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Impact Of The “Nirbhaya” Rape Case: Isolated Phenomenon Or Social Change?, Tina P. Lapsia

Honors Scholar Theses

In December 2012, a twenty-three year old college student, who was given the pseudonym “Nirbhaya” (“fearless”), was fatally gang-raped on a private bus in Delhi, India, galvanizing the country to swiftly adopt new legislative measures and catapulting the issue of violence against women in India into the international spotlight. Although assault and rape cases have made India infamous for its high volume of crimes against women, the reaction to this particular incident was much different from before. This paper investigates whether the governmental and societal responses represent social change, as indicated by changing attitudes towards violence against women in India. …

Black Male Student Success In U.S Higher Education: Lessons From The Institute For Responsible Citizenship, Robert A. Fisher

Honors Theses

The social conditions that afflict black males in the pursuit of post-secondary education are manifest. Though decades of academic literature have revealed the disproportionately low graduation statistics of black males in higher education, this subgroup still persists to degree completion at far lower rates than their other minority and female counterparts (Palmer, 2010; Washington, 2013; Harper, 2013). Prior studies have used a deficit-based approach to understanding black male student success (Davis, 1994; Palmer, 2010b). This study, however, identifies the factors that appear among black men who are already on pace to attain degrees at four year universities. Employing the anti-deficit …

Surviving The Velvet Hammer: Analyzing The Criminalization Of Working Class Mothers In A Neoliberal Context, Grace Reinke

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Courtroom To Classroom: Judicial Policymaking And Affirmative Action, Dylan Britton Saul

Political Science Honors Projects

The judicial branch, by exercising judicial review, can replace public policies with ones of their own creation. To test the hypothesis that judicial policymaking is desirable only when courts possess high capacity and necessity, I propose an original model incorporating six variables: generalism, bi-polarity, minimalism, legitimization, structural impediments, and public support. Applying the model to a comparative case study of court-sanctioned affirmative action policies in higher education and K-12 public schools, I find that a lack of structural impediments and bi-polarity limits the desirability of judicial race-based remedies in education. Courts must restrain themselves when engaging in such policymaking.

Reckless Abandonment? Explaining Congressional Hispanic Caucus Support For The 2001 No Child Left Behind Act, Elizabeth C. Reynolds

Politics Honors Papers

When No Child Left Behind (NCLB) was signed into law in early 2002, many hoped the legislation would help reduce achievement gaps among traditionally underperforming populations. For Hispanic students specifically, however, NCLB has contributed to educational inequality, school segregation, and high drop-out rates in major ways. Given these outcomes and trends, it is surprising that members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) and other Hispanic American interest groups overwhelmingly supported NCLB despite potentially being able to anticipate how the law would hurt Hispanic students. The political environment of 2001 left members of the CHC with few options other than to …

The Myth Of American Exceptionalism, Carter A. Wilson Dr.

Conference Presentations

This paper critiques the contemporary literature on American exceptionalism. It examines the multiple religious, intellectual and racist traditions that have and continue to make up U.S. political culture. It demonstrates that the doctrine of American exceptionalism is full of contradictions and fallacies. Whereas some traditions supported democracy and equality, other cultural traditions operated to sustain and promote racial repression. Both in the past and today, U.S. political culture contains contradictory currents, one progressive and the other reactionary.

Clinging To Their Guns: An Empirical Examination Of Self Versus Sociotropic Interest In Support For Gun Control Legislation, Kathleen Donovan

Political Science Faculty/Staff Publications

Previous research suggests that the debate on gun control legislation is heavily driven by gun ownership (e.g., Haider-Markel & Joslyn 2001; Wolpert & Gimpel 1998), a rare exception to the literature on self-interest and policy attitudes in general. However, gun owners are more likely to live in rural rather than urban areas, and simultaneously have less exposure to violent, gun-related crime. I argue that gun-owners tend to oppose gun control legislation because they live in a world in which guns are common but crime is rare. In contrast, many non-gun-owners live in cities, in which crime and gun-related crime is …

Naccs 42nd Annual Conference, National Association For Chicana And Chicano Studies

NACCS Conference Programs

Chicana/o In/Civilities: Contestación y Lucha: Cornerstones of Chicana & Chicano Studies

April 15-19, 2015

Parc 55 A Hilton Hotel

#NACCSSF

An Intersectional Approach To Criminological Theory: Incorporating The Intersectionality Of Race And Gender Into Agnew's General Strain Theory, Wyatt Brown

Ralph Bunche Journal of Public Affairs

Mainstream criminological theories often fail to incorporate demographic characteristics (which are robust predictors of criminal behavior). Also, many scholars suggest that theories of criminality need to move beyond sex or race or class etc. and utilize these dynamic characteristics in tandem. This theoretical perspective is often referred to as intersectionality. There is some criminological literature on the individual effects of these demographic characteristics as they represent social status as such they interact to effect experience, agency, and power. This analysis discusses how studying the intersectionality of gender and race may change explanations of criminal behavior. Specifically, how knowledge of gender …

Advocate, Spring 2015, Vol. 26, No. 2, Advocate

The Advocate

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

From the Editor’s Desk: A New Feminism (p. 3)

News in Brief: DSC Reps Balk, Fail to Condemn Racist Police Violence (p. 5)

Guest Editoral: Flush the TPP, Amy Goodman (p. 8)

Photo Essay: Ayotzinapa Caravan Comes to New York, CUNY Internationalist Club (p. 10)

The CUNY Experience: Keeping the Lights On: The Cost of “Experiential Learning,” Stephanie Vella and Cecilia Maria Salvi (p. 14)

Political Analysis:

- Cyclical Chaos: The Central African Republic’s Troubled Past and Uncertain Future, Denise Rivera (p. 16)

- Scumbags Work Together: The NYC Black Lives Matter Movement and Its Enemies, Ashoka …

Volume 07, Rachel C. Lombardi, Ben Osterhout, Lindsay Graybill, Rebecca E. Dey, Skyler T. Carpenter, Emma Beckett, Jason Ware, Mollie Andrews, James Bates, Landon Cooper, Tiffani Jeffries, Maria Wheaton, Dallas Price, Laura Kahler, Sarah Charlton, Anna Bultrowicz, Emily Spittle, Erin Godwin, Eamon Brokenbrough

Incite: The Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship

Introduction from Interim Dean Dr. Jennifer Apperson

Spatial Analysis of Potential Risk Factors Associated with Addition of Atlantic Coast Pipeline Through Virginia by Rachel C. Lombardi

"Delicate Matters with No Speaking," "Hope and Nothing," "Mono Duality" by Ben Osterhout

"Connect" Graphic Design Senior Project by Lindsay Graybill

Phenolic Acids in Brassicaceae Plants: Ovipositional Stimulants or Deterrents for Cabbage White Butterfly, Pieris Rapae? by Rebecca E. Dey And Skyler T. Carpenter

"Abecedarian Cards" by Emma Beckett, Jason Ware, And Mollie Andrews

Helvetica: A Type Specimen Book by James Bates, Landon Cooper, Tiffani Jeffries, And Maria Wheaton

“Things Left Behind” by Dallas …

Free Religion Is Not Free Discrimination, Donald Roth

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"When Indiana Governor Mike Pence signed Indiana’s version of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) into law on March 26, it kicked up a firestorm of controversy and is already seeing a wave of backlash... and a variety of other public criticisms sounding the same general concern that this bill is creating a 'license to discriminate' or that it is blatantly 'anti-gay'. But is the rhetoric regarding the Indiana law and the Arkansas bill justified?”

Posting about legislative action and gay rights from In All Things - an online hub committed to the claim that the life, death, and resurrection …

Reversing Stereotypes: The Good Black Man America Has Yet To Know, Alexandria Harris

Featured Research

Research has shown that the negative stereotypes of black masculinity prevalent in American public opinion are linked to negative media portrayals of African American men. Using both theming analysis and survey experiment methods, I ask whether or not positive media portrayals of African American men offset negative stereotypes of black masculinity. The central finding is that one-time exposure to positive media portrayals of African American men decrease levels of racial resentment. I then close by considering the implications the results have on media portrayals as well as opinions of ordinary citizens.

Volunteer Management Practices During Challenging Economic Times, Hillary Knepper, Maria J. D'Agostino, Helisse Levine

Journal of Public Management & Social Policy

Nonprofit organizations rely upon volunteers to facilitate their missions of meeting critical community needs. Since 2006, on average, 61.9 million Americans or 26.4 percent of the adult population volunteered every year through organizations delivering 8.1 billion hours of service worth approximately $162 billion to America’s communities (Bureau of Labor Statistics 2012; Corporation for National and Community Service 2010). Most recent data released by The Bureau of Labor in 2013 further suggest between September 2011 and September 2012 approximately 64.5 million people volunteered via an organization at least once. In light of high unemployment, donor fatigue, and slow economic growth, it …

Perceptions Of Collaboration And Service Integration As Strategic Alternatives: An Examination Of Social Service Nonprofit Organizations In The Late 1990s, Jennifer A. Wade-Berg, Vanessa Robinson-Dooley

Journal of Public Management & Social Policy

Nonprofit organizations (NPOs) have historically dealt with the problem of trying to build organizational capacity while simultaneously dealing with scarce resources. Consequently, practitioners and scholars continue to offer assistance to nonprofits in the development of techniques aimed at addressing these situations. Recent literature shows a push towards innovation, the use of new organizational tax structures, and/or the use of commercial revenue generating activities as plausible strategic alternatives for dealing with declining resources. While these techniques show promise, they typically are reserved for larger nonprofits (as measured by their funding base) and those nonprofits with missions that lend themselves for such …

Felony Disenfranchisement: A Literature Review, Carter A. Wilson Dr.

Conference Presentations

This paper examines and critiques legal arguments supporting and opposing felon disenfranchisement laws. It reexamines Richardson v Ramerez, the Supreme Court decision upholding the constitutionality of state laws that deny voting rights to voting aged cities with felony convictions. It summarizes the literature on case law, legal theory, democratic theory and comparative governments related to voting rights and felon disenfranchisement. It presents a typology of different levels of felon disenfranchisement practice. It concludes that the arguments supporting the more severe practices of felon disenfranchisement tend to focus on the 14th amendment while ignoring the 15th amendment; tend to trivialize the …

Resistance To Unjust Immigration Restrictions, Javier S. Hidalgo

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

State employees use force or the threat of force to restrict immigration.Border guards forcibly detain and incarcerate foreigners who immigrate without state approval. When migrants evade or resist immigration restrictions, border agents sometimes deploy tasers to incapacitate migrants, pepper spray them, shoot them with rubber bullets, and, less frequently, beat migrants with batons, and even fire live ammunition at them. Thousands of migrants perish annually in attempts to evade border agents. 2 State officials also capture and deport migrants who reside in their borders without official authorization. Affluent states have deported millions of unauthorized migrants in recent decades.

Religious Accommodations And The Common Good, Mark David Hall

Faculty Publications - Department of History and Politics

"Citizens, civic leaders, and jurists interested in good public policy should look to history as a guide to the impact of laws and constitutional provisions aimed at protecting religious actors. American civic leaders and jurists, at both the national and state levels, have long created significant protections for religious Americans who object to neutral, generally applicable laws. At their best, Americans have agreed that government should not force individuals to violate their sincerely held religious convictions unless it has compelling reasons for doing so. Moreover, the nation and the states have still been able to achieve important policy objectives in …

Challenging The Political Assumption That “Guns Don’T Kill People, Crazy People Kill People!”, Heath J. Hodges, Mario Scalora

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Every time an infamous mass shooting takes place, a storm of rhetoric sweeps across this country with the fury of a wild fire. “Why are we letting these people carry guns?” “Why were they not hospitalized?” “The government needs to crack down on this issue!” What is the government’s response to these cries of concern? Politicians and the media attempt to ease public fears by drawing tenuous connections among a handful of poorly understood tragedies. The salient commonality is that these high-profile shooters had some history of mental illness. A cursory review of the Internet will paint a troubling picture …

Vision Of Founding Fathers Becomes Blurred, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Excusing Murder? Conservative Jurors’ Acceptance Of The Gay Panic Defense, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Jessica Salerno, Bette L. Bottoms, B. L. Harrington, Dave Kemner

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

We conducted a simulated trial study to investigate the effectiveness of a “gay-panic” provocation defense as a function of jurors’ political orientation. Mock jurors read about a murder case in which a male defendant claimed a victim provoked the killing by starting a fight, which either included or did not include the male victim making an unwanted sexual advance that triggered a state of panic in the defendant. Conservative jurors were significantly less punitive when the defendant claimed to have acted out of gay panic as compared to when this element was not part of the defense. In contrast, liberal …

Life In Hampton Roads Survey Press Release #2: Crime And Politics, Social Science Research Center, Old Dominion University

Life in Hampton Roads Survey Report

This report examines regional and sub-regional perceptions of crime and politics from the 2015 Life In Hampton Roads survey (LIHR 2015) conducted by the Old Dominion University Social Science Research Center. Data from prior years is also provided when available to show comparisons in responses over time. Responses were weighted by city population, race, age, gender, and phone usage (cell versus land-line) to be representative of the Hampton Roads region.

The Mickey Leland Papers & Collection Addendum, Texas Southern University

Mickey Leland Center on Hunger, Poverty, and World Peace Reports

The materials document Mickey’s Leland’s visionary leadership and advocacy in shaping domestic and international human rights policy initiatives. The records also provide a unique political perspective on the history and culture of Houston, and cover a variety of topics: health care rights for the poor, prison reform, police harassment and brutality, racial discrimination, affirmative action, budget discrimination in higher education, labor legislation, infant mortality, minority rights in business, health education, parks and recreation for the indigent, apartheid and racial discrimination issues worldwide, third world development, emergency shelters for the homeless, nutrients for the malnourished and food security for victims of …

Invisible Suffering: Practitioner Reflections On Peacebuilding Programs With Youth Exposed To Traumatic Stressors In Intergroup Conflict, Liza Hester

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

For decades, the international community has recognized that youth are some of the most vulnerable to mental and emotional distress within the intractable and cyclical nature of identity-based violent conflict. Exposure to traumatic stressors within these intergroup conflicts poses unique risks not only to the neurological and social development of youth, but also to the capacities of youth to fully participate in peacebuilding interventions. The peacebuilding field has yet to strongly consider how traumatic stress affects dynamics within programs for youth and how these programs may need to modify expectations of youth’s cognitive, social, and emotional functioning to account for …

A Philosophical Analysis Of California Determinate Sentencing, Three Strikes, And Realignment, Madeline Stein

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis explores the relationship between philosophy and policy in the context of three California policies, Determinate Sentencing, Three Strikes, and Realignment. The philosophy portion includes theories of retribution, deterrence, and rehabilitation, focusing on the tensions and conflicts within them.

The U.S. And Mexican Cooperation: The Merida Initiative And Beyond, Yasemin Tekin

Pepperdine Policy Review

No abstract provided.

Democracy On Trial: Examining Argentina's Response To The 1994 Terrorist Attack On The Amia Jewish Community Center In Buenos Aires, Amy Crawford

HIM 1990-2015

On July 18, 1994, the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA), the Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires, was bombed in what has been called the worst terrorist attack on Argentina in history. The bombing killed an estimated 86 people and wounded over 200. The Argentine government began a judicial investigation and vowed to bring the perpetrators to justice. Twenty years later, the case remains unresolved. The investigation has been marked by inefficiency and allegations of corruption. The recent, suspicious death of the lead prosecutor of the case has further called into question the legitimacy of Argentina’s government and justice system. …

Tentative Securities: 26/11, Israel And The Politics Of Mobility, Rhys A. Machold

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This dissertation examines the global mobility of security knowhow in relation to the management of terrorism in megacities. Specifically, it offers three insights. First, it shows how historical events are performed as sites in need of transnational policy intervention. Second, it enables an understanding of how and why the sourcing of policy ‘models’ actually takes place. Third, it sheds light on how mobile policy schemes travel geographically and are put to work in particular contexts. In doing so, it elaborates on the conditions under which policies move geographically but also addresses the kinds of constraints and contradictions they face.

The …

Reconstruction After Genocide: An Analysis Of The Justice System For The Women Victims Of Genocidal Rape In Post-Conflict Bosnia, Hannah E. Gardenswartz

Scripps Senior Theses

In the conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina, one of the critical elements of the ethnic cleansing regimes was rape and impregnation of women. When the international justice system was created to criminally try the perpetrators of the atrocities, including the rape victims was a new development. Looking at the tribunals and court system from a gendered perspective reveals that the efforts to include rape victims have not taken into account their specific needs, stemming from their trauma. A critical look the ICTY and other criminal courts are presented, as well as recommendations for improving inclusivity and reconciliation.

The Psychology Of Terrorism And Radicalization, Gina K. Dejacimo

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Terrorism and radicalized political groups are an ever-growing subsection of the American and international news cycles. Mainstream media outlets tend to focus on the atrocious actions of terrorists, leaving the American public without a true understanding of what encourages someone to become a violent, radicalized extremist. This paper intends to investigate possible psychological factors that can predict a person’s likelihood to become radicalized and participate in a salafi jihadi terrorist campaign. If such psychological conditions exist, perhaps they are the key to preventing radicalization in the first place, and in turn, the key to preventing any terrorist activity. What other …