Public Affairs Commons^™

Identification Of Factors Influencing The Commission Of Burglaries, Mustafa Donmez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As in many countries, burglary is a very serious crime in Turkey. Scientific methods and techniques are needed to solve complex burglary cases. This study is completed in the Bursa Police context since they classified many crime data conducive to scientific studies under a project called BEMTAP. The main purpose of this study is to examine the factors influencing the commission of burglaries, using an epid-criminological perspective. It can be argued that factors leading to the commission of a crime are important for formulating preventive strategies in the community. In this study, the contributing factors are categorized into three main …

Understanding Collaboration, Its Antecedents And Perceived Outcomes In Service Partnerships Of Community-Based Organizations, Maritza Concha

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to assess the motivations of community-based organizations (CBOs) staff to participate in service partnerships and their influence on collaboration practices and perceived outcomes of collaborative efforts. This study uses structural equation modeling to assess the relationships between exogenous variables (motivational factors) and endogenous variables (inter-organizational collaboration and perceived outcomes). This study also uses qualitative methods to address perceptions on collaboration not captured by the survey instrument. A total of 538 service partnership staff (supervisors and front liners) received the survey's link or a copy of the survey to participate. Out of the 538, 217 …

Pledge Your Body For Your Bread: Welfare, Drug Testing, And The Inferior Fourth Amendment, Jordan C. Budd

Law Faculty Scholarship

Proposals to subject welfare recipients to periodic drug testing have emerged over the last three years as a significant legislative trend across the United States. Since 2007, over half of the states have considered bills requiring aid recipients to submit to invasive extraction procedures as an ongoing condition of public assistance. The vast majority of the legislation imposes testing without regard to suspected drug use, reflecting the implicit assumption that the poor are inherently predisposed to culpable conduct and thus may be subject to class-based intrusions that would be inarguably impermissible if inflicted on the less destitute. These proposals are …

Effects Of Hospital Structural Complexity And Process Adequacy On The Prevalence Of Systemic Adverse Events And Compliance Issues A Biomedical Engineering Technician Perspective, Beth Ann Fiedler

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Active interdepartmental participation of the biomedical engineering technician (BMET) with clinicians is an opportunity to reduce systemic events guided by empirical evidence that 1) establishes adverse events with medical equipment and 2) associates nursing effectiveness with access to functioning equipment. Though prior research has documented interdependency in nurse-physician relationships (and in such non-clinical health support services as laboratory and pharmaceutical departments), few studies in mainstream literature on quality have related medical professional interdependencies to the BMET. The promotion of National Patient Safety Goals, federal legislation (the Safe Device Act of 1990), and recommendations from agencies— The Joint Commission and the …

State Legislatures Diversity, Innovation, And Policy Adoption, Janna Souvorova

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The question of policy origination is the very essence of state public policy analysis. This study provides an overview of the previous research on innovation, as defined by Rogers (1962, 2003) and Walker (1969), and determinants models of state policy formulation, as they relate to innovation and policy adoption on the state level. The literature review indicates that previous research mostly focused on the internal state characteristics such as political and socioeconomic variables to explain state differences in policy adoption. The literature also indicates a general lack of empirical research relating diversity to innovation and policy adoption. State governments have …

Personal Perceptions And Organizational Factors Influencing Police Discretion The Case Of Turkish Patrol Officers' Responsiveness, Hidayet Tasdoven

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Police officers make decisions at the street level in a variety of situations that have direct impact on quality of life, justice in society, and individual freedom. These decisions inherently involve the exercise of discretion, since successfully performed police tasks are linked to the officer‘s choosing among alternative courses of action. Appropriateness of unsupervised decisions taken under street contingencies remains questionable in terms of police-behavior legitimacy. Law enforcement agencies seek ways to control excessive discretion to avoid undesired consequences of police discretion and maintain organizational legitimacy. Traditionally, organizations developed reward and sanction structures that aimed to shape officer behavior on …

2010 Nebraska Population Reports, David J. Drozd, Jerry Deichert

Past Publications

This report compiles a selection of data analysis tables that were created throughout 2011 and 2012 by staff at the UNO Center for Public Affairs Research using data from the 2000 Census.

High School Influences On College Enrollment And College Graduation Of Dallas Independent School District 2002 Graduates, Linda K. Johnson

Public Affairs Dissertations - Archive

The overarching goal for American education under President Barack Obama has been to increase college enrollment and completion rates. The pressure to achieve this goal has been keenly felt in the postsecondary community, especially as federal and state funding have become increasingly tied to achieving higher college completion rates. Yet the adequate preparation of students lies primarily in the secondary system, and the literature contains many statistics that support the view that few students are adequately prepared, especially those who are educated in urban public school systems. The challenge was to determine actions that can be implemented by school districts …

Engaging Over-Age Participants In Urban Learning And Work Environments: An Empirical Demonstration Of Macro-Level Efficiency Through Effective At-Risk Student And Teacher Recovery, J. Randall Farmer

Public Affairs Dissertations - Archive

This study reviews data-driven appraisals of No Child Left Behind (2001) as well as the nation's at-risk student- and teacher dropout problems. Little, if any, evidence is found that troubled, over-age teens or struggling, first-year educators are overly concerned with the enhancement of federal and state accountability measures, rigorous performance standards, college preparatory curricula, or formative or summative assessments - let alone the academic credentials, continuing education credits, or even combined years of work experience of their teachers and colleagues. Rather, at-risk students and teachers in the nation's urban learning and work environments are most concerned with their want and …

Crisis In Police Recruitment: Public Service Motivation And Changes In Generational Preferences, G. M. Cox

Public Affairs Dissertations - Archive

The purpose of this research project was to determine if a downward trend exists in the number of people who are motivated to become police officers and to explore whether there has been a shift in motivational factors among the three major generational groups to serve as police officers. Furthermore, it hypothesized that incumbents in the police service, across generational lines, have changed in their public service motivation to serve as police officers.The research project utilized two survey instruments. The first survey focused on police chiefs and human resource directors. The primary objective for surveying this group was to determine …

The Emergence Of Women City Managers In Texas In The Late 20th Century And The Early 21st Century, Helen Kay Godbey

Public Affairs Dissertations - Archive

The first generation of women city managers in the late 20th Century and early 21st Century have one thing in common: all were initially mentored and promoted by men. Like survivors of a Texas tornado that huddle in the closet and then peek out to see what is left of the world around them, these few women who became the first generation of assistant or city managers began to look around for other women who had also done so. Even though there were just a few, they began to mentor each other. I would propose that an enlightened public administration …

Closing The Gap In Higher Education: African American Male College Students Perceptions Of Advising At A Two Year College, Terry L. Aaron

Public Affairs Dissertations - Archive

The attrition of minority students is fast becoming a salient issue in higher education. Academic advising has long been viewed as a determinant of participation, persistence and success. Persistence focuses on retention. Participation and success are two objectives of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board's initiative "Closing the Gap." This study used quantitative and qualitative methods to examine African American male college students' (AAMCSs) perceptions of advising center practices, advisor practices and affinity factors and their influence on participation and persistence. Data collected from a sample of 225 AAMCSs was analyzed to determine if academic advising was indeed a tool …

Engaging Over-Age Participants In Urban Learning And Work Environments: An Empirical Demonstration Of Macro-Level Efficiency Through Effective At-Risk Student And Teacher Recovery, J. Randall Farmer

Public Affairs Dissertations - Archive

This study reviews data-driven appraisals of No Child Left Behind (2001) as well as the nation's at-risk student- and teacher dropout problems. Little, if any, evidence is found that troubled, over-age teens or struggling, first-year educators are overly concerned with the enhancement of federal and state accountability measures, rigorous performance standards, college preparatory curricula, or formative or summative assessments - let alone the academic credentials, continuing education credits, or even combined years of work experience of their teachers and colleagues. Rather, at-risk students and teachers in the nation's urban learning and work environments are most concerned with their want and …

Examining Income Polarization Indices In The Context Of `World City Thesis': An Analysis Of Large U.S. Metropolitan Areas, Chawana Mwangeka

Public Affairs Dissertations - Archive

For more than three decades, the `global city thesis' or the `world city thesis' has attracted scholarly contributions from urban planners, geographers, sociologists and urban political economists interested in socioeconomic and spatial polarization in mega cities. Although with limited empirical evidence, these scholars in general are in agreement that globalization is an underlying factor of growing income inequalities and socio-spatial polarization found in these urban areas. On the other hand, the field of welfare economics has traditionally associated income inequalities with factors that have attracted an avalanche of literature since 1950s. In the face of growing income inequalities which some …

Crisis In Police Recruitment: Public Service Motivation And Changes In Generational Preferences, G. M. Cox

Public Affairs Dissertations - Archive

The purpose of this research project was to determine if a downward trend exists in the number of people who are motivated to become police officers and to explore whether there has been a shift in motivational factors among the three major generational groups to serve as police officers. Furthermore, it hypothesized that incumbents in the police service, across generational lines, have changed in their public service motivation to serve as police officers.The research project utilized two survey instruments. The first survey focused on police chiefs and human resource directors. The primary objective for surveying this group was to determine …

Mitigating Climate Change At The Municipal Scale: American Urban Planning At A Crossroads, Kent L. Hurst

Public Affairs Dissertations - Archive

The failure of international negotiations toward a successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol to limit global greenhouse gas emissions has highlighted not only the problematic associated with a global agreement on such a scientifically and politically complex issue, but also the importance of sub-national action in lieu of such an agreement. This is especially true in the United States where any national climate protection framework seems unlikely in the foreseeable future. In the absence of any such policy leadership from Washington, it is increasingly falling to states, regional organizations, and municipalities to craft emissions reduction strategies that will contribute meaningfully …

Closing The Gap In Higher Education: African American Male College Students Perceptions Of Advising At A Two Year College, Terry L. Aaron

Public Affairs Dissertations - Archive

The attrition of minority students is fast becoming a salient issue in higher education. Academic advising has long been viewed as a determinant of participation, persistence and success. Persistence focuses on retention. Participation and success are two objectives of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board's initiative "Closing the Gap." This study used quantitative and qualitative methods to examine African American male college students' (AAMCSs) perceptions of advising center practices, advisor practices and affinity factors and their influence on participation and persistence. Data collected from a sample of 225 AAMCSs was analyzed to determine if academic advising was indeed a tool …

Law And Politics In Public-Private Partnerships: Transparency, Conflict Of Interest, And Renegotiation In Concession Arrangements, Samuel A. Roach

Public Affairs Dissertations - Archive

Many states and local governments have begun to use the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) vehicle as a policy tool in the area of highway transportation infrastructure development. A particular type of PPP, sometimes referred to as a "concession," can involve a state or local government's grant of concession rights, which typically includes the right to collect toll revenues on a roadway, to a private entity in exchange for the private entity's development and management of the roadway. As highway concession practice in the U.S. is a recent phenomenon, policymakers and other interested observers can benefit from a greater understanding of these …

Is Mine Risk Education (Mre) Having A Significant Effect And Long-Lasting Impact On Attitudes Towards Uxos At The Community Level?, Phounsy Phasavaeng

Capstone Collection

For over 30 years, UXO (Unexploded Ordnance) contamination in Laos has affected the ability of the population to maintain suitable livelihoods in a number of provinces. This constraint is a significant challenge to community development as well affecting National Social Economic Development. UXOs are the cause of many accidents in Laos, the casualties are often children and farmers who are involve in agricultural activities and scrap metal collection.

UXO-LAOS is the key UXO clearance agency in Laos. Other UXO clearance agencies have also tried to address the problem by providing the clearance work as well as Mine Risk Education (MRE) …

Nonvoters: Doing Nothing To Change The Government They Hate, Geoffrey N. Mciver

Political Science Theses and Capstones

The sporadic and often dismal voter turnout of the American public is often regarded as a hole in the democratic model. This research examines the influence of an individual‘s attitude about their government and how it affects their voting habits. Literature in the past has isolated demographic makeup as the reason for nonvoting, i.e. education or income. However, the nonvoter‘s state of mind in relation to their general feelings toward government and the social contract has been broadly overlooked. A new measure of an individual‘s attitude toward government was created using a collection of survey questions centered on a person‘s …