Other Political Science Commons^™

Decolonizing Municipal Policing: Indigenous Discrimination And Institutional Approaches, Terran Morris

Major Papers

For decades, there have been growing calls to address systemic Indigenous racism in Canadian police institutions. However, progress in this area has remained troublingly slow as recent movements have had little impact on institutional reform. Indigenous Peoples are left disproportionately victimized and overrepresented in the criminal justice system due to discriminatory policing practices. In recent years calls for institutional reforms have been amplified with the completion of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls as well as countless other scathing reports from oversight bodies into racism within municipal police services. Given this newfound urgency, municipal police …

Elder Abuse In Canada: Dimensions And Policy Responses, Taylor Marekovic

Major Papers

Elder abuse and neglect continues to be a gray area when it comes to convicting perpetrators such as family, friends, strangers, and caregivers who commit any form of physical, psychological, financial, neglect, or sexual abuse towards an elder. This is due to the legal definition being vague and non-transparent. The legal and health systems rely on two different definitions of what is deemed to be elder abuse and neglect in Canada when reviewing or assessing allegations of such abuse. Elder abuse and neglect increased throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, during which Ontario and the rest of Canada experienced staffing shortages in …

Juries And The Effects Of Priming, Keondra Williams

Honors College Theses

How do jurors' responses to Non-White defendants in the Criminal Courts change when they are primed to think about police discrimination? There are general disparities within the Criminal Justice System of the United States that negatively impact racial minorities. This paper discusses these general disparities within the Criminal Justice System of the United States. Black and Latinx individuals are charged and sentenced for crimes involving drugs at higher rates than Whites. They are also more likely to face the death penalty or longer sentences. I look at whether or not priming jury members to think about police discrimination will decrease …

Military Service And Offending Behaviors Of Emerging Adults: A Conceptual Review, Christopher Salvatore, Travis Taniguchi

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Focusing on the United States, this paper examines the impact of military service for the cohort of individuals that have experienced the social factors that characterize emerging adulthood as a unique stage in the life course. We argue that military service, as a turning point, may act differently in contemporary times compared to findings from past research. This difference is driven by changes in military service, the draft versus volunteer military service, and the prevalence of emerging adulthood. As a background, we describe emerging adulthood, examine how emerging adulthood relates to crime and deviance, explore the impact of military life …

Neither “Post-War” Nor Post-Pregnancy Paranoia: How America’S War On Drugs Continues To Perpetuate Disparate Incarceration Outcomes For Pregnant, Substance-Involved Offenders, Becca S. Zimmerman

Pitzer Senior Theses

This thesis investigates the unique interactions between pregnancy, substance involvement, and race as they relate to the War on Drugs and the hyper-incarceration of women. Using ordinary least square regression analyses and data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ 2016 Survey of Prison Inmates, I examine if (and how) pregnancy status, drug use, race, and their interactions influence two length of incarceration outcomes: sentence length and amount of time spent in jail between arrest and imprisonment. The results collectively indicate that pregnancy decreases length of incarceration outcomes for those offenders who are not substance-involved but not evenhandedly -- benefitting white …

Right To Counsel: Improving Access To Justice In Us Indigent Defense Systems, Travis Hartman

Capstone Showcase

The Sixth Amendment guarantees the right to counsel for indigent defendants. Even though a constitutional right, indigent defense in the US suffers from significant problems. While scholars have attempted to provide solutions to the problems, a question persists, How are Indigent Defense Systems impacting how Access to Justice is being provided in the United States? To answer this question, a structured, focused comparison method was utilized to evaluate US indigent defense systems. Case studies were chosen based upon the delivery and majority of funding for indigent defense coming from counties. Right to counsel for Access to Justice was defined by …

The Use Of Public Consultation To Construct Sex Work Related Policies, Ryan Horan

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The present study is a qualitative analysis of the Online Public Consultation of Prostitution -Related Offences (OPCPRO), conducted by the Canadian Department of Justice in 2014. This research describes themes that arose within the discourses of respondents to the OPCPRO, and offers a critical examination of the use of online consultations in the production of public policy. I argue that respondents to the OPCPRO, regardless of their support or opposition for criminalization of sex work, strategically draw on values echoed within the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to frame their policy propositions as consistent with sex workers individual rights. I …

Are Hispanics Discriminated Against In The Us Criminal Justice System?, Maria A. Eijo De Tezanos Pinto

Graduate Research Posters

Recent publications have contributed to increase the perception among Hispanics of an unfair and unequal treatment of this community by the US Criminal Justice System. One of the major concerns was the claim that Hispanics are incarcerated before conviction nearly twice as often as Whites. Unfair treatment perception by the population reduces legitimacy of police and government, and thus, it is imperative to analyze these uninvestigated allegations. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to address said allegations of discrimination against Hispanics and analyze with updated and reliable statistics whether Hispanics are incarcerated before conviction more often than Whites. There …

Road To Recovery: Recidivism And The Mclean County Drug Court, Julia Neaves

Stevenson Center for Community and Economic Development—Student Research

This study explores the effectiveness of the McLean County Drug Court at reducing time to recidivism using survival analysis techniques. Data on 146 drug court participants was collected using the county’s proprietary case management systems. Findings suggest that length of drug court programming significantly reduces time to recidivism. Unfortunately, black offenders and offenders with prior criminal history were found to return to the prison system more rapidly than other groups, suggesting that drug court programming may not be addressing the greater systemic issues present in the criminal justice system. These findings collectively inform policy recommendations provided to county administrators and …

Challenging The Political Assumption That “Guns Don’T Kill People, Crazy People Kill People!”, Heath J. Hodges, Mario Scalora

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Every time an infamous mass shooting takes place, a storm of rhetoric sweeps across this country with the fury of a wild fire. “Why are we letting these people carry guns?” “Why were they not hospitalized?” “The government needs to crack down on this issue!” What is the government’s response to these cries of concern? Politicians and the media attempt to ease public fears by drawing tenuous connections among a handful of poorly understood tragedies. The salient commonality is that these high-profile shooters had some history of mental illness. A cursory review of the Internet will paint a troubling picture …

Nunca Se Olvide Del Frío Del Mármol De Las Escaleras: Una Mirada A La Recuperación Del Ex Centro Clandestino De Detención Y Tortura De Virrey Cevallos / One Never Forgets The Cold Of The Marble Stairs: A Look At The Recuperation Of Ex Clandestine Center For Detention And Torture Of Virrey Cevallos, Jamie Gagliano

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

After the fall of a repressive government, there is often a discussion or an attempt to repair the damage done to society by the repressive regime. Argentina for the last thirty years has been facing this discussion. The last dictatorship, a totalitarian military dictatorship, in Argentina took place between 1976 and 1983. With the return of democracy at the end of 1983, the process of healing society began, albeit in a rather limited form due to fear of sparking the military into revolt once again. In the 1990s, the discussion was almost entirely swept under the rug by the Menem …

“Decentralization Dilemma In Indonesia: Does Decentralization Breed Corruption?”, Glenys Kirana

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Given the pervasiveness of corruption, collusion and nepotism during Suharto’s rule (1967-1998), many people assume that the Reformasi era (1998-present) would introduce a new wave of liberal democratic values, which would consequently reduce corruption in Indonesia. This paper seeks to look at the changes in people’s socio-political incentives to corrupt given the changes in political and legal structure, analyzing it in the context of its contribution to Indonesia’s socio-economic development. Specifically, it centers on how decentralization has affected corruption in the regional districts, legislative, judiciary, and other civil society groups. It is the prominence of the corruption issue in the …

The Virtues Of Justice, John Thrasher, David Schmidtz

Philosophy Faculty Books and Book Chapters

"This essay considers (and endorses) three complementary conceptions of justice as virtue. To the two senses of justice just mentioned-justice as a virtue of the soul and of the polis-we add a third that bridges these two. Virtue can be a kind of outreach rather than a kind of internal harmony, because we are talking about essentially social beings. The harmony that is this virtue's object is harmony with a community. Thus, a person who is just in this sense is disposed to respect (play within the rules of) institutions that command respect by virtue of actually working-that is, actually …

Who We Are: Incarcerated Students And The New Prison Literature, 1995-2010, Reilly Hannah N. Lorastein

Honors Projects

This project focuses on American prison writings from the late 1990s to the 2000s. Much has been written about American prison intellectuals such as Malcolm X, George Jackson, Eldridge Cleaver, and Angela Davis, who wrote as active participants in black and brown freedom movements in the United States. However the new prison literature that has emerged over the past two decades through higher education programs within prisons has received little to no attention. This study provides a more nuanced view of the steadily growing silent population in the United States through close readings of Openline, an inter-disciplinary journal featuring …

Racial Disparities In Sentencing In The U.S. And Georgia, Kamal Rattray, Nicole Lee

Georgia Journal of Public Policy

Incarceration represents the ultimate use of coercive power, and in the state of Georgia, that power is being disproportionately levied upon people of color, particularly African Americans.1 According to 2011 statistics from the Georgia Department of Corrections, the total prison population statewide was approximately 53,341 inmates. The majority of that number were Blacks (33,069 inmates), followed by Whites (17,752 inmates), Hispanics (2,306 inmates) and other ethnic groups.

Unanswered Questions Of A Minority People In International Law: A Comparative Study Between Southern Cameroons & South Sudan, Bernard Sama Mr

Bernard Sama

The month July of 2011 marked the birth of another nation in the World. The distressful journey of a minority people under the watchful eyes of the international community finally paid off with a new nation called the South Sudan . As I watched the South Sudanese celebrate independence on 9 July 2011, I was filled with joy as though they have finally landed. On a promising note, I read the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon saying “[t]ogether, we welcome the Republic of South Sudan to the community of nations. Together, we affirm our commitment to helping it meet its …

Between Structure And Agency: Assassination, Social Forces, And The Production Of The Criminal Subject, Cary H. Federman

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Assassins are often regarded as ahistorical figures of evil. In this article, I contest this view by analyzing the assassination of President William McKinley by Leon Czolgosz in 1901. There are two purposes to this article. The first is to situate McKinley’s assassination within the history and development of the social sciences, principally sociology, rather than assume that the assassin is a trans-historical representation of willful irresponsibility. The second is to describe and critique the discourse that made Czolgosz into a rational agent once he entered history as an assassin.

“Bin Laden’S Brain”: The Abrasively Negativistic Personality Of Dr. Ayman Al-Zawahiri, Aubrey Immelman, Kathryn Kuhlmann

Psychology Faculty Publications

This paper presents the results of an indirect assessment of the personality of Ayman al-Zawahiri, deputy leader of the al-Qaida terrorist network at the time of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the United States and allegedly chief strategist for al-Qaida operations and personal physician to Osama bin Laden.

Al-Zawahiri’s primary personality patterns were found to be Contentious/oppositional and Dominant/controlling, with secondary features of the Dauntless/dissenting and Ambitious/self-serving patterns.

The amalgam of Contentious (negativistic, or passive-aggressive) and Dominant (aggressive, or sadistic) patterns in al-Zawahiri’s profile suggests the presence of the “abrasive negativist” syndrome. For these personalities, minor frictions easily …

Trends. Aviation Security: Thinking About Capps, Capps Ii, And Beyond, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This Trends article discusses computer assisted passenger prescreening systems (CAPPS) and aviation security.

The Black And White Of Profiling: Sniping On The Sniper Case, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article analyzes the construct of profiling in the aftermath of the arrest of two suspects in the recent sniper attacks perpetrated in the greater Washington, D.C. area.

The Personality Profile Of September 11 Hijack Ringleader Mohamed Atta, Aubrey Immelman

Psychology Faculty Publications

This paper presents the results of a posthumous, indirect assessment of the personality of Mohamed Atta, apparent ringleader in the September 11, 2001 terror attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, from the conceptual perspective of Theodore Millon.

Information concerning Mohamed Atta was collected from media reports in the one-month period following the attack and synthesized into a personality profile using the second edition of the Millon Inventory of Diagnostic Criteria (MIDC), which yields 34 normal and maladaptive personality classifications congruent with Axis II of DSM-IV.

The personality profile yielded by the MIDC was analyzed on the …

The Personality Profile Of Al-Qaida Leader Osama Bin Laden, Aubrey Immelman

Psychology Faculty Publications

This paper presents the results of an indirect assessment of the personality of Osama bin Laden, founder and leader of the al-Qaida terrorist network responsible for the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the United States.

Bin Laden’s primary personality patterns were found to be Ambitious/exploitative and Dauntless/dissenting, with a secondary Distrusting/suspicious orientation, and subsidiary Dominant/controlling and Conscientious/dutiful features.

Ambitious individuals are bold, competitive, and self-assured; they easily assume leadership roles, expect others to recognize their special qualities, and often act as though entitled. Dauntless individuals are bold, courageous, and tough; minimally constrained by the norms of society; routinely engage …

Trends. Rape As Terrorism: Difficulties In Criminal Justice Adjudication, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

The article focuses on psychological complexities in successfully adjudicating allegations of terrorist rape--i.e., rape committed intentionally to achieve formal political objectives.

The Political Psychology Of Child Molestation: Import For The Rule Of Law, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article describes the problematic nature of child molestation for the rule of law.