Law Commons^™

The Effects Of Defendant And Juror Language Use On Sentencing Recommendations, Victoria Christine Estrada

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Spanish-language testimony is an extra-legal variable not widely studied in the legal psychology field. More emphasis has been placed on the translation of the testimony as well as accent attitudes. The current study extended research conducted by Stephan and Stephan (1986) to investigate the impact of Spanish-speaking defendants and mock-juror's language use and proficiency on sentencing recommendations. Two hundred and seventy-seven participants from the University of Texas at El Paso read a case vignette of a first-degree aggravated assault and asked were asked to provide sentence recommendations for the defendant. The defendant's testimony was presented in English or Spanish with …

Disparities In Park Availability, Features, And Characteristics By Social Determinants Of Health Within A U.S.-Mexico Border Urban Area, Amir Kamel

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Background: Parks have been shown to be a key feature in the built environment that promote physical activity and positively influence health. However, a number of studies have highlighted that park availability, park features (e.g., park facilities, amenities, and aesthetic features), and park characteristics (e.g., quality/safety concerns of the park and surrounding neighborhood) are not equally distributed across neighborhoods in the U.S, specifically areas of low socioeconomic status and diverse racial/ethnic composition. The overall aim of this study was to examine and describe park availability, park features, and park characteristics, and determine their association with two social determinants of health …

The Effect Of The Reciprocity Norm And Guided Imagery On The Development Of Implanted Memories In Children, Misty Christina Duke

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Previous research has shown that the use of guided imagery can create source monitoring errors in adults and induce false memories for events that never occurred. Research has also shown that some forms of social influence can induce suggestibility in children. The current study examined whether guided imagery and a social influence technique involving the norm of reciprocity could induce the formation of false memories in children. One hundred sixteen first- and second-grade children were interviewed twice and asked to freely recall three true events as well as one false event that they were told was true. Interviewers used guided …

Group Decision Making In The Jury Context: A Combined Theoretical Approach, Larissa Angelique Schmersal

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Much of the extant research on jury decision making has been conducted at the juror level, examining the individual decisions of mock jurors. Although studying mock juror decisions provides initial insight into jury decision making, studying the deliberation process should be a priority for future research. Few theoretical models have been developed to examine the decision process of the jury. The social combination and the social communication approaches provide some insight into this process; however, analysis of these methods is scarce due, in part, to their limited applicability.

The current study examined the jury deliberation using a combined theoretical approach. …

A Lingering Grudge In The Face Of A Power Transition; The French Canadian Movement In Perspective, Sergio Villarreal

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

I hypothesize that an individual that has experienced a power transition, as measured by income, will be more likely to challenge the status quo than one that has not. The hypothesis is tested by relying on a mathematical probability model and is then corroborated through a qualitative analysis.

This analysis was accomplished by using a dataset that was collected in Québec during the time of the referendum; the final vote of each individual was contrasted with their relative income and dissatisfaction with the federation.

While income alone will not bring about a secessionist vote, the increase in the likelihood of …

Does God Favor The Unequal Allocation Of Resources? A Study Of The Effects Of Religion On Ethnic Conflicts, Irene Rebeca Mendoza

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Ethnic conflict and religious conflict are two types of conflict that are too often studied as one type of conflict. Additionally, conflicts that involve the fight over resources are today a type of conflict which appears to be on the rise. Additionally, contrary to what some scholars have argued for centuries, religious influence over people's behavior also has continued to rise. Today there is a worrisome landscape in the global landscape, ethnic conflicts are currently ongoing throughout the globe in areas such as Congo, India-Pakistan, Israel-Palestine, Sudan, Sri Lanka, and most notably Iraq. Ethnic conflicts in the past appear to …

Igos And Juridical Organs, Janeth Diaz

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Do the number of members, the level of democracy, and the level of institutionalization contribute to the creation and use of a juridical organ in IGOs? This study utilizes 495 IGOs in order to answer this question and examine which of these three elements, or all of them, are relevant to the creation and use of any type of juridical mechanism in an IGO. For each of these characteristics five dependent variables were tested. Empirical results indicate that neither the level of democracy nor the number of membership contributes to the creation and use of a juridical mechanism. In contrast, …