Digital Commons Network^™

Exploring The Knowledge Gap: Mental Health Crisis Identification Training For 911 Call Takers, Kayla L. Ralston, Emma Adcook, Gary Cuddeback, Rebecca Smith, Amy Adkins

UROP Posters

Individuals with serious mental illness (SMI) are more likely to come into contact with law enforcement and the justice system. Livingston (2016) found that 25% of people with mental illness have been arrested at least once in their lives.  Law enforcement officers often become the primary intervention in handling a mental health crisis, and most mental health-related training curricula (e.g., Crisis Intervention Team (CIT)) have focused on this group. However, the burden to initially ascertain if an emergency is mental health-related has fallen to 911 call takers and dispatchers, the first first responder. The performance outcomes outlined by the Virginia …

Taking Stock Of Comparative Law Teaching In U.S. Legal Education, Francesca Bignami, Irene Calboli

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

For over 25 years, U.S. law schools have sought to globalize their curricula, reflecting the increasing interconnectedness and international scope of legal practice. Although there have been efforts to take stock of the impact of globalization on law schools, the vast majority have focused on international law, not comparative law. This U.S. National Report, written for the International Academy of Comparative Law’s 2026 Congress, fills the knowledge gap. In summer and fall 2024, we conducted a survey that examined course offerings, requirements, and opportunities for JD students. The survey was supplemented by interviews and a literature review of law schools …

Selective Prosecution In The Age Of Trump: The Presumption Of Regularity Problem, Cynthia Lee

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

After taking office for the second time in January 2025, President Donald J. Trump repeatedly and openly called for then-U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Department of Justice, which she led, to investigate and prosecute Trump’s perceived enemies. At the same time, several of Trump’s current and former cabinet members, who allegedly had committed similar or worse criminal acts, were not prosecuted, raising concerns that the Department of Justice is not administering justice fairly.

Even though the prosecutor’s charging discretion is broad, it is not supposed to be unfettered. One way that prosecutorial charging discretion can be checked is …

Hey! System! Leave Them Kids Alone: A Justification Of Minnesota’S ‘Raise The Age’ Law, Violet Butler

Minnesota Journal of Law, Science & Technology

No abstract provided.

Lgbtq People's Experiences With Crime, Victimization, And The Criminal Legal System, Vanessa R. Panfil

Sociology & Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

The ebb and flow of social control efforts aimed at LGBTQ people necessitate a thorough investigation into their experiences. This review of the literature is organized around four key themes that characterize LGBTQ people's experiences with crime, criminalization, victimization, and the criminal legal system—including police, courts, and carceral facilities. LGBTQ people experience excessive rates of arrest and incarceration and have higher rates of victimization, which illustrate disproportionality. Their experiences differ from those of their cisgender and heterosexual counterparts and are conditioned by age, race, class, gender, and sexual orientation, illustrating intersectionality. The two primary, interrelated mechanisms driving LGBTQ criminalization and …

Revisiting The Rural Folk Devil: Rural 'Othering' And The Connections Between Media Stereotypes And Rural Issues, Brooke Baker, Ida L. Oesteraas, Stephen T. Young, Elizabeth Monk-Turner

Sociology & Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

The current study is a discourse analysis investigating anti-idyllic cinematic representations, specifically in the horror genre, of rural people, places, and cultures. Findings reveal that anti-idyllic images and discourses are prominent within recently released horror films, which rely heavily on framing rural people as the deviant “other.” Special attention is given to the cultural work of these stereotypical depictions and the associated social harms for rural communities. Specifically, we argue that (1) corporations, particularly film companies, contribute to social harm in rural areas by disseminating negative and anti-idyllic representations; (2) these portrayals have tangible and detrimental effects on both people …

[Review Of The Book The Prescription-To-Prison Pipeline: The Medicalization And Criminalization Of Pain, By M. Smirnova], Hayley Jackey

Sociology & Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

[Introduction] Smirnova’s The Prescription-to-Prison Pipeline offers a critical examination of the impacts of prescription drugs as well as the over-policing and policies created to push individuals into the carceral system rather than providing other options for assistance. Smirnova further captures the social inequalities of race and class of those encased in this pipeline. Within this understanding of the detriment that the system, medical providers, and society place on those who use substances, Smirnova’s use of interviews allows for a clear understanding of how these systems work in conjunction to uphold the pipeline.

Effects Of Differential Stress And Mental Health On Substance Use Among College Students, Avdi S. Avdija, Arif Akgul

Sociology & Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Substance use among college students is often seen as a coping mechanism for some students who are prone to extreme stress, depression, or anxiety. Multiple forms of stress become the leading factors that push students toward substance use. This study tests the effects of college stressors, depression, and anxiety on substance use among college students. The results are based on the data that were collected using a 101-item questionnaire administered to 302 college students at a public university in the Midwest U.S.A. Using Logistic Regression as the primary data analysis technique, the findings of this study show that social stressors …

Understanding Homicide Dynamics: The Role Of Victim-Offender Relationships And The Event Circumstances Across Demographic Groups, Avdi S. Avdija, Christian W. Gallagher, Devere D. Woods Jr., Arif Akgul

Sociology & Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

This study investigates how the victim-offender relationship relates to the circumstances under which homicides occur, with the main focus on variations within gender, race, and age categories. To achieve these research objectives, we analyzed over forty years of data from the FBI's Supplementary Homicide Reports (1976-2017), reported by the U.S. Law Enforcement Agencies. The findings that emerged in this study show that offenders are more likely to kill victims of the same gender when taking into account the victim-offender relationships. Furthermore, this study shows that black offenders are more likely to kill acquaintances and intimate partners whereas white offender demonstrated …

Reversing Progress: The Political And Legal Ramifications Of The 2025 Dei Policy Rollback, Bridgette Baldwin

Faculty Scholarship

The year 2025 will mark a significant turning point in the landscape of American civil rights policy, as federal executive orders the Trump administration initiated seek to dismantle longstanding diversity, equity, and inclusion ("DEI") initiatives. Rooted in a historical context of civil rights progress, these orders aim to curtail affirmative action programs, eliminate DEI mandates within federal agencies and contractors, and challenge the legal foundations of inclusive policies across the country. This Article explores the evolving landscape of civil rights and DEI in the United States, examining its historical roots, recent legal and political developments, and ongoing challenges. From landmark …

Facts, Policy, And Discretion, F. Andrew Hessick, Carissa Byrne Hessick

Faculty Publications

Presidents, prosecutors, and judges often announce policies on how they will make discretionary decisions. These policies have met the criticism that discretion must be the product of an assessment of the particular facts of a case. Decisionmakers cannot base discretionary decisions on policy considerations, nor can they adopt policies stating how they intend to exercise their discretion. To do so, the argument goes, does not constitute an exercise of discretion, but rather an abdication of it.

This Article argues that this criticism misunderstands discretion. Discretionary decisions must rest on reasons, and reasons necessarily appeal to principles and policies that are …

Leading Schools Effectively During A Crisis: Lessons Learned From The Covid-19 Pandemic, La Tonya Elizabeth Overton

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Abstract This qualitative study explored the successes, challenges, and lessons learned by elementary principals serving systemically marginalized communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through in-depth interviews with nine principals across multiple school districts, the study identified three overarching themes that characterized effective crisis leadership: relationships, well-being, and innovation. Principals described how sustaining strong relationships, prioritizing humanity, and centering trust were essential for navigating trauma, uncertainty, and rapid change. They emphasized meeting basic needs such as food, technology access, health supports, and housing stability as foundational to school continuity. Principals also demonstrated equity-driven responsiveness by removing systemic barriers, adapting communication to diverse …

Investigating Intersectionality: How Multiple Marginalized Identities And Social Perceptions Of Victims Influences The Efficacy Of Panic-Defense Narratives In Bathooms, Demitri James Aguilar

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Despite transgender Women of Color being the main victims of violent victimization and panic-narrative cases, very little research has investigated how race/ethnicity might impact perceptions of violence or the influence of panic-narratives. Thus, the current experiment (N = 1275) examined the social and legal ramifications of using panic-narratives against transgender and cisgender women of color (Black vs. Latino vs. White) in bathroom victimization contexts. The predictions were partially supported. Regardless of racial identity, the justification of transgender (versus cisgender) victimization via panic-narratives produced more anti-victim (e.g., increased victim guilty verdicts, sentencing, victim culpability, perceived deception, and threat) and prodefendant outcomes …

Factors Related To Deviant Behavior, Chiara S. Popp

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Understanding the factors that contribute to deviant behavior across the life span remains an important goal in psychology and criminology. Guided by life course theory, the present study examined whether childhood trauma, social connectedness, perceived childhood socioeconomic status, and key life transitions are associated with deviant behavior in adulthood. The purpose of this research was to better understand how early life experiences and social relationships may shape behavioral outcomes later in life. A cross-sectional online survey was conducted with adult participants in the United States, aged 18 to 55. Participants completed measures assessing adverse childhood experiences, perceived childhood socioeconomic status, …

Honor Of Culture, Gender Socialization And Behavioral Outcomes In College Students, Ana Maria Moreno Henriquez

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Honor of culture is a culturally based concept that involves holding a strong defense for  the dignity and reputation on one’s family and self. This thesis focuses on the relationship between this honor of culture and gender socialization in the behavioral outcomes of college students, who are in a highly important learning phase of discovering their identity and independence from familial values. Participants were University of Central Florida (UCF) students who completed an online Qualtrics survey, which included an Honor of Culture Scale (Rodriguez Mosquera et al., 2016), Gender Role Beliefs Scale (Kerr & Holden, 1996), the Short Dark Triad …

Symbolic Racism And Punitive Policy Preferences In The First Quarter Of The Twenty-First Century, Anthony T. Fulinello

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Despite the decay in the acceptability of explicit racism brought about by the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, implicit racism may continue to inform individual decision making even into the first quarter of the twenty-first century. Utilizing data from 25 years of the General Social Survey, this study examines how indicators of symbolic racism, a form of implicit racism, impact punitive policy preferences among the general United States population using separate logistic regression models isolating each indicator, plus a full model, for each outcome. Punitive policy preferences were operationalized as support for increased spending on crime prevention …

A Feminist Analysis Of Forensic Psychology: Ethics, Power, And Practice In Carceral Systems, Sarah Mcgarry Gray

Student Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Abandoning Press Freedom, Ronnell Andersen Jones, Sonja R. West

Scholarly Works

Among elected officials and the broader public, attitudes toward the press are deeply polarized along ideological lines. Polling shows that most liberals favor the press, while conservatives view it more negatively— a partisan divide that has widened significantly over the past decade. Conventional wisdom suggests that the same ideological split is also at work at the Supreme Court, with liberal Justices championing the work of the press while their conservative colleagues express more skepticism. This perception is reinforced by historical examples of liberal Justices advancing press rights alongside broader democracy-engagement and social-justice issues. Recent calls from some conservative Justices to …

Protecting The Due Process Rights Of South Dakota Treatment Court Participants Facing Termination, Ryleigh Christopherson

South Dakota Law Review

Treatment courts in South Dakota are designed to reduce recidivism by treating the root cause of criminal behavior. The data shows that, of the almost three thousand participants who have applied and been selected to take part in a South Dakota treatment court, over a thousand participants have successfully graduated from these post-plea diversion programs. A slight majority of participants, however, did not complete the program and either left voluntarily or were terminated from treatment court. The apparent success of treatment courts can overshadow due process concerns which arise when a participant faces termination. While the Supreme Court of the …

Table Of Contents, South Dakota Law Review

South Dakota Law Review

No abstract provided.

Access To Justice In Indian County: Strengthening The Ecosystem Of Law In Native Communities, Mary Smith

South Dakota Law Review

No abstract provided.

Pona V. State, 329 A.3d 485 (R.I. 2025)., Trina Capezza

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Because It's Family: A Generic Qualitative Study Of The Implementation Of Restorative Practices In A Urban Middle School Classroom, Anthony Rodriguez

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Restorative Circles provide an answer to creating engaging, creative and positive elementary classroom environments. There is currently limited research of the practice’s efficacy in K-12 classrooms and even more so from the point of view of the student’s experience. This General Research study explored the co-creation of a trusting classroom environment through the structural implementation of Restorative Practice Circles. The responses collected provided an opportunity for the participants to provide insight on their experiences and perceptions of the classroom engagement approach and express their thoughts on its weekly implementation over the course of one academic school year. Utilizing Restorative Justice …

Exploring Culturally Responsive Faculty Practices That Support Student Success In Community College Classrooms, Mary Catherine Flynn

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study explored the culturally responsive teaching practices used by six community college faculty and instructors in their in-person courses. Faculty and instructors taught courses included in certificate and degree programs related to early childhood education, human services, and criminal justice at one midwestern community college. Specific content areas included sociology, political science, and child development. Data collection for this study included comprehensive interviews with each instructor, an analysis of documents including syllabi, student assignments, and assessments, and multiple classroom observations. This study was anchored in a theoretical framework based on the constructs of culturally responsive teaching practices. Each …

Analyzing An Ai Summary Of An Executive Order, Natalie D. Ebolum

Open Educational Resources

This assignment asks students to critically analyze the Executive Order on Incarceration in Private Prisons by producing an independent summary of its intent, purpose, and implementation, along with best-practice recommendations for improving its effectiveness. Students then use the Grammarly AI Summary Tool to generate an alternative summary and compare it with their own analysis. Through structured self-assessment and revision, students evaluate differences in interpretation, identify gaps or insights, and reflect on the strengths and limitations of AI-assisted analysis. The assignment emphasizes critical policy analysis, ethical use of AI tools, and student-centered judgment.

Species Of State Constitutional Lockstepping, Michael L. Smith

Faculty Articles

When interpreting state constitutional provisions, state courts frequently take a "lockstep" approach by adopting the United States Supreme Court's interpretation of analogous federal constitutional provisions. Critics often portray lockstep interpretation as misguided and have identified varieties of lockstepping, including unreflective, reflective, prospective, and methodological lockstep interpretation. This Article contributes to these discussions by identifying several additional forms of lockstep interpretation that have thus far gone undiscussed: lazy, mandatory, atextual, and sticky lockstepping.

Several of these variations highlight distinct failures of state courts to independently interpret state constitutions. This includes lazy lockstepping, where state courts tend to engage in repeated, thoughtless …

Legalizing Magic Mushrooms: A Different Set Of Laws For A Different Kind Of Drug, Edward S. Adams

Case Western Reserve Law Review

No abstract provided.

Justice In Erotic Spaces, Elena L. Cohen

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

This Article posits that the concept of "erotic justice" could be used by courts to push back against the current cascade of anti-LGBTQ+ laws and meaningfully improve the lives ofgay and trans people. The beginning of the twenty-first century was widely seen as a time of great progress for LGBTQ+ people, with the legalization of gay marriage in countries across the world seen as the ultimate triumph. Yet there is a strong contemporary movement to re-criminalize the lives of LGBTQ+ people and to remove protections that have been granted by courts. In the U.S., the 2020s have seen an ongoing …

Annotated Legal Bibliography

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Linking Social Entrepreneurship To Crime Reduction Among Young African Americans In Chicago’S South And West Sides, Grady C. Wheaton Jr.

All Student Theses and Dissertations

This study examined community members’ perceptions of social entrepreneurship as an employment-centered strategy for addressing youth violence among African Americans on Chicago’s South and West Sides. The study was guided by the following research question: Can social entrepreneurship be leveraged to reduce youth violence among African Americans on Chicago’s South and West Sides, as perceived by community members? Using Fillmore Laundry, a healthcare linen-processing social enterprise located in North Lawndale, as a case example, this quantitative, cross-sectional study collected survey data from 99 eligible community members recruited through community-based partnerships. The survey assessed perceived youth- and community-level program benefits, evaluations …