Digital Commons Network^™

Diversity In Honors: Understanding Systemic Biases Through Student Narratives, Aman Singla, Minerva Melendrez, Mable T. Thai, Sukhdev S. Mann, Denise Zhong, Kim T. Hoang, Isabella H. Lee, Andrea V. Aponte

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Centered on superiority over a certain group or individual, discrimination becomes predominant in prestigious institutions that pride themselves on exclusivity. Collegiate honors programs tend to deepen this practice by creating highly elite spaces accessible only to a select few. This rigidity can lead to an underrepresentation of historically marginalized groups, students who often lack the necessary resources for achieving academic excellence. This case study examines the ways honors programs inadvertently perpetuate discrimination among different social identities. Using inductive interviewing of honors students (n = 12) to gauge individual perceptions of program diversity, researchers rely on content analysis to generate …

Investigating Transparency Policy As A Means Of Increasing Sexual Violence Reporting Numbers At Universities, Shaina Isaacsen

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

It is well known that sexual violence occurs on college campuses at alarming rates. Despite this, sexual violence remains grossly underreported to universities. In a study investigating why survivors choose to not report sexual violence, only half believed that a university would investigate an assault fairly (Ridolfi-Starr, 2015). This project focuses on investigations of sexual violence conducted by universities, and whether certain adjudication processes can increase overall reporting numbers. Specifically, I focus on different forms of transparency within the sexual violence policy, third-party oversight and outcome publication. By using information collected from Annual Security Reports (ASRs) published by universities, I …

Court Review: Journal Of The American Judges Association, Vol. 59, No. 2, Eve M. Brank, David Dreyer, David Prince

Court Review: Journal of the American Judges Association

Articles

Judicial Strategies for Evaluating the Validity of Guilty Pleas; Kelsey S. Henderson, Erika N. Fountain, Allison D. Redlich, and Jason A. Cantone

Courtroom Technology from the Judge’s Perspective: A 2022-23 Update; Fredric I. Lederer

The Science of Children’s Lies (and their Detection): A Primer for Justice Practitioners; Vincent Denault and Victoria Talwar

Jury Trial Innovation Round #2; Judge Gregory E. Mize

Departments

Editor’s Note; David Prince

President’s Column:2023, the Year of Excellence! Yvette Mansfield Alexander

Thoughts from Canada: The Supreme Court of Canada Considers How the “Plain View” Doctrine Applies to Searches of Electronic Devices; Wayne K. Gorman

Crossword:Employment …

Court Review: Journal Of The American Judges Association, Vol. 59, No. 4, Eve M. Brank, David Dreyer, David Prince

Court Review: Journal of the American Judges Association

Articles

The Role of the Judge in Establishing a VTC, Mishkat Al Moumin, Judge Gayle Williams-Byers, and Amber Menchio

Prospective Jurors’ Attitudes Toward Voir Dire, Wendy P. Heath and Bruce D. Grannemann

Constitutional Losses and (Some) Statutory Wins for Criminal Defendants: Select Criminal Law and Procedure Cases from the Supreme Court’s 2022-23 Term, Eve Brensike Primus and Mark Rucci

Departments

Editor’s Note, David Prince

President’s Column: The American Judges Association--Making Better Judges Since 1959, and Continuing to Lead the Way! Catherine Carlson

Thoughts from Canada: Publication Bans--The Supreme Court of Canada Considers Their Impact Upon the Conflict between the Open …

Court Review: Journal Of The American Judges Association, Vol. 59, No. 3, Eve M. Brank, David Dreyer, David Prince

Court Review: Journal of the American Judges Association

Articles

Judicial Discipline, Examining Ethics Oversight for the Highest Levels of Our Least Accountable Branch; David Prince

Civil Cases in the Supreme Court’s October Term 2022; Thomas M. Fisher

Departments

Editor’s Note; David Dreyer

President’s Column: A Legacy of Leadership and Service; Yvette Mansfield Alexander

Thoughts from Canada: Uttering Threats in Canada and the United States, a Comparative Analysis; Wayne K. Gorman

Crossword: Name That Games; Tracy Bennett and Vic Fleming

The Resource Page: Junk Science and the Judicial System; The Elevator Effect; Mindfulness and Judging: Resources for Judges; New Online Database: Judges and the Judiciary: Exploring America's Court System; …

Science And Science Fiction In An Interdisciplinary First-Year Experience Honors Course, John D. Carrell, Robert G. Weiner

Honors in Practice Online Archive

Engineering and pop-culturist instructors team-teach a first-year experience course exploring science through the lenses of history, literature, film, television, and sequential art. Authors present science fiction discourses as unique for synthesizing fields in the humanities and STEM, and they present curricular and co-curricular design strategies for harnessing its potential in the honors classroom. Course objectives and outcomes are presented, with authors noting specific challenges in implementation and emendation. Adaptability and compatibility figure prominently in the successful delivery of the course. A review of literature relating to interdisciplinary education and team-teaching in honors is included.

A Laboratory Test Of Alcohol-Related Intimate Partner Aggression: Expectancies Are Not To Blame, Laura E. Watkins, Samantha C. Patton, David Dilillo

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Background: The role of alcohol expectancies and evaluations (i.e., perceived outcomes of drinking and whether these outcomes are desirable) in alcohol-related intimate partner aggression (IPA) has been debated, with some researchers arguing that expectancies fully account for the alcohol-IPA relationship and others suggesting they play a minimal if any role in alcohol-related IPA. In the current study, we examine the impact of expectancies and evaluations on alcohol-related IPA observed in the lab, in order to clarify what impact, if any, alcohol expectancies have on alcohol-related IPA. Consistent with findings from laboratory studies examining general aggression, we expected that individuals …

Teaching Forensic Entomology With Common Grocery Items: Decomposition And Insect Succession Studies, Erin Bauer, Charles Murrieta, Larry Barksdale

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

Forensic science and entomology programs may benefit from using deceased pigs as teaching resources due to anatomical similarities to humans. The use of such animals provides opportunities for students to learn the effects of geographical location and climate on insects; understand insect succession; practice insect collection and identification; and learn post-mortem interval procedures, taphonomic principles of decomposition, and crime scene investigation and management techniques. Forensic entomology and taphonomic studies fit well with educational interests in experiential learning. Pigs may be readily available through animal science departments or local producers, and many institutions may have property where this research can be …

Falling Into The Gap: The Coloniality Of Achievement Gap Discourses And Their Responses, James S. Wright, Taeyeon Kim

Department of Educational Administration: Faculty Publications

This paper critically analyzes gap discourses in student learning, starting from the achievement gap, education debt, and opportunity gaps, applying the lens of coloniality, racial capitalism, and modernity (CRCM). Gap discourses are the prevalent rationale behind educational policies and school reforms globally. Specifically in the United States, achievement gap discourses contribute substantially to the educational framework that minoritized students (students of color) are inherently – intellectually and academically – behind White students. This paper will show the pervasive power of achievement gap discourses and their influence on school policy, practices, and norms. Additionally, we highlight how some of the most …

Dna Transfer And Persistence On Non-Porous Surfaces Submerged In Spring Water [Preliminary Study], Morgan L.. Korzik, Josep De Alcaraz-Fossoul, Michael S. Adamowicz, David San Pietro

Forensic Science: Faculty Publications

Submerged items are often thought to lack evidentiary value. However, previous studies have shown the ability to recover DNA from submerged porous items for upwards of six weeks. The crevices or interweaving fibers in porous items are thought to protect DNA from being washed away. It is hypothesized that, because non-porous surfaces do not have the same traits that might aid in DNA retention, then DNA quantities and the number of donor alleles recovered would decrease over longer submersion periods. Additionally, it is hypothesized that DNA quantity and the number of alleles would be negatively affected by flow conditions. Neat …

Due Process In Solitary Confinement: It’S Time To Overrule Sandin And Revise Wilkinson, Russell E. Lovell Ii

Nebraska Law Review

Sandin and Wilkinson were decided during Chief Justice William Rehnquist's tenure, and the Chief Justice played the lead role in reshaping the Court's solitary confinement caselaw over the past thirty years. It was Chief Justice Rehnquist who fashioned the “atypical, significant hardship” test in Sandin v. Conner and it would have to be exhibit 1 demonstrating the Chief Justice's “indifference to prison terrors,” to borrow Professor Judith Resnik's eloquent phrase. The Hijacking article contended that the Sandin Court totally ignored the facts of the case and time-honored settled precedent that required due process protection prior to imposition of even short-term …

The Structural Harms Of Providing Mental Health Services Through The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, Heather Swadley

Nebraska Law Review

Many have proclaimed that the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act is the most sweeping gun control legislation to be passed in decades. However, the bill is not primarily a gun control bill—instead, much of the Act seeks to improve mental health services in hopes of preventing gun violence. Such a move is not rooted in established evidence, which finds little predictive value in knowing an individual’s mental health history. In fact, people with mental health disabilities are more likely to be victims of violent crimes than perpetrators. The Act therefore shifts the debate about gun reform from one about easy access …

‘More Than A Woman To Me’: The Need For Gender Inclusive Language In Court Opinions And Statutes Relating To Abortion And Reproductive Health, Murphy Cavanaugh

Nebraska Law Review

After the Supreme Court of the United States returned authority to regulate abortion to the state level in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, many states began to redraft their statutes, either protecting or eliminating abortion access. In doing this, the Supreme Court intensified demands for gender-inclusive language in reproductive healthcare legislation and court opinions. The ongoing shift in discourse acknowledges the reproductive healthcare needs of transgender and nonbinary (“TGNB”) people, given the already limited access to general healthcare. This comment emphasizes the importance of genderinclusive language in the American legal system, arguing for a departure from anatomy-centered language …

The Joker Controversy: An Origin Story, Brandon Bosch, Lisa Kort-Butler

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

The Joker has been in the Batman comics for over 80 years and appeared on small and large screen as Batman’s violent arch-nemesis. In the month prior to its theatrical release, commentary about the 2019 film Joker spurred a viral media reaction with concerns about the film inciting violence. To understand this phenomenon, we used Google Trends to trace a timeline of online media reactions mapped to events. Then, we analyzed over 200 news stories, commentary articles, and film reviews for explanatory narratives. We noted four key moments: the Venice Film Festival; an open letter by family members of victims …

Comic Literature And Graphic Novel Uses In History, Literature, Math, And Science, James O. Barbre Iii, Justin Carroll, Joshua Tolbert

SANE journal: Sequential Art Narrative in Education

Graphic novels and comics have a rich history and have long served as a medium for both education and entertainment. Although we live in an increasingly technology-rich era which offers abundant visual stimulation to compete with comics, graphic literature is arguably a more immediate and robust resource than ever before. The following paper highlights specific applications of graphic literature to pedagogical purposes, including implications for the use of comics in teaching history, world languages, English as a new language, science, and mathematics. Across these areas, a wide degree of application exists for teachers, in both K-12 and post-secondary settings. In …

The Intersecting And Additive Nature Of Vulnerability: Dehumanizing Or Protecting?, Megan Berry-Cohen

Department of Psychology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Recent research has examined how extra-legal factors such as emotions and stereotypes impact legal judgment decisions regarding traditionally vulnerable populations. Less work has explored not only what makes a group vulnerable, but how people perceive, interpret, and apply that vulnerability. The current research therefore integrates psychological theory and legal models to understand vulnerability and its implications. Three studies examined the roles of various factors, including dehumanization and empathy, in understanding how people respond to vulnerable individuals in general and then to women who have survived sexual violence.

In Experiment 1, I manipulated sex (female vs. male), age (older: 60 years …

Safety In Policy: An Assessment Of The Utilization And Perceived Efficacy Of Sex Offender Legislation, Morgan Graham

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Current sex offender legislation in the United States is the result of a number of laws passed during the 1980-1990s. This study evaluates the efficacy and perception of these laws in Nebraska, including registration, community notification, and housing restriction policies. Using data from the Nebraska Annual Social Indicators Survey (NASIS), 1,814 people from 2008 and 1,232 people from 2017 were examined to determine the efficacy and popularity of sex offender legislation and how the data has changed over time. Results showed that only a minority of Nebraskans have accessed the registry. Of those who checked, women and individuals with children …

The Emergence Of Convergence, Shana M. Sundstrom, David G. Angeler, Jessica G. Ernakovich, Jorge H. Garcıá, Joseph A. Hamm, Orville Huntington, Craig R. Allen

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Science is increasingly a collaborative pursuit. Although the modern scientific enterprise owes much to individuals working at the core of their field, humanity is increasingly confronted by highly complex problems that require the integration of a variety of disciplinary and methodological expertise. In 2016, the U.S. National Science Foundation launched an initiative prioritizing support for convergence research as a means of “solving vexing research problems, in particular, complex problems focusing on societal needs.” We discuss our understanding of the objectives of convergence research and describe in detail the conditions and processes likely to generate successful convergence research. We use our …

Two Causal Relationships Between The Planes Of Fact-Finding And Substantive Law, Henrique Carneiro

Nebraska Law Bulletin (Selected Issues)

This essay depicts two causal processes that demonstrate how, in the American legal system, the fact-finding plane is more fundamental than the substantive law (or substantive rights) plane. In the first process, a priori policy judgments about what facts should be available, and a priori epistemological claims about what facts can be available, drive expansions, contractions, and intentional reaffirmations of legal rights’ substantive scope. In the second process, factual wrinkles in individual cases are seized upon by judges and/or litigators and exercise an outsized influence on the development of substantive law. Although these processes are present across different areas of …

Black Trust In Us Legislatures, Ernest Dupree Iii, John R. Hibbing

Department of Political Science: Faculty Publications

Trust is a key part of any political system. Given the very different experiences of Black people and White people in the United States, it is likely that the nature and contours of political trust varies widely from one racial group to the other. In this article, we take advantage of a specially commissioned 2018 survey to compare Black and White trust in American legislative institutions (Congress and the state legislatures). Thanks to an oversample, we also are able to zero in on variations across Black respondents, making it possible to identify the variables that push legislative trust up or …

Co-Twin Relationship Quality As A Moderator Of Genetic And Environmental Factors On Urinary Cortisol Levels Among Adult Twins, Joseph A. Schwartz, Scott Jessick, Jessica L. Calvi, Douglas A. Granger

Athletic Performance Research

Previous research has indicated that genetic and environmental factors shape physiological activity. Cortisol levels, in particular, have received significant attention, with studies indicating substantive heritability estimates across various sampling techniques. A related line of research has indicated that genetic and environmental factors that explain variability in cortisol levels may vary across context and experiences by way of gene-environment interactions (G×Es). Despite these findings, a limited number of studies have examined the extent to which interpersonal relationships may operate as a moderator. The current study focused on co-twin relationship quality as a source of moderation, as twins are more likely to …

Sexual Activity Between Victims And Perpetrators Following A Sexual Assault: A Systematic Literature Review And Critical Feminist Analysis, Katie M. Edwards, Christina M. Dardis

Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families, and Schools: Faculty Publications

Rarely are perpetrators found guilty of sexual assault when the victim engaged in sex with the perpetrator following the sexual assault. Although the recent trial of Harvey Weinstein is an exception, the fact that his accusers engaged in consensual sex with him following the alleged assaults ignited debate that garnered international attention. The purpose of this paper was to conduct a systematic review to (1) document the extent to which victims engage in sex with the perpetrator following a sexual assault and (2) examine theoretical explanations for this phenomenon. Five peer-reviewed journal articles published between 1988 and 2016 were identified. …

Understanding Unwanted Sexual Experiences Of Transgender And Gender Diverse Individuals: An Interpretative Phenomenological Study, Melissa Larosa

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people represent a small percent of the population and yet, they experience sexual violence at disproportionately high rates compared to their cisgender counterparts (Grant et al, 2011; James et al., 2016). The purpose of this interpretative phenomenological study is to gain a more nuanced understanding of the role that unwanted sexual experiences play in the lives of transgender and gender diverse people, particularly in relation to how they conceptualize their gender identity and the construct of posttraumatic growth (PTG). Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight TGD participants who met the inclusion criteria. Two superordinate (i.e., …

The Immorality Of Crimes Involving Moral Turpitude: Evaluating The Eighth Circuit’S Split In Bakor V. Barr, Emma Franklin

Nebraska Law Review

Alex failed to register his car, Pilar failed to renew his broker license, Juan failed to register as a sex offender, and all three noncitizens have been convicted of one previous crime. Each of these registration failures flow from dramatically different legal requirements and serve different purposes, but they share a common characteristic. All three legal missteps are based on administrative registration obligations promulgated by a governmental entity. Indeed, the failure to register as a sex offender may accompany more ethical and moral intimations, but the act of failing to register as a sex offender is not itself clearly evil …

In Celebration Of Morrissey V. Brewer At Fifty: A Surprising University Of Nebraska College Of Law Back Story To The Prisoners’ Rights Due Process Landmark, Russell E. Lovell Ii

Nebraska Law Review

The year 2022 will be the fiftieth anniversary of the Supreme Court’s 1972 landmark prisoners’ rights case, Morrissey v. Brewer.1 Morrissey was a Fourteenth Amendment due process challenge involving an Iowan whose parole was revoked without a hearing.2 But long before Mr. Morrissey was in prison, a legislative internship at the University of Nebraska College of Law (Nebraska Law) in 1968 got me involved in researching and drafting the Nebraska Treatment and Corrections Act of 1969, including state parole law. The one area of parole law not reformed by the new legislation was parole revocation, a shortcoming that was the …

The Child Welfare Workforce Crisis – What We’Re Hearing From The Field, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

Other QIC-WD Products

The Quality Improvement Center for Workforce Development (QIC-WD) and the National Child Welfare Workforce Institute (NCWWI) in collaboration with the Capacity Building Centers for States, Tribes, and Courts, recently worked with representatives of the Children’s Bureau to listen to concerns of state child welfare and human resources (HR) leaders about the child welfare workforce. This blog post highlights what leaders (representing 29 states) described as their biggest concerns and what strategies agencies have put in place to reduce turnover and improve the applicant pool. We have also included links to information about evidence-informed efforts that could help jurisdictions address some …

Precedents Ignored: Erroneous Applications Of Due Process Precedents Lead To Unjust Consequences For Pretrial Detainees And A Lack Of Accountability For Jailers—Whitney V. City Of St. Louis, 887 F.3d 857 (8th Cir. 2018)., Deena Keilany

Nebraska Law Review

Mass incarceration has led to the confinement of 2.3 million individuals in the United States,despite a steady decline in crime rates since the 1990s.An already strained carceral system,now operating against the backdrop of a nation reeling from the global COVID-19 pandemic,has experienced an influx of detainees as demonstrators are periodically arrested for protesting the very institutions that are sending them to jail.As demonstrators are arrested and detained, often for minor offenses, many people who have not been touched by the criminal justice system before are getting a glimpse at detention facility conditions.Mass arrests and the impacts of COVID-19 on the …

The New Qualified Immunity Quandary, Justin C. Van Orsdol

Nebraska Law Review

With increased media coverage of excessive force cases, we may someday achieve meaningful reform of the qualified immunity doctrine. But with Congress’s inability to accomplish major legislation in the current political climate, it is doubtful that qualified immunity will be reformed, much less abolished, anytime in the near future. Unless—or until—Congress figures out a way to meaningfully reform qualified immunity, we are left with the patchwork of decisions from the federal appellate courts. Qualified immunity cases and scholarship are riddled with wildly varying approaches to what constitutes “clearly established law” and whether courts should return the mandatory sequencing in Saucier …

Voiding The Federal Analogue Act, Andrew Fels

Nebraska Law Review

"Accordingly, [King Rex] announced to his subjects that he had written out a code and would henceforth be governed by it in deciding cases, but that for an indefinite future the contents of the code would remain an official state secret, known only to him and his scrivener. To Rex’s surprise this sensible plan was deeply resented by his subjects. They declared it was very unpleasant to have one’s case decided by rules when there was no way of knowing what those rules were."--LON L. FULLER, THE MORALITY OF LAW

If the Federal Analogue Act (Analog Act) is to be …

Friends-Based Protective Strategies And Unwanted Sexual Experiences: A Daily Diary Examination Of First Year College Women, Jessica A. Blayney, Tiffany Jenzer, Anna E. Jaffe, Quinn Carroll, Jennifer P. Read

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Risk for unwanted sexual experiences can emerge in social contexts—the same contexts that early college women navigate with their friends. Though friends naturally engage in prevention strategies, less is known about how capable guardianship influences risk. Using multilevel structural equation modeling, the present study examined guardianship at the person- and situation-level. First year college women (N = 132) completed eight weekends of daily surveys. We examined whether guardianship (e.g., more friends present, greater proportion of female friends, no intoxicated friends) would reduce unwanted sexual experience risk and if this relation was mediated by friends-based strategy use. An alternative model …