Digital Commons Network^™

Did Statewide School Smoking Bans Reduce Smoking Rates?, Rachana Bhatt, Peter Hinrichs

Upjohn Institute Policy and Research Briefs

No abstract provided.

Do Employer Challenges Drive Unemployment Insurance Benefit Nonpayment?, Marta Lachowska, Stephen A. Woodbury

Upjohn Institute Policy and Research Briefs

No abstract provided.

Illegal Migration In Nigeria: An In-Depth Study Of Encounters Within Nigeria, Mubarak Alabi, Adebayo Olalekan, Adam Isiaka, Abosede Onifade

African Journal of Criminology and Justice Studies

Migration is a crucial component of global population dynamics and encompasses various forms of labor, such as low-skilled labor, irregular migration, and asylum-seeking. This study examines illegal migration into Nigeria, illuminating the complex challenges faced by both migrants and the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS). The surge in cross-border crimes linked to illegal immigration poses formidable obstacles to NIS, including issues related to border security, arms proliferation, and terrorism. The study employed a survey design, involving a diverse sample of 50 respondents, representing a cross-section of socio-demographic backgrounds. The outcome unravels the underlying motivations driving individuals towards illegal migration, identifies barriers …

Indigenous Religion And Community Order: Crime Prevention Strategies Among Worshippers Of Igbe Orhe In Nigeria, Onoseme Fortune Afatakpa Dr

African Journal of Criminology and Justice Studies

This ethnographic study examines crime prevention strategies within Igbe Orhe, an indigenous African religious tradition practiced in Delta State, Nigeria. While existing security studies primarily emphasize formal and direct approaches to crime prevention, this research foregrounds the less explored structural mechanisms embedded in cultural spirituality. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with purposively selected participants, including the Uku Supreme (global leader), High Priests (Uku), High Priestess (Omote Uku), Chief Priests (Inori), Chief Priestesses (Ini Igbe), and Votary Singers (Akpine). Two focus group discussions were also conducted with female and youth members of selected …

Victim Behaviour And Phone Snatching In Kano Metropolis: A Literature Review Based On Victim Precipitation Theory, Mu'azu Ya'u Abdullahi

African Journal of Criminology and Justice Studies

This paper reviews studies on the problem of phone snatching in Kano Metropolis, with focus on the behaviour of victims. Many studies have explained the crime by linking it to poverty, unemployment, and weak policing among others. However, less attention has been given to how people’s everyday actions may increase their risk. Using Victim Precipitation Theory, this review shows that behaviours such as openly displaying phones, walking alone in unsafe places, or using phones while distracted create easy chances for offenders. The review also notes that wider issues, such as poor street lighting and active black markets, combine with victim …

Alternative Dispute Resolution And Legal Pluralism In Practice: Grassroots Mediation In The Akamba Counties Of Kenya, Victoria M. Time, Daniel K. Pryce

African Journal of Criminology and Justice Studies

Abstract

Alternative dispute resolution (ADR), the process of employing a third party, outside of the state apparatus, to help resolve disputes between opposing parties, has been used on the African continent for hundreds of years. In Kenya, the focus of the current study, ADRs have included mediation, negotiation, and arbitration. To have a better understanding of why Kenyans are embracing mediation instead of the formal courts to resolve disputes, the study relies on the legal pluralism theoretical framework and the results of a study that employed two ethnographic techniques – interviews and participant observation – from three Kenyan counties: Makueni, …

Workplace Stress And Coping Mechanisms Among Law Enforcement Officers In Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria: An Empirical Study, Akaninyene O. Unaam, Akanimo A. Unaam Esq.

African Journal of Criminology and Justice Studies

Law enforcement officers face unique occupational stressors that can impair well-being and performance. This study examined stress levels and coping mechanisms among police officers in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria, within Lazarus and Folkman's transactional framework. A cross-sectional descriptive survey was conducted among 400 randomly selected officers. Data were collected using the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) and Brief COPE inventory. Descriptive statistics, chi-square tests, and hierarchical multiple regression were employed. Moderate stress levels predominated (52.5%), with high stress reported by 32.5% of officers. The mean PSS score was 24.6 (SD = 5.8). Significant associations emerged between stress and years of service …

Language As A Strategic Security Resource: Criminological Perspectives On Collective Efficacy, Cultural Security, And Community Resilience, Declan Onwudiwe

African Journal of Criminology and Justice Studies

Language is typically examined as a medium of communication, identity formation, cultural transmission, and education. This article advances a broader argument: language should also be understood as a strategic security resource and a significant criminological variable. Drawing on collective efficacy theory, societal security scholarship, linguistic relativity, decolonial language theory, and ethnolinguistic vitality theory, the article argues that language can facilitate social cohesion, informal social control, intelligence gathering, conflict resolution, procedural legitimacy, and community resilience. Indigenous African languages serve as repositories of historical memory, customary law, social norms, and security-relevant knowledge that may contribute to public safety and social order. The …

Impact Of Employment Status And Housing Stability On Tuberculosis Treatment Adherence In Virginia, Samuel Deapeh Worgee

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Tuberculosis (TB) cases have resurged in Virginia, yet the structural determinants shaping treatment completion among socioeconomically marginalized populations remain unquantified locally, leaving public health programs without state-specific predictive evidence. Grounded in the World Health Organization's social determinants of health framework, this quantitative, ex post facto study examined how employment status, housing stability, and social risk factors predicted TB treatment completion. De-identified surveillance records for N = 898 adult TB cases reported from 2020 through 2024 were extracted from the Virginia Electronic Disease Surveillance System and analyzed using a multivariable binary logistic regression, controlling for age, sex, race/ethnicity, and radiographic severity …

Muharremi, Robert, And Alisa Ramadani. Transforming A Guerrilla Into A Regular Army: From The Kosovo Liberation Army To The Army Of The Republic Of Kosovo. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2024., Besa Kabashi Ramaj

Journal of Peace, Conflict, and Security Studies

Robert Muharremi and Alisa Ramadani’s Transforming a Guerrilla into a Regular Army: From the Kosovo Liberation Army to the Army of the Republic of Kosovo seeks to provide an accessible, academic narrative of Kosovo’s security transformation. It traces the evolution from the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), through the Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC), to the current Kosovo Security Force (KSF). The result of this evolution is a military force which today holds a full-fledged defense mission.

Visoka, Gëzim. The Derecognition Of States. Ann Arbor: University Of Michigan Press, 2024., Aidan Hehir

Journal of Peace, Conflict, and Security Studies

Gëzim Visoka describes the derecognition of states as “a puzzling feature in world politics” (p. 114). This is certainly true. For many decades derecognition was a peripheral concern given it was rarely practiced after the UN was established in 1945; one notable exception being the derecognition of Taiwan, which has been ongoing since the 1950s. In recent years, however, it has become of significantly greater interest as it has become more common; of the five cases Visoka examines – Taiwan, Western Sahara, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Kosovo – four are very definitely products of the post-Cold War era. Despite this, …

Hehir, Aidan. Kosovo And The “Internationals”: Hope, Hubris, And The End Of History. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2024, Sead Zimeri

Journal of Peace, Conflict, and Security Studies

Hope is enjoying a scholarly renaissance. Building on the “standard account” of hope as a desire for an outcome believed to be possible, recent work by Luc Bovens, Victoria McGeer, Adrienne Martin, Darrel Moellendorf, Michael Milona, and Katie Stockdale has refined the concept, distinguishing it from optimism and expectation, and asking when hoping is rational and what it requires. Yet this literature has remained largely within moral psychology; sustained tests against concrete political history are rare. Conversely, the enormous literature on humanitarian intervention and state-building has had much to say about power, legitimacy, and paternalism, and almost nothing about hope. …

Failed Gay Rights Amendment To Mankato's Human Rights Ordinance In Mankato, Minnesota In 1987, Kellian Clink

Library Services Publications

In 1987, small but passionate people urged the city to pass an amendment to Mankato’s existing human rights ordinance to protect LGBTQ+ communities.   Advocates argued that gays were entitled to the same rights as straight people and were looking for protection in housing and employment, particularly. They demonstrated that people had lost jobs, housing, and access to dance venues. Some opponents equated gays with promiscuity, child molestation, solicitation, sin, and AIDS; some were convinced it was not needed; some pinned their arguments on the existence of laws already on the books.  This narrative is based on articles from the local …

Sacred Loss And Moral Authority: Religious Leadership And Identity Reconstruction In Post-Conflict Societies, Kimberly C. Kennedy

Interdisciplinary Journal of Leadership Studies

This paper examines how religious leaders shape narratives of identity formation and reconciliation in post-civil conflict societies where violence, defeat, or political transition produces moral injury and crises of meaning. By drawing on themes of justice, forgiveness, and accountability, religious leadership can wield moral authority to influence public perception, guide healing processes, and support transitions from active conflict to more stable forms of peace. The paper explores how religious leaders reframe narratives of defeat, particularly in cases where a community’s cause was endowed with sacred meaning, creating a crisis of faith. It argues that this work is best understood as …

Assessing The Co-Benefits Of Housing And Transportation Investments In Prohousing Designated Jurisdictions, Hongwei Dong

Mineta Transportation Institute

In response to California's ongoing housing affordability crisis, state and local governments have adopted a range of prohousing policies aimed at reducing barriers to housing production and promoting the integration of housing with transportation. This study examines two distinct but related dimensions of prohousing policies in California. One concerns the Prohousing Designation Program (PDP) (established by the 2019–2020 Budget Act), analyzing the adoption and implementation of prohousing policies in 56 California cities that received Prohousing Designation. The other examines recent state and local policy shifts aimed at promoting affordable housing in transit-rich areas. The study uses a mixed-methods research design, …

Spatio-Temporal Analysis Of The Roadside Transportation-Related Air Quality (Startraq 2024): Time-Series Analysis, Jaymin Kwon, Yushin Ahn, Steve Chung

Mineta Transportation Institute

Transportation-related air pollution remains a significant environmental and public health challenge in California’s San Joaquin Valley. This report presents a spatio-temporal analysis of roadside transportation-related air quality in Fresno County, California, from 1985 to 2023 with projections from 2024 through 2032. Using historical emissions inventories, projected vehicle miles traveled (VMT), infrastructure data, and land cover analysis, the study examines how transportation activity and urban expansion have influenced air quality across the region over time. Findings reveal that while PM10, PM2.5, NOx, SOₓ, CO, and CO₂ emissions from on-road mobile sources have declined significantly due to regulatory programs and cleaner technologies, …

From Innovation To Impact: Evaluation Of The Shape Accelerator Cohort, Iryna V. Lendel, Chloe Wieber

Upjohn Institute Technical Reports

The Solutions Hub for an Alternative Packaging Ecosystem (SHAPE), a Michigan-Ohio partnership operated by the Michigan State University Research Foundation as part of a National Science Foundation Regional Innovation Engine, co-funded a special cohort of the NextCycle Accelerator focused on sustainable packaging and circular economy ventures. This report evaluates how the accelerator contributed to firm-level advancement and ecosystem-level change, drawing on program data and interviews with participating companies, program facilitators, stakeholders, and SHAPE management.  Participants most consistently credited coaching, network connections, and the Pitch Showcase with meaningfully impacting their business trajectory, gaining market traction, advancing technology readiness, and gaining access …

Editorial, Julia Coffman

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Front And Back Matter

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Climate Change Evidence: Driving Value-Added Use For Better Decisions, Tim Larson, Marina Lahowin, Sarah Hanck

The Foundation Review

This article examines the evolving ecosystem of climate solution evidence tools and distinguishes the different functions they serve, including evidence aggregation, assessment of evidence strength, comparison of solution options, spatial targeting, policy benchmarking, and adaptive management.

Drawing from research on evidence-informed policymaking and climate decision science, the authors identify persistent barriers to evidence use, including misalignment with decision needs, deep uncertainty, institutional incentives, and limited capacity for collective sensemaking.

The article argues philanthropy’s greatest leverage lies not in increasing the supply of evidence alone, but in strengthening the systems through which evidence is interpreted, governed, and embedded in decision processes. …

Evidence And Learning Amid A Climate Crisis: Six Promising Frontiers For Advancing Practice, Tim Larson, Shawna Hoffman, Marina Lahowin

The Foundation Review

The effects of the climate crisis are intensifying each year, just as the global context for mitigation, adaptation, and resilience efforts grows increasingly complex. Against a backdrop of urgency, resource scarcity, high uncertainty, and politicization, evidence is arguably more crucial than ever for informing climate action.

The potential of evidence for climate action has not been fully realized, leaving tremendous value on the table. This article argues that the challenge is not driven by a shortage of evidence, but rather by a mismatch between dominant evidence and learning practices and what decision-makers need.

In response to the question “how can …

Full Issue

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

From Rhetoric To Reality: Piloting Conversation-Based Reporting On Systems Change, Laura Rana Englert

The Foundation Review

The Climate Emergency Collaboration Group (CECG) is a philanthropic regranter aiming to unlock the power of international moments and systems to deliver a step-change in global response to the climate emergency. Both CECG’s work and the systems to which it contributes are characterised by complexity, non-linearity, and unpredictability.

CECG transformed its approach to reporting from traditional written reports using predetermined indicators to a conversation-based reporting (CBR) process prioritising depth over breadth and meaningful two-way exchange. CECG uses CBR to explore collective contributions to system change and drive evidence-informed decision-making.

This article provides a practice-based case study of CECG’s experience piloting …

Executive Summaries

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Evaluating Complex Social Change: Lessons From Ford’S Climate Change Program, Subarna Mathes, Bess Rothenberg, Kelsey Simmons

The Foundation Review

This article offers a detailed account from within the Ford Foundation of what it takes to subject a complex social change strategy to genuine evaluative scrutiny. Drawing on the work of the Foundation’s Office of Strategy and Learning (OSL) and its evaluation of the Natural Resources and Climate Change program, it describes what shifts in strategy and learning were necessary, what was required organizationally, and what changed as a result.

The article delves into the evaluation process itself, including how OSL balanced the needs and perspectives of Ford leadership, program staff, and grantee partners. It shares how OSL centered equity …

Philanthropy And The Climate Crisis: Learning And Evaluation To Drive Decision-Making And Identify Emergent Opportunities, Lindsay Hanson, Rosy Kalfus, Courtney Lee

The Foundation Review

To us, strategic learning is an adaptive approach to using evaluation and other data to directly affect decision-making and action.

An early focus on building relationships and accountability to specific outcomes and values — including establishing baselines and plans for regular reporting and interpretation — laid the groundwork for decision-making in later stages of the Climate Solutions program’s lifecycle.

Increasingly rapid data feedback loops informed the Climate Solutions program’s strategy pivot, decisions, and collaboration with grantees and funder partners.

Engagement in strategic learning and use of evaluation to drive decision-making improved with practice, as illustrated by the Climate Solutions team’s …

More Than The Sum: A Collective Vision For The Future Of Strategy, Monitoring, Impact, Learning And Evaluation (Smile) In Climate Philanthropy, Marta Arranz, Rees Warne, Olivia Deich, Amelia Abdelrazik

The Foundation Review

Organizations funding climate work must learn quickly and make urgent decisions despite uncertainties and low levels of control. Within climate philanthropy, sharing learnings widely and using evidence for decision-making are crucial.

The authors argue the “evaluation” field is both misdefined and underleveraged. In a shift away from accountability and siloed learning within organizations, they propose redefining the evaluation profession as SMILE (Strategy, Monitoring, Impact, Learning, and Evaluation).

After three years of building field-wide learning infrastructure, the authors reflect on the field’s progress and offer recommendations to the climate philanthropy ecosystem.

Climate Breakthrough's Impact And Learning System: A Case Study, Olivia Deich

The Foundation Review

Climate Breakthrough makes one-time, multi-million-dollar, multi-year, flexible grants to climate strategists. The portfolio is collectively aimed at achieving an outsized emissions reduction goal. There are no strategy pillars, and grantees are from across the globe. This model, paired with Climate Breakthrough’s guiding values, opens the door for impact and learning work focused on iteration and learning.

In practice, grantees identify a small set of key performance indicators themselves; they share emissions reduction estimates for their work that are important but not dominant; they have abundant impact and learning resources; and the funder gains a wealth of data from which to …

Feedback Loops In Practice: A Case Study On Evaluating A Climate Collaborative, Mansi Shah, Amy Sherwood, Abbie Turiansky, Drew Koleros, Axum Teferra

The Foundation Review

Philanthropic support to address the climate crisis has grown substantially, yet it remains unclear how effectively philanthropies are learning from their investments, from each other, and from other actors about what generates meaningful impact. Evaluations have come under scrutiny, as conventional approaches often struggle to account for complexity and provide the timely insights needed for adaptive management.

In this article, the authors present the learning journey of a complex, systems-focused climate philanthropy initiative that uses structured feedback loops as an evaluation design. They describe how these loops were implemented over a two-year evaluation; discuss the choice of complexity-aware methods; and …

Spend-Down To Scale Up: Limited-Life Giving In The Climate Crisis, Madeleine C. Mckinnon, Samuel Rogers, David Gunsberg, Emma Mcintosh

The Foundation Review

This article shares first-hand experiences of a charitable foundation operating under a spend-down model, illustrating how a fixed time horizon shapes philanthropic and programmatic behavior. The authors discuss three conditions that a spend-down horizon reliably forces: the imperative to fund quickly, collaboratively, and boldly on shared goals; the discipline to concentrate capital with strategic focus; and the emphasis on learning and collaboration as both a means to optimize for impact now and to sustain and scale impact over the long term.

Authors explore the influence of these conditions in a series of case studies working towards a clean energy transition …