Publication Type: Proceeding

Publication Type: Poster Paper
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Imprisonment in the United States has historically been carried out by government. But in the mid-1980’s, some American states began turning to private firms to manage prisons to hold criminals. The number of private prisons grew from 67 in nine states in 1990 to 415 in 33 states in 2005. By 2005, there were 105,451 prisoners in private facilities.

Despite increasing prevalence in the U.S., very little is known of the public’s view of privatization of corrections. Contracting out punishment to the private sector is a major shift in the state’s responsibility. But did the public view it as such? Was it a publicly contentious issue? How was it “sold” in the public? Was it “sold” at all?

To address these questions, I assess public discourse through a content analysis of how American newspapers—here, the New York Times and Los Angeles Times—covered the issue of prison privatization from 1982 through 2007. I code for two concepts: media frame and standing. A media frame is defined as “a central organizing idea or story line that provides meaning to an unfolding strip of events...The frame suggests what the controversy is about, the essence of the issue (Gamson and Modigliani 1987: 143).” Standing refers to whether an actor or group is viewed as a legitimate contender in a public controversy. A group has standing when news media “[treat it] as an actor with a voice, not merely as an object being discussed by others (Ferree, Gamson, Gerhards, and Rucht 2002).”

Publication Type: Poster
Abstract: The positive effect of therapeutic community (TC) drug treatment has been demonstrated in previous publications (Inciardi et all 2002, 2004; Martin et al. 1999, Wexler et al. 1999, 2004Simson et al. 1999). The purpose of this poster is to illustrate, with the help of latent growth curve (LGC) models, the changes in drug use that occur among participants in TC group treatment over a period of six years. The data used in the graphs and the models comes from a longitudinal study conducted in Delaware from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The design of the models and the analysis involve structural equation modeling using AMOS statistical software. Several graphs illustrate the changers that occur in the frequency of use of three major drug groups over the six-year period among participant in different treatments. The results from LGC models are presented, comparing participants with different types of TC treatment by drug groups and demographic characteristics. Both graphic and statistical analytical tools compliment each other and reveal different sides of the post treatment period for each treatment type. The effect of TC treatment is demonstrated primarily by the steeper negative slopes of the trajectory of frequency of drug use over time when controlling for certain demographic characteristics, such as age and ethnicity.

Publication Type: Poster
Abstract: This research tackles two key questions; why so many suicides have been committed in South Korea since the economic crisis in 1998, and why it was the suicide rate of the elder population that increased so rapidly since 1998.
Since no difference in suicide rates has been found between Kyung-Sang and Chun-Ra province even though the regions sharply contrast each other, it can be inferred that religion and politics were not the main factors influencing the upward trend of suicide rates.
Nowadays as the GDP growth rate and the gap between the rich and the poor are showing divergent trends, correlation between suicide rate and the two trends were measured. The coefficient of the income gap was higher than that of GDP growth rate, and the difference between the coefficients was even bigger for the last 10 years from 1995 to 2004.
Sudden increase of elderly suicide can be explained in the cultural context of ‘familism.’ Under the Korean family-welfare system, the burden of economic crisis was laid especially on the elderly, because they already spent most of their earnings to their children but couldn’t get enough support in the crisis from their grown-up children after they got old.