School of Social Sciences Faculty Publications

Permanent link for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/2022/27419

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“Listen, Hear my Side, Back Me up”: What Clients Want from Public Defenders
(Taylor and Francis Ltd., 2021-12-21) Pruss, Heather; Sandys, Marla; Walsh, Sara M.
The current study was designed to understand what persons represented by public defenders want from their attorney and how they hope or aspire to interact with their attorney. The results of a thematic analysis of qualitative responses to those inquiries, from 120 people represented by a rural public defender agency, are presented in this article. Though extant literature in this area is scant, the findings here largely echo those prior works: participants articulated a desire for attorneys who effectively communicate, thoroughly investigate, and zealously advocate for them. The data here add nuance, however, to client conceptualizations of those distinct duties, and how clients report they might behave differently with their ideal attorney. Findings also highlight clients’ pronounced “resignation” (Casper ) related to systemic deficiencies in public defense and criminal justice systems more broadly, particularly following case disposition—despite overall satisfaction with their individual attorneys. We conclude by discussing implications for practicing attorneys and possible areas of future research.
Capital Jurors, Mental Illness, and the Unreliability Principle: Can Capital Jurors Comprehend and Account for Evidence of Mmental Illness?
(Federal Legal Publications Inc., 2018-07-13) Sandys, Marla; Pruss, Heather; Walsh, Sara M.
Recent U.S. Supreme Court opinions have given rise to the question of whether persons suffering from a severe mental illness should be categorically exempt from the death penalty. This article presents a brief overview of relevant U.S. Supreme Court cases and the empirical evidence relevant to this question. We then present our findings on how actual capital jurors respond to and discuss engaging with evidence of mental illness, as drawn from in-depth interviews collected as part of the Capital Jury Project. Existing research reveals that in the controlled situation of an experiment, evidence of mental illness is associated with votes for life rather than death. Similarly, actual capital jurors in our study reported anticipating that evidence of mental illness would make them less likely to vote for death. However, those jurors who dealt with mental illness in their case appeared to be less sensitive: they describe such evidence as having been overshadowed by the brutality of the crime; as indicative of the defendant's future dangerousness; as being confusing, especially as presented by experts; and as a manipulative attempt on the part of the defendant to trick the jurors. The findings suggest that capital jurors cannot reliably comprehend and account for evidence of mental illness and thus offer a compelling reason for the Court to exempt those suffering from a mental illness from the death penalty.
Examining Engagement, Note-Taking, and Multitasking in Podcast-Based Learning
(Sage, 2025-03-29) Oslawski-Lopez, Jamie; Kordsmeier, Gregory T
In this follow-up study, we examined mode of accessing assigned podcasts (listening to podcast audio, reading the transcript, or both) relative to exam performance while explicitly measuring note-taking and multitasking. We collected data between fall 2020 and spring 2022 at two midwestern regional public universities and conducted bivariate cross-tabulations and multivariate logistic regression analyses. We found mode of access less important for exam performance than students’ engagement with the material. Some types of notes conferred advantages, whereas multitasking disadvantaged students relative to exam performance. Still, students who listened to assigned podcasts were the least likely to take notes and most likely to multitask, meaning mode of access was not entirely unimportant. Additionally, note-taking and multitasking were connected: Notetakers were less likely to multitask. As suggested in previous research, offering students multiple modes of access and instructing students how to best engage with assigned content remain best practices. © American Sociological Association 2025.
Regional differences in police officer misperceptions: a quasi-experimental evaluation of sexual assault investigations training in Kentucky
(Routledge, 2024-02-12) Lapsey, David S.; McMahon, Katelyn M.; Campbell, Bradley A.
Our study fills an important research gap by investigating the differences in myths and misperceptions about sexual assault survivors among police officers (N = 388) and evaluating the effects of sexual assault investigations training across geographic regions. First, we assessed police officers’ pretraining rape myth acceptance and misperceptions of crime victim reporting behaviours. Second, we used a Solomon four-group quasi-experimental design to assess pretesting effects and evaluate the effect of training and jurisdiction type on officers’ adherence to rape myths and misperceptions of trauma. We used Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) models to evaluate regional differences in officers’ adherence to myths and misperceptions about survivors, the main effects of training, effects of training when considering jurisdiction type, and the moderating effects of officer jurisdiction type on training outcomes. Results showed lower pretraining scores for urban/suburban officers and significant improvements in post-training scores across geographic regions. In addition, officer jurisdiction type failed to moderate –change—the relationship between training and outcomes. This research improves our understanding of officer misperceptions regarding sexual assault survivors and the impact of specialised sexual assault training in different geographic contexts. © 2024 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Regional differences in police officer misperceptions: a quasi-experimental evaluation of sexual assault investigations training in Kentucky
(Routlegde, 2024-07-22) Lapsey, David S.; McMahon, Katelyn M.; Campbell, Bradley A.
Our study fills an important research gap by investigating the differences in myths and misperceptions about sexual assault survivors among police officers (N = 388) and evaluating the effects of sexual assault investigations training across geographic regions. First, we assessed police officers’ pretraining rape myth acceptance and misperceptions of crime victim reporting behaviours. Second, we used a Solomon four-group quasi-experimental design to assess pretesting effects and evaluate the effect of training and jurisdiction type on officers’ adherence to rape myths and misperceptions of trauma. We used Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) models to evaluate regional differences in officers’ adherence to myths and misperceptions about survivors, the main effects of training, effects of training when considering jurisdiction type, and the moderating effects of officer jurisdiction type on training outcomes. Results showed lower pretraining scores for urban/suburban officers and significant improvements in post-training scores across geographic regions. In addition, officer jurisdiction type failed to moderate –change—the relationship between training and outcomes. This research improves our understanding of officer misperceptions regarding sexual assault survivors and the impact of specialised sexual assault training in different geographic contexts.
Navigating the Age of Crisis: Exploring the Pathway to Engaged Pedagogy for the Transformative Learning Environment
(Taylor and Francis, 2023-12-20) Odum, Tamika; Kordsmeier, Gregory
Pedagogy for the future: sociology, innovation, and the classroom, a special issue of Sociological Focus takes readers on a journey of self-reflection, research, and dialogue about the importance of teaching sociology in the wake of polarization, crisis, and fear. In times of crisis sociology is uniquely positioned to help us think more critically about the world. Teaching while in crisis taught us to be more responsive to the various needs of students, administrators, universities, colleagues, our families, and our needs as teacher-scholars. This special issue walks us through lessons learned during an era of “crisis teaching.” Our call to action? How can we be better teacher-scholars? The future of sociology in the classroom is through engaged pedagogy, which transforms the learning environment. This article lays the foundation for readers to grapple with pedagogical challenges related to pandemic teaching, polarization, the attack of sociology as a discipline, and the systemic challenges that come with teaching in the age of crisis. Furthermore, this article builds a roadmap to engaged pedagogy designed to transform sociology classrooms of the future.
PTSD, Relationship Satisfaction, and Social Support for EMS Workers and Their Romantic Partners
(Sage Journals, 2023-09-04) Henry, Melissa C.; Burks, M. Ashley ; Zoernig, Emily L.
Emergency medical service (EMS) personnel are subjected to intense and traumatic workplace scenarios, which place workers at risk for developing trauma reactions that lead to mental health conditions such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and anxiety. However, little research has explored the impact of EMS workers’ work-related stress on their romantic partners despite evidence supporting the impacts of secondary traumatic stress (STS). This study explored the relationship between EMS workers’ self-reported PTSD symptomology and EMS workers’ romantic partners’ self-reported PTSD symptomology, relationship satisfaction, and social support. The sample consisted of 30 couples, 13 married and 17 unmarried. Findings confirmed that EMS workers with more severe PTSD symptomology were in relationships with partners who also reported higher symptomology. Additionally, increased PTSD severity among EMS workers was associated with partners’ decreased satisfaction with the quality of social support. This study confirms the effect of STS among EMS workers and their partners and highlights practical applications for improving the mental health of EMS workers and their partners. Implications for these findings include assessing partners for dysphoric arousal, psychoeducation, counseling assistance to EMS personnel, and focusing on opportunities for vicarious posttraumatic growth among couples are discussed.
The Crime Control of True Crime Best-Sellers
(Taylor & Francis, 2023-09-26) Walsh, Sara M.
In criminology, social and legal eras are often referred to as dominated by either due process or crime control narratives. In general, crime control narratives focus on the need for tough-on-crime policies and on the terror of criminals wreaking havoc in society. By contrast, due process narratives focus on the need to move slowly and methodically through our justice process to avoid mistakes and violations of human rights. These eras swing back and forth, neither wholly related nor unrelated to the conservative/liberal pendulum of broader politics. Arguably, despite a conservative and nationalist moment in US politics, our criminal justice policy pendulum is again swinging in the due-process direction. This is evidenced in policy reforms and popular calls for policy reform such as monitoring the police, ending cash bail, legalizing marijuana, and so on. Contrary to prevailing trends, best-selling true crime books remain crime control oriented regardless of the historical/cultural era.
Police sexual assault investigation training, impulsivity, and officer intentions to arrest and use procedural justice: a randomized experiment
(Springer, 2023-05-10) Bradley, Bradley A.; Lapsey, David S. Jr; Franklin, Cortney A.; Garza, Alondra D.; Goodson, Amanda
Objectives Examine the effect of a 40-h police sexual assault training and individual-level impulsivity on officers’ intention to make an arrest and the importance placed on using procedural justice when interacting with victims. Methods Training courses were randomly assigned to the treatment and control groups. Vignettes depicting sexual assault reports were randomly assigned to participants (N=318) in each group. Vignette manipulations were randomized by victim-offender relationship (stranger/non-stranger) and rape myth acceptance (present/not present/ambiguous). Results Training increased officers’ intentions to arrest. Training and lower impulsivity increased the importance officers placed on using procedural justice. Vignette manipulations were not significantly correlated with either outcome. Impulsivity did not moderate—or change—training effects. Conclusions Sexual assault training can increase officers’ self-reported intentions to arrest and the perceived importance placed on using procedural justice in interactions with victims. This finding is important as prior research demonstrated that using procedural justice principles can improve victim engagement with investigators.
Let the Convicts Speak: A Critical Conversation of the Ongoing Language Debate in Convict Criminology
(Taylor & Francis, 2022-04-18) Ortiz, Jennifer M.; Cox, Alison; Kavish, Daniel Ryan; Teitjen, Grant
In 2020, some scholars publicly demanded that the newly established Division of Convict Criminology (DCC) of the American Society of Criminology (ASC) change its name. Critics asserted that the use of ‘convict’ caused further stigmatization of those of us with direct criminal justice experience. Unbeknownst to those critics, prior to the official formation of the DCC, the informal group known as Convict Criminology engaged in a decades long conversation about language and appropriate terminology. This paper responds to the critiques by exploring the power of language, summarizing various sides of the ongoing language debate, reviewing existing convict criminology research, and addressing structural violence within the academy. We conclude with a call to action that asks scholars to address the endemic structural violence in academia that perpetuates our oppression before attempting to police our language.
North Central Sociological Association 2020: John F. Schnabel Teaching Address: Practicing What We Preach: Inclusive Pedagogy and the Sociology Classroom
(Taylor & Francis, 2021-12-01) Kordsmeier, Gregory
As sociologists, inequality and difference are at the core of what we study as a discipline. At the same time, the college classroom can often be a site that reproduces and reinforces those same inequalities. Inclusive pedagogy offers sociology instructors tools that will allow them to put sociological theory and empirical research into practice in their teaching, to better live their values by disrupting inequalities in their classrooms, and to offer all students greater opportunities for success. While sociologists can and must do more outside of the classroom to create a more equitable and just system of higher education, inclusive pedagogy offers instructors a place to start in their endeavors to serve all students, regardless of background.
Financial strain moderates genetic influences on self-rated health: Support for diathesis-stress model of gene-environment interplay
(Taylor & Francis, 2022-02-14) Finkel, Deborah; Zavala, Catalina; Franz, Carol; Pahlen, Shandell; Gatz, Margaret; Pederson, Nancy; Finch, Brian; Dahl Aslan, Anna; Catts, Vibeke; Ericsson, Malin; Krueger, Robert; Martin, Nicholas; Mohan, Adith; Mosing, Miriam; Prescott, Carol; Whitfield, Keith
Data from the Interplay of Genes and Environment across Multiple Studies (IGEMS) consortium were used to examine predictions of different models of gene-by-environment interaction to understand how genetic variance in self-rated health (SRH) varies at different levels of financial strain. A total of 11,359 individuals from 10 twin studies in Australia, Sweden, and the United States contributed relevant data, including 2,074 monozygotic and 2,623 dizygotic twin pairs. Age ranged from 22 to 98 years, with a mean age of 61.05 (SD = 13.24). A factor model was used to create a harmonized measure of financial strain across studies and items. Twin analyses of genetic and environmental variance for SRH incorporating age, age2, sex, and financial strain moderators indicated significant financial strain moderation of genetic influences on self-rated health. Moderation results did not differ across sex or country. Genetic variance for SRH increased as financial strain increased, matching the predictions of the diathesis–stress and social comparison models for components of variance. Under these models, environmental improvements would be expected to reduce genetically based health disparities.

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