Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Lingering Killer: Agent Orange, Sharon Ungerfeld

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

This paper explores the utilization of the chemical herbicide, Agent Orange, as it was sprayed over Vietnam during the Vietnam War in 1961 to 1971. The United States government, military, and corporations acted irresponsibly by creating the chemical and spraying it as a war tactic. The outcome of the spraying includes detrimental socioeconomic impacts, environmental degradation, and health problems. The socioeconomic impact is explained with statistics and an explanation of loss of job and education capabilities. With data on the destroyed trees and vegetation, this paper demonstrates the degree to which the environment faced harm. The health effects of Agent …

Police Academy Training: An Evaluation Of The Strengths And Weaknesses Of Police Academies, Olga Bykov

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

The purpose of this paper is to give an overview of the historical and current protocols which have existed in police academies, with a focus on the gender issues being faced by female police officers. The development of the police force is examined, with explanation of the differences and developments aligning with each era of history. Next, current police practices are elaborated upon, emphasizing the difficulties women experience in becoming police officers and where the ideologies of the police academies originated. Finally, suggestions are given based on research findings in order to reduce the ideological divides that occur in the …

On The Database Lookup Problem Of Approximate Matching, Frank Breitinger, Harald Baier, Douglas White

Electrical & Computer Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications

Investigating seized devices within digital forensics gets more and more difficult due to the increasing amount of data. Hence, a common procedure uses automated file identification which reduces the amount of data an investigator has to look at by hand. Besides identifying exact duplicates, which is mostly solved using cryptographic hash functions, it is also helpful to detect similar data by applying approximate matching.

Let x denote the number of digests in a database, then the lookup for a single similarity digest has the complexity of O(x). In other words, the digest has to be compared against …

Music And Adjudicated Youth, Robert Langford

Morehead State Theses and Dissertations

A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Caudill College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Morehead State University in Partial Fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree Master of Arts by Robert Langford on April 29, 2014.

The Virtues Of Justice, John Thrasher, David Schmidtz

Philosophy Faculty Books and Book Chapters

"This essay considers (and endorses) three complementary conceptions of justice as virtue. To the two senses of justice just mentioned-justice as a virtue of the soul and of the polis-we add a third that bridges these two. Virtue can be a kind of outreach rather than a kind of internal harmony, because we are talking about essentially social beings. The harmony that is this virtue's object is harmony with a community. Thus, a person who is just in this sense is disposed to respect (play within the rules of) institutions that command respect by virtue of actually working-that is, actually …

Major League Baseball's Antitrust Exemption And The Impact Of The Curt Flood Act, Gina Scalzo

Senior Honors Theses

For many years, professional baseball has enjoyed a privileged antitrust exemption apart from other professional sports. With the passing of the Curt Flood Act in 1998 this exemption was removed; however, the act may not be as influential as it seems. Court rulings were prominent in initiating and maintaining the antitrust exemption for professional baseball. These include the Supreme Court Trilogy, especially the case of Curt Flood, a baseball player who fought against the reserve clause system which limited his and other players’ employment options. Collective bargaining as well as arbitration became dominant in professional baseball labor relations under the …

Changing Awareness Of Human Trafficking, Roma Patel, Krystal Letourneau, M. Alexis Kennedy

Graduate Research Symposium (2010 - 2017)

The issue of human trafficking has received increased attention since the Trafficking Victims Protection Act was enacted in 2000. We assume that awareness is growing in the United States but this has not been tested. The current study measures increases in awareness about the issue of trafficking. Nearly 400 students were polled about their awareness in the spring of 2007. Attitudes towards government responses, awareness of the issue and support for victims were surveyed. The study was replicated 5 years later with over 500 new participants. This paper will analyze changes in awareness over time. Gender differences will also be …

In It For The Long Haul: Exploring Gender Dynamics In Former Prisoner– Family Relationships, Damian J. Martinez, Andrea Leverentz

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"This article contributes to the growing body of literature on the role of families of origin in the reentry of former prisoners by focusing on a group of young men of color recently released from prison. Our in-depth interviews with young men and selected family members highlighted the ongoing importance of their family relationships for providing important emotional and instrumental support. These relationships also are gendered. In relationships with female relatives, the former prisoners’ primary role was to be there for the women in the family and thereby demonstrate their love of family and their commitment to desistance from crime, …

Kenneth D. Tunnell, Once Upon A Place: The Fading Of Community In Rural Kentucky, Travis Linnemann

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"It is difficult to think of the rural apart from rolling hills and green fields that offer a respite from the city’s disquiet. Along with images of a bucolic rurality however, is a darker anti-idyll that has loomed in the social imaginary for centuries. While the narrative is timeless, the rural’s decline is something few among us have lived or even cared to witness first-hand. However, in the pages of Kenneth D. Tunnell’s Once Upon a Place, we travel to the disregarded landscapes of rural Kentucky and witness the history of its struggles. Like looking out the window of …

Expressing Strain: A Qualitative Evaluation Of The Testimonies Of Female Sex Offenders, Jennifer L. Klein, Danielle Tolson, Cathy Collins

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"For those convicted of a sexual offense, life on the registry is not an easy one. There is a great deal of stigma associated with these offenders despite the fact they served their sentences and were released back into society. Current research examines what life is like for female sex offenders whose information is listed on the Florida Sex Offender Registry. Using Robert Agnew’s General Strain Theory as a lens to examine the registry, this article will show the stress present in the lives of the registrants. Specifically, the article will address coping mechanisms, anger, and several unintended consequences of …

Beyond Basic Needs: Social Support And Structure For Successful Offender Reentry, Andrew S. Denney, Richard Tewksbury, Richard S. Jones

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"Barriers to successful reentry have long been identified as impeding an offender’s ability to successfully reenter society upon release from incarceration. As a result, research has long examined what shared obstacles the majority of offenders often face upon reentering society. Much of the research identifies factors such as poor education, obtaining/maintaining employment, stable housing, and transportation as common barriers to successful reentry. By using in-depth interviews with ex-offenders deemed as successful that were conducted by two respective non-profit agencies, the present study explores what significant requirements, if any, successful offenders perceive to need and/or have experienced as lacking while attempting …

Editorial, Willard M. Oliver

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"When I took on the role of editor for the new Journal of Qualitative Criminal Justice & Criminology, I wanted to secure as many of the leading qualitative researchers as I could for the editorial board. While I did not know Jock Young personally, I knew of him and his reputation and writings, and I figured he was one who should be on the board. When I asked my book review editor, Kevin Steinmetz, now Dr. Steinmetz, who I should include on the board, the first two people he requested were Jock Young and Jeff Ferrell. I agreed and …

Obituary: Unapologetic Irreverence: The Life And Legacy Of William “Jock” Young (1942-2013), Robert Donald Weide

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"I first met my dear friend and mentor Jock Young as a doe faced graduate student, “full of it,” as he would have probably described me at the time. It was a quality he apparently admired in me, unlike many of my other academic mentors. Our dear friend, colleague and another cherished mentor, David Charles Brotherton, made the introduction and while Jock shook my hand, he gave me the cock-eyed look of a madman as he peered into my soul, remarking to David with a deviant smirk, “Oh look, we have another trouble maker here!” Well it takes one to …

Conceptualizing Social Recovery: Recovery Routes Of Methamphetamine Users, Miriam Boeri, David Gibson, Paul Boshears Europäische Universität Für Interdisziplinäre Studien (The European Graduate School)

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"The goal of our qualitative study was to gain a phenomenological understanding of routes to recovery from problematic drug use. In-depth interviews and drug histories were collected from 50 former methamphetamine users recruited from a U.S. metropolitan suburb who identified as having had problematic use of this drug in the past. Transcripts of the audio-recorded interviews were coded for common themes regarding types of recovery strategies or tools employed on the route to recovery. The common strategies used in all routes for recovery from problematic methamphetamine use were social in nature and did not necessarily include the cessation of all …

Heith Copes & Mark R. Pogrebin (Eds.), Voices From Criminal Justice: Thinking And Reflecting On The System, Joshua B. Hill

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"The introductory criminal justice “reader” is a difficult text to get right. The material should not be too advanced for the student (most likely a first-year undergraduate student) to understand, but also cannot oversimplify the topic and risk either insulting students or not conveying an appropriate sense of the complexity of the criminal justice system. Voices from Criminal Justice: Thinking and Reflecting on the System, a new compilation of readings published by Routledge and edited by Heith Copes and Mark Pogrebin, attempts to thread this needle in an interesting way by framing the book as a series of perspectives …

Examining The Death Penalty Insider Perspective: Capital Bench & Bar Interviews, Sherri Dioguardi

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"This study conducted semi-structured interviews with 27 death penalty insiders (9 capital judges, 9 prosecutors and 9 defense attorneys) across three states. Prior research examined whether knowledge of capital punishment correlates with death penalty support (the Marshall Hypothesis). While prior research focused on opinions of laypeople, this study interviewed those with direct, hands-on experience to explore the knowledge-based, insider perspective. The majority (80%) of interviewee-respondents did not believe the death penalty is necessary in light of Life without the Possibility of Parole as an available sentencing option, and 62% did not support capital punishment. Qualitative data analysis reveals a wealth …

An Exploratory Examination Of A Prison Disciplinary Process: Assessing Staff And Prisoner’ Perceptions Of Fairness, Ann Marie Rocheleau

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

There has been scant research on how prison disciplinary processes work in comparison to the myriad of studies on individual, situational, and prison-level factors associated with prison misbehavior. This exploratory research delved into staff and prisoners’ perceptions of a prison system’s disciplinary process. Using in-depth interviews with 25 staff and 25 prisoners as well as direct observation of classification and disciplinary hearings, this research primarily focused on perceptions of fairness. It uncovered those features of the disciplinary process that prisoners and some staff assessed as problematic and unfair. These included: the nature, consistency, and investigation of disciplinary reports, the use …

Duran, Robert J., Gang Life In Two Cities: An Insider’S Journey, Robert Donald Weide

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"In his newly published book, former gang member and probation officer Robert J. Duran provides both a compelling comparative ethnography of gang life in two middle American cities, Denver, Colorado and Ogden, Utah, as well as a needed critical analysis of both the historical and contemporary roles of colonial oppression and law enforcement practices and policies that have contributed to the formation and perpetuation of gang identities in the barrios of those cities. Although neither cites the other’s work, I think it is fair to cast Duran’s book as a counterpart to Michelle Alexander’s celebrated work The New Jim Crow …

Howard S. Becker, Outsiders: Studies In The Sociology Of Deviance, Kenneth D. Tunnell

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"While recently reviewing a manuscript submission for a sociology journal and noticing Becker’s (1963) appearance in the body of the text, I discovered, when skimming the references, that the citation read “The Outsiders.” I remember wondering just how familiar the authors may have been with Outsiders or if they had actually read it – given that they got the title wrong. After all, Outsiders has become one of those books that simply must be cited. And, with growing interest among younger scholars in field research, deviant groups, cultural criminology and inductive analysis, Outsiders has become symbolic of good work that …

Exploring Racial Disparities Of Victimization In Three Core Dimensions Of Stand Your Ground Law: The Case Of Florida, Toyin Isijola

Dissertations, Theses and Capstone Projects (Full IR Collection)

‘Stand Your Ground’ (SYG) laws continue to be a source of controversy, even more so after the shooting death of an unarmed black teen in Florida, Trayvon Martin. Upon abolishing the ‘duty to retreat,’ the law has been criticized for allowing ordinary citizens to carry out vigilante justice. The media has shed light on a few incidents which indicate that young black males may be vulnerable to SYG laws. Prior research on SYG laws have mostly focused on racial disparities in the outcomes of cases and deterrence effects of the law, but this research should contribute to the study of …

A Moral Panic? A Content Analysis Of Prominent Newspapers And Their Portrayal Of Tik Addiction, Chiara Keune

Theses and Dissertations

The rise of tik (methamphetamine) in the Western Cape of South Africa was an issue of contention for government and health care officials. Tik is the label given to the homemade crystal methamphetamine in South Africa, and the primary substance of abuse for many addicts seeking help. This paper sets out to examine tik from a moral panic perspective to understand if tik is an actual threat or a moral panic phenomenon. Two prominent newspapers were examined using content analysis. The Cape Times and Cape Argus were sampled to understand the social construction of tik. A moral panic is simply …

An Experimental Study To Quantify Error Rates Resulting From Measurement Deviation In Area Of Origin Reconstructions Of Blunt Force Impact Patterns, Mark Davison, Timothy Palmbach

Forensic Science Publications

The intent of this study was to attempt to quantify error associated with the measurements required in area of origin reconstructions resulting from the analysis of blunt force impact patterns. Mathematical tables were constructed in order to examine trends associated with changing width and length ratios and the influence of impact angle change and area of convergence deviations. The analysis of the trends enabled informed stain selection, mitigating potential error. The analysis of the influence of stain measurement error and gamma angle error was conducted by reconstructing experimentally created blunt force impact patterns using the Tangent Method, comparing the resulting …

Location, Location, Location, The Impact Of Registered Sex Offenders On Home Sale Prices: A Case Study Of Mclean County, Illinois, John C. Navarro

Theses and Dissertations

Borrowing from broken windows theory, this paper addresses the impact of sex offenders' residences on neighborhood's property values in McLean County, Illinois. Three data sets were combined to explore the relationship: the addresses of registered sex offenders (RSOs) in McLean County, Illinois, the location and property characteristics of homes sold in McLean County between December 2012 to December 2013, and variables from the 2010 U.S. Census. ArcGIS was utilized to create buffers up to 0.2 of a mile around a sold home to measure the concentration of RSOs and sexual predators (SPs) and to calculate the distance from the nearest …

Promoting Justice, Peace, And Understanding Through Partnerships And Dialogue, Center For Peace, Democracy, And Development, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

The Center for Peace, Democracy and Development (CPDD) promotes conflict resolution, democracy, economic development, education building, media development, and legal and judicial reform through partnerships and training programs across the globe. We offer academic and practical expertise across the spectrum of conflict management and democratic governance. Moreover, we mentor the next generation of peace and democracy builders from the UMass Boston student body who actively participate in many of our initiatives. The Restorative Justice Mediation Project (RJUMP) is a university-based program that aims to provide restorative justice services, education and training to the Suffolk County law enforcement community, department of …

Prison Poetry Group, Master Of Fine Arts Creative Writing Program, College Of Liberal Arts, University Of Massachusetts Boston, Bay State Correctional Center

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

Beginning in September 2012, a graduate student enrolled in UMass Boston’s MFA Creative Writing Program served as the volunteer instructor for a Poetry Group at Baystate Correctional Center. Through creative development and community discussion, this program, which operates during the academic year (September-May), facilitates positive behavioral change in order to eliminate violence, victimization, and recidivism.

From Death To Near-Death: The Fate Of Serious Youthful Offenders After Roper V. Simmons, Christopher A. Mallett

Social Work Faculty Publications

The United States juvenile death penalty was abolished in 2005 when the Supreme Court, in Roper v. Simmons, found this punishment to be cruel and unusual and in violation of the Constitution’s Eighth Amendment.1 This decision was the final step in ending the death sentence for those under the age of eighteen. While this sentence is no longer an option for retributively-inclined states, many serious youthful offenders continue to meet similar, and in some ways, comparably difficult fates. These fates include the wholesale transfer of serious youthful offenders to the criminal courts2 and the subsequent incarceration of tens of …

Urban Politics And The Judiciary: Treating Courts As Endogenous, Christopher Shortell

Political Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

The study of urban politics often focuses on the ability of urban regimes to successfully pursue their interests and goals. However, scholars of urban politics only peripherally consider the role that courts play. And when courts are incorporated, they are treated as exogenous to the political system. This paper argues for the importance of treating the judiciary as endogenous to the local political system. Courts are themselves political institutions and should be understood as such in the study of politics at the local level. Doing so offers several benefits, including accounting for the ways in which state-level preferences operate as …

Applying Sex Offender Registry Laws To Juvenile Offenders: Biases Against Adolescents From Stigmatized Groups, Jessica M. Salerno, Margaret Stevenson, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Tisha R.A. Wiley, Bette L. Bottoms, Liana Peter-Hagene

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

The need to protect children from dangerous sex offenders has led to policies that require juvenile sex offenders to register on public online registries. It is important to determine the implications of these laws for the wellbeing of child victims and also for juvenile offenders on these registries. Is the application of these laws—designed for adult offenders—to juveniles appropriate, necessary, and supported by public sentiment? The chapter reviews current sex offender registration policies and psychological research addressing whether the assumptions underlying these laws are supported by research, public sentiment toward these laws, factors that might drive biases against stigmatized youth …

Program And Proceedings: Nebraska Academy Of Sciences 1880–2014, 134th Anniversary Year, One Hundred-Twenty-Fourth Annual Meeting, April 11, 2014

Nebraska Academy of Sciences: Programs and Proceedings

Program

Aeronautics and Space Science

Collegiate Academy: Biology

Chemistry and Physics

Collegiate Academy: Chemistry and Physics

Applied Science and Technology

Biological and Medical Sciences

Aeronautics and Space Science, Poster Session

Anthropology

Maiben Memorial Lecture: "Education, Careers and Opportunities in Engineering and Metallurgy in Nebraska," Terry Rasmussen, Nucor Steel, Norfolk, Nebraska

Teaching of Science and Mathematics

Anthropology

Earth Science

Nebraska Transcript (University Of Nebraska College Of Law), Volume 47, Number 1, Spring 2014

Nebraska Transcript

Dean’s Message

Faculty Updates
Profile: Bill Lyons
Faculty Notes
Faculty Lead the Way at International Conference
Schaefer Publishes White Paper
Pearlman, Dority Baker Publish Bibliography

Feature:
International Perspectives Introduced into 1L Curriculum

Around the College
Pearce Named New Assistant Dean for Student Affairs & Administration
Brooks, ’15, Spends Summer in Thailand
Donald Examines Impact of Technology on Profession
Carter Delivers Lane Lecture
CLEP Brings Law-Related Education to Schools
Alumni Volunteers Provide Valuable Time to CSO
Reflections on Gideon
Student Group Promotes Rural Connections
December Commencement Pictorial

Our Alumni
Nordhues Leads Development Office
McIlnay: Alumni Master
Veltchkov: Bulgaria’s Deputy Foreign …