Digital Commons Network^™

Justice On Trial: A Multifaceted Analysis Of Capital Punishment, Abby Long

Honors Theses

There is an ongoing debate surrounding the criminal justice system, focusing specifically on the controversial topic of capital punishment. Highlighting a startling statistic—one in nine death row inmates being exonerated— a pivotal question arises of what factors influence sentencing outcomes? Seven variables, number of sentences, income of offender, region of sentencing, race of offender, gender of offender, and political affiliation of sentencing state, are considered to understand the variations in sentencing outcomes and assess the fairness of the current judicial process. Using an OLS regression analysis of data from all 50 U.S. states, the paper seeks to better understand capital …

Mentorship In Academia And Career: A Scholarly Personal Narrative Of A Latina Millennial’S Experience, Alyssa S. Cortes Kennedy

Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation, my scholarly professional narrative (SPN), is a self-reflection of mentoring experiences as a Latina millennial in academia and professional settings. These experiences are told through the art of storytelling using testimonio, which promotes a critical awareness of cultural intersectionality and intercultural understanding through first person narrative. My experiences with mentorship in personal, academic, and professional workspaces include mentors who may or may not have influenced my own journey as a doctoral student and business professional as a Latina millennial. Using testimonio helps explain certain cultural challenges, specific scenarios or experiences, familial responsibilities, and cultural barriers, and how …

Criminal Justice Update - December 2023, Delaney Rabenold

Criminal Justice Updates

The Criminal Justice Update is a monthly newsletter created by the Adams County Bar Foundation Fellow providing updates in criminal justice policy coming from Pennsylvania's courts and legislature as well as the US Supreme Court.

Contents:

• Updates from PA Governor's Office (no new updates this month)

• Updates from the PA Legislature

• Updates from the Courts

  • U.S. Supreme Court (no updates this month)

  • PA Supreme Court (no updates this month)

  • PA Superior Court

Bridging The Gap: Understanding And Addressing Intimate Partner Violence In Deaf Communities, Catherine Pellini

Washington Semester Program

The Violence Against Women Act, one of the largest pieces of federal legislation aimed at protecting victims of domestic violence, does not always adequately address or serve those in the Deaf community who are affected by domestic violence. This observation led to the question “under what conditions can and does the Violence Against Women Act effectively serve and protect deaf survivors?” Through conducting interviews with policy experts and advocates as well as analyzing Biennial Reports to Congress on the Effectiveness of Grant Programs Under the Violence Against Women Act, it is evident that the Violence Against Women Act can only …

An Examination Of The Usage Of Grants And Municipal Bonds To Fund Capital Projects For Local Governments, Collin Patrick Davis

Online Theses and Dissertations

Funding for capital projects is a vital need for local governments. This thesis compares two forms of funding, that being debt funding through municipal bonds or funding from state and federal grants. This thesis compares and contrasts these two forms of funding, looking at the economic and political risks that can come with using municipal bonds, as well as the need of resources that local governments need when it comes to securing grants. This project also looks at the case study of one such local government that needs funding for a capital project, that being the city of Richmond, Kentucky, …

Preventing Undeserved Punishment, Marah Stith Mcleod

Notre Dame Law Review

Defendants should not be punished more than they deserve. Sentencing scholars describe this precept against undeserved punishment as a consensus norm in American law and culture. Yet America faces a plague of mass incarceration, and many sanctions seem clearly undeserved, often far exceeding an offender’s culpability or the seriousness of an offense. How can a society committed to desert as a limitation on legitimate sanctions allow such undeserved punishments?

Critics argue increasingly that our focus on what offenders deserve is itself part of the problem. They claim that the notion of desert is too amorphous, malleable, and arbitrary to limit …

Families With Fathers In Minimum Security Prison: A Family Treatment Approach To Treating Families With Fathers In Prison, Alexandria Davis, Madison Schrack

Student Projects

The population of those in prison is increasing, and many of those who are in prison have families. Much research has been done on the effect prison has on prisoners, but not as much has looked at the children and what the effect is of having a parent, specifically their father, who is absent in prison. It is important to understand the possible behaviors, risks, and challenges that children face. This research essay looks at what it is like for children between the ages of 5 and 10 to have a father in minimum security prison while also examining the …

An Originalist Approach To Prospective Overruling, John O. Mcginnis, Michael Rappaport

Notre Dame Law Review

Originalism has become a dominant jurisprudential theory on the Supreme Court. But a large number of precedents are inconsistent with the Constitution’s original meaning and overturning them risks creating enormous disruption to the legal order. This article defends a prospective overruling approach that would harmonize precedent with originalism’s rise and reduce the disruption from overrulings. Under prospective overruling, the Court declares that an existing statute violates the original meaning but will continue to be enforced because declaring it unconstitutional would produce enormous costs; however, future statutes of this type will be voided as unconstitutional. Under our approach, the Court would …

Winter Commencement, 2023, Marshall University

Marshall University Commencement

Program for the One Hundred Eighty-Eighth Commencement of Marshall University, Saturday, December 9 2023 held at the Mountain Health Arena in Huntington, West Virginia.

Kejahatan Transnasional Di Indonesia: Studi Kasus Yakuza Sebagai Organisasi Kejahatan Internasional, Adi Saputra Rusli, Yanwar Iswahyudi Mansur, Nisrina Arumdanie, Biky Uthbek Mubarok

Jurnal Kajian Stratejik Ketahanan Nasional

This article presents an analysis of the Yakuza phenomenon, an organized crime organization with deep historical roots in Japan. Through a qualitative approach, this research explores the history and development of the Yakuza, their criminal focus, operational networks, and their impact both national and international levels. The Japanese government's efforts to combat the Yakuza, on a national and global scale, are detailed, including programs for drug prevention, anti-human trafficking, and counter-terrorism. In an international context, the Yakuza is known for its extensive networks, creating new challenges in global security. This research also highlights the importance of global efforts to counter …

State Charter School Law Scores As A Predictor Of Illegal Activity Within The Chartering Sector, David Stashevsky

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

State charter school policy is influenced through a collaboration between advocacy groups and state legislators. Charter school advocacy groups have an inherent bias toward deregulation and autonomy. Two advocacy groups, the Center for Education Reform (CER) and the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (NAPCS), each conduct annual analyses on state charter school laws using their own model charter law as the comparator. Each group has developed a rubric of indicators with sub-scores which combine to form an overall state score. Higher scores indicate a closer adherence to the advocacy group’s model charter law. The charter school sector in the …

“Cancel Culture” And Criminal Justice, Steven Arrigg Koh

UC Law Journal

This Article explores the relationship between two normative systems in modern society: “cancel culture” and criminal justice. It argues that cancel culture—a ubiquitous phenomenon in contemporary life—may rectify deficiencies of over- and under-enforcement in the U.S. criminal justice system. However, the downsides of cancel culture’s structure—imprecise factfinding, potentially disproportionate sanctions leading to collateral consequences, a “thin” conception of the wrongdoer as beyond rehabilitation, and a broader cultural anxiety that “chills” certain human conduct—reflect problematic U.S. punitive impulses that characterize our era of mass incarceration. This Article thus argues that social media reform proposals obscure a deeper necessity: transcendence of blame …

University Of Nebraska At Omaha Commencement: December 2023, University Of Nebraska At Omaha

Commencement Programs

No abstract provided.

Sex Trafficking: Saudi Arabian Women's Perspectives, Jennifer O. Rowland

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No abstract provided.

Wac Report Writing Across The Curriculum (Wac) 2023 Summer Institute, Jonathan Shirland, John Mulrooney, Sean Mcpherson

Bridgewater Review

No abstract provided.

Free For All: Proposing Legislation To Eliminate Food Insecurity In Arkansas Public Schools, A. Mills Bryant

Journal of Food Law & Policy

Schools serve millions of students daily as one of the largest food distribution sites in the United States. However, more than 13.1 million children in the United States, and almost 150,000 in Arkansas, are food insecure. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, most Arkansas schools offered free and reduced lunch to students at or below the poverty line through participation in the National School Lunch Program (“NSLP”). During COVID-19, Congress passed The Families First Coronavirus Response Act (“FFCRA”) and The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (“CARES”) (hereinafter “The Acts”). This legislation effectively eliminated food insecurity in participating American public schools, …

How Covid-19 And Racial Justice Protests Influenced Social Workers’ Perceptions Of Policy And Political Participation, Amy Krings, Maria V. Wathen, Teresa Kilbane

Social Work: School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Other Works

Drawing on political opportunity theory, this study examined how the political context created by the COVID-19 pandemic and Black Lives Matter protests influenced social workers’ perceptions about social welfare policy and political participation in the summer of 2020. Authors conducted a thematic analysis of the open-ended survey responses of 120 social work practitioners. Regarding perceptions of policy, respondents reported that they experienced new awareness about the breadth and depth of structural racism in the United States; that they held pessimistic views of the government’s ability to mitigate harm associated with the pandemic or racial injustice; and that structural change, including …

Health Care Quality And Health Care Access Disparities Among Racial And Ethnic Populations With Comorbid Mental And Physical Health Conditions, Amanda Lee Ryan

Social Work Dissertations - Archive

This study reports the individual and county-level factors associated with racial and ethnic disparities in the ED and inpatient utilization rates and discharge status for adult individuals with chronic mental illness (CMI) and comorbid medical conditions. Social determinants at the individual and county levels associated with rates of higher risk discharge statuses, and the extent to which these account for heterogeneity in acute care utilization and post-acute care plans were also assessed. Despite the significant literature in racial and ethnic disparities, and emergency department and inpatient admission utilization, there remains gaps in the literature regarding individuals with chronic mental illness …

“This Forum Is Not A Democracy”: The Role Of Norms And Moderation In Cultivating (Anti)Democratic Incel Identities, Jennifer Forestal

Political Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Incels (short for “involuntarily celibate”) have recently gained notoriety for their aggressive, often violent, misogyny, yet incels were not al- ways an antidemocratic social group. They thus pose a challenge for thinking about democracy and identity in (anonymous) digital environments: how can we create spaces for marginalized social groups while ensuring the resulting identities remain democratic? While many scholars point to technological affordances or corporate content moderation policies as providing some solutions, in this article I propose a more democratic approach. Drawing from incel wikis and archived forum posts from two early incel communities—IncelSupport and LoveShy—I argue that a community’s …

The Open Web Versus Dark Web: Examining User Engagement In Online Illicit Opioid Markets, Ciara Wildes

Honors Theses

The state of the modern-day opioid epidemic produces the need to understand how people choose to engage in opioid markets on the web. Specifically, it is important to understand why people choose to use the open web rather than the dark web to engage in online opioid markets. Applying the theoretical frameworks of Cohen and Felson’s (1979) Routine Activity Theory and Clarke’s (1999) CRAVED principles, the decision making processes of individuals was examined using three separate Experimental Vignette Methodology surveys (EVM) administered through Connect CloudResearch. The decision-making processes of individuals engaging in online illicit opioid markets was measured using a …

Seizure Or Due Process? Section 1983 Enforcement Against Pretrial Detention Caused By Fabricated Evidence, Jorge Pereira

University of Chicago Law Review

Can an individual who was held in pretrial detention but not criminally convicted as a result of fabricated evidence raise a due process claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983? The answer is unclear. In 2017, the Supreme Court in Manuel v. City of Joliet held that claims for unlawful pretrial detention are governed by the Fourth Amendment. Since then, the Seventh Circuit has asserted that the Fourth Amendment is the only source of redress under § 1983 for wrongful pretrial detention caused by fabricated evidence. By contrast, several circuits have opined that Manuel does not foreclose the possibility that individuals …

Graduate List - December 2023, University Of Nebraska At Omaha

Commencement Lists

No abstract provided.

A Good “Idea” With No Clear Plan: The Lack Of Uniformity In Evaluating Compliance With The Idea’S Least Restrictive Environment Provision Has Led To Arbitrary Segregation Of Children With Disabilities Across The United States, Alexis Cherry

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (“IDEA”) states that students with disabilities are to be provided with a free appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment. Despite this requirement, children with disabilities continue to face segregation in the education system across the country. Although there have been several lawsuits regarding proper placement of children with disabilities, the United States Supreme Court refuses to establish a uniform standard for lower courts to adopt. As a result, there are currently four different approaches—employed across ten different circuits—on how to determine whether a child has been placed in the least restrictive environment. …

174th Commencement, Fall

Commencement Programs

No abstract provided.

Holding The Big House Accountable: The Sixth Circuit Concludes A Pretrial Detainee's Fourteenth Amendment Deliberate Indifference Claim Is A Wholly Objective Determination, Noah Speitel

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Race Or Class: New Directions For Critical Theory, Richard Delgado

Case Western Reserve Law Review

No abstract provided.

Psu Student Housing Insecurity Report, Jacen Greene, Greg Townley, Kenna Estell Dickard, Desiree' J. Duboise

Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative Publications and Presentations

This study on student housing insecurity and homelessness was funded as part of a HUD FY2023 Community Project Funding Opportunity awarded to Portland State University. Phase 1 of the study included a literature review; a summary of past PSU student survey results; a description of PSU programs based on interviews with staff and administrators; an analysis of programs at other institutions; and a set of recommendations for better addressing student housing needs. Phase 2 of the study incorporated the results of a comprehensive student survey on housing insecurity and homelessness conducted in fall 2023. Additional reports by outside consultants on …

School Law Enforcement Officers’ Perspectives Of Youth In A Southern State, Shannon April Davenport

All Dissertations

The empirical literature has identified that school law enforcement officers respond to youth based on their training, personal feelings, emotions, and social-psychological reactions. Therefore, the perspectives that shape school law enforcement officers' feelings, emotions, and social-psychological reactions are vital to understanding their use of discretion as they interact with youth in a school setting. This study utilized an exploratory descriptive research design via survey to examine school law enforcement officers' perspectives of youth, the training received, their stress and emotional regulation.

School law enforcement officers were selected using systematic sampling after compiling a list of all the school districts in …

Who's Afraid Of Being Woke? – Critical Theory As Awakening To Erascism And Other Injustices, Berta E. Hernández-Truyol

UF Law Faculty Publications

This Essay critically analyzes the “anti-woke” message deployed by the Conservative Political Action Conference’s (CPAC) 2023 annual meeting’s poster—the suggestion that awake is good and its synonym woke is bad—with the goal of establishing the importance of CRT in general and in education more specifically. This work shows how critical theories are key to deconstructing disingenuous messaging about the meaning of words, theoretical constructs, and historical realities.

The Work first elucidates that the meaning of awake, as utilized in myriad fields, addresses the concept of consciousness—awareness of injustices in society. Second, the Essay historicizes the origins and uses of the …

Gubernatorial Inability And Absence In The New York Constitution: Proposals And Arguments For Reform, Fordham Law School Rule Of Law Clinic, Antonia Spano, Liam Turner

Rule of Law Clinic

The New York Constitution's provisions related to gubernatorial inability and absence from the state are in need of reform. In this report, the Fordham Law School Rule of Law Clinic advances recommendations for addressing the vulnerabilities created by both provisions. The absence provision, which transfers power whenever the governor leaves the state, can cause confusion, cast doubt on the legality of gubernatorial actions, prompt rival politicians to simultaneously claim to be governor, and undermine confidence in the rule of law. The constitution's inability provision provides for transfers of power when the governor is "unable," but does not define what it …