<p> Research on race and sentencing is increasingly moving beyond racial category analyses to include more subtle attributes such as skin tone and facial features. In keeping with this progression, this research examines the extent to which convicted offenders' Afrocentric facial features interact with sex in order to create longer criminal sentences for stereotypically Black males and females. A random sample of Black and White males and females currently serving prison sentences in the state of Oregon were selected for inclusion in the study. A preliminary regression analysis was run in order to determine the effect of broad racial category on sentencing length when controlling for offense characteristics, offense history, and extralegal factors. Additionally, photographs of a sample of 110 Black males and 91 Black females were rated for strength of Afrocentric facial features by undergraduate students. These ratings were averaged to create an Afrocentric rating for each Black individual in the sample. Regression analyses were then conducted for Black individuals in order to determine the effect of Afrocentric facial features and sex on sentence length. Results suggested that although broad racial category is not a significant predictor of sentence length, Afrocentric facial features interact with sex to produce longer sentences for Black males, but not Black females, with stronger Afrocentric facial features. Individuals with the fewest Afrocentric facial features were excluded from the analysis in order to limit the potential misperception of racial category by judges. These findings are consistent with current understandings of feature-trait stereotyping, as well as the focal concerns perspective regarding judicial decision-making. </p>

<p> I would like to think that I chose this study to add to the literature on human development in the prison system. However, I would have to say that the study chose me. It became a deep discovery of what is required for human beings to grow within the context of a prison setting and afterwards in the community. The study explored the life history of an Aboriginal woman once considered to be a volatile, violent, and unmanageable female prisoner by the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC). Changing her life she became a valued volunteer within that prison system.</p><p> Human growth and development must be considered with attention to the exogenous influences of all the systems people have to negotiate. I walked with Lora for 14 years: 7 while in custody and 7 afterwards until her death in 2013. During that time she became a mother, a volunteer, peer researcher, cancer patient, and always a teacher.</p><p> Since the 1970s there has been a pervasive decline in recognizing rehabilitation potential in people with lives plagued by addictions and the crimes supporting them. I observed the opposite: hundreds of lives changed for the better. There are interventions that kindle the flame and support a fire in people to build a healthy, productive life. Society has a responsibility to fan that fire, rather than feeding the despondency and hopelessness so prevalent in our prisons. </p><p> Information was gathered from interviews with Lora, video and audio recordings, her journals and poetry. Interviews were also conducted with family to gain clarity of her childhood and complex trauma history and with people who walked with her after prison to elucidate her change process.</p><p> The study encompassed literature from modern, post-modern, and Aboriginal epistemology, integrating theory from multiple disciplines. What emerged was how powerful the deleterious influences of complex childhood trauma are, in all domains, over the life span. Counteracting this damage most significantly are the mechanisms of hope and the inspiration of believing in the possibility for successful and lasting change: This is the key-stone to the archway through which people re-enter the community from prison.</p>

<p> The purpose of this project was to develop a program, explore potential funding sources, and complete a grant application to secure funding for an expressive arts showcase for clients at Homeboy Industries who have a criminal and gang-affiliated past, and are now attempting to re-integrate in their communities. Narrative therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, art therapy, and mindfulness may significantly ameliorate the conditions faced by this population, as well as the overall well-being of the community through a showcase of expressive arts composed and performed by the clients of Homeboy Industries. A search for potential funding sources led to The Goldhirsh Foundation as the most appropriate source for this grant. A grant proposal was written describing an expressive arts program for Homeboy Industries that will ultimately result in a showcase for community consumption. Actual submission and/or funding of the grant were not required for the successful completion of this project. </p>

<p> I examine the effect of poverty on violent crime in the United States during the years between 2000 and 2012. My analysis contributes to the literature by utilizing state-level poverty rates as the main variable of interest, and directly studying its effect on violent crime rates. I use panel data and a group (state) and time fixed effects estimation method in the study. The results confirm prior research that concludes that poverty does not have a significant effect on violent crime.</p>

<p> The purpose of the study was to examine what role social control, in the context of family, school, and community, played in the participants' decision to join gangs in their adolescent years. The study examined the lives of four male ex-gang members over the age of 18, with extensive criminal records and poor academic histories. Participants were chosen from a Stockton reentry facility where ex-offenders were in the process of improving their lives by breaking the chains of street gang involvement, criminality, and incarceration. </p><p> The findings revealed that social control administered by family, school, law enforcement, and community all played a significant role in shaping each participant's decision to join his prospective gang in adolescence. The researcher found that while the family life of the participants was the prime mover in terms of a nudge toward gang life, school was also a place where they were constantly devalued, in large part because educators did not understand them, and the teachers arrived to their classrooms ill equipped for the realities of teaching in schools located in violence-ridden neighborhoods where the youth suffered morbid and multiple exposure to trauma. In fact, the teachers and law enforcement's inept ways of addressing the participant's maladaptive behaviors&mdash;with a propensity for handling all issues with punitive measures&mdash;ended up creating incentives for the participants to join a gang.</p>

<p>Despite vast literature examining causes of terrorism, domestic terrorism has only recently begun to be studied as an entity unto itself. It has long been postulated that a country&rsquo;s wealth influences its domestic terrorism rates but very little research has backed that claim. Preliminary data suggests that there may be important differences between what leads to domestic attacks conducted by terrorist organizations and attacks conducted by people acting alone. The current study hypothesizes that the relationship between a country&rsquo;s wealth, as measured by GDP per capita, and its domestic terrorism rate may be different for lone-wolf terrorism than for group-affiliated terrorism. Results support this hypothesis but not in the expected way; per-capita GDP appears to have a non-linear relationship with lone-wolf terrorism and a linear relationship with group-affiliated terrorism. The data were highly sensitive to changes in model specification so caution must be taken when drawing conclusions based on these findings. Although these results are preliminary, they should encourage future researchers to examine the differences between lone-wolf and group-affiliated domestic terrorism to best understand and prevent both phenomena. </p>

<p>This thesis explores the potential for soul-making in the prison violence-prevention program known as GRIP&mdash;an acronym for Guiding Rage into Power. The author utilizes hermeneutic methodology to explore the meaning and evolution of the concept of soul-making within the literature of depth psychology. Using heuristic methodology, the author then analyzes what he perceived to be a profound demonstration of soul-making among the members of the GRIP prison group he cofacilitated. The findings indicate that by combining a downward move into the underworld of emotional woundedness and psychopathology with a vertical orientation that includes contact with ego-transcendent archetypal energies, the inmates participating in the GRIP program had an opportunity for deep healing and genuine soul-making. </p>

<p> The ever-changing implementations of assessing our students have driven instruction to focus on measuring academic growth for school improvement. Now that most of our nation has adopted the common core state standards to educate and prepare our students for college and career, the challenges will be even greater for those who are currently struggling such as many of the incarcerated youth. </p><p> According to the Juvenile Court Schools (JCS) fact sheet (Los Angeles County Office of Education; LACOE, 2012), many of the incarcerated youth generally "have serious gaps in their education and poor academic skills" (JCS Facts, bullet No. 4). Taking academic assessments can be challenging without external factors, but add in the fact that the student may be facing a life sentence in prison, placement in a group home or foster care facility away from family, or dealing with mental health issues drives the challenge of academic growth sometimes out of reach while incarcerated. Furthermore, the short period of stay in the incarcerated juvenile facility adds an even greater challenge to success or growth in their academic progress. </p><p> This study examined the challenges of measuring academic growth of incarcerated youth in a juvenile hall school facility. Through the use of mixed methods, a review of available student assessment data - increased frequent formative assessments, utilizing components of the RISE Educational Services and Total Educational Systems Support (TESS) Focused Adaptable- Structure Teaching (F.A.S.T.) Framework within the teacher's delivery of direct instruction - along with an online survey of the teachers' ability to collaborate in Professional Learning Communities (PLCs), and a focus group with those who spearheaded the implementation of the instructional method, teacher-leads and administrators, resulted in finding that a unique instructional method is needed for those students attending school in an incarcerated juvenile facility to measure academic growth. </p><p> The qualitative and quantitative data measured what needed to be continued, what needed to be stopped and what should be implemented regarding the instructional delivery, along with pre/post assessments of students who attended the incarcerated juvenile school facility and the dimensions of PLCs.</p>

<p> <b>Purpose.</b> The purpose of this research was to examine how inmate horticulture programs have emerged and have been replicated in an effort to rehabilitate individuals, curtail spending, and reduce recidivism. The research explores how food justice and drug policy intersect, examining the roles of classism and racism and taking note of factors influencing recidivism. </p><p> <b>Theoretical Framework.</b> Diffusion of innovation analyzes the adoption of a new idea, technique, product, or service, focusing on how it is communicated and adopted by a social system over a period of time. It is necessary to understand the relationship among culture, values, existing practices, and political/social/environmental climate in order to facilitate the adoption of a new innovation.</p><p> <b>Methodology.</b> The researcher employed a mixed methods research design. The researcher performed a historical review of policies and events that led to the overcrowding of prisons and the criminalization of certain substances. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 10 individuals involved with inmate horticulture programs. Elements included in the study are the variation between programs and their perceived efficacy, challenges, and barriers. </p><p> <b>Findings.</b> Research findings revealed inmate horticulture programs fall into different areas of focus; innovative programs have blended components to provide integrated services. Five primary archetypes were identified: rehabilitative/therapeutic, punitive/labor, vocational, cost savings, and sustainability. Collaboration was crucial in framing the conversation, determining the skillsets of those involved, and the best way to leverage resources. Challenges to diffusing therapeutic inmate horticulture programs stem from social and political inflexibility.</p><p> <b>Conclusions and Recommendations.</b> The social construction of an issue or population impacts the political response, framing of issues, and type of media attention received. The amount of public demand to address the policy issue and federal government involvement influence the adoption and diffusion of innovations. The community benefits from horticulture programs, because former inmates are less likely to commit crimes or victimize people if they have been exposed to rehabilitative programs that prepare them for job opportunities upon release. Well-rounded programs give participants an understanding of food justice, horticulture, leadership, restoration, and healing and access to wraparound services.</p>

<p> African American men have been incarcerated at unprecedented rates in the United States over the past 30 years. This study explored how African American females experience adverse psychosocial responses to separation from an incarcerated mate. The purpose of this qualitative grounded theory (GT) study was to construct a theory to explain their responses to separation and loss. Given the paucity of literature on this topic, helping professionals may not understand this problem or know how to support these women. Disenfranchised grief and the dual process model of bereavement were used as a theoretical lens for this study. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews conducted with 20 African American women over the age of 18, from the Washington D.C. metropolitan area, and who had incarcerated mates. Systematic data analysis revealed that women in the sample experienced grief similar to losing a loved one through death. They also were found to engage in prolonged states of social isolation, emulating their mate's state of incarceration. As a result of this study, a grounded theory of symbolic imprisonment, grief, and coping (SIG-C) was developed to answer this study's research questions and explain how loss occurs on psychological, social, symbolic, and physical levels. The findings from this study may promote positive social change by informing the human services research community of SIG-C and assisting helping professionals with a basis for context-specific support for affected women to contribute to their well-being during their mate's incarceration.</p>