Alejandro del Carmen

Female police officers in Texas: Perceptions of colleagues and stress

The purpose of this study is to examine the perceptions of Texas female police officers toward their colleagues. Further, the study measures respondents’ perceptions regarding work‐related stress. An independent sample t‐test analysis was conducted while controlling for the percentage of female officers working at participating Texas law enforcement agencies. Overall, the findings suggest that the percentage of female officers employed in a particular law enforcement agency did not produce a statistically significant impact on respondents’ perceptions of their male/female counterparts or stress‐related issues.

Academic productivity of African Americans in criminology and criminal justice

This study explores the productivity of African American scholars in the field of criminology during the period of 1987 through 1998. Issues about the relative benefits of mentoring are explored. The impact of external and internal barriers with respect to authorship are also addressed. Journals included in the study were randomly selected from a list of criminology and criminal justice journals. Authorship order is also identified, that is, we look at primary, secondary and tertiary authorships by African American faculty as well. Findings provide empirical evidence that the contributions of African American faculty do not appear in many mainstream journals. The reasons behind the under representation are explored.

Ingroup identification as a moderator of racial bias in a shoot-no shoot decision task

In this experiment, group identification is examined as a potential moderator of the documented racial bias in a shoot–no shoot paradigm. Target race (Black or White) was manipulated within-subjects, and (White) participants’ strength of racial ingroup identification was employed as a continuous predictor. Using signal detection analyses, it was found that the criterion to shoot Black targets decreased as an increasing function of racial ingroup identification. This relationship held even after controlling for gender, social dominance orientation, a measure of cultural stereotyping, and the amount of contact with Blacks. Theoretical implications are discussed.

Faculty employment in criminology and criminal justice: Trends and patterns

This study examines emerging academic employment trends in criminology and criminal justice. Specifically, longitudinal content analysis was conducted on job listings published throughout the 1995–99 academic years. The primary purpose was to identify specialized areas of expertise most commonly desired or required by employing academic institutions and to explore trends by geographic region, timing of advertisement, department or program area, type of employer, and type of position available. Findings benefit doctoral students and current faculty members seeking appointment to other academic institutions by alerting them to developing market demands. The academic community and its institutions benefit from sensitization to the prevailing contemporary paradigm affecting the field of criminology and criminal justice, the level of demand for various specializations, and the importance of timing advertisements at national and regional levels.

Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design and Consumption Control in the United States

CPTED theory, research and practice are frequently held to be relatively recentdevelopments in the field of American criminology, generated largely by the works of Oscar Newman (1972) and C. Ray Jeffery (1971). This view of CPTED and its development in theUnited States falls short of providing an adequate understanding of the vital part that it has played, and can play, in the advancement of crime prevention theory and public policy. CPTED is actually broader than as it is currently understood in the discipline of criminology. This is demonstrated through an examination of the ‘era of consumption’ (that is, the time periodroughly from the early 1800s to early 1900s where the disease later referred to as tuberculosis waswidespread in the US); during this time period, efforts to control the spread of illness wereachieved through CPTED strategies which preceded the academic writings of those considered tobe the founders of CPTED. Our main goal is to increase the understanding of and appreciationfor the vital role that CPTED has played in the history of crime prevention in the United States.Finally, implications are discussed for the prevention of tuberculosis today, as well as HIVinfection and AIDS.

Muslim American perspectives of the global war on terror: an exploratory analysis

This study examines the perceptions of Muslim Americans with regards to anti‐terrorist policies including special emphasis on the US‐led Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) in the post‐9/11 era. Data was collected in October/November of 2006 from Muslim Americans in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Muslim Americans’ perceptions of the effectiveness of the GWOT, the rationale for the GWOT, and the impact of that war on Muslims in general are considered. Differences in these perceptions by level of perceived fairness of US policies in general are examined.

Faculty Employment Trends in Criminology and Criminal Justice

The academic job search process is perhaps one of the most important and stressful events for scholars hoping to gain full‐time employment in academia. The stress that this process induces is due, at least in part, to the fact that candidates are forced to make important, life‐changing decisions with very little information. The goal of the present study is to provide an update on faculty employment trends in criminology and criminal justice by examining faculty position announcements posted in The Chronicle of Higher Education (CHE) from August 2004 to July 2009. Findings reveal that candidates seeking assistant professor positions will have the most choice, as positions posted at this rank make up the largest category of advertisements. Furthermore, when a specialization was included in the announcement, most departments sought those with a law enforcement focus, followed by generalists.

Criminology and Criminal Justice through the Lenses of the Law Enforcement Community: An Attitudinal Assessment

This study examines the attitudes of law enforcement officers regarding the academic study of crime. Specifically, 300 commissioned officers of a North Texas police department were asked to offer their opinions on the nature, relevance, and utility of studying criminology and criminal justice as it relates to a career in law enforcement. Respondents were demarcated into Criminology/Criminal Justice (CRCJ) and Non‐Criminology/Criminal Justice (Non‐CRCJ) education orientation or degree holders and comparisons of responses made. There were differences in responses between CRCJ and Non‐CRCJ but not statistically significant. The findings produced in this study are of particular relevance to educators, administrators, and all others concerned with how criminal justice practitioners value the academic study of crime and criminals. The underlying principle is that the perception of the law enforcement community has direct implication on the marketability, growth, and integrity of criminology and criminal justice as an academic field of study.

Police officers on two‐officer units: A study of attitudinal responses towards a patrol experiment

Presents results of a study which examined 50 US police officers perceptions regarding performance, applicability, effectiveness and safety issues when assigned to two‐officer units, compared with a one‐officer unit, for patrol operations in an urban setting. Half the group comprised an experimental area’s two‐officer units and half comprised a control area’s one‐officer units. It was found that officers generally agreed they would perform the same whether they were in a one‐ or two‐officer patrol car; that two‐officer units should be used at night and in areas where people mistrust the police, that two‐officer units could observe more than a single officer and respond more quickly to calls. However, most officers disagreed that two one‐officer cars could accomplish twice as much as one two‐officer car and that officers are more likely to be injured in two‐officer cars then in one‐officer cars. Notes the possibility of distractions, misunderstandings or disagreements taking place between partners sharing a vehicle for eight hours, as well as intrusion of privacy into an officer’s role/duty as a police officer.

The “I” and the “ME” of criminology and criminal justice students: Symbolic interaction in an educational setting

This study examines the self-concept of criminology and criminal justice students, vis-`a-vis the perceptions held of them by non-criminology and criminal justice students, using a framework of symbolic interactionism. The data in this study were obtained from a sample of both criminology and criminal justice students and non-criminology and criminal justice students attending a large state university in north Texas. The findings reveal a lack of consensus among perception patterns held by criminology and criminal justice students and non-criminology and criminal justice students. Implications regarding the future of criminology and criminal justice education follow.