Sociology, Anthropology and Criminal Justice Student Research and Academic Interests

Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice students use their academic talents to research and explore a wide range of topics which impact our local and global community. As seniors, our students complete a Capstone Research Project, which integrates best practices as they analyze topics in which they have developed a passion. In addition, many of our students have an opportunity to present their work at national (and, during study abroad, international) venues.  

Student-led organizations also play a role in activism and developing awareness of various topics. Students play key roles in the Criminal Justice Society or Sociology Society by organizing events, career fairs, and fundraising drives to support those who are most in need.

2016 Senior Thesis Research Topics

Media I: Representation, Perceptions, and Expectations 

• The CSI Effect on Jurors, Convictions, and Forensic Evidence
• Gender Roles and Stereotypes Portrayed Throughout Disney Media
• Moral Panic! And The Musicians That Cause It
• Wargames: National Security in Video Games
• How the Media Affects Eating Disorders: A Feminist Perspective

Media II: Representation, Perceptions, and Expectations

• From the Street to Your Home: Police Representation in Video Games
• CSI Effect: Unrealistic Expectations of Forensic Evidence by Viewers and Its Influence on the
• Criminal Justice System
• Public Knowledge and the Dramatization of Crimes in Society
• Video Game Misogyny

The State of the Nation

• Our Government Betrays
• Comparative Analysis of Sex Trafficking Policy in the United States and Around the World
• The Correlation Between Social Factors and Child Abuse in the United States
• A Socio-Political Critique of Immigration Policy
• The United States: Land of the Free No More

Issues of Incarceration and Exoneration

• The Maltreatment of Women in the United States Criminal Justice System
• Overcoming the Prison Experience – Exonerees and Their Transition into the Community
• Private Prisons in the United States: The Truth Behind the Big Business
• Let’s Talk About Bail: Bail Discretion Within the Magisterial District Court
• “Forced to Break the Law:” Compensation For the Wrongfully Convicted

State Policy, Populations, and Control

• Policing Human Trafficking in the World
• Minority Control Through Group Surveillance
• Identity and Protracted Social Conflicts: Fear and Loathing in Sarajevo
• ¿Undocumented Immigrants Are Ruining Our Country?
• International Adoption

Agency and Alterity

• Blackness in America: A Cultural and Legal Phenomenon
• Exclusionary Practices: Christianity’s Relationship with Women and Queers
• Don’t Look Past My Disabled Body, Love It: A Socio-Cultural Critique of Disability and Sex
• Less Than Agency: Religious Agency and the System of Disability
• Queer Anthropology and the Mapping of “Human”

Personal Decisions and Structural Determinations

• The Causes Behind Juvenile Delinquency Within Separated Families
• Lies Within the Doctor-Patient Relationship
• Examining Zero Tolerance Policies in Schools
• How Parental Deployment Affects Military Children: Military Family Syndrome Versus Resilience
• The Influences That Will Affect One’s Decision to Attend College

Youth, Drugs, and Justice

• Statistical Analysis of Social Disorganization in Philadelphia
• A Gender Analysis of Youth Gangs
• The Heroin Epidemic
• Evidence vs. Abstinence: Why Evidence-Based Programs Prove More Effective in Adolescent Drug Treatment
• Analysis of Restorative Justice for Nonviolent Offenders

Policy, Programs, and Interventions

• Weight Just a Minute! An Adolescent Body Image Program
• Program Design to Decrease the Incarceration of the Mentally Ill
• Housing First: Program Analysis and Improvement Proposal for Dually Diagnosed Homeless Individuals
• Policy Analysis of Megan’s Law
• Natural Disasters and Perceptions of Risk