Law Commons^™

Agenda Setting And Europe's Common Immigration Policy, Jamie P. Surface

Dissertations and Theses

For over a decade the European Union has been immersed in an immigration crisis. As the desired destination for millions of people fleeing unrest in the Middle East and war in Ukraine, the EU has developed its own social, political, and humanitarian crisis. Lacking policy commonality across its member states on how to accept and manage the mass waves of migrants, the EU continues to struggle with implementing a common immigration policy. This research examines EU immigration issues, policies, and the failures of successful collaboration stymying the implementation of a standard immigration policy. Using the agenda setting model of John …

Intersectionality Pertaining To The Disproportionate Rates Of Black Women In Prisons And Jails, Mackenzie Heller

University Honors Theses

The incarceration rates of Black women in America surpass even all other demographics. Yet, Black women are often not on the news when discussing prison rates in the United States. Rather we see Black men, Hispanic men, and so forth. While these people do make up large portions of the prison system they are seeing a decline in their incarceration rates. Black women are often pushed to the sidelines when discussing matters that can be seen as central to their livelihoods.

This thesis addresses the intersectionality that only Black women experience and how that affects their imprisonment rates and experiences …

Together Or Apart? The Effects A Parent's Relationship Dynamic Has On Their Child(Ren)'S Romantic Relationship, Kailee Delos Santos

University Honors Theses

The relationship between parents is considered one of the most influential interactions a child will experience; as it is usually the first relationship a child witnesses where personal values and interests develop (Stanger, 2019). Nonetheless, it is a consistently understudied population in family research and, when studied, children are primarily examined during adolescence and often only in the context of conflict and rivalry. Additionally, much of this research does not examine the effects of a child's romantic relationship on the larger family system. This thesis seeks to address this gap in the literature by understanding how the relationship of a …

A Day Late And A Dollar Short: Examining Perceptions Of Which Exonerees Deserve Compensation, Alexandra Pauline Olson

Dissertations and Theses

Many exonerees do not receive compensation from the state after they are found innocent and released because most states have exclusionary laws that bar exonerees from receiving compensation. This thesis examined public perceptions of exclusionary laws and addressed the broader question of who deserves compensation (according to community members). Online participants (n = 225) read an article about a fictional exoneree who either pleaded guilty or was convicted by a jury trial and who received a subsequent conviction or did not receive a subsequent conviction. An exoneree with a subsequent conviction was perceived as less deserving of financial compensation, …

An Exploration Of The Wide-Reaching Effects Of The Repeal Of Roe V. Wade On Women's Access To Abortion, Mitchell J. Foster

University Honors Theses

Since 1973, the federal government, through the Supreme Court of the United States, has acted to protect, the rights of women in their ability to choose to have an abortion without excessive governmental restriction. This thesis analyzes how and why access to abortion will shift in the face of the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade (1973), likely to occur this June. This thesis begins with an in-depth description of how and why abortion became illegal, how and why abortion became legal, and how the opposition has developed against legal abortion. Through the last few decades, though especially in …

Policing By Proxy: Interrogating Big Tech's Role In Law Enforcement, Claire Elizabeth

University Honors Theses

Predictive policing, sometimes referred to as data-driven or actuarial policing, is a method of policing that uses a risk-based approach to law enforcement. For-profit technology companies market proprietary risk assessment algorithms to law enforcement organizations as tools meant to proactively mitigate crime. Using data collected from a vast array of sources, both personal and public, police are able to "predict" the likelihood of criminal activity in a given area using these algorithms. Proponents claim that risk assessment tools have the potential to fight crime with unbiased accuracy and speed by predicting when, where, and whom to police by relying on …

Examining Probation Lengths In Philadelphia, Pa, Madeline Grace Davis

Dissertations and Theses

One out of every 22 adults in Philadelphia, PA is under community supervision which is more than double the national average (Schiraldi, 2018). Even though probation has been seen as a more lenient alternative to prison it actually serves as a net-widener (Phelps, 2020). Probation can result in increased punishments for low-level offenses when failure to meet probation conditions results in jail or prison time when there was never a possibility of long-term incarceration at the time of sentencing (Phelps, 2020). This study uses public court information data from Philadelphia to analyze the effects different dosages of probation have on …

Assessing The Accessibility Of The Judicial System's Arrest-To-Parole Timeline For People Who Are D/Deaf And Hard-Of-Hearing, Evelyn G. Birnbaum

University Honors Theses

The judicial system is inaccessible to many groups of people for a variety of reasons, one of those populations being the d/Deaf and Hard of Hearing community (DHH). This community faces prejudice and discrimination in many institutions because of their identity, but within the justice system, this prejudice is compounded and controlled by poor legislation and either the lack of, or barriers to, effective communication. At every point in the chronological timeline from getting arrested to achieving parole, individuals who are d/Deaf or Hard of Hearing face discrimination and obstacles that their hearing counterparts do not. The discrimination they face …

Immigration Federalism In The United States: Constructing A Contemporary Institutional Framework Centered On Local Communities Through A Case Study Approach, Sara Kuehlhorn Friedman

Dissertations and Theses

This research study presents a new model of immigration federalism which integrates existing theories into a framework that emphasizes agency at the local level. Unlike dominant models of federalism that observe the cascading effect of higher-level policy on lower levels of government, this research focuses on empirical evidence at the local level to understand its relation to policy at higher levels. Immigration federalism is receiving substantial interest in scholarly work and in practice, but it lacks a cohesive and comprehensive theory explaining variation at the community level. There is little reason to expect sweeping changes in immigration policy at the …