Sociology Commons^™

Affordable Heat: Lowering Vermont's Fuel Bills And Greenhouse Emissions, Richard Cowart

Carsey Publications

Policy Leadership Initiative Year III Addressing Energy Challenges for Low-income Families in Northern New England

Many New Hampshire Jobs Do Not Pay A Livable Wage, Daphne Kenyon, Allison Churilla

Carsey Publications

As the U.S. economy falters and recession looms, 79 percent of jobs in New Hampshire do not pay a wage sufficient for single-parent families with two children to provide basic needs such as housing, food, transportation, child care, and health care. Carroll County has the lowest percentage of livable wage jobs, with only 13 percent of jobs paying a livable wage for single-parent families with two children.

Religion, Politics, And The Environment In Rural America, Michele Dillon, Megan M. Henly

Carsey Publications

Reflecting the heterogeneous nature of rural America, rural Americans are divided primarily along religious lines on their perspectives of environmental conservation and climate change. And as rural voters and environmental issues become key issues in the upcoming presidential election, this religious divide presents a challenge to political candidates.

Measures And Methods: Four Tenets For Rural Economic Development In The New Economy, Anita Brown-Graham, William Lambe

Carsey Publications

Rural communities working to find strategies for success in today's economy need to rethink the tools they are using. Brown-Graham is the executive director of the Institute for Emerging Issues and a policy fellow at the Carsey Institute. William Lambe is the associate director at the Community and Economic Development Program at the School of Government, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

A Profile Of New Hampshire's Foreign-Born Population, Ross Gittell, Timothy Lord

Carsey Publications

At the turn of the 20th century, New Hampshire had over 88,000 foreign-born persons, over 15,000 more than it has today. In 1900, the state's concentration of foreign born (21 percent) was higher than the average percentage and more than three times the current percentage of 6 percent in the state. In 1900, New Hampshire ranked 15th of all states in percentage of the foreign-born population. As of 2008, New Hampshire ranks 26th out of the 50 states.

Children In Central Cities And Rural Communities Experience High Rates Of Poverty, Sarah Savage

Carsey Publications

New U.S. Census Bureau data released in August highlight increasing similarities of poverty rates between children in urban and rural communities. This common indicator of child well-being is closely linked to undesirable outcomes in areas such as health, education, emotional welfare, and delinquency.

Urban And Rural Children Experience Similar Rates Of Low-Income And Poverty, Allison Churilla

Carsey Publications

Data in this brief shows that the percentages of children living in low-income areas and poverty over the past fifteen years in rural and urban America are converging.

Population Growth In New Hispanic Destinations, Kenneth M. Johnson, Daniel T. Lichter

Carsey Publications

Natural increase—more births than deaths—is now the major engine of Hispanic population growth in many large metro areas and their suburbs, as well as numerous smaller metropolitan areas and rural communities. Hispanics now account for half of U.S. population growth, and Hispanic population growth is the reason many communities grew instead of declined.

Ten Years Of Community Profiles In New Hampshire, Charlie A. French, Fabienne Lord-Fonesca

Natural Resources & the Environment

Through a program called Community Profiles, the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension has helped 57 New Hampshire communities develop a vision for their future and mobilize local residents to act on that vision. The Community Profile process is based on the premise that communities must engage members in identifying and documenting common and deeply held values from which to craft a vision for the future if they are to build and sustain community vitality. The process also helps communities find new and creative ways to pursue that vision by leveraging resources within and outside of the community. These resources …

Evaluating Children’S Advocacy Centers’ Response To Child Sexual Abuse, Theodore P. Cross, Lisa M. Jones, Wendy A. Walsh, Monique Simone, David Kolko, Joyce Sczepanski, Tonya Lippert, Karen Davison, Arthur Crynes, Polly Sosnowski, Amy L. Shadoin, Suzanne Magnuson

Sociology

Children’s Advocacy Centers (CACs) play an increasingly significant role in the response to child sexual abuse and other child maltreatment in the United States. First developed in the 1980s, CACs were designed to reduce the stress on child abuse victims and families created by traditional child abuse investigation and prosecution procedures and to improve the effectiveness of the response. According to several experts (Fontana, 1984; Pence and Wilson, 1992; Whitcomb, 1992), child victims were subjected to multiple, redundant interviews about their abuse by different agencies, and were questioned by professionals who had no knowledge of children’s developmental limitations or experience …

Caretaker Satisfaction With Law Enforcement Response To Missing Children., Heather Hammer, David Finkelhor, Richard Ormrod, Andrea J. Sedlack, Carol Bruce

Crimes Against Children Research Center

Examines satisfaction with law enforcement from the perspective of all primary caretakers who contacted police when one or more of their children experienced a qualifying episode in the Second National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway, and Thrownaway Children (NISMART–2) National Household Survey of Adult Caretakers. This Bulletin is the eighth in the NISMART–2 series.

Sexually Assaulted Children: National Estimates And Characteristics., David Finkelhor, Heather Hammer, Andrea J. Sedlack

Crimes Against Children Research Center

Provides information on the estimated number and characteristics of children who were sexually assaulted in the United States in 1999. This Bulletin is the seventh in the Second National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway, and Thrownaway Children (NISMART–2) series. Information on sexual assault was gathered from NISMART–2 interviews with victims and their families.

Place Matters: Challenges And Opportunities In Four Rural Americas, Lawrence C. Hamilton, Leslie R. Hamilton, Cynthia M. Duncan, Chris R. Colocousis

Carsey Publications

A survey of 7,800 rural Americans in 19 counties across the country has led to the Carsey Institute's first major publication that outlines four distinctly different rural Americas—amenity, decline, chronic poverty, and those communities in decline that are also amenity-rich—each has unique challenges in this modern era that will require different policies than their rural neighbors.

Demographic Trends In New England At Mid-Decade, Kenneth M. Johnson

Sociology

With 14.3 million residents, New England is home to just 5 percent of the U.S. population, yet it reflects many of the strands that comprise the country’s demographic fabric: densely settled urban cores, expanding suburbs, struggling industrial towns, fast-growing recreational and retirement amenity areas, and isolated rural villages. In recent years New England’s population grew thanks to immigration and more births than deaths, but there is a net outflow of existing residents. Therein lies the challenge for policymakers who want to keep the region vibrant and diverse. A closer look at the demographics may help.

Is Talking Online To Unknown People Always Risky? Distinguishing Online Interaction Styles In A National Sample Of Youth Internet Users., Janis Wolak, David Finkelhor, Kimberly J. Mitchell

Sociology

Abstract

We examined the risk of unwanted online sexual solicitations and characteristics associated with four online interaction styles among youth Internet users. The interaction styles took into account the people with whom youth interacted online (people known in person only, unknown people met through face-to-face friends, unknown people met in chatroom, and other places online) and high- and low-risk patterns of online behavior. The aim was to provide a basis for identifying which youth may be most at risk from interacting online with unknown people.

Child Poverty In New Hampshire, Kristin Smith

Carsey Publications

No abstract provided.

The State Of Coos County: Local Perspectives On Community And Change, Chris R. Colocousis

Carsey Publications

Coos County residents are largely optimistic about their future despite significant economic challenges, especially in the Berlin/Gorham area. As part of a three-pronged effort to understand the ongoing changes in New Hampshire's North Country and surrounding counties, researchers at the Carsey Institute have surveyed more than 1,700 adult residents of Coos County, New Hampshire, and Oxford County, Maine.

Table Of Contents, Volume 6, Number 3, 2008, The Death Penalty, Editorial Board

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

Table of contents for a special issue on the topic of capital punishment.

The Death Penalty And The Society We Want, Stephen B. Bright

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] “At the local level, we can tell a lot about a community by how it treats a homeless person suffering from schizophrenia who is begging on the street. One possibility is to look upon that person with the thought that there but for grace go I, that this person is desperately in need of help, and that we—individually and as a community—must respond by giving a helping hand and making sure that the person receives food, shelter, clothing, and care for such a debilitating mental illness. Another possibility is to simply ignore the person, to step around him or …

Escape From Death Row: A Study Of “Tripping” As An Individual Adjustment Strategy Among Death Row Prisoners, Sandra Mcgunigall-Smith, Robert Johnson

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] “The literature on stress and coping in American prisons tends to focus on the social dimensions of prison life. This literature describes a prison culture that shapes prison adjustment; such a culture entails norms, roles, and groups (including gangs) that dictate norms of adjustment. The literature also suggests that prisoners have to find a way to get along in the more public areas of the prison (such as the prison yard or mess hall) or retreat to smaller worlds within the prison while carving out “niches” that allow them to adjust in ways they find more familiar—in their jobs, …

Place Matters: Poverty And Development Challenges In Amenity Rich, Declining Resource Dependent And Chronically Poor Regions, Cynthia M. Duncan

Carsey Publications

No abstract provided.

Understanding Chronically Poor Places: Encouraging More Voices And Commitment To Change, Cynthia M. Duncan

Carsey Publications

Bureau of Health Professions, US Health Resources and Services Administration presentation

Rural Youth Are More Likely To Be Idle, Anastasia Snyder, Diane Mclaughlin

Carsey Publications

Rural young adults, ages 18-24, are more likely to be idle, not in school, the labor force, or the Armed Forces than their urban counterparts. Among rural high school dropouts and racial-ethnic minorities, rates of idleness are even more pronounced.

A Profile Of Latinos In Rural America, Rogelio Saenz

Carsey Publications

Despite their traditional residence in U.S. urban areas, Latinos represent a large and growing segment of America's rural population. Using recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau's 2006 American Community Survey (ACS), Saenz presents a profile of the Latino population in the nonmetropolitan United States.

Owning Your Own Home: Reality Or Myth, Robert M. Henry, Charles H. Goodspeed

The University Dialogue

The focus of the white paper will be to highlight the housing challenges that people in the New England region and in the United States face. Affordability, sustainability, people needs, societal needs, environmental needs, economic incentives and impact of government policies are just a few of the topics that will be explored.

Updated Trends In Child Maltreatment, 2006., David Finkelhor, Lisa M. Jones

Crimes Against Children Research Center

New data released by the federal government show continuing national declines in sexual and physical abuse in 2006, but no decline in neglect.

The data detailed in the attached table and figure, come from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS), which aggregates and publishes statistics from state child protection agencies. The most recent data from NCCANDS were released in April, 2008 and concern cases of child maltreatment investigated in 2006.

Poverty And Plenty: The Divided American Plate, Joanne D. Burke

The University Dialogue

What are the economic, social, political, community and individual actions needed to address short and long-term solutions of food insecurity and poverty? This paper will consider hunger and poverty terms, trends, health and nutrition impacts, as well as consider proposed local, regional, and national intervention solutions and strategies

Who Shall Assist The Poor? An Inquiry Into The Role Of Markets, Private Charity And Government, Tom Birch

The University Dialogue

The paper uses the writings of Adam Smith (The Wealth of Nations and The Theory of Moral Sentiments) to frame some of the economic, psychological and ethical issues regarding how best to assist the poor.

How's Your Health? What's Your Zip Code? Poverty And Health, John W. Seavey

The University Dialogue

For centuries it has been known that there is a relationship between one's status within a social system and health. The poor and disadvantaged have traditionally carried the larger burden of disease and disability.

Global Poverty & Global Politics, Stacy D. Vandeveer

The University Dialogue

In recent years, many policymakers and scholars supportive of globalization – but opposed to many things done in the name of globalization – have begun to draw lessons from policymaking, statistical analysis and the lives of everyday citizens about what can be done to meet the challenge of global poverty. This proposed discovery dialogue essay will attempt to outline some of their conclusions, and explain how they arrived at these lessons.