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Information sharing among law enforcement entities became a national priority after the 9/11 attack (Carter, 2005). Various information systems utilized by law enforcement agencies may be promising; however, there is little extant empirical research to validate the system's effectiveness related to increasing investigative success (Bureau of Justice Assistance, 2010). One information system that has tied together numerous Florida law enforcement agencies is the FINDER system. FINDER, the Florida Integrated Network for Data Exchange and Retrieval system, provides agency investigators a wide range of information not previously available (Reynolds, Griset, and Scott, 2006; Scott, 2006). This study's foundation was primarily based upon the conceptual frameworks of diffusion of innovations and knowledge management. Survey based information from investigators using FINDER and those using a non-FINDER information system was obtained and analyzed to determine if the information impacted investigative success. Questionnaires were sent to those law enforcement investigators that participate in the FINDER system, as well as those who use a non-FINDER system. Through descriptive and regression analysis, it was found that FINDER participants reported there was a positive contribution to investigative success. The research also found that certain information obtained from FINDER assisted in arrests and an investigator's ability to solve cases. This study provides a foundation for further information system research related to case solvability and investigative success.

Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable disease and premature death in the United States. In 2014, an estimated 16.8% of adults were current cigarette smokers, and 9.2% of high school students smoked cigarettes. Nearly 90% of smokers developed their habit as teenagers, and students' tobacco use in high school influences their behaviors later in adulthood. Smoking behaviors appear to be inseparable from the social environment, physical environment, small social groups, and cognitive and affective processes. Preventive strategies, such as advertising bans, clean indoor air laws, education programs, increased taxes, labeling limitations, mass-media campaigns, and youth access regulations, have been commonly used to prevent and reduce youth tobacco use nationwide. In Florida, local public school districts were authorized to develop new tobacco-free school policies through an amendment to the Florida Clean Indoor Air Act in June 2011. The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of the recently implemented smoking cessation policies, as well as individual-level factors and interpersonal-level factors, on youth tobacco use in Florida public schools. This study employed a pooled cross-sectional design with data for high school students from the Florida Youth Tobacco Survey (FYTS) in 2010 (n=37,797) and 2014 (n=32,930). It was guided by a theoretical framework based on the reasoned action approach and the social ecological model. Hierarchical logistic regression was used to analyze the data. The four models were binary logistic regression for cigarette use, multinomial logistic regression for cigarette use, binary logistic regression for cigar use, and multinomial logistic regression for cigar use. The results of this study support the importance of the individual-level constructs of background factors, behavioral beliefs, and control beliefs, the interpersonal-level construct of normative beliefs, and the policy-level construct of actual behavioral control when applied to youth tobacco use. These findings led to a better understanding of which policies, environments, and cognitions contribute to preventing and reducing teenage tobacco use, which is imperative in controlling the risks related to smoking and improving youth health. Now that the individual-level factors, interpersonal-level factors, and policy-level factors that contribute to youth tobacco use were recognized, preventative and therapeutic programs and interventions can be suggested and improved. This study provided evidence-based knowledge for improving public policies and interventional strategies towards smoking prevention and cessation for youth.

Prior research has found equity theory explains employee responses to falling wages in relation to other comparable workers. The present research attempts to contribute to the criminal justice literature by directly testing equity theory within the policing context, something no study has done to date. Applied to policing, equity theory predicts sworn officers employed by departments with falling or inequitable salaries (i.e., their salaries fail to keep up with those at other regional agencies) will reduce their work input (i.e., discretionary arrests) and/or quit in higher numbers than before (i.e., increase attrition). The present study also attempts to quantify how far officer salaries can fall behind the mean regional police pay before a municipal agency experiences negative outcomes. The research questions are examined using data from Criminal Justice Agency Profile (CJAP) Reports from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), with historical salary and attrition data for 122 municipal law enforcement agencies in Florida from 2001-2011, and Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Part II Arrest Data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for the same time period. A time-series cross-sectional (TSCS) analysis is conducted over 11 annual data points. This study attempts to bring an additional theory into the fold of the policing literature by testing it against a large, law enforcement specific data set. This is in part an effort to answer the call for what has been described as a need for more theory in the criminal justice and policing literature (Cooper & Worrall, 2012; Mears, 2010). It should also enable police administrators to gauge, relative to regional competitor salaries, at what point to anticipate negative consequences from the underpaid condition of police officers working at their municipal police agencies. The findings suggest Florida municipal police officers do not reduce their work inputs, as measured by UCR Part II arrests, but do quit their jobs in larger numbers in response to stagnant or falling salaries as predicted by equity theory. Policy implications include a better understanding by police administrators as to what they can expect and prepare for when municipal police officers' salaries become stagnant or fall as compared to pay at other regional law enforcement agencies.

Community foundations have considerable potential for positive social change in the communities they serve yet are understudied in nonprofit management and leadership literature. Recently, community foundations have become one of the largest avenues of organized philanthropy. The boards of community foundations frequently consist of a different composition of members than other nonprofit organizations, making a focus on individual characteristics of board members a worthwhile area of study. This exploratory study considers board capital through human capital, structural capital, and social capital and the impact this has on board effectiveness. In addition, it considers the impact of servant leadership on board effectiveness. The purpose of the study is to assess capital and leadership factors of community foundation board members and examine their influence on perceived board effectiveness. Based on survey data from 71 community foundation board members and executive directors representing 13 different community foundations associated with the Florida Philanthropic Network, the dissertation uses ordinal regression to test hypotheses. Additional data was also collected with follow up focus groups. The study finds that board capital, measured by human capital, structural capital, and social capital, as well as servant leadership, do play a factor in board effectiveness. Further, community foundation boards in the survey population are highly effective, and have unique attributes that make them distinct from other types of nonprofit boards. Follow up focus groups suggested that, although board members define board effectiveness in a number of ways, boards are creating social change within their communities in different ways. Findings have potential for significant insight on an important segment of nonprofit sector organizations, particularly for strengthening communities through philanthropy.

This dissertation is conducted to examine the factors which contribute to the reporting of incidents of violence or aggression perpetrated by patients against health care providers in non-institutional health care settings. With a theoretical foundation grounded in community science, applying stress theory, broken windows theory and the theory of reasoned action, the following cross sectional study examines the contribution of characteristics of the healthcare provider, characteristics of the patient perpetrator and the form of violence to the providers' reporting or failing to report incidents. A self-administered survey was disseminated to a sample of non-institutional healthcare providers to test the research hypotheses about variables associated with reporting of incidents. The final sample size included 218 respondents, of which 213 met inclusion criteria for the study. 79.4% (N=169) of respondents had experienced at least one form of patient violence or aggression and were thus eligible for inclusion in the statistical analysis. The collected data was then analyzed through use of logistic regression to determine the contribution of each variable and the relative impact on the dependent variable of incident reporting. Findings indicated that there is a statistically significant contribution of the form of abuse, specifically verbal abuse in comparison to sexual abuse, to incident reporting. Specifically, the odds of reporting abuse are four times higher among individuals experiencing verbal abuse in contrast to providers subjected to patient-perpetrated sexual abuse.

The nursing workforce increasingly faces issues that affect clinical and managerial practice. One such issue is work-family conflict (WFC) and family-work conflict (FWC). Nurses face role strain as they confront the pressures from often competing work-and-family roles. This study assessed WFC/FWC among varying nurse roles: staff nurses, managerial nurses, and nurse executives. A random sample of 5,000 nurses, generated from registered nurses practicing in the state of Florida, was surveyed for this research study. Nurses were surveyed on demographics, perceptions regarding the work environment, and perceptions of WFC/FWC. Descriptively, nurses experienced more work-family conflict than family-work conflict. Regression analyses and ANOVAs indicated that staff nurses experienced less work-family conflict than nursing managers (second most) and nursing executives (highest). None of the nurse roles experienced significant levels of FWC. White nurses, compared to non-white nurses, experienced less WFC and FWC. WFC increased with shift length but FWC was not significantly affected by it. Paid leave for childbirth was associated with lower FWC. This study holds significant implication for the nursing workforce. Nurse managers and executives showed significantly higher WFC than staff nurses. This may discourage a nurse from taking on leadership roles or lead to leaving them. In an era where nurse managers and leaders are needed, efforts must be taken to decrease WFC/FWC factors. Nonwhite nurses reported higher levels of both WFC and FWC. This may contribute to tension at the workplace and a difficult family life. Leaders must continue to create platforms for nurses of all races and ethnicities to voice their work and family needs, and to be supported when doing so. Nurses working shifts over 8 hours had higher WFC levels. Although 12-hour shifts have been popular among staff and management, their use should be reevaluated. Finally, paid leave for childbirth is a program worth supporting, as it was a factor in lower FWC.

As in many countries, burglary is a very serious crime in Turkey. Scientific methods and techniques are needed to solve complex burglary cases. This study is completed in the Bursa Police context since they classified many crime data conducive to scientific studies under a project called BEMTAP. The main purpose of this study is to examine the factors influencing the commission of burglaries, using an epid-criminological perspective. It can be argued that factors leading to the commission of a crime are important for formulating preventive strategies in the community. In this study, the contributing factors are categorized into three main groups of predictors, by adapting a disease triangle in epidemiology: opportunity factors (agent), offender factors (host), and environmental factors. Criminal method (technique) and time of burglary are conceived as the opportunity factors. Four personal or host characteristics of offender factors are age, gender, marital status, and education level. Distance between the home addresses of burglars and target houses and distance between target houses and police stations are examined as environmental factors. This epid-criminology perspective is thought as a basic framework for integrating two theories: routine activity theory and rational choice theory. Two hypotheses, using agent, host, and environmental factors as predictors, were proposed to test their relationships with the frequency of burglaries committed and with the likelihood of committing repeated burglaries. In measuring the relative influence of the predictor variables on the number of burglaries and on repeated burglaries, two different models were constructed and validated. For the first model of predictors of crime against property (burglary), Hierarchical Multiple Regression Analysis was performed. For the second model, a logistic model of the predictors of repeated burglaries was used and analyzed. The results show that offender factors are more influential than opportunity and environmental factors in explaining the variability in frequency of burglaries committed and the likelihood to commit repeated burglaries. In conclusion, the best way to reduce burglary rate is to focus on offender factors. Dealing with opportunity factors and environmental factors would also contribute to a decreased burglary rate.

This study focuses on the effect of leadership in the federal government. Using a slightly revised version of Bass's Full Range Leadership Model, the study examines the influence of transformational leadership, transactional leadership, and combination of the two on the perception of leadership effectiveness and follower satisfaction in the federal government. To establish if this revised model is consistent with federal employees' perception of effective leadership, if leadership in the federal government increases follower satisfaction, and if both the transactional and transformational leadership are important to followers' perception of leadership and their satisfaction, data from the 2002 Federal Human Capital Survey was used. Multiple regression analyses were conducted using transactional leadership, transformational leadership, and a combination of the two as independent variables and perceived leadership effectiveness and follower satisfaction as the dependent variables. Control variables that accounted for personal demographics (gender, minority status, and supervisory status) and organizational/job dimensions (pay, benefits, career path, personal fulfillment of the job, the physical conditions, organizational training, workplace flexibilities, coworkers and communication) were also included. Results indicate that the revised model does capture federal employees' perception of effective leadership, that leadership does increase follower satisfaction in the federal government, and that both transactional and transformational elements are important to this perceived effectiveness and follower satisfaction.