“Detention Power” asks how immigrant incarceration became a critical tool in constructing American sovereignty, and how the federal government convinced local governments, businesses, and communities to become collaborators in immigration policing. It illustrates how the U.S. immigration service built both ideological and economic relationships with municipalities, enabling the federal government to jail thousands of migrants awaiting hearings and deportations long before the advent of federal immigration detention centers in 1980. As early as 1900, the immigration service relied on an expansive system of contracts with county sheriffs to “board out” immigrants in county jails. Towns capitalized on these contracts by expanding their jails and, in some cases, building separate “migrant jails” to secure federal detainees, effectively transforming incarcerated migrants into local commodities. I trace the immigration service’s use of jails from the era of Chinese Exclusion to the era of ICE, looking to rural communities throughout the country that became the unlikely hubs of incarceration for immigrants and refugees from Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, and beyond. This work challenges the historiography which has identified immigration detention as a product of the Cold War era, influenced by the law-and-order movement of the late twentieth century. It is among the first work to center the role of local politics in the rise of the deportation state, arguing that though immigration regulation was a federal responsibility, deportations were impossible to carry out without local cooperation and local jails.

The adverse health and safety consequences of excessive alcohol consumption are a leading problem around the world. Alcoholic beverages are a routine part of socializing in many societies. However, alcohol is also a significant contributor to worldwide morbidity, disability, and mortality. To lessen the harm produced by alcohol, governments have adopted different alcohol control policies. These control policies can be group into four basic strategies: deterrence, prevention, communications and outreach, and alcohol treatment. Among the prevention measures, restricting physical access to alcohol by limiting the alcohol outlets' density, raising the legal age to purchase alcohol, and reducing the affordability of alcohol through taxation have been extensively shown as cost-effective and feasible measures against alcohol-related harms. However, there are still topics related to the affordability of alcohol that have not been investigated. The role of promotional price practices at on-premises alcohol outlets on health and social outcomes, and the effects of policies enacted to prevent these practices on motor vehicle crashes remained an unexplored research topic. The main goals of this dissertation were to summarize evidence regarding the health effects of drink specials and to estimate the effects of policies restricting drink special practices as preventive tools for fatal motor vehicle crashes. Specifically, I summarized the research evidence of the effects of drink special practices on health and social outcomes (Aim 1). I examined the association between drink special laws and alcohol-related fatal motor vehicle crashes contrasting results for two methodological approaches, difference-in-difference-in-differences (Aim 2) and synthetic controls (Aim 3). This dissertation contains five chapters. The introduction in chapter one provides a background review of relevant literature that serves as the conceptual framework for this dissertation and an overview of chapters two, three, four, and five. The systematic review of the literature relevant to Aim 1 is presented in chapter two. This review included studies on the effects that drink specials and drink special laws have on alcohol consumption, binge drinking, and alcohol-related harms. Twelve studies examined the effect of drink specials in seven countries between 1978 and 2018. Consistent evidence supported associations between drink specials and increased alcohol consumption, heavy drinking, alcohol intoxication, and other alcohol-related outcomes. For aims 2 and 3, I examined 36-years of data from the U.S. Department of Transportation, Census Bureau, and NIH’s Alcohol Policy Information System and National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism from 1982 to 2017. In chapter three, I presented results from difference-in-difference-in-differences analyses of the effects of implementing six drink special laws on alcohol- and non-alcohol-related motor vehicle fatal crash rates in the United States (U.S.). I assessed exposure to implementation as any law, number of laws, and each law. Random effects generalized least squares regression models adjusted for the proportion of males in the state, youth involved in fatal crashes, gallons of ethanol per capita among the population age 21 years and older, and autonomy index were fitted across 24 treated and 18 non-treated states. Results revealed that the implementation of any drink special law was associated with reductions in overall and alcohol-related fatal crash rates compared to untreated states. Also, drink special laws mitigated incremental rates of non-alcohol related crashes among treated states with any drink special law compared to untreated states. In chapter four, I presented results from synthetic control analyses for single and multiple treated units. I assessed the association between drink special laws and alcohol-related fatal motor vehicle crashes and adjusted for the same covariates as in chapter three. Results in chapter four indicated that states treated with any drink special law reduced alcohol-related fatal crash rates only in years three, five, and ten post-implementation compared to the synthetic control trend. The effects of any drink special law were more consistent at different times in the post-implementation for reducing non-alcohol-related fatal crash rates than the synthetic control trend. Findings for the number of laws implemented and each drink special laws were mixed. Chapter five presents a synthesis and discussion of findings in chapters two, three, and four, as well as policy recommendations for stakeholders and future research.

Scholars and policymakers alike have recognized mass incarceration and criminal recidivism as two of the most profound challenges American society faces. For more than half a century, the United States has been the world’s most prominent incarcerator, boasting the highest incarceration rate and the third-highest recidivism rate, with analysts projecting that U.S. incarceration will grow exponentially in the near future. The U.S. has more instances of lethal crime than any of its developed peers. Violent crime makes up a more significant percentage of criminal activity than property, drug, and public order crimes combined. Thus, individual states’ social, judicial, and policing policies have a greater impact on U.S. incarceration rates than the actions or challenges faced by any of its federal entities. Both localized and national efforts to reduce incarceration and re-offense rates through literacy initiatives, education pipelines, harsher sentencing, and the development of reentry programs have rendered statistically insignificant results. Despite the resources afforded by the nation’s wealth; decades of scholarship and activism dedicated to exposing its inherent racial inequities; and its proven inability to act as a catalyst to social reform; the American carceral system remains a threat to the social welfare and economic health of the United States. This qualitative study provides an adult learning perspective on the process by which a sample of previously violent offenders arrived at criminal desistance despite a statistical likelihood of re-offense. The participants consisted of thirty individuals (males, ages 22 to 49) previously convicted of and self-identifying as having committed violent felonies in New York State after being previously incarcerated for other violent crimes. This research’s primary data collection method was semi-structured interviews. Supportive methods included a pre-interview survey and interview participants’ use of an illustrative timeline tool as an interview discussion aid. This research applies transformative learning and self-efficacy theories as a lens through which to examine four main points of inquiry as they occurred within participants’ recollection of their learning and desistance process: what experiences were fundamental to desistance; the role of self-perception and self-assessment in desistance; supports and hindrances to desistance; and supported recommendations for desistance education design. Analysis of the findings revealed an emergent and substantiated four-phase process of desistance: (1) success separate from desistance as leading to new identity; (2) new identity as a catalyst to reappraisal and revision of needs and perspectives; (3) excavation and re-evaluation of formative experiences; and (4) conscious navigation of somatic responses.

This dissertation examines entrepreneurship as a way to overcome labor market discrimination. Specifically, the three empirical essays of this dissertation introduce and evaluate entrepreneurship as a career choice for the formerly incarcerated population in the United States, by studying the antecedents and economic and social impacts of entrepreneurship for formerly incarcerated individuals. The first essay examines whether entrepreneurship is a response to labor market discrimination for formerly incarcerated individuals and establishes entrepreneurship as a route to achieve economic and social reintegration. I take advantage of a quasi-experimental setting using the staggered implementation of the “Ban-the-Box” policy in the United States to disentangle the underlying mechanism of how labor market discrimination affects formerly incarcerated individuals in their entrepreneurial choices. The findings suggest that formerly incarcerated individuals, especially those who are African American, are pushed into entrepreneurship due to the discrimination they face from employers. Yet, I also find that entrepreneurship is a viable alternative career choice for formerly incarcerated people, yielding higher income and lower recidivism rates. The second essay investigates the long-term impacts of entrepreneurship on subsequent employment outcomes for the formerly incarcerated population. This essay argues that entrepreneurship will benefit formerly incarcerated entrepreneurs in subsequent employment outcomes, because entrepreneurship provides a positive signal of commitment and fit to potential employers. Results suggest that, compared to formerly incarcerated individuals without any entrepreneurial experience, those with entrepreneurial experience have an increased likelihood of securing employment, regardless of actual entrepreneurial success. This is particularly true for formerly incarcerated individuals who are high school dropouts or racial, suggesting that entrepreneurship provides long-term benefits to those who are especially lacking in other positive credentials and, thus, are the most stigmatized by employers. The third essay studies the entrepreneurial barriers that formerly incarcerated individuals face in starting their businesses and the implications of such barriers on entrepreneurial outcomes. I find that formerly incarcerated individuals are far less likely to gain access to capital from financial institutions or the government compared to similar non formerly incarcerated individuals, having to rely on personal savings or capital from family and friends. This barrier to gaining resources from financial institutions is more pronounced for African American or Hispanic formerly incarcerated individuals. Furthermore, I find that such barriers to entrepreneurship negatively impact the ventures that formerly incarcerated individuals found regarding the industry, longevity, size, and legal form. These findings provide implications to understanding how such barriers to entrepreneurship can inhibit the role of entrepreneurship as an alternative pathway for discriminated individuals to achieve upward mobility and integration.

Efforts to improve learning outcomes in undergraduate mathematics are backed by calls for instructors to move away from persistent pedagogical norms, such as traditional “chalk-talk lectures” and timed closed-book exams. Although the movement towards active learning pedagogies and alternative assessments is gaining ground, uptake has been slow. But when traditional practices became virtually impossible to maintain during the coronavirus pandemic, many instructors quickly gave up old methods for new ones. This qualitative study sheds light on how twenty-eight instructors of undergraduate mathematics experienced teaching through the coronavirus pandemic. It documents stories they told to describe their experiences and explores how they adjusted their teaching practices. A purposeful sample of instructors whose teaching experience spans 58.5 years participated in the study. They taught lower- and upper-division courses during the pandemic and came from colleges and universities across the United States. The primary data collection method was semi-structured interviews. Four salient storylines emerged from data: (1) Remembering other times of change and disruption, (2) Pivoting to emergency online instruction, (3) “Like flying blind:” navigating a new normal, and (4) Coping. In addition, analysis of participants’ stories revealed that they adjusted five dimensions of practice for teaching during the pandemic: (1) Representing Mathematical Content, (2) Choosing Tasks and Content, (3) Monitoring: “Leaning Over Their Shoulders,” (4) Building a Community of Mathematics Learners and Doers, (5) Assessing for Learning During the Pandemic. The lessons we learn from this emergency will be “educative” for this crisis and the next. Moreover, the coronavirus pandemic also offers an opportunity to examine longstanding norms in undergraduate mathematics education. This study offers recommendations for practitioners, leadership, and further research.

This paper investigates whether the audited financial statements of US independent school districts affect the districts' public provision of education services. Exploiting an increase in the regulatory threshold that exempts the school districts from preparing audited financial statements after 2015, I compare the newly exempted school districts with those that have never been exempted and those that have always been exempted. I find that the newly exempted school districts experience deteriorating financial and academic performance, population outflows, housing price decreases, and shrinking local tax revenues after the threshold increase. The evidence suggests that audited financial statements enhance the functioning of school districts.

Background: This study examines the role of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) as predictors of intimate partner violence (IPV) and sexual victimization (SV) in a college aged sample in southern Appalachia. Methods: Data were obtained from a health behavior questionnaire administered online at a university in southern Appalachia from July-December 2014. The sample included 992 participants who self-reported on ACEs and adult experiences of IPV and SV. Descriptive statistics were completed for age, race, sex, ACEs (emotional, physical, or sexual abuse experiences as a child or witnessing IPV), IPV, and SV. Multiple logistic regression models were used to predict IPV and SV in separate models. Results: The sample was mostly female (69.3%), Caucasian (84.2%), and had an average age of 20 years old (M=20.1, SD= 4.05). IPV was reported by 10.5% of participants and SV by 14.1%. Predictors of IPV were: female (OR: 2.85, CI: 1.44- 5.65), emotional abuse (OR: 2.06, CI: 1.14- 3.70), sexual abuse (OR: 2.52, CI: 1.40-4.53) and age (OR: 1.10, CI: 1.06-1.15). Predictors of SV were female (OR: 3.22 CI: 1.70- 6.08), emotional abuse (OR: 2.53, CI: 1.48-4.33), sexual abuse (OR: 7.45, CI: 4.40-12.60) and age (OR: 1.06, CI: 1.02-1.12). Conclusions: Emotional and sexual abuse experiences during childhood were the greatest predictors of IPV and SV in adulthood in this college aged sample. This illustrates that children who were victims of emotional or sexual abuse have an increased risk of further abuse and/or re- victimization as adults. Females had a greater odds of experiencing IPV and SV compared to their male counterparts. Although this pilot study is limited in that looked at college students at one university, this provides a foundation for future research on predictors of IPV and SV in young adults. Further, a better understanding of ACEs and their role in adu

This author conducted a qualitative interview study of community orchestra musicians to better understand why they have sustained their music-making. The first chapter of this dissertation outlines the three research questions along with a rationale and author’s narrative. A problem statement along with a conceptual framework are also included within the first chapter. Three key areas of connected and relevant literature are identified and discussed in the second chapter of this proposal: 1) Socioeconomic Status (SES), parental involvement, efficacy, and attrition in formal school settings: Motivations of students to start learning an instrument and sustain that learning through high school; 2) Characteristics of members of community orchestras; and 3) Studies examining why adults sustain their music-making. The first dimension enables comparisons and contrasts between community orchestra members and school music students. The second and third domains offer a context for both the musicians' individual work and adult music-making in general. The third chapter is a description of the methods, research questions, and timeline of data collection. Data were gathered via a semi-structured interview and a PhotoVoice activity from 10 community orchestra musicians in the New York City area. A description of the pilot study is also included along with the findings. Additionally, the third chapter includes a detailed description of the PhotoVoice method. There were three main findings for each of the three research questions and those findings and the supporting themes/codes are described in chapter 4. The discussion chapter includes extensive thoughts on the implications of the findings. The concluding chapter summarizes the research, lays out plans for future research, and reflects on the study.

Historically, the federal government has been the institution responsible for setting the nation's drug policy. Since 1996, however, the federal government's authority and legitimacy in this issue area has increasingly been challenged through state ballot measures introduced via the initiative process. While only eight percent of ballot measures historically are approved by voters (Initiative and Referendum Institute 2004), half of the 28 state ballot measures on illegal drugs have been approved by voters over the past decade. The stated goal of those supporting legalization through ballot measures is to "build a political movement to end the war on drugs" (Nadelmann 2004). Nadelmann (2004) suggests that victories in the states show that the "nascent drug policy reform movement" can win in the "big leagues of American politics" and that the successful models presented through the ballot measures will increase "public confidence in the possibilities and virtue" of regulating the non-medical use of illicit drugs. To date there has been no detailed examination of the issue framing strategies in this venue; nor has there been an effort to link the problem definition and direct democracy literatures. This dissertation links the problem definition and direct democracy literatures, using drug policy as the vehicle and applying Stone's (2002) analytic framework of problem definition to make descriptive inferences about the issue framing devices employed in state ballot measures on illegal drugs. The research examines a range of materials related to the state ballot measures on illegal drugs including the language appearing on voter ballots; the full text of the ballot measures, including ballot titles and political preambles; and the voter information statements and their authors. In addition, the dissertation describes the elements of legalization proposed by the ballot measures that were approved by voters and examines three key legal challenges to Proposition 215, one of the first ballot measures on illegal drugs approved by voters in California in 1996, including two U.S. Supreme Court cases. / Ph. D.

This dissertation explores the roles that the news media and public opinion play in shaping policymaking in American state and local governments, drawing on extensive archives of local newspaper transcripts, media market and circulation data, outputs of the policymaking process in states and municipalities, and measures of public opinion. In the first paper, I show that media coverage is associated with greater policy responsiveness in state legislatures. When legislators are more likely to be covered by local newspapers and television news broadcasts in their districts, they are better at reflecting constituent preferences in roll-call voting. Defying the seminal theories of electoral accountability, however, I find no evidence that the media affects what the public knows about state politics or how they behave in state legislative elections. Rather, I conjecture that local news affects representation via a more direct, elite-focused “watchdog” mechanism—by informing legislators about public opinion or increasing the perceived costs that politicians face when deciding to cast an unpopular vote. The second paper examines the implications of news organizations’ decisions as to which local governments to invest in covering routinely. Newspapers are more likely to cover politics in larger cities and those with more white and wealthy residents. In cities and towns that the press covers more frequently, I find that local governments spend more per-capita on providing public goods, particularly policing, parks, housing, and public transportation. This suggests that increasing financial pressures on already resource-constrained news outlets may have negative implications for local public goods provision that could exacerbate existing inequalities in American democracy. Finally, in the third paper, I offer a methodological contribution to the measurement of public opinion at subnational geographies. Although the development of Multilevel Regression and Poststratification (MRP) has allowed scholars to more accurately estimate subnational public opinion using national polls, its usefulness has been limited in certain contexts because it generally recovers less accurate estimates from cluster-sampled surveys. I propose two approaches to improve estimation from MRP with cluster-sampled polls. The first is pooling data from multiple surveys to produce a larger sample of clusters. The second is Clustered MRP (CMRP), which extends MRP by modeling opinion using the geographic information included in a survey’s cluster-sampling procedure.