Readers are invited to follow old brick walkways, cobblestone streets in a contemporary setting.No place is lovelier than Savannah, and it's the perfect setting for Jonathan Rayburn to meet Keri McGuire, an exceptional beauty with auburn hair. Readers will discover how a homeless Vietnam veteran impacts their lives. Untested in his spiritual faith, Jonathan faces his emotional highs and lows by seeking his grandmother's godly advice.

Meanwhile, Jonathan's law school friend in St. Augustine, Daniel Stanton, visits the home of a wealthy client. Mrs. Quinn's portrait catches his attention; one nearly identical portrait of her granddaughter, Miss Laura Martin, captures his wishful thoughts. Challenged with circumstances beyond his control, he defends his ethics with Laura, a gorgeous but argumentative nurse. Countless obstacles bring him to his knees, yet he holds to his convictions, desiring to be Laura's truest friend.

Filled with spirited dialogue and interspersed with passages from "Jane Eyre," this novel introduces a lively cast of characters. One reader commented, "I felt I was reading a travelogue, which made the scenery in my mind vivid through the color of illustrious scripting."

This book explores why countries undergoing transitions from war to peace decide to integrate armed groups into a statutory security framework, with a focus on the case of South Sudan. In the 1960s, only 10% of peace agreements included some element of political-military accommodation - namely, military integration. From Burundi to Bosnia to Zimbabwe, that number had increased to over 50% by the 2000s. However, relatively little is understood about this dimension of power-sharing often utilized during war-to-peace transitions. Through an examination of the case of South Sudan between 2005 and 2013, this book explores why countries undergoing transitions from war to peace decide to integrate armed groups into a statutory security framework. The book details how integration contributed to short-term stability in South Sudan, allowing the government to overcome wartime factionalism and consolidate political-military power prior to the referendum on self-determination in 2011. It also examines how the integration process in South Sudan was flawed by its open-ended nature and lack of coordination with efforts to right-size the military and transform the broader defense sector, and how this led the military to fragment during periods of heightened political competition. Furthermore, the book explains why integration ultimately failed in South Sudan, and identifies the wider lessons that could be applied to current or future war-to-peace transitions. This book will be of great interest to students of war and conflict studies, peacebuilding, post-conflict reconstruction, African security issues and International Relations in general, as well as to practitioners.

The authors provide an instructional guide to evaluating public high schools utilizing school effectiveness research and statistical educational data. The historical background of public high schools in the United States includes the fundamental purposes of a public high school education and a discussion of the current educational trends at the high school level. A comprehensive synthesis of the effective schools literature is summarized with recommended categories to consider when assessing the effectiveness of a school.

The work includes a guide to the identification and effective use of sources for educational data. An extensive, practical guide to on-site school assessment includes suggested questions and observations to make during an assessment process. Three case studies further demonstrate the assessment process. The reference work is intended for parents seeking a good high school for their children, educators (including teacher educators, principals, teachers, and others wishing to improve their schools), and citizens who are interested in promoting education's position within our society.

Drawing on government data and interdisciplinary expertise, this timely book seeks to explain why the changing economic and legal status of women has not reduced the gender gap in criminal offending. Women and Crime: A Reference Handbook examines how women's patterns of offending have changed over time in America, from the Colonial period to the present. The book sets the stage with a historical overview of women's criminal activity. Subsequent chapters cover such topics as changes in women's status and patterns of offending; the impact of childhood abuse on the development of criminality; and how changes in law, the War on Drugs, and other crime policy have, in fact, increased the frequency of women's imprisonment and arrests. International issues, such as legalization of prostitution, sex trafficking, and women's involvement in organized crime, including drug cartels, are also explored. Each chapter examines theory, research, law, policy, and key players in the evolving response to women's crime patterns. Throughout the work, the author links women's status, victimization, and offending patterns, and suggests how crime control policy, far from saving women, is increasingly making it impossible for female offenders to live on the outside. Quotations from women offenders that explain their actions and situate them in life-history trajectories associated with criminal behavior Biographies of key theorists and researchers, prominent women offenders, and advocates for gender and justice Uniform Crime Report and Bureau of Justice statistics on girls' and womens' offending relative to men Primary source documents on legislation impacting women's offending and victimization A chronology of women's offending and legislation from the Colonial era to the present A glossary of key criminal justice terms that apply to women offenders An interdisciplinary bibliography of reference works, monographs, journal articles, Internet sites, and streaming/DVD resources

This text provides an integrated view of post-9/11 security concerns over the United States's shared border with Mexico and Canada in regards to terrorism, unauthorized migration, drug and arms smuggling, and other illegal trade. The challenges facing U.S. Customs and Border Patrol are daunting. There are 19,841 miles of American land and water boundaries to protect, and 95,000 miles of shoreline and defined air space subject to homeland security surveillance. Additionally, the booming drug trade across the U.S.-Mexico border, combined with the ever-increasing number of migrants wanting to reach our land of opportunity, has resulted in a grim death toll: more than 5,000 known migrant deaths have occurred along the U.S.-Mexico border during 1995-2008, and in 2009, an estimated 9,635 Mexicans were killed in drug-related violence, with 2,573 people killed in Ciudad Juarez alone. U.S. Border Security focuses on the contrast between border security before and after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. This text also examines the controversial topics of illegal immigration, counterterrorism, drug and weapons trafficking, human smuggling, the impact of border security on the movement of people and goods, and the effect of the war on terrorism on civil and human rights. Presents a chronological overview of the major historical and contemporary events impacting the U.S.-Canada and U.S.-Mexico borders, as well as the development of trilateral and international security concerns Includes a bibliography providing academic sources and a chapter of books, peer-reviewed journals, and video/DVD resources Glossary contains terminology for border security, unauthorized immigration, terrorism, drug and arms smuggling, and cross-border trade studies A chapter of biographical profiles describe the key players in politics, homeland security agencies, and criminal organizations