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When There's No Home To Prepare: Understanding Natural Hazards Vulnerability Among The Homeless In Central Florida, Marc Settembrino Jan 2013

When There's No Home To Prepare: Understanding Natural Hazards Vulnerability Among The Homeless In Central Florida, Marc Settembrino

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The current study explores the social construction of natural hazards vulnerability by examining the perceptions of emergency management personnel, homeless service providers and homeless men living in Central Florida. The matrix of vulnerability is proposed as a framework for studying disaster vulnerability, wherein vulnerability is viewed as a complex process consisting of social and physical risk, human agency and time. Using the matrix as a guiding framework, this study examines the risks that natural hazards present to the homeless living in Central Florida and the strategies used by the homeless to manage these risks. This study argues that because the …


Road Networks, Social Disorganization And Lethality, An Exploration Of Theory And An Examination Of Covariates, Aaron Poole Jan 2013

Road Networks, Social Disorganization And Lethality, An Exploration Of Theory And An Examination Of Covariates, Aaron Poole

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Utilizing a Criminal Event Perspective, the analyses of this dissertation test a variety of relationships to the dependent variable: the Criminal Lethality Index. Data from the National Incident-Based Reporting System, the Census and American Community Survey, the American Trauma Society, and data derived from the Census’s mapping TIGER files are combined to create a database of 190 cities. This database is used to test road network connectivity (Gama Index), medical resources, criminal covariates and Social Disorganization variables in relation to a city’s Criminal Lethality Index. OLS regression demonstrates a significant and negative relationship between a city’s Gama Index and its …


Tracking Violence: Using Neighborhood-Level Characteristics In The Analysis Of Domestic Violence In Chicago And The State Of Illinois, Rachel Morgan Jan 2013

Tracking Violence: Using Neighborhood-Level Characteristics In The Analysis Of Domestic Violence In Chicago And The State Of Illinois, Rachel Morgan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Social disorganization theory proposes that neighborhood characteristics, such as residential instability, racial and ethnic heterogeneity, concentrated disadvantage, and immigrant concentration contribute to an increase in crime rates. Informal social controls act as a mediator between these neighborhood characteristics and crime and delinquency. Informal social controls are regulated by members of a community and in a disorganized community these controls are not present, therefore, crime and delinquency flourish (Sampson, 2012). Researchers have focused on these measures of social disorganization and the ability to explain a variety of crimes, specifically public crimes. Recently, researchers have focused their attention to characteristics of socially …


The Dimensions Of Social Capital, Richard Webster Jan 2013

The Dimensions Of Social Capital, Richard Webster

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study called into question the rationale and methods used by researchers used to measure levels of social capital, particularly Putnam (1995), Paxton (1999), and Park (2006). A central purpose to this study was to partially replicate and extend the work of Park, who theoretically derived four dimensions of social capital. I develop measures of each dimension and then regress each on the variables of age, sex, race, ethnicity, marital status, education, income, and religiosity. This created four sets of outcomes from which I drew conclusions about the dimensionality of the social capital concept. Based on the low percentage of …


Why They Stop Attending Church: An Exploratory Study Of Religious Participation Decline Among Millennials From Conservative Christian Backgrounds, Jessica Chase Jan 2013

Why They Stop Attending Church: An Exploratory Study Of Religious Participation Decline Among Millennials From Conservative Christian Backgrounds, Jessica Chase

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Using a grounded theory approach, this study examines the reasons why Millennials from conservative Christian backgrounds stop attending church. The purpose is to understand why attendance attrition is at an all time high for those in the Millennial generation, ages 18 to 29. Data from 18 semi-structured interviews with former attendees demonstrate that this phenomenon is not due to a simplistic list of reasons but is actually a result of a complex development involving varying interrelated processes. The primary processes at work are cognitive and spiritual disconnection and disengagement for personal wellbeing


High School Students Attending College: A Study Of The Dual Enrollment Program And Its Impact On The Postsecondary Institution Of Brevard Community College, Matthew Hiesterman Jan 2013

High School Students Attending College: A Study Of The Dual Enrollment Program And Its Impact On The Postsecondary Institution Of Brevard Community College, Matthew Hiesterman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study looks at the dual enrollment program at Brevard Community College in the state of Florida. It uses new interview data to determine if the positive and negative aspects of the program established by the literature still pertain. Four main themes were identified by the study of dual enrollment students and the postsecondary institution: money, quality of students, quantity of students, and opportunities of students and the institution. A discussion of each side of the discourse are made in order to help the program retain its positive attributes. While quality, quantity, and money are all issues concerning the day …


Firearm Lethality In Drug Market Contexts, James Mccutcheon Jan 2013

Firearm Lethality In Drug Market Contexts, James Mccutcheon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The current study examines firearms’ impact on the relationship between illegal drug markets and homicide. At the county-level, Iowa and Virginia are analyzed using crime data from the National Incident Based Reporting System. More specifically, gun availability is tested as a mediator for county drug crime rates and homicide counts. Variable selection and prediction is based on routine activity and social disorganization theories. I argue that social disorganization allows the context for which criminal opportunity presents itself through routine activities. I posit gun availability mediates a positive relationship between illegal drug markets and homicide, with differences between urban and rural …


Moving Beyond Title Ix: An Evaluation Of The Comprehensiveness And Accessibility Of Policies And Procedures For Preventing And Responding To Gender Based Violence, Alyssa Mullins Jan 2013

Moving Beyond Title Ix: An Evaluation Of The Comprehensiveness And Accessibility Of Policies And Procedures For Preventing And Responding To Gender Based Violence, Alyssa Mullins

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The current study examines the gender based violence policies and programs of large, public universities in Florida. Current literature argues that preventing and responding to gender based violence in institutions of higher education requires comprehensive and ecological techniques at the individual, interpersonal, community, and societal level. In recent years, various institutions and agencies have showed increasing administrative commitment to addressing these issues. Futures Without Violence, formerly named Family Violence Prevention Fund, is a private organization that has established a set of guidelines and recommendations to aid IHEs in their response and prevention of gender based violence, intended to exceed federal …


Promoting Courage: An Evaluation Of Harbor House Of Central Florida's Domestic Violence Primary Prevention Initiative Project Courage, Jordana Navarro Jan 2013

Promoting Courage: An Evaluation Of Harbor House Of Central Florida's Domestic Violence Primary Prevention Initiative Project Courage, Jordana Navarro

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

While the old adage of “it takes a village…” is often stated in reference to raising children, this statement is also extremely applicable in combating social problems such as intimate partner abuse (IPA). All too often society members turn a “blind eye” to abuse occurring within our homes between intimate partners. Although recent research has shown improvement in attitudes condemning IPA, other research has identified that many individuals continue to perceive IPA as largely a private problem (Bethke & DeJoy, 1993; Straus, Kaufman Kantor, & Moore, 1997). This commonplace belief stands in stark contrast to the vast amount of research …


Intimate Partner Kidnapping: An Exploratory Analysis, Lindsey Blumenstein Jan 2013

Intimate Partner Kidnapping: An Exploratory Analysis, Lindsey Blumenstein

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The following study is an exploratory analysis of intimate partner kidnapping. The current study will give a descriptive picture of the victim, offender, and incident characteristics of a form of intimate partner violence that has never been studied before, intimate partner kidnapping, as well as a form of physical violence often seen in the literature, intimate partner assaults. The study will use a combination of the National Incident Based Report System (FBI, 2009), and the American Community Survey (Census, 2012) to identify these characteristics and also to identify any potential relationships between structural-level correlates and rates of intimate partner violence. …


Victims Outside The Binary: Transgender Survivors Of Intimate Partner Violence, Xavier Diaz, Jan 2013

Victims Outside The Binary: Transgender Survivors Of Intimate Partner Violence, Xavier Diaz,

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

While research on intimate partner violence (IPV) has begun to include gay and lesbian relationships, these studies have almost entirely focused on cisgender relationships or victims. To date, little to no research exists on IPV in the transgender community. The current study explored accounts and meanings of IPV victimization as told by 18 transgender-identified survivors. Thirteen in-depth interviews and five open-ended questionnaires were analyzed from a modified grounded theory method through open and focused coding that revealed three broad and salient themes. First, the accounts of violence illustrated the role of transphobic and genderist attacks in the dynamics of abuse. …


Showcasing Self: An Intersectional Analysis Of Body Type Presentation In Online Daters, Andrew Latinsky Jan 2013

Showcasing Self: An Intersectional Analysis Of Body Type Presentation In Online Daters, Andrew Latinsky

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Using data collected from the online dating site Match.com, this paper performs a content analysis examining the relationships between race, gender, and sexuality as both independent variables and as intersections on impression management strategies in online dating. Impression management strategies form a foundational core of how people interact with others in social situations. This analysis focuses on impression management strategies by examining how people advertise their body type in a public arena. Analysis also draws upon the types of bodies these people desire in an ideal date, as a second method of looking at the norms surrounding the ideal body …


Measuring Impact: The State Of Nonprofit Evaluation In The Greater Orlando Area, Sara Strickhouser Jan 2013

Measuring Impact: The State Of Nonprofit Evaluation In The Greater Orlando Area, Sara Strickhouser

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Research shows that since the mid-1990s funders of the nonprofit sector have significantly increased the sophistication of their reporting requirements. Funders today want agencies to demonstrate beyond outputs and report on outcomes and the impact they have on the communities they serve. Funders are monitoring community impact by requiring more complex reports from the agencies they fund. These changes have meant that agencies must become proficient in data collection, management, and analyses practices in order to accurately respond to funders’ report requests. Nonprofits, however, find these requirements difficult to conceptualize and even more difficult to attain. Managing and analyzing the …


Interracial Lesbian And Gay Couples: Navigating Private And Public Experiences, Anne Bubriski Jan 2013

Interracial Lesbian And Gay Couples: Navigating Private And Public Experiences, Anne Bubriski

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the private and public experiences of Black/White interracial lesbian and gay couples. Drawing from the theoretical frameworks of critical race theory and intersectional feminism, this research focuses on how the intersections of gender, race, and sexuality influence relationship experiences and family processes in both private and public spaces for interracial same-sex couples. This study is based on 19 in-depth interviews with individuals in Black/White lesbian and gay relationships. Participants’ stories highlight intersectionality in terms of the ways interracial lesbian and gay couples navigate these interpersonal and public spaces. Participant experiences suggest that the dichotomy of private/public is …


Child Murder: A Re-Examination Of Durkheim's Theory Of Homicide, Melissa Tetzlaff-Bemiller Jan 2013

Child Murder: A Re-Examination Of Durkheim's Theory Of Homicide, Melissa Tetzlaff-Bemiller

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The current study examines county-level characteristics and their impact on child homicide. This work uses Durkheimian theory and tests the concept of solidarity by using variables that constitute integration and regulation. In addition, some variables are drawn from other theoretical perspectives, mainly social disorganization and anomie theories, to better explore additional macro-level indicators. Data were obtained from multiple locations. Homicide data for children, from birth through five years, utilized in this work came from the National Incident-Based Reporting System. County level socio-demographics were obtained from the Census. Political party affiliation (Republican or Democrat) came from Politico, and religious data were …


Predictors Of Food Insecurity In 3 Central Florida Communities, Tangela Towns Jan 2013

Predictors Of Food Insecurity In 3 Central Florida Communities, Tangela Towns

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the association between different socio-demographic factors and food insecurity in the Central Florida Communities of Maitland, Winter Park, and Eatonville. Data from the Institute for Social and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Central Florida were utilized to analyze 3 main questions: In which community is food insecurity more prevalent? To what extent are food consumption, transportation, poverty, and unemployment associated with food insecurity? Does the association between food consumption, transportation, poverty, unemployment, and food insecurity remain when controlling for self-reported overall health, education, marital status, and race. The results revealed differences in predictors of food insecurities. …