Digital Commons Network^™

Racial-Ethnic Differences In Punitiveness Among American Adults, Helena Pittroff

Honors Projects

It is believed that the punitive values of the United States have had a direct positive correlation with the mass incarceration rates experienced in the United States. Many studies have attempted to understand variation in punitiveness across social groups, and have found that there are consistent racial differences that exist. Past research mostly focused on differences between Black and White individuals, but none has included the analysis of those of Hispanic origin. Using pooled data from the 2014, 2016, and 2018 General Social Survey (N = 7,753), the current project examines racial/ethnic differences in punitiveness for White, Black, and Hispanic …

The Applicability Of Occupational Therapy To Correctional Programming, Jordan Lanning

Honors Projects

Correctional facilities are a controversial topic in the United States. Whether it is prison reform policy or overcrowding issues that are being debated in a political setting or at the dinner table, it is a hot topic of conversation. The discussion goes around and around to no avail, and seemingly no one is satisfied. A detailed look at current issues facing corrections, what has been done, and then, potentially what could be done may provide some clarity for a situation that is seemingly spinning out of control. Furthermore, occupational therapy and its application to correctional programming is explored as a …

Eliminating Mandatory Minimum Sentences: Putting Sentencing Power Back In The Hands Of The Judiciary, Hunter Anderson, Joseph Dummar

Brigham Young University Prelaw Review

Ron Miller had been a general manager of a company for twentyfour

years with no criminal record when his best friend asked

him to allow a shipment of drugs to be delivered to his company’s

address. Ron reluctantly agreed to help his friend, who was desperate

for money. Before the drugs arrived, Ron backed out and asked

his friend not to send the drugs, but by that point the shipment had

already been made. The police tracked the shipment to Ron and

arrested him. Even though Ron never knew the type nor the quantity

of drug that was delivered to …

The Policies Of The Catholic Church Sex Abuse Scandal Analyzed Through Punctuated Equilibrium Theory, Multiple Streams Theory, And Diffusion Theory, Camille T. Traczek

Student Publications

The discovery of sexual abuse of children at the hands of Catholic Church priests resulted in extensive state policy suggestions, such as statute of limitations reform. To best understand the processes and factors that influenced the creation of such policies, Punctuated Equilibrium Theory, Multiple Streams Theory, and Diffusion Theory are applied in this paper. Punctuated Equilibrium Theory demonstrates how several large-scale public exposés of abuse generated enough attention to result in policy change. Multiple Streams Theory shows how awareness of sexual abuse within the Catholic church, continuous debate over proposed policies, and the opportunity for change can result in the …

Covid-19: The Industrial Prison Complex And Black Bodies, Christian A. Rodriguez

Student Publications

COVID-19 has exposed a variety of issues and insecurities in our world since its eruption in 2020. While it is heavily discussed, debated and researched, much of the virus’ impact is not covered in communities and areas where marginalized bodies suffer disproportionately. One of the most undermined and blanketed populations in our country during the time of the pandemic (and for decades before) is the prison population, which has seen soaring cases and deaths since the virus first touched down in the states. Much of the prison population consist of black men and women and sadly mirror the same health …

Cannabis And Its Historical Role In America’S Intentional Segregation Of Race, William E. Kelley

Student Publications

One of the more dramatic shifts in attitudes towards a particular trend or culture we have seen during the turn of the century is none other than attitudes towards marijuana. The Cannabis plant, commonly known as marijuana, has been illegal in the United States for a while now. In the past ten years, we have seen an influx of states and countries relaxing their attitudes towards marijuana, and it's potential benefits. While this shift in attitude towards a relatively harmless drug is a step in the right direction, many are unaware of the sinister and racist history behind outlawing the …

Weeding Out Injustice: Amnesty For Pot Offenders, Mitchell F. Crusto

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

There are a growing number of States that have legalized marijuana, challenging the view that marijuana is a dangerous drug. These States are taking positions relative to both the retroactivity of the new laws and to amelioration of past offenses, which arguably contradict United States Supreme Court decisions on the retroactivity of changes in substantive criminal standards. And, many States recognize that past marijuana laws have greatly contributed to the problems related to a broken criminal justice system, including mass incarceration and racial disparities, particularly to the devastation of communities of color.

In response to these legal developments, this Article …

Racism In America: A Psychological Approach, Brett S. Burton

Student Publications

America is a country that has racism interwoven into its history and ingrained within its society. Blacks have been subjected to this racism and oppression for generations, and at a higher level than other minority groups. More recently in American society, we can see a transition from overt discrimination to covert discrimination through policies and legislation that affect racial groups differently. Foucault and Bentham’s Panopticon can be used to discuss the true systematic violence imposed on blacks and we can further that discussion by investigating the War on Drugs and Mass Incarceration and how they represent reincarnations of previous Babylonian …

Foreword, Thomas Wm. Mayo

SMU Law Review Forum

No abstract provided.

Vocational And Life Skills Monthly Data Update: April 2020, Uno Nebraska Center For Justice Research, Katelynn Towne

Reports

Grantees use an online data management system to submit data on participants served under their Vocational and Life Skills programming. This data is due monthly and reflects all services provided during the previous month to participants. Evaluators at the Nebraska Center for Justice Research work with grantees directly to manage data entry errors on an ongoing basis during update calls and site visits.

The current data derives from an active database, from which data is being entered and updated daily. Data values, including previously submitted information, may fluctuate depending on the duration of lag between service delivery and data entry. …

Patient, Hospital And State-Level Policy Characteristics Associated With Prevalence Of Treating Opioid Use Disorder In United States Emergency Departments, Rafeek Adeyemi Yusuf

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

The opioid crisis in the United States was declared a public health emergency due to escalating and untoward human, financial, and systemic consequences and effects on the nation. Opioid use disorder (OUD) comprising opioid abuse and dependence is devastating because of its associated chronic relapsing nature, overutilization of healthcare services, rising morbidity and mortality rates, and high cost of care. Efforts to address this have not made significant positive impacts. It is thus imperative to reassess the influence of factors associated with OUD. This study answered the question, what patient-, hospital-, and state-level policy factors were associated with prevalence of …

Nebraska's Community-Based Aid Mental Health Services, Lindsey Wylie, Anne M. Hobbs, Juvenile Justice Institute, University Of Nebraska At Omaha

Reports

Evidence-Based Practices Brief #5

Research finds that mental health symptoms are prevalent amongst youths in the juvenile justice system (Teplin et al. 2015), with clinical prevalence rates as high as 70% (Vincent et al., 2008), compared with an estimated 9 to 22% of the general population (Shubert & Mulvey, 2014). Studies have found that the prevalence rates of mental health disorders increases at each juvenile justice system point—with prevalence rates lowest when examining youth at intake (e.g., probation or family court) and becoming greater as we examine later system points, such as diversion (Wylie & Rufino), detention, and post-adjudicatory correctional …

The Lawyer: Spring 2020, Seattle University School Of Law

Lawyer

No abstract provided.

Mhpaea & Marble Cake: Parity & The Forgotten Frame Of Federalism, Taleed El-Sabawi

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

No abstract provided.

Safe Consumption Sites And The Perverse Dynamics Of Federalism In The Aftermath Of The War On Drugs, Deborah Ahrens

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

In this Article, I explore the complicated regulatory and federalism issues posed by creating safe consumption sites for drug users—an effort which would regulate drugs through use of a public health paradigm. This Article details the difficulties that localities pursuing such sites and other non-criminal-law responses have faced as a result of both federal and state interference. It contrasts those difficulties with the carte blanche local and state officials typically receive from federal regulators when creatively adopting new punitive policies to combat drugs. In so doing, this Article identifies systemic asymmetries of federalism that threaten drug policy reform. While traditional …

Csci 380 - Digital Operations And Cybersecurity Management (Syllabus), Eric Spector, Nyc Tech-In-Residence Corps

Open Educational Resources

Syllabus for the course "CSCI 380 - Digital Operations and Cybersecurity Management" delivered at the John Jay COllege in Spring 2020 by Eric Spector as part of the Tech-in-Residence Corps program.

Examining Aspects Of Obama’S Criminal Justice Legacy, Abiodun Raufu

African Journal of Criminology and Justice Studies

This paper is primarily a theoretical discussion of some aspects of the criminal justice legacy of Barack Obama’s two-term presidency and its impact on minorities. The historic 2008 electoral victory of the first black US president was widely expected to usher the dawn of a post-racial America. Instead, race relations worsened. Some critics complained that there was no significant reduction in black-white disparity in probable arrest, court actions and imprisonment during Obama presidency and that whatever he achieved was too little and too late to reform the U.S. criminal justice system. Protagonists however argue that undue expectations failed to take …

Ugandan Prisons: A Reflection On The Need To Develop An Understanding Of Issues That Affect Female Prisoners, Kiconco Milliam

African Journal of Criminology and Justice Studies

t This paper provides a reflection on the need for the prison system in Uganda to develop an understanding of the specific issues that affect female prisoners as a basis for implementing policies and programs that meet their special and unique needs as women. Drawing from vast international literature and few studies from African countries, this paper shows that the need for an understanding of issues that affect female prisoners is based on the fact that the pathway to crime and to prison between female and male prisoners is in most cases different. The paper’s disposition is engendered by two …

Familism And Crime In Nigeria: Exploring Family Conduct And Implication On Expanding New Spaces Of Crime In Akwa Ibom State, Aniekan S. Brown, Uduot Akpan

African Journal of Criminology and Justice Studies

The study investigates the influence of the family on crime in Nigeria, and emphasizes how conformance/non-conformance to family values have induced an expansion on the spaces of crime. Focusing on the Ibibio people of South-South Nigeria, this qualitative survey study adopts the socio-stuctural explanation of crime. Relying on simple percentage for data analysis, emerging data reveal the notion that familism emphasizes loyalty, trust, integrity, unity, progress and defence of family values. It notes that the changing societal attitudes to family values have led to the emergence of new spaces of crime. The paper concludes that police deployment, the resort to …

Import Of Laugher In Police-Suspect Interaction In Ibadan, Nigeria: A Multimodal Analysis, Temitope Michael Ajayi, Temidayo Akinrinlola

African Journal of Criminology and Justice Studies

Studies on police-suspect interaction (PSI) have engaged the textual peculiarities of PSI. Scholarly works on the non-verbal mode of communication in PSI are very scanty. Dearth of studies in this regard has prevented an investigation of the significance of the non-verbal mode as a communicative tool in PSI. This study examines the resourcefulness of laughter as a non-verbal mode in PSI with a view to uncovering the contextual roles of laughter in PSI. The study adopts Norris’ multimodal interaction analysis theory to investigate the motivations behind the deployment of laughter by investigating police officer (IPOs) and suspects during interrogation sessions. …

Resisting Extremist Ideologies: Counterterrorism, Women, And Religious Reform In Morocco, Nabil Ouassini, Anwar Ouassini

African Journal of Criminology and Justice Studies

This paper examines Morocco’s manifest and latent use of women in its counterterrorism strategy. The first section provides an overview of terrorism and counterterrorism in Morocco, with a special focus on the escalation of women’s involvement in Islamic terrorist organizations. The second section examines the restructuring of the Moroccan religious sphere as a gendered response to local, regional, and global processes and discourses surrounding the relationship between Islam and terrorism. The third presents a thematic analysis and argues that Morocco’s gendered counterterrorism strategy is effective in using a localized inclusion of women in religious roles of authority. This strategy offers …

The Courts Encourage It, So We Do It: Police Excessive Force Against Minorities, Christopher Chapman

African Journal of Criminology and Justice Studies

A continuing problem of American criminal justice is the frequency of violence directed against minorities by police. One cause of this is the leniency of courts, especially the Supreme Court, toward police officers accused of using excessive force. This position paper reviews the legal decisions that have granted a large degree of immunity to police in their use of force. It describes three doctrines: Qualified immunity, in which a public official is shielded from a lawsuit unless his/her actions violated a “clearly established” constitutional right; summary judgment, a judicial decision based on paper evidence without testimony; and limitations on respondeat …

Legal Brief: Rape As A Penal Offence In The Nigerian Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act, 2015: A Forensic Investigative Approac, Ernest Ogbu

African Journal of Criminology and Justice Studies

The Nigeria Violence against Persons (Prohibition) Act prohibits all forms of violence against persons while providing maximum protection and remedies for victims and punishment of offenders. Sections 1, 2, 3 and 4 provides for the offence of rape, defines the offence and punishment for offenders. Interesting as the provisions and severe as the punishment may be, successful investigation and prosecution of rapists are predicated upon standard forensic investigative procedures. However, available statistics reveal discrepancies between the cases reported and the number of convictions. Hence, the contention of this paper that the discrepancies is either that these forensic investigative procedures are …

The Victimization Of Native American Women In The United States: The Impact And Potential Underlying Factors, Kaci A. Clement

Honors Thesis

In recent decades, a topic of concern that has gained attention in the United States and throughout the world is violence against women. Surveys conducted nationally have found that there is a correlation between which racial group a woman identifies as and her likelihood to be victimized at some point in her life. American Indian/Alaskan Native women, in particular, are impacted by violence at disproportionate rates. However, definitive reasoning for the high rates of violence in these groups has not been fully investigated. There is a lack of surveillance and dissemination regarding this specific topic as well as other issues …

Food In Prison: An Eighth Amendment Violation Or Permissible Punishment?, Natasha M. Clark

Honors Thesis

This piece analyzes aspects such as; Eighth Amendment provisions, penology, case law, privatization and monopoly, and food law, that play into the constitutionality of privatized prisons using food as punishment. Prisoners have protection from excessive bail and fines and from cruel and unusual punishment, as per the 8^th Amendment; however, deprivations such as restricted diets and harm caused by them is only a valid violation if the prisoner can prove deliberate indifference. Privatization of the prison industry has led to reduced quality, choice, and diversity in areas such as food, which comes at a detrimental cost to prisoners. Serving …

Recognizing The Need For Mental Health Reform In The Texas Department Of Criminal Justice, Kara Mchorse

St. Mary's Law Journal

The ways in which mental health care and the criminal justice system interact are in desperate need of reform in Texas. The rate of mental illness in Texas is higher than the current state of mental health care can provide for. While state hospitals were once the primary care facilities of those with mental illness, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) has taken on that role in the last few decades; and when the criminal justice system becomes entangled with mental health care, it often leads to “unmitigated disaster.” If Texas continues to allow the TDCJ to act as …

Annotated Legal Bibliography

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

No abstract provided.

What Is Remembered, Alice Ristroph

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Valuing Black Lives: A Case For Ending The Death Penalty, Alexis Hoag

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Solitary Confinement As Protective Custody, Arielle Lacroix

Senior Honors Projects

No abstract provided.