Digital Commons Network^™

Mapping Alimony: From Status To Contract And Beyond, Gaytri Kachroo

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] “With the introduction of no-fault divorce, one spouse could unilaterally petition for divorce, in most states, by demonstrating a period of separation or the impossibility of reconciliation. The possibility that a marriage can be dissolved without a showing of fault has obliterated the need to seek consent from the other spouse contesting it. This can preclude the need for a mutually designed financial arrangement. Courts now play a greater role in such financial arrangements and are more likely to conform such financial arrangements to statutory standards. From state to state, despite the prevalence of such conforming by courts, resulting …

Battered Women, Homicide Convictions, And Sentencing: The Case For Clemency, Carol Jacobsen, Kammy Mizga, Lynn O'Orio

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

For battered women who are forced to kill their attackers, unequal treatment by the law and gendered modes of punishment often lead to unfair convictions and sentences. In a study conducted by the Michigan Battered Women's Clemency Project, startling levels of discrimination in the courts against women who were victims of domestic violence were revealed. In this study, victims of domestic violence had higher conviction rates and longer sentences than all other defendants charged with homicide. The criminal and legal systems have failed to protect battered women from being killed or being forced to kill. Clemency remains the only hope …

Emerson Family Values: Claims To Duration And Renewal In American Narratives Of Divorce, Love And Marriage, Mae Kuykendall

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

Themes in American family life contain contradictions between a public narrative of duration and a private narrative of renewal. This seeming conflict in values, in combination with a high divorce rate, might be thought to indicate that the marital vows are a culturally hollow ceremony. In fact, Americans' disposition in matters of family seemingly to waver between vows of duration and belief in renewal can be accounted for as well as given moral weight by the thinking and influence of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Dismissed at times as an idealist, a proponent of unthinking American individualism, and an irresponsible wordsmith, Emerson …

The War On Inequality : Subtleties In The Perceptions Of Women Leaders, Adrienne Supino

Honors Theses

We studied whether the incongruity between the female gender role and stereotypically masculine leadership roles can lead people, particularly men and sex-typed individuals, to negatively perceive women in this type of leadership role. A study was designed to investigate whether the gender of a potential appointee to the historically masculine leadership role of Secretary of Defense, in either a time of peace or terror, affected people's perceptions of this person. Fifty-three participants read one of four articles containing biographical information about either a male or female candidate for the post, in either a peace context or a terror context. We …

Market Triumphalism, Electoral Pathologies, And The Abiding Wisdom Of First Amendment Access Rights, Gregory P. Magarian

Hofstra Law Review

Forty years ago, Professor Jerome Barron made the classic case that the First Amendment requires not merely protection of speech against government interference but provision of access to the means of mass communication. The Supreme Court in the ensuing decades has largely rejected Barron's approach. In this article, Professor Magarian defends Barron's case for access rights against the two theoretical critiques that have underwritten its doctrinal rejection. The libertarian critique attacks the normative underpinnings of access rights, maintaining that the First Amendment insulates market-driven distributions of expressive opportunities. Professor Magarian demonstrates that politically progressive and conservative libertarian critics of access …

Limits Of Private Law: Enriching Legal Dogmatics, Marc A. Loth

Hofstra Law Review

No abstract provided.

Prosecutors And Corrupt Science, Kevin C. Mcmunigal

Hofstra Law Review

No abstract provided.

Homeownership Rates Among New York City’S Racial/Ethnic Groups And Latino Nationalities In 2000, Laura Limonic

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction: This report examines rates of homeownership among ethnic/racial groups in New York City. The data are broken down by four primary ethnic/racial groups: White, African Americans, Asians, and Latinos. Also examined are homeownership rates within the Latino group by nationality for the nine largest populations among the Latino population in New York City. Methods: Data on Latinos and other racial/ethnic groups were obtained from the 2000 Report of the U.S. Census Bureau, Summary File #4 – HCT4. Cases in the dataset were weighted and analyzed to produce population estimates.

Results: In 2000, the average rate of homeownership in New …

Howard, George Elliott (1849-1928), Michael R. Hill

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

George Elliott Howard, a distinguished social scientist trained initially in history, rose to the presidency of the American Sociological Society in 1917. Howard earned the A.B. in 1876 at the University of Nebraska. Following two years of advanced study in Germany, Howard joined the Nebraska faculty in 1879. Howard's most prominent Nebraska student from this period, Amos Griswold Warner, later wrote American Charities (1894) - a standard classic in the field. Howard was named to the prestigious "First Faculty" of Stanford University in 1891.

Visual Design, Order Effects, And Respondent Characteristics In A Self-Administered Survey, Michael J. Stern, Don A. Dillman, Jolene D. Smyth

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Recent survey design research has shown that small changes in the structure and visual layout of questions can affect respondents’ answers. While the findings have provided strong evidence of such effects, they are limited by the homogeneity of their samples, in that many of these studies have used random samples of college students. In this paper, we examine the effects of seven experimental alterations in question format and visual design using data from a general population survey that allows us to examine the effects of demographic differences among respondents. Results from a 2005 random sample mail survey of 1,315 households …

Victimization And Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Among Runaway And Homeless Adolescents, Les B. Whitbeck, Dan R. Hoyt, Kurt Johnson, Xiaojin Chen

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

This article presents lifetime and 12-month prevalence rates and comorbidity for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among a sample of 428 homeless and runaway adolescents. Data are from baseline interviews of a longitudinal diagnostic study of 428 (187 males; 241 females) homeless and runaway adolescents aged 16-19 years (mean age = 17.4 years, SD = 1.05). The data were collected by full-time street interviewers on the streets and in shelters in eight Midwestern cities of various populations. About onethird (35.5%) of the runaways met lifetime criteria for PTSD and 16.1% met 12-month criteria for the disorder. More than 90% of the …

Sexual Health Of Homeless Youth: Prevalence And Correlates Of Sexually Transmissible Infections, Kimberly A. Tyler, Les B. Whitbeck, Xiaojin Chen, Kurt Johnson

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Background: The study examined risk factors for having ever contracted sexually transmissible infections (STI) among a high-risk sample in midwestern USA.

Methods: A cross sectional survey was conducted among 428 homeless youth aged 16–19 years. Assessed correlates included child maltreatment, street exposure, sexual histories, street experiences and substance use.

Results: Multivariate analyses revealed that males were 86% less likely to have had STI compared with females (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 0.14; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.06–0.31). Blacks were almost four times more likely (AOR = 3.71; 95% CI = 1.80–7.63) and other races were over …

Refugee Roulette: Disparities In Asylum Adjudication, Andrew I. Schoenholtz, Jaya Ramji-Nogales, Philip G. Schrag

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This study analyzes databases of merits decisions from all four levels of the asylum adjudication process: 133,000 decisions by 884 asylum officers over a seven year period; 140,000 decisions of 225 immigration judges over a four-and-a-half year period; 126,000 decisions of the Board of Immigration Appeals over six years; and 4215 decisions of the U.S. Courts of Appeal during 2004 and 2005. The analysis reveals significant disparities in grant rates, even when different adjudicators in the same office each considered large numbers of applications from nationals of the same country. In many cases, the most important moment in an asylum …

Creativity And Culture In Copyright Theory, Julie E. Cohen

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Creativity is universally agreed to be a good that copyright law should seek to promote, yet copyright scholarship and policymaking have proceeded largely on the basis of assumptions about what it actually is. When asked to discuss the source of their inspiration, individual artists describe a process that is intrinsically ineffable. Rights theorists of all varieties have generally subscribed to this understanding, describing creativity in terms of an individual liberty whose form remains largely unspecified. Economic theorists of copyright work from the opposite end of the creative process, seeking to divine the optimal rules for promoting creativity by measuring its …

Noncommunicable Diseases And Injuries: Action Needed In South Asia Too, Ali Khan Khuwaja, Riaz Qureshi, Zafar Fatmi

Community Health Sciences

No abstract provided.

Computational Trust In Web Content Quality: A Comparative Evalutation On The Wikipedia Project, Pierpaolo Dondio

Articles

The problem of identifying useful and trustworthy information on the World Wide Web is becoming increasingly acute as new tools such as wikis and blogs simplify and democratize publication. It is not hard to predict that in the future the direct reliance on this material will expand and the problem of evaluating the trustworthiness of this kind of content become crucial. The Wikipedia project represents the most successful and discussed example of such online resources. In this paper we present a method to predict Wikipedia articles trustworthiness based on computational trust techniques and a deep domain-specific analysis. Our assumption is …

Why The Killing In Darfur Is Genocide, Jennifer Trahan

Fordham International Law Journal

In the “Anfal trial,” the Iraqi High Tribunal (“IHT”) in Baghdad convicted five former Iraqi high officials of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in 1988 against the Iraqi Kurds. The evidence presented at trial—which included both voluminous documentary evidence as well as eye-witness testimony—demonstrated the clear existence of a genocidal campaign by the former Iraqi government and military, which eliminated an estimated 182,000 Iraqi Kurds in 1988, including through the use of chemical weapons (the eight-phased “Anfal campaign”). Ali Hassan al-Majid al-Tikriti (“Majid”), known by the moniker “Chemical Ali,” and four others were convicted—three of whom (including …

Steans Center Newsletter, Steans Center

Steans Center Newsletters, Press Releases and News Items

No abstract provided.

The Stones And The Bones: Contemporary Issues In Cultural Property, Christopher Michael Blocker

Honors Theses

Cultural property has recently become an important issue in the international community. Major museums across the United States, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the J. Paul Getty Museum, have been involved in litigation or settled out of court with foreign governments who claim objects in their museums' collections were looted or stolen from native soil. The topic of repatriation occupies one aspect of the thesis. Another section is concern with the philosophical framework within which people may think about cultural property and its implications, as well as about vital issues in ownership. The major part of the thesis …

Art And Persuasion: A Communication Study Of Contemporary Documentary Film, Lauren Elizabeth Freeman

Honors Theses

The focus of this study is defining and determining the area of communication in contemporary documentary films. In examining the structure and aesthetic composition of documentary film, this study will compare the film genre to the areas of journalism. persuasion and propaganda through secondary and primary research defining the elements that constitute these specific areas of communication. Secondary research involved text, newspaper articles, online journals and websites, and the viewing of documentary film. The primary research was conducted through personal interviews with documentary filmmakers. Research findings resulted in a wide range of views on the definition and uses for documentary …

A Curriculum To Prepare Pastors For Tribal Ministry In India, Calvin N. Joshua

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

The dissertation project establishes the existence of nearly one hundred million tribal people who are forgotten but continue to live in human isolation from the main stream of Indian society. They have their own culture and history. How can the Adventist Church make a difference in reaching them? There is a need for trained pastors in tribal ministry who are culture sensitive and knowledgeable in missiological perspectives.

Method

Through historical, cultural, religious, and political analysis, tribal peoples and their challenges are identified. The contribution of Christianity to India, particularly, the impact of the Adventist Church among tribals is reviewed. …

Developing Jewish Awareness Seminars: A Model Implemented In Adventist Churches In Michigan, Robert Clyde Quillin

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

Many Jewish people are finding Jesus as their Messiah, but few are uniting with the Seventh-day Adventist Church. In its Global Missions emphasis, the Adventist Church has not prepared church members to effectively witness to the Jewish people. Michigan Conference has about 0.29 percent (16,000) of the nation’s Jewish population, but no organized plan is in place to train members for Jewish soul-winning. Approximately 22 of Michigan’s 83 counties have one or more synagogues, which is sufficient Jewish presence to warrant an interfaith outreach. A lay-training program is needed.

Method

After researching literature, a questionnaire was devised, and a …

Embodied Limitation, Amanda Michiko Shigihara

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Teleworking In Silicon Valley : Implications For Social Capital, Sheraden J. Nicholau

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Perceptions Of Wildlife Damage And Species Conservation: Lessons Learned From The Utah Prairie Dog, R. Dwayne Elmore, Terry A. Messmer, Mark W. Brunson

Human–Wildlife Interactions

The Utah prairie dog (Cynomys parvidens), a federally listed threatened species, causes damage to agricultural operations, yet little incentive exists for private landowners to conserve them. Therefore, we surveyed Utah residents to identify stakeholder attitudes regarding prairie dog management. We assessed how perceptions of wildlife damage affect respondent attitudes regarding conservation among agricultural producers, rural residents, and urban residents. Higher levels of perceived wildlife damage were reported for agriculture respondents (79%) than for urban (20%) or rural (45%) respondents. Compensation for damage caused by Utah prairie dogs was supported by those engaged in agricultural production but not by …

Providing Race Discrimination In Criminal Cases Using Statistical Evidence, Marc Price Wolf

UC Law Journal of Race and Economic Justice

Proving race discrimination in a criminal case using statistical evidence has been a difficult endeavor since the Supreme Court's rulings in McCleskey and Armstrong. In those cases, the Court set a high threshold for using statistics to prove constitutional violations. This note argues that this threshold is not insurmountable. Studies can be crafted to overcome the strict guidelines set out in McCleskey and Armstrong. Additionally, lower courts have interpreted these cases too broadly, such that validly presented statistical studies have unfairly been brushed aside. This note also argues that the Court analyzes social scientific studies differently when those studies are …

The Great American Makeover: The Sexing Up And Dumbing Down Of Women's Work After Jespersen V. Harrah's Operating Company, Inc., Dianne Avery

University of San Francisco Law Review

This Article examines the Ninth Circuit's decision in Jesperson v. Harrah's, which the author argues insulates most employers from all but the most determined (and well-financed) challenges to sex-based dress, grooming, and appearance codes under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and will also likely impact both federal court and state court jurisprudence in this area of employment law.

Where Did All These Books Come From? The Publishing Industry And American Intellectual Life, Maro N. Asadoorian

Honors Theses

The American book publishing industry shapes the character of American intellectual life. While the newspaper and television industries have been accused of and investigated for bias and lowering America’s intellectual standards, book publishing has gone largely unexamined by scholars. The existing studies of the publishing industry have focused on finance, procedure and history. “There are few ‘theories’ of publishing – efforts to understand the ‘whys’ as well as the ‘hows.’ Few scholarly scientists have devoted significant scholarly attention to publishing” (Altbach and Hoshino, xiii). There are many possible reasons for this lacuna. First, there is a perception that books have …

An Exploratory Study Of Pet Raising And Health Of The Elderly People In Hong Kong, Cheung Ming, Alfred Chan, Kam Wing, Kevin Cheung, Lam Fat Lo

APIAS Monograph 專題論文

Introduction:

Pets such as dogs, cats and fish were popular in many other countries (Marx et al., 1988; Gammonley, 1991; Brodie & Biley, 1999; PIAS, 2002). In Hong Kong, pet owners increased to 0.26 million (Census and Statistics Department, 2006). Dating back to 1980s, a research study reported the association between pet ownerships and health benefits for humans (McNicholas et al., 2005). According to the report, domesticated pets brought a sense of companionship and provided pet owners with pleasure. These pets could be tools for enhancing human social relationship and could also provide their owners with emotional comfort. Recent studies …

Hong Kong Happiness Index 2007 香港快樂指數 2007, Lok Sang Ho

Hong Kong Happiness Index 香港快樂指數調查

A survey on Hong Kong Happiness Index conducted by Lingnan University's Centre for Public Studies (CPPS) shows that Hong Kong people in 2007 are less happy than they were in 2006.

The survey has recorded a 4.8% decrease in the overall happiness index from 70.6 in 2006 to 67.2 in 2007. The declining happiness index goes against the general expectation that happiness index will increase under ongoing economic recovery.