Publication Type: Poster
Abstract: Criminologists and criminal justice scholars have utilized numerous variables and methodologies to explore issues related to juvenile risk behaviors and delinquency, and have made important contributions to the literature in this area. This research is a meta-analysis of extant studies that have examined the relationship between juveniles’ participation in youth church ministries and the likelihood of engaging in risky behaviors, including juvenile delinquency. The research highlights consistencies among studies including the specification and operationalization of variables, methodologies, and key findings, and identifies conflicts and neglected issues that must be addressed to strengthen the body of knowledge in this multidisciplinary area. The analysis concludes with suggestions for future research.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Political parties in Northern Ireland recently used a divisor method of apportionment to choose, in sequence, ten cabinet ministries. If the parties have complete information about each others' preferences, we show that it may not be rational for them to act sincerely by choosing their most-preferred ministry that is available.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: I analyze under what conditions nation-states are likely to construct modern education systems embracing educational ministries and laws over two centuries 1800-2000. More than eighty percent of contemporary nation-states have founded educational ministries and compulsory education laws over the past two centuries. The current explanations for the formation and expansion of national education systems focus on functional needs of modern schooling for economic development or social progress. These approaches are useful, but they miss the important organizational reality of state action. I argue that (1) the expanded world culture (e.g. a worldwide emphasis on education) enhances the founding rates of educational ministries and laws; (2) newly independent countries are more likely to adopt world models of educational systems; (3) nation-states that have conformed to world culture tend to incorporate world models of educational systems. Data on educational ministries and laws are derived from The Stateman’s Yearbook and a variety of other sources. In this study quantitative event history models are utilized to examine the factors that affect founding rates of 140 countries’ educational ministries and laws during the period 1800-2000. This paper aims to reformulate the existing accounts for educational expansion, beyond society-specific ideas that focus on educational functions.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Congregational studies often focus on the social networks and material resources that the congregations offer, or the religious oratory styles of individual clergy. These elements alone, however, cannot explain how a congregation is able to resolve religious contradictions and affirm the lives of those who are otherwise stigmatized by mainstream religious institutions and larger society. This study examines one African-American congregation, an AIDS ministry, with the aim to provide insight as to why this congregation is able to: transcend constraints imposed by traditional religion; address the health, social, and spiritual needs of its members without losing sight of its religious traditions; and at all times maintain an AIDS-activist orientation. The focus is on the congregation’s religious culture and, more specifically, the language of religious faith. I maintain that it is the distinctive religious vocabulary, which contains prominent psychotherapeutic strands coupled with a civic/political orientation, that enables this congregation to reconcile religious contradictions. It democratizes religion and helps members generate meaning, motivation, and solidarity. There is a clear focus on personal healing, but the congregation, too, aims to be socially directed. Individual healing and transformation are tied back to the larger ethical goal of social justice that is inherent in religion.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Following the creation of a Homeland Security Department in the United States, the Canadian government has created a new Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness portfolio. With budgets of $40 billion and $690 million respectively, both ministries have swallowed an array of existing agencies and departments and subsumed responsibility for border control, emergency preparedness (which includes natural disasters and disease outbreaks), and intelligence analysis and crime prevention. 'The war against terrorism' has spawned a proliferation of new and expanded security ministries that represent not only a reconfiguration of security agencies, but also an expansion of understandings of threats to peace. Attempts to manage security risks have been mobilized through a fear of appearing as a weak or complacent feminine other in the face of 'immanent threat.' This paper conceptualizes these developments in North American security practices as a biopoliticization of security policy and the governance of peace through the waging of war (on terrorism). It also considers the implications entailed for citizenship, participation and the expansion of surveillance capacities.