The authors delve into the topics of prevention of youth violence by questioning whether the trajectories of past violence predict future violence better than other, more traditional measures of risk. As well as, what factors of violence can be altered during a juveniles early years of exposure to violence-causing factors that can prevent or protect individuals against violence?
In this article the authors first explain that trajectories of past violence foretell future violence in youth better than other, more traditional measures of risk. The authors then gauge whether elements that can be controlled during youth can promote less violence for all individuals. This article finds that several factors protect youth from violent behavior. Unfortunately, these factors do not protect youth from gun or weapon carrying.
The researchers used the Rochester Youth Development Study, 14 interviews of youth from their early teenage years through age 31. The authors used 20 potential factors that lead to violence. They used two methods of analysis for this data. The first one is the well-established method that was a prevention model where the violent and risky behavior had yet to appear and they ran the correlation between the factors and the data from the Rochester Youth Development Study. The second method projected the youth’s risk based on trajectories of prior violent behavior and ran correlations between the factors and the trajectories. The data suggests that the trajectories are more accurate in predicting the youths involvement with crime. It also suggests that factors that contribute to violence are accumulated over time and harder to prevent.

Crime & Delinquency 2014, Vol. 60(3) 379–401

This article written by Candice D. Roberts & Susan Stein is a media content study on how character archetypes are represented in films with environmental themes. Documentaries were excluded in order to focus on the depiction of environmental themes in fiction. Using films listed in the Environmental Communication Network’s Filmography of Nature and Environmental Movies and other internet movie databases, the sample set was narrowed down to a total of 44 films.

The researchers focused their analysis of the films with a combination of the archetype theories of Carl Jung as well as the neo-archetype theory developed by Faber and Mayer. The characters in each film were carefully examined to reveal any prominent archetypes present. Limited only to the films selected for sample, the authors were also guided in their study the Framing Theory from Fairhurst and Sarr, the development on Jung’s Archetype Theory done by Campbell, and the analysis techniques of Vogler.

Three predominant archetype patterns came to light as a result of their work. The first archetype pattern is called Protagonist Hero vs. Ruler Villain and puts an individual “hero” with the virtues of good will and determination against a “ruler” villain that has great political influence or other source of power and is to blame for the environmental issue. An example of a film that exhibits this first pattern is Disney and Pixar’s Wall-E with its Buy-N-Large corporation. The second pattern, The Greater Good Versus Self-Serving Narrative pattern involves a protagonist character that may be a ruler villain initially. This character then has experiences that develop them into a more selfless individual that can help solve the environmental issue at hand. An example is the character Chuck Glover from Wild River, who seeks to save the homes of a population of people he was initially employed to move out for development after getting to know them. The third pattern is Dystopia, where the archetypes of hero and ruler villain are even less clear and the consistent theme is one of chaos and violence as an aftermath of some great environmental disaster. Max from the Mad Max films is an example offered by the authors because his motives are not clearly heroic or villainous as framed by the ravaged environment of the post-apocalyptic Australia he inhabits.

This study revealed that in fictional media, there are specific narrative patterns that individuals witness when viewing environmental film. One point made by the authors I found valuable was that in only three of the films sampled the film examined the idea that we all have a role in solving environmental problems. It is less often the case that an environmental issue is caused solely by an easily identified “evil” ruler villain, but rather we are all collectively accountable for the health of the environment and can make decisions to change it for the better. I would offer my support to the writers of films that help to spread this message creatively and effectively.

Candice D. Roberts & Susan Stein. 2015. Eco-Heroes and Eco Villains: An Archetypal Analysis of Environmental Film, 1950-2010. Applied Environmental Education & Communication, 14:1, 57-64, DOI: 10.1080/1533015X.2015.1013226

This article by Dale F. Loft and Michael McCoy of University of California, Davis, examines the effects that tourists have on the behavior of asian rhinos. The introduction of this article looks at previous examples of how behavior has been a measure of disturbance relating to tourists. Some of these examples include bald eagles leaving their nests due to increased tourism, and big horn sheep decreasing their foraging behavior when tourists get to close. These cases created a concern for the asian rhinos in Chitwan Park, Nepal since it may lead to some negative behaviors.

Tourism in Chitwan Park is done by riding elephants, with an average group size being 5 to 7 elephants. The rhinos are located in meadows that contain 8meter tall towers which allow for viewing of the rhinos. The grass in the meadows of this area (which are around 4meters tall) are cultivated by locals and then burned which allows for regrowth and higher visibility of the rhinos.  This study observed 14 rhinos in the meadows of Chitwan Park, where a team of researchers recorded the rhino behavior from the towers for 17 days. The behavior was marked every 15 seconds for 5 minutes (total of 20 intervals) before the tourists arrived, while they were there, and after they left. They also recorded how long the tourists were there, and how close they got to the rhinos.

Once the data was compiled and averaged, the results showed a decrease in feeding, and an increase of being alert while the tourists were present. These results were proven to be statistically significant. The proximity of the tourists also affected the behavior, and when tourists were within 7meters of the rhino, the rhino would often leave the meadow.

I feel this study did a good job at answering their research question, and collecting the data needed to do so. The statistically significant results showed the amount of disturbance tourists have on the rhinos, and how some of them are being driven out of their home on the meadow. This article was published in 1993, and since then tourism has nearly doubled. The information collected from this study provides important insight on how to change and manage tourism in areas like this. It also gives readers an idea of how to be conscious of their tourism choices. Often times the close encounters that we want have serious consequences towards the animal. Rhinos depend on feeding throughout most of the day in order to remain healthy, and disruption in their behavior and lifestyle may lead to a decline in their health and success.

Citation:
Lott, D.F., McCoy, M. (1995)  Asian rhinos Rhinoceros unicornis on the run? Impact of tourist visits on one population. Biological Conservation 73:1, 23-26. DOI: doi:10.1016/0006-3207(95)90053-5

This book gives a good background on the religious experience for the Abrahamic faiths in the United States. The first point that I thought was interesting in the book was the emphasis on individualism in the community. Those who immigrate no matter what religion seek community. Especially refugees or asylum seekers, family is necessary, and religion offers that community in a new environment.

While the United States is a nation of immigrants, Yvonne goes as far to say that the United States does not bear the religion of immigrants. These immigrants who immigrated did not come to the United States to find a new religion, but instead grow and anchor them selves in the faith they already had. The idea that immigrants come with their own life, culture, and customs is one that should be heavily taken into account when we meet immigrants and develop policies. While it is important for immigrants to assimilate to the place in which they are staying, they should not lose their culture or religion as a part of that assimilation process.

While the book mentions the importance of community, it also touches on our generations shift from “doctrine” to “spiritual” practice. With a more doctrine religious base, there is more of an emphasis on attending church while the spiritual practice is about have an individual connection with God. This put the community at risk, as less people attend church services, the faith community slowly dwindles. Yvonne counters this by saying that this spiritual practice will in fact “awaken” the church, and bring new life. A new generation will revive the church and make it alive once again.

Finally, this book touches on how we must reconcile all of the religions in the world, and come together for the common good. Yvonne recognizes that some of these religions are very different, but thinks that we can still create creative solutions for our world’s issues. Yvonne even goes as far to say that it is religious belief that must inspire us, and having an ethical common denominator is not enough to inspire change. This book gives a helpful perspective into the lives of religious people’s immigration to the United States. With this perspective, we can create creative policies that would aid in the immigration process for many.

Citation:

Haddad, Yvonne Yazbeck, Jane I. Smith, and John L. Esposito. Religion and Immigration: Christian, Jewish, and Muslim Experiences in the United States. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira, 2003. Print.

Schuyler, Q. A., Wilcox, C., Townsend, K. A., Wedemeyer-Strombel, K. R., Balazs, G., van Sebille, E. and Hardesty, B. D. (2016), Risk analysis reveals global hotspots for marine debris ingestion by sea turtles. Glob Change Biol, 22: 567–576. doi:10.1111/gcb.13078

http://np9fq3va3u.search.serialssolutions.com/?genre=article&issn=13541013&title=Global%20Change%20Biology&volume=22&issue=2&date=20160201&atitle=Risk%20analysis%20reveals%20global%20hotspots%20for%20marine%20debris%20ingestion%20by%20sea%20turtles.&spage=567&pages=567-576&sid=EBSCO:GreenFILE&au=Schuyler,%20Qamar%20A.

            “Risk analysis reveals global hotspots for marine debris ingestion by sea turtles,” is a scholarly article written by Qamar A. Schuyler, Chris Wilcox, Kathy A. Townsend, Kathryn R. Wedemeyer-Strombel, George Balazs, Erik van Sebille, Britta Denise Hardesty.  This article was first published on September 14, 2015.  The article is about the how plastic marine debris is harming the oceanic environment and the creatures that dwell there.  They wanted to analysis the risk of plastic ingestion of sea turtles on a global scale, and this is what they focused their research on.  The type of data they used was acts, behavior, and events of the plastic currents and turtle migration.  They also had to get reports of acts and events of turtle biopsies with plastic debris inside of them.  The data they got global marine plastic distributions based on ocean drifter data with sea turtle maps.  They then were able to predict the turtles’ exposure to the plastic pollution.  The methods of gathering data that they used were public records, detached observation, and content analysis.  They also provided caveats, data gaps, and risk analysis about their data.  They calculated that there are certain sea turtles that are more susceptible, and the locations that have higher trash accumulation.  They concluded that roughly 52% of sea turtles may have ingested debris.  I believe that their research is valid.  They got their data from numerous credible sources, and they accounted for error in great detail to make sure the data they were collecting was correct.  The amount of plastic that is ingested by marine animals is too large, and it is human caused.  Humans need to become more sustainable.

The educational program the study in this article is devoted to is called Sharing Tails ®. Sharing Tails ® is a public outreach program developed in Arizona to help educate the children of Arizona public schools about the native fish population and the importance of protecting endangered wildlife.

The program is highly interactive, developed especially for the very curious but not very easily focused minds of the kindergarten classroom. Special in class activities were developed like life sized fish replicas, craft projects, and even an interactive presentation using a projector to depict an underwater scene and a bubble machine to take the kids “underwater” for a lesson.

The study described in the article was a project assessment conducted in order to measure how effective the program was in teaching children about native fish. There needed to be a means of measuring the progress the children made, so pre-presentation and post-presentation questionnaires were used by teachers to do so. The scores on these questionnaires helped the researchers measure how much the children were actually learning about the fish and how well the program as a whole was working. The project assessment reported the programs activities to be quite successful, but also identified the limitations to the research, such as incomplete questionnaires.

This program represents the valuable contributions that the sciences and environmental education can make to the education of children. The idea that subjects of conservation and wildlife can also prove successful and engaging for young audiences was reflected in the data the program assessment collected.

Carol A. Pacey & Paul C. Marsh (2013) Sharing Tails®: A State-Wide Public  Outreach Program Teaching Children About Native Arizona Fish, Applied Environmental Education & Communication, 12;4, 254-260, DOI: 10.1080/1533015X.2013.877711

This text comes from the Journal of the Scientific Study of Religion by Benjamin R. Knoll. This article shows exactly was I want to research in regards to religion and immigration policy. This article shows that one’s religious affiliation affects their political views, even in regards to immigration and other public issues. Public issues in which religious views play a role are issues such as social justice or personal mortality. One reason I thought was interesting why religion shapes one’s own immigration ideas is that religious clergy play an important role in the development of one’s opinion. Whether we admit it or not, religious clergy do have some political charge and influence on their congregations.

For instance, the Roman Catholic Church has taken the largest stance on immigration reform and policy. In most cases, the Catholic Church is supportive of pro-immigration policies and humanitarian aid. On the other hand, Evangelical Protestants  support the current laws set in place for immigration, and support those laws even if they are not “pro immigration”.

While one’s religion and denomination influence political ideas, the acts and behaviors of the individual play a larger role in their political thought. The article suggests that there is a difference between contemporary religious behavior verses traditionalist and modernist. Traditionalists are more likely to be involved in religious practice than the modernist. A traditionalist is more likely to agree with their religion’s stance on an issue than a modernist who participates less in the religious setting.

This article sums up how not only religion, but religious practice plays a role in the development of an individual’s political ideas. This article was found using the database JSTOR

Citation:

Knoll, Benjamin R. ““And Who Is My Neighbor?” Religion and Immigration Policy Attitudes.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 48.2 (2009): 313-31. JSTOR. Web.

“Changing Pattern and Process of High School Dropouts between 1980s and 2000s” by Suhyun and Jingo Suh investigates the general decline in dropout rate and increase of school completion. According to the article, the high school drop out rate has decreased in the period between the 1980s and 2000s.

The research focused on the dropout rate and completion rate over three decades using decomposition analysis. According to the authors, cross-section analysis was insufficient for collecting the data necessary for the study. Two surveys from The National Survey of Youth (NLSY) from the 1980s and 2000s were used to track changes and or a correlation of both rates. This survey represents a sample of 9,000 to 12,500 youths who’s ages ranged from 12 to 16 from December 31, 1978 and 1996. Two surveys were used to determine the completion rate of a sample which was then compared with the surveys when the ages of the sample were between 20 and 24 years old.

The NLSY gathered data such from various aspects of the youths’ lives including behavioral, personal, educations and familial experiences. Of this information, eight factors were found to be most influential in both surveys. These categories consisted of minority race, gender, living with biological parents, mother’s permissiveness, household size, whether the you lived in a metropolitan area, whether the youth lived south or west, and school suspension at least once.

The results of the study found little correlations between the high school dropout rate and completion rate from the 1980s to the 2000s. The researchers discovered that unknown independent variables were crucial in understanding the fluctuating pattern of dropouts, long term. The authors also suggested the need for educators to be informed on which students are more likely to drop out in order to prevent it.

Suhyun Suh and Jingo Suh. “Changing Pattern and Process of High School Dropouts between 1980s and 2000s.” Educational Research Quarterly 34.4 (2011): 3-13. Print.

The article “Impacts of ecotourism in Rajiv Gandhi National Park (Nagarhole), Karnataka”  by Nichola Anastasia Ramchurjee aims to analyze how ecotourism has effected the wildlife and socio-economic situation of this area. This national park conserves it’s wildlife through organizations like Project Tiger Reserve (which protects their endangered tiger), but also ecotourism to conserve their biodiversity. By preserving biodiversity, it protects more than just the popular few species that receive funding and attention for conservation. To look at how ecotourism has been working in Rajiv Gandhi National Park,  this study surveyed visitors with questionnaires, and park officials with face to face interviews. These questionnaires analyzed the demographics of the tourists, as well as the activities at the park, and their thoughts on the management of the park.

Interviews with officials revealed issues between wildlife and humans. There are tribes within the national park that use methods that are harmful towards the conservation of wildlife, such as burns for agriculture. The park officials are looking for ways to work with the tribes in a way that protects their environment. One of the proposed ideas is relocating the tribes to an area where they will not seriously harm wildlife, nor will wildlife harm them.

The tourists revealed on their questionnaires that they mainly participated in hikes and viewing nature, while also ranking ‘learning about nature’ as a very important part of their experience. Tourists also responded that they were concerned with the litter, vegetation damage, and soil erosion in the park. By analyzing the results of the questionnaire, it showed that the park needs to put a larger effort into creating educational programs or displays.

The article concluded that the park officials and managers need to work closer with other people to conserve biodiversity. By working closer with the local tribes and improving ecotourism educational efforts,  Rajiv Gandhi National Park can promote a sustainable management plan that benefits the people and their environment.

Citation:

Ramchurjee, Nichola (2013). Impacts of ecotourism in Rajiv Gandhi National Park (Nagarhole), Karnataka. Environment, Development and Sustainability 15, (1),1517-1525. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10668-013-9449-x

“Examining Perceptions of School Safety Strategies, School Climate, and Violence” by Lesile Booren, Deborah handy, and Thomas Power aims to explore differences in perceptions of school climate/connection, school safety practices, and violence between students and teachers. This includes determining if school safety issues affect the perceived relevance of safety strategies. This article researches the perception of school safety, school connection, and school violence in faculty and students by using 184 student and 32 teacher surveys from one pacific northwest high school on the outskirts of a mid-to-large city. After this research was analyzed by describing and comparing student and teacher data, it was apparent that perceived school safety, connection, and violence vary between teachers and students. Teachers’ perception of connection and climate in the school was significantly higher than the students’ perception. This is then used to encourage safety programs and school climate programs to involve the students in determining appropriate safety measures rather than solely teachers.

This study was very interesting in terms of using it to determine how one can go about looking at students and teachers perception of violence and safety strategies in schools. However, it is even more interesting to see that this study could have been done using in-depth interviews, yet they opted for easily obtainable qualitative data using a five point scale, one being unimportant and five being very important. By using the scale and qualitative data they were able to easily and quickly compare the students and teachers perceptions.

Booren, L. M., D. J. Handy, and T. G. Power. “Examining Perceptions of School Safety Strategies, School Climate, and Violence.” Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice 9.2 (2010): 171-87.