Sociology Commons^™

Mavericks Or Allies: The Role Of Faith-Based Organizations In The Anti-Trafficking Movement, Sarabeth Harrelson

Annual Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Trafficking: 2nd (2010)

As awareness of trafficking in persons (TIP) and contemporary slavery has grown over the past twenty years, so has the number of organizations forming the modern abolition movement. From vast international organizations like the United Nations (UN) to local rehabilitation centers working with four to five trafficking victims in Nepal, organizations vary drastically in their mission, size, range of influence, and perspective. Among non-governmental organizations (NGO), common activities include raising awareness and financial support, researching TIP, providing victims services, and advocating for specific policy outcomes at local, national, and international levels. Further complicating the relationship between all of these organizations …

Chinese Human Trafficking In The San Francisco Bay Area, Carina Groves

Annual Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Trafficking: 2nd (2010)

Slavery was not abolished in 1863. Ten thousand ethnic and national Chinese victims of human trafficking remain imprisoned throughout the United States. The purpose of this research was to investigate the prevalence of and response to Chinese human trafficking in the San Francisco Bay area. By focusing on one region, my research provides a closer look at the trends in Chinese human trafficking within the U.S.

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Collaborating Against Human Trafficking, Kirsten Foot, Amoshaun Toft

Annual Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Trafficking: 2nd (2010)

Anti-Human Trafficking (AT) Efforts

Assessed as lacking coordination across sectors and levels of intervention, and between source, transit, and destination countries
Understudied (Laczko, 2005, Mattar, 2004, Schauer and Wheaton, 2006)
Overarching aims of research: 1) Map AT efforts longitudinally & developmentally; 2) Trace collaboration; and 3) Catalyze collaboration by illuminating good practices in robust multi-sector coalitions

Methods

1. Database of AT Actors’ Websites
2. Hyperlink Analysis of AT Web Real Estate and Link Neighborhoods
3. Content Analysis of AT Actors’ Websites
4. Participant Observation in Multi-Sector Coalitions

The "Download" button (right) links to a PDF version of the presentation; the …

A Revised Approach To Reducing Labor Abuses And Human Trafficking, Thomas Reuland

Annual Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Trafficking: 2nd (2010)

In this paper, I challenge current efforts to combat human trafficking. Trafficking is a problem that the law has difficulty preventing, in part, because of market forces. Moreover, the structure of many corporations responds to these market forces, implicates these enterprises in human trafficking, and encourages members of a company to remain complacent in the face of human rights abuses. As corporations strive to increase profit margins on each product they make, they demand low-cost labor and commodify the human beings who satisfy that demand. Meanwhile, branding provides a powerful tool that corporations use to prevent the consumer from recognizing …

Enforcing The Tipplea Act To Curb Emerging Trends In Human Trafficking: A Study Of The Baby Trade In South East Nigeria, Ijeoma Okoronkwo, Anigbogu Maduka

Annual Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Trafficking: 2nd (2010)

•The area of this study is the south east zone of Nigeria, comprising of five states –Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo states. Abiastate is bounded by Akwaibomstate , Rivers and Cross river state in the South South zone, Imo and Ebonyistate in the south east zone
•Imo is integrated and bounded all the south eastern states, Enugu is bounded by Benue state in the north central zone, Ebonyistate is bounded by cross river state, within 80 km to the boundary of Cameroun
•Population of this study is made up 200 pregnant teenager victims of human trafficking rescued by NAPTIP …

The Intersection Of Law, Theology, And Human Trafficking In The Narrative Of Joseph: Linking The Past To The Present, Julie Waters

Annual Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Trafficking: 2nd (2010)

This paper seeks to connect the biblical narrative of Joseph, a story of slavery and redemption, to modern day human trafficking through the lenses of current and pragmatic legal and theological implications. The two-fold purpose of the paper is to use Joseph as a case study to better understand US anti-human trafficking laws and then provide victims of human trafficking with biblical hope that can be gleaned through a theological understanding of the narrative of Joseph. To fully understand Joseph’s role as a slave and the interplay of modern day implications, the paper first examines the institution of slavery in …

Comparing Individual- And National-Level Explanations Of Environmental Attitudes, Andrew V. Bedrous

Department of Sociology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Data from the 1999-2001 World Values Survey (WVS), the Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI), and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) World Factbook are used to assess individual and national level explanations of environmental attitudes among 34,555 respondents from 27 countries. Three analyses are presented: an individual-level analysis that examines the previously assessed correlates of environmental attitudes; a national-level analysis of the relationship between a variety of national-level characteristics and aggregate environmental attitudes; and a multilevel (HLM) model assessing these effects simultaneously. Guided by the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP), the post-materialist thesis and the World-Systems Perspective national-level characteristics are assessed in the …

Conflict Resolution In Mexican-Origin Couples: Culture, Gender, And Marital Quality, Lorey A. Wheeler, Kimberly A. Updegraff, Shawna M. Thayer

Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families, and Schools: Faculty Publications

This study examined associations between Mexican-origin spouses’ conflict resolution strategies (i.e., nonconfrontation, solution orientation, and control) and (a) gender-typed qualities and attitudes, (b) cultural orientations, and (c) marital quality in a sample of 227 couples. Results of multilevel modeling revealed that Mexican cultural orientations were positively associated with solution orientation, and Anglo cultural orientations were negatively associated with nonconfrontation. Expressive personal qualities were negatively associated with control, whereas instrumental qualities were positively related to control. Links between conflict resolution and marital quality revealed that control and nonconfrontation were associated with spouses’ ratings of marital negativity. In some cases, different patterns …

The Relationship Between Breastfeeding And Child Care For Working Mothers In The United States, Patricia Wonch Hill

Department of Sociology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Whether or not child care provider characteristics and factors related to the care giving environment impact breastfeeding duration for working mothers has not been systematically studied. In this dissertation, I use Ecological Health Promotion Theory to explore the relationship between child care and breastfeeding through three different analyses. First, I interviewed nine child care providers to assess their knowledge, attitudes and beliefs about infant feeding and whether they vary on these factors across individuals and child care licensing types. Second, I conducted a small mail survey of 93 licensed child care providers in order to create a scale measuring attitudes …

Preservation Ethics In The Case Of Nebraska's Nationally Registered Historic Properties, Darren Michael Adams

Department of Geography: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This dissertation focuses on the National Register of Historic Places and considers the geographical implications of valuing particular historic sites over others. Certain historical sites will either gain or lose desirability from one era to the next, this dissertation identifies and explains three unique preservation ethical eras, and it maps the sites which were selected during those eras. These eras are the Settlement Era (1966–1975), the Commercial Architecture Era (1976–1991), and the Progressive Planning Era (1992–2010). The findings show that transformations in the program included an early phase when state authorities listed historical resources pertaining to the settlement of the …

Service Utilization Patterns Of Homeless Youth, Sarah L. Akinyemi

Department of Sociology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Few studies exist on the types of characteristics associated with service utilization (e.g., shelters, food programs) among homeless youth in the U.S. Services are important, however, because without food and shelter, numerous homeless youth resort to trading sex in order to meet their daily survival needs. Access to physical and mental health services gives homeless youth more of an opportunity to integrate into mainstream society than they would otherwise have. To address this gap in our understanding, my study examines what traits (e.g. age, race, abuse history) correlate with the use of shelters, food programs, street outreach, counseling, STD/STI testing, …

Optimism And Pessimism In Children With Cancer And Healthy Children: Confirmatory Factor Analysis Of The Youth Life Orientation Test And Relations With Health-Related Quality Of Life, Natalie A. Williams, Genevieve Davis, Miriam Hancock, Sean Phipps

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Objective To test the measurement equivalence of the Youth Life Orientation Test (YLOT) in children with cancer (N = 199) and healthy controls (N = 108), and to examine optimism and pessimism as predictors of children's health-related quality of life (HRQL).

Methods Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted to establish the two factor structure of the YLOT and to test for metric invariance.

Results A two-factor structure for the YLOT was confirmed and found to be stable across our study groups. There were no differences in mean levels of optimism and pessimism between cancer patients and controls after controlling for …

The Civilizing Process And Its Discontents: Suicide And Crimes Against Persons In France, 1825–1830, Hugh P. Whitt

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

A spatial analysis of data for French départements assembled in the 1830s by André-Michel Guerry and Adolphe d’Angeville examines the impacts of modernization and resistance to governmental “Frenchification” policies on measures of violence and its direction. In the context of Unnithan et al.’s integrated model of suicide and homicide, high suicide rates in the northern core and a predilection for violence against others in the southern periphery may be consistently interpreted in terms of theories of the civilizing process and internal colonialism. Alternative explanations of southern violence in 19th-century France are explored and rejected, and additional theoretical applications are suggested.

Advice When Children Come Out: The Cultural “Tool Kits” Of Parents, Karin A. Martin, David J. Hutson, Emily Kazyak, Kristin S. Scherrer

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

The family is one of the main areas of social life where the normalization of gay and lesbian identity is incomplete. Most research analyzes the individual and psychological aspects of how families respond to children’s disclosure of a gay or lesbian identity and ignores the social, cultural, and historical contexts. An examination of the cultural discourses, tools, and strategies that are available to parents is necessary for a full understanding of how families respond to gay and lesbian children. The authors conduct an interpretive content analysis of 29 advice books to assess this cultural field and its institutional resources. They …

Experienced And Vicarious Victimization: Do Social Support And Self-Esteem Prevent Delinquent Responses?, Lisa A. Kort-Butler

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

This article extended research that views violent victimization as a stressor that may lead to delinquency. Following general strain theory, the analysis considered the mediating role of fearfulness, depression, and anxiety. The analysis also examined whether social support and self-esteem conditioned the relationship between victimization and delinquency. Results indicated that negative emotions did not substantially mediate the effect of victimization on delinquency. Among those with lower levels of both social support and self-esteem, experiencing violent victimization and witnessing victimization led to general delinquency. Victimization was unrelated to general delinquency among those with higher levels of both these resources. Experiencing victimization …

Birth Weight, Cognitive Development, And Life Chances: A Comparison Of Siblings From Childhood Into Early Adulthood, Jacob Cheadle, Bridget J. Goosby

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth Child Sample (CNLSY79), we sought to elaborate the complex interplay between childhood health and educational development over the early life course. Our approach made use of sibling comparisons to estimate the relationship between birth weight, cognitive development, and timely high school completion in models that spanned childhood, adolescence, and into early adulthood. Our findings indicated that lower birth weight, even after adjusting for fixed-family characteristics and aspects of the home environment that varied between siblings, was associated with decreased cognitive skills at age 5 and marginally significantly slower growth rates into …

Modern Slavery: A Regional Focus, Amanda J. Gould

Annual Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Trafficking: 2nd (2010)

Kevin Bales, through his study in Understanding Global Slavery: A Reader, provides an important quantitative analysis on the predictive factors of modern slavery. Upon examining his study though, several issues arise including too few observations for several of the variables and the lack of a regional variable. The author decided to rerun his study with replacements for the problematic variables used previously. Upon obtaining the results from this, the author examined development theory (development is believed to be closely liked to slavery), and began creating an alternative model, which eventually included the addition of a regional variable. This model …

A Comparison Of Homeless And High-Risk Young Adults: Are They One And The Same?, Kimberly A. Tyler, Katherine A. Johnson, Lisa A. Melander

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Although experiencing poor parenting has been linked to high-risk behaviors and negative outcomes among different populations, very little research has been conducted on whether inadequate parenting has the same detrimental consequences for homeless and high-risk young adults. As such, this article compares homeless and marginally housed young adults to see if the associations between poor parenting (e.g. lower monitoring, neglect and physical abuse) and negative outcomes including depressive symptoms, victimization, delinquency, and substance use are similar for these two groups. The sample consisted of 199 homeless and high-risk young adults from the Midwestern United States. Multivariate results revealed that childhood …

“Trying” Times: Medicalization, Intent, And Ambiguity In The Definition Of Infertility, Arthur L. Greil, Julia Mcquillan

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Researchers studying infertility from the perspective of anthropology and other the social sciences seldom examine the assumptions embedded in the biomedical definition of infertility. Implicit in the biomedical definition is the assumption that people can be divided straightforwardly into those who are trying to conceive and those who are not trying to conceive. If being infertile implies “intent to conceive,” we must recognize that there are various degrees of intent and that the line between the fertile and the infertile is not as sharp as is usually imagined. Drawing on structured interview data collected from a random sample of Midwestern …

A Comprehensive Index For Assessing Environmental Stress In Animals, Terry L. Mader, Leslie J. Johnson, John B. Gaghan Dr

Nebraska Cooperative Extension: Faculty and Staff Publications

Numerous models and indices exist that attempt to characterize the effect of environmental factors on the comfort of animals and humans. Heat and cold indices have been utilized to adjust ambient temperature (Ta) for the effects of relative humidity (RH) or wind speed (WS) or both for the purposes of obtaining a “feels-like” or apparent temperature. However, no model has been found that incorporates adjustments for RH, WS, and radiation (RAD) over conditions that encompass hot and cold environmental conditions. The objective of this study was to develop a comprehensive climate index (CCI) that has application under a wide range …

Foster Care Placement, Poor Parenting, And Negative Outcomes Among Homeless Young Adults, Kimberly A. Tyler, Lisa A. Melander

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Although homeless youth with and without foster care histories both face adverse life circumstances, little is known about how these two groups compare in terms of their early histories and whether they face similar outcomes. As such, we compared those with and without a history of foster care placement to determine if the associations between a history of poor parenting and negative outcomes including depression, delinquency, physical and sexual victimization, and substance use, are similar for these two groups. The sample consisted of 172 homeless young adults from the Midwestern United States. Multivariate results revealed that among those previously in …

Urban Farm: Naturally Grown Local Food, Stephanie Shepard

Interior Design Program: Terminal Projects

There are many things to be said for the benefits of urban farming. From feeding the hungry, to providing an educational experience for a community that otherwise has no agricultural knowledge, to reducing heat island effect, the gain is almost immeasurable.

According to the United States Census Bureau, 35.9 million people live below the poverty line in America. Requests for emergency food assistance has increased by an average of 14% a year since 2004 and about 20% of those requests generally go unmet. In addition, national food banks report that 23.3 million people turned to their services in 2009, an …

The Lived Experience Of Empowered Volunteers: A Study Of Christian Church Volunteers, Adam K. Peters

Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Psychological empowerment has been thoroughly studied in the workplace context. Volunteerism has also been thoroughly studied through a multitude of different facets. However, little research could be found bridging the empowerment construct into volunteerism. Therefore, the purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand the experience of empowerment among volunteers. Volunteer empowerment was discovered through four primary themes, make a difference, rewarding, lifestyle of service, and passion, and three secondary themes, autonomy, awareness, and ability. Other relevant findings included and revolved around volunteer time and balance, challenges, propelling forces, and getting started. Current …

Specifying The Effects Of Religion On Medical Helpseeking: The Case Of Infertility, Arthur L. Greil, Julia Mcquillan, Maureen Benjamins, David R. Johnson, Katherine M. Johnson, Chelsea R. Heinz

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Several recent studies have examined the connection between religion and medical service utilization. This relationship is complicated because religiosity may be associated with beliefs that either promote or hinder medical helpseeking. The current study uses structural equation modeling to examine the relationship between religion and fertility-related helpseeking using a probability sample of 2183 infertile women in the United States. We found that, although religiosity is not directly associated with helpseeking for infertility, it is indirectly associated through mediating variables that operate in opposing directions. More specifically, religiosity is associated with greater belief in the importance of motherhood, which in turn …

Using The Internet To Survey Small Towns And Communities: Limitations And Possibilities In The Early 21st Century, Jolene D. Smyth, Don A. Dillman, Leah Melani Christian, Allison C. O'Neill

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Researchers who are interested in small towns and rural communities in the United States often find that they need to conduct their own sample surveys because many large national surveys, such as the American Community Survey, do not collect enough representative responses to make precise estimates. In collecting their own survey data, researchers face a number of challenges, such as sampling and coverage limitations. This article summarizes those challenges and tests mail and Internet methodologies for collecting data in small towns and rural communities using the U.S. Postal Service’s Delivery Sequence File as a sample frame. Findings indicate that the …

Learned Workers: Predicting Adult Education In The Labor Force, Alian S. Kasabian

Department of Sociology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

In a highly competitive labor force, human capital is a marketable resource. However, the human capital model fails to explain the substantial number of adults pursuing education after they enter the workforce. Not only are increasing numbers of adult students pursuing credentials in the form of degrees and certificates, they pursue other types of education as well. Using the 2005 National Household Education Survey on adult education, I predict participation patterns in workers over the age of 25 using queuing and intersectionality theories to explain gender, race and age variations. For adults pursuing education, employer support demonstrates racial/ethnic differences across …

He Said, She Said: (Dis)Agreement About The Occurrence Of Intimate Partner Violence Among Young Adult Couples, Harmonijoie Noel

Department of Sociology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Using a sample of 1,269 dating, cohabitating, and married young adult couples, my dissertation explores the extent of disagreement about violence between heterosexual romantic partners, how the prevalence and common predictors of intimate partner violence (IPV) change because of disagreement, and how errors in the cognitive response process can explain disagreement. Disagreement occurs when one partner reports physical violence in their relationship but the other partner does not. Male and female-perpetrated violence are analyzed separately because disagreement may operate differently for these two types of violence. As a result of disagreement among partners, estimates of violence based on individual assessments …

Explaining College Partner Violence In The Digital Age: An Instrumental Design Mixed Methods Study, Lisa Melander

Department of Sociology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Intimate partner violence is prevalent in contemporary society and certain groups of individuals such as college students are particularly at high risk for becoming involved in aggressive relationships. Despite the detailed body of literature that examines the risk factors for in-person partner violence, researchers have been criticized for their lack of attention to other behaviors that may be considered abusive. One new area of research is cyber aggression, which refers to the use of newer forms of technology (e.g., cell phones and computers) to facilitate repeated harassing behavior with the intention of harming others. Few scholars, however, examine these behaviors …

Nebraska Annual Social Indicators Survey (Nasis) 2010 Methodology Report, Bureau Of Sociological Research

Nebraska Annual Social Indicators Survey (NASIS)

CONTENTS

Introduction 1

Mode Selection 1

Design & Item Selection 1

Sampling Design 1

Experimental Design Treatment 2

Data Collection Process 2

Response Rate 3

Data-Entry Training, Supervision, and Quality Control 3

Processing of Completed Surveys 3

Data Cleaning 4

Representativeness of the Survey 4

NASIS Sample Weights 5

Questions 5

Appendix A: Cover Letter 9

Appendix B: Formatted Mail Survey 11

Appendix C: Future Research Interest Card 20

Appendix D: Reminder Postcard 21

Appendix E: City and County FIPS Codes 22

Appendix F: Variables and Descriptions 27

European Integration, Identity, And National Self Interest: The Enduring Nature Of National Identity, Tyler R. White

Department of Political Science: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

In the 1950s as European integration begun a group of scholars called the neofunctionalists suggested that as political and economic institutions were created, technical spillovers from integration would result in a new ‘European identity.’ More than 50 years later, Euroenthusiasts have touted the European Union (EU) as being the institution that will bring Europe together and create a unified ‘European identity.’ While many elites and technocrats feel a closer association to ‘Europe’ there is little evidence that identities are changing as a result of European integration. This dissertation analyzes historical, academic, and journalistic accounts to look for evidence that European …