As in many countries, burglary is a very serious crime in Turkey. Scientific methods and techniques are needed to solve complex burglary cases. This study is completed in the Bursa Police context since they classified many crime data conducive to scientific studies under a project called BEMTAP. The main purpose of this study is to examine the factors influencing the commission of burglaries, using an epid-criminological perspective. It can be argued that factors leading to the commission of a crime are important for formulating preventive strategies in the community. In this study, the contributing factors are categorized into three main groups of predictors, by adapting a disease triangle in epidemiology: opportunity factors (agent), offender factors (host), and environmental factors. Criminal method (technique) and time of burglary are conceived as the opportunity factors. Four personal or host characteristics of offender factors are age, gender, marital status, and education level. Distance between the home addresses of burglars and target houses and distance between target houses and police stations are examined as environmental factors. This epid-criminology perspective is thought as a basic framework for integrating two theories: routine activity theory and rational choice theory. Two hypotheses, using agent, host, and environmental factors as predictors, were proposed to test their relationships with the frequency of burglaries committed and with the likelihood of committing repeated burglaries. In measuring the relative influence of the predictor variables on the number of burglaries and on repeated burglaries, two different models were constructed and validated. For the first model of predictors of crime against property (burglary), Hierarchical Multiple Regression Analysis was performed. For the second model, a logistic model of the predictors of repeated burglaries was used and analyzed. The results show that offender factors are more influential than opportunity and environmental factors in explaining the variability in frequency of burglaries committed and the likelihood to commit repeated burglaries. In conclusion, the best way to reduce burglary rate is to focus on offender factors. Dealing with opportunity factors and environmental factors would also contribute to a decreased burglary rate.

As a result of high media attention surrounding school shootings in recent years, it may appear that American public schools are becoming dangerous places (Schildkraut & Elsass, 2016; Elsass, Schildkraut, & Stafford, 2016; Toppo, 2013). Though schools remain to be one of the safest locations for children, various safety measures are discussed and implemented in schools to combat this perceived problem and ensure the safety of school campuses. Discussions of best safety practices spikes directly following a school shooting event from relevant parties, such as school administration, law enforcement agencies, parents, and students, (Crawford & Burns, 2015; Chrusciel, Wolfe, Hansen, Rojek, & Kaminski, 2014) but little existing literature focuses on teachers, more specifically how safe teachers perceive schools to be with regard to gun violence and school shootings. This study seeks to build upon the small body of literature that currently exists on teachers' perceptions of safety and hopes to introduce new opportunities for research in the future. This study is comprised of 212 teachers throughout Central Florida. The results of this research show that while teachers overall feel very safe teaching at their schools, there are areas they believe can be improved upon. Of the safety measures used to prevent and reduce gun violence at schools, program-based safety measures and School Resource Officers make these teachers feel the safest. These perceptions of safety do not vary from one Central Florida county to the next, as most teachers are largely in agreement as to what measures make them feel safe. It was also revealed that most teachers in the sample are also unsupportive of legislation that would allow classroom teachers to carry firearms on school campuses.

This study employs a mixed methods approach, combining a quantitative survey and qualitative interviews to gain a comprehensive understanding of how the use of TV or online news sources can affect one's opinion of police reform. The theoretical framework guiding this research draws upon Critical Race Theory, controlling images in the media, and the Propaganda Model of Communication. By centering Critical Race Theory, the study examines how race and power dynamics intersect with individuals' media consumption and influence their attitudes toward police reform. It acknowledges that news media representations of incidents of police brutality play a crucial role in shaping public opinion, particularly concerning marginalized communities affected by policing practices. Additionally, the Propaganda Model of Communication provides a lens to analyze the media landscape's underlying structural biases and the potential impact on individuals' opinions. This model helps reveal how corporate interests and ideological factors may shape the content presented by TV news outlets, working in the interest of the institution of policing. While the quantitative survey results yielded statistically insignificant findings, the qualitative interviews offer valuable insights into the nuanced complexities surrounding media consumption and its impact on attitudes toward police reform. The interviews reveal that online news sources provide a more democratized platform, offering diverse perspectives which led to a belief in systemic changes to policing. Additionally, interviews uncovered how TV news uses racial stereotypes and superficial news stories to create a "bad apples" ideology.

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Various sociological theories of deviance have demonstrated the importance of an individual's attitudes toward deviance in determining whether or not that individual will engage in deviant behavior. This research contributes to the theoretical and empirical literature on deviant behavior by examining the strength of two cultural factors, the scientific worldview and individualism, in predicting an individual's attitudes toward deviance when tested alongside the tenets of other predominate individual level theories of deviance, namely Hirschi's (1969) social control theory and Sutherland's (1939) differential association theory. The sample for this analysis is 202 students from a large research university in Southwest Virginia. The findings of this research lend support to Sutherland's (1939) differential association theory and to the scientific worldview as significant predictors of tolerant attitudes toward deviance. Several of the bonds of Hirschi's (1969) social control theory were also supported in this research; however, some failed to predict deviant behavior, leading to the conclusion that future research should focus on clearly elucidating the conceptualization of the social bonds forwarded in the original theory. Finally, the cultural ideology of individualism was not a significant predictor of tolerant attitudes toward deviance in this study. Future empirical studies should work to more clearly operationalize this variable as Hawdon (2005) described it and investigate the variables significance as a predictor of tolerant attitudes toward deviance. / Ph. D.

Victimization and hate crimes are becoming more prominent on America's college campuses. Indeed, nearly 20,000 crimes of violence, and over 600 hate crimes, occurred on and around university campuses in 2003 (Department of Education 2004). Given its inverse relationship to crime at the aggregate level, (Sampson et al 1997), one possible means of reversing this trend would be to increase levels of collective efficacy across U.S. campuses. The purpose of this research is to determine if an individual's tolerance of diversity is related to their willingness to intervene in criminal or potentially criminal situations. That is, is tolerance of diversity related to collective efficacy at Virginia Tech? The research on collective efficacy is based on neighborhood level variables. This research, conducted in the "neighborhood" of Virginia Tech, focuses on collective efficacy and tolerance of diversity at the individual level. This research is unique in that it fills gaps in existing literature; to date, no research has analyzed the potential causes of collective efficacy at the individual level. Participants in this study will be asked to complete a survey regarding issues of diversity, tolerance and integration, and sense of belonging to community. The results will then be analyzed in order to gain some insight into this phenomenon. The main questions that will be explored in this research are: Does an individual's sense of belonging to his or her community and tolerance of diversity lead to their willingness to intervene if they see someone doing something wrong? That is, is sense of belonging to community and tolerance of diversity related to collective efficacy? Routine Activities Theory and studies of Collective Efficacy will be used to explore these questions. / Master of Science

This thesis explores the phenomenon of moral panics in American society, focusing on three cases: the automatic knife panic in the 1950s, the migrant caravan panic in 2018, and the LGBTQ+ "groomer" panic in 2022. Utilizing Stanley Cohen’s concept of moral pan- ics, expanded by David Garland and Goode, the research aims to understand the origins, amplification of risks, perceived threats, and socio-political consequences of these moral panics. The methodology involves content, narrative, and discourse analysis of legislative acts, academic literature, and contemporary media coverage. Findings reveal that interest groups, namely media and political figures, significantly contribute to constructing and am- plifying moral panics. Exaggerated perception of risks to society, either through false claim-making or cultural trauma, drove a moral panic in each of these cases, leading to increased social control through legislation and the stigmatization and discrimination of minority groups.This research contributes to ongoing efforts to combat prejudice and social injustice by shedding light on the societal ramifications of moral panic. It underscores the need for further investigation into the motivations of interest groups to spread moral panics and strategies for preventing their occurrence in a globalised media landscape. The study opens discussions on media manipulation and human rights.

Contemporary American capital punishment contains many processual elements, such as the prisoner's last meal and the cleansing of his body immediately before death, that serve no concrete, practical purpose but share a nature with ritual practices. In this project, I utilize a hermeneutic phenomenological lens to identify and list these ritual elements. I also use concepts drawn from the structural functionalist tradition to both analyze the specific purposes the elements serve within individual parts of the death penalty and to discuss the overarching result of the inclusion of these elements within the process as a whole. Ultimately, I find that the ritual elements present in the capital punishment process serve a social control purpose, insulating and reinforcing the death penalty as a whole. Ritual works to do this by controlling the behavior and image of the prisoner and emotionally soothing both participants of the process and the public at large.