Digital Commons Network^™

Criminology And Criminal Justice Researchers’ Experiences And Challenges With Institutional Review Boards, Elaine Gunnison, Jacqueline B. Helfgott

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"Conducting research in criminology and criminal justice settings brings unique challenges involving human subjects. Prior research has examined the quality and effectiveness of Institutional Review Boards (IRB). However, research on the experiences of criminology and criminal justice researchers when interfacing with their IRBs is scant. This study seeks to fill this gap through the exploration of experiences criminology and criminal justice researchers have had with IRBs. Focus groups were conducted with 13 researchers who were members of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences and the American Society of Criminology. Results revealed that participants experienced challenges centering around specific themes …

Information Trolls And Democracy: A Qualitative Examination Of Disinformation Campaigns In Canada, Rachelle Louden, Richard Frank

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"This research explores disinformation delivered during the 2019 Canadian Federal election. This study explores the methods and techniques used by the perpetrators of disinformation campaigns in the context of Canadian elections. This research also examines whether the disinformation discovered during the election falls within criminal foreign interference. Critical discourse analysis is used to qualitatively analyze 26 articles published by a Northeastern U.S. based independent news website within the ten months leading up to the election. This research finds that the use of unnamed sources, hyperbolic statements to misrepresent facts, and strategies to de-legitimize reputable institutions were the most common tools …

The Making Of (Un)Certainty In Knowledge Production: Rhetoric At Play In A Heritability Controversy, Angelica Camacho, Dominique Robert

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"(Un)certainty is not an inherent quality of a scientific assertion. It is rather the product of negotiations and collective work performed amidst noisy or quiet scientific debates. Using a controversy on heritability of crime-related behaviors as a case study, this paper proposes an analysis of the rhetoric at play to produce (un)certainty in publications presenting competing arguments. The controversy under study is at the heart of the legitimization of biosocial criminology, a contested field of study. The research shows that on the discursive front, three main strategies are used to modalize the (un)certainty of scientific claims over that of competing …

Prescribed Child Abuse? Using The Americans With Disabilities Act To Deconstruct Discrimination Against Medication For Opioid Use Disorder In Child Abuse & Neglect Proceedings, Makenzie Stuard

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

The opioid crisis has disrupted parent-child relationships across the United States. While states actively seek to remove children from households with current drug use in order to protect the children, state entities often fail to protect the parent-child relationship itself by imposing counterproductive policies and stereotypes on parents who are in treatment for their drug use, which makes maintaining "recovery" and parental rights an uphill battle. This note argues that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) provides a novel path to root out discrimination in child abuse and neglect proceedings against parents who either take prescribed buprenorphine or are interested …

Welcome To Texas: Home Of The Most Extreme Abortion Ban In The United States, Generating Vast Child Welfare Disparities, Bailey Harvey

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

This comment uncovers the harsh trickling effects of overturning Roe v. Wade through focusing on the statistical nexus between the Texas’ foster care system, the victims of system cycling, and the criminal justice system. We are witnesses to watching the Court in 1973 from first balancing State’s interest and women’s fundamental rights to having the subject be a topic of the political battlefield.

Examining precedent and the reasoning behind the United States Supreme Court’s decision is a science, and the statistics continue to prove Texas’ child welfare systems are failing the children of America. Juvenile delinquency directly correlates with low …

Evaluating The Texas Risk Assessment System (Tras) Predictors Of Revocation And Early Release In Adult Felony Probation, Sarah A. El Sayed, Carley R. Shelton, Michael F. Teneyck

Open Initiatives Grant Funded Publications-Archive

Although much is known about recidivism risk, less is known about factors predicting early release. The current study analyses a sample of 2,070 adult felony probation clients to see if offense characteristics, domains from the Texas Risk Assessment System (TRAS), and demographic variables impact both revocation and successful early release. Results revealed that predictors of early release mirrored those of revocation with one exception—race. Specifically, Black clients were 27% less likely to be granted early release. The findings highlight the TRAS is an effective tool to help mitigate bias for revocation of probation but not for granting early release.

State Of Utah, Plaintiff And Appellee V. Roy Benjamin Levering, Defendant And Appellant : Brief Of Appellee, Utah Court Of Appeals

Utah Court of Appeals Briefs (2020 –)

Appeal from convictions and sentences for possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute, a first degree felony; tampering with evidence, a class A misdemeanor; and other crimes in the Fifth Judicial District, Washington County, the Honorable Jeffrey C. Wilcox presiding

K. ANDREW FITZGERALD, Counsel for Appellant

CONNOR NELSON, SEAN D. REYES, JERRY JAEGER, Counsel for Appellee

Regulating Algorithmic Harms, Sylvia Lu

Law & Economics Working Papers

In recent years, the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) innovations has led to a rise in algorithmic harms—harms emerging from AI operations that pose significant threats to civil rights and democratic values in today’s technological landscape. A facial recognition system for improving criminal detection wrongly collected sensitive personal data and flagged racial minorities as shoplifters. A risk-prediction algorithm adopted to identify patients denied medical treatment to Black individuals with poor health conditions. A social media algorithm intended to boost social engagement exacerbated addictive behavior and mental illness in teenagers. These harms are becoming increasingly ubiquitous yet often manifest in …

Review Of The Little Book Of Restorative Teaching Tools: Games, Activities, And Simulations For Understanding Restorative Justice Practices, Olivia Engling

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Mattress Money: How Civil Forfeiture Leaves Taxpayers With Few Options, Aubrey Manculich

The Business, Entrepreneurship & Tax Law Review

Civil forfeiture is a legal practice that allows law enforcement agencies to seize property without a criminal conviction, or even charges. This article examines the tax consequences of civil asset forfeiture, particularly the near-impossibility of individuals or businesses to claim a deduction for forfeited property. By analyzing the treatment of seized and forfeited property by the Internal Revenue Code and related I.R.S. regulations and publications, this study exposes critical gaps in the current system that prevent taxpayers from recognizing losses from civil forfeiture. The article further explores the interaction of tax law and civil forfeiture proceedings, demonstrating how innocent property …

Pregnancy As A Crime: A Preliminary Report On The First Year After Dobbs, Wendy A. Bach, Madalyn K. Wasilczuk

Scholarly Works

The report was released by Professor Bach’s partner organization Pregnancy Justice in late September. The report has been covered by over 400 press outlets including the Los Angeles Times, Mother Jones, Teen Vogue, the Daily Mail, and the British Medical Journal. The report is the first report coming out of a three-year national study of pregnancy criminalization being led by Professor Bach.

A Better Path Forward: The Need For Restorative Justice In The Child Welfare System, Abigail Montalbo

Marquette Benefits and Social Welfare Law Review

The child welfare system in the United States often prioritizes punishment

over healing, failing both the children harmed by maltreatment

and the responsible parties. This Comment explores how incorporating

restorative justice within state child welfare systems

can shift the focus to repairing relationships, building trust, and

promoting healing of the parties harmed, the parties responsible for

the harm, and the community as a whole. Aimed at an audience

who is interested in, but not deeply familiar with restorative justice,

this Comment suggests for the mandatory inclusion of restorative

justice practices to create a more comprehensive and healing-centered

approach within the …

Access To Justice As Access To Data, Tanina Rostain

Northwestern University Law Review

This Keynote Address, delivered in celebration of the launch of SCALES, discusses the importance of making local and state court data available for research on the functioning of the American civil justice system. It describes the regulatory and administrative challenges of obtaining high-quality data from courts. It calls for a concerted effort among researchers and policymakers to develop open-source technologies for the development of case management systems and data infrastructure. And it urges researchers to foster a collaborative research ecosystem based on broadly sharing court data.

Explainable Fairness In Regulatory Algorithmic Auditing, Cathy O'Neil, Holli Sargeant, Jacob Appel

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Mutually Assured Democracy: Cooperating Under The Compact Clause To Combat Partisan Gerrymandering, Samuel P. Leroy

University of Chicago Law Review

No abstract provided.

Felony Disenfranchisement And Voter Turnout: Randomized Trials In Iowa And Washington, Alexander Billy, J.J. Naddeo, Neel U. Sukhatme

Northwestern University Law Review

Prior to the 2022 midterm elections, we conducted large-scale randomized controlled trials in Iowa and Washington aimed at increasing voter turnout among newly enfranchised individuals with past felony convictions. Alongside national and grassroots partners, we designed and implemented experiments to ascertain the effectiveness of alternative outreach mechanisms, including targeted mailers and digital ads. We did not detect statistically significant or economically meaningful effects on voter registration or turnout; most observed effects were precise nulls. The absence of measured impact is likely attributed to low digital engagement with our online ads as well as extensive voter outreach already conducted by our …

Neutral Business Assistance And The Limits Of Complicity Under International Criminal Law, Nikola R. Hajdin

Michigan Journal of International Law

Business transactions between corporations and actors involved in grave human rights violations present significant challenges for the assessment of corporate criminal liability. This is particularly evident in cases of “neutral business assistance,” which refer to business conduct that appears legitimate on the surface and falls within day-to-day business operations but nonetheless contributes to the crime. An example of neutral business assistance is selling generic goods (for example, computer technology) legally at market rates, without the explicit intent to aid criminal activity, that increases the perpetrator’s capacity to carry out human rights violations. In such cases, discerning the point at which …

An Artificial Intelligence Report Card For Judicial Review, Zoe E. Niesel

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

The rapid advancement of technology, including artificial intelligence (AI), is creating new challenges for judicial review under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). In late 2023, federal administrative agencies publicly disclosed over 700 use cases of AI that employ sophisticated techniques like machine learning and natural language processing. While the APA's flexible judicial review framework certainly allows agencies to utilize new technologies, the APA also requires explainability of agency decisions; thus, agencies must be able to articulate the reasoning and methodology behind AI-enabled decisions for the purpose of judicial review. This Article examines APA judicial review as it applies to agency …

From Columbus To Lansing: Exploring The Prosecution Of Environmental Crimes Within Epa Region 5, Joshua Ozymy, Melissa Jarrell Ozymy

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

Transgressions of federal environmental law involving significant harm or culpable conduct can result in criminal prosecution. However, we know very little about how such prosecutions have taken place within EPA Region 5, which includes Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. We undertake a content analysis of 2,807 criminal prosecutions that resulted from U.S. EPA criminal investigations from 1983-2022, selecting all 392 prosecutions occurring within Region 5 for analysis. Results show that over $3.4 billion in monetary penalties, 1,039 years of probation, and over 492 years of incarceration were assessed at sentencing. 33 % of prosecutions centered on water pollution, …

Criminal Law—Why Arkansas’S Current Juvenile Interrogation Law Fails Potential Avenues For Reform: A Fifty State Survey Of Juvenile Interrogation Statutes, Emily Williams

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Weak-Willed Legislatures And Statutory Interpretation, Helen Zhao

University of Chicago Law Review

Not all statutes are created equal. Contributing to the literature on “super statutes,” I suggest that an analogy to the philosophical concept of weakness of will can illuminate circumstances under which some statutes ought to stand above others. Analogizing to philosopher Richard Holton’s account of weak will, I develop an account in which some statutes express long-term commitments, are intended to foreclose future deliberation, and enact reasons into the law. Such statutes have the status of what Holton calls “resolutions.” Like an individual resolving to stop eating meat, yet finding themself unable to resist, Congress can be weak willed when …

Foreword, David L. Schwartz, Kat M. Albrecht

Northwestern University Law Review

Offering a critique is often easier than proposing a solution. This refrain echoed frequently in the months and years that we spent developing what would become the Systematic Content Analysis of Litigation EventS (SCALES) Open Knowledge Network, a project born from the collaborative efforts of experts across various disciplines.

Cannabis And The Regulate-Like Gaming Experiment: Are Nevada’S Gaming Policies And Regulations Portable To Cannabis, Riana Durrett, Marla Royne Stafford

UNLV Gaming Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Blending Green: Cannabis And Casinos Can Coexist In The Gaming Industry, Sondra Brower

UNLV Gaming Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Inmate Assistance Programs, Tim Friehe, Murat C. Mungan

Faculty Scholarship

This paper analyzes the deterrence implications of different inmate assistance programs (IAPs), carefully distinguishing between deterrence of first offenses and recidivism. All IAPs considered in our model reduce recidivism, and we identify IAPs that also reduce the first offense rate. However, IAPs which increase work opportunities, improve the reintegration of exiting inmates, and moderate individual’s self-control issues may lower the deterrence of first offenses, if this possibility is not adequately anticipated when designing these IAPs.

Constitutional Law Through Co-Curricular Civic Engagement, Jason M. Leggett

Open Educational Resources

No abstract provided.

The Influence Of The Race Of Defendant And The Race Of Victim On Capital Charging And Sentencing In California, Catherine M. Grosso, Jeffrey A. Fagan, Michael Laurence

Faculty Scholarship

The California Racial Justice Act of 2020 recognized racial and ethnic discrimination as a basis for relief in capital cases, expressly permitting several types of statistical evidence to be introduced. This statewide study of the influence of race and ethnicity on the application of capital punishment contributes to this evidence. We draw on data from over 27,000 murder and manslaughter convictions in California state courts between 1978 and 2002. Using multiple methods, we found significant racial and ethnic disparities in charging and sentencing decisions. Controlling for defendant culpability and specific statutory aggravators, we show that Black and Latinx defendants and …

The Fair Chance To Compete For Jobs Act: Proposing A More Equitable Statue For Individuals Affected By The Justice System, Brian M. Joseph

Hofstra Labor & Employment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

From Margins To Center: Elevating The Voices Of Disadvantaged Families In Child Welfare, Jerron R. Wheeler

Marquette Benefits and Social Welfare Law Review

This essay sheds light on the systemic challenges faced by indigent,

minority families within the child welfare system, using personal experiences

from my time as a student at the University of Florida

Levin College of Law as a lens. This essay aims to highlight the intersection

of poverty, race, and the child welfare system, showing

how these factors can hinder parents' ability to reunite with their

children despite their best efforts. The essay seeks to underscore the

urgent need for a more nuanced, multidisciplinary approach to child

welfare advocacy that includes legal professionals, social workers,

and health professionals working collaboratively …

Critical Race Theory As Legal Epistemic Justice, Jasmine Gonzales Rose

Faculty Scholarship

“Critical Thinking: Not Critical Race Theory” and “Teach Truth: Not CRT,” proclaimed the front and back of a T-shirt on a fellow traveler passing in the airport. I was startled by the blatant misconceptions. The core pursuits of critical race theory (“CRT”) are to think critically, discover truth, and diversify knowledge about race and racism. Although I was aware of then-President Trump’s executive order barring federal diversity training and bills modeled after it, nothing had prepared me for the realization that my academic subfield had become so widely criticized that it was now the subject of T-shirt slogans. A few …