Text in French with an abstract in English / The loss of a life for natural causes has always been, always is and always will be something tragic for human beings, even if it was foreseen. It is all the more tragic when the loss of human life is caused by violent circumstances such as murder or an accident, as in the case of the untimely death of Albert Camus in a car accident. The worst, however, is when a miscarriage of justice in court, due to an error on the part of the judge, results in the loss of a valuable life by the death penalty. This value must be assessed in existential terms, in terms of the human being contextualized in a life worth living despite its absurdity, as described by Camus. It must be realized that this brutal death is imposed by a few words pronounced by a fallible judge, imposing the death penalty on another fallible human being, and that the sentence is then carried out by another fallible human being – all of whom are fundamentally subject to human imperfection and who regularly make mistakes in life. By emphasizing the fallibility of the human being in various ways in his literary works, Camus convincingly demonstrated that, in our already absurd existence, the death penalty is the ultimate scandal, making this punishment truly exponentially absurd – the absurdity of absurdity. How the author demonstrated that fallibility, the eternal imperfection of human beings, is the main reason why the death penalty exceeds absurdity. Using L'Étranger as a starting point, a novel in which the death penalty is mentioned only at trial, on death row, and in the very last part of the novel, and which is strategically supported by other works by Camus, this essay explores how Camus may have used his characters to subtly illustrate the relationship between the everyday imperfections of human beings and the possible death penalty. The essential principle is that there is a precise operational link between the essence and structure of everyday conflicts and the structure of a trial. Parallels are drawn between conflict and trial, particularly with regard to the fallible human beings participating in both, in various judicial capacities, confirming Camus' conviction that the death penalty is the absurdity of absurdity. / Linguistics and Modern Languages / M.A. (French)

In this thesis project, the phenomenon of news media representation of punitivism has been researched through a methodology of a socio-semiotic discourse analysis framed within a theoretical structure of Durkheimianism and news value components. Articles concerning MetroXpress’ representation of criminal deviance and punishment were located through a buzzwords search within the newspaper’s online data archives. The search granted a total of 702 word-occurrences appearing in 216 separate news articles. The discourse analysis seperated these articles into the five sub-discourses of “Blurbs”, “Verdicts”, “Spectacle”, “Single Agent Focus” and “Cultural Context”. The distribution of articles pertaining to specific sub-discourses were distributed such that the highest concentration of articles was present in the “Blurbs” discourse, closely followed by “Verdicts”, placing “Single Agent Focus” and “Spectacle” in the middle, while the “Cultural Context” discourse was made up of the fewest articles. The methodology granted insight into functional punishment and MetroXpress’ representation of criminal deviance, revealing the newspaper’s discourse to be one of situated timeliness which positively promoted judicial-systemic activity. Presenting an anti-Durkheimian conception of deviance in relation to its supposed manifestation in any society, the newspaper presents the phenomenon as defeatable by the judicial system. In this regard, MetroXpress has positioned itself as the mouthpiece of the justice system, in such a manner that they function as a legitimizing force for the punitive system. Beyond the hierarchy of eliteness which permeates the discourse, a normalization of the conception of criminal deviants as dysfunctional obstacles who prohibit organic social cohesiveness is another facet of the discourse. Consequently, a primary focal point within the narratives center on the functional relationship between the deviant individual, systemic representatives and their relation to social cohesiveness.

abstract: Although most Americans support capital punishment, many people have misconceptions about its efficacy and administration (e.g., that capital punishment deters crime). Can correcting people’s inaccurate attitudes change their support for the death penalty? If not, are there other strategies that might shift people’s attitudes about the death penalty? Some research suggests that statistical information can correct misconceptions about polarizing topics. Yet, statistics might be irrelevant if people support capital punishment for purely retributive reasons, suggesting other argumentative strategies may be more effective. In Study 1, I compared how two different interventions shifted attitudes towards the death penalty. In Studies 2 - 4 I examined what other attitudes shape endorsement of capital punishment, and used these findings to develop and test an educational intervention aimed at providing information about errors in the implementation of the death penalty. Altogether, these findings suggest that attitudes about capital punishment are based on more than just retributive motives, and that correcting misconceptions related to its administration and other relevant factors reduces support for the death penalty. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Psychology 2019

This applied dissertation was designed to provide a longitudinal evaluation, using Stufflebeam’s context, input, process, and product (CIPP) model, of an organizational change effort to minimize restraint and seclusion within a behavioral health care facility that serves at-risk and high-risk clients with intellectual, developmental, and psychiatric disabilities. The change effort was developed and implemented at Grafton Integrated Health Network, an agency in the mid-Atlantic region that provides a continuum of care to children and adults in residential, educational, and home settings. Interviews showed insight into all 4 components of the CIPP model. Data from 2003–2013 revealed a 93% decrease in restraint frequency, coupled with an 81% decrease in staff injury, a 51% decrease in client-induced injury, and a goal-mastery increase of 135%. This shows that trauma-informed, less restrictive treatment methods provided safer treatment for individuals with a variety of disabilities, and it saved the organization over $12 million in lost time expenses, turnover costs, and workers’ compensation policy costs. Implications of the change model are considered and commonalities among trauma-informed care, applied behavior analysis, and positive behavior supports are discussed.

The submitted diploma thesis focuses on the discursive analysis of period documents, drawn from archives, laws, parliamentary debates, other expert texts and researches. The aim of the diploma thesis is to find an answer to the question of how public policies approached to crime and punishment of Roma during the 20th century in the Czechoslovakia, later in the Czech Republic (from 1918 to 2000). The diploma thesis seeks to reveal how public policies approached the Roma as a minority in general, what information they based their decisions on their punishment, what measures they proposed for their re-education and assimilation, and how the public was informed through the periodical and therefore how it was formed public opinion about this minority. The analytical part of the work is based on the basic ideas of important sociologists, including Anthony Giddens, Erving Goffman, Pierre Bourdieu and Michel Foucault. Keywords: Roma, period documents, punishment, public policy, assimilation

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Gli amministratori delegati e le aziende sono sempre più sotto i riflettori dei media e del pubblico in generale. Ad oggi pochi studi hanno compreso quali variabili influenzano l’attivismo degli azionisti, così come quali variabili portano a far sì che gli stakeholder aziendali reagiscano negativamente di fronte a determinate caratteristiche aziendali. La tesi intende quindi approfondire tre fenomeni: le reazioni degli individui nei confronti del compenso percepito dal CEO e nei confronti della performance aziendale; l’attivismo degli azionisti nei confronti del linguaggio utilizzato dal CEO; l’attivismo degli azionisti nei confronti delle politiche di CSR adottate dalle aziende. Il primo capitolo si intitola “Eccessività e merito del compenso del CEO” e mira a comprendere l’effetto che il compenso del CEO e la performance aziendale possono avere sulle percezioni degli stakeholder. Il secondo capitolo si intitola “Attivismo degli azionisti e linguaggio del CEO”. Lo studio dimostra che un linguaggio in cui è frequente l’utilizzo del simbolo “shareholder-value” porta gli azionisti a valutare il CEO in modo più favorevole e a ridurre il loro attivismo nei confronti dell'azienda. Il terzo capitolo si intitola “L’effetto delle politiche di CSR sull’attivismo degli azionisti” e mira a comprendere l’effetto delle politiche di CSR sulla probabilità che un'impresa venga presa di mira da azionisti attivisti. / CEOs and corporations are under the spotlight and relatively little is known about what influences shareholder activism and stakeholder reaction towards specific CEO-level and firm-level characteristics. This thesis aims at investigating three phenomena: individuals’ reactions towards CEO pay and firm performance; shareholder activism towards CEO’s use of language; shareholder activism towards CSR policies. The first chapter is entitled “CEO Compensation Excessiveness and Deservingness” and aims at investigating the effect of CEO pay and corporate performance on individuals’ negative reaction. The second chapter is entitled “Shareholder Activism and CEO’s Use of Language”. Drawing on signaling theory and the symbolic management perspective, the chapter shows that a CEO’s use of language that is congruent with the prevailing governance model of shareholder value maximization leads shareholders to evaluate the CEO more favorably and to reduce their activism toward the firm. The third chapter is entitled “The Effect of CSR Policies on Activist Shareholders” and aims at investigating whether CSR policies attract activist shareholders. The chapter theorizes and examines the effect of CSR policies on the probability of a firm being targeted by activist shareholders, as well as the moderating effect of firm positive reputation in the relationship between CSR policies and shareholder activism.

AN ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION OF VERNON SWEETIN, for the Doctor of Philosophy degree, DEPARTMENT OF MARKETING, COLLEGE OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION, presented on June 23, 2010, at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. TITLE: WILLINGNESS TO REWARD OR PUNISH BRANDS AS MODERATORS FOR THE BRAND PERSONALITY DIMENSION OF SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY MAJOR PROFESSOR: Dr. John H. Summey Social responsibility has received empirical support for its addition to the Brand Personality construct. The objectives of this study were first, to compare and contrast attitudinal reactions to varying descriptions of Social Responsibility as a Brand Personality dimension and second, to examine the data for possible moderation effects with the consumers' Willingness to Reward construct and the Willingness to Punish construct, with the latter as a proposed new construct for how consumers' respond to the Brand Dimension, Social Responsibility. The study tested 4 forms of social responsibility in a between-subjects factorial design. The study found that the subjects in the socially responsible condition had a difference in the Willingness to Reward construct when compared to the subjects in the socially irresponsible condition and the control condition. The study's support for the existence of the new moderator Willingness to Punish was found coupled with confirmatory support for Willingness to Reward as a moderator.

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