Digital Commons Network^™

Community Down: The Loss Of Sergeant Joe Bergeron, John Edward Helcl Ii

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

What local government officials, administrators, and staff can expect and how to can help in the aftermath of a peace officer’s line-of-duty death within their community.

Hot Crimes: A Study In Excess, Steven P. Grossman

All Faculty Scholarship

Societies appear to be subject, every now and then, to periods of moral panic. . . . [I]ts nature is presented in a stylized and stereotypical fashion by the mass media; the moral barricades are manned by editors, bishops, politicians and other right thinking people; socially accredited experts pronounce their diagnoses and solutions; ways of coping are evolved or (more often) restored to; . . . sometimes the panic passes over and is forgotten . . . at other times it has more serious and long-lasting repercussions and might produce such as those in legal and social policy or even …

Turning The Corner On Mass Incarceration?, David Cole

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

For the first time in forty years, the national incarceration rate is flattening out, even falling in state prisons. For the first time in three decades, the number of adults under any kind of correctional supervision—in prison or jail or on probation or parole—fell in 2009. At the same time, legal reforms that might have seemed impossible in prior years have increasingly been adopted, reducing penalties for certain crimes, eliminating mandatory sentencing for others, and increasing expenditures for reintegration of prisoners into society. And racial disparities, a persistent and deep-rooted problem in the American criminal justice system, after rising for …

Pot As Pretext: Marijuana, Race, And The New Disorder In New York City Street Policing, Amanda Geller, Jeffrey Fagan

Faculty Scholarship

Although possession of small quantities of marijuana has been decriminalized in New York State since the late 1970s, arrests for marijuana possession in New York City have increased more than tenfold since the mid-1990s, and remain high more than 10 years later. This rise has been a notable component of the city’s “Order Maintenance Policing” strategy, designed to aggressively target low-level offenses, usually through street interdictions known as “stop, question, and frisk” activity. We analyze data on 2.2 million stops and arrests carried out from 2004 to 2008, and identify significant racial disparities in the implementation of marijuana enforcement. These …

Incarceration And The Economic Fortunes Of Urban Neighborhoods, Jeffrey Fagan, Valerie West

Faculty Scholarship

New research has identified the consequences of high rates of incarceration on neighborhood crime rates, but few studies have looked beyond crime to examine the collateral effects of incarceration on the social and economic well being of the neighborhoods themselves and their residents. We assess two specific indicia of neighborhood economic well-being, household income and human capital, dimensions that are robust predictors of elevated crime, enforcement and incarceration rates. We decompose incarceration effects by neighborhood racial composition and socio-economic conditions to account for structural disadvantages in labor force and access to wealth that flow from persistent patterns of residential segregation. …

The Paradox Of Law Enforcement In Immigrant Communities: Does Tough Immigration Enforcement Undermine Public Safety?, David Kirk, Andrew V. Papachristos, Jeffrey Fagan, Tom R. Tyler

Faculty Scholarship

Frustrated by federal inaction on immigration reform, several U.S. states in recent years have proposed or enacted laws designed to stem the flow of illegal immigrants into the U.S. and to facilitate their removal. An underappreciated implication of these laws is the potential alienation of immigrant communities – even law abiding, cooperative individuals – from the criminal justice system. The ability of the criminal justice system to detect and sanction criminal behavior is dependent upon the cooperation of the general public, including acts such as the reporting of crime and identifying suspects. Cooperation is enhanced when local residents believe that …

Expression By Ordinance: Preemption And Proxy In Local Legislation, Lindsay Nash

Articles

Local laws based on immigration status have prompted heated national debate on federalism and discrimination. A second strain of nuisance-related legislation has emerged in recent years, which often targets these same immigrant communities. This paper examines the hitherto-unstudied correlation between ordinances explicitly related to immigrants and legislation regarding nuisance–as illuminated through primary research into municipal legislation across the nation. Evaluating these laws and the context of their enactment, this research shows when and how nuisance laws target certain populations. Ultimately, this inquiry reveals troubling parallels to previous community responses to disfavored subgroups and the harm resulting from proxy legislation.

'The Mess We’Re In': Five Steps Towards The Transformation Of Prison Cultures, Lynn S. Branham

All Faculty Scholarship

Few dispute that conditions in prisons need to be improved – that, for example, prisoners with mental-health problems need to have those problems addressed, and addressed effectively, while they are confined. But the more fundamental question is whether prisons can be, not just improved, but transformed. Transformation in this context means deep and sustained changes in the ethos of those who work and live in prisons. That ethos would reflect at least four precepts: (1) hope as an imperative; (2) the viability of renewal; (3) the catharsis that attends personal responsibility and accountability; and (4) the duty and call, extending …

Hope And Betrayal On Death Row, David Cole

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

No abstract provided.

Independent Correctional Oversight Mechanisms Across The United States: A 50-State Inventory, Michele Deitch

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

Getting To Yes In A Plra World, Elizabeth Alexander

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

Reflections On A Government Model Of Correctional Oversight, Richard T. Wolf

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

Ensuring Progress: Accountability Standards Recommended By The National Prison Rape Elimination Commission, Jamie Fellner

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

Oversight Of Law Enforcement Is Beneficial And Needed—Both Inside And Out, Barbara Attard

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Ombudsman As A Monitor Of Human Rights In Canadian Federal Corrections, Howard Sapers, Ivan Zinger

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Quixotic Dilemma, California’S Immutable Culture Of Incarceration, Geri Lynn Green

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

Opening Up A Closed World: What Constitutes Effective Prison Oversight?, Michael B. Mushlin, Michele Deitch

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Breeding Ground For Communicable Disease: What To Do About Public Health Hazards In New York Prisons, Claire Fortin

Buffalo Public Interest Law Journal

No abstract provided.

"Ordinary Citizens" Or A License To Kill? The Turn To Law In Regulating Britain's Intelligence Services, Simon Chesterman

Buffalo Public Interest Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Use Of The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-Ii (Mmpi-2) In Pre-Employment Evaluations, Ana M. Gamez

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Psychological testing is an important facet in the selection and hiring processes of law enforcement and public safety personnel. Research in this area suggests that the MMPI-2 scales have been correlated with problematic behavior among police officers, poor job performance, and officer misconduct. This study examined the extent to which suitability for hire could be predicted by the MMPI-2 scale L (Lie), scale K (correction), Infrequency scale (F), scale 4 Psychopathic Deviate (Pd), scale 6 Paranoia (Pa), scale 7 Psychasthenia (Pt), and scale 9 Hypomania (Ma). It examined whether profile differences emerged as a function of suitability across gender, between …

Aba Criminal Justice Standards On The Treatment Of Prisoners, Margo Schlanger, Margaret C. Love, Carl Reynolds

Articles

or more than i O years, corrections professionals and others concerned about the treatment of prisoners have despaired over conditions in California's prisons. Crowding, violence, racial segregation, abysmal medical care, an obstructionist corrections union. and a state budget crisis have combined to bring the system to the point of constitutional meltdov,n. In 2008. a state appellate court found conditions of "'extreme peril to the safety of persons and property,'' and a three-judge federal court confirmed the existence of a "substantial risk to the health and safety of the men and women who work inside these prisons and the inmates housed …

Critical-Incident Response: A Study Of Training, Management, And Mitigation In North Carolina Sheriffs' Offices., Gregory Alan Minton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the amount of training each sheriff's office requires in North Carolina and if that training includes multiagency exercises designed to mitigate a critical-incident response and identify any concerns from those training events. The study also compared departmental strength (number of sworn officers per agency) with county populations and geographic area of the state the agency is located in with the number of hours required annually by each agency. Finally, each agency was asked if it had participated in a multiagency exercise and a multiagency incident and to identify any issues that occurred …

Comparative Analysis Between Routine Preventative Uniformed Police Patrols And Crime Reduction And Calls For Service, Oscar F. Vigoa

Graduate Student Dissertations, Theses, Capstones, and Portfolios

The majority of the theoretical and empirical literature on police patrols and crime has concentrated on the logical assumption that more uniformed preventative police patrols reduce crime. However, few studies have examined the comparative relationship between more police officers doing preventative patrols in a specific area and crime rates and response to calls for service. The objective of this research was to examine whether more uniformed police officers, doing routine preventative patrols, assigned to an area the size of a small city reduces class one crimes (robbery, residential, and commercial burglary and auto theft). The principal intention of the study …

A Question Of Investment: Is Prevention Worth The Price?, Scott B. Smith, Christine G. Springer

Public Policy and Leadership Faculty Research

In today’s calculus of public and private budgeting, an ounce of prevention may no longer be worth a pound of “cure.”

“Prevention” takes many forms: Preparing one’s family for an emergency. Buying life and property insurance. Buying corporate insurance. Having a sufficiently-sized and well-trained security workforce at your workplace. Supporting law enforcement efforts to get one step ahead of the bad guy (whether a criminal or a terrorist). Supporting entities like UNLV’s Institute for Security Studies whose sole raison d’etre is to make Las Vegas and Nevada a safe and secure place to live, work and visit.

Why Care About Mass Incarceration?, James Forman Jr.

Michigan Law Review

Advocates for less punitive crime policies in the United States face long and dispiriting odds. The difficulty of the challenge becomes clear if we compare our criminal justice outcomes with those of other nations: We lock up more people, and for longer, than anyone else in the world. We continue to use the death penalty long after Europe abandoned it, we are the only country in the world to lock up juveniles for life, and we have prisoners serving fifty-year sentences for stealing videotapes from Kmart. Our courts offer little relief: the German Constitutional Court prohibits a sentence of life …

A Critical Analysis Of The Theoretical And Empirical Literature Comparing The Effects Of Traditional Versus Community Policing On Quality Of Life And Associated Quality Of Life Issues, Rodney Polite

Graduate Student Dissertations, Theses, Capstones, and Portfolios

There are two major issues that will be addressed in this study to determine if they influence the selection of an appropriate policing strategy. The first is citizen perception of whether crime has decreased or increased in their community. The second is whether the length of time a citizen has lived in the community has an effect on their perception of crime and their attitude towards a specific policing strategy.

Historically, each policing strategy, although at times labeled differently (professional policing, team policing, neighborhood policing, zero-tolerance policing), has evolved and adapted based on various dynamics within police organizations and the …

"You Crossed The Fog Line!"—Kansas, Pretext, And The Fourth Amendment, Melanie D. Wilson

Scholarly Articles

In Whren, the United States Supreme Court sanctioned pretextual traffic stops. In practice the holding of Whren condones police investigations that target certain suspect classes of people, like Hispanics, for increased police scrutiny. In permitting pretextual stops, the Court ignored the risk that such practices will encourage police to distort the truth, overlooked the cost of under-enforcement of the laws, and ignored the consequences to the criminal justice system of race and ethnicity based discrimination.

Kansas law exacerbates these risks by making fog-line stops a model for protecting ulterior motives from a sifting judicial inquiry. In Kansas, it makes …

The Business Of Punishing: Impediments To Accountability In The Private Corrections Industry, Stephen Raher

Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest

To understand the contemporary use of contractor-operated prisons, one must appreciate the political and economic developments which allowed privatization to enter the corrections industry. Accordingly, this article starts with a brief history of privatized corrections in the United States. The following section explores how the modem marketplace for private prisons has been shaped by two prominent dynamics-the emergence of a national market for prison beds and the massive expansion of the nation's immigrant detention system. The paper then considers the general implications of non-governmental prison operation, with a focus on how contractors have exploited their private status to the detriment …

Fifty State Survey Of Juvenile Sex Offender Registration Statutes, Brenda V. Smith

The Project on Addressing Prison Rape - Surveys

This publication is part of a larger scholarly project and one in a series that aims to create a “legal toolkit” for addressing sexual violence in custody. This chart collects statutes from the fifty states and territories that address registration of juvenile sex offenders. The chart lists: All registrable offenses; information maintained in the registry; the legal basis for juvenile sex offender registration; the duration of registration, community notification and website information; and limitations on residency or employment.

Photo Enforcement Programs: Are They Permissible Under The United States Constitution?, 43 J. Marshall L. Rev. 463 (2010), Paul Mcnaughton

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.