Former TRIP Scholars
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This community contains collections of works by authors formerly affiliated with IUPUI and the Center for Translating Research into Practice (TRIP)
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Item The Potential of Community-Oriented Policing: A Report to the MidNorth Public Safety Committee(2009-09-09T20:21:35Z) Drury, Benjamin; Leech, Tamara G.J.; Drury, BenjaminThis report assesses the academic literature on community-oriented policing (COP) in regard to three shared goals of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department (IMPD) and the MidNorth Public Safety Committee (MPSC): decreasing crime rates, limiting fear of crime, and increasing community empowerment. The report recommends specific strategies that can be integrated into IMPD’s community policing efforts. It also identifies the appropriate role for MPSC to play.Item An Outcome Evaluation of the Indianapolis Community Court(Sage, 2015-02) Grommon, Eric; Hipple, Natalie Kroovand; Ray, Bradley; School of Public and Environmental AffairsSeeking to alleviate traditional criminal justice system processing for low-level non-violent crimes, community courts have emerged as a viable alternative. These courts use innovative community-based efforts to address the needs of defendants charged with quality-of-life crimes and attempt to improve the surrounding community. Using a retrospective quasi-experimental design, this research examines recidivism outcomes for a sample of 574 defendants who were referred to the Indianapolis Community Court. Repeated-measures ANOVA models were used to assess 1- and 3-year follow-up intervals. Survival models were used to determine whether significant differences between groups exist on the timing of recidivism events. The analysis revealed no statistically significant differences between those individuals who were processed through community court and those processed through traditional courts. The implications of these findings for future research and community court policy and practice are discussed.Item Starting from Scratch Building Community Support for Labor Organizing in Indianapolis(Sage, 2014-12) Marvin, Thomas F.; Department of English, School of Liberal ArtsThis study compares how two union organizing campaigns have attempted to mobilize community support by examining the opportunity structure for organizing in Indianapolis, comparing the community outreach efforts of the two campaigns, and assessing their effectiveness in matching their strategies to local conditions. Although some suggest that the “L.A. model” of creating powerful labor-community coalitions is replicable in other cities, important differences in the local opportunity structure force organizers to “start from scratch” and improvise innovative strategies in cities like Indianapolis that lack a strong social justice infrastructure.Item Political competition, relative deprivation, and perceived threat: a research note on anti-Christian violence in India(2012) Bauman, Chad; Leech, Tamara G.J.A preliminary subnational statistical analysis of violence against Christians in contemporary India, this article suggests that whereas the data provide very little support for simple, demographic explanations of this violence, they do more robustly support theories emphasizing the relative status of ethnic and religious minorities (vis-à-vis majorities) and the perception, among Hindus, that Christians (and other minorities) represent a threat to their numerical, political and economic strength.Item Everything's Better in Moderation: Young Women's Gender Role Attitudes and Risky Sexual Behavior(2010-05) Leech, Tamara G.J.Purpose This study examines the association between gender role attitudes and risky sexual behavior among young women. Previous studies have posed seemingly contradictory arguments: that either traditional attitudes or egalitarian attitudes are associated with riskier behavior. Methods Data are based on the children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, representing 520 sexually active 18–19-year-old women. Propensity radius matching was used to assess differences in rates of multiple sexual partners and sex outside of a committed relationship. Results Relative to moderate gender role attitudes, both egalitarian gender role attitudes and traditional gender role attitudes are associated with higher rates of risky sexual behavior. Both women with egalitarian role attitudes and those with traditional role attitudes have about a 10% higher prevalence of risky behavior compared to women with more moderate gender role attitudes. Conclusion Existing, seemingly contradictory contentions about the relationship between gender role attitudes and risky sexual behavior may be more coherent than they seem. By shifting focus from risk to protection, the results suggest that moderate gender role attitudes are protective against risky sexual behavior. Future studies should investigate the causal mechanisms and intervention implications of this protective relationship.Item The Community Action Framework in Practice: An Illustration Based on the Ready by 21 Coalition of Austin/Travis County(2011-08) Travis, Raphael Jr.; Leech, Tamara G.J.The field of positive youth development has expanded focus from articulating and measuring desired manifestations of positive well-being to assembling the environmental conditions known to promote these desired outcomes. Evidence of the effectiveness of community-level efforts promoting positive youth development is still emerging, in particular theory-driven examples of community-driven youth development. This study examined the Community Action Framework, one theory-based community youth development model, through the experiences of the Ready by 21 Austin/Travis County coalition (RB21). The coalition connects youth-serving organizations and also regional coalitions, while promoting the positive development of area youth. Participant observation, interviewing, and archival strategies were integrated to capture information related to the complex and dynamic coalition. Results indicated that RB21 represents a practical and meaningful application of the Community Action Framework. Specific examples and recommendations are provided as guidance for other community level youth development efforts.Item The Significance of Race for Neighborhood Social Cohesion: Perceived Difficulty of Collective Action in Majority Black Neighborhoods(2012-03) Hobson-Prater, Tara; Leech, Tamara G.J.This article explores William Julius Wilson’s contentions about community cultural traits by examining racial differences in middle class neighborhoods’ levels of social cohesion. Specifically, we explore the perceived difficulty of these actions—as opposed to general pessimism about their outcomes—as a potential explanation for low levels of instrumental collective action in Black middle class neighborhoods. Our results indicate that, regardless of other neighborhood factors, majority Black neighborhoods have low levels of social cohesion. We also find that this racial disparity is statistically explained by shared perceptions about the amount of effort required to engage in group action in different neighborhoods. These findings emphasize that residence in a majority Black area—and the well-informed perceptions accompanying it—affect the lived experience of neighbors, even when they are middle class.Item Subsidized Housing, Public Housing, and Adolescent Violence and Substance Use(2010-06) Leech, Tamara G.J.This study examines the separate relationships of public housing residence and subsidized housing residence to adolescent health risk behavior. Data include 2,530 adolescents aged 14 to 19 who were children of the National the Longitudinal Study of Youth. The author use stratified propensity methods to compare the behaviors of each group—subsidized housing residents and public housing residents—to a matched control group of teens receiving no housing assistance. The results reveal no significant relationship between public housing residence and violence, heavy alcohol/marijuana use, or other drug use. However, subsidized housing residents have significantly lower rates of violence and hard drug use, and marginally lower rates of heavy marijuana/alcohol use. The results indicate that the consistent, positive effect of vouchers in the current literature is not due to a lower standard among the typical comparison group: public housing. Future studies should focus on conceptualizing and analyzing the protective effect of vouchers beyond comparisons to public housing environments.Item A Community Conversation on Adolescent Pregnancy and Parenting Services: Networks of Support, Gatekeepers to Care, and Non-Compulsory Fathering in a Black Urban Community(2014) Leech, Tamara G.J.; Adams, Elizabeth A.; Littlefield, MarciThis study employed Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) methods to document needs and capacity around adolescent pregnancy and parenting in one predominately Black, low-income urban community. Using an iterative focus group method, we engaged 60 participants in a two-day community conversation. Quantitative data from an enrollment questionnaire and qualitative transcripts of the discussions are analyzed. Our results indicate that the community’s greatest capacity lies in a network of women. Men tend to participate in parenting more holistically once formal paternity is established. Neighborhood women typically introduce adolescents to prenatal care, so delays in revealing the pregnancy to them serves as a barrier to accessing prenatal care. Overall, participants want health agencies to uphold their formal social contracts with the community, but to entrust informal services to community members who have the necessary insight and expertise to deliver support and information that is usable in their social context.Item Empowerment-Based Positive Youth Development: A New Understanding of Healthy Development for African American Youth(2014-03) Travis, Raphael Jr.; Leech, Tamara G.J.A shift occurred in research about adolescents in the general population. Research is moving away from deficits toward a resilience paradigm and understanding trajectories of positive youth development. This shift has been less consistent in research and practice with African American youth. A gap also exists in understanding whether individual youth development dimensions generate potential in other dimensions. This study presents an empowerment-based positive youth development model. It builds upon existing research to present a new vision of healthy development for African American youth that is strengths-based, developmental, culture-bound, and action-oriented. It emphasizes the relationship between person and environment, the reinforcing nature of developmental assets, and the necessity of a sense of community and community engagement for youth.