The Ronald E. McNair Scholars Program’s goal is to introduce first-generation, low-income, under-represented group college students to effective strategies for succeeding in graduate programs. One way to explore program effectiveness is to ask the McNair graduates themselves. This interview study will explore McNair graduates understandings of issues they face in adjusting to graduate school and how McNair participation prepared them for addressing these issues. Typically McNair program evaluations emphasize the collection and analysis of quantitative data – e.g. academic performance and degree attainment; however, little qualitative research has been conducted on graduate’s perceptions of the impact of program participation on graduate school adjustment and success. Using Bourdieu’s concept of cultural capital, along with Sociology-based ideas of role-as-resource and role mastery, this study will explore students’ perceptions of the McNair program’s effectiveness in regards to helping them understand the “graduate student” role and to use that role to succeed in graduate school. 

This study looked at whether multicultural students, specifically Latinos and Asian Americans, perceived discrimination in their classrooms, workplace, or on campus in general.  Participants consisted of Latino and Asian American students who filled out an online survey with questions on these areas. Four hypotheses were created and tested which were 1) Latinos would perceive discrimination more than Asian Americans, 2) males would perceive discrimination more than females, 3) multicultural Greek members would perceive discrimination more than non-Greeks, and 4) upper classmen would perceive discrimination more than lower classmen.  The results from the survey responses supported only one of the four hypotheses where multicultural Greeks perceived discrimination more than non-Greeks. This area of perceived discrimination among multicultural students is something that should have more research conducted on.

 The social phenomenon of mass incarceration has opened the door to a full range of perplexing issues that continue to stymie researchers and policy makers. One particular and obdurate social problem is sexual offending, which seems immune to the so-called "evolving standards of decency" ideas espoused by the United States Supreme Court. Whereas society's rules of law and punishment are theoretically evolving to become more civilized and less barbaric, the practices of many of its citizens, including sex offenders, is not keeping pace with the evolution of ideas and behaviors. In fact, sex offenses are a ubiquitous fact of life - directly or indirectly - for many people in the United States. Not even a prison mandate issued by President George Bush in 2003 called the Prison Rape Elimination Act has positively affected the problem of sexual victimization in prison. This research seeks to add prisoners' voices to the ongoing conversation that exists among researchers and policy developers on the complicated and emotionally charged subject of sex offenders. This research asks a simple question: What are prisoner attitudes about sex offenders? The hypothesis maintains that inmate attitudes, when measured by the CATSO (Community Attitudes Toward Sex Offender) scale, will mirror mainstream attitudes that have been measured using the same instrument. The purpose of this study is to improve prison policies that pertain to sexual victimization by revealing a piece of the prison rape and prison violence puzzle that may be hidden within the attitudes of men and women held captive in U.S. prisons. 

 Amongst other struggles, providing health care suitable for its population's needs remains a major challenge for Nigeria as a nation today. To assess the health of the population and the use of health care services, Nigeria's National Population Commission carried out Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) in 1990, 1999, 2003, and 2008. Knowing that several states in Nigeria have populations dominated by one of the three major ethnic groups, my project used DHS data to examine how state of residence influences health measures, controlling for all other relevant factors. I used the ordinary least squares - multiple regression method in order to separately analyze the degree of influence each independent and control variable has on determining the aggregate health measures of each state. The health measures I focused on include child malnutrition and diarrhea, female circumcision, and maternal health behavior. In the past, studies have consistently revealed that amongst the three nationally dominant ethnic groups, Hausa people suffer the worst health measures for children and mothers; however, mixed results exist for how well Yoruba and Igbo communities fare relative to each other. This study aimed to clarify the relationship between Yoruba and Igbo dominated states using data from Nigeria's most recent and largest nationally representative sample yet - DHS 2008. I hypothesized that Igbo-dominated states fare worse than Yoruba-dominated states, because the Biafran War mostly damaged infrastructure in "Igboland", and reports indicate that the Yoruba region stands more highly urbanized today, which suggests greater postwar fitness. I also hypothesized that as the number of minority ethnic groups a state hosts increases, the worse the state-level health measures will be, according to predictions from social disorganization theory. If my results support my hypotheses, then Nigeria's future health initiatives should consider health disparities along lines of ethnicity and ethnic diversity within a state.

In the 1960 United States Census, the federal government first gave official recognition to the Pacific Islander community by adding "Hawaiian or Part Hawaiian" to the options available under the category of "American Indian."  Between 1970 and 1990, however, the Census Bureau grouped Pacific Islanders in the category "Asian Americans," and statistically analyzed only this aggregate category.  In the 2000 census the Census Bureau constructed the category "Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander," thereby recognizing the possible separate status of non-Hawaiian Pacific Islanders.  Official definitions of racial and ethnic groups are important because the federal government uses them to allocate resources to various state and local governmental units.  For example, schools in the United States categorize and analyze the academic performance and needs of students by using the racial categories as defined by the U.S. Census.  Many Washington state school districts, however, still group Asian American students and Pacific Islander students into an aggregate category when assessing academic performance and identifying students who perform below expectations and are in need of academic assistance.  Using data from the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, I examine the graduation rates and standardized test scores of Asian American students and Pacific Islander students in the 17 school districts in the Seattle and Tacoma metropolis that contain the largest number of Pacific Islander students in the state. My objective is to gain a better understanding of the social-structural factors that produce variation in outcomes among the officially defined subgroups of students.

Over the past fifteen years Washington State Juvenile Justice department has been developing an evidence-based rehabilitative system to reduce crime among adolescents cost effectively. One way legislators are encouraging this is through state funding grants. Up until 2010 funding from the state was distributed in the form of a categorical grant, which allocate funds to the 33 juvenile justice courts of Washington based on county level variables. In conjunction with the move towards research oriented methods for applying justice, the Department of Social and Human Services (DSHS) formed the Models for Change initiative to find ways to ensure minority youth received the same treatment and benefits from the rehabilitative programs as whites. Although these two developments are intended to provide equality to all, their implementation is so new that DSHS has yet to fully develop quality assurance tests to assess whether the grants are working as intended. My research examines how state funding affects the sentencing dispositions of minorities and whites across counties. Sixty-eight percent of the categorical grant funding is based on the youth population, so counties in more rural regions typically receive less money from the grant. Using data from the Juvenile Rehabilitation Administration (JRA) and the Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement data book, I measure the extent to which variation between rural and urban county funding affects the proportion of minorities and whites assigned to confinement. Keeping in mind the goals of the Models for Change initiative, I examine the ways in which urban and rural counties differ in their assignments of rehabilitation, with the hope of gaining further insight into how legislators deal with discrimination in contemporary legal processes.

Individuals with significant barriers to achievement in our society, such as homelessness, unemployment, mental distress, and chemical dependency, often commit low-level, non-violent crimes and continually cycle through the criminal justice system. To reduce recidivism, Community Court programs have been established to reduce crime through a problem-solving and community-focused approach. Community Court was introduced in Seattle in 2005 to specifically target these chronic offenders. My research focuses on Seattle Community Court defendants who have been charged with committing a misdemeanor theft offense. Using completed assessment forms made available through Probation Services in the Municipal Court of Seattle; I will examine the defendants’ current situational context (specifically homelessness and chemical dependency), along with other variables like age, race, gender, literacy, and mental health, to gain a better understanding as to why defendants commit a non-violent misdemeanor theft offense. Furthermore, by using Seattle police reports I will examine the type and monetary value of item stolen; this analysis will lead me towards more conclusive determinants which may explain the defendants' misdemeanor theft charge and/or disparities amongst those examined. I hypothesize that defendants who are homeless will steal an item with higher monetary value including clothing and/or appliances. Additionally, I expect that defendants who are chemically dependant are likely to steal an item with less monetary value like: food, beverage, and/or alcoholic related. If my hypotheses are in fact incorrect, I will have learned that the chronic offenders entering Seattle Community Court are multifaceted and the above characteristics do not necessarily account for why these offenders have committed a non-violent theft.

This paper explores why state governments choose to expand Medicaid family planning provisions. It will compare the demographics, rates of family planning consequences, and state budget of the 28 states expanding Medicaid against the 22 states who are not. Family planning Medicaid has documented savings, and for nearly every $1 invested, there is a savings of approximately $4.02. It has also been shown to improve women’s life chances, provide access to healthcare for the poor, and to prevent unintended pregnancies. Yet, only 28 states have chosen to expand Family planning Medicaid at this point in time. What differentiates the states that invest in Medicaid from those who do not? By using data from the Guttmacher Institute along with data from the Census, I will conduct a macro-level analysis of these states. Moral beliefs, religiosity, and level of education are likely to influence this decision more than the cost savings provided by Medicaid. By better understanding the logic behind Medicaid investment in state government, the decision making process to provide this essential service to the poor can be demystified. This analysis will cast light on the reasons states choose not to invest in Medicaid, as the cost savings and health benefits of the program can be great assets to any state.

This study investigates the impact of success or failure of a university’s marquee sports programs on student academic success. I analyzed data from schools in four National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) Division I athletic conferences each having both of the money-generating sports programs, football and men's basketball. I am interested in determining whether the success or failure of a school’s teams affects student performance, both among student athletes and among the general student body. Anecdotal evidence and some prior studies indicate that student performance can suffer when a school team does well, but this effect is short-term. This study looks at short-term as well as more long-term measures of academic success as measured by overall graduation rates for undergraduates and graduation measures used by the NCAA and the US federal government, to track student athlete academic success. I also consider associations with other covariates such as school size (number of enrolled undergraduate students), school location, public vs. private institutions, racial make-up of the school and regional location, on the afore mentioned relationships. I expect these relationships to be different for small schools than for large schools. My hypothesis is that student-athletes as a group have higher graduation rates than the general student population and in larger schools student-athletes are less affected by athletic results than the general student body.

Income inequality in the United States is at its highest level in at least the last half century, and official measures of poverty have remained relatively stable prior to the 2008 financial crisis. Since that time, the percent of the population considered poor has steadily increased. Previous research has shown that both income inequality and poverty, individually, are related to incarceration rates. This paper presents results of an analysis of the relative effects of income inequality and poverty on incarceration rates. Using state-level data for the United States, I use multiple regression analysis to determine the degree to which each can account for states’ incarceration rates.

Disparities between males and females is problematic in India and this is apparent in the countries’ gender composition. India’s population has increased exponentially over the past century, but during that time India’s sex ratio (defined as the number of females divided by the number of males) has been abnormally low. The natural sex ratio at birth is approximately .95, but during the last century India’s sex ratio has dropped from .96 to .91. Scholars suggest that the abnormal sex ratios are due to social and cultural factors. My research utilizes data from 2001 and 2011 Indian Censuses to examine the relationship between the sex ratios of young children (ages 0 – 6) in the 35 states of India and social/cultural factors in those states, such as female literacy rates, female labor force participation and religious practices that preference males. My data runs statistical analyses and I hope to show a positive relationship between the sex ratios and the social factors. My study shows the extent to which cultural and social conditions that lead to male preference in India may have produced the low sex ratios observed during the past century. This disparity is important to understand because it is a human rights issue and I hope my research can help us better understand the cultural and social aspects in order to obtain gender equality in India.