Public confidence in policing: a neo-Durkheimian perspective

Public confidence in policing has received much attention in recent years, but few studies outside of the United States have examined the sociological and social–psychological processes that underpin trust and support. This study, conducted in a rural English location, finds that trust and confidence in the police are shaped not by sentiments about risk and crime, but by evaluations of the values and morals that underpin community life. Furthermore, to garner public confidence, the police must be seen first to typify group morals and values and second to treat the public with dignity and fairness. All these findings are consistent with the perspective that people are Durkheimian in their attitudes towards crime, policing and punishment—a perspective developed here in this paper

'Leaves and Eats Shoots': Direct Terrestrial Feeding Can Supplement Invasive Red Swamp Crayfish in Times of Need

PMCID: PMC3411828This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

Norms, normativity and the legitimacy of justice institutions: international perspectives

This article reviews the international evidence on the nature, sources and consequences of police and legal legitimacy. In brief, I find that procedural justice is the strongest predictor of police legitimacy in most countries, although normative judgements about fair process may – in some contexts – be crowded out by public concerns about police effectiveness and corruption, the scale of the crime problem, and the association of the police with a historically oppressive and underperforming state. Legitimacy tends to be linked to people’s willingness to cooperate with the police, with only a small number of national exceptions, and there is fair amount of evidence that people who say they feel a moral duty to obey the law also tend to report complying with the law in the past or intending to comply with the law in the future. The main argument is, however, that international enthusiasm for testing procedural justice theory is outpacing methodological rigor and theoretical clarity. On the one hand, the lack of attention to methodological equivalence is holding back the development of a properly comparative cross-national analysis. On the other hand, the literature would benefit from (a) greater delineation between legitimation and legitimacy, (b) stronger differentiation between police and legal legitimacy, and (c) more attention given to isolating the mechanisms through which legitimacy motivates cooperation and compliance

Interactionz: Engaging Lgbtq+ Youth Using Theatre For Social Change

Theatre for social change is a term used to describe a wide range of theatre-based techniques and methods. Through implementation of performance techniques, participants are encouraged to creatively explore and communicate various ideas with the specific intention of eliciting a societal or political shift within a given community. Through this thesis, I will explore the impact of applying theatre for social change in a youth-centered environment. I will discuss my journey as creator, facilitator, and project director of interACTionZ, a queer youth theatre program in Orlando, FL formed through a partnership between Theatre UCF at the University of Central Florida and the Zebra Coalition®. I will give specific focus throughout this project to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer (LGBTQ+) youth and straight advocates for the LGBTQ+ community

Free adjustment of a triangulation net

It is often useful to determine the measures of precision of the directly observed quantities in a triangulation net. Provided the net is not strained these measures are unique to a particular set of observations and weights. Unique measures for the precision of the indirectly observed quantities cannot be found by classical means although several ad hoc approaches can be used to approximate to this measure of the 'inherent strength' of a net. Bjerhammar's theory of generalised matrix inverses can be used to derive measures of precision for the indirectly observed quantities, which may be interpreted as reflecting the inherent strength of the net. The theory of adjustment of a triangulation net by the method of variation of co-ordinates is described, followed by an explanation of the theory bf generalised inverses. Methods for the practical derivation of particular inverses are described, following Mittermayer. The characteristics of Normal, Transnormal and Stochastic Ring inverses in solution of Normal equations BX = R, are described

Monopolizing force?: police legitimacy and public attitudes towards the acceptability of violence

Why do people believe that violence is acceptable? In this paper we study people’s normative beliefs about the acceptability of violence to achieve social control (as a substitute for the police, for self-protection and the resolution of disputes) and social change (through violent protests and acts to achieve political goals). Addressing attitudes towards violence among young men from various ethnic minority communities in London, we find that procedural justice is strongly correlated with police legitimacy, and that positive judgments about police legitimacy are associated with more negative views about the use of violence. We conclude with the idea that police legitimacy has an additional, hitherto unrecognized, empirical property – by constituting the belief that the police monopolise rightful force in society, legitimacy has a ‘crowding out’ effect on positive views of private violence

Money, Power, Respect: Philanthropic Giving Of African American Alumni Of Predominately White Institutions

As colleges and universities throughout the United States face economic downturns that translate into budget reductions, hiring freezes, and academic program dissolution, it is becoming increasingly more pertinent to secure valuable alumni donations to meet the financial and budgetary needs of these institutions. African American alumni of Predominately white Institutions (PWIs) have often been an overlooked resource for colleges and universities soliciting philanthropic donations. This study will explore the relationship between African American alumni and their Predominately white alma maters and how this relationship affects philanthropic giving to the institutions. In addition to exposing the stimulus for giving to their alma mater, the study will also explore the experiences of the alumni as undergraduates that motivated their desire to give. Through use of case study methodology and a cross-case analysis, the researcher will capture the narratives of participants selected from a population of African American alumni of Acme State University and A&M College. The researcher will apply a cross-case analysis when exploring the data in the hopes of exposing commonalities that influence the alumni/alma mater relationships as well as themes that impact philanthropic giving of African American alumni to their Predominately white alma mate

Intraindividual Variability as a Correlate of White Matter Decline

Aging and early-stage Alzheimer disease (AD) have been associated with increased reaction time intraindividual variability (IIV). In previous studies this age-related increase in IIV has been associated with white matter volumes and microstructure. However, the association between IIV and white matter has not been contextualized with other aspects of cognitive performance and neuroanatomical structure, in particular with median reaction time and estimates of gray matter. Using cognitive composites derived from three attentional tasks (Stroop, Simon, and CVOE switching), in conjunction with estimates of regional gray matter thickness and white matter volume, the present dissertation examined two aims on a group of cognitively normal and early-stage AD participants. Based on previous literature, the first aim examined evidence for a double dissociation between aspects of cognitive performance and neuroanatomical structure, such that the coefficient of variation (CoV, a measure of IIV) would uniquely be associated with white matter while median RT associated with gray matter thickness. The second aim examined evidence for a mediational role of CoV, such that this variable accounted for the association observed between regional white matter and performance on working memory and episodic memory tasks. Furthermore, Aim 2 examined whether CoV mediated the relationship between two genetic factors (Apolipoprotein and catechol-O-methyltransferase) and memory performance as well. No support was found for either aim. Discussion focuses on possible explanations for the lack of reliable associations. Based on observations from post-hoc analyses it is suggested that group differences (e.g., cognitively normal vs. early-stage AD) in the sensitivity of IIV to cognitive performance and white matter may be a factor in the association of IIV with neurocognitive measures