RESEARCH EXPERIENCES FOR UNDERGRADUATES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA–LINCOLN
Dr. Cynthia Willis-Esqueda’s research group includes doctoral students pursuing the J.D. and current UNL undergraduates. The research focuses on racial and ethnic bias in the legal system, including the origins, content, manifestation, and implications of racial and ethnic bias. Dr. Willis-Esqueda’s research has focused on these areas in order to understand racial/ethnic disparity in its entirety within both civil and criminal law. One of the central issues for Dr. Willis-Esqueda’s research involves the identification of psychological processes that determine biases against specific racial/ethnic minorities in the legal system. What are the origins of such biases? How are such biases manifested in today’s legal decisions? What are the implications for such biases in the way the legal system handles disparities? What are the ramifications for racial minority communities when the legal system is discriminatory? In order to understand current issues of racial and ethnic disparity in the legal system and minority members’ treatment, an historical analysis of law and legal reasoning is crucial. Students engage in readings that outline historical and current legal definitions of and treatment toward specific racial/ethnic minorities. An appreciation of critical race theory and an understanding of law and legal reasoning, as a reflection of and method to maintain racial hierarchies and societal biases, informs the research endeavors.
Dr. Willis-Esqueda places special emphasis on issues facing American indigenous populations. One research area focuses on North American Indians and biases in civil and criminal law. Students in Dr. Willis Esqueda’s research lab have investigated legal and psychological issues in American Indian domestic violence (Tehee & Willis-Esqueda, in press; Willis-Esqueda, 2006), such as jurisdiction and prosecution, cultural definitions, and legal decision making in culpability assignment. The origins and manifestations of discrimination against American Indians in loan processing is another area of research. There is also a history of discrimination against Mexican Americans (Willis-Esqueda, 2007).
Students working with Dr. Willis-Esqueda will participate in a program of research, involving aversive racism against Mexican Americans, compared to European Americans, in legal decision making, and how biases against Mexican American clients can have negative ramifications for perceptions of the credibility and professionalism of defense attorneys, particularly Mexican American defense attorneys. Current projects also include an investigation of the degree to which Mexican American and European American attorneys are aware of such biases, and methods that could eliminate aversive racism against Mexican American defendants.
