Legal Studies Commons^™

Recruiting And Selecting Child Welfare Staff, Michelle Graef, Megan Paul, Tara L. Myers

Center on Children, Families, and the Law: Faculty Publications

In this chapter, the focus is on recruiting and selecting new staff and on the steps agencies can take to ensure that they are doing the best possible job to attract and hire a high-performing, committed workforce. This chapter reviews a number of strategies for improving recruitment and selection processes and provides case examples from the authors' work with child protection agencies in several states. These projects have been accomplished by a team of researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Center on Children, Families, and the Law (CCFL). Some of the techniques described here will be familiar, whereas others are …

Indigent Defense In America: Racially Or Geographically Unjust?, Lisa Karen Akre

Honors Program Theses

The purpose of my research is to investigate the link between indigent defense funding and race. First, I explain the various approaches that states have implemented to deliver legal defense to the indigent. Second, I describe the current lack of funding and its consequences. Third, I examine what effect race has on the indigent defense system. Finally, based on the conclusions drawn from examining both race and funding for indigent defense, I evaluate the effectiveness of the delivery of indigent defense to individual states and regions within the United States.

Public Perceptions Of Registry Laws For Juvenile Sex Offenders, Carrie E. Reynolds, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Jessica M. Salerno, Margaret C. Stevenson, Tish R.A. Wiley, Bette L. Bottoms

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

Understanding jurors’ perceptions of juvenile defendants has become increasingly important as more and more juvenile cases are being tried in adult criminal court rather than family or juvenile court. Intellectual disability and child maltreatment are overrepresented among juvenile delinquents, and juveniles (particularly disabled juveniles) are at heightened risk for falsely confessing to crimes. In two mock trial experiments, we examined the effects of disability, abuse history, and confession evidence on jurors’ perceptions of a juvenile defendant across several different crime scenarios. Abused juveniles were treated more leniently than nonabused juveniles only when the juvenile’s crime was motivated by self-defense against …

Managing Performance [In Child Welfare Supervision], Megan E. Paul, Michelle Graef, Erika J. Robinson, Kristin Saathoff

Center on Children, Families, and the Law: Faculty Publications

One of the primary roles of a supervisor is to manage worker performance. Performance management is the "continuous process of identifying, measuring, and developing the performance of individuals and teams and aligning performance with the strategic goals of the organization" (Aguinis, 2007, p. 2). Supervisors must regularly assess current performance levels and take steps to improve performance in a way that is congruent with agency goals. The ultimate goal is to achieve agency objectives through individual and team performance.

To effectively manage performance, supervisors must know what the performance expectations are for workers and clearly communicate these expectations to workers. …

Challenging The New Penology: A Case-Study Analysis Of Correctional Management, Interstate Inmate Transfers, And Administrative Intent, Robert Thomas Swan

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study is to explore the use of interstate inmate transfers (IITs) by prison wardens and the administrative intent that guide their use. This study assesses the explanatory power of the new penology in three cases and asks three broad questions of two prison wardens and the DOC: What correctional goals do you hope to accomplish with interstate inmate transfers? Why? And what contextual factors (if any) are felt to inhibit or facilitate these goals?

IITs are controversial. Supporters of IITs argue that in addition to serving the needs of correctional managers, they may also serve to …

24 And The Efficacy Of Torture, Matthew D. Semel

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

In the Fox Television Network program 24 a fictional counterterrorism agent named Jack Bauer uses extreme measures, including torture, to save the United States from catastrophic terrorist attacks. Bauer uses torture even though its efficacy is in question and it is illegal. Political leaders, including President George Bush, have endorsed the use of torture and Bauer's fictional success has reinforced that the idea these methods are both necessary and effective in obtaining actionable intelligence. This paper examines existing literature on military interrogations in the context of 24 and reviews empirical and descriptive evidence about existing practices. While researchers cannot ethically …

The Impact Of Standardized Testing On Student Performance In The United States, Stephanie Linden

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

In the United States, the current trend in education is the dependence on standardized testing to improve our current education system. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 mandates higher test scores and improved academic performance in schools nation-wide, especially inner city schools. This thesis will attempt to evaluate whether standardized testing and the methods used to assess high performance has helped to create a better education system in the United States, or whether it has hindered student performance. There has been much discussion about this topic, some positive and some not. In this paper I will present both …

Electrochemical Detection Of Prostate Carcinoma Biomarkers Using Nanotechnology, Kathryn Leonard

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

The first chapter of this thesis speaks about prostate specific antigen, carbon nanotubes and horseradish peroxidase. The second chapter discusses the electrochemistry and catalysis of horseradish peroxidase (HRP) and myoglobin (Mb) covalently attached to vertically aligned carbon nanotube arrays used as a tranducer. Cyclic voltammetry results gave quasi-reversible FeIII/FeII voltammetry and electrochemical catalysis involving catalytic reduction of hydrogen peroxide for both the iron-heme enzymes in myoglobin and horseradish peroxidase coupled to the carboxylated ends of the carbon nanotube arrays by amine bioconjugation reactions. Reduction peak currents gave linear relationships with scan-rates, typical of thin layer voltammetry. Results suggest that the …

The Law Of Libraries And Archives: Chapter 1: Libraries And The U.S. Legal System, Bryan M. Carson

DLPS Faculty Publications

The law should be accessible to every professional, which is the philosophy behind The Law of Libraries and Archives. In this invaluable book, legal concepts are explained in plain English so that librarians and archivists will be able to understand the principles that affect them on a daily basis. This book provides its readers with answers and raises issues for them to think about. In addition to providing a basic overview of the law, this work contains enough details to allow readers to make informed choices and to converse intelligently with legal counsel.
Some of the issues included in …

Development And Confirmatory Factor Analysis Of The Community Norms Of Child Neglect Scale, Rebecca Goodvin, David R. Johnson, Sam A. Hardy, Michelle Graef, Jeff M. Chambers

Center on Children, Families, and the Law: Faculty Publications

This article describes the development of the Community Norms of Child Neglect Scale (CNCNS), a new measure of perceptions of child neglect, for use in community samples. The CNCNS differentiates among four subtypes of neglect (failure to provide for basic needs, lack of supervision, emotional neglect, and educational neglect). Scenarios ranging in seriousness for each subtype were presented to a large community sample (N = 3,809). Confirmatory factor analyses indicated that a four-factor model provided a better fit to the data than did a model specifying only one overall neglect factor, suggesting this sample distinguished among the four subtypes of …

An Innocent Murder? The Laws Of International Armed Conflict And The 2006 Tragedy At Qana, Brendan Groves

Global Tides

In the early morning of June 30, 2006, Israeli warplanes struck a civilian apartment complex in Qana, Lebanon, killing some 28 persons, none of whom were thought to have been Hezbollah militants. Footage of the attack was streamed instantly across the world, leading many to decry Israel’s tactics in its conflict against Hezbollah. But did the attack actually violate the Laws of International Armed Conflict? Or, worse, does the attack epitomize the notion of an innocent murder—terrible, perhaps immoral, but lawful? Furthermore, do Hezbollah’s violations of the LOIAC excuse reactionary violations by Israel? This paper offers an analysis of the …

Feminist Justice In Practice: Witness Experiences Of Survivors Of Wartime Sexual Violence In The Sud Bih, Brett A. Smith-Hams

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Wartime sexual violence is currently being prosecuted in numerous legal institutions across the world. In order for survivors of this sexual violence to have the best possible experiences, many improvements in the care, protection, and support of those who come forward to testify in these institutions need to be made. This study looks at the practices of one particular legal institution, the National Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is currently in the midst of trying several war crimes cases, many of which involve incidents of mass, systematic sexual violence as part of a larger military campaign in the region …

Slavery In The 21st Century, Paul R. Rickert

Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper briefly examines the modern practice of slavery. It attempts to demonstrate that slavery is a larger problem than most understand, does exist in the United States, and will outline some effective means to combat it.

Final Evaluation Report: Domestic Violence Case Coordination Project, Karen Monahan, Diane Gout, Anita St. Onge

Children, Youth, & Families

The project sought to address two primary problems: the lack of information available to judges issuing orders in cases involving domestic violence regarding other actions and orders that could affect victim safety (e.g., defendant’s criminal history or related criminal, civil, or other PFA actions); and the lack of judicial follow-up to assure that offenders were complying with the requirements of court orders (e.g., probation conditions requiring the offender to obtain mental health or substance abuse treatment, participate in a certified batterer’s intervention program, or obtain other social services.)

Principles Of Fairness For International Economic Treaties: Constructivism And Contractualism, John Linarelli

Scholarly Works

No legal system deserving of continued support can exist without an adequate theory of justice. A world trade constitution cannot credibly exist without a clear notion of justice upon which to base a consensus. This paper examines two accounts of fairness found in moral philosophy, those of John Rawls and Tim Scanlon. The Rawlsian theory of justice is well-known to legal scholars. Scanlon's contractualist account may be less well-known. The aim of the paper is to start the discussion as to how fairness theories can be used to develop the tools for examining international economic policies and institutions. After elaborating …

Public Legal Reason, Lawrence B. Solum

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This essay develops an ideal of public legal reason--a normative theory of legal reasons that is appropriate for a society characterized by religious and moral pluralism. One of the implications of this theory is that normative theorizing about public and private law should eschew reliance on the deep premises of deontology or consequentialism and should instead rely on what the author calls public values--values that can be affirmed without relying on the deep and controversial premises of particular comprehensive moral doctrines.

The ideal of public legal reason is then applied to a particular question--whether welfarism (a particular form of normative …

Juvenile Fear Of Crime And Attitudes Towards The Police: The Effect Of Implementing A School Resource Officer Program In Alaska High Schools, Sean A. Case

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This paper presents data concerning the effect uniformed police officers have on attitudes towards the police and fear of crime within the high school setting. Two identical surveys were administered to 522 high school students at two periods during a school year. The primary purpose was to determine whether placing uniformed police officers, called School Resource Officers, in high schools would improve attitudes towards the police and reduce the fear of crime. Although opinions towards the police were positively affected and the fear of crime was reduced, neither was affected significantly. The primary implication drawn from this research is that …

Probation Violators: An Examination Of Felony Male Adult Probation Violators In The State Of Nevada, Stefanie Wilson Palacio

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

No abstract provided.

Women In Prison In Massachusetts: Maintaining Family Connections, Erika Kates, Paige Ransford, Carol Cardozo

Publications from the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy

This report first provides an overview of the statistical data on women in prisons in the U.S. over the past two decades. It pays particular attention to the literature on the effects of mothers' incarceration on their children and the gradual recognition of the emotional, economic, and legal consequences for families when parents, especially mothers, are incarcerated. When viewed in this broad context it becomes clear that the concerns and challenges families face extend beyond the perimeters of a single agency or policy area. We then present the comprehensive Family Connections Policy Framework we created for assessing the status of …

Evaluating Sex Offenders Under Sexually Violent Predator Laws: How Might Mental Health Professionals Conceptualize The Notion Of Volitional Impairment?, Cynthia Calkins Mercado, Robert F. Schopp, Brian H. Bornstein

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

This paper examines the significance of the Supreme Court’s Hendricks and Crane decisions, with focus given to how mental health professionals may conceptualize the notion of volitional impairment. The Hendricks decision authorized postsentence civil commitment for sex offenders having a mental abnormality or personality disorder, rendering them likely to engage in future acts of sexual violence. In the Supreme Court’s majority opinion, Justice Thomas implied that the Kansas Act was legitimized by limiting the class of offenders eligible for this specialized form of commitment to those who are “unable to control” their dangerousness. In Crane, the Court ruled that …

Enforcing The Fair Housing Act: Can Agency Interpretations Override Congressional Intent In Anti-Discrimination Legislation?, Francesca Laguardia

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

On October 12, 2005, the Southern District of New York ruled that the New York State Attorney General was enjoined from enforcing state laws prohibiting discriminatory lending against national banks.1 The court found in favor of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the federal regulator of national banks. The OCC claimed that while state fair lending laws had not been preempted, the New York State Attorney General’s (OAG) authority to enforce those laws had been preempted by a series of federal statutes and OCC-written regulations that give the OCC exclusive authority to bring any enforcement action against …

Copyright Law And Digital Millennium Copyright Act, Neda Ballard Panula

Honors Capstones

Capstone submitted as a graduation requirement for the BSU Honors Program.

Racial Disparity In Chicago Arrests, 1998-2002, Jenelle A. Robinson

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Concerns of racial disparity in the criminal justice system have been the subject of public attention for decades. This study examines racial disparity in Chicago arrests from 1998-2002 and compares the levels of disparity in Chicago to these the nation. The study provides an average percentage of arrests for all given years for each race/ethnic group and compares that to the percentage of the population for each race/ethnicity to see if racial disparity exists. Results suggest that the largest disparities exist for Blacks, Hispanics, and Native Americans for both Chicago and the nation.

The Fight For Political Representation In A Southern Suburb: The Use Of The Voting Rights Act And The Federal Court System By Black Plaintiffs In Henrico County, Virginia, Thomas J. Shields

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

There has been an abundance of written work on the historic fight for black political equality in southern urban areas. However, almost no scholarly work exists on the fight for black political equality in the rapidly expanding southern suburbs. This article analyzes the rise of the black population and its fight for political representation on the local governing board in Henrico County, a large suburb of Richmond, Virginia. The article details the increase in the black population in Henrico County from 1950 to 2000 and provides a descriptive analysis how black plaintiffs used the Voting Rights Act in a redistricting …

Ua12/8 Annual Crime Awareness & Campus Security Report, Wku Police

WKU Administration Documents

A statement of current campus policies regarding procedures for students and others to report criminal actions or other emergencies occurring on campus and policies concerning the institution's response to such reports. Includes statistics on the types of crimes which were reported from 2001-2003.

Sozialpolitik Anders Denken. Das Verursacherprinzip – Von Der Umweltpolitischen Zur Sozialpolitischen Anwendung, Isidor Wallimann, Esteban Piñeiro

Books

The “polluter pays” principle in environmental law assumes that the actor would reduce or avoid adverse effects of his actions if he had to bear the consequences of those actions (internalization of effects). Such internalization can generally be done in two ways: either by avoiding or eliminating the harmful effects or by wearing the financial consequences of the injury. It is therefore on the one hand to have an incentive effect, on the other to a compensatory effect.

Pineiro and Wallimann apply these societal cost principles from the environmental world to the social realm, where social problems can be seen …

“Bin Laden’S Brain”: The Abrasively Negativistic Personality Of Dr. Ayman Al-Zawahiri, Aubrey Immelman, Kathryn Kuhlmann

Psychology Faculty Publications

This paper presents the results of an indirect assessment of the personality of Ayman al-Zawahiri, deputy leader of the al-Qaida terrorist network at the time of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the United States and allegedly chief strategist for al-Qaida operations and personal physician to Osama bin Laden.

Al-Zawahiri’s primary personality patterns were found to be Contentious/oppositional and Dominant/controlling, with secondary features of the Dauntless/dissenting and Ambitious/self-serving patterns.

The amalgam of Contentious (negativistic, or passive-aggressive) and Dominant (aggressive, or sadistic) patterns in al-Zawahiri’s profile suggests the presence of the “abrasive negativist” syndrome. For these personalities, minor frictions easily …

Trends. Aviation Security: Thinking About Capps, Capps Ii, And Beyond, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This Trends article discusses computer assisted passenger prescreening systems (CAPPS) and aviation security.

Finding The Feathers In “Birds Of A Feather”: An Antiterrorist And Counterterrorist Dilemma In Profiling, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article describes a significant challenge for intelligence analysts attempting to identify individuals, groups, and organizations that have joined, are joining, or will join forces in terrorist enterprises.

Introduction To, Preferences And Rational Choice: New Perspectives And Legal Implications, Matthew D. Adler, Claire Finkelstein, Peter Huang

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.