Community-Based Research Commons^™

Evaluating The Impact Of Team Policing In Las Vegas, Nevada, Natalie N. Martinez

Graduate Research Symposium (2010 - 2017)

Team policing involves the continuous geographical assignment of both patrol officers and investigators to the same, defined area, which allows them to become familiar with area residents and knowledgeable about community concerns and thus, enables them to develop individualized strategies to resolve the neighborhood problems that can lead to crime and disorder. This study evaluates the impact of a team policing intervention in Las Vegas, Nevada that combines an emphasis on community outreach with problem-focused policing strategies to determine the effectiveness of team policing as a crime control strategy. The results indicate that the team policing did not result in …

Police Injury Crashes And The Intersections Of Policy, Technology, And Culture, Carol Servino

Graduate Research Symposium (2010 - 2017)

Motor vehicle crashes caused the majority fatalities to police officers in the U. S. for more than a decade, yet little is known about factors contributing to injury crashes. This research project required original data collection. A national survey of police chiefs in state, county, and local agencies of all sizes was conducted online in June and July, 2012. Questions focused on various driving policies and practices, including those related to communication technology commonly used in police patrol vehicles. Other questions included hypothetical situations to explore the culture of driving safety in individual police organizations. The majority of chiefs clearly …

Socioeconomic Effect On Crime In The Southwest United States Pre- And Post-Great Recession, Kristina Donathan, Jaewon Lim

Graduate Research Symposium (2010 - 2017)

Facing the Great Recession, the Southwest megapolitan cluster in the United States including Las Vegas, Southern California and Sun Corridor in Arizona had a massive negative economic shock. Skyrocketing unemployment, massive foreclosures and other socioeconomic factors may negatively affect our safe environment with changing patterns in crime. This study aims to investigate the impacts of socioeconomic factors on different types of crimes committed in the megapolitan cluster of the Southwest United States. Using annual crime datasets, we look at the three years before the Great Recession and subsequent three years (2005-2010). The metropolitan areas, Los Angeles, CA, Las Vegas, NV, …

Police Responses To Domestic Violence And Public Perception, Kelly Stout, Alexis Kennedy

Graduate Research Symposium (2010 - 2017)

Domestic violence, also known as, intimate partner violence (IPV), has become an epidemic in the United States. This research is intended to explain the types of IPV, describe the effects of severe IPV, look at the change in public perceptions of IPV situations, and explore the police responses to such situations. Students at UNLV participated in the “Police Responses to Calls for Service” survey, that was created to determine the public’s level of awareness of IPV situations and whether that awareness increases support for police policies in responding to intimate partner violence calls.

Building A Taxonomy Of Player Types And The Effects On The Self And Interaction Between Players, Kyle Yim

Graduate Research Symposium (2010 - 2017)

This paper conducted a literature review of current research examining fantasy football participants. Fantasy football has become popular in recent years due the attention from the media, most notably sports shows providing more coverage of fantasy football. Theories that have examined fantasy football include gambling theory, and uses and gratifications. Motivational types also provide categories to describe players. Additionally this theory also provides a method to measure these players called the Motivational Scale for Fantasy Football Participation (MSFFP). Thus the purpose of this paper is twofold: to explore the literature in fantasy sports; propose to build taxonomical categories for serious …

Does Movie Viewing Cultivate Unrealistic Expectations About Love And Marriage?, Lauren Galloway

Graduate Research Symposium (2010 - 2017)

The present study investigated the connection between romantic movie viewing frequency and endorsement of dysfunctional beliefs for romantic relationships in a university-based sample of 228 participants. Respondents completed a questionnaire in which they reported demographic information as well as responses to the several scales that measure endorsement of romantic ideals. I base this investigation of Segrin and Nabi’s (2002) examination of television viewing habits and proclivity for unrealistic expectations of sex, love, and marriage. Both the current study and the investigation conducted by Segrin and Nabi (2002) support the supposition that media play a part in reinforcing beliefs about coupleships. …

States And Multicultural Education Policies: A Multinomial Logit Analysis, Leander D. Kellogg

Graduate Research Symposium (2010 - 2017)

This research evaluates the factors that facilitate or constrain the adoption of multicultural education policies in the fifty US state at the state legislature and state bureaucracy levels. According to the 2010 Census, the majority of children under age two—for the first time in US history—are minorities. Furthermore, 11 states and the District of Columbia already have a “minority-majority” population of children under age five. Seven more states are expected to join them in the next decade. Previous research has found that multicultural education policies have been increasingly adopted but are not yet widespread across the states. This study first …

Survivors Of Childhood Sexual Abuse:What Heals And What Hurts In A Couple Relationship, Laura Smedley, Kathy Disney-Fairchild, Stephen Fife, Colleen Peterson

Graduate Research Symposium (2010 - 2017)

Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) is a significant trauma that affects a person’s self-concept and ability to form healthy intimate relationships later in adulthood. Approximately 20% of adults who experienced childhood sexual abuse go on to evidence serious psychopathology in adulthood (Harway & Faulk, 2005). Knowledge of how relationship partners affect the healing of the survivor may be very beneficial to couples’ therapists, to survivors themselves, and to their intimate partners. The purpose of this qualitative study is to increase understanding of the survivor’s experience of what is helpful and what is counterproductive in their healing process within the construct of …

Juror Typologies And Dna Comprehension:Who Benefits From Jury Trial Innovations?, Mari Sakiyama, Joel D. Lieberman

Graduate Research Symposium (2010 - 2017)

When DNA evidence is presented in the courtroom, it is typically accompanied by complex testimony conveying information such as the method of generating population frequencies, match criteria and probabilities, as well as laboratory errors and error rates. Although this evidence may have high probative value, the legal community has expressed growing concern regarding jurors’ ability to comprehend it. However, courts have implemented a variety of jury trial innovations to facilitate jurors’ ability to process complex information. Although these innovations may have a positive effect on comprehension of complex trial evidence, it is unclear whether some jurors are more likely to …

Urban.Boston (Urban Research-Based Action Network): Creating Connections Between Community + Academia, Urban.Boston, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

The Urban Research-Based Action Network (URBAN) is a national platform that facilitates community-based research, teaching and learning for action across disciplinary lines, connecting scholars and community activists within and across cities. It was started in 2011 to honor the memory of activist scholar Marylin Gitell, and has received generous support from SAGE Publications. URBAN currently has local nodes in Boston, LA, NY, and Northern California. It also has nodes that connect at the national level among sociologists, education researchers and community planners.

The Characteristics Of Women Seeking Funding From The Dc Abortion Fund, Karin Elizabeth Bleeg

GW Research Days 2013

Objectives: To determine whether the population DCAF serves, based on current research, are those most in need of its financial services. Describe the population that DCAF is supports by age, race and ethnicity, poverty, educational attainment, union status, contraceptive method used, referral source, and number of prior pregnancies.

Methods: An adapted version of The Guttmacher Institute's National Patient Survey will be used to collect data from women who contact DCAF for financial assistance for their abortion (n=150). The data will be collected for one month and then analyzed in SPSS.

Results: Between January and March 2013 approximately 400 women contacted …

Chieftaincy-Based Community Dispute Resolution: The Case Of Sierra Leone, Whitney Mcintyre Miller

Education Faculty Articles and Research

Sierra Leone suffered a destructive 11-year civil war that largely left its communities torn apart and in need of vast redevelopment. One of the ways that communities are rebuilding and making efforts to move forward is through the chieftaincy-based community dispute resolution process. Based on historical norms, this process involves the community leader, or chief, helping to resolve disputes within the community. This article reviews this chieftaincy-based community dispute resolution process, discusses the types of disputes settled, and provides broader lessons learned for communities who may be interested in truly community-based dispute resolution.

Do Age-Friendly Characteristics Influence The Expectation To Age In Place? A Comparison Of Low-Income And Higher Income Detroit Elders, Amanda J. Lehning, Richard J. Smith, Ruth E. Dunkle

Social Work Faculty Publications

Currently there is limited evidence linking age-friendly characteristics to outcomes in elders. Using a representative sample of 1,376 adults aged 60 and older living in Detroit, this study examined the association between age-friendly social and physical environmental characteristics and the expectation to age in place, and the potential differences between low- and higher-income elders. Based on U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) age-friendly guide, we identified six factors reflecting age-friendly characteristics. Logistic regression models indicated that regardless of income level only neighborhood problems were significantly associated with expecting to age in place. Low-income elders were more likely to expect to age …

Transport And Health: A Look At Three Latin American Cities, Janeth Mosquera Becerra, Rodrigo S. Reis, Lawrence D. Frank, Farah A. Ramirez-Marrero, Benjamin Welle, Eugenio Arriaga Cordero, Fabian Mendez Paz, Carlos J. Crespo, Veronica Dujon, Enrique Jacoby, Jennifer Dill, Lynn Weigand, Carlos M. Padin

Community Health Faculty Publications and Presentations

Transport is associated with environmental problems, economic losses, health and social inequalities. A number of European and US cities have implemented initiatives to promote multimodal modes of transport. In Latin America changes are occurring in public transport systems and a number of projects aimed at stimulating non-motorized modes of transport (walking and cycling) have already been implemented. Based on articles from peer-reviewed academic journals, this paper examines experiences in Bogota (Colombia), Curitiba (Brazil), and Santiago (Chile), and identifies how changes to the transport system contribute to encourage active transportation. Bus rapid transit, ciclovias, bike paths/lanes, and car use restriction are …

Investigating The Paradigms Of Sikkim’S Built Environment, Bennet Song

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The region of Sikkim is located on the Aplide-Himalayan global seismic belt, a seismically vulnerable area of the world. The 2011 M6.9 earthquake caused a severe disruption in the functions of both rural and urban Sikkim. In areas populated by humans, most of the visible damage and harm done in an earthquake is due to poorly designed and constructed buildings and infrastructure rather than the earthquake itself. The focus of this paper lies in study of the relationship between the predominant building types of rural vs. urban Sikkim. Ikra is a low cost vernacular building type found in Sikkim’s rural …

Going Green And Staying Sustainable: Community Based Tree-Planting Projects In Mongolia, Rachel Klassen

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Community based tree planting projects are abundant in Mongolia and have become a popular form of social movement towards promoting a healthy environment. With so many different varieties of tree planting projects in Mongolia, it is necessary to evaluate how well the different forms of Community-based tree planting projects function. The first research question created to access said Community projects is, are Community based tree planting projects environmentally sustainable? And the second, are Community-based tree planting projects in Mongolia sustainable from an organizational standpoint? To answer these questions interviews, surveys and case studies were given in the three …

¿Mi Casa Es Su Casa?: Inmigración, Discriminación E Interculturalidad En Liceo Miguel De Cervantes Y Saavedra, Kathia Dumelle

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Este estudio se trata de las dinámicas de inmigración, discriminación e interculturalidad en el Liceo Miguel de Cervantes y Saavedra, establecimiento municipal, ubicado en la Región Metropolitana de Chile en la comuna de Santiago. Se propone conocer si lo que está pasando en la sociedad chilena, específicamente la discriminación contra los inmigrantes vecinos, se reproduce en la escuela, o si la escuela está cambiando las relaciones interpersonales entre los chilenos y los inmigrantes. Se investiga mediante una etnografía del liceo, realizando observaciones de la escuela, y entrevistas formales e informales con estudiantes inmigrantes, estudiantes chilenos, profesores y profesoras. Se observa …

Accessible Medical Equipment For Patients With Disabilities In Primary Care Clinics: Why Is It Lacking?, Jennifer Renee Pharr

Environmental & Global Health Faculty Research

Background: Previous research has identified inaccessible medical equipment as a barrier to health care services encountered by people with disabilities. However, no research has been conducted to understand why medical practices lack accessible equipment.

Objectives/Hypothesis: The purpose of this study was to examine practice administrators’ knowledge of accessible medical equipment and cost of accessible medical equipment to understand why medical practices lack such equipment. Hypotheses were: 1) Practice administrators lacked knowledge about accessible medical equipment and 2) The cost of accessible medical equipment was too great compared to standard equipment for the clinic.

Methods: This study was a mixed methods …

“Resistencia Es Permanencia”: Concepciones De Resistencia, Territorio Y Recuperaciones De Tierra En Dos Comunidades Mapuche, August Williams-Eynon

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In recent decades the world has seen a backlash of resistance, especially among First Nations and indigenous populations, to what some characterize as new forms of colonization: the development of globalization, and the spread of neoliberal economic institutions and their guiding principles (Vanden 2007). This work locates the social movements of the Mapuche (an indigenous nation conquered by the Chilean army in 1883), and especially their pursuance of land recovery and territorial sovereignty, among the many such mobilizations occurring in Latin America, including the Zapatista movement in Mexico, the organizing of indigenous groups in Bolivia and the CONAIE (Confederación de …

21st Century Crofting: Strengths And Opportunities For Community Development, Bryan J. Hains, Ronald Hustedde, Kristina G. Ricketts

Community & Leadership Development Faculty Publications

Scotland has one of the most uneven land ownership patterns in the world. In a country of 5.2 million people, about 969 people control 60% of the land. Over 20% of privately owned land in Scotland is held in some form of offshore or beneficial ownership (Committee on the Inquiry of Crofting, 2008). This land ownership pattern has a unique expression in the northern and western parts of the Scottish Highlands and Islands with a 300-year-old system of tenant farmers known as crofters. Unlike other tenant farmers across the world, crofters have gained legal rights to stay on the land …