Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Impact Of The 2003 Illinois Gaming Tax Rate Increase On Marketing Spending And Cross-State Substitution, Mikael Bengt Ahlgren

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this research was to investigate three potential consequences related to the 2003 Illinois Gaming Tax rate restructuring. The first section presents the assessment of whether a higher tax rate motivated an Illinois casino operator to reduce of marketing/promotional expenditures in an attempt to negatively influence revenues. The second establishes if the surrounding state gaming operators reacted to the increased Gaming Tax rate in Illinois, by raising their marketing spending. The last section clarifies whether the changes to the Illinois Gaming Tax Schedule impacted gaming volumes in the neighboring/competing states of Indiana, Iowa, and Missouri.

The analysis relied …

Screening For Mental Health Problems Among Incarcerated Youth In Nevada: Practice And Policy, Michelle Chino, Jennifer Personius-Zipoy, Denise Tanata

Nevada Journal of Public Health

Incarcerated youth in Nevada with serious mental health problems are not being effectively identified. The current study examined the utility of simple screening instruments as a mechanism for identifying incarcerated youth who may have a mental health disorder. Adjudicated youth, incarcerated at each of Nevada’s 12 juvenile detention facilities, participated in the study by completing a demographic questionnaire and a standardized mental health screening instrument: the Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument-Version 2 (MAYSI-2). Findings indicate a high prevalence of mental health disorders among incarcerated juveniles in Nevada. Identifying youth with mental health problems is complicated by the lack of a systematic …

The Long-Term Coercive Effect Of State Community Benefit Laws On Hospital Community Health Orientation, Charles B. Moseley, Jay J. Shen, Gregory O. Ginn

Nevada Journal of Public Health

This study is an examination of the long-term coercive effect of state community benefit laws (CB Laws) on the provision of community health activities in U.S. acute care hospitals. The sample included all the not-for-profit and investor owned acute care hospitals for which 1994 and 2006 AHA Annual Survey data were available. A panel design was used to longitudinally examine the effect that state CB Laws had on hospital community health orientation activities and the provision of health promotion services, after controlling for the influence of other organizational and environmental variables that might affect these activities and services. The authors …

Nuclear Arms Control: Challenges And Opportunities In 2013, Steven Pifer

Brookings Scholar Lecture Series

U.S. nuclear arms control policy must address numerous factors, including our strategic relationships with Russia and China, the potential for future nuclear weapons reductions--including non-strategic nuclear weapons, and the offense-defense relationship, given concerns that missile defense developments could in the future affect the nuclear balance. Washington DC must also consider its obligations under the Non-Proliferation Treaty, how to dissuade new countries from joining the nuclear weapons ranks, and what to do about the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which the United States has signed but not ratified. This presentation will explore challenges and opportunities facing Washington DC in the aftermath of …

Putting Nevada In Perspective: State And Local Government Budgets In Recession And Recovery, Tracy M. Gordon

Brookings Scholar Lecture Series

Nevada, the state most affected by the Great Recession of 2008, faced one of the nation's worst state budget shortfalls in 2011. This presentation examines state budget drivers, including constitutional requirements, tax and spending limitations, federal statutes, demographics, and the resulting policy choices to evaluate how state-level decisions affect local jurisdictions that continue to cope with lower property values, foreclosures, and high unemployment. It will also discuss longer term challenges including rising health care costs and retiree pensions as well as issues surrounding implementation of the Affordable Care Act.

Moral Markets And The Problematic Proprietor: How Neoliberal Values Shape Lottery Debates In Nevada, Christopher Wetzel

Occasional Papers

All but seven states have legalized lotteries since New Hampshire ushered in the modern lottery era in 1964. Although casino gaming has been permitted since 1931, Nevada has rejected multiple legislative proposals amend the State Constitution and create a state-run lottery. This paper theorizes the lottery’s absence in Nevada, focusing in particular on the role of the state. Lotteries are distinct from other forms of gaming because states act simultaneously as the operation’s regulator and proprietor. In this case, Nevada’s lottery legalization debates over the last half century reflect the profound moral valence of markets. The state as a potential …

The Effect Of Casino Tax Policy On Short-Run Gaming Development, Kahlil Philander

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study examines the effect of casino tax rate structure on investment by casino operators. Using a panel data set consisting of all states with legal commercial casino gambling from 1998 to 2009, a fixed-effect model with two-stage least squares is estimated to examine the effect of gambling taxes on firms' short-run behavior. The study finds that maximum casino tax rates decrease casino employment, with an estimated average elasticity of -0.5. This result is noted to be robust to several different model specifications and data subsets. No robust relationship is found between maximum tax rates and casino wages. No significant …

Caught In The Immigration Cross-Fire: The Changing Dynamics Of Congressional Support For Skilled Worker Visas, Maryam Tanhaee Stevenson

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This project examines the congressional politics associated with legislation on skilled foreign workers, specifically the H-1B visa which was created by the Immigration Act of 1990. It attempts to explain why legislative policies were successful on a small scale between 1998 and 2004 and completely unsuccessful after 2004.

Specifically, this study is a longitudinal qualitative analysis that uses Krehbiel's pivotal politics model (1998), Cox and McCubbins' party politics models (2005; 2007), Sinclair's (2007) unorthodox lawmaking theory, and Gilmour's (1995) strategic disagreement model to explain four key periods of H-1B legislation: (1) the passage of the Immigration Act of 1990; (2) …

Implementing A State Lottery In Nevada, Benjamin K. Boulton

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this study is to assess the feasibility of implementing a state lottery in Nevada and to present the benefits of a state lottery for both the Nevada hospitality industry and the Nevada economy. It will compare and contrast the arguments for and the arguments against a lottery by executing a content analysis of existing research literature as well as other relevant publications. It will also examine the history of lotteries, the states that border Nevada and have lotteries and the legislative history of lottery proposals in Nevada.

State Juvenile Justice Spending Decisions: The Effects Of Federal Aid, Race, Politics, And Other Socioeconomic Factors, Willie B. Coleman Smith

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Historically, juvenile justice in the United States has been the responsibility of state governments with limited federal support. There is a notable gap in the empirical literature on factors that affect funding policies for state juvenile justice programs. In this dissertation research, I used two theoretical perspectives to examine determinants of juvenile justice spending: economic theory on intergovernmental aid and tenets of the Politics of Social Order Framework, developed by Stucky, Heimer, and Lang (2007) to investigate corrections spending. Two research questions were considered: 1) What impact does federal aid have on state spending on juvenile justice programs? and 2) …

Adaptive Behavior Malingering In Legal Claims Of Mental Retardation, Renee M. Kadlubek

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In 2002, the Supreme Court ruled that it is unconstitutional to put people with mental retardation to death for capital crimes (Atkins v. Virginia, 2002). Justice Scalia dissented, suggesting that mental retardation is a condition easy to feign. The current study examined whether participants provided with the definition of mental retardation and adaptive behavior ("informed malingering group") are any better at malingering having mental retardation than participants not provided with the definitions ("malingering group"). Three groups of participants participated in this study: the control group, the malingering group, and the informed malingering group. All participants completed an intellectual assessment and …

Formal, Bounded, And "Hyper" Rationality In Police Processing Of Sexual Assualt Claims: Case Dispositions And Ucr Reporting, Brooke M. Wagner

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Over the past three decades, many scholars have examined the prevalence, consequences, and official sanctions of sexual violence. The following study builds on past research by quantitatively examining police and crime analyst discretion in sexual assault claims. Using recently accessed data from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department from 2008 through 2010 and utilizing labeling theory, rape myth literature, and the theoretical perspectives of justice processing outcomes, I assess the extent to which police officers and crime analysts are influenced by extralegal variables like victim and offender's race, victim's age, the location of assault, incident characteristics, and victim's background. I …

Legal Representation In The Chinese Criminal Court, Yudu Li, Hong Lu

Graduate Research Symposium (GCUA) (2010 - 2017)

Abstract: Legal representation plays an important role in criminal sentencing decisions. China has recently stipulated a mandatory legal representation clause for all offenders facing capital charges in its Criminal Procedural Law (1996). This study uses data generated from criminal court case documents involving three serious violent crimes: murder, intentional assault, and robbery. All these crimes carry a maximum of sentence of death. The study examines whether and under what conditions legal representation has an effect on criminal sentencing decisions in China. While the overall multi-regression model did not find that having a legal representation significantly reduces the criminal sentence, a …

Halos, Alibis And Community Development: A Cross National Comparison Of How Governments Spend Revenue From Gambling, Lynn Gidluck

Occasional Papers

This paper provides a cross-national comparison of how governments around the world distribute revenues from state-directed gambling and how these choices have been justified by proponents and vilified by critics. Case studies where governments have popularized gambling expansion by “earmarking” revenues for particular good causes and where the state has collaborated with the voluntary sector to deliver programs from this revenue stream are examined. Lessons learned from challenges of various approaches are considered.

The Role Of Ethics In Athletic Participation, Ryan Matthews

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to determine what role ethics plays in athletic participation and what intrinsic and/or extrinsic factors may influence the decision making process of athletes. Once identified, the information found in this paper can be used to help athletes understand their own thought processes concerning rules adherence and to assist them in making a conscious decision to follow the rules to achieve their goals.

Statement of Problem: The exploration of the literature will reveal the many factors and conditions that an athlete faces that will influence their decision to participate within the confines of the …

The U.S. Tax System: Where Do We Go From Here?, Adele C. Morris

Brookings Scholar Lecture Series

This talk will explore how the U.S. tax system really works, where revenue comes from, where spending goes, what a tax expenditure is, and discuss deficit prognoses and how the recent political debates could affect our economy. The speaker will highlight some advantages and disadvantages of different budget balancing options.

Creating New Stories, Creating New Lives: Applying Narrative Therapy To Survivors Of Human Sex Trafficking, Paige Espinosa

McNair Poster Presentations

The effects of trauma experienced by survivors of sexual human trafficking has been an under-researched topic in the psycho­logical community. This study will review the current literature on the psychological and emotional implications associated with human sex trafficking, and analyze the components of narrative therapy and its previous application in treating domestic abuse trauma. This paper will explore the viability of narrative therapy as a method to treat the complicated traumas and stress developed as a victim of sexual trafficking. The ultimate goal of this literature analysis is to propose a study that utilizes narrative therapy as an approach that …

An Examination Of The Varying Role Of The United Nations In The Civil Wars Of Rwanda And El Salvador, Vanessa Jaramillo-Cano

Calvert Undergraduate Research Awards

The purpose of this work is to examine the efforts of the United Nations in the Post-Cold War era with special emphasis on peacekeeping missions. A comparative study of recent United Nations peacekeeping operations will be completed to identify the variables that encourage or discourage international (UN) involvement in cases of civil conflict. For the purpose of this work, civil conflict will be narrowly defined as a domestic conflict with two major armed groups (ie: civil wars). Two countries will be studied to explore the nature of the respective conflicts, the transitional methods used by the peacekeeping mission to return …

Crime And Delinquency In Nevada, Brooke M. Wagner, Andrew L. Spivak, Stephanie L. Kent, Deborah Koetzle

Social Health of Nevada Reports

Crime and justice system have received much attention from American scholars and politicians in the last than 50 years, with issues in adult criminality, delinquency, and penology emerging at the center stage of criminological inquiry. While scholarly literature now includes many studies focused on different regions and cities, there are no large-scale empirical examinations of crime and delinquency in Nevada. One exception is the Social Health of Nevada report issued in 2006 by University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) Center for Democratic Culture (CDC).