Digital Commons Network^™

Defendants In The Dark: How The Jencks Act Is Incompatible With The Adversarial Legal System, Eli J. Esakoff

Journal of Law and Policy

The Jencks Act is a McCarthy Era law that prohibits compelling the disclosure of any statement made by a government witness in a federal criminal prosecution until after the witness has testified at trial. Passed in 1957 in response to the Supreme Court’s decision in Jencks v. United States, the Act’s life in Congress was “nasty, brutish, and short.” In prosecuting its anti-communist “witch hunts” of the era, the government strove to keep hidden as much of its case against those accused as possible. Against this backdrop of the desire for secrecy, the Supreme Court held that a criminal defendant …

The Underreporting And Dismissal Of Sexual Assault Cases Against Women In The United States, Jacey Passmore

Ballard Brief

Sexual assault is a highly prevalent yet rarely addressed issue within the United States. It is considered the most underreported and dismissed crime. There are a plethora of variables contributing to the underreporting and dismissal of sexual assault cases. The most prevalent factor appears to be the various understandings of sexual assault. The United States has no standard definition of rape or consent due to rape myths, victim blaming, disproportionately high perceptions of baseless allegations, and high-profile cases that are unrepresentative of the more common details of sexual assault. Other major contributing factors include knowing the perpetrator, victims’ pre-existing and …

Diverse Patients’ Attitudes Towards Artificial Intelligence (Ai) In Diagnosis, Christopher Robertson, Andrew Woods, Kelly Bergstrand, Jessica Findley, Cayley Balser, Marvin J. Slepian

Faculty Scholarship

Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to improve diagnostic accuracy. Yet people are often reluctant to trust automated systems, and some patient populations may be particularly distrusting. We sought to determine how diverse patient populations feel about the use of AI diagnostic tools, and whether framing and informing the choice affects uptake. To construct and pretest our materials, we conducted structured interviews with a diverse set of actual patients. We then conducted a pre-registered (osf.io/9y26x), randomized, blinded survey experiment in factorial design. A survey firm provided n = 2675 responses, oversampling minoritized populations. Clinical vignettes were randomly manipulated in eight …

Ask About Culture: Training School Psychologists To Deliver A Cultural Formulation Interview During Functional Behavior Assessments, Margarida B. Veiga

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Decades of empirical research has demonstrated that exclusionary discipline is a racialized mechanism through which schools systematically remove Black and brown children from the learning environment. Although development of Functional Behavior Assessments (FBAs) and linked behavior support plans has been identified as a solution to exclusionary practices, school psychologists do not ask questions about the cultural and contextual factors that may influence student’s behavior during FBA interviews with caregivers. As a result, FBAs conducted in schools privilege the perspective and voices of (often White) school staff, while dismissing the perspectives of (often Black or brown) students and families. FBA procedures …

The Death Penalty Does Not Deter Murder, Samuel Maynard

Comm-entary

No abstract provided.

Mental Illness And Substance Use Disorder (Sud) Among Pregnant And Postpartum Women In A Women's Residential Treatment Center In El Paso, Texas, Adren Darius Warling

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Background: Substance use disorders (SUDs) and opioid use disorders (OUDs) are a major public health concern in the United States. SUD/OUDs are often linked to co-occurring physical disorders and serious mental illness (SMI). Stress and trauma are often contributing factors to the development of SUD/OUD and/or co-occurring SMI, which impact pregnant and postpartum women (PPW), who concurrently, may face specific risk factors and barriers to care for these conditions. These risk factors and barriers to care may be exacerbated by Hispanic/Latino identities. Studying social determinants of health based on a social ecological model approach can help increase knowledge about this …

Determinant Factors In Abortion Support Preceding Dobbs: Has Scotus Left Popular Opinion Behind?, Caden Hall

Sociology and Criminology Undergraduate Honors Theses

The present research analyzed the Wave 52 dataset of the Pew Research Center’s American Trends Panel to understand public opinions regarding abortion legality and the overturning of Roe v. Wade before the landmark case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Clinic. Previous literature has suggested a dissonance between the decisions of the Supreme Court in constitutional interpretation with respect to reproductive rights and the disposition of most Americans towards the subject. However, due to the recency of the Dobbs decision, the large gap in research is still developing. Regression models were run on key variables in tandem with two dependent …

A School To Probation Pipeline: Examining The Perceptions Of Juvenile Justice Personnel With Youth In Harris County, Gloria Okere

Dissertations (2016-Present)

The school-to-prison pipeline represents a perspective in the administration of justice, where youths in an educational environment are funneled out of the public school system into the correctional institutions. There is a dearth of knowledge in the literature regarding the net-widening effects on youths brought into the juvenile and the criminal justice system that otherwise would have remained in their educational institutions without the criminal justice intervention. The expansion of the justice system's reach to the youths has become so prevalent, raising concerns that research has yet to illustrate what happens before a youth goes from school disciplinary measures and …

Supervision In The Digital Age: Online Sexual Solicitation Of Children And Youth, Kaitlyn Taylor Swanberg

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Since the creation of the internet, offenders have been using cyberspace as a means to solicit children and adolescents for sexual content. With children having unrestricted access to the internet at an earlier age than ever before, it is crucial for academics to better understand the digital world in order to protect children online. This study aims to understand the relationship between internet activities, age, and online sexual solicitation largely using an environmental criminology framework, utilizing the Routine Activities Theory by Cohen and Felson (1979) and Target Congruence Theory by Finkelhor and Asdigian (1996). The sample of this study consisted …

Finish This Over Drinks? A Study Of Sexual Harassment Perceptions, Hannah E. Barti

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The awareness of sexual harassment has been growing within the workplace, in the home, and within public areas. The #MeToo movement has shined light on this issue in recent years. This study aimed to understand how college students perceive sexual harassment within three scenarios: a music student and their teacher, two coworkers, and between an academic advisor and an adult student. This study included 531 responses from a diverse student population at a Southwest university. Consistent with previous findings, women were more likely to recognize sexually harassing behaviors. There were no significant gender differences in blame attribution in any of …

Perceived Effectiveness Of Mental Health Rehabilitation On Recidivism, Sydni Spradlin

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

As the American criminal justice system moves towards rehabilitation over punishment it is important to see if rehabilitation of mental illness reduces recidivism rates on a large scale. As established by previous research (Gonzalez & Connell, 2014; see also, Osher, et al, 2003), people with mental health issues are notoriously ignored or not provided the proper treatment during incarceration and it is necessary to examine this connection so new policies can be implemented to help incarcerated Americans. By reducing recidivism the amount of people incarcerated is lowered, because most people incarcerated are repeat offenders (Bureau of Justice Statistics), saving America …

The Effect Of Social Influence, Patient Type, And Treatment Type On Ethical Medical Decision Making, Kessa Romero

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

Laws are set into place in order to guarantee proper rights for U.S. citizens in need of medical care. Previous research suggests that public opinion of mental health influences the treatment of vulnerable populations diagnosed with mental illness. This study explored the ways in which social pressure to conform influences policies regarding prison inmates, children, and adults. It concludes with suggesting changes to existing policy. The present study was a 3x3 factorial design. The independent variables were public opinion (pro-issue, anti-issue, and no opinion) and type of ethical dilemma (forced medication on children, forced medication on prison inmate adults, involuntary …

Unlawful, Unjust, And Unchanged; A Thesis Of Racial And Socioeconomic Disparities In Criminal Sentencing, Jessica Cochrane

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

Black people and people of low socioeconomic status are disproportionately incarcerated in the United States of America. For a country that prides itself on being a “melting pot” of people and cultures, this is an extremely impactful issue. One of the byproducts of the disproportionate incarceration that occurs is that Black people and/or people of low socioeconomic status are also given longer sentences than their White and upper-class counterparts. This is a problem because those who have certain traits that they cannot change or would have a hard time changing are being negatively affected by implicit bias held by others …

Understanding And Preventing Burnout Among Behavioral Health Workers, Jafar Almukdadi

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This capstone project aims to address burnout among behavioral health workers through research and survey development. The research component involves reviewing existing studies and conducting interviews with staff members of Valley Health Associates to identify key factors contributing to high burnout rates and their consequences. Contributing factors researched include organizational culture, increasing workloads, and demand for behavioral health workers, and organizational climate. The consequences of burnout include physical and emotional health impacts, overwhelming caseloads, and low retention rates. The research findings inform the development of an employee satisfaction and engagement survey that includes questions related to burnout, workload, company culture, …

Opioid Prescribing Practice & Policy – A Study Of Medicaid Pediatric Population In South Carolina, Laksika Sivaraj

All Dissertations

Opioids are widely used as analgesics in different clinical settings, but they are also highly criticized for their downsides. Among the adult population, the addictive nature of opioids continues to be the main concern, while among young children, there are other adverse health outcomes that opioids can cause. These concerns have led the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other professional bodies to discourage opioid prescribing for children. Nevertheless, opioids continue to be prescribed for children for contraindicated health conditions. The goal of this research is to assess opioid prescribing practices for the pediatric population in South Carolina (SC). …

Understanding Job Satisfaction In The National Park Service, The Needs Of Black Employees, And The Decision-Making Of Managers, Akiebia Hicks

All Dissertations

According to the 2020 U.S. Office of Personnel Management’s Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, the National Park Service (NPS) was ranked the 353rd best place to work out of the 411 government agencies surveyed, with an engagement score of 61.3%, which was lower than the 69.0% average amongst government agencies. This survey is performed annually and asks employees to score their employer in the following categories: leadership, empowerment, pay, teamwork, innovation, recognition, response to COVID-19, and work-life balance. The scores are divided by a quartile key. In every category except “innovation,” the NPS landed in the lower quartile, causing the need …

Essays On Labor Market Size And Job Match Quality, Lan Lan

All Dissertations

This dissertation is comprised of two essays that delve into the construction of a major-related labor market and its correlation with college graduates’ job match quality. Investigating the job match quality of college graduates for different majors in large cities is crucial, as it provides evidence on which majors tend to yield better job matches. This contributes to the study of the return on major while also shedding light on how city size impacts individuals’ ability to find jobs that align with their educational level and major, thereby enriching the study of the benefits of agglomeration.

The first chapter examines …

Toolkit: Healing Our Protectors: Building Resilience Among Tribal Law Enforcement Officers Through Cultural Interventions, Lavonne Fox, Leo Sr. Belgarde, Thomasine Heitkamp, Shawnda Schroeder

Indigenous Health Faculty Publications

Introduction: The U.S. and Native Americans have a government-to-government relationship. The result of 375 treaties, established laws and instituted policies promote Tribal sovereignty and are intended to support the general wellbeing Indigenous persons and protect their lands and resources. The Tribal sovereignty includes law enforcement. This resource is intended to provide a broad understanding of the challenges both Tribal and Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) law enforcement officers face; many struggle dealing with the traumatic events they have experienced. We acknowledge that there is a scarcity of current information related to Tribal and BIA police officers’ mental health. This document …

Unavoidable Necessities: How Covid-19 And Ali V. Commonwealth Illustrate The Need For A New Balancing Test For Speedy Trial Right Claims, Roger D. Herring

University of Richmond Law Review

The COVID-19 pandemic is still an ever-present phenomenon in the United States. Since the pandemic began in March 2020, over one million Americans have died as a result of this disease. During that time period, the pandemic impacted the everyday lives of Americans and the institutions we depend on. The judicial system in particular was affected by COVID-19. In Virginia, the Supreme Court of Virginia declared a judicial emergency in response to the pandemic. As a result of this judicial emergency, the trial of many criminal defendants were postponed for an indefinitie period of time. This resulted in many criminal …

Queer Need In The Natural State: An Exploratory Needs Assessment Of The 2slgbtqia+ Community In Northwest Arkansas, Leea Jean Johnson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the current needs of the 2sLGBTQIA+ community in Northwest Arkansas between the ages of 18-40 and what their experiences have been attempting to get their needs met. Eight semi-structured interviews were completed with members of the 2sLGBTQIA+ population, and ethical considerations were made throughout the process. The findings of this study were expansive and included six overarching themes with various subthemes. The findings report on the specific needs outlined by participants, how participants found the resources to meet their needs, and common positive and negative experiences that participants identified in the process. Findings showed that intersectional identities …

Faculty In Education: Perception Of Control And Alternative Disciplinary Methods, Samantha Freville

Honors College Theses

Schools have the unique and important opportunity to teach students useful life and coping skills as well as positive behavior in their community. One way in which they may impact their students is through their choice of disciplinary methods. Research suggests that alternative disciplinary methods may be more beneficial to students than are traditional exclusionary policies. For part one of this study, undergraduate students reported their experiences with traditional and alternative discipline in elementary, middle, and high school as well as their engagement in school (school involvement and attitudes of school faculty). Results showed that having alternative methods at a …

The Criminal Justice System In Mexico, Carlos D. Gutierrez-Mannix

Political Science Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A Psychometric Validation Of The Provider Responses, Treatment, And Care For Trafficked People Instrument, Shaneke O. Pryce

Theses & Dissertations

Background

Human trafficking (HT) is often referred to as modern-day slavery, where force, fraud, or coercion is used to lure an individual into a life of labor or sexual exploitation. Although trafficked persons commonly interface with the healthcare setting, they are often unidentified and returned to the trafficked population. Previous studies have shown that while in captivity, trafficked persons have accessed medical care on various occasions, seeking treatments ranging from minor ailments to more severe ones at emergency departments, primary care clinics, and specialized clinics for sexual and reproductive health (Chisolm-Straker et al., 2016; Lederer &Wetzel, 2014). The inability to …

Illinois State University, One Hundred And Sixty-Fourth Annual Commencement, May 2023, Illinois State University

Commencement Programs

Illinois State University
One Hundred and Sixty-Fourth Annual Commencement
May 2023

Cognitive-Experiential Self-Theory: An Analysis Of Teen Court Decision-Making By Youth Jurors And Adult Volunteers, Colette Briana Harris

All Dissertations

Few studies have explored the effects of emotional or rational stimulations concerning juror verdicts. There has yet to be a study to examine the impact of cognitive or experiential processing on teen juror decision-making in teen courts. The survey of teen court participants after the completion of teen court jury trials was used to gauge whether rational processing or experiential processing was triggered in selecting a verdict. Cognitive-Experiential Self-Theory (CEST) and juvenile decision-making theories and perspectives (The Focal Concerns Theory of Sentencing, Attribution Theory, and Formal Legal Perspective) were used to explain teen jurors’ decision-making. A sample of 107 grade, …

Motivating Factors For Murder With Rape Of Minor Girls In India: A Study Using Systematic Content Analysis, Dayanand Sundaravadivelu

All Dissertations

Gender-related homicides of young women and minor girls have reached alarming proportions in India. The 2020 crime statistics reported 1,582 homicides of children, with 119 (7.5%) minor victims raped and murdered. However, no empirical studies address the motives nor offer incident-based details of the murders and rape/gang-rape of minors. The current study used systematic content analysis of news media sources published in India. The search included five primary print media—The Times of India, Hindustan Times, The Hindu, The Indian Express, and The New Indian Express, published in English and reported from 2017 to 2018. The search also included digital news …

Criminalizing Threats Against Schools: A Divergence Of Mens Rea And Punishment Severity In Recent State Legislation, Max Kaufman

Fordham Law Review

School shootings occur on a regular basis in the United States. Fear of the next school shooting leads schools to take any potential threat of violence seriously, but responding to a threat can be extremely disruptive to a school’s operations and the community that it serves. In the last five years, nine state legislatures have attempted to deter these threats by specifically criminalizing threats of violence against schools.

Despite the proximity in time in which these states enacted school threat statutes, these laws diverge in two important ways: First, the nine statutes employ several different mens rea requirements. Second, these …

County Characteristics And Opioid Mortality Rates In The United States, Baksun Sung

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Opioid overdose deaths are not equally distributed across the United States. While some areas have a less severe problem with opioid abuse, others face serious challenges, which are affected by various social factors. To address that question, in Chapter 1, I investigate how opioid mortality trends differ according to opioid types, race, and region to identify susceptible populations and areas. In Chapter 1, I contend that synthetic opioid is a main trigger for the current opioid epidemic and that the epidemic is concentrated among blacks and in the Eastern United States. Next, the following studies examine how varying social vulnerabilities …

The Relation Between Racial Attitudes And Facets Of Impulsivity, Diana M. Perez

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Racism is an ongoing issue in U.S. society. The present study examined the relation between racial attitudes and two types of impulsivity (i.e., behavioral inhibition and delay discounting). Prior research has not touched upon the relationship between impulsivity and racial bias; nonetheless, the factors that influence the ability to interfere with automatic thinking and bad decision making may be a way to address racial bias. One hundred eighty-seven White adult participants were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk), an online survey taking website. The value participants place on future rewards (i.e., delay discounting) and the ability to stop their behavior …

Combating Inequality: The Value Of Acknowledging Gender In Transitional Justice, Zoe Hovde

Res Publica - Journal of Undergraduate Research

Patriarchal inequalities have become exacerbated in nations occupied by mass violence, conflict, and violations of human rights, such as Bosnia-Herzegovina, Ghana, Sierra Leone, and Colombia. Gender-based violence is often not adequately recognized in processes transitional justice. In this essay, I observe and analyze sexual and gender-based violence in several countries and the ignorance or attention they were given by truth commissions, reparations, and other aspects of transnational justice. I also explore data regarding the aftermath of such violence, including the feminization of poverty and political insecurity. I discovered that recognizing gender when attempting to build reconciliation is a hesitant task …