The following is a report concerning quantitative research carried out in the pursuit of a Master's degree. This research details an examination of the hypothesis that the political ideology of militant extremists and the selection of Majority or Minority target influences sentencing severity. The research uses information collected on 510 indictees in "The American Terrorism Study, 1980-2002", which was funded by the United States Department of Justice. Using an OLS regression (Independent Variables: Type of Militant Group, Majority Target, Crime Severity Index, Gender, and Education; Dependent Variables: Outcome of Indictment, Sentence, Time Sentenced, Fine Sentenced, Restitution Sentenced, and Combined Fine/Restitution Amount) it was discovered that there is no tendency for militant extremists targeting Majority facilities or personnel to receive more severe sentences. Additionally, there is an interaction between Leftist group identification and Education level with the amount of the Fines levied. Further research in this area would be advanced by having access to detailed breakdowns into the socio-economic backgrounds of the individuals involved. / Master of Science

<p>Over the last few decades, the Swedish society has become more and more multicultural, which has resulted in the fact that the differences between different ethnic groups have become more and more noticed and debated. Studies have shown that persons belonging to minority groups are often wronged by majority decisions, which leaves the minorities in a disadvantageous position in relation to the majority. The scientific problem is how a state should compensate different minority groups for their disadvantaged position in order to be able to guarantee justice and equality for all individuals of the state.</p><p>The aim of this thesis is to examine the Swedish government’s attitude towards minority rights, and to analyse whether this coincides with Will Kymlicka’s normative minority rights theory. The research questions are:</p><p>• How should the majority society treat minorities according to Kymlicka?</p><p>• Which is Swedish minority policy’s stance on minority rights?</p><p>The methods used in this thesis include a qualitative text analysis and a field investigation among Finnish-speaking people living in Borlänge.</p><p>The conclusion of this essay is that the Swedish government in all likelihood has a positive attitude towards minority rights, since it has assigned group differentiated rights to the national minorities in Sweden. Furthermore, the Swedish government’s view on minority rights coincides to a great extent with Will Kymlicka’s normative theory.</p>

Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 167-171).

Thesis (M.S.W.) - Carleton University, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 151-155). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität, Hamburg, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 277-292).

According to 2§ of the Swedish Library Act, libraries shall work towards the development of a democratic society by spreading knowledge and providing people with the possibility to form their own opinions (SFS, 2013:801). It’s a natural consequence that Sweden’s national minorities are not provided with the same amount of services as the majority community, however the extent of how much space the minorities ought to be given in public libraries is a relatively unexplored research topic. This thesis uses a normative and argumentative structure to argue that public libraries ought to be prioritized more in the promotion of language and cultural rights for the Sami minority in Sweden. All of the Sami languages are defined as endangered according to the UN organization UNESCO, which makes the promotion of them a relatively urgent issue if the languages are wished to be preserved. The theoretical framework consists of Will Kymlicka’s arguments about equality and cultural diversity as a justification for group-specific rights, as well as David’s Crystal’s discussion on how to efficiently avoid language death. The arguments focus both on the linguistic and cultural benefits of an increased promotion of Sami related services in public libraries. It also highlights, and tries to tackle, potential issues such as the experienced lack of published Sami literature in Sweden.

Suicidality rates are far higher among gender minority individuals than in the general population. This study sought to determine if intersecting identities and social support play a role in these rates. There were no differences in suicidality among gender minorities with an intersecting sexual minority identity. For intersecting racial/ethnic identities, it was found that White individuals were more likely to report past suicidal ideation than racial/ethnic minority individuals. Family support was independently associated with less suicidal ideation, whereas gender minority friend support was independently associated with an increase in suicidal ideation.

Few interpersonal and organizational communication studies examine the professional and organizational aspects of career satisfaction among minority physicians. Due to the underrepresenation of minority physicians, most studies resort to comparing aggregate groups of minority physicians in juxtaposition to non-minority physicians. These studies fail to uncover possible communication differences, which originate from cultural dissimilarities between disaggregate racial/ethnic groups. Even fewer studies examine physicians' written communication to open-ended survey questions about career satisfaction/dissatisfaction between disaggregate racial/ethnic minority groups and non-minorities. This study specifically examines written responses to two open-ended survey questions about professional and organizational dissatisfaction and compares responses from disaggregate minority physician and non-minority physicians. Participants were divided into five response-driven categories of race/ethnicity as follows: Asian/Pacific Islander, Black/African American, Indian/Pakistani, Hispanic, and White/Non-Hispanic. The population consists of 1849 members of the medical staff roster of a Southeastern, U.S., not-for-profit hospital group. Primary findings indicate the presence of recurrent themes among disaggregate minority physician racial/ethnic groups' responses. Significant variation exists between responses from disaggregate minority physician racial/ethnic groups and non-minority physicians. Results imply that open-ended methods of data collection are essential to gaining knowledge about ways cultural dissimilarities between disaggregate minority racial/ethnic groups affect communication and satisfaction. Understanding more about cultural dissimilarities is necessary for: improving data collection quality; recruiting and retaining minority physicians; and reducing healthcare disparities among minorities.

Enhancing the cultural diversity of faculty has emerged as a prominent issue in the 1990's. While Black, Hispanic, and American Indians have made incremental gains in terms of their representation in majority institutions, they remain clustered in the lower ranks of the faculty and generally take longer to achieve tenure. Efforts to increase the representation of minority faculty have focused on intensified recruitment, with less attention paid to further career development once a minority individual has achieved faculty status. The research presented herein explores the evaluation, promotion and tenure process of a Research I university to determine the structural and ideological barriers to minority faculty advancement. The research focuses on concepts of merit, excellence, and quality that form the cornerstones to evaluation standards, and the values, attitudes and behavioral expectations that underlie those standards. Using critical theory as the conceptual framework that drives the inquiry, the findings indicate that the pervasive ideology of merit, being universalistic in nature, does not easily accommodate diversity and trivializes racial, class, and gender issues while perpetuating a system of structured inequality.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Sydney, 2008. / Title from title screen (viewed Jan. 19, 2009) Includes tables and questionnaires in English and Farsi. Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the School of Behavioural and Community Health Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences. Includes bibliography. Also available in print form.