Digital Commons Network^™

Effects Of Individual Differences On Influence Of Expert Testimony, Peyton Mosman

Psychological Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

A significant percentage of wrongful convictions are a result of faulty eyewitness identifications. It is understood that jurors are quick to trust and eyewitness testimony, that eyewitness testimonies are reliable only in specific circumstances, and that jurors are rarely privy to importance of the factors that impact the reliability of eyewitness testimony. Although an expert testimony is sometimes a beneficial way to help compensate for this lack of knowledge in jurors, it can sometimes be counterintuitive and cause jurors to disregard all eyewitness testimonies rather than only disregarding the unreliable ones. This study considers four individual difference factors and looks …

The Literary Language Of Privacy—How Judges' Use Of Literature Reveals Images Of Privacy In The Law, Elizabeth De Armond

Georgia State University Law Review

George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. When we think of literary works and privacy, that is the first book that comes to mind, and the same is true for judges penning privacy law opinions too. Although the novel is notable for expressing fears of authoritarian overreach, other literary works offer judges a tool for describing the plights of parties before them—parties who seek to vindicate breaches of privacy in many different forms. Nineteen Eighty-Four particularly suits cases that challenge government surveillance or non-governmental wiretapping. References to Franz Kafka and Joseph Heller illuminate other privacy harms, such as unease with governmental collection, …

High Time To Revisit Federal Drug Sentencing: The Confusing Interplay Between Controlled Substances And Career Offender Sentence Enhancements, Carly Knight

Georgia State University Law Review

The 1970s in the United States were largely defined by wars, both foreign and domestic: the Vietnam War and the War on Drugs, respectively. As part of President Richard Nixon’s anti-drug offensive, Congress enacted the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), part of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970. The CSA organized—and criminalized—various drugs into schedules based on their permissible uses and potential for abuse. As states enacted their own versions of the CSA, some states chose to criminalize additional substances that were not included in the CSA.

The Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 and the United States …

Trace Dna Detection Using Diamond Dye: A Recovery Technique To Yield More Dna, Leah Davis

Master's Theses

This study aspires to find a new screening approach to trace DNA recovery techniques to yield a higher quantity of trace DNA from larger items of evidence. It takes the path of visualizing trace DNA on items of evidence with potential DNA so analysts can swab a more localized area rather than attempting to recover trace DNA through the general swabbing technique currently used for trace DNA recovery. The first and second parts consisted of observing trace DNA interaction with Diamond Dye on porous and non-porous surfaces.

The third part involved applying the Diamond Dye solution by spraying it onto …

The Addiction Treatment Experience Of Legally Mandated Opioid Users, Kaitlin E. Deitz

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Clients who are legally mandated to addiction treatment for an opioid use disorder have high rates of treatment dropout, relapse, and recidivism. To gain a better understanding of the impact of treatment interventions on those measures, the author conducted a study to learn about the mandated treatment experience for opioid users from the clients’ perspectives using qualitative interviews. The first theme derived from the data was The Mandated Counselor-Client Relationship with subthemes of Cookie Cutter Counselor, Feeling Commodified, and Collusion. The second theme derived from the data was Necessary Conditions with subthemes of Feeling Cared for and Trust. The findings …

An Analysis Of The Sophistication–Maturity Of Justice And Non-Justice Involved Youth And Young Adults, Lauren Grove

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Juvenile transfer refers to a set of mechanisms whereby a juvenile’s case may be processed in criminal court. Forensic mental health evaluators often assess youths’ risk/dangerousness, sophistication–maturity, and treatment amenability to assist judicial determinations regarding youth disposition. Of these three factors, sophistication–maturity—in which the law is concerned with the extent to which a juvenile defendant’s criminal sophistication and maturity level parallels that of an adult—has traditionally been the most challenging for practitioners to define and apply in practice. The Risk-Sophistication-Treatment Inventory (RSTI) is the only commercially available, specialized forensic assessment instrument for the assessment of youths’ sophistication–maturity. However, this tool …

Public Opinion On Compensating Different Types Of Wrongful Convictions, Sishi Wu

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

People who are wrongfully convicted are a unique vulnerable group. However, not all exonerees get compensated for their time in prison. This research explores public opinion on compensating wrongful convictions from erroneously rejected affirmative defenses and from false guilty pleas. Using a randomized survey experiment of 1,000 US adults, this research found that (1) most respondents supported wrongful conviction compensation, regardless of wrongful conviction types and plea status. (2) Wrongful conviction types matter. People supported compensating exonerees in the self-defense case as much as in the wrong person case. The amount of compensation people gave in the mistaken self-defense case …

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 …

Educating The Whole Person: Materials From Our Mini Course, Michelle Hayford, Megan Donelson

Pilot Course: Educating the Whole Person

In this document, the instructors provide their own reflections on the course as well as teaching activities and student reflections.

Ai Proctoring: Academic Integrity Vs. Student Rights, Samantha Mita

UC Law Journal

Advancements in artificial intelligence (“AI”) and machine learning have found their way into the classroom. The use of artificial intelligence proctoring services (“AIPS”) has risen over the past few years with little consideration for the legal and ethical consequences of their implementation. Issues such as invasion of privacy and bias often get overlooked in favor of preconceived notions of fairness and infallibility associated with the concepts of AI and machine learning. These ethical concerns are especially magnified if AIPS are used in a K-12 setting. This Note, through a lens of AI ethics, recommends a two-pronged approach that creates an …

The Effect Of The Minimum Wage On Crime, Abbie Natkin

Economics Honors Projects

Evidence shows that education, labor market conditions for ex-offenders, and wages influence crime rates. The relationship between wages and crime specifically, has interesting potential policy implications, especially in arguments for increasing the minimum wage. Economists speculate that increasing the minimum wage may help reduce crime by increasing wages and thus increasing the opportunity cost of committing crime, making it riskier and less necessary for people to supplement their incomes through illegal avenues. Using crime data from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports and minimum wage data from Vaghul & Zipperer (2016), I employ a two-way fixed effects framework to analyze the …

Let My People Go, Part Two: The Second Amendment Political Necessity Defense And The Storming Of Capital Hill, Kindaka Sanders

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

The Article examines the traditional political necessity defense, extracting elements that are compatible with the Second Amendment and discarding elements that are not. The Article also explores the historical and legal background of the right to rebel and then uses the right to rebel to define the contours of the Second Amendment political necessity defense. Finally, the Article applies the Second Amendment political necessity defense to the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2020.

Part I of this Article discusses the constitutional basis for the political necessity defense. Part II articulates the political necessity doctrine refined by its Second …

The Impact Of Reimbursement For Non-Face-To-Face Chronic Care Management On Health Utilization Among Patients With Type 2 Diabetes In Louisiana, Yixue Shao, Charles Stoecker, Dongzhe Hong, Elizabeth Nauman, Vivian Fonseca, Gang Hu, Alessandra N. Bazzano, Edmond K. Kabagambe, Lizheng Shi

Population and Public Health Science Faculty Publications

Objectives: We evaluated the impact of reimbursement for non-face-to-face chronic care management (NFFCCM) on healthcare utilization among Medicare beneficiaries with type 2 diabetes in Louisiana. Methods: We implemented group-based trajectory balancing and propensity score matching to obtain comparable treatment (with NFFCCM) and control (without NFFCCM) groups at baseline. Patients with diabetes with Medicare as their primary payer at baseline were extracted using electronic health records of 3 health systems from Research Action for Health Network, a Clinical Research Network. The study period is from 2013 to early 2020. Our outcomes include general healthcare utilization (outpatient, emergency department, and inpatient encounters) …

Is It Good To Be Bad? The Potential Buffering Role Of Callous-Unemotional Traits On The Relationship Between Trauma And Juvenile Offending, Kathryn Anne Mcgill

Graduate Theses and Dissertations (2019 - present)

Juvenile offending is prevalent, costly, and often difficult to intervene in. Although there are a multitude of factors previously studied that contribute to offending, researchers are still unable to pinpoint all possible variables contributing to juvenile offending. More so, of explored and accepted factors leading to juvenile offending, predictive ability of any specific factor leading to offending is still weak. Thus, study of specific predisposing factors leading to juvenile offending, as well as mediational or moderational variables, is needed. This study explores two previously studied variables in the pathway to juvenile offending: trauma and callous-unemotional traits. Novel study of the …

Promotion Of Citizenship Through Migration: Taking Into Cognizance The Peculiarities Of Migrant, Uche Nnawulezi, Hilary Nwaechefu

Indonesia Law Review

This study arose out of the growing interest in citizenship issues that have remained an intractable problem in the global migration community. The main objective this study is to examine the realities of global migration which has necessitated expansion on citizenship policies of admission, acquisition of rights, responsibilities, and interest of migrants or residents contained in statutory provisions or frameworks of migrant's country of residence. This is against the backdrop driven by the desire to create stability in the international migration system. It becomes imperative to examined the benefits and protections accorded to migrant in his place of residence which …

The Battle Of The Narrative In Jones V. Mississippi: Consideration Of Youth “In Name Only”, Stevie Leahy

Mercer Law Review

Juvenile sentencing within the United States is but one illustration of how the legal system reinforces the marginalization of populations that have been historically underinvested and underrepresented. Throughout the past century, the macro-narrative on sentencing has fluctuated nationally, as well as within individual states, with the reasoning used to justify decisions sliding between the conflicting lenses of rehabilitation and punishment. This has necessarily impacted the micro-narrative—the way that an individual’s story is considered and weighed (or ignored) within sentencing. There are endless factors that affect outcomes in sentencing: class, race and or ethnicity, gender, and access to counsel are just …

Law's Body, Matt Saleh, Hannah Potter, Kendall Foley

Mercer Law Review

How do law’s narratives construct one of its central objects: the human body? This essay explores legal constructions of the human body: both in its idealized form, and in the negative ontological spaces of injury, disability, death, and dehumanization that surround that ideal.

Bodies are “the very ‘stuff’ of law.” There are few areas of law where the human body does not, somewhere, require definition. For instance, without a concept of the body, there can be no consequent constructions of personhood, nakedness, state intrusion, injury, disability, duty of care, aging, or the moment of death, to name only a few.

Revenue, Race, And The Potential Unintended Consequences Of Traffic Enforcement Reform, Beth A. Colgan

North Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Left Behind, Again: Intellectual Disability And The Resentencing Movement, Katie Kronick

North Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Abolishing Juvenile Interrogation, Samantha Buckingham

North Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Mass E-Carceration: Electronic Monitoring As A Bail Condition, Sara Zampierin

Faculty Scholarship

Over the past decade, the immigration and criminal legal systems have increasingly relied on electronic monitoring as a bail condition; hundreds of thousands of people live under this monitoring on any given day. Decisionmakers purport to impose these conditions to release more individuals from detention and to maintain control over individuals they perceive to pose some risk of flight or to public safety. But the data do not show that electronic monitoring successfully mitigates these risks or that it leads to fewer individuals in detention. Electronic monitoring also comes with severe restrictions on individual liberty and leads to harmful effects …

Immigration Law's Missing Presumption, Fatma Marouf

Faculty Scholarship

The presumption of innocence is a foundational concept in criminal law but is completely missing from quasi-criminal immigration proceedings. This Article explores the relevance of a presumption of innocence to removal proceedings, arguing that immigration law has been designed and interpreted in ways that disrupt formulating any such presumption to facilitate deportation. The Article examines the meaning of “innocence” in the immigration context, revealing how historically racialized perceptions of guilt eroded the notion of innocence early on and connecting the missing presumption to persistent associations between people of color and guilt. By analyzing how a presumption of innocence is impeded …

Unidentified Deceased Persons: Who Are At-Risk?, Sarah Duncan

All Theses

This study explores the silent mass disaster of unidentified deceased persons that is occurring across the United States and identifies the individual and community level characteristics that make a person “at-risk” of becoming an unidentified deceased person within the United States. This study identifies trends-based hotspots by using data reported on the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) and comparing those trends to the gender United States population. It finds that males, and age of death between 20-64 are overrepresented and White persons are underrepresented in the unidentified deceased person sample when compared the general population. Social and human …

Psychopathy In Society: Understanding The Neural Mechanisms That Give Rise To Psychopathic Traits, Phoebe Zalenski

Psychological Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Psychopathy is characterized as an individual exhibiting callousness, grandiosity, lack of empathy, and manipulative behavior towards others over a long period of time. Given these symptoms, psychopathy is associated with a markedly increased risk of arrest and imprisonment. Together, these findings highlight the importance of understanding the cause(s) of psychopathy, as doing so may help to develop treatments or preventative interventions. Prior work has suggested that structural abnormalities in the amygdala may play a role in clinical psychopathy; however, it is less clear whether amygdala abnormalities exist on a continuum of psychopathic traits. In this study, I aimed to determine …

Lineups, Showups, And Simultaneous Showups: A Replication And Extension Of The Red Box Study, Lana Dranow

Psychological Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

The reliability of eyewitness identification procedures and the following testimony in a court of law has been highly contested in recent decades. There are two main types of identification procedures most commonly used by law enforcement officers in the United States: lineups and showups. Prior research has indicated that lineups consistently yield the most accurate identifications due to the presence of fillers (plausible alternatives to a suspect) alongside the suspect when compared to showups. This is commonly attributed to two main theories- filler siphoning theory and diagnostic feature detection theory. In a study conducted by Colloff and Wixted (2020), researchers …

Lonergan’S Concept Of Conversion: A Path To Antiracism, Laura Boysen-Aragon

Say Something Theological: The Student Journal of Theological Studies

Racism is Christian America’s original sin. Our country’s foundation was built with the hands of more than ten million kidnapped and enslaved persons. The Catholic Church was complicit as enslavers and beneficiaries of enslaved labor as well as the marginalizing of Black Catholics. Given the limited attention that has been given to these origin stories in our country and our church, it is unsurprising that systems of racism perpetuate today. Catholic theologian and ethicist Bryan Massingale provides a definition of racism as an ethos that lives on in U.S. society. Since the murder of George Floyd, a heightened awareness of …

A Public Policy Approach To Life After Service For U.S. Military Veterans: Mental Health, Homelessness, And Reintegration, Eric D. Button

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation, through a public policy lens, examines life after U.S. military service as it relates to reintegration, the ability of state-level veteran-specific mental health programs to address veterans’ mental health challenges, and states’ ability to address veteran homelessness. First, I use 2019 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Behavioral Risk Factors Surveillance Survey data, along with various measures of state-level characteristics, to examine the influence of relevant state-level policies on veterans’ mental health outcomes. Based on multi-level modeling results, findings suggest that the presence of at least one state-level veteran specific mental health program may be a mitigating …

Internal Perceptions: A Look At The Fayetteville Police Department's Partnership With Social Workers, Melissa Gute

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The development of co-response models where law enforcement partner with social workers or mental health clinicians to respond to individuals in mental health crises or with other social needs is on the rise throughout the United States. The Fayetteville, AR Police Department (FPD) developed their program with a University of Arkansas School of Social Work (UA) intern in 2021. The newly created Crisis Intervention Response Team (CIRT) now has two full-time, two-person co-response teams along with two social work interns and has plans for growth. This study looks at FPD sworn and civilian employees’ perceptions of embedding social workers/advocates into …

Legitimate And Deceptive Media: An Analysis Of Sources Used In Conjunction With #Defundingthepolice Using Twitter Api, Isabel Tilford

Honors Theses

The idea of defunding the police has been circulating on social media for the past few years. This thesis seeks to analyze what types of sources people use in conjunction with the #DefundthePolice hashtag to define their understanding of defunding the police. Using Twitter API to search for #DefundthePolice, Tweets were analyzed and rated based on the credibility of links embedded within each post. Each link was assigned a credibility rating of one through three, one meaning not credible, two meaning somewhat credible, and three meaning credible. Each link was classified into one of eight categories: news, statements, advertisements, advertisements/propaganda, …

The Contribution Of Forensic Science To Wrongful Convictions: An Analysis Of Forensic Expert Testimony, Parker Gunter

Honors Theses

The purpose of this study was to explore the progression and potential improvement of forensic science in court. Errors is forensic science have contributed to the problem of wrongful convictions, but research surrounding forensic expert testimony over the last decade is lacking. The way that an expert explains evidence in court is important to gain a broader understanding for how forensic science may fail. The testimonies of forensic experts were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively to further understand the shortcomings in the field at the end of its journey through the criminal justice system. The results showed that the testimonies …