Digital Commons Network^™

Comparing The Effects Of Racial Segregation On Homicide Trends In Two Major Us Cities, Taylor Sullivan

Criminal Justice

This study focuses on the effects that racial segregation has on homicide rates. Using two major cities that have similar demographics, Chicago, Illinois and Los Angeles, California, this paper studies homicide rates at checkpoints over a span of time while also recording poverty rates and racial isolation. The Uniform Crime Report put out by the Federal Bureau of Investigation will provide data about homicides in the two cities for the respective years. Racial segregation is still an incessant issue throughout the country and causes issues through three major factors, economy, culture, and politics. These issues cause tension between minority and …

Beliefs About Police Error Leading To Wrongful Convictions And Attitudes On Police Legitimacy, Julia Melfi

Criminal Justice

This study investigates the relations between citizens’ perceptions of how police misconduct as a factor contributing to wrongful convictions is connected to attitudes towards police legitimacy. I hypothesized that there would be a negative correlation between the two variables such that the more individuals believe police error contributes to wrongful convictions, the less legitimate they perceive the police to be. I also examined how citizens’ race affects these perceptions and attitudes, too, and hypothesized that Black citizens are more likely than White citizens to believe police error leads to wrongful conviction and mistrust the police. To test the hypotheses data …

Deterring Online Music And Movie Piracy In Adults, Carolyn Solimine

Criminal Justice

Online piracy of music and movies is common, despite being a form of theft and copyright infringement. Many individuals do not realize the real-life impacts of online piracy on artists and the entertainment industry. Moreover, few perpetrators are caught or punished for their actions. This allows potential perpetrators to rationalize and neutralize their piracy-related behaviors and, thus, avoid feelings of guilt or shame. This research uses an online experimental survey to examine framing tactics that may be used to prime feelings of guilt and shame and, in turn, deter online piracy. The survey exposed participants to one of three experimental …

Explaining Juvenile Delinquency As A Product Of Personal Security, Roxanne I. Grieggs

Criminal Justice

This study seeks to understand the role that youths’ sense of personal security plays in their external engagement in deviant behavior. While there is some literature on the relationship between youth’s fear of crime or tumultuous home environments and their involvement in gangs and to some extent violence, it is scant, and studies of youths’ feelings of safety within residential facilities and their in-residence behaviors is virtually non-existent. Therefore, in this study of youth in two residential treatment centers, surveys administered to said youth are used to illustrate the potential link between youth’s perceived sense of personal security, how it …

Race, Threat, And Firearms: : Analysis Of State-Level Self-Defense And "Stand Your Ground" Laws, John-Michael Simpson

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This study explores the expansion of state-level self-defense laws between 2005 and 2010 using a threat theory framework. Unlike prior historical changes in self-defense law, which were largely made through judicial avenues and were localized at the state-level, the recent expansions of self-defense have been driven by state legislatures to produce notable patterns of change, including protections of criminal immunity and codifications of presumption of reasonable fear. Threat theory would predict that the strengthening of informal social controls to use violence in self-defense is a response by the dominant group to perceived threats to power from a subordinate group. In …

A Partial, Age-Graded Examination Of Agnew’S General Theory Of Crime And Delinquency, Jessie Slepicka

Master's Theses

Previous examinations of Agnew’s (2005) general theory of crime and delinquency have garnered mixed results for the theoretical construct. These previous investigations have concentrated on a singular stage of an individual’s life—with analyses focusing on either the adolescent (Muftić, Grubb, Bouffard, & Maljević, 2014; Ngo & Paternoster, 2014; Roh & Marshall, 2018; Zhang, Day, & Cao, 2012) or the adult (Cochran, 2017; Ngo, Paternoster, Cullen, & Mackenzie, 2011) time juncture—failing to empirically assess the variability hypothesis centrally proposed by Agnew. Using data from a nationally representative sample of participants—the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health [n = 20,745 …

Attitudes Of Men And Women Toward Sexual Assault: The Role Of Stigma, Self-Stigma, And Gender Roles, Annie Hendricks

Honors Theses

Sexual assault is an issue pervaded with stigmas, whether imposed on a person from a social source or from oneself. Stigmas have shown to be harmful to a survivor’s recovery from trauma (Deitz, Williams, Rife, & Cantrell, 2015) and may influence whether or not a survivor of sexual assault reports an incident of sexual assault (Spencer, Mallory, Toews, Stith, & Wood, 2017). One factor that contributes to internalizing a stigma to form a self-stigma is the anticipated reaction a survivor faces when he or she discloses an incident of sexual abuse (Murray, Crowe, & Overstreet, 2018). To determine how gender …

Initial Development And Validation Of The Multidimensional Strong Black Woman Scale, Brandi Janee' Chamberlin

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The unique experiences of African American women are well documented through intersectionality research. Taking an intersectional framework, this study is designed to develop and initially validate a new scale, the Multidimensional Strong Black Woman Scale. The Strong Black Woman is characterized by strength, resilience, independence, stoicism, and caretaking. This schema is adopted by many African American women to combat negative racial stereotypes, born out of slavery and discrimination. The Strong Black Woman often neglects her own mental and physical health in order to care for others, and delays help-seeking behaviors. This has a negative impact on mental health. The strong …

Shootings, Strain, And Safety On A College Campus: An Analysis Of Perceptions Of Safety And Concealed Carry, Amanda S. Bishop

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

School and campus shootings are a contemporary problem in the United States. Because of these shootings, colleges have enacted new policies to ensure safety on their campuses, including concealed carry on campus. The State of Tennessee has a unique law in place that allows colleges to create their own policies regarding concealed carry on campus, with the stipulation that only full-time faculty and staff can carry concealed weapons. East Tennessee State University is one campus with this policy. East Tennessee State University students, faculty, and staff were questioned via email survey about their perceptions of safety on campus and opinions …

Adverse Childhood Experiences, Homeless Chronicity, And Age At Onset Of Homelessness, Joseph T. Tucciarone Jr.

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Childhood adversity is associated with numerous negative outcomes across multiple domains, including mental and physical health, interrelationships, and social functioning. Notably, research suggests that childhood adversity has a dose-response relationship with these outcomes; that is, greater numbers of adverse experiences in childhood are associated with worse outcomes. These outcomes overlap with many risk factors of homelessness. This study sought to address two questions: 1) Does a dose-response relationship exist between childhood adversity and chronic homelessness? 2) Does childhood adversity negatively predict the age at which homelessness first occurs? Adults experiencing homeless who are accessing homeless services in the Tri-Cities area …

Mentoring: Attitudes And Perceptions Of New Lawyers, Mindy Thomas Fulks

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Tennessee does not have a formal state-wide required mentoring program for Tennessee lawyers. Mentoring programs are available to Tennessee lawyers but no uniform standards exist. It has been suggested that providers of mentoring programs should develop strategies for improving and expanding mentoring experiences for new lawyers. The purpose of this study was to evaluate attitudes towards mentoring by Tennessee lawyers who are within their first 5 years of practice. The researcher sought to identify the perceptions of new lawyers regarding mentoring to better understand mentoring’s role within the legal profession.

The methodology for this study was nonexperimental quantitative survey research. …

Judicial Archaeology: The Ninth Circuit Opinions Of Justice Kennedy, Marsha Berzon The Honorable

UC Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Umsl Magazine - Spring 2019, University Of Missouri-St. Louis

UMSL Magazine and other UMSL Magazines

The University of Missouri–St. Louis publishes UMSL Magazine for alumni and friends. The magazine highlights excellence at the university. Circulation is 105,000, and the magazine is released twice a year.

Racial Microaggressions Cohort Differences., Shayla R. Thompson

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

This study examines the relationship between racial microaggressions and psychological distress and anger rumination among younger and older cohorts who belong to a racial or ethnic group other than White or European-American. The purpose of this study was to compare these relationships between older and younger cohorts. The hypotheses were that age will moderate the relationship between racial microaggressions and psychological distress and that age will moderate the relationship between racial microaggressions and anger rumination. A survey method was used to test the two hypotheses. Participants were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk and were compensated $1 for their participation. The …

Book Review Of The Rooster Bar By John Grisham, David Ray Papke

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Spectator 2019-05-01, Editors Of The Spectator

The Spectator

No abstract provided.

University Of Minnesota, Morris 2019 Commencement, Communications And Marketing

UMM Commencement

The University of Minnesota, Morris's Fifty-Sixth Commencement Saturday, May 18, 2019, 1:30 PM.

Between Somewhere And Nowhere: Navigating The Liminal Space Of Prisoner Reentry, Shatira Woods

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Prisoner reentry has been an ever-increasing topic of investigation as communities work to reduce recidivism and mitigate the negative consequences that mass incarceration and release from incarceration has on individuals and communities. This qualitative, interview-based study of a reentry program in a Northeastern City centers the experiences of formerly incarcerated persons who are currently in various stages of the reentry process over those of program staff. I use these experiences as well as existing literature on prisoner reentry, reentry programming, and labor to evaluate and understand the shortcomings of such programs from the perspective of those directly involved in and …

Not Yet Forgiven For Being Black: Haiti's Tps, Ldf, And The Protean Struggle For Racial Justice, Raymond Audain

Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review

In November 2017, the Trump administration announced its intention to terminate Temporary Protected Status for Haitians in the United States. This Article considers the termination and the lawsuits it prompted, which are helping to define the state of the plenary power doctrine, the breadth of the Fifth Amendment’s equal protection guarantee, and the purchase of the communitarian ideal. This Article also focuses on the lawsuit that the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) filed. Although this may appear to be a new operational context for the organization, the author describes LDF’s strong interest in ensuring that the federal …

Tort Answers To The Problem Of Corporate Criminal Mens Rea, Erin L. Sheley

North Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Power Of Prosecutors, Jeffrey Bellin

Faculty Publications

One of the predominant themes in the criminal justice literature is that prosecutors dominate the justice system. Over seventy-five years ago, Attorney General Robert Jackson famously proclaimed that the “prosecutor has more control over life, liberty, and reputation than any other person in America.” In one of the most cited law review articles of all time, Bill Stuntz added that prosecutors—not legislators, judges, or police—“are the criminal justice system’s real lawmakers.” And an unchallenged modern consensus holds that prosecutors “rule the criminal justice system.”

This Article applies a critical lens to longstanding claims of prosecutorial preeminence. It reveals a curious …

Micro And Macro Aspects Of Disability: An Analysis Of Differential 'Disabling' Experiences Associated With Information And Communication Technology And Political Economic Dimensions Of Persons With Disabilities In Myanmar, Dilshan Lakshitha Fernando

All Theses

According to the World Report on Disability compiled by the World Health Organization in 2011, 15 percent of world’s population lives with at least one form of disability and 80 percent of these persons with Disabilities (PWD) live in developing countries. Following the Social Model, Disability and Underdevelopment appear to form a regressive alliance that continues to bar a large population of human beings from a decent and independent life. However, as individual-level innovations, emerging ICT-based technological solutions promise to bridge the gap that prevents the application of developed world Disability policies to an underdeveloped context.

This study contextualized the …

Incarceration Or E-Carceration: California’S Sb 10 Bail Reform And The Potential Pitfalls For Pretrial Detainees, Ashley Mullen

Cornell Law Library Cantwell Prize for Exemplary Student Research Papers

California’s bail system not only infringes on individual rights, but also exacerbates a cobweb criminal justice system. The In re Humphrey court framed the issue perfectly when it stated that the problem with the bail system stems “from the enduring unwillingness of our society, including the courts, to correct a deformity in our criminal justice system that close observers have long considered a blight on the system.” California sought to rectify this “deformity” of a wealth-based bail system by passing SB 10 (the California Money Bail Reform Act of 2017).

This Note addresses the arguments that will likely be raised …

Cost-Benefit Analysis Of Enhanced Mentoring For Delinquency Prevention, Allison Smith

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Youth with certain risk factors (e.g., from a minority group, low-income status, previous contact with the juvenile justice system) are particularly at risk for juvenile delinquency and associated problems (e.g., school failure, mental health problems). In addition, these problems are quite costly to youth, their families, and society as a whole. Mentoring programs have shown modest, but consistent, effects in the prevention and reduction of juvenile delinquency and associated problems. Previous research has identified promising enhancements (i.e., advocacy/teaching roles for mentors, rigorous match processes, comprehensive mentor training, ongoing mentor support) that may increase the effectiveness of mentoring in producing positive …

The Parthenon, May 1, 2019, Heather Barker

The Parthenon

The Parthenon, Marshall University’s student newspaper, was published by students Monday through Friday during the regular semester and weekly on Thursdays during the summer. Due to budgetary constraints, beginning with the 2018 Fall semester, the newspaper is only published one day a week. The editorial staff is responsible for the news and the editorial content.

Concealed Campus Carry: Perspectives From Administrators, Faculty And Firearms Instructors On Generating Campus Policy, Diana Villarreal Barfield

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

School shootings have become prominent throughout the Unites States. This is an issue not only in primary schools but also in postsecondary educational institutions. The states of Utah and Colorado passed laws allowing students to carry guns on publicly funded college and university campuses. In 2015, the Texas legislature also proposed a similar campus carry law, which was not passed in 2015. In 2016, when the Texas 84th Legislature made a second attempt, the law was passed. With the passage of this law by the Texas state legislature, a 21-year-old was now allowed to carry a concealed handgun on campus. …

Graduate News, Graduate School, Old Dominion University

Graduate News

May 2019 issue of Graduate News from the ODU Graduate School.

Analysis Of Error Within Forensic Measurements And Photogrammetry Programs, Amy Douglas

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Digital images and photography have been considered commonplace in forensic science since the late 1990’s. Photogrammetry is a tool used in forensic science to measure objects within photographs that contain a scale or programs that are able to measure items in 3D images. Items at crime scenes often need to be measured and forensic scientists may not know what the best option is for their situation. This research will be conducted to show which type of measurement technique is most accurate, calculated against NIST traceable measurements, at various sizes of objects. The measurement techniques that will be tested are standard, …

The Inexorable Expansion Of Medicaid Expansion, Brendan A. Williams

Northern Illinois University Law Review

Medicaid expansion to non-elderly adults under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has come a long way since the U.S. Supreme Court made it optional in its landmark 2012 NFIB vs. Sebelius ruling, and 2018, in particular, was a banner year. In 2018 four states expanded Medicaid, three of them "red states" doing so by voter ballot. Expansion-favoring Democrats were also elected to replace expansion-opposing Republican governors. Strikingly, this success came just a year after Medicaid expansion, and the ACA as a whole, was only saved by a single U.S. Senate vote. This article examines the early pushback by states against …

An Examination Of The Florida Linking Individuals Needing Care Coordination Program For Racial And Ethnic Minority Females, Michelle Vance

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Suicide accounts for close to 800,000 deaths each year, making it one of the leading causes of death in the United States. In the state of Florida, suicide is the 10th leading cause of death. Currently, it is the 2nd leading cause of death among young people ages 15-29, claiming more lives than homicide. Among Black and Hispanic youth (10 to 24), it is the 2nd and 3rd leading causes of death. This study aimed to examine the extent to which depression and suicidality outcomes change among racial and ethnic minority females (i.e., Black and African American, Hispanic) who participated …