Digital Commons Network^™

Group Threat, Police Officer Diversity And The Deadly Use Of Police Force, Joscha Legewie, Jeffrey Fagan

Faculty Scholarship

Officer-involved killings and racial bias in policing are controversial political issues. Prior research indicates that (perceived) group threat related to political mobilization, economic competition, and the threat of black crime are is an important explanations for variations in police killings across cities in the United States. We argue that a diverse police force that proportionally represents the population it serves mitigates group threat and thereby reduces the number of officer-involved killings. Count models support our argument. They show that group threat is largely driven by the threat of black crime. Black-on-white homicides increase officer-involved killings of African Americans but black-on-black …

Stops And Stares: Street Stops, Surveillance, And Race In The New Policing, Jeffrey Fagan, Anthony A. Braga, Rod K. Brunson, April Pattavina

Faculty Scholarship

The use of proactive tactics to disrupt criminal activities, such as Terry street stops and concentrated misdemeanor arrests, are essential to the "new policing." This model applies complex metrics, strong management, and aggressive enforcement and surveillance to focus policing on high crime risk persons and places. The tactics endemic to the "newpolicing"gave rise in the 1990s to popular, legal, political, and social science concerns about disparate treatment of minority groups in their everyday encounters with law enforcement. Empirical evidence showed that minorities were indeed stopped and arrested more frequently than similarly situated Whites, even when controlling for local social and …

Young Adulthood As A Transitional Legal Category: Science, Social Change, And Justice Policy, Elizabeth S. Scott, Richard J. Bonnie, Laurence Steinberg

Faculty Scholarship

In the past decade, much attention has focused on developmental brain research and its implications for the regulation of crime. Public and policy interest has been directed primarily toward juveniles. In light of recent research, courts and legislatures increasingly have rejected the punitive response of the 1990s and embraced a developmental approach to young offenders. Of particular importance in propelling this trend has been the framework offered by the U.S. Supreme Court in a series of Eighth Amendment opinions that have rejected harsh adult sentences for juveniles. These decisions, supported by adolescent brain research, rested on two empirically based principles: …

Christopher Columbus Langdell And The Public Law Curriculum, Peter L. Strauss

Faculty Scholarship

Teaching materials in public law courses typically rely almost wholly on judicial opinions as their primary materials, amplified by selections from the secondary literature. Constitutional text may appear independently, but statutory text rarely does, and the materials of the legislative process are generally absent. In administrative law course books, administrative opinions and the materials of rulemaking rarely fever appear. Yet these are primary materials with which lawyers must deal with increasing frequency. Lawyers encounter statutes, rules, administrative policies, and administrative disputes without judicial guidance, looking forward and not backward in time. The growth of courses in legislation and the regulatory …

Working Themselves Impure: A Life Cycle Theory Of Legal Theories, Jeremy K. Kessler, David E. Pozen

Faculty Scholarship

Prescriptive legal theories have a tendency to cannibalize themselves. As they develop into schools of thought, they become not only increasingly complicated but also increasingly compromised, by their own normative lights. Maturation breeds adulteration. The theories work themselves impure.

This Article identifies and diagnoses this evolutionary phenomenon. We develop a stylized model to explain the life cycle of certain particularly influential legal theories. We illustrate this life cycle through case studies of originalism, textualism, popular constitutionalism, and cost-benefit analysis, as well as a comparison with leading accounts of organizational and theoretical change in politics and science. And we argue that …

Reinterpreting The Status-Contract Divide: The Case Of Fiduciaries, Hanoch Dagan, Elizabeth S. Scott

Faculty Scholarship

The distinction between status and contract permeates legal analyses of categories of cooperative interpersonal interactions in which one party has particular obligations to the other. But the current binary understanding of the distinction has facilitated its use as a foil and thus undermined its conceptual and normative significance. This predicament is understandable given that the innate, comprehensive, and inalienable status as well as the wholly open-ended contract anticipated by commentators are corner — rather than core — alternatives in a liberal polity. Hence, to clarify these normative debates we introduce two further, intermediate conceptions: office and contract type. Like the …

Depression With Pain Co Morbidity Effect On Quality Of Life Among Hiv Positive Patients In Uganda: A Cross Sectional Study, Shirley Moore, Martha Sajatovic

Faculty Scholarship

Background: Depression with pain comorbidity (DPC) has not been clearly defined among HIV positive patients in sub-Saharan Africa. It still remains a challenge despite many studies in Africa documenting a high prevalence of pain and depression among people living with HIV/AIDS. Both are associated with a grave impact on the health related outcomes in this pandemic. This study aimed at determining the prevalence, factors associated and effect on quality of life of DPC among HIV positive patients. Methods: In a cross-sectional survey, 345 HIV positive patients were enrolled into the study. Using a pre-tested standardised questionnaire the presence of DPC …

Adopting The Gay Family, Cynthia Godsoe

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Common Law Fundamentals Of The Right To Abortion, Anita Bernstein

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Women Of The Wall: A Metaphor For National And Religious Identity, Pnina Lahav

Faculty Scholarship

The Women of the Wall wish to participate in communal prayer in the women’s section of the Western Wall in Jerusalem. Their practice is to pray as a group, wrap themselves in a tallit, and read from the Torah scroll. They represent Jewish pluralism in that their group includes Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and secular women. They represent openness to change in that they base their claims on Halakhic interpretation, thereby embracing the capacity of Jewish law to evolve. This article reviews the resistance of the religious and political establishment in Israel to their claim and their struggle, unsuccessful so far, …

The Psychology Of Patent Protection, Stephanie Plamondon Bair

Faculty Scholarship

This Article offers the first comprehensive assessment of the major justifications for our patent system using a behavioral psychology framework. Applying insights from the behavioral literature that I argue more accurately account for the realities of human action than previous analytical tools, I critically evaluate each of the major justifications for patents — incentive theory, disclosure theory, prospect theory, commercialization theory, patent racing theory, and non-utilitarian theories. I ask whether our current patent system is an effective regime for meeting the stated goals of these accounts. When the answer to this question is no, I again turn to the behavioral …

Assessing The Deployment Of Home Visiting: Learning From A State-Wide Survey Of Home Visiting Programs, Robert L. Fischer, Elizabeth R. Anthony, Nina Lalich, Paul Bakaki, Siran Koroukian-Hajinazarian

Faculty Scholarship

Objectives: Large-scale planning for health and human services programming is required to inform effective public policy as well as deliver services to meet community needs. The present study demonstrates the value of collecting data directly from deliverers of home visiting programs across a state. This study was conducted in response to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which requires states to conduct a needs assessment of home visiting programs for pregnant women and young children to receive federal funding. In this paper, we provide a descriptive analysis of a needs assessment of home visiting programs in Ohio. Methods: All …

Marriage Equality And The New Maternalism, Cynthia Godsoe

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Synergy And Tradition: The Unity Of Research, Service, And Teaching In Legal Education, Frank Pasquale

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Boundary Work In Environmental Law, Gregg P. Macey

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Explaining The Blurred Line Between Employment And Independent Contracting, Michael C. Harper

Faculty Scholarship

As the Reporter primarily responsible for the chapter defining the employment relationship in the recently completed Restatement of Employment Law, I thought I had fully considered and taken account of the origins and various instances of judicial confusion in distinguishing employees from independent contractors. Thus, I was especially surprised to have my understanding of the confusion substantially enhanced by Julia Tomassetti’s recent conceptually deep article. Tomassetti argues that an understanding of the unusual and contradictory nature of employment contracts and their development is necessary to explain judicial confusion when defining employment, and that it is not sufficient simply to highlight …

Evaluating Feasible And Referable Behavioral Counseling Interventions, Kurt C. Stange

Faculty Scholarship

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPTF) recognizes that behaviors have a major impact on health and well-being. Currently, the USPSTF has 11 behavioral counseling intervention (BCI) recommendations. These BCIs can be delivered in a primary care setting or patients can be referred to other clinical or community programs. Unfortunately, many recommended BCIs are infrequently and ineffectually delivered, suggesting that more evidence is needed to understand which BCIs are feasible and referable. In response, the USPSTF convened an expert forum in 2013 to inform the evaluation of BCI feasibility. This manuscript reports on findings from the forum and proposes that …

Transforming News: How Mediation Principles Can Depolarize Public Talk, Carol Pauli

Faculty Scholarship

News media interviews bring opposing voices into the public forum where, ideally, audience members can deliberate and reach democratic compromise. But in today’s politically polarized atmosphere, partisans increasingly accuse each other of being a threat to the country, and prospects for compromise have suffered. Journalists have been urged to take a more affirmative role, promoting problem-solving and opposing conflict. They have stopped short, citing professional norms that demand a stance of neutral detachment.

This Article turns to the principles of transformative mediation. Like journalism, it is detached from any goal of settlement. It aims instead at increasing the capacity of …

No Moment Wasted: The Primary-Care Visit For Adults With Diabetes And Low Socio-Economic Status, Shari D. Bolen, Paulette Sage, Adam T. Perzynski, Kurt C. Stange

Faculty Scholarship

Aim To better understand the type and range of health issues initiated by patients and providers in 'high-quality' primary-care for adults with diabetes and low socio-economic status (SES). Background Although quality of care guidelines are straightforward, diabetes visits in primary care are often more complex than adhering to guidelines, especially in adults with low SES who experience many financial and environmental barriers to good care. Methods We conducted a qualitative study using direct observation of primary-care diabetes visits at an exemplar safety net practice in 2009-2010. Findings In a mainly African American (93%) low-income population with fair cardiovascular control (mean …

Socioecological Processes In The Science Of Planetary Change, Cynthia Twyford Fowler, Cynthia Fowler

Faculty Scholarship

This presentation seeks to further understandings of human encounters with socioecological change and also of socioecological processes in the science of planetary change. In this presentation, I interpret the space-time involvements of two social groups. Using one filter, I do basic science by examining the ways Sumbanese construct the monsoonal landscapes which they communicate about, within which they move, and where they interact with other constituents of their environments. Using an alternate filter, I engage critical theory by deconstructing the ways scientists’ visualize changing landscapes with the aid of geospatial technologies. Whose purposes do geospatial scientists serve in documenting the …

Commerce, Commonality, And Contract Law: Legal Reform In A Mixed Jurisdiction, Christopher K. Odinet

Faculty Scholarship

This Article explores the tradition/reform dichotomy as it exists in certain jurisdictions that, because of their unique history and nature, are particularly susceptible to the struggle between legal tradition and legal reform — mixed jurisdictions. In order to more closely examine the tradition/reform dichotomy and its theoretical and practical effects, this Article analyzes the role that traditional legal institutions play in the legal reform process through the lens of America’s lone mixed jurisdiction — Louisiana.

By exploring Louisiana’s subtle, yet prevalent, anchor-like legal conundrum caused by the struggle between progress and tradition — the process of mooring oneself to existing …

The Civil Rights Act Of 1964 And "Legislating Morality": On Conscience, Prejudice, And Whether "Stateways" Can Change "Folkways", Linda C. Mcclain

Faculty Scholarship

Influential studies, from the 1940s and 1950s, of the problem of prejudice and how to remedy it challenged the famous assertion of nineteenth-century sociologist William Graham Sumner that “stateways don’t change folkways,” and its modern counterparts, “you cannot legislate against prejudice” or “you cannot legislate morality.” Social scientists countered that, although people might initially protest, they would welcome a federal antidiscrimination law that aligned with conscience and closed the gap between American ideals and prejudice, creating new “folkways.” Using examples from the contexts of public accommodations, education, and employment, this Article examines similar arguments made about conscience and “legislating morality” …

The Algorithmic Self, Frank A. Pasquale

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Constructed Constraint And The Constitutional Text, Curtis A. Bradley, Neil S. Siegel

Faculty Scholarship

In recent years, constitutional theorists have attended to the unwritten aspects of American constitutionalism and, relatedly, to the ways in which the constitutional text can be “constructed” upon by various materials. This Article takes a different approach. Instead of considering how various materials can supplement, implement, or interact with the constitutional text, the Article focuses on how the text itself is often partially constructed in American constitutional practice. Although interpreters typically regard clear text as controlling, this Article contends that whether the text is perceived to be clear is often affected by various “modalities” of constitutional interpretation that are normally …

Learning Evaluation: Blending Quality Improvement And Implementation Research Methods To Study Healthcare Innovations, Kurt C. Stange

Faculty Scholarship

Background: In healthcare change interventions, on-the-ground learning about the implementation process is often lost because of a primary focus on outcome improvements. This paper describes the Learning Evaluation, a methodological approach that blends quality improvement and implementation research methods to study healthcare innovations. Methods: Learning Evaluation is an approach to multi-organization assessment. Qualitative and quantitative data are collected to conduct real-time assessment of implementation processes while also assessing changes in context, facilitating quality improvement using run charts and audit and feedback, and generating transportable lessons. Five principles are the foundation of this approach: (1) gather data to describe changes made …

Openness In International Adoption, Malinda L. Seymore

Faculty Scholarship

After a long history of secrecy in domestic adoption in the United States, there is a robust trend toward openness. That is, however, not the case with international adoption. The recent growth in international adoption has been spurred, at least in part, by the desire of adoptive parents to return to closed, confidential adoptions where the identity of the birth mother is secret and there is no ongoing contact with her. There is, however, an emergent interest in increased openness in international adoption, spurred by the success of domestic open adoptions, health concerns when an adoptee's genetic history is important, …

Community Violence Exposure And Sexual Behaviors In A Nationally Representative Sample Of Young Adults: The Effects Of Race/Ethnicity And Gender, Dexter R. Voisin, David B. Miller

Faculty Scholarship

This study examined whether exposure to community violence was related to sexual risk behaviors in a nationally representative sample of young adults and if there were gender or racial/ethnic differences in these relationships. The analytic sample for this study was drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health and was composed of 7,726 unmarried, heterosexual African American, Caucasian, and Hispanic/Latino young adults aged 18 to 27 years old. Approximately 12% of participants reported some community violence exposures, with men and African Americans reporting the highest rates of such exposures. Regression analyses controlling for age, gender, parental education, and family …

A Synthesis Of 20 Years Of Research On Sexual Risk Taking Among Asian/Pacific Islander Men Who Have Sex With Men In Western Countries, Dexter R. Voisin

Faculty Scholarship

Over the past two decades, there has emerged a body of literature documenting a number of risk factors associated with Asian/Pacific Islander men who have sex with men’s unsafe sexual behaviors. This study aims to systematically review existing empirical studies and synthesize research results into a social–ecological framework using a mixed research synthesis. Empirical research articles published in peer-reviewed journals between January 1990 and June 2013 were identified in six databases, including PubMed, Ovid MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Social Work Abstract, CINAL, and Web of Knowledge. Both quantitative and qualitative studies were included. Two analysts independently reviewed the articles, and findings were …

It’S Not For A Grade: The Rewards And Risks Of Low-Risk Assessment In The High-Stakes Law School Classroom, Olympia Duhart

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

For Men Only: A Gap In The Rules Allows Sex Discrimination To Avoid Ethical Challenge, Michele Struffolino

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.