College for Design and Social Inquiry

Over the years, innovations such as community-oriented policing, problem-oriented
policing, and hot spots policing have enabled the police to make substantial crime control and reduction gains. However, empirical research has shown that police occasionally misuse these strategies in practice. One possible solution is the co-implementation of these strategies with crime analysis. Yet, little is known about this relationship in practice. Using national survey data collected by the Police Executive Research Forum in 2008 from a sample of over 1,000 United States police agencies this thesis explores this relationship. Results of bivariate analysis between agency commitment to and integration of crime analysis within operations and the use of innovative strategies revealed positive relationships. Additionally, bivariate analysis between agency use of accountability mechanisms and innovative strategies revealed a strong positive relationship. Multivariate regression analysis revealed the use of accountability mechanisms and commitment to crime analysis as strong positive predictors of police agency innovation.

This dissertation examines environmental policymaking as more of a symboldriven ideological contest over meaning than a rationally discursive democratic process through two interpretive modes of research: historical narrative analysis and text analytic frame mapping. Both are applied to the case example of the city of San Diego’s controversial policy innovation of indirect potable reuse via reservoir augmentation, or “toilet-to-tap,” as it became known through local news media. The dissertation develops its theoretical foundation from the literature pertaining to political communication in public policy, including the role of signs and symbols, media theory, frames and framing, and agenda setting. Electronic documents are used as data.

The purpose of this study is to find out the effect of government spending on capital
investments in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 on GDP
and employment growth. This research utilized US quarterly data from 2003 QI to 2013
QII. In the first part the research used variables from the Keynes economic model and
utilized two-stage least square analysis to assess the effect of government spending on
GDP. The results from the regression analysis indicate that an increase of one dollar in
government spending increases GDP by 1.569 dollars. The researcher found that the
general government spending multiplier was 1.9. The coefficient for government
spending in the Recovery Act was 0.383, implying that for every one dollar in
government spending, Recovery Act spending on capital investments contributed 0.383
dollars.

This study examined the results of the National Prison Wardens’ Survey to ascertain the levels of job satisfaction, occupational sentiments, and work-related stress among prison wardens and to establish whether these variables differed between male and female respondents. The findings indicated that wardens generally experience high levels of job satisfaction, reflect positive occupational sentiments, and report low levels of work-related stress. Additionally, results from the Chi-square tests and Lambda measures of association indicated that little to no relationship existed between gender and any of the explored variables.

With the increasing rate of violent criminal victimization, concerns about safety
and prevention have begun to resonate across college campuses throughout the nation.
Despite the efforts put forth by institutions of higher education to reduce fear of crime
and criminal victimization, college students are subjected to coexist with the probability
of crime victimization on campus. The main objective of this thesis was to explore new
measures of crime prevention on college campuses. Specifically, the efforts put forth in
this study were to focus on understanding the problem of property theft of personal
belongings on college campuses. The findings based on Pearson correlations and
multiple regression analyses indicate that students’ crime prevention awareness and
behavior are highest amongst female and non- victimized students. Crime prevention
behavior was best explained by awareness. Furthermore, expanded evaluation of
contributing factors may lead to future crime preventive measures such as participation in
crime prevention seminars.

Regulation of the nonprofit sector is a subject of significant debate in the
academic and professional literature. The debate raises questions about how to regulate the sector in a manner that addresses accountability while preserving the sector’s unique role in society. Central to the debate is the role of self-regulation.
The nonprofit sector is recognized and defended as a distinct third sector in
society. Cultural norms and values differentiate the purpose of the sector from the
governmental and commercial realms. The legal regime secures rights, establishes
organizational structures, and provides tax benefits that enable, reinforce, and protect
participation in nonprofit activities. Nevertheless, government regulation is thought to be
antithetical to sector autonomy, as well as an obstacle to flexibility and innovation. Selfregulation protects the sector’s political independence and its distinctiveness through the cultivation of shared norms, standards, and processes for ethical practices. Although self regulation is considered to be consistent with the autonomous nature of the sector, it is also criticized as a weaker form of regulation. The ability to address regulatory issues expressed in the broader debate is limited by how we frame nonprofit regulation. The problem with advancing our understanding of self-regulation has to do with how we conceptualize nonprofit regulation. Government and self-regulation are conceptualized and studied as distinct options for regulating the sector. Missing in the nonprofit scholarship is a theoretical framework capable of reframing nonprofit regulation as a system of governance that depends on self-regulation. This represents a glaring gap in the research. Neglecting the institutional context that explains the structure and functioning of the nonprofit sector has led to an oversimplification of nonprofit governance. To study the effects of self-regulation on the functioning of the sector, I argue that we must first frame what is relevant about how the nonprofit sector is governed. The Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) Framework outlines a systematic approach for analyzing institutions that govern collective endeavors. The objective of this dissertation is to introduce the IAD as an approach for examining self-regulation not as an alternative to government regulation but as an important part of nonprofit governance.

This study explores the connections of public procurement official
perceptions of public-private partnerships and their contracting decisions for
public infrastructure projects. Detailed discussion of previous scholarship and its
focus on policymaking and project evaluation of public-private partnerships
leaves a gap in the public policy process – implementation. Procurement officials
are presented in the role of policy implementers rather than agents in a principalagent
approach. This attempts to address a shortcoming of the description that
these officials do nothing more than purchase. Arguments are put forth that these
officials are given additional levels of discretion when faced with contracting
decisions. Specifically, procurement officials observe that public-private
partnerships provide sets of project consequences. A survey instrument is designed to explore the differences in perceptions
that procurement officials have with respect to public-private partnerships and
traditional contracting out. Survey failures result in findings only being able to
attempt a more general view of public-private partnerships. Results allow
perceptions to be placed in a decision-making model based on a project phase
approach that develops on the assumption that tasks contracted to private
vendors produce project consequences. Furthermore, analysis of significant
consequence perceptions indicate that those perceptions do not provide a
rationale for a procurement official’s decision-making on whether to contract
using a public-private partnership for public infrastructure projects. Independent
sample t-tests, controlled correlations, multiple ANOVA and linear regression
analyses show that perceptions of consequences, the perceptions of differences
of those consequences across project phases, relationships of consequences to
perceptions of efficiency and effectiveness proxies and a bounded rationalitybased
model of decision-making for procurement officials are all inconclusive.
Discussion focuses on the development of consequences and phases as
defining and clarifying public-private partnerships. Further discussions are
presented for procurement officials with respect to their decision-making and
possible role as policy implementers. Conclusions fail to uncover any inferential
results. The research finds its primary contribution in the conceptual discourse of
public procurement official roles and public-private partnership definitions.

Following the events of September 11th, 2001, national attention has been
captivated by terrorism and terrorism prevention. Parallel to this time of increased focus
on terrorism prevention, adequate funding to support new departments or increased
terrorism prevention efforts in existing departments was unattainable. Consequently, a
strong need for prevention strategies that are affordable and highly applicable at the local
level has resulted. Thus, it is the purpose of this study to examine methods of risk
assessment and test the accuracy of such methodologies in order to assist local
organizations in effectively applying limited resources for opportunity reduction at
vulnerable locations based on calculated risks. The primary goal of this thesis is to test
the validity of the EVIL DONE vulnerability assessment and evaluate its ability to
predict the number of fatalities and injured persons resulting from a terrorist attack.

This is a study of intraurban rail rapid transit
systems in relation to possible implications for an urban
area over a period of 250 years. Two digital computer
simulation models using the DYNAMO computer language are
integrated to explore the results of assumed relationships
between intraurban rail rapid transit usage and an urban
area under highly pure conditions that are also assumed.
One computer simulation model is developed for use as a
rail rapid transit sector with Forrester's urban model and
is then integrated with the urban model as a sector.
The conclusions reached in the study are related
to the simulation results and state that an intraurban rail
rapid transit system may serve as a catalyst for an urban
area's revival under conditions where it is used in place
of automobiles to a high degree. However, it is also concluded
that the rail transit usage may need to be accompanied
by other specific policies in order to produce any tangible
long run changes in the urban area equilibrium conditions.

This descriptive study investigates and highlights the approaches
and processes of resolving employee/union grievances in private
business and industry in the United States. Dealing exclusively
with unionized companies, the study examines the nature of grievances
in the industrial world, contractual and actual approaches and
processes followed in resolving grievances (union-management
discussions, mediation, arbitration, right to strike, etc.), and
analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of the various approaches
and processes. Resources include research of current literature
and a survey of practitioners in the industrial relations field -
union officials, industrial relations executives from business, and
labor arbitrators.