ASU Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This collection includes most of the ASU Theses and Dissertations from 2011 to present. ASU Theses and Dissertations are available in downloadable PDF format; however, a small percentage of items are under embargo. Information about the dissertations/theses includes degree information, committee members, an abstract, supporting data or media.
In addition to the electronic theses found in the ASU Digital Repository, ASU Theses and Dissertations can be found in the ASU Library Catalog.
Dissertations and Theses granted by Arizona State University are archived and made available through a joint effort of the ASU Graduate College and the ASU Libraries. For more information or questions about this collection contact or visit the Digital Repository ETD Library Guide or contact the ASU Graduate College at gradformat@asu.edu.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2
Filtering by
- All Subjects: criminology
Description
When children allege sexual abuse, there is rarely medical evidence or eyewitnesses, making their testimony in trial a primary factor in assessing their credibility. However, little is known about what may be unclear to jury members making verdict decisions. In some districts, jury members are allowed to ask questions of the child witness at the end of their testimony. The current study utilizes a sample of trial transcripts from Maricopa County, Arizona where children ages 5-17 years old have alleged some form of sexual abuse; a jurisdiction where jury members are permitted to ask written questions. Cases were analyzed to assess: 1) if jury questions were asked and how often these questions occurred, 2) what content they asked about, and 3) whether occurrence or frequency of jury questions related to case characteristics (i.e. child age, child-perpetrator relationship, severity of abuse, frequency of abuse). It was hypothesized that 1) juries would ask questions mostly about the dynamics of abuse and disclosure, 2) these questions would primarily clarify information previously discussed by attorneys during direct- and cross-examination (instead of asking new inquiries that went undiscussed during testimony), 3) there would be more jury questions as child age increases and 4) more serious cases (based on case characteristics) would have more jury questions. Results were mixed. Jury members often asked about the dynamics of abuse and disclosure (abuse details, statements regarding abuse, the child’s subjective reactions), but case characteristics of child age, child-perpetrator relationship, and severity of abuse did not have a relationship with the presence of jury questions. However, cases where children alleged multiple instances of abuse were more likely to receive jury questions, which may allude to the misconception that children would disclose abuse right away and not let multiple instances occur. Although the sample size is small for generalization, it is an important first step for future research to further examine jury questions, improve attorney questioning techniques, and better educate the general public about the dynamics of child sexual abuse cases.
ContributorsGarcia-Johnson, Anastacia M (Author) / Stolzenberg, Stacia N. (Thesis advisor) / Fox, Kathleen A. (Committee member) / Chamberlain, Alyssa W. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
Scholars have found that firearm-related deaths are the third leading cause of death in 2019 overall among U.S. children and teens between ages 1 and 19, surpassing the number of deaths from other diseases including the flu and heart disease. Despite this, recent scoping reviews have highlighted the limited knowledge in the field surrounding the impact of risk factors for firearm homicide victimization for children and teens at the situational- and community-level. Those that have researched children and teen firearm violence have focused mainly on individual-level risk factors and largely ignored situational and community-level factors, such as the impact of the presence of domestic violence and other interpersonal conflicts within the home. Moreover, researchers who have examined risk factors and correlates for firearm homicide have yet to include gun laws as a covariate of firearm homicide in conjunction with individual, situational, and other structural factors. Given the clear need to remedy these gaps in our understanding of firearm homicide, in this dissertation, I seek to examine what the correlates are for children and teen firearm victimization and how these two age groups differ. Children and teen victims are examined in the context of risk factors at the micro-, situational, and macro-level. I examine three research questions: What are the significant individual and situational variables for firearm homicide among children and teens? How do the individual and situational covariates of firearm homicide differ for children relative to teens? Controlling for differences in state and year, what are the most salient covariates of firearm homicides involving children relative to teens? Findings from this dissertation demonstrate the importance of the disaggregation of homicide typologies. Differences were discovered at the individual and situational levels for child and teens. The results of this dissertation demonstrated that firearms were less likely to be used in incidents involving child victims. Further, race, sex, gang-involvement, engagement in delinquency, and the victim-offender relationship were particularly important for predicting the likelihood of a child or teen being killed in a homicide. When compared to teens, children were more likely to be killed with a non-firearm weapon within the home by a family member. In the multilevel models, individual and situational level factors were the most salient predictor of firearm homicide among children and teens during the study time period. Results of the multilevel models showed that states that had laws requiring a permit to purchase a firearm and domestic violence restraining order (DVRO) firearm laws outside of the automatic prohibition of a DVRO subject from possessing a firearm had a decreased likelihood of the firearm being used in a child or teen homicide.
ContributorsPelletier, Karissa (Author) / Pizarro, Jesenia M. (Thesis advisor) / Fox, Kathleen A. (Committee member) / Yan, Shi (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021