Legal Studies Commons^™

Development And Validation Of A Multidimensional Scale For Measuring Public Confidence In The Criminal Justice System, Jimin Pyo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Two studies were conducted with an aim of developing multidimensional measures of public confidence that are conceptually integrated, psychometrically sound, and useful in predicting individuals’ law related behaviors. Study 1 involves two-phased construction of scale in which a preliminary inventory was generated (Phase 1) and then finalized after evaluating psychometric properties based on 304 US adults recruited through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk) (Phase 2). As a result, six multidimensional scales were constructed respectively for measuring efficiency-, finality-, fairness-, strictness-, accuracy-, and transparency-oriented confidence. Despite more complexity of factor structures than originally expected, results of psychometric evaluation six scales of confidence …

Wrongful Conviction Documentaries: Influences Of Crime Media Exposure On Mock Juror Decision-Making, Patricia Y. Sanchez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Psychology and law researchers have urged colleagues to collaborate with the makers of popular media, such as documentary filmmakers, in efforts to educate the general public about wrongful convictions (Kassin, 2017; Wells et al., 2000). Recently, programs depicting wrongful convictions, such as Making a Murderer (Demos & Ricciardi, 2015) and When They See Us (DuVernay, 2019) have garnered substantial viewership. Research on general and case-specific pretrial publicity (Daftary-Kapur et al., 2014; Kovera, 2002) and the effects of crime media (Baskin & Sommers, 2010; Schweitzer & Saks, 2007) demonstrate that although consuming crime-related media and being exposed to information about a …

Examining Racial And Ethnic Disparity In Prosecutor’S Bail Requests And Downstream Decision Making, Connor Concannon

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Rigorous academic research into prosecutorial and judicial decision making has been taking place for over three decades, but a great deal remains unknown about the mechanics of prosecution. A majority of the work done by prosecutors occurs outside of public view, and most research focuses on the ‘back end’ of the adjudication process, leaving unanalyzed numerous decision points made upstream of the final plea and sentencing outcomes. Using unique data from the New York County District Attorney’s Office that tracks 43,971 felony complaints, this research examines racial and ethnic disparity at multiple decision points during case processing, with a focus …

Many Forms Of Black Death: Coal Extraction, Transnational Activism And The Value Of Life In Colombia, Oscar H. Pedraza Vargas

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

After the murder of the president and vice president of the coal union by paramilitaries in the department of Cesár, Colombia, the union is left adrift. Its fragility is only heightened when the person who decides to take over, is killed six months later. The union has been vocal on their critique of environmental destruction produced by coal and argues that their criticism is part of the reasons why they were targeted. Not far from there, in the department of Guajira, the conglomerate in charge of Cerrejón, the largest open-pit coal mine of South America, wants to divert a creek …

Going Viral: Youth And Sexual Assault In The Digital Age, Anna Gjika

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines the growing phenomenon of using digital media technologies to capture and perpetuate sexual abuse. Focusing on instances of high-profile juvenile sexual assault, I use case studies, interviews, focus groups, and thematic media analysis to investigate (a) how crime, gender, status and technology intersect for young people growing up digital, and (b) the ways technology intersections with sexual abuse to create new forms of crime, new ways to victimize and perpetuate harm, as well as new opportunities to investigate and address sexual violence both through the criminal justice system and in the public. I argue that young people …

Collective Healing: A Restorative Justice-Based Response To Sexual Abuse, Delene Bromirski

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

For much of the last 20 years, the United States has been at the center of the sexual abuse crisis within the Roman Catholic Church. Victim-survivors of clergy-perpetrated sexual abuse have long been waiting for the Church to acknowledge them and respond to their needs. This study sought to answer two important research questions: (1) whether restorative justice can be used to redress harms stemming from clergy-perpetrated sexual abuse and promote healing, and (2) whether there are common characteristics among victims who benefit from restorative events. The study employed a mixed-method research design consisting of both a quantitative and qualitative …

The Freddie Gray Uprising: Persistence And Desistance Narratives Of Community-Engaged Returning Citizens, Maurice Vann

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study explored how selected returning citizens in Baltimore who experienced the Freddie Gray Uprising of 2015 quelled community violence, stopped looting, and cleaned up the community in the aftermath made meaning of their experiences of the unrest. The central purpose of this study was to collect and analyze the life stories of returning citizens in Baltimore who experienced the Uprising. These men who had been incarcerated for between 5 and 20 years responded to government officials who called on them to quell violence in their neighborhoods that stemmed from the in-custody homicide of Freddie Gray.

The informants provided narratives …

Investigations Of Fraud, Waste, Abuse, And Corruption In The Public Sector: A Survey Of Organizational And Software-Based Aids And Obstructions, Lawrence Kom

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Fraud, Waste, Abuse, and Corruption present significant challenges to the efficient use of public resources and stifle government service improvement by detracting from policy development and undercutting funding for important initiatives. The purpose of this study is to better understand the aids and impediments to investigations of these offenses and provide a generalizable definition for the mission of Inspectors General, the group tasked with monitoring and addressing these offenses. This study also sought to identify the material role of software in investigations of Fraud, Waste, Abuse, and Corruption. Through a purposive sampling, 18 Inspectors General from the federal, state, and …

Examining The Use Of Hebephilia And Paraphilia Non-Consent In Sexually Violent Predator (Svp) Evaluations, Nicole Graham

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Sexually violent predator (SVP) legislation requires, in part, that an individual has a mental abnormality which causes difficulty in controlling sexual behavior. Previous research has found paraphilia not otherwise specified (NOS) to be one of the most prevalent diagnoses proffered in SVP evaluations. Since these studies, however, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) has updated the paraphilia NOS diagnosis in two ways. First, this diagnosis has been divided into two new diagnoses—other specified paraphilic disorder (OSPD) and unspecified paraphilic disorder. Second, OSPD requires an added specifier to indicate the individual’s source of sexual arousal. To date, no study has systematically …

Law And Society: The Criminalization Of Latinx In The United States, Gabriela Groenke

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The United States leads the world in incarceration with just over 2.2 million people in state or federal prisons or local jails in 2014 (Bureau of Justice Statistics 2016). Although the number of incarcerated individuals has declined by about .5 percent since its peak in 2008 (Bureau of Justice Statistics 2016), the fact remains that mass incarceration is an epidemic in the United States. Over the last decade much has been written about the effects of mass incarceration on people of color, with many analysts pointing to the fear of crime as contributing to the formulation of current policies, which …

Exploring The Structural Effects On The Lethal Violence At The U.S. Counties Under The Situational Action Theory: An Application Of Multivariable Spatial Regression Model, Yunho Yeom

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Since the stream analogy (Unnithan, Corzine, Huff-Corzine, & Whitt, 1994) and the frustration-aggression approach (Henry & Short, 1954) in lethal violence phenomenon analysis, several scholars have integrated theories from outside of their fields of study to understand lethal violence under a single theoretical framework. Some of these researchers have focused on deteriorating socioeconomic conditions and the collective attributional style when explaining the causes of lethal violence; others have failed to assume the non-independence of observation among contextual predictors. Recognizing these shortcomings, this study integrates the social components of situational action theory to examine their mediating effects on the relationship between …

How Black Lives Matter Has Influenced And Interacted With Global Social Movements, Arelle A. Binning

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a chapter-based and member-led organization created out of grief by three queer black women. This thesis examines the international impact of BLM. I conducted telephone interviews with activists and advocacy organizations who have organized activist networks and/or won struggles against institutional racism outside of the United States. These activists are located in Kenya, South Africa, Brazil, Australia, India, Spain, The Netherlands, Sweden, and Paris. I conclude that BLM has inspired the creation and supported the continued development of organizations advocating for national and transnational social and racial justice on a global scale. BLM in spite …

Sweeping Exposures: Lead Poisonings And Black Working Poor Populations In The United States, Shirley Reid

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The focus of my thesis is to explore some of the realities that the impoverished urban black poor populations face in America today. The goal of my thesis is to illustrate how poverty is reproduced within impoverished neighborhoods through the idea and mechanism of lead exposure, by recognizing how specific exposure to the element lead and its by-products is both a symbol and a material cause of black urban poor illness and disability. There is no mistake that people living in the U.S. are aware of the social injustices against black populations in the form of racial injustice. However, …

Captives Of A New Alcatraz: The New York City Department Of Correction From 1954 To 1990, Jarrod Shanahan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines the New York City Department of Correction (DOC) from 1954 to 1990—a period that began with an audacious program, led by progressive penologist and DOC Commissioner Anna M. Kross, to replace “custodial” prisoner warehousing with a rehabilitative model directed by civilian experts. As part of this plan the political legitimacy, executive strength, and most importantly, the institutional capacity of DOC were expanded, while the department’s plant facilities were increasingly concentrated on Rikers Island. The previously remote penal island was connected by bridge to mainland Queens amid plans for dazzling new jails and a university-affiliated research institute, to …

Hearing/S: Will In The Carceral Archive, Kayla Morse

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This long-form poetry project follows the human will — in this case the “criminal,” or captive will — as it is manhandled through an archive of reverends, wardens and superintendents narrating the future of prison reform. Drawing primarily from National Prison Association Conference archives between the years 1874 and 1895, these documents saturate the work with a will resistant but compelled towards subjugation by the state — as it appears within the text across forced labor economies, eugenic prison science that dictates starvation, classification, and isolation as the rule, the dehumanization of banal bureaucratic processes, the visceral and spectacular violence …

The Role Of Women In Terrorism, Zeynep Bayar

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The main purpose of this paper is to understand what motivate women to join terrorist groups and why these organizations prefer to work with female terrorists. Although each woman has different reasons to involve in terrorist groups, this research demonstrates 'religious, political and personal' reasons as the major motivating factors. This study also focuses on the question of why women are the targets of terror recruiters. In order to answer these, the research analysis examines 'psychological, gender, and media' factors as major recruitment reasons of terrorist organizations. This study also analyzes the similarities and differences between female terrorists' profiles of …

Municipal Police Under Federal Control: A Mixed-Methods Analysis Of Title 42 U.S.C. Section 14141 Negotiated Settlements, Jason W. Ostrowe

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Passed as part of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, the Law Enforcement Misconduct Statute 42 U.S.C. 14141 (§ 14141) authorizes the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate, and enter into a court-enforceable structural reform agreement with a law enforcement agency engaged in patterns or practices of systemic misconduct, violations of federal law, and unconstitutional policing.

Under § 14141 authority, 33 investigations of municipal police have been conducted since 1994 where the DOJ determined that a police agency was engaged in, or at unreasonable risk of engaging in, a pattern or practice of unconstitutional policing. Publicizing …

Inheritances Of Injustice/Transference Of Freedom: An Intimate Project On Black Women's Intergenerational Relationships And The Consequences Of The Punishment System, Whitney Richards-Calathes

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This project centers the multi-generational familial relationships between system-impacted Black women, mapping and uncovering the ways in which incarceration and practices of punishment impact, shape, hurt, and displace Black femme lineages. Through a qualitative lens and a specific focus on the current social and political landscape of Los Angeles, this dissertation examines the ways Black women are impacted by carceral ideology; from punitive definitions of Black womanhood, to the surveillance on Black femme familial intimacy and the rupture of Black women’s sense of home and place. Understandings of mass incarceration are frequently male-centered and most analyses of Black women’s system …

Shared Deliberations: Learning From The Voices Of Social Justice Lawyers On Their Aspirations, Challenges And Roles, Ian Head

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Lawyers in the U.S. who attempt to advocate for social justice issues, often on behalf of those communities most targeted by government institutions and oppressive legal systems, have unique perspectives into the challenges of using the law to create transformative change. This thesis examines the voices of over a dozen attorneys fighting not only on behalf of their clients, but also wrestling with how to best use a set of legal tools not meant for dismantling systems of power. Listening to how these legal advocates navigate their roles inside a system of laws created to consolidate rather than distribute power …

Challenges In Measuring Firearm Prevalence: A Test Of Cook's Index Across The Rural–Urban Continuum, Noah R. Cypher

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Cook's Index is the most commonly used proxy for firearm prevalence. This research uses New York's Pistol Permits to measure legitimate firearm prevalence and compare it to Cook's Index. In this study, Cook's Index predicted impossible values for several counties that together contained a clear majority of New York State citizens. Cook's Index was also shown to be unreliable across types of counties. Rural and Urban counties had significantly different ratios of Cook's Index to Pistol Permits in New York. The models show a general finding that the relationship between Cook's Index and legitimate firearm ownership varies depending on the …

Police Officers And College Education: The Association Of Police Officer College Education And The Level Of Force Used By A Police Officer In Gaining Compliance In Arrest Situations, John Vespucci

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The objective of this study was to research the association between a police officer’s college education and the level of force a police officer uses to gain compliance when making an arrest. There is a strong agreement in existing literature that the college education of a police officer has positive effects upon police officer skill sets including the use of force. However, this study seeks to update existing literature as most studies are over a decade old, which is problematic due to the fact that they are outdated and may not represent the challenges in contemporary policing. This study collected …

Global Pretrial Detention Use: A Cross-National Analysis, Martin Schönteich

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

To better understand global pretrial detention patterns, this study explores economic, political, and social factors associated with two measures of pretrial detention: the number of pretrial detainees as a rate of the general population, and the number of pretrial detainees as a proportion of the overall prison population. Through simple correlation analysis, stepwise regression, and moderation analyses, the study identifies factors which are most strongly associated with the two pretrial detention measures. The literature does not report any large-scale cross-national studies on pretrial detention. This study addresses this gap, focusing exclusively on pretrial detention using a large cross-national sample of …

Assessing The Outcomes Of A Jail-Based Substance Abuse Treatment Program: A Quasi-Experimental Approach, Laura Lutgen

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Jails and the needs of their populations are often overlooked despite their nearly 11 million annual admissions. More than 700,000 inmates are housed in jail on any given day in the United States, most of whom are non-violent and not yet convicted of a crime. This large population also reflects a high-need, heavily drug-involved population with nearly 70% of all jail inmates having a diagnosable substance use disorder. These high-need individuals are likely to continue cycling in and out of jail without treatment especially as they often return to the people, places, and things that are conducive to their use. …

Forensic Analysis Of Fiber Dyes Via Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy, Mircea A. Comanescu

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Fibers are a common piece of evidence found at crime scenes that may become a link between the scene and a suspect, or allow for the reconstruction of certain crime events. Although a big portion of fibers are still white cottons, the advancement of commercial fiber production and dyeing in the past century led to an increase in types of synthetic fibers and dye applications that can be found and used in forensic analyses. Nonetheless, the fiber evidentiary value is not fully explored, as for the most part, the separation and analysis of the dye on the fiber is not …

Gender And Terrorism: A Homeland Security Perspective, Diana Rosa Rodriguez-Spahia

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

While scholars have been studying the growing trend of female terrorists for several years, their research has not permeated politics or the media to help inform our Homeland Security policies. The findings from this body of research indicate that there is hesitance on behalf of the public (especially politicians and law enforcement) to acknowledge that women can be terrorists due to deeply engrained gender norms and expectations about gender roles. Terrorist groups are exploiting this unwillingness by recruiting more women to perpetrate terrorist acts (Lele, 2014; Bloom, 2011). Against the backdrop of the changes in gender norms and expectations that …

Moral Mode Switching: From Punishment To Public Health, Stephen Koppel

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

A public health response to drug offenses has potential to improve both public safety and public health. However, the public’s desire for retribution represents a possible hindrance to reform. Relying on dual-process theory of moral decision-making, this dissertation examines agreement among laypeople about the relative blame deserved for various crime types, and probes several possible predictors of support—the need for cognition (“NFC”), intergroup bias, and free-will doubt—for retributive as well as consequentialist responses to crime. Findings from several web-based experiments show: (a) in comparison to core crimes (eg., murder) substantially less agreement about the relative blame deserved for noncore crimes …

The New American Slavery: Capitalism And The Ghettoization Of American Prisons As A Profitable Corporate Business, David A. Liburd

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The labor of enslaved Africans and Black Americans played a large part in the history of colonial America, with the American plantation being the epicenter for all that was to be produced. While the two have never been completely tied together, capitalism and modern day slavery have been linked with one another. Some analysis sees slavery as a remote form of capitalism, a substitute, to an antiquated form of labor in the modern world.

Slave plantations adopted a new concentration in size and management, referred to by W.E. DuBois as a change "from a family institution to an industrial system."1 …

The Long-Term Consequences Of Child Abuse And Neglect In Men, Robert A. Beattey Jr.

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Research indicates that the annual incidence of child maltreatment is around 10% and that more than one-quarter of children have, at least indirectly, experienced some form of violence. Prospective studies find that in high-income countries, like the United States, there are moderate correlations between childhood maltreatment and low educational achievement, low skilled employment, depression, suicide attempts, and alcohol problems, as well as strong correlations with obesity, behavior problems in childhood and adolescence, and criminal behavior. Despite the high costs of child abuse and neglect—both direct and indirect—and decades of research and public health, justice, and social service investment in prevention …

The Racialization And Exploitation Of Foreign Workers By The Law, Seiko Ishikawa

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Intense demand for cheap labor in the United States has resulted in a widespread effect of employing high skilled immigrants in STEM fields. Examining how companies use high-skilled visa categories to create a flexible cheaper immigrant workforce, this paper demonstrates that skilled immigrants from Asia are being exploited through neutral skills-based criteria that are de facto racially biased. The purpose of this paper is to raise awareness of how, from the perspective of law and society, skills-based immigration works primarily to benefit the technological industry rather than skilled immigrants.

Criminal Responsibility: Meta-Analysis And Study Space, Lauren E. Kois

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Criminal responsibility (CR; i.e., sanity) has garnered significant research attention over the years. While some variables predicting insanity outcomes are consistent, others are not. Study-level characteristics, such as sample selection, variability in the operational definition of insanity, or other unknown influences may explain discrepant findings. It is critical to consolidate these variables and systematically assess differences in methodology to understand the state of the literature and to guide future research. As such, I conducted the first meta-analysis and study space analysis (see Malpass et al., 2008) in this area. Only 16 studies met inclusion criteria for the meta-analysis. Summary effects …