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Utah State Magazine, Fall 2015, Utah State University

Utah State Magazine

The quarterly magazine for friends and alumni of Utah State University.

Prisonland: Environment, Society, And Mass Incarceration On New York's Northern Frontier, 1845-1999, Clarence Jefferson Hall

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

My dissertation explores the social experience and environmental politics of mass incarceration in five communities in New York's Adirondack Park, with a focus on the period 1975-1999. Historians, sociologists, and criminologists have enhanced our understanding of criminal law and its impacts on lawbreakers, their families, and communities. By the same token, environmental historians have expanded our knowledge of the dynamic forces that contributed to the making of parks and recreational spaces across the United States. With rare exceptions, scholars in these fields have left unexplored one of the consequences of postindustrial decline, namely, the mass incarceration of predominantly urban, non-white …

Examining Macro-Level Correlates Of Farm Equipment Theft : A Test Of Routine Activity Theory And Social Disorganization Theory., Dustin Lee Osborne

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the potential for routine activity theory and social disorganization theory to explain incidence of farm equipment theft at the county level. Relatively few attempts have been made to discern the factors that contribute to such theft. Most are relatively dated, and all focus upon the relationship between victimization risk and the characteristics of individual farms. Accordingly, the current study represents the first attempt to examine the influence of macro-level processes and characteristics upon the problem. Data are gathered for 306 counties housed within four Southeastern States. Counts of farm equipment theft are collected from the 2011-2012 iterations …

"What Role We, As Negro Youth Of America, Could Play" : A New History Of The Louisville Naacp Youth, 1937-1955., Alexis Monique Johnson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Utilizing the archival Papers of the NAACP, The Louisville Leader, and The Crisis, this thesis narrates the history of the youth arm of the NAACP in Louisville, Kentucky, from 1937 until 1955, previously undocumented in the written record. First organized in September 1937, the Louisville NAACP Youth Council, alongside the college chapter at Louisville Municipal College, sponsored an anti-lynching campaign in 1938. The Youth Council also attended the 29th annual NAACP conference in 1938, and sent a delegate to the National Anti-War Youth Congress in 1939. These activities were situated in a historical moment that saw the proliferation of interracial …

Doing Time By Conceiving Space : The Rhetorical Cartographies Of Imprisoned Writers., Benjamin Bogart

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is a theoretical analysis of rhetorical constructions of identity as they are impacted by spatiality, with specific regard to the writing of incarcerated persons. It begins with an exploration of prison as “rhetorical space”—that is, the specific geography of communicative events, which includes both the material conditions of the environment as well as the cultural, abstracted conditions which offer persuasive potential. Proposing then a framework for analysis along these lines—a concept called “rhetorical cartography”—it then turns its attention, in the latter half, to analysis of actual texts authored by American prisoners. This dissertation is divided into four chapters, …

Wrongfully Incarcerated And Never Fully Compensated: An Examination Of Indiana's Failure To Indemnify Exonerated Inmates, Maryam A. Afshar

Valparaiso University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Abused, Neglected, And Abandoned By State Juvenile Courts: The Call For Reform In Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, Sha'na Harris

Valparaiso University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Undergraduate And Graduate Course Descriptions, 2015 Fall, Wright State University

Course Descriptions

Wright State University undergraduate and graduate course descriptions from Fall 2015.

Gardner-Webb University Awards Over 260 Degrees During Summer Commencement On Aug. 1, Office Of University Communications

Gardner-Webb NewsCenter Archive

Gardner–Webb University hosted Summer Commencement on Saturday, Aug. 1 in the Lutz-Yelton Convocation Center at 10 a.m. More than 260 graduates were honored for their achievements during the ceremony. Many graduates participated in the ceremony through prayer, scripture reading, and commencement speeches.

Public Video Surveillance And The Separation Of Powers, Lianhan Zhang

Maurer Theses and Dissertations

The thesis focuses on the response from the United States government on new challenges brought by the public video surveillance, in particular the privacy threat. Regarding regulating public video surveillance, the United States has gone on a different path, either from Britain with its similar political system or from China with a totally different one. The three branches of government in the U.S. are deadlocked and unable to take any meaningful actions. The Supreme Court, which is in a strong position to set national and uniform standards for privacy protection, has not found a way to break away from its …

Peer Victimization And Drd4 Genotype Influence Problem Behaviors In Young Children, Lisabeth Fisher Dilalla, Kyle Bersted, Sufna Gheyara John

Articles

Decades of research supports the presence of significant genetic influences on children’s internalizing (emotional), externalizing (acting out), and social difficulties, including victimization. Additionally, being victimized has been shown to relate to further behavioral problems. The current study assessed the nature of the gene-environment relationships between the DRD4 gene, peer victimization, and externalizing and internalizing difficulties in 6- to 10-year- old children. 174 children (56% girls; 88.6% Caucasian, 3.4% African American, 8% mixed race or Mayan) and their parents were administered victimization and problem behavior questionnaires, and DRD4 was genotyped for the children. An interaction between genes (DRD4) and environment (victimization) …

Keynote Address: Federal Sentencing Reform Ten Years After United States V. Booker, Charles R. Breyer Hon.

UC Law Journal

Hon. Charles R. Breyer gave the keynote address for Hastings Law Journal’s Federal Sentencing Reform Symposium held on February 13, 2015. Professor Rory Little provided the introduction.

Merit-Based Sentencing Reductions: Moving Forward On Specifics, And Some Critique Of The New Model Penal Code, Rory K. Little

UC Law Journal

In the Essay that follows, Michael Santos tells a remarkable story. Arrested at age twenty-three, Santos served twenty-six years in the federal prison system. While in prison, Santos published articles and books, and earned college and master’s degrees, despite what he describes as affirmatively obstructionist decisions by “corrections” personnel. Immediately after his release in 2013, Santos began lecturing at a respected state university. Today, he has a website; course materials for persons facing lengthy prison sentences; scores of supporters and mentors; and the charisma and character to hold a law symposium audience spellbound for every minute of his thirty-minute presentation. …

Families, General Strain, Social Control And Adolescent Pain Killer Use, Melinda S. Furtaw

Masters Theses

This study determines whether family structure or transitions alone influence adolescent use of pain killers, as previous studies in delinquency and substance use would suggest, or if there are potentially mediating factors. The theories of general strain and social control are drawn upon to create mediating variables of abuse and failing grade (general strain) as well as attachment and school suspension (social control). The study will use data from the National Survey of Adolescents (1995).

Binary logistic regression was used to estimate if family structure leads to increased odds of being abused, having a failing grade, and being suspended from …

Human Rights Institute Annual Report 2014-2015, Human Rights Institute

Human Rights Institute

The Human Rights Institute sits at the heart of human rights teaching, practice, and scholarship at Columbia Law School. Founded in 1998 by the late Professor Louis Henkin, the Institute draws on the Law School’s deep human rights tradition to support and influence human rights practice in the United States and throughout the world. The activities of the Human Rights Clinic are included in the Institute’s work, enabling us to multiply our impact on the field and engage students more fully in our efforts. The Institute’s newly formed Columbia Advisory Committee provides input and feedback on the Institute’s activities and …

An Empirical Test For Overrepresentation Of Black Youth Arrests In Mississippi, Ashley R. Mcknight

Honors Theses

The objective of this study is to empirically test for black youth overrepresentation at the initial contact (arrest) stage of the juvenile justice system. In 2002, an amendment was made to the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974 which called for states to monitor disproportionate minority contact at all levels of the juvenile justice system. Arrest data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics has been gathered to determine the rate and percentage at which black youth are arrested compared to white youth. More so, youth population statistics are acquired from the U.S. Census and are converted to percentages. …

Primary Prevention And Risk Reduction Programming For College-Level Sexual Assault Prevention: Illustrating The Benefits Of A Combined Approach, Mellisa Holtzman, Chadwick L. Menning

eJournal of Public Affairs

Primary prevention and risk reduction strategies for reducing sexual assault on college campuses have generally been treated as distinct categories of programming, with greater emphasis placed on primary prevention in recent years. The authors propose that there is both theoretical justification and measurable benefit to synthesizing or coordinating carefully constructed primary prevention and risk reduction programming. They provide as support a summary of assessment findings from an exemplary program and discuss implications and future directions for program development and testing.

Census-Based Socioeconomic Indicators For Monitoring Injury Causes In The Usa: A Review, Nathaniel Bell, Amanda Arrington, Swann Arp Adams

Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND:

Unlike the UK or New Zealand, there is no standard set of census variables in the USA for characterising socioeconomic (SES, socioeconomic status) inequalities in health outcomes, including injury. We systematically reviewed existing US studies to identify conceptual and methodological strengths and limitations of current approaches to determine those most suitable for research and surveillance.

METHODS:

We searched seven electronic databases to identify census variables proposed in the peer-reviewed literature to monitor injury risk. Inclusion criteria were that numerator data were derived from hospital, trauma or vital statistics registries and that exposure variables included census SES constructs.

RESULTS:

From …

Charging On The Margin, Paul Crane

Public Law and Legal Theory Working Papers

No abstract provided.

Corruption And Criminal Sentencing Dispositions In China, Qingting Hu

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Corruption is a prevalent crime worldwide. In China, it is drawing increased attention because the current administration is making intensified efforts to fight corruption. Despite its importance, empirical research on the characteristics and sentencing dispositions of corruption cases is rare. Based on 343 corruption cases, and using the focal concerns theory of sentencing as an interpretive framework, this study examines the main corruption offense and offender characteristics and the sentencing of corruption offenders. It also tests several specific hypotheses linked to the focal concerns theory: (1) If a case has characteristics indicating higher blameworthiness (e.g., higher amount of property involved), …

Analyzing Students’ Personal Characteristics To Determine Study Outcomes, Jennifer L. Maloney

Dissertations

The purpose of this quantitative study was to identify the personal characteristics that predicted the study outcome of students in higher education. Study outcome was defined as a student’s grade point average and re-enrolling for the following semester. Multiple regression analysis was used to evaluate whether a student’s former education, personality characteristics, orientation on learning, and study approach influenced study outcome. Of these 11 explanatory variables analyzed against study outcome, many were found to have a direct impact on study outcome. The results of this study provided insight into the predictive ability of personal characteristics and former education on study …

Volume 99, Number 2 (2015)

Judicature

No abstract provided.

Unique And Combined Contributions Of Callous-Unemotional Traits And Parental Incarceration On Juvenile Delinquency In An At-Risk Sample, Lacey Loy Herrington

Dissertations

The current study examined the interrelations among callous-unemotional (CU) traits, a history of parental incarceration, and juvenile delinquency. More specifically, although research suggests that both CU traits and parental incarceration are predictors of juvenile delinquent behaviors, their interaction in influencing such behaviors had yet to be investigated. Two-hundred thirteen (213) adolescents (201 males, 12 females) who were enlisted in a residential program designed for adolescents that dropped out of school participated in this study. Participants ranged in age from 16 to 19 (M = 16.92; SD = .77). Higher levels of overall CU traits reported by the adolescent significantly …

Time In, Time Out: Resilience Narratives Of Formerly Incarcerated Emerging Adults, Jennifer Jo Buser

Dissertations

The aim of this study was to examine the perspectives of formerly incarcerated emerging adults in an effort to learn more about their socio-ecological resilience, negotiating identity in emerging adulthood, and aspects of coping. In this study, six emerging adults who had been incarcerated for at least 6 months during adolescence, living in the community for at least 6 months since being released, and not on probation or parole were interviewed using a narrative inquiry approach. Their stories were analyzed using a staged-process, and themes emerged across the domains of recapturing identity, outlining character, and internalized coping. These findings clarify …

Using Target Audience Analysis To Aid Strategic Level Decisionmaking, Steve Tatham Dr.

Books, Monographs & Collaborative Studies

The author explains how sophisticated social science research and behavioral profiling can be used to warn us of impeding issues and how that information might be used by senior strategy makers as a tool for testing and refining strategy. He makes a compelling case that the science of Target Audience Analysis (TAA) is now so well advanced that it must become a key component of future strategic decisionmaking. The author views social media as just another communication conduit, and sees this as a continuum of wrong activities being undertaken. In Iraq and Afghanistan, he saw how big public relations and …

The Effects Of Gender, Race, And Age On Judicial Sentencing Decisions, April Miller

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Previous research has found significant effects of gender, race, and age on sentencing decisions made by state and local court judges (e.g. Johnson, 2003; Mustard, 2001; Steffensmeier, Ulmer, & Kramer, 1998). The current study used criminal district court data from two counties in western North Carolina to further research of the effects of the aforementioned variables on sentencing. Using knowledge acquired from past studies, the hypotheses for the current study asserted that younger offenders, male offenders, and nonwhite offenders would be more likely to be found guilty of their offense and receive fines than their respective offender counterparts. The results …

Community Partnerships Foster The Inception Of A Sane/Sart Program In Western Kansas, Carol Groen, Jessica Albers

eJournal of Public Affairs

This article highlights a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner/Sexual Assault Response Team (SANE/SART) program developed by a community in rural Kansas focused on offering comprehensive services to sexual assault victims. Community and hospital buy-in initiated the development of this multidisciplinary response featuring specialized medical-forensic care provided by nurses. Key stakeholders, including representatives from a community hospital and regional referral center, and a forward-thinking university with 13,000 on-campus, virtual, and international students, have collaborated to impact the services offered to victims of sexual assault in western Kansas.

Education And How It Impacts Arrest Rates, Rosie Guzman

Journalism

This study investigates the relationship between education and the number of arrests. This study looks at how education or lack of an education impacts the rates of arrests, using data from the San Luis Obispo County. It looks at different contributing factors such as income, race and police profiling while also looking at the environment of the individuals and how these factors play a part in the relationship between education and arrest rates. Education is a big factor in one’s life and can help reduce arrest rates, especially in youth because if they are involved in a positive recreational activity …

Youth Bullying: From Traditional Bullying Perpetration To Cyberbullying Perpetration And The Role Of Gender, Erica D. Sizemore

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Youth bullying is a common form of youth violence; and recently, this behavior has diverged into two forms: traditional bullying and cyberbullying. Bullying has typically occurred within the context of school; however, with the aid of electronic devices and the Internet, youth are now able to bully beyond the schoolyard. Cyberbullying is a transmutation of traditional bullying earmarked by anonymity, a lack of guardianship, and physical distance. Using data from the 2009-2010 Health Behaviors of School-aged Children survey, this study examines the relationship between traditional bullying perpetration and cyberbullying perpetration. Logistic regression analyses suggest a relationship exist between the two …

Informal Kinship Caregivers Of Children With An Incarcerated Mother: A Resource Examination Across Five Levels, Tammy Butler

Education Doctoral

This research study qualitatively examined the personal and environmental factors that influenced how informal kinship caregivers accessed social, financial, and community resources when caring for children with an incarcerated mother. Describing the various reasons informal kinship caregivers’ accessed resources may provide insight to the socioeconomic stability of informal kinship caregivers and the children in their care. This qualitative interpretative phenomenological study provided an interpretive and robust understanding of the interdependencies of the five levels of the social ecological model in the lives of informal kinship caregivers’ access to resources. Informal kinship caregivers’ movement within the five levels of the social …