Criminology

This study used in-depth qualitative interviews from six participants to understand prison activists’ perceptions of the prison system and their strategies for enacting change. A constructionist lens was used to analyze the data with Joel Best’s (2017) social problems theory. Prisons were framed and problematized by the activists based on systemic issues of colonization, mental health and substance use, CSC misconduct, and cultural attitudes towards punishment. Lack of public awareness, and in educational environments, towards these issues led to strategies of education in order to build communities that are more inclusive, caring, and connected. Strategies like advocating for trauma informed care and connecting non- incarcerated with incarcerated were examples of community building. The activists also experienced challenges in their work with negotiating relationships - in particular, the fear of helping, frustration in managing the complexities of activism, and moving forward despite challenges in their work. Therefore, Goffman’s (1959) theory of presentations of self was another useful theoretical lens. The findings suggest that prison activists use different framing strategies depending on the context of the situation and how they want to present themselves. Furthermore, the strategic and covert methods for enacting change diverge from traditional activist methods and aim to create change at an individual level.

An increase in the amount of high-profile incidents and attacks in the West perpetrated by individuals subscribing to a variety of extremist ideologies over the past decade has led to an influx of academic research concerned with uncovering how and why it is that individuals become radicalized toward ideologically-motivated extremist violence. While such research has examined a diverse range of social, demographic, and psychological variables and their potential link/correlation to the radicalization process, there has yet to emerge an accurate or reliable ‘profile’ with respect to who is more or less likely to become radicalized or join extremist/terrorist movements. The primary aim of this dissertation is to present a novel theoretical approach which centers the concept of individual identity as the fundamental factor which drives individuals in the West toward involvement with extremist movements. This theory of identity, which presupposes that macro-level structural factors fundamentally dictate how individuals experience and internalize identity on a micro-level, is outlined by tracing how the concept of ‘identity’ has historically evolved in ‘Western’ culture up to its current iteration in modern, hyper-connected, late-capitalist society. Once outlined, this theory of identity is empirically applied to the digital media content of two extremist movements via a mixed-method approach that utilizes topic modelling, sentiment analysis, and thematic/discourse analysis. More specifically, the content of the so-called Islamic State (including videos, magazines, and Twitter posts) and the user-generated comments of the notorious far-right online community r/The_Donald are examined through this theoretical lens and analyzed with this mixed-method approach. Results indicate that, wittingly or not, modern extremist movements routinely incorporate questions of identity into both their propaganda and general discussions in a manner that provides simplistic solutions and answers to the complex problems of identity and self that are created and amplified within modern Western culture. As such, this dissertation argues that the attraction of extremist ideology and the potential for extremist violence is, at current, an inevitable byproduct of modern macro-level structural and economic conditions.

This study applies the semi-automated method of sentiment analysis in order to examine any quantifiable changes in the linguistic, topical, or narrative patterns that are present in the English-language Islamic State-produced propaganda magazines Dabiq (15 issues) and Rumiyah (10 issues). Based on a sentiment analysis of the textual content of these magazines, it was found that the overall use of language has remained largely consistent between the two magazines and across a timespan of roughly three years. However, while the majority of the language within these magazines is consistent, a small number of significant changes with regard to certain words and phrases were found. Specifically, the language of Islamic State magazines has become increasingly hostile towards certain enemy groups of the organization, while the language used to describe the Islamic State itself has become significantly more positive over time. In addition to identifying the changes and stabilities of the language used in Islamic State magazines, this study endeavours to test the effectiveness of the sentiment analysis method as a means of examining and potentially countering extremist media moving forward.

This study examines videos produced by the al-Hayat Media Center, a branch of the Islamic State’s (IS) larger media campaign aimed more specifically at Western audiences. Using a thematic analysis approach, recurring themes of 10 al-Hayat videos were identified with conclusions made regarding the specificities of the message and the target audience. It was found that al-Hayat videos cater to potential Western recruits and sympathizers by portraying life in the IS as spiritually and existentially fulfilling, while simultaneously decrying the West as secular, immoral, and criminal. By utilizing well-produced propaganda videos that tap into the dissatisfactions of Western Muslims, al-Hayat was shown to deliver a sophisticated and legitimate message that may play a role in the larger radicalization process.

Objectives:<p>Replicate previous experimental findings on the causal effect of deviant peer modeling and assess whether the gender of peer models is an important determinant of theft.<p>Methods:<p>A randomized control trial (n = 329 university students) in which participants were randomly placed into one of four deviant peer modeling groups (control, verbal prompting, behavioral modeling, verbal prompting plus behavioral modeling) and one of three confederate gender similarity groups (same gender, different gender, mixed gender) (4 × 3 factorial design, equal randomization). The outcome was theft of a gift card. Each session included two confederates and a single participant. This feature reduced measurement error over more common approaches where groups of participants take part in the study at the same time and in which uncontrolled interactions and/or threshold effects may act as confounders.<p>Results:<p>Participants were more likely to steal when exposed to confederates who behaviorally modeled theft (15.1% stole) or offered verbal support for theft and modeled it (11.1%) compared to controls (2.5%) or when confederates only talked about stealing (1.2%) (p = .001). Participants exposed to same-gender peers (7.3%) were as likely to steal as those exposed to different gender peers (5.5%) or mixed-gender peers (9.9%) (p = .464).<p>Conclusions:<p>Behavioral modeling was found to be an important determinant of theft. This replicates previous research in the area and offers arguably the strongest support to date for the influence of deviant peer modeling. Peer gender, however, was not found to be an important etiological component of theft. External validity is a limitation.

Much recent research has focused on examining various binary contradictions and employing metaphors pertaining to border security. Ultimately, this article argues that existing debates and metaphors are inadequate in describing what is understood and agreed upon in the literature in terms of borders. This article proposes a refinement of existing theory for contemporary borders, employing Baudrillard’s concept of ‘simulation’. The metaphor of the ‘simulated border’ functions to avoid debates surrounding geospatiality while also incorporating aspects of risk society and control in concluding that borders are anything but organic security environments, with the ‘stretched screens’ of border agents serving to produce dividuals that are tested within games of security to govern mobility anywhere in time or space.

While recent scholarship has begun the difficult task of unpacking the sociology of frontline border policing, literature examining how frontline border officers are governed through training and organisational governance technologies is sparse (particularly in terms of how officers are trained to interact with and form perceptions of the public they serve). This article provides the first concrete examination of border officer training by conducting a Foucauldian discourse analysis of various officer training and other documents to determine the contours of organisational governance technologies and how they serve to guide border services officers (BSOs) employed by Canada Border Services Agency in interacting with and perceiving of members of the travelling public. Findings indicate that governance technologies include training documents, manuals, public policy, and a bifurcated agency governance hierarchy serving to enable, support, and constrain BSO frontline duties, public interactions, as well as potentially perceptions. Findings also reveal that officers receive very little training related to interacting with members of the travelling public on the frontline. Officers also receive very little instruction related to how they should prioritise their disparate duties related to interacting with the travelling public. Findings ultimately indicate that when training is present, governance technologies – alongside recent shifts in agency organisational governance – contain systematic biases that produce officer worldviews and social interactions that are rooted exclusively in security provision, while leaving BSOs without the tools necessary to handle other types of public interactions that regularly occur at the border.

Criminologists have extensively researched the problems generated by licensed establishments. Violent offending and disorderly behavior resulting from pubs, taverns, dance clubs and bars are of particular interest to this field of study. The relative density of these liquor establishments has been found to be associated with the level of violence and disorder in surrounding areas. A complex systems approach can be used to further understand the dynamic interplay between licensed establishments, violent offending and disorder, and urban planning decisions. The model presented here utilizes cellular automata as the mathematical framework to view the varying impact of liquor licensing density on crime. This study uses a sample of liquor establishments and crime data from the City of Vancouver in British Columbia. The cellular automata model incorporates transition rules which govern the change of city blocks from low-risk blocks to high-risk blocks. The results represented by a 50 × 50 cellular grid show that high-risk blocks multiply when liquor licenses are grouped. Two scenarios are presented to contrast the impact of grouping high-risk blocks which contain more liquor establishments and dispersing such blocks. A third scenario demonstrates how increasing the positive influence in a grouped scenario stops high-risk blocks from taking over the entire grid. Future iterations of this model will incorporate census data, public transportation data, land use data and entertainment districts from other cities to further analyze the effect of licensed establishments on the distribution of crime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]