Digital Commons Network^™

Emotionally Healthy Black Men: Guidelines For Supporting Mental Health Treatment For Black Men In Ohio, Eira Nichell Yates

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This study examines the barriers that prevent Black men in Ohio from seeking treatment for depression and other mental health conditions and explores strategies to improve engagement and outcomes. Although depression is the most prevalent mental health disorder in the United States, it remains underdiagnosed and undertreated among Black men, contributing to persistent mental health disparities. The limited body of research addressing help-seeking behaviors within this population necessitated the use of a Delphi methodology to obtain expert consensus on key challenges and promising practices. A panel of subject-matter experts in mental health, social services, and culturally responsive care participated in …

Navigating An Uncharted Path: Chief Diversity Officer Challenges In Creating And Implementing A Dei Strategy Plan Within Major Hospital Systems, Diane Shines Mcdaniel

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This qualitative phenomenological study investigated the major challenges Chief Diversity Officers (CDOs) face when creating and implementing DEI strategy plans within major hospital systems in the United States. The study was guided by one research question: What are the major challenges that Chief Diversity Officers face in creating and implementing a DEI strategy plan within major U.S. hospital systems? A phenomenological design was used to examine the challenges of six Chief Diversity Officers serving in major U.S. hospitals as they led DEI strategy planning and implementation. Data were generated through semi-structured interviews consisting of eight open-ended questions designed to elicit …

Experiences Of Title Ix Investigations For Bipoc Survivors Of Sexual Violence, Tiffini Vo

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Sexual violence is among the most common crimes on college campuses. Nearly one in four undergraduate women experience sexual violence during college, yet reporting remains low (Spencer et al., 2020). Some students avoided reporting because of fear of criticism, backlash, blame, and shame (Lorenz et al., 2023). These responses not only influence reporting decisions but can also contribute to persistent psychological harm. A common consequence of sexual assault is the survivor developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depressive and anxiety symptoms, and suicidality, demonstrating the severity of the crime perpetrated against them (Rothman et al., 2021). Even more so, those who …

White Fear/Black Apprehension, Volume 2: An Analysis Of The Racialized Targeting Of African Americans In The Educational System, In The Southern U.S. States, Circa 1865–1965, Christopher Donell Gipson

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

For African Americans, the legacy of racial oppression extends across centuries, from the transatlantic slave trade and enslavement to the persistence of institutionalized racism, White supremacy, racial violence, and structural inequality within the United States. These racialized systems are reproduced intergenerationally through social institutions, education, media, political discourse, historical narratives, and cultural representations that repeatedly normalize negative constructions of Africans and African Americans. Such representations operate on conscious and subconscious levels, shaping social attitudes, institutional practices, and perceptions of racial difference. As argued in White Fear / Black Apprehension: An Analysis of White European American Racism and Mob Violence Through …

Managing Human Sources: Identification And Management Of Motivation, Tiffany Mckenzie, Pamela Henry, Nikki Rajakaruna

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Human Source management is a critical function of intelligence and evidence collection by law enforcement and intelligence agencies across the world. Understanding the motivations of Human Sources is key to gaining high intelligence yields. Yet research which explores Human Source motivation, from a handler’s perspective, is limited. Even more limited is research which considers how motivation is identified and managed by law enforcement agencies across the course of a Human Source’s engagement with an agency. This research explores the experiences and perceptions of Human Source handlers from two Australian law enforcement agencies via semi-structured interviews (N = 17). Handlers highlighted …

Music Learning And School-Aged Children’S And Adolescents’ Wellbeing: A Scoping Review, Jason Goopy, Stephanie L.R. Macarthur

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

There is compelling evidence that music can support young people’s wellbeing, particularly through music listening to and making. In this article we report a systematic review of music learning and wellbeing literature to offer a new perspective on learning music as a wellbeing strategy. In this review, we investigated (a) what definitions and theories of wellbeing have been used; (b) what methodologies have been employed, particularly measurement tools; (c) what learning contexts and participant demographics have been examined; and (d) what is known about music learning and the wellbeing of school-aged children and adolescents. This review was conducted using the …

The Brady Materiality Standard, Brandon L. Garrett, Adam M. Gershowitz

Faculty Scholarship

The Brady doctrine requires prosecutors to disclose all favorable and material evidence to the defense. To effectuate that rule, the U.S. Supreme Court has defined materiality as a “reasonable probability” that the evidence would have affected the outcome at trial. But apart from that definition, the Court has resisted offering any further guidance to lower courts. While far too little is known about how Brady materiality claims are actually adjudicated, there is strong evidence that courts often reject Brady claims involving withheld evidence on the grounds that the evidence was not significant enough to be material.

To examine how Brady …

Confession Contamination And Dna Exonerations, 1989-2025, Brandon L. Garrett

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Ma 250 – Evaluating & Creating With Genai, Mohamed Ben Zid

Open Educational Resources

In this assignment, students use Excel and ChatGPT to design, analyze, and interpret a regression model. They create visualizations, calculate the regression equation manually, and make predictions before consulting AI-generated feedback on their model’s strengths and limitations. Students then compare their own interpretation with ChatGPT’s insights, summarize their findings, and critically assess the model’s accuracy and real-world usefulness. The exercise develops quantitative reasoning, practical AI application, and reflective evaluation skills.

Measurement Invariance Of Transtheoretical Model-Based Measures For Covid-19 Vaccination Readiness, Allegra Opiela

Open Access Dissertations

Purpose. To assess the measurement invariance of four novel Transtheoretical Model (TTM)-based measures for readiness to get vaccinated for COVID-19. Design. Cross-sectional.

Setting. Online survey study in the United States (US).

Participants. 1169 US-based adults aged 18-85.

Measures. Demographics, Stage of Change, Vaccination History, Decisional Balance, Self-efficacy, Myths, and Barriers to COVID-19 vaccination.

Analyses. Multigroup confirmatory factor analyses with increased restraints on model parameters to assess configural (no constraints), metric (factor loadings constrained), and scalar invariance (factor loadings and item intercepts constrained) in a sequential manner.

Results. Decisional Balance, Myths, and Barriers demonstrated scalar …

Racial Resentment, Immigration Attitudes, And The Politics Of State Immigrant Policy Adoption In The United States, Cindy Osei Agyemang

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Immigration remains one of the most contested public policy issues in the United States, and racial attitudes have become increasingly important in shaping public opinion and political debate. While prior research has shown a strong relationship between racial resentment and restrictive immigration attitudes, less is known about whether these attitudes extend to legislative discourse and the adoption of immigrant-inclusive state policies. This dissertation addresses that gap by examining the relationship between racial resentment and immigration politics across three levels of analysis: public opinion, legislative discourse, and state policy adoption. Using a mixed-methods research design, the study combines quantitative and qualitative …

“Black Students Matter”: A Phenomenological Study Of Black Student Experiences At A Predominately White Institution In Appalachia During The Dual Pandemic Of Covid-19 And Systemic Anti-Black Racism, Toni Owens

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

As the spread of COVID-19 escalated into a global pandemic in 2020, simultaneously, the nationwide media in the United States (U.S.) highlighted coverage of the country’s ongoing incidents of longstanding systemic anti-Black racism in America, another pandemic. In the Summer of 2020, a collective of Black students at West Virginia University (WVU) signed and publicly submitted a petition to the university’s leadership with a list of demands to address their needs as they were further exacerbated by the dual pandemic. This study is guided by the question, “What are the lived experiences of Black Students at West Virginia University during …

Welfare Litigation, State Courts, And Social Citizenship, Andrew Hammond

Articles by Maurer Faculty

For half a century, federal courts have stood at the center of welfare rights enforcement. That era is ending. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s historic cuts to Medicaid and SNAP will generate an avalanche of benefit terminations, work requirement sanctions, and overpayment actions from state agencies. And with a federal judiciary increasingly hostile to the private enforcement of public law, state courts will become not just a concurrent forum for welfare litigation, but an increasingly important one. Understanding how state courts have handled welfare litigation over the past three decades, then, is essential to anticipating what comes next. This …

Access To Justice In Indian Country: Empowering Pro Se Criminal Defendants Through Holistic Defense And Resource Creation, Ilse Turner, Johanna Farmer

South Dakota Law Review

The question of the right to counsel for indigent criminal defendants has consumed various courts and academic journals for decades. Part of this question has revolved around the rights of indigent defendants being prosecuted in tribal courts. There has been scholarly attention devoted to the study of the rights of indigent defendants in tribal courts and the impacts of case law and congressional acts on these rights. This Article seeks to expand the scholarly works around indigent defendants in tribal courts and provide tangible solutions tribes can begin to execute without an act of Congress. This Article will discuss the …

Increasing Access To Justice Through The Use Of Indigenous Restorative Justice And Trauma Informed Practices, Carrie E. Garrow, Danielle J. Mayberry, Micaelee Horn

South Dakota Law Review

Tribal judiciaries are paramount to tribal sovereignty and accessed by court users for many purposes. Access to justice ensures that everyone should be able to understand and assert their rights in a fair tribal justice system. This can be a challenge for rural areas, but even more so in Indian Country due to the complex web of factors such as legal and jurisdictional complexities, the colonization of Indian Nations by federal and state governments, and resource restraints. Due to these barriers and as an effort to serve their communities, tribal justice systems develop mechanisms that are solution based and at …

Pretrial Justice In Indian Country And Bordertowns-Including Rural Tribal Communities In The Bail Reform Conversation, Jordan Gross

South Dakota Law Review

Pretrial detention rates in the United States are down, except in rural counties. Indigenous people are both over-represented and under-protected in settler-colonial criminal justice systems. Yet the criminal justice needs and experiences of rural and Indigenous people are largely overlooked in criminal justice reform research and discourse. I examined the role of rurality in bail administration in Pretrial Justice in Out-of-the-Way Places – Including Rural Communities in the Bail Reform Conversation. There I explained how bail reform measures centered on urban and suburban needs and demographics fail to address pretrial justice challenges and opportunities unique to rural communities. This Article …

South Dakota Farmers Union Records, Sdsu Archives And Special Collections, Hilton M. Briggs Library

Archives Finding Aids

The South Dakota Farmers Union traces its origins to the national Farmers Educational and Cooperative Union, founded in Texas in 1902 and introduced to South Dakota around 1914 by former Nebraska members. The organization was formally established as a state unit at its first convention in Mitchell on March 16, 1917, with 268 delegates representing 14 counties and more than 130 local chapters. Education, cooperative enterprise, and legislative advocacy quickly became central to its mission, including early collective purchasing efforts that supported family farmers.

The South Dakota Farmers Union Records document the organization’s activities from the early twentieth century through …

Freedom Of Tribal Association, Andrea Nishi

South Dakota Law Review

In Morton v. Mancari, the Supreme Court upheld a statute granting hiring preference to Indian candidates on the grounds that it did so not on the basis of race but on the basis of affiliation with a tribe as a political entity. As the Court recognized, if such a law were struck down on equal protection grounds, the basis for all federal policy protecting Indian interests would be undermined. In Mancari, this reasoning was used to uphold a law that benefitted Indian candidates pursuant to the federal government’s recognized trust responsibility to Indian tribes. The logic of Mancari has since …

Artificial Intelligence, Tribal Sovereignty, And The Criminal Justice System, Kevin Angelo Brown

South Dakota Law Review

As artificial intelligence (“AI”) has become increasingly integrated into everyday life in Indian Country and into governmental functions, including policing, courts, and corrections, it is creating new circumstances that can undermine tribal sovereignty. The 575 federally recognized Tribal Nations are under significant pressure to maintain their sovereignty while adapting to new AI-based technologies. With the implementation of AI, tribes should retain control over how it is used to benefit their communities, without compromising their legal rights or well-being, particularly in light of past harms caused by inadequate legal protections that allowed technological developments to damage tribal health, environments, economies, and …

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

Syllabi

No abstract provided.

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, …

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 …

Association Between Internet Use For Health Information And Alzheimer’S Disease Diagnosis Among Older Adults With Diabetes In The United States: Examining Racial And Gender Disparities, Henry M. Zeidan

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

This study uses data from the National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS) Round 13, collected in 2024, to examine whether internet use for health information is associated with Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis among older adults with diabetes in the United States. Given the rising adoption of digital health, understanding who benefits from online health resources is increasingly important. The research also examines whether these associations differ across racial and gender groups, offering insight into potential disparities in digital health engagement and cognitive outcomes. Findings from this study will inform clinical practice, public health programming, and strategies to ensure equitable access …

The Effect Of Complexity Of Expert Testimony And The Presence Of A Defensive Rebuttal On Jurors' Decisions In Criminal Trials, Shelby E. Madden

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Forensic science plays a critical role in criminal trials, yet forensic techniques vary in their reliability. Expert testimony, often held in high regard by jurors, can be a decisive factor in verdicts, but its influence is complicated by factors such as technical complexity, adversarial bias, and heuristic processing. The present study examined how the complexity of prosecution expert testimony and the presence of a defensive rebuttal influenced jurors’ decisions when presented with faulty forensic evidence. Participants (N = 142) were randomly assigned to one of four conditions in a 2 (testimony complexity: high v. low) x 2 (defensive rebuttal …

Educating Black Males In Black Lives Matter Movement Space, Kimberly L. Hollis

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

This inquiry has been inspired by the stories of Black boys’ educational experience within the public school system in the South. Theoretically drawing upon anti-Black racism (Alexander, 2010; Collins, 2000; Davis, 2003; Du Bois, 1903; Watkins, 2001; Woodson, 1993; Wynter, 2003) and  Black Intellectual Traditions (Bell, 1992: Crenshaw, 1988; Delgado, R., & Stefancic, J., 2001; Ladson-Billings, 2003; Linscott, 2017; Yosso, 2006), I expound on the concept of systemic racism in the United States as well as the challenges that hinder Black males from achieving academic excellence and thrusts them further to the margins. Methodologically, I employ counter-storytelling (e.g., Delgado, 2017; …

Fear Across The Map: A Cross-Municipal Analysis Of Fear Of Crime In Canada, Muhammad Ali

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This study examines the predictors of fear of crime (FOC) across three Canadian municipalities: Hamilton, Ontario; Brantford, Ontario; and North Battleford, Saskatchewan. Data from 1,956 survey responses were analyzed to understand how certain factors shape FOC across different municipal contexts in Canada. This study uses descriptive statistics, reliability analyses, correlation matrices, and Ordinary Least Squares regression models to examine whether FOC, and the predictors of FOC, operate consistently across municipalities. The findings indicate that the predictors of FOC are relatively reliable across municipal contexts. However, the influence of the predictors of FOC can vary across municipalities. Importantly, the level of …

The Innocence Trap, Caitlin Glass, Julian Green

Faculty Scholarship

What makes a conviction wrongful? Developments in DNA science have led to a wave of exonerations over the past thirty years, revealing sources of error in the criminal legal process. Innocence organizations proliferated to represent people whose convictions could be overturned by newly discovered evidence. This is vital work for the individuals who are released and for the purpose of systemic change. At the same time, a focus on exonerations constructs a relatively narrow conception of wrongful convictions -- one that is synonymous with factual innocence.

Memory Warriors, Pluralists, And Abnegators In Constitutional Interpretation: An Essay On Jack Balkin's Pluralist Originalism In Memory And Authority, Jed Handelsman Shugerman, Zachary Shugerman Handelsman

Faculty Scholarship

Jack Balkin’s Memory and Authority: The Uses of History in Constitutional Interpretation brings into conversation the scholarly insights of constitutional theory, history, and the growing field of “the politics of memory,” especially the concept of the “memory entrepreneur.”

Balkin appropriately connects the memory wars in American constitutional law back to Eastern

European memory wars during the World Wars and their aftermath. Prompted by Balkin, we turn to Jan Kubik and Michael Bernhard edited volume Twenty Years After Communism (2014), which has become even more widely influential after Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and a new round of Eastern European memory wars. …

The Impact Of True Crime Podcasts On Cold Case Investigations And Victims' Advocacy, Kyle Gamache, Karlie Rice, Ashley Allen, Willem Pontbriand

Arts & Sciences Faculty Publications

True crime has long captivated public interest, evolving from sensationalized accounts in the Middle Ages to the widespread popularity of modern podcasts. This qualitative study explores the ethical complexities of true crime media by examining how it intersects with criminal investigations, public perception, and victim advocacy. Through in-depth interviews with law enforcement officers, victim advocates, and true crime content creators, the study investigates differing attitudes toward the role of podcasts in active and cold cases. Using Colaizzi’s (1978) phenomenological method, data were analyzed to uncover shared and divergent themes across professional roles. Law enforcement participants voiced concerns over web- sleuthing …

Dropouts And Refusers: Clinicians’ Insights And Initiatives Into Reducing Treatment Attrition Amongst Young People Who Sexually Offend, James L. Finney, Natalie Gately, Suzanne Rock, Jocelyn Jones

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Sexual offending by young people causes significant harm to victims, families and communities. Treatment engagement and completion are therefore important for reducing future harm; however, young people who drop out of, or refuse to engage in, treatment present a unique challenge for clinicians and justice systems. Drawing on Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) ecological systems theory, this study explored clinicians’ perspectives on the barriers to treatment engagement and completion for young people who have sexually offended in the Australian context. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with clinicians who provided or facilitated treatment for young people who had sexually offended (N = 22). Two major …