2006 - 2010 Faculty Publications
2010
The Art of Yoga Project: A Gender-Responsive Yoga and Creative Arts Curriculum for Girls in the California Juvenile Justice System
Author(s):
Danielle Arlanda Harris, Ph.D. with Mary Lynn Fitton
As girls enter the juvenile justice system, they stand on the precipice of a lifelong cycle of crime and incarceration, yet still have the opportunity to turn toward healing and rehabilitation. With this in mind, The Art of Yoga Project (AYP) has designed a gender-specific intervention that combines Yoga, visual arts, and creative writing to help girls learn how to create a positive future for themselves. This article introduces AYP and shares the goals, objectives, and experiences of the program. A thorough description of AYP’s comprehensive Yoga and Creative Arts Curriculum is provided, including a sample class plan and overview of the entire course. Eight principles of best practices are presented and discussed. We hope that this blueprint will inspire and empower other Yoga therapists to develop similar programs that serve this important and underserved population.
Publishing information:
October 20th, 2010 | International Journal of Yoga Therapy, 1(1): 110-118
Optimizing Storage and Handling of DNA Extracts
Author(s):
Steven B. Lee, Ph.D., C. Crouse, Ph.D., and M. Kline, Ph.D.
Nucleic acid sample storage is of paramount importance in forensic science, epidemiological, clinical and genetic laboratories. Millions of biological samples, including cells, viruses, and DNA/RNA, are stored every year for diagnostics, research and forensics. PCR has permitted the analysis of minute sample quantities. Forensic samples such as bone, teeth, touch samples and some sexual assault evidence may yield only low quality and low quantity DNA/RNA. Efficient storage of the extracted DNA/RNA is needed to ensure the stability of the sample over time for re-testing of the CODIS STRs, mtDNA, YSTRs, mRNA and other future marker typing systems.
Amplification of some or all of these markers may fail because the biological material has been highly degraded, contains inhibitors, is too low in quantity or is contaminated with contemporary DNA. Reduction in recovery has been observed with refrigerated liquid DNA extracts and also those exposed to multiple freeze-thaw cycles. Therefore, the development of optimal storage and amplification methods is critical for successful recovery of profiles from these types of forensic samples, since in many cases, re-testing is necessary.
This review is divided into three sections. Section One covers the background of forensic DNA storage, factors that influence DNA stability, and a brief review of molecular strategies to type non-optimal DNA. Section Two covers the importance of DNA extract storage in forensic and non-forensic DNA databanks, and the mechanisms responsible for loss during storage. Finally, Section Three covers strategies and technologies being utilized to store DNA.
Publishing information:
July 20th, 2010 | Forensic Science Reviews, 2010, 22:131-144
Immigration control, post-Fordism, and less eligibility: A materialist critique of the criminalization of immigration across Europe
Author(s):
Alessandro De Giorgi, Ph.D.
The apparent de-bordering of the western world under the impulse of economic globalization has been paralleled by a simultaneous process of re-bordering of late-capitalist societies against global migrations. This re-bordering is part of a broader punitive turn in the regulation of migration which has emerged, particularly in the European context, since the mid-1970s. On the one hand, non-western immigrants are targeted by prohibitionist immigration policies which in fact contribute to the reproduction of their status of illegality; on the other hand, the systematic use of incarceration (together with administrative detention and deportation) as the main strategy in the ongoing war against unauthorized immigration configures a dynamic of hyper-criminalization of immigrants, whose result is the intensification of their socioeconomic and political marginality across Europe. Following the materialist criminological approach known as political economy of punishment, this article suggests that these punitive strategies should be analyzed against the background of an increasingly flexible and de-regulated neoliberal economy: in this context, the hyper-criminalization of migrations contributes to the reproduction of a vulnerable labor force whose insecurity makes it suitable for the segmented labor markets of post-Fordist economies.
Publishing information:
April 19th, 2010 | Punishment & Society (2010), 12, 2: 147-167
Intimate Partner Violence in Young Adult Dating, Cohabitating, and Married Drinking Partnerships
Author(s):
Veronica Herrera, Ph.D. with Jacquelyn D. Wiersma, Ph.D., H. Harrington Cleveland, Ph.D., and Judith L. Fischer, Ph.D.
Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, this study examined intimate partner violence (IPV) and drinking partnerships in 741 young adults in male-female dating, cohabitating, and married relationships. Cluster analyses revealed four similar kinds of drinking partnerships: (a) congruent light and infrequent, (b) discrepant male heavy and frequent, (c) discrepant female heavy and infrequent, and (d) congruent moderate/heavy-frequent drinkers. Overall, there were no significant main effect differences across relationship type and clusters. The type of relationship and the type of drinking partnership interacted with contexts examined (i.e., type of violence severity, gender, and whether the violence was perpetration or victimization). Given the severity of IPV in couple relationships, additional empirical attention to drinking partnerships is warranted.
Publishing information:
April 1st, 2010 | Journal of Marriage and Family Volume 72, Issue 2, pages 360–374, April 2010
Oakland Police Department Resident Opinion Survey Report
Author(s):
Mark E. Correia, Ph.D. and Melinda Jackson, Ph.D.
The Survey and Policy Research Institute at San José State University conducted the Oakland Police Department Resident Opinion Survey December 12-14, 2009 and January 4-6, 2010. This telephone survey of 868 adult Oakland residents was conducted in English, Spanish, Cantonese, and Mandarin. The telephone numbers included in this sample were randomly generated by computer to ensure that both listed and unlisted numbers were included, from all landline exchanges in Oakland. An additional sample of cell phone numbers randomly selected from the 510 area code was included, with respondents screened to ensure that they were Oakland residents. A total of 45 surveys were completed by cell phone. Telephone numbers in the survey sample were called up to four times at different times and days to increase the likelihood of reaching eligible households.
The sampling error for the total sample is plus or minus 3.32 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. Smaller subgroups have larger margins of error. Results reported here are weighted by race and gender to match 2006-2008 American Community Survey estimates for Oakland from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Publishing information:
January 20th, 2010 | Survey and Policy Research Institute, San José State University, San José, CA
Determinants of attitudes toward police of Latino immigrants and non-immigrants
Author(s):
Though much attention has been given to the effect of ethnicity on perceptions of the police, few studies had focused on Latino immigrants. Using research conducted in an immigrant rich area, this study examined the possibility that determinants of attitudes toward the police differ across immigrants and non-immigrants. Using several statistical techniques, this article explores the impact of the most commonly used variables (e.g., age, gender, contact with the police) as well as those most associated with immigrants (e.g., language proficiency, religiosity, residential stability). Other variables used to assess various social processes (e.g., social cohesion, informal social control, neighboring ...
Publishing information:
January 10th, 2010 | Journal of Criminal Justice, 38(1): 99-107
2009
Understanding Male Sexual Offending: A Comparison of General and Specialist Theories
Author(s):
Danielle Arlanda Harris, Ph.D., Paul Mazerolle, Ph.D., and Raymond A. Knight, Ph.D.
Previous research has explored whether criminological theories can account for the apparently specialized behaviors of sexual offenders. One perspective proposes that criminals are versatile, engaging in an array of antisocial behaviors. The alternative perspective, more common in sexual offending research, is that sexual offenders (especially child molesters) engage in sexual offenses exclusively or predominantly. This study examined 374 male sexual offenders referred for civil commitment. Offenders were compared by crime classification and level of specialization and were assessed on a selection of variables that measured general criminality and sexual deviance. Specialization level was a stronger group discriminator than offender classification. Versatile offenders were significantly more likely than specialist offenders to present with generic antisocial behaviors predicted by traditional criminology. Specialist offenders reported more indicators of sexual deviance than versatile offenders. The theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.
Publishing information:
October 19th, 2009 | Criminal Justice and Behavior October 2009 vol. 36 no. 10 1051-1069
What Will States Really Do For Us? The Human Rights Enterprise and Pressure from Below
Author(s):
William Armaline, Ph.D. and Davita Silfen Glasberg, Ph.D.
International human rights standards and treaties have been plagued with disputes over the relevance and power of international law with regard to state sovereignty. These disputes commonly result in states’ failure to realize the rights and standards outlined by such human rights instruments. What if states cannot or will not provide fundamental dignities to their people? Moreover, how does global restructuring affect states’ ability to implement human rights? We explore these questions through what we call the “human rights enterprise,” which includes conflicts between rulers and the ruled over the realization of human rights practice. As such, human rights are often developed through the struggles of grassroots organizations and non-elites from below, not simply from the compassionate actions of states to respect their international agreements.
Publishing information:
October 1st, 2009 | Societies Without Borders, Volume 4, Number 3, 2009 , pp. 430-451(22)
Securing borders: patriotism, vigilantism and the brutalization of the US American public
Author(s):
Sang Hea Kil, Ph.D., Cecilia Menjívar, Ph.D., and Roxanne Lynne Doty, Ph.D.
This is an examination of how border policies become intertwined with patriotic expressions that result in an atmosphere conducive to border vigilantism. We analyze how vigilantes target sources of immigrant employment, demonstrate at public buildings in attempting to put pressure on public officials, and speak and rally at educational institutions in order to disseminate their message.
Methodology – We use content analysis, broadly defined.
Findings – Brutalization theory helps understand how a militarized border policy shapes an environment in which violence becomes an acceptable and appropriate response to undocumented migration.
Value – This chapter provides insights on both recent vigilante activities along the border and also within the interior of the nation.
Publishing information:
March 10th, 2009 | Crime and Justice. Sociology of Crime, Law, and Deviance series (2009). Ed. William McDonald (pp. 297 - 312). Emerald Group Publishing Ltd (United Kingdom)
Specialization and versatility in sexual offenders referred for civil commitment
Author(s):
Danielle A. Harris, Ph.D., Stephen Smallbone, Ph.D., Susan Dennison, Ph.D., and Raymond A. Knight, Ph.D.
Offense versatility was the more likely tendency across the sample. Committed and observed offenders did not differ. Although predominantly versatile, child molesters were significantly more likely than rapists to specialize in sexual offenses, and were also more likely to specialize in child molestation. Consistent with previous research with sexual offenders, both measures of offense specialization revealed substantial difference between child molesters and rapists. As expected, rapists had more versatile criminal records. The extent to which persistent sexual offenders specialize in sexual offenses, or the extent to which they also engage in nonsexual offenses, has only recently become the subject of empirical inquiry. This study explored the extent of both tendencies (specialization and versatility) in the criminal histories of 572 adult male sexual offenders referred to civil commitment. The specialization threshold and the diversity index were used to compare offender subgroups by referral status.
Publishing information:
February 10th, 2009 | Journal of Criminal Justice, 2009, 37(1): 2009:37-44
A Preliminary Study of Intimate Partner Violence Among Nepali Women in the United States
Author(s):
Yoko Baba, Ph.D., Soni Thapa-Oli, Ph.D., and Hari Bansha Dulal
Although there is a growing number of studies on intimate partner violence (IPV) in U.S. South Asian communities, the examination of IPV among Nepali women in the United States is still in the initial stage. The purpose of this study was to assess the prevalence of and vulnerabilities to IPV among 45 Nepali immigrant women residing in the New York metropolitan area. The findings demonstrated that 75.6% of women had been verbally insulted by their current partners, and 62.2% had to seek permission from their partners to go to their friends’ or relatives’ houses.
Publishing information:
February 1st, 2009 | Violence Against Women (2009) 15 (2): 206-223.
2008
Water, Place, and Equity
Author(s):
Richard Warren Perry, Ph.D. with Helen Ingram, Ph.D. and John Whiteley, Ph.D.
Many predict that by the end of this century water will dominate world natural resources politics as oil does today. Access to water is widely regarded as a basic human right, and was declared so by the United Nations in 1992. And yet the water crisis grows: although the total volume of water on the planet may be sufficient for our needs, much of it is misallocated, wasted, or polluted, and the poorest of the poor live in arid areas where water is scarce. The coming decade will require new perspectives on water resources and reconsideration of the principles of water governance and policy.
Water, Place, and Equity argues that fairness in the allocation of water will be a cornerstone to a more equitable ands secure future for humankind. With analyses and case studies, it demonstrates that considerations of equity are more important in formulating and evaluating water policy than the more commonly invoked notions of efficiency and markets.
The case studies through which the book explores issues of water equity range from cost and benefit disparities that result from Southern California’s storm water runoff policies to the privatization of water in Bolivia. In a final chapter, Water, Place, and Equity considers broader concerns—the impact of global climate change on water resources and better ways to incorporate equity into future water policy.
Publishing information:
October 10th, 2008 | M.I.T. Press
The Influence of Individual and Partner Characteristics on the Perpetration of Intimate
Partner Violence in Young Adult Relationships
Author(s):
Veronica M. Herrera, Ph.D., Jacquelyn D. Wiersma, Ph.D., and H. Harrington Cleveland, Ph.D.
This study examines individual and partner characteristics associated with the perpetration of intimate partner violence (IPV) in young adult relationships with opposite sex partners. Using data from Waves 1 and 3 of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, this study examined 1,275 young adults’ heterosexual romantic relationships. Controlling for the effects of family and school correlates measured in adolescence, we examined the extent to which participants’ general violent behavior in young adulthood and their partners’ use of violence in their relationship influence participants’ IPV perpetration. We found that both having general violent tendencies and being a target of violence in a relationship influenced one’s likelihood of young adults perpetrating IPV. We also tested whether the overall influence of participants’ general violent behavior on IPV perpetration was moderated by their partners’ use of violence in the relationship. We found that young women’s greatest expression of violent tendencies emerged when in relationships with violent men; yet, when partnered with non-violent men, young women’s own violent tendencies did not lead to IPV. We found little evidence for the interactive effect for young men in the study. The lack of a significant interaction in the model indicated that young men’s general aggression was not conditioned on their partners’ use of physical aggression in their relationships.
Publishing information:
October 10th, 2008 | Journal of Youth and Adolescence Volume 37, Number 3 (2008), 284-296
Predicting Successful College Experiences: Evidence from a First Year Retention Program
Author(s):
James Daniel Lee, Ph.D. with Kimberly Noble, Ph.D., Nicole T. Flynn, and David Hilton, Ph.D.
Research indicates that programs designed to target first year students increase their likelihood of success during that year and their chances of completing an undergraduate education (Bureau & Rromrey, 1994; Conner & Colton, 1999). Theoretically, such programs should help in part because they foster integration into campus communities and help align personal goals with institutional goals. In an effort to increase retention and achievement of first year students, the University of South Alabama implemented a program for resident first year students called ESSENCE in the fall of 1998. The purpose of this study is to measure the effects of that program on student success. Specifically we are interested in assessing the effects of the program on GPAs and graduation rates. In multivariate analyses, we compare GPAs and graduation rates for resident ESSENCE students, resident non-ESSENCE students, and non-resident students controlling for other predictors of success. We find that ESSENCE improves GPAs and the likelihood of graduating in five years relative to other experiences, even when controlling for other factors.
Publishing information:
April 1st, 2008 | Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory & Practice. 2007, 9:39-60.
2007
Dating Conflicts: Rethinking Dating Violence and Youth Conflict
Author(s):
Sang Hea Kil, Ph.D. with Madelaine Adelman, Ph.D.
Dating couples are tied to each other’s friends who have expectations about dating, such as who constitutes an acceptable date and how to balance friendship and dating. We explore the place of friends in dating conflicts (i.e., conflicts and violence associated with heterosexual teen dating) and ask: (a) How are friends implicated in teen dating/violence not only as targets or confidants, but also as participants in conflict that stems from their friends’ relationships, and (b) in what ways do dating conflicts conserve or challenge the power of gender and sexual conformity that underlies heterosexual dating and dating violence?
Publishing information:
December 10th, 2007 | Violence Against Women December 2007 vol. 13 no. 12 1296-1318
Digging Out of Trouble Public Archaeology as Rehabilitation for Juvenile Delinquents
Author(s):
James Daniel Lee, Ph.D., Philip J. Carr, Ph.D., and Tiffanie N. Bruch, M.A.
This article reports an evaluation of an archaeology project carried out by the University of South Alabama (USA) Center for Archaeological Studies to complement an Intensive Aftercare Program for juvenile delinquents in Mobile, Alabama. The project was an eight-week field school for 14 adjudicated youth. The goals of the project were to teach archaeology, provide job skills, improve pro-social attitudes of delinquents, improve delinquents’ attitudes toward their local community, and reduce recidivism among delinquents. The evaluation was completed using a mixed methods approach including pre- and post-project questionnaires, weekly evaluations, comparisons with a matched sample, observations, and focus groups with staff. Findings are that students learned archaeology and formed positive relations with staff. There is no evidence that pro-social attitudes, ties to the community, or recidivism were altered. The quality of archaeology performed by the participants was high and the project beneficial to the Center. Such programs promise to be valuable components of juvenile intervention programs, adding education and job skills opportunities, but should not be expected to work as stand-alone interventions.
Publishing information:
September 15th, 2007 | Journal of Applied Social Science September 2007 1: 29-61
2006
Immigration and Crime: Ethnicity, Race, and Violence
Author(s):
Sang Hea Kil, Ph.D. and Cecilia Menjívar, Ph.D.
The original essays in this much-needed collection broadly assess the contemporary patterns of crime as related to immigration, race, and ethnicity. Immigration and Crime covers both a variety of immigrant groups–mainly from Asia, the Caribbean, and Latin America–and a variety of topics including: victimization, racial conflict, juvenile delinquency, exposure to violence, homicide, drugs, gangs, and border violence.
The volume provides important insights about past understandings of immigration and crime, many based on theories that have proven to be untrue or racially biased, as well as offering new scholarship on salient topics. Overall, the contributors argue that fears of immigrant crime are largely unfounded, as immigrants are themselves often more likely to be the victims of discrimination, stigmatization, and crime rather than the perpetrators.
Publishing information:
July 10th, 2006 | Immigration and Crime: Race, Ethnicity, and Violence, Eds. Ramiro Martinez Jr. and Abel Valenzuela Jr (Chapt. 8). New York: New York University Press.
Re-Thinking the Political Economy of Punishment: Perspectives on Post-Fordism and Penal Politics
Author(s):
Alessandro De Giorgi, Ph.D.
The political economy of punishment suggests that the evolution of punitive systems should be connected to the transformations of capitalist economies: in this respect, each ‘mode of production’ knows its peculiar ‘modes of punishment’. However, global processes of transformation have revolutionized industrial capitalism since the early 1970s, thus configuring a post-Fordist system of production. In this book, the author investigates the emergence of a new flexible labour force in contemporary Western societies. Current penal politics can be seen as part of a broader project to control this labour force, with far-reaching effects on the role of the prison and punitive strategies in general.
Publishing information:
June 1st, 2006 | Re-thinking the Political Economy of Punishment: Perspectives on post-Fordism and Penal Politics (2006). Aldershot: Ashgate, UK.
