Police Officers\u27 Perceptions of Social Media\u27s Involvement on Delinquent Behavior by Juveniles

The rapid growth of social media platforms coupled with the technological savviness of juveniles has led to their delinquent behavior involving social media. Researchers should investigate this phenomenon in order to establish its extent and to minimize the harmful effects this behavior may have. The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate and explore potential connections between social media and delinquent acts committed by juvenile offenders through the use of police officers\u27 perceptions of those types of acts. The primary research question focused on determining what the perceptions and experiences of police officers in a southeastern state were relative to the phenomenon and relating policies. The conceptual framework focused on policy analysis through the use of police perceptions relating to social media and juvenile delinquency, with deterrence theory serving as a guide. Ten of 50 officers responded to an anonymous online open-ended questionnaire, and the data- were analyzed both inductively and through coded outlines to look for patterns regarding types of delinquency, perceptions of deterrence in present policies and perceived efficacy of educational programs. One hundred percent of the officers responding indicated first-hand experience with cases involving the phenomenon and believed all parts of deterrence theory were lacking in each of the present policies, in general, in order to effectively deter this behavior. Positive social change can be effectuated through creating or further implementing penalties at each level of public policy and ensuring sufficient educational programs exist to inform juveniles of the possible ramifications of these acts. These measures could lead to decreased rates of juvenile delinquency and victimization relative to this phenomenon

The Impact on Crime Rate During a Period of Covid-19 Induced Jail Booking Restrictions

COVID-19 has become a catalyst for profound changes not just in public health but in criminal justice as well. To reduce the close-quarters populations of correctional facilities in an effort to reduce the spread of the virus, law enforcement administrators in the Pacific Northwest have significantly limited the opportunity to make custodial arrests of criminal suspects. The effect on crime rate by not booking suspected criminals for misdemeanor and felony crimes alike remained largely unstudied. To assess this intervention, a paired samples t-test was used after acquiring call volume data for 13 crime types from the dispatch communications center of a large Pacific Northwest county. Results determined statistically significant changes in crime rate in 12 of 13 crime types, with increases exhibited in 11 of 13, as determined by 911 calls for service after introducing COVID- booking restrictions. These results may influence future decision-making when considering public health interventions related to criminal justice and law enforcement

Structural advances for pattern discovery in multi-relational databases

With ever-growing storage needs and drift towards very large relational storage settings, multi-relational data mining has become a prominent and pertinent field for discovering unique and interesting relational patterns. As a consequence, a whole suite of multi-relational data mining techniques is being developed. These techniques may either be extensions to the already existing single-table mining techniques or may be developed from scratch. For the traditionalists, single-table mining algorithms can be used to work on multi-relational settings by making inelegant and time consuming joins of all target relations. However, complex relational patterns cannot be expressed in a single-table format and thus, cannot be discovered. This work presents a new multi-relational frequent pattern mining algorithm termed Multi-Relational Frequent Pattern Growth (MRFP Growth). MRFP Growth is capable of mining multiple relations, linked with referential integrity, for frequent patterns that satisfy a user specified support threshold. Empirical results on MRFP Growth performance and its comparison with the state-of-the-art multirelational data mining algorithms like WARMR and Decentralized Apriori are discussed at length. MRFP Growth scores over the latter two techniques in number of patterns generated and speed. The realm of multi-relational clustering is also explored in this thesis. A multi-Relational Item Clustering approach based on Hypergraphs (RICH) is proposed. Experimentally RICH combined with MRFP Growth proves to be a competitive approach for clustering multi-relational data. The performance and iii quality of clusters generated by RICH are compared with other clustering algorithms. Finally, the thesis demonstrates the applied utility of the theoretical implications of the above mentioned algorithms in an application framework for auto-annotation of images in an image database. The system is called CoMMA which stands for Combining Multi-relational Multimedia for Associations

Time Orientation, Rational Choice and Deterrence: an Information Systems Perspective

The present study examines General Deterrence Theory (GDT) and its parent, Rational Choice Theory (RCT), in an information security setting, assessing the behavioral intent to violate organizational policy under varying levels of certainty, severity and celerity of negative sanction. Also assessed is the individual computer user\u27s time orientation, as measured by the Consideration of Future Consequences (CFC) instrument (Strathman et. al, 1994). How does rational consideration of violation rewards influence the impact of sanctions on individuals? How does time orientation impact intent to violate security policy? How do these operate in an IS context? These questions are examined by assessing the responses of university students (N = 443) to experimental manipulations of sanctions and rewards. Answering vignettes with the factorial survey method, intent to violate is assessed in a setting of Internet piracy of electronic textbooks while being monitored by computer security systems. Findings show that, although traditional GDT variables and reward impact intent to violate, CFC does not cause the hypothesized moderating effect on these variables. However, post-hoc analysis reveals a direct effect of time orientation on behavioral intent, as well as a weak moderating effect opposite of the hypotheses, indicating increased time orientation positively moderates, rather than negatively moderates, the impact of reward on intent to violate. Implications for theory and practice, and future research directions, are discussed

UNDERSTANDING AND EVALUATING THE ENFORCEMENT OF CORPORATE LAW IN NIGERIA: THE CASE FOR ENHANCED PUBLIC CIVIL ENFORCEMENT.

In recent years, countries around the world have witnessed a number of corporate scandals, varying in their enormity. Nigeria has been no exception, having suffered its fair share of these corporate scandals. In many countries, the discovery of some new corporate scandal is unsurprisingly accompanied by calls, from various quarters, for increased directorial accountability. Such calls are then, in their turn, followed by the introduction of new corporate and securities regulations, as well as reforms to existing corporate governance codes. In this quest for increased directorial accountability however, almost all the attention tends to be placed on the substantive content of the laws and codes governing directors. Much less attention, by contrast, has been devoted to the effectiveness of the enforcement regimes applying to these laws and codes. Yet, in the absence of effective enforcement, substantive rules have little impact. Consequently, while it is important to have appropriately developed company law regimes, which impose duties and responsibilities on directors, such laws are likely to fall well short of the mark unless they are also well enforced. It therefore becomes necessary to examine critically enforcement within the context of corporate law. In light of the crucial importance of enforcement in securing directors’ compliance and accountability, this thesis focuses upon the enforcement of corporate law in Nigeria. It analyses three major enforcement regimes in Nigeria: the criminal enforcement regime, the private civil enforcement regime and the public civil enforcement regime. Drawing on criteria for determining effective enforcement developed in the course of this thesis, it argues that the public civil enforcement regime offers the best potential for achieving significant real improvement in the enforcement of corporate law in Nigeria. To further reinforce the argument made for an enhanced public civil enforcement regime, this thesis uses three enforcement case studies derived from the UK and from Australia. The enforcement experience in these countries, whose corporate law regimes bear close similarities with that of Nigeria, have revealed that the public civil enforcement regime, by a clear gap, offers a potentially effective enforcement regime in corporate law. In short, then, this thesis argues that attaining effective enforcement of corporate law is within Nigeria’s reach but this can however be achieved only if it reforms, and develops, public civil enforcement in order to realise the potential benefits of this enforcement regime

An Approach Integrating Deterrence and Rational Choice Theory

This study used an integrative theoretical approach. Criminological theories (deterrence and rational choice) were utilized in the theoretical framework for this study. A massive literature review was included in this study to help connect the theories being integrated. In the fall of 2010, approximately 505 students from the University of Memphis were used as the unit of analysis to examine their perceptions about offending, specifically, illegal parking. The respondents were all given a questionnaire that was used to measure two essential components of deterrence theory: certainty and severity of punishment. The questionnaire also asked the respondents about their perceptions of illegal parking issues on campus. This component assisted the researcher in testing rational choice theory as students underwent a cost/benefit analysis. Certainty and severity of punishment both proved to be factors that deterred the students from offending. However, students\u27 perceptions about offending were not associated with students\u27 actual offending patterns

Distracted Driving in the United States

Distracted driving is a popular topic throughout the world, esspecially within the United States. Although, distracted driving is not the most deadly problem in the United States, all of these deaths are preventable if the distractions are put down. Most states in the United States have laws in place to try to deter drivers from having distractions behind the while. Are these laws enough? Is there enough deterrence within the laws to stop drivers from being distracted? In this study, I analyzed the laws that are in place for the following states: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont, Washington, and West Virginia. I analyzed the total amount of automobile crashes, injuries, and deaths the year before and the year after the law went into effect (specific to the state). I found that the states that have the laws in place do not have enough deterrence within them to stop drivers from being distracted. I also came to the conclusion that the earlier the laws was put into effect, the least amount of success of drivers are rarely deterred. Keywords: Distracted Driving, Hands-free, Cellphones, Distraction