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The Path Of Mentally Ill Offenders, William J. Rich

Fordham Urban Law Journal

Beginning with the premise that both the number and percentage of mentally ill inmates as sharply risen in recent years, this Article explores the path of mentally ill offenders in the American criminal justice system. It seeks to identify points of relief from the current crisis, in which a recent report stated that over 40% of state prisoners reported symptoms that met the criteria for mania. The challenge is exacerbated by the fact that prisons now provide a large share of the mental health treatment in the United States, taxing the resources of even the most progressive correctional systems. Part …

Public Rights, Global Perspectives, And Common Law, Martha F. Davis

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This Article sets out the case that common law adjudication involving such claims as contractual breaches, wrongful termination, and tort can be, and often are, public rights litigation. Many common law decisions have significant impacts in the community, and—because of the nature of precedent—become quickly embedded in the law where they contribute to the outcomes of future cases as well. Common law cases are a particularly important aspect of public rights litigation because of the paucity of constitutional protections for economic and social rights. In the absence of constitutional protections for such rights, rigorous enforcement of common law claims addressing …

A "New Beginning" For Adolescents In Our Criminal Justice System, Judith S. Kaye

Fordham Urban Law Journal

As I step away from the bench, I am feeling more than ever what Dr. Martin Luther King called “the fierce urgency of now.” Now is the time for all of us who care about justice in this country to roll up our sleeves and get to work. We may be in a moment of crisis, but as the saying goes, a crisis is a terrible thing to waste. We urgently need to change our focus from jails and prisons to treatment, education, job training. So where is the “new beginning”? The “new beginning” is not a search for new …

Deconstructing The Pipeline: Evaluating School-To-Prison Pipeline Equal Protection Cases Through A Structural Racism Framework, Chauncee D. Smith

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Psychopathy And Social Interest In The Prediction Of Probation Outcome, Joshua L. White

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As a result of increasing reliance on probation and parole systems, researchers have begun to explore psychological constructs that may enhance the ability to predict community supervision outcomes. Previous research suggests that psychopathic traits are inversely related to successful outcomes, while social interest shows a positive relationship with successful outcomes (Daugherty, Murphy, & Paugh, 2001; Hart, Kropp, & Hare, 1988). Past research has largely been conducted with Caucasian male participants, creating a question of how well these findings generalize to other demographic groups. The current study aimed to replicate and expand the generalizability of findings from Springer (2005) who found …

Public Perceptions Of Registry Laws For Juvenile Sex Offenders, Carrie E. Reynolds, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Jessica M. Salerno, Margaret C. Stevenson, Tish R.A. Wiley, Bette L. Bottoms

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

Understanding jurors’ perceptions of juvenile defendants has become increasingly important as more and more juvenile cases are being tried in adult criminal court rather than family or juvenile court. Intellectual disability and child maltreatment are overrepresented among juvenile delinquents, and juveniles (particularly disabled juveniles) are at heightened risk for falsely confessing to crimes. In two mock trial experiments, we examined the effects of disability, abuse history, and confession evidence on jurors’ perceptions of a juvenile defendant across several different crime scenarios. Abused juveniles were treated more leniently than nonabused juveniles only when the juvenile’s crime was motivated by self-defense against …

Child Sexual Abuse, Ptsd, And Substance Use: Predictors Of Revictimization In Adult Sexual Assault Survivors, Sarah E. Ullman, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Henrietta Filipas

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

This study examined the unique effects of child sexual abuse simultaneously with post-traumatic stress disorder symptom clusters, problem drinking, and illicit drug use in relation to sexual revictimization in a community sample of female adult sexual assault victims. Participants (N = 555) completed two surveys a year apart. Child sexual abuse predicted more post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms in adult sexual assault victims. Posttraumatic stress disorder numbing symptoms directly predicted revictimization, whereas other post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms (reexperiencing, avoidance, and arousal) were related to problem drinking, which in turn predicted revictimization. Thus, numbing symptoms and problem drinking may be independent risk …

Prospective Effects Of Sexual Victimization On Ptsd And Problem Drinking, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Sarah E. Ullman

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and problem drinking are common and often co-occurring sequelae experienced by women survivors of adult sexual assault, yet it remains unclear whether survivors drink to cope with PTSD symptoms or whether PTSD symptoms are exacerbated by drinking. Thus, we used a cross-lagged panel design with a large (N = 555), ethnically diverse sample of women assault survivors to determine whether PTSD prospectively led to problem drinking or vice versa. We also examined whether cumulative sexual victimization experiences related to greater PTSD and problem drinking. Structural equation modeling revealed that child sexual abuse was associated with …

Understanding Adults’ Perceptions Of Juvenile Offenders, Margaret C. Stevenson, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Bette L. Bottoms, Tamara M. Haegerich

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

In adult criminal court, cases involving juveniles can be decided by jurors rather than by family or juvenile court judges. It is, therefore, important to understand adults' perceptions of juvenile defendants and the factors that influence jurors' decisions in criminal cases involving juveniles. This research has value for research psychologists interested in legal decision making and for professionals within the legal system who seek to understand how jurors react to juveniles accused of crimes and how they reach their verdicts in cases involving juveniles. In this chapter, we consider three broad categories of factors that affect perceptions of juveniles: (1) …

The Bulletin, Undergraduate Catalog 2009-2011 (2009), Minnesota State University Moorhead

Undergraduate Bulletins (Catalogs)

No abstract provided.

The Importance Of Police Performance As A Determinant Of Satisfaction With Police, James E. Larsen, John P. Blair

Finance and Financial Services Faculty Publication

Problem statement: Citizen satisfaction with police performance is an important concern of public managers because police performance is central to citizens and accounts for a large share of urban budgets. Also, there is substantial disagreement in the literature regarding determents of citizen satisfaction.

Approach: Logistic regression was used to investigate the results of three public opinion surveys, conducted biannually, to identify determinants of citizen satisfaction with police.

Results: The explanatory power of the models was indicated by concordance of over .80. The findings indicated that satisfaction was largely determined by citizen perception of police behaviors. Four variables reflecting perceptions of …

Money, Politics, And Impartial Justice, Joanna Shepherd

Faculty Articles

A centuries-old controversy asks whether judicial elections are inconsistent with impartial justice. The debate is especially important because more than 90 percent of the United States’ judicial business is handled by state courts, and approximately nine in ten of all state court judges face the voters in some type of election. Using a stunning new data set of virtually all state supreme court decisions from 1995 to 1998, this paper provides empirical evidence that elected state supreme court judges routinely adjust their rulings to attract votes and campaign money. I find that judges who must be reelected by Republican voters, …

When Gender Meets Sex: An Exploratory Study Of Women Who Seduce Adolescent Boys, Kay L. Levine

Faculty Articles

This article describes the origins, design, and implications of a new study exploring female-perpetrated statutory rape against ado­lescent boys in the United States. In contrast to both legal frame­works, which typically regard statutory rape as a male-on-female phenomenon, and existing literature from the fields of psychology and psychiatry derived from clinical samples and sex offender reg­istries, this study examines the incidence of female-perpetrated stat­utory rape using data from electronic news reports covering the period 1990-2008. In this short article, the author explains the ad­vantages of her approach over those taken by prior scholars, in terms of the size of the …

Databases, E-Discovery And Criminal Law, Ken Strutin

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

The enduring value of the Constitution is the fundamental approach to human rights transcending time and technology. The modern complexity and variety of electronically stored information was unknown in the eighteenth century, but the elemental due process concepts forged then can be applied now. At some point, the accumulation of information surpassed the boundaries of living witnesses and paper records. The advent of computers and databases ushered in an entirely new order, giving rise to massive libraries of factual details and powerful investigative tools. But electronically collected information sources are a double-edged sword. Their accuracy and reliability are critical issues …

Eternal Law: The Underpinnings Of Dharma And Karma In The Justice System, Shiv Narayan Persaud

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

To understand a social system, it is important to have some knowledge of the structure and principles governing that system. The principles, when applied to the system, help in arriving at a better understanding of the underlying forces that operate dynamically to hold the system together. As the core values of a society change, the system must be able to adapt and reformulate its governing principles in order to compensate. When the system can no longer adapt to change and progress, it cries out for replacement. In light of the foregoing, this article further seeks to examine the universal principles …

Democratic Institutions Create Civic Health: How Local Jurisdictions Can Enhance Their Problem-Solving Capacities Through Inclusive Governance, Including A Case Study Of Newark, Delaware, Ezra Temko

SIUE Faculty Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity

Civic health is a community’s economic, civic, and social infrastructure – its capacity to solve its problems. This paper explores how contemporary local governments address the opportunities and challenges facing their communities and how local governments could utilize civic engagement to enhance civic health. It also evaluates the status of Newark, Delaware’s civic health and offers pragmatic steps Newark’s government can take to enhance the community’s civic health. Democratic governance is the 21st century engine for communities like Newark, Delaware to enhance their civic health. Collaborative and inclusive governance can improve a community’s abilities to solve problems. The Newark community …

Attracting College Men To Sexual Violence Prevention: A Multiple Case Study Of Male Peer Educators, Janice M. Deeds

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The prevalence rate for sexual assault of U.S. college women has stayed around 13% since 1982 despite the efforts colleges and universities have made to create effective prevention programs. Campus violence prevention programs have changed in focus and approach as research has provided a broader understanding of sexual violence and the important roles men can play in its prevention.

Peer education is currently the most commonly used method of teaching sexual violence prevention information to college students, but unless college men become involved as sexual violence prevention peer educators, campus programs will not be able to effectively reach other male …

Changing The Latitudes And Attitudes About Content Analysis Research, Eve M. Brank, Kathleen A. Fox, Tasha J. Youstin, Lee C. Boeppler

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

The current research employs the use of content analysis to teach research methods concepts among students enrolled in an upper-division research methods course. Students coded and analyzed Jimmy Buffett song lyrics rather than using a downloadable database or collecting survey data. Students’ knowledge of content analysis concepts increased after a lecture on the topic of content analysis, but it further improved after participating in the song coding, data cleaning, and writing of results. Additionally, students reported high satisfaction with the project and believed it was an interesting and enjoyable technique for learning about research methods. We provide suggestions for incorporating …

Procedural Justice In Resolving Family Disputes: Implications For Childhood Bullying, Michael R. Brubacher, Mark R. Fondacaro, Eve M. Brank, Veda E. Brown, Scott A. Miller

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

High levels of family conflict and poor family conflict resolution strategies are often associated with externalizing behaviors in children, including the behavior of bullying. Through family interactions, parents have the opportunity to convey a variety of messages to the child. Some of these messages are sent through the child’s appraisal of procedural justice, which refers to the judgments of fairness directed at the process by which a conflict is resolved. The current study investigated the relationship between appraisals of procedural justice in family conflict resolution and bullying among middle-school students. A sample of 1,910 sixth through eighth graders completed a …

Developing A Multifaceted Approach To Identify A Core Undergraduate Browsing Collection, Doug Way, Sarah Beaubien, Julie A. Garrison

Conference Proceedings

In planning for a new library that will include a limited number of open stacks, Grand Valley State University librarians were asked to identify what materials should be reserved for the browsable shelves. To accomplish this, librarians considered user behavior by discipline, material types, shelving options and the role of core collections. This paper will discuss these issues as well as differences in how library resources are located and the impact of new discovery tools, such as Innovative Interface's Encore, Bowker’s Syndetics, and Google’s Book Search on redefining browsability. The paper will also include a discussion of resources used in …

Religion And Academic Achievement Among Adolescents, Benjamin Mckune, John P. Hoffmann

Faculty Publications

In this article, we examine the association between religiosity and academic achievement among adolescents. Recent research demonstrates a positive association between religiosity and academic success. However, some studies show that this association is due to family and community factors; for example, variation in levels of family capital among religious affiliates could explain it. Yet whether religious factors affect academic achievement among adolescents might also be due to the concordance or discordance of religiosity between parents and their children. Using data for two years from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we examine the associationbetween adolescents‘ religiosity, parents‘ religiosity, and …

Obstacles On The Road To Gender Justice: The International Criminal Tribunal For Rwanda As Object Lesson, Beth Van Schaack

Faculty Publications

Although the substantive law concerned with gender violence is now well established, and the principle of legality can no longer serve as a barrier to prosecutions for gender violence, significant obstacles remain to ensuring a robust system of gender justice in international criminal law in the face of continued violations. These obstacles are less visible than defects in positive law because they emerge in the practice of international criminal law at crucial yet shrouded stages of the penal process: investigation, charging, pre-trial plea negotiations, trial preparation, theprovision of protective measures, and appeals. Most importantly, strong positive law is irrelevant where …

Place Matters (Most): An Empirical Study Of Prosecutorial Decision-Making In Death-Eligible Cases, David Sloss, Katherine Barnes, Stephen Thaman

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Invalid Forensic Science Testimony And Wrongful Convictions, Brandon L. Garrett, Peter J. Neufeld

Faculty Scholarship

This is the first study to explore the forensic science testimony by prosecution experts in the trials of innocent persons, all convicted of serious crimes, who were later exonerated by post-conviction DNA testing. Trial transcripts were sought for all 156 exonerees identified as having trial testimony by forensic analysts, of which 137 were located and reviewed. These trials most commonly included testimony concerning serological analysis and microscopic hair comparison, but some included bite mark, shoe print, soil, fiber, and fingerprint comparisons, and several included DNA testing. This study found that in the bulk of these trials of innocent defendants - …

The Ice Storm In U.S. Homes: An Urgent Call For Policy Change, Katherine Evans

Faculty Scholarship

Since its creation in 2003, the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has used increasingly aggressive tactics to enforce U.S. immigration law. One of ICE's most prominent enforcement initiatives is its practice of raiding the homes of immigrants. Accounts of home raids from victims all over the country reveal a pattern of practice that differs widely from ICE's official statements regarding raids. This paper establishes that although immigration officials are governed by the Fourth Amendment when conducting home raids, ICE's agents nonetheless regularly violate the Constitution when carrying out home raids. Additionally, this paper argues that the number and …

The Deterrent Effect Of Death Penalty Eligibility: Evidence From The Adoption Of Child Murder Eligibility Factors, Michael D. Frakes, Matthew Harding

Faculty Scholarship

We draw on within-state variations in the reach of capital punishment statutes between 1977 and 2004 to identify the deterrent effects associated with capital eligibility. Focusing on the most prevalent eligibility expansion, we estimate that the adoption of a child murder factor is associated with an approximately 20% reduction in the homicide rate of youth victims. Eligibility expansions may enhance deterrence by (1) paving the way for more executions and (2) providing prosecutors with greater leverage to secure enhanced non-capital sentences. While executions themselves are rare, this latter channel is likely to be triggered fairly regularly, providing a reasonable basis …

The Special Threat Of Informants To The Innocent Who Are Not Innocents: Producing “First Drafts,” Recording Incentives, And Taking A Fresh Look At The Evidence, Robert P. Mosteller

Faculty Scholarship

Fabricated testimony by informants often plays an important role in convictions of the innocent. In this article, I examine the particularly problematic situation of defendants who are innocent of the particular crime charged but are not strangers to crime. As to such defendants, potential informants abound among crime associates, and they have a ready story line that authorities are preconditioned to accept. Independent proof, which could be an antidote, will predictably be lacking. Indeed, that the informant has exclusive, critical knowledge often leads the prosecution to offer particularly tempting deals.

I focus on the case of Lee Wayne Hunt, a …

Knowing Law’S Limits: Comments On ‘Forgiveness: Integral To Close Relationships And Inimical To Justice?’, Kathryn Webb Bradley

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Civil Justice Systems In Europe And The United States, Hein Kötz

Faculty Scholarship

Professor Kötz delivered the inaugural Herbert L. Bernstein Memorial Lecture in Comparative Law in 2002 and this article is based on his remarks. The article is included in the inaugural volume of CICLOPs that collects the first six Bernstein lectures. In order to highlight the similarities and differences in legal regimes between Europe and the United States, Professor Hein Kötz analyzes the German and American civil legal systems and, to a minor extent, the British civil legal system. Specifically, Kötz focuses on one of the distinguishing features of the American legal system, the civil jury, and its impact on the …

The Bernstein Memorial Lecture: The First Six Years, Ralf Michaels, Stephen Bornick, Jonathan Dalton White

Faculty Scholarship

CICLOPs, the Center for International & Comparative Law Occasional Papers, could not be launched with a better issue than one dedicated to Duke Law's named lecture series in the field, the Annual Herbert L. Bernstein Memorial Lecture in Comparative Law. Herbert Bernstein was Duke's much-beloved professor of comparative law. The lecture series, established in Prof. Bernstein’s honor after his sudden death in 2001, has drawn leading scholars from all around the world to speak at Duke Law School on comparative law. This first issue of CICLOPs contains the text of the first six lectures, some of them previously published in …