Legal Studies Commons^™

Fatal And Non-Fatal Police Shootings In The United States, 2015: An Examination Of Open-Source Data, Yuchen Hou

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Purpose and Significance: Police shootings do not always result in death. This fact raises a question of what distinguishes fatal and non-fatal police shootings (FNFPS). However, no existing database is available to address how often and under what circumstances civilians have died from or survived police shootings in the United States. To fill the gaps, this dissertation research uses open sources to create a crowdsourced national database on FNFPS in the United States in 2015. The creation of this database provides researchers insights into the suitability and sustainability of open-source research applied for studying police shootings and offers practitioners …

Evaluating Patient Experience At A Novel Health Service For Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islander Prisoners: A Pilot Study, Lachlan Arthur, Ana Herceg, Heidi Shukralla, Jason Payne, Julie Tongs Oam

Journal of the Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet

Background
The Winnunga Alexander Maconochie Centre Health and Wellbeing Service (AMCHWS) is the first prison health service operated by an Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation in Australia. This pilot study developed and implemented a patient experience survey to evaluate the novel model of healthcare delivered by the Winnunga AMCHWS to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners.

Methods
Patients accessing the Winnunga AMCHWS between February and May 2020 were invited to participate in the study. Descriptive data were analysed and compiled for demographics, patient satisfaction, patient perception of care quality, cultural safety, and patient thoughts on the Winnunga AMCHWS.

Findings
Sixteen …

Andragogy: The Common Thread In The Teaching Of Adults In Colleges Of Education, Criminal Justice, And Health Management, Grant J. Shostak, Larry Acker, Vanessa Vandergraaf

Faculty Scholarship

The Covid-19 pandemic has brought dramatic changes to higher education. Students and educators face challenges never anticipated, including switching classes from on-ground to online and back again, mental fatigue, stress, and burnout. Faculty across disciplines may turn to Andragogy to best teach college students to inform their teaching practices. This paper demonstrates how professors from education, criminal justice, and healthcare management have used andragogical techniques in their classrooms.

Criminal Justice And Criminal Justice News, Georgia Southern University

Criminal Justice & Criminology: News & Publications (2012-2023)

No abstract provided.

Criminal Justice And Criminal Justice News, Georgia Southern University

Criminal Justice & Criminology: News & Publications (2012-2023)

No abstract provided.

Covid-19 Medication Scams, Cognitive Decline, & The Elderly, Mark S. Johnson, Mkay Bonner

Contemporary Southern Psychology

Around the world, the elderly population continues to increase in numbers and financial access. With this growth, the potential for this aging population to be victimized has increased as well. The COVID-19 pandemic has provided scammers and thieves with an unprecedented opportunity to take advantage of the weak and defenseless. Older individuals have more pre-existing health conditions which increases their vulnerability to COVID-19. Age-related conditions such as cognitive decline affect scam awareness, decision-making, fear, and insecurities. These vulnerabilities have placed the elderly population at a higher risk of being victimized through scams and deception. These criminal acts of deceit can …

The Conceptual Problems Arising From Legal Pluralism, Jorge Luis Fabra-Zamora

Journal Articles

This paper argues that analytical jurisprudence has been insufficiently attentive to three significant puzzles highlighted by the legal pluralist tradition: the existence of commonalities between different types of law, the possibility of a distinction between law and non-law, and the explanatory centrality of the state. I further argue that the resolution of these questions sets the stage for a renewed agenda of analytical jurisprudence and has to be considered in attempts for reconciliation between the academic traditions of analytical jurisprudence and legal pluralism, often called “pluralist jurisprudence.” I also argue that the resolution of these problems affects the empirical, doctrinal, …

Opioid‐Specific Medication‐Assisted Therapy And Its Impact On Criminal Justice And Overdose Outcomes, C. Clare Strange, Sarah M. Manchak, Jordan M. Hyatt, Damon M. Petrich, Alisha Desai, Cory P. Haberman

Criminal Justice & Criminology: Faculty Publications & Other Works

Background

The overlap between justice system involvement and drug use is well-documented. Justice-involved people who misuse opioids are at high risk for relapse and criminal recidivism. Criminal justice policymakers consider opioid-specific medication-assisted therapies (MATs) one approach for improving outcomes for this population. More research is needed that explores the impacts of opioid-specific MATs for justice-involved people.

Objectives

This study sought to assess the effects of opioid-specific MAT for reducing the frequency and likelihood of criminal justice and overdose outcomes for current or formerly justice-involved individuals.

Search Methods

Records were searched between May 7, 2021 and June 23, 2021. We searched …

Resolving The Anders Dilemmas: How & Why Texas Should Abandon The Anders Procedure, Michael J. Ritter

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

When an indigent defendant has a right to counsel for an appeal, and counsel believes the appeal is wholly frivolous, Texas has adopted the Anders v. California procedure that permits counsel to withdraw from representation and argue to the appellate court why their client’s appeal is wholly frivolous. This Article argues that, either by a change to the disciplinary rules or by judicial decision, Texas should abandon the Anders procedure as other states have. Doing so will promote the integrity of the right to counsel, avoid numerous conflicts and dilemmas created by the Anders procedure, and advance judicial efficiency and …

Firearms And Toolmark Error Rates, Susan Vanderplas, Kori Khan, Heike Hofmann, Alicia L. Carriquiry

Department of Statistics: Faculty Publications

We have outlined several problems with the state of error rate studies on firearm and toolmark examination. Fundamentally, we do not know what the error rate is for these types of comparisons. This is a failure of the scientific study of toolmarks, rather than the examiners themselves, but until this is corrected with multiple studies that meet the criteria described in Section 3, we cannot support the use of this evidence in criminal proceedings.

Defining Sex: Revisiting Bostock V. Clayton County Two Years Later, Laura Kerharo

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

LGBT rights in the United States have come a long way in the past few decades. Cases such as Lawrence v. Texas and Obergefell v. Hodges have shown the critical role of the Supreme Court in attaining equality for LGBT people. Bostock v. Clayton County is the latest case of this kind. Bostock firmly established that workplace discrimination based on gay or transgender status was forbidden under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This essay examines the case’s majority opinion—written by conservative Justice Gorsuch—and Justice Kavanagh’s dissent. It establishes that Justice Gorsuch used a living textualism approach …

Cognitive And Other Types Of Biases Affecting Forensic Evidence: Research Analysis And Expert Conclusions, Sukhmanpreet Kaur

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

This paper identifies the issue of cognitive bias, with emphasis on confirmation bias, and its implications within the forensic science field. Biased thinking or processing of forensic evidence can have significant effects on an investigation process. The literature analyzed discusses the consequences of providing contextual or irrelevant ancillary information to forensic experts. Following this discussion, the opinions held by forensic professionals with regards to confirmation bias and erroneous conclusions will likewise be evaluated. It is important that the forensic science field continues to listen to its experts in order to develop solutions for dealing with and preventing instances of confirmation …

The War On Drugs And Its Legal Effects On Black Americans, Alexia L. Howard-Mullins

2022 Symposium

The differences in treatment between Black and white Americans in the past fifty years has been a topic of thought in the minds of political and sociological scholars since the inception of the War on Drugs in 1971. These differences in treatment may lead to discrimination legally, resulting in longer prison sentences and a higher proportion of Black Americans in prison. This study analyzes the results of the War on Drugs that led to disproportionate imprisonment of Black Americans, including mandatory sentencing laws, drug classifications, and discrimination within law enforcement and the legal system. This study will use primary sources …

Robert Cover’S Love Of Stories: A Rumination On His Wanting To Discuss The Brothers Karamazov With Me Across Five Conversations During The Last Five Years Of His Life, With An Application To The Chauvin Murder Trial Of 2021, Richard H. Weisberg

Touro Law Review

The field of Law and Literature, perhaps more than any other area of legal studies, has been touched deeply by Robert Cover’s life and work. My interactions with Bob over the last half dozen years of his tragically short life provide an insight, recounted in a somewhat personal vein here, into his profound engagement with stories, with the most enduring part of that revitalized inter-discipline. I specify and illustrate five conversations I had with him during conferences, family interactions, or long New Haven walks beginning in 1981 and ending the day before his untimely death in the Summer of …

Conceptual Complexity And Terrorist Rhetoric: Examining Conceptual Complexity’S Role In Political Violence, Westley S. Hunter

Honors Undergraduate Theses

It is well-documented that leaders' conceptual complexity can affect their decision-making, but what about its broader effects on political violence? While Hermann & Sakiev (2011) and Conway & Conway (2011) have examined terrorists' conceptual complexity before attacks, this study generates a more extensive analysis by examining weapon types and target types. This research explored the connection between a terrorist leader's level of conceptual complexity and the violent attacks their organizations commit, arguing that complexity lowers before an attack and after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. It employed a content analysis of Osama bin Laden's rhetoric from 1999 to 2003 to discern …

2022 Annual Campus Security And Fire Safety Report, University Of Nebraska-Lincoln, University Police, University Of Nebraska-Lincoln

University of Nebraska-Lincoln, University Police

2022 Annual Campus Security and Fire Safety Report, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Safety and security information for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, including crime and fire statistics for the 2021 calendar year, and the information required by the Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act of 1989. All data are submitted to the United States Department of Education according to law.

Legal Aid Amid Bureaucracy, Amanda Reinke, Nicole Bevilacqua

Faculty Articles

Disaster lawyers navigate bureaucratic impediments to insuranceclaims and settlement and federal recovery and relief, and they actas third-party facilitators for disaster-affected clients to help enable theirsurvival efforts. The roles of such lawyers in navigating paperwork andbureaucratic processes on behalf of survivors, while assisting them inmeeting basic daily needs, has become seen as being integral to recoveryin these processes. We utilise findings from semi-structured interviewswith disaster law practitioners working with disaster survivors in thesouth-eastern United States (SEUS) to examine the bureaucratic socio-legallife of disasters. We marshal bureaucratic violence literature to analysedisaster law practitioners’ perspectives of the socio-legal nature ofdisasters in the …

Justice In Hybrid-Democracy: Blood Feuds And Albania Post Communism, Isabella Mahan

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

In 1991, Albania shifted from severe communist rule to a regime claiming to be democratic. However, to this day, Albania maintains undemocratic elements. This paper analyzes the impact of hybrid state capacity in the context of state-led justice and the implications for citizen compliance. Albanian culture possesses a deep history of reliance on Kanun and traditional justice in conjunction with the state's inconsistency and unreliability. It further establishes the disconnect between people and the state. Despite attempts to progress towards modernity, traditions of blood feuds reemerged with the movement away from communism. The failure to properly transition from authoritarianism to …

Legal Strategies Used By Black Men During The Antebellum Period, A. D. Banse

Digital Legal Research Lab

AD Banse, "Legal Strategies Used by Black Men During the Antebellum Period" [Research Poster]

Digital Legal Research Lab REU Site, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2022

The Missouri Statute of 1807 existed as the primary act that somewhat ensured the freedom of those enslaved and pursuing their freedom. The act refuted laws such as the Futgitive Slave Clause of 1793 and 1850, and the Missouri Compromise, which were evidence that slaveholders held decisive political influence and could cast the Constitution in proslave terms (Baker 2012). These clauses essentially gave enslavers the right to seize enslaved people who escaped to free states deepening …

Habeas Corpus: Breaking Reservation Boundaries, Samantha Byrd

Digital Legal Research Lab

Dr. Katrina Jagodinsky’s Petitioning for Freedom examines marginalized peoples’ use of habeas corpus in the American West from 1812 to 1924. This project has uncovered Indigenous manipulation of the American legal system to counter the challenges of colonialism. Indigenous peoples used habeas to protest, and sometimes successfully mitigate boarding school experiences, forced removal, and confinement on reservations. This study aims to show how Indigenous peoples and other minorities had a complex understanding of the law and used it to their advantage.

Advisor: Katrina Jagodinsky

Juror Perceptions Of Heterosexual And Same-Sex Spousal Rape In The Courtroom, Haley D. Hintz

Lewis Honors College Thesis Collection

Approximately 10-15% of American women will be raped by a spouse in their lifetime (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2002). Research suggests that the American public regards spousal rape as wrong but not rape (Lynch et al., 2017). Research on spousal rape has centered on heterosexual couples despite a higher likelihood that LGBTQ+ individuals will experience severe intimate partner violence (IPV) (Rollé et al., 2019). Therefore, the present study investigated mock juror perceptions of spousal rape of heterosexual and same-sex couples in the courtroom. We employed a 2 (victim gender) x 2 (defendant gender) x 2 (participant gender) between-participants design. Participants …

The Lasting Impact Of Deinstitutionalization: Policing And The Mental Health Crisis, Ruqayyah Sorathia

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

Society is combating the detrimental effects of the deinstitutionalization policy, which transferred the treatment of mentally ill patients from state-run psychiatric hospitals to community-run psychiatric facilities. These patients frequently fall into relapses and are more likely to experience risky encounters with law enforcement officials who have no formal training in dealing with them. The paper analyzes the criminalization of mentally ill people, many with substance abuse and alcohol addictions, receiving treatment in jails and state prisons. Incarcerating people with mental illness, though reducing the homeless population from the street and disturbances faced by the public, still does not address the …

What Is Wrong With Monetary Sanctions? Directions For Policy, Practice, And Research, Brittany Friedman, Alexes Harris, Beth Huebner, Karin Martin, Becky Pettit, Sarah Shannon, Bryan Sykes

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Works

Monetary sanctions are an integral and increasingly debated feature of the American criminal legal system. Emerging research, including that featured in this volume, offers important insight into the law governing monetary sanctions, how they are levied, and how their imposition affects inequality. Monetary sanctions are assessed for a wide range of contacts with the criminal legal system ranging from felony convictions to alleged traffic violations with important variability in law and practice across states. These differences allow for the identification of features of law, policy, and practice that differentially shape access to justice and equality before the law. Common practices …

Reinforcing The Web Of Municipal Courts: Evidence And Implications Post-Ferguson, Beth Huebner, Andrea Giuffre

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Works

Investigations in Ferguson, Missouri, revealed that many individuals, particularly Black people, entered the criminal justice system for relatively minor offenses, missed court appearances, or failure to pay fines. Municipal courts were focused on revenue generation, which led to aggressive enforcement of municipal codes. Although subsequent reforms were passed, little is known about whether and how the legislative changes influenced the law-in-action in the municipal courts. Using data from qualitative interviews with St. Louis area residents and regional court actors, as well as court observations, this article documents the legal structure of municipal courts in the region after Ferguson. We address …

Private Probation Costs, Compliance, And The Proportionality Of Punishment: Evidence From Georgia And Missouri, Beth Huebner, Sarah Shannon

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Works

Probation is the most commonly imposed correctional sanction, is often accompanied by supplementary costs, and can be operated by the state or private companies. Private probation is a unique sanction used in lower courts, most often for misdemeanor offenses, and is managed by third-party actors. We focus on documenting the process and unique costs of private probation, including the rituals of compliance and proportionality of punishment. We use data from interviews with individuals on private probation and local criminal justice officials as well as evidence from court ethnographies in Georgia and Missouri. For individuals on private probation, payment of monetary …

Quantitatively Comparing Elite Formation Over A Century: Ministers And Judges, John Hogan

Datasets

The abstract of the draft article that the datasets come from states:

In democratic societies the role of the education system is seen as crucially important to their development. It is critical in structuring society and in the value of its human and social capital. In particular, the role played by the education system in the creation and reproduction of the governing elites, and its countervailing potential to create a more meritocratic and egalitarian society has been an enduring topic of concern, research and debate. However, many of these debates have been rendered opaque by an inability to quantitatively examine, …

Justice By Geography: The Role Of Monetary Sanctions Across Communities, Gabriela Kirk, Kristina Thompson, Beth Huebner, Christopher Uggen, Sarah Shannon

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Works

Monetary sanctions are a ubiquitous part of court systems. Previous studies have focused largely on these sanctions at the state level or solely on large urban jurisdictions. However, court systems differ considerably across communities of varying population size, composition, and density. This article examines how differences in court structure and organizational dynamics in communities across the rural-urban continuum lead to differences in how court actors consider the role of monetary sanctions. Using interviews with court actors and ethnographic observations in communities across four states, we find that the practical and symbolic nature of monetary sanctions varied by the acquaintanceship density …

The Efficacy Of Us-Mexico Border Enforcement In Relation To Crime Prevention, Samuel Klopstock

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

The Trump Administration brought substantive changes to United States immigration policies, and labeled undocumented immigrants as predisposed towards criminal behavior. This paper presents a brief historical perspective of three major waves of Mexican immigration to the United States: The Early 1900s – Before World War I, Post-World War I – World War II, End of Bracero Accord – Present, and considers the relationship between immigrants and crime. The author explores contemporary immigration enforcement, both conservative and liberal attitudes towards immigrants, and their effects on policy. Consequences of border enforcement policies and the efficacy of border enforcement in preventing crime are …

The Impact Of Intimate Partner Violence On Women's Financial Wellbeing, Rowan Dunton

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

Domestic violence and intimate partner violence against women affects all aspects of their health, including physical, mental, emotional, and economic health. When social programs, support networks, and better opportunities exist to improve the lives of female survivors, the financial impact of their abuse can be addressed and reduced in a significant, sustainable manner. Reviewing existing literature on this financial impact of abuse makes it apparent what women want and need to recover from their former, or even ongoing, situations. Effective preventative measures against financial harm include closing the gender wage gap and offering welfare programs for lower-income women to increase …

Teaching A Hybrid Administrative Law Simulation Class Using Jurassic Park, Roberto L. Corrada

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

For more than a decade, educators and scholars have been calling for changes in methods of instruction, especially in higher education, based on developments in the field of learning science. This has been true for legal education as well, but additionally based on fundamental shifts in the way legal employers, especially law firms, hire and train new lawyers? These suggested changes for legal education include more emphasis on professional skills training, leadership development, and teamwork. While there has been no dearth of writing about the need for change in legal education, and even about specific outcomes or goals for legal …