Digital Commons Network^™

Expanding State Tax Authority: Public And Private Sector Impacts Of Wayfair, Maxwell Pastoria

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The 2018 Supreme Court decision in South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc. (Wayfair) overturned the longstanding physical presence rule for state sales tax collection, enabling states to enforce tax obligations on remote sellers through marketplace facilitator and economic nexus laws (Oyez, 2018). This study investigates the effects of these two post-Wayfair tax laws on state sales tax revenues, entrepreneurship, and public expenditures across all 50 states. Using a two-way fixed effects difference-in-differences (TWFE DID) framework, this research analyzes how policy adoption influenced per-capita outcomes in tax revenue, firm formation, and government spending in social services, education, infrastructure, and …

A Look Deeper Into Ohio’S Opioid Crisis And The Lasting Political Effects Of The Issue, Robert C. Dunn

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This research studies how the opioid crisis deepened partisan divisions in Ohio from the late 1990s to the present. By investigating political responses from both policy-makers and voter behavior following the introduction of OxyContin. This study will focus on the relationship between addiction and overdose rates, which influences those ideological divides. Using qualitative research, such as political rhetoric and legislative responses, and quantitative research, such as election results, to find a correlation between the opioid crisis and partisan polarization. This project aims to highlight how politically motivated decision-making can prevent proper bipartisan responses.

Locked And Loaded: The Truth Behind Gun Violence, Alana N. Shroyer

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Gun control remains one of the most controversial policy issues in the United States. While gun reform advocates argue for stricter firearm regulations to reduce gun violence, pro-gun advocates contend that crime is driven more by individual behavior, socioeconomic conditions, and mental health than by gun availability alone. This research project examines gun control laws in the United States, analyzes gun violence data, explores illegal firearm trade markets, compares international approaches, and evaluates whether gun control laws effectively reduce violence while preserving constitutional rights.

Mapping Multiclass-Targeted Hate Speech In Online Discourse: An Open Dataset, Sanaa Kaddoura, Sumaia Al-Kohlani

All Works

Online social networks have become central spaces for public discourse, where hostile and discriminatory language toward social groups can cause psychological and social consequences for marginalized communities. Although multiple public hate speech datasets are available, many rely on binary categorization practices that obscure linguistic, cultural, and contextual variation across targeted groups. As a result, minority and less visible forms of hate speech remain insufficiently documented and analyzed. This discussion paper examines methodological limitations in existing hate speech annotation schemes and presents a re-annotation framework applied to the HatEval2019 dataset. The proposed framework introduces target-specific multiclass labels that distinguish subcategories of …

Apportioned Direct Taxes, Conor Clarke, Ari Glogower

Scholarship@WashULaw

The Constitution requires that Congress apportion any “direct” tax among the states by population. This once-dormant provision is now the most important constitutional limitation on Congress’s taxing power. Last year, in Moore v. United States, the Supreme Court seriously considered, for the first time in decades, whether to invalidate an Act of Congress as an unapportioned direct tax. While the law survived, Moore has opened a new era in which scholars and policymakers must again take apportionment seriously. Yet the apportionment requirement remains poorly understood.

This Article provides a new perspective on apportionment by examining how Congress and Treasury …

Justifying The Fourth Amendment, Daniel Epps

Scholarship@WashULaw

Why does the Fourth Amendment belong in the Constitution? This question is not whether society should impose some legal restraints on government searches and seizures. Rather, why should such protections reside in our national charter, superior to other forms of law and insulated from change via ordinary majoritarian political processes? Despite major disputes about the Fourth Amendment’s content, Fourth Amendment theorists rarely ask this question. Almost all agree that the Fourth Amendment’s constitutional protections are critically important—even if no one can agree exactly what those protections are.

This Article seeks a justification for the Fourth Amendment—the reason why search-and-seizure protections …

Technological Interventions For Reducing Climate Change Impacts On Health: An Overview Of Future Possibilities, Sujatha Alla, Vijay Kumar Chattu, Bawa Singh

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

Globally, over five million deaths annually are attributed to extreme weather events exacerbated by climate change, such as heatwaves, hurricanes, wildfires, droughts, and floods, which create health crises and economic losses. The 2015 Paris Declaration emphasized climate technology mechanisms, including research and development, to enhance resilience and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Biotechnological advancements have mitigated about 20% of economic losses since the 1960s, highlighting technology’s potential to address climate-induced health risks.

Rural Women And Intimate Partner Violence: A Geographical Analysis Of Victim Service Providers In The Southern United States, Natalie O'Brien

2026 Research Poster Competition

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a persistent public safety and public health issue in the United States. Women in rural areas, particularly in the Southern United States, experience disproportionately high levels of frequency and severity. Prior research shows that as communities become more rural, survivors face greater risks of severe violence alongside fewer available support services. This study examines how geographic location shapes help-seeking behaviors and access to victim service providers among adult IPV survivors, with particular attention to differences between rural, suburban, and urban areas in the South. Using nationally representative data from the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) …

The Ettrick Trail Town Guide: Trail Tourism As An Economic Revitalization Strategy, Dagny Oakley

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

The Ettrick Trail Town Guide: Trail Tourism as an Economic Revitalization Strategy in Ettrick, Virginia provides context-specific strategies for the Ettrick community to utilize to capitalize on existing and future trail infrastructure. This plan outlines demographic trends, development patterns, and trail networks, and establishes actionable recommendations for transforming Ettrick into a trail hub. Utilizing the Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) framework, this plan focuses on existing strengths within the community as it pertains to trail tourism, and investigates how these assets can be capitalized on. Key recommendations include improving both physical and cultural connections to trails, adopting marketing and branding …

Eroding Protections: The Decline Of Miranda Rights And Its Impact On Due Process In Contemporary America, Autumn G. Pelfrey

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This thesis examines whether the protections established in Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966), remain robust within contemporary criminal justice practice or have been weakened through doctrinal and practical developments. Miranda warnings were originally designed to mitigate the risk that coercive custodial interrogation would produce compelled or unreliable self-incrimination. Since 1966, however, both judicial interpretation and evolving law-enforcement practices have created a growing gap between Miranda’s formal legal promise and its practical operation in real-world interrogations.

The study evaluates the erosion of Miranda’s protective force through three primary mechanisms. First, doctrinal developments have narrowed Miranda’s scope by redefining …

The Impact Of Social Media Movements On Policy Changes Made In The United States, Michelle Levy Korine

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This study focuses on researching the relationship between social media movements and policy changes in the United States. Over the last decade, digital platforms such as TikTok, Instagram and X have become important tools to encourage political involvement. These platforms have led to an increase in public participation, movements to become more popular and to organize protests. Many current studies focus on the social and cultural aspects of online activism, but fewer examine wither these movements lead to the legislative change asked for.

This thesis relies on the question, "To what extent does social media activism contribute to policy change …

Erasing The Artist, Policing The City: Michael Stewart And New York’S War On Graffiti, Vladislav Kirilov

Anthós

The 1983 death of Michael Stewart, a young Black graffiti artist, exposes the violent logic at the center of New York City’s War on Graffiti. Under Mayor Ed Koch and the rise of broken windows policing, graffiti was framed as a racialized symbol of disorder used to justify intensified control of public space. Rather than becoming political in this moment, graffiti is understood here as an already politicized form of expression shaped by racial and spatial inequality. The article examines how Stewart’s killing made police violence visible, provoking responses from artists, activists, and graffiti writers while revealing the human costs …

Turning Local Strength Into Regional Change: An Operational Plan For Capacity Building In Virginia’S Tobacco Region, Ellie Plisko

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

Virginia's Tobacco Region possesses meaningful community assets including committed local leadership, established social networks, and demonstrated resilience, yet many localities consistently struggle to translate those strengths into high-impact economic development projects. The gap is not one of vision or funding, but of organizational capacity: the ability to develop, manage, and implement complex projects over time.

This capstone plan was developed for the Virginia Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission (TRRC) to address that gap directly. Drawing on semi-structured stakeholder interviews, document and case analysis, and comparative institutional assessment, the research identifies the structural, relational, and process-based conditions that distinguish successful projects from …

Finding Aid For The Mississippi Politics Collection (Mum00316)

Archives & Special Collections: Finding Aids (alphabetical)

Artificially created collection on individual Mississippi politicians and the state’s politics in general.

Disaster Risk Management During Climate Emergencies In The Dominican Republic And Puerto Rico, Rosleny Ubinas

Dissertations and Theses

This paper analyzes the DRM approach as an effective framework in addressing climate emergencies across the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. These two Caribbean regions, with high hurricane exposure and differing response structures, are deeply shaped by their governments and affiliated international organizations. Disaster Risk Management is the systematic process of using laws, plans, institutions, and community networks to reduce vulnerability to hazards and coordinate effective response when disasters occur. It covers the full cycle, from prevention to reconstruction and rebuilding more resiliently. The Dominican Republic’s law-based intervention led to greater local-level community participation during disasters with its embedded volunteer …

“A Civilised Order”: Political Economy Of Welfare State Development In United States And South Africa, Camden M. Webb

Masters Theses

The welfare state and its development across national contexts in the twentieth century signaled a marked change in the state’s relationship with its citizens. They developed in a structural crisis between two political economy organizations, moving from liberal structures to regulated ones. As the world continues the current ongoing structural crisis out of the neoliberal structure, the future of welfare policy is uncertain. My research presents a Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) using the United States and South Africa as most-different cases to explore the similarities and differences in their national contexts that shaped their welfare state development in the early …

Live Cctv Monitoring As A Crime Prevention Method: A Case Study Of Prayer Rooms At Station X And Z, Sapta Rizki Setiawan, Mohammad Irvan Olii

Jurnal Kriminologi Indonesia

Abstract. The use of Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) technology in security systems is often passive in nature, functioning mainly as a tool for documentation and post-incident evidence collection. This article presents a case study of successful active live surveillance conducted by security personnel at the Security Operation Center of a private security company in prayer rooms (mushola) of Stations X and Z. Through 24/7 CCTV monitoring and real-time voice intervention using integrated loudspeakers, significant changes were observed in preventing theft of personal belongings of visitors during prayer. Employing a case study approach with autoethnographic methods, this research involved interviews with the …

Folk Devil Construction In The Symbolic Space Of The City (A Study Of Klitih In The City Of Yogyakarta), Iqrak Sulhin, Chisa Belinda Harahap

Jurnal Kriminologi Indonesia

Yogyakarta is widely recognized as a city of culture and education, a symbolic identity institutionalized through historical narratives, political discourse, and cultural policy. The emergence of klitih—a term originally denoting aimless wandering but now associated with youth-perpetrated street violence—has challenged this image and generated intense public concern. While existing studies primarily explain klitih through causal factors such as peer influence, family supervision, and socio-economic conditions, this article shifts attention to the discursive construction of the phenomenon. Drawing on a constructionist approach and informed by cultural criminology and moral panic theory, the study analyses semi-structured interviews with government officials, law …

Structural Negligence And State Harm In Public Safety: The Kelingking Beach Case, Louis O. Wijaya

Jurnal Kriminologi Indonesia

Kelingking Beach in Nusa Penida, Bali, is a highly promoted tourist destination that has been repeatedly associated with serious injuries and fatalities. Despite well-known hazards, incidents continue to occur, raising concerns about public safety governance at natural tourism sites. This study adopts a qualitative case study approach using media reports, policy statements, scientific studies on coastal risk management, and official tourism safety communications. Data were analyzed thematically to identify patterns of risk recognition, safety intervention, and institutional response. The findings reveal a recurring pattern of fatal and serious incidents at Kelingking Beach. Risk management has primarily relied on ambiguous signage, …

Police Integrity And The Code Of Silence (Cos): Evidence From A Large-Scale Scenario-Based Survey In Indonesia, Dr. Indarto, S.H., S.Sos., S.I.K., M.Si -

Jurnal Kriminologi Indonesia

Issues of police integrity are not only driven by individual misconduct but are also sustained by organizational norms that inhibit the reporting of wrongdoing, known as the Code of Silence (CoS). This article reports the results of a large-scale, scenario-based police integrity survey conducted among personnel of the Indonesian National Police (Polri). After excluding responses that did not meet the honesty criterion, analyses were conducted on 57,574 respondents. Respondents evaluated six misconduct scenarios and assessed perceived seriousness, perceived deterrence (likelihood of detection and sanction), knowledge of rules, and willingness to report. Reliability tests indicated very strong internal consistency (Cronbach’s α …

Resilience By Design: Evidence From The Richmond Resilience Initiative, Research Institute For Social Equity Rise, Morgan Woodle Phd, Albert Okwei, Yali Pang, Nakeina E. Douglas-Glenn

Research Institute for Social Equity

This report presents a programmatic evaluation of the Richmond Resilience Initiative (RRI), a guaranteed income program designed to support economic stability among Richmond Residents experiencing financial hardship. The evaluation focuses on participants in Cohort Two and Cohort Three, examining program impacts over the two-year periods during which participants received cash transfers. Guaranteed income (GI), the provision of recurring, unconditional cash transfers, has grown in popularity as a significant policy innovation for addressing economic insecurity and inequality in the United States.

Establishing A Nonmedical Cannabis Market In Virginia: Implications For Equity, Craig Dearield Phd, Anna Grace Causey, Rowan Baylosis, Nakeina E. Douglas-Glenn Phd

Research Institute for Social Equity

Virginia passed an adult-use (recreational; non-medical) cannabis law that went into effect on July 1, 2021. Allowing adult possession of cannabis requires the passage of laws and regulations that govern this market (often similar to tobacco or alcohol) due to the intoxicating nature of cannabis and to ensuring the safety of the production processes. Establishing a formal retail market can also address harms related to public health and criminal justice, and benefit state agencies and residents. In order to maximize benefits, Virginia must implement the market with an equity perspective to ensure just treatment for all residents and organizations.

From Custody To Care: Understanding Mental Health And Recidivism In The Criminal Justice System, India Cox

UROP Posters

Previous studies on genetic influences in mental health disorders have been shown to correlate with incarceration rates in families. Consequently, there are individuals within the criminal justice system under the clinical threshold of a mental health diagnosis; it has been found that almost half of the incarcerated population was arrested due to acting upon their mental health disorder, while 27 to 38 percent developed PTSD while imprisoned. Furthermore, the serious and exhausting cycle of recidivism within the criminal justice system highlights the failure to provide the necessary mental health treatment required to support rehabilitation while incarcerated and prevent reoffending upon …

Exploring The Knowledge Gap: Mental Health Crisis Identification Training For 911 Call Takers, Kayla L. Ralston, Emma Adcook, Gary Cuddeback, Rebecca Smith, Amy Adkins

UROP Posters

Individuals with serious mental illness (SMI) are more likely to come into contact with law enforcement and the justice system. Livingston (2016) found that 25% of people with mental illness have been arrested at least once in their lives.  Law enforcement officers often become the primary intervention in handling a mental health crisis, and most mental health-related training curricula (e.g., Crisis Intervention Team (CIT)) have focused on this group. However, the burden to initially ascertain if an emergency is mental health-related has fallen to 911 call takers and dispatchers, the first first responder. The performance outcomes outlined by the Virginia …

Lgbtq People's Experiences With Crime, Victimization, And The Criminal Legal System, Vanessa R. Panfil

Sociology & Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

The ebb and flow of social control efforts aimed at LGBTQ people necessitate a thorough investigation into their experiences. This review of the literature is organized around four key themes that characterize LGBTQ people's experiences with crime, criminalization, victimization, and the criminal legal system—including police, courts, and carceral facilities. LGBTQ people experience excessive rates of arrest and incarceration and have higher rates of victimization, which illustrate disproportionality. Their experiences differ from those of their cisgender and heterosexual counterparts and are conditioned by age, race, class, gender, and sexual orientation, illustrating intersectionality. The two primary, interrelated mechanisms driving LGBTQ criminalization and …

Tree Composition And Carbon Sequestration Potential Of A University Campus In Bangkok, Thailand, Chaiwat Boonpeng, Pawanrat Butrid Butrid, Marisa Pischom, Satatip Noikrad

Applied Environmental Research

Trees play important roles in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) absorption and climate change mitigation. The objective of this study was to assess tree characteristics and carbon sequestration potential at Ramkhamhaeng University (Hua Mak Campus), Bangkok, Thailand. Tree attributes, including species composition, abundance, diameter at breast height (DBH), and tree height, were recorded. Tree biomass, carbon storage, and CO2 sequestration were estimated using appropriate allometric equations. A total of 2,149 trees were recorded in the study area, corresponding to a tree density of 45.8 trees ha-1. The tree community was dominated by the palm family (Arecaceae), while Terminalia ivorensis was the …

David John Farmer: A Scholarly Biography And Bibliography, Yali Pang, David John Farmer, Rosemary L. Farmer

VCU University History Books

This brief biography introduces Dr. David John Farmer, one of public administration’s most influential and imaginative thinkers. It traces his journey from student to scholar, showing how his groundbreaking work challenged the field to move beyond rigid traditions and embrace creativity, ethics, and reflection in public service. Written for both scholars and general readers, the biography reveals that Dr. Farmer’s career represents more than the accomplishments of a distinguished academic—it embodies the larger idea that public administration must move beyond technique to become a field grounded in imaginization, reflection, and humanity.

Gvsu Undergraduate And Graduate Catalog 2026-2027, Grand Valley State University

Course Catalogs, 1963 - Current

Grand Valley State University 2026-2027 undergraduate and graduate course catalog. Course catalogs are published annually to provide students with information and guidance for enrollment.

A Qualitative Exploration Of Counselor Traits And Wellness Practices, Emily Velidow

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This study is a qualitative thematic analysis of counselor wellness practices as well as how selfidentified personal traits are part of how a counselor practices and prioritizes wellness. Theoretical underpinnings of the study integrate trait activation theory (Tett & Burnett, 2003), Martin Seligman’s wellbeing theory (Seligman, 2011), and Urie Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1977). Participants included nineteen licensed counselors (N=19). Analyzed responses lead to four main themes, each with two to four subthemes. Resulting themes included (1) intentional caseload and workday structure, (2) deliberately emphasizing physical wellness, (3) setting boundaries attending to mental and emotional energy, and (4) the …

Racial Resentment, Immigration Attitudes, And The Politics Of State Immigrant Policy Adoption In The United States, Cindy Osei Agyemang

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Immigration remains one of the most contested public policy issues in the United States, and racial attitudes have become increasingly important in shaping public opinion and political debate. While prior research has shown a strong relationship between racial resentment and restrictive immigration attitudes, less is known about whether these attitudes extend to legislative discourse and the adoption of immigrant-inclusive state policies. This dissertation addresses that gap by examining the relationship between racial resentment and immigration politics across three levels of analysis: public opinion, legislative discourse, and state policy adoption. Using a mixed-methods research design, the study combines quantitative and qualitative …