Social Justice Commons^™

City On A Hill: A Reflection On Christian Ethic And Human Morality, Mayce Combs

Helm's School of Government Conference - American Revival: Citizenship & Virtue

In John Winthrop’s sermon A Model of Christian Charity (1630), he spoke to his congregation of the mission God had called them to. With the creation of a new blended nation, the only way to be exceptional was to reflect the gospel in policy, action, and foremost thought. Philosophers from ancient times to today acknowledge that an individual is made up of the soul and their body. From the soul, comes thought, reason, empathy, and a connection to a divine being who deciphers what is morally unjust. The body is a sinful, self-seeking vessel that does not have the ability …

How Do Differences In Sex Education Alter Perception Of Consent?, Hannah G. Stone

ATU Research Symposium

The following research was conducted to answer the question: how do differences in sex education alter perception of consent? As of 2021, only 7 states and the District of Columbia mandate comprehensive sex education policies that include consent education, and in contrast, 17 states do not mandate comprehensive or non-comprehensive sex education (“Sex and HIV Education” 2021). Because sex education in schools is where a large proportion of young adults receive all of their instruction on sexual topics, it can be inferred that the lack of sex education would constitute a lack of consent education as well (Deluna 2019; “Section …

Family Medicine’S Role In Addressing The Intersections Of Redlining And Climate Change, Daryl O. Traylor, Eboni E. Anderson, Brianna Clark, Alex M. Smith, Cooper K. Allenbrand

Journal of Sustainable Social Change

Redlining, the practice of discriminating against specific neighborhoods based on race and socioeconomic status, leads to persistent environmental hazards and socioeconomic inequalities that have lasting adverse health effects on their populations. Health disparities are further exacerbated through the concentration of environmental hazards, as well as the escalating impact of climate change, which poses an increased risk of respiratory illness, cardiovascular disease, mental health issues, heat-related illness, infectious diseases, food insecurity, and socioeconomic difficulties in redline neighborhoods.

This paper examines the interplay of redlining, climate change, and health disparities, with an emphasis on the enduring consequences for these marginalized communities. Through …

How Much Does It Cost To Operate Tiny Home Villages For People Experiencing Homelessness, Celeste Benitez, Cooper Conway, Declan Maddern

School of Public Policy Capstones

Los Angeles is in a homelessness crisis. Millions of dollars are poured into preventing its causes and curtailing the increased medical costs and crime rates that stem from it. The solutions vary, but one new solution in the form of tiny home villages hopes to provide a cheap and effective way to get people experiencing homelessness off the streets.

In 2021, Los Angeles began opening tiny home villages, also referred to as cabin communities, for unhoused people during the COVID-19 pandemic. There are currently 11 tiny home villages in Los Angeles, operated in a joint effort between the government and …

Barriers To Escape: How Homelessness And Drug Addiction Prevent Women From Escaping Sex Trafficking And Commercial Sex, Laura J. Lederer, Mckamie J. Chandler, Stanley Stinson

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

Victims of sex trafficking and women purportedly involved in prostitution voluntarily face a complex web of interconnected challenges when attempting to escape their current circumstances. By analyzing the shared and distinct challenges faced by these women, the paper aims to inform policymakers and service providers, offering recommendations to empower women seeking to escape exploitation through multidisciplinary and interconnected networks of providers. This study surveyed 74 women in Detroit, Michigan, using nonprobability convenience sampling over a 10-month period in 2020. It compared three groups of women who self-reported as victims of sex trafficking, women who voluntarily engaged in some form of …

Do Americans Support More Housing?, Michael Lewyn

Scholarly Works

An analysis of opinion poll data on housing issues. The article finds that Americans generally believe that their community needs more housing of all types, but are more closely divided about whether such housing should be in their own neighborhoods. The article further finds that members of minority groups, lower-income Americans, and younger Americans are more pro-housing than older, affluent whites.

Looted Cultural Objects, Elena Baylis

Articles

In the United States, Europe, and elsewhere, museums are in possession of cultural objects that were unethically taken from their countries and communities of origin under the auspices of colonialism. For many years, the art world considered such holdings unexceptional. Now, a longstanding movement to decolonize museums is gaining momentum, and some museums are reconsidering their collections. Presently, whether to return such looted foreign cultural objects is typically a voluntary choice for individual museums to make, not a legal obligation. Modern treaties and statutes protecting cultural property apply only prospectively, to items stolen or illegally exported after their effective dates. …

Volume 6, Issue 1 (2023) Criminal Justice Agents And Responsibility, Colleen Berryessa, Elizabeth Griffiths, Kaitlen Hubbard, Deena A. Isom, Kateryna Kaplun, Hiuxuan Li, Siyu Liu, Esther Nir, Heather L. Scheuerman, Rachel Schumann, Sandy Xie, Carolyn Yule

International Journal on Responsibility

This special issue of the International Journal on Responsibility (IJR) advances scholarship on the various ways responsibility infuses the roles of criminal justice agents. As the inaugural issue of my tenure as Editor-in-Chief, Volume 6 deepens our understanding of responsibility in the context of the criminal justice system, thereby fulfilling IJR’s aim and scope. Specifically, the articles highlight issues of responsibility within each component of the criminal justice system: police, courts, and corrections.

Maximize “West End Opportunity” In America: Alternative Policy Options To Address Perceived Drawbacks Of Tax Increment Financing (Tif) & Opportunity Zones, Justin Avert, Samuel C Kessler

Commonwealth Policy Papers

In March 2021, the Kentucky General Assembly passed House Bill 321 (Acts Chapter 203) authorizing the creation of a tax increment finance (TIF) district within the West End of Louisville. Designed to spur community-wide economic development, it set up a public-private nonprofit partnership. Known as the West End Opportunity Partnership (WEOP), this 21-seat board include community representatives and has sole control over any fund disbursement. Funds can be used towards a broad array of investments including small business loans, financing affordable housing units, home improvements, etc.

Residents within the district have expressed opposition to the TIF, skepticism towards the board …

Navigating Complexity Of Serving Displaced Communities: A Study Of Yemeni Community-Based Organizations In Egypt, Alya Mohammed Al-Mahdi

Theses and Dissertations

Forced displacement is a global crisis that poses challenges for nations like Egypt. Despite international NGO support, escalating displaced individuals have overwhelmed existing capacities. Refugee Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) have emerged as a natural response from the communities themselves to bridge the gap between the state and NGOs and the refugee community. However, CBOs in Egypt face challenges that impact their operation and continuity. Through qualitative research, this study aims to explore the experience of the Yemeni CBOs. Through interviews with seven people from six CBOs conducted through field visits and online calls, this research uncovers the dynamics of Yemeni CBOs …

Can A Modified Model Un Support Civic Empowerment?, Leora Mincer, Jennifer Leger, Lucy Wilson

SPACE: Student Perspectives About Civic Engagement

No abstract provided.

Review Of Making Livable Worlds: Afro-Puerto Rican Women Building Environmental Justice, Ava L. Corey-Gruenes

Feminist Pedagogy

Making Livable Worlds: Afro-Puerto Rican Women Building Environmental Justice, by Hilda Lloréns, highlights Black Puerto Rican women’s efforts to create equitable futures for their communities in the face of capitalism, racism, colonization, and ecological collapse. This review covers key concepts in Making Livable Worlds, including matriarchal dispossession, decolonizing ethnography, the myth of a homogenous Puerto Rico, and myths of inherent economic self-interest. Analyses of these concepts through an absence lens are suggested to enrich formal and informal feminist learning spaces.

La Práctica De Interculturalidad Crítica: Un Caso De Estudio De La Ong Corporación La Matriz Y La Comunidad Migrante Haitiana En Barrio Puerto, Valparaíso, Annessa Ihde

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Dadas las tensiones en torno al tema de la migración, donde se considera a los recién llegados como una amenaza para la sociedad, es vital comprender cómo las comunidades receptoras pueden promover y han promovido la inclusión de los migrantes. Un actor a menudo pasado por alto en la recepción e integración de los migrantes son las organizaciones no gubernamentales (ONG), que, especialmente en ausencia de una respuesta integral por parte del Estado, han asumido papeles cruciales de apoyo para los migrantes. Este estudio explorará las acciones y relaciones de la Corporación La Matriz, una ONG ubicada en el distrito …

Examining Remorse In Attributions Of Focal Concerns During Sentencing: A Study Of Probation Officers, Colleen M. Berryessa

International Journal on Responsibility

This research, using interviews with probation officers in the United States (n = 151) and a constant comparative method for analysis, draws from the focal concerns framework to qualitatively model a process by which probation officers use a defendant’s remorse to attribute focal concerns in order to guide their sentencing recommendations in pre-sentencing reports. The model suggests that officers use expressions of remorse to make attributions about mitigated criminal intention (blameworthiness and notions of responsibility), reduced dangerousness and a high potential for reform (community protection), and organization-level effects for increasing caseload efficiency and using correctional resources (practical effects of …

The Art And Artifacts Of Solidarity, Yasmin Merali

New England Journal of Public Policy

In Complex Adaptive Systems in a Contentious World I showed how viewing social systems as Complex Adaptive Systems exposes the systemic mechanisms that underpin their resilience and sustainability. In this article I show the utility of that approach for elucidating the role of art and artists in the evolution of resilient social movements. I do this by exploring the way in which art and artifacts were implicated in the evolution of the Polish Solidarność movement.

Historical Trauma: Literary And Testimonial Responses To Hiroshima, Mariam Ghonim

Theses and Dissertations

The concept of trauma is controversial in literature. While one may be able to come up with ways to describe trauma in fiction, representing historical trauma is a hard task for writers. Some argue that trauma can not be described through those who did not experience it, while others claim that, provided some elements are added, one can represent trauma to the reader. This thesis focuses on twentieth-century historical traumas related to a nuclear catastrophe and explores the different literary and testimonial responses to the catastrophic man-made event of Hiroshima (1945). In this thesis, Kathleen Burkinshaw’s historical fiction The Last …

A Vicious Cycle: How Racialised Moral Panics Simultaneously Reproduce (And Are Reproduced By) Repressive Policing Practices, Oscar D. Sharples

Culture, Society, and Praxis

Policing and moral panics exist in a mutually reinforcing, reciprocal relationship, the harmful outcomes of which are disproportionately directed towards poor communities of colour. This paper will draw on two examples of moral panics: those surrounding Islamic terrorism and Black crime, in order to illustrate the harm that this reinforcing relationship can cause. This harm manifests itself in increasingly restrictive antiterrorism laws, Prevent initiatives, racial profiling, and internal surveillance within the Muslim community; as well as the policies of Joint Enterprise, Knife Crime Prevention Orders (KCPOs), and the strengthening of the school-to-prison pipeline, which disproportionally target Black youth. With reference …

My Path To Advanced Practice, Hannah Oiselle Knisley

Graduate Student Portfolios, Professional Papers, and Capstone Projects

No abstract provided.

Creating A New Sports Division The Importance Of Protecting Women’S Sports While Encouraging Sportsmanlike Competition, Taylor Nilson

Helm's School of Government Conference - American Revival: Citizenship & Virtue

Creating a new sports division: The importance of protecting women’s sports while encouraging sportsmanlike competition

The foundation of sports is to encourage respectful and fair competition between two or more individuals. For those who choose to participate, they are pursuing the happiness they find in competition, others have found their livelihood in sports, and most find liberty in their carefree activities.

Given the recent rise in the popularity of the transgender community, it is natural for members that want to compete in sports, specifically women’s sports. However, with that there are also those who would abuse this popularity to support …

Pursuing Antiracist Public Policy Education: An Example Connecting The Racist History Of Housing Policy To Contemporary Inequity, Craig W. Carpenter, Tyler Augst, Harmony Fierke-Gmazel, Bradley Neumann, Richard Wooten

The Journal of Extension

We review the antiracism concept and contextualize it in Extension public policy education and the Extension system itself. Despite public policy education having a long history in Extension on a wide variety of issues, missing from this programming is the pursuit of antiracism. As a programmatic example, we review some historical causes of present-day housing inequities and an associated example approach for pursuing antiracism in housing policy education. Finally, we conclude by noting additional opportunities to pursue antiracism in Extension public policy education. In doing so, we emphasize that public policy education cannot be “nonracist” if it is not antiracist.

Selling Graduation: Higher Education And The Loaning Of Liberation, Annie Pocklington, Elizabeth J. Flanagan, Christopher Bodenheimer Knaus

Essays in Education

While the costs to attend college continue to rise exponentially, a bachelor’s degree is held up as required for economic stability within the U.S. and across the globe. With drastic disparities in earning potentials after graduation reduced by racism, sexism, classism, heterosexism, ableism, and related structural disparities, the value of a degree continues to be questioned, especially for historically marginalized communities. As the loan industrial complex continues to profit off of students, President Biden has offered $10,000 in student loan relief for some borrowers, though this action has been blocked by federal courts and is currently on hold. Whether Biden’s …

(Un)Weighted Assumptions: Anti-Fatness & Health, Kieran Chase, Nell Carpenter, Madysen Schreiber

OHSU-PSU School of Public Health Annual Conference

This lecture/discussion session aims to expand and add nuance to public health students’, professors’, and practitioners’ understanding of the interplay between body size and health. We will begin by naming and challenging common assumptions about the relationship between bodyweight and health outcomes. We will then argue for the consideration of weight-related stigma as a Fundamental Cause of Disease as defined by Phelan and Link, and for institutionally embedded anti-fat bias at the policy level (e.g., insurance policy, medical equipment) as a cause of population health inequity as defined in Whitehead’s Health Equity Framework. We offer these frameworks in contrast to, …

The Quest To End Human Trafficking: An Educational And Practical Guide For Everyone Who Wants To Help Break The Bonds And Assist Survivors, Dennis W. Mccarty

Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security, and Cybersecurity Faculty Scholarship

People often assume that only legislators and law enforcement personnel can take meaningful steps to fight human trafficking, one of the most lucrative transnational crimes in the world. This inquiry sought to assess the validity of that belief. The study was informed by the author’s experience as a college instructor of human trafficking and the inspiration he drew from the range and quality of his students’ projects.

The methodology included examining the strategies that governmental and non-governmental organizations are using to fight trafficking and assist survivors. It also considered the work of individual activists and service providers such as social …

On Income Inequality And Poverty In Egypt: Is Prosperity Immoral?, Mohamed Karim Lotfy Abdelkhalek

Theses and Dissertations

There are varying perspectives on, and divergent solutions to, the phenomena of income inequality and poverty. There seems to be polarizing views on both of these sensitive topics. One side of the argument believes income inequality should in itself be mitigated through redistribution measures, while the other argues that this should not be the focus of policy makers, as it deters them from facing the more pressing issue facing society – which is absolute poverty. The relationship between income inequality, poverty, and citizen well-being in Egypt is one that warrants further research, and this paper aims to fill this lacuna. …

Gender & Sexuality In New York Politics, Bianca M. Guerrero

Open Educational Resources

No abstract provided.

The Future Of Human Trafficking Legislation: A Policy Analysis, Zoe E. Hunt

Posters-at-the-Capitol

Current legislation and policies are not effective enough to fight human trafficking as it continues to change and evolve worldwide. Human trafficking is not just sex trafficking; labor trafficking, organ trafficking, people smuggling, and forced criminal activities. This evolving and changing global issue continues to grow into a highly profitable "business." Overseas, many countries struggle to handle this issue, and some countries do not handle it at all. The United States has a major human trafficking problem that will continue to worsen unless there is a change in the government. The U.S. Congress should be more focused on the growing …

Peaceful Protestors Or Criminals: The Relationship Between Government, Protests, And Social Movements In The United Kingdom, Madelyn Hindman

Faculty Curated Undergraduate Works

This paper seeks to understand the critical relationship between government officials, protestors, and social movements in the United Kingdom. A three-part case study will examine how the state of the government and legal regulations impact the implementation and outcome of protests or public demonstrations in major social movements. The government along with law enforcement plays a key role in the past, present, and future of how social movements utilize protests. Social movements and organizations must carefully consider the legal regulations surrounding public demonstrations as well as the legal consequences for infringing upon the legal regulations put into place. This study …

The Expected Risks And Exacerbations Of Poverty, Mental Health Disorders, And Maternal Mortality From Abortion Bans: A Comparative Literature Analysis, Daniel J. Francisco

All Master's Theses

Background. Early termination of a pregnancy (hereinafter referred to as an “abortion”) has been debated in the United States (U.S.) for decades, without much regard to the negative outcomes that forced pregnancies have for those assigned female at birth regarding poverty, mental health and maternal mortality. In 1973, access to safe abortions was protected so long that the procedure was done within the legal gestational period and/or was necessary for the health and safety of the patient (Blackmun, 1972). Unfortunately, in 2022, the Supreme Court took that protection away and made it legal for states to determine the reproductive rights …

Justice That Heals: Transforming Discipline In Schools Through Restorative Practices, Sophia Diomande

CMC Senior Theses

Discipline is not simply a tool but a weapon — one that American educators have wielded for generations to regulate children and enforce habits of self-control and accountability. In a world where institutionalized forms of discrimination continue to plague judicial and educational systems alike, vis-à-vis the school-to-prison pipeline, the question must be asked: When does discipline stray beyond its intended purpose and into the realm of punishment? This thesis discusses the historical and contemporary implications of punitive discipline and its effects on students, particularly students of color and disabled students. Retributive policies such as suspensions, expulsions, physical restraint, and seclusions …

Challenges Of Nutrition In Malaysia: Poverty, Land Appropriation, And Indigeneity, Jeanie Kim

CMC Senior Theses

Malnutrition, especially in the form of wasting, stunting, and obesity, is disproportionately harming the Indigenous communities in Malaysia. Under the current legal system, Indigenous people receive little to no recognition and protection. Their land is often appropriated by the oil palm and dam industries, resulting in higher incidences of malnutrition and poverty. In order to improve the nutritional status of Malaysia as a whole, potential policies and programs include food fortification, crop diversification, and social safety nets. For the most marginalized communities, indigeneity and land restitution are analyzed as avenues to improve their livelihood.