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Family In Context: (Re)Entry Narratives Of Formerly Incarcerated Individuals, Jennifer Elena Cossyleon

Master's Theses

The current study is informed by narrative accounts of 39 released prisoners, who provide day-to-day understandings of how they have experienced and continue to experience community reintegration. This study digs deeper into the intricacies of returning to free society, one that often disenfranchises and labels ex-offenders, and attempts to reveal how released prisoners themselves see family as pertinent in their reentry experiences. Respondents' stories are telling of the resources they draw upon, and in particular how their families are involved in that process. Findings suggest that families at times provide material and emotional support, but may also facilitate drug use …

The Hybrid Laboratory: Informal Spaces For Public-Science Interaction, Whitney Ann Ferrin-Rodriguez

Master's Theses

While growing trends in participatory science and public outreach have made science more accessible to publics, science communities and publics have long interpreted science and laboratories as private domains, perpetuating the idea that science is reserved for "experts" and locations for science are deemed "private." Many studies that examine public-science interaction, however, seldom consider the role of space and place. I argue that material spaces shape public-science interactions. My analysis takes place at an institutionalized informal education platform: a hybrid laboratory: a space used by "expert" astronomers to create new visual knowledge and "lay" publics to actively participate in astronomy. …

From Individual Conscience To Parish Culture: A Study Of Two Catholic Parishes In The Archdiocese Of Chicago, Lucas S. Sharma

Master's Theses

The Roman Catholic Church is unique in having a unified set of institutional teachings across one billion people in the world including sixty million American Catholics. However, previous quantitative and qualitative studies in sociology suggest that Catholics are not unified in their beliefs but are actually quite diverse. Additionally, Baggett (2009) suggests that Catholics form distinct parish cultures on the local level, and that these parishes are the location that a majority of Catholics experience their faith. What is not know, however, is how Catholic parishes form cultures, especially around political issues. This study aims to understand exactly this by …

Self-Control As A Determining Factor In Aftercare Compliance And Recidivism Of Sheridan Correctional Center Releasees, Jana R. Krepel

Master's Theses

This study looked to Self–Control Theory to explore relationships between self–control and aftercare completion and recidivism in a cohort of Sheridan Correctional Center releases (N=604). The data set was obtained by Dr. David Olson (Olson & Rozhon, 2011) of Loyola University Chicago. Utilizing an existing inmate evaluation tool, the Client Evaluation of Self and Treatment, a new index of self–control was created, and the scales of this index became the predictor variables. After logistic regression, it was determined that none of the self–control scales were significant predictors of either aftercare compliance or recidivism. In fact, when all variables were considered, …

Treatment Compliance And Recidivism: Following Up On The 2000 Illinois Juvenile Probation Outcome Study, Connor Concannon

Master's Theses

This study examines the relationship between demographics, treatment completion, and recidivism in a cohort of Illinois juveniles discharged from probation. The current study expands on prior research through the examination of recidivism both while on supervision as well as ten years after discharge. Results indicate that while treatment completion is predictive of on-probation arrests, other factors appear to be stronger predictors of post-probation recidivism.

The analyses also provide a baseline to examine the impact of the conditions of probation prior to the implementation of substantive reforms to probation practices in Illinois in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Thus, the …

Gender Inequality And Countries' Responsiveness To Enforcing Human Trafficking Laws: A Cross National Study, Christina Rose Fiorito

Master's Theses

In recent years, government agencies, advocacy groups, and academics have made attempts to address and understand the problem of human trafficking through raising awareness, conducting research and implementing prevention and intervention programs. This study tested whether gender inequality measures, which capture aspects of a country's social and political operations, are related to less governmental efforts to enforce laws against human trafficking, after controlling for other possible explanations for lax enforcement such as poverty, government corruption, political instability and increase of general violence, educational achievement, net migration, and the percent of the country's population living in urban areas.

The data were …

Quiero Ser Alguien En La Vida: Hispanic Women And The Role Of Culture In Educational Attainment, Lupita Maria Pivaral

Master's Theses

There are very few studies that investigate the low educational attainment rates of Latinos, and even fewer that consider the role culture may have on educational attainment. In particular, Latinas have been neglected in academic studies regarding their academic pursuits and performance. This study aims to fill this void in the academic literature. It is based on interviews with 13 Hispanic women who were enrolled in a Chicago area adult high school. The women shared their personal narratives, describing in detail various life events and sharing their thoughts of how these may have lead them to make decisions that ultimately …

When Theory Meets Practice: Challenging Racial Inequality In A Post-Civil Rights Era, Victoria Brockett

Master's Theses

Knowledge about racial inequality is important because it can inform racially just practices. To this end, multiple scholars have shown how racial inequality operates and how it can be challenged in various facets of social life. However, what does challenging racism look like when theory meets practice? Building on racial formation theory, this thesis examines a racial justice organization's (RJO) training and consulting services through the lens of a political project that is rearticulating the meaning of race and thus, the role of race in the social structure. Evidenced by observations and interviews with RJO staff and their clients, this …

The Social Worlds Of Tattooing: Divergent Sources Of Expertise, Lorrie Kathleen Riley

Master's Theses

Since its commercialization and rise to popularity in mainstream culture, tattooing has increasingly become a profession that effectively blends medical regulation and artistic expertise. Although a non-traditional profession sociologically, tattooing is in the process of an occupational shift, moving from the realm of deviant, working-class art to a commercialized industry of consumers' artistic identity expression. While in the process of this shift, tattooing currently borders several social worlds, each of which are vying for control over its practice. Specifically, the social worlds of art, medicine, and legislation are currently colliding in the struggle to define and control of the practice …

Neither Butch Nor Barbie: Negotiating Gender In Women's Roller Derby, Kaley Marissa Mullin

Master's Theses

Using ethnographic methods, I began this project with the goal of understanding the full experience of what it means to be a derby girl. This included examining how the sport dictates performances of gender and how derby girls perform gender on and off the rink. Additionally, I paid special attention to how the women negotiate femininity and beauty. I found that roller derby girls maneuver through the world of gender dichotomies skillfully by means of their actions and words in the derby space. Unlike at the inception of derby, current derby girls engage less consciously with the feminist movement. Instead …

Midwife Or Med-Wife: Examining Emotion Work With Midwifery Students In Clinical Training, Jessica Anna Cebulak

Master's Theses

Midwives follow a holistic philosophy of care that goes beyond just medical intervention, providing support to both mother and family through the various stages of pregnancy and child birth. Yet, there is a lack of research in the US that examines how midwives invest emotion in their work, and the challenges they face when doing so. Drawing on the concept of Arlie Hochschild's (1979) emotion work as a lens for this study, I examine how midwifery students experience and manage emotion when delivering care to patients during clinical training in a large, urban hospital. Using eight qualitative, in-depth interviews with …