Digital Commons Network^™

The Strings In The Books Ain't Pulled And Persuaded: How The Use Of Improper Statistics And Unverified Data Corrupts The Judicial Process In Sex Offender Cases, Heather Ellis Cucolo, Michael L. Perlin

Articles & Chapters

An examination of a range of judicial decisions involving sexual offender determinations reveals that, frequently, courts rely improperly on inaccurate and under-developed statistics as well as unverified and outdated information. This reliance, too often, underlies rulings that subject the sex offender to significant sanctions and loss of liberty. Additionally, the continuation of the testimonial script that all sex offenders are high recidivists, dangerous, compulsive and untreatable, contributes to the anti-therapeutic effect of shaming and humiliation. This results in isolation, seclusion, lack of dignity; also, it further trivializes the judicial process, and violates the tenants of therapeutic jurisprudence. Despite the “frightening …

There's Voices In The Night Trying To Be Heard: The Potential Impact Of The Convention On The Rights Of Persons With Disabilities On Domestic Mental Disability Law, Michael L. Perlin, Naomi Weinstein

Articles & Chapters

This paper carefully examines, through a therapeutic jurisprudence framework, the likely impact of the ratification of this UN Convention on society’s sanist attitudes towards persons with mental disabilities. We argue that it is impossible to consider the impact of anti-discrimination law on persons with mental disabilities without a full understanding of how sanism -- an irrational prejudice of the same quality and character of other irrational prejudices that cause (and are reflected in) prevailing social attitudes of racism, sexism, homophobia, and ethnic bigotry -- permeates all aspects of the legal system and the entire fabric of American society.

Notwithstanding nearly …

Punishment Without Process: Victim Impact Proceedings For Dead Defendants, Bruce Green, Rebecca Roiphe

Articles & Chapters

After Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide in jail, two judges allowed his accusers to speak in court. This article argues that the proceedings were inappropriate because the criminal case ends when the defendant dies. If the conviction and appeal are not final, there is no finding of guilt, and the defendant is still presumed innocent. Allowing accusers to speak at this time violates the principle of due process and threatens to undermine faith in judges and the criminal justice system in general. While courts are at times legally required to hear from victims of crimes, they were not allowed to do …

Tribute To Professor Lewis R. Katz: Beloved Mentor, Global Visionary, Entrepreneur, Gerald Korngold

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

An Alternative Path To Rule Of Law: Thailand's Twenty-First Century Administrative Courts, Frank W. Munger, Peerawich Thoviriyavej, Vorapitchaya Rabiablok

Articles & Chapters

New courts in Asia’s rapidly developing states offer an opportunity to understand how a court system takes root in a society. This article presents a case study of the development of administrative court structure, functions, and practice in Thailand: Southeast Asia’s newest system of administrative courts. The study examines why courts made sense to those who established them and how the courts’ authority is being utilized. For relatively powerless and resource-poor litigants, barriers to litigation may be many, but when these barriers are overcome, administrative courts exercise extraordinary influence, even when they fail to render a decision fully vindicating a …

Justice Anthony Kennedy's Free Speech Legacy [Comments], Nadine Strossen

Articles & Chapters

Justice Kennedy has been hailed by free speech advocates as a leading free speech champion. In contrast, other experts have not only criticized particular opinions and votes by Justice Kennedy that rejected free speech claims, but they also have maintained that Justice Kennedy specifically declined to protect speech that was at odds with his conservative political and religious views. It is certainly true that Justice Kennedy did not uphold freedom of speech in some important contexts, including when the Government asserted countervailing national security or "War on Drugs" concerns. However, in other important cases, Justice Kennedy showed courage in defending …

Board Governance For The Twenty-First Century, Faith Stevelman, Sarah C. Haan

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Legal Vs. Non-Legal Responses To Hateful Expression, Nadine Strossen

Articles & Chapters

This chapter explains the understanding of all who seek to advance both free speech and equality anywhere in the world. It discusses supports the conclusions of many expert individuals and organizations around the world – that counterspeech and other non-censorial alternatives are much more likely than hate speech laws to prove effective in limiting hate speech and its possible harmful effects. Social scientists have confirmed that counterspeech by leaders in the pertinent community is especially persuasive in rebutting hateful speech and in countering its potential harmful effects. Speech that counters the potentially harmful impact of hate speech comprises a broad …

“Temporary” Conceptual Art: Property And Copyright, Hopes And Prayers, Richard H. Chused

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Sculpture, Industrial Design, Architecture, And The Right To Control Use Of Publicly Displayed Works, Richard H. Chused

Articles & Chapters

This article explores the anomalous ways in which copyright owners may control use of works they publicly display. Treatment of rights associated with publicly displayed sculpture and architecture are dramatically different. The copyright statute deprives owners of copyrights in constructed buildings of the ability to police the ways in which imagery or other uses of the publicly visible structure may be exploited by others. This article focuses on three related but different settings involving the public display of (1) a work of graffiti, (2) a large-scale sculpture, and (3) a building with sculptural features. Through an analysis of the differences …

To Promote Innovation, Congress Should Abolish The Supreme Court Created Exceptions To 35 U.S. Code Sec. 101, Shahrokh Falati

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

A Tj Approach To Mental Disability Rights Research: On Sexual Autonomy And Sexual Offending, Michael L. Perlin, Heather Ellis Cucolo, Alison Lynch

Articles & Chapters

We believe it is impossible to understand the development and the power of therapeutic jurisprudence (TJ) without acknowledging that its roots in mental disability law have continued to expand and flourish over the decades, and that there is no other substantive area of the law in which every aspect – substantive and procedural, civil and criminal, statutory and constitutional. domestic and international – has been weighed and evaluated using a TJ lens. In this chapter, we consider how those roots have shaped the last three decades of research and the implications of what has developed. We look carefully at two …

Role Of Mixing Of Two Bacteria On Compressive Strength, Water Absorption And Microstructure Of Mortar Cubes, Usmita Pokhrel

Construction Management and Engineering

Major/minor cracks is inevitable in concrete because of its lower tensile strength and different load and non-load factors. Addition of bacteria in mortar is an emerging concept. Despite the fact that the live cells has proven to be beneficial towards enhancement of several concrete properties, the trend of increment in the compressive strength has not been significant with addition of single bacteria. This study introduces a new approach of mixing two bacteria: B Subtilus and B Megaterium, and investigating the role of the microbes on compressive strength, water absorption and SEM analysis. The results demonstrated an increment of compressive strength …

Chasing The Dragon: The Social Construction Of The U.S. Opioid Epidemic, Jennafer Vondal

Criminal Justice and Political Science

Utilizing a social construction perspective, this study uses a mixed method approach to examine the opioid epidemic. The study begins by identifying the numerous claims-making groups along with conducting a content analysis of the rhetoric and symbols used to legitimize the claims about the opioid epidemic. The data for the content analysis was obtained through a search of the websites, newsrooms, and pressrooms of claims-making groups. Additionally, the study examines and assesses the volume of money that is generated and allocated towards opioid research and prevention in an effort to determine who has more power to influence the policy initiatives. …

The Design Of Virtual Reality Based Data Visualization And User Interface Design In A Semi-Automated Cyber-Security Research Application, Santipab Tipparach

Computer Science

Virtual Reality is currently an affordable and consumer ready technology used by many in the games and interactive media industry, however unlike the user interface standards in mobile, PCs, and Macs, VR UI design can vary in complexity and usability. VR has many times been linked in films, TV shows, and animation as a method for navigating through cyberspace. It has been portrayed to be involved in the process of hacking a computer on some network. This study will look at approaches to developing a UI system using cyber-security research applications as a basis for designing a framework. Throughout, this …

Using Cyberlearning Environment To Improve Student’S Learning And Engagement In Introductory Computer Programming Courses, Mourya Reddy Narasareddy Gari

Computer Science

All Computer Science majors are required to take introductory programming (CS1) as a fundamental course which has a high dropout rate. Researchers report that CS1 students lack motivation and need constant resource support. Motivated by these factors, we developed a cyberlearning environment embedded with learning engagement strategies such as Collaborative Learning, Social Interaction and Gamification. The purpose of research is to investigate the impact the cyberlearning environment had on student acquisition of programming concepts. I conducted a series of studies to empirically validate these learning engagement strategies in the context of student learning outcomes. The results of my dissertation have …

Mobile Diabetes Application, Anusha Myneedi

Computer Science

In recent years, Diabetes is becoming a serious health challenge. The prevalence of diabetes has increased with accompanying increases in body weight and diminished physical activity and with increased automation. Effective blood glucose control is essential to maintain good health. However, to monitor blood glucose levels regularly one should go to healthcare center and it’s not possible because of all manner of real time interfaces. To ease this process in this paper, we propose an interactive self-management mobile application where you can monitor Blood Glucose and Blood Pressure values and check all your health-related activities regularly. MobiDiaBTs keeps track of …

K-Anonymization Implementation Using Apache Spark, Pratik Tortikar

Computer Science

This experiment attempts on data which can reveal a person’s identity to anonymize with k-1 anonymity principle. "Given person-specific field-structured data, produce a release of the data with scientific guarantees that the individuals who are the subjects of the data cannot be re-identified while the data remain practically useful”. The attempt to value the sensitivity and meaningful information with huge amount of data concerning privacy-preserving techniques are maintained to overcome fears with everyone’s delicate data. With this paper, we study the k-anonymity principle algorithm in the context of big data, and introduce a top-down k-anonymization, L-diversity and t-closeness solutions for …

Diabetes Social Networking App For American Indians, Rachana Gurram

Computer Science

Chronic disease effects health and quality of living largely. Social networking can initiate the onset of pathology and serve as direct cause for several chronic and non-communicable diseases. Technology has the potential to create true collaborative care among multiple providers in healthcare systems and social media can serve as virtual office. Social networks can be used to build relationships between patients and their families to extend health care and support beyond traditional points of service like hospitals, clinics to the home, schools, communities. Social networks can be used to reach patients and providers to gather information and leverage collaboration between …

Design Of A Game For Cybersecurity Awareness, Jagjot Bhardwaj

Computer Science

The primary objective of this paper is to use the Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy educational objectives in creating a game called Cyber Air-Strike for learning basic concepts of cybersecurity. Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy is used to design the course material as it makes the learning process easy and effective. This taxonomy divides the course material into increasing levels of complexity starting from basic to advanced. A comprehensive literature was reviewed to understand the research domain and identify the gap in previous research. Cyber Air-Strike aims to target amateur computer users. They will acquire knowledge about the basic concepts of cybersecurity, the most …