Every day, individuals commit acts which are considered immoral, unethical, even criminal, often to gain material advantage. Many people consider cheating on taxes, cheating on tests, claiming false benefits, or avoiding transport fare to be wrong, but they do them anyway. While some of these acts may not be formally illegal, they are, at best, considered morally dubious and is labeled “everyday crime.” Anomie theory holds that individuals make decisions based on socialized values, which separately may be contradictory but together, balances each other out, producing behavior considered “normal” by society. When one holds an imbalanced set of values, decisions made on that set may produce deviant behavior, such as everyday crime. RD theory holds that individuals who perceive their own deprivation, relative to someone else, will feel frustration and injustice, and may attempt to ameliorate that feeling with deviant behavior. Data from the 2006 World Values Survey were analyzed using logistic regression, testing both constructs concurrently. An individual was 1.55 times more likely to justify everyday crime for each calculated unit of anomie; and 1.10 times more likely for each calculated unit of RD. It was concluded from this study that anomie and relative deprivation were both associated with the tendency towards everyday crime.

This research examines how relative deprivation theory can be applied to study the success of protest movements and their subsequent impact on the process of democratization of the South Korean state. This study hopes to provide a more comprehensive approach to how the role of protests in the development of a democratic state is explained within the field of political science. Utilizing both a quantitative and qualitative research design, this work applied a case study analysis as well as a supplemental data analysis regarding the success of Korean protest movements and their impact on democratization as well as global views of democratization as previously mentioned. For the case study analysis, I focused on four protest movements in South Korea and applied relative deprivation theory in each case. Then, I defined five metrics for protest success based on my previous analysis and used these metrics to conduct a comparative analysis regarding the short and long term success of each protest movement. For the data analysis, I utilized Systemic Peace's Polity Project Series V dataset in order to quantify changes in the qualities of the regime over time, on a scale ranging from highly authoritarian to highly democratic regime qualities. Based on this mixed-mode analysis, I find that protest movements that were linked to progressive deprivation led to most successful shifts towards democratic regime qualities in the long-term. This project is significant to the field as it will address criticisms in previously discounted protest theory as well as explore the changing narrative of democratization in the modern world and dispel historical misconceptions of political culture in East Asia, focusing on Korea.

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This thesis examines development as a catalyst for the decision to migrate. Specifically, the two complementary theories of relative deprivation and social networks are examined to explore possible associations between level of household development and migrants' designation of savings or remittances towards development-related purposes and whether remittances are positively affected by migrants' participation in a hometown association (HTA). The study relied on data from the Mexican Migration Project (MMP), using the historical Mexican sending state of Jalisco. The MMP, using an ethnosurvey method, gathers data on individual migrant experiences, including border-crossing methods, jobs held, and participation in migrant hometown associations, amenities found in individual households, and available services in communities. No support was found for the first hypothesis, which predicted that relative deprivation was a catalyst of migration. Support was found for the second hypothesis, that migrant participation in HTAs, specifically in social clubs, positively influenced designation of savings or remittances for development-related purposes. This same support was not the case for migrant involvement in sport clubs. This thesis contributes to social network theory, pinpointing the positive effect that migrant participation in hometown associations has on designating money towards development. / Master of Arts

Structural adjustment measures adopted during the early 1990s considerably altered the rural landscape throughout Zambia. Households responded and continue to respond in a variety of ways, although many do so under highly inequitable terms. Poverty rates, food insecurity, and income inequality all remain unacceptably high in Zambia, particularly in rural areas. Using a biocultural and livelihoods approach, this alternate "publication in scholarly journals" format dissertation examines some of the complexities that condition livelihoods and differentially shape biologies in rural Zambia today. Three main problems are explored: 1) the relationship between food insecurity and adult mental health; 2) piecework (casual labor) as a coping strategy and indicator of household vulnerability to food insecurity; and 3) the association between relative deprivation and adult physical health. Research for the dissertation took place in a rural area in Eastern Province, Zambia in 2009. The research employed a mixed methodology, collecting qualitative and household-level survey data during the rainy and dry seasons. Various statistical analyses were utilized in the three papers appended to the dissertation. The results were further explored using the findings from the qualitative data. In paper one, a positive relationship between food insecurity and poor mental health was found. Food insecurity during the dry season had a greater effect on mental health than in the rainy season. In paper two, the results demonstrate the importance of piecework labor as a coping strategy and the need to adopt a multi-period lens to robustly assess whether participation in piecework reflects a household's vulnerability to food insecurity. In the third paper, a negative association was established between relative deprivation and adult nutritional status. Together, the results from the dissertation provide clear evidence that both the material and relative circumstances of people play important roles in patterning variation in mental and physical health outcomes in rural Zambia.

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited / Reissued 5 May 2017 to correct misspelled Second Reader’s name on title page. / The number of disconnected youth, those ages 16 to 24 who are not in school and are not employed, has reached significant levels in the United States and Western Europe. This trend is coupled with the fact that more and more foreign fighters are joining Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in Iraq and Syria. In particular, Western youth have been the target of radicalization by ISIS and other terrorist groups, and the appeal and lure of such groups seem unlikely to subside. A similar trend is also evident among youth in Muslim countries where the number of foreign fighters to terrorist groups seems unlikely to decrease. According to recent estimates, over 28,000 foreign fighters have joined ISIS in Syria and Iraq since 2011. The fact that so many youth have been radicalized to join terrorist groups is a cause for concern that requires closer scrutiny, understanding, and action by Western and other governments. The explanations and motivations as to why youth join terrorist groups abound; these include lack of education, poverty, religion discrimination, family background, and political and economic marginalization, among others. This research seeks to answer the question, are the youth in the United States, who are disconnected, more likely to become radicalized to terrorism? To answer this, various theoretical frameworks were researched and examined, such as relative deprivation, social movement theory, and psychological perspectives, to shed light on understanding this issue. / Director, Personnel Support Services and Benefits, Transportation Security Administration

The Casamance conflict for decades has been unable to produce a sustained peace settlement. This project utilised among others, the relative deprivation and basic human needs satisfaction theories respectively and concludes that the conflict is underpinned by relative deprivation, strongly felt and driven by the elite group. Both the current phase as well as in the past, the conflict has been driven and to an extent manipulated by these elite, motivated by self-empowerment. Masked under the struggle of a relatively deprived masses into collective violence, seeded in a classic social conflict of a type rooted in stereotyping, marginalisation and underdevelopment, primarily driven by basic human needs dissatisfaction expressed in terms of the levels of poverty.   These stemmed in part from the colonial pass which set into motion the continuous suppression and segregation of the Casamance region. In particular, of the Diola ethnic identity thus, the conflict’s ethno nationalists dimension. This research presents a deprivation approach strategy to peace making, which among other factors includes addressing the socioeconomic and political causes of the conflict and also one that underscores the relevance of a credible third party involvement to resolving the dispute between a fractured MFDC and a reluctant Government of Senegal.

<p>The purpose of this thesis is to achieve a greater understanding of the contemporary situation in Kosovo. This understanding is to be made concrete by viewing the international community’s and the domestic actor’s view of the root causes to the contemporary situation. First, the historical background and the contemporary political-, economical- and societal situation of the province are presented. Secondly follows the International Community’s- and the domestic actors stated view that is analyzed using the theories of Political Culture, Relative Deprivation and Human Needs.</p><p>The method that I have chosen is the qualitative together with Semi Structured Interviews that took place in Kosovo during spring 2007.</p><p>I find in my analysis that the view of the International Community and the domestic actors differ. The international community judge the root causes to be foremost the economy, historical legacy and unresolved status and that these have an Interest need based feature. The Kosovo Albanian elite deems that the economy, dual administration, living in a post-communist society and the unresolved status are the most important root causes. The Kosovo Serbs judge them to be lack of political stability and security, and the unresolved status. These needs are Value- and Human Need based to a greater extent than the International Community’s stated ones.</p><p>Keywords: Kosovo, International and Domestic Perspective, Relative Deprivation, Human Needs</p>

The overall aim of this thesis is to contribute to a greater understanding of how social inequalities in health evolve causally and to explore the missing links between social position and health in different social and economic contexts. A premise in the thesis is that in affluent societies, not only material aspects and purchasing power linked to income and social positions are important explanations for the health of individuals, but also the relative socio-economic standards in society. The concept of relative income position was used to explore this notion across time and country contexts: A comparison of income-related health inequalities between the different welfare contexts of Sweden and Germany showed similar magnitudes in poor health. When exploring the role of absolute and relative income changes over time in Sweden, income volatility was found to influence individuals’ health. Another aim was to explore the specific social mechanisms reflecting intra- and interpersonal social comparisons and their role for health. Subjective measures of social position were found to capture non-material aspects of social positions. Self-rated class affinity revealed strong associations with health, particularly for women. Income satisfaction, predicting mortality, was shown to be a measure that accounts for internalized reference standards regarded as meaningful by individuals. Conceptually, the used subjective measures capture aspects of social comparisons and relative deprivation and further suggest that not the material dimension of social position alone matters for health. It is also shown that income satisfaction operates as a mediator between income position and mortality. Subjective measures such as income satisfaction and class affinity provide a plausible link in the understanding of how social inequality entails persistent effects on health and mortality. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following paper was unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 3: Manuscript.</p>

The purpose of this thesis is to achieve a greater understanding of the contemporary situation in Kosovo. This understanding is to be made concrete by viewing the international community’s and the domestic actor’s view of the root causes to the contemporary situation. First, the historical background and the contemporary political-, economical- and societal situation of the province are presented. Secondly follows the International Community’s- and the domestic actors stated view that is analyzed using the theories of Political Culture, Relative Deprivation and Human Needs. The method that I have chosen is the qualitative together with Semi Structured Interviews that took place in Kosovo during spring 2007. I find in my analysis that the view of the International Community and the domestic actors differ. The international community judge the root causes to be foremost the economy, historical legacy and unresolved status and that these have an Interest need based feature. The Kosovo Albanian elite deems that the economy, dual administration, living in a post-communist society and the unresolved status are the most important root causes. The Kosovo Serbs judge them to be lack of political stability and security, and the unresolved status. These needs are Value- and Human Need based to a greater extent than the International Community’s stated ones. Keywords: Kosovo, International and Domestic Perspective, Relative Deprivation, Human Needs