The problems in the 2000 election in Florida focused national attention on the need for usable voting systems. As a result, the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002 provided funding for updating voting equipment and many states purchased direct recording electronic (DRE) systems. Although these electronic systems have been widely adopted, they have not been empirically proven to be more usable than their predecessors in terms of ballot completion times, error rates, or satisfaction levels for the average voter. The series of studies reported here provides usability data on DREs to compare with that of previous voting technologies (paper ballots, punch cards, and lever machines). Results indicate that there are not differences between DREs and older methods in efficiency or effectiveness. However, in terms of user satisfaction, the DREs are significantly better than the older methods. Paper ballots also perform well, but participants are much more satisfied with their experiences voting on the DREs. These studies also go beyond usability comparisons and test whether voters notice if their final ballots on the DRE reflect choices other than what the voters selected. Results indicate that over 60% of voters do not notice if their votes as shown on the review screen are different than how they were selected. Entire races can be added or removed from ballots and voter's candidate selections can be flipped and the majority of users do not notice. Beyond discovering that most voters do not detect the changes, these studies also identify several characteristics of the voter and the voting situation that are important in whether participants will or will not notice the changes. This means that attacks could be targeted to only those people who will most likely not notice the changes. The result is that malicious software installed on a DRE could steal votes right in front of voters with a low probability of being detected.

Between 1907 and 1910, Progressive reformers' attacks on the convict lease system of the Texas Penitentiary brought sexual misconduct of guards with female prisoners into public view and prompted officials to transfer women convicts from farm to farm in an attempt to contain both the abuse and the publicity it generated. In spite of the moves, the efforts of reformers, and the hiring of the first penitentiary matron, little of substance changed for women prisoners. They remained on a penal farm, guarded and supervised by men, their work and housing strictly divided by race. Persistent patterns of labor assignment, punishment, and sexual abuse inherited from slavery, and the continuation of political patronage and widespread administrative perquisites undermined attempts to improve the women's care. Ironically, the testimony of women prisoners to a legislative investigating committee about sexual activity contributed to their continued isolation on a penal farm.

<p>Since the passage of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972, which amended the Civil Rights Act of 1964, female law enforcement officers have battled obstacles and barriers, both external and internal in their effort to gain equality and assimilate into the role of police officer. The problem examined in this qualitative study was the low percentage of women in sworn law enforcement positions of all ranks. Thirty-six sworn female officers currently serving in the state of Arizona were selected to participate in focus group discussions to assist in the phenomenological examination of low representation of women in law enforcement. The female officers were asked a series of questions to facilitate discussion in an effort to explore their experiences and possibly reveal underlying police cultural factors that may lead to limited opportunities for women who choose law enforcement as a career. The qualitative design fostered a sharing of the stories of these female officers and provided an in-depth understanding of their experiences both on and off the job related to their choice of career. Information-rich data provided by the participants served to inform the Arizona law enforcement community concerning the experiences and career choices of women in law enforcement. Discovered through focus group discussions were the reasons women choose law enforcement as a career as well as why they remain in the profession. The excitement of the job coupled with job security, and salary factored into the decision making processes. Data addressing promotion, leadership, and role models were also revealed with female officers advising an inequitable promotional process, yet one in which they believed women needed to participate to improve the profession for others. Recommendations of formal mentoring and succession planning were made along with changes in the recruitment process. Future study should include male participants as well as female participants. Funding sources or sponsoring organizations should be explored in an effort to expand the scope of future study. Conducting focus groups discussions in different parts of the state and for longer periods of time would permit individuals from different areas of the state an opportunity to participate. </p>

<p> This quantitative study was an exploration of police officers&rsquo; in Puerto Rico level of trust, perception of leadership style, and perceived leadership effectiveness in two different contexts, normal contexts and life-threatening contexts. Data were collected through a web-based system, SurveyMonkey&reg;, where police officers from Puerto Rico completed an online survey. The survey instrument included the Leadership Style Survey by Dr. Peter Northouse, the Global Trust Scale by Dr. Jason Colquitt, and the Perception of Leadership Effectiveness Scale published in Psych Articles. The sample included 128 sworn, active duty police officers from Puerto Rico. The findings of this study revealed that demographics such as age, sex, and years on the force were not related to trust in the supervisor by the police officers. The study findings further revealed that police supervisors in Puerto Rico demonstrated an authoritarian leadership style in both normal contexts and life-threatening contexts. Multiple regression analysis showed that high levels of authoritarian leadership styles are related to high levels of trust. Although the study findings revealed that, overall, leaders&rsquo; skills were rated on the subscale as moderately bad, authoritarian leaders were also perceived as effective leaders in both normal contexts and life threatening contexts.</p>

<p> There is substantial cost in the hiring and training of a correctional officer, with a high rate of turnover compounding these costs. While pre-employment psychological screening is suggested as one method to prevent these losses, mandates to screen are not as common in corrections as they are in law enforcement. Further, minimal research has examined the validity of psychological testing in correctional officers. This dissertation examined pre-employment psychological screening for 421 correctional officers hired by one of three upstate New York sheriff's departments. Assessments were conducted by Public Safety Psychology, PLLC from March, 1997 to June, 2012. T scores and risk estimates from the California Psychological Inventory (CPI) and Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI), DQ admission and problem points from the Personal History Questionnaire (PHQ) and Psychological History Questionnaire (PsyQ) and the psychologist's recommendation were used as predictors of supervisor rating and job status. Utilizing logistic regression and controlling for agency of hire, high ratings by the psychologist, high scores on PAR-H and low scores on BOR-S from the PAI were associated with satisfactory supervisor ratings. Multinomial logistic regression revealed that being non-White, having a lower rating by the psychologist, higher To and Ai scores and lower So scores from the CPI, and more General problem points on the PsyQ were predictive of officers who were fired compared to being currently employed. Furthermore, previous law enforcement experience, being younger, lower Gi, So and Wo scores on the CPI, higher To and Sc scores on the CPI, and lower probability of substance abuse issues as based on the PAI and PHQ were predictive of officers quitting rather than staying on the job. Limitations and future directions are discussed.</p>

<p> The purpose of this project was to write a grant proposal to create, implement, and test the effectiveness of an innovative support and psycho-educational group program for adult survivors of childhood maltreatment. This pilot program is geared to alleviate trauma related symptoms that impair their ability to be successful members of society. Adult survivors of childhood abuse and neglect are often times undetected and not considered as obvious targets for prevention and intervention programs. For this reason, this pilot program was named Interventional Strategies for Imperceptible Survivors of Childhood Maltreatment (ISISMA) to recap their increased need for mental health services and the need to strategize concurrent and comprehensive prevention and treatment approaches. </p><p> To address the gap in services and budgetary limitations, this pilot program was delineated to provide services in a group-community setting. It is tailored to mitigate their unique needs and challenges of this marginalized population living in Anaheim and surrounding areas. This pilot program is expected to be an innovative platform for planning, expansion, and implementation of other replicated support and psycho-educational group programs.</p>

<p> Prior research indicates that human service care providers experience especially high levels of chronic workplace stress and burnout compared to workers in other professions. Chronic workplace stress is linked to a variety of poor physical and mental health outcomes. There has been significantly more research to assess and support human service care providers in education, social welfare, and health care than providers working in law enforcement such as the population considered in this case study: juvenile justice officers, JJOs. In particular, there has been little prior research on juvenile justice officers (JJOs), who have the difficult job of working closely with incarcerated youth populations. </p><p> The intended contributions of this study are: (1) developing a descriptive baseline understanding of stress among an important and understudied population of human service care providers, (2) exploring human service care provider workplace stress through a new lens of empathy and meaning and (3) piloting a training to reduce stress with a focus on facilitating empathy and meaning. This research is carried out over three phases. </p><p> The promising insights from the case study and pilot analysis include strategies to support JJOs finding meaning in their workplace. These strategies are achieved through creating opportunities for building relationships and empathy with youth and coworkers, improving the system for communication and positive feedback with management and teaching emotion regulation, mindfulness and empathic communication to improve individual coping skills.</p>

<p>This research examines racially biased crimes across US cities, utilizing social threat and a general criminality perspective based on social disorganization and strain theories. Racially biased crime is compared to violent crime in general and to unbiased racially disaggregated homicide to further examine the effects of social threat and general crime variables on different forms of violent crime. Data is compiled mainly from the 1990 and 2000 US Censuses, the 1996&ndash;2000 Uniform Crime Reports and the 1996&ndash;2000 Supplemental Homicide Reports. The research shows bias crimes cannot be explained utilizing general crime predictors. In particular, anti-Black violent bias crimes committed by Whites are mainly driven by economic forces, though not necessarily economically threatening conditions. Anti-White violent bias crimes committed by Blacks are more similar to homicides of Whites committed by Blacks, which is consistent with prior research. Additionally, the research shows the importance of complying with hate crime reporting requirements and region, again consistent with prior research. That is, the more frequently a city reports data, the higher the counts of bias crimes. Cities located in the South are less likely to have high counts of bias crimes, suggesting a lack of compliance with reporting requirements. These findings pertaining to reporting compliance offer support for social constructionist perspectives in the study of bias crimes. </p>

<p> When an individual commits a crime and is sentenced to time in prison, the sentence has a profound impact on the individual's family. The purpose of this project was to write a grant proposal to ask for funds to develop a program for families of incarcerated men and women who access services from "Friends Outside," and lack community support during the period of time that the prisoner is incarcerated. The current research regarding the issue of support for families affected by incarceration is sparse. Traditionally programs have placed focus on the inmate rather than the families. The goal of the proposed program is to serve families with an incarcerated family member, according to risk factors, level of current support and need. The program will offer therapy groups, education, referrals to community resources and individual counseling on an as needed basis. The Public Welfare Foundation was selected as a potential funder for the proposed program. Submission and/or funding of this grant is not a requirement for the successful completion of this project.</p>

<p> This study added to the literature on pathways to prison by examining a sample of federal inmates to assess whether the pathways identified predicted future antisocial behavior, i.e., prison misconduct and post-release criminal activity. Previous research has generally focused on only one point in the criminal justice system, either identifying pathways to prison, analyzing behavior while incarcerated, or focusing on post-release offending. This research examined all of these points. The research presented here identified both unique and overlapping pathways to prison for men and women, as well as similarities and differences in the risk factors that predicted prison misconduct and recidivism for women and men. </p><p> While the latent class models, which identified the pathways to prison, relied heavily upon indicators highlighted in the gender-responsive literature, the final misconduct and recidivism models included those factors along with traditional, gender-neutral items. The methods in this research moved beyond previous studies that relied primarily on bivariate analyses of female inmates. </p><p> Four pathways emerged for both men and women each. Three of the pathways overlapped for both groups: drug, street, and the situational offender pathways. Males and females each had one unique pathway which represented opposite ends of the criminal experiences spectrum. A first time offender pathway emerged for women; a more chronic, serious offender pathway emerged for men. When the pathways to prison were the only predictors in the misconduct and recidivism models, the pathways consistently and significantly predicted antisocial behavior. Once the socio-demographic and criminal history factors were added to the models, however, the vast majority of the pathway effects on antisocial behavior were no longer statistically significant. </p><p> Because the current literature presents mixed results as to whether the same factors predict offending for men and women, this study analyzed gendered aspects of prison misconduct and recidivism. There were more differences than similarities in the factors that significantly impacted these antisocial behaviors. </p>