Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The paper offers explanations for why students do not
utilize the writing center and offers innovative approaches for
professors to encourage their students to use the writing
center.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: A empirical analysis of the effect of remittances on the probability of democratization of recipient countries from 1970 to 1998

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Scholars disagree on what effect, if any, presidential versus parliamentary government has on political parties. In this paper, I measure unity in parties on legislative votes for parties in 20 legislative chambers in 18 countries. I then estimate the effects of both regime type and membership in government on parties on legislative voting unity. I find that presidentialism undermines party unity. Furthermore, within presidential systems, parties that control the presidency, and parties allied with the government, do not win any more than do opposition parties, and their losses are more apt to result from breakdowns in legislative voting unity.
Check author's web site for an updated version of the paper.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: In this contribution we study the conditions under which gender quotas tend to get adopted and applied. The hypothesis underlying this paper is the fact that gender quotas get adopted and applied in a political environment which is already ‘women-friendly’. The reason for this is that the literature mentions the same facilitating conditions when it comes to the adoption or application of gender quotas than when it comes to the presence of women in (electoral) politics. Such facilitating conditions are, next to a PR system, a high district or rather party magnitude, a leftist value orientation and a considerable number of women activists. Analyzing the gender quotas which Belgian parties applied at the occasion of the 2006 local elections and their attitude towards such measures, we find indeed more of such measures and a more positive attitude towards such measures within parties with a leftist, and especially ecological, orientation; where district magnitude is high, including a low number of coalition partners and the absence of electoral cartels; and where the number of women in the local section is important, in terms of party members, of members of the party bureau or women elected. At first sight we can, then, conclude that gender quotas mainly get adopted under circumstances making them superfluous. Quotas, then, do not set the norm but they confirm it in cases where such a measure is not imposed by external actors. As such, this is no reason to be sceptical about gender quotas, because the standard can rise over time. Also, since gender quotas tend to confirm the norm, they are still more than a window-dressing operation. Given the circumstances under which gender quotas get applied are already women-friendly, quotas confirm this facilitating environment.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: As a graduate student, I met Jeffrey Reiman and worked on the 4th
edition (1995) of his book The Rich Get Richer, and have subsequently
collaborated on the 5th, 6th 7th and 8th editions of the book. Each
time, inequality increased, more poor were in prison, and social class
became a less significant part of research; there's more research on
white collar crimes like credit card fraud and employee theft from
businesses, but substantially less interest in what Quinney calls the
crimes of domination and exploitation. As I stand poised to become
co-author and Full Professor, I am both confident and disturbed by the
prospect of many more editions, each easily completed because of
abundant evidence supporting the fundamental premise: that criminology
acts as a carnival mirror that minimizes the reality of the crimes of
the powerful, while magnifying the threat from below, producing
calls for more 'tough on [street] crime' and space for critiques about
the 'overcriminalization' of white collar crime in the wake of Enron.