College for Design and Social Inquiry

This research study examines the American paramilitary units know as Special
Weapons and Tactics. Throughout this thesis, the fundamental and foundational research
on police paramilitary units is presented and discussed. Additionally, this paper focuses
on trends of militarization in American policing. Mainly, these trends are identified by
the tremendous rise and normalization of American paramilitary police units since the
internal societal wars of the 1970s. In this study, research is presented on Special
Weapons and Tactics team deployments in the state of Maryland. Four years of data are
analyzed focusing on proactive search warrant crime deployments from 2010 through
2013. Several independent variables including, violent crime rates, property crime rates,
vice type crime rates and the number of sworn law enforcement officers are examined.
The most important finding of this study is the inverse relationship between proactive
vice type arrests and the proactive search warrant SWAT team deployments.

There is increasing concern in news media sources regarding police killings of
unarmed Black males. However, there is limited research on the portrayal of such
incidents in the news and the implications for police-community relations in African-
American communities. In order to address this gap, this study analyzed 120 experts’
quotes provided by two of the largest and most respected newspapers in the United States
-- the New York Times and USA Today. This research comprised a content analysis of
quotes related to the deaths of Eric Garner (Staten Island, New York), Michael Brown
(Ferguson, Missouri), and Freddie Gray (Baltimore City, Maryland). A number of factors
are discussed: The news organization’s predominate category and specialty of experts
selected; whether the experts’ quotes attributed to pro-police or community bias; if the
experts’ quotes discussed social or racial inequalities in the cities selected; whether the experts addressed evidence-based strategies necessary to improve police-community
relations in the Black community, and whether experts’ quotes discussed solutions to
improve police and community relations in the Black community. The findings suggest
that the selected national news sources, in the one year following the deaths of each of
the unarmed victims, highlighted quotes from state manager, particularly politicians, at a
much higher rate than intellectuals. Although revealing a substantial level of procommunity
bias, the quotes presented very little regarding evidence-based strategies for
improving police-community relations in the Black community and reducing the number
of unarmed deaths caused by police. The implications for research on media and crime as
well as policing strategies are discussed.

In 2003, Congress passed the Prison Rape Elimination Act to address the problem
of sexual violence in prison. Although research has shed light on the prevalence and
incidence of sexual violence in U.S. prisons, few studies examine inmates’ perceptions of
rape and safety from rape in prison. This study examined rape perceptions and the
likelihood to seek mental health treatment in prison of three distinct groups of male
inmates who are at greater risk of sexual victimization or exposure to sexual violence
while incarcerated: gay and bisexual inmates, inmates with a juvenile incarceration
history, and inmates who were first incarcerated in the adult criminal justice system
during adolescence or emerging adulthood. This study examined the relationships
between sexual orientation and inmates’ perceptions of the threat of rape and seeking
of mental health treatment in prison. Data from 409 incarcerated men residing in 23
maximum security correctional institutions revealed that gay and bisexual inmates were
significantly more likely than straight inmates to fear the threat of rape and to voluntarily
request mental health treatment in prison. Incarcerated men with a history of childhood abuse were significantly more likely than inmates without an abuse history to fear the
threat of rape. Having a history of childhood sexual abuse, identifying as black, and being
incarcerated for longer than 18 years also significantly predicted increased likelihood to
voluntarily request mental health treatment in prison. Implications for practice and policy
are discussed.

The purpose behind this dissertation is the creation, development, and
illustration of a new strategy of inquiry in public administration. This new strategy
of inquiry is a utopian/dystopian thought experiment. A utopian/dystopian thought
experiment should provide its user with a way to develop a new/different viewpoint
with which to examine an administrative activity. A researcher begins with an
original viewpoint and should then develop a new/different viewpoint, a
utopian/dystopian viewpoint, by engaging in a utopian/dystopian thought
experiment. A utopian/dystopian thought experiment is developed in this
dissertation by bringing together elements from utopian literature and scientific
thought experiment literature using a public administration point of view. The
research approach used in this dissertation is a three-phase process that involves reviewing and connecting pertinent literatures, using imagination and the process of
writing to create a utopian/dystopian thought experiment, and illustrating and
examining a utopian/dystopian thought experiment in public administration. In this
dissertation, I seek to create a utopian/dystopian thought experiment as a new
strategy of inquiry that is developed specifically for public administration. A
utopian/dystopian thought experiment should provide an additional tool to the
researcher who is seeking to expand the viewpoints through which the researcher
can examine administrative activities.

Public administration emphasizes the importance of diversity (Rice, 2004), representation (Selden & Selden, 2002), ethics, and professionalism, to ensure fairness and equity for all citizens (American Society for Public Administration, 2013a; Cooper, 2012). Research has shown a link between the teaching of ethics and values in leadership courses, and the establishment of consensus for espoused social norms and standards of practice (Begley & Stefkovich, 2007). Through the discourse within classrooms, and the scholarship of public administration, we create and advance the boundaries of social consensus in areas such as diversity (Hewins-Maroney & Williams, 2007; National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration, 2014a). MPA ethics courses are perfectly situated to espouse and reinforce public service diversity values and educate future public servants. This dissertation uses ethnographic content analysis (ECA) of 48 syllabi from 40 NASPAA accredited universities in the United States (U.S.) dated 2012-2014, to interpret how, or whether, Master of Public Administration (MPA) education addresses or contributes to gender inclusion. The analysis uses feminist theories to reveal if, and to what extent, gender, diversity, and social equity topics have been incorporated into master's level graduate public administration ethics courses, through an examination of ethics course syllabi. This research shows that gender is incorporated into MPA ethics syllabi directly through the gender of professors, authors of course materials, discussion topics, and gendered language. Gender is also demonstrated in the syllabi through images and sub-textual tones that express social norms for gender roles. Gender inclusion is addressed indirectly in the syllabi through course policies and pedagogical choices designed to increase opportunities for participation by students of both genders. Ethnographic content analysis across various stages of this interpretive research study led to the creation of a four-part Gender Inclusion Model. Each tier of this model is made up of inclusion markers influenced by themes in feminist pedagogical literature. The Gender Inclusion Model can be used for future research to examine whether, or how, minorities and diversity are incorporated into higher education curricula. The research compiles a list of best practices, along with a mock syllabus, guided by recommendations from feminist literature.

This dissertation examined the literature of cutback management in the context of the Great Recession. Specifically, it studied the relationship between cutback management policies used by county governments during the recession and revenue changes. The purpose of this dissertation was to test whether or not the percent change in revenue had an impact on the probability that cutback management policies were used in the recession. According to the cutback management literature developed in the 1970s and 1980s, there should be a relationship. The theoretical framework used for this study was the rational-approach framework, which proposes that every expenditure reducing and revenue increasing policy is enacted based on the percent decrease in revenue the government faces. This suggests that the cutback management policies are a proportional response to revenue decline. The framework was operationalized by using a binary logistic regression that used policy en actment as the dependent variable and the percent change in revenue as the independent variable. Eighty-six counties were sampled and 7 years of each county's budget book were examined for policies and financial data. The research found that eleven expenditure policies and three revenue policies had a statistically significant relationship with the percent change in revenues. This resulted in the conclusion that the framework and, therefore, the cutback management literature were useful in explaining primarily expenditure policies.

The dissertation is about the significance for, and impact upon public administration of the correspondence theory of truth or veridicality, and its underlying epistemological assumptions. The underlying thesis is that, unduly influenced by the success of the natural sciences, and naive in accepting their claims to objectivity, many disciplines have sought to emulate them. There are two principle objections. Firstly, all other considerations aside, the supposedly objectivistic methodologies apparently applied to the explanation and prediction of the behavior of interactions of physical objects, may simply be inappropriate to certain other areas of inquiry; and more specifically objectivist methodologies are indeed inappropriate to understanding of human subjects, and their behavior, relations and interactions, and thus to public administration. The second objection is that it is of course logically impossible for any supposedly empirical discipline, as the natural sciences claim to be, to justify the belief in a supposedly objective realm of things-in-themselves existing outside, beyond, or independently of the changing, interrupted and different 'appearances' or experiences, to which an empirical science is qua empirical, necessarily restricted. Correspondence of any empirical observations or appearances (and the consequent or presupposed theoretical explanations) to an objective realm, upon which the claim to objectivity is based, is unverifiable. In light of the above it becomes evident that far from being objective, the natural sciences themselves, and the empirical observations upon which they are supposedly grounded, are subject to conceptual mediation and subjective interpretation; subjective and inter-subjective coherence replacing objective correspondence as the criterion of veridicality. Consequently it becomes clear that the presuppositions and prejudices of the observers enter, in the forms of concepts and preconceptions, into the very observations, and even more so into the theoretical constructions, or theories, of the natural, and indeed human and social sciences, and their claims to be authoritative and true. Subsequent discussion is then focused on both the coherence of individuals' experiences and understanding, and their inter-subjective coherence - which both rises from and constitutes, a "community". The role of language facilitates such coherence.

State and local governments in the U.S. spend an estimated $80 billion annually on economic development incentives and subsidies. The economic development discourse is dominated by a jobs-centered narrative, with the concept of "jobs created" at its core. This work examines the current jobs-centered narrative and how it came to be. It identifies the practices and processes by which the current narrative persists and proliferates, analyzing its implications, which include the narrative's role in the use of corporate subsidies and incentives. This work is a critical history, identifying the point of establishment of a new equilibrium in the economic development narrative (Gaddis, 2002), utilizing ethnographic description to examine behaviors within the economic development arena. Language game dynamics (Wittgenstein, 1953) working to establish "public" meaning (Geertz, 1973) within economic developmen t are explored. Baudrillard's Phases of the Image (1994) are employed to view alternative meanings of the term "jobs created". Policy emulation (Bennett, 1991) as a means for the replication of economic development practices is examined. The work differentiates between policy emulation and convergence, arguing that emulation can and does occur in the absence of convergence, but can also act as its agent. Convergence was established as a possible end result of emulation, and necessary elements such as disparate starting policy positions must first be present in order for convergence to occur. The analysis reveals that the current jobs-centered narrative in economic development is a result of a complex language game. The economic development language game is a multi-faceted game with well-established roots and mechanisms for self-preservation and perpetuation. Emanating from communities' sense and fear of loss, relying on an unchallenged library of professional jargon which the public only vaguely understands, and ever reinforcing itself through the use of state and international industry organizations, the game is deeply entrenched in the field of economic development. The study concludes with recommendations for mitigation of the effects of the game. These findings have implications for how economic development aims and successes are measured and communicated, how governments expend resources in economic development and how the industry regulates its own activities.

Previous researchers have recommended that universities should be deemed very safe places. However, reports of crime have dominated the news, including shootings and mass murders at schools and universities. The issue of reality versus perception is of foremost importance when student safety is at stake. In this paper, the researcher presents the findings from unique data collected from university students related to situational crime prevention, fear of crime, self-protective behaviors, and perceptions of crime prevention programs to better understand the antecedent variables relating to crime prevention.

Poorly integrated crime analysis may be a detriment to crime reduction efforts and financial resources. The purpose of this research is to identify deficiencies and successes in crime analysis integration and to understand which agency factors are related. Using the Stratified Model of Problem Solving, Analysis, and Accountability and data from a national PERF survey of police agencies, this study quantifies the levels of production and consumption-based integration disconnect as well as other important agency factors. To determine which agency factors contribute most to integration disconnect, bivariate correlation and multiple regression analyses are used to examine the relationships, while controlling for agency type, centralization, officers per analyst, crimes per officer, and agency size. Findings indicate that production- and consumption-based disconnect are positively related to one another and that passive patrol-analyst interactions, an agency’s analysis integration disconnect.