Digital Commons Network^™

Neurologists Look At Causes Of Baffling Brain Condition, Maggie Freleng

Capstones

It can be hard getting help for someone with mental illness, but almost impossible when that person doesn't think they are sick. At at least half of people with schizophrenia, for example, insist that the voices they hear are real. People who do not know they are ill often refuse therapy and medication -- and their symptoms can spiral out of control. Doctors call this lack of awareness anosognosia. Neurologists are trying to discover what causes this baffling condition--and how to treat it.

The Long Road Back, Brooke Williams

Capstones

This project is a documentary film about the criminal case of Lorenzo Johnson. Johnson was convicted of a murder in the mid-90s and sentenced to life imprisonment in the state of Pennsylvania. Johnson has always maintained his innocence. In 2012, a federal appeals court sided with Johnson and released him. He returned to his home state of New York to speak out against wrongful convictions. However, less than 6 months later, the Supreme Court decided Johnson's original conviction should be upheld and he was forced to return to prison to serve the remainder of his life without the possibility of …

The Fate Of $15, John S. Spina

Capstones

The Fight for $15 is reinvigorating the labor moment in ways people never thought possible. In just over three years it spanned the nation and won increased minimum wages in major cites across the country. Governor Cuomo now prepares to pass the nation's first state wide $15 minimum wage in New York, but not without strong opposition.

Daily Fantasy Sites Engage In A Legal War For Survival, Danni R. Santana

Capstones

Over the past two years, the world has changed its perception of daily fantasy sports. FanDuel and DraftKings have taken the world by storm, making huge profits off even the casual fans desire to win money everyday, instead of just once at the end of a season. Lawmakers have noticed and are eager to regulate the business or ban it altogether, as seen in New York. What was once a weekend hobby is now a multi-billion dollar business. A business lawmakers say is just another form of gambling and doesn't require skill.

Unsettling: Syrian Refugees And The Struggle To Resettle, Marguerite Ward

Capstones

The federal government oversees a complex program to help Syrian refugees come to the U.S.. But the effort does not always live up to all its promises, potentially making the path more difficult for refugees striving to adapt to their new homeland.

Police Misconduct Towards The Transgender Community, Carlotta Mohamed

Capstones

Kristen Lovell, a black transgender woman and activist, takes precautions everyday as she rides the subway from the Bronx to Manhattan for work. “I know there are people who are intolerant of trans people or have some chip on their shoulder because I exist, and I’m a firm believer in self-defense,” said Lovell, 35, program coordinator at the Metropolitan Community Church of New York. “It could be because I’m black, it could be because I’m trans...they just feel like slicing my face today. I don’t know."

Flaws In The Justice System: Examining The Angel Cordero Case, Rose C. Itzcovitz

Capstones

This article examines a case in criminal law that started 17 years ago and has yet to be resolved. Despite a plethora of mounting evidence, including a confession, more than a dozen witnesses, a proven false alibi, impeaching evidence against police and DNA evidence, Bronx-born Angel Cordero's conviction has yet to be overturned. The article breaks down what went wrong in the initial trial, discusses Cordero's multiple appeals and takes a broader look at what needs to change in today's judicial system.

Eyewitness Identification Jury Instructions: Do They Enhance Evidence Evaluation?, Marlee Kind Berman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Mistaken eyewitness identifications are a leading cause of wrongful convictions. Even with procedural safeguards (e.g., cross-examination) in place, jurors still have difficulty evaluating the reliability of eyewitness identifications. The purpose of the present line of research is to examine whether the issue-specific judicial instructions, set forth by the New Jersey Supreme Court (New Jersey v. Henderson, 2011), effectively sensitize jurors to eyewitness identification accuracy. Results of the first study indicate that the current Henderson instructions delivered on issues specific to a case are not as effective as intended. Results of the second study indicate a sensitivity effect, such that mock …

A Long-Term Follow-Up Of Crossover Youth: Young Adult Outcomes For Maltreated Youth In The Juvenile Justice System, Carly Lyn Baetz

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Crossover youth, those with histories of childhood maltreatment and delinquency, may be at high risk for negative outcomes compared to other youth. However, very little is known about the long-term outcomes for this population. This dissertation compared four groups: youth with histories of child maltreatment and juvenile arrest (n = 180), youth with a history of maltreatment only (n = 428), youth with a history of juvenile arrest only (n = 91), and youth with no history of maltreatment or juvenile arrest (n = 496), on a range of outcomes, including mental health, education, employment, and criminal behavior. Data from …

Deception As Forgery: The Role Of Reference Information In Honesty And Deceit, Timothy John Luke

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Using concepts derived from cybernetics, self-presentation theory, and research on human self-regulation, I develop a cybernetic perspective of deception and self-presentation. In this perspective, human communication, both honest and deceptive, is controlled by feedback mechanisms. I report two studies designed to test the basic prediction derived from the cybernetic framework that deceivers are able to better emulate truth-tellers when they have access to relevant reference information about the way truth-tellers behave. Each study manipulated liars' and truth-tellers' access to reference information in a different manner. In Study 1, some participants viewed video recordings of people being interviewed in a manner …

Knowing Children/Children Knowing: Nineteenth-Century British Child Law And Literature, Donna Paparella

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Why are nineteenth-century literary narratives filled with children's accounts of bad parents, dead parents, absent parents, and surrogate parents? What are the origins of our current preoccupation with children as evidenced, for example, in Ian McEwan's new novel, The Children Act; New York State's recent amendments to the name and role of "Attorney for the Child"; and today's vehement debates over parenting styles? The mid-nineteenth century was a period of intense preoccupation with "the child": it engendered family law; it generated an explosion of representations of children in art and literature; and it witnessed the beginnings of the scientific …

A Cognitive-Based Indicator Of Deviant Sexual Arousal: Concurrent Validation Of The Emotional Stroop, Ashley H. Spada

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

One of the strongest dynamic predictors of sexual recidivism among sex offenders is deviant sexual arousal (DSA; Hanson & Bussiére, 1998). Phallometric testing, the most commonly used method of assessing DSA, has elicited numerous methodological, ethical, and financial criticisms, while self-report measures are vulnerable to social desirability and lack of self-awareness. In an effort to overcome the limitations of previous measures of DSA, researchers have employed cognitive measures including a modified version of the Stroop task to measure DSA among sexual offenders (Price & Hanson, 2007; Smith & Waterman, 2004). These original studies used victim selection to assess the concurrent …

A Gender Approach To Vulnerability And Natural Disasters, Ema Izquierdo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

A natural disaster is a major adverse event resulting from natural processes of the earth that overwhelm local response and affect the social and economic development of the affected region. Natural disasters have been seen as situations that create challenges and difficulties mainly of a humanitarian nature. Still, progressively, it has come to be recognized that a gendered approach to humanitarian response is essential for vulnerable populations such as girls and women. Even though information about particular cases is scarce, evidence indicates that women are more likely to die after a natural disaster not because of biological reasons but because …

Juror Target Monitoring Errors In Multiple Defendant Trials, Lindsey M. Rhead

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

When defendants are charged with interrelated crimes it is efficient to join their cases into a single trial; however, a defendant's right to a fair trial may be abrogated by this practice. In multiple defendant trials, jurors may be subject to target monitoring errors - an inability to accurately assign evidence to the correct defendant, much like they are prone to source monitoring errors (i.e., difficulty identifying the specific source of a memory, Johnson, Hashtroudi, & Lindsay, 1993). This research study tested whether target monitoring errors moderated the influence of joining defendants' on juror decisions by varying number of defendants, …

Virtue: A Life Of Mary Wollstonecraft, Jessica Mcgivney

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis is a screenplay for an imagined "biopic" of Mary Wollstonecraft. Wollstonecraft has already been the subject of many biographies, each presenting their authors' own understanding of her life. Here, I present my view, guided -- to varying and sometimes conflicting degrees -- by my understanding of her own fictionalized autobiographical efforts; by my understanding of Godwin's attempted work in his Memoir of the Author of the Vindication of the Rights of Woman; by the idea that her beliefs about virtue and freedom drove her forward through her own life; by the needs of narrative structure and the challenges …

Un Quick Impact Projects: A Stepping Stone For United Nations Missions Effectiveness Through The Creation Of A Confidence Building System, Marie Lepin

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis is focusing on the United Nations Quick Impact Projects, which were officially established as part of the UN peacekeeping missions program through the Brahimi report in 2004. Their primary purpose is to develop and strengthen the relationship between the mission and the host population. Precisely, this analysis is centering on the influence that improved relationships have on the effectiveness of a UN mission. In order to do so, the structure of this research is based on a comparative method, using interviews from the field and at the UN headquarters in New York City. The purpose of such method …

Civilian Protection: The Imperative Role Of Civil Society, Collen Kelly

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

Gender Based Violence As A Continuum Of Human Rights Violations In Russia And The Czech Republic, Alena Lebron

Dissertations and Theses

Gender-based violence can take various forms – physical, sexual, psychological, and economic. Violence against women is a global public health problem and not only violates human rights, but also hampers productivity, reduces human capital, and undermines economic growth. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, human trafficking for sexual exploitation and domestic violence have become a significant problem in post-communist countries. The fall of the Soviet Union also shaped national gender policies in post-communist countries. Despite the common challenges they face, success in implementing anti-trafficking procedures and measures against domestic violence varies from country to country.

According to …