Browsing by Subject "Law Enforcement"
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Item Graduates' Perceptions of the Criminal Justice Degree as Preparation for a Career in Law Enforcement(2010-10-12) Franks, George RobertThere continues to be much debate in the criminal justice academic community about the value of the degree in the practice of law enforcement. Most of the debate centers on earlier research that was both non-discipline specific and did not include direct data collected from persons holding the degree and serving as police officers. Unfortunately, there is little identifiable research into whether criminal justice graduates perceive their degree as having a positive impact on their career in law enforcement. This research is an exploration of the relationship between criminal justice higher education and the majoring graduate?s success in a law enforcement career. The research is vital in understanding the perceived relationship between the criminal justice degree and the law enforcement career from a program graduate/law enforcement practitioner perspective. The study utilized qualitative inquiry and interpretive phenomenological analysis to develop major themes of the graduates' perceptions of how their criminal justice degree has contributed to their success in a law enforcement career. The findings of the study indicate that most graduates perceive the degree as having direct links between college course curriculum and the academy training programs for law enforcement officers. There is also an indication that strong criminal justice related writing requirements improve career opportunities. In addition, the study supports the inclusion of required internship programs in the criminal justice curriculum, and the use of regular and adjunct faculty with career experience in law enforcement.Item Police agency adoption of social media as related to agency size, community-oriented policing, and technological capacity(2016-11-10) Cawley II, William Olen; Randa, Ryan X.; Wells, William M; King, William R.This thesis uses LEMAS data and an original data collection to examine the relationship between the adoption of Twitter and Facebook by municipal police departments and the characteristics of those departments. These characteristics include the size of the department, progressiveness, community-oriented policing, and technological capacity. It was found that that these variables were associated with statistically significant increases in the amount of time a department had Twitter. All variables were also significant to varying degrees for lengthening the amount of time a department was on Facebook, except for community-orientation. These results appear to indicate that social media adoption by law enforcement follows a diffusion of innovations model. Directions for future research are discussed.Item The Legal-Military Dilemma in the Response to International Terrorism(2010-07-14) Allan, Matthew W.Historically, the US appears to have responded inconsistently to similar acts of terrorism in two different ways, using either a law enforcement or military response. These legal and military responses can be either unilateral or multilateral. This study attempts to determine when each type of response is preferred by decisionmakers, both political leaders and their citizens. The hypotheses suggesting that a response is preferred depending upon terrorist attack success, location, and the terrorists' sociocultural similarities are tested in three experiments and examined in a case study. These three variables are believed, as suggested by the Cognitive Calculus concept, to cause an emotional reaction amongst the respondents resulting in them having a higher preference for the military and unilateral options. Whether or not the respondents were experiencing an emotional reaction was studied in each experiment as well as being tested in the third experiment by examining the respondents? selection of options based upon their success rates. The case study examined US government responses to the First World Trade Center bombing, the Bojinka Plot, the Khobar Towers bombing, and the September 11, 2001 attacks. The results of the experiments and case study suggest a calm and deliberative response by the respondents to acts of terrorism, with a greater preference for legal and multilateral responses to terrorism.