Men commit the majority of violent crime, yet the majority of men do not commit violent crime. Why is this? Research connecting men and violence cannot fully explain this phenomenon, namely, the variation among men regarding violence. This research study seeks to empirically measure masculinity and to study its relationship to perceptions of violence. My primary hypothesis is that men who measure as more `masculine' will be more accepting of violence. My secondary hypothesis is that situational contexts are also important for the acceptance of violence. These hypotheses are examined using the Conformity to Masculine Norms Inventory and randomized factorial vignettes. Results indicate that those who more strongly conform to masculine norms are more likely to be accepting of the violence represented in these vignettes.

abstract: Studies on what shapes public perceptions of ex-prisoners are abundant. One omission is the detailed investigation of how perceptions of former inmates might vary by the amount of time since their last incarceration term. More specifically, it remains unknown whether increased length since an ex-prisoner’s last incarceration spell is positively linked to higher levels of trust. This study (N = 448) uses a factorial vignette design to test the perceived trustworthiness of former inmates across two hypothetical scenarios. Time since last incarceration spell is used as the independent variables in a series of ordered logistic regression models. The role of gender is also explored. Results show that trust perceptions of ex-prisoners minimally vary by time since last incarceration spell when personal victimization is at risk, but the magnitude is small and shows no clear pattern of declining risk over time. Less support is observed in situations where property victimization is at risk. These findings illustrate the complexity of how people perceive and feel about ex-inmates in situations of trust. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Criminology and Criminal Justice 2018

This study bridges the gap in literature in regards to emerging adults ages 18 to 25 and their attitudes toward relationship formation, specifically towards the acceptability of stayover relationships. By using a factorial vignette to manipulate dimensions of number of nights, reason, and gender, the attitudes of emerging adults were indicated to be acceptable. Open responses were obtained to analyze how emerging adults are categorizing the academic term of stayovers. The study found that emerging adults were more likely to find 1-2 nights as acceptable when compared to stayovers that occur every night. Qualitative analysis of results showed that respondents commonly used language such as dating, friends with benefits, or committed relationship to describe stayover relationships.

Reproductive technology has extended procreative options to infertile, subfertile, unpartnered, and same-sex-partnered individuals, but this technology is sometimes used in circumstances that may be deemed unreasonable or inappropriate by some people. The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of five contextual variables—gender, relationship status, age, and sexual orientation of the individual or couple seeking reproductive assistance, as well as the source of gametes—on attitudes toward the procurement of reproductive services. A multiple-segment factorial vignette was administered to a sample of 257 reproductive-aged respondents. Results indicate that ART is generally viewed as an acceptable procedure by reproductive aged individuals, particularly in normative contexts with regard to age and marital status, but differences between single men and single women using ART services were surprising and the effects of sexual orientation were both complex and unexpected. As reproductive norms and medical advances change over time, ethical questions will continue to arise and be discussed by professionals and lay commentators alike. The findings reported here can inform those discussions, while also generating new research to make sense out of the surprising results.

The thesis focuses on quasi-experimental research design using descriptions of hypothetical situations (vignettes) with varying dimensions and their levels. The thesis is divided into three parts. First one is devoted to the presentation of the FSA. Second (methodologic) part describes the circumstances of the research conducted within the thesis. It is focused on comparison of FSA and traditional polling method, represented by itemized battery. Topic, through which the comparison is made, is crime, respectively punitiveness. The research also focuses on the comparison of classical and projective methods of questioning. The questionnaire survey method CAWI used split- ballot experiment - a sample of 505 respondents was divided into two parts. One half was interviewed with the vignette and subsequent itemized battery focused on mitigating / aggravating circumstances in the ordinary form (first person) of polling, the second part received a projective form (third person) of the questionnaire. The conclusions of the research are focused both on identifying the mitigating and aggravating circumstances using different methods of inquiry and their comparison, and on a combination of FSA and itemized battery in analysis and detection of inconsistent (and potentially socially desirable) topics. From the...

The increasing scope and speed of biological invasions around the world is a major concern of the modern environmental conservation movement. Although many ecological impacts of biological invasions are still not well understood, there is a general consensus that exotic, invasive species are a primary driver of extinctions globally. By altering ecosystem structure and function, invasive species also affect human quality of life; however, not all impacts lead to negative outcomes. Given that invasive species have diverse impacts on society, their management in human-dominated landscapes is a wicked problem wherein the resolution is as much an issue of social value as technical capacity. The purpose of my research was to understand the propensity for engaging private landowners in an effort to eradicate an invasive species on an inhabited island. Specifically, I investigated private landowner perspectives on eradicating the North American beaver (Castor canadensis) from the Tierra del Fuego (TDF) island archipelago in Argentina and Chile. The beaver was introduced in 1946 and has since become a central conservation issue due to its long-lasting changes to local hydrology, nutrient cycling, riparian vegetation, food webs, and aquatic and terrestrial species assemblages. Because eradication requires near complete cooperation from stakeholders and no research had been conducted to understand the perspectives or willingness of private landowners to cooperate, my objectives were to: 1) characterize the links private landowners make between the presence of beavers and impacts to the ecosystem services in their riparian areas, and 2) explore the role of a market-based incentive program to increase landowner cooperation in eradication efforts. Through semi-structured interviews, I elicited landowner mental models of how beavers impact the ecosystem services they receive from their riparian lands. I found that TDF ranchers prioritized provisioning ecosystem services, and held diverse and idiosyncratic beliefs about how beavers influence these outcomes. TDF ranchers may not recognize the beaver as a highly salient problem because they do not connect them to reductions in ecosystem services that are important to them. Among those who do perceive beavers affecting important ecosystem services, there is no clear, unified understanding of how the beavers disturb the ecosystem and key ecosystem services. Additionally, in a broadly administered survey, I used a factorial vignettes to examine the role of program structure and other program-related factors on landowners' willingness to participate in a voluntary eradication program. Overall, landowners were willing to cooperate in an incentive program to eradicate beavers. They were positively motivated by greater financial compensation, an increased expectation that the program would be successful, and the program assuming full responsibility for its implementation. Other factors returned mixed results indicating that further research may be required. In diverse, human-inhabited, and privately-owned landscapes, conservation requires collective action—i.e., the high threshold of participation needed for eradication to be achieved. Understanding the knowledge systems that cause landowners to perceive value or risk serves as a first step in understanding behaviors, and can also serve as a framework for crafting more effective outreach, as current communication about the beaver and the proposed eradication may not resonate with private landowners. Further, barriers to inaction can be overcome by understanding landowner needs and how program-related factors influence the potential for cooperation. In sum, by putting human needs at the forefront of program design, conservation planners can better understand stakeholder perspectives, reduce barriers to participation, and ultimately increase cooperation and improve conservation outcomes. / Master of Science

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