Digital Commons Network^™

Proton Transparency And Neutrino Physics: New Methods And Modeling, Clas Collaboration, S. Dytman, M. Betancourt, N. Steinberg, L. B. Weinstein, A. Ashkenazi, J. Tena-Vidal, A. Papadopoulou, G. Chambers-Wall, J. Smith, P. Achenbach, J. S. Alvarado, M. J. Amaryan, H. Atac, L. Baashen, N. A. Baltzell, L. Barion, M. Bashkanov, M. Battaglieri, F. Benmokhtar, A. Bianconi, A. S. Biselli, M. Bondi, F. Bossù, S. Boiarinov, K. -Th. Brinkmann, W. J. Briscoe, W. K. Brooks, S. Bueltmann, V. D. Burkert, T. Cao, R. Capobianco, D. S. Carman, J. C. Carvajal, P. Chatagnon, V. Chesnokov, H. Chinchay, G. Ciullo, P. L. Cole, M. Contalbrigo, A. D'Angelo, N. Dashyan, R. De Vita, M. Defurne, A. Deur, S. Diehl, C. Djalali, R. Dupre, H. Egiyan, A. El Alaoui, L. El Fassi, L. Elouadrhiri, M. Farooq, S. Fegan, I. P. Fernando, A. Filippi, G. Gavalian, G. P. Gilfoyle, R. W. Gothe, L. Guo, K. Hafidi, H. Hakobyan, M. Hattawy, F. Hauenstein, T. B. Hayward, D. Heddle, A. Hobart, M. Holtrop, Yu-Chun Hung, Y. Ilieva, D. G. Ireland, E. L. Isupov, H. Jiang, H. S. Jo, S. Joosten, M. Khandaker, A. Kim, F. J. Klein, V. Klimenko, A. Kripko, V. Kubarovsky, S. E. Kuhn, L. Lanza, P. Lenisa, D. Marchand, V. Mascagna, D. Matamoros, B. Mckinnon, T. Mineeva, M. Mirazita, V. Mokeev, C. Munoz Camacho, P. Nadel-Turonski, T. Nagorna, K. Neupane, D. Nguyen, S. Niccolai, M. Osipenko, L. L. Pappalardo, R. Paremuzyan, E. Pasyuk, S. J. Paul, W. Phelps, N. Pilleux, S. Polcher Rafael, J. W. Price, Y. Prok, T. Reed, J. Richards, M. Ripani, J. Ritman, A. A. Rusova, S. Schadmand, A. Schmidt, R. A. Schumacher, M. B. C. Scott, Y. G. Sharabian, E. V. Shirokov, S. Shrestha, N. Sparveris, M. Spreafico, S. Stepanyan, I. Stakovsky, S. Strauch, J. A. Tan, M. Tenorio, N. Trotta, R. Tyson, M. Ungaro, D. W. Upton, S. Vallarino, L. Venturelli, T. Vittorini, H. Voskanyan, E. Voutier, Y. Wang, D. P. Watts, U. Weerasinghe, X. Wei, M. H. Wood, L. Xu, N. Zachariou

Physics Faculty Publications

Extracting accurate results from neutrino oscillation and cross section experiments requires accurate simulation of the neutrino-nucleus interaction. The rescattering of outgoing hadrons (final state interactions) by the rest of the nucleus is an important component of these interactions. We present a new measurement of proton transparency (defined as the fraction of outgoing protons that emerge without significant rescattering) using electron-nucleus scattering data recorded by the CLAS detector at Jefferson Laboratory on helium, carbon, and iron targets. This analysis uses a new data-driven method to extract the transparency. It defines transparency as the ratio of electron-scattering events with a detected proton …

Exploring Causes Of Beam Loss At Cebaf, C. Matthews, J. Benesch, R. M. Bodenstein, B. Freeman, D. Moser, D. Turner, K. Price, J. Samari, B. Terzić

Physics Faculty Publications

At Jefferson Lab, the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator (CEBAF) features a unique design with two linear accelerators and two arc sections allowing for multiple turns of the electron beam, as well as four experimental end stations. This topology leads to increased beam losses, especially in the spreader and recombiner regions connecting the arcs to the LINACs and in the extraction regions connecting the experimental end stations to the accelerator. These losses result in equipment activation and operational interruptions. Recent upgrades to the facility’s diagnostic systems, including the addition of xenon ion chambers, have provided higher-resolution data regarding these loss events. …

Osgoode Syllabus Of Courses And Seminars: 2026 - 2027, Office Of Student Services

Syllabi

No abstract provided.

Construction-Phase Leed Compliance In Egypt: Development Of A Rule-Based Expert System For Contractor Decision Support, Mohamed R. Ahmed, Atef A. Ragab, Sameh Y. Mahfouz

Mansoura Engineering Journal

This study develops a rule-based expert system implemented in Python to support contractors in achieving LEED BD+C: New Construction v4 certification during the construction phase in Egypt. The research identifies and validates construction-phase obstacles affecting LEED compliance through a structured questionnaire targeting building contractors in Egypt. The questionnaire process was conducted in two stages: a pilot survey was used to screen and refine the initially identified obstacles, while the main survey was used to validate the practical relevance of the retained obstacles within the Egyptian construction context. In parallel, the study analyzes construction-phase prerequisites and credits relevant to contractors through …

College Of Nursing Records, Sdsu Archives And Special Collections, Hilton M. Briggs Library

Archives Finding Aids

Nursing education at South Dakota State University began in 1935 with the establishment of a Department of Nursing under the Division of Pharmacy at the request of the South Dakota Nurses’ Association. Initially a five-year program with clinical experiences at Sioux Valley Hospital, it became a four-year program in 1952 and received National League for Nursing accreditation in 1960. The department became the Division of Nursing in 1956 and the College of Nursing in 1964. Subsequent developments included graduate programs, continuing education, off-campus opportunities for registered nurses, accelerated bachelor’s programs, and doctoral degrees.

The College of Nursing Records document administration, …

Enhancing Traffic State Estimation At Bottlenecks Through Improved Demand Modeling: A Greenshields-Grounded Approach, Yuyan Annie Pan, Xianbiao Hu, Qing Tang, Yanyan Chen, Xuesong (Simon) Zhou

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Accurate estimation of traffic state under oversaturated conditions is fundamental to a wide range of transportation applications. While intuitive, volume-to-capacity (q/qc) ratio-based link performance functions (LPF) are challenged by the U-shaped pattern of real-world speed-flow plots, which contradict the monotonic assumptions of link performance models such as the Bureau of Public Roads (BPR) function, particularly when q/q_c ≥ 1. This study addresses this critical gap by proposing an enhanced demand estimation method grounded in the Greenshields model, incorporating a real-time inflow correction factor to more accurately capture traffic demand at bottlenecks. In parallel, a modified LPF is introduced, replacing …

Modeling Hepa Filter Media Performance And Evaluation Of Filtration Leak Test Success, Daniel M. Abraham, Steven J. Eckels, Shahin N. Amiri

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

This research presents a cost-effective microscale modeling analysis of high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter media. We analyzed leak-free and leaking media with known leak sizes. A three-dimensional fibrous model with non-homogeneous fiber diameters (0.2–2 µm) and a packing density of 7.5% was developed to replicate a HEPA filter sheet (H14) microstructure. The objective was to simulate and analyze the pressure drop and collection efficiency of nanofibrous media for aerosol particles with a diameter of d_p ≤ 0.5 µm. The results were compared to prior experimental and theoretical models, exhibiting a high level of agreement with pressure drop and efficiency …

Seasonal And Geologic Controls On Submarine Groundwater Discharge-Derived Nutrient Fluxes To Two Coastal Embayments, Moira Taylor, Joseph J. Tamborski, Aaron Alorda-Kleinglass, Nathaniel Maynard

OES Faculty Publications

Submarine groundwater discharge and porewater exchange are critical but often overlooked sources of nutrients to coastal systems. This study investigates how sediment permeability and summer-winter seasonal dynamics influence the magnitude and biogeochemistry of nutrient fluxes from submarine groundwater discharge and porewater exchange. Reaction rates in the subterranean estuary were used to identify the transformations and drivers of nutrient loading in two geologically distinct embayments in the U.S. East Coast: the highly permeable Peconic Bay estuary (NY), and the surficially fine-grained coastal embayments of the southern Delmarva Peninsula (VA). We applied radium isotope mass balances to distinguish total submarine groundwater discharge …

Autonomous Float Data Reveal Decoupled Trends In Chlorophyll And Stratification In The Indian Ocean, Marufa Ishaque, Sophie Clayton, John Klinck

OES Faculty Publications

Recent studies have shown that the Indian Ocean is warming significantly, but how this warming impacts primary production is largely unresolved due to a relative lack of depth-resolved biological observations. In this study, we have used Biogeochemical-Argo data from 2013 to 2022, comprising over 9,000 individual profiles, to examine regional patterns and trends in depth-integrated chlorophyll, depth-integrated net primary production and stratification in the northern and Equatorial Indian Ocean. Our analysis shows that water column stratification is increasing in the majority of the study area, with the highest rate of increase observed in the western Bay of Bengal. At the …

Testing The Limits Of Provenance Analysis From Basaltic Fluvial Sediment Near Sandvatn, Iceland, As A Mars Analog, Audrey R. Putnam, Kirsten L. Siebach, Michael T. Thorpe, Valerie M. Tu, Elizabeth B. Rampe, Candice C. Bedford, Gelu Costin, Joseph J. Tamborski

OES Faculty Publications

Detrital sediments that accumulate downstream and are preserved in sedimentary rocks can allow characterization of geologic formations that are inaccessible for spatial or temporal reasons. However, mixing, sorting, and alteration of sediment during transport may complicate reconstruction of protolith characteristics. We test the preservation of three key provenance signals in coarse fluvial sand at a Mars analog watershed in Iceland to determine whether detrital sediments capture (a) watershed magmatic chemical variation, (b) textural indicators of lava-water interaction during eruption and cooling, and (c) hydrothermal alteration. Specifically, we tested whether diagnostic variations in rock mineralogy, chemistry, and texture can be recovered …

Recirculated Submarine Groundwater Discharge Dominates Nutrient Inputs And Enhances Eutrophication Risk In A Coastal Lagoon, Júlia Rodriguez-Puig, Clara Ruiz-González, Marc Diego-Feliu, Irene Alorda-Montiel, Aaron Alorda-Kleinglass, Daniel Romano-Gude, Andrea G. Bravo, Júlia Dordal-Soriano, Javier Gilabert, Sophia Bergeler, Celine Lavergne, Gemma Casas, Marisol Manzano, Jordi Garcia-Orellana, Valentí Rodellas

OES Faculty Publications

Submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) is a widely recognized pathway for nutrient transport to coastal systems. Prior studies overlook the unique biogeochemical signatures of different SGD pathways, neglecting their differences in biogeochemical transformations and spatiotemporal factors. Here, we present an integrated assessment of nutrient delivery through three SGD pathways (fresh SGD, long‐scale recirculated SGD, and short‐scale porewater exchange), alongside surface water inputs, to evaluate their seasonality and impact on nutrient dynamics in a coastal lagoon. We conducted five field surveys in March, July, and November 2021, July 2024, and March 2025 in the Mar Menor lagoon, an ecosystem facing severe ecological …

Contribution Of Non-Linear Internal Waves To Marine Net Primary Production Has Been Underestimated, Xiaoju Pan, Tung-Yuan Ho, George T. F. Wong, Jen-Hua Tai, Shoude Guan, Fuh-Kuo Shiah

OES Faculty Publications

Field observations in the northern South China Sea (NSCS) indicate that elevated concentrations of chlorophyll a (Chl_a) associated with non-linear internal waves (NIWs) were more pronounced in the subsurface than at the sea-surface. At a given surface Chl_a, the vertically integrated Chl_a in an NIW-active area was 45% higher than that in an area where the NIW activities were minimal. As a result, net primary production (PP_eu) estimated from surface Chl_a from remote sensing by using the current Chl_a-based PP_eu model (e.g. VGPM) would have underestimated the true value by the same amount. If this correction is …

Revisiting The Life Cycle Of Margalefidinium Polykrikoides Group Iii, Eduardo Pérez-Vega, Kenneth N. Mertens, Pjotr Meyvisch, Margaret R. Mulholland

OES Faculty Publications

Dinoflagellates produce cysts as a strategy to withstand environmental stressors, with nutrient depletion generally considered a key trigger for cyst production. Resting cysts are thick-walled, typically composed of one to several layers, and characterized by a prolonged dormancy period. In contrast, pellicle cysts possess a thin, single wall and exhibit no dormancy or a markedly shorter dormancy than resting cysts of the same species. Margalefidinium polykrikoides produces pellicle and resting cysts, whereas its congener, M. fulvescens, has been shown to produce pumpkin-like structures. Using phase-contrast microscopy, time-lapse microscopy, FlowCam, and attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared microspectroscopy (ATR μ-FTIR), …

The Effects Of A Microplate On Plume-Ridge Interactions: Constraints From Comparing Easter And Juan Fernandez Microplates In The Eastern Pacific Ocean, Katherine Ames, Jennifer Georgen

OES Faculty Publications

This study investigates the nature of plume-ridge interactions near a tectonic microplate using mantle Bouguer anomaly (MBA) gravity calculations. The focus of this investigation is a comparison of the Easter and Juan Fernandez microplates, which are located in the eastern Pacific Ocean along the Pacific, Nazca, and Antarctic plate boundaries. The microplates have several similar characteristics, including general size, time of formation, and clockwise rotation within the larger bounding mid-ocean ridge systems. Unlike the Juan Fernandez microplate, however, the Easter microplate is located near a mantle plume (Easter/Salas y Gomez). Previously published geochemical data suggest that material from this plume …

Pyle, Gladys - The Inceredible Gladys Pyle Collection, Sdsu Archives And Special Collections, Hilton M. Briggs Library

Archives Finding Aids

Gladys Pyle (1890–1989) was a pioneering South Dakota politician and the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate without prior appointment. A graduate of Huron College, she taught high school before becoming the first woman elected to the South Dakota House of Representatives (1923–1927) and later serving as Secretary of State (1927–1931). She was also active in the women’s suffrage movement. In 1938, Pyle won a special election to the U.S. Senate, serving briefly from November 9, 1938, to January 3, 1939. Researchers Jeanette Kinyon and Jean Walz, known for their historical and biographical work, began compiling materials for a …

Women Artists In Collaboration Records, Sdsu Archives And Special Collections, Hilton M. Briggs Library

Archives Finding Aids

The Women Artists in Collaboration Records document the formation and activities of a dynamic group of women artists in Brookings, South Dakota. Established in 1985 following a presentation sponsored by the Brookings Women’s Center, the group fostered a collaborative artistic environment, with membership evolving annually based on participation. Financial support from Friends of the Arts and the Brookings Women’s Center helped sustain their projects and performances.

The collection, compiled by co-founder Marilyn Richardson, primarily consists of correspondence (1986-1990), financial records (1987-1990), and project materials (1985-1989), which provide insight into the group's creative process and organizational efforts. Notably, the project records …

Marghab Papers, Vera Way, Sdsu Archives And Special Collections, Hilton M. Briggs Library

Archives Finding Aids

Vera Way Marghab (1900–1995) was a pioneering entrepreneur in the luxury textile industry. Born in South Dakota, she studied piano in New York before co-founding Marghab, Ltd. on the Portuguese island of Madeira in 1933 with her husband, Emile Marghab. Together, they built one of the most esteemed embroidery houses, producing linens celebrated for their craftsmanship, exclusivity, and innovative design. Following Emile’s death in 1947, Vera led the company for nearly four decades, navigating shifts in global markets and political changes in Portugal before closing the business in 1984. Today, Marghab linens remain a benchmark of excellence, with a complete …

Chicago, Milwaukee, And St. Paul Railway Company Collection, Sdsu Archives And Special Collections, Hilton M. Briggs Library

Archives Finding Aids

The Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, widely known as the Milwaukee Road, was a major Midwestern rail carrier whose operations spanned from 1847 until its merger with the Soo Line Railroad in 1985–1986. Established originally as the Milwaukee and Waukesha Railroad, the company evolved through successive name changes and expansions to become a vital transportation network linking the Midwest to the Pacific Northwest. By the late nineteenth century, its lines stretched across Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, South Dakota, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and beyond, shaping patterns of commerce and settlement. Although the corporation no longer exists as an independent entity, …

Norris Papers, Kathleen, Sdsu Archives And Special Collections, Hilton M. Briggs Library

Archives Finding Aids

The Kathleen Norris Papers document the literary career and personal writings of poet and nonfiction writer Kathleen Norris (born 1947). Norris graduated from Punahou Preparatory School in Hawaii in 1965 and from Bennington College in 1969. Early in her career she worked as an arts administrator for Elizabeth Kray of the Academy of American Poets. Her first book of poetry, Falling Off, was published in 1971 and received the Big Table Younger Poets Award. She later lived for more than twenty-five years in Lemmon, South Dakota, with her husband, poet David Dwyer. Experiences from this period informed her nonfiction work …

South Dakota Social Science Association Records, Sdsu Archives And Special Collections, Hilton M. Briggs Library

Archives Finding Aids

The South Dakota Social Science Association Records document the activities of a professional organization composed of sociologists and students from colleges and universities across South Dakota. Active from the late 1930s through the 1970s, the association sponsored annual meetings, paper competitions, award ceremonies, and the publication of an academic journal. These meetings provided a forum for presenting research, exchanging ideas, and fostering collaboration among social science scholars across the state. The association became inactive in the 1980s.

The collection primarily documents the planning and proceedings of the association’s annual meetings. Materials include correspondence, newspaper clippings, programs, meeting minutes, treasurer’s reports, …

Comparing Gpas Of First-Time Students Based On Admissions Decision Date, John M. Adkins

Journal of Higher Education & Student Affairs

With the upcoming demographic shift, higher education administrators are aiming to enroll and retain as many students as possible. With this increased focus on enrollment and retention, a question that can be asked is whether students admitted late (two weeks prior to the start of the full term) will be less academically successful after their first full academic year? To study this question, the first-time, full-term cohorts for the fall 2020, 2021, and 2022 were obtained from Georgia Southern University. The data collected were the admissions decisions and registration dates, fall term GPA, spring term GPA, and cumulative GPA. The …

Good Trouble For Good Debt? A Comparative Analysis Of Financial Factors And Racial Differences In U.S. Student Loan Debt Burdens, Carlton R. Smith, Kim E. Bullington, Matthew J. Smith

Journal of Higher Education & Student Affairs

This study examines the relationship surrounding undergraduate student loan debt burdens and income levels post-graduation, focusing particularly on the financial impacts of both on Black student borrowers. Using two datasets from the National Center for Education Statistics, our quantitative analysis highlights that while student loan debt in and of itself is not problematic in theory, when combined with other factors and barriers, debt becomes an additional stressor potentially impeding student success during and after college. We offer short-, intermediate-, and long-term implications, while also highlighting examples of targeted intervention programs tailored to specifically benefit Black student borrowers.

Ai Systems For Physicians: A Review From Socio-Technical And Human-Computer Interaction Perspectives, Wu Jiaqi Young, Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare is accelerating, yet successful implementations of physician-facing AI systems remain limited and uneven. This paper presents a literature review of 40 peer-reviewed studies published between November 2022 and November 2024, spanning clinical, technical, and human-computer interaction (HCI) domains. Anchored in a socio-technical perspective, the review examines our existing understanding of how technical design, user expertise, and organizational factors shape the effectiveness of AI systems in real-world clinical settings. Our analysis identifies two meta-themes: (1) context as a dynamic, multi-level influence that actively reshapes AI system behavior, and (2) trust as an emergent …

Generalized Visual Relation Detection With Diffusion Models, Kaifeng Gao, Siqi Chen, Hanwang Zhang, Jun Xiao, Yueting Zhuang, Qianru Sun

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Visual relation detection (VRD) aims to identify relationships (or interactions) between object pairs in an image. Although recent VRD models have achieved impressive performance, they are all restricted to pre-defined relation categories, while failing to consider the semantic ambiguity characteristic of visual relations. Unlike objects, the appearance of visual relations is always subtle and can be described by multiple predicate words from different perspectives, e.g., “ride” can be depicted as “race” and “sit on”, from the sports and spatial position views, respectively. To this end, we propose to model visual relations as continuous embeddings, and design diffusion models to achieve …

Benchmarking Gaslighting Negation Attacks Against Reasoning Models, Bin Zhu, Hailong Yin, Jingjing Chen, Yu Gang Jiang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Recent advances in reasoning-centric models promise improved robustness through mechanisms such as chain-of-thought prompting and test-time scaling. However, their ability to withstand gaslighting negation attacks—adversarial prompts that confidently deny correct answers—remains underexplored. In this paper, we conduct a systematic evaluation of three state-of-the-art reasoning models, i.e., OpenAI’s o4-mini, Claude-3.7-Sonnet and Gemini-2.5-Flash, across three multimodal benchmarks: MMMU, MathVista, and CharXiv. Our evaluation reveals significant accuracy drops (25–29% on average) following gaslighting negation attacks, indicating that even top-tier reasoning models struggle to preserve correct answers under manipulative user feedback. Built upon the insights of the evaluation and to further probe this vulnerability, …

Realign: Text-To-Motion Generation Via Step-Aware Reward-Guided Alignment, Wanjiang Weng, Xiaofeng Tan, Junbo Wang, Guo-Sen Xie, Pan Zhou, Hongsong Wang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Text-to-motion generation, which synthesizes 3D human motions from text inputs, holds immense potential for applications in gaming, film, and robotics. Recently, diffusion-based methods have been shown to generate more diversity and realistic motion. However, there exists a misalignment between text and motion distributions in diffusion models, which leads to semantically inconsistent or low-quality motions. To address this limitation, we propose Reward-guided sampling Alignment (ReAlign), comprising a step-aware reward model to assess alignment quality during the denoising sampling and a reward-guided strategy that directs the diffusion process toward an optimally aligned distribution. This reward model integrates step-aware tokens and combines a …

Airaclex: Automated Detection Of Price Oracle Manipulations Via Llm-Driven Knowledge Mining And Prompt Generation, Bo Gao, Yuan Wang, Qingsong Wei, Yong Liu, Rick Siow Mong Goh, David Lo

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Decentralized finance (DeFi) applications depend on accurate price oracles to ensure secure and fair transactions. However, poorly integrated oracles remain susceptible to manipulation, enabling attackers to exploit smart contract logic for unfair asset valuation and financial gain. While many such vulnerabilities are only detected after deployment, smart contracts are typically immutable once deployed, making post-hoc fixes costly or infeasible. This highlights the critical need for detecting oracle manipulation risks before deployment. In this paper, we propose AiRacleX, a novel LLM-driven framework that enables pre-deployment detection of price oracle manipulation vulnerabilities by leveraging the complementary strengths of multiple large language models …

The Impact Of Pre-Trial Attitudes And Educational Jury Instructions : Juror Decision-Making In Mens Rea Cases Involving Mental Illness, Victoria E. O'Connell

Theses

Juror decision-making in cases involving mental illness is shaped by legal understanding and subjective attitudes. This study examined how juror attitudes and jury instruction type influence the application of mens rea defenses—Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity (NGRI), Diminished Capacity (DC), and Guilty but Mentally Ill (GBMI)—in criminal case vignettes involving defendants with mental health presentations. Enhanced jury instructions improved understanding of mens rea concepts but did not improve the application of these concepts to verdict decisions. Biases against mens rea defenses were associated with DC verdict decisions, with more negative NGRI attitudes predicting less legally accurate but more confident …

Transformation Of Public Earth Datasets For 3d Narrative Visualization Of Disaster Events, Connor Bleisch

Theses

Communicating large datasets in ways that are appealing to non-scientific audiences has been a recent focus of big data visualization. Interest has grown for using 3D environments with game-like structures and immersive technology like AR and VR since they are more engaging. We introduce a method, based on the structure of the datasets and domain knowledge of the natural phenomena, for transforming public National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Earth datasets into 3D narrative data visualizations, specifically of disaster events. Two visualizations were created using this method: one of the KNP Complex Wildfire in 2021 and one of Hurricane Beryl …

The Influence Of Defendant Mental Illness Characteristics On Prosecutorial Decision Making, Claire Elise Martin

Theses

As most criminal cases are now resolved via plea-bargaining, research on legal decision making has extended beyond the jury to evaluate judges, defense attorneys, and prosecutors. Although legal actors are obliged to remain objective and dispassionate, extralegal factors regarding defendant characteristics (e.g., age, gender, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic class) can influence case outcomes. Extant research on the effect of defendant mental health status and defendant demeanor on sentencing outcomes in court hearings is limited. Therefore, the present experiment solicited 134 prosecutors in a vignette study designed to assess how extralegal characteristics, specifically those related to mental illness, may affect the punitiveness of …