Digital Commons Network^™

Is Punishment Relevant After All? A Prescription For Informing Juries Of The Consequences Of Conviction, Jeffrey Bellin

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

The American jury, once heralded as "the great corrective of law in its actual administration," has suffered numerous setbacks in the modern era. As a result, jurors have largely become bystanders in a criminal justice system that relies on increasingly severe punishments to incarcerate tens of thousands of offenders each year. The overwhelming majority of cases are resolved short of trial and, even when trials occur, jurors are instructed to find only the facts necessary for legal guilt. Apart from this narrow task, jurors need not, in the eyes of the law, concern themselves with whether a conviction and subsequent …

The Determinants Of Entrepreneurial Income In South Carolina, Devin Swindall

All Theses

Supporters claim that entrepreneurship is critical to building and sustaining the economy of urban and rural areas across the nation. Proponents argue that economic development practices that enhance and support entrepreneurship are essential because they cultivate innovation which, in turn, provides the area with new jobs, new wealth, and a better quality of life. However, self-employment income growth in South Carolina in particular and in the United States in general has lagged growth in income from other sources. This fact raises the need to study the determinants of self-employed income. Using the literature as a guide, a conceptual model was …

Buffering Effects Of Positive Mentoring On Mentor Burnout: Generative Concern And Perceived Organizational Support As Moderators, Meline Schaffer

All Theses

Burnout among employees has personal and organizational consequences. Negative effects of burnout include lowered individual adjustment as well as disengagement from the organization. Given this, both psychologists and practitioners may benefit from understanding ways to decrease this factor among employees.
One organizational experience that has the potential to decrease burnout is mentoring. While the advantages of mentoring relationships for protŽgŽs are well-documented, this study examines the potentially beneficial effects of positive mentoring relationships for the mentor, focusing on the reduction of burnout as a dependent variable. While benefits of mentoring may lead to reduced burnout, recent research suggests that negative …

Style And Electronic Communication: The Accommodation Of Scientific Risks In The Sierra Magazine, Erin Dalton

All Theses

This thesis focuses on how style accommodates scientific risks for public audiences in Magazine articles. Language has previously been unexplored in risk communication; in accommodation research, style has not been investigated. Responding to these gaps in research, this study combines two unexplored dimensions--risk communication and accommodation--to show how syntax, diction, and metaphor resituate technical language and ideas in scientific risk studies for readers. First, interviews with editors and writers will provide a rich understanding of how their editing and composition practices influence accommodation processes. From there, an electronic communication analysis will illustrate how this medium can accommodate beyond text to …

Experiencing Transition, Kara Renfro

All Theses

ABSTRACT
My sculpture offers visual cues and displayed experiences for the viewer to reflect
upon past experiences and recognize the transitions that have occurred throughout their
lives because of those memories or adventures that become important due to their fragile and brief nature. These transitions from one place to another shed light on our past and unfold a journey that leads us through the inevitably constant changing circumstances of everyday life.
The artifacts and documents displayed throughout this body of work speak to the
human need to memorialize the past through collecting, documenting, and performing. It
is through observing this …

Crime And Punishment: Insitutional Sanctions And Other Characteristics That Effect Campus Crime, Aldon Givens

All Theses

Crime, has and continues to be, a major issue in the world of institutions of higher education. Colleges and universities are constantly working on ways to prevent and improve crime on their respective campuses, which in most occasions includes collecting and reporting crime data to law enforcement agencies and the general public. By setting up punishment schemes and sanctions to deter criminal activity at their institution, administrators and faculty are looking for better, more efficient ways to influence the behavior or their students and steer them away from a life of criminal activity.
By studying existing literature, crime definitions, and …

4-H Leaders: Factors That Affect Their Persistence In The 4-H Youth Development Program, Regina Schinker

Dissertations

For over one hundred years, the 4-H youth development program has educated millions of children across the country in a variety of programs; from livestock husbandry to leadership skills. Like all programs that have endured, 4-H has had to adjust its focus as society has changed. One area in the 4-H program that has not changed is the heavy reliance on adult volunteer leaders to deliver the educational programs to 4-H youth. Because of the reliance on volunteer 4-H leaders, 4-H professionals and extension office staff are concerned about issues of retention.

The case study examines two related issues: First, …

Madd Message Effects: A Twelve-Year Randomized Trial, Una E. Medina

Communication ETDs

One out of three Americans undergoes drunk-driving crashes; 23% result in death. To deter DWIs (Driving While under Influence), MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Drivers) created VIPs (Victim Impact Panels) where victims impact offenders with gory stories, photos, and threats of punishments and loss of freedom, hoping this message will deter DWIs. It is remarkable that although the VIP message is considered a primary DWI intervention, yet no studies have investigated VIP message effects. VIP message effects, their persistence and decay, are chronicled here over the course of 12 years. This study extends an empirical investigation of VIPs, conducted by Woodall, …

The Effects Of A Course On Statistical Literacy Upon Students' Challenges To Statistical Claims Made In The Media, Rose Martinez-Dawson

All Dissertations

Statistical literacy involves critically evaluating and questioning statistics encountered in everyday life. The purpose of this study was to evaluate students' questions (challenges) concerning statistics encountered in everyday life and how these challenges differed before and after taking an undergraduate statistics course, entitled Statistics in Everyday Life 200 (SIEL), which focused on statistical literacy. One hundred forty-four students were given three media articles to indicate questions they had concerning statistics cited in the articles and explain why these questions were important to ask. Students' responses were categorized based on the topic and were assessed using the Statistics Literacy Components Rubric …

Need-Based Moderators Of Relational And Resource Concerns And Their Relationship To Procedural Justice, Jonas Johnson

All Dissertations

The current study assesses how needs influence the relationship between resource and relational concerns and procedural justice. Previous research has examined antecedents of procedural justice but often omits a consideration of individual needs in this analysis. Tyler (1994) found that the variables trust, neutrality, and status recognition were related to procedural justice because they contained variance related to relational concerns. Further research by Heuer, Penrod, Lafer, & Cohn (2002) also found that trust, neutrality, and status recognition were related to procedural justice based on resource concerns as well as relational concerns. However, no studies have examined the extent to which …

Multilevel Antecedents Of Economic Stress, Mark Zajack

All Dissertations

Much of the literature on economic stress focuses on outcomes. This study assessed the antecedents that precede employee perceptions of economic strain. A multilevel framework of economic antecedents was proposed. The framework included objective indicators of the macroeconomic context as well as individual-level objective and subjective economic antecedents. It was hypothesized that antecedents within each of these categories of economic stress can fall into one of two dimensions: employment- or finance-related. Indicators of the macroeconomic context were gathered from the American Community Survey (ACS). Over 2,000 union employees of a large U.S. Midwestern retail chain provided individual employee-level economic information …

Deadly Discourse: Negotiating Bureaucratic Consensus For The Final Solution Through Organizational And Technical Communication, Mark Ward Sr

All Dissertations

The Final Solution was largely accomplished in eleven months; its executors, the Nazi SS, faced the constant problem that as killing and plunder escalated so did internal competition and corruption; and the SS deliberately cultivated an intensely competitive and polycratic organizational culture that fit the Nazi worldview of life-as-struggle. By tying these three observations together—that the Final Solution was punctuated, entropic, and polycratic—the problem arises: How did SS organizational communications manage, just barely long enough, to create a temporary social reality that regulated the internal contradictions of its genocidal project and fragmented bureaucracy? This study contends that through its organizational …

A Study Of African American Forest Landowners In South Carolina: Implications For Land Ethic And Forest Stewardship, Keenan Adams

All Dissertations

African Americans account for a significant proportion of South Carolina`s
population but reportedly own a disproportionally smaller amount of land. Research indicates that landowners who hold significant sources of sustainable wealth and power can dramatically increase their quality of life and ultimately that of their communities. Current land loss trends for African Americans are increasing at an alarming rate, which may have larger social implications for this traditionally underserved population. The remaining African American landowners are a rapidly declining group, due to an assortment of factors (e.g., age, heirs property). Understanding the experiences of the residual African American forest landowners …

A Structural Equation Model Of Leader Attributes In The Principalship, Amy Young

All Dissertations

To become a principal in South Carolina, one must have teaching experience, a master's degree, and certification in the area of primary responsibility. Beyond what is learned through coursework, internships, and certification tests, what intangible factors critically influence a principal's actions and decisions, and (ultimately) success? Trait theory begs the question of whether any of these criteria truly influences the decisions and actions of the principalship. Are there interactive traits of leadership that describe the behaviors of school principals? This study revisits trait theory by examining leader attributes relative to the principalship of South Carolina public schools. This study replicates, …

The Impact Of University Housing Construction Type On Psychosocial Development Of First-Year Students, Justin Owens

All Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of university housing construction type on psychosocial development of first-year students. Data were collected at a large, four-year, public, research university in the Southeast using the Student Development Task and Lifestyle Assessment. The population considered for this study consisted of first-year, traditionally-aged students living on campus within university housing at the research site for the spring of 2010. The study only considered students within three residential living environments: (a) modified-traditional residence halls, (b) adjoining suite style residence halls, and (c) super-suite style residence halls.
Multivariate analysis of covariance and analysis …

Evaluation Of Factors That Modulate Cellular Adipogenesis For Breast Tissue Engineering Strategies, Cheryl Gomillion

All Dissertations

It is estimated that this year more than 200,000 women in the United States will be diagnosed with breast cancer. Treatment for most occurrences of breast cancer will often include surgical removal of the tumorigenic tissue, resulting in a soft tissue defect within the subcutaneous tissue of the skin. Post-surgical reconstruction methods are often sought by patients to restore the aesthetic function of the breast via cellular or non-cellular methods; however, because of complications associated with currently used methods for breast reconstruction, researchers are investigating tissue engineering methods to produce viable autologous adipose tissue for breast reconstruction.
Previous research in …

Factors, Preventions And Correction Methods For Non-Response In Sample Surveys, Godwin Nwanzu Amahi

CBN Journal of Applied Statistics (JAS)

Missing survey data occur because of unit and item non-response. This is practically independent of the method of data collection. As a result of the bias that non-response sometimes introduces in survey estimates, identifying factors that promote it, and taking measures of prevention and correction methods are clearly necessary. The standard method to compensate for unit non-response is by weighting adjustment, while item non-responses are handled by some form of imputation. This paper reviews factors that give rise to nonresponse and the corresponding methods used for its prevention and control. It also discusses their properties.

Statistics For National Development, Sani I. Doguwa

CBN Journal of Applied Statistics (JAS)

Good statistics that has been collected according to agreed good practices are crucial as a tool for development. Gross domestic product (GDP) and other measures of economic activity such as Gross National Income (GNI) together with their individual components, show how the economy is responding to government policy and other influences. The balance of payments can demonstrate the requirement for policy adjustments and is also one of the indicators scrutinised by potential foreign investors in the country. Agricultural statistics clearly have implications for longer-term planning, particularly if they show a move away from the land into urban areas or a …

Lawmakers As Lawbreakers, Ittai Bar-Siman-Tov

William & Mary Law Review

How would Congress act in a world without judicial review? Can
lawmakers be trusted to police themselves? This Article examines
Congress’s capacity and incentives to enforce upon itself “the law of
congressional lawmaking”—a largely overlooked body of law that is
completely insulated from judicial enforcement. The Article explores
the political safeguards that may motivate lawmakers to engage in
self-policing and rule-following behavior. It identifies the major
political safeguards that can be garnered from the relevant legal,
political science, political economy, and social psychology scholarship,
and evaluates each safeguard by drawing on a combination of
theoretical, empirical, and descriptive studies about …

The Wrong Tool For The Job: The Ip Problem With Noncompetition Agreements, Viva R. Moffat

William & Mary Law Review

This Article argues that employee noncompetition agreements ought to be unenforceable. It begins by recognizing that there is momentum for change in the law of noncompetes: a number of states and the American Law Institute (ALI) are in the process of reconsidering noncompete doctrine, and recent empirical studies provide evidence as to the mostly negative effects of the agreements. Existing critiques have focused on the problematic nature of noncompetes within the employment relationship. This Article synthesizes those critiques, adding support from empirical studies, and then examines noncompetes from a new perspective.

Commentators have neither recognized nor evaluated the role noncompetes …

Rejecting Refugees: Homeland Security's Administration Of The One-Year Bar To Asylum, Philip G. Schrag, Andrew I. Schoenholtz, Jaya Ramji-Nogales, James P. Dombach

William & Mary Law Review

Since 1980, the Refugee Act has offered asylum to people who flee to the United States to escape persecution in their homeland. In 1996, however, Congress amended the law to bar asylum—regardless of the merits of the underlying claim—for any applicant who fails to apply within one year of entering the United States, unless the applicant qualifies for one of two exceptions to the rule.

In the years since the bar was established, anecdotal reports have suggested that genuine refugees, with strong claims to asylum, have been rejected solely because of the deadline. Many scholars and practitioners suspected that this …

The Chicago Experiment: Finding The Voice And Charting The Course Of Religious Education In The Church, Casey P. Griffiths

BYU Studies

In many professions, Latter-day Saints often struggle to find harmony between their religion and their career. This has been especially true in academia, in most of its diverse disciplines. These challenges were particularly fierce when the Church began developing its own corps of professional religious educators to teach and lead in the newly founded seminary and institute programs of the early twentieth century. In the early 1930s, religious educators in the Church developed a close relationship with the School of Divinity at the University of Chicago. Eleven young Latter-day Saint scholars earned advanced degrees at the school at the Church's …

The Effect Of The Involvement Within Career Academies By Elective Participation Of Eleventh And Twelfth Grade High School Students During The Implementation Year, Nancy A. Johnston

Student Work

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of elective participation in one of three implementation year Career Academies, Education, Entrepreneurship, or Finance, on upper-class high school academic grades, Grade Point Average, and school academy participation measures. Significance of the junior and senior year of high school, the meaning of a high school diploma and graduation requirements, and the connection to preparation for postsecondary studies and the world of work, career readiness, have become a focus of high school improvement efforts throughout the country. The implementation of the Millard Public Schools Career Academies in August of 2009 was …

Factors Affecting Literacy Achievement Of Eighth Grade Middle School Instrumental Music Students, Johnny T. Brauch Kurt

Student Work

The purpose of this pretest-posttest comparative efficacy study was to analyze factors affecting literacy achievement of eighth grade middle school instrumental music students (n = 38) including (a) socioeconomic status (SES), (b) gender, (c) grade point average (GPA), (d) music motivation, (e) music involvement, and (f) instrument section. The findings of this study indicate that, utilizing the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS) reading comprehension, reading vocabulary, and science subtests and the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) Reading Measure of Academic Progress (MAP) as the dependent variables for each of the six independent variables, significant growth over time was made in …

President Obama’S Policy Agenda In The Supreme Court: What We Know So Far From The Office Of The Solicitor General’S Service As Amicus Curiae, Karen Swenson

Southern Illinois University Law Journal

One window into the soul of a presidential administration is the work of the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG), the representative of the executive branch before the Supreme Court of the United States. This could be particularly true in the case of a president who is a lawyer with work experience as a law professor. This article examines the Obama administration’s OSG efforts in filing voluntary amicus curiae briefs before the Supreme Court. In performing this task, the OSG is at the height of its discretion vis-à-vis the demands, implicit or otherwise, of the Supreme Court and most free …

December 2010 Commencement Program, Bowling Green State University

Commencement Programs

No abstract provided.

Neuroeconomics: Constructing Identity, John B. Davis

Economics Faculty Research and Publications

The paper asks whether neuroeconomics will make instrumental use of neuroscience to adjudicate existing disputes in economics or be more seriously transformed by neuroscience in ways that might transform economics. The paper pursues the question by asking how neuroscience constructs an understanding of individuals as whole persons. The body of the paper is devoted to examining two approaches: Don Ross's neurocellular approach to neuroeconomics and Joseph Dumit's cultural anthropological science organization approach. The accounts are used to identify boundaries on single individual explanations. Within that space Andy Clark's external scaffolding view and Nathaniel Wilcox's socially distributed cognition view are employed.

In Service Of Mission: Assessing Catholic School Guidance Counselors, Robert J. Murray, Kristy S. Kane

Journal of Catholic Education

Catholic schools are set apart from public schools in that Catholic schools aim to create for the school community an atmosphere enlivened by the Gospel spirit of freedom and charity. Those who serve in Catholic schools, therefore, need to understand their role as unique, that is, faith driven. The purpose of this study was to assess this uniqueness as understood and practiced by Catholic school counselors. The findings of this study note positive trends among Catholic school counselors, particularly in terms of academic preparation and training as well as some incorporation of Catholic identity and mission into their ministry with …

Spiritual Vs. Religious: Perspectives From Today's Undergraduate Catholics, Dawn V. Overstreet

Journal of Catholic Education

Contemporary American college students simultaneously express both increased interest in spirituality and declining interest in traditional religion. Recent research recognizes the trend of young adults separating spirituality from religion, but utilizes varied definitions of each term developed by the researchers. This study asks students directly whether and how they differentiate spirituality from religion. The purpose of this article is to examine how undergraduate Catholics attending a Catholic university conceive of themselves as spiritual or religious and the differences, if any, between the two descriptors. The perspectives of 20 young adults of various programs of study and self-described degrees of spirituality …

Perspectives Of Employed People Experiencing Homelessness Of Self And Being Homeless: Challenging Socially Constructed Perceptions And Stereotypes, Micheal L. Shier, Marion E. Jones, John R. Graham

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

In a study that sought to identify the multiple factors resulting in homelessness from the perspective of 65 individuals in Calgary, Alberta, Canada who were both employed and homeless, we found that participants' perceptions of being homeless emerged as a major theme which impacts their entry to and exit from homelessness. Four sub-themes related to these perceptions were identified: (1) perceptions of self and situation; (2) impact of being homeless on self-reflection; (3) aspects of hope to consider; and (4) perspectives on having a permanent residence. Analytically, these findings help challenge present stereotypes about homelessness and usefully inform social service …