Western North Dakota law enforcement agencies have experienced dramatic changes in the policing landscape as a result of an oil boom. These agencies were forced to deal with a rapidly growing population that brought different cultural expectations and a substantial rise in crime. Using Klinger’s (1997) framework of formal and informal policing behaviors, the current study explores how policing styles have changed in these agencies. Researchers interviewed 101 officers from eight agencies to determine how the oil boom impacted the way they conduct their work, interact with citizens, and handle calls for service.

Education, employment, housing, and substance abuse pose significant problems to the successful reentry of individuals released from prison. The current research project utilized a natural experiment, an oil boom in a Midwestern state, to examine changes in offender reentry and recidivism outcomes overtime. The first part of the study compared a sample of offenders released from prison prior to the oil boom to a sample of offenders released from prison during the highest peak of the oil boom. Comparisons were made on variables known in the literature to be predictive of recidivism during the reentry process; these include risk, education, employment, housing, substance abuse, and treatment. Recidivism was measured as a new conviction, technical violation, and re-incarceration. The follow-up period for both samples was two years. The second part of the study incorporated the perspectives of probation and parole officers. All officers in the Midwestern state were surveyed on their perception of offender reentry and how it may have changed as a result of oil boom influences. Officer attitudes, philosophies, and supervision strategies were analyzed in relation to their perceptions on offender reentry and the oil boom.

Exploration of the familial power women possess is growing as sociologists and anthropologists recognize the legitimacy of power internal to the family. The focus of this research was to uncover the forms of power German-Russian women held as they operated in the private sphere of the family. Attention also focused on the transference of women's power, and the family power dynamics unique to farm families. Members of three generations of one German-Russian farm family were interviewed. The results indicated German-Russian women operated from bases of power derived from their roles as farm wives who contributed to family sustenance, and as caretakers and kinkeepers, maintaining family cohesion. While male power is largely public and formal, women's reliance on the bonds of familial relationships across generations lend them greater power in that realm.