Matching Items (13)
Description
Over the past 40 years, the rate at which women are incarcerated has increased dramatically. Of the 111,000-plus female inmates currently in prison, most will be returned to the community and reenter the labor market. Despite its significance in prisoner reentry and in how ex-offenders remain crime-free, previous research finds that employers are unwilling to hire employees with a criminal record. Moreover, Pager (2003) and Pager, Western, and Bonikowski (2009) found that White job applicants with a prison record were more likely to be interviewed or hired than Black or Hispanic applicants without a record. These troubling findings regarding the effect of race/ethnicity, however, are from research that focuses on men's employment. Given the already low job prospects of ex-prisoners makes it more difficult for women with a prison record to find employment, who also face labor market barriers on account of their race/ethnicity and gender. This dissertation research uses two audit methods with an experimental design to examine the independent and interaction effects of race/ethnicity and incarceration on the likelihood women job applicants will advance through the hiring process. Job applications were submitted online and in-person. The effect of race/ethnicity varied by the method used to apply for jobs. When applying for jobs online, Black women had lower odds of employment than White women. Hispanic women, however, had higher odds of employment than White women when food service jobs were applied for in-person. The effect of a prison record was significant in both experiments; the effect was direct online, but conditioned by ethnicity in-person. Hispanic women with a prison record were less likely than White women with a prison record to advance through the hiring process. The results point to the importance of understanding how women are disadvantaged by incarceration and how mass incarceration contributes to racial/ethnic inequality through its effect in the labor market. Several recommendations follow for future research and policies concerning prisoner reentry and the use of criminal record information by employers.
ContributorsOrtiz, Natalie Rose (Author) / Decker, Scott (Thesis advisor) / Spohn, Cassia (Committee member) / Holtfreter, Kristy (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
Research on the consequences of gang membership is limited mainly to the study of crime and victimization. This gives the narrow impression that the effects of gang membership do not cascade into other life domains. This dissertation conceptualized gang membership as a snare in the life-course that disrupts progression in conventional life domains. National Longitudinal Survey of Youth Cohort of 1997 (NLSY97) data were used to examine the effects of adolescent gang membership on the nature and patterns of educational attainment and employment over a 12-year period in the life-course. Variants of propensity score weighting were used to assess the effects of gang joining on a range of outcomes pertaining to educational attainment and employment. The key findings in this dissertation include: (1) selection adjustments partially or fully confounded the effects of gang joining; despite this (2) gang joiners had 70 percent the odds of earning a high school diploma and 42 percent the odds of earning a 4-year college degree than matched individuals who avoided gangs; (3) at the 11-year mark, the effect of gang joining on educational attainment exceeded one-half year; (4) gang joiners made up for proximate deficits in high school graduation and college matriculation, but gaps in 4-year college degree and overall educational attainment gained throughout the study; (5) gang joiners were less likely to be employed and more likely to not participate in the labor force, and these differences accelerated toward the end of the study; (6) gang joiners spent an additional one-third of a year jobless relative to their matched counterparts; and (7) the cumulative effect of gang joining on annual income exceeded $14,000, which was explained by the patterning of joblessness rather than the quality of jobs. The theoretical and policy implications of these findings, as well as directions for future research, are addressed in the concluding chapter of this dissertation.
ContributorsPyrooz, David (Author) / Decker, Scott H. (Thesis advisor) / Pratt, Travis C. (Committee member) / Sweeten, Gary (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Do more diverse teams create better outcomes, creatively and fiscally? Why do heterogeneous groups think more innovatively and create products that reach a wider audience? Diverse teams bring unique perspectives that force individuals to reimagine their world views and question what they know. This thesis focuses on the benefits of increased racial and gender diversity in the workplace. There is a dramatic difference in the number of women and people of color in tech companies generally, in STEM roles, and in leadership roles. The benefits of diverse teams (along all axis) is indisputable, yet companies still fight diversifying their employee base. Diversity in the workplace dramatically impacts the bottom line, but it is also incredibly important from a human rights perspective. The first step to reflecting the population's diversity ratio at all levels of business is educating the future leaders of America to its importance, both as a social justice initiative and a capitalistic one as well. I created and hosted a panel with local tech entrepreneurs and investors to discuss gender diversity, the struggles being a woman in business and solutions moving forward.
ContributorsRobinson, Sasha Raquel (Author) / Mokwa, Michael (Thesis director) / Eaton, John (Committee member) / School of Social Transformation (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
For my thesis project I decided to research the H-2B visa program that is run by the United States Department of State. The program allows U.S employers who meet strict requirements to bring foreign nationals to the U.S in order to fill the jobs that are not being taken by American citizens. The yearly cap for the visas is set at 66,000 workers. 33,000 workers begin their employment the first half of the fiscal year from October 1 to March 31. The second 33,000 workers begin working from April 1 through September 30. I had the chance to speak with an employer and a worker to get a feel for what it was like to be a part of the H-2B visa program. I found out that hiring foreign workers through this program it is not an easy way out of hiring U.S citizens to fill jobs. The cost to hire a worker through the program costs $3,500, plus at least a state required minimum wage. The employer also said that he has to buy ad space in the paper for two weeks, as a pre-requirement to enter the visa program. He says that he will receive one call if he is lucky. The research I did revolves around talking about the myths that surround the visa, such as taking away American jobs, as well as the processing hardships that the employer and worker have to go through before being able to work. YouTube Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYveMApCml8&feature=em-upload_owner
ContributorsRodriguez, Ivan (Author) / Dunn, Heather (Thesis director) / Kocherga, Angela (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
When one pursues a Bachelor's degree they are generally under the impression that the degree they are after will provide them with the necessary skills and knowledge to enter their career at entry-level. This is not the case for all students in every degree program. Many times Bachelor's degree holders find it difficult to enter the field. The goal of this paper is to identify gaps or discrepancies between Arizona State University's (ASU’s) Applied Computing (ACO) - Cybersecurity program's learning objectives and industry requirements for entry-level positions in the cybersecurity industry. The data used in this textual analysis were gathered from several popular employment websites and ACO course syllabi. Using this relatively small data pool several gaps were identified between the cybersecurity industry; the private and public sectors job listing requirements; and ASU's ACO course objectives. By analyzing the gaps found in the data, I have been able to provide many suggestions for ASU and some for the cybersecurity industry to implement to better prepare ACO students for entry-level cybersecurity industry positions.
ContributorsRodriquez, Maria (Author) / Nadesan, Majia (Thesis director) / Jones, Kim (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences (Contributor)
Created2022-12
Description
Peer-parenting in child welfare is a developing field with a growing repository of research that demonstrates a positive effect on child welfare case outcomes such as rates of reunification and parent engagement. Peer-parenting also benefits the peer-parents, who apply their lived child welfare experience to their service to clients, by providing fulfilling and satisfying work opportunities. However, there is a lack of research focusing on workforce characteristics or workforce development for peer-parents. Qualitative interviews were conducted with professional peer-parents in the child welfare field to understand their perceptions and experiences being employed as a peer-parent. The findings demonstrate a deep commitment to their work as peer-parents, the important role that leadership and supervision plays, and valuable insight into what improvements can be made to the workforce.
ContributorsHamilton, Samantha (Author) / Krysik, Judy (Thesis advisor) / Ferguson, Kristin (Committee member) / Wu, Qi (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
In Arizona part-time instrumental music educators often spend more time per week with high school students than full-time core subject teachers. Members of the gig economy and heavily involved in the marching arts, these part-time teachers make the conscious choice to seek multiple gig positions to piece together a full-time income void of traditional employee benefits. The COVID-19 pandemic is changing the American workforce, prompting employers to hire more gig workers than standard salaried employees across all industries. However, some part-time workers who rely on social interactions for income are struggling to maintain a career throughout the health crisis. Although unable to see their students in person and prepare for competitions like a normal season, part-time instrumental music educators are continuing to work and teach. Whether each teacher is explicitly aware of it or not, the entire part-time teaching community relies on the accrual and mobilization of social capital to secure and maintain gigs and, by extension, a living. In this thesis, I employ Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of capital to investigate how part-time instrumental music educators are adapting to virtual remote teaching prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic and why they have not experienced job loss to the same extent as many other Americans in this arduous time. Through participant-observer ethnography and direct interviews with 12 active part-time instrumental marching music teachers I analyze not only the social mechanisms that lead to career success but also how each teacher conceptualizes their own vocational narrative. Unlike the idealized “American Dream” narrative of hard work and pulling yourself up by your bootstraps, part-time teachers attribute their success to social relationships and luck. As Arizona prepares for a harsh decline in music student enrollment over the next five years due to the pandemic part-time music educators must be aware of how to encourage their students to become the next generation of teachers and how they can work to overcome the daunting privilege gap in musical ensemble participation.
ContributorsBranson, Tabitha Ann (Author) / Fossum, David (Thesis advisor) / Saucier, Catherine (Committee member) / Solís, Ted (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description进入新时代，我国的经济、社会、文化和教育事业迅速发展，艺术类生源肩负着我国优秀传统文化复兴、保护、传承与发展的历史使命。“艺考热”持续多年不衰，但艺术类生源的就业率近年却持续走低，学艺期望与就业失望的矛盾突出。本论文以影响音乐类硕士研究生就业的相关自变量和因变量因素为出发点，通过文献梳理、数据分析、比较研究、问卷调查与口述访谈等研究方法，对 300 余名音乐类硕士研究生的就业情况及相关因素，进行了大量的数据收集、建模和实证分析，研究了“激情” 这一关键因素对音乐类硕士研究生就业的影响。
本论文通过实证研究，对国家艺术教育政策的改进与完善；对艺术类高校人才培养模式的优化；对艺术类人才自身质量的提升等，提出一系列具有数据支撑的意见和建议。
ContributorsJin, Tingting (Author) / Shen, Wei (Thesis advisor) / Wu, Fei (Thesis advisor) / Zhang, Zhen (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
This thesis examines the re-entry processes of individuals with mental health needs upon their release from prison. In order to uncover the resources that are provided to formerly incarcerated individuals with clinically diagnosed mental health issues, parole officers who have experience supervising individuals with mental health needs were interviewed. The purpose of the interviews was to understand the experiences parole officers have regarding current supervision practices that are used, as well as programming and treatment opportunities parole officers know are available to this population of re-entrants. Being aware of the resources that are provided to formerly incarcerated individuals with mental health needs will help identify how to improve supervision, programming, and treatment so as to better support this population. As research and literature on the re-entry experiences of individuals with mental health care needs have demonstrated the extensive privations this population experiences, interviewing parole officers will reveal the roles parole officers, treatment providers, and programming have in supporting this population upon their release from prison. Moreover, interviewing parole officers will help identify how to improve parole outcomes for re-entrants with clinically diagnosed mental health issues.
ContributorsWalden, Hannah (Author) / Chamberlain, Alyssa (Thesis director) / Wright, Kevin (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Dean, W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / School of Criminology and Criminal Justice (Contributor)
Created2021-12
Description
Minimum wage legislation has always been a controversial topic within the fields of politics and economics. There are those who support it under the belief that those affected will be better off, seeing increased wages, greater efficiency, and overall economic prosperity, whereas its opponents argue against it under the belief that it could lead to negative effects such as decreased employment, higher prices, and loss of productivity. This is something that has recently come up in Arizona after the enactment of Proposition 206 (Prop.206), a law which is set to raise the state minimum wage from $8.05 in 2016 to $12.00 by 2020. In this paper, rather than taking a political stance, however, we seek to find answers about the real effects that this minimum wage law has had on wage earners through the manner in which it has affected the state’s wage distribution, meaning the percentage of earners making a certain hourly rate, or between a certain wage range (i.e. $10.00 to $10.50). We begin this search by looking at May Wage Estimates offered by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). From that data, we created wage distributions for the state of Arizona for the years 2011-2018. These showed us what percentage of workers in the state are making a certain hourly rate based on the total number of employees in Arizona. By summarizing this through tables and histograms, we can also visually see the way in which AZ wage distributions have changed over time. However, we also sought to visually compare the AZ wage distributions with that of nearby states, so we also used wage distribution data from Nevada, Utah, and New Mexico. Finally, we also wanted to quantify the fixed effects of enacting the legislation in the state of AZ. To do so we ran a difference-in-differences analysis that gave us an actual value measuring how recent minimum wage increases have affected the percentage of total wage earning less than $11.40 per hour. We discovered that our results, although not extremely significant (due to available data), do strongly indicate that the recent minimum wage legislation in AZ has increased the percentage of workers earning more than that amount per hour. Following that, we also give recommendations that could improve the results found in this report.
ContributorsPerez Noyola, Manuel A. (Author) / Silverman, Daniel (Thesis director) / Cordova, Luis (Committee member) / Department of Economics (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05