This study fills a hole left in research about the Federal Bureau of Investigation. While previous authors have examined the Bureaus relationship to the executive branch, especially under its long-time Director, J. Edgar Hoover, comparatively little has been written about the Bureaus relationship with the United States Congress. Using their investigatory and appropriations powers, members of Congress could have maintained stringent oversight of Bureau officials activities. Instead, members of Congress either deferred to the executive branch, especially presidents and attorneys general, or developed close relationships with Bureau officials based on a shared politics, mainly anti-communism during the Cold War. Examining the relationship from 1907 through 1975 offers numerous examples of members of Congress looking beyond their oversight responsibilities. Even as Congress investigated Bureau actions, no meaningful legislation was passed limiting Bureau activities. Instead, members of Congress left it to the executive branch to correct problems. On issues like wiretapping, Bureau officials either misled Congress about the extent of their activities or ignored Congressional mandates in order to continue their anti-communist agenda. As the Cold War developed, certain Congressional committees began to use Bureau files confidentially in order to educate the public on the dangers of communism. While Bureau officials initially supported such liaison relationships, they were based on the source of the committees information never coming to light. Once that condition was violated, Bureau officials terminated the relationship, hampering the committees ability to use the communist issue to further political careers. To fully understand the FBIs role in 20th-century America, the relationship with Congress must be further explored. Focusing solely on Director Hoover or the executive branch is too narrow. Members of Congress had equal opportunity to oversee Bureau activities. That they did not fulfill this responsibility portrays the difficulty Americans have in containing the actions of investigatory agencies.

This study explored factors contributing to Indonesians perceptions and attitudes toward violence against wives. A total of 181 individuals 91 males and 90 females) living in rural and urban households in Kota Bandung Bandung City) and Kabupaten Bandung Bandung Regency), West Java Province, Indonesia that were listed in the 2009 National Social Economic Survey were randomly selected. Data were collected using face-to-face interviews with open-ended and closed-ended questions. The majority of Indonesians in this study were aware of the existence of violence against wives in society. Respondents tended to define violence against wives in physical terms. They inclined to justify a husband hitting his wife when she was perceived to deviate from traditional gender roles as a wife or mother. The findings indicated prevalent victim-blaming attitudes. The participants also tended to express ambivalent attitudes between protecting the victims and punishing the abusive husbands. In addition, Indonesians in this study reported preference for informal mechanisms in dealing with violence against wives. Feminist and socio-demographic perspectives that were used to generate hypotheses were partially supported. Attitudes toward gender roles, location of residence, and marital status were among the most common variables significantly associated with the definitions, contextual justification, and responses to violence against wives. Findings were discussed in the light of a socio-cultural context. The studys results posed some implications for social welfare practice, policy and research.

Anxiety and apprehension are part of the emotional mix that missionaries go through when they are assigned to cultures alien to their own. Problems associated with culture shock and transitions into alien cultures by new missionaries are as a result of fear, ignorance of the local culture, and lack of preparation. Therefore orientations and sensitivity trainings are usually organized for immigrant missionaries going into new cultures. This is true of Missionaries of St Paul MSP) working in the United States and other countries. In 2002, however, the pastoral ministry landscape in the United States changed dramatically because of the sex abuse scandal that rocked the Church. As a result, the Catholic bishops of the United States introduced the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People which contained radical measures that changed the way priests and other pastoral agents understood and carried out their ministry. The Charter has policies and measures that are meant to protect children and young people from sexual abuse by priests or pastoral agents. It has important implications for missionary priests from other cultures working in the United States. This project was to raise awareness among MSP seminarians in Nigeria about the implications of the Charter. Nigeria has diverse cultures with diverse attitudes towards sex and sexuality. Proper understanding of sexuality and awareness of sexual differences among cultures is necessary for proper integration and appreciation of ones own sexuality. This project was to prepare seminarians for a more effective pastoral ministry in the United States and elsewhere in the light of the new reality of ministry. The project ran for five weeks, featuring lectures, group discussions and reflections, a video presentation, and feedbacks. There was a pre and post-questionnaire to measure the overall assessment of the project. There were twelve participants. Within the past year, sexuality and celibacy course has been introduced as part of the curriculum of the National Missionary Seminary of St Paul, Nigeria, as a result of this project. In this regard, the project has achieved its major objective.

This thesis consists of three interrelated yet self-contained empirical essays that use large-scale individual level survey data to study the problem of crime among children and youth in Canada and the United States. The first essay is intended to identify from a large set of potential explanatory factors important correlates of youth criminal and educational outcomes, accounting for unobserved correlations among different youth outcomes. The second essay tries to address an empirical puzzle, that is, American teenagers on average are three times as likely to engage in fights as their Canadian peers and this cross-country violence gap has opened up among children as young as 4-5 years old. The third essay analyzes the impact on youth crime of a nation-wide policy reform in the Canadian youth criminal justice system, i.e. the superseding of the Young Offenders Act by the Youth Criminal Justice Act in 2003.

Although eyewitness identifications are a common form of evidence presented in criminal trials, analyses of actual cases and studies of mock jurors suggest that people are not skilled at evaluating eyewitness accuracy. Laypeople tend to rely on factors that are not diagnostic of identification accuracy, such as the eyewitness’s confidence, and they tend to underestimate factors that are diagnostic of identification accuracy, such as proper interview and lineup procedures. The present study compared the effects of three teaching aids on participants’ sensitivity to eyewitness evidence in either a strong or weak eyewitness identification scenario. The interview-identification-eyewitness (I-I-Eye) experimental aid directed participants to first attend to how law enforcement interviewed the eyewitness, second evaluate the identification procedures, and third determine what eyewitness factors during the crime could have impacted the eyewitness’s identification accuracy. The Neil v. Biggers control aid presented five criteria that are the current legal standard for evaluating eyewitness evidence. The Jury Duty control aid described aspects of the criminal trial process. The strong and weak transcript scenarios differed on factors relevant to the fairness of the eyewitness interview and the lineup (system variables). Participants were 293 undergraduate students. A 3 (teaching aid) x 2 (trial transcript strength), between-groups factorial design was employed. Participants in the I-I-Eye group rendered significantly more correct verdicts for the strong case and marginally more correct verdicts for the weak case than those in either control group. Importantly, only the I-I-Eye participants demonstrated sensitivity by ruling guilty more often in the strong case (55%) than in the weak case (16%). Thus, the I-I-Eye participants not only learned about eyewitness factors, but were able to integrate this information with other case details so as to reach a correct verdict. Moreover, participants in the I-I-Eye group were more likely to list characteristics of the crime scene (estimator variables) and police procedures (system variables), and less likely to list the lack of forensic evidence in the case, as the reason for their verdict. We discuss how to use the I-I-Eye heuristic to teach laypersons and professionals in the criminal justice system how to evaluate eyewitness evidence.

Alternative school settings for students who are identified as “disruptive or dangerous” are playing an increasingly prominent role in the world of public education, yet many gaps in the research literature are abound. This dissertation study is an effort to contribute to an understanding of the students placed in these alternative schools, identify longitudinal predictors of placement, and assess the risk of subsequent involvement of the juvenile justice system. The study sample consisted of an entire cohort of third grade children in a large metropolitan school district. Through the use of the methodological technique of discrete-time hazard analysis, time-constant and time-varying predictors of placement between 3rd and 12th grade were examined. The predictor variables used in the study included student demographic, academic and non-academic characteristics that were extracted through the districts large data warehouse. Also under examination in this study was whether, and if so when, students who experienced alternative school placement subsequently experienced a juvenile detention before 12th grade. The results of this study indicated that cumulatively, 9% of the total cohort experienced placement in a disciplinary school by the end of 12 th grade. The hazard of placement was greatest in 7th grade. African-American males were disproportionately represented among students placed. The discrete-time hazard models revealed that variables minority, male, free/reduced lunch status, school mobility, Emotional- Behavioral disability, absenteeism, and grade retention were significant predictors of placement through time. Out of school suspension remained the strongest predictor even when controlling for other significant predictors. Over a third of the student placed in alternative school experienced a subsequent juvenile detention. Of those placed in alternative school during elementary, half experienced juvenile detention before the end of 12th grade. Logistic regression results indicated that race and gender were significant predictors of subsequent juvenile detention. Implications for policy, practice and future research are presented in the final chapter.

High speed police pursuits are regarded as one of the controversial issues in law enforcement today. There are many issues surrounding police pursuits such as criminal and civil liability. Police agencies have developed and put into place policies regarding each function of the job. There are different types of police pursuit policies. These policies may vary from each police agency. The different policies are formed based on different past incidents and case law. High speed police pursuits have been an issue in the court system. In different court cases from Brower v. County of Inyo, County of Sacramento v. Lewis, Bryan County, Oklahoma v. Brown, and Scott v. Harris the 4 th and 14th Amendments are used in filing Section 1983 Lawsuits. High speed police pursuits are caused by a law enforcement officer attempting to stop a citizen for many different reasons. Typically pursuits start out from a routine traffic stop. Reasons citizens flee from the police vary but are because the driver does not have a license, a person in the vehicle has a warrant, there are drugs in the vehicle, the driver is intoxicated, the vehicle is stolen, etc. There have been numerous studies and research done on high speed police pursuits. This study provides information on prior research including statistics on pursuits along with research on police officer perceptions on pursuits. The study provides a statistical analysis on survey results obtained from ten local police agencies from Clinton County, Iowa and Whiteside County, Illinois. There were 128 respondents who completed the survey.

Understanding the disparity in the amount of punishment between youth and adults, for violent and non-violent criminal activity, remains a matter of theoretical debate. In the present study, the research employs deterrence and labeling theory, through a life course theoretical framework, to assess the extent to which the punishments for violent and non-violent crimes follow different trajectories. The deterrence theory posits an individual will refrain and deter from future offending if the consequence of the crime committed outweighs the actual crime itself. The labeling theory focuses on the labels applied to an individual, and if that label influences the individual’s behavior, and promotes future deviant behavior. The life course theory focuses on the connections made in an individual’s life and predicts that early events one endures in life can predict their future decisions. This study utilizes the NCRP data set, which consists of questionnaires distributed to inmates in custody for the 2003 calendar year. These data show the amount of punishment given to youth and adults for the same type of crime. Disaggregating by offenses reveals, however, that youth are punished more severely for robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, and larceny. These findings raise questions about the definite effects of the deterrence and labeling process on crime progressions, and suggest the need to continue to investigate the theories that differentiate between youths and adults in relation to specific types of offending.

Juvenile violence has received considerable attention both in criminological literature and policy circles, but this attention has largely ignored juvenile domestic violence offending, which is a growing problem in the Jefferson County Family Court. This study identifies the characteristics of juvenile domestic offenders in the Jefferson County Family Court, and examines the effect of prior domestic violence conviction on case disposition. Results indicate that these juveniles are black, males, in school and the most likely victim of the violence is the juvenile’s mother. Prior domestic violence offending has no statistically significant effect on case disposition.

Forensic DNA analysis currently utilizes commercially available multiplex STR PCR kits for human identity testing. The DNA National Standards 8.1 and 8.3 state that a laboratory must internally validate a method or instrument prior to being used in casework analysis. The Acadiana Crime Laboratory decided to comparatively validate the STR multiplex PCR kits PowerPlexRTM 16 HS and IdentifilerRTM Plus based on sensitivity of suboptimal DNA amounts, ability to resolve mixtures and robustness of DNA profiles on compromised samples. The ACL’s currently utilize PCR kit IdentifilerRTM was tested alongside the two previously mentioned kits on the compromised (PCR inhibition) samples. In this study, PowerPlexRTM 16 HS and IdentifilerRTM Plus outperformed IdentifilerRTM on inhibited samples. Furthermore, IdentifilerRTM Plus outperformed PowerPlexRTM 16 HS in all studies within this validation study. Therefore, the ACL personnel have decided to go forward with IdentifilerRTM Plus for future casework analysis.