HCAS Student Presents at Pi Sigma Alpha National Student Research Conference

Lucas Dombroski, student in the Department of Humanities and Politics in the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences and Guy Harvey Oceanographic Research Center (HCAS), presented his research at the Pi Sigma Alpha National Student Research Conference hosted by George Washington University. His paper was titled, “Capital Punishment and College Educated Individuals: How Do the College Educated View the Ultimate Punishment?”

According to Dombroski, “Essentially, my research involved analyzing National Election Studies (NES) data concerning how college-educated respondents felt about Capital Punishment.  I ran logistic regression models and cross-tabulations on these feelings toward capital punishment using the demographic information provided by the respondents, and I was able to see the relationships between feelings towards the death penalty and variables such as sex, political party affiliation, region, and ethnicity. My findings suggested that political party affiliation is the best indicator of how one feels about capital punishment whereas sex was the worst indicator; however, none of the relationships that were chosen to be tested in my research had a very strong significance.”

Ransford Edwards, Ph.D., faculty in DHP and NSU chapter advisor accompanied Dombroski. Dombroski was a recipient of the department Student Scholar Fund and used that financial support to take care of airfare, lodging, and food.