Santos, Rachel

Poorly integrated crime analysis may be a detriment to crime reduction efforts and financial resources. The purpose of this research is to identify deficiencies and successes in crime analysis integration and to understand which agency factors are related. Using the Stratified Model of Problem Solving, Analysis, and Accountability and data from a national PERF survey of police agencies, this study quantifies the levels of production and consumption-based integration disconnect as well as other important agency factors. To determine which agency factors contribute most to integration disconnect, bivariate correlation and multiple regression analyses are used to examine the relationships, while controlling for agency type, centralization, officers per analyst, crimes per officer, and agency size. Findings indicate that production- and consumption-based disconnect are positively related to one another and that passive patrol-analyst interactions, an agency’s analysis integration disconnect.

Over the years, innovations such as community-oriented policing, problem-oriented
policing, and hot spots policing have enabled the police to make substantial crime control and reduction gains. However, empirical research has shown that police occasionally misuse these strategies in practice. One possible solution is the co-implementation of these strategies with crime analysis. Yet, little is known about this relationship in practice. Using national survey data collected by the Police Executive Research Forum in 2008 from a sample of over 1,000 United States police agencies this thesis explores this relationship. Results of bivariate analysis between agency commitment to and integration of crime analysis within operations and the use of innovative strategies revealed positive relationships. Additionally, bivariate analysis between agency use of accountability mechanisms and innovative strategies revealed a strong positive relationship. Multivariate regression analysis revealed the use of accountability mechanisms and commitment to crime analysis as strong positive predictors of police agency innovation.

With the increasing rate of violent criminal victimization, concerns about safety
and prevention have begun to resonate across college campuses throughout the nation.
Despite the efforts put forth by institutions of higher education to reduce fear of crime
and criminal victimization, college students are subjected to coexist with the probability
of crime victimization on campus. The main objective of this thesis was to explore new
measures of crime prevention on college campuses. Specifically, the efforts put forth in
this study were to focus on understanding the problem of property theft of personal
belongings on college campuses. The findings based on Pearson correlations and
multiple regression analyses indicate that students’ crime prevention awareness and
behavior are highest amongst female and non- victimized students. Crime prevention
behavior was best explained by awareness. Furthermore, expanded evaluation of
contributing factors may lead to future crime preventive measures such as participation in
crime prevention seminars.

Following the events of September 11th, 2001, national attention has been
captivated by terrorism and terrorism prevention. Parallel to this time of increased focus
on terrorism prevention, adequate funding to support new departments or increased
terrorism prevention efforts in existing departments was unattainable. Consequently, a
strong need for prevention strategies that are affordable and highly applicable at the local
level has resulted. Thus, it is the purpose of this study to examine methods of risk
assessment and test the accuracy of such methodologies in order to assist local
organizations in effectively applying limited resources for opportunity reduction at
vulnerable locations based on calculated risks. The primary goal of this thesis is to test
the validity of the EVIL DONE vulnerability assessment and evaluate its ability to
predict the number of fatalities and injured persons resulting from a terrorist attack.