The Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) has proven a reliable and valid assessment procedure with incarcerated, adult, white offenders. We investigated the psychometric properties, factor structure, and evidence of validity for a modified version of the PCL-R in a sample of 130 incarcerated, black and white, adolescent offenders. These young offenders, arrested for felony offenses, typically had long criminal careers before being committed to the training school in which the study took place. / Interrater reliability and internal consistency were high for the modified version of the PCL-R, which was completed with file information only, without interviews. Coefficients of congruence revealed that the data did not greatly differ from the two-factor solution found for other populations. Significant differences with regard to race were not found for reliability, factor structure, or the distribution of psychopathy scores. / PCL-R scores related to psychometric measures and behavioral indicators of maladjustment similar to how they do in adult populations. How the PCL-R relates to the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) was not adequately answered. Subjects rated high in psychopathy were free from confinement for a shorter period of time before receiving new referrals for law violations. This relationship was particularly true for violent re-offenses. / The construct of psychopathy appears to be applicable to both black and white adolescent offenders; the current study provides evidence of reliability and validity for the PCL-R in this population. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-09, Section: B, page: 4908. / Major Professor: Wallace A. Kennedy. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.

This study focuses upon decision-making in criminal appeal cases by an intermediate appellate court. Criminal appeals from two trial courts, the Leon and Gadsden Counties Circuit Courts, in the state of Florida were analyzed. These cases were appealed to the First District Court of Appeal during 1979-1988. A total of 495 cases were appealed from the two trial courts during this period. The primary purpose of this study is to test the following hypothesis: There is no statistically significant difference in the type of counsel who filed the appeal and the decision of the appellate court. In addition to testing the stated hypothesis, other hypotheses are tested. These include whether the race of the defendant, the mode of disposition at trial court, and the defendant's bond status at sentencing are predictors of the decision of the intermediate appellate court. / The major premise of this study is that courts can be viewed as political institutions. This study commences with a discussion of the political founding of the American judiciary system. Thereafter, a detailed discussion of the political nature of the access to judicial power, judicial decision-making, and judicial policy-making is given. It was found type of counsel is statistically insignificant in predicting the decision of this intermediate appellate court. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-03, Section: A, page: 0814. / Major Professor: Marc G. Gertz. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1990.

The purpose of this exploratory study is to empirically test the assumptions of Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) on the crime of burglary. Prior burglary studies suggest that the physical environment does impact on crime rates. This work examines commercial as well as residential burglary, using both quantitative and qualitative research methods. It then takes the research one step further by dividing residential burglaries into the categories of single-family, duplex, and multifamily units. / Thirty-four independent variables were collected and empirically tested using logistic regression. The resulting data was also checked for interactions among the independent variables, something no other study has done. / A major finding of this research is that mixed land-use contributes to the risk of burglary. This finding was found in all four of the equations. Accessibility was also discovered to be significant in several models. Accessibility, as a category, examined pedestrian and automobile traffic, types of front doors, and whether the windows were obstructed. The last category supported prior studies indicating that obstructed windows increase the risk of crime. Results of this research failed to find that automobile traffic played any part in predicting crime. / Based on the findings of this work, several policy implications are presented, and several avenues of future research are discussed. The original purpose of this study was to test CPTED, and it is this author's contention that the research supports the theory. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-04, Section: A, page: 1536. / Major Professor: C. Ray Jeffery. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1995.

This study examined the effects of arousal and alcohol intoxication on measures of eyewitness identification and recall. Subjects were 52 male undergraduates of legal drinking age who were social drinkers with no identified alcohol-related problems. Elevated arousal was induced in one half of the subjects by a threat of public speaking manipulation, while the other half was left at normal arousal. Within each of these groups, half of the subjects received a dose of alcohol sufficient to reach a maximum peak BAL of.075, and half drank orange juice only. Following the arousal and beverage manipulations, subjects observed a speaker target and a critic target on a videotape and then were asked to describe both individuals. Two days later they were asked to identify each of the individuals from photo lineups. The main dependent variables in this 2 x 2 design were eyewitness description and identification accuracy rates. Other dependent measures included subjects' confidence ratings of their own accuracy for each lineup, latency to respond to each lineup, and time estimates of target viewing time. Results indicated a main effect of alcohol on description accuracy and identification accuracy for the critic target, indicating a reduction in accuracy due to intoxication. There were no main effects of arousal on any measures. There was a Beverage x Arousal interaction for a measure of completeness of description for the speaker target, and for measures of confidence and latency to respond to the critic target-present lineup showing that subjects in the normal arousal and alcohol condition, or in the elevated arousal and the no-alcohol condition, offered more descriptions for the speaker target, were more confident of their accuracy in identifying the critic, and took less time to identify the critic from the lineup. Suggestions for future research aimed at clarifying the complicated nature of the alcohol-arousal-accuracy relationship are made. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-06, Section: B, page: 3140. / Major Professor: Alan R. Lang. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1990.

The purpose of this exploratory study is to empirically test the viability of the Bluelight Emergency Automated Communications Network (BEACON) as a crime prevention measure. The theoretical basis for this study is the Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) model as it relates to the impact that the physical environment has on crime. / Fourteen parameters of interest were collected and empirically tested. The resulting data was graphically presented by digitized mapping. / A major finding of this research is that the physical presence of BEACONs does not reduce the level of criminal activity. The identification of the clustering of crime sites relative to BEACON locations made this finding possible. / Based upon the result of this study, several policy implications and avenues for future research are discussed. The purpose of this study was to test the crime preventative viability of the BEACON system, and it is this writer's contention that the BEACON system is not a viable crime prevention measure. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 57-03, Section: A, page: 1328. / Major Professor: Frederic Faust. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1996.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 32-12, Section: A, page: 7051. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1971.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether significant differences existed in perceptions of senior patrol officers and campus judicial officers regarding the role of campus police/public safety relative to the service versus law enforcement functions. The population selected for the study consisted of senior patrol officers and judicial officers from seventy-nine four-year public research and doctoral granting institutions of higher learning with an enrollment of 10,000 or more students. / The following three research questions guided the study. (1) What are the perceptions of senior patrol officers and campus judicial officers regarding the role of campus police/public safety relative to the service versus law enforcement orientation? (2) What are the demographic correlates of variations in perceptions? (3) Do significant differences exist in the perceptions of senior patrol officers and campus judicial officers relative to the service versus law enforcement orientation? / A 26-item questionnaire was used to obtain data on role item and behavior item criterion aimed at identifying perceptions. Simple means, frequencies, and t-tests of each question were calculated in identifying what perceptions existed. A regression analysis and Chi-square analysis were utilized in identifying demographic correlates of variations in perceptions. t-tests were utilized to determine if significant differences existed between the means of the two groups. / The study found that differences exist in the perception of senior patrol officers and university judicial officers regarding the role of campus police/public safety. Senior patrol officers tend to be more law enforcement oriented than campus judicial officers in the role criterion items, but campus judicial officers tended to be more law enforcement oriented on the behavior criterion items. The demographic correlates of age, time employed as a campus law enforcement officer/campus judicial officer, gender, and education were related to respondent's orientation towards law enforcement versus service. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 52-10, Section: A, page: 3542. / Major Professor: Joseph C. Beckham. / Thesis (Ed.D.)--The Florida State University, 1991.

The recently reported rise in drug abuse in the United States has led to a national perception of a drug crisis that requires immediate and far-reaching control efforts. Despite past experiences with drug control, the current drug crisis is occurring at a time of unprecedented adversarial relationships between the high demand for drugs and the national efforts to thwart the supply of narcotics. / From 1914 to the present, most observers argue that various anti-drug control strategies have been ineffective in controlling the so-called menace or crisis. These efforts are thought to have amplified the drug problem while stimulating symbolic crusades. Previous studies have attempted to single out the significant elements underlying the development of reforms to control illegal drugs. Underlying these studies is the importance of a single factor as being responsible for the adoption of a particular anti-drug policy. / Unlike previous studies, a major argument of this study is that the current anti-drug campaign is part of a periodic cycle of crisis. While rooted in the past, it serves to reinforce existing strategies of social control. This argument implies the notion of a process or stages of development and that several salient issues provide the particular social context from which control efforts have direct relevance. The appearance of newspaper articles regarding the drug problem is heightening the official and public sensitivities about the existence and nature of the drug problem. For this study, a sample of drug-related articles were content analyzed for the vocabularies that motivated the so-called drug crisis. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 52-03, Section: A, page: 1084. / Major Professor: Thomas Blomberg. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1991.

Research grounded in either labeling, differential association, social learning, or social control theory each provides relatively useful information about different phases of the process through which individuals progress on their way to becoming delinquent. However, none of these theories is able to explain the entire process. For example, recent work has demonstrated that social control theory may be better suited for explaining initial delinquency, and that variables representative of labeling theory significantly predict continued delinquency. In this dissertation I attempt to assemble theoretical tenets extracted from labeling, differential association, social learning, and social control theories into a model that explains both initial and continued delinquency. Analysis of data from the first five waves of the National Youth Survey provides sufficient support for the model and shows that weakened social controls increase opportunities for associating with delinquent peers, learning delinquent behaviors, and committing initial delinquent acts. Initial delinquency increases the likelihood of being observed and negatively labeled. These labels in turn increase the likelihood of future delinquency / acase@tulane.edu

In recent years, many states have responded to public sentiment with legislation providing court officials greater discretion in remanding juvenile offenders to adult criminal court. In 1994, for example, Louisiana State Legislature approved House Bill 64 which accomplished both a broadening of the adult court's jurisdiction and a lowering of the age at which waiver to the adult court was possible. This study focuses on whether the provisions of House Bill 64 are consistent with New Orleanians' attitudes toward the treatment of juvenile offenders. In a random survey of 212 respondents, New Orleanians' attitudes are found to be based on several jurisdictional elements such as the offender's age and record of prior juvenile detention, the type of weapon used, if any, and the physical assault of the victim. However, several extra-legal variables, such as race, are also significant. In regard to the effects of race, the data reveal that the offenders' race is a significant predictor--the odds that black offenders would elicit feelings that transfer to adult court is appropriate are significantly higher relative to those for white offenders. Further, the analysis reveals that the effect of offender's race is dependent upon his age at the time of the offense and is consistent across categories of respondent's race. Implications for public policy are discussed / acase@tulane.edu