Matching Items (3)
Description
The effects that forensic-themed programs such as CSI: Crime Scene Investigation has on the public's understanding and expectations of the criminal justice system has been a main focus of study in recent years. This phenomenon was coined by the media and termed the "CSI Effect." This study aimed to research the correlations between age, gender, and program-watching habits on potential juries' evidence expectations in court. To do so, 70 people were surveyed and asked a series of demographic questions, as well as questions about how often they watch forensic-themed shows and their experience with the criminal justice system. They were given a mock crime scene scenario and asked about their scientific and non-scientific evidence expectations in this particular case. The most notable results showed that a longer exposure time to forensic-themed programs correlated to high evidence expectations. However, how often viewers watch forensic-themed programs did not seem to affect their evidence expectations. It was concluded that the higher evidence expectations by modern jurors may be due to a combination of the "CSI Effect" and the newly hypothesized "Tech Effect," instead of just being the consequence of the watching too much forensic-themed television.
ContributorsJones, Kristin Taylor (Author) / Kobojek, Kimberly (Thesis director) / Lafond, Sue (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
There are unrealistic expectations of the forensic science discipline by the public today. More specifically about the types of evidence that can be recovered from a fired cartridge casing. The common misconception with the evidence that can be recovered from a cartridge casing is that all three types of evidence: DNA, latent prints, and firearms can be recovered from the same cartridge casing. However, just because some analyses are possible does not mean that they are practical. The definition of possibility is that an event can happen. However, the definition of practicality is not only that it can happen, but that the event should occur to optimize the efficiency of a given task. Through literature review of previous studies as well as experimental data, each discipline (DNA, latent prints, and firearms and toolmark analysis) were evaluated. For the experimental trials, three total experiments were carried out. Experiment one focused on the possibility aspect, so in experiment one the best conditions were simulated to receive a positive result. Experiment two focused on creating conditions that would occur at a crime scene, and experiment three refined those variables to serve as middle ground. After evaluation, each discipline was classified as possible and/or practical. These results were then used to determine practical sequential processing for a fired cartridge casing. After both experimentation and review, it was determined that the best possible sequential processing path for a cartridge casing collected at the crime scene to get the quickest information back is as follows: Firearms, DNA, Latent Prints.
ContributorsKephart, Amanda K. (Author) / Armendariz Guajardo, Jose (Thesis director) / Kobojek, Kimberly (Committee member) / Rex, Scott (Committee member) / School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
Urbanization rapidly alters the environment, leading to a decrease in biodiversity in urban areas. A challenge associated with urbanized areas is the increased heat caused by the urban heat island effect. Heat may have an important impact on arthropods particularly due to their status as ectotherms. Animal behavior reveals how individuals interact with their environment. A behavioral syndrome describes consistent individual differences in behaviors that are correlated across different behavioral contexts or situations. Understanding the Western Black Widow's behavioral responses to the urban heat island effect has important implications for the control of a pest species. In this study, the relationship between rising urban temperatures and voracity, web-building, and cannibalism behaviors of juvenile Western Black Widows was examined. Spiders raised in the urban temperature treatment were predicted to have more aggressive behavioral syndromes, characterized by shorter latencies to forage, greater web-building activity, and shorter latencies to cannibalize as compared to spiders raised in rural or intermediate temperature treatments. A correlation between the latency to attack the first fly and second fly was found, however there were no other correlations evidencing a behavioral syndrome. Temperature was found to affect foraging, web-building, and cannibalism behaviors where spiders in urban areas demonstrated increased activity in all behavioral contexts. The possession of behavioral plasticity rather than a behavioral syndrome is likely what allows Black Widows to be successful urban pests.
ContributorsGarver, Emily Elizabeth (Author) / Johnson, James Chadwick (Thesis director) / Foltz-Sweat, Jennifer (Committee member) / Kitchen, Kathryn (Committee member) / School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05