Public Policy Commons^™

Black Males Incarcerated And The Effect Upon Children Left Behind, Cathy Marie Crutchfield

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Black men in the United States have been disproportionately removed from the lives of their families by means of incarceration for generations. Aggressive drug laws, racist policing strategies, and sentence disparities are contributing factors. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to examine how formerly incarcerated Black males perceived their incarceration affected the children they left behind while incarcerated. The research sample consisted of six former offenders. Each participant was at least eighteen years of age, Black, a parent at the time of incarceration, and a resident of Guilford County, NC, at the time of the offense. Each participant …

Terrorism Preparedness, Collaboration, And Organizational Culture In The National Capital Region, Anderson Percival Padmore

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Abstract Terrorism preparedness is essential for federal, state, and local governments. However, literature indicated that local governments may not be ready to respond to a terrorist event. The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine terrorism preparedness levels related to collaboration in the National Capital Region (NCR) of the United States to determine first responders’ perspectives regarding challenges of organizational change. The research questions for this study concentrated on the evaluation of terrorism- preparedness and organizational changes among first response agencies since 2014, Schein’s ideas of organizational cultural change were the theoretical foundation. Four NCR public safety agencies were …

Juvenile Probation Officers' Perceptions Of Strategies To Reduce Juvenile Delinquency In Maryland, Ebenezer Nwaedozie Obonna

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractYoung offenders aged 10 to 17 years have increasingly become involved with the juvenile justice system, causing concerns about their future prospects and their role in positively contributing to the prosperity of society, particularly in Maryland. The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to provide detailed descriptions of the strategies that stakeholders in the juvenile criminal justice system and the offenders can use to reduce youth crime in Maryland. Cognitive-behavioral therapy theory provided the framework for the study. Data were collected from semistructured interviews with 11 probation officers from Maryland. Findings from thematic analysis demonstrated that some juvenile justice …

Florida’S Courts System Funding After Article V Revision 7, Joseph Ernest Smith, Sr.

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The state of Florida approached the topic of funding for the courts system from a policy equilibrium position. The process used to fund Florida’s courts system was changed in 2004 to promote an equitable system of funding. However, a gap in knowledge remains regarding whether this new funding scheme improved the financial health of the courts system. This quantitative study, which involved using the punctuated equilibrium theory (PET) as its theoretical framework, examined funding associated with counties before (1998–2003) and after (2005–2018) the 2004 implementation of Revision 7 to Article V of the Florida Constitution. Revision 7 was examined as …

Economic Security Of Older Women In Maine, Kimberly I. Snow Mhsa, Elizabeth Gattine Jd, Sammy-Ellie Mackinnon Msw

Disability & Aging

The Economic Security of Older Women in Maine: Data Report provides a snapshot of how women compare to men on measures such as wages and income, caregiving status, living arrangements, and rates of disability—factors that can impact Maine women's ability to meet their needs with the resources they have. The report, compiled by staff at the University of Southern Maine's Cutler Institute, informs an initiative led by the Maine Women's Lobby Education Fund and the Maine Council on Aging to identify gaps and pathways to support the health and economic security of older Maine women and all Mainers, now and …

Towards A Psychological Science Of Abolition Democracy: Insights For Improving Theory And Research On Race And Public Safety, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Phillip Atiba Goff

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

We call for psychologists to expand their thinking on fair and just public safety by engaging with the “Abolition Democracy” framework that Du Bois (1935) articulated as the need to dissolve slavery while simultaneously taking affirmative steps to rid its toxic consequences from the body politic. Because the legacies of slavery continue to produce disparities in public safety in the U.S, both harming Black people and the institutions that could keep them safe, psychologists must take seriously questions of history and structure in addition to immediate situations. In the present article, we consider the state of knowledge regarding psychological processes …

Understanding Factors Impacting Volunteer Firefighters' Work, Family, And Volunteer Balance To Serve, Christopher Schultz

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

The volunteer fire service in the United States is experiencing a decline, presenting the opportunity to study factors impacting current and former volunteer firefighters' ability to serve. A qualitative case study of volunteer fire service organizations in southern New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania was undertaken through semi-structured interviews with 13 volunteer fire service members to understand this phenomenon. The findings of this study reveal that volunteer firefighters balance their time commitments through prioritization and self-regulation. The findings also indicate that volunteer firefighters are uncertain whether their communities understand the fire service delivery model serving their communities, the potential challenges the …

A Comprehensive Analysis Of The Pennsylvania Wine Industry With Actionable Recommendations For Industry Improvement And Growth, Seth Porter

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

Local wine industries are vital engines of agricultural economic growth, rural development, and sustainable long-term tax base creation. While the Pennsylvania wine industry has made admirable progress, the industry still has a poor collective reputation, high variance in product quality differential, and a perceived regulatory environment that creates negative externalities for local wine, agricultural production, and auxiliary enterprises. This comprehensive analysis attempts to diagnose and remedy all primary public policy, regulatory, state, non-profit, and non-state private actions that have impeded the Pennsylvania wine industry. A methodology of grounded theory qualitative processes, furthered by texting mining and document analysis techniques, were …

Assessment Limitations And The Disparate Impact Of Tax Policy On Minoritized Communities, Michael Fouassier

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

Public policies that limit assessment increases have created a system where more valuable homes are taxed at lower rates than less valuable homes. This tax regressivity is found not only between neighborhoods but also within neighborhoods such that lower-value homes in wealthier areas are also taxed at higher rates. The research presented in this dissertation, just one line of inquiry that adds to the ongoing discussion of tax equity, provides evidence that minoritized communities will not experience the greatest benefits of assessment caps. The legislative intent of New York State Senate Bill S7000A was to protect homeowners. What has occurred, …

The Lived Experience: Collective Realities Of Black Maternal Healthcare, Rhonda Parham

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

Maternal health has become an increasingly important public health issue in the United States due to the country elevated levels of maternal mortality rates. As the patient experience which entails a wide variety of interactions between patients and the healthcare system becomes more associated with patient outcomes, it is important to explore how the patient experience is affecting maternal health outcomes. This study consists of in-depth interviews to investigate their experience receiving maternal healthcare in Southeastern Pennsylvania. The study aims to figure out what are black women experiences while receiving maternal healthcare in southeastern Pennsylvania and are those experiences negative. …

Catastrophe Is Not The End But The Beginning: Two Centuries Of Evolution In Us Disaster Law And Policy, Donovan Finn

School of Marine & Atmospheric Sciences Faculty Publications

Comprehensive history of the evolution of federal disaster law and policy in the United States including hazard mitigation, disaster recovery, civil defense, economic recovery, and other aspects of the federal disaster management structure. Empasizes practical, political, legal and policies influences and implications related to the dynamic and ever-changing process by which hazards and disasters are managed in the United States.

Financial Sustainability Of Florida Cities: Comparative, Retrospective Modeling For Prospective Municipal Financial Health, Terry Henley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

The Great Recession produced rising debt, deficits, and exposed vulnerabilities for municipalities in a globalist economy. The two-month COVID recession in 2020 accelerated these burdens; a lagging downturn recently added pressures of reduced economic activity, record inflation, and rising costs in 2022. This dissertation studies how local financial sustainability (FS) and financial condition (FC) approaches can work in concert towards a set of indicators with internal and external categorization to explain municipal financial health (MFH). Unassigned fund balance plus select formal stabilizations measure MFH, are conceptually supported in having retrospective (FC) and prospective (FS) value as an intergenerational resource and …

Moving From Harm Mitigation To Affirmative Discrimination Mitigation: The Untapped Potential Of Artificial Intelligence To Fight School Segregation And Other Forms Of Racial Discrimination, Andrew Gall

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

No abstract provided.

Segregating Cities, Separating Environments: A Look At The Relationship Between Redlining And Polluting Facilities In Philadelphia, Natalie Chartove

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis explores the relationship between federal redlining policy and the siting of air polluting facilities, using a dual approach of geospatial analysis and historiography on Philadelphia as a case study. Geographic Information System (GIS) tools are applied to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) data on air polluting facilities and the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) Residential Security Maps. This analysis is used to determine the number of facilities within redlined neighborhoods and their patterns of density. Findings suggest that higher concentrations of polluting facilities are present in those neighborhoods ranked lowest by the HOLC, while neighborhoods ranked highest show remarkably …

Cosponsorship Networks In The U.S. Congress: Measuring The Success Of Female Legislators, Brian Jewett

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Previous scholarship has demonstrated that minority group members in the United States Congress generally are more supportive and collaborative within and beyond their respective groups compared to their majority group counterparts (Craig et al., 2015; Rouse, Swers and Parrott, 2013). In some cases, increased levels of collaboration positively influence legislative success and in others they do not, the results often depending on the characteristic of the group itself and the institutional setting within which the group operates. Additionally, prior studies within the domains of social network analysis and legislative behavior have shown that certain social network measures within a legislative …

African American Women And Tenant Management Of Public Housing: A Case Study Of Stella Wright, Ari Ahmad Mccaskill

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This thesis explores the theories and praxis of struggles for community-control of public housing in the era of Black Power through a case study of the Stella Wright Rent Strike. From 1970 to 1974, tenants of the Stella Windsor Wright Homes in Newark, NJ, waged the longest rent strike in the history of public housing in the United States. Following in the wake of the 1967 Rebellion and the election of Kenneth A. Gibson as the city’s first Black mayor in 1970, Newark’s poor and working-class Black tenants blended grassroots militancy with political savvy as they successfully fought for community …

An Analysis Of Georgia Mothers Who Gave Birth In 2015 And 2016 Without Receiving Prenatal Care, Joncel Stephens, Shanta R. Dube, Merrilee Gober

Journal of the Georgia Public Health Association

Background: The present study characterizes the population of women residing in the state of Georgia who did not receive prenatal care before giving birth to a live infant. The association between mother’s place of residence (rural/non-rural) and preterm delivery was also examined.

Methods: This study examined data obtained from the Georgia Department of Public Health which includes data for 7,062 mothers who did not receive prenatal care before giving birth to a live infant in Georgia in the years 2015 and 2016. Data on the resulting births was also studied. Descriptive analyses of the following variables were used …

Three Essays On Governance, Inequality, And Social Equity, Sarah Ausmus Smith

Theses and Dissertations--Public Policy and Administration

Comprised of three essays, my dissertation is linked by a common focus: the relationship between state or local governance arrangements and inequality or facets of social equity. I draw upon a range of literatures to motivate my research questions and inform my methodologies—welfare and social policy, public economics, intergovernmental relations, public finance and management.

In the first essay, I ask: does localizing welfare governance impact geospatial access to the social safety net? This is an important question because proximity is highly salient to program utilization. I geocode the location of human services nonprofits from tax filings in eight states using …

Evaluation Of Aquatic Plant Survey Methods For Efficacy In Invasive Species Detection, Izaac Cooper

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Aquatic invasive plants can often be ecologically devastating to ecosystems where they are introduced. This devastation has been widely apparent in the United States, including many locations in New York State over many decades, following anthropogenic transport of species from their native ranges. Due to the difficulty involved in eradicating these plants once they have become fully established, there is keen interest in strategies for early detection to assist with prevention and monitoring to mitigate future management costs. Invasive species detection research aims to find methods for detecting new invaders more effectively. I evaluated three detection methods for their effectiveness …

From Dissenting-Voice To Democratic Bureaucracy : Three Essays On Bureaucratic Whistleblowing, Minsung Michael Kang

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Public administration scholars have long believed that bureaucratic whistleblowers help make bureaucracies more democratic, effective, and accountable. With these firm convictions, the U.S. federal government has introduced a series of whistleblower protection systems to balance administrative power and external political accountability of public organizations. Building on this intellectual history of public administration scholarship on whistleblowing, this dissertation aims to: 1) understand bureaucratic whistleblowing at the theory-level, 2) examine the effects of whistleblower protection laws on bureaucrats at the individual-level, and 3) investigate how whistleblowing outcomes can reshape bureaucracies at the organizational-level.

Homelessness In Late Life: An Exploration Of The Lived Experience, Danielle Palmisano

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

Homelessness is a challenging, chronic public problem throughout the United States that has broad impacts on the public sector. Older adults are the largest growing segment of the population and have not been spared by this housing crisis. The experience of homelessness while aging can have negative impacts that contribute to increased healthcare costs and reduced quality of life. The purpose of this study was to gain an in-depth understanding of the lived experience of late life homelessness from the perspective of formerly homeless older adults to inform the development of a grounded theory on how the lived experience of …

The Impact Of Leadership Style On Employee Job Performance In The Embassy Of The Central African Republic In Washington D.C, Xaverie Sandrine Biloa

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

Organizations are led by leaders who are expected to lead their employees toward a great performance capable of meeting or exceeding organizational goals. In order to achieve organizational goals, leaders can utilize different leadership styles depending on the situations that they face. Thus, this study aims to show how the three leadership styles: democratic, autocratic, and laissez-faire, can impact or influence the job performance of employees. The study was conducted at the Embassy of the Central African Republic in Washington, D.C. A sample of 10 participants was drawn, and semi-structured interviews were used as a method to collect data. The …

Factors Contributing To The Success Of Rising Latino Leadership In Central California, A Qualitative Inquiry, Yammilette Rodriguez

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

This research study is a qualitative inquiry into Latino public servants in Central California. Drawing from the knowledge of 60 Central Valley Latinos, the study provides details of their inside accounts of their public service paths and political journeys. The public servants shared personal stories of successes and barriers from their experiences and lessons learned through in-depth interviews and focus groups. The findings translated into recommendations for potential Latino leaders to seek public life as volunteers or to run for political office. The themes of political ambition and social networks and capital arose with subthemes of policies, gender politics, leadership …

Lincoln Vital Signs, 2022 Report (Version 1.2), Stacey Hoffman, Alyssa Sloane, Taylor Smith

University of Nebraska Public Policy Center: Publications

Executive Summary

Since 2014, Lincoln Vital Signs, authored by the University of Nebraska Public Policy Center, has been a community-wide data resource. The 2022 Lincoln Vital Signs report is sponsored by Lincoln’s and Nebraska’s largest public and private charitable organizations. Lincoln Vital Signs 2022 continues the tradition of providing credible, reliable information about Lincoln, compared to its recent past and to other communities in the United States. Data from the report are used by organizations and individuals to inform decisions, spark connections, and spur collaboration. You can view the report, along with new interactive graphs, at https://www.lincolnvitalsigns.org. Lincoln Vital …

Effects High-Cost Health Insurance And The Uninsured Middle-Class Families Of Essex County, New Jersey, Janice A. Fearon

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractThousands of middle-class families living in Essex County, New Jersey, cannot afford health insurance, but little is known about their experiences regarding this lack. The purpose of this research study was to explore the lived experiences of uninsured middle-class families who could not afford state or any other type of health insurance in Essex County, New Jersey. The theoretical framework for this study was based on Smith’s rational choice theory. The research question explored the lived experiences of uninsured middle-class families. Purposeful sampling was used in this phenomenological study to select 10 participants from families residing in Essex County with …

What Are The Barriers Experienced By Self-Represented Litigants In Civil Court?, Darwin Fitzgerald Rice

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The Judiciary Act of 1789 permits parties to plead and manage their cases personally or by a defense counsel. The legal provision laid the foundation for self-representation guidelines adopted by the courts. Despite self-representation becoming widely accepted in the legal system, there is limited understanding of the barriers faced by litigants. John Rawls’ theory of Justice written in 1971 guided an in-depth analysis of these experiences. The theory states that with the subject of justice things are just or unjust. With the need to answer the research questions that sought to explore the lived experiences of self-represented litigants, attorneys, and …

Who Are You Protecting?: A Feminist Analysis Of Gay And Trans Panic Defense Bans, How They Are Defined, And Who They Protect, Tyler S. Sesker

Undergraduate Honors Theses

As of April 2022, sixteen U.S. states ban Gay panic and Trans panic criminal defenses. These state-law prohibitions stemmed from several high-profile murder trials, focusing on the identity of the decedent, including the killings of Matthew Shepard and Latisha King. Between 1970 and 2020, criminal defenses interrogating the gender identity or sexual identity of victims of violence were used at least 104 times, with nearly a third of those cases resulting in reduced criminal charges and penalties. Today, in thirty-four states, the same tactics remain legal. Applying a feminist and outsider legal lens, this study engages in a textual analysis …

Mitigating And Adapting To Climate Change: Solutions For The Tourism Sector In Egypt/ التخفيف والتكيف مع تغير المناخ: حلول لقطاع السياحة في مصر, Marwa Elghoubashy, Saleh Elghamrawi, Noha Elbalky, Asma Salama, Mohamed Elshazly

Papers, Posters, and Presentations

Climate change is soon becoming an unescapable challenge for many countries, Egypt included. Severe weather events are becoming more and more frequent and developing countries are expected to be more vulnerable to their effects. Tourism is considered one of the most vulnerable sectors affected by climate change, not only due to risks to marine life coastal communities, but also because changes in temperatures are expected to affect tourists preferred destinations. This is especially challenging for Egypt given that Tourism contributes up to 15% of GDP, is one of the countries’ main sources of foreign currency, and employs more than 10% …

Mitigating The Impact Of Climate Change On Egyptian Cities: Sustainable Building And Construction As A Strategy/ التخفيف من أثر تغير المناخ في المدن المصرية: استراتيجية البناء والتشييد المستدام, Mina Abdelmelek, Sahar El Ghandour, Sahar Ibrahiem, Tasneem H. Madi, Zeinab Nadeem

Papers, Posters, and Presentations

Egypt faces a wide range of challenges, including the high increase in population, the Nile water crisis, desertification and the issue of solid waste and encroachment on agricultural lands, and the current negative impacts of the natural and built environments. The construction sector consumes 28% of the total energy produced in Egypt. The high energy consumption and rise in energy prices along with the aforementioned issues are few of several key factors that urge the need to study how consumed energy could be reduced in the construction sector and consequently limit the sector’s impact on the environment (Navigant Energy Germany …

Monitoring And Evaluation Of The Egyptian National Climate Change Mitigation & Adaptation Efforts/ رصد وتقييم الجهود الوطنية للتخفيف والتكيف مع آثار تغير المناخ في مصر, Amira Mousa, Amira Mostafa Ahmed, Nada Elbakri, Sohaila Essam Gaheen

Papers, Posters, and Presentations

Egypt has a medium overall score in climate mitigation efforts according to the Climate Change Performance Index (Germanwatch, 2021) and a relatively low performance in the adaptation measures when compared with other African countries such as Kenya (Pörtner et al., 2022). This policy paper aims to examine the current efforts by Egypt to monitor and evaluate its mitigation and adaptation efforts and review what similar countries have done in this regard. Hence, the paper will then provide policy alternatives to ensure a workable Monitoring and Evaluation Framework that considers the Egyptian context and the current policy environment. The Monitoring and …