Digital Commons Network^™

Evaluating De-Escalation Training At The National And Regional Levels: A Mixed Methods Analysis Of Officer Perceptions And Use Of Force, Samantha A. Tosto

Doctoral Works at the University of New Haven

High profile incidents of police misconduct and excessive use of force, particularly in cases of racialized violence against unarmed Black men, have led to a sociopolitical reckoning with the American criminal justice system. Following several of these incidents in the past decade, scholars, policymakers, and the public all have called for significant reform and the prioritization of de-escalation skills for law enforcement officers during citizen interactions. Despite these efforts, little empirical evidence has been established regarding the effectiveness and generalizability of de-escalation training programs. The current research represents a mixed-methods evaluation of the National De-escalation Training Center’s program at both …

“People See Us Homeless People As A Burden To Them” – Linda: Understanding Victimization And Offending Among Homeless Women, Alexandra J. Schloesser

Honors Program Theses and Projects

Among the homeless population in the United States and around the world, specific populations within the homeless experience unique challenges. As stated by Alatorre (2019), homeless women who have suffered trauma-related events are subject to revictimization when working to reintegrate back into society. The purpose of this chapter is to decipher the line between a victim and an offender in order to analyze how victimization and offending among women co-occur with homelessness. The study consists of a qualitative analysis of interviews, consisting of two YouTube videos from the channel White Under Belly and three interviews that were conducted via Zoom …

The Effects Of Burnout And Secondary Trauma On Parole Officers Working With Elderly Inmates, Kiley Leeann West

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to understand the impact of working with aging inmates on parole officers. Overall, previous research has shown those who work with parolees experience secondary trauma and burnout due to long contact hours, and lack of job training and resources. Research, however, has been limited on parole officers who work with the elderly offender population. Arguably, older inmates face unique obstacles that are in addition to the general offender population such as chronic health conditions, physical disabilities, and lack of family support. As the number of elderly parolees continues to increase, parole officers who work …

Unwanted Pursuit Behaviors & Emotional Reactivity To Former Romantic Partners: An Eeg Study, Ameer Abdel-Muhsin

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

Romantic relationships are extremely important connections for humans to make. When these relationships end, one partner will sometimes engage in unwanted pursuit behaviors (UPBs) to attempt to continue communication the other. Although previous research has demonstrated that these UPBs can result in psychological distress among victims, little is known about how they influence one’s emotional reactivity to the perpetrator. This study therefore sought to investigate the link between cyber and in-person UPBs and neural indicators of emotional reactivity when viewing photos of an ex-partner. Participants (n = 18) who experienced a breakup were asked to view pictures of their …

Hepatitis C Management For Individuals In Custody, Oluronke D. Akinola

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

The hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a pathogen that spreads through blood and causes hepatitis C disease, a liver infection. Early infection symptoms are rare, making it a silent killer. HCV, the chronic liver disease accounts for half of all hepatocellular carcinoma cases and is the leading cause of liver transplantation in the US. This quality improvement project aimed to create an educational toolkit for the Department of Correction staff working with individuals in custody refusing HCV treatment. The education tools comprised an infographic flyer (English and Spanish) to teach individuals in custody about HCV treatment and a PowerPoint presentation …

Mental Health Clinicians’ Experiences Of Treatment Length With Incarcerated Men In Therapeutic Community Substance Abuse Treatment, Crystal D. Nelson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Over half of the incarcerated population suffer from a substance abuse disorder; however, less than 20% of those incarcerated have access to substance abuse treatment while incarcerated. In those facilities where substance abuse treatment is an option, pressures of overcrowding and financial constraints threaten the length of treatment programming offered to move more people through treatment quicker. Therapeutic communities (TCs) have been shown to be the best substance abuse treatment option for those who are incarcerated, but TCs were designed to be a phase-based program based on developmental changes and signs of growth through the program. The purpose of this …

International Conformity To The Standard Minimum Age Of Criminal Responsibility: Comparing The Minimum Age Of Criminal Responsibility To The Minimum Legal Age Of Marriage, Malea Casillas

San Diego International Law Journal

As this data shows, countries across the globe, irrespective of culture, comply with and uphold the international MLAM. In contrast, they simultaneously fail to agree to the international MACR. The universal conformity with the international MLAM demonstrates that countries understand the negative consequences of marriage at a young age and care to protect children against child marriage. However, the even lower MACRs across the globe indicate that most of our world values prosecution over protection and likely sees offender first and child second.

This Comment will argue that MACR and MLAM should be recognized as similar legal concepts that are …

Probation And Pre-Trial Officers' Perspectives On The Impact Of Maternal Incarceration On Children, Shaniqua Anderson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Because of the mass incarceration of women, maternal incarceration has become a phenomenon within itself. This phenomenon has led to an increase in Black children with an incarcerated mother; however, there is a lack of information about how the cycle of the mass incarceration of Black women is perceived on the community supervision level. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to better understand probation and pre-trial officers’ perceptions of how the maternal incarceration of Black women impacts Black children. Three research questions explored how participants viewed the impact of maternal incarceration on Black children, recidivism, and positive reentry. …

The Social Experiment: How The First Amendment Influences Private Social Media Companies, Collyn J. Kim

Helms School of Government Undergraduate Law Review

Social media has become one of the biggest mediums by which people communicate, socialize, and interact with each other. People follow political figures, cultural icons, and news outlets, among others, to gain knowledge on current events or the hot topic of the day. Many users, regardless of the platform, use their medium of choice to speak their own opinions and comment on the world’s issues. From prime ministers to popular memes, social media is a never-ending timeline of speech. With the constant speech and expression exhibited on social media, two important questions must be asked. First, does the First Amendment …

The Indiana Statesman, May 2, 2024, Indiana State University

Student Newspaper

Trump trial continues into second week; Georgia enforces federal immigration law; LGBTQ youth and suicide

Lavender Graduation 2024, University Of Mississippi. Center For Inclusion And Cross Cultural Engagement

Lavender Graduation

No abstract provided.

2024 Undergraduate And Graduate Commencement, Lindenwood University

Commencement Programs

2024 Lindenwood University Commencement program.

Faculty Senate Chronicle May 2, 2024, Heather Loughney

The University of Akron Faculty Senate Chronicle

Minutes for the regular meeting of The University of Akron Faculty Senate on May 2, 2024.

2023 Annual Report, University Of Maine School Of Law

Clinic Annual Report

• Letter from the Directors
• 2023: Year in Review
• General Practice Clinic
• Refugee and Human Rights Center
• Rural Practice Clinic
• Prisoner Assistance Clinic
• Protection from Abuse Program
• Youth Justice Clinic
• Center for Youth Policy & Law
• Clinic Staffing

Hi My Name Is: A Film On The Sources And Consequences Of Labeling The Black Identity In America, Hannah Mitchell

Undergraduate Theses

This project aims to explore how formal and informal labels given to Black people in the United States impact Black people’s self-perceptions, with attention to how intersectional identities (e.g. queer, person with disability) can complicate those impacts. Labeling theory (Cullen, 1976) provides the theoretical lens to explore how the Black identity, and Black people in this country, are threatened by externally assigned and internally actualized labels. Data is presented in the form of a film compiled from video interviews with 12-15 Black individuals. Participants were recruited in a purposive manner with intersectional identity traits in mind (e.g. age, gender identity, …

Civil Liability For Autonomous Police Robots: The Inadequacy Of § 1983 In Responding To Robot Excessive Force, Robert Sassan

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

In the fall of 2023, New York City announced its plan to deploy an autonomous police robot, called K5, to patrol the Times Square subway station. Mayor Eric Adams touted the initiative as a cost-saving measure— K5 costs less per hour than a human patrol officer. But K5 was by no means a replacement for a human. It was effectively a security camera on wheels. K5 could be used to call for help but could not otherwise intervene in an emergency, and it was not capable of using force to respond to a threat. But in the not-so-distant future, autonomous …

Software Reliability Model Estimation For An Indeterministic Crime Cluster Through Reinforcement Learning, Dileep Kumar Kadali, R.N.V. Jagan Mohan, M. Chandra Naik

Neutrosophic Systems with Applications

The software reliability model estimates the probability of data failure in a specific environment, significantly impacting reliability and trustworthiness. The paper study focuses on cluster crime data, i.e., indeterministic in Neutrosophic Logic, using a software reliability model. The study utilizes reinforcement learning, Neutrosophic logic, and non-homogeneous Poisson process crime data to estimate indeterministic cluster data in crime. The "Non-homogeneous Poisson Process with Neutrosophic Logic" technique performs well in evaluating and deterring crime based on crime data analysis. The crime cluster involving offenders correctly classified as failure to accomplish does better than uncertain cluster reliability estimation with least squares and logistic …

Capitol 'H' Horror: Pereptuations Of Risk And Fear In Horror Movies, Lavinia Greer

Senior Theses

In this study, I dissect the messages symbolically communicated by horror movies through the eyes of their consumers, and thus how they reproduce systemic inequality through the ideals they perpetuate (Berger, P. L., & Luckmann, T., 1966). Through two rounds of interviews, this thesis argues that not only do horror movies have lasting impacts on watcher’s behavior and constructions of social realities, but that the very industry of horror films has lasting effects on the social construction of what is scary, who deserves to be afraid, and what we should consider entertainment.

Cultures Represented In Everyday Life: Japanese And American Values And Culture, Andrea Korbel

University Honors College

Culture is an important factor in a country because of how it displays the values of the people within it. Japan is a homogenous society that has been around since 600 B.C., the culture created since early in age. While only having been officially founded in 1776, America has also grown to have a culture of its own, heavily due to it being a vast melting pot of a country. Both countries hold aspects of culture and their values within society that are similar and different. This paper examines parts of everyday life that the culture and values of the …

The Lead, End-Of-Spring 2024, Lindenwood University

The Lead

The Lead is an electronic newsletter produced by the Lindenwood College of Education & Human Services.

Youth Alchemy: Non-Formal Learning Around Identity & Agency, Jayashri Sarkar

Dissertation Collection

The social and educational disruption during confluence of COVID isolation and Black Lives Matter protests was critical to learning and agency amongst Youth of Color. This phenomenological qualitative study centers around Youth of Color in Providence, Rhode Island as they contested formal education and sought to make meaning of these events. Drawing on Amartya Sen’s capability approach, a series of in-depth phenomenological interviews with participants to explore the meaning they gleaned from their engagement in Youth-led emancipatory educational initiatives, particularly in terms of their sense of identity and agency. Although existing literature documents Youth resistance, this study explores Youth reflections …

Needful Rules And Regulations: Originalist Reflections On The Territorial Clause, Anthony M. Ciolli

Vanderbilt Law Review

There are few areas where the current state of the law is as inconsistent, incoherent, and intellectually bankrupt as the law of U.S. territories. The seminal cases in the field are the infamous Insular Cases, where the Supreme Court of the United States held that the “half-civilized,” “savage,” “ignorant and lawless” “alien races” that inhabited the United States’ overseas territories were not entitled to the same constitutional rights and protections afforded to Americans residing in the mainland United States—holdings that were based on the white man’s burden and similar then-prevalent theories of white supremacy.

Despite being firmly entrenched within the …

A Review Of Terms Related To Race In School Psychology Journals, Malyra Bendson

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The Black Lives Matter movement has been an increasing movement since the death of Trayvon Martin in 2012. Over the next decade there has been an increase in the movement due to Black lives continuing to be lost at the hands of police. School psychologists play a key role in supporting the mental health of students within schools. It is essential that research discuss how to best support students who have been affected by this movement as children have witnessed, so much on television and social media over the years. The current review explores whether these sociopolitical issues have also …

No Sword, No Shield, No Problem: Ai In Pro Se Section 1983 Suits, Michaela Calhoun

University of Colorado Law Review Forum

Originating during the Reconstruction era, 42 U.S.C. 1983 emerged as a legislative tool to safeguard individuals’ constitutional rights and liberties. Initially designed to combat state-sanctioned violence, its efficacy has been eroded over time by subsequent judicial and legislative action. Unfortunately, the current state of Section 1983 falls short of this envisioned role, particularly for incarcerated individuals who find themselves navigating the complexities of the federal court system as pro se litigants.

Faced with a landscape devoid of resources, incarcerated individuals struggle to realize their constitutional rights, further perpetuating their collective status as a second-class citizenry—a status imposed by their own …

The Effects Of Communication Overaccommodation On Non-Native English-Speaking Employees In The U.S. Workplace, Elizabeth Curtis

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Communication overaccommodation (CO) takes the form of baby talk, speech mimicry, and overcommunication, and its effects on recipients have been studied in physician/patient relationships, civilian/police officer relationships, manager/employee relationships, and native and non-native speaker communications. This study focused on CO in non-hierarchical relationships between native English-speaking and non-native English-speaking employees in the U.S. workplace. I investigated the effects of CO on non-native English-speaking co-workers, regarding their feelings of exclusion and satisfaction with their job. I also investigated the potential moderation effect of English proficiency on non-native English-speaking employees’ feelings of being excluded. It was found that the level of English …

Criminal Justice Update - May 2024, Sophia Dotterweich

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 updates this month)
• Updates from the PA Legislature
• Updates from the Courts
• U.S. Supreme Court: Criminal Law & Procedure
• PA Supreme Court: Criminal Law & Procedure
• PA Superior Court: Criminal Law & Procedure

A Comprehensive Examination Of The Post-Conviction Risk Assessment (Pcra) And Risk Prediction Index (Rpi) For General Risk Factors, Criminogenic Outcomes, And Risk-Specific Populations, Logan J. Distasio

Master's Theses

The use of risk assessment instruments has become an increasingly pertinent issue in the realm of reentry. Though sometimes controversial, risk assessment tools provide local, state, and federal governments with actuarial techniques focused on providing unbiased and accurate risk assessments for individuals returning to the community. The present study was focused on the further evaluation of two risk assessment instruments utilized by the Administrative Office of the United States Courts (AOUSC)—the Post-Conviction Risk Assessment (PCRA) and the Risk Prediction Index (RPI). A mixed-methods approach was taken in order to investigate the associations between these tools, general risk factors, criminogenic outcomes, …

Difficulties In Police Hiring And Retention Post George Floyd, Dan Benedict

School of Professional Studies

This capstone explores the history behind the negative sentiment towards police and explore how hiring and retention has changed since George Floyd. Proposals for new practices and methods to help police departments hire and retain qualified individuals who are willing to take on a career in law enforcement.

Addressing Social Determinants Of Health In Medication-Assisted Treatment Programs, Audrey Hunter

The Eleanor Mann School of Nursing DNP Capstone Projects

Introduction: Medication-assisted treatment (MAT) is considered the most effective treatment for patients with opioid use disorder (OUD); however, MAT program retention rates are consistently low across the United States. Addressing social determinants of health (SDOH) through text message could impact MAT retention; therefore, a pilot project at a federally qualified healthcare center (FQHC) was implemented.

Methods: The Protocol for Responding to and Assessing Patients’ Assets, Risk, and Experiences (PRAPARE) SDOH screening tool was implemented for patients undergoing MAT for OUD. Community resource referrals were provided via text message based on the screening results. Retention in treatment was measured by prescriptions …

Lgbtq+ Spaces In Rural Arkansas That Accommodate And Advocate For Queer Existence, Lacey Oxford

Interior Design Undergraduate Honors Theses

Queer communities located in rural Arkansas are often scarce and elusive to the public eye as a justified reaction to mass negative interpretations and understandings of these LGBTQ+ individuals from a predominantly conservative population. The few who have a more broadcasted identity are subject to potential public scrutiny, but offer queer individuals needed refuge and areas of unfiltered self-expression. This paper explores two LGBTQ+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and other identifying individuals) communities and their concomitant establishments: Santuario Arco Iris, an esteemed communal settlement designed specifically for BIPOC (black, indigenous, and other people of color), queer individuals in Boxley, …