Since the legalization of abortion in 1973, abortion continues to be an ongoing debate among pro-choice and pro-life groups, and politicians, and is one of the many barriers women may face. As rape continues in being a significant social issue, rape-related pregnancies and abortions have been understudied. By using the General Social Survey (GSS), this paper analyzes various sociodemographic variables which may influence social attitudes toward rape-related abortions. Findings indicate that Blacks, women, those living in the South, and age were not significant predictors of whether a pregnant woman should have a legal abortion as a result of rape. Other sociodemographic variables were significant; many supporting previous studies. However, this paper adds to the literature since social attitudes related to rape-related abortions have not been thoroughly studied. As this issue may arise, it is critical for professionals working with victims/survivors to understand, offer, and not judge women's decision should they decide to terminate their pregnancy. Due to various potential barriers women face, we may never obtain an accurate number of rape-related abortions or pregnancies. Because women may not report their rape, future research should focus on women in hospitals, abortion clinics, etc. to get a better understanding of the issue.

Over 40,000 arsons were reported in the 2014 Uniform Crime Report; however, this number is underestimated since there are no official arson trends reported by the FBI due to the lack of agencies reporting this offense. Arson is one of the most destructive and under researched crimes. This lack of research can be attributed to the dual definition of arson – that is, the destruction of one's own property or someone else's property – the opportunistic nature of arson, and the inability to determine a measurable rate. The current study uses data from the Chicago Police Department's Citizen Law Enforcement Analysis and Reporting (CLEAR) System and the 2010 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates to explore arson offending among and across neighborhoods within the framework of routine activities theory and social disorganization theory. Spatially weighted negative binomial regression is used to test correlation and significance. Analyses were run in STATA and ArcGIS 10.4.1. Results are consistent with prior arson research showing that rates of occurrence are increased by structural measures such as social disorganization, physical disorder, and public transportation. However, racial heterogeneity and accessibility to public transportation are shown to both increase or decrease rates of arson occurrence depending on the subtype of arson. These results suggest that community characteristics may play a greater role in understanding arson offending than previously thought.

Pregnancy-associated Homicides (PAHs) are homicides committed while a woman is pregnant, and recent reports from Florida's Pregnancy-associated Mortality Review (PAMR) suggest that it is a leading cause of unnatural deaths for pregnant women. However, a study has not examined the motives, characteristics, and underlying factors behind these homicides. Therefore, this study explored Florida's Pregnancy-associated Intimate Partner Homicides (PAIPHs) using a sample of women that were reportedly pregnant at the time of their mortality (n=33), as well as a comparison group of not-pregnant women (n=33). To conduct the study, reported homicide data from news sources, police reports, and other public records from 2000 to 2019 were aggregated, coded, and analyzed. Findings show that there are differences between PAIPHs and Not-pregnant Intimate Partner Homicides (NPIPHs), and pregnancy is a risk factor for femicide. The primary motives were unwanted pregnancy or relationship, rejection, avoidance of prosecution, abuse exposure, doubts concerning the paternity of the child, and infidelity accusations. Although PAIPH and NPIPH victims were killed for leaving or threatening to leave the perpetrator, PAIPH victims were more likely to be killed because the perpetrator wanted to end the relationship. Most PAIPH victims were unmarried or recently married (less than a year), and Black women had the highest rate of victimization. As for PAIPH perpetrators,78.5% were Black, 30.3% were convicted felons, and some intentionally targeted the unborn child with a knife, gun or blunt force. The findings suggest a need for Maternal Intimate Partner Violence programs, policies, and interventions targeted towards pregnant women and their intimate partners, as well as strategies to combat firearm usage amongst convicted felons.

Dating violence (DV) victimization in adolescence has been shown to be predictive of both negative emotions and delinquent behavior later in life. However, research that delves into DV victimization and subsequent outcomes, such as deviant behavior, is largely atheoretical. Robert Agnew's general strain theory (GST) provides a theoretical framework to address this limitation. In focusing on negative interactions with others, the theory posits that strain produces negative affect states which leads to deviant or criminal coping. Prior research has identified victimization as a strain, a type of noxious stimuli, which is significantly related to negative emotionality, crime, and deviance. I build on this literature by examining the relationship between dating violence victimization, negative emotionality, and substance use. In addition, little research to date has examined the role that biological factors play in moderating these relationships. Using Add Health, and drawing on two separate, but related, theories, I explore whether the serotonin transporter gene (5-HTTLPR) interacts with dating violence victimization to affect depressive symptoms and self-reported substance use. The analytic strategy involved a series of logistic regressions separated by gender. Results show DV victimization is significantly related to increased odds of binge drinking in males, DV victimization is significantly related to marijuana use for both males and females, and 5-HTTLPR moderates the effect of DV victimization on marijuana use for females only. Although depression does not mediate the relationship between DV victimization and substance use, results show depressive symptoms are independently associated with increased odds of marijuana use. Utility of a GST and biosocial model, implications, and avenues for future research are discussed.

Domestic violence has been considered a serious issue for many decades. This problem manifests itself physically, sexually, and emotionally and can affect anyone. However, most of the domestic violence literature focuses specifically on physical intimate partner violence. Various theoretical frameworks have been utilized to explain the occurrence of domestic violence including social disorganization theory and gender inequality. These explanations are limited, however, with the former primarily extended to physical assault and the latter focusing on violence against women. This study is important as it extends our knowledge of how these two perspectives can be applied to domestic violence through the analysis of domestic stalking, violation of protective orders, and homicide at a structural level. Incident data for these crimes that occurred in 2016 were obtained from the Chicago data portal and demographic data were obtained from the 2016 American Community Survey's 5-year estimates. Univariate, multivariate, and spatial analyses were conducted at the census tract level to determine the associations between the two theoretical frameworks and each crime. Statistical results indicate that social disorganization theory and gender inequality can partially explain the occurrence of domestic stalking, violation of protective orders, and homicide. Concentrated disadvantage was one of the most consistent predictors of domestic violence, but the direction of the relationship varied across models. There were significant gender inequality factors, but the directions also varied. Spatial results demonstrate clustering of the crimes in areas characterized by increased social disorganization as well as areas possessive of certain indicators of gender inequality. This study is unique as it employed both social disorganization and gender inequality frameworks at a structural level, employed various spatial analysis and mapping techniques, and it analyzed understudied acts of domestic violence to set precedent and open doors for future inquiry.

IPV victimization leads many women who suffer from unstable housing into homelessness. These victims are in danger of severe negative health outcomes that are already prevalent in the homeless community, as well as seen in victims of IPV. This study seeks to explore the impact that IPV victimization has on negative health outcomes in the homeless community, compared to the negative health outcomes that homeless women face who are not homeless because of IPV victimization. This study hypothesized that women who are homeless because of IPV victimization face more severe negative health outcomes. The data for the current research is from the Florida Four-City Study of Violence in the Lives of Homeless Women project (Jasinski et. al., 2010) and includes 737 respondents. There was statistically significant findings to support the hypothesis in the health outcomes for the current episode of homelessness for being treated at a clinic for mental problems, self-reported depression, and self-reported anxiety for women who blame their current episode of homelessness on IPV victimization.

Domestic violence (DV) is a global issue that can affect anyone regardless of what role they play in a family household. It does not discriminate by education, age, religion, etc. DV includes any type of violence or abuse that occurs within a domestic setting. For the purposes of this study, this content primarily focuses on intimate partner violence (IPV) as the main form of DV and is used interchangeably throughout the text. This study examines the influence of population density on arrest rates for DV and some factors behind the likelihood of arrests in urban and rural areas. The literature between both of these societies has demonstrated a clear difference in social behaviors that shape the response to DV (Websdale and Johnson 1998). Normative social influence theory suggests that people's influence may lead someone to conform in order to be liked or accepted by a group (Izuma 2017). This theory hypothesizes that the proportion of people living in rural per county will have fewer arrests for DV than the proportion of people living in non-rural areas because of the need for positive relationships that can lead to conformity (Izuma 2017). Furthermore, it is predicted that there are less arrests in rural areas because of the effects of informal social controls in these areas. Informal social controls can take place between police and citizens that may interact more personally through socialization. An example is when citizens take matters into their own hands, therefore prolonging the reporting of crimes to police. This study uses secondary data provided by sources such as the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) website and Social Explorer. Broader implications of this research are that it could shed some light on the social dynamics that impact the outcome of crime in both densely populated and sparsely populated areas.

Background: National studies have previously found that those within the disabled population are underserved in regard to healthcare, education, employment and medical access. Historically, the majority of those who are disabled due to this engrained inequality receive government assistance. Multiple laws have been enacted to protect those who fall into this minority such as ADA, section 504 and IDEA. These laws ensure the disabled equal access to employment, public services, education, public accommodations and telecommunications. Federally funded departments called student disability services (SDS) are on college/university campuses to ensure equal access and treatment throughout a student's college career. Under the SDS department, students can request accommodations, advocacy, and support throughout their 4- year degree. The purpose of this study is to explore whether student's who utilize the SDS department at the University of Central Florida are earning equivalent or higher GPA percentages in comparison to student's who do not utilize services from the department. Method: I worked along with the SDS department on the University of Central Florida's campus to gather data on current students being assisted by the department without any identifying information from the spring 2018 term. The sample total was 2,569 students who were active with the SDS department. In order to assess this question, an OLS regression analysis will be run to regress each of the variables: ethnicity, sex, diagnosis and academic classification.

Using data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, I applied Phelan, Link and Tehranifar's (2010) fundamental cause theory (FCT) framework to examine the association between socioeconomic status (SES) and prescription opioid use behaviors. I also explored the mediating roles of health status and the deployment of flexible resources. I hypothesized that (1) a negative association would exist between SES and prescription opioid use, misuse, and use disorder, and (2) health status and the deployment of flexible resources (e.g. health care access, knowledge, social support) would mediate this relationship. As hypothesized and consistent with FCT, higher SES was associated with significantly lower odds of prescription opioid use behaviors. Two flexible resources, health care access and social support, and various indicators of poor health helped explain this relationship. Inconsistent with FCT, knowledge of heroin use as being a "great risk" was not a mediator of the SES-prescription opioid use behaviors association. Based on these findings, efforts to reduce SES disparities in prescription opioid use behaviors should emphasize reducing SES disparities overall as well as in health and access to important health-enhancing resources. Limitations of this study and directions for future research are discussed.

Bakgrund: Bröstcancer är den vanligaste cancerformen bland kvinnor. När en person drabbas av bröstcancer påverkas även de närstående, inklusive partnern till den som blivit sjuk. Forskning visar att sjukskrivning och antalet ställda psykiska och somatiska diagnoser har ökat bland partner till personer med cancer. Det är därför nödvändigt att även partnern får stöd från sjukvården. Syfte: Syftet var att beskriva upplevelsen av att leva med en partner som drabbats av bröstcancer. Metod: För att besvara syftet i studien gjordes en allmän litteraturöversikt baserad på åtta vetenskapliga artiklar med kvalitativ ansats. Artiklarna analyserades med hjälp av Fribergs analysmodell för artiklar med kvalitativ ansats. Resultat: Resultatet utgjordes av tre huvudteman. Det första huvudtemat Känslomässiga upplevelser med tillhörande subteman Känsla av oro och rädsla, Känsla av skuld och otillräcklighet, och Känsla av ensamhet. Det andra huvudtemat Upplevda förändringar i det dagliga livet med tillhörande subteman Att få besked om en bröstcancerdiagnos och Att ställas inför ekonomiska utmaningar. Det tredje huvudtemat Upplevda förändringar i det sexuella livet. Slutsats: Resultatet vittnade om att partnern till en person med bröstcancer upplever förändringar i både det dagliga livet och det sexuella livet. Förändringar i det dagliga livet kan kopplas till beskedet om en bröstcancerdiagnos samt ekonomiska problem som uppstår till följd av bröstcancerdiagnosen. Partnern till en person med bröstcancer uppger också starka känslomässiga upplevelser både efter beskedet om diagnosen, under sjukdomens förlopp samt under behandling av sjukdomen.