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Student Projects


Same-sex marriage in DeBoer v. Snyder:
How do courts consider expert testimony in same-sex cases? Find out how the expert testimony of Dr. Michael Rosenfeld ultimately led to the legalization of same-sex marriage in the US. (Brie Michaelson, Jewell Russell, Sparsha Karingula, and Jordyn Manly)

Same-sex marriage: The Expert Evidence of Dr. Mark Regnerus in DeBoer v. Snyder:
Find out Dr. Regnerus's social science research with regard to children of parents who have same-sex relationships and how courts consider expert testimony in same-sex marriage cases? (Jialu Li, Matthew Tinker, and Spencer Teplitz)

Early Expert Testimony: Insanity in the Case of Leopold and Loeb:
Can insanity be used as a defense by criminal defendants who claim to be "too" intelligent? Find out with the expert testimony of Dr. William White in the infamous early twentieth-century murder sentencing of Leopold and Loeb. (Victoria Martin, Olivia Hope Foster, Lauren Marie McBrearty, and Veronica E. Cinibulk)

Battered Woman Syndrome in People v. Vasco:
How does a court evaluate expert testimony in a case that contains "all the combustible elements of a Shakespearean tragedy-betrayal, malice, and greed"? (Sararose Gaines, Hannah Middlebrooks, Emily Szopinski, and An Bang Zou)

Sleepwalking in People v. Reitz: The Expert Evidence of Dr. Clete Kushida, M.D., Ph.D.:
Is sleepwalking a legitimate excuse for murder? Read how one California court evaluated the proffered expert testimony of a respected doctor and sleep expert who testified on behalf of a defendant being charged with first-degree murder."(William Wilcox, Trevor Thompson, Apriele Minott, Julia Giffin, and Thomas Shannan)

Anthropology in Action: An Overview of Doctor James Diego Vigil's Expert Testimony in the Case of Vasquez v. Rackauckas:
Can anthropologists help provide context in gang-related cases? Find out how cultural anthropologist Dr. James Diego Vigil’s testimony contributed to the ACLU’s case against Orange County and gang-related injunctions.

Cultural Defenses in the Context of Gang Crimes: US v. Velesquez:
When will a court refuse to admit testimony by the cultural expert while admitting testimony by the mental condition expert? How does a court determine if cultural evidence is relevant to the legal issues in the case, and what effect does this have on their analysis? (Sophie Miller, Marya Carter, Luis M. Rico Roman, and Hana Megumi Yampolsky)

Television Intoxication and other Media Defenses:
"TV made me do it?" How is expert testimony on the link between violent media and aggressive behavior used to support this claim? (Adrienne Buckman & Alyce Cobb)

Obscenity and the First Amendment:
How is social science evidence used to identify a community's standards in obscenity cases? (Iona Sharma & Sicheng Zhou)

Going "Postal (2)" on the Violent Video Game Industry: Evidence on the link between violent video games and aggressive behavior was used in determining the constitutionality of California's "Violent Video Games" Act. (Natalie Wallace & Herve Comeau)

Same Sex Marriage:
Legalization of same-sex marriage is a hot issue these days. Nowadays in the U.S., there are overall 43 states, which legally prohibit marriage between same-sex couples, while other 10 states allow gays and lesbians to get married. (Jingyi Feng, Yingnan Ma, Di Wu)

Juvenile Offenders Before and After Graham v. Florida: Roper v. Simmons, Graham v. Florida, and Miler v. Alabama outlawed the most severe punishments for juvenile offenders on the theory that they are less culpable than adults. The social science evidence generally agrees, but what about the outlier cases? (Daniel Dubois and Zach Zemlin)

Neurological Evidence and Battered Woman Syndrome: How will the introduction of neurological evidence to support a diagnosis and defense of Battered Woman Syndrome (BWS) be treated differently under Frye and Daubert jurisdictions since BWS has finally been added to the DSM-V under PTSD? (Taylor Davis, Tyler Hepner, and Ashlee Riner)


Driving While Black: Read about the controversy over this most infamous type of racial profiling. Are law enforcement officials really more likely to stop and search vehicles driven by racial minorities? (Charlie Brown and Amanda Jantzi)

Empirical Evidence in Tort Liability Cases: The Key Ignition Example: Ever left your car keys in the ignition? Empirical data have been used to determine whether there was a reasonably foreseeable risk that a thief would steal a defendant's car and subsequently injure a plaintiff in cases where the defendant left car keys in the ignition. (David Waytz)

Rape Trauma Syndrome: Forcible rape is one of the four major violent crimes in the United States. Victims, mostly women, are often misunderstood by juries who have little knowledge about the common responses to rape. (Yan Yu Yip and Mei Yuan)

Kidnapping: Traditional psychiatric defenses used in criminal cases include insanity and diminished capacity. (Lauren Bowman, Dominique Forrest, and Malissa Osei)

Trade Dress: How does the Trademark law protect a restaurant decor or a smartphone design, under the umbrella concept of trade dress? Read the real life use of expert testimony, surveys and visual presentations as well as the potential use of neurological evidence. (Michael Baak and Eric Torres)

Jury Size: Less is not More: How many jurors are needed for a fair trial? Read about how the Supreme Court and social scientists used empirical evidence to determine the optimal number of jurors needed for a representative sample and thorough deliberation. (Evan Moore and Tali Panken)

Drug Courier Profiles: In an effort to win the "War on Drugs," law enforcement agencies are using drug courier profiles to identify and detain persons who display certain suspicious characteristics. The Supreme Court has upheld the use of these profiles against Fourth Amendment challenges. But the general lack of objective standards used to determine what constitutes "reasonable suspicion" have led many to think admitting drug courier profile evidence impermissibly tramples upon cherished Equal Protection Clause protections. (Larissa Cespedes-Yaffar, Shayona Dhanak, and Amy Stephenson)

Sessions v. Morales-Santana: Gender Discrimination and the Fifth Amendment: How did expert testimony on parental roles affect the Court’s decision in a case where the petitioner argued that a statute’s gender based distinctions, which disadvantaged unmarried U.S. citizen fathers, violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fifth Amendment? (Emily Le, Leonardo Mangat, and Natalia San Juan)

Stop and Frisk and the Home: Davis v. NY and NYCHA: How social science evidence is used to demonstrate widespread police practices. Read about what happens when "Stop and Frisk" makes its way into people's homes. (Anna Barbosa, Jenna Scoville, Arielle Padover, and Jake Tucker)

Reliability of Eyewitness Testimony: The Curtis Flowers Case: How reliable is eyewitness evidence, and what can be done to safeguard against unreliable testimony? (Ann Njarara, Bree Peilen, Daniel Neuman, Emory Cook, Linda Lin, and Perrin Lowrey)

False Confessions: The Expert Evidence of Dr. Leo in Harris v. City of Chicago:
What would lead someone to falsely confess to the murder of their own child? Find out how Dr. Leo’s testimony contributed to Nicole Harris’s case against Chicago police officers. (Haley Adams, Rafa Agundez, Katarina Delgado, and Max Rosenthal)

Witness Reliability in Sexual Assault Cases:
As a society we have strong misconceptions about how someone would behave after an incident involving high levels of psychological trauma. Read about how expert testimony and social science was used in the infamous trial of Bill Cosby to help the jury to understand common myths about individuals involved in sexual assault. (Jennifer Mancini, Makiko Ono, and Anna Russell)

Affirmative Action and Asian-American Students: When it comes to affirmative action, Asian American students have not been explicitly discussed by the courts. Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) now alleges that Harvard University is intentionally discriminating against Asian-American applicants. How is social science used to support this claim? How strong is the social science presented? (Siqi Xu)

Battered Woman Syndrome: How is expert testimony on the nature and effects of domestic abuse used in cases when a battered woman is the defendant? (Michelle Strucke & Kate Hajjar)

Relationship Between Pimps and Prostitutes: How are women coerced into prostitution? Why don't they leave their pimps? Read about how social science on the typical pimp-prostitute relationship has been employed to explain these phenomena. (Mark Grough & Toby Goldbach)

Duty to Warn: How courts consider predictions of future dangerousness when assigning civil liability. (Matthew Campbell and Cristina Quinones-Betancourt)

A Comparative Analysis on Risk Assessment: One of a state's justifying main functions is the protection of its citizens against threats resulting from other citizens or external sources. (Mathias Kahler, Shir Lachish, and Catarina Tourais)

False Confessions: Police-induced false confessions are among the leading causes of wrongul convictions. (Michal Blau, Amelia Hritz, and Sara Tomezsko)

Implicit Bias: What are the ways in which unconscious racial biases can influence juries, judges, and attorneys? (Caisa Royer, Daniel Hido, and Michael Slotnick)

Gender Discrimination and Class Actions: Wal-Mart v. Dukes: A group of female employees alleged that Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. discriminated against them on the basis of gender. When the women sought to file as a nationwide class, the crux of the case rested on the following question: "whether the women were similar enough to be certified as a class." (Fatmata Kabia, Filippo Macchi, Camille Bacon-Shulte, and Yuyao Tao)

Damages for Wrongful Death: How can we measure the value of a human life? Read about the government's approach in administering the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund, a federal court's handling of a class action against Ferdinand Marcos, and an alternative approach that applies the economic theory of "willingness-to-pay." (Jeff Hobday and Jonathan White)

The Exclusionary Rule and Social Science: This project the creation and development of the exclusionary rule. The rule was created as a safeguard against law enforcement conduct that is unconstitutional. The development of this judicially created doctrine was largely shaped by social science. This development is not unique. Social science has influenced judicial decisions similarly in other areas of the law. This project will firstly provide a history of the rule. Secondly, it explores the cases in which the doctrine develops. Lastly, it will provide a comparison to other areas of the law in which social science had a similar role; and explain alternatives to the rule as it stands. (Mark Phillips, Pranoto Iskandar, and Stephen Flynn)

Social Science in Transgender Bathroom Cases: Examining G.G. v. Gloucester: How do we decide where someone gets to use the restroom? Normally is an area of private concern, or perhaps we might assume that it's not really a question. However, for transgender people across the country, this is an ongoing and public issue. Here we examine the use of social science in a case called G.G. v. Gloucester to see where it is that trans people get to pee. (Aaron El Sabrout and Chantov McNamarah)

Punitive Damages: Exxon v. Baker:
The Exxon Valdez disaster and subsequent litigation presented for the Supreme Court the controversial issue of punitive damages award ratios and the social science research on the history and effects of punitive damages award ratios in the context of maritime tort law.(Nicholas Kaasik and Carlos Valero Carrasco)

Intoxication or Disassociation in Veterans: How do psychiatrists determine a defendant-veteran's mental state at the time of an offense? If a defendant-veteran argues that they were "disassociated" during the offense, how do psychiatrists commissioned for litigation prove or disprove this claim? Finally, who decides whether alcohol or PTSD motivated the defendant-veteran to commit the offense? (Alex Hendricks)