Digital Commons Network^™

An Examination Of Sexual Assault Resource Programs In West Virginia, Stephanie Hansell

COLA Research and Creativity Conference

An Examination of Sexual Assault Resource Programs in West Virginia

Every 98 seconds, an individual in the United States is sexually assaulted (WV FRIS 2018). This means that one out of every six individuals in our country is the victim of an attempted or completed assault in their lifetime. Rural communities tend to have fewer resources when it comes to victims of sexual assault, and this type of victimization is often underreported in these communities. Specifically, in 2015 an estimated 19% of rape and sexual assault victimizations were reported to the police in urban areas, compared to an estimated 2% …

What Steps Countries Are Taking To Prevent Sex Trafficking: The Relationship Between Law Enforcement And Sex Trafficking, Claire Joswick

COLA Research and Creativity Conference

The International Labor Organization estimates that there are 4.8 million people currently trapped in sex trafficking at a global level. Human trafficking, which can also be referred to as modern-day human slavery, is an issue that never left the planet; only one that which adapted to the changing world. In this study, a large literature review has been complied to analyze the statistics gathered by government and non-federal organizations regarding the issue of sex trafficking, and how law enforcement is tackling this issue at a domestic and global level. Qualitative data collected in the form of interviews took place in …

Pop Culture Characters As Role Models And Their Effects On Self-Esteem, Casey Watson

COLA Research and Creativity Conference

This study will look at the self-esteem of college students due pop culture “role models” that they had growing up. The most popular characters to this generation of are superheroes and the Disney princesses. The study looks at how the characters’ masculinity, femininity, and the gender had effects on the self-esteem of these developing adults. The importance of this study is to see how pop culture effects the self-esteem of their audiences. Pop culture is a huge part of today’s culture and if something is going to be a big part of life, we should look at how it effects …

Needle Return In Needle Exchange Programs, Stephanie Spaulding

COLA Research and Creativity Conference

Needle Return in Needle Exchange Programs

The first NEP (Needle Exchange Program) was in Amsterdam, Netherlands in 1984, followed four years later by the first U.S. NEP in 1988 in Tacoma, Washington (The Center for Innovative Public Policies, 2012). NEPs have been shown to reduce risk of disease, and prior studies suggest that individuals who participate in such programs are more likely to enter recovery from opioid addiction, making them an important public health intervention. The worldwide average for needle return in NEPs is around 90% (Ksobiech, 2004). With the needle return rate in Huntington being around 60%-70%, it is …

Is She Worse Than Him: An Attitudes And Perceptions Study, Sydney Mullins

COLA Research and Creativity Conference

There is currently an ongoing debate in regards to the level of equality amongst women and men in American society. Women often feel they are not seen as equal to men, and in most cases, this has proven to be true. However, whether or not this is true when it comes to the way people perceive deviant behavior is up for debate.

The purpose of this research is to assess the attitudes and perceptions, of the general public, surrounding the same acts being committed by males and females. The goal is to determine if a person committing criminal acts is …

Objection!: Ace Attorney And The Japanese Criminal Courts, Emmalee A. Ellison

COLA Research and Creativity Conference

The Ace Attorney video game series is a game series developed by Capcom since 2001 that can be described as an interactive visual novel in the criminal courts. Despite claims that the Ace Attorney video game series is inaccurate to court proceedings, these arguments are made in comparison to the American criminal justice system, and not the Japanese courts that the series was originally modeled after. The Ace Attorney series holds relatively true to the happenings of the Japanese criminal justice system, except some scenarios are localized and exaggerated for the sake of video game drama and suspense. Moreover, since …

The Balloon Effect On West Virginia, Ashley N. Wilson

COLA Research and Creativity Conference

According to the CDC, West Virginia is eleven times the national average for opiate related deaths. Huntington has been hit the worst with this drug epidemic. The idea of the balloon effect on drugs, is more commonly used to describe what happens when clamping down on the production of a drug in one area will push that same drug into another area. However, I will examine how the crack down on prescription pills here in West Virginia, has led to the pop up of other illicit drug use in the state.

The Effectiveness Of Treatment Plans For Incarcerated Individuals With Personality Disorders, Chelsea Wallen

COLA Research and Creativity Conference

This literature review aims to examine the types of treatment plans incarcerated individuals diagnosed with personality disorders receive and their effectiveness. I expect to find that inmates who receive Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) will have higher rates of completing treatment. DBT consists of individual and group therapy, with a focus on the person’s emotions and actions and how they are related. Research indicates that DBT is an effective treatment strategy for female inmates with borderline personality disorder, as well as for inmates with comorbid borderline and antisocial personality disorders. Substance abuse treatment strategies have also been found to be effective …

Why Do Victims Keep Returning To Abusive Intimate Partners, Jieying Zhou

COLA Research and Creativity Conference

Purpose: The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (2010) states that more than 1 in 3 women (35.6%) and more than 1 in 4 men (28.5%) in the United States have experienced rape, physical violence, and/or stalking by an intimate partner in their lifetime. Most of the victims keep returning back to the abusive partners. The purpose of this study is to examine the following three questions: a) why would an individual keep on returning to an abusive relationship, b) how do attachment patterns enter into abusive relationships, and c) what individual characteristics make some more likely than others …