Legal Studies Commons^™

Understanding The Challenges Of Cryptography-Related Cybercrime And Its Investigation, Sinyong Choi, Katalin Parti

International Journal of Cybersecurity Intelligence & Cybercrime

Cryptography has been applied to a range of modern technologies which criminals also exploit to gain criminal rewards while hiding their identity. Although understanding of cybercrime involving this technique is necessary in devising effective preventive measures, little has been done to examine this area. Therefore, this paper provides an overview of the two articles, featured in the special issue of the International Journal of Cybersecurity Intelligence and Cybercrime, that will enhance our understanding of cryptography-related crime, ranging from cryptocurrency and darknet market to password-cracking. The articles were presented by the winners of the student paper competition at the 2022 International …

Dynamics Of Dark Web Financial Marketplaces: An Exploratory Study Of Underground Fraud And Scam Business, Bo Ra Jung, Kyung-Shick Choi, Claire Seungeun Lee

International Journal of Cybersecurity Intelligence & Cybercrime

The number of Dark Web financial marketplaces where Dark Web users and sellers actively trade illegal goods and services anonymously has been growing exponentially in recent years. The Dark Web has expanded illegal activities via selling various illicit products, from hacked credit cards to stolen crypto accounts. This study aims to delineate the characteristics of the Dark Web financial market and its scams. Data were derived from leading Dark Web financial websites, including Hidden Wiki, Onion List, and Dark Web Wiki, using Dark Web search engines. The study combines statistical analysis with thematic analysis of Dark Web content. Offering promotions …

Kerberoasting: Case Studies Of An Attack On A Cryptographic Authentication Technology, D Demers, Hannarae Lee

International Journal of Cybersecurity Intelligence & Cybercrime

Kerberoasting, an attack vector aimed at the Kerberos authentication protocol, can be used as part of an adversary’s attack arsenal. Kerberos is a type of network authentication protocol that allows a client and server to conduct a mutual verification before providing the requested resource to the client. A successful Kerberoasting attack allows an adversary to leverage the architectural limitations of Kerberos, providing access to user password hashes that can be subject to offline cracking. A cracked user password could give a bad actor the ability to maintain persistence, move laterally, or escalate privileges in a system. Persistence or movement within …

An Examination Of The Effects Of Workgroup Characteristics On Criminal Case Processing & Case Outcomes, Luis Torres

Dissertations

The court communities and inhabited institutions perspectives posit that courts should be examined through a lens that considers the complex and collaborative process that court actors (e.g., judges, prosecutors, and defense counsels), collectively referred to as the courtroom workgroup, engage in during case processing. However, empirical research infrequently examines such intricacies and devotes little attention to how the characteristics of workgroup members influence courtroom interactions, the efficiency they process cases, and ultimately case decisions. This omission is notable because theory asserts that the dynamics of the workgroup are at least in part driven by the characteristics of its members.

This …

Method Optimization For The Determination Of Cannabinoids In Blood By Liquid Chromatography Tandem Mass Spectrometry (Lc-Ms/Ms), Kevin D. Carrera

Student Theses

Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) continues to be one of the most popular drugs in the USA. Along with THC, other cannabinoids such as cannabidiol (CBD), are on the rise due to an increase in medicinal usage as well as the passage of different legislations removing these products from their current schedule I status. Thus, an urgency exists to develop robust and sensitive analytical methods to determine cannabinoids, especially THC, CBD and metabolites, in biological samples. The purpose of this study was to investigate different analytical procedures to determine the best method to identify and quantify CBD, THC and their metabolites in whole …

Examining Victim-Worthiness And The Court Systems In Massachusetts Domestic Abuse Cases, Natalie Johns-Suriel

Honors Program Theses and Projects

This study investigates the relationship between victims of intimate partner violence and legal actors within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Qualitative interviews were conducted with nine participants, eight were advocates for victims and one was an attorney for victims at an advocacy center. Interviewees recall their experience aiding victims both in and out of the courtroom, noting differences depending on how the victim’s race, gender, or sexuality interact with social structures and legal actors. Narratives provided by advocates reveal a difference in treatment for victims of domestic abuse depending on their social categories, including race, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, etc. My analysis …

The Unequal Application Of The Death Penalty In The United States: Critical Analysis And A Just Solution, Muriel Mena

Honors Program Theses and Projects

Considerable scholarly attention has been devoted to the question of whether the application of the death penalty in the United States is racially biased. The legacy of the injustices and racial biases that Blacks experience in the United States continues to manifest in ways that have lethal consequences. The lethality of this is indicated by the fact that persons of color who are convicted of crimes punishable by the death penalty are more likely to receive the death sentence than whites convicted of the same crime. Regarding why this is the case, one needs to employ an approach designed to …

Racism In Barnstable County’S Judiciary System, Olivia Brown

Honors Program Theses and Projects

This research outlines how racism is prevalent in the court system in Barnstable County, Massachusetts. When looking at research of racism in Massachusetts’ courts, specifically from the Harvard Law Report titled, “Racial Disparities in Massachusetts Criminal System,” published in 2020, I became intrigued with the topic. This raised the research question of is racism prevalent in Barnstable County’s judicial system. This study consists of interviews with defense attorneys from Barnstable County, detailing their personal experiences and thoughts on racism in the courts. This study demonstrates that there is racism in this court, however it tends to go unnoticed due to …

Comparing The Us To Other Nations: Experimental Evidence On Changing Public Punitiveness, Vinny Coyle

Honors Program Theses and Projects

The United States incarceration rate was once on par with other western, industrialized democracies. Dating back to the 1980’s, the United States incarceration rate began to increase exponentially and at an alarmingly high rate, much higher than its comparative countries. Public punitiveness on criminal justice policies has been the driving force behind this. Thus, this study aims to analyze the public’s support for punitive or more rehabilitative criminal justice policies after being presented with accurate information comparing US incarceration rates and its comparative countries since the 1950’s. Participants were recruited via Amazon Mechanical Turk and given a Qualtrics survey link …

Greater Brockton’S Perception Towards Police, Jamiya Mcconnell

Honors Program Theses and Projects

This project will explore the community of Brockton's perception of the police. This is a case study of the June 2nd to 3rd protest that took place in Brockton, MA that explores connections to national events during the same time, greater Brockton, MA perceptions of police, and reasons people protest against the police. This protest follows the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. The Greater Brockton community and communities all over the United States call for justice and equality. The United States, and Brockton, has been struggling with racial injustices and this project investigates the perceptions of …

“I Feel Like This Is The Best Thing I'M Good At”- Butter: Exploring Vulnerabilities To Sex Work Through Youtube, Beranda Marseile

Honors Program Theses and Projects

Sex work is a misunderstood occupation riddled with stereotypes and stigmas. Those who participate in the sex work industry, throughout the duration of their career, have been exposed to various magnitudes of violence. This study specifically focuses on female sex workers (FSWs) and delves into why these women would continue engaging in a field as dangerous as sex work. Applying feminist theories and the victim/offender overlap, this study explores the complexities of the sex work industry, along with the violence and stigma that sex workers experience daily, through content analysis of interviews with FSW from a YouTube docuseries. Findings suggest …

Challenging Wrongful Convictions And The Death Penalty In Three State-Level Cases, Theresa Debrah

Honors Program Theses and Projects

This paper aims to examine current high-profile state-level cases of those who have been put on death row and shed light on those individuals that may possibly be wrongfully convicted, either factually or procedurally. Previous studies have documented wrongful convictions within death row sentences, which is significant given the permanence of this penalty. This penalty is also disproportionately used against African American defendants. This study addresses three cases that expose similar factors and patterns that further our understanding of how race, victim-offender pairings, and legal irregularities affect death penalty cases. For this study, we used qualitative data to gather the …

How Mental Health Problems, Adverse Childhood Experiences, And Other Risk Factors Impact Recidivism Rates Among Juvenile Offenders, Ashley Elizabeth Brooks

Student Theses and Dissertations

Between the years of 1985 and 2008, there was a 43 percent increase in juvenile delinquency cases that were processed in the juvenile courts (National Center for Juvenile Justice, 2011). Based on this increase, the juvenile justice system’s ability to function could be diminished. It is important to properly rehabilitate individuals in order to reduce recidivism rates, and society cannot rehabilitate individuals if they do not know the influential factors of reoffending. This research focuses on influencing factors of reoffending among youth centering on recidivism rates of juvenile offenders by utilizing a secondary data set collected by Dr. Jeffrey Lin …

Women Incarceration And Attitudes Towards Restraints Used During A Child’S Birth, Wade Chit

Master of Arts in Criminal Justice Leadership

The complexities of women's incarceration are misunderstood and often not spoken of, and as a criminal justice worker myself, it is very interesting to me to learn more about crimes, especially finding out more about crimes among female offenders’ because most of the time, we hear about crimes and the majority of the offenders are males. Therefore, I believe that it is important to find out more about crimes on the women's side and see what it is like and how they differ from the men. Unlike male offenders, female offenders have a different background in committing crimes. For instance, …

Criminal Justice Update - August 2022, Patrick Mahoney

Criminal Justice Updates

The Criminal Justice Update is a monthly newsletter created by the Adams County Bar Foundation Fellow providing updates in criminal justice policy coming from Pennsylvania's courts and legislature as well as the US Supreme Court.

Contents:

• Updates from PA Governor's Office (no updates this month)

• Updates from the PA Legislature (no updates this month)

• Updates from the Courts

  • U.S. Supreme Court: Criminal Law & Procedure (no updates this month)

  • PA Supreme Court: Criminal Law & Procedure

  • PA Superior Court: Criminal Law & Procedure

The Effects Of True Crime Media Consumption On Jurors’ Criminal Justice Orientations, Kendall Miller

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This study sought to determine the relationship between True Crime Media (TCM) or pretrial publicity (PTP) consumption and jurors' criminal justice orientations. This study also looked at dispositional empathy, right-wing authoritarianism, the need for affect, and the need for cognition as potential moderators. It was hypothesized that the more TCM and PTP consumed, the more participants will lean toward crime control ideologies. It was also hypothesized that the more TCM and PTP consumed, the higher participants would score on right-wing authoritarian viewpoints, on dispositional empathy, and on need for cognition. Participants were presented with a screening question of, "Do you …

Mock Jurors' Recommended Sentences For Perpetrators Who Have Traumatic Experiences, Katherine West

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Experiencing trauma can result in neurological and biological changes, precipitating long-term damage to the brain and body. A considerable proportion of incarcerated persons have reported that they have experienced some type of trauma (Stensrud, Gilbride, & Bruinekool, 2018). Using scenarios of hypothetical crimes of varying degrees of seriousness, this study explores whether disclosure of the perpetrator’s traumatic childhood experiences has an influence on the severity of the sentence that mock jurors would recommend for that perpetrator. The mock jurors’ trait empathy, Belief in a Just World, and their own traumatic experiences were assessed to determine whether these characteristics could account …

Seasonal Effects On The Arrival And Colonization Of Blow Flies (Diptera: Calliphoridae) On Carrion In New Jersey, Amanda A. Hernandez

Student Theses

Blow flies (Order: Diptera, Family: Calliphoridae) are a valuable forensic tool. Female blow flies will lay eggs (colonize) on remains often within minutes of death and entomological methods are based on their behavior and development to extrapolate postmortem intervals (PMI). External factors, such as temperature and weather patterns can influence timing of this behavior. This study seeks to gain a better understanding of the environmental factors that impact this behavior across two seasons. In this study, arrival and colonization behavior was investigated on rat carcasses from sunrise to sunset in a semi-rural region of New Jersey (n=64). Video recording software …

Court Actor Decision-Making: The Influence Of Victim Characteristics On Legal Outcomes In Cases Of Bias Homicide, Taylor June

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

While most states in America have passed laws permitting harsher punishments for those convicted of hate (or bias) crimes, there has been no research to date on the adjudication of these defendants, including how legal and extralegal attributes of bias crime shape prosecutorial and judicial decision-making. This gap in research is likely due in part to the limitations of official data on bias crimes. Fortunately, new data on legal outcomes for bias homicide offenders who target victims because of their race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or homed status have become available from the open-source database known as …

Examination Of Kastle-Meyer’S Limit Of Detection And Cross Reactivity, Djonnique M. Devone

Forensic Science Master's Projects

Forensic Serology is a branch of forensic science that deals with the identification of certain trace evidence. Blood is the most commonly recovered and most important piece of evidence analyzed and used in criminal investigations. As evidence blood holds significance in criminal investigations because it can link a crime to an individual or exclude their involvement. Serology and DNA analysis are often aligned, because the same evidence item is often analyzed by both sections. During a criminal investigation it is important for to identifying the type of biological material or trace evidence found. The possible identification of bodily fluids can …