Digital Commons Network^™

Religion And Semiosphere: From Religious To The Secular And Beyond, Rajka Rush

Dissertations

Religion is a system of structural ideas that involve the natural ability of the mind to engage itself into the process of unlimited semiosis which can be defined as an existential openness of one's consciousness to the universe as a system. This primary religious consciousness becomes limited by language, symbolic, and cultural constraints. The religious semiotic space is a sub-cultural system open to culturally and cross-culturally encoded idioms and concepts. These cultural potentials are interpreted and settled by the religious exegesis expressed in the behavioral patterns of the symbolic actions that reflect a specific worldview of the closed community controlled …

State-Corporate Crime In Kalamazoo Department Of Public Safety: A Case Study Of Deviant Activity Between The Police And Computer Vendors, Steven Edward Reifert

Dissertations

This study focuses on the state corporate crime that occurred when Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety implemented two computer systems that never functioned as promised. Failure of these systems resulted in death, injury, and substantial waste of taxpayer money. A case study method is used to describe and explain how this social harm occurred. An integrated theory of state-corporate crime developed by Kauzlarich and Kramer (1998) is used to examine theintersection of deviance between corporate vendors, the public safety department, and the federal government. More specifically, this study explores this intersection on three levels---the political economic setting before, during, and …

Problem-Based Learning: An Attitudinal Study Of Police Academy Students, Gregory P. Vander Kooi

Dissertations

Policing strategies have gravitated toward a consensus paradigm model, commonly referred to as "community policing." This is a significant paradigm shift, yet most police academies continue to use traditional lecture-based pedagogical methods to train police officers. One possible alternative to passive lecture-based teaching is a more active problem-based learning. Problem-based methodologies consist of presenting ill-structured problems whereby an instructor facilitates and directs the students in active inquiry toward possible solutions for a specific problem.

Refocusing On Adult Probation: Theory Versus Practice, Paul David Gregory

Dissertations

This dissertation is a case study of an adult probation department in a southern state. Adult probation is an important part of the criminal justice system, as it provides a reduced program cost compared with incarceration. Current literature proposes that adult probation is in crisis due to poor to sub-standard performance by probationers, a collapse in supervision, and decline in probation funding. This dissertation attempts to answer the question of possible causes for problems in the adult probation system. To accomplish this, this work focuses on how probation officers and clients are affected by contradictions occurring between the theory and …

The Effect Of Parenting Styles In Adolescent Delinquency: Exploring The Interactions Between Race, Class, And Gender, Yaschica Williams

Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to examine how parenting style interacts with other variables related to characteristics of the child (i.e., race/ethnicity, class and gender) in producing delinquency. This research integrates the traditions of criminology and psychology by incorporating the research of two researchers renowned in their respective fields of study, Travis Hirschi from criminology and Diana Baumrind from psychology.

The National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1997 (NLSY97) is used in this study to test hypotheses derived from Hirschi's (1969) social bond theory and Baumrind's (1966) parenting typology. These hypotheses examine the effects of family process variables and parenting …

Seeking Justice For Victims And Offenders: A Needs-Based Approach To Justice, Patrick M. Gerkin

Dissertations

This dissertation is a case study investigation of a victim-offender mediation program in a mid-western state. Victim-offender mediation is one form of amuch greater movement currently emerging within the criminal justice system known as restorative justice. The focus of this dissertation is to examine the connections between theory and practice with regards to mediation as a form of restorative justice.

This research fills avoid in the restorative justice literature. It offers findings based on empirical research about the issues that are central to restorative justicetheory and practice. There is a wealth of theory claiming that restorative justice can deliver a …

The Masquerade Of Abu Ghraib: State Crime, Torture, And International Law, Dawn Rothe

Dissertations

On April 28, 2004, pictures of abuse and torture of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison by U.S. military personnel shocked many Americans. In the wake of the images, it became clear that several military personnel were involved in the acts of torture and abuse. This dissertation explores the interconnections of larger structural factors, state policies, and individual actors in an attempt to understand how and why torture and abuse occurred at Abu Ghraib. It builds upon an integrated theoretical model of state and corporate crime. The dissertation revises this model so that it can better address the complexities o …

The Representation Of Race And Ethnic Relations In Japanese Junior High School English Language Textbooks From 1987 To 2002, Mieko Yamada

Dissertations

This dissertation explores how cultural attitudes about race/ethnicity are taught and how international power relations are expressed in Japanese junior high school textbooks. In a content analysis of Japanese junior high school textbooks in English as a foreign language, I examine how race and ethnic relationswere expressed and what types of interracial communication took place in the textbooks. Applying the racial formation theory developed by Omi and Winant (1994) and the concept of color-blind racism by Bonilla-Silva (2001, 2003), I explain how cultural ideology towards racial and ethnic relations were guided in the Japanese English language textbooks.

Fifteen English language …

More Than In And Out Of The Classroom Closet: A Study Of Lesbian, Gay, And Bisexual Teachers’ Identity Management Strategies, Teresa S. Lance

Dissertations

Two advancements in the study of lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals’ workplace sexual identity management, the Workplace Sexual Identity Management Measure (WSIMM) and the Workplace Sexual Identity Management (WSIM) social cognitive model of identity management are incorporated in the current study of LGB K-12 teachers’ workplace sexual identity management strategies. The purpose of this study was to assess the psychometric properties o f a revised version the WSIMM, investigate the workplace sexual identity management strategies of LGB teachers, and gain further understanding of the complex process LGB individuals navigate related to managing their sexual identity at work by exploring …

Implementing Community Policing Successfully: An Analysis Of The Degree Of Police Engagement With The Philosophy And Practice Of Community Policing, Robert G. Muladore

Dissertations

The police community in the United States began to adopt the philosophy of community policing in the early 1970s as a solution to rising crime rates. Since that time a great many police departments have officially stated that they have embraced and practice this concept. When later studies began to question theeffectiveness of community policing in reducing crime rates, measures such as reduction of citizens' fear of crime and citizen's attitudes toward policebecame the secondary measures of success of this philosophy. Few comprehensive studies have specifically looked at the degree of congruence betweenpolice agency adoption of the community policing philosophy …