Sentencing reform and "tough on crime" policies have assisted in the inflation of the United States' prison population by nearly 400% over the last 50 years. In 2003, justice reinvestment was conceptualized as a way to decrease recidivism and remedy the exorbitant correctional spending by reinvesting funds on rehabilitation and reentry assistance to those leaving custodial institutions. Early implementations of justice reinvestment in Connecticut and Texas achieved both savings and reductions in prison populations. This led to the creation of the Justice Reinvestment Initiative by the U.S. Bureau of Justice Assistance in 2010. Officials of the Justice Reinvestment Initiative sought states who were willing to achieve bi-partisan agreements on reform and reinvestment strategies to assist in the creation and implementation of this new policy. The State of Oregon began this process in early 2012 and completed the process with the enrollment of HB 3194 in July of 2013. Despite the implementation of this policy in 17 states, few evaluations have been performed on the effectiveness of justice reinvestment policy. This study employs a quasi-experimental time series analysis of corrections data from the State of Oregon, the high usage county, medium usage county, and the low usage county proxies to assess the effectiveness of the law. Counties were selected as proxies for levels of justice reinvestment grant usage. These data include prison admissions (June 2010-July 2016), probation admissions (June 2010-July 2016), and the number of individuals on community supervision (July 2010-December 2015). Analyses reveal significant changes in all measures. The results of this study have several implications for current and future implementations of justice reinvestment.

The purpose of this work was to compare serial homicides committed by interstate and intrastate offenders and to determine differences in behavior between them. Knowledge of such differences would enable the trained homicide detective to structure his investigation according to the killer's inferred range of action. This study used homicide data collected by the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program (VICAP), of the National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime (NCAVC). VICAP's data was voluntarily submitted by investigators working at the state, local, and federal levels. The VICAP database had information on more than 804 cases of homicides committed by 241 different, serial offenders. The VICAP data was examined in order to learn whether offender behaviors could reveal a distinction between the interstate serial offender and the intrastate serial offender. Five variables of conscious or unconscious offender behavior were selected: (1) the victim's occupation, (2) the victim's last known location, (3) the type and kind of restraints used on the victim (if any), (4) the victim's cause of death, and (5) the level of concealment of the victim at the body disposal site. Information from the attributes in these variables could be helpful to the homicide detective in an early determination of the types and kinds of investigative resources that should be applied to the case for a successful resolution. A hypothesis was formed: there is a detectable difference on the five variables in the behaviors of interstate and intrastate serial killers. The findings supported the hypothesis that there was a detectable difference between the two types of serial killers. An unexpected finding revealed that one type of offender was more deadly than the other, and thus less likely to leave behind surviving victims. viii interstate serial offender and the intrastate serial offender. Five variables of conscious or unconscious offender behavior were selected: (1) the victim's occupation, (2) the victim's last known location, (3) the type and kind of restraints used on the victim (if any), (4) the victim's cause of death, and (5) the level of concealment of the victim at the body disposal site. Information from the attributes in these variables could be helpful to the homicide detective in an early determination of the types and kinds of investigative resources that should be applied to the case for a successful resolution. A hypothesis was formed: there is a detectable difference on the five variables in the behaviors of interstate and intrastate serial killers. The findings supported the hypothesis that there was a detectable difference between the two types of serial killers. An unexpected finding revealed that one type of offender was more deadly than the other, and thus less likely to leave behind surviving victims.

This study examined the relationship between the public humiliation and shaming of offenders in the sentencing portion of a criminal trial and the subsequent severity of the sentence the offender receives. Judicial moral shaming of offenders is returning to popularity in the courts, influencing the final sentence outcome as an under-identified mitigator, that substitutes for judges’ other punitive sanctions. Support for this shaming is found in Heider’s attribution theory and in Homans’ theory of social exchange; however Braithwaite found this form of shaming is overly punitive and ineffective. This four phase study used a sequential, mixed method, exploratory research design. A purposeful sample of 80 Provincial Court case transcripts of judges’ reasons for sentencing were first examined qualitatively for the presence of public humiliation using linguistic content analysis; this yielded a taxonomy and classifications of incidents of public humiliation. Using this taxonomy and classification, the data were then analyzed quantitatively, together with the subsequent severity of offenders’ sentences, in a series of bivariate and regression analyses. Other influences on sentencing were considered in the analyses, including the age and gender of the offender, the kind of offense and the plea. Findings of the content analysis indicated that humiliation is multifaceted, with two primary forms: judge imposed and self imposed. Results of the regression analyses that accounted for both forms of shaming indicated that presence of public humiliation is associated with lesser sentences. This study contributes to social change by identifying the practice of public humiliation in the courts and challenging its practice, in keeping with Margalit’s thesis that a decent society is one that does not use social institutions to humiliate its citizens.

Within the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice system, juvenile delinquency referrals have decreased, yet at the same time, juvenile recidivism rates continue to challenge policy makers. Using Hirschi's social learning theory as the foundation, the purpose of this descriptive phenomenological study was to examine the perceptions of juvenile justice professionals about their experiences with youthful offenders in order to determine the causes of juvenile recidivism. Data came from in-depth interviews with 9 participants including state attorneys, judges, and mental health counselors from within the central region of the state of Florida. Data were analyzed and coded using Colaizzi's method. Two primary themes emerged from the analysis of data: First, participants perceived that the influence of peers and factors such as environment, family criminal and mental health history, substance and abuse, truancy have a significant effect on juvenile recidivism. Second, participants perceived that parent bonding is the most important factor in reducing recidivism among juveniles aged 17 and 18 years old. The positive social change implications of this study include recommendations to the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice to implement, modify, and improve services and policy to reduce recidivism for juveniles aged 17 and 18 years old. This implementation, modification, and improvement may reduce recidivism among this subgroup of juvenile delinquents and may reduce the number of young adults entering the criminal justice system.

In 2017, Louisiana had the highest incarceration rate in the nation with 1,420 of every 100,000 adult males being placed in a state or local penitentiary. To address this issue, a series of criminal justice reforms were passed within the Louisiana legislature that released thousands of former offenders back into the community. The purpose of this qualitative study is to understand the attitudes, thoughts, and opinions of citizens in a single Louisiana city regarding ex-offender re-integration and disparities within the criminal justice system. March and Olsen's Rational Choice Institutionalism was used to explain how environment impacts individual perception and choices at the community and political level with policy implications. Data were obtained through interviews with 22 citizens from the selected city. Data were coded using a deductive iterative coding process, then subjected to thematic analysis. The findings indicated that the construction of perceptions on disparities within the criminal justice system and ex-offender reintegration was primarily formed through volunteerism, personal experiences, observations, conversations with others, exposure to different cultures, mass media, and family upbringing. Several factors were involved in residents formulating perceptions on the criminal justice system and ex-offender reintegration. These factors are embedded in the structures of mass media, community, political, educational, social, and economic systems. The results of this study may impact social change by informing policymakers about the necessity to construct policies focused on acknowledging and addressing current structural and systemic criminal justice policies that are respectful of the experiences and needs of restored citizens as well as citizens from all communities.

Gun violence is a problem in many communities across the United States that are characterized by poverty, and lack of quality education, yet little is known about the experiences of victims of gun violence in these places. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to better understand how people who have been victims of gun violence perceive problems and solutions associated with the production, distribution, and ownership of guns. Based on the theoretical framework of Rousseau's social contract theory, this study explored gun violence from the perspectives of 10 victims whose lives were directly or indirectly affected by gun violence to understand how victims perceive the obligations of government to the governed in terms of response to gun violence. Data from individual interviews were subjected to selective and open coding followed by a thematic analysis procedure. The key findings from this study revealed that gun violence victims were able to differentiate between the intended use of firearms and its abuse. The victims associated the abuse of firearms to deteriorating social factors. In accordance with the classic premise of the social contract theory, the victims thought that the fight against gun violence needed to be led by the affected communities. The results of this study demonstrated what appeared to be a new rendition of theory, that instead of challenging local authorities, the victims opted for a leadership-based collaborative approach to eradicate the underlying social weaknesses that lead to gun violence. The conclusions drawn from this study may provide insight into appropriate measures that can aid in social uplift among affected communities, such as modifications to existing gun control laws to promote safety and efficiency and citizen collaboration toward improved regulation.

Since its first use in criminal investigations in 1987, DNA profiling has become the new gold standard for investigations and prosecutions. Academics, politicians and law enforcement officials have presented DNA evidence as a ??scientific hero?? that is capable of solving crimes and preventing miscarriages of justice. However, in spite of this reputation, few studies have explored the impact of this technology on criminal justice practitioners, or on the process of investigating and processing criminal offences. This dissertation provides a comparative study of the use of DNA profiling in two jurisdictions: New South Wales (NSW) in Australia and the Thames Valley in the United Kingdom (UK). Interviews canvassed the perspectives and experiences of police officers, scene of crime officers (SOCOs), forensic scientists, criminal lawyers, and judicial officers from these areas. These interviews were analysed in conjunction with appeal judgments and police statistics to reveal how DNA evidence has been used in the NSW and Thames Valley. The research presented in this dissertation indicates that DNA profiling is having a number of far-reaching effects on both criminal justice systems and is seen as a reliable forensic tool by criminal justice practitioners. Practitioners routinely use DNA evidence throughout the various stages of the criminal justice process and are actively changing their practices to utilise the technology more effectively. One of the main impacts of the introduction of DNA evidence into criminal investigations has been the need to provide substantial resources and infrastructure for the collection, analysis, and storage of samples. Both jurisdictions encountered a number of problems because they provided insufficient resources to effectively use DNA profiling. This study also offers insight into how criminal justice practitioners perceive the dangers of using DNA evidence and how miscarriages of justice can occur. Finally, through an analysis of the combined experiences of criminal justice practitioners, this dissertation challenges the widespread acceptance and routine use of forensic DNA profiling. It further suggests that it is now time to re-consider current practices in relation to how resources are devoted to the technology, and how criminal justice practitioners are using the technology.

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