Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Sea Snake Harvest In The Gulf Of Thailand, Nguyen Cao, Nguyen Tao, Amelia Moore, Alfred Montoya, Arnie Rasmussen, Kenneth Broad, Harold Voris, Zoltan Takacs

Alfred Montoya

Conservation of sea snakes is virtually nonexistent in Asia, and its role in human–snake interactions in terms of catch, trade, and snakebites as an occupational hazard is mostly unexplored. We collected data on sea snake landings from the Gulf of Thailand, a hotspot for sea snake harvest by squid fishers operating out of the ports of Song Doc and Khanh Hoi, Ca Mau Province, Vietnam. The data were collected during documentation of the steps of the trading process and through interviewers with participants in the trade. Squid vessels return to ports once per lunar synodic cycle and fishers sell snakes …

The Social Practice Of Human Rights, Joel Pruce

Joel Pruce

The Social Practice of Human Rights bridges the conventional scholar-practitioner divide by focusing on the space in between. In capturing this cutting edge research program, the volume proposes a perspective that motivates critical self-reflection of the strategies that drive communities dedicated to the advocacy and implementation of human rights. The social practice of human rights takes place not in front of a judge, but in the streets and alleys, in the backrooms and out-of-the-way places where change occurs. Contributors to this volume investigate the contexts and efforts of activists and professionals devoted to promoting human rights norms. This research takes …

The Complexity Of Role Balance: Support For The Model Of Juggling Occupations, K Evans, J Millsteed, Janet Richmond, M Falkmer, T Falkmer, S Girdler

Janet E Richmond PhD

Objective: This pilot study aimed to establish the appropriateness of the Model of Juggling Occupations in exploring the complex experience of role balance amongst working women with family responsibilities living in Perth, Australia. Methods: In meeting this aim, an evaluation was conducted of a case study design, where data were collected through a questionnaire, time diary, and interview. Results: Overall role balance varied over time and across participants. Positive indicators of role balance occurred frequently in the questionnaires and time diaries, despite the interviews revealing a predominance of negative evaluations of role balance. Between-role balance was achieved through compatible role …

Why Aren't There Any Turkeys At The Danville Turkey Festival?, Howard Sacks

Howard Sacks

Twenty-five years ago, my in-laws came to visit us in central Ohio. They were city folks from Philadelphia who couldn’t understand why my wife, Judy, and I had moved to the country. We timed their visit to coincide with Knox County’s Heart of Ohio tour. Each fall, this selfguided driving tour along the area’s scenic back roads features stops at farms, grange halls, and other sites that offer a glimpse into local rural life. This particular tour included a local turkey farm outside the town of Danville. Danville was well known for its many turkey operations; we were always thankful …

The Effectiveness Of Diversity Initiatives At Suny Brockport Including Student Perceptions And Campus Climate, Kara Hiltz, Amanda Crowley, Marquia Westbrook

Kara M. Hiltz

This presentation preliminarily examines the effectiveness of campus-wide diversity initiatives through the Office of the Assistant Provost for Diversity at the College at Brockport, State University of New York. Effectiveness will be measured by survey item responses and institutional data. Student perception data was obtained through item responses on the 2008 and 2011 National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) survey and SUNY Student Opinion Survey (SOS). The College's institutional research department collected the institutional data that is examined (e.g., enrollment diversity). Strengths, areas for improvement, and suggestions for future diversity initiatives will be presented. Keywords: diversity, initiatives, student enrollment, improvement, …

False Reports Of Stalking: Motivations And Investigative Considerations, Wayne Petherick, Alicia Jenkins

Wayne Petherick

Stalking is a crime involving repeated and often prolonged harassment of one individual, usually by one other. Despite the prevalence of this interpersonal crime, not all stalking allegations are legitimate, with some being false claims based on a variety of different factors such as false belief, attention or sympathy, and revenge. This study of a sample of false claimants sought to determine whether there are features, such as duration, relationship status and employment among which others could be used to determine the veracity of a stalking complaint. This sample was compared to other like samples and to the common characteristics …

Getting Away With Murder: An Examination Of Detected Homicides Staged As Suicides, Claire Ferguson, Wayne Petherick

Wayne Petherick

Staged crime scenes involve an offender deliberately altering evidence to simulate events to mislead investigators. Despite likely occurring more often than reported in the literature due to success in offender deception, the exact frequency of staged crime scenes is unknown. In an attempt to bridge this gap, a legal database was searched for detected staged scenes. A total of 115 cases were examined, and this study reports on 16 staged suicides that were examined through descriptive analysis. Findings indicate the frequent involvement of firearms, hanging, or asphyxia, and that offenders are usually known to victims, although not necessarily intimately.

The Fix Is In: "Conspiracy Theories" In Sports, Ginna Husting, Martin Orr

Martin Orr

Documented conspiracies in sports have a long history, and are at least as old as the Black Sox scandal of 1919. Nevertheless, when charges of collusion among players, referees, coaches or owners are leveled, these are often immediately dismissed as “conspiracy theories.” In this paper we employ sport as a model for the discursive work performed by the epithet “conspiracy theory.” Through a content analysis of print media we demonstrate that, as is the case in politics, the labelling of critics of power in sport as “conspiracy theorists” serves to deflect criticisms of illegal or unethical behavior.

Stopping The Stalker: Victim Responses To Stalking, Terry Goldsworthy, Matthew Raj

Matthew Raj

Can a person truly overcome being a victim of crime, and, if so, how? Can anyone surpass their victimization, or is it only the most resilient? Should a victim respond in a certain way to specific types of offences? The following chapter explores these questions, focusing on the offence of stalking, and examines the effectiveness of victim responses to unwanted pursuit. This chapter also refers to factors that may escalate stalking behaviour, based on an empirical examination of previous studies. The authors attempt to unravel the uncertainties associated with whether or not to respond to a stalker, and highlight the …

Everything Gardens And Other Stories: Growing Transition Culture, Luigi Russi

Luigi Russi

The Transition movement is more than an instrumental strategy to address climate change and fossil fuel shortage. It is a collective form of life. Against the tendency to reduce social movements to mission statements and policy solutions, this book insists on de-strategising the development of Transition. It argues that the flourishing of its distinctive culture is open to both uncertainty and paradox, and resistant to prediction and mapping. Everything Gardens and Other Stories focuses instead on the body as the site where politics begins, engaging with the disquiets and anxieties that instigate the development of Transition practices: from Inner Transition, …

Living Sociology, Claire Renzetti, Daniel Curran

Daniel J. Curran

Living Sociology, Second Edition, provides students with an engaging introduction to sociology as a scientific discipline that produces useable and relevant knowledge. This comprehensive text covers the essential concepts and principles of sociology while affording special attention to diversity issues and intersecting social inequalities. Multicultural, global, and feminist perspectives on social life in the United States and in other societies are integrated throughout the text, helping to broaden students' outlooks. A complementary emphasis on real world application encourages students to see themselves in the course material and to extend their understanding of issues surrounding contemporary social policies. This textbook invites …

Social Problems: Society In Crisis, Daniel Curran, Claire Renzetti

Daniel J. Curran

Building on the success of previous editions, Curran and Renzetti have meticulously revised Social Problems, updating and expanding existing coverage to ensure it is as up-to-date as possible. This edition includes new and updated coverage of such issues as welfare reform and welfare-to-work programs, terrorism, crime control policies (including the “three strikes” policy) gay marriages and the law, the abortion controversy, and health insurance.

(Description from publisher)

Women, Men, And Society, Claire Renzetti, Daniel Curran, Shana Maier

Daniel J. Curran

The authors assist students in connecting a central element of their own lives — their personal gender experiences — with the social and political world in which they live.

This popular book looks at the ways in which gender is socially constructed, how sexism and gender inequality affect men and women, and how other variables compound the problem of gender inequality.

(Description from publisher)

Contemporary Societies: Problems And Prospects, Daniel Curran, Claire Renzetti

Daniel J. Curran

In editing this book, one of our primary concerns was to assist students in developing a structural analysis of the serious social problems they repeatedly hear about on television, in political campaigns, and in newspapers, and more importantly, that some may experience in their everyday lives. We wanted to help them see the personal as political, so that they could critically evaluate the structural causes of these problems and, in turn, begin to conceive of structural or collective actions to solve them. Consequently, readers will find in the chapter introductions in this book and in the readings themselves a strong …

Theories Of Crime : A Reader, Claire Renzetti, Daniel Curran, Patrick Carr

Daniel J. Curran

This reader contains excerpts from criminologists' writings on many of the most recent sociological, biological, and psychological theories of crime.

Editors Renzetti, Curran, and Carr have compiled one of the most thorough books on the market in terms of presenting diverse theoretical perspectives. They offer introductions to each theory, briefly outlining the theory's strengths and weaknesses, and provide a set of discussion questions at the end of each theory. Excerpted readings were chosen for their accessibility to all students.

(Description from Google Books)

Academic Discourse And Self-Efficacy In Diverse Settings, Beata Malczewska-Webb

Beata Webb

This paper examines the students' studying at an Australian university and

their self-efficacy associated to academic discourse. Further, it investigates

the relationship between self-efficacy and students' linguistic and cultural

backgrounds. The paper introduces the background concepts of self-efficacy

and of the internationalisation of the Australian education. Next, the paper

describes the research project, presents and discusses the results. The paper

ends with conclusions and recommendations for teachers working with

diverse classes.

From U.S. Ghettos To The ‘Arab Street’: Race And The ‘Conspiracy Theorist’, Martin Orr

Martin Orr

No abstract provided.

The Wingman: Using Technology To Create Connections With Families, Meghan Eliason

Meghan Eliason

Involvement of parents and family, school personnel, and community members is important because studies from early childhood, elementary, middle, and high schools have shown that students are more successful when their families are actively involved (Gonzalez-Dehass, Willems, & Holbein, 2005, p. 100). One challenge facing K-12 public schools is the development and implementation of systematic and sustainable communication that encourages parents and family members to engage with their students' schools. In this research study, a specific method of communication aimed at establishing communication between schools and grandparents of the school's current students was studied. The Wingman was an e-newsletter that …

Clergy Sexual Abuse: Social Science Perspectives, Claire Renzetti, Sandra Yocum

Sandra A. Yocum

This book brings together experts primarily from the fields of criminology, criminal justice, law, and social work, but also cultural anthropology and psychology, to analyze clergy sexual abuse from the perspective of their individual disciplines. Contributors examine the latest data and analyses on the scope and impact of clergy sexual abuse, frame the problem in terms of sociological and criminological theories of crime and deviance, explore the social and legal issues the problem raises for the personal and communal life of faith communities, and discuss possibilities for reform, reconciliation, and healing. Covering sexual abuse of both minors and adults, chapters …

Unveiling The Gaze: Belly Dance As A Site Of Refuge, Re-Envisioning And Resistance, Angela Moe

Angela M. Moe

Central to studies of feminist theory and pop culture is the construct of the male gaze, which highlights and challenges imagery within various forums (e.g., film, media, art) that relegate women to a stereotypically aesthetic purpose. In other words, analyses of the male gaze question why it is that women are so often portrayed in overly sexualized ways, as if they are only objects to be considered and consumed by others (namely, heterosexual men). This construct was first developed by Laura Mulvey in her influential 1975 essay “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”. What was unique about Mulvey’s analysis is that …

Reading Du Bois On East Africa: Epistemological Implications Of Apartheid Constructions Of Knowledge, Jesse Benjamin

Jesse Benjamin

No abstract provided.

Sistemas Politicos Y Bienestar Social: Brasil, Colombia Y Venezuela 2000-2010, Augusto De Venanzi

Augusto S De Venanzi

El presente texto ofrece los resultados de una investigación comparada dirigida a revelar los efectos de la gestión social de los gobiernos de Brasil, Colombia y Venezuela, luego de la llamada década perdida. Si bien entre los años 1980 y 1995, la mayor parte de los países latinoamericanos centraron su atención en temas tales como la apertura económica, la reforma del Estado, la privatización de las empresas públicas, y la racionalización de las sociedades en su conjunto, el final de los años noventa anuncia un cambio de dirección marcado por una reevaluación del papel del Estado en el desarrollo, que …

Development, Health And Race Differences In Fertility At The Turn Of The Twentieth Century In The U.S. South, Cheryl Elman, Andrew S. London, Robert A. Mcguire

Cheryl Elman

Mid-twentieth century demographers were puzzled to find that, between 1880 and 1910, fertility rates had dropped more precipitously among African American than U.S. white women. Since then, demographic research has focused on historical fertility differentials in the South, where most African Americans lived before 1920. Under a multiple causes model, two major sources of race differences have found some empirical support. One stresses that timing differences in voluntary fertility control, due to a high demand for child labor in tenant farming, sustained both high overall southern rural fertility rates and race differences, to about 1940. A second mechanism stresses that …

Suffering And Sacrifice: Individual And Collective Benefits, And Implications For Leadership, Scott T. Allison, Gwen Setterberg

Scott T. Allison

In this chapter, we review the ways in which suffering and sacrifice are beneficial to human beings. In our review, we draw from both ancient and modern spiritual traditions and a large body of psychological research on the determinants of happiness and mental health. Our review is necessarily an abbreviated one; a thorough treatment of this topic would surely fill an entire volume. This chapter represents an initial attempt to illuminate basic insights, using broad brushstrokes, about the ways in which suffering and sacrifice contribute to people’s emotional, behavioral, and spiritual wellness. In addition to describing the psychological and spiritual …

Decriminalized Prostitution In Rhode Island: Impunity For Violence And Exploitation, Donna M. Hughes Dr., Melanie Shapiro Esq

Donna M. Hughes

For 29 years (1980 to 2009) prostitution was decriminalized in Rhode Island. Lack of laws or regulations created a permissive legal, economic and cultural environment for the growth of sex businesses. During this time, sexual exploitation and violence against women and girls were integrated into the economic development of urban areas. The number of sex businesses grew rapidly during this period. Organized crime groups operated brothels and extorted money from adult entertainment businesses. Rhode Island became a destination for pimps, traffickers, and other violent criminals. The lack of laws impeded police from investigating serious crimes.