Digital Commons Network^™

Investigative Delegations: Predictable Predicaments, Nancy Amoury Combs

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Psychological Reactance Applied To Instruction To Disregard, Jessica Louise Bozeman

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This study applies theory of psychological reactance to instructions to disregard (ITD). When inadmissible testimony is made in front of jurors, a judge may issue an ITD that orders jurors to not consider the inadmissible evidence when making their verdicts. The theory of psychological reactance proposes that when a person’s choices are limited or their freedom is threatened, there will be a resulting attempt to regain or prioritize their freedom. Using a jury transcript study, the experiment has both a control condition including the evidence but without an ITD and a condition where the ITD is included. Results showed that …

Minimum Dropout Age And Juvenile Crime In The United States, Md. Abdur Rahman Forhad

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

My dissertation examines how an increased minimum dropout age (MDA) affects juvenile crime not only in the community, but also in school. I first empirically estimate the magnitude of the impact of a higher MDA on high school enrollment. I then develop an economic model of crime that explains the relationship between an MDA and contemporaneous juvenile crime and empirically examine how a higher MDA affects juvenile crime both in the community and in school. I find that raising the MDA from 16 to 18 significantly increases school enrollment by 2.57%. Next, I find that raising the MDA to an …

Contesting Consent: Consent, Sexual Scripts, And Gendered Power, Julia Kristine Metz

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Within the past decade, the United States has seen an upsurge of affirmative consent policies being introduced or passed within the legislation of state governments and universities (Laker and Boas 2015). However, in a moment when the President of the US has been recorded saying “Grab ‘em by the pussy,” two Supreme Court justices have been accused of sexual misconduct, and a Secretary of Education has rolled back Title IX policies that had made progress in curbing sexual violence in schools, the meaning of sexual consent is now being contested more than ever. However, there have only been a handful …

Psyc 462/862: Motivation And Emotion, Carolyn R. Brown-Kramer

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

In this course portfolio, I examine the course goals, learning objectives, teaching methods and materials, assessments, and outcomes for an upper-level psychology elective course, PSYC 462/862, Motivation and Emotion. The course introduces students to the major theories of motivation and emotion, develops their ability to critically examine empirical psychological research, encourages the application of theoretical and empirical work to real-world contexts, and strengthens students’ communication skills. For each of the four course goals, I describe how and why I conduct the course as I do, as well as how my pedagogical choices influence student learning and engagement. Data analyses and …

Triumph Of The Nomothetic: Personality Assessment And Forensic Psychology, Marvin W. Acklin

Archives of Assessment Psychology

This study locates personality assessment within the discipline of forensic psychology, examining the forensic relevance of major paradigms of personality assessment -- psychodynamic, interpersonal, personological, multivariate, empirical, and neuroscience -- with a focus on the clinical and forensic assessment of psychopathy. A credible personality paradigm must produce testable hypotheses, have associated assessment measures, and have a supporting empirical research literature (Wiggins, 1973). In the first survey, a systematic literature of the PsycINFO database revealed that all of the major personality assessment paradigms satisfy criteria for scientific credibility with the exception of the personological. In the second survey, the status of …

United States V. Bryant: The Results Of Upholding Women’S Rights And Tribal Sovereignty, Madalynn Martin

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.

Thickening The Thin Blue Line In Indian Country: Affirming Tribal Authority To Arrest Non-Indians, Alex Treiger

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.

Predicting Mental Health Court Program Outcomes Based On Individual Characteristics In Participant Profiles, Melissa M. De La Luz

Theses and Dissertations

Mentally ill offenders are overrepresented in the criminal justice system and experience increased risks of cyclic incarceration and recidivism following release. Mental health court programs were introduced to offer court ordered treatment regimens and a team of legal and behavioral health professionals as an alternative to incarceration. The goal of mental health court research is to improve graduation rates and decrease post-program recidivism by identifying participant characteristics that significantly contribute to successful program completion. This study proposed an examination of the association between characteristics of mental health court program participants and their influence on the likelihood of graduation, termination, and …

The Living Hashtag Play: A Modernized Living Newspaper With Theatre Of The Oppressed Approaches To Play Development, Elizabeth Corsi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In a time where the majority of our news sources and justice movements are received, hashtagged, mobilized, and scrutinized through technology and social media, this thesis embarks to resurrect a once short lived concept of introducing theatre as an informative and educational news source. ?The Hashtag Play ?will be an experiment to create a modern living newspaper play that will utilize techniques and approaches found in Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed Pedagogy to devise meaningful and impactful art determined to educate, inform, and challenge artists and audiences while fostering a sense of community. For the purpose of this thesis, …

No 06 An Order Establishing The Tennessee Criminal Justice Investment Task Force, Bill Lee

Executive Orders

No abstract provided.

Program Review Of Naloxone Training Within The Wisconsin Department Of Corrections’ Community Corrections Division, Chelsea Calhoon

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

One of the fastest growing drug problems in the United States is the abuse of opioids (United States Department of Health & Human Services, 2018). With the rising overdose rates, the criminal justice system may offer a pivotal role in the decrease of overdose deaths through opioid overdose recognition and naloxone administration training (World Health Organization, 2014). Training evaluation based on the Effectiveness Theory find significant predictors of training effectiveness and retention to be correlated with the training program, age, and employment tenure (Cowman & McCarthy, 2016). This thesis’ research question is, “Do demographics correlate to training retention for opioid …

Sharing The Costs Of Artificial Intelligence: Universal No-Fault Social Insurance For Personal Injuries, Jin Yoshikawa

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

The twenty-first century is the artificial intelligence (AI) century. In the past few years, AI has become a familiar fixture of everyday life thanks to services like YouTube, Spotify, Netflix, and Alexa. Stocktraders, doctors, insurance brokers, real estate agents, recruiters, artists,and even lawyers now rely on predictive tools powered by AI to perform their highly skilled--even creative--tasks. In the following decades, AI will continue to transform more fields and deliver astonishing advancements in convenience, comfort, safety, and security. At the same time, however, AI will bring about new challenges. AI will offend, disrupt, crash, breach, incite, injure, and even kill …

Decisions Leading To Inequalities In The Juvenile Justice System: Using Data To Predict Delinquent Outcomes, Inform Decisions, And Reduce Disparities For Justice-Involved Youth, Patrick David Mckay

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This dissertation focuses on how decisions are made in the juvenile justice system and what strategies can be used to make more informed decisions in the future, in three separate investigations. (1) To begin, eight years of initial detention decisions (N=26,128) were collected to determine what factors affect the arresting officers’ decision to detain youth at arrest. Findings reveal that the severity of current offense and prior offending history are the greatest predictors of initial detention. However, results demonstrate that race and the distance from a detention facility also influence these decisions. Non-white youth are more likely detained than their …

Efficacy Of A Va Residential Treatment Program For Co-Occurring Disorders, Kathrin Hohenstern

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The problem of co-occurring substance abuse and mental health disorders among the veteran population can impact numerous aspects of a veteran's life, including self-esteem, relationships, employment, and legal issues. The Mental Health Residential Rehabilitation Treatment Program (MH RRTP) at the Saint Cloud, Minnesota VA Healthcare System is a program that provides residential treatment for this population. Identifying practical and beneficial treatment methods promotes better coping mechanisms for veterans and impacts social change by providing timely and cost-efficient care for veterans, while also leading the way for overall changes and improvements in other VA residential treatment programs. This study identified how …

High School Students' Perceptions Of Safety Concerns Predicts School Avoidance, Ann Marie Howard

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

School violence is a growing concern and an impending danger for American youth. Students' perceptions of violent school incidents may lead to fear and this fear may lead to school avoidance. Although researchers have found that teenage pregnancy and working to support family are two of the main reasons that students stay home from school, there has been no research conducted on whether students' perceptions of safety concerns, solely focusing on the presence of guns, gangs, student bullying, and fear of victimization, predict their decision to stay home from school. Therefore, based on social disorganization and resilience theories, the purpose …

The Impact Of Good Governance And Stability On Sustainable Development In Ghana, William Deiyan Towah

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Previous studies have lauded Ghana's commitment to sustainable development, but corruption and violence may affect sustainable development policies and initiatives related to poverty reduction, agricultural practices, environmental protection, and human development. The purpose of this holistic, qualitative case study was to identify and describe good governance practices in Ghana and threats to sustainable development. A Marxist conceptual lens guided the thematic analysis of data collected from artifact documents, field notes, and interviews of 20 key informants from various professions and diverse perspectives who were directly involved in the governance of Ghana or implementation of policies. Three primary themes emerged: (a) …

Homelessness Count Methodologies Literature Review, Jennifer Lee-Anderson

Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative Publications and Presentations

This literature review on homeless count methods provides a brief history of homelessness in the U.S., an account of count efforts, and an overview of methods used. It illustrates that no method is capable of providing a comprehensive count of the homeless, and all methods have inherent disadvantages that often rely upon flawed assumptions. The practical impact of these counts on policy is substantial. Therefore, this review should encourage discussion as to what data communities need for policy and program development and implementation, and whether homeless counts actually fulfill this need.

Durkheim’S Greatest Blunder, Stephen M. Marson, J. Porter Lillis

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

In describing fatalism in Suicide, Durkheim executes two blunders. The first can be categorized in errors of commission while the second should be included in errors of omission. In the error of commission area, he hypothesizes two platforms for existence of fatalistic suicide. Without employing theory-embedded data, he contends that infertility is a catalyst for fatalistic suicidal. Later, he asserts that slavery is fertile soil for fatalistic suicide. Although there is suicidal data in these two arenas, a closer inspection demonstrates that these are not characteristics of fatalistic suicide. For errors of omission, he failed to systematically observe …

Review Of Serving The Stigmatized: Working Within The Incarcerated Environment. Wesley T. Church Ii And David W. Springer, Carolyn Sutherby

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Wesley T. Church II and David W. Springer (Eds.), Serving the Stigmatized: Working Within the Incarcerated Environment. Oxford University Press (2018), 400 pages, $74.00 (hardcover).

Review Of Emergent Identities: New Sexualities, Genders And Relationships In A Digital Era. Rob Cover, Melinda Mccormick

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Rob Cover, Emergent Identities: New Sexualities, Genders and Relationships in a Digital Era. Routledge (2019), 164 pages, $42.95 (paperback).

Journal Of Sociology And Social Welfare Vol. 46 No. 2

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

No abstract provided.

Putting Accessible Expression To Bed, Jamila A. Odeh

Michigan Law Review

In 2011, the Occupy movement began. Occupiers seized space in dozens of public parks and in the American imagination, providing a compelling illustration of an inclusive format of political expression. In the courtroom, protesters sought injunctive relief on First Amendment grounds to protect the tent encampments where Occupiers slept. In 2017, the last of the Occupy litigation ended; but the ramifications the Occupy cases hold for the First Amendment and expressive conduct remain unexamined.

This Comment takes an in-depth look at the adjudication of Occupiers’ First Amendment interest in sleeping in public parks. It analyzes the adjudication of the Occupy …

Separate And Unequal: The Law Of "Domestic" And "International" Terrorism, Shirin Sinnar

Michigan Law Review

U.S. law differentiates between two categories of terrorism. “International terrorism” covers threats with a putative international nexus, even when they stem from U.S. citizens or residents acting only within the United States. “Domestic terrorism” applies to political violence thought to be purely domestic in its origin and intended impact. The law permits broader surveillance, wider criminal charges, and more punitive treatment for crimes labeled international terrorism. Law enforcement agencies frequently consider U.S. Muslims “international” threats even when they have scant foreign ties. As a result, they police and punish them more intensely than white nationalists and other “domestic” threats. This …

Constructing The Structurally Competent Classroom, Leah A. Jacobs, Hanna Mark

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Social work seeks to address social problems through interventions that span micro and macro systems. As such, all social workers are obligated to understand the interplay between individual realities and structural forces. Yet prior models of structural social work play a marginal role in social work education, leaving social work educators without the means to meet these obligations. This structural gap in social work classrooms risks deemphasizing macro practice and failing to prepare micro practitioners to account for structural forces that impact client wellbeing and client-social worker interactions. This paper examines the framework of structural competence as a potential solution …

The New Impartial Jury Mandate, Richard Lorren Jolly

Michigan Law Review

Impartiality is the cornerstone of the Constitution’s jury trial protections. Courts have historically treated impartiality as procedural in nature, meaning that the Constitution requires certain prophylactic procedures that secure a jury that is more likely to reach verdicts impartially. But in Peña- Rodriguez v. Colorado, 137 S. Ct. 855 (2017), the Supreme Court recognized for the first time an enforceable, substantive component to the mandate. There, the Court held that criminal litigants have a Sixth Amendment right to jury decisions made without reliance on extreme bias, specifically on the basis of race or national origin. The Court did not …

Small Crimes, Big Injustices, Stephanos Bibas

Michigan Law Review

Review of Alexandra Natapoff's Punishment Without Crime: How Our Massive Misdemeanor System Traps the Innocent and Makes America More Unequal.

Is The Exclusionary Rule A Prohibition-Era Relic?, Thomas M. Hardiman, Lauren Gailey

Michigan Law Review

Review of Wesley M. Oliver's The Prohibition Era and Policing: A Legacy of Misregulation.

Arrests As Guilt, Anna Roberts

Faculty Articles

An arrest puts a halt to one’s free life and may act as prelude to a new process. That new process—prosecution—may culminate in a finding of guilt. But arrest and guilt—concepts that are factually and legally distinct—frequently seem to be fused together. This fusion appears in many of the consequences of arrest, including the use of arrest in assessing “risk,” in calculating “recidivism,” and in identifying “offenders.” An examination of this fusion elucidates obstacles to key aspects of criminal justice reform. Efforts at reform, whether focused on prosecution or defense, police or bail, require a robust understanding of the differences …

Rebellious Reflection: Supporting Community Lawyering Practice, Monika Batra Kashyap

Faculty Articles

This Article contends that lawyers who are trained in the skill of reflection are better equipped to engage in a social change-oriented approach to law practice called community lawyering. By conceptualizing reflection as a contemplative pedagogy, this Article will reveal a profound connection between community lawyering, reflection, and the contemplative law movement. The Article offers specific “rebellious” reflection-based pedagogies that can help practitioners and future lawyers: strengthen their capacity for deep self-awareness; interrogate the traditional lawyer-client relationship; sharpen their analysis of race, class, and power; and cultivate an understanding of how social change occurs. By presenting testimonials from new lawyers …