Digital Commons Network^™

Sustaining Boys' Motivation Over The Transition To Middle School: Can Interpersonal Resources Protect Boys From Engagement Declines Across Sixth Grade?, Brandy Anne Brennan

Dissertations and Theses

Recent research has highlighted the challenges boys face in school. Boys are overrepresented on indicators of negative academic outcomes, such as detention, suspension, and dropout, as well as underperformance on state and national tests. Moreover, these effects may be long lasting: Compared to females, male students are less likely to graduate high school, enroll in college, and complete a college degree, and they may be particularly vulnerable in middle school. As students enter middle school, their motivation and engagement normatively decline, and these losses may be especially problematic for boys. Nevertheless, research documents the importance of close relationships with parents, …

The Role Of Emotional Attention Regulation In High Psychopathy Incarcerated Males, Michael K. Webb

Dissertations and Theses

This study examined the role of emotional attention regulation in men (N = 60) currently incarcerated in a Midwestern prison. Modern conceptualizations define psychopathy as a multifaceted and dimensional construct that includes atypical experience of affect, interpersonal problems, and remarkable social deviance. Attentional differences and deficient emotional experience have been shown to predict psychopathy and other outcomes related to the construct. However, attentional and emotional functioning in individuals high in psychopathy is complex and results have been shown to vary across discrete emotion states and experimental paradigms. The negative preception hypothesis (Kosson et al. 2018) suggests that these differences may …

Is More Always Better? A Look At Visitation And Recidivism, Teriin Lee

Dissertations and Theses

The body of literature on prison visitation provides empirical support that visitation may influence the likelihood of recidivism. However, the literature is limited in both size and geographic representation, as more than half of studies originate from samples in Florida or Minnesota. Moreover, inconsistency in the use of measures further complicates generalizability of the findings. The following study utilizes data collected from the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission to examine the relationship between visitation and recidivism in Oregon. Using a sample of 29,312 adults in custody (AICs) who were released between 2011 and 2017, we test the associations of seven distinct …

Restorative Practice In Secondary Schools: A Case Study On Leadership, Implementation, And Challenges, Sarah M. Gross

Dissertations and Theses

Students who receive exclusionary discipline (discipline that removes them from the classroom) are less likely to graduate from high school. It has long been documented that students of color, special education students, and boys are more likely to be assigned suspensions and miss classroom instruction. Discipline matrices have been in place across the country and disparities still exist in consequences assigned to individual students. To alter this current reality, school professionals have looked for alternatives. One possibility lies in restorative practices. Restorative practices are strategies that value the whole child and consider not only an act of harm, but also …

Relation Of Emotion Regulation Difficulties, Self-Compassion, And Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms, Emily Anne Kalantar

Dissertations and Theses

Exposure to potentially traumatic events is associated with high emotion regulation difficulties, development of posttraumatic stress disorder, and elevated healthcare expenditures. Emotion regulation difficulties are related to worse clinical and sub-clinical posttraumatic stress symptomology relative to use of effective emotion regulation strategies. Yet, significant variance in posttraumatic stress symptom severity remains unexplained after accounting for emotion regulation difficulties, suggesting identification of additional explanatory variables is warranted. Considerable research suggests high (vs. low) self-compassion, which entails extending kindness to oneself, is related to more effective emotion regulation and low posttraumatic stress symptom severity. As such, self-compassion may be one variable that …

Drug Conviction And Employment Restriction: Experiences Of Employees With Drug-Related Criminal Histories, Liana Bernard

Dissertations and Theses

It has been established that there are numerous barriers to obtaining and maintaining employment following a criminal conviction, including background checks, which occur as part of most selection processes. Barriers to obtaining and maintaining employment may be higher for individuals with drug-related criminal histories as they may face particularly severe negative stereotypes. This study examines the experiences of individuals with drug-related criminal histories' integration into the workplace and society. Additionally, because stereotypes about individuals with drug-related criminal histories are contradictory to those of individuals with stable employment, I examine how these individuals are impacted by reductions in the stigma that …

Marijuana-Related Crime In Oregon Following Legalization Of Recreational Use, Ana Alicia Soto

Dissertations and Theses

In this decade we are seeing the legalization of recreational marijuana occurring across the nation, with new legislation being passed every year. This necessitates research into what works within the regulatory framework of states where MJ has been legalized. This study sets out to look at Oregon's implementation of recreational marijuana and its impact on marijuana-related offenses. Using NIBRS, we examine marijuana-related offenses across 13 counties with crime data from 41 agencies in Oregon from pre-legalization to post-legalization (2010 to 2019). This study uses elements of legalization, licenses, and production to analyze the association between these aspects and offenses that …

Incarceration And Suicide: Do The Risk Factors Differ For Civilians And Veterans?, Rheannon Gail Ramsey

Dissertations and Theses

Suicide is one of the leading causes of death in United States jails and prisons. Many researchers have looked at suicides in prisons and what can potentially cause suicidal ideation but there are conflicting findings among civilian incarcerated populations and United States military veteran incarcerated populations.

The intent of this study is to examine which risk factors are most prevalent among adults in custody, with a focus on mental health and substance use or abuse and how these risk factors differ between incarcerated civilians and incarcerated veterans. Using survey data from the 2002 Survey of Inmates in Local Jails conducted …

Open Crime Maps: How Are Police Departments Doing So Far?, Khaing Sandee Lynn

Dissertations and Theses

In recent years, some police departments have started providing open crime maps depicting select crime-related data. However, there has been no studies so far evaluating map delivery sources, the type of maps delivered, and why agencies might be doing so. Using a random, stratified sample of 1,677 police departments from the 2013 Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) survey, the current study examines how many police departments provide access to online crime maps as well as how they are delivered (externally or internally) and prevalent map types (dot, density, choropleth, etc.). Furthermore, whether or not agencies provided a justification(s) …

Identifying The Cost Of Preventable Chronic Disease In Prison: Can Illness Prevention Of Adults In Custody Save Money?, Molly Bineham

Dissertations and Theses

This study investigates the cost of preventable health problems and ailments when compared to other costs of incarceration. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of imprisonment on the costliest chronic illness. The health of adults in custody related to the general population and the overall fiscal cost of the deadliest chronic illness among incarcerated adults is discussed. Linear regression is used to analyze the occurrence of heart disease and diabetes among adults in custody while controlling for other factors. The results of this analysis provide insight that chronic diseases like heart disease and diabetes should be …

Claiming Miscommunication To Justify Rape: The Role Of Liking The Perpetrator, Alyssa Marie Glace Maryn

Dissertations and Theses

In this dissertation, four experiments tested whether sharing an ingroup with a sexual violence perpetrator (vs not sharing an ingroup) makes individuals more likely to view the survivor's consent refusal as insufficient. Although most people communicate sexual consent indirectly and nonverbally, individuals often report that indirect and nonverbal consent refusals are an insufficient form of non-consent. These claims of consent miscommunication might be used to justify instances of sexual violence when an individual is motivated to do so. I hypothesize that sharing an ingroup identity with a perpetrator might motivate individuals to justify sexual violence, leading them to report that …

Preventing Sexual Violence Through Understanding Perceptions Of Sexual Offenders, Judith G. Zatkin

Dissertations and Theses

In this dissertation, I present three complete manuscripts. I utilize social and community psychological theory, as well as criminological theory to better understand those who perpetrate sexual violence in two domains: child sexual abuse and college campus sexual assault. All three studies are conducted with an eye toward the prevention of sexual violence. In the first study, I conduct a complete psychometric analysis of the Modus Operandi Questionnaire, a comprehensive quantitative tool that examines offending patterns and tactics of those who commit child sexual abuse (Chapter II). An updated factor structure for this tool is presented, as well as recommendations …

Exploring The Relationships Between Community Experiences And Well-Being Among Youth Experiencing Homelessness, Katricia Stewart

Dissertations and Theses

The current dissertation presents two published empirical studies and one new study informed by the findings and recommendations of the first two. The first study investigated how intrapersonal factors (self-esteem, psychological distress, and optimism) and social-contextual factors (social support, sense of community, and empowerment) relate to the psychological well-being of 100 youth experiencing homelessness. The results indicated that all six variables were significantly related to well-being, but the intrapersonal factors had a stronger association with psychological well-being than the social-contextual factors. The second manuscript is a qualitative study investigating what community means to youth experiencing homelessness, what communities they are …

Creating Systems Of Shared Accountability For Early Leaver Students: Perspectives Of Principals, Lorna Kay Fast Buffalo Horse

Dissertations and Theses

Alternative high schools in the United States perform a significant role for students who drop out, are pushed out, or fall out of conventional high schools. An essential function of alternative high schools is to support some of the most underserved students in the country to graduate from high school. High school graduation is a major factor associated with higher incomes, better health, longer life expectancy, and less involvement in the criminal justice system. It also positively impacts local, state, and national economies. Despite these positive impacts, many alternative high schools are stigmatized as low-performing and even "drop-out factories" by …

Influence Of The Federal Government On The Diffusion Of Victims' Rights State Constitutional Amendments, Vicki Rose Jeffries-Bilton

Dissertations and Theses

This dissertation examines the factors associated with the diffusion of state constitutional victims' rights amendments across the United States in the twenty-year period of 1982 to 2001 to understand the impact of the federal government on state constitutional change. Because each branch of the federal government took prominent actions in the area of victims' rights on the national policy stage during this era, it is important to know whether these actions influenced policy change at the state level. This dissertation examines whether one form of prominent federal action, the president's use of rhetoric to acknowledge support for victims' rights, influenced …

Ethnic Conflict In Côte D’Ivoire, Ayouba Doumbia

Dissertations and Theses

Since the early days of independence, the African continent has been the theatre of many ethnic conflicts. While people, in general, assume these conflicts to be political and blame the conflicts on authoritarian regimes, they dismissed the fact that conflict between ethnicities is a phenomenon that has occurred for hundreds of years and in all corners of the Earth. Entire countries have been devastated by years of ethnic strife. Once ethnic conflict breaks out, it is difficult to stop. Conflicts in the Balkans, Rwanda, Chechnya, Iraq, and Darfur are among the deadliest examples from the late 20^th and early …

Roberto Bolaño’S 2666, The Funneling Effect Of Capitalism, And The Production, Consumption, And Proliferation Of Violence For Profit, John Timlin

Dissertations and Theses

Roberto Bolaño's novel 2666 is a realist text, one that reflects the simple fact that in contemporary capitalism, the physical destruction of female bodies is a profitable enterprise; one that forces its readers to confront their complicity or outright participation in violence against women; and one that relates directly to violence against women as consumable entertainment in American mass culture.