College of Behavioral & Social Sciences
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The collections in this community comprise faculty research works, as well as graduate theses and dissertations..
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Item Victim Participation: Does it Impact Sentencing Departures?(2023) Neff, Heidi; Johnson, Brian D; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Prior analyses of sentencing practices find that victim characteristics affect sentencing decisions. Yet, the impact of victim participation on sentencing departures has largely been ignored in research on victim involvement in the punishment process. The present study examines this important, although rarely empirically tested, aspect of sentencing. Using data from the Maryland State Commission on Criminal Sentencing Policy, this study examines the impact of multiple forms of victim participation on sentencing departures in the context of both person and property offenses. Given that victim characteristics are known to influence sentencing, the study also investigates whether victim vulnerability moderates the relationship between victim participation and departure decisions. Findings support that victim participation influences sentencing decisions for both offense types, demonstrating that sentences are more severe, on average, when victim participation significantly affects departures. Findings for the interaction between victim participation and vulnerability, however, are less clear, which raises questions about whether certain victims’ participation influences decision-making differently.Item Using Procedural Justice to Explore the Relationship betweeen Victim Satisfaction with Police and Victim Participation in Prosecution(2010) Greenman, Sarah; Dugan, Laura; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This thesis uses procedural justice to explore the relationship between victim satisfaction with the police and victim participation in prosecution. Prior procedural justice research has focused either on offenders or on limited sections of the criminal justice process. Expanding upon prior research by using victims and the entire criminal justice process, this thesis hypothesizes that increased victim satisfaction with the police leads to increased victim participation in prosecution and that this effect weakens throughout the prosecution process. Conversely, this thesis hypothesizes that increased victim satisfaction with the prosecutor leads to increased participation in prosecution and that this effect strengthens throughout the prosecution process. Using logistic and Tobit regressions this thesis finds some support for the hypotheses of this thesis: procedural fairness, police, and prosecutors all have an impact on victim participation. Future research can further delineate the questions that remain: when, how, and for whom satisfaction has the largest impact.Item Managing Water: Efficiency-Equity Tradeoffs in the Participatory Approach(2010) O'Donnell, Anna; Korzeniewicz, Roberto P; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation investigates the hypothesis that participation can overcome trade-offs in equity and efficiency. Literature within the field of economics and sociology has argued for tradeoffs in outcomes of allocative efficiency and equity and institutional efficiency and equity, respectively. Community-based participatory institutions are expected to overcome this tension by introducing institutional accountability and local-level decision making, which serve to enhance technical and allocative efficiency while retaining mechanisms for equitable allocation and empowerment. This research draws on fieldwork from a community-managed water supply program in rural Bahia, Brazil to examine whether outcomes of efficiency and equity are mutually compatible. Findings from the field research indicate that explicit and implicit subsidies to the water supply systems led to outcomes of allocative equity in the sites visited, but that these generated tradeoffs with allocative efficiency. Findings from the research also indicated that the community organizations were relatively efficient in their administrative practices, but that this efficiency came at a cost to equality of membership and voice in the community organization. This suggests that participatory water supply programs generate certain and specific costs, although the findings also suggest additional positive externalities associated with participation.Item Abortion Escorts and Democratic Participation(2008-04-16) Maloney, Steven Douglas; Alford, Charles F; Government and Politics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)My dissertation explores the theoretical value of political participation. I argue that some acts of political participation, such as abortion escorting, constitute "political action" as Hannah Arendt used the term. These acts do not fall under the umbrella of either civil society or activism. A more nuanced account of political participation is needed. This account must include participatory, deliberative, and republican ideals, and it must take political action more seriously than the predominant procedural, communicative, or economic visions of liberalism currently do. Here, abortion escorts exemplify the type of political participation that Hannah Arendt argued was missing at Little Rock Central High School during the period of integration. Arendt called for citizen escorts during integration, and abortion escorting provides a positive example of this behavior today. Arendt confessed she was moved to write her essay only from a photograph that she saw, and she was criticized for her lack of fieldwork. However, I went into the field to observe abortion escorting. Moreover, while Arendt's factual statements about integration and American racial politics have been somewhat discredited, I argue there are still important theoretical insights in her essay--and in Arendt's theoretical work more broadly--that need resuscitating even if her empirical account is troubled at times. As such, I use abortion escorts as an example--a means of rescuing Arendt's theory of political action and integrating it into a contemporary body of American political theory that has been both inspired by Arendt and unsettled by her contributions