Criminal Justice and Criminology Electronic Theses and Dissertations (UMKC)
The items in this collection are the theses and dissertations written by students of the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology. Some items may be viewed only by members of the University of Missouri System and/or University of Missouri-Kansas City. Click on one of the browse buttons above for a complete listing of the works.
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Recent Submissions
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Community Perspectives of Police Changes During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
(2023)The COVID-19 pandemic, which began in March 2020, forced police to adapt to a rapidly changing environment, including new police, tasks, and different work tactics. Based on surveys of community members, this study explores ... -
Hate By Numbers: Exploring Hate Crime Reporting Across Crime Type And Among Special Interest Groups Using The NCVS
(2023)Hate crimes are of particular harm to both individual victims and the communities they represent but are difficult to measure due to challenges facing data collection and reporting to police. The National Crime ... -
A Descriptive Analysis of Fatal and Non-Fatal Shootings in Kansas City, Missouri, from 2015-2020
(2023)Firearm usage in homicides has become a significant concern within the United States. While our understanding of what elements comprises a firearm-based homicide is well studied, what is not is the characteristics, and ... -
Exploring the Correlation between Civil Unrest and the Mobilization of Hate in the United States
(2022)The mobilization of hate in the United States has greatly ramped up since 2000. There are a lot of factors that go into why hate crimes continue to persist, but civil unrest seems to be one of the biggest factors. Through ... -
A Systematic Review of Huikahi Reentry Circles: A Restorative Justice Process for Families Impacted by Incarceration
(2022)Research and criminological theory indicate that familial support is one of the most crucial aspects of the reentry process. Historically, the criminal justice system does not meet the reentry needs of incarceration-impacted ... -
Exploring the Perceptions, Uses, Rhetoric, and Reality of ShotSpotter Gunshot Detection Technology Among Police Officers and Analysts
(2022)After two years of historic levels of gun violence in Kansas City, Missouri, this thesis asks how local police officers and analysts experience, utilize, and conceive of the ShotSpotter gunshot detection system. Using ... -
Perceptions of Sex Trafficking Legislation By Sex Workers
(2020)In April of 2018, President Donald Trump signed into law the Stop Enabling Sex Trafficking Act/Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (SESTA/FOSTA) package. This set of bipartisan legislation was ... -
A Spatial Analysis of Homicide and Dangerous Buildings in Kansas City, Missouri
(2019)Criminological theories such as routine activities theory, rational choice theory, broken windows and disorder theory, crime pattern and environmental criminology, and social disorganization and collective efficacy theory ... -
Assessing the Impact of Increased Police Officer Presence In Micro Hot Spots
(University of Missouri -- Kansas City, 2019)Crime reduction is a central role of policing in America. To better facilitate an understanding of a hot spot policing approach, the current study defines the specific policing style and how it was used throughout the ... -
Jews Behind Bars and the Influence of Jewish Communal Support on Reentry, Reintegration, and Desistance
(University of Missouri -- Kansas City, 2019)Recently, there has been a resurgence of interest in communal social support and prison chaplaincy. Numerous studies evaluate the growing role of religion and spirituality in various preventive and rehabilitative ... -
Representative Bureaucracy and Racial Profiling in Missouri
(University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2017)There have been inquiries regarding the extent, nature, and causes of racial profiling. Numerous studies have been and continue to explore whether and how the experience of people of color differ from those of majorities ... -
Commercial Sexual Exploitation: An Analysis of Prostitution in Kansas City
(University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2017)Prostitution arrest records provided by 11 different law enforcement agencies in the Kansas City area during the years of 2011 through 2015 are used as a means for analysis of commercial sexual exploitation (CSE) within ... -
Teens in Transition: Evaluating a Youth Violence Intervention Program
(University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2016)In the summer of 2015, the Teens in Transition program was implemented. It was a summer jobs and life-skills program designed for 40 gang-affiliated youths identified as being high risk for violence through the local focused ... -
Pretrial Supervision’s Prediction for Probation
(2016)Pretrial interventions are being investigated nationally to determine what is most beneficial for both the Courts and defendants to ensure public safety and court appearance. This study is one of the first to examine ... -
Public Perceptions About Community Notification Policies
(2015-07-28)The purpose of this study was not only to replicate a previous study, but also to examine public perceptions about sex offenders and community protection policies in a different geographical area. Data was obtained through ... -
From top to bottom: rhetoric in the hierarchy of focused deterrence stakeholders
(2014-07-25)Criminological and socio-legal research has frequently focused on the gap between policy and practice that is evident in the "ceremonial rhetoric" guiding criminal justice policies. This thesis examines whether there is a ... -
The Kansas City Foot Patrol project : An evaluation of the effectiveness of foot patrol in violent crime micro-places
(2014-07-15)The Kansas City Foot Patrol Project is a replication of the Philadelphia Foot Patrol Experiment (Ratcliffe et al. (2011). The current study was conducted in Kansas City, Missouri and evaluated the effectiveness of foot ... -
The impact of crime on birth weight: exploring the definition of residential environment
(2013)Low birth weight is a prime indicator for infant mortality, is strongly correlated with several life course diseases, and is indicative of future cognitive, developmental and behavioral problems. Furthermore, there is a ... -
An examination of the impact of parental drug use, family transition, and environmental conditions on adolescents' self-reported drug use, delinquency, and deviant behaviors
(University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2012-06-18)Research has shown that youths reared in homes with parental drug use have a high risk of exhibiting maladaptive social behaviors encompassing delinquency, deviance, and criminality (Keller, Catalano, Haggerty, & Fleming, ... -
Contextual differences in offense classifications: examining gender, race, and age differences
(University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2012-05-01)Since the 1980s, girls have started to constitute growing numbers of juvenile court caseloads. Some suggest that girls are becoming increasingly more delinquent and violent, while others argue that changes in policing and ...