<p>The purpose of this study is to apply the qualitative research method of descriptive single-case study design to explore the phenomenon of fraud in companies in the state of Arkansas by conducting face-to-face interviews with mid-level officers, distributing questionnaires to upper-level officers, and reviewing company documentation in the retail, professional services, or manufacturing industries in Arkansas. The focus is to understand the phenomenon of fraud and company officers&rsquo; perceptions about tools for detecting and preventing fraud. Financial statement fraud tactics make up 9% of the fraud cases globally, which equates to a median loss of $1 million (Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, 2014). The research method involves the triangulation of data from interviewing mid-level company officers, distributing questionnaires to upper-level company officers, and reviewing organizational policy and procedure documents. Interviews will consist of at least 20&ndash;35 participants in a mid-level officer position to ascertain their perceptions about the fraud triangle as a tool and the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence (BCPE) as a framework, a questionnaire will be distributed to upper-level officers to confirm/disconfirm themes, and company historical documents will be reviewed. Because officers are accountable for the accuracy of financial reporting and the ethical conduct of employees, establishing methods for detecting and preventing fraud averts fraudulent acts such as the embezzlement, false reporting, or bribery. </p>

The criminalisation of seafarers has been observed as a growing phenomenon for more than thirty years, presenting a picture of increasing liability upon the Master even though their responsibilities remain essentially unchanged in generations of maritime law. Over the same period, the structure of the maritime environment in which they work has changed dramatically, as evidenced by the complex evolution of Fleet Ownership and Management and the resultant challenges in identifying the party liable in a potential action. Paradoxically, the person least able to influence such changes has been the Master, who has seen the key features of their traditional relationship with the ship operator blurring, as the structure of maritime operations has evolved with the demands of social and economic change. The effect of these changes has left the Master with diminishing management influence without losing responsibility. They remain Master Under God, but without God’s authority over the management of the ship’s affairs. Faced with an increasing amount of criminal prosecutions globally in recent decades, the shipping industry has met the phenomenon with growing dismay, the downstream consequence of which has raised questions challenging the proportionality and, indeed, the fairness, of criminal accountability, in what is perceived by the maritime community to be a disharmonised system worldwide. The purpose of this work is to examine the many facets of the mischief with which the phenomenon confronts the Master in their professional conduct, both in terms of Flag State and Port State obligations. But the purpose goes further than that, for upon this foundation we can then synthesise options for a solution. Ultimately, this thesis is all about the perception of justice in a globalised maritime community in the twenty first century – but the real challenge is to rationalise a new approach to criminalisation, which would meet the interests of justice both for the Master and the State. In the harsh reality of intractable disputes in the twenty first century, that new approach might mean a compromise, which may not be ideal for the Master or for the State, but would be something which both can live with.

<p> While some have speculated there has been an increase in the public scrutiny of police over the last few years, little is actually known about the magnitude and scope of changes. This thesis investigates changes in the frequency of front-page articles, and the frequency of all articles, in <i>The New York Times</i> since 2010. Guided by Beck and Tolnay's (1995) Racial Violence Model, seven events were identified as potential threshold events for changes in media reports about the police. Findings indicate policing stories became more common after the deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown, while the remaining threshold events had no significant impact. This research provides a context for future quantitative and qualitative studies regarding media attention on police following specific events</p>

The ancient and picturesque sport of cockfighting has persisted in the United States, Latin America, and parts of Asia. In the United States this activity is popularly regarded as deviant, and is, indeed, a legally proscribed behavior in most jurisdictions. The persistence of cockfighting is explicable due to the existence of a deviant recreational subculture. / The deviant recreational subculture allows cockfighters a supportive setting in which to reinforce and affirm the disvalued cultural identity of its practitioners and, thus, serves as a boundary maintenance device. This particular deviant subcultural type is unique due to the fact that it possesses the following characteristics: (1) no criminal self-concept for members; (2) a religio-teleological rationale concerning the nature of the activity; (3) a strong overt identification with the existing socio-political order; and, (4) a high degree of intrastate, interstate, and international communication on topics of subcultural interest, and commerce in "tools of the trade." Furthermore, the cockfighting subculture has other attributes of a deviant behavior system consistent with the subcultural thesis proposed herein: its own rules, argot, customs, networks of obligation and reciprocity, and recruitment patterns. / The cockfighting subculture may be seen in an additional dimension--as an instrumental-expressive anachronistic voluntary deviant association. This means that cockfighters reject conformative and alienative attitudes toward dominant social values in favor of an anachronistic world-view. / Moreover, in terms of the dominant method by which it hopes to achieve its objectives, the subculture is both instrumental and expressive, hence the appelation "instrumental-expressive." Instrumental groups want to defuse or remove threatening legislation, thus removing or reducing stigma, while expressive groups are more concerned with providing recreational, social, and informational activities for their members. Expressive groups exist to furnish activities for their members while instrumental groups exist to resist or promote change. The cockfighting subculture has definite attributes of both types of groups. / This work suggests that the models of the deviant recreational subculture and the instrumental-expressive anachronistic voluntary deviant association might prove of heuristic value when applied to other socially and legally problematic deviant subcultures. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 43-02, Section: A, page: 0552. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1982.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 40-09, Section: A, page: 5195. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1979.

The purpose of this mixed methods longitudinal study was to explore the connection between the quality of alternative education and juvenile delinquency. The study examined two alternative education disciplinary schools in the state of Florida over six academic years. The study's goals were twofold. The first goal was to determine the impact of the implementation of quality assurance (QA) in alternative education disciplinary schools. Specifically, the study focused on determining if the QA program increased the schools' use of best practices and, as a result, positively affected the likelihood that exiting students would return to mainstream public education after exiting an alternative education school. Study findings suggest that full implementation of the QA program increased students' likelihood of returning to their home schools after being released from the alternative education disciplinary school. Furthermore, the quantitative results indicate that the implementation of QA at an alternative education school does not increase students' attendance in their home schools after their return. The second goal of this study was to determine if a high quality alternative education school would improve students' positive school experiences, thus increasing their social capital and resulting in a reduction of crime as measured by a decrease in the possibility that a student would be arrested within 12 months after being released from the alternative education school. The quantitative results indicate that partial QA implementation decreased the likelihood that students would be arrested within twelve months after exiting an alternative education disciplinary school, but full and post QA implementation did not. Overall, the findings suggest that QA does not significantly impact the likelihood of an arrest within twelve months after a student exits from an alternative education school. The study concludes with discussion of the problem of youth returning to but not remaining in their regular school because of poor regular school experiences versus positive alternative education school experiences. The policy recommendations based on the results of this study are that students at alternative education schools be allowed to remain in these schools until their graduation from high school. / A Dissertation submitted to the College of Criminology and Criminal Justice in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Degree Awarded: Summer Semester, 2010. / Date of Defense: March 5, 2010. / Alternative Education, Delinquency / Includes bibliographical references. / Thomas G. Blomberg, Professor Directing Dissertation; Stacey Rutledge, University Representative; William Bales, Committee Member.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between architectural and environmental factors and incidence of inmate violence within four correctional institutions in the Southeastern United States: Dade and Union Correctional Institutions, Florida State Prison, and Talahassee Federal Correctional Institution. The study investigated overcrowding, types of housing, amount of living space available, location of assaults, and seasonal influences in relation to the propensity for and frequency of noncollective (inmate-to-inmate or inmate-to-staff) violent incidents. The prisons differ structurally and architecturally--two are medium and two are close custody (maximum) security prisons--and the study examined differences, if any, in the inmates propensity toward violence at the two types of institutions. / Research issues in the study were: (1) Is there a relationship between the increase in prison population and the number and rate (per 100 inmates per prison) of incidents of violence? (2) Is there a relationship between the total number of square feet of living space and the number and rate (per 100 inmates per prison) of incidents of violence? (3) Is there a significant relationship between the number and rate of incidents of violence and the type of housing available in each prison? (4) Is there a relationship between the type of violent incidents committed in the prison and the location of the incident? (5) Is there a relationship between the number and rate of violent incidents and seasonal influences? / The data for the study included official disciplinary reports of violence. A violent environment questionnaire (VEQ) was administered to a sample of inmates and was designed to elicit their perceptions of the degree of violence, privacy, and safety within the prison. Staff interviews were also conducted which provided familiarization with the prison's administration and physical plant during initial site visits. / The results of the study determined what, if any, influence the architecture and design of the four prisons had on the frequency and character of noncollective inmate violence. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 43-03, Section: A, page: 0933. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1982.

National commissions studying police have urged the hiring of college educated police officers, many experts in the field have urged the hiring of college educated police officers, and numerous police agencies have actually hired college educated police officers--but little is known of the effects of hiring college educated police officers. Most of the arguments made for and against hiring college educated police officers are based more on conjecture than on hard empirical facts. / To help fill this information void, the present study entails a study of the education and work performance of police officers from two Southeastern United States police departments (a sample of 603 officers from one department and a population of 137 officers from the other department). / Numerous educational and other background variables were used as independent variables, and the following were used as the dependent, work performance variables: Awards and Commendations; Suspensions; Reprimands, Complaints to Internal Affairs Department; Evaluations; Sick Leave; Discharge of Firearms; Promotional Test Scores; Felony Arrests; Felony Arrest Filing Rates; and Misdemeanor Arrests. Multiple regression was used as the statistical means to determine the relationships among these variables. / The data revealed that college education made a difference in ten of the eleven dependent variables. Only in the case of the dependent variable Discharge of Firearms did college education not make a difference in performance. Moreover, based on a paradigm formulated for the study, college education was found to be a factor in the superior work performance for the following dependent variables: Sick Leave; Awards and Commendations; Reprimands; Promotional Test Scores; Felony Arrests; Felony Arrest Filing Rates; Misdemeanor Arrests; and Performance Evaluations. College education made no difference in the dependent variables Suspensions and Discharge of Firearms; and there was some evidence that college education was a factor in more Complaints to the Internal Affairs Department. Implications for future research and for deployment of college educated officers were discussed. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 43-03, Section: A, page: 0935. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1982.

The U.S. Parole Commission in 1974, initiated parole decision guidelines articulating a national cohort justice parole policy model which theoretically reduced criticism of arbitrary and capricious decision-making. In 1976, reparole guidelines were implemented which unlike the parole guidelines, were not founded upon scientific research. Reparole is the procedure whereby a conditional release violator is considered for reparole supervision. / This dissertation examines reparole decision-making and attempts to demonstrate an alternative policy which would reduce criticism of "fixed and mechanical" decision-making, and the potential for the appearance of unfairness in weighting parole violation accountability. Additionally, this dissertation examines "relative improvement" as it relates to the efficacy of parole decision-making and supervision. Relative improvement is defined as the commission of a "less" serious parole violation compared to the original imprisoned behavior. / Lastly, the study attempts to discover if by the employment of decision-making parole guidelines, there is produced an unwelcomed policy by-product, what Robert Merton calls goal displacement. He expresses goal displacement as strict adherence to agency policies, which originally conceived as a means, then becomes transformed into an end-in-itself. / The study findings demonstrated that generally the introduction of violation guidelines structured discretion well and did not appear to have a "chilling effect" on the exercise of discretion where warranted. / In respect to the efficacy of pre-quideline (clinical) parole decision-making and supervision, recidivism data failed to demonstrate "relative improvement", to the contrary data suggested an increase in reported crime severity violation behavior. / Lastly, an alternative reparole policy is suggested by the writer which incorporates an existing parole risk "Burgess" type actuarial instrument that should reduce the potential criticism of "fixed and mechanical" decision-making, as well as the potential for the appearance of unfairness in weighting parole violation accountability. / Unfortunately for the U.S. Parole Commission the development of a cohort justice model for parole decision-making may have created an unwelcomed dysfunctional agency by-product of power emasculation, in that pending congressional determinate sentencing legislation has transferred the decision-making scheme to the judiciary for administration. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 43-05, Section: A, page: 1699. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1982.

The study tests a theory of homicide. Previous research in the area has found the Southern portion of the United States to experience rates of homicide which exceed those of the non-South even when controlling for various etiological variables. The high rates of deadly violence in the Southern states have been attributed to violent cultural patterns which are assumed to exist in these areas. This study dispenses with the practice of inferring the existence of a Southern subculture of violence from measures of region and attempts to explain the variation in homicide with more concrete etiological variables. / It is argued that homicide is often the result of a violent outburst in which the intention to kill is ambiguous. If this is true, then the deadliness of the weapon which is used in an attack should have some bearing on the extent to which violent outbursts culminate in the death of the victim. Since firearms are perceived to be the deadliest of weapons which are likely to be used in an assault situation, it is hypothesized that homicide rates should vary directly with the accessibility of firearms. Homicide is seen as being largely a function of the extent to which assaults are carried out with deadly weapons. This is consistent with the findings of Gastil (1971) and Hackney (1969) since firearms appear to be most accessible in the South. / The theory is generally supported by the data. However, although the accessibility of firearms is found to be an important determinant of homicide, this is not the case for the restrictiveness of gun control legislation. It is concluded that gun control laws, as they currently exist in the United States, do not seem to effectively reduce the accessibility of firearms. Several reasons are given regarding why the currently existing gun control legislation cannot logically be expected to reduce homicide and it is suggested that perhaps a nation-wide system of restrictive firearms legislation would be more effective. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 42-12, Section: A, page: 5258. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1982.