Law Commons^™

The Downfall Of Daniel Fitzpatrick: A Creative Short Story, Renee Horsley

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Daniel grew up with humble beginnings in Starlight, Nebraska. His loving parents provided him and his four other siblings with as much as they could. Victoria grew up wealthy in a small town in Georgia but by fifth grade, Victoria would move to Starlight due to her father’s business proposition. Soon Daniel and Victoria’s worlds collided setting the way for the most epic and yet tragic love story to ever hit Starlight Nebraska. A creative short story that intertwines the disciplines of criminal justice, intergroup dialogue, psychology, and the law.

Mindset Theory Relates To Attitudes About Prison And Parole Among College Students, Cassandra R. Petersen

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

The maintenance of prosocial relationships has been strongly connected to criminal desistance among past offenders. The opinions held by the community shape the prejudice often encountered by those with a criminal record. To promote desistance, we must understand how criminals and their abilities are considered by the public. In this study, 69 college students were surveyed about the United States prison and parole system in conjunction with Dweck’s mindset theory. Along with explicit questions, an Implicit Associations Test (IAT) was employed to measure unconscious associations between mentality and punishment preference. The IAT revealed that traits of a growth mindset were …

Analyzation Of Audit Procedures In The Wake Of The Early 2000s Accounting Scandals, Zachary Byar

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Enron, WorldCom, and Tyco International were companies that operated in different industries and had different levels of net profit for decades. However, these companies had one pivotal thing in common: accounting fraud. In the early 2000s, accounting scandals from large companies created a major impact on the financial markets, causing Congress to take action to increase investor protection through the origination of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. The Act was meant to restore investor confidence through strengthened disclosures and auditing requirements for public corporations. However, even with the creation of this new Act from Congress, fraud is still prevalent today, …

Agatha Christie: A Look Into Criminal Procedure And Gender, Carmella Monico

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

With 2020 being the 100^th year since Agatha Christie’s first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, was published, it seems fitting to celebrate such an accomplished author with a deeper look into the inner workings of her novels. While she wrote mystery novels that involved many detectives, the two most popular are Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. This paper will examine these two detectives in regard to the criminal procedure each uses to solve their respective cases. Would her detectives’ work hold up in court then or even today? Additionally, the difference in gender between Poirot and Marple …

When Does A Cyber Crime Become An Act Of Cyber Warfare, Luke Dickeson

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Since the existence of the online world, cyber attacks have been a threat. As the online world has developed and evolved so have the attacks on them. The advancement of technology has meant the advancement and increased complexity of cyber attacks.

Cyber attacks can be broken into two categories. The first is cyber crimes, and the second is cyber warfare. The difference between these two is not black and white, but rather a very murky grey. There is no agreed upon definitive line that separates cyber attacks and cyber crimes. This is because the definitions are so eerily similar, and …

Disparities In Oral Health: Socioeconomic Status And Policies To Increase Access To Primary Dental Care, Mckenzie Nutter

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Primary dental care is a patient-centered service consisting of routine dental checkups. The oral cavity is the first point of entrance to the body for many harmful pathogens. Therefore, primary dental care is essential to not only prevent and treat conditions in the mouth, but to also reduce the number of systemic diseases in the rest of the body. However, people with higher incomes or wealth have increased access to primary dental care. People with low socioeconomic status have decreased access to primary dental care, at least in part due to difficulties in paying for separate dental insurance. Disparities in …

The Violence Against Women's Act: From The Criminalization Of Domestic Violence Through Modern Political Challenges, Carrie Anderson

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

The Violence Against Women’s Act, or VAWA, is a landmark piece of federal legislation to combat domestic violence in the United States. It passed in 1994 following various state efforts to stop intimate partner violence. Broad federal legislation was needed to end domestic violence because of the unique nature of the crime including the strong connection between victims and perpetrators, the vast scale of the problem, and the reoccurring nature of domestic violence (Fagan, p. 28-29, 1996). VAWA has been expanded through reauthorization efforts in 2000, 2005, and 2013. Reform efforts have focused on increasing protections for victims especially focusing …

Law Enforcement, Public Opinion, The Media, And Its Effects, Aaron Borcyk

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that, in 2018, law enforcement workers made up about .8% of the country’s workforce. Given that they make up such a large percentage of the workforce plus the extreme public visibility of the profession by nature, law enforcement is a highly discussed topic. After the controversial officer-involved shootings of Michael Brown, Walter Scott, and Freddie Gray between 2014 and 2016 the credibility and integrity of law enforcement came into question. Law enforcement is depicted on many media platforms in many different ways; The current research leverages qualitative data obtained from in-depth oral …

Responding To Victims Of Human Trafficking In The United States: A Review Of Treatment Providers, Morgan A. Mcbride

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Scholars have made strides to illuminate the scope and nature of human trafficking, but there have been minimal efforts to inform responses to victims. Importantly, if we do not address the issues that made people vulnerable in the first place, then they could be susceptible to re-victimization in the future. It is vital then that treatment agencies are available and engaging in effective practices to maximize recovery efforts. Thus, the current study examined treatment providers in the United States in two stages to determine how they respond to victims of these crimes. In the first stage, a systematic literature review …

Cryptocurrencies: An Overview, Investment Investigation, Comparative Analysis, And Regulatory Proposals, Jacob Franzen

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

With cryptocurrencies moving out of obscurity and into the public eye, the initial purpose of this research paper is to provide the history of cryptocurrencies, to explain the complex workings in and around cryptocurrencies, investigate their investment potential, and to draw attention to their potential for misuse. To follow, the primary purpose is to create a platform on which to compare cryptocurrencies with more common mediums of exchange, analyze their current international regulatory climate, highlight their trends within influential nations, discuss their pending and future regulation, and provide personal proposals for additional regulation. Due to the complex nature of the …

Cryptocurrency Taxation: Suggested Revisions On Current Treatment, Joe Wilwerding

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

The current tax regulations applied to cryptocurrencies are inappropriate. The initial purpose of Bitcoin, the most popular cryptocurrency, was to circumvent the fraud associated with using credit and debit cards for e-commerce. Simply put, cryptocurrencies can be thought of as cash for the internet. The Internal Service Revenue acknowledged its use as a unit of account, store of value, and medium of exchange (the definition of a currency). Despite its function as a currency, and the IRS’s acknowledgement of this function, the new asset has been designated as property for tax purposes. Property transactions are generally taxed on realized gains. …

Clinical Decision Making: A Case Study Of The Effects Of Evidence Based Medicine And Past Empirical Experience In The Emergency Department, Olivia Zeman-Renner

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

With a growing number of medical malpractice suits and the passage of policy that focuses on patient advocacy, an emphasis has been placed on research regarding the decision-making processes of physicians in everyday practices. Over the past decades, scholars have looked to specific clinical decision-making philosophies, how they can be implemented into practice, and the effects of such implementation, but little research has been done into the culmination of decision-making philosophies on a day-to-day basis. By focusing on single-case study of a Midwestern Emergency Department and asking Attending physicians to self-report their decision-making philosophies, this study serves as a transition …

Judge Consistency In Criminal Sentencing, Emma Lindemeier, Paul Landow

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

The United States’ Constitution provides certain protections for those accused of a crime, including proportionate punishment and the right to an attorney. There are sentencing guidelines in place, as well as appointed-counsel systems to ensure that everyone receives these protections when accused of a crime. Some research has shown that the type of counsel present at sentencing may affect the outcome of sentencing, although, the research on the topic is conflicting. Race is another variable that has been found to play into the role of sentencing, as well as gender and age. Other studies have suggested that the differences in …