Digital Commons Network^™

Elder Fraud In The Mountain West, 2023, Taylor Volk, Madison Dwyer, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Criminal Justice

This fact sheet presents data on complaints of fraud affecting individuals over the age of 60 and associated financial losses reported by elderly individuals in the Mountain West. The 2023 Elder Fraud Report serves to illuminate trends in elder fraud reports throughout the 50 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, Guam, U.S. Minor Outlying Islands, American Samoa, U.S. Virgin Islands, and Northern Mariana Islands. This fact sheet focuses on elder fraud data for the Mountain West states of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah.

Prosecutorial Perceptions Of Discovery Reform On A Local Level, Gabrielle A. Roubanian, Janne E. Gaub, Marthinus C. Koen, James J. Willis

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"In recent years, several states in the United States have considered and implemented discovery reforms to regulate how evidence is included and shared as criminal cases play out in the court system. Currently, little research explores how prosecutors have made sense of these reforms and how discovery changes have impacted their day-to-day routines. Consequently, this case study considers how prosecutors at a large prosecutorial agency in the United States made sense of discovery reforms implemented in its state two years before data collection. Findings are based on 35 semi-structured qualitative interviews and highlight how prosecutors experienced the implementation of the …

“They Don’T Want Us Anywhere”: The Impact Of Anti-Homelessness Laws On Unsheltered Residents Of Fort Worth, Texas, Brie Diamond

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"Access to public space is not afforded equally amongst the population. Often, the people who must spend most of their time in these spaces, people experiencing homelessness, are barred by local or state law from being there. Fort Worth, Texas, implemented a camping ban in 2019 that prohibits camping on public or private property. This article explores the impact of this ban on unsheltered people experiencing homelessness using semi-structured interviews with 18 people residing in encampments across the city. The findings document the tangible and existential losses endured by this group and the impact on the perception of their place …

Campaigning For Change: How State-Level Groups Advocate For Legislative Sexual Offense Reform, Jennifer L. Wooldridge, Danielle J. S. Bailey, Stephanie Taulli

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"In the criminal justice field, advocacy groups work to better the circumstances for specific groups of people facing perceived injustice. While some advocacy groups have been studied extensively, one type of group – sexual offense reform advocates – has been understudied. This is particularly problematic due to stigmatization and legislative differences in how individuals convicted of sex crimes are supervised compared those convicted of non-sexual offenses. These post-conviction differences make it necessary to better understand these advocacy groups and their processes when fighting for public policy change. The current study examines qualitative interviews conducted with affiliates of a national organization …

Complexities Of Appellate Law: Experiences And Perspectives Of Utah Indigent Appellate Attorneys, Whitney Howey, Stephanie Kathan, Jeremiah W. Jaggers, Chris Cambron

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"Indigent appellate attorneys experience high stress due to their unique roles and responsibilities. Very little scientific research examines the lives and experiences of attorneys in the workplace. Characterizing and describing the variety of complexities and challenges Utah appellate attorneys face within their work provides information towards filling the profession’s gaps, stressors, and occupational needs. A sample of five Utah appellate attorneys were interviewed to better understand their perspectives and experiences in the workplace. We used thematic analysis to identify themes related to Utah appellate attorney experiences and perspectives. We identified four major themes from the data, including Personal approach, Working …

Puppycide By Gavel: How The Judiciary Uses The Police Killing Of Dogs To Reinforce Justifications For Police Violence, Jeremy J. Smith

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"Police discharge their firearms more often at dogs than humans, and as a profession, kill thousands of dogs every year. The number of dogs killed by police during these encounters has government officials declaring that an “epidemic” is occurring within policing itself, with some commentators referring to this trend as “puppycide” or “canicide.” The purpose of this article is to examine how the judiciary rationalizes canicide, or the police killing of dogs, and the role canicide plays in the justification of police violence. To do this, the article provides a sociolegal and ethnographic content analysis of federal court cases and …

Structural Racism And Mass Shooting Events In Mountain West Cities, 2015-2019, Mohit Pande, Nicole Diaz Del Valle, Olivia K. Cheche, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Criminal Justice

This fact sheet presents data on the link between social and demographic metrics of principal cities in four Mountain West metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs): Phoenix, AZ; Tucson, AZ; Denver, CO; and Las Vegas, NV. This fact sheet also reports the number of people affected by mass shooting events (MSEs) as originally reported in “Association Between Markers of Structural Racism and Mass Shooting Events in Major US Cities,” published by The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Surgery. The original article derives data from 865 MSEs across 51 MSAs in the United States.

Listening Suppers At The Landing Place: Talking With Rockland-Area Youth About School, Work, & Life, Jillian Foley Mppm, Swathi Sivasubramanian, Timothy Atkinson, Olivia Eckert, Emma Schwartz

Justice Policy

This piece (June 2025) is a collaboration with our partners at The Landing Place to amplify youth voices and ideas for systems change that came out of a series of conversations with youth in Rockland, called Listening Suppers which aimed to inspire conversations about school, work, family, community supports, relationships, and more. This short brief highlights the themes that came out of these conversations including community strengths and assets, gaps and youth needs, and youth informed recommendations for change. While much of the conversations were specific to the local Rockland community, the challenges and solutions highlighted are similar to what …

From Australian Influence To Rohingya Refugees: A Systematic Literature Review Of Asylum Seekers And Refugees In Indonesia, Bilal Dewansyah

The Indonesian Journal of Socio-Legal Studies

The fact that Indonesia hosts asylum seekers and refugees attracted not only policy debate and media attention but also academic research. However, no systematic review has been conducted to assess the scholarly literature on this topic. This article is intended to fill this gap by presenting a systematic literature review (SLR) on asylum seekers and refugees in Indonesia. As a result, I found five major themes in the reviewed literature: (1) the focus on the Indonesia – Australia relationship; (2) people smuggling; (3) refugees’ journey and living conditions in Indonesia; (4) Rohingya refugees; (5) legal protection and refugee status. However, …

Judicial Deference In Immigration Cases: A Qualitative Inquiry Into How Judicial Decision Making Shapes Immigration Policy, Jurgen R. Soekhoe

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

In the United States, the inherent right of a sovereign nation to regulate immigration and naturalization has been a privilege long recognized. The judicially established plenary power doctrine affirmed that right in 1889, only to be forgotten to history through shifting judicial focus. This study analyzed the connection between the political branch’s constitutional and statutory authority on immigration regulation and the influence of the federal judiciary on that power by reviewing immigration law, executive action, and judicial decisions. Increased judicial review into immigration-related matters has affected immigration policy. Soliciting firsthand insight from 17 federal judges provided unparalleled insight when investigating …

Comprehending The Influence Of Harassment And Stalking Laws On The Safety And Well-Being Of Victims In The Us, Khazayma Khan

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the problem of unresponsive law enforcement faced by legitimate victims of harassment and stalking in the United States and to ultimately develop recommendations to address the problem. A mixed method was used in which qualitative and quantitative data was gathered and analyzed. For this dissertation, a mixed method was applied using interviews, focus group discussions, and surveys to gather data among victims of harassment and stalking. The participants were recruited using convenience sampling in which victims of harassment and stalking were selected from relevant organizations, such as support services. A total of …

The Case Against Police Militarization: Stop Turning Police Into Soldiers, Kenia A. Silva Garcia

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

This paper will critically explore police militarization in the United States, highlighting its origins, implications, and the urgent need to demilitarize them. The rise of militarized police forces began in the 1960s—the War on Drugs and federal programs that allowed military equipment to be transferred to local police departments made their expansion even more possible. Due to this expansion, this paper discusses that police should not be militarized because it increases violence, disproportionately affects marginalized communities, particularly racial minorities, and ultimately fails to reduce crime. Evidence suggests that militarized police forces foster systemic inequalities that are rooted in historical racism—a …

How Mass Incarceration Has Destroyed African American Communities, Angeliki Karvounis

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

Beginning with the “Tough on Crime” movement of the 1970s, policies such as mandatory minimums, the War on Drugs, and the Three Strikes law have reinforced racial disparities in the criminal justice system. Multiple historical and systemic factors have contributed to the disproportionate imprisonment of African American individuals. This paper explores the long-term consequences of incarceration, including the erosion of family structures, the economic marginalization of affected communities, and the perpetuation of poverty and crime. The repercussions of parental incarceration on children and the challenges faced by formerly incarcerated individuals seeking reintegration into society are examples of the long-term consequences …

The Role Of Criminology In The Courtroom, Nia Mehroke

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

Criminology and expert witness testimony play a crucial role in modern-day court proceedings. Scientific data and insights utilized in criminology can assist with seeking justice and fairness. This essay aims to provide a basis for the history of criminology and define the practice. It will explore the evolution of criminology practices and how theories have developed that are still utilized today. Furthermore, it will discuss criminologists’ many contributions as expert witnesses, including the role of ethics that criminologists must follow in court. Some key ideas presented include the methodologies criminologists use to present evidence and what standard criminologists must follow …

Qualitative Analysis Of The Influence Of Military Culture On The Resocialization Of Combat Veterans, Kyle N. Rodgers

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The researcher conducted in-depth interviews with 25 combat-experienced Veterans of the Global War on Terror who fit an operational definition of successful resocialization. How do successfully resocialized combat Veterans compare with combat Veterans who became involved with the criminal justice system? Utilizing a snowball method to identify each participant, the most significant finding from these interviews was that two factors seem to differentiate the civilian and military group styles the most, which were the overwhelming importance of purpose and tribe in the lives of combat Veterans. This confirmed the hypothesis that the most significant difference between the civilian and military …

Routine Activity Theory And The Severity Of Terrorist Act, Yiwei Song

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Terrorist incidents have increased dramatically in the past several decades, leading to significant casualties and property damage worldwide. While prior studies grounded in lifestyle exposure theory have explored how victim demographics, lifestyle, and routine activities influence the likelihood of victimization, this study applies Routine Activity Theory to examine whether increased guardianship in the form of target security reduces the severity of terrorist incidents. Using data from 15,138 terrorist incidents in 2015 from the Global Terrorism Database (GTD), this study investigates the relationship between offender motives, target security, and the severity of attacks, measured by fatalities, injuries, and property damage. Furthermore, …

Looking Back, Looking Forward: Contextualizing Historical Bioarchaeological Accounts With Contemporary Social Issues, Katharine Chiyono Woollen

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The very existence of women has been taken for granted throughout history. Their domestic roles are viewed as biologically fixed, resulting in a general lack of information recorded or researched relating to their lived experiences, life histories, and narratives. Instead, it is the history of white men that has been standardized as the norm, creating visible gaps in our understanding of women’s experiences. Additionally, the majority of existing literature centers on female reproduction, their roles as mothers, and violence enacted against women. While this information contributes towards a greater understanding of women’s experiences in bioarchaeological investigations, these data often lack …

Foster Children’S Repeated Disruptions: A Qualitative Analysis Of Stakeholder Insights On Failed Permanency In Foster Care., Teresa Marie

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study examines factors contributing to failed permanency outcomes in the foster care system, focusing on adoptions, guardianships, and reunifications. Using strain theory as a framework, this research examines the systemic pressures and institutional barriers within dependency courts, which mirror punitive aspects of the criminal justice system. Expanding strain theory to include a meso-level analysis, the study explores how organizational practices, resource distribution, and inter-agency collaboration influence permanency outcomes. A qualitative approach utilizing semi-structured interviews with judges, attorneys, social workers, district attorneys, and healthcare professionals provides an in-depth understanding of stakeholder perspectives. This research offers actionable recommendations to address systemic …

Misidentified Bodies And Missing Data: Exploring Forensic Disempowerment And Skeletal Narratives Of Transgender And Gender-Diverse Individuals In The United States, Taylor M. Flaherty

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The bodies of transgender and gender-diverse (TGD) individuals represent a physical nexus of contempt and scrutiny. In the United States (U.S.), TGD people experience disproportionate levels of violence and premature death, contributing to a persistent epidemic of harm. Institutionalized anti-TGD biases have reinforced systemic neglect, leading to the routine exclusion of TGD individuals from research, data collection, and historical archives. The absence of state or federal initiatives to track mortality trends and risk factors among this population further exacerbates their systematic erasure. In particular, forensic scientists have traditionally relied on dichotomous indicators of sexual expression which may fail to account …

The Mindful Officer: Enhancing Officer Mental, Physical, And Social Wellness Through Resilience Training, Tanya Dudinskaya

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The issue of mental health among the U.S. population has gained national attention, with numerous wide-scale initiatives aimed at providing resources for the public. However, certain professional populations encounter unique challenges in their occupation and often lack specific support for their mental and physical health needs that stem from long-term exposure to unpredictable stressors. One population facing these issues is law enforcement. Police officers regularly experience chronic stress related to their job demands, as they manage high-pressure situations and exposure to significant trauma, all while being under increased public scrutiny in recent years. Previous research has highlighted the effects of …

Bridging The Justice Gap: Low-Income Taxpayer Clinic At North Mississippi Rural Legal Services, Emma-Kathryn Bond

Honors Theses

Over the course of two years, I spent more than 130 hours completing on-the- ground volunteer work with the Low-Income Taxpayer Clinic (LITC), a clinic within North Mississippi Rural Legal Services that provides free legal assistance to individuals navigating disputes with the IRS. While the Sixth Amendment guarantees legal representation in criminal cases, no such guarantee exists for civil matters such as tax disputes, housing instability, or loss of public benefits. Clinics like LITC fill a crucial gap by offering support in areas that are often overlooked, such as tax law, where clients risk audits, wage garnishments, and court proceedings …

As If We Could Get Along: Dramatic Reality’S Influence On The Prosociality Of Adolescent Boys With Problematic Sexual Behavior, Joel David Bender

Expressive Therapies Theses

There is a strong need for novel treatment approaches for adolescents with problematic sexual behavior (PSB), considering that historically, treatment approaches for adult sex offenders have been blindly applied to youth. Adolescent boys with PSB are at risk for poor treatment outcomes when they engage in anti-social behaviors and group hostility. Dramatic reality, a core process in drama therapy, may assist in transforming the experience of boys in their capacity to exhibit prosocial behavior, given that dramatic reality inherently augments reality. This community arts workshop used purposive sampling in a day treatment center for adolescent boys with PSB and explored …

Social Media And Protection Of The Youth: Assessing Policy Safeguards And Political Implications, Genesis N. Rivera

Honors Capstones

The purpose of this paper is to explain the potential gaps in U.S. state-level policies from Illinois, Utah, and California. The scope of this paper focuses on policies that specifically address the emerging issue of child influencers. Through a comparative analysis, I found that states like Illinois, California, and Utah all lack enforcement mechanisms, which rational choice theory explains are crucial for ensuring policy effectiveness. Many states, such as California and Utah, followed Illinois’s legal framework through policy diffusion. Therefore, I propose that, in order for states to adopt stronger measures, they should implement France’s more developed legal framework. Through …

Fugitive Colors, Natalie Rose Eddings

Theses and Dissertations

My objects are meditations on intertwining themes of labor, rest, and interiority and their shadow sides—power, subjugation and the gaze. I couple materials that have millenia-long histories such as metals, glass, paper and clay with found objects and plat materials to illustrate narratives and exhume memories. Drawn from nature and technologies of land, plant stewardship and the domestic realm, I imagine my sculptures as life supporting vessels or magical enclosures.

Through sculpture, photography and printmaking, I build structures that are space of quiet to be filled with thought, healing and development. Like incubators and seed pods, my work is protective …

Developing And Validating An Emotion Recognition Test For Policing, Kyle Mclean, Trey Bussey, Justin Nix, Jeff Rojek, Abigail Curran, Vivian Ta-Johnson, Geoffrey P. Alpert

Sociology Publications

Purpose: Police executives and criminologists alike have advocated for the incorporation of emotional intelligence in the hiring and training of police officers. Despite general consensus that emotional intelligence is important for a variety of outcomes in policing, most published studies on the topic have relied on crude measures, such as self-report assessments. While self-report tests are validated for many uses, their applicability as an objective measure of skills is limited.

Design/Methodology: Using three studies, this paper outlines the development and validation of an emotion recognition test specifically intended for policing. The first study outlines the construction of the …

“Cry Harder!”: How Parents Traffic Their Children Through Forced Child Begging And Child Labor, Abigail K. Bellocchio

Sociology and Criminology Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis examines the complex intersection of socioeconomic and cultural factors influencing forced child begging, a form of human trafficking, across different global regions. Through comprehensive literature analysis and examination of data from the Global K-anonymized Dataset from Counter-Trafficking Data Collaborative (2021), this research reveals a critical gap in human trafficking discourse: the absence of a unified definition and understanding of forced child begging. Despite affecting millions of children worldwide, forced child begging remains fragmented in academic literature, scattered across disciplines including child welfare, anthropology, and media studies rather than being centrally addressed in anti-trafficking frameworks. The research identifies that …

Examining The Motivational Circumstances Of Bias-Motivated Violence And The Likelihood Of Fatal Outcomes, Kathleen R. Sucher

Sociology and Criminology Undergraduate Honors Theses

Bias-motivated violence has emerged as an increasingly urgent social problem in the United States, with recent years witnessing significant rises in hate crimes against multiple marginalized groups. Although prior research has recognized that bias crimes are not motivated by a single factor, gaps remain in understanding how motivational circumstances relate to fatal outcomes and how situational factors differ between types of bias attacks. Using descriptive and bivariate analyses of cases from the Bias Homicide Database (2015-2022), this study examines the relationship between motivation, fatal outcomes, and incident characteristics in bias-motivated murders and attempted murders. Findings show that while predatory motivations …

Does The Private Prison Industry Perpetrate More Staff Sexual Misconduct Than In Federal Prisons?, Abigail Lutrick

Political Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper compares the reported statistics of staff-on-inmate sexual misconduct allegations in privately and federally operated correctional facilities. The federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) was first created with the goal of protecting public safety and promoting rehabilitation for criminal offenders humanely. As decades have passed, and the support for the validity of this mission has wavered, the federal government has implemented oversight and remedial programs to report on the misconduct that is evident in prison management in an attempt to curb these incidents. Previous research in this field highlights the waning reliability of institutional indicators to the success of correctional …

Recognizing Injustice, Reclaiming Voices: Establishing A Missing Persons Database For Missing And Murdered Indigenous Women And Children In Nebraska, Bayly W. Watson

Department of Anthropology: Theses and Student Research

Indigenous people have been the victims of harsh persecution since the time of colonization; this has negatively impacted Native communities and has contributed significantly to the ongoing crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Children (MMIWC) across the United States and Canada. Under Legislative Bill 154, Richards et al. (2021) conducted an initial study to identify missing Native cases in Nebraska and in 2023, the Attorney General appointed a Missing and Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP) Liaison to help combat the number of missing Indigenous in the state. This thesis contributes to previous research by analyzing 20,049 reports from three …

Heat Induced Diagenesis And Osteometrics: An Experimental Approach To Assessing Thermal Alterations To Forensic Anthropological Data On Dry Bone, Audrey Holbeck

Department of Anthropology: Theses and Student Research

Fire appears in forensic casework in instances of arson, vehicle fire, house fire, to conceal evidence, or, in increasing contemporary frequency, wildfire, as a result of climate change. Thermal alteration is a destructive process to osseous material and can impact the accuracy of identification methods and trauma analysis by alteration of the structure, appearance, and morphology of human remains. This study seeks to validate previous research on the metric and morphological changes bone undergoes when exposed to extreme heat, and how that may impede estimation of metric features such as stature. Three long bones, a humerus, femur, and tibia, from …