Browsing by Author "Chancer, Lynn S."

This thesis links reentry and desistance literature in order to draw on the respective structural and psychologically oriented advantages of both in order to advocate for maximally effective programming to help young men struggling with myriad post-incarceration issues. Through participant observation and interviews with ‘crossover’ youth who experienced both the child welfare and criminal justice systems, I focused on the cumulative needs these young men express. I also interviewed staff members of the organization with which the young men were involved, Getting Out and Staying Out, a reentry program in East Harlem. It became clear that both structural and emotional/psychosocial needs must be met in reentry programming. The development of small scale, privately funded, non-mandated, holistic reentry programming is the key to fully addressing the needs of individuals reentering society after incarceration, and thereby, reducing recidivism.

This study is an attempt at understanding what types of education can produce the lowest recidivism rates among incarcerated individuals in America under the considerations of whether or not they are socially acceptable by American society. The study is a theoretical research project that encompasses theoretical sociological concepts as well as real-world, pre-existing data coupled with current events that provide social context. This study found that while online education would be an effective tool for incarcerated individuals, the amount of money and resources that would have to go into supplying prisons with the adequate technologies coupled with the reluctance of American society to provide tax funds for prison education makes online education an inefficient form of education for the time being. Vocational and traditional education means however do share some relatively positive statuses among American society, and both are effective at reducing recidivism at the expense of being able to be employed on a large scale. If prison education were to become the social norm in America then online education would be a necessary tool to keep up with demand; but until that time comes traditional education means will be the most efficient and effective at reducing recidivism.

Even with state and federal policies calling for joint sibling placement and visitation, sibling separation still permeates the foster care and adoption systems, affecting approximately half of siblings in care. This work looks into a gap that nonetheless exists between sibling separation policies and practice by analyzing the actions and motivations of social actors involved in the process. I conducted twentythree phone interviews with child advocates, agency workers, and foster parents. The results show that agency workers contribute most heavily to the gap between policy and practice. In order to shrink this gap, I present a list of best practices for agencies to employ. Additionally, I find that even when all social actors perfectly perform the sibling advocacy duties of their roles, the policies themselves contribute to the gap. As they stand, these policies are too narrow and do not protect the rights of all siblings in care.

This study aims to start a new dialogue on the underdeveloped field of the social experience for exceptionally tall individuals. I aspired to shed light on this topic by examining forms of deviance and stigma as it pertains to the tall experience. Due to the lack of existing work on this subject, the data I analyze is comprised of my own participant observations as well as interviews conducted with significantly tall individuals about the self and social perceptions of height. It is assumed that tallness is a desired trait that brings forth many advantages, but I aim to see if those assumed positives hold true for deviant individuals who are significantly taller than the average person