Digital Commons Network^™

Belonging Against The Odds: Exploring Restorative Justice Practices As Pathways To Foster Belonging In New York City Transfer Schools, Miguel Rodriguez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The U.S. education system perpetuates structural inequities that disproportionately affect Black students with the School-to-Prison Pipeline (STPPL) criminalizing them through Zero-Tolerance policies. Transfer schools are often a last resort for students pushed out of traditional schools provide a lens to examine the impact of Restorative Justice Practices (RJP) and Black student representation on belonging. This quantitative dissertation study analyzes secondary data from the NYC Department of Education using multivariate models to explore the relationship between RJPs and sense of belonging (SOB). Model 1 found that discussing feelings and emotions at school (Tier 1 RJP) had the strongest association with SOB …

The Deterrence Dilemma: Is It Time For Canada To Abandon General Deterrence As A Sentencing Objective?, Caitlin Salvino

Dalhousie Law Journal

When Canada first codified its sentencing framework in the Criminal Code, Parliament included deterrence as a sentencing objective. The sentencing objective of deterrence encompasses two aspects: specific deterrence for the individual offender and general deterrence for other potential offenders. I engage with the concept of general deterrence and its incorporation into Canadian sentencing law throughout this article. I argue that Parliament should abandon general deterrence as a sentencing objective under the Criminal Code. After reviewing the jurisprudence on general deterrence and conducting a systematic review of its current application in Ontario sentencing decisions, I argue that general deterrence should be …

Ben Crump And Racialized Professionalism, Katherine A. Macfarlane

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

Benjamin “Ben” Crump is the country’s most influential civil rights lawyer. His advocacy led to the arrest and prosecution of George Zimmerman. He has represented the families of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and many others, negotiating record-breaking settlements despite a body of civil rights precedent that is overwhelmingly pro-defendant. Crump is also a modern lawyer who uses press conferences and social media to advance his clients’ cause. To his clients, he is a lawyer, confidante, and friend. Yet, based on the way national media covers him, his significance isn’t always clear. When his work isn’t being erased, it’s …

Pretrial Decision-Making In Brazil Under Inter-American Human Rights Law, Thiago Nascimento Dos Reis

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

In recent decades, pretrial detention has been a key contributor to Brazil’s mass incarceration. This is true, despite domestic and international norms limiting pretrial detention to exceptional circumstances and mounting evidence linking it to worse outcomes for arrestees in their criminal proceedings and post-release life prospects. As a longitudinal multivariate pretrial research in Brazil, this Article investigates the key mechanisms and factors that explain pretrial detention in relation to inter-American human rights standards. This Article conducts a quantitative case study of the first one hundred days of detention for all 2,158 non-confidential flagrant arrests in the first eight months of …

No Lawyer, No Jail: A Critical Case Study Of Pragmatism And The Flaws Of “Purposeful” Decision Making In Argersinger V. Hamlin, Alisa Smith, Sarah K. Stice

Seattle University Law Review

By releasing conference notes and internal communications, Supreme Court Justices provide insight into the otherwise private decisionmaking process, shedding light on how case outcomes and legal reasoning are framed and negotiated. The watershed case of Argersinger v. Hamlin (1972) extended the constitutional right to counsel to some, but not all, misdemeanor defendants. The case was argued twice, and the Court relied on empirical and authoritative sources to answer complex and practical questions about requiring counsel. This case study employs critical discourse analysis to uncover what influenced the Justices’ decisions and how they framed, shaped, and constructed social realities to foreground …

The Race To Erase: Destruction Of Government Documents Undermines Freedom-Of-Information Laws, Frank D. Lomonte

Seattle University Law Review

In August 2019, reporters with Chattanooga’s daily newspaper, the Times Free Press, filed what seemed to be a routine request for access to emails and other public records held by their local county government. The seemingly unremarkable request set the newspaper’s staff on a months-long journey of unpleasant surprises. The first was a demand to pay the county $717 in advance before being allowed to inspect the documents. The second was that—during prolonged haggling over the fee assessment— the county attorney’s office simply destroyed almost all of the disputed records. Third, and most glaringly, the journalists discovered that Tennessee law …

When You’Re Arrested For A Felony In Seattle, You’Ll Meet Me., Austin Field

Seattle University Law Review

In this Essay, Austin Field, a practicing public defender, uses a first-person perspective to describe what it is like to meet a criminal defendant for the first time. He explains the process from start to finish, detailing everything from the way he introduces himself to how bail works.

"I’ll ask you for your name. Most of the time, you tell me. I check your name against my list. On any given day I’m supposed to interview between five and fifteen people. I have a lot of questions for you. We only have about ten minutes."

The Racial Justice Act: A Real Solution Or A Just Step In The Right Direction?, Addison Lyons

UC Law Journal of Race and Economic Justice

The American criminal legal system is built upon racism and inequality. Some effort has been made to critique and correct the impact of those legacies. Although many steps have been taken, racism is far from erased from the legal apparatus. It demands contemporary solutions to contemporary legal dynamics. One of the attempts is the California Racial Justice Act of 2020 (RJA). The RJA has sought to remedy these challenges with a more robust understanding of how racism operates within the criminal legal system. Although the RJA appears to reflect a more nuanced understanding of how race operates, I argue that …

Examining The Relationship Between Legal Frameworks, And Cultural Norms In Domestic Violence Cases In The United States, Ifedolapo Awonuga

2025 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

Domestic violence is a pervasive and systemic issue that affects millions of people worldwide and has serious repercussions for families, individuals, and society at large. The research investigates how legal frameworks, societal conventions, and cultural values interact to impact the prevalence and resolution of domestic violence in contemporary society. The study looks at the extent institutional biases, social stigma, and deeply ingrained legal policies hinder efficient victim support, prevention, and intervention. The study combines quantitative analysis of case data, public opinion, and survey results with qualitative analysis of legal frameworks and peer-reviewed literature using a mixed-methods design. The two-pronged approach …

Hashtags, Handcuffs, And Hush Money: Inequitable Application Of The Fourth Amendment In Electronic Surveillance, Karina Devi Etminani

UC Law Journal of Race and Economic Justice

A wealthy executive buries misconduct behind corporate nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) and encrypted devices. Nearby, police wield geofence warrants to sweep the digital footprints of peaceful protesters demanding racial justice. Both scenarios hinge on the same Fourth Amendment but reveal a coin with two faces. For powerful abusers, privacy protections can conceal assault, intimidation, and corruption. For Black activists, rapidly emerging surveillance tools—including biometric scanners, phone “pings,” and social media mining—intensify a long legacy of racially targeted policing. As Jeannie Suk Gersen notes, two recent social movements– #MeToo and Black Lives Matter–reveal that “too much deference to privacy serves male entitlement, …

Under The Eyes Of The Oppressors: Exploring The Spatial Oppression Of African Nova Scotians, Lorenze L. Cromwell

Dalhousie Law Journal

Spatialization is a theoretical understanding of how space is used to enforce and replicate hierarchical power structures. Nova Scotia has used spatialized processes, such as enslavement, segregation, and panoptical power, to subjugate, oppress, and control African Nova Scotians for over 400 years. These practices of spatialization have been established and perpetuated by the law and legal mechanisms, creating a complex spatialized system of oppression against African Nova Scotians. This article defines spatialization, explores the historical and contemporary uses of spatialization, and analyzes the actuarial and symbolic effects created by spatialization. The author concludes by proposing remedial and reparative action that …

The Conversation Continues: The Judiciary’S Evolving Role In Perpetuating Racial Disparities In Addiction Treatment, Sydney Crute

Fordham Law Review

Language is a powerful means of social control, an idea that resonates deeply with court rhetoric as it relates to race. This Note examines the language courts use when discussing cases related to drug use and addiction. During the crack epidemic, when Black individuals represented the race of the primary drug user and drug dealer, courts relied on racially coded language related to crime and fear. Alternatively, during the opioid epidemic, when White individuals represented the race of the primary drug user, courts relied on more neutral language related to the health and well-being of society. Finally, the language courts …

Antiracist Expert Evidence, Jasmine Gonzales Rose, Asees Bhasin, Spencer Piston

Faculty Scholarship

Since 2020, when mass protests against racism swept across the United States, scholars, lawyers, and the general public have become increasingly aware that racism permeates society and the criminal legal system, from overt racial animus to the nuanced effects of structural racism. Demonstrating the influence of racism is therefore vital to the practice of criminal defense, yet many attorneys do not know how to prove racism in court. We surveyed over seven hundred criminal-defense attorneys across the United States, and nearly half had never heard of expert witnesses testifying or submitting written reports on racism—what we call “antiracist expert evidence.” …

Antiquated Practices In Mississippi That Are Impeding The Right To Vote, Amanda Noel

SLU Law Journal Online

Mississippi is historically one of the most difficult states to cast a vote, especially for marginalized groups. Despite voting becoming more accessible throughout the United States, recently, Mississippi courts and legislature have sought to reverse years of progress by denying those convicted of felonies the right to vote upon reform and by making it a crime to assist others in casting absentee and mail-in ballots. In this paper, Amanda Noel discusses the implications of Mississippi’s attempts at disenfranchisement and proposes feasible solutions to aid those in accessing their fundamental right to vote.

Scientific Educations Among U.S. Judges, Christa Laser

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

Should more judges have technical and scientific educations than are currently prevalent in the federal judiciary? This empirical study of the educational background of federal judges reports the undergraduate and graduate majors of active U.S. federal Article III judges. Information on the subject area of study is largely not publicly available, especially for judges appointed decades ago. This is the first and only publicly available research study of the subject areas of study of U.S. judges, collected via phone and email surveys to U.S. judges. The results of this study show that only 7.35% offederal judges have majors in science …

Taking Revolution Seriously, Zohra Ahmed

Michigan Law Review

A review of Tip of the Spear: Black Radicalism, Prison Repression, and the Long Attica Revolt. By Orisanmi Burton.

Key Factors That Influence The Successful Implementation And Sustainment Of Dei Within Probation Departments, Natalie Martinez

Master of Public Administration Capstone Papers

The successful implementation and sustainment of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives within probation departments is essential to create a fair and just criminal justice system. This paper examines the principal elements that impact the implementation and sustainability of DEI practices in probation settings. This research identifies best practices and challenges in integrating DEI principles into organizational structures by analyzing existing literature, case studies, and policy frameworks. The findings highlight the importance of leadership commitment, policy integration, and measurement, as well as an environment that fosters an inclusive culture. Additionally, the study examines barriers such as resistance to change, policy …

Understanding Processes That Produce Racial Disparities In California Death Sentences: A Review Of The Literature, Catherine M. Grosso, Michael Laurence, Jeffrey A. Fagan

Faculty Scholarship

A robust and extensive body of empirical research, and a rich historical record, documents a recurring and pervasive influence of race in the application of California’s death penalty. This article reviews the legal and social science research to document multiple paths through which institutions and processes produce these racial disparities over many decisions in many cases across four decades. The article reviews relevant literature by decision, institution, or actor and presents key findings. This includes documenting the history of the broad statutory design of the California capital punishment statue. The review also considers research on policing, including the influence of …

A Love Letter To The Leaders: Why Recognizing And Discussing Secondary Trauma In Legal Work Will Benefit Your Staff, Your Clients, And Most Importantly, The Work, Isabel Corngold, Elizabeth Cole

Nebraska Journal on Advancing Justice

When you work in a client-facing, client-centered section of the law like criminal law, and specifically wrongful convictions, you encounter trauma. Many organizations, including innocence organizations, do not do a sufficient job to recognize and address the impact of that trauma on their staff. This piece seeks to explain the potential impact of this trauma by, one, defining the terms burnout; secondary and vicarious trauma; empathetic distress; countertransference; and compassion fatigue, and, two, listing out signs and symptoms that can be caused by experiencing any of these emotions. Drawing from the authors’ experiences in innocence organizations, this piece addresses leaders …

Shoot First, Think Later, Pay Never: How Qualified Immunity Perpetuates The Modern-Day Lynching Of Black Americans And Why Abolition Is The Answer, Abigail Sloan

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

(Excerpt)

The purpose of this Note is to analogize today’s police killings of Black Americans to lynchings, and to examine how qualified immunity is one of many mechanisms governments and police departments use to evade accountability. The word “lynching” itself evokes an emotional and disturbing image of horror from the reconstruction-era South, with images of terroristic, racist violence which can be uncomfortable and traumatizing to confront. However, in using the word “lynching,” I intentionally and respectfully draw upon the similarities between historical lynchings and the police killings of Black Americans today, particularly in tracking the evolution of brutal violence to …

Racially Disparate And Disproportionate Punishment Of Felony Murder: Evidence From New York, Guyora Binder, Alexandra Harrington

Journal Articles

America’s peculiar institution of felony murder liability has long been criticized as cruel and pointless, particularly as applied to defendants who did not kill. This study of felony murder arrest and disposition in New York reports large racial disparities, particularly for those convicted who did not kill. It is one of the first to examine the behavior punished, revealing that half of those convicted were charged as accomplices, not alleged to have killed. Many of those alleged to have caused death appeared to do so inadvertently. And almost thirty percent of all people convicted of felony murder were teens with …

Doing Justice With Empathy: Black Prosecutors In The Age Of Mass Incarceration, Kevin Woodson

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

Deputization And Privileged White Violence, Ekow N. Yankah

Articles

A number of high-profile and racially charged killings, such as Trayvon Martin’s, Kenneth Herring’s, Ahmaud Arbery’s, and Jordan Neely’s, have been at the hands of civilians declaring themselves the law. These deaths stemmed from a phenomenon best described as “deputization.” Deputization describes a latent legal power that has empowered White people throughout American history to claim authority to enforce the law, as they see it, upon racial minorities generally and Black people in particular. This power turned the ancient common law duty to police all felons in England into a specific American common law duty to police Blacks. From the …

Doing More, Doing Better? A Critique Of The Criminalization Of Coercive Control, Janet Mosher, Shushanna Harris, Jennifer Koshan, Wanda Wiegers

All Papers

Canada recently stood on the verge of ushering in a new criminal offence related to coercive control in the context of intimate relationships. In this paper, we critically evaluate this development, drawing out lessons from past criminalization efforts (particularly their impact on Black women and communities). Our analysis raises significant questions about the potential of the proposed offence to deliver on the promises held out by politicians and frontline advocates. We argue that not only will these promises go largely unrealized, but the ongoing harms of criminalization will be intensified. Marginalized women and communities are the least likely to benefit, …

My Wings Are Not Broken: Black Males, Carcerality, And Education, Crystal M. Welch-Scott

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Historically, educational spaces have been sites of racialized inequality for Black youth, creating disparate educational outcomes. The disproportionate divide between young Black and White men continues throughout the life of their academic journey, and this research seeks to examine its impact on dropping out of school. The experience of Black young men being “othered” – compared to their White counterparts – coupled with the myriad ways Black youth must navigate normalcy creates additional challenges they must carry. This dissertation employs critical race theory and ecological systems theory as theoretical frameworks. It utilizes hierarchical regression modeling of the High School Longitudinal …

Quantifying Educational Impacts Under The Nypd's Stop-And-Frisk Era, Matthew T. Stanton

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This project examines the educational and economic impacts of the New York Police Department's "Stop, Question, and Frisk" (SQF) program, implemented predominantly under "Operation Impact" from 2003 to 2022. Using data from the NYPD and the American Community Survey, the study explores correlations between high rates of stop-and-frisk encounters and reduced educational attainment among targeted demographics, primarily Black and Hispanic young men. It contextualizes the socioeconomic consequences of SQF policies, including their effect on lifetime earnings and community trust. The project highlights the limitations of data correlation, advocates for further longitudinal and qualitative studies, and suggests frameworks for mitigating inequities …

Infiltrating The Black Box: Expanding The No-Impeachment Rule To Protect Defendants From Pervasive Juror Bias, Jordan Whitfield

Arkansas Law Review

In the United States, a criminal defendant is entitled to “a fair trial but not a perfect one, for there are no perfect trials.” However, defendants are also guaranteed the right to an impartial jury. While perfection within a jury is “an untenable goal,” a system that allows for juror bias during deliberations to go undetected threatens a defendant’s most crucial constitutional rights. Thus, when juror bias threatens to interfere with a defendant’s rights to a fair trial and impartial jury, there is a prevalent need for the judicial system to step in and mitigate the effects of juror bias. …

Insurrection And Black Political Participation, Brandon Hasbrouck

Scholarly Articles

The Reconstruction Congress envisioned a comprehensive set of rights and structural protections in the Fourteenth Amendment to establish and preserve a multiracial democracy. The Fourteenth Amendment’s third section, the Insurrection Clause, may seldom have been enforced in recent memory, but it remains a vital part of the Amendment’s framework. The Insurrection Clause bars any state or federal government official who participates in a rebellion or insurrection after taking an oath to support the Constitution from serving in such a position again. In Trump v. Anderson, the Supreme Court was given a choice to either enforce the Insurrection Clause’s protection …

The Legacy Of Ferguson: Building Worker, Community, And Student Power To Respond To The Carceral State, Donna Coker, Melody Sinckler, Kira Mikes

Articles

The 2014 killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri sparked national outrage regarding police violence in Black communities. But as time passed, Ferguson came to symbolize more than another episode of law enforcement violence. A Department of Justice (DOJ) report revealed that Ferguson's city coffers relied on an intentionally extractive criminal legal system that aggressively levied fines and fees in a racially discriminatory manner. As the DOJ findings illustrate, advocates seeking to transform or abolish the criminal legal system must rigorously analyze the political economy of the carceral system in their locale.

We describe a law school course aimed at …

An Eye For An Eye Makes A Vigilant Society, Liam C. Preyer

Capstone Showcase

Vigilantism is one of the oldest practices of mankind; for as long as there have been moral and legal laws to govern us and live by, there have been individuals who have sought justice outside these systems. Vigilantism is the response to failures in the justice system, and in the United States in particular, we have seen examples from the Western Frontier to the modern-day digital landscape. This paper will explore the nature of vigilante justice through historical, psychological, media-driven, legal, and digital lenses. We will explore how cultural narratives, media influences, government actions, and psychological motivations have shaped the …