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Criminal Justice Update - June 2023, Michael Klatt

Criminal Justice Updates

The Criminal Justice Update is a monthly newsletter created by the Adams County Bar Foundation Fellow providing updates in criminal justice policy coming from Pennsylvania's courts and legislature as well as the US Supreme Court.

Contents:

• Updates from PA Governor's Office (no updates this month)
• Updates from the PA Legislature
• Updates from the Courts
• U.S. Supreme Court
• PA Supreme Court
• PA Superior Court

Pavement Condition Survey Using Drone Technology, Lerose Lane, Dingxin Cheng

Mineta Transportation Institute

Timely repairs of pavement defects are essential in protecting both public road and highway systems. Identification of pavement distresses is necessary for planning pavement repairs. This has previously been performed by engineers surveying the roadways visually in the field. As drone usage has progressed, it has become clear that drones are a valuable tool to enhance visual documentation, improve project communication, and provide various data for processing. The use of drone technology has improved both the speed and accuracy of capturing data. Available software has allowed the data to be processed and analyzed in an office environment. This report summarizes …

A Resource Guide For Historic Sundown Town Resolutions, Zoning Code Updates, And General Plan Policies, Anna Rago

City and Regional Planning

James W. Loewen’s book Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism, released in 2005, calls out cities across the United States for their historically discriminatory practices of excluding Black and other non-white individuals from living within city borders, either through formal exclusionary policies or informal methods. Cities often enforced this exclusionary practice through violence and intimidation, leading to “all-white” communities throughout the United States. The belief was that these communities should be “sundown” or “sunset” towns, where people of color were not allowed after dark. Loewen’s book and the following movement awakened individuals, companies, and entire cities to take …

The Pacific Sentinel, June 2023, Portland State University. Student Publications Board

The Pacific Sentinel

Editor: Dan Chilton

Articles in this issue include:

• Letter From the Editor
• Android Flowers of the Future
• Gary Numan Tours North America
• Emily King, the Queen of Hearts
• Who Protects Us?
• The Landing to Close Its Doors
• The First (& Forgotten) 'R'
• Celebrate the Legacy, Ignore the History
• Donuts & Dao's
• About Town
• What We're Enjoying

Stereotype Threat: A Proposed Process Model On The Impact Of Stereotype Threat On Self-Efficacy And Minority Performance, Sherese Stewart

Dissertations

Kingdon and Cassen (2010) indicated that historically there has been concern about the educational achievement of minority individuals. There is a need for research about the psychological mechanisms that play a part in the minority achievement gap. This document explored how stereotype threat impacts self-efficacy and minority academic performance and implications for cultural mistrust, imposter phenomenon, and self-fulfilling prophecies. All these factors have the propensity to place minority individuals at risk for low performance, leading to gaps in education. The population of focus for this review consisted of African Americans, Latinx individuals, and women. There has been limited research about …

The Role Of The Armed Forces Of The Philippines (Afp) In Disaster Response And Adaptation Strategies To Climatic Disasters In Manila, Edmundo Nicolas Jr.

Geography Masters Research Papers

This study described the roles of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in Disaster Risk Reduction Management (DRRM) in Metro Manila and how climate-induced hazards impact the role of the military. It used a qualitative approach, which involved semi- structured interviews among AFP officers and barangay leaders with expertise and experience in DRRM and an analysis of selected policy documents and military doctrine. These methods revealed that: (1) the military acts as a political first-aid, since they are the first responders – thus, the face of the local government – in climactic disasters during peacetime; (2) the military is …

Fremont Bridgehead Reclamation Project, Ananda Gordon-Peabody, Meg Grzybowski, Ian Meisner, Grace Dudley, Paul Ahrns

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

The Fremont Bridgehead Reclamation Project aims to promote the redesign of Kerby Avenue I-405 Freeway ramps and the return of ODOT land to community-oriented uses with the hopes of providing economic restitution to displaced community members. It intends to offer an action roadmap to advance the case for ramp redesign and potential alternatives for reclaimed land uses. Collaborating with the Eliot Neighborhood Association, the student team formulated recommendations, actionable steps, and future visions for the site based on stakeholder interviews and engagement feedback. This project intends to address historical and current inequities with the goal of advancing justice, restitution, and …

Repurposing Retail To Bring Downtown Back: A Recovery Plan For Portland's South Downtown, Jamie Arnau, Luis Caro, Matthew Flodin, Amy Ly, Thiery Nanetangar, Valeria Tapia

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

The Revive Collaborative team is creating a plan to revitalize the South Downtown neighborhood and promote economic opportunity for local business owners. PSU’s vacant retail spaces present the opportunity to restructure and reimagine how these spaces might be used to uplift the neighborhood, capitalize on its existing strengths, and increase the district’s livability. Public engagement with business owners, stakeholders, students, and residents combined with current best practices have informed Revive Collaborative’s suite of recommendations for how PSU can help revitalize South Downtown from both a broad policy and granular program perspective.

Exploring Flexibility In Philanthropic Funding For Place-Based Efforts To Improve Community Health: Reflections On A New York State Multisite Initiative, Beth C. Weitzman, Courtney Abrams, Bronwyn Starr, Irfan Hasan, Amy Shire, Brian Elbel, Carolyn Berry

The Foundation Review

Place-based efforts represent a key approach for philanthropies committed to addressing social determinants of health. This article shares insights and reflections from an experience funding and evaluating the Healthy Neighborhoods Initiative, a $22 million, six-year, place-based effort by two grantmaking foundations in nine geographically and demographically diverse communities across New York state. The initiative aimed to facilitate healthy living by fostering environmental and policy changes to enhance access to nourishing, affordable food and effective spaces for physical activity. Strategies to attain the goals were identified by actors most familiar with local community conditions. The funders provided substantial technical assistance, opportunities …

Community Building As A Philosophy, Not An Initiative, Anne C. Kubisch, Kasi Allen, Max Gimbel

The Foundation Review

What happens when a foundation invests in community building for the long haul? The Ford Family Foundation, a rural embedded funder in southern Oregon, has made that transition over the past decade. The result is a transformed organization with a 10-year strategic plan focused on helping rural communities build the futures that they want to see — places where children and families can thrive.

The foundation is pursuing community building not as a stand-alone strategy or “initiative,” but as a philosophy that guides local community development efforts based on capacity building and grantmaking based on partnerships. The shift to a …

The Punitive Laboratory Of Neoliberalism: A Cross-National Examination, Beth A. Fera

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

A large body of research has been produced to explain global punitive trends in recent decades. Neoliberalism, an economic philosophy expressed by market deregulation, privatization, and the retrenchment of social supports, has been offered as an explanation for increases in cross-national punitiveness. According to neoliberal penality theory, neoliberalism has shifted principles guiding punishment practices and the treatment of offenders, which has resulted in harsher national responses to crime. However, many tenets of this theory have not yet been tested empirically. Drawing heavily on propositions from neoliberal penality, group-threat, and penal populism literature, this dissertation examines the relationship between economic shifts, …

Misogyny In Contemporary Populist Authoritarianism, Maxine Mannheim

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The regression of rights for women and the LGBTQ community, as well as the freedoms of religious and ethnic minorities are coinciding with the global rise in populist authoritarianism. However, the link between misogyny, gendered narratives, and populist authoritarianism remains understudied and requires further elaboration. There can be no full investigation of modern populism, nor the political leaders who utilize it, without an understanding of the gender dynamics that permeate populist and authoritarian politics. I argue that misogyny is interwoven in populist authoritarianism, and that it is a defining characteristic observable in the ways in which leaders manipulate the emotions …

A Statewide Analysis Of The Impact Of Restitution And Fees On Juvenile Recidivism In Florida Across Race & Ethnicity, Alex R. Piquero, Michael T. Baglivio, Kevin T. Wolff

Publications and Research

Whether the imposition of monetary sanctions is related to juvenile recidivism is explored overall and across race and ethnicity. Leveraging a statewide sample, logistic regression was used to predict fees and restitution assignment based on youth/case characteristics, hierarchical linear and logistic random-effects regression examined the association between neighborhood characteristics with fees and restitution, and propensity score matching examined whether fees and/or restitution are related to reoffending. No race/ethnic differences were found in the proportion of youth receiving court fees, yet when fees were administered both black and Hispanic youth received higher fees. Neighborhood characteristics have minimal impact on whether (or …

Weird Winter Weather In The Anthropocene: How Volatile Temperatures Shape Violent Crime, Christopher Thomas, Kevin T. Wolff

Publications and Research

Purpose: Current evidence suggests volatile temperatures are becoming more common because of climate change and can be expected to become even more frequent in the future. By focusing on recent temperature variability, we attempt to estimate one important dimension of the impact of climate change on violent crime. We also explore whether sudden upward temperature anomalies have stronger positive impacts on violent crime in the coldest months of the year, as routine activities are likely to change more drastically during this period.

Methods: This study explores the association between sudden temperature anomalies (both upward and downward) and the daily incidence …

Examining The Determinants Of Timeliness In Crises Policy Responses: The Case Of Covid-19 In Egypt, Abdelhalim Abdalla

Theses and Dissertations

Timely responses to crises and pandemics play a significant role in navigating and minimizing the adverse impacts of such critical periods on the public and governments worldwide. COVID-19 could show and prove how a single virus originating in a single country can rapidly spread throughout the world, transforming an epidemic in China into a global pandemic. The virus caused more than 6.5 million deaths and around 660 million confirmed cases worldwide, according to the WHO, and sparked the worst economic catastrophe globally in more than a century, as estimated by the World Bank. Evidence suggests that the extent of the …

The Effect Of Information On Blame Attributed To Four Entities In A Police Shooting, Pauline Meyer

Student Theses and Dissertations

Police shootings continue to negatively impact the public perception of police. When it comes to attributing blame in a police shooting, both internal and external factors affect how much blame a person places on the entities involved. One hundred and twenty Arkansas State undergraduate students enrolled in a psychology or criminology course were randomly assigned to one of the three type of information groups: the episodic, thematic-pattern of violence (TPV), or the thematic-police reform (TPR) group, and then read about the Stephon Clark shooting in 2018. Participants attributed blame scores to the four entities involved: Stephon Clark, the police chief, …

Developing A Strategic Plan For Municipal Housing Infill, Robert G. Vine

Certified Public Manager® Applied Research

In order for some cities to be competitive for growth, there is a need to emphasize efforts on creating infill. Swapping abandoned, run down houses for new ones benefits the immediate neighborhood and ripples outward through the entire community. Municipalities can proactively work with stakeholders to create a strategic plan to rehabilitate these properties and breathe new life into an existing neighborhood. By stepping into the role of promotor, designer, facilitator, and coordinator, a city can create an environment that is attractive to builders and developers, add housing, and add value to the community. Cities that successfully create partnerships with …

Reinvest In Us: Reimagine The Role Of Police In The U.S., Jamil Davis

College Honors Program

In America, we must question and understand what is “law and order.” Over centuries, America developed a racialized slave-class politically and socially through power and force. Police are the foot soldiers of maintaining law and order as Slave Patrols evolved into the State Police. In my thesis, I discuss how their efforts in traffic enforcement enable a dominant class to target and enslave the oppressed class. Traffic control leads to 18 million interactions a year which is 34 people a minute. The numbers of interactions along with persistent practices regarding discrimination cause police to be a social liability. When bad …

Collusive Prosecution, Ben A. Mcjunkin, J.J. Prescott

Law & Economics Working Papers

In this Article, we argue that increasingly harsh collateral consequences have surfaced an underappreciated and undertheorized dynamic of criminal plea bargaining. Collateral consequences that mostly or entirely benefit third parties (such as other communities or other states) create an interest asymmetry that prosecutors and defendants can exploit in plea negotiations. In particular, if a prosecutor and a defendant can control the offense of conviction (often through what some term a “fictional plea”), they can work together to evade otherwise applicable collateral consequences, such as deportation or sex-offender registration and notification. Both parties arguably benefit: Prosecutors can leverage collateral consequences to …

Community Conversations: Using Focus Groups And Qualitative Surveys To Understand The Aspirations, Challenges And Solutions Of Under-Represented Community Groups In A Tri-County Region., Curtis J. Vanderwaal, Emma D. Vanderwaal

Adventist Human-Subject Researchers Association

Community needs assessments often fail to include the voices of underrepresented groups. Student and faculty research teams analyzed qualitative data from nine focus groups and 364 qualitative survey responses. Using a constant comparative methodology, findings explore the aspirations, challenges, and solutions from these community groups.

Challenges Law Enforcement Faces In Utilizing Community Policing To Counter Violent Extremism, Steven Brett Beams

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

There has been a rise in violent extremist attacks throughout America since the attack on the World Trade Center in 2001. However, law enforcement has been challenged in developing means and methods to combat the rise in terrorist activities. Using and enhancing community policing strategies have shown promising results in identifying terroristic individuals. A literature review shows that community policing strategies have been effective in combating and reducing violence and may be effective in mitigating terrorist activities. Community policing can be a necessary means for identifying radical individuals involved in terrorist activities. This research proposes to discover an effective and …

Homegrown Stl 5th Annual Regional Summit On The State Of Opportunity For Black Boys And Young Men: Organizing For Solutions That Unleash The Elite Potential Of Young Black Males, Sean Joe, Maribeth Clifton, Demeisha Carlton-Brown

Center for Social Development Research

Convened annually, HomeGrown StL’s annual regional summit brings together service providers, government officials, private-sector partners, and residents to strengthen, align, and accelerate local collective-impact strategies that support the health, development, and economic mobility of Black boys and young men in St. Louis City and in St. Louis County.

This report summarizes developments from the 5th Regional Summit on the State of Opportunity for Black Boys and Young Men: Organizing for Solutions That Unleash the Elite Potential of Young Black Males, which convened June 9, 2022. In addition to describing Priority Objectives and Key Results developed during the summit, the report …

The Journeys Of Women In Local Elected Office: From Community Engagement To Making Meaningful Contributions, Andrea Marr

Dissertations

Women remain underrepresented across every level of elected office in the United States. More than 30 years after the supposed “Year of the Woman,” women hold less than 30% of the elected positions in local, state, and federal office. In the past, researchers attributed the paucity of women in office to structural barriers, including sexism in the electorate, fundraising difficulties, and discrimination by party gate keepers. A growing body of research, however, attributes the dearth of female politicians to a lack of political ambition among women and to gender socialization that prevents women from seeing themselves as political leaders.

The …

Advancing United Nation’S Gender Mainstreaming: Female Peacekeepers In Haiti And Liberia, Evening S. Huddleston

Senior Theses

The United Nations (UN) is making efforts to implement a gender mainstreaming perspective throughout its organization, specifically including women in the peace processes. One aspect of this is increasing the number of female peacekeepers. To determine the success of these efforts, this paper explores whether the lives of women and girls were improved during UN peacekeeping missions in Haiti and Liberia. Using women’s and girls’ participation in education, law enforcement, and politics, as well as the Gender Development Index and the Gender Inequality Index, this paper finds that including women in peacekeeping roles adds a new dimension of skills and …

Advancements In Technology To Solve Cold Cases, Melissa Hernandez

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the crisis of cold case investigations and discuss the advancements being made in this area over the last four decades. Technology such as CCTV cameras, DNA Phenotyping, and Genetic Genealogy have allowed many cases to be reopened but there are still not enough resources or funds to close the immense number of unsolved cases. There are also ethical concerns being addressed to allow for this technology to continue to be applicable. In some instances, it takes a combination of preexisting technology and new applications to work around previous barriers in investigations. Despite …

Blood’S Evidentiary Value Based On Its Biological And Physical Properties, Samantha Boman

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

Prior to 1955, bloodstain evidence was considered to be unreliable and therefore inadmissible in a court of law. Today, DNA profiles can be derived from leukocytes, which comprise less than 1% of our total blood volume. Aside from genetic profiles, the biological and physical properties of blood can reveal a great deal to investigators. The first landmark case to utilize blood’s class characteristics reliably was in the State of Ohio vs. Samuel Sheppard. This paper explains how viscosity, surface tension, flow, velocity, and Newtonian laws of motion can be used to determine: the relative locations of victims and offenders, handedness …

The Crisis Of Femicides In Mexico, Alejandra Vela

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

Femicides are a growing issue in Mexico. These murders are intertwined with the incompetence of authorities, poverty, corruption, and organized crime. Authorities tend to blame victims by not taking missing reports seriously, nor do they conduct searches in these urgent situations. Authorities do not have DNA databases, space in morgues, and have little forensic science training. Ways of identifying remains involve odontology, bitemarks, and saliva. These provide a means of identifying through individual characteristics and DNA. Evidence is usually mishandled and not tested, or purposely lost to stop the investigation, thus, involving corruption. Criminal organizations, known as cartels, bribe authorities …

Discovering A Pathway To Reestablishing Policing By Consent In The United States, Everett Glynn

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

Policing in the 21^st century faces issues with leadership and accountability within officer ranks. Police organizations increasingly resemble paramilitary organizations, from their hierarchy to their eagerness to use force. Investigations into the conduct of the Minneapolis, Chicago, and Ferguson police departments uncover widespread, paternal issues of abuse from police officers. The abuse includes paternal excessive force, discrimination, and even the social media targeting of community members of color Solutions proposed from President Obama’s Task Force on 21^st Century Policing, combined with a proposition to espouse Sir Robert Peel’s Principles of community policing, offer a pathway toward regaining the …

Criminal Injustice: An Examination Of Racial Profiling And Discriminatory Police Practices In Canada And The United States, Patricia Advincula

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

The Black Lives Matter movement swept across the United States after the murders of black people at the hands of law enforcement. Not fully acknowledged in the media are the police brutality cases that have also occurred in Canada, a country that prides itself on tolerance, acceptance, and diversity. Police brutality is an unfortunate reality that stems from racial profiling, one of the many symptoms of historically oppressive institutions. In this paper, I will examine police coercion and racial profiling in Canada and the United States. This paper will employ a theoretical framework of conflict theory and minority threat hypothesis …

The Labor And Educational Effects Of Daca: Evidence From California, Oscar A. Alonso Guerra

Master's Theses

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, implemented in 2012, has been a subject of intense debate. While much research has examined the early effects of DACA, this study contributes to the literature by analyzing more recent data on the labor and educational outcomes of DACA recipients in California. Using a difference-in-differences approach, I aim to uncover significant changes in the labor market and educational outcomes of DACA recipients over time. I find those eligible for DACA experienced noteworthy effects compared to those who were ineligible. Specifically, they exhibit a significant 3.1 percentage point increase in the likelihood of …