Digital Commons Network^™

Social Justice Autobiography, Dewitt Faulkner

Writing Beyond the Prison Living Archive

Social Justice autobiography on: LA Riots; Rodney King; Gangs; racial violence; police brutality; criminal justice system; Wisconsin; Truth-in-Sentencing; Black history; Sharecropping.

Call For Reformation, Chanelle Burnett

Writing Beyond the Prison Living Archive

No abstract provided.

The Monster In The Closet (Collectively, The Essays), Chanelle Burnett

Writing Beyond the Prison Living Archive

Creative Essays on Women prisoners; Humane treatment; Social Justice; Health care; Criminal Justice; Rehabilitation; Reform; Hypocrisy

Social Justice, Cedric Brumfeld

Writing Beyond the Prison Living Archive

Social Justice Essay on: racism; School-to Prison Pipeline; Jim Crow; Civil Rights; New Jim Crow; Slavery by Another Name; mass incarceration

Untitled, Jerrell Brooks

Writing Beyond the Prison Living Archive

Social Justice autobiography on: Trayvon Martin, Mike Brown, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd; I can’t breathe!; Ku Klux Klan; Criminal Justice system; All-white jury; religion

Behind Bars: An Analysis Of The Incarceration Of Black Americans, Tommy A. Valente

Tenor of Our Times

In this study, I attempt to explain the disproportionate incarceration rates which exist in the United States. The black American are incarcerated at a significantly higher rate than any other ethnic group in the country. I hypothesize single parent households and poor public education systems will have significant influences on incarceration rates. For this study I run an OLS regression and use data from all fifty states between 2019-2020. I use seven independent variables in this study: ACGR score, GDP per capita, unemployment rate, percent of births to unmarried women, homicide rate, population, and political party affiliation of a state. …

Originalism & Judicially-Enacted Religious Exemptions: Revisiting Employment Division Of Oregon V. Smith, Eric Russell Coykendall

CGU Theses & Dissertations

In the 1963 case Sherbert v. Verner , the Supreme Court read the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause to mean that, in certain cases, religious believers should be exempted from otherwise applicable laws. In 1990, the Supreme Court essentially overturned that framework in the case Employment Division of Oregon v. Smith . The Smith case has proved quite controversial, and numerous public-interest law firms, especially those that defend religious litigants, have regularly asked the Court to overturn it in favor of a re-application of the Sherbert precedent. Their contention is often that the Smith ruling is inconsistent with the original …

Weaving Empire: The Role Of Wool, The Subjugated, The Enslaved, And The Convicted In Building The British Empire, 1699-1860, Lisa Y. Gabbert

History Dissertations - Archive

A bright red woolsack comprised of wool clippings from across England sits prominently in the House of Lords. King Edward III originally commissioned the cushion for the Speaker to sit upon while conducting Parliamentary business to signify the importance of the commodity. In 1699, as British trade and territorial interests expanded, Parliament issued the Wool Act. It outlined the expectations and limitations of wool production and exchange in British controlled territories. While the British economy benefitted from commodities such as tobacco, sugar, and cotton which was largely produced by convict and enslaved laborers in its colonies, wool remained an essential …

The Effect Of The Chemical And Physical Properties Of Cotton On The Retention Of Spermatozoa, Brynnen Hendrix

All ETDs from UAB

Studies have shown that spermatozoa persist on cotton fabric under various conditions after being washed multiple times. The purpose of this study was to observe the number of sperm cells removed from cotton fabric over the course of multiple wash cycles. This study also explored how various treatment methods impact the rate of removal and number of cells removed. In this study, sperm cells were counted using a hemacytometer to estimate the average number of cells in a 20 µL semen stain. Twenty stains were prepared on cotton fabric and washed in a microfuge tube with 200 µL of reverse …

Navigating Sexual Consent In Japan, Samara Mizutani Cesar

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Employing an exploratory sequential research design, including focus groups and an online survey, this thesis explores the factors influencing how Japanese people navigate the gray zones of sexual consent. This study not only addresses gaps in the literature on sexual consent but also provides a preliminary understanding of Japanese individuals’ perceptions, beliefs, behaviors, and experiences in ambiguous sexual interactions, which is particularly meaningful given Japan’s recent legal revisions and changing sociocultural landscape. Findings indicated the impact of traditional sexual scripts on consent perceptions, with gender and relationship norms contributing to the dismissal of sexual assaults within specific relationships. It was …

Review Of The Movement For Black Lives: Philosophical Perspectives, Daniel Fryer

Reviews

Philosophy gets a bad rap when it comes to its engagement with the world’s most pressing social problems. Recall that famous epigrammatic final note from Karl Marx’s Theses on Feuerbach: “The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point, however, is to change it.” It may be tempting to take this line as a call to substitute studious reasoning for an “act first, think later” strategy. But that doesn’t seem to be Marx’s intention. Rather than being a call for “blind activism” that rejects “rational dialogue, discourse, or discussion,” Marx is better read as challenging philosophy to …

Applying Economic Principles In Criminal Justice, John Weeks

Student Research Design & Innovation Symposium

Legalistic and sociological perspectives are two of the views used in criminal justice policy evaluation. This project seeks to address crime differently, through an economic lens. The economic principle of scarcity and marginal analysis will be key factors in this research to showcase how the desires of society are unsustainable with our finite resources, thus leading to criminal behavior. The focus of this project identifies crime as an economic factor of society, impacting financial stability and markets. Finding sustainable economic measures to address crime is a key feature in our fight for a more peaceful society.

Looking At The Past To Change The Future: Showcasing Featured Collections, Building Communities, And Co-Creating, Sherry Buchanan

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

Academic libraries have the opportunity and the responsibility to promote and advance content that creates transformative and iterative learning opportunities. To that end, and in an effort to build communities and facilitate co-creation, Portland State University showcases three main Featured Collections in our open access repository, PDXScholar: Climate Justice, COVID-19, and Racial and Gender Equity, with a fourth pilot collection—Student Work: An Open Showcase of Outstanding Student-Created Research & Creative Work—under development. The collections include a broad range of audiovisual materials, such as podcasts and webinar series, as well as sustainability and equity work, student-created content, and numerous future-focused multidisciplinary …

From Serial To Subreddit: An Analysis Of Modern True Crime And Web Sleuths, Alyssa T. Compton

English Dissertations - Archive

In this dissertation, I assert that the rise of the internet and social media has exacerbated the ethical concerns already present in true crime media. This dissertation argues that true crime web sleuths operate as an effective public, shaping the true crime archive and the genre itself. The aim of this project is to explore the lack of borders between the role of consumers, content creators, web sleuths, and media outlets. Via communication, affect, and archival theory I propose that modern true crime is dependent upon consumers ability to easily slip into the role of producer and vice versa. In …

From An Enclosure To Human-Scaled Encounters : Articulating The Notion Of Third Space In The Vishwakarma Community Temple, Penang, Sanjeh Raman

Manusya, Journal of Humanities

The Arulmigu Kamatchi Amman Devasthanam, located on Jalan Dato Keramat, in Penang, Malaysia provides entry into the cultural world of Pathars, the traditional Tamil goldsmiths who have long established their business in Penang. The continuity of this temple is studied through its spatial attributes and social impact in anchoring collective community experience Primary data was acquired through ethnography and secondary data was drawn from a document and photo review. The analysis provides a narrative account of the temple’s mandapa as a social space that facilitates the hybridity of identities that grow from this temple. As a representation of Bhabha’s Third …

Navigating Campus Climate: Microaggressions And Microaffirmations Impacting Trans* College Students On College Campuses, Chas Figueroa

Masters Theses

This study explored the microaggressions and microaffirmations that transgender college students experienced on their campus. The study looked at the impact those experiences had on transgender student perspectives regarding inclusivity on campus. With the population of out college age trans* students growing there is a need to look at the importance of inclusive practices in colligate environments. This narrative approach takes the stories of two trans* college students and interprets their experiences with themes of misgendering, university action, university community, and signs of support. The study indicated that trans* college student’s perspectives on inclusivity was impacted by the microaggressions and …

A Forensic And Historical Look At John Taylor’S Watch: Evidence Of Divine Mercy, Brian A. Warburton

BYU Studies

In June 2023, the Church History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced the public availability of forensic and historical research recently completed on the pocket watch of John Taylor. Taylor, an Apostle of the Church at the time, was present when Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were killed by a mob in the Hancock County Jail in Carthage, Illinois, on June 27, 1844. During the attack, Taylor was shot four times, and his watch was damaged. This artifact has long held a special place in the hearts of many members of the Church as …

How Can Law Enforcement Use Technology To Protect Citizens Justly?, Zach Kantenwein

Emerging Writers

This paper explores the danger of emerging artificial intelligence technology perpetuating racial injustice in law enforcement and how police can ensure the protection of citizens amid this information age. We dissect a real-world case in which AI predictive policing technology resulted in alarming racial discrimination against American minority citizens. We discuss the possible explanations for this result and explore the limitations of artificial intelligence technology. Furthermore, we brainstorm methods for ensuring American citizens' just and constitutional protection as new technology is developed and tested. We propose implementing transparency laws that make the details about any policing technology and surveillance available …

Singing Crimes, Rhyming News : Folksong Newsprints, Horror Sensibilities, And The Rise Of Sensationalist Mass Media In Siam, 1920s–1940s, Arthit Jiamrattanyoo

Manusya, Journal of Humanities

The proliferation of print media in early-twentieth-century Siam coincided with the rising popularity of folk vocal music. By the 1920s, certain styles of folk balladry were appropriated by urban writers for news reportage and sociopolitical criticism with doses of sensationalization. Published in periodicals and chapbooks, this popular literature was characterized by its versification of true crimes and its typical focus on the figure of the criminal or the ghost. My article examines this hybrid genre of news entertainment at the nexus of a modern structure of the horror experience, folk music tradition, print capitalism, and journalistic culture in Siam. It …

“Slaves Of The State:” The Exploitation Of Women Through Convict Leasing, Beth F. Newton

Honors Theses and Capstones

No abstract provided.

Judging Our New Judges: Why We Must Remove Artificial Intelligence From Our Courtrooms Now, Kieran Duffy Newcomb

Honors Theses and Capstones

In this paper, I explore some of the ways in which artificial intelligence might enhance the sentencing process through recidivism prediction technology. Notably, this technology can increase the accuracy of risk predictions and the speed with which sentencing decisions are reached. I then show, however, that the recidivism prediction technology is likely to turn into what data scientist Cathy O’Neil calls a Weapon of Math Destruction. The potential harmfulness of this technology is due not to the inherent nature of the technology, but the symbiotic relationship it will have with our already harmful criminal justice system. I argue that the …

Exploring The Factors That Influence Female Offending In The U.S. And Mexico, Dana Villasenor

CMC Senior Theses

Hollywood has painted a picture of the criminal woman as a sexy, sneaky, and often psychotic female fatale. This is because men run Hollywood. Much like movies, research on why women offend had historically focused on men as their stellar. However, towards the turn of the century and with the disproportionate rise in female incarceration, literature caught up to the fact that women and men do not experience the same socialization, standards, or reality and, therefore, have different reasons for and ways of offending. This research explores those reasons for women in the U.S. and Mexico and paints the picture …

Reconceiving Tort Law And The Role Of Insurance: Achieving Mutual Accountability, Grace Hong

CMC Senior Theses

Despite insurance being a deciding factor in whether liability is found in tort cases, it is not always reflected in tort theories and court opinions. In this paper, I offer a framework for reconceiving the role of insurance in tort law. To achieve this, I outline where insurance falls into instrumental and non-instrumental theories and why non-instrumental theories are more persuasive. After establishing this, I move to Goldberg and Zipursky’s civil recourse theory and delineate how similarities between the right to vote and right of action indicate parallel problems with failures to comprehend lack of access to the political process …

For Richer Or Poorer: The Warren Court's Relationship To Socioeconomic Class, Nicole Jonassen

CMC Senior Theses

The U.S. Constitution does not enshrine socioeconomic rights. Why does this matter? Many argue that socioeconomic rights have value in and of themselves because they secure certain minimum conditions of human dignity, but socioeconomic rights also have instrumental value because abject material deprivation often makes traditional political and civil rights meaningless. In this thesis, I explore the relationship between U.S. constitutional law and socioeconomic rights through an analysis of the Warren Court’s decisions regarding socioeconomic class. In Chapter 1, I present existing literature on socioeconomic rights, socioeconomic rights in the American context, and what many scholars see as the Warren …

Legal Vengeance And Popular Violence: Reimagining Justice In The Heart Of Midlothian, Melissa J. Ganz

English Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Literature And The Law, Melissa J. Ganz

English Faculty Research and Publications

The law underwent significant changes in eighteenth-century Britain. Although these changes resulted in an expansion of rights and freedoms for some British subjects, the liberalization of the law was far from complete. This chapter considers how writers working in a range of genres revealed the limits of the law, focusing on debates about the nature and ends of criminal justice, the legal regulation of marriage, and the legality of slavery and the slave trade. In different ways and to different degrees, the chapter shows, writers challenged and reimagined the inequalities inscribed in and fostered by the legal system.

The Past As A Colonialist Resource, Deepa Das Acevedo

Faculty Articles

Originalism’s critics have failed to block its rise. For many jurists and legal scholars, the question is no longer whether to espouse originalism but how to espouse it. This Article argues that critics have ceded too much ground by focusing on discrediting originalism as either bad history or shoddy linguistics. To disrupt the cycle of endless “methodological” refinements and effectively address originalism’s continued popularity, critics must do two things: identify a better disciplinary analogue for originalist interpretation and advance an argument that moves beyond methods.

Anthropology can assist with both tasks. Both anthropological analysis and originalist interpretation are premised on …

Mentoring Latinas On Doctoral Journeys: Testimonios Of Cultural And Gender Identity, Jacqueline Rangel

CGU Theses & Dissertations

In the United States, Latinas are underrepresented in obtaining PhDs that lead to high level professional careers and academia. This may be due, in part, to patriarchal academic institutions and approaches that have historically devalued the cultural experiences and identities of marginalized populations, including Latinas in higher education. However, research suggests that mentorship can support Latinas in successfully obtaining PhDs and disrupt institutional norms and practices. Framed by LatCrit, Mestiza Consciousness, and Mujerista Mentoring, this study sheds light on the experiences of twenty-four Latinas who earned PhDs-with or without mentors during their doctoral journeys. As such, the purpose of this …

Three Contemporary Prosecution Case Studies And The Challenges Affecting The Indian Arts And Crafts Act, Tiffini Bowers

Theses and Dissertations--Arts Administration

The Indian Arts and Crafts Act (IACA) is America’s only federal arts policy. This study explores the IACA and the challenges contemporary prosecution cases identify for arts stakeholders, along with the implementation and effectiveness since the 2010 Act, to understand better the social and public policy implications and challenges for arts stakeholders. A qualitative study using multiple legal case studies, document analysis, and semi-structured interviews, along with an elite theory theoretical framework, anchors the research. Findings support existing research by indicating the main challenge is the definition and complexity of Indian identity; additional significant findings that contribute to future policy …

The New Straightjackets: How Prisons Have Come To Be The Mental Illness Solution, Parker A. Wolfe

Soaring: A Journal of Undergraduate Research

This paper examines the current mental health resources that are available in prisons, as well as the correlation between deinstitutionalization and the rise of individuals struggling with mental illness within prison walls.