Evidence relevant to the hypothesis that androgens alter nervous system functioning in ways that enhance human tendencies to engage in criminal behavior was the focus of the dissertation. Among the major lines of evidence were the following: (1) Restricting the inquiry initially only to criminal acts which victimize fellow social group members (victimful offenses), evidence reviewed that age and sex variables appear to be related to victimful offenses (or their nonlegal equivalent) in quite consistent ways in all human societies ever studied. (2) Notably similar victimizing behavior has been documented in many other species, and variability in such behavior seems to be highly influenced by androgenic effects upon the nervous systems of the animals involved. (3) The most important brain part which appears to be perinatally and pubertally androgenized in such ways as to increase the probability of victimizing behavior is the reticular activating system (and its supporting autonomic nervous tissue). The effects of androgens on this arousal control mechanism are subtle and complex, but they generally seem to consist of causing an organism to be less sensitive to whatever impact it is having upon it's environment. (4) The other two general brain portions which appear to have their functioning altered by androgens in ways which increase the probability of victimizing behavior are the "emotion control" portion and the "higher thought" portion. Overall, androgenization of the emotion control portion appears to make seizuring more likely in the face of emotionally provocative environmental stimuli. Androgenization of the higher thought centers seems to render organisms somewhat more inclined toward spatial-wholistic styles of thought, rather than logical (and, in humans, linguistic) styles of thought. (5) Considered together, it is concluded that these three / apparent effects of androgens on the nervous system make mammals generally more likely to victimize fellow social group members. In the case of humans, one of the major effects is an increased probability of victimful criminal behavior (or its nonlegal equivalent). / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 44-10, Section: A, page: 3169. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1983.

The Quaker era in American corrections is traditionally characterized in criminological literature as the brief experiment with substitution of imprisonment for the sanguinary corporal and capital punishments of England and the other colonies by William Penn in 1682, and as the subsequent rebirth of the philosophy by Philadelphia Quakers between 1790-1840. / The premise underlying this research is that the origin and evolution of American correctional philosophy cannot be fully and accurately understood from any perspective that limits the Quaker influence to early periods of American history. The study elaborates the direct and indirect influence of a Quaker social reform movement which began in Europe in 1670 and continues today as a vital and viable force behind correctional public policy in the United States. Although the strength and impact of the Quaker social reform movement, the "holy experiment," as William Penn termed it, has waxed and waned over the past three centuries, the efforts of the Society of Friends to attain social justice in correctional reform has been a continuous social reform movement. / The present research interprets the Quaker correctional reforms in America as a single social movement which evolved in distinct stages over a period of three hundred years. The theoretical frame of reference is a social contextual perspective, which considers the events in the social, political and economic context of the time. / The evolution of the American correctional philosophy can be seen as a single, extended social movement which began with the Quaker persecution in Europe and the subsequent migration to America; evolved into an utopian effort to establish a new and better means of dealing with the criminal; and, further developed into a reform effort, diffusing the gospel of the "penitentiary" and the new "prison discipline." Its basic philosophy remained for the next one hundred years the foundation of American correctional policy, only to be reexamined in the mid-twentieth century and found wanting by the same reformers who established it, and the struggle for reform began again. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-03, Section: A, page: 1068. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1986.

This critical examination of existing criminal laws and regulatory schemes governing the manufacture, sale and possession of narcotic substances seeks to analyze and consider the implications of complex recent pharmacological findings regarding endorphins, the endogenous opiate-like chemicals. Focusing primarily upon current federal laws, the writer finds them to be of problematic utility and when viewed in the context of the new psychopharmacological evidence not rational in a legal sense. Selected bodies of literature from the social, medical, and legal disciplines are reviewed in order to seek plausible, if presently theoretical, answers to pertinent questions raised by the recent scientific data. After presenting an overview of the existing laws and the most relevant pharmacological data the writer proceeds to develop the bases for his thesis that existing laws are inconsistent with the implications of the combination of psychopharmacological discoveries with criminal law and judicial practice. Further, the consequences of that inconsistency are discussed, including issues of constitutionality and due process under contemporary statutory structures. In the legislative-oriented component of the dissertation, an attempt is made to propose the enactment of new federal law(s), in order to avoid a legal impasse with regard to criminal controls on narcotic substances that may be precipitated once synthetic endorphin-like chemicals are generally available. A new category of "drug" substance under applicable food and drug law and criminal statutes is proposed, the pharmacological recognition of which may have significant impact upon domain assumptions in criminology and upon criminal legislation and judicial practice. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-03, Section: A, page: 1069. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1986.

A host of studies have examined the religiosity-deviance relationship in a variety of ways. Various measures of religiosity and deviance have been utilized in many different settings to determine the relationship between religious commitment and deviance. These studies essentially attempted to discover the degree to which religiosity acts as a social control mechanism in preventing delinquency and criminal activity. / The present research takes two areas that have been neglected in the religiosity-deviance literature as points of departure. The first area by-passed by scholars in the study of religious commitment as a means of rehabilitation. The second area overlooked by researchers is the study of religious commitment among prison inmates. Social control theory provides the theoretical rationale in which these two neglected areas are examined. / Several methodological shortcomings in the religiosity-deviance literature are addressed in the present research through the construction of religiosity indexes and the use of path analysis. This is done in an effort to more accurately measure religiosity. / This study examines data collected on the inmate population (n=782) released from 1978 through 1982 at the Apalachee Correctional Institution (ACI), in Chattahoochee, Florida. Religious variables, religiosity indexes, and institutional adjustment indexes, represent the three sets of variables scrutinized in the analysis in order to determine the impact of religiosity upon institutional adjustment of prison inmates. / The findings indicate that those inmates exhibiting the greatest degree of religious commitment are no more likely to attend institutional church services or activities than inmates exhibiting little or no religious commitment. More importantly, religiosity of prison inmates does not have a statistically significant impact upon their institutional adjustment. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 46-01, Section: A, page: 0269. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1984.

By a 1978 legislation, the State of Florida legislated to commit itself to the alternative education concept. Having recognized that the regular school program was not satisfying the academic needs of certain students, thereby leading to apathy, disruptiveness, truancy, poor scholarship, failure and delinquency, the Legislature urged that school districts establish alternative education programs as positive educational remedies. / This study proposed to provide an empirical assessment of the outcome of Florida's experiment with alternative education. / To avoid bias in findings associated with the use of aggregate data alone, two levels of measurement were performed. At the macro-level, statewide education data were examined. At the micro-level, case study and participant observation were conducted at a North Florida alternative school. Other schools were visited, and interviews conducted with school authorities, legislators and state agency personnel. Questionnaires were administered to students at the alternative school. / The analysis of the statewide data showed general program ineffectiveness. The alternative school study showed appreciable improvements in student affective and behavioral growth, in attitude toward school and in scholarship, and high academic and occupational aspirations, despite low standard-test performance. / Methodologically, the study showed that aggregate data obliterate differences between programs, fail to identify successful programs, and the reasons for success or failure. Substantively, it showed that school districts may have inadequately implemented the program, although individual programs, committed to the alternative education philosophy and praxis, may have been successful in its implementation and outcome. These findings suggest that efforts to reform institutions without changing the system are unlikely to succeed, and that evaluators should be sensitive to the dynamics and complexities of policy development and implementation. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 48-03, Section: A, page: 0751. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1987.

Racial minorities and lower class persons are, relative to the general population, overrepresented in our courts, jails, and prisons. Conflict theory asserts that this empirical fact is a result of racial and class discrimination while functionalists claim minorities and less economically advantaged persons commit more crime and, therefore, are more likely to be prosecuted and punished. / This study measured the effect of race and class on five prosecution decisions and several in/out and length of punishment decisions. Some 125 past studies were categorized based on the specific prosecution or punishment measure employed. A host of methodological characteristics and measures of the findings of each study were coded and analyzed in a "meta-analysis" format to determine the overall level of race and class discrimination evidenced in past research. / The analysis of past studies revealed that, when the punishment measures were disaggregated, there was convincing evidence of race or class bias in specific decision points in the state's prosecution and punishment apparatus. The need for more studies with higher levels of methodological rigor was evident from summary statistics indicating the number of studies which have controlled for key variables, the number of cases sampled, etc. / An analysis of two jurisdictions in Florida was conducted in which five prosecution decisions, seven in/out punishment, and eight length of punishment measures were used. The punishment measures were further specified by whether they indicated sentencing to or time served in jail, incarceration, or prison. / Forty hypotheses emanating from conflict theory were empirically tested using two multivariate modeling techniques; probit (in/out decisions), and ordinary least squared regression (length of punishment measures). Ten of the forty hypotheses were supported with the data. Blacks and whites were equally likely to be prosecuted at five different stages. Blacks were significantly more likely to be punished (an "in" decision) in four of the seven probit models. Lower class persons were more likely to have charges pursued against them and to be prosecuted than upper class persons. Four hypotheses predicting an inverse relationship between class and punishment were supported, all of which involved in/out decisions. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 48-03, Section: A, page: 0751. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1987.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether delinquent reading underachievers differ from delinquent reading achievers relative to the types of offenses committed. More specifically the study sought answers to the following research questions: (RQ(,1)) Do delinquents who are reading underachievers differ from other delinquents who are reading achievers with respect to the types of offenses committed? (RQ(,2)) Are delinquent reading underachievers more prone to commit the following offenses than delinquent reading achievers?: (1) status offenses; (2) person offenses; (3) property offenses; (4) drug offenses; (5) alcohol offenses; (6) sex offenses; and (7) other offenses. / A random sample of 300 Virginia training school delinquents was chosen from a population of 1,116 using a table of random numbers. Thirty-eight of the sample were discarded because of mental handicaps (IQs below 90 based on the Kuhlmann-Anderson Intelligence Test). Thus, 262 delinquents were actually involved in the study. / The first step in the treatment of data was to classify each delinquent as a reading achiever or underachiever. Reading underachievers were defined as students who are reading two or more years below their expected potential as measured by the Wide Range Achievement Test (Reading). Forty-one of the 262 delinquents were females. Twenty-eight were classified as reading achievers. The remaining 221 delinquents were males. Of this number, 181 were classified as reading underachievers and 40 were classified as reading achievers. / The second step in the treatment of data retrieved from a central file was the tabulation of offenses committed by both reading achievers and underachievers for each category. / A chi-square test and a test of proportion were used to test the hypotheses generated for this study using a 5 percent significance level. / Results indicated that delinquent reading underachievers differed from delinquent reading achievers relative to property offenses. / The researcher recommends that: (1) Instructors emphasize the relevancy of their subject matter to life situations. (2) Reading failures be given maximum opportunities to succeed through early diagnosis and effective remedial programs. (3) Correctional authorities review current practices to effectuate correctional reform for failures in general and reading failures in particular. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 43-12, Section: A, page: 4049. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1982.

A common link binding the many derivations of scales of the relative perceived seriousness of offenses has been the failure to test whether their use leads to conclusions any different from those reached with the use of simpler crime indices. The study addresses this neglected issue by investigating the relative utility of a perceptually based offense seriousness scale in predicting judicial sentence decisions. Using either a category or magnitude scaling technique, 109 Florida felony court judges rated the relative seriousness of 74 "macro" level offenses phrased in the terminology found within the Florida statutes. In contrast to the popular seriousness scale of Sellin and Wolfgang (1964) that is premised upon micro level crime descriptions, this type of seriousness measure is readily adaptable to criminal justice statistical data which is often measured in generic legal terminology. Initial analysis revealed the derived seriousness scale to be a reliable measure marked by a significant level of consensual agreement amongst the judges. Using a data base of over 5,000 felony sentencing decisions, the perceived seriousness values along with a number of much simpler seriousness weighting schemes were than independently incorporated into prior record and instant offense information. Analysis revealed that although the modeling of judicial sentence decisions could be markedly improved in some instances by increasing the precision of the offense seriousness weighting scheme, the perceptually based scale did not outperform a much simpler crime severity measure based upon the statutory maximum penalty structure. Overall, the addition of perceptually derived offense seriousness weights to past and present offense variables did not appear to strengthen their ability to model judicial decision-making. This study concludes by suggesting new avenues of research in / this topical area and possible uses for perceptually based scales of the relative seriousness of offenses. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 43-11, Section: A, page: 3713. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1982.

As juvenile justice attempts to find one effective intervention strategy, the justice sysem continues to ignore the idea of non-intervention. Over 150 years of juvenile institutions, courts, and programs have failed to prevent, deter, or control juvenile misbehaviour. In place of eliminating the ineffective programs, the justice system has initiated new and different programs to supplement those programs already in existence. Non-intervention argues that the juvenile justice system should "leave kids alone whenever possible" based on ineffectiveness and latent functions of the existing system, labeling effects of system contact, minor risk to society, and relief of an overburdened system of social control. Non-interventionists advocate doing nothing until an effective method of intervention is available. Perhaps the major reason non-intervention remains an idle suggestion is a lack of research. In order to implement a non-interventionist strategy the system must identify those juveniles who are proper candidates for non-intervention. The wide variety of delinquent and criminal typologies are of little use for selecting juveniles for non-intervention. The present study attempts to identify patterns of offenses useful in determining which juveniles to leave alone. The study groups are three birth cohorts from Racine, Wisconsin for 1942, 1949, and 1955. The data come from the Police Department and Juvenile Bureau and provide a complete enumeration of all police-juvenile contacts from age six to seventeen. The research submits categories of status, victimless, minor property, major property, and personal offenses to Markov analysis and finds most individuals confining their behaviour to minor offenses. Few subjects venture into major property or personal crimes and two-thirds desist before committing four offenses. A cohort analysis reveals an increasing / offense rate both within and between cohorts which is attributable to predominant period effects. These results support the implementation of non-intervention with minor offenders. The age, period, and cohort analysis points to the advantages of cohort techniques for criminological research and prompts the call for increased use of the approach. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 43-07, Section: A, page: 2457. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1982.

Criminological thought has relied extensively and at times exclusively on traditional criminological sources (e.g. public opinion polls and simulation studies) for information related to the administration and direction of the criminal justice system. Only recently has attention been given to the possible advantages of actively soliciting the prisoner's perspective as a means of enhancing the criminal justice decision making process. One traditional response for the exclusion of the prisoner's perspective has been the view that prisoners possess distorted and irrational beliefs concerning the criminal justice system as compared to nonprisoners. The social-psychological literature of equity theory, however, posits that most people care deeply about justice for themselves and others and that justice and deserving are paramount in their lives. A further contention is made that even deviants internalize standards of fairness to some extent. If the concepts of justice and deserving are pervasive in society as equity theorists suggest, then it might be possible to view prisoners as not necessarily possessing distorted and irrational views toward the criminal justice system as compared to nonprisoners. / The data do not support the relationship of agreement between prisoners and nonprisoners with regard to appropriate penal sanctions for specific criminal offenses. These results tend to adhere to the generally held belief that prisoners possess attitudes toward the law which are distinctly different from views expressed by nonprisoners. The data, while indicating the lack of agreement between the two groups suggest that in the case of one of the most serious crimes, incest, prisoners' views mirror those of nonprisoners and that a level of agreement exists among prisoners themselves with regard to appropriate levels of penal sanctions for specific criminal acts. / As a secondary aspect of ths study, the concept of legal punishment as a social control mechanism is questioned in terms of the personal ability to assess the appropriate level of preventive or deterrent pain. The hypothesized relationship focuses on punishment as being a function of the individual's identification (empathetic apperception) of himself as a potential recipient of the particular sanction. Past research in the area of attributions has concentrated principally on attributions made by individuals as observers, whereas, in this study, the observers (prisoners) are examining a person similar to themselves. The data indicate that the concept of desirable punishment is unrelated to the individual's identification of himself as a potential recipient of the particular sanction. The data may be interpreted to indicate that individuals appear able to provide an assessment of appropriate levels of penal sanctions regardless of personal biases or possible repercussions. It might be further suggested that if empathetic apperception is not a factor in the selection of penal sanctions, then more credence can be attributed to attitude studies and opinion polls indicating a particular punitive trend. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 41-02, Section: A, page: 0812. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1980.