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In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the provincial system for administering justice in rural Ontario was criticized in the press and by some local justice officials in the counties. Criticisms were in response to apparent moments of criminal crisis. The public learned about the crimes of violent groups and gangs mainly through the press. There were stories of sensational property crime, violent attempts at social control, and more rarely, vigilantism. Ontario, however, appeared to be a peaceable province, which moderated calls for improvement in the system. The slow pace of reform, and evidence of a system that functioned well under most circumstances, suggests that the province had only marginal interest in reform. An antiquated system of rural constables was useful to critics advocating reform. In some cases however, the local knowledge of the county constable complimented the investigative strength of the provincial detectives. The rise of the Ontario Provincial Police in the 1910s and 1920s promised a change for the better, but the force was not designed to meet the needs of rural Ontarians, and did not take over rural policing until 1929. The challenges faced by the force in its early years, as well as issues of performance, leaves open for consideration the extent to which crime management in rural Ontario actually improved. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

No / The federal government under Cardoso was not ideologically committed to the adoption of specific "neoliberal" policies in the field of crime control and criminal justice through the reform of the courts, the police, and the prison system. Its failure to curtail institutionally driven human rights violations resulted from a more diffuse "environmental" effect of neoliberalism whereby fiscal management concerns monopolized the government's economic and political capital and from structural constraints on domestic political and governance configurations such as federalism and the character of the Ministry of Justice. Penal policy in Brazil, as elsewhere, was incoherent and volatile because of the confluence of two distinct political ideologies, economic neoliberalism and social neoconservatism, with the federal government pursuing strategies of delegation and denial. Policy transfer and norm convergence were affected positively by the international human rights regime and its domestic allies and negatively by local moral conservatives and producer groups acting as policy blockers rather than entrepreneurs.

Once upon a time in the remote northern panhandle of Idaho, in the early 1990s, occurred a series of events that would lead to the deaths of three individuals, a beloved pet, and the overt acts of lawlessness and terrorism of three federal law enfocement agencies against United States' citizens. Thus, I introduce the story of Ruby Ridge, Idaho, the Weaver family, and the federal law enforcement agencies that have collectivity become known as the infamous "dress rehearsal for Waco..." (Kopel and Blackman, 1997:32). Since this is a constructivist analysis of events surrounding Ruby Ridge, I specifically focus on how reality is constructed through the process of reification. In this research endeavor, I utilize an elaboration of Aho's (1994) steps of reality construction (naming, legitimation, mythmaking, sedimentation, and ritualism) in the understanding of how the situation of Ruby Ridge was constructed. I have integrated these five stages into the chronological events of Ruby Ridge and illustrate how the situation was constructed to be real and how the consequences of crisis management employed by federal law enforcement agencies evolved into reactive state terrorism. In other words, I answer the question-"How could this happen?" / Ph. D.

With the increased social attention to active shooting events in the United States, news outlets are featuring news briefs through social media platforms like Twitter. Using this method of information sharing, news organizations can instantly reach consumers as events unfold in real time. With character limitations with Twitter, one may assume news organizations use words carefully and succinctly to report vital information to the public. By implementing a content analysis of news organization Twitter contributions, messages provided by both legacy and digital native news outlets were evaluated. Using Department of Justice reports specifically covering active shooting events, 32 specific incidents covering the years of 2014-2018 were selected for analysis. This resulted in the identification of over 14,000 individual Tweets. These Tweets were then analyzed using a content analysis to identify overarching themes. Apparent from the onset was the clear priority of news organizations to report on the perpetrators of active shooting events while focusing noticeably less on the victims of these violent events. Further, policy advocation or calls to change current policy was noticeably absent from Twitter discussions. The focus of this paper is to explore the characteristics of emphasized by legacy and digital native news media outlets. This analysis has direct implications on the culture of gun violence, as well as market models which influence the news production process when reporting on active shooting incidents in the United States. / Doctor of Philosophy / Social media has increased in popularity in recent history. The incorporation of social media into a variety of topics, including reporting the news, has also increased. This aim of this study is to evaluate the types of contributions made by news media outlets on the social media platform Twitter. Specifically, this research is focused on Twitter contributions pertaining to active shooting events in the United States between 2014-2018. 32 active shooting events were identified over this period, which includes a collection of more than 14,000 Tweets by news outlets. Priorities of news media outlets were identified by analyzing the content of Tweets. Analysis revealed a significant portion of Tweets characterizing the offender's personal identity, background, and actions while providing sparse reporting on victims in these events. This research provides critical insight into how Twitter is used to report on criminal justice events. Additionally, this study illustrates the ways in which social media is being used to report the news, and how this may differ from traditional methods of news dissemination.

Public housing authorities (PHAs) have enforced banishment since the late 1980s by granting police the authority to ban non-residents from public housing neighborhoods and arresting them for trespassing upon violating the ban. PHAs justify banishment by stating that issuing bans and arrests for trespassing aid in crime prevention by removing non-residents who may commit criminal acts if left unguarded. Nonetheless, there has been no scientific evidence to suggest that banishment works to reduce crime. Similarly, the role community policing can play in enforcing banishment is unclear and scarce research has considered the effects of banishment on racial and ethnic minorities at neighborhood and individual levels. To address these issues this three-part study examined the enforcement of banishment on Kings Housing Authority (KHA; Southeast, US) public housing property from 2004-2012. Collectively these studies address the following overarching research questions: Does banishment reduce crime in public housing neighborhoods? Does banishment disproportionately target racial and ethnic public housing neighborhoods? Does banishment prevent banned individuals from re-offending in public housing? Does banishment disproportionately ban racial and ethnic individuals? What are the residential perceptions of banishment and its effectiveness? How does race and ethnicity affect perceptions of banishment and its effectiveness? Results suggest that banishment is better at reducing property crime than violent crime, though the reductions are modest at best. Increases in bans predicted decreases in drug arrests the following year and predicted that drug offenders can be deterred. Despite these crime control benefits results also suggested that the enforcement of banishment comes at a cost. First, a significant amount of banned individuals are not deterred. Second, while trespass enforcement is used in communities other than public housing, the issuing of bans is concentrated only within public housing communities and bans are predominantly issued to African-American males. Finally, results found that residents are not likely to find them effective if they think they are policing too much or policing too little. Future directions and implications are discussed given the dynamic between the crime control benefits of banishment and its social consequences. / Ph. D.

Fear of crime is as much a reality as crime itself. Our reactions to the problem of crime may influence or interfere with our day-to-day activities. Yet not everyone is a victim of crime, nor does everyone perceive crime as being a serious problem. The author tests hypotheses about the relationships between the fear of crime and, (1) prior victimization, (2) perceived seriousness of crimes and (3) size of the community (population size); suggesting that all of these relationships will be positive--the higher the score for these three variables the higher the score for fear. Also, it was hypothesized that these relationships would be greater (a) for women than for men, and (b) for personal crimes than for property crimes.The survey was sent to a sample of registered motor vehicle owners in the state of Virginia; a sample of 952 was used in this study. All of the relationships were positive. Only two of the sub-hypotheses were supported: that the relationship between perceived seriousness and fear of crime was greater for women than for men, and that the relationship between population size and fear of crime was greater for women than for men. Implications of the results and the limitations of the study are discussed. Suggestions are made for future research. / M.S.

Yes / Abstract: The aim of this paper is to examine the alleged association between urbanisation and violence and to take some preliminary steps towards an exploration of the role of trust in improving urban governance and thus reduce violence. In this paper, violence is interpreted broadly to include both active or direct violence but also passive and social violence in terms of lack of voice, and as a symptom of governance failure. The paper includes a cross section analysis based on data for some 123 countries and an in-depth case study of India. I will also examine what may be termed as the Kerala-Bihar paradox. Kerala is well-known for its achievements in human development and according to India human development report of 2001, Kerala is ranked 1 on human development indicators while Bihar is among the states lagging behind in terms of human development. However, state level analysis of crime suggests that Kerala is more criminalised than Bihar. In examining this paradox, some inferences are drawn on the role of trust in improving accountable governance and how this may result in reducing violent crime. Some issues for further research are identified.

In this paper, I argue for a paradigm shift against general social groupings of organized criminal groups operating throughout the United States. Using Social Constructionism to drive a literature review conducted by way of Discourse Analysis, I spotlight ways in which broad characterizations of "organized crime" led to a mis-handling of gang issues today. Through relying on federally-originating definitions and characterizations, law enforcement and welfare agencies are unequipped for understanding the origins of and motives behind modern gangs and their agendas. The second half of this paper is a case study highlighting the different ways in which gangs may develop and operate despite, in the case of Chicago's Black Gangster Disciples Nation and its splinters, a shared history. If we are to reduce the hold these groups have over urban societies, we must first seek to understand each group individually, pulling out the root issues that drive their actions and how they identify as a form of modern organized crime, that is, "crime that is organized." / Master of Arts