Digital Commons Network^™

Tracking Enforcement Rates In New York City, 2003-2014. Report Presented To The Citizens Crime Commission., Preeti Chauhan, T. C. Warner, A. G. Fera, E. Balazon, O. Lu, M. Welsh, Jeremy Travis

Publications and Research

"Our first report documented misdemeanor arrests in New York City and compared those trends to Upstate Cities in New York State (i.e., Albany, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, and Yonkers) and the rest of New York State for over three decades. The first report, entitled Trends in Misdemeanor Arrests in New York, examined not only arrest rates but also examined charges, dispositions, and sentences. Our second report was entitled The Summons Report : Trends in the Issuance and Disposition of Summonses in New York City, 2003-2014. This report examined trends in issuance patterns by age and gender, charges, dispositions, and sentences. Similar …

Synchronizing Oral History Text And Speech: A Tools Overview, Robin Camille Davis

Publications and Research

This article explores three tools that synchronize sound and text for online oral history collections: the Oral History Metadata Synchronizer (OHMS), the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI), and YouTube. A detailed description and examples are given for each. Integrating audio/video recordings and transcripts enables searching and browsing, making oral histories more accessible and approachable.

Immigration Federalism As Ideology: Lessons From The States, Lina Newton

Publications and Research

Over the last decade states passed hundreds of immigration bills covering a range of policy areas. This article considers the recent state legislative surge against scholarly treatments of immigration federalism, and identifies the symbolic politics in state lawmaking. The analysis combines a historical treatment of key court decisions that delineated boundaries of state and federal immigration roles with a legislative analysis of over 2200 immigration bills passed between 2006 and 2013, to identify the numerous ways in which national immigration policy shapes state measures. It argues that recent laws must be considered against symbolic federalism which privileges state sovereignty and …

The Mathematics And Applications Behind Image Warping And Morphing, Tanvir Prince, Maria Malik, Ildefonso Salva, Ariel Mazor, Sakhr Aldaylam

Publications and Research

This research is conducted in the summer of 2015 and is possible by the support of various agency, in particular, by the grant of Prof. Angulo Nieves and the New York City Research Initiative.

The purpose of this research is to reveal the mathematics and applications of the computer animation techniques of warping and morphing. A warp is a twist or distortion in the form of an object in an image while a morph is the smooth and gradual transformation of an object in one image into the object in another image. Linear algebra makes these computer animation techniques possible; …

Factors Influencing The Choice Of A Safe Haven For Offloading Illegally Caught Fish: A Comparative Analysis Of Developed And Developing Economies, Nerea Marteache, Julie S. Viollaz, Gohar A. Petrossian

Publications and Research

Using data from 72 countries, this study focuses on factors that affect illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing vessels’ choice of country to offload their catch, with a specific emphasis on the differences between developed and developing economies. The concept of choice-structuring properties is applied to analyze whether the following factors influence the selection of a country: concealability of vessels and illegally caught fish; convenience of the ports; strength of fisheries monitoring, control, and surveillance measures; effectiveness of country governance; and commitment to wildlife protection regulations. Results indicate that, rather than a country’s level of development, situational factors play a …

Situational Prevention And Public Transport Crime In El Salvador, Mangai Natarajan, Ronald Clarke, Carlos Carcach, Carlos Ponce, Margarita Beneke De Sanfeliú, Dolores Escobar Polanco, Mario Chávez, Mauricio Shi

Publications and Research

By any standard, there is a serious problem of crime on the public transport system in El Salvador. Guided by crime opportunity theory, this study undertook a rapid assessment of the problem consisting of a systematic observation of public transport in El Salvador and focus group discussions with passengers, bus operators, police and bus company owners/managers. The purposes were (1) to describe the main forms of crime and disorder afflicting the system, (2) to identify features of the system that contribute to the high levels of crime and disorder, and (3) to identify preventive measures, consistent with international experience. A …

Stargate Theatre Company: Engaging Justice-Involved Youth In Creativity And Growth, Jeffrey A. Butts, Martha Wade Steketee

Publications and Research

This report provides a possible starting point for an evaluation of The Stargate Theater company. The Stargate Theater Company, embedded in the resources, expertise, and artistry of the Manhattan Theatre Club Education Program, recruits its members, 10-15 males, from youth services agencies for a seven-week summer arts program. Members of the program write raw materials which become performable text and perform the work with the help of professional theater artists. The writer-performers work for pay and ultimately perform their own words about their life experiences. The program aims to be a paid job and a work readiness training program, a …

Recovering The Beauty Of Medusa, Alexander M. Schlutz

Publications and Research

This essay presents a close analysis of P.B. Shelley’s fragmentary ekphrastic poem “On the Medusa of Leonardo da Vinci in the Florentine Gallery.” It places Shelley’s text in its aesthetic, mythological and historico-political contexts to demonstrate how Shelley aims to undo the ideological and representational structures of power that inform human language, art, and history, and which turn Medusa into the monstrous Other as which she appears. In Shelley’s text by contrast, Medusa becomes a figure for a revelatory beauty that cannot become visible in the distorting parameters of a discourse of power that informs our very perception of what …

"Responses From The Field: Sexual Assault, Domestic Violence, And Policing”, Julie Goldscheid, Donna Coker, Sandra Park, Tara Neal, Valerie Halstead

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

An End To The Era Of Mass Incarceration? Reflections On The Nas Report, Jeremy Travis

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Vulnerable, Not Voiceless: Outsider Narrative In Advocacy Against Discriminatory Policing, Nicole Smith Futrell

Publications and Research

Activists and lawyers advocating for those who are targeted, arrested, and prosecuted as a result of aggressive policing practices are often the first to hear individual accounts of the dehumanizing treatment endured by vulnerable communities. Working on the front lines of the criminal justice system on a daily basis may cause advocates to regard these descriptions as commonplace, such that the transformative potential of a shared personal experience is overlooked. Critical race, practice-oriented, and narrative theory scholarship have long recognized the power of telling one’s story. These disciplines have explored how outsider narrative, or the articulated experience of groups subordinated …

Hidden In Plain Sight: The Story Of The Hunter College Collection Of Puerto Rican Graphic Arts, Sarah Laleman Ward

Publications and Research

The Hunter College Collection of Puerto Rican Graphic Arts includes over 150 works produced between 1954 and 1985 and represents the work of forty-one artists. It is illustrative of the growth of the printmaking tradition in Puerto Rico during the twentieth century. Acquired through a misappropriation of funds by a student group in the mid-1980s and ultimately purchased by and displayed in the college, the story of this collection raises important questions regarding institutional responsibility for the purchase and stewardship of art objects. Should art be collected if no plans are made for its maintenance and care?

Situational Crime Prevention And Worldwide Piracy: A Cross‑Continent Analysis, Jon M. Shane, Eric Piza, Marissa Mandala

Publications and Research

Relying on situational crime prevention perspective, this study compares successful and unsuccessful pirate attacks reported to the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) from the year 2000 through 2013 (n = 4,902). The study builds upon the recent work of Shane and Magnuson in Justice Quarterly, pp 1–26 (2014), which found various SCP techniques effectively prevented piracy attacks on a global level. The current study builds upon these findings by testing whether the global effect of SCP is consistent across individual continents. A series of mixed-effects logistic regression models and follow-up likelihood ratio tests were incorporated to explore the research question. In …

Straight Lives: The Balance Between Human Dignity, Public Safety, And Desistance From Crime, Lila Kazemian

Publications and Research

This report looks at how the academic and practitioner worlds must collaborate to develop an effective, desistance-promoting approach to criminal justice. Interventions need to be desistance-focused and tailored to individual circumstances rather than standardized programming. Interventions should shift away from an emphasis on risk and criminogenic needs and help individuals overcome obstacles to desistance.

Perceptions Of Violence In Morrisania (The Bronx), Sheyla A. Delgado, Jeffrey A. Butts, Laila Alsabahi

Publications and Research

The NYCCure study measured changes in violent norms and attitudes in areas of New York City operating Cure Violence programs. Respondents were men aged 18-30 from the Morrisania area of The Bronx.

Perceptions Of Violence In Bedford-Stuyvesant (Brooklyn), Sheyla A. Delgado, Jeffrey A. Butts, Laila Alsabahi

Publications and Research

The NYCCure study measured changes in violent norms and attitudes in areas of New York City operating Cure Violence programs. Respondents were men aged 18-30 from the Bedford-Stuyvesant (Bed-Stuy) area of Brooklyn.

Respondent-Driven Sampling: Evaluating The Effects Of The Cure Violence Model With Neighborhood Surveys, Kwan Lamar Blount-Hill, Jeffrey A. Butts

Publications and Research

This report gives insight into how researchers at the John Jay Research and Evaluation Center used Respondent-Driven Sampling (RDS) to measures changes in violence-related attitudes and values of young men (age 18-30) in at-risk neighborhoods and compares areas with and without Cure Violence programs. The RDS method allows researchers to reach difficult-to-recruit populations and helps to increase the credibility of the study.

Reducing Mass Incarceration: Exploring The Values Of Values, Jeremy Travis

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Geospatial Resolution Of Human And Bacterial Diversity With City-Scale Metagenomics, Ebrahim Afshinnekoo, Cem Meydan, Shanin Chowdhury, Dyala Jaroudi, Collin Boyer, Nick Bernstein, Julia M. Maritz, Darryl Reeves, Jorge Gandara, Sagar Chhangawala, Sofia Ahsanuddin, Amber Simmons, Timothy Nessel, Bharathi Sundaresh, Elizabeth Pereira, Ellen Jorgensen, Sergios-Orestis Kolokotronis, Nell Kirchberger, Isaac Garcia, David Gandara, Sean Dhanraj, Tanzina Nawrin, Yogesh Saletore, Noah Alexander, Priyanka Vijay, Elizabeth M. Hénaff, Paul Zumbo, Michael Walsh, Gregory D. O'Mullan, Scott Tighe, Joel T. Dudley, Anya Dunaif, Sean Ennis, Eoghan O'Halloran, Tiago R. Magalhaes, Braden Boone, Angela L. Jones, Theodore R. Muth, Katie Schneider Paolantonio, Elizabeth Alter, Eric E. Schadt, Jeanne Garbarino, Robert J. Prill, Jane M. Carlton, Shawn Levy, Christopher E. Mason

Publications and Research

The panoply of microorganisms and other species present in our environment influence human health and disease, especially in cities, but have not been profiled with metagenomics at a city-wide scale. We sequenced DNA from surfaces across the entire New York City (NYC) subway system, the Gowanus Canal, and public parks. Nearly half of the DNA (48%) does not match any known organism; identified organisms spanned 1,688 bacterial, viral, archaeal, and eukaryotic taxa, which were enriched for harmless genera associated with skin (e.g., Acinetobacter). Predicted ancestry of human DNA left on subway surfaces can recapitulate U.S. Census demographic data, and bacterial …

Inhibition Of Cell Differentiation In Bacillus Subtilis By Pseudomonas Protegens, Matthew J. Powers, Edgardo Sanabria-Valentín, Albert A. Bowers, Elizabeth A. Shanka

Publications and Research

Interspecies interactions have been described for numerous bacterial systems, leading to the identification of chemical compounds that impact bacterial physiology and differentiation for processes such as biofilm formation. Here, we identified soil microbes that inhibit biofilm formation and sporulation in the common soil bacterium Bacillus subtilis. We did so by creating a reporter strain that fluoresces when the transcription of a biofilm-specific gene is repressed. Using this reporter in a coculture screen, we identified Pseudomonas putida and Pseudomonas protegens as bacteria that secrete compounds that inhibit biofilm gene expression in B. subtilis. The active compound produced by P. protegens was …

Science And Charity: Rival Catholic Visions For Humanitarian Practice At The End Of French Rule In Cameroon, Charlotte Walker-Said

Publications and Research

This paper explores the conflict between local expressions of Christian charity and new theories of scientific humanitarianism in the final years of French rule in Africa. Compassionate phenomena inspired by Catholic social organizing had transformed everyday life throughout French Cameroon’s cities and villages in the interwar and postwar years, and yet, in 1950, poverty, crime, poor public health, and social tensions remained prevalent. Seeking a more deeply transformative approach to social rehabilitation, ecclesiastical leaders in the Catholic Church in Europe and French foreign missionary societies in Africa partnered with international medical and scientific organizations in order to invigorate charity with …

An Examination Of The Relationship Between Childhood Abuse, Anger And Violent Behavior Among A Sample Of Sex Offenders, Stephanie R. Ramirez, Elizabeth L. Jeglic, Cynthia Calkins

Publications and Research

Background: Increasing attention has focused on the emotional dysregulation that can result from adverse childhood experiences among those who commit sexually violent crimes. While studies confirm a relationship between child maltreatment and anger the research is limited and it is unclear how anger and child maltreatment effect the use of violence during the commission of the sex crime.

Methods: This study examined the relationship between childhood maltreatment, anger and violent behavior by reviewing the records of 571 adult male offenders convicted of sexual assault or child molestation. The aims of the present study were to 1) examine differences in anger …

Perceptions Of Violence In Harlem, Sheyla A. Delgado, Jeffrey A. Butts, Marissa Mandala

Publications and Research

The NYCCure study measured changes in violent norms and attitudes in areas of New York City operating Cure Violence programs. Respondents were men aged 18-30 from the East Harlem area of Manhattan.

Perceptions Of Violence In The South Bronx, Jeffrey A. Butts, Sheyla A. Delgado, Marissa Mandala

Publications and Research

The NYCCure study measured changes in violent norms and attitudes in areas of New York City operating Cure Violence programs. Respondents were men aged 18-30 from the South Bronx.

Perceptions Of Violence In East New York (Brooklyn), Sheyla A. Delgado, Jeffrey A. Butts, Marissa Mandala

Publications and Research

The NYCCure study measured changes in violent norms and attitudes in areas of New York City operating Cure Violence programs. Respondents were men aged 18-30 from the East New York area of Brooklyn.

Community Justice: Viewing Mass Incarceration From The Ground Up, Jeremy Travis

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Racial Disparities In Juvenile Drug Arrests, Jeffrey A. Butts

Publications and Research

Illegal drug use in the U.S. does not differ significantly by race (SAMHSA 2014). Data from the U.S. Department of Justice show notable racial disparities in youth drug arrests specifically arrests for possession. This databit looks at differences in juvenile drug arrests rates since the late 1980s.

White Paper On Research Opportunities And Cuny Library Faculty: The Need For Annual Leave Parity, Psc Cuny Library Faculty Committee (2014-­2015), Jay H. Bernstein, Jill Cirasella, John A. Drobnicki, Francine Egger-Sider, Lisa Ellis, Robert Farrell, William Gargan, Bonnie Nelson, Mariana Regalado, Sharon Swacker, Tess Tobin

Publications and Research

This White Paper provides an exposition and analysis of how annual leave disparity has arisen for Library Faculty at the City University of New York (CUNY) as compared to other CUNY faculty, its effects on librarians, and what a positive solution to the problem would look like.

Embedded Librarian Ideas: Best Practices Explored And Redefined, Carl R. Andrews

Publications and Research

This paper explores the multitude of ways in which embedded librarianship can be implemented. Although the paper is primarily targeted to academic librarians in higher education settings, the literature examined and the ideas presented can support secondary and college level inter-disciplinary teaching initiatives. The ideas presented are sourced from scholarly journal articles, monographs, and best practices implemented by the author. Attention is given to programs where Information Literacy is infused into a school’s General Education curriculum. Academic librarian pedagogy, outreach, and networking strategies are also highlighted. The author is especially interested in projects that address student academic success after an …

The Impact Of Prison Deinstitutionalization On Community Treatment Services, Beverly D. Frazier, Hung-En Sung, Lior Gideon, Karla S. Alfaro

Publications and Research

Background: With one in every 108 Americans behind bars, the deinstitutionalization of prisons is a pressing issue for all those facing the daunting challenges of successfully reintegrating ex-offenders into both their communities and the larger society. Given the strong evidence that treatment services, such as mental/behavioral health, alcohol/substance abuse, and primary healthcare may reduce recidivism, the large number of prisoner releases highlights the need for adequate treatment services in the community. It is within this context that the current study aims to examine the effects of prison deinstitutionalization on community based intervention modalities.

Methods: This study set out to address …