Matching Items (4)
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- All Subjects: Children
- All Subjects: Truthfulness and falsehood
- Creators: Stolzenberg, Stacia
Description
The #MeToo Movement has sparked debate across the world as to how prevalent sexual assault is and what can be done to help survivors. Although sexual assaults are the least likely crime to be reported to police, it is important to examine the criminal justice system’s treatment of these cases. The focus of this thesis is on the prosecution of sexual assault cases. Specifically, the goal is to uncover the factors that impact prosecutorial decision-making in sexual assault cases across three different timepoints. This study examines qualitative interviews conducted in 2010 with 30 Deputy District Attorneys from Los Angeles, California. Results reveal that prosecutors’ largely rely on their “gut feelings” about whether a case will be successful based on a combination of factors, including: victim credibility, availability of evidence, and corroboration of the victim’s story, just to name a few. The study concludes with an examination of these results, a discussion on the limitations of the study and a guide for future research, and what policy changes can come from these findings.
ContributorsHale, Julianna (Author) / Talbot, Kathleen (Thesis advisor) / Stolzenberg, Stacia (Committee member) / Spohn, Cassia (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
The Zero Tolerance Policy began appearing in secondary schools in the early 1990's. In the late 1980's, crimes committed by juveniles were at an all-time high. Fears that the violence would spill onto campus propelled lawmakers and school officials to take preventative measures. With the creation of the Gun-Free School Zone Act of 1990 and Gun-Free Act of 1994, any individual caught with a weapon on campus would be found in violation of the Act and be punishable by law. In addition to the Acts, School Resource Officers (SROs) became more prominent on campus. SROs were originally on campus to teach drug prevention programs, however SROs began to take on more of a disciplinary role to support the Zero Tolerance Policy. Furthermore, educators began turning towards SROs to handle less serious incidents such as behavioral outbursts. As SROs took a more active role, arrests among students started to rise. Many think this is a direct pathway to our criminal justice system, more commonly known as the school-to-prison pipeline. This pipeline disproportionately affects African Americans. This paper will examine the creation, aims and purpose of the Zero Tolerance Policy as well as what incidents helped create and install the policy. This paper will look at what the Zero Tolerance Policy looks like since it has been enacted. Moreover, there will be a focus on which students are affected the most and if this policy will lead to criminal justice contact in the future. Lastly, alternatives to the Zero Tolerance Policy will be discussed and if the policy can be improved or should it be eliminated.
ContributorsSoto, Tatyana E. (Author) / Sweeten, Gary (Thesis director) / Stolzenberg, Stacia (Committee member) / School of Social Work (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
This research study looked at frequency and proportion of suggestive questions (negative term, statement, and tag), the age of the child, and the attorney conducting the examination (prosecution versus defense). The population of this study was obtained from Maricopa County Attorney's Office court transcripts from 2005-2015 and the sample included 64 minors between the ages of 5-12 years old. The present study showed that regarding frequency, there was no significant difference between the number of suggestive questions asked by the prosecution and defense, however, when looked at the proportion of these questions, prosecution asked significantly fewer suggestive questions compared to the defense. Older children (9-12 year olds) receive more, both in terms of frequency and proportion, suggestive questions than younger children (5-8 year olds). Lastly, children typically gave elaborate responses to suggestive questions from the defense more than from the prosecution. This study shows that attorneys are using problematic methods when questioning children between the ages of 5-12 years old and these suggestive methods may affect the child's ability to provide credible testimony.
ContributorsMcDonald, Ashley (Author) / Stolzenberg, Stacia (Thesis director) / Fradella, Hank (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Criminology and Criminal Justice (Contributor)
Created2018-12
Description
When allegations of sexual abuse are tried in criminal court, children are questioned about the abuse that occurred, including questions about the sexual body parts involved in the abuse. Miscommunication is likely to occur between the child and the attorney due to unsupportive questioning techniques and child’s developing understanding of sexual body terms. Given this, we examined how body term type, body term consistency, and attorney-type contributed to miscommunications. We found that children most often used Colloquially Understood-Vague terms (e.g., privates), less often used Colloquially Understood-Specific (e.g., pee-pee) and Anatomically Correct terms (e.g., penis), and least often used Unique terms (e.g., cookie). We had so few miscommunications (N = 19) and defense attorneys asked so few questions about body terms (N = 12) that we were unable to accomplish our original research aims. Instead, we conducted exploratory analyses on age and gender. Younger children (5-8) used Colloquially Understood-Vague terms significantly more often, while older children (9-12) used Colloquially Understood-Specific terms significantly more often. Boys were significantly more likely to use Colloquially Understood-Specific terms than girls but less likely to use Anatomically Correct and Unique terms. The findings of this study can be used to support a shift in educational practices for child sexual body terms towards specific anatomical terms and lead prosecutors to use body mechanic questions rather than open-ended ones.
ContributorsRuiz-Earle, Ciara (Author) / Stolzenberg, Stacia (Thesis director) / Sullivan, Colleen (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of Criminology and Criminal Justice (Contributor)
Created2022-12