Thesis (Ph.D.)--Pacific Graduate School of Psychology, 2003. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 63-11, Section: B, page: 5505. Adviser: Masha Gartstein.

Thèse (D.Ps.)--Université de Sherbrooke (Canada), 2008. / Titre de l'écran-titre (visionné le 1 février 2007). In ProQuest dissertations and theses. Publié aussi en version papier.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Fairleigh Dickinson University, 2001. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 61-12, Section: B, page: 6718. Chairperson: Robert McGrath. Available also in print.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Fairleigh Dickinson University, 2002. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 63-02, Section: B, page: 1034. Chair: Margaret Gibbs. Available also in print.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-07, Section: A, page: 2758. Adviser: Anna-Maria Marshall. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 260-275) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Recent literature has assessed the particular circumstances of Palestinian children, generally attempting to conceptualize them as either politically-charged and violent, or as marginalized citizens, victimized by dominating Israeli practices. This research attempts to broaden these conceptualizations, by exploring the relevance of Cynthia Enloe's (2000) concept of militarized maneuvering. Enloe postulates inter alia that militarization is a process which involves the obfuscation of the military's problematic nature for civil society and the almost taking for granted of military's (often violent) strategies; it occurs as societal conditions, discourses, definitions, attitudes, thoughts and expectations are produced (and re-produced). This thesis has employed an inductive qualitative study to explore the means through which Palestinian children may progress through the process of militarization, employing a coding approach to data analysis. It has studied Identity Card (1964), considered to be the "Palestinian national poem", written by "the Palestinian national poet", Mahmoud Darweish and has drawn reference to secondary literature detailing the impacts of the newly-constructed Israeli Separation Barrier on Palestinian populations. Palestinian populations may undergo the process of militarization through some of the available nationalist poetry, which offers discourses commemorating the historical connection of Palestinians with the land lost in 1948, and emphasizes the need for steadfastness, nationalism and resistance. This thesis has found that the barrier is a force which both directly and indirectly militarizes children's social conditions, exemplifying past (perceived) victimization, obstructing daily life, and oppressing Palestinians' future nation. It may also be interpreted to reinforce the desire for resistance, and therefore potentially garner support for militarized retaliatory acts against Israelis. This approach has illuminated an important and unexpected finding; the two seemingly disjoined realms of Palestinian society are undergirded by the abstract themes of collective memory and nationalism, suggesting that these are significant elements to the study of the militarization of Palestinian society, thereby offering a means to broaden the aforementioned traditional conceptualizations of Palestinian children.

Borrowing from standpoint and postmodern feminist epistemologies, this thesis proposes to deconstruct the concept "violent women" and challenge the traditional 'bad'/'mad'/'other' framework of understanding women who engage in violent behaviour. The concept decontextualizes differences between women who commit violence and the stereotypical framework hinders any alternative understanding of their individual cases. Using contextual constructionism and Best's (2001) criteria for identifying claims as a theoretical framework, a qualitative content analysis of Canadian newspaper articles between July 2004 and July 2006 explored the news media's representation of Karla Homolka when she was released from prison in July 2005. While the stereotypical concepts that this study sought to transcend (i.e. discussing Karla through the 'bad'/'mad'/'other' framework) emerged throughout the coverage, insights into how the media constructs "identities" that people come to "know"' also emerged. The media's representation of Homolka at the time of her release was concluded to be hyppereal; a simulated character named "Karla" that must Canadians are familiar with. Yet this character may or may not resemble the actual Karla who currently resides somewhere in Montreal.

As the population ages, the number of older adults who are involved in the criminal justice system is increasing. While their experiences in prisons have been explored, older women's lives in their communities have yet to be studied. This thesis examines the reintegration experiences of older female ex-prisoners living in Ottawa through the perspectives of the professionals who assist them in their reintegrations. Using standpoint theory, I conducted semi-structured interviews with a variety of professionals who described their experiences working with older reintegrating women for non-governmental community organizations in Ottawa. Participants examined various aspects of the reintegration experience, including the communities in which older women live; their health; the social networks surrounding older women; roadblocks which create difficulties during reintegration; and what older women require in order to reintegrate successfully. Through participants' accounts, I describe the challenges and opportunities older reintegrating women face and explore what can be done to ensure that they have the best possible reintegration experiences.

Contrary to the significant increases of incarceration rates in the United States and England, Canada has maintained relatively stable incarceration rates for the years 1978 2004. However, this overall stability conceals not only bifurcated trends of increasing and decreasing incarceration rates but also significant variation within these trends at the federal, provincial, and territorial sub-levels. As such, this thesis reveals -- on a theoretical level -- that Canada has not entirely resisted the shift towards increasing punitiveness. From a policy perspective, it is suggested that the competing trends must be monitored to avoid exacerbation to the point in which justice is brought into disrepute. This work also raises a methodological question of whether punitiveness is best measured in terms of admissions or counts data.

This study examined estimates and predictors of recidivism of 587 convicted male sex offenders who had been assessed at the Sexual Behaviors Clinic (SBC) and who were followed over a 20 year period. Subjects were grouped into three broad categories based on the index offense: (1) 85 offenders against female adults (rapists); (2) 206 extrafamilial child molesters (CM); and (3) 295 incest offenders. Demographic information, historical variables, characteristics of the index offence, and clinical information were collected from medical records. Offense data were collected from Canadian Police Information Center (CPIC) records. The percentage of rapists, CM, and incest offenders who re-offended sexually over the 20 year period was 24.4, 22.8, and 9.8, respectively. The percentage of rapist, CM, and incest offenders that recidivated violently was 37.2, 34.0, and, 20.0, respectively. The percentage of rapists, CM, and incest offenders that committed any new offense was 56.4, and 46.1, 27.5, respectively. The CM group appeared to take the longest to re-offend sexually and violently, and seemed to be at greatest risk to reoffend 10 to 15 years following release. Offenders who committed a new sexual offence, new violent offence, or any new offence were differentiated by means of univariate analyses. Age of offender, historical criminal factors (e.g., age at first offense, history of prior offenses), and scores on the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised repeatedly differentiated between recidivists and non-recidivists. Stepwise logistic regression analysis assessed which factors were useful in predicting sexual recidivism and violent recidivism. Sexual recidivism among rapists was best predicted by never being married at time of assessment and the presence of historical charges, whereas violent recidivism was best predicted by marital status, childhood history, historical criminal charges, and psychopathy. Sexual recidivism among CM was predicted by the number of years of education, high level of force during the initial offence, arousal to deviant and violent activities with children, historical offences, and psychopathy. Violent recidivism was predicted by the age of the offender at the time of assessment, years of education, historical offences, and psychopathy. Sexual recidivism among the incest group was predicted by the offender's age, an index of his alcohol use during his index offence, and the degree of psychopathy. Violent recidivism was predicted by the combination of the offender's age, family history of alcoholism, alcohol use at time of index offence, age when criminal history began, general alcohol use, and psychopathy. Implications of findings and suggestions for future directions of sex offender research are presented.