UA cloudflare authentication

Theses and Dissertations - Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice

Permanent URI for this collection

https://ir.ua.edu/handle/123456789/96

Browse

Browsing Theses and Dissertations - Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice by Author "DeRouen, Karl R."

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Assessing the innocence and victimization of child soldiers
    (University of Alabama Libraries, 2013) Brons, Kathryn; Lankford, Adam; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
    To date, the majority stance taken by researchers in the field of criminology has been that child soldiers should be treated as innocent victims of war. While there have been some authors who have examined whether this label should be attached to the child, none have firmly taken the minority side in this debate. International law disregards the criminal acts against humanity committed by a child soldier and instead criminalizes the adults who either abducted the child for military duty or allowed the child to willingly volunteer for the armed services. This thesis proposes that many child soldiers are not innocent victims, but they are instead perpetrators of violence. In doing so, definitions of `innocent' and `victim' are called upon to show how many child soldiers are neither of these things and are able to take advantage of the International Criminal Court because of the ambiguity in international law. Labeling theory is used as the theoretical framework for this thesis. By labeling child soldiers as innocent victims, it has an adverse effect that allows child soldiers to continue committing criminal acts.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Sources of strain experienced by homegrown jihadist terrorists
    (University of Alabama Libraries, 2017) Sikes, Michael; Lankford, Adam; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
    The United States is not immune to the threat of homegrown jihadist terrorism. The issue demands more attention with each successful attack. Identifying individuals before they radicalize and commit acts of violence is a significant challenge. This study advances that effort by analyzing strain among homegrown jihadist terrorists. Although it is widely assumed that the lives of homegrown jihadist terrorists are uniquely different, the results show otherwise. The most common pressures and stresses experienced by terrorists are very much the same as other Americans and Muslim Americans. Clarifying these misconceptions will help eliminate biases and guide counterterrorism strategy towards evidence based solutions.