Digital Commons Network^™

Evaluating Reliability In Resources [Library], Christopher Mchale

Open Educational Resources

This assignment was developed for students in CJF 101 Criminal Justice who attend a 1-hour library session. This session is aligned with the Integrative and Global Learning core competencies.

This session seeks to introduce students to critical evaluation as the important skill that involves questioning different elements of an information resource to determine its authority on the topic it addresses. Students will practice this process by engaging in a discussion about the reliability of a specific resource. They will be encouraged to contribute to an in depth evaluation of a resource as a group.

This session will give students the …

Collaborating Across The Walls: A Community Approach To Parole Justice, Michelle Lewin, Nora Carroll

City University of New York Law Review

No abstract provided.

Reclaiming Restorative Justice: An Alternate Paradigm For Justice, Shailly Agnihotri, Cassie Veach

City University of New York Law Review

No abstract provided.

Police Brutality, The Law & Today's Social Justice Movement: How The Lack Of Police Accountability Has Fueled #Hashtag Activism, Corinthia A. Carter

City University of New York Law Review

No abstract provided.

Silent Struggle: Constitutional Violations Against The Hearing Impaired In New York State Prisons, Farina Mendelson

City University of New York Law Review

No abstract provided.

Classified Information: The Newsletter Of The Lloyd Sealy Library, Lloyd Sealy Library, Cuny John Jay College Of Criminal Justice

Reports and Publications from John Jay College

Classified Information was a publication that informed the College about Library services, personnel, upcoming events, new technologies, and available resources.

Patriarchy And Varieties Of Violence Against Women: A Contextual Analysis, Margaret Schmuhl

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Violence against women (VAW) is a widespread social problem affecting nearly two million women in the United States each year (Tjaden & Thoennes, 2000). In recent years, feminist criminologists have called for the ‘resurrection’ of patriarchy as a theoretical explanation of VAW women (Hunnicutt, 2009) suggesting that the prior literature’s focus on gender inequality in social institutions must be broadened to include patriarchy’s ideological element. The empirical literature on VAW mostly examines the effects of gender inequality on rape and femicide often neglecting more common forms of violence that women experience. In addition, while there are some exceptions, this literature …

Hatred Simmering In The Melting Pot: Hate Crime In New York City, 1995-2010, Colleen E. Mills

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Hate crime proves prevalent in American society, inflicting a variety of harms on victims as well as society at large. Scholars have long sought to understand the motivations and conditions behind hate crime offending. Green and his colleagues conducted the classic neighborhood studies examining the conditions that foster hate crime (Green, Glaser, & Rich, 1998; Green, Strolovich, & Wong, 1998; Green, Strolovitch, Wong, & Bailey). Using data from the New York Police Department’s Hate Crimes Task Force, the current study replicates and extends Green's neighborhood studies by investigating hate crime in New York City from 1995 to 2010. This study …

Preventing Sexual Violence Where It Most Often Occurs: An Investigation Of The Situational And Structural Components Of Child Sexual Abuse In Residential Settings, Nicole Colombino

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Given that sex offenders tend to perpetrate crimes against people they know (e.g., Greenfield, 1997) and first encounter victims in residential locations (Colombino, Mercado, Levenson, & Jeglic, 2011), it is important that research examine the circumstances of sexual offenses within residential settings. Although previous research has examined the perpetration patterns of sexual offenses against children, especially related to grooming tactics (e.g., Conte, Wolf, & Smith, 1989) and situational factors (e.g., Wortley & Smallbone, 2006), there are few studies that specifically examine the correlates of child sexual abuse within residential settings. This type of data would allow for the development of …

Non-Contact Sex Offenders And Public Perception The Importance Of Victim Type And Crime Location, Chelsea Gold

Student Theses

It is estimated that 10% of Americans will be the victim of a non-contact sex offense in their lifetime. Non-contact sexual offenses include unsolicited exposure to sexual situations, verbal and behavioral sexual harassment, threats, and unsolicited use of a person’s image in a sexual manner. This study will specifically look at exhibitionism, voyeurism, and frotteurism. Historically these sex crimes have been considered nuisance behaviors, however, some recent research suggests that these crimes may negatively impact the victims. This study experimentally examined people’s perceptions of non-contact sex offenses and the type of consequences that should be incurred for these crimes. Further, …

You Learn What You Live: Prevalence Of Childhood Adversity In The Lives Of Juveniles Arrested For Sexual Offenses, Jill S. Levenson, Michael Baglivio, Kevin T. Wolff, Nathan Epps, William Royall, Katherine C. Gomez, Dahlia Kaplan

Publications and Research

Social workers often find themselves working with children or adolescents who have been victims of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), including youths who have ended up in the juvenile justice system. Childhood trauma has been linked to negative health, mental health, and behavioral outcomes across the lifespan. The aim of this study was to examine the prevalence rates of child maltreatment and household dysfunction in the lives of juveniles who have been arrested for sexual offenses (JSO; n = 6,549). ACE prevalence rates for JSOs were compared by gender to juveniles arrested for other crimes, to adults arrested for sexual offenses, …

An Investigation Of Public Injection Drug Use In New York City: A Mixed-Methods Study, Taeko M. Frost

Dissertations and Theses

Background: Drug use and injection-related harms are on the rise in the United States (US). As a result, new outbreaks of HIV and viral hepatitis C (HCV) attributed to injection drug use have been identified across the country. In addition to HIV and HCV, skin and soft tissue infection (SSTIs) that result from risky injection practices lead to preventable and costly emergency department (ED) visits. The concurrent opioid overdose epidemic has prompted a national conversation on how to effectively address drug-related harms and associated costs. International studies have identified that the place a person injects is related to adverse health …

Education Is Transformation: The Impact Of Attitudes, Robert Decaul

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

What truly informs success? Is it one’s education, career type, and socioeconomic status? I believe that more than ever before these three criteria appear to define our understanding of what success is. However, the development and transformation of education in the United States, which is marred by racism, has historically disadvantaged segments of our population especially in cities with a predominantly black population. New Orleans being a perfect example. Hurricane Katrina put the spotlight on education in New Orleans as the storm’s devastation of the city exposed the myriad of problems education was facing. This thesis is an exploration of …

Criminal Responsibility: Meta-Analysis And Study Space, Lauren E. Kois

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Criminal responsibility (CR; i.e., sanity) has garnered significant research attention over the years. While some variables predicting insanity outcomes are consistent, others are not. Study-level characteristics, such as sample selection, variability in the operational definition of insanity, or other unknown influences may explain discrepant findings. It is critical to consolidate these variables and systematically assess differences in methodology to understand the state of the literature and to guide future research. As such, I conducted the first meta-analysis and study space analysis (see Malpass et al., 2008) in this area. Only 16 studies met inclusion criteria for the meta-analysis. Summary effects …

Desisting In Prison: Myth And The Council For Unity Model, Kevin Moran

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation is a qualitative examination of aspects of the desistance process among incarcerated men in both prison and jail. Data collection for this project occurred in and around the correctional version of the Council For Unity program, which is also examined in this write up. The premise of this project is that a minority of men do desist whilst incarcerated and thus the research presented here analyzes how prisoners act towards their attempts to desist from crime in terms of the meaning this process has for them, their interaction with others during this process, and the interpretative progression by …

Una Democracia Aterrorrizada: Justicia Y Afecto En Los Textos De La Transición Democrática Argentina, Mariana Graciano

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation analyzes the links between justice and affect in some of the most emblematic texts of the democratic transition in Argentina. Films, novels and photos are incorporated here as texts or complex utterances, as they constitute a framework of signs with a communicative intention that makes sense in a given context. In order to analyze these links, I consider terms from the field of transitional justice (reconciliation, forgiveness, restoration) and specific affects (terror, empathy, guilt, resentment, tenderness, happiness and cruelty).

The key questions guiding this thesis are: what links did visual arts and literature have in relation to the …

The New American Slavery: Capitalism And The Ghettoization Of American Prisons As A Profitable Corporate Business, David A. Liburd

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The labor of enslaved Africans and Black Americans played a large part in the history of colonial America, with the American plantation being the epicenter for all that was to be produced. While the two have never been completely tied together, capitalism and modern day slavery have been linked with one another. Some analysis sees slavery as a remote form of capitalism, a substitute, to an antiquated form of labor in the modern world.

Slave plantations adopted a new concentration in size and management, referred to by W.E. DuBois as a change "from a family institution to an industrial system."1 …

Assessing The Cyborg Center: Assemblage-Based, Feminist Frameworks Toward Socially Just Writing Center Assessments, Erin M. Andersen

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation will broaden the purview of recent scholarship pertaining to socially just writing assessments by making connections among assemblage theory and materialism, studies of ecological and anti-racist assessments, and studies of writing center work, to ground theoretical conversations in everyday practices. Focusing on systemic oppression in the neoliberal university and consciously using assemblage theory as a mechanism for confronting multiliteracies allows writing center directors to see the constant movement and reshaping of students’ knowledges as they approach different environments, different courses, and different genres. Notions of intra-relatedness and intertwinings evident in assemblage theory are essential to this dissertation’s consideration …

The Long-Term Consequences Of Child Abuse And Neglect In Men, Robert A. Beattey Jr.

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Research indicates that the annual incidence of child maltreatment is around 10% and that more than one-quarter of children have, at least indirectly, experienced some form of violence. Prospective studies find that in high-income countries, like the United States, there are moderate correlations between childhood maltreatment and low educational achievement, low skilled employment, depression, suicide attempts, and alcohol problems, as well as strong correlations with obesity, behavior problems in childhood and adolescence, and criminal behavior. Despite the high costs of child abuse and neglect—both direct and indirect—and decades of research and public health, justice, and social service investment in prevention …

Racial Microaggressions And Health Status: The Moderating Effect Of Emotion Regulation, Kristin C. Davidoff

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The current study seeks to explore the relationship between racial microaggressions and physical and mental health. Significant racial disparities in health status persist in the United States (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2013). Previous research asserts that racial discrimination negatively impacts physical health (Williams, Neighbors, & Jackson, 2003), and studies of subtle discrimination support an inverse relationship with mental health (Borrell et al., 2006). The immediate process following the commission of a microaggression and the target’s internal response may have significant consequences for physical and mental health. The purpose of the current study is twofold: (1) to examine …

Harm And Victim Age As Factors In The Determination Of Intentionality And Culpability, Donal David Barnard Jr.

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In the United States criminal justice system, jurors are directed to determine a defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt by establishing both the act of committing a crime (actus reus) and the culpable mental state of the defendant (mens rea), that is, the defendant’s intentionality. The role of a juror in a criminal case is that of a factfinder, deciding whether the two elements of the crime have been met. Criminal cases where jurors are asked to decide the facts vary in the harm that resulted. The more severe the harm, the greater the perceived injustice. This …

Trump’S “America First” Trade Policy And The Politics Of U.S. International Investment Agreements, Jesse Liss

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Previous sociological studies on U.S. trade policy institutions concluded that “free trade” political actors had durable power to determine U.S. trade policy. This conclusion was proven wrong when the Trump administration promised “a new direction” and to implement an “America First” trade policy. My dissertation serves to explain the U.S.’ political transition away from “free trade” and towards “nationalist” trade policy. I do this by examining the politics of U.S. international investment agreements, which are central to U.S. trade policy. As case studies, I use the investment agreements from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Trans-Pacific Partnership …

Bodies Of Knowledge: An Anatomy And Kinesiology Of The American Prison Nation, 'Human'-Making, And Twenty-First-Century Techno-Gods, Lyndsey Karr

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The social production of hegemonic knowledge has historically been legitimized in relation to the sanctioned status of the ‘Human’.[1] Beginning with the American Prison Industrial Complex and what sociologist Beth E. Richie conceptualizes as the “prison nation,” I will show the ‘human’ as a contingent and composite status appearing along a spectrum of Flesh, Body, and ‘Human’ (Flesh-Body-‘Human’) statuses and subjectivity.

Bringing this ‘Human’ continuum into conversation with twenty-first-century media, (micro)computational technologies, and contemporary knowledge and social economies, I expand the notion, reach, and scale of the American “prison nation.” Following Mark Hansen’s treatment of twenty-first-century digital media, I …

Genealogy Of The Concept Of "Hate Crime": The Cultural Implications Of Legal Innovation And Social Change, Roslyn Myers

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The term "hate crime" is new to legislative and public discourse, as well as legal and social science scholarship. A decade after the concept of a "hate crime" was introduced in Congress, the 2009 Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act (HCPA), to punish criminal actors who target victims because of their characteristics (race, color ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, gender, gender identity, or disability). Using relevant archival sources, this project uses genealogical qualitative methods to examine the interplay of cultural elements manifested in this provocative term, which reflect dominance and subjugation among social groups (In- and Out-Groups) …

Individual Levels Of Bias And Immigration Policies In The United States: A Test And Extension Of The Dual Processing Model Of Bias, Lorraine Phillips

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The present study was a test and extension of the Dual Process Model of bias on attitudes toward immigrants and immigration policy in the United States. The Dual Process Model predicts that people who score higher on either the Social Dominance Orientation scale or the Right Wing Authoritarian scale will hold more negative attitudes toward immigrants, particularly if immigrants are viewed as a threat. A sample of 315 participants from across the United States was recruited using Amazon’s M Turk site. This study used a combination of attitudinal measures, policy scales, and experimental vignettes. The study found that the Dual …

Prescription Opioid Misuse: Initiation, Sources Of Supply, And The Role Of Medical Providers, Alexandra Harocopos

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Over the past 25 years, opioid analgesic misuse has increased dramatically in the U.S., with concomitant deleterious effects on health. Results from the 2014 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) reported that an estimated 4.3 million people aged 12 or older were current non-medical users of opioid analgesics, representing 1.6 percent of the population (SAMHSA, 2015), and unintentional drug poisoning deaths now surpass motor vehicle accidents as the leading cause of injury death (CDC 2014). Opioid analgesics are produced in the U.S. within a system of tight control and any entity or person manufacturing, distributing, prescribing, or dispensing …

The Financial Crisis And White-Collar Crime: An Examination Of Brokerage-Failure And Its Link To Ponzi Schemes, Marie Springer

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The purpose of this study is to provide an understanding of federal level Ponzi schemes, the perpetrators of the schemes and the relationship to the financial crisis of 2007 to 2010. The Ponzi schemes have been classified into two overall types of frauds, those that are intentional frauds those that are accidental frauds. The Accidental frauds are schemes that develop when a legitimate business fails, they fall into two specific typologies: Brokerage-failure; Business-failure. The intentional schemes are a variety of typologies such as False-brokerages, intentional confidence schemes, affinity frauds and cybercurrency frauds. The data quantifies characteristics of the schemes and …

Understanding Resilience Strategies Among Minor-Attracted Individuals, Allyson Walker

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The field of criminology generally assumes that attraction to minors is synonymous with sex offending. This erroneous and reductive assumption has led to a lack of exploration into the lives of individuals who are attracted to minors and who live their lives without offending. The lack of research on this topic reinforces the already overwhelming stigma against this population, and has limited our understanding of how individuals who are attracted to minors strategize to refrain from offending. This knowledge may also help others struggling with these attractions to remain resilient.

This dissertation is a result of efforts to learn more …

Ideas And Conversation About Gender In The Public Sector, Maria J. D'Agostino, Nicole Elias

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Gender Differences In The Leadership Styles Of Mpa Directors, Meghna Sabharwal, Helisse Levine, Maria J. D’Agostino

Publications and Research

A growing body of literature has documented leadership styles by gender. This study examines if directors of Master of Public Administration (MPA) programs accredited by the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration exhibit gender differences in leadership styles. Such differences may affect the implementation of public administration and how effective MPA directors are in achieving positive outcomes. Using a mixed methods approach—specifically, exploratory sequential design utilizing qualitative data and analysis, followed by a quantitative survey—we find that there are some gendered differences among public administration directors. In particular, we find that women directors are significantly more likely …