Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Improving Law Enforcement’S Victim-Centric Responses To Sexual Assault: Global Best Practice Catalog, Ayesha Ashraf, Sebastián Galleguillos Agurto, Frederick Geyer, Kamela Gjoka, Jasmine Hwang, Stanley Montinat, Jessica Moor, Pierre Reyes, Tara Ventimiglia, Hongda Xu

Publications and Research

This catalog was compiled as part of a U.S. State Department Diplomacy Lab Project entitled “Improving Law Enforcement’s Victim-Centric Responses to Sexual Assault,” in fall semester of 2019, for American Citizens Services, US Embassy Bangkok. It is intended to cover best practices in law enforcement response to sexual assault across the globe, including laws, policies and programs.Ten multilingual graduate students in the capstone seminar of the Master of Arts Degree Program in International Crime and Justice at John Jay College of Criminal Justice (CUNY) established criteria for inclusion and standardized elements for each entry in this catalog. The ultimate aim …

Getting Out: Bruce Bryant’S Climb To Redemption Inside Prison, Rachel M. Rippetoe, Sean Sanders-Mills

Capstones

Bruce Bryant, 50, was convicted of the murder of 11-year-old Travis Lilley in June 1996. Bryant maintains he never fired a weapon that day in 1993. But he recognizes that his lifestyle as a young person — he started dealing drugs when he was 14 — contributed to an environment in which a stray bullet could take a young life. And for that reason, he’s spent most of his 25 years in prison working to help young people.

With at least 12 more years on his sentence, Bryant is now asking the governor for early release, with the hope that …

Law And Society: The Criminalization Of Latinx In The United States, Gabriela Groenke

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The United States leads the world in incarceration with just over 2.2 million people in state or federal prisons or local jails in 2014 (Bureau of Justice Statistics 2016). Although the number of incarcerated individuals has declined by about .5 percent since its peak in 2008 (Bureau of Justice Statistics 2016), the fact remains that mass incarceration is an epidemic in the United States. Over the last decade much has been written about the effects of mass incarceration on people of color, with many analysts pointing to the fear of crime as contributing to the formulation of current policies, which …

The Origins Of The Jones Act Of Puerto Rico, Stephanie Mercedes

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

After the Spanish-American War that ended in 1898, Puerto Rico was given to the United States by Spain as a war booty, becoming a US colony. The first law ever created by the United States to control Puerto Rico was the Foraker Act (also known as the Organic Act of 1900). This established a civilian government in Puerto Rico. It also extended the federal government rulings to the island. After its creation, the Puerto Rican population began to wonder what their political status was since nothing was concretized until the Jones Act was signed. The Merchant Marine Act of 1920, …

The Role Of Eyewitness Confidence And Prosecution/Defense Presentation In How Facial Composites Shape Juror Decision-Making, Rebecca E. Singh

Student Theses

Eyewitness testimony has been found to be an unreliable form of evidence (Loftus, Miller & Burns, 1978; Oswald & Coleman, 2007; Wells & Hasel, 2007; Loftus & Greenspan, 2017; Jaross, 2018; Wade, Nash, & Lindsay, 2018; Wixted, Mickes, & Fisher, 2018). Yet, this evidence is still used in the courts today, and, in fact, is perceived by jurors as important and compelling in comparison to other case factors (e.g., character evidence, physical evidence; Topp-Manriquez, McQuiston, & Malpass, 2014; Kabzińska, 2015). Additionally, eyewitnesses are sometimes requested to help create a facial composite of the suspect and, critically, these composites are then …

911 Dispatchers: Investigating Their Knowledge Of Eyewitness Evidence Collection, Samantha A. Kosziollek

Student Theses

911 dispatchers are often the first contact in an emergency, playing a critical role in the investigative process. Presently, a new bill is seeking to nationally reclassify these communications officers, recognizing them as vital first responders, as their initial collection of eyewitness evidence aid in the attainment of crucial information and detailed descriptions of an accident or crime. However, only one study (Kassis, 2017), to date, has examined the training of 911 dispatchers, as well as their self-reported knowledge of the potential influences their language could have on an eyewitness’ memory. While this research highlighted disparities between the perceived role …

Linguistic Features Of False Confessions And Confessions Not In Dispute: A Corpus Analysis, Lucrezia Rizzelli

Student Theses

Confessions are considered the gold standard of evidence, and yet many cases of false confessions causing wrongful convictions have come to the surface in the past decades. Currently, a method to identify false confessions does not exist and studies focusing on the content of the confessions have found similarities rather than points of distinction. In this study, we approached confessions from a stylistic rather than qualitative point of view, utilizing corpus analysis to outline the linguistic features of two samples of confessions: false confessions (n=37) and confessions not in dispute (n=98). Subsequently, we created a model …

Promoting Discipline Specific Literacy For Law & Paralegal Studies Students: Libguides As Transitional & Professional Tools, Marissa Moran, Kimberly Abrams

Publications and Research

Developing LibGuides for Law and Paralegal Studies students at New York City College of Technology arose from the following question: how do we change the way legal studies students think of the Library as a resource to better assist them in their transition to college level-research and a future career as a paralegal. At the heart of this question is the importance of discipline-specific information literacy at the college and professional levels. Many students have difficulty with locating relevant information to complete course assignments partly because library resources are both fragmented and cohesive. Thus, while part of the transition to …

The Influences Of Education, Antisocial Behavior, And Involvement In The Criminal Justice System On Adult Legal Understanding, Lily Alpers, Mark Fondacaro

Student Theses

The current study examined the legal understanding and decision-making capacities of young adults compared to older adults. Furthermore, the current study examined these two age groups on the basis of a history of criminal justice involvement, antisocial behavior, and education level, in order to determine whether these variables also affect legal understanding and decision-making. One hundred and one subjects participated in this study, grouped by age into younger adults (18-34 years old) and older adults (35 years and older). The results of the current study found that participants with the lowest levels of education performed more poorly on the measure …

Between Politics And Morality: Hans Kelsen's Contributions To The Changing Notion Of International Criminal Responsibility, Jason Kropsky

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The pure theory of law analyzes the legal normative basis of jurisprudence. According to its author, Hans Kelsen (1881-1973), the study of law as a science can only arise once “alien elements” associated with sociology, politics, ethics and psychology are extracted from strict legal cognition. But what happens when the international sphere of law that possesses the special quality of holding state officials accountable for core international crimes requires intrusion by extra-legal sources? Does Kelsen’s structural edifice collapse? Or is it reconstituted? In examining how international criminal responsibility, a test case for Kelsen’s positive law claims derives its legitimacy, this …

Contested Development: A Poor People's Movement For A Better Los Angeles, 1960–2018, Deshonay R. Dozier

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Zooming in on the historical development of Downtown Los Angeles’s (LA) Skid Row, this dissertation traces a continuity of abolitionist alternatives made by homeless and poor Angelinos from the 1960s to our present day. Skid Row is an important entry way into Los Angeles urban politics, particularly with respect to how forms of difference, at the axis of race, gender, class, and ability shape regional relations of property and the built environment. I show how these relations shape Downtown Los Angeles’s geography through carceral practices. These carceral practices, made by social services and policing, shape space by routinely containing and …

Officers’ And Community Members’ Evaluations Of Police–Civilian Interactions, Mawia Khogali

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Research suggests that civilian characteristics such as race, gender, and age may influence use of force decisions by police. The purpose of the current research is to determine whether these civilian characteristics influence officers’ and community members’ evaluations of police-civilian encounters along dimensions of resistance, disrespect, and the appropriate use of force. It also examines whether perceptions of resistance and disrespect mediate the relationship between civilian characteristics and police use of force. Four-hundred thirty police officers and 571 community members participated in this study. Overall, this study provides the beginning of a much-needed line of research investigating the role of …

Cosmopolitan Democracy: Re-Evaluation Of Globalization And World Economic System, Muhammad Dalhatu

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis examines cosmopolitan democracy theory as a method of addressing the problems of globalization. I begin by introducing the concept of “cosmopolitan democracy.” I then proceed to discuss contemporary political climate and its relation to critiques of globalization. Finally, I conclude by examining the elaborations of cosmopolitan democracy by various theorists as a way of addressing these problems. Chapter 1 introduces the work of David Held who introduced the concept in his book, Cosmopolitan Democracy and the Global Order: Reflections on the 20^th Anniversary of Kant’s “Perpetual Peace.” Cosmopolitan democracy refers to global governance through democratic theory. Held …

Sweeping Exposures: Lead Poisonings And Black Working Poor Populations In The United States, Shirley Reid

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The focus of my thesis is to explore some of the realities that the impoverished urban black poor populations face in America today. The goal of my thesis is to illustrate how poverty is reproduced within impoverished neighborhoods through the idea and mechanism of lead exposure, by recognizing how specific exposure to the element lead and its by-products is both a symbol and a material cause of black urban poor illness and disability. There is no mistake that people living in the U.S. are aware of the social injustices against black populations in the form of racial injustice. However, …

Cultural Heritage Preservation In The Context Of Climate Change Adaptation Or Relocation: Barbuda As A Case Study, Martha B. Lerski

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This case study introduces an arts camp methodology of engaging communities in identifying their key cultural heritage features, thus serving as a meta study. It presents original research based on field studies on the climate-vulnerable Caribbean island of Barbuda during 2017 and 2018. Its Valued Cultural Elements survey, enabling precise identification of key tangible and intangible art forms and biocultural practices, may serve as a basis for further studies. Such approaches may facilitate future research or planning as climate-vulnerable communities harness Local or Indigenous Knowledge for purposes of biocultural heritage preservation, or towards adaptation or relocation. I report on findings …

The Role Of Women In Terrorism, Zeynep Bayar

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The main purpose of this paper is to understand what motivate women to join terrorist groups and why these organizations prefer to work with female terrorists. Although each woman has different reasons to involve in terrorist groups, this research demonstrates 'religious, political and personal' reasons as the major motivating factors. This study also focuses on the question of why women are the targets of terror recruiters. In order to answer these, the research analysis examines 'psychological, gender, and media' factors as major recruitment reasons of terrorist organizations. This study also analyzes the similarities and differences between female terrorists' profiles of …

Constraint And Control, Patricia Ayres

Theses and Dissertations

I have long considered themes of the body. Drawing on my knowledge as a fashion designer, I bring materials and hardware from the fashion industry into my artwork transforming and rendering them non-functional. My sculptures relate to stories of isolation, separation, and confinement. The following pages will analyze how the United States penal system controls, constrains and restricts the body through physical and psychological wounds. Furthermore, they will examine how the Catholic Church controls people’s minds and behavior through a ritualistic belief system.

Brace For Impact: The Effects Of Victim Impact Evidence And Judicial Instructions On Juror Memory Distortion And Sentencing Decisions In Capital Trials, Auset E. Alexander

Student Theses

The utilization of visual evidence in the courtroom has increased exponentially in an effort to portray additional information that cannot otherwise be established via forensic evidence and expert testimony. According to Rule 403 of the Federal Rules of Evidence (1984), visual evidence may be permitted in court if the prejudicial value does not significantly outweigh the probative value. The admissibility of visual evidence however, becomes controversial when combined with victim impact statements (VIS) during the penalty phase of capital trials.

Previous research has indicated that jurors are often unable to perceive emotional testimony and subsequently make objective sentencing decisions that …

Shared Deliberations: Learning From The Voices Of Social Justice Lawyers On Their Aspirations, Challenges And Roles, Ian Head

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Lawyers in the U.S. who attempt to advocate for social justice issues, often on behalf of those communities most targeted by government institutions and oppressive legal systems, have unique perspectives into the challenges of using the law to create transformative change. This thesis examines the voices of over a dozen attorneys fighting not only on behalf of their clients, but also wrestling with how to best use a set of legal tools not meant for dismantling systems of power. Listening to how these legal advocates navigate their roles inside a system of laws created to consolidate rather than distribute power …

A Study Of Factors Influencing Hiring Decisions In The Context Of Ban The Box Policies, Ronald F. Day

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation investigates whether NYC employers adhered to Ban the Box by removing the question about criminal history from employment forms, by refraining from inquiring about an applicant’s criminal record during the interview process, and by complying with other aspects of the policy. The study also documents employer perspectives on Ban the Box and on the hiring of individuals with criminal convictions, and examines whether more individuals with a criminal record were hired after the policy was implemented.

Using a mixed-methods approach, surveys were administered to companies in the nonprofit and private sectors, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with a …

Internal Displacement In The United States: A Result Of Climate Change And U.S. Policy, Ahmad T. Diop

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Abstract

Internal Displacement in the United States: A Result of Climate Change and U.S. Policy by

Ahmad Tidjany Diop

Advisor: Karen Miller

This thesis will focus on arguments for an open border. I demonstrate that open borders are necessary because land is scarce. I focus on the United States, which is currently dealing with internal displacement due to climate change. The moral, human rights, and political claims I will make open borders are reasonable because climate change will make certain parts of the world uninhabitable.

When I say internal displacement I am referring to those displaced in the United States …

The Post-9/11 Lgbtq Human Rights Struggle In Egypt, Donna K. Huaman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Since the turn of the twenty-first century, the struggle for LGBTQ human rights has become a leading standard that depicts whether or not a state can be considered modern and progressive. Yet, while this new criterion seems to be supported by Global North states, other nations in other regions, like Egypt from the Middle East, North Africa (MENA) has criticized the international pressure to implement this standard as neo-imperialist and inauthentic to its Muslim-Arab culture. Egypt claims to be the universal Arab-Muslim voice for the MENA region and has become one of the greatest challengers to the international campaign for …