Syftet med studien är att belysa hur tidigare kriminella har gått tillväga för att ta sig vidare från kriminalitet. En kvalitativ metod har tillämpats för att studera detta och sex före detta kriminella har intervjuats genom semistrukturerade intervjuer. Stämplingsteorin och sociala kontrollteori är teorierna som använts för att analysera och förstå empirin. Tidigare forskning avsnittet är indelat i tre delar och avhandlar riskfaktorer, processen ut ur kriminalitet samt konsekvenserna som medföljer vid avhopp. Det som konstaterats efter intervjuerna är att den vanligaste anledningen till avhopp är föräldraskap och mognad. Resultatet visar även på att ekonomi var ett hinder i processen ut ur kriminalitet. Pengar var en central prioritet i intervjupersonernas tidigare kriminella livsstil och att överge den snabba inkomsten för att anpassa sig till ett konventionellt ekonomiskt system uppgavs vara en utmaning. / The purpose of the study is to shed light on how former criminals have gone about moving on from crime. To study this a qualitative method has been applied, six ex-criminals have been interviewed through semi-structured interviews. The labeling and social control theory are theories that have been used to analyze and understand empirical data. The Previous research section is divided into three parts and discusses risk factors, the process of transitioning out of crime, and the consequences that come with leaving criminal activity. The result shows that the most common reason for leaving criminal activities is due to parenthood and maturity. Respondents also stated that finance was an obstacle in the process our of criminality. Money was a central priority in the respondents' previous criminal lifestyle, and abandoning the fast income to adapt to a conventional economic system was reported as a challenge.

Considering the prevalence of addiction issues within the U.S., this study focused on the topic of recovery from drug and alcohol dependence in order to add to current literature. Prevention and recovery services are two of the most common ways of combating the addiction issue, and counselors are at the forefront of both movements. The bottoming out experience (BOE) and the turning point (TTP) are two common lay terms of factors within changing addictive behaviors, yet the connection of these constructs to recovery remains unstudied and unknown. The current study tested a model that levels of the BOE and the TTP are predictive of early recovery (ER). The data from this study was obtained from a national dataset previously collected from 230 grant-funded addiction treatment centers that utilize the Global Assessment of Individual Needs (GAIN) assessment instrument. A review of the literature gaps, coupled with available data, influenced decisions on research design and statistical analysis procedures. As clear definitions of the BOE, TTP, and ER have not been discovered through research, a descriptive, correlational research design was chosen in order to understand not only what constitutes a BOE, TTP, and ER, but also to discover the relationships between the BOE, TTP, and ER in their natural state. The purpose of correlational studies is to investigate the relationship between two or more variables without researcher manipulation and such designs are common in the counseling and counselor education research field (Heppner, et al., 2008). Because correlational research is exploratory in nature, structural equation modeling (SEM) was utilized to understand the components of each construct and was used to test the hypothesis of the relationships iv between the BOE, TTP and ER. Although SEM is a confirmatory technique, it is frequently used in an exploratory manner because it combines elements of confirmatory factor analysis and multiple regressions and allows for various possibilities of the relationships between constructs and variables (Schrieber, et al., 2006). The literature on ER, BOE, and TTP provides enough evidence to test a theoretical model, which is the purpose of SEM. The hypothesized model assessed data at intake for the BOE, TTP and ER. Once constructs were delineated through measurement models/CFA, SEM path analysis was used to understand how the constructs related to one another. The first three hypotheses were rejected in the study, and measurement model modifications were conducted, which yielded good fit indices. Results from Hypothesis One indicated that hypothesized factors did not load on the BOE, and instead, the BOE at the intake level was a measurement of mental health severity. Results from Hypothesis Two indicated that hypothesized factors did not load on TTP; however, TTP did resulting factor structure created through model modification contained factors of awareness, motivation, and support. Results from Hypothesis Three also indicated that hypothesized indicators did not load into ER; however the resulting factor structure contained indicators of abstinence and environmental support. Lastly, Hypothesis Four yielded three resulting models, all of which had good fit indices. Therefore, hypothesis four was accepted. It is noteworthy that direct effects were not all significant, and the p value in all final models was significant. There was not a significant relationship between the BOE and ER at the intake level; however, there was a significant relationship between the BOE and TTP, as well as TTP and ER at the intake level. The direct v effects between the BOE and ER may have had a role in the significant p values, as well as the large sample size. Within the three resulting models, the BOE had significant relationships with TTP, spiritual support, and motivation. Both spiritual support and motivation also had significant relationships with ER. Therefore, the results from the current study support that there are existing relationships between the BOE and TTP; however, the relationship between the BOE and ER at the intake level was not significant.

In this PhD thesis we study some weighted regular Sturm-Liouville problems in which the weight function takes on both positive and negative signs in an appropriate interval [a,b]. With such  problems there is the possible existence of non-real eigenvalues, unlike in the definite case (i.e. left or right definite) in which only real eigenvalues exist. This PhD thesis consists of five papers (papers A-E) and an introduction to this area, which puts these papers into a more general frame. In paper A we give some precise estimates on the Richardson number for the two turning point case, thereby complementing the work of Jabon and Atkinson from 1984 in an essential way. We also give a corrected version of their result since there seems to be a typographical error in their paper. In paper B we show that the interlacing property, which holds in the one turning point case, does not hold in the two turning point case. The paper consists of a detailed presentation of numerical results of the case in which the weight function is allowed to change its sign twice in the interval (-1, 2). We also present some theoretical results which support the numerical results. Moreover, a number of new open questions are raised. We also observe that the real and imaginary parts of a non-real eigenfunction either have the same number of zeros in the interval (-1,2) or the numbers of zeros differ by two. In paper C, we obtain bounds on real and imaginary parts of non-real eigenvalues of a non-definite Sturm-Liouville problem, with Dirichlet boundary conditions, thus complementing the results obtained in a paper byBehrndt et.al. from 2013 in an essential way. In paper D we obtain a lower bound on the eigenvalue of the smallest modulus associated with a Dirichlet problem in the general case of a regular Sturm-Liouville problem. In paper E we expand upon the basic oscillation theory for general boundary problems of the form   -y''+q(x)y=λw(x)y,  on  I = [a,b], where  q(x) and w(x) are real-valued continuous functions on [a,b] and y is required to satisfy a pair of homogeneous separated boundary conditions at the end-points. Already in 1918 Richardson proved that, in the case of the Dirichlet problem,  if w(x) changes its sign exactly once and the boundary problem is  non-definite, then the zeros of the real and imaginary parts of any non-real eigenfunction interlace. We show that, unfortunately, this result is false in the case of two turning points, thus removing any hope for a general separation theorem for the zeros of the non-real eigenfunctions. Furthermore, we show that when a non-real eigenfunction vanishes inside I, then the absolute value of the difference between the total number of zeros of its real and imaginary parts is exactly 2.

The aim of this study was to examine if the leaving of an abuse could be understood as a process, that incorporates both psychological and sociological parts. We collected our data through a qualitative method of reading autobiographies. The selection of materials was based on the autobiographies that dealt with substance abuse issues, where the selection was delimited to the autobiographies where the individuals had had an alcohol, drug or gambling abuse. The chosen material was written in Swedish, by the addict and after the individual had come out of their abuse. The reading of the material was based on a number of reading questions based on the study’s questions. Following the patterns we found from the reading, we formed a division of our results where eight themes were identified that seemed to play an important role when leaving an abuse: questioning, unsuccessful attempts, insight, turning point, a struggle, important help, new self and awareness. Our result was then analyzed against both psychological and sociological research to give different explanatory models of what we saw in the material. The psychologically oriented research talked about how an individual leaves addiction and how, for example, cognitive changes and turning points are central parts. The sociologically oriented research consisted of a theoretical explanation model about how an individual makes a role exit when, for example, he leaves an abuse where social factors such as environmental impact plays an important role. One of the study’s conclusions was that leaving an abuse could be understood as a process. Another conclusion was that the eight different steps of the process could include both sociological and psychological parts. Thus, through our study, we distinguished that leaving an abuse was not only influenced by one or the other approach, but that studies that illuminate and merge both psychological and sociological perspectives are needed. The study also shows the importance of bringing these two directions together in order to reach a full understanding of what the individual undergoes during his or her journey from an abuse.

The Turning Point Method (TPM) for the evaluation of ion scattering in a sheath of a biased probe immersed in an unmagnetized plasma is reviewed. The TPM implemented originally in a computer program for spherical probes is expanded to include cylindrical probes as well as the evaluation of the turning angle of the charged particle (repelled or attracted) around the probe. TPM results have the potential to provide a standard against which to compare more complicated current collection simulations. TPM results are validated by comparing with Laframboise's earlier work for current collection in the Orbital Motion Limited regime. Calculations of the turning angle of a charged particle with specific energy and angular momentum revealed that higher plasma shielding limits the range of impact parameters that experience significant scattering, and that attracted particles entering tangent to the sheath experience increased scattering. The TPM results also show that there are significant changes in orbital trajectories between different space charges within the Orbital Motion Limited limit.

<p>In recent years, there has been a great interest towards the higher order numerical methods for singularly perturbed problems. As compared to their lower order counterparts, they provide better accuracy with fewer mesh points. Construction and/or implementation of direct higher order methods is usually very complicated. Thus a natural choice is to use some convergence acceleration techniques, e.g., Richardson extrapolation, defect correction, etc. In this thesis, we will consider various classes of problems described by singularly perturbed ordinary and partial differential equations. For these problems, we design some novel numerical methods and attempt to increase their accuracy as well as the order of convergence. We also do the same for existing numerical methods in some instances. We &macr / nd that, even though the Richardson extrapolation technique always improves the accuracy, it does not perform equally well when applied to different methods for certain classes of problems. Moreover, while in some cases it improves the order of convergence, in other cases it does not. These issues are discussed in this thesis for linear and nonlinear singularly perturbed ODEs as well as PDEs. Extrapolation techniques are analyzed thoroughly in all the cases, whereas the limitations of the defect correction approach for certain problems is indicated at the end of the thesis</p>

The aim of this study has been to investigate children and adolescent development in ”The turning point” children´s and adolescent program in Kristianstad. We also wanted to find out the support group leaders experiences concerning the children´s and the adolescents development in programs and how they apprehended their role as a support group leader. Our intension was also to study how the adolescent and the children considered their own development in the program. To carry through this study, we used two types of qualitative methods i.e. qualitative interviews with the support group leaders who used the ”Turning point”  method in their work with the children’s and adolescents groups. We also used qualitative content analysis on the children’s and the adolescents written answers in their evaluation forms. The support group leaders and the adolescents described a positive development through the programs. Both parts states that this development has been noticed by an increased openness about the abuse in the family. Other results was that the children and the adolescent answered that they had realized that they were not alone in their situation, had been helped by the programs, felt happier and had come to realize that they had an identity of their own.

Empress Livia – Murderer or wrongfully accused? An overview of the ancient sources on the empress Livia and what that suggests that shemurdered her husband Emperor Augustus and his adoptive children to make way for herown son Tiberius as the emperor of Rome.This work will analyze the ancient roman sources by the great historians from that time;Tacitus, Suetonius and Cassius Dio, and their works discussing the murder conspiracy of theempress of Rome; Livia.Here I examine what these ancient sources tell about the possible involvement of Livia, on thedeath of Augustus himself and his adoptive sons. Each author to these ancient sources will beexamined and contextualized according to their contemporary time, but also their political andideological views of women in high position and Ceasarism itself. Their characteristics andstyles of their written account will also be examined.The following issues will be dealt with in this work:  What does the ancient sources of; Tacitus, Suetonius and Cassius Dio say about theconspiracy theory in which empress Livia is central.  What is known about the authors of these ancient sources and to what extant mighttheir political and ideological view affect their written account?  Can the allegations directed at Livia be the result of the fact that she was a highlyinfluential woman at her time, something which the ancient authors by romanstandards saw as unfit for a woman, and therefore is mistreated in the written sources?  If so, were all women with power under the same time and circumstances criticized inthe same way in which Livia is portrayed?  Are there any other aspects that have not been treated equally in the past by authorsand researchers, in which new questionable guidelines can be made? As is very important to point out, this work and essentially all others alike will not evenassume to solve the final question if empress Livias was guilty or not of murdering herhusband, Emperor Augustus and/or his adoptive sons. This work is to be foremost accepted asan appendix of other works regarding the same issue.

<p>Empress Livia – Murderer or wrongfully accused?</p><p>An overview of the ancient sources on the empress Livia and what that suggests that shemurdered her husband Emperor Augustus and his adoptive children to make way for herown son Tiberius as the emperor of Rome.This work will analyze the ancient roman sources by the great historians from that time;Tacitus, Suetonius and Cassius Dio, and their works discussing the murder conspiracy of theempress of Rome; Livia.Here I examine what these ancient sources tell about the possible involvement of Livia, on thedeath of Augustus himself and his adoptive sons. Each author to these ancient sources will beexamined and contextualized according to their contemporary time, but also their political andideological views of women in high position and Ceasarism itself. Their characteristics andstyles of their written account will also be examined.The following issues will be dealt with in this work:</p><p> What does the ancient sources of; Tacitus, Suetonius and Cassius Dio say about theconspiracy theory in which empress Livia is central.</p><p> What is known about the authors of these ancient sources and to what extant mighttheir political and ideological view affect their written account?</p><p> Can the allegations directed at Livia be the result of the fact that she was a highlyinfluential woman at her time, something which the ancient authors by romanstandards saw as unfit for a woman, and therefore is mistreated in the written sources?</p><p> If so, were all women with power under the same time and circumstances criticized inthe same way in which Livia is portrayed?</p><p> Are there any other aspects that have not been treated equally in the past by authorsand researchers, in which new questionable guidelines can be made?</p><p>As is very important to point out, this work and essentially all others alike will not evenassume to solve the final question if empress Livias was guilty or not of murdering herhusband, Emperor Augustus and/or his adoptive sons. This work is to be foremost accepted asan appendix of other works regarding the same issue.</p>

<p>In recent years, there has been a great interest towards the higher order numerical methods for singularly perturbed problems. As compared to their lower order counterparts, they provide better accuracy with fewer mesh points. Construction and/or implementation of direct higher order methods is usually very complicated. Thus a natural choice is to use some convergence acceleration techniques, e.g., Richardson extrapolation, defect correction, etc. In this thesis, we will consider various classes of problems described by singularly perturbed ordinary and partial differential equations. For these problems, we design some novel numerical methods and attempt to increase their accuracy as well as the order of convergence. We also do the same for existing numerical methods in some instances. We &macr / nd that, even though the Richardson extrapolation technique always improves the accuracy, it does not perform equally well when applied to different methods for certain classes of problems. Moreover, while in some cases it improves the order of convergence, in other cases it does not. These issues are discussed in this thesis for linear and nonlinear singularly perturbed ODEs as well as PDEs. Extrapolation techniques are analyzed thoroughly in all the cases, whereas the limitations of the defect correction approach for certain problems is indicated at the end of the thesis</p>