Digital Commons Network^™

Rectifying Wrongful Convictions Through The Dormant Grand Jury Clause, Colin Miller

Faculty Publications

In 1995, Lamar Johnson was convicted of a murder in St. Louis. Twenty-two years later, St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner created a Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU) to review possible wrongful convictions. After reviewing Johnson’s case, the CIU concluded that Johnson was innocent. Then, consistent with her special responsibility as a prosecutor to seek to remedy wrongful convictions, Gardner filed a motion for a new trial. The court, however, denied the motion, holding that there was no enabling legislation in Missouri authorizing CIUs to seek relief for wrongful convictions. Gardner is not alone in her inability to rectify wrongful convictions. …

What Is The Current State Of Literature Regarding The Effectiveness Of Buprenorphine For Opioid Use Disorder Among African American Men?, Tamiko L. Stanley

Social Work Theses - Archive

Purpose: This scoping review aims to explore the comparative effectiveness of buprenorphine for opioid use disorder (OUD) among African American men. Methods: The Arksey & O’Malley scoping review method was used to identify relevant articles and extract data related to the research question. Results: The author identified 16 studies that have met all inclusion criteria. Results indicate that buprenorphine treatment is associated with positive substance use and health outcomes for African American men. Discussion: Issues remain with access to MOUD treatment for African American men, despite the positive impact buprenorphine can have on health outcomes. As social workers, advocating for …

Annual Report 2020-2022: Evidence-Based Nebraska Pre-And-Post Assessment Tool, Julie D. Garman, Anne M. Hobbs, Erin Wasserburger, Karina Blair, Juvenile Justice Institute, University Of Nebraska At Omaha

Reports

This annual report is an evaluation of the effectiveness of Mental Health, Mentoring, Promotion/Prevention, School-based Interventions, and Afterschool programs funded by Community-based Aid (CBA). The program type analysis includes referrals to programs from July 1, 2020 – February 28, 2022, reported by programs to the Juvenile Case Management System (JCMS). This evaluation also includes data collected with the EB-NE Pre-and-post Assessment Tool co-created with Dr. Karina Blair at Boys Town Research Hospital.

Responding To Student Disclosures: A Narrative Inquiry Of Online College Instructors’ Experiences Handling Disclosures Of Personal Trauma In Their Asynchronous Online Classrooms, Rachel Seeber-Conine

All Theses And Dissertations

Research in higher education indicates students may disclose personal trauma and/or sensitive information in their college classrooms when learning about sensitive academic content; and as a result, these situations may trigger disclosure of previous and/or current personal traumatic experiences (Greener et. al., 1984; Lindecker et. al., 2021; Papadatou-Pastou et al., 2019). However, research relating to online disclosures by students, especially in asynchronous courses, is limited (Hew, 2005; Lindecker et al., 2021; Lister, et al., 2021) despite continual increase in enrollment of online studies in the United States (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2020). This research study narrows the gap in …

Using A Novel Experimental Paradigm To Investigate Whether Individuals With Trauma Exposure Are At An Increased Risk Of Pleading Guilty Falsely, Jennifer M. Bartlett

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Individuals with trauma histories are overrepresented in the criminal justice system. However, little is known about how trauma-exposed individuals engage with the legal process. Over 90% of U.S. criminal convictions are resolved by guilty plea and in recent years it has become clear that guilty pleas are a leading cause of wrongful conviction. This dissertation used a newly developed, computerized interactive environment to explore the impact of trauma history on the likelihood that an innocent person will plead guilty to a crime they did not commit. Individuals with trauma histories are more likely to be risk averse when facing potential …

No Justice, No Peace: An Examination Of The Protestor Experience, Naya Russell-Coprich

Master's Theses

More than 95% of the protests that took place in the summer of 2020 were deemed peaceful. However, many of these protests ended with violent encounters with police officers (Major Cities Chiefs Association, 2020). The purpose of this research was to explore the experience of protestors in America. This study also sought to identify, if at all, the disparities present when deciding to use excessive force against protestors. The sample for this study included students from the University of Northern Colorado, who were 18 years of age or older, and have attended a protest in their lifetime. The final sample …

Public Perceptions Of Police Use Of Force: Does Officer Race Matter?, Diamond G. Pilgrim

USC Aiken Psychology Theses

Objective: The purpose of the current study was to examine the effects of police officer as well as suspect race on U.S.residents’ perceptions of police use of force.

Method: Participants were randomly assigned one of four vignettes describing an encounter between either a Black or White police officer and a Black or White robbery suspect. Suspect race and officer race were manipulated so that participants received a vignette involving pairings of a White officer with a Black suspect; a White officer with a White suspect; a Black officer, White suspect or a Black officer and suspect. Participants were then surveyed …

Teachers’ Views Of Situational Factors Influencing Teaching Efficacy During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Holly Gillespie

All Theses

COVID-19 created many disruptions in the field of education as teachers and administrators navigated the many changing protocols affecting learning environments and pedagogy over the past two years. This thesis examines secondary teachers’ perceptions of managing these protocols through their lived experiences while teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic through the 2020-2021 school years. Previous research has shown a teacher’s sense of self-efficacy is related to both learning situations and teacher performance. However, research exploring the impact COVID-19 has had on teachers and their learning environments is limited. This qualitative exploratory study fills the gap by investigating situational factors in learning …

Regional Immigration Enforcement, Fatma Marouf

Faculty Scholarship

Regional disparities in immigration enforcement have existed for decades, yet they remain largely overlooked in immigration law scholarship. This Article theorizes that bottom-up pressure from states and localities, combined with top-down pressures and policies established by the President, produce these regional disparities. The Article then provides an empirical analysis demonstrating enormous variations in how Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s twenty-four field offices engage in federal enforcement around the United States. By analyzing data related to detainers, arrests, removals, and detention across these field offices, the Article demonstrates substantial differences between field offices located in sanctuary and anti-sanctuary regions, as well as …

Criminal Court System Failures During Covid-19: An Empirical Study, Cynthia Alkon

Faculty Scholarship

How did the criminal legal system respond to the early months of pandemic in 2020? This article reports the results of a unique national survey of judges, defense lawyers, and prosecutors that gives a snapshot of how the criminal legal system responded to the COVID-19 in the first five chaotic months. Criminal courts in the United States rely on in-person proceedings and formal and informal in-person communications to manage caseloads. The survey results detail, in ways not previously fully understood, how crucial these in-person communications are and how ill-prepared the criminal courts and legal professionals were to deal with the …

Crime Reduction And Reformation In South Carolina: An Analysis Of Sb 1154, Matthew Torres

All Theses

This thesis evaluates the policy response to the criminal justice crisis of South Carolina, Senate Bill (SB) 1154, dubbed the Omnibus Crime Reduction and Sentencing Reform Act of 2010. SB 1154 adopted a series of “common sense” reforms, including new charges constituting as violent crimes, redefined sentences in the form of reduced penalties and harsher penalties for nonviolent and violent crimes respectively, mandated supervision of individuals on probation or parole, and credit programs for early release of inmates among other provisions intended to reduce inmate population, recidivism and violent crime rates.

I examine three key factors: inmate, imprisonment and violent …

Climbing The Masculine Hierarchy: Examining Constructions Of Masculinity Through Incel Identities, Alyssa Jewel Davis

All Theses

In a gender-segregated digital space known as the Manosphere, a group of men calling themselves “Incels,” or involuntary celibates, express feelings of hostility and hatred towards women. Incels hold a low position on a masculine hierarchy where the men who hold the most power in society are those who have access to women’s emotional and sexual services. Incels are characterized by feelings of entitlement to women’s services and aggrievement by their inability to access them. As a result, they often appear to fantasize about or engage in acts of violence to compensate for their lack of masculine privilege. However, there …

Yoga In Criminal Justice Facilities: A Descriptive Study, Rachel Broome

All Theses

The United States currently incarcerates more individuals than any other country in the world, creating an effect known as mass incarceration. While incarcerated, individuals’ physical and mental health can be affected. Yoga is a feasible, cost-effective modality that may be utilized in criminal justice facilities, to assist in the process of improving the physical and mental health of individuals who are incarcerated or in confinement. The purpose of this study was to explore the structure of yoga programs that are being implemented throughout United States criminal justice facilities and the effects that the COVID-19 pandemic had on programs. Through a …

Csi Effect: Exploring Impact Among Mississippi Lawyers, Jennie Odom

Honors Theses

The “CSI Effect” suggests that a growing number of jurors often have unrealistic expectations concerning the amount of forensic evidence which should be reasonably presented to convict an alleged criminal, and this misconception arises from watching heavily dramatized crime shows such as the CSI franchise. While many scholars have examined the CSI Effect, one critical perspective is often missing from the existing literature, that of the lawyers. Therefore, this project worked to explore the perspectives of both defense attorneys and prosecutors. Personal interviews were conducted to gain insight and perspective regarding the CSI Effect, whether these perspectives had impacted the …

Empirical Essays In Law And Economics, Bright Addiyia Osei

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

I examine the effect of laws and policies regulating the use of drugs onthe decision making of economic agents. In the first paper, I estimate the effects of legalized recreational marijuana on entry into the foster-care system by exploiting state-level variation in legalization and its timing, I estimate that legalization decreases foster-care placements by at least 10%, with larger effects in years after legalization. I find even larger decreases in admissions due to parental drug and alcohol abuse, implying that substitution towards marijuana from other substances is an important part of how legalization affects admissions. I find similar effects for …

Coping And Adjustment During Covid-19: Experiences Of Chinese International Doctoral Students In The United States

Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education

No abstract provided.

Educator Perceptions Of The Working Environment In Tennessee Elementary Schools That Actively Employ Positive Behavior Supports And Restorative Practices, Scott Thomas Lamie

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This phenomenological study captured the experiences of elementary educators with the purpose of gathering their perceptions of the use of restorative practices and positive behavior supports in their schools with a particular focus on how these programs influenced school climate, their professional efficacy, and their job satisfaction. Results of interviews lead to the emergence of seven major themes, which were the importance of understanding the underlying causes of student behavior, change, common practices of positive behavior supports and restorative practices, benefits for students, benefits for educators, struggles with implementation, and suggestions for implementation. These findings led to the identification of …

Does Houchins V. Kqed, Inc. Matter?, Matthew L. Schafer

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Measuring Judicial Collegiality Through Dissent, Jonathan Remy Nash

Buffalo Law Review

While scholars frequently offer ideology as a primary explanation for judicial behavior, judges, and some scholars, emphasize the importance of collegiality on multimember courts. But there is disagreement over how to determine when collegiality is at work, and what type of multimember court is more likely to exhibit collegiality among its judges. Resolving these competing claims calls for a valid measure of collegiality.

This Article develops novel measures of collegiality based on dissenting judges’ expressions of collegiality towards judges in the majority. It uses judge-level and court-level databases to validate these measures by showing that the novel measures correlate with …

Crime Attractors In Sin City? A Pre/Post Test Of Crime Patterns And Police Enforcement Around Recreational Marijuana Facilities, Joshua Donnelly

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The federalist system in the United States has created criminal opportunities within jurisdictions that have approved recreational marijuana facilities (RMFs). These facilities have characteristics that are attractive for motivated offenders including marijuana and marijuana-related tangible goods. Through ArcGIS, this research examined the crime patterns and police enforcement patterns that occurred within a 288-meter street-network buffer around RMFs through a pre/post-test exploratory design in the Las Vegas area. The time periods examined were 2015 to 2016 (pre-legalization), and 2018 to 2019 (post-legalization). Calls for service data were used to demonstrate both crime and enforcement patterns. Furthermore, facilities were classified into “local …

To Report Or Not To Report: Student Reporting Behaviors Of Violent Crimes In Schools, Heather Monaghan

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

School-based violence is a criminal justice topic that often captures the attention of the media and the public. As a result, measures - such as school security strategies, safety personnel, and teacher training - are put into place to help combat school-based violence. These measures are not only costly and time consuming, but also have inconclusive research findings to support them. However, violence in schools can still be prevented. Research has found support for the role that student reporting has in preventing violence. However, many students may choose not to report violent crimes. Using a modified version of Sykes & …

The White Supremacist Constitution, Ruth Colker

Utah Law Review

The United States Constitution is a document that, during every era, has helped further white supremacy. White supremacy constitutes a “political, economic and cultural system in which whites overwhelmingly control power and material resources, conscious and unconscious ideas of white superiority and entitlement are widespread, and relations of white dominance and non-white subordination are daily reenacted across a broad array of institutions and social settings.”1 Rather than understand the Constitution as a force for progressive structural change, we should understand it as a barrier to change.

From its inception, the Constitution enshrined slavery and the degradation of Black people by …

The Reimagination Of The School Safety Concept: A Phenomenological Narrative Study Of School Leaders’ Perceptions Of School Safety Pertaining To The Effects Of The Removal Of School Safety Personnel From Public Schools, Tyron Pope

Education Doctoral

This qualitative phenomenological narrative study examined the leadership experiences of 12 principals and assistant principals from a suburban New York school district. The study was based on school leaders' perceptions of the New York State Police Reform and Reinvention Collaborative Plan and the removal of school safety personnel. School leaders shared their perspectives in semi-structured interviews. All interviews were transcribed, coded, and reviewed. The study sought to optimize participant information and find new views on school safety personnel.

For this study, physical safety, school climate, and student conduct were identified as criteria as modeled in the theoretical approach of the …

From Behind The Shield: Unearthing Perspectives Of Retired Police Officers On Stress, Matarazzo A. Robert

Education Doctoral

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the concepts of job stress, burnout, and perceived organizational support among 12 retired New York City Police Department (NYPD) police officers. The research questions examined: (a) the lived experiences as described by retired NYPD police officers in handling stress and occupational burnout; and (b) the coping strategies and mechanisms, including organizational support, that retired NYPD police officers utilized to deal with occupational stress.

Using semi-structured, in-depth interviews, the lived experiences of retired police officers, explicitly the challenges, stressors, and resilience in developing coping mechanisms, and the perceived support from their organizations, …

Not Only Black Or Only A Woman, A Black Woman: Gendered Racial Microaggressions, Colorism And Hair On Trauma Symptoms., Maame-Safowaa Geary

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The intersectionality of racism and sexism of Black women has the possibility of leading to mental health symptoms due to the consistent and persistent experience of insidious trauma, specifically gendered racial microaggressions (GRM). In this study, we examined the relations between gendered racial microaggressions (GRM) and trauma/PTSD symptoms, depressive symptoms, and anxiety symptoms among Black women. Additionally, skin tone and hair style/texture were explored as moderating variables. We hypothesized a positive relation between GRM and symptoms of trauma/PTSD, depression, and anxiety. We also hypothesized that darker skin tones and more Afrocentric hairstyles would moderate GRM and the described mental health …

Prevalence And Predictors Of Polypharmacy In Adolescents Who Have Engaged In Sexually Abusive Behaviors, Rebecca Gilley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Polypharmacy, or the concurrent use of multiple medications, is associated with detrimental outcomes for patients and has gathered increasing attention within the scientific clinical literature. Pediatric populations warrant special consideration for the practice of polypharmacy, as medication effects are more pronounced in youth and adverse effects may have a lasting impact on development. This dissertation study examined psychotropic prescribing practices in a sample of adolescents who have engaged in sexually abusive behaviors, a subset of justice-involved youth who are at risk for polypharmacy. General prescribing trends were examined, and a principle components analysis involving variables associated with risk of polypharmacy …

Tennessee Felon Population Update, August 2022, Tennessee. Department Of Correction.

Felon Population Reports

No abstract provided.

Repeating Patterns: Does Emotional Child Abuse Lead To Intimate Partner Abuse?, Kathryn R. Henry

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Childhood abuse and intimate partner abuse (IPA) are serious issues in the United States This study examines the correlation between emotional childhood abuse and IPA. Anyone regardless of gender, race, or socioeconomic status may be a victim of childhood abuse or IPA. One in seven children are victims of childhood abuse, which results in a lifetime cost of $428 billion. The costs of IPA are even higher and estimated by the CDC (2020) to be near $3.6 trillion as 25% of women and 20% of men have been victims of IPA. Previous research has found a connection between childhood maltreatment …

Pre-Service Teacher Perceptions Of Persistently Challenging Behaviors, Swpbis, Cico And Student-Teacher Relationships, Elizabeth Lynn Messina

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Teacher perceptions of behaviors have a large impact on the quality of student-teacher relationships. Such relationships trickle down and affect academic and social-emotional-behavioral performance. With the wide prevalence of School-Wide Positive Behavioral and Intervention Support (SWPBIS), questions about why there is not a greater efficacy in improving relationships and related outcomes are being raised. While it is widely documented that teachers often have negative perceptions of children with Persistent Challenging Behaviors (PCBs), the origins of such perceptions are unknown. Additionally, the use of SWPBIS is also widely used (Sugai et al., 2008); however, knowledge of SWPBIS in such sufficiency as …

Cultural, Contextual, And Individual Determinants Of Mental Health Service Utilization Among Latinx Emerging Adults, Kenia Carrera Diaz

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Despite being at an increased risk of experiencing mental health problems, Latinx emerging adults underutilize professional psychological services compared to other ethnic/racial groups. It is important for researchers to understand this mental health disparity to improve Latinx emerging adults’ use of quality mental health services (MHS). The current project investigated factors that might influence Latinx emerging adult’s use of MHS through two separate studies. In the first study, I systematically reviewed research published in the past decade that examined predictors of MHS use among Latinx emerging adults. A total of 9 studies were found and included in this review. This …