Date of Award
8-1-2014
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Department
Political Science
First Advisor
McClurg, Scott
Abstract
This project discusses the relevant literature on decision-making, looks at the ways domestic violence is discussed and how the terminology has changed/progressed over time, and defines it for the purposes of this project. It then examines four states - an individualistic, resource-rich state; a moralistic, resource-average state; and two traditionalistic, resource-poor states. States were chosen based on their full compliance with the National Incident-Based Reporting System, their categorization as individualistic, moralistic, and traditionalistic as defined by Daniel J. Elazar (1972), and their categorization as resource-rich, resource-average, and resource-poor based on 2010 Census data. By using each state as a case study, this research aids in understanding the domestic violence policies in each state, the history of those policies, the factors at work in policy decisions (i.e. information, resources, and the political culture), and the role of domestic violence experts/advocates in the larger policy realm.
Access
This dissertation is Open Access and may be downloaded by anyone.