Digital Commons Network^™

E-Democratic Government Success Framework For United States’ Municipalities, Glenn Papp Jr

Masters Theses & Doctoral Dissertations

This project develops a comprehensive E-Democratic Government Success Framework that addresses low citizen engagement in local US politics. To develop this framework, I consult the literature on democratic participation, socio-technical theory, data security and privacy, decision support systems, and design science methodology. The main contribution of this project is a five-part method artifact for implementing E-Democracy initiatives—something that has not been readily attempted, despite the decentralized nature of US democracy and the opportunities it offers to experiment with institutions and deliberative procedures. This artifact gives policymakers the means to design, implement, adopt, and evaluate E-Democracy services; and it gives citizens …

A Performance-Explainability-Fairness Framework For Benchmarking Ml Models, Shuvro Chakrobartty

Masters Theses & Doctoral Dissertations

Machine learning (ML) models have achieved remarkable success in various applications; however, ensuring their robustness and fairness remains a critical challenge. In this research, we present a comprehensive framework designed to evaluate and benchmark ML models through the lenses of performance, explainability, and fairness. This framework addresses the increasing need for a holistic assessment of ML models, considering not only their predictive power but also their interpretability and equitable deployment.

The proposed framework leverages a multi-faceted evaluation approach, integrating performance metrics with explainability and fairness assessments. Performance evaluation incorporates standard measures such as accuracy, precision, and recall, but extends to …

Exploring The Impact Of Student-Faculty Partnership Program At A Hispanic Serving Institution, Alyssa Guadalupe Cavazos, Lesley Chapa, Javier Cavazos-Vela

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Guided by a strength-based framework and counter-storying lens, we use a qualitative case study approach (Cook-Sather, 2020; Cook-Sather and Motz-Storey, 2016; Lechuga-Peña and Lechuga, 2018) to explore students’ and instructors’ experiences with a students as learners and teachers (SaLT) partnership program at a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI). This study includes five students and five faculty members who participated in the student-faculty partnership program. Data collection involved student partners’ self-assessment reflections and faculty members’ pre- and post-program reflections on their experiences. Several themes were identified following a phenomenological analysis of students’ and faculty partners’ self-reflections. Themes emerging from student participants included …

Anti-Transgender Legislation In Arizona, Alabama, And Arkansas: Arbitrary Moral Discrimination Masquerading As Child Protection, Austin Hoenig

Denver Law Review

The twenty-first century saw rapid positive changes in the perception of the LGBTQIA+ community. However, an onslaught of anti-transgender legislation seeking to criminalize various aspects of transgender existence continues to sweep across the United States. This Comment analyzes laws in Arizona, Alabama, and Arkansas that target transgender children. The Comment posits that these laws are not effective as to their stated purposes of child protection. It also argues that the laws are facially discriminatory because they inexplicably consider transgender regret but ignore cisgender regret and disallow transgender affirmation but allow cisgender affirmation. The Comment goes on to argue that the …

Racial Bias, Accomplice Liability, And The Felony Murder Rule: A National Empirical Study, G. Ben Cohen, Justin D. Levinson, Koichi Hioki

Denver Law Review

Two long criticized prosecutorial tools—the felony murder rule and the accomplice liability doctrine—play an outsized role in the operation of American homicide law. Though each of these tools have separately faced intense criticism for their resistance to the supposedly foundational principles of moral culpability and individual responsibility, their legacy is also defined by the way they function symbiotically and specifically to heighten racialized punishment. This Article addresses the weighty combined reach of the accomplice liability doctrine and felony murder rule, and proposes that racial bias has fueled the operation and survival of these tools. Specifically, it suggests that implicit racial …

Law School Record, Vol. 70, No. 1 (Fall 2023), Law School Record Editors

Law School Record

• Message from the Dean
• Law School Faculty Shaping the Law with Their Ideas
• Lies and the Law
• With Two Generous Gifts, Pavel Malyi, LLM ’95, Promotes the Rule of Law Internationally
• Three Alumni to Clerk on US Supreme Court in 2023–2024 Term
• Art and the Law
• The Producers
• Law School Clinic Secures US Supreme Court Win in ICWA Case
• Student Q&A
• Law School Student and Alumna Win Coveted New Venture Awards
• Graduation 2023
• Chicago Unbound
• Scenes From Orientation
• Development News
• In Memoriam
• Meet the Class of 2026

Crime In A Time Of Cannabis: Estimating The Effect Of Legalizing Marijuana On Crime Rates In Colorado And Washington Using The Synthetic Control Method, Alexis J. Harper, Cody Jorgensen

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications and Presentations

The legalization of marijuana for recreational use continues to expand across America. Colorado and Washington were the first states to legalize marijuana in 2012. A primary concern regarding legalization is how these policy changes affect crime rates. Researchers have begun to estimate the effect marijuana legalization has had on crime rates. We extend this literature by using a different analytical approach. State level data covering years 2000–2019 were analyzed using the synthetic control method to find that legalizing marijuana for recreational use in Colorado and Washington was generally not associated with variations in index crime rates. These findings substantiate prior …

Treatment Of Ptsd And Sud For The Incarcerated Population With Emdr: A Pilot Study, Huma A. Bashir

Human Services Faculty Publications

Adverse childhood experiences predict recidivism. In incarcerated individuals, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) rates are higher. A study with 122 inmates with PTSD and substance use disorder explored eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR)’s effectiveness. EMDR worked across gender and race, reducing PCL-C scores posttreatment and at 2 and 4 weeks. IER-R scores lowered from weeks 1 to 9. EMDR boosted affect, reasoning, and attitudes posttreatment.

2023 Cardozo Life (Fall), Benjamin N. Cardozo School Of Law

Cardozo Life Magazine

Table of Contents:

Top News & Events, page 3

Gloria Steinem Accepts Cardozo's International Advocate for Peace Award, page 3

Ukrainian Professor Dmytro Vovk Finds a Safe Haven at Cardozo, page 14

Nargis Baran Escapes Afghanistan with Help from Three New York City Law Schools, page 16

Faculty in the Media, page 18

Faculty Scholarship, page 22

Speaking of Law, page 29

A Career of Spirit, page 30

Reframing Crime and Punishment, page 34

Protecting Human Rights Around the World, page 44

Defending LGBTQ+ Civil Rights, page 49

Commencement '23, page 52

Student Briefs, page 54

Alumni events, in Paris, …

Table Of Contents

Washington Law Review

No abstract provided.

Reifying Injustice: Using Culturally Specific Tattoos As A Marker Of Gang Membership, Beth Caldwell

Washington Law Review

The “gang” label has been so highly racialized that white people who self- identify as gang members are almost never categorized as “gang members” by law enforcement, while Black and Latino people who are not gang members are routinely labeled and targeted as if they were. Different rules attach to people under criminal law once they are labeled gang members, yet this two-track system is justified under the guise that the racially disparate treatment is legitimate because of gang association.

This Article takes one concrete example—culturally specific tattoos—and unmasks how racial markers are used to attach the gang label. Specifically, …

Patricia A. Tomson Center For Violence Prevention Newsletter, V3, Fall 2023, University Of Northern Iowa. Patricia A. Tomson Center For Violence Prevention.

Patricia A. Tomson Center for Violence Prevention Newsletter

Contents:

--- PATCVP Mission
--- Director's Note
--- MVP: Mentors in Violence Prevention
--- University of Iowa Grant Partnership
--- MVP Orientation Workshops at Iowa Colleges and Universities
--- Ft. Dodge MVP Ambassadors Training
--- Mentors in Violence Prevention Training of Trainers: September 2023-West Des Moines, IA
--- Council Bluffs Thomas Jefferson MVP Teacher Training
--- MVP Student Leadership Summit
--- MVP School Spotlight: Mason City High School
--- National Sexual Assault Conference - San Francisco, CA
--- World Anti-Bullying Forum - Raleigh, NC
--- Iowa BEST Summit - Des Moines, IA
--- Iowa School Counselor Association Conference - Des …

Csbs Kudos, Fall 2023, University Of Northern Iowa. College Of Social And Behavioral Sciences.

CSBS Kudos

Contents:

--- Greetings from the Dean
--- Faculty Accolades
--- Retirement: Sharon Mord
--- New Faculty & Staff
--- In Memoriam: Robert Leslie Ross
--- Department News
--- Gerdin Charitable Foundation donates $1M gift to establish Gerontology Chair
--- UNI ROTC stair climb honors 9/11 first responders
--- ARCTICenter part of $13.9 million grant to fight climate change
--- UNI student gets up-close look at the FBI and urban law enforcement
--- UNI’s nursing program receives Higher Learning Commission accreditation
--- UNI and Des Moines University partner to help students interested in healthcare
--- UNI course invites the community to …

Through The Eyes Of The Incarcerated: A Qualitative Content Analysis Of Prisoner Reentry Through Memoirs, Abigail Estep

Honors Theses

One in 100 adults in the United States are currently in jail or prison, equaling over 2.2 million individuals. Around 600,000 of those individuals are released from state and federal prisons every year. Unfortunately, these returning citizens are met with a system that has set them up to fail. Most of these individuals are determined to never go back, but the immobilizing challenges that they meet make it difficult, if not impossible, to be successfully reintegrated into society. The recidivism rate in the United States is the highest it has ever been at 44% nationally. We need to find and …

Examination Of The Impact Of The Opioid Epidemic In Appalachian Kentucky, Noah A. Stewart

Honors Theses

Rural crime and the Appalachian region have both been victims of bias. Rural crime is often a piece of studying criminology that is left lacking because of the preferred method of collecting data, drawing up theories, and more with more urban environments. The Appalachian region has long faced an infamous reputation for many things such as ignorance in its people, poverty rates, drug addiction, its backwardness in its culture, and many more long-established reasons. This research, however, is to hopefully shine a bright light on both the study of rural crime and the Appalachian region. With this study I have …

Patting Down Your Patient: Ethical And Practical Challenges Of Correctional Mental Health, Claire E. Bailey

Honors Theses

The unique nature of correctional settings presents mental health professionals working in these settings with various ethical and practical challenges. In light of these issues facing the field of correctional psychology, the present study is focused on examining the real-life experiences of correctional psychologists. Potential participants were identified based on their experiences within their mental health careers, specifically those who work, or have worked in the past, within a correctional facility as a mental health professional. Following this, a standardized interview was conducted focusing on the professional and educational background of the participants along with their perspectives about their work …

Open Educational Resources (Oer) Efficacy And Experiences: A Mixed Methods Study, Jennifer Mayer

University Libraries Publications

This study compared course passing and completion rates of undergraduate students to determine if there was any relationship between use of open educational resources (OER) and these two outcomes. Students who took OER courses and faculty who taught with OER shared their perceptions of the impact of such resources on learning outcomes and teaching methods.

The quantitative analysis revealed that using OER had a positive impact on course passing rates (7 percent increase) and completion rates (10 percent increase) for all students. The qualitative analysis revealed the student perception that OER had some positive impact on their course participation and …

For The Ones Who Endured So That A Nation Might Live: A Plea To The Mississippi Legislature And Judiciary To Amend Miss. Code. Ann. 9-25-1 And Adopt A Mississippi Statewide Veterans Treatment Court, Hannah Grace Eckel

MC Law Review

Veterans provide an invaluable service to protect and defend the ideals of this nation. Today, there are roughly 18 million veterans living in the United States, and Mississippi is home to over 187,000. While many servicemen successfully integrate back into civilian life, trauma and addiction follow others which often leads to confrontations with the criminal justice system. The traditional Mississippi court system is ineffective for many veterans because the underlying issues that led to their incarceration cannot be treated with mere confinement.

Veterans Treatment Courts (VTCs) address the underlying issues that often lead to criminal activity and offer a veteran …

Children Are Different: Jones V. Mississippi, Juvenile Life Without Parole, And Why Youthfulness Matters In Sentencing, Giulia Hintz Mcquirter

MC Law Review

“We are a country of mercy, and we are a country of vengeance, and we live with both at the same time.” This is how Robert Dunham, death penalty expert and Executive Director of the Death Penalty Information Center, describes the United States sentencing system. Battling inside each of us is the desire for people to pay for their wrongdoings, warring against the empathy of our human nature that wants to see the good in people, even criminals.

This internal conflict is rarely on better display than in cases involving child criminals. It is impossible to forget that these children …

Takings In Disguise: The Inequity Of Public Nuisance Receiverships In America’S Rust Belt, Anna Kennedy

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

Since they were created in the 1980s in Cleveland, Ohio, public nuisance receiverships have spread across the American Rust Belt. This Note critically analyzes the legal implications of public nuisance receiverships, which involve the intrusion onto private property for public purposes. Despite claims that these actions align with exceptions to due process or public nuisance principles, a deeper examination reveals their fundamental nature as government takings of private property. This Note dissects the legal framework within the context of the Fifth Amendment, debunking the applicability of the public nuisance exception, establishing that receiverships constitute takings, and highlighting conflicts with Anti-Kelo …

Pubertal Progression And Its Relationship To Psychological And Behavioral Outcomes Among Adolescent Boys, Meng-Che Tsai, Yu-Chung Lawrence Wang, Hsun-Yu Chan

Faculty Publications

Variations in pubertal timing and tempo have relevance to psychosocial development. Accounting for pubertal timing, tempo, and psychosocial development simultaneously in a model remains challenging. This study aimed to document the typology of pubertal development in a cohort of Taiwanese adolescent boys and then to examine how the associations between psychosocial variables across time vary by the patterns of pubertal development. A group of adolescent boys (n = 1,368) reported pubertal signs and psychosocial variables for 3 years since seventh grade. The growth mixture model revealed three major classes of pubertal transition: average pubertal growth, late-onset with rapid catch-up, and …

Island Musings: A Selective Bibliography Of Early Key West, Robin Schard

Articles

This bibliography identifes and describes 75 works that focus on Key West during its first 50 years (1821-71) as a U.S. possession. General, legal, and popular culture materials are included.

Trauma-Informed Policing: The Impact Of Adult And Childhood Trauma On Law Enforcement Officers, André Douglas Pond Cummings, Todd J. Clark, Caleb Gregory Conrad, Honorable Amy Dunn Johnson

Law Faculty Scholarship

For every six months that a police officer serves in the line of duty, he or she is likely to experience an average of three traumatic events. Such events may include fatal accidents, murders, suicides, and active threats to the life of the officer or someone else. Given the wealth of available data on how trauma reorganizes the nervous system to respond to everyday stimuli as threatening, this is an area that cries for critical exploration, especially in light of the frequency with which unarmed Black civilians are killed at the hands of officers who often make split-second decisions to …

Private Police Regulation And The Exclusionary Remedy: How Washington Can Eliminate The Public/Private Distinction, Jared Rothenberg

Washington Law Review

Private security forces such as campus police, security guards, loss prevention officers, and the like are not state actors covered by the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures nor the Fifth Amendment’s Miranda protections. As members of the umbrella category of “private police,” these private law enforcement agents often obtain evidence, detain individuals, and elicit confessions in a manner that government actors cannot, which can then be lawfully turned over to the government. Though the same statutory law governing private citizens (assault, false imprisonment, trespass, etc.) also regulates private police conduct, private police conduct is not bound by …

Insanity Defense Attitudes: The Impact Of Biological Sex, Mental Illness, And Jury Instruction, Haley Moon, Brooke Mann

Psychology Faculty Publications

Approximately 20% of incarcerated individuals in jails and 15% of those in state prisons have been diagnosed with a serious mental illness, meaning that there are approximately 356,000 incarcerated persons with serious mental illness in jails and prisons alone (Torrey et al., 2014). Today, mental health stigma is widely prevalent amongst society and particularly there is a strong stigma associated with mental illness and criminality (Mossière & Maeder, 2015). Society typically perceives verdicts associated with insanity/mental illness as an alternative for not wanting to take responsibility for one’s actions and as a “loop-hole” to get out of serving time (Hans …

Effects Of Parental Support On Relationship With First-Generation College Students, Kylie N. Mcmillon

Honors Theses

The lack of parental support for first-generation college students is not a new subject for research. Many researchers have found data showing that, compared to non-first-generation students, first-generation students receive less support from their parents with different collegiate areas and in general; however, more research can be done on how this lack of support affects the relationship between the parents and the student. This comparative study will analyze how much parental support first-generation and non-first-generation students feel that they receive, and whether or not this has affected their parent-child relationship. Through the use of a self-administered questionnaire, controlled focus group, …

Impact Of Discharge Teaching On 30-Day Readmission Rates In The Incarcerated Patient Population, Natasha P. Walker

Doctor of Nursing Practice Scholarly Projects

Problems Statement: Current incarcerated patient policy prohibits communicating discharge information to the patient on day of discharge to mitigate elopement risk. Purpose: The purpose of this DNP project is to improve hospital quality metric 30-day readmission rates in the incarcerated patient population by implementing a trial period of discharge teaching the day of discharge. Method: Implementation of discharge teaching utilizing the Krames patient education standardized discharge teaching tool integrated within the health system’s electronic health record. Analysis: The project’s initial plan to use the Pearson correlation coefficient to evaluate relationship between 30-day readmission rates and standardized discharge teaching on the …

The Lawyer: Fall 2023, Seattle University School Of Law

Lawyer

No abstract provided.

The Evolution Of Sodomy Decriminalization Jurisprudence In Transnational And Comparative Constitutional Perspective, Ayodeji Kamau Perrin

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

In this Article, I demonstrate that legal mobilization by activist litigants combined with a comparative methodological jurisprudence has been central to the “transnational legal process” of the generation and diffusion of the sodomy decriminalization norm since the 1950s. My analysis of the transnational comparative jurisprudence relies on a comprehensive legal survey of seven decades of decriminalization jurisprudence (1954–2022), primarily using successful cases. Although the scholarship on the well-known Dudgeon, Toonen, and NCGLE cases often asserts the influence that these cases had on subsequent domestic court constitutional jurisprudence, I suggest that it is the domestic privacy jurisprudence of lobbyists, …

Vagueness And Federal-State Relations, Joel S. Johnson

University of Chicago Law Review

This Article aims to clarify the content of the void-for-vagueness doctrine and defend its historical pedigree by drawing attention to a fundamental aspect of the Supreme Court’s vagueness decisions—that vagueness analysis significantly depends on whether the law at issue is a federal or state law. That simple distinction has considerable explanatory power. It reveals that the doctrine emerged in the late nineteenth century in response to two simultaneous changes in the legal landscape— first, the availability of Supreme Court due process review of state penal statutes under the Fourteenth Amendment, and second, a significant shift in how state courts construed …