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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

The Impact Of Childhood Residential Stability On Adult Homelessness And Mental Health, Joli Brown Jan 2013

The Impact Of Childhood Residential Stability On Adult Homelessness And Mental Health, Joli Brown

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Over the last 20 years, homeless families have increased dramatically in the United States. Literature on homelessness has traditionally focused on single men/adults with severe mental illness. Using data collected for a local mental health organization and social service agency providing trauma and case management services to homeless mothers with a history of trauma, my goal is to determine whether group home, foster care stays and episodes of homelessness prior to 18 years of age would increase the likelihood of respondents lifetime number of times homeless, number of traumatic events over one's lifetime and depression 30 days prior to the …


White Noise : Negotiating Boundaries And Constructing Whiteness In Hip-Hop America, Carolyn Corrado Jan 2013

White Noise : Negotiating Boundaries And Constructing Whiteness In Hip-Hop America, Carolyn Corrado

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation examines the ways in which white hip-hop youth negotiate racial boundaries in their daily lives, and how this process of racial boundary negotiation in turn influences their construction of white racial identities. By focusing on white youth who mark their racial identity to varying degrees based on their level of involvement in hip-hop culture, and comparing and contrasting white hip-hop kids from a suburban area who live their lives in a homogenous, mostly white racial context to their counterparts from an urban area who live their lives in a heterogeneous, multiracial context, I have been able to parse …


Developing A Typology Of Juvenile Sex Offenders, Creaig Anthony Dunton Jan 2013

Developing A Typology Of Juvenile Sex Offenders, Creaig Anthony Dunton

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Understanding juvenile sex offenders is of the utmost importance in order to ensure effective treatment and reduce recidivism. A more thorough recognition of this population is the best option in preventing future offending, because most adult sex offenders began their criminal careers in adolescence. Extant typologies of this population have been limited to be only descriptive or not empirically verified and thus of limited use. Hierarchical cluster analysis is used to develop a taxonomy based upon the content of case files from two juvenile treatment programs, based upon demographic information, offense details, psychological and behavioral issues, and participation in treatment. …


The New Welfare State : Reconsidering The Welfare-Crime Nexus, Colin Gruner Jan 2013

The New Welfare State : Reconsidering The Welfare-Crime Nexus, Colin Gruner

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

A sizeable body of literature has found that welfare reduces crime, but the majority of these studies have used data from before 1996. In 1996 the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) radically changed the welfare system of the United States. Control of welfare programs shifted from the federal government to the states and PRWORA increased the emphasis on getting people off welfare via the introduction of lifetime limits on the receipt of aid and mandatory participation in work programs for able-bodied recipients. Consistent with this emphasis, researchers have documented a precipitous drop in caseload sizes across the …


Exploring U.S. Imperialist Influences On Bicultural Koreans' Identity Negotiation : A Critical Theory Study, Minsun Lee Jan 2013

Exploring U.S. Imperialist Influences On Bicultural Koreans' Identity Negotiation : A Critical Theory Study, Minsun Lee

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Bicultural identity has traditionally been studied in a contextual vacuum, with little attention to how asymmetrical power dynamics between two cultures influence the negotiation of a bicultural identity. This critical theory study used a focus group and follow-up individual interviews to illuminate how five adult bicultural Koreans residing in the U.S. negotiate their sociocultural identities within the context of U.S. imperialist influences. Interpretive phenomenological analysis (Smith & Osborn, 2008) and methods drawn from feminist research (Anderson & Jack, 1991) were employed to analyze the data.


Capital Punishment In The Lone Star State : A County-Level Analysis Of Contextual Effects On Sentencing, Jennifer Lynn Owens Jan 2013

Capital Punishment In The Lone Star State : A County-Level Analysis Of Contextual Effects On Sentencing, Jennifer Lynn Owens

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

In its landmark decision, Furman v. Georgia (1972), the Supreme Court held all existing death penalty statutes unconstitutional, largely due to the arbitrary nature of the capital sentencing processes that resulted from them. In response to the Furman decision, several states revised their death penalty statutes to address the Court's concerns. Although the Court upheld the newly-drafted statutes in Gregg v. Georgia (1976) and its companion cases, subsequently reinstating the death penalty, intrastate variation in death sentencing suggests that the death penalty may continue to be applied in an arbitrary and capricious manner inconsistent with the Eighth Amendment. This dissertation …


Socially Situated Identities Of Gay Gang- And Crime-Involved Men, Vanessa R. Panfil Jan 2013

Socially Situated Identities Of Gay Gang- And Crime-Involved Men, Vanessa R. Panfil

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Within the criminological literature, gay men have primarily been portrayed as victims of anti-gay bias crimes or intimate partner violence, or as sex workers and/or drug users. This coverage, which is limited in scope, largely fails to recognize that gay men have agency (choice or power to control the situation). It also provides an incomplete picture regarding gay men's involvement in gangs, violence, and crime.


Making Sense Of Mason Jars : A Qualitative Exploration Of Contemporary Home Canning, P. Suzanne Pennington Jan 2013

Making Sense Of Mason Jars : A Qualitative Exploration Of Contemporary Home Canning, P. Suzanne Pennington

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The practice and popularity of home canning in the United States has dramatically fluctuated since John Mason’s 1858 invention of the ‘fruit’ jar, influenced by cultural trends and sociopolitical events such as war, economic oscillation, activist movements such as environmentalism, and the politicization of food. The contemporary social context in which popular interest in home canning has most recently revived is an era of high cultural awareness and activity regarding multiple food issues. Traditional American foodways, including food preservation techniques such as home canning, are regaining importance as many Americans look to the past for solutions to current needs. This …


Fraud Prevention And Employee Rationalization In New York State Public Schools, Kathleen M. Slezak Jan 2013

Fraud Prevention And Employee Rationalization In New York State Public Schools, Kathleen M. Slezak

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Prompted by frequent media reports of school fraud and a lack of relevant K-12 literature, this research study was designed to investigate current fraud prevention practices in public school districts in New York State. Using a "fraud triangle" model, an analysis of existing legislation and professional practice guidelines reveals that an integral element is being overlooked in current fraud prevention efforts, namely employee attitudes (more formally rationalization).


The Family And Its Effects On Intergenerational Educational Attainment In The Bahamas, Marcellus C. Taylor Jan 2013

The Family And Its Effects On Intergenerational Educational Attainment In The Bahamas, Marcellus C. Taylor

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This exploratory study examines the individual and family effects on intergenerational educational attainment mobility giving focus to the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, a small, newly-independent nation in the Caribbean region.


Factors Related To Recidivism Among Mentally Disordered Offenders : Differential Impact Of Historical And Dynamic Clinical Indicators Across Risk Level, Lori J. Torgersen Jan 2013

Factors Related To Recidivism Among Mentally Disordered Offenders : Differential Impact Of Historical And Dynamic Clinical Indicators Across Risk Level, Lori J. Torgersen

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Understanding the factors related to recidivism among mentally disordered offenders is important so that criminal justice and mental health systems can prioritize resources to intervene with those most likely to reoffend by targeting factors that are most likely to reduce risk. While there is a sound body of literature identifying the predictors of recidivism among non-disordered adult offenders, the same inquiry in the case of mentally disordered offenders has been more equivocal.


The Inter-Rater Reliability Of A Multi-Factor Sex Offender Risk Classification System : An Experimental Simulation, Elizabeth Rahmberg Walsh Jan 2013

The Inter-Rater Reliability Of A Multi-Factor Sex Offender Risk Classification System : An Experimental Simulation, Elizabeth Rahmberg Walsh

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This research is an experimental simulation that explores the interrater reliability of a multi-factor sex offender risk classification system, specifically, the system outlined by the Massachusetts Sex Offender Registration Act (SORA). In Study 1, professionals holding the terminal degree in their field and qualified for appointment to the Sex Offender Registry Board administered the Massachusetts Classification Worksheet to four sex offender cases. Study 2 involved the use of master's level participants (including professionals with master's degrees and graduate student participants) to administer the Massachusetts Classification Worksheet to the same four sex offender cases. Participants assessed the offenders' risk as either …


The Impact Of Business Elite Cohesion On Public Policy Alternatives : A Comparative Examination Of Banking And Telecommunication Legislation In The 1930s And 1990s, Geoffrey Lee Wood Jan 2013

The Impact Of Business Elite Cohesion On Public Policy Alternatives : A Comparative Examination Of Banking And Telecommunication Legislation In The 1930s And 1990s, Geoffrey Lee Wood

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

ABSTRACT


Self-Esteem Among Migrant Children In China, Bo Zhou Jan 2013

Self-Esteem Among Migrant Children In China, Bo Zhou

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

In 2010, there were over 35 million migrant children in China. Studies showed that rural-to-urban migrant children had significantly lower self-esteem than the urban non-migrant children, but the determinant factors have not been analyzed thoroughly. In this paper, I use data from the 2002 China Nine-City Survey of Migrant Children to examine what factors may affect migrant children's self-esteem. The results of data analysis showed that poor living conditions, anxiety about being discriminated against and exposure to neighborhood crime can lead to lower self-esteem among migrant children. My findings suggested that if the government gradually allows more migrants to enjoy …


Critical Mass On Campus : An Analysis Of Race/Ethnicity And Organizational Outcomes, Renee Overdyke Jan 2013

Critical Mass On Campus : An Analysis Of Race/Ethnicity And Organizational Outcomes, Renee Overdyke

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The United States is an increasingly diverse society. The recent Supreme Court hearings on Affirmative Action have reiterated the need to study the impacts of changing demographics on organizations. Race-based policymaking fundamentally rests on a "diversity is good for the organization" philosophy, yet there is relatively little research that directly measures the institutional effects of racial/ethnic diversity. Diversity within organizations, also known as structural diversity or organizational heterogeneity, is overdue for a broader range of scholarly attention. Building on an organizational demography framework, this study investigates whether or not there are relationships between diversity and outcomes at higher education institutions …


Gentrification And Crime In New York City 1980-2009, Michael Scott Barton Jan 2013

Gentrification And Crime In New York City 1980-2009, Michael Scott Barton

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

It is a well supported fact that crime rates in cities across the United States increased between the 1960s and 1980s before dramatically declining during the 1990s. While scholars agree that this decline occurred, they continue to debate the cause of the decline (Greenberg, 2013; Zimring, 2011). References to changes in neighborhood crime rates as a result of gentrification have been common in previous research on gentrification, but only a few studies have empirically assessed the association between gentrification and crime. Kreager, Lyons, and Hays (2011), Papachristos, Smith, Scherer, and Fugiero (2011), and Smith (2012), who utilized innovative measures of …


Cultural Omnivores In Context : An Examination Of Neighborhood Effects On Cultural Taste, Alexander Mcclung Jan 2013

Cultural Omnivores In Context : An Examination Of Neighborhood Effects On Cultural Taste, Alexander Mcclung

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

After a review of the "cultural omnivore" debate in sociology, the following thesis proposes an examination of how place "matters" for cultural taste. The Anglophone response to Bourdieu's (1984) Distinction that the U.S. elite forgo highbrow snobbism for wide-ranging "omnivore" cultural taste contains several assumptions about culture and its relationship to socioeconomic mobility. These responses, collectively known here as the "omnivore debate" are critiqued on the basis that they pay inadequate attention to the contexts surrounding cultural taste. But it is knowledge of context that is required to understand how taste might be related to socioeconomic mobility. In fact, none …


Interactivity, Interdependence, And Intertextuality : The Meaning Of Video Games In American Civil Society, Brian Mckernan Jan 2013

Interactivity, Interdependence, And Intertextuality : The Meaning Of Video Games In American Civil Society, Brian Mckernan

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

In recent years the video game community has undergone a drastic transformation. What began as a communal pastime for programmers in federally-funded research laboratories during the late 1950s and 1960s has erupted into a multi-billion dollar industry enjoyed by millions of Americans. Reflecting this transformation, social scientists from a wide variety of fields have begun to explore video games' social significance. Sadly, so far very little work has examined video games from a sociological viewpoint. In this work I attempt to remedy this serious omission by adopting a cultural sociology framework to study video games' social meanings in three different …


Dynamics Of Drug Markets : An Examination Of Arrestee Drug Acquisition Behavior, Tanya T. Meisenholder Jan 2013

Dynamics Of Drug Markets : An Examination Of Arrestee Drug Acquisition Behavior, Tanya T. Meisenholder

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Using data from the Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM) program, and from the 2000 U.S. Census, this exploratory study examined drug market acquisition behaviors and how this behavior differs by drug type, user characteristics, and across locations. A descriptive and comparative assessment of drug markets and acquisition behavior revealed substantial differences within and across drug types. This wide variation was evident across drug market clientele and across locations, regardless of the measure considered. The analysis also demonstrated that this data can be used to identify drug buyers that may also be drug sellers. Hierarchical and K-means cluster analysis was used …


Quality, Objectivity, And Tone In Media Portrayals Of Care For Older Adults, Jennifer Van Loan Jan 2013

Quality, Objectivity, And Tone In Media Portrayals Of Care For Older Adults, Jennifer Van Loan

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

In response to the growing population of older adults who will need assistance to care for themselves, this research evaluates media coverage of care options for older adults presented in local newspapers, an informational resource used by baby boomers and older generations interested in planning for their futures and caring for their loved ones. Computer databases for four newspapers representing the Capital Region of New York State were scanned for keywords to identify articles about older adult care, then articles were reviewed to ensure they were relevant to older adult care. A quantitative content analysis was performed on the articles …