Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Exploring Psychopathy Predictors In Males And Females, Teresa M. Encalada

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Psychopathy is a clinical term used to describe a personality disorder. This personality disorder presents as callousness, lack of empathy, feelings of grandiosity, impulsivity, narcissism, and a lack of guilt or remorse (Cleckley, 1951). It is noteworthy that by some estimates, those meeting the criteria of psychopathy commit 20 – 40% of violent crimes (Drislane et al., 2019) and makeup between 15% and 25% of the prison population (Kiehl & Hoffman, 2011). As such, psychopathy is one of the most significant criminal justice constructs of the present day because of the heightened and persistent levels of aggression, criminality, and financial …

Lift Every Voice: A Narrative Study Of The Lived Experiences Of Black Female Educators In Public Schools, Rachelle A. Surrancy

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Black female educators (BFE’s) are becoming an anomaly in public school education. This decline, which can be traced back to the period of desegregation, has persisted, as Black female educators comprise only 5% of the current teacher workforce; and this at a time when their presence is needed and critically important to the successful educational experiences and outcomes of all students, but particularly Black students. While much of the research focused on Black female educators has centered around factors contributing to their decisions to leave the field, this dissertation, through the critical lenses of Critical Race Theory (CRT), and Black …

The Politics Of The Self: Psychedelic Assemblages, Psilocybin, And Subjectivity In The Anthropocene, Joshua Falcon

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines how psychedelic substances become drawn into particular sociohistorical and political arrangements, and how psychedelic experiences with psilocybin ‘magic mushrooms’ are used as tools of subjectivation. Guided by literatures in philosophy, critical theory, and the social sciences that focus on subjectivity, assemblage theory, and critical posthumanism, I argue that psychedelics are drawn into variegated assemblages, each of which conceptualizes the nature of psychedelics in highly specific ways that reflect implicit conceptions of the world and the self. In developing the concept of psychedelic assemblages, this research provides a window onto the politics of the self in the Anthropocene. …

Afro-Cubans, Incorporation, And Cubanidad In Miami, Fl, Elena M. Cruz

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research study is to investigate how Afro-Cubans as double diasporic subjects have been incorporated into the socio-cultural landscape of South Florida and the relationship between these methods of incorporation and the evolution of ethno-racial identification. The study examines the role of race and racism in shaping the socio-economic adjustment of Afro-Cubans in South Florida. Miami is the appropriate research site as home to half of all Cuban immigrants in the United States where cubanidad is most closely associated with whiteness. Miami also has a substantial population of other Afro-diasporic populations, including Afro-Caribbean immigrants as well as …

Jewish Conversion During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Victoria Davide

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

March 2020 saw a stark change to daily life and religious practices for many individuals because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Those converting to Judaism, or in the process of wanting to convert, found themselves physically isolated from their Jewish communities. This thesis dives into what aspects are important when creating a Jewish identity and how individuals circumnavigate these changes in crisis. Through the use of qualitative interviews this thesis illuminates the many different changes and experiences that individuals went through converting to Judaism during the COVID-19 pandemic. I bring many different groups for comparisons including different branches within Judaism and …

Physicians Among Us: The Lived Experience Of Unlicensed Foreign Born And Educated Physicians Present In The Us As They Retrain For Non-Physician Primary Care Roles., Dwight Nimblett

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

There are as many as 65,000 unlicensed foreign born and trained doctors across the United States who are credentialed in their home countries but unable to practice in the U.S. The primary goal of this study was to describe and understand an understudied human experience: the lived experience of unlicensed foreign educated physicians who are present in the U.S. as they retrain for non-physician primary care roles.

The theoretical frameworks undergirding the study are Jack Mezirow’s Transformative Learning Theory (TL), also referred to as Perspective Transformation as well as the complimentary perspectives of Otherness and Liminality theories.

Seven FEPs were …

Do Home Invasion Serial Killers Warrant A Distinct Classification From Other Serial Killer Location Types? A Retrospective Comparative Examination, Caroline V. Comerford

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation seeks to address the research gap in serial homicide regarding home invasion serial killers (HISKs) and add to existing policy by providing insight and approaches to assist in serial murder investigations of such killers. Data for the study was obtained from the 2019 Radford University/Florida Gulf Coast University Serial Killer Database (RU/FGCU SKD) and additional public information searches. A retrospective comparative design and proportionate stratified random sampling of 326 serial killers from the RU/FGCU SKD (2019) were used to examine the differences and classifications of HISKs and non-home invasion serial killers (non-HISKs) in three investigations: (1) common characteristics; …

Social Class And Workplace Norms: How African American And White Women And Men From Working-Class Backgrounds Learn Workplace Norms As They Experience Career Mobility, Anna Kallschmidt

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Professional workplace norms in the U.S., such as wearing a suit to an interview or offering a firm handshake as a greeting (Sharma & Sharma, 2012), are behaviors considered ideal among members of a specific occupation (Cohn et al., 2017). This project investigated how people from working-class backgrounds in the U.S. learned, adopted, and conformed to workplace norms as they moved from a lower-status to a higher-status position within their career. Guided by Intersectionality Theory, Cultural Mismatch Theory, and the Stereotype Content Model, these studies examined how workplace norms shifted as employees changed social class and interacted with employees’ racial …

Perils, Pitfalls & Dilemmas In Responding To Transnational Organized Crime Groups., Juan Del Rio

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Governments employ several approaches to combat Transnational Organized Crime groups. These groups include drug trafficking organizations and armed-insurgent groups. Tactics such as High-Value Target strikes, Peace Accords, and vigilantism have shown to successfully debilitate criminal networks while at the same time sparking unintended negative outcomes. For example, some of these tactics are associated with an increase in cartel-related violence, terrorist attacks, and the lethality of terrorist attacks. What remains unclear is the degree to which these approaches affect these associations and which of these tactics has the most favorable outcomes in combating Transnational Organized Crime groups. The analyses conducted in …

"You've Been Accepted"?: Homonormativity And The Imagination Of Queer Higher Educational Spaces, Faye D. Pelow

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Spaces of higher education are often over-simplified in social science discourse, but their histories and evolutions are anything but straightforward. As colleges and universities have developed from institutions of religious social order to sites of perceived tolerance and exploration, they have also emerged as significant queer spaces. Indeed, some institutions of higher learning have even gained reputations for being particularly “LGBTQ+-friendly” safe spaces. Yet it is important to understand the social, political, moral and economic underpinnings upon which these establishments have been built and desire to uphold. Despite efforts to promote inclusivity, university spaces are also situated within an intricate …

Marginal Deterrence: The Association Between The Certainty Of Arrest And Monetary Reward On Robbery Escalation, Christopher E. Torres

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation serves as the seminal large-scale empirical analysis of the marginal deterrence principle. The extant literature on deterrence suffers from a great deal of controversy for two distinct reasons. First, prior research adheres to a myopic view of criminal offender decision-making because it focuses solely on the binary “yes” or “no” decision to commit a crime. It is thus plausible that prior work suppressed deterrent effects to some degree because the use of a binary outcome ignores any intermediate decision made by the criminal offender. Second, while the determination to perpetrate a crime is dependent on the sum of …

Longing For The Homeland: The Palestinian American Diaspora And Palestinian Advocacy In The United States, Mohamed Khaled Ghumrawi

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores how Palestinian Americans in the diaspora connect with Palestine, Palestinian advocacy, and the Palestinian question. It analyzes and synthesizes the interaction of the Palestinian American diaspora and Palestinian advocacy, exploring its domestic and transnational linkages. It also explores the nexus of domestic and transnational aspects relating to Palestinian identity, political life, advocacy, culture, and politics. This project utilizes two main frameworks, the first is the tripartite composite state theory, focusing specifically on the normative-social structure. The second applies a framework of intersectionality, highlighting the interconnectedness of the Palestinian diaspora and the Palestinian question with other social …

Emerging Adult College Students' Perceptions Of Immigrants: A Multisite Experimental Study, Alexa Dee Barton

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The United States (U.S.) has consistently had the largest populations of immigrants worldwide over the last two centuries, contributing to immigration’s ongoing importance as a political, social, economic, and health topic. A central point of focus has been attitudes toward immigration, which prior research has noted is influenced by both individual level and sociopolitical contextual factors. However, few studies have examined these attitudes comparatively across differing immigrant populations (e.g. nation of origin, type of immigration). Nor has the influence of perceivers’ stage of identity and social development been considered (e.g. emerging adult, generation of immigration, civic values). Utilizing quantitative methods, …

The (Cuban-)American Dream Of Post-Soviet Era Cuban Émigrés: Perceptions Vs. Realities, Veronica Diaz

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cuban émigrés are among the myriad of immigrants who arrive in the United States hoping to achieve the American Dream—defined as “that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for every man, with opportunity for each according to his ability or achievement” (Adams 1931, 404). However, powerful tropes of the American Dream­ obscure the economic and social barriers that impede economic mobility and the sacrifices that individuals make in its pursuit. Unlike Cuban émigrés of the 1960s-70s, émigrés of the “Wet Foot/Dry Foot” wave (1995-2017) arrived in Miami during more precarious economic …

Mobile Passages: Unpacking The Seasonal Lifestyle From Quebec To Topeekeegee Yugnee (Ty) Rv Park, Broward County, Southeast Florida, Tara Kai

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study seeks to investigate the lived experiences of multi-locational actors and the production of unique forms of socialization and community using the seasonal movements and settlements of the Québécois population (also referred to as “Floribécois”) in Broward County, Florida during the winter months. This study employs interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) which is theoretically rooted in hermeneutic phenomenology. IPA recognizes that there are shared perspectives and lived experiences of a group of people about a concept or a phenomenon. This analysis comprises of collectively shared meanings, while being mindful of the unique experience of a single individual and/or subgroup. The …

Adolescent Social Networks And Violence In Rural Colombia, Ana L. Rodriguez De La Rosa

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines violence in adolescent social networks in the context of a rural and resource-limited community in the Caribbean region of Colombia. Utilizing mixed methods data (focus groups and surveys) from 242 school-enrolled adolescents, three empirical studies explored adolescent violence experiences in their community, school, and intimate partner violence relationships. Study one utilizes a social complexity framework and mixed methods design to address victimization. Social network data showed that adolescents' psychological and physical violence victimizations occurred across their community, household, school, and emotionally adverse relationships; and were more likely in girl-nominated relationships, a relationship that shared more alters or …

Cooking Up Inequality: An Ethnographic Study Of Racial Hierarchies In Miami's Restaurant Industry, Judith C. Williams

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Racial inequality is a significant problem in the US Restaurant Industry. In Miami, a tropical tourist destination with a majority Latinx population, restaurants serve as a site of multiculturalism, and are promoted by officials as a place where visitors can enjoy ethnic food and culture. However, these same locations of diversity are also spaces where whiteness is normalized as superior and racial hierarchies ensue. Previous studies have documented racism in the restaurant industry but fail to address the intersectional complexities that arise when race is layered with gender, class, nationality, language, and sexual orientation.

Drawing from a 13-month ethnographic study …

Mediating Effects Of Foster Care Experiences On Employment And Educational Outcomes In Aged Out Former Foster Youth, John Campbell

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The economic well-being outcomes of youth who are removed from foster care status due to reaching the age of ineligibility (i.e., age out) is an important issue in public health and social work. This study investigated the interrelation between simultaneously embodying both a sex and race/ethnicity (i.e., intersectional identity), circumstances experienced through age 19 (i.e., foster care experiences), and economic well-being indicators at age 21, using secondary administrative data from a 4-year longitudinal study (N = 4657). In terms of intersectional identity, findings indicated that intersectional identity was directly related to employment and postsecondary education outcomes. In terms of foster …

The Governance Of Homelessness In Miami, Rebecca Lynn Young

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In 2019 the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) reported that 567,715 people experience homelessness in the United States on a single night (HUD 2019). This is the third year in a row that number has risen following a seven-year decline ending in 2016. Scholars have demonstrated that the causes of homelessness are primarily structural, including lack of affordable housing, living wage, and social safety net (Hopper et al 1985), issues which have been exacerbated since the expansion of neoliberalism in the late 1970s (Harvey 2005). While city strategies have varied from criminalization to medicalization (NCH and NLCHP 2006; …

A Comprehensive Evaluation Of An Offender-Focused Domestic Violence Policing Strategy Using The Emmie Framework, Sara C. Mcfann

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As the emphasis on increasing the body of evidence for (or against) policing interventions grows, so does scholars' responsibility to identify not only what works but why, for whom, and in what contexts. An emerging police approach to domestic violence (DV) using offender-focused strategies has grown in popularity. However, the evidence base is small and does not explore inside the “black box” of the main strategic activities. To address this evidence deficiency and provide the first-ever primary study of this type of program, a comprehensive evaluation of a focused deterrence-based policing intervention for DV situated around the EMMIE (Effects, …

Sephardi Identity & Legitimacy In The Age Of Direct-To-Consumer Dna Tests, Caitlyn Rose Campana

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Today, individuals may purchase genetic tests that promise to “reveal” one’s “true self” through ancestry composition reports, health reports, and lists of DNA relatives. Such tests add another dimension to the ongoing debate about what it means to be Jewish, but also what it means to be “legitimately” Sephardi. Through qualitative interviews, this thesis illuminates the experiences of Sephardim who received identity-affirming DNA test results and Sephardim who received identity non-affirming DNA test results. Findings suggest that contemporary Sephardim consider a link to the Iberian Peninsula as indicative of Sephardi identity, despite expanding definitions of the label. They also suggest …

Transformative Constitutionalism And The Adjudication Of Elections In Kenya, Carl Bevelhymer

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The judicialization of politics has been an ongoing and expanding global phenomenon for decades. In Kenya, the record number of cases brought before courts prior to and following the 2017 elections is evidence of the continued growth and spread of the judicialization of politics, and more specifically elections; it is also the result of Kenya’s 2010 Constitution, which introduced a new form of governance, expanded the number of elective seats and mandated judicial and electoral reforms. One of the most remarkable events of the 2017 election period was the Supreme Court’s nullification of the presidential election due to electoral irregularities. …

Turkey-Russia Relations In 2001-2020: Deepening Partnership And Heightening Competition Amid Regional Restructuring, Muhammet Koçak

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explains the evolution of Turkey-Russia relations in 2001 2020. Turkey and Russia are two of the most critical powerhouses of Central Eurasia. In the past, the Russian Empire played a significant role in the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, and Turkey took part in containing the USSR during the Cold War. In 2001 2020, however, Turkey and Russia invested in bilateral trade and established partnerships in the defense and energy sectors. Two countries also worked together to resolve several regional conflicts, including the Syrian Crisis. Despite this trend’s regional and global significance, the literature suffers from an inadequacy …

Religion, Place, And Identity At The Intersection Of Cultural Bricolage: The Miami Santo Daime Church Revisited, Alfonso Matas

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is an exploration of the Santo Daime Church in Miami, focusing on the challenges of balancing institutional stability with continual growth and innovation. Santo Daime—whose central ritual entails the consumption of the mind-altering ayahuasca brew—is a new religious movement that amalgamates indigenous Amazonian, Afro-Brazilian, and popular Catholic traditions. Between June 2016 and December 2018, I employed participant observation, semi-structured interviews, exegesis of sacred songs, and document analysis to investigate the meanings and lived experiences of church leaders and adherents as they relate to their religious identity and agency. Specifically, this study asks three research questions: What global processes …

Disaster Aid, Non-Governmental Organizations (Ngos), And Development: A Critical Analysis Of The Post 2010-Disaster Aid In Haiti, Jean Max Charles

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates both the effectiveness and the limitations of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) aid as it relates to efforts to provide sustainable development outcomes in the wake of disasters. Focusing on the case of Haiti, and the billions of dollars of disaster aid that the country received through NGOs for relief and reconstruction of the country in the wake of the 2010 magnitude 7.0 earthquake, this dissertation explores ways in which the delivery and management of disaster aid can be organized to produce long-term sustainable results. My research is formulated around the argument that, to produce long-term outcomes, disaster aid …

The Legacies Of Vagrancy Law In Contemporary Homelessness Regulation: A Global Historical And Ethnographic Examination Of Tokyo, Japan And Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Rayna Marlene Rusenko

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation illustrates how contemporary policy responses to homelessness in Tokyo, Japan and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia have tapped into historically-entrenched policy ideas and institutions and been shaped by varied experiences with transnational policy networks from the time of each city's mid-19th century integration into the world economy. Using archival and ethnographic methods, I trace links between past and present policies and practices related to homelessness management while underscoring the locally-distinct yet globally-connected nature of policy variations and impacts, including street-level experiences. I take a distinctly broad view of homelessness regulation to consider the criminal justice, welfare, and urban development policies …

Stakeholder Value Dynamics Analysis In Hurricane Michael: Towards Collaborative Decision Making In Building Disaster Resilient Communities, Aishwarya Pathak

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Despite a growing acknowledgment of shared responsibilities in emergency management, one of the hidden and overlooked issues in the disaster literature is the identification and integration of multi-sector stakeholder values: the things that are of importance, merit, and utilities to the stakeholders. Stakeholders (e.g., public, private and non-profit sectors, and the communities) hold numerous values with varying degrees of importance, forming a system of value priorities. Stakeholder values and value priorities—referred to as value systems—are not static in a disaster context; they are dynamic, time-sensitive and event-driven. A more in-depth understanding of the dynamics of stakeholder value systems is crucial …

Sexual Offender Residency Issues And Recidivism In South Florida, Joelle A. Lee-Silcox

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This paper explores registered sexual offender (RSO) residency restrictions, unintended consequences of these restrictions, including clustering, shared sub-culture, and recidivism within the Tri-County area of Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach Counties of Florida. While Florida Statute 775.215 (FLRR) bans RSOs from living within 1,000 feet of any school, childcare facility, park, or playground, individual county and municipal ordinances add-on to these boundaries, effectively banishing some RSOs to slivers of land in clusters. These clusters often settle in socially disorganized neighborhoods that lack informal control, needed treatment and rehabilitative services, and are located away from family and employment opportunities. Through the …

Air Pollutions Impact On Violence During The Commission Of A Crime, Erik Cruz

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Recent research links exposure to air pollution with elevated violent crime rates, despite there being no strong theoretical rationale for why air pollution would influence an individual’s decision to commit a crime. In contrast to prior research that used the violent crime rate as a proxy measure for aggressive behavior, this study employs the probability of a victim being physically injured during the commission of the crime to better quantify the degree of aggressive behavior exhibited by an offender. Results generated in a multilevel analysis of data drawn from 109 U.S. cities show that while carbon monoxide has little effect …

Characterizing Elasmobranch Species Diversity, Occurrence And Catches In Small-Scale Fisheries Of The Caribbean, Camila Cáceres

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Although 95% of fishers are artisanal, little is known about the magnitude of their catches and impacts on marine ecosystems at a global scale. I used a rapid assessment framework to study elasmobranch occurrence, elasmobranch fisheries, and use in coastal small-scale fisheries in the Caribbean, combining observational data and fisher’s knowledge. A total of 800 Baited Remote Underwater Videos were deployed in addition to 660 interview surveys that were collected in Colombia, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Tobago and the Florida Keys. In Colombia, I compared elasmobranch and teleost species richness and relative abundance within four coral reef habitats, where species targeted by …