Digital Commons Network^™

Public Safety Trends In Map Communities And Matched Comparison Areas. Map Evaluation Update Number 3., Sheyla A. Delgado, Richard A. Espinobarros, Gina Moreno, Jeffrey A. Butts

Publications and Research

This is the third of six updates presenting interim findings from the evaluation of the NYC Mayor’s Action Plan for Neighborhood Safety (MAP). As part of an evaluation of the New York City Mayor’s Action Plan for Neighborhood Safety (MAP), researchers from John Jay College of Criminal Justice collaborated with survey specialists from NORC at the University of Chicago to track key outcomes in MAP developments and matched comparison sites. Using the NYC Open Data portal and data from NYPD and SPARCS, the research team looked to see if the presence of MAP showed initial impacts in crime and victimization …

The Perceptions Of African American Female High-Needs Students Regarding The Impact Of The Disciplinary System In Low-Performing Schools In Arkansas, Renata Danielle Bryant

Theses and Dissertations from 2019

The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate why African American female students are being “pushed out” of learning environments in public schools. This study attempted to answer the central question: According to the “lived experiences” of African – American female students in Arkansas, what are the perceived factors contributing to the disproportionate number of African American female students receiving serious disciplinary consequences in public schools? Eleven African American female students associated with three school districts in Eastern Arkansas fit the following criteria: student in grades 10-12; a female student; self – identified as being African-American; received education in …

Usa V. Rajab Gomez

2019 Decisions

USDC for the District of New Jersey

Status Report, Climate Review Team, Working Ideal, John Jay College Of Criminal Justice

Reports and Publications from John Jay College

From the Climate Review webpage:

The College has partnered with external experts from Working IDEAL and Redwood Enterprise (in a Campus Climate Review team led by Working IDEAL) to lead this campus-wide process, which President Mason has called “an essential next step in our continuing work to improve our campus climate, and, ultimately, boost student success.”

In January of this year, John Jay launched an externally led campus-wide Climate Review. Click here to find an update from Working IDEAL, the external organization hired to partner with John Jay on this important project. Working IDEAL will deliver a final report …

2019 Shepard Broad College Of Law Commencement Ceremony, Nova Southeastern University

NSU Commencement Programs

No abstract provided.

Navigating The Path To Presence: Ideology, Politics, And The Campaign For Gender Balanced Boards And Commissions In Iowa, Ezra Temko

SIUE Faculty Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity

From 1986 through 1988, Iowa adopted and strengthened a gender balance law that required men and women be equally represented on state boards and commissions. In 2009, Iowa extended this law to also require its counties, municipalities, and school districts to gender balance their boards and commissions. Iowa’s law remains unique in the United States. Through archival research and interviews, my research investigates how advocates navigated the ideological landscape associated with this policy issue. My research unveils the mechanisms that substantially deradicalized gender balance in Iowa, enabling its passage and shifting Iowans’ perceptions of gender, governance, and affirmative action—disembedding gender …

Examining Witness Testimony In Domestic Homicides, Hana Chae

Student Theses

The present study investigated the effects of varying witness testimony on mock jurors’ perceptions of a case where a woman utilizes self-defense as a reason for killing her husband during a domestic dispute. A 3 (expert witness) x 3 (child witness) design was used to examine the effects of two different forms of expert testimony (Battered Woman Syndrome [BWS] & Social Agency [SA]) and its interaction with presence of child witness [age 5 & age 8]. Jury eligible participants (N = 245) were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk). It was hypothesized that the presence of an expert witness would …

Newsroom, Georgia Southern University

Newsroom (2006-2023)

• Parker College of Business logistics department moves up in world ranking

• Georgia Southern student overcomes hurdles to complete her degree after 21 years

Gsu View, 2019-05-08, Office Of Marketing And Communications

GSU View

No abstract provided.

Gardner-Webb Recognizes Students For Service And Leadership, Office Of University Communications

Gardner-Webb NewsCenter Archive

Gardner-Webb University recently held a ceremony to recognize Student Leadership, Service, and Volunteerism. Winners of these awards exemplify the University’s core values of faith, service and leadership in their classrooms and communities. In recognition of the award presentation, each student may choose one book for purchase by Gardner-Webb’s Dover Memorial Library. The book will be inscribed with the student’s name and the date of the award presentation.

When The Machines Come For Government Jobs, Will Efficiency Crush Equity?, Staff

Browse All News

No abstract provided.

Gardner-Webb University Recognizes Achievements Of Undergraduate Students, Office Of University Communications

Gardner-Webb NewsCenter Archive

Gardner-Webb University recently honored undergraduate students for academic excellence and outstanding service and leadership. Winners of these awards exemplify the University’s core values of faith, service and leadership in their classrooms and communities. In recognition of the award presentation, each student may choose one book for purchase by Gardner-Webb’s Dover Memorial Library.

Discretionary Life Sentences For Juveniles: Resolving The Split Between The Virginia Supreme Court And The Fourth Circuit, Daniel M. Coble

Washington and Lee Law Review Online

At the age of 17, Donte Lamar Jones shot and killed a store clerk as she laid down on the floor during a robbery. He was spared the death penalty by agreeing instead to die in prison at the end of his life. Two years later in Virginia, 12 individuals were murdered for doing nothing more than being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Those individuals were killed by Lee Malvo and John Muhammad, better known as the “D.C. Snipers.” While John Muhammad was given the death penalty for his heinous crimes, Lee Malvo, who was 17 during …

The Legal Experiences Of The Deaf And Hard Of Hearing Community, Dillon Curren

Theses

The criminal justice system serves in many different ways for people. Sometimes, groups of people are underserved by the criminal justice system and cannot achieve the goals being set up by the criminal justice system to be a watchful guardian who is swift, certain, and fair. The following project will look at the Deaf/Hard of Hearing Community (D/HH) and their experiences with the criminal justice system in a series of working papers including a literature review of studies, papers, and documentation of experiences within the system. There are several obstacles between the two communities that causes tension and unfairness for …

Evaluating The Educational Impact Of Ballot Measure 11 Workshops & Youths’ Perceptions Of Justice, Ginger Ruddell

Student Research Symposium

In 1994 the State of Oregon passed Ballot Measure 11, which allows for the mandatory minimum sentencing for several types of felonies. This measure also allows for juveniles as young as 15 to be subjected to this mandatory sentencing. Due to the severity of this measure, several youth agencies throughout the state of Oregon became concerned about the consequences of mandatory sentencing on youth, and decided to create educational workshops to allow more awareness of Ballot Measure 11 sentencing. Portland Opportunities Industrialization Center (POIC), is the front runner for this workshop. Their goals are to educate/raise awareness, prevent contact with …

Predictive Ability Of Act Aspire For Act At Star City High School, Jason Williamson

Theses and Dissertations from 2019

Arkansas adopted the ACT ASPIRE as their summative assessment in 2015. ACT ASPIRE claimed their assessment results could accurately predict the composite scores on the ACT. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between students’ scores on the ACT ASPIRE and the ACT for students in the Star City School District, as well as determining if the ACT ASPIRE accurately predicted eleventh grade students’ scores on the ACT. The findings revealed a significant relationship between ACT ASPIRE (ninth/tenth) grade scores and ACT scores. There was a significant difference between ninth grade mean scores and tenth grade mean …

“Using Crowd-Sourced Data To Explore Police-Related-Deaths In The United States (2000–2017): The Case Of Fatal Encounters”, David Klinger, Brian Finch, Audrey Beck, D Burghart, Richard Johnson, Kyla Thomas

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Works

Objectives: We evaluated the Fatal Encounters (FE) database as an open-source surveillance system for tracking police-related deaths (PRDs). Methods: We compared the coverage of FE data to several known government sources of police-related deaths and police homicide data. We also replicated incident selection from a recent review of the National Violent Death Reporting System. Results: FE collected data on n = 23,578 PRDs from 2000–2017. A pilot study and ongoing data integration suggest greater coverage than extant data sets. Advantages of the FE data include circumstance of death specificity, incident geo-locations, identification of involved police-agencies, and near immediate availability of …

Swift, Certain, And Fair: A Pilot Program Of The Probation Department In Monroe County, New York, Luisa R. Swan

Theses

For my capstone, I will be breaking down some components of the evaluation of the Swift, Certain, and Fair probation program in Monroe County, New York. Monroe County Probation’s Swift, Certain & Fair Model Pilot Program focuses on offenders between 16–24 years old who have been arrested on certain gun charges (more specifically, Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the second degree). It is designed to help change the behaviors of those who may otherwise be unlikely to succeed under traditional probation supervision. This model extends the program development and analysis of a program known as HOPE (Hawaii Opportunity Probation …

Intersecting Trends In Abortion And Capital Punishment Policy, Erica Rebussini

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

A recent bill in Ohio brought to the forefront of the nation’s consciousness the intersection of abortion and capital punishment. The bill sought to redefine “person” to include “unborn humans,” therefore making the termination of a pregnancy the intentional killing of another person. Further, because one of Ohio’s aggravating circumstances for the imposition of capital punishment is child homicide, those who choose to have an abortion would be subject to the possibility of capital punishment. While the bill died in committee, it provides a unique lens through which to examine the intersection of the debate over abortion restrictions and capital …

Children Are Different: The Need For Reform Of Virginia's Juvenile Transfer Laws, M. Randell Scism

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

In Virginia, there are three ways that a juvenile can be sent to the adult criminal justice system: discretionary waiver, certification (direct file), and mandatory waiver through transfer and certification, but they are no ways to be sent back to the juvenile criminal justice system if that would be more appropriate. Once a juvenile enters the adult criminal justice system, they are subject to more significant sentences and collateral consequences. This increased punishment is counterproductive because, as the Supreme Court recognized in Roper, Graham, and Miller, juveniles are less culpable for the crimes they commit and more likely to be …

The Opioid Epidemic, Abigail Hallowell

Theses

Drug abuse, addiction, and overdoses are phenomenon’s that are not new or unfamiliar to the United States. Between 1999 to 2017, there were over 700,000 drug overdose deaths in the country. About 400,000 of those drug overdoses involved an opioid. In 2017, more than 70,000 people died of a drug overdoses and 68% of them involved an opioid. This makes the number of opioid drug overdose deaths in 2017 six times higher than in 1999 (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2018). The severity of the increase in opioid related overdose deaths that America is experiencing today did not happen …

Political Business Cycles And Retrospective Voting In District Attorney Elections In Tennessee, Emily Kate Fulmer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

With little oversight, high levels of discretion, and regular partisan elecitons, it is plausible that district attorneys may change their behavior or priorities as their own elections approach with the hope of being rewarded by the voters at the ballot box. I collect arrests and dispositions data from all thirty-one judicial districts in Tennessee from 2001-2017 to test whether district attorneys become tougher on crime leading up to their elections. I find that district attorneys are about one percentage point more punitive in election years than in non-election years. To assess whether voters do, in fact, reward district attorneys for …

The Influences Of Education, Antisocial Behavior, And Involvement In The Criminal Justice System On Adult Legal Understanding, Lily Alpers, Mark Fondacaro

Student Theses

The current study examined the legal understanding and decision-making capacities of young adults compared to older adults. Furthermore, the current study examined these two age groups on the basis of a history of criminal justice involvement, antisocial behavior, and education level, in order to determine whether these variables also affect legal understanding and decision-making. One hundred and one subjects participated in this study, grouped by age into younger adults (18-34 years old) and older adults (35 years and older). The results of the current study found that participants with the lowest levels of education performed more poorly on the measure …

Sex Offenders, Custody And Habeas, Wendy R. Calaway

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

This Article focuses on habeas petitioners under a conviction from state court seeking federal habeas review. First, Part I will discuss the historical context of the writ of habeas corpus and the development of its purpose and scope. Part I also examines the current status of habeas corpus law, recent legislative efforts to limit its reach, and, specifically, the idea of custody as a prerequisite to habeas relief. Part II explores the evolution of the custody requirement both at the Supreme Court and in lower federal courts. In particular, this section looks at how the meaning of custody has …

Spatial Tools For Case Selection: Using Lisa Statistics To Design Mixed-Methods Research, Matthew C. Ingram, Imke Harbers

Political Science Faculty Scholarship

Mixed-methods designs, especially those in which case selection is regression-based, have become popular across the social sciences. In this paper, we highlight why tools from spatial analysis—which have largely been overlooked in the mixed-methods literature—can be used for case selection and be particularly fruitful for theory development. We discuss two tools for integrating quantitative and qualitative analysis: (1) spatial autocorrelation in the outcome of interest; and (2) spatial autocorrelation in the residuals of a regression model. The case selection strategies presented here enable scholars to systematically use geography to learn more about their data and select cases that help identify …

Exploring Traditional Sex-Role Stereotypes And Gendered Misconceptions In Intimate Partner Violence, Hannah J. Frey

Honors Program Theses and Projects

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is an issue that affects millions of people and yet many people in the United States base all that they know about the issue on myths. These myths surrounding IPV (e.g., the victim must have provoked their perpetrator) often lead an individual to blame the victim for what has happened. Previous research has shown that the overwhelming amount of victim blaming that occurs related to these accepted myths is connected to a traditionalist view of sex-role stereotypes (Esqueda & Harrison, 2005). While this connection has been shown through research, the specific role that gendered assumptions about …

To Bail Or Not To Bail: Protecting The Presumption Of Innocence In Nevada, Ebeth Palafox, Brendan Mcleod

Nevada Law Journal Forum

This white paper aims to discuss the issues associated with bail reform in Nevada, provide an analysis of bail reform efforts across the country, and purpose possible solutions for obstacles to bail reform in Nevada. The white paper’s proposed recommendations for practical bail reform is a three-phase plan to eliminate the injustices that arise from Nevada’s current cash bail model.

An Investigation Of The Ability Of The Minnesota Early Childhood Screening Program To Predict Educational Achievement In Third Grade Children, Martha Dewey Bergren

Dissertations

The ecological model assumes school, community, family, and friends shape child outcomes. Minnesota mandates comprehensive Early Childhood Screening (ECS) for preschool children including vision and hearing, and cognitive, language, motor, growth and speech, with optional screening for health, behavior, and life stresses. Children meeting federal criteria for special education programs are recommended for interventions. Children with less serious health and/or behavior problems or who lack sufficient resources may also be at risk for academic difficulties. The purpose of this study was to investigate the ability of family, health, development, behavior, and stress data collected at Minnesota ECS to predict grade …

Measurement Of Bystander Actions In Violence Intervention Evaluation: Opportunities And Challenges, Heather M. Bush, Samuel C. Bell, Ann L. Coker

Biostatistics Faculty Publications

Purpose of Review

This review discusses design and methodological challenges specific to measuring bystander actions in the evaluation of bystander-based violence prevention programming. “Bystanders” are defined as people who are present immediately before, during and/or after a violent event, but are not a perpetrator nor the intended victim. Bystander-based violence prevention programs seek to prevent or mitigate violent events by empowering bystanders to intervene on acts of violence and social norms that promulgate violence.

Recent Findings

Effective bystander-based violence prevention programs demonstrate increased bystander intentions, actions, and attitudes [Bringing in the Bystander: Banyard et al. J Community Psychol. 2007;35:463-481; iSCREAM: …

#Whyididntreport: Using Social Media As A Tool To Understand Why Sexual Assault Victims Do Not Report, Abby Garrett

Honors Theses

Sexual assault has gone largely under-reported, and social media movements, like #WhyIDidntReport, have brought great awareness to this issue. In order to take advantage of the large amounts of data the #WhyIDidntReport movement has generated, the study uses tweets to explore reasons why victims do not report their assault. The thesis cites current research on the topic of assault to generate a list of explanations victims use to describe their lack of reporting and compares the distributions with existing studies. We use a supervised learning technique to automatically categorize tweets into one of eight categories. This approach uses social sensing …