White-collar crime is explained from an economist’s perspective. Economic models typically begin by assuming individuals behave rationally. By extension, economic models of crime suggest that white-collar criminals may be acting more rationally than a casual observer may assume. This thesis will identify the benefits and drawbacks of different regulations and laws by exploring several case studies of white-collar events.

This paper draws on a literature review which questioned whether meditationinterventions in prison populations encourage desistance from crime. The purposeof this paper was to discover possible connections between criminologicaltheories of desistance and the research findings of meditation courses in prison. Abrief analysis of the evaluation findings on the presented meditation courses isimplemented. This paper concludes that meditation projects in prison populationsmay not reasonably address desistance; however, there is evidence that the effectsof such adjunct interventions can encourage prisoners to progress on the pathtoward desistance through mindfulness and other pro-social orientation.

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

Timber theft is a crime within the forest industry which has not received a large amount of attention within research literature. As a result, there are no recent estimates available of the extent of the problem. The southern Appalachian region has conditions which seem to be conducive to timber theft, but convictions for timber theft in the area are infrequent. In order to address these issues, a study was undertaken in a 20 county region of the southern Appalachians to interview law enforcement officers and prosecuting attorneys about their knowledge of timber theft and their current level of investigation and prosecution. To ascertain the extent of timber theft, interviews were also carried out with both industrial and non-industrial landowners. The survey results indicate that both prosecuting attorneys and law enforcement officers are generally knowledgeable regarding timber theft and trespass. Results were similar between those individuals who had experience with the crime as well as those who did not. The overriding perception from both prosecuting attorneys and law enforcement officers was that timber theft should be handled as a civil violation. This perception was primarily a result of the frequent lack of properly located boundary lines to prove ownership of the property, and the difficulty of proving criminal intent. The study found 22 convictions for timber theft out of 36 criminal cases in the past three years. Due to a low response rate (16%) from non-industrial private forest landowners, estimates of the extent of timber theft were determined from the industrial landowner data and the law enforcement and attorney surveys. Based on these data, the impact of timber theft was conservatively estimated at 120 incidents per year, resulting in a loss of approximately $300,000 per year within the study area. An extrapolation of this to the entire southern Appalachian region would mean over $4 million per year. The results of this research indicates that there are potential areas for improvement in the conviction of timber theft offenders as well as in reducing the total number of theft incidents. The current statutes used to deal with timber theft are generally inadequate to provide prosecutors with the potential to convict most timber thieves because of the unique evidentiary requirements of a timber theft. As a result, changes in the statute would likely provide the greatest remedy. Civil statutes are also inadequate in many states to provide landowners the opportunity to obtain a suitable civil judgment. Information needs to be disseminated to landowners, law enforcement officers, and prosecuting attorneys about the aspects of timber theft which are most pertinent to them, and how the problem should be dealt with both before and after the theft. / Master of Science

No / Traditional Millian theory posits that free speech is the most important mechanism to achieve a greater tolerance of difference and thus create a dynamic marketplace for truth to flourish. In responding to maledictive hate, theorists such as Gelber (2002) and Butler (1997) have recommended that marginalized speech actors engage with a process of speaking back, of returning the gaze to make perpetrators¿ contributions to the marketplace of ideas marginal and aberrant. However, as will be demonstrated by an analysis of maledictive force and effects, the ideal speech situations of communicative action theory, and the recasting of terms of abuse by ¿speaking back¿, require both rational speech actors ¿something clearly absent in many acts of maledictive hate¿and an institutional validation of the authenticity of marginalized subjects and their speech. Constructing new truths in the marketplace of ideas is both socially and politically contingent. As such, the capacity for marginalized subjects to contribute to the marketplace rests on their ability to be able to speak with authority and to be authorized to speak.

This project started as inspections of violence in different forms, specifically childhood violence. I created scenes of lost youth and displacement and some kind of fragmentation, or eruption of violence, that seemed to also justify the fragmented nature of the scenes, and how they may have been jaggedly connected. Then I had a strong urge to novelize the characters I had written, I wanted to tell their full story. The narrator Christian overtakes the novel, so it could be described as an i-novel really. He isn’t always an active participant in the action of what’s happening in the scenes, but he’ll sit back as more of an observer. The narrator’s most salient feature is his need to connect, as he presents a series of failures in accessing, or being accessible to, his friends.

<p> Previous studies of the spatial distribution of crime have attempted to link crime with various sociological theories. It is the purpose of this paper to determine crime rates for the Hamilton-Wentworth region and to determine its distribution. Furthermore, a comparison of crime rates and socio-economic variables will be used to determine whether there is an association between the two elements. In conclusion, the relevance of this study to previous studies will be addressed, as will the potential ability of similar studies to effect planning policy. </p> / Thesis / Bachelor of Arts (BA)

Generally, biological samples are collected from crime scenes using swabbing, cutting, or taping techniques. However, these methods are limited in their abilities to recover diluted, masked, or otherwise invisible stains. Additionally, their targeted nature allows only a small portion of a larger stain to be collected at one time. In this study, a sterile wet-vacuum collection system was evaluated in its ability to collect small volume bloodstains from various substrates. Vacuuming was compared to swabbing and taping methods currently used in forensic analysis. Samples were collected from porous and nonporous surfaces; the efficacy of each collection method was evaluated with a colorimetric presumptive blood test. To evaluate each collection method, dilutions containing from 0.25 nl to 25 μl human blood were spotted on common substrate materials, allowed to dry, and recovered. For comparison to the novel method, single-swabbing and tape-lifting techniques were performed in this study to collect samples for presumptive testing. During wet vacuum collection, stains were saturated with sterile buffer and suction was applied to the surrounding area, accumulating buffer in a collection bottle. Collected buffer was then filtered through membranes to capture cellular material, which were then presumptively tested for the presence of blood. Testing was performed with Kastle-Meyer (phenolphthalein) reagents. Each sample was photographed under consistent conditions in order to determine signal intensity. It was shown that the wet-vacuuming technique is able to recover sufficient amounts of blood for presumptive testing from multiple substrates. This method was able to detect similar dilutions of blood as traditional techniques in samples collected from porous surfaces, but was less effective on a nonporous substrate. Presumptive test image analysis shows increased relative intensity in collections from textiles, such as denim, when using the wet-vacuum system. Considering the results of a contemporaneous DNA quantification study, it was shown that in instances where a very weak presumptive result is found, the wet-vacuum technique may be better able to collect genetic material for downstream processing than the traditional methods evaluated. This study demonstrates the potential of wet-vacuuming as a suitable alternative technique to collect adhered cellular material from substrates in forensic investigations.

True crime—whether appearing in books, podcasts, films, internet forums, or documentaries—is a burgeoning area of entertainment. The narrativization of crime relies on sensationalism; it is designed to evoke an emotional experience and inform emotional states (Bishop 2014; Robertson 2019; Wiltenburg 2004). Data suggests that over 70% of true crime consumers of true crime are women, and the vast majority are White, heterosexually-partnered, and college educated (Boling and Hull 2018; Ask Wonder 2020). To account for this gendered pattern of consumption, scholars argue that fear of being a victim, learning “survival” strategies, and/or navigating past traumas motivates women’s disproportionate consumption, rendering true crime a form of narrative risk management (Browder 2006; Vicary and Fraley 2010). However, this does not completely explain the draw for true crime, especially when analyzed along the axis of race. If consumption of true crime is a coping strategy to deal with myriad forms of gendered vulnerability, why do White women partake while women of color—particularly Black, Latina/x/e, and Indigenous women, who are statistically more at risk for such egregious violence—do not? I use true crime as a case to theorize the relationship between gender, race, and emotion, especially perceptions of risk and vulnerability. This cross-disciplinary dissertation uses survey data, over 120 interviews, responsive journaling, and comparative discourse analysis of popular true crime coverage, to theorize the relationship of race, gender, and emotion in the production and consumption of true crime. Moving beyond a simple critique of textual representation, I argue the charged and selective stories in true crime, as well as its formulaic structure and content, are a site of racialization vis-à-vis narrative and emotive constructions of risk and social control. These narratives of “White-on-White” crime represent a White myth, adapted for a moment where (White) America is paradoxically more aware of racial inequality while retaining notions of a “post-race” and “color blind” society. I further examine the interrelationship of race, gender, and emotion in the engagement and effects of true crime communities, including the role of (anticipated) victimhood, fear, as well as perceptions of risk, resistance, and time. In closing, I examine the maintenance and violation of feeling rules (Hochschild 1979; Wingfield 2010), or “appropriate” displays of affect, in true crime consumption. I further explore how lived distance from violence is inversely related to one’s tolerance for representations of violence, and how the emotional experience of gendered vulnerability is translated into extensions of state power. In sum, this project explores how Whiteness and femininity undergird a draw towards dark leisure as a site of “edutainment,” or educational-entertainment, as well as knowledge consumption and production. / 2025-09-18T00:00:00Z