Digital Commons Network^™

Bridging The Divide: Community Centers As A Catalyst Of Socioeconomic Opportunity Cultivation For At-Risk Youth, Grayson Bourke

Capstone Projects – Politics and Government

The East Bluff Community Center (EBCC)’s mission is to “foster community engagement and neighborhood stabilization by providing a vibrant place to gather.” This paper seeks to shed light on the role that community centers play in creating socioeconomic opportunities for at-risk youth in low-income, American communities. The author completed an 11-month internship through Illinois State University’s Stevenson Center in which I was placed as a Community Engagement Coordinator at the EBCC. While at EBCC, I conducted a neighborhood needs assessment, strengthened existing and built new interorganizational partnerships, and launched a building revitalization within the context of the Integrated Prevention and …

Sanctuary In The City Of Brotherly Love: Probing The Effectiveness And Broader Implications Of Philadelphia’S Sanctuary City Policies, Thomas A. Koenig

Gettysburg Social Sciences Review

Amidst the already fraught politics of immigration, “sanctuary” policies, whereby state and local law enforcement agencies limit their cooperation with federal immigration enforcement authorities to varying degrees, have emerged as a particularly contentious issue. This paper sifts past the political vitriol surrounding the issue of “sanctuary” and uses original survey research in Philadelphia to answer a straightforward question: Are these policies working? That is, are the city of Philadelphia’s sanctuary policies actually building trust between its undocumented residents and local law enforcement, thereby laying the groundwork for higher rates of crime reporting and safer communities? My results from a survey …

Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (Lvmpd) Budget Review, Fiscal Years 2018-2021, Olivia K. Cheche, Elia Del Carmen Solano-Patricio, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Criminal Justice

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department’s (LVMPD) annual budget increased every fiscal year (FY) from 2018 to 2021. Using data provided by the LVMPD’s final budget reports for FY 2018 to 2021, this Fact Sheet details LVMPD funding increases and summarizes budget expenditures by unit and area command.

Uncivil Disobedience And Democracy: An American Perspective, Walter J. Kendall

The Journal of Social Encounters

From the time of the Athenian democracy there has been the debated question of whether protest and dissent, especially uncivil disobedience to the law was supportive or destructive of a people’s democracy. The debate continues unabated today.

In a recent collection of essays titled Protest and Dissent, Professor Susan Stokes offered an answer to the question Are Protests Good or Bad for Democracy? (Schwartzberg, 2020, p. 269). After considering both possibilities, she concludes, as had James Madison in Federalist 10, that protests “are a natural by-product of freedoms of expression and association which, if curtailed, would threaten democracy itself.”(Schwartzberg, 2020, …

When You Play The Game Of Drones, You Win Or You Die: Examining The Role Of U.S. Drone Strikes In U.S. And English Language Allies Newspapers From 2008-2019, Melissa Aho

Dissertations

In the years following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the United States ramped up its usage of drones and drone strikes around the world. Spanning three United States’ presidents, drone strikes became a regular feature in the US military arsenal. While American newspaper media and citizens have been very pro-drone, global citizens view drones in a far more negative light. This study examines US military drone strikes and English-speaking allied newspapers in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom and evaluates if coverage remains positive or negative depending on the newspaper’s conservative or liberal leanings from 2008–2019. …

Abandoned Allies: A Case Study Analysis Of The Special Immigrant Visa Program, Sarah Pedigo Kulzer

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

Employing a qualitative case study approach, the current study aims to critically analyze the U.S.’s use of the Special Immigrant Visa program in Iraq and Afghanistan by examining the individuals it serves, the agencies through which services are rendered, and the state’s vested geopolitical interests in the program. Engaging in active participation, I observed and interacted with those who work within, assist, or utilize the services of Commonwealth Catholic Charities’ refugee resettlement program, including case workers, service providers, and resettlement clients themselves. Examined through the lens of neoliberal harm, the theoretical frameworks of realpolitik and Simmel’s (1950) concept of the …

Addressing Social Inequity: A Case Study Of Success, Ed Tarlton, Robert Harper, Brandi Blessett, Brian N. Williams, Jarrad Carter

Journal of Public Management & Social Policy

Social equity is relatively easy to define but much harder to accomplish. As a result, achieving social equity continues to be difficult in American society and across the globe. We present a case study of a collaborative effort by two nonprofits to conduct a program for public high schools and local law-enforcement agencies across the United States. The program was designed to acknowledge and address the historic harms that impact police-community relations. Our paper delineates the origins of the problem and our approach, presents data that demonstrate the positive impact the program had on bridging gaps, changing perceptions, and lessening …

Social Equity And Body Worn Camera Policies: How Do State Politics Lead To Policy Adoption And Implementation?, Heath Brown, James Wright

Journal of Public Management & Social Policy

Police body-worn cameras (BWC) emerged on state policy agendas to improve public accountability and mitigate social equity concerns in the wake of a national debate on police violence. Some, but not all, states adopted BWC, suggesting several state-level factors determined the policy making process. We develop a two-step political model of state criminal justice policy (adoption and implementation) that incorporates three distinct political actors: law enforcement groups; traditional advocates for civil rights/liberties; and new advocates for social equity/justice. We find that in the first step (policy adoption) traditional civil rights groups are not statistically related to a state adopting a …

From Etiology To Action: Exploring The Origins, Obstacles, Opportunities And Outcomes Of Achieving Social Equity, Charles E. Menifield

Journal of Public Management & Social Policy

No abstract provided.

Globalizing Noncitizen Detention, Jaye Balentine

Anthós

This inquiry seeks to establish that the global expansion in regimes of noncitizen detention represents a contemporary expression of imperial subjectification under Western liberalism and that such regimes serve a key role in maintaining the capitalist social order. While several efforts have been made to explain the globalization of noncitizen detention practices stemming from the United States, there exists serious shortcomings in the proposed analyses. Namely, existing literature on the subject has failed to adequately account for the history of Western imperialism and the centrality of liberalism as a political ideology in this imperial project. By intervening in the existing …

Too Much Of A Good Thing?: A Review Of Overdoing Democracy, Donald Roth

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"Cultivating civic friendship doesn’t start with transforming society; it begins on an individual level."

Posting about ­­­­­­­­the book Overdoing Democracy: Why We Must Put Politics in its Place from In All Things - an online journal for critical reflection on faith, culture, art, and every ordinary-yet-graced square inch of God’s creation.

https://inallthings.org/too-much-of-a-good-thing-a-review-of-overdoing-democracy/

Calls For Accountability: Redefining The Culture Of Policing In Las Vegas, Olivia K. Cheche

Governance: The Political Science Journal at UNLV

In summer 2020, national attention on racial injustice brought into focus the culture of policing as a critical area of policy exploration for the United States. The purpose of this policy report is to examine the culture of policing in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, and specifically within Las Vegas's largest police force, the Las Vegas Metro Police Department (LVMPD). Through this case study analysis, the racial, social and fiscal aspects of the culture of policing are investigated between the years 2016 & 2020. The research here presents data on disparities within policing found at the national and local levels. …

Optimism Of The Intellect, Pessimism Of The Will? A Gramscian Analysis Of Two New York Police Reform Campaigns, Christian Covington

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This paper attempts to analyze two recent New York police reform campaigns - one to overturn the state’s system of criminal bail release, the other to make police officer discipline transparent to the public - using theories given by Antonio Gramsci. The paper will apply the concepts of hegemony, hegemonic discourse, the intertwining of the state and civil society, the attainment of political agency amongst the subaltern, and the role ideology plays in all of these concepts, to assess the success of the reform campaigns. The paper will argue that many of these concepts are further developments of political theories …

Oliver Charbonneau’S Civilizational Imperatives: Americans, Moros, And The Colonial World, Review Author:; Cesar Suva

Philippine Studies: Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints

No abstract provided.

Bob Couttie’S Fool’S Gold: Fakes, Frauds, And Fallacies In Philippine History. Vol. 1., Review Author:; Francisco Jayme Paolo A. Guiang

Philippine Studies: Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints

No abstract provided.

The Federalist Society And Constitutional Interpretation: Who Gets To Say What The Constitution Says, Deborah L. Toscano

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The Federalist Society was organized in 1982 by conservative law students to counteract what they perceived to be a liberal bias in law schools, the courts, and government administration. Forty years later there is an acknowledgement of a rightward turn in the Supreme Court which scholars have attributed in part to the efforts of the Federalist Society. However, there is still little understanding of just how that change came about. This dissertation takes a step toward understanding that question. Viewing the Federalist Society as the center of a network of lawyers, think tanks, and legal institutions, I examine the influence …

Victim Impact: The Manson Murders And The Rise Of The Victims’ Rights Movement, Merrill W. Steeg

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Criminalizing Atrocity: The Global Spread Of Criminal Laws Against International Crimes, Verónica Michel

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Book review of the book Criminalizing Atrocity: The Global Spread of Criminal Laws against International Crimes by Mark S. Berlin.

Budgetary Obstacles To Police Reform: The Case Of San Francisco, Hayden Anderson

Master's Projects and Capstones

In response to the murder of George Floyd in May 2020, the Black Lives Matter movement issued a statement calling on cities to Defund the Police. The event sparked a nationwide reckoning that has reshaped the narratives and strategies for remedying the racial bias and police brutality apparent in the criminal justice system. The shift in police reform efforts embraces notions guiding police budgeting decisions. Today's advocates are transforming their approach to police reform to include budgeting decisions by promoting a municipal practice known as police budget reform. This Capstone explores the feasibility of successful police budget reform under current …

The Effect Of State Level Covid-19 Stay-At-Home Orders On Death Rates, Stephen A. Langeland, Jose Marte, Kyle Connif

Helm's School of Government Conference - 2021-2024

This paper attempts to examine a correlation between lockdown length and COVID-19 case rate, death rate and fatality rate. In March of 2020, the publishing of alarmist epidemiological models prompted government officials to enact sweeping emergency measures (Miltimore 2020). Notably, the Imperial College London model published by epidemiologist Neil Ferguson predicted a “best-case scenario” of 1.1 million COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. by August 2020. This model heightened concern that the hospital system would be overwhelmed, a reason cited by President Trump’s Coronavirus Task Force members, Dr. Birx and Dr. Fauci, as justification for the “15 Days to Flatten the …

Antitrust In The Age Of Trump, Stephen Langeland

Helm's School of Government Conference - 2021-2024

Calls for regulation of major tech giants are currently ringing out from both the left and right sides of the political spectrum, largely for different reasons (Soave 2020). The current DOJ antitrust suit against Google was undermined by murmurs of political motivation as former-Attorney General William Barr personally played a key role in pushing the investigation forward into a lawsuit. (Birnbaum 2020). Prior examples of this can be seen in the reportedly political motivation of the DOJ’s unsuccessful attempt to block the 2017 merger of President Trump’s nemesis CNN’s parent company Time Warner and AT&T following President Trump’s campaign trail …

The Rules Of Engagement: How The Public Interacts With Elected Officials On Social Media And What Can Be Learned From Their Interactions, Ryden Winfield Butler

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Political science research has largely overlooked the role of user engagements when studying communications on social media. Whether this feedback influences the communications of elites and whether anything can be learned from this data remains unknown. This dissertation presents some of the first evidence that social engagement data can be used to study political communications on social media and, in particular, how elites use the platform to broadcast their messages. The dissertation includes two empirical studies and a methodological chapter focused around the study of social engagements. The first study examines the feedback dynamics between legislators' communications and the social …

The Long Road Towards Racial Reconciliation, Lia Cueto Jerez

Helm's School of Government Conference - 2021-2024

The issue of race in the United States has been long contested among different social and political spheres. Over the course of the 20^th and 21^st century, Americans have been eyewitnesses to the long and evolving fight for racial justice and equality. Most recently, the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020 has proven to contest people’s attitudes over the issue. As political polarization grows, mistrust within communities of color deepens, further hindering participation in bipartisan work to overcome these differences.

First Amendment Knowledge And Competence In United States Residents, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Kimberly M. Bernstein

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

Lacking adequate knowledge about one's rights could inhibit the likelihood of exercising one's rights or lead one to unwittingly violate laws that place legitimate limits on these rights. Thus, the present research examines First Amendment knowledge as well as competence to apply this knowledge in relevant circumstances. Results revealed that one-quarter of participants failed a test of objective knowledge on First Amendment rights. Furthermore, participants' belief in their ability varied depending on their level of knowledge, in line with the Dunning–Kruger effect. Participants also failed to transfer their limited objective knowledge to “real-world” situations, exhibiting impaired First Amendment competence. These …

Police Brutality: Macroeconomic Effects In The United States, Nya Bryant, Kate Perry

Honors College Theses

How does racial discrimination negatively impact citizens in the US regardless of racial identity? There have been many deaths that have resulted from law enforcement interaction with Black citizens, such as George Floyd and Sandra Bland among countless others, and each of these deaths have negatively impacted the overall community in which they happened. Events such as these have caused many protests and movements to be sparked such as the Black Lives Matter movement and have resulted in an uprising of citizens demanding change, yet not all citizens recognize how police brutality incidents impact their own lives. In this project, …

Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind: Analyzing Inhumane Practices In Mississippi’S Correctional Institutions Due To Overcrowding, Understaffing, And Diminished Funding, Ariel A. Williams

Honors Theses

The purpose of this research is to examine the political, social, and economic factors which have led to inhumane conditions in Mississippi’s correctional facilities. Several methods were employed, including a comparison of the historical and current methods of funding, staffing, and rehabilitating prisoners based on literature reviews. State-sponsored reports from various departments and the legislature were analyzed to provide insight into budgetary restrictions and political will to allocate funds. Statistical surveys and data were reviewed to determine how overcrowding and understaffing negatively affect administrative capacity and prisoners’ mental and physical well-being. Ultimately, it may be concluded that Mississippi has high …

Police Homicide: Race And Ethnicity, Christine Henderson, Aimee Quinn, Charles E. Reasons, Veronica Salas, John Vinson, Brittney Warf

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

During the pandemic, routines were interrupted lives were changed and during this time, many individuals spent more time watching the news to learn more about how long it would take to resume normalcy. When George Floyd was murdered by four police officers, time stood still and the world watched. Outrage was immediate. The pandemic offered everyone the opportunity to witness tragedy unfold in front of them a brutality which happens every day, yet is easily ignored. This article examines the incidence of police homicides of people of color, the lack of law enforcement to seek solutions to their own internal …

Profiles In Leadership: Women Of Color Elected To Office In Massachusetts, Center For Women In Politics And Public Policy, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Publications from the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy

In 2015, UMass Boston’s Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy released the first-ever publication exploring the elected leadership of women of color in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts largely to make known the contributions of female electeds of color across the Commonwealth. The publication also aimed to delve into what hinders and what facilitates the elected leadership of women of color. This 2021 updated publication contains profiles of the 174 women of color who have been elected to key policymaking positions and offers quantitative analysis to better understand office-holding patterns.

Evident in the profiles is the centrality of community …

How To Defend Those Who Defend: An Examination Of The Underfunding Of The Public Defender System, Selma M. Newbill

Honors Theses

The public defender system in the United States is in an indigent defense crisis because it is often unable to provide adequate representation to the citizens that the United States Constitution requires them to give. The growing attention on the system today is shedding light on public defenders’ stifling caseloads and on the people who are failing to receive the legal representation to which they are entitled by the constitution. The lack of political prioritization, the systemic inequities throughout the criminal justice system, and the underfunding of the public defender system has often rendered public defenders unable to provide their …

Racialized Reality: Crime News And Racial Stereotype Framing, Warrington Sebree

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Research shows that crime news is a primary mechanism for shaping public consciousness surrounding legal order, social morality, and threats present in their citizens communities. This research explores how news media influences negative attitudes towards criminal justice reform and Black identity. Utilizing Framing Theory, this study focuses on whether negative stereotypes in crime news triggers racial prejudice and bias towards African Americans. Participants of this study will consist of current students at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. The findings suggest that knowing the race of a potential criminal assailant influences respondents’ attitudes towards presumptions of guilt, future criminality, and criminal …