From a criminological life-course and developmental perspective, military service acts as a positive life event for most individuals. For others, it can serve as a catalyst for maladaptive life-course outcomes, including criminal justice system involvement. However, despite the well-documented negative risks of military service on veteran life-course outcomes and the increased prevalence of veterans in the justice system, relatively little inquiry exists that investigates first-hand accounts of the life-course experiences of veterans enmeshed within the criminal justice system. This dissertation begins to fill this gap by exploring the life-course experiences of justice-involved veterans in three separate, yet interconnected ways: (1) trajectories of deviance across the life-course and the impact of military service on deviance (Chapter 2); (2) the relationships between military service, mental health, and negative life-course outcomes (Chapter 3); and (3) the daily experiences of justice-involved veterans, including who they spend time with, what they spend time doing, and how these factors impact emotion (Chapter 4). This work is one of the few to utilize qualitative inquiry to better understand the relationship between military service and trajectories of deviance for justice-involved veterans, and is the first to use ecological momentary assessment (EMA) methodology to examine the daily experiences of justice-involved veterans. Findings suggest that the role of military service as a turning point is nuanced, and for many the military directly impacted both deviance and mental health outcomes. Further, emotionality of these veterans is quite variant over time, while social togetherness and engagement in activity show to be impactful on emotional well-being. Overall, this dissertation expands the understanding of the role of military service in the life-course, and provides an in-depth look into the daily and life-course experiences of justice-involved veterans, ultimately giving voice to the veterans themselves to articulate their own experiences and needs.

Dispatchers are the first point of contact for most citizens seeking police services, as well as the lifeline for officers in the field. Their ability to navigate high-stress situations and obtain information from callers is essential to the successful distribution of police resources. Though central to policing, research on dispatchers is quite limited, including the techniques they use to keep callers and officers calm. De-escalation is also underexplored in policing, but recent evaluations of de-escalation training have shown some promise for applications in the field, and reductions in use of force and citizen injuries. Until this project, the nexus of dispatching and de-escalation has not been explored in a way that provides insight from experts in the field who use a subset of skills and techniques to resolve volatile calls and radio transmissions. Using survey responses and semi-structured interviews with peer-nominated Top Dispatch De-Escalators in Tempe, Arizona, this exploratory, mixed-methods study is the first to provide a nuanced perspective of the ways dispatchers de-escalate elevated callers and officers in the field to resolve incidents peacefully. Results from the general survey indicate that dispatchers act professionally when interacting with citizens, care about callers, and treat them with respect. Communication, staying calm, and patience were ranked as the most important deescalationtactics used in dispatching, with compromise being the lowest. Themes gathered from interviews with Top Dispatch De-Escalators shed light on the qualities embodied by an exceptional de-escalator, including listening and communication skills, transparency, and the ability to regulate emotion. Results also provide insight into the barriers that may prevent de-escalation, and recommendations for police agencies looking to bridge the gap that exists between dispatchers, other department personnel, and the community. Findings shed light on the mental health-de-escalation nexus that exists, and the importance of improving conditions for dispatchers which has direct implications for one’s ability to deescalate. This study is the first to examine front-end de-escalation that occurs on the dispatcher side, revealing a missing link in the overall understanding of de-escalation and highlighting the crucial role of dispatch in reducing the potential for violence between community members and police.

The opioid crisis has become one of the most persistent public health crises in America, killing over 100 people a day. The opioid crisis emerged in the late 1990s and 2000s when opioid overdoses began to dramatically increase due to prescription painkillers. Heroin subsequently became a popular drug that was obtained through illicit markets in 2010. More recently, fentanyl, a potent and illicitly manufactured synthetic opioid, has driven a notable increase in the number of opioid overdose deaths. The opioid crisis has impacted many communities across the country. However, some communities are more susceptible to higher rates of opioid use. In order to determine which neighborhoods in Tempe, Arizona are more vulnerable to opioid use the author uses Tempe Emergency Medical Services (EMS) calls for service data and American Community Survey data to address two research questions: 1) What sociodemographic factors at the census-tract level are associated with calls for service to opioid related incidents and 2) are aspects of the physical environment associated with calls for service to opioid related incidents (e.g. vacant units, lack of complete plumbing, multiple unit housing structures)? Understanding community-level risk and protective-factors is essential for furthering the discussion on interventions that aim to address problematic opioid use in vulnerable communities. The current study finds that communities that are economically disadvantaged, and have a higher percentage of units that are vacant have more EMS calls for service to opioid related incidents. However, counter to the proposed hypothesis of social disorganization theory, residential instability was associated with fewer calls for service to opioid related incidents (i.e. higher levels of residential transience). Additionally, racially and ethnically diverse communities had fewer calls for service to opioid related incidents albeit statistically non-significant. These findings have implications for future research and for possible policy implications directed at reducing opioid overdoses.