene-environment interaction terms are strong contributors to antisocial phenotypes. To determine the relationship between these environmental and genetic factors in influencing human behavior, a range of antisocial outcomes will be predicted within negative binomial models. Outcomes include drug abuse, violent crime, property crime, and arrest rates. This dissertation seeks to determine if tenants of the Integrated Systems Theory are supported or refuted by the data and analyses. Results generated within the analyses indicated partial support for Integrated Systems Theory. Within the models brain development played a significant role in behavioral development. The importance of direct environmental effects were also generally supported within the data; deviant peer and school attachment emerged as some of the more robust environment contributors to antisocial phenotypes. Direct genetic effect failed to display consistent predictive power across the various negative outcomes. The importance of gene-environment interplay was generally supported within the models as well, especially when interacting with deviant peers and in the prediction of drug abuse and arrests rates. The meaning of the results, potential limitations, and contribution to the literature are discussed. / A Dissertation submitted to the College of Criminology and Criminal Justice in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2013. / June 17, 2013. / Biosocial, Criminology, Gene-Environment Interplay / Includes bibliographical references. / Kevin M. Beaver, Professor Directing Dissertation; Anne Barrett, University Representative; Eric Stewart, Committee Member; Patricia Warren Hightower, Committee Member.