Using an interrupted time-series design, this paper analyzes the impact of Minnesota's sentencing guidelines on reducing unwarranted disparity in sentencing outcomes that fall within their scope of authority. Specifically, two questions are addressed: (1) whether the actuation of the guidelines had an immediate effect on reducing disparity for the no prison/prison and length of prison sentencing decisions, and (2) whether any initial reduction in sentencing disparity was sustained over time. The findings suggest that Minnesota's sentencing guidelines effectuated an immediate and substantial impact on curtailing sentencing disparities; there was a 22 percent decline in disparity for the no prison/prison outcome and a 60 percent reduction in sentencing inequality for the length of prison decision. Further analysis revealed that the effect of the guidelines for the no prison/prison outcome was only temporary. Two explanations for this reversionary trend are discussed. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-07, Section: A, page: 2746. / Major Professor: Gordon P. Waldo. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.

This study sought the answer to the following major research question: (1) Is there a significant difference among police agencies who employ some type of physical fitness program and those that do not employ any type of program? / The major hypothesis generated six sub-hypotheses. Each hypothesis was tested by population group to determine whether officers within agencies who employ some type of physical fitness program retire at a lower rate, receive on-duty injuries at a lower rate, use sick leave at a lower rate, and die as a result of medical/health factors at a significantly lower rate than officers in agencies who do not employ any type of physical fitness program. / The population of this study was comprised of full-time law enforcement officers at the municipal and county level. Five hundred and twenty full-time law enforcement agencies were surveyed with 303 or 58.3% of the agencies responding. / The survey instrument was studied and validated by three members of the Institute for Aerobics Research, Dallas, Texas. The data collected were analyzed through the Chi-Square Test. The .05 level of significance was used for all statistical tests in this study. / There was a statistically significant difference among the responding agencies that employ some type of physical fitness program and those agencies that do not employ any type of physical fitness program. / The process employed in this research project presented enough data to support statistically the implementation of some type of physical fitness training and evaluation program for law enforcement agencies. / The responding agencies provided some very meaningful data on causes for early retirement and limited duty assignments. The findings suggest the seriousness of medical/health conditions in general and heart-related conditions in particular, as well as the effects of stress, in terms of the numbers of officers who are forced to retire early or who are placed on limited duty assignments. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 44-12, Section: A, page: 3822. / Thesis (Educat.D.)--The Florida State University, 1983.

Currently in Canada no satisfactory method exists which determines the number of police personnel required to "police" a given jurisdiction. Several procedures are available which deploy existing police human resources within a given area. Such procedures however, assume that the "proper" number of police persons are available for deployment to the jurisdiction. That is, sufficient police personnel are available to respond to any "call for service" without that call experiencing an unnecessary long wait in queue. The premise of this research is that an inadequate number of police personnel are available in some police jurisdictions and that calls do experience unnecessary queueing delays. It is further surmised that a reduction in the response delay, prompted by an assessment and reevaluation of the number of personnel, will improve police operational performance in that department. / Various steps are followed in the research. These are: (1) The identification, by quantitative means, of an optimum performing police jurisdiction from within a sample jurisdiction, (2) Identify the demographic/ecological characters which contribute to the crime situation for the optimum performing police jurisdiction, (3) Regress these characteristics into a factor relating police performance to a single police person, and, in turn, establish a standard for comparison; and, (4) Realign existing police persons to the "standard". / For the study it is assumed that the policing function will improve with a rational and objective approach to human resource allocation. Such an approach will allow for the availability of sufficient human resources to deal with any call for assistance promptly and efficiently by the police. Prompt and efficient responses to calls for service, it is surmised, will contribute to a perceived improved performance on the part of the citizenry. / The study was confined by the quality of the secondary data and the sampling and non-sampling error which existed within each data set. At the conclusion of this study it was possible to identify a standard of policing. This standard had direct application to determining the required number of human resources needed to provide an optimum level of police performance in a given police jurisdiction. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 45-02, Section: A, page: 0651. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1984.

Utilizing the field theory/group dynamics approach from social psychology, a cross-sectional correlational analysis of the relationship between police perceptions of the cohesiveness of their work groups and indices of stress frequency and intensity was conducted with a sample of 289 police officers from the St. Petersburg, Florida Police Department. Respondents ranged in age from 19 to 54 years with a mean age of 32.75 years. The mean educational level was 13.6 years and the mean length of service was 8.76 years. Approximately eighty-five percent (84.8%) of the respondents were white and the remaining 15.2% were black, hispanic, or oriental. Two hundred sixty-five (91.7%) of the officers were male and 24 (8.3%) were female. / Five substantive hypotheses were tested to assess the impact of job specialization, shift assignment, length of service, and area worked on group cohesion; and whether or not cohesive group membership intensified or reduced the strain effects of job stress. / The Likert scaling technique was utilized to construct indices of cohesiveness and stress (frequency and intensity). The data was analyzed at the five percent significance level utilizing Pearson's product moment correlational technique. / The study failed to support the proposition that cohesion among St. Petersburg Police Officers varies with job specialization; however, cohesion was observed to vary with shift assignment, area worked, and length of service when the combined effects of age and specialization, age and area worked, and age and race were controlled. Limited support was also found for the proposition that both the intensity and the frequency of job stress decrease as the cohesiveness of work groups increase. / The significance of the study lies in its practical and research implications. On a practical level, the study alerts police administrators to the potential benefit of reduced stress and anxiety resulting from cohesive group behavior among police officers. From a research perspective, the study provides an opportunity for retrospective evaluation of the utility and effectiveness of the field theory/group dynamics approach to the study of police behavior; and an evaluation of the effectiveness of the Likert scaling technique for operationalizing and measuring police stress and cohesion. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 45-05, Section: A, page: 1535. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1984.

In recent years such innovative programs as arbitration, restitution, diversion, victim assistance and compensation have exploded throughout the United States. To date diversion has been the program model with the greates degree of proliferation. / The State of Florida, for example, initiated the Juvenile Alternative Services Project (JASP) in three pilot districts in 1979. The pilot project was aimed at diverting juvenile offenders from judicial processing thereby limiting system penetration. It was anticipated that assignment to community service alternatives would result in a more effective juvenile correction system and fewer subsequent law violations. / Evaluation of diversion programs is most often addressed by one of two approaches: fixed-goal or unintended outcome. Fixed-goal assesses the realization of stated goals; unintended outcome seeks to identify collateral effects of diversion programs. Evaluations of diversion programs, therefore, characteristically focus on determining negative or positive results. What a program does or does not do, and for whom, is absent from current diversion evaluation practice. / The purpose of this study is to implement the multi-goal approach as a diversion program evaluation technique. The conceptual approach of this study is retrospective-empirical analysis; it utilizes data from the JASP evaluation for the purpose of demonstrating the additional program information provided by the multi-goal approach. This study provides the first evidence of the feasibility and utility of the multi-goal approach and provides a starting point for evaluators who choose to try the multi-goal evaluation technique. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 45-06, Section: A, page: 1878. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1984.

A time-series analysis of the deterrent effect of criminal sanctions (execution and incarceration) on homicide in the state of Florida is presented in this study. Four alternative deterrence models of the possible negative relationship between sanction and homicide were examined. / Both the Federal Bureau of Investigation's homicide rate and the Florida Vital Statistics homicide rate were used as measures of the dependent variable. Furthermore, two operational definitions for each certainty of sanction (execution and incarceration) were used in the analysis. The first measure of the certainty of sanction was the ratio of the number of sanctions to the number of homicides. In order to avoid the problem of ratio bias due to the presence of a common term (number of homicides) in the homicide rate and the first measure of the certainty of sanction, the actual number of each sanction was used as the second measure of the certainty of sanction. / Although there was some evidence of the deterrent effect of execution and incarceration on the homicide indicated by the finding of the negatively significant relationship between sanction and homicide rate, the relationship was not consistent when different measures of the certainty of sanction or different measures of the homicide rate were substituted. Socioeconomic and demographic variables, especially the nonwhite population rate, have been found to be better determinants of both homicide rate variables. / Finally, it was found that the best analysis, using the Vital Statistics homicide rate and the actual number of executions or the actual number of incarcerations as the measure of the certainty of sanction, did not support any deterrent hypothesis at all. This is because none of the analyses in each of the four deterrence models found any significant negative relationship between the Vital Statistics homicide rate and each of the sanction variables. In fact a counter deterrent effect or brutalization effect has been detected. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 44-11, Section: A, page: 3502. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1983.

In its sixty years of existence, the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) has become one of the most important law enforcement organizations in the world. Within Interpol, African member states predominate. As of April 1983, forty-four African countries have subscribed to membership in Interpol. This constitutes 32 percent of all 136 Interpol member countries. / This study attempted to answer the following questions: (1) Does the participation of African nation-states in Interpol jeopardize or endanger their national sovereignty? (2) Does Interpol disseminate personal or political information about African nationals neither accused or suspected of criminal activity? (3) Do Africans and African governments view their involvement in Interpol as being an asset or a liability? / Data were gathered by (1) visiting Interpol National Central Bureaus (NCBs) in various countries and examining records and files; (2) interviewing staff members in NCBs; (3) reviewing Interpol operating policies and procedures; and (4) administering a questionnaire to African students attending American universities, Interpol-affiliated African police officials, and non-Interpol-affiliated police officials. / The results revealed (1) that African Interpol member states do not believe their membership in Interpol represents a threat to their national sovereignty, (2) no evidence that Interpol has ever disseminated personal or political information about African nationals neither accused nor suspected of criminal activity, and (3) that Africans and African governments view their involvement in Interpol as an asset. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 44-11, Section: A, page: 3501. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1983.

The varying purposes of prison labor and labor-oriented programs are discussed in light of positive and classical criminological theories relating employment/unemployment, income, and crime. Labor programs, based on the punitive classical model, have utilized labor as punishment, assuming a reduction in recidivism would result; applications of positive theories have assumed that more substantial post-release employment, achieved by prison labor programs through habituation, anti-idleness, skill enhancement, or bonding, would also result in a reduction in recidivism. / Through the development of critical explanations of the relationship between the state, punishment, and labor, it is argued that effective labor programs would not be achieved due to competing, and more important, concerns of the state under capitalism. In addition, programs geared to change at the individual level would fail to address more important structural concerns, resulting in no substantial change in unemployment or crime rates. Hypotheses are developed to test alternate assumptions of the classical, positive, and critical models. / Using two years of follow-up data on 1210 ex-offenders released from the Florida Department of Corrections, the relationship between post-release employment and rearrest, as well as the impact of prison labor programs on these two indicators were studied. Results showed primarily weak, non-significant, negative relationships between employment level and crime, caused by the extremely low variance in employment status of ex-offenders and by surprisingly lower recidivism rates for unemployed than for underemployed offenders. No prison labor to labor-oriented program was found to significantly effect recidivism rates. While participants in two programs, community work release and vocational education, had higher post-release employment levels than non-participants, the weak impact of these programs failed to result in any reduction in recidivism rates. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 45-08, Section: A, page: 2660. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1984.

Using data for 193 United States Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas in 1970 and 1972, an attempt was made to explain the sources of variance in the official rates of homicide, rape, robbery, assault, burglary, larceny and auto theft. It was hypothesized that variance in crime rates was a function of the capacity to control conduct among metropolitan areas. Capacity to control was said to reside in the degree of organization, the extent of participation and the amount of resources devoted to formal control in a metropolitan area. Income inequality, overcrowding and population mobility were used as indicators of metropolitan organization. Marriage rates, voting rates and money deposited in savings accounts were used as positive indicators of participation; divorce rates were used as a negative indicator. Employment in education and employment in law enforcement were used as indicators of resources devoted to formal control. Region, median income, the rate of black residents, the rate of poor families, the rate of unemployed and population size were used as control variables. Multiple regression analyses using ordinary least squares and two-stage least squares solutions were performed to test the hypotheses and to compare the findings to those of earlier researchers. A total of 150 relationships were examined and of those, 44 were in accord with hypothesis. Income inequality, overcrowding, population mobility, police strength, the rate of blacks, the rate of unemployed and population size were found to be the most important predictors of the crime rates. The results were interpreted as providing limited support for the control perspective upon which the study was based. The strain perspective was also supported. Only the relationship between race and the crime rates could be construed as supportive of the cultural deviance perspective. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 44-07, Section: A, page: 2252. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1983.

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.