Digital Commons Network^™

Modern Sentencing Mitigation, John B. Meixner Jr.

Scholarly Works

Sentencing has become the most important part of a criminal case. Over the past century, criminal trials have given way almost entirely to pleas. Once a case is charged, it almost always ends up at sentencing. And notably, judges learn little sentencing-relevant information about the case or the defendant prior to sentencing and have significant discretion in sentencing decisions. Thus, sentencing is the primary opportunity for the defense to affect the outcome of the case by presenting mitigation: reasons why the nature of the offense or characteristics of the defendant warrant a lower sentence. It is surprising, then, that relatively …

Are Constitutional Rights Enough? An Empirical Assessment Of Racial Bias In Police Stops, Michael Frakes, Rohit Asirvatham

Faculty Scholarship

This Article empirically tests the conventional wisdom that a permissive constitutional standard bearing on pretextual traffic stops—such as the one announced by the Supreme Court in Whren v. United States—contributes to racial disparities in traffic stops. To gain empirical traction on this question, we look to state constitutional law. In particular, we consider a natural experiment afforded by changes in the State of Washington’s rules regarding traffic stops. Following Whren, the Washington Supreme Court first took a more restrictive stance than the U.S. Supreme Court, prohibiting pretextual stops by police officers, but later reversed course and instituted a laxer standard, …

Jail Health And Early Release Practices, Brandon L. Garrett, Deniz Ariturk, Jessica Carda-Auten, David L. Rosen

Faculty Scholarship

Local jails in the United States incarcerate millions of people each year. The COVID-19 pandemic made jail health a pressing public health concern nationally, where releasing individuals from jails occurred across the country in order to prevent pandemic spread. But releases also faced substantial resistance and exposed long-standing challenges in delivering adequate healthcare in jail settings. People in jail have substantially higher levels of medical need than individuals in the general population, with large numbers having serious mental illnesses and substance use disorders. Further, overcrowded conditions and poor healthcare standards and delivery make jails harmful to those already-vulnerable people. What …

Videotaping Interrogations In Pennsylvania: A Wilson Center For Science And Justice And Quattrone Center For The Fair Administration Of Justice Report, Rachel Leigh Greenspan, Adele Quigley-Mcbride, Sydney Lapine, Marissa Bluestine, Brandon L. Garrett

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

“Second-Class" Rhetoric, Ideology, And Doctrinal Change, Eric Ruben, Joseph Blocher

Faculty Scholarship

A common refrain in current constitutional discourse is that lawmakers and judges are systematically disfavoring certain rights. This allegation has been made about the rights to free speech and free exercise of religion, but it is most prominent in debates about the right to keep and bear arms. Such “second-class” treatment, the argument goes, signals that the Supreme Court must intervene aggressively to police the disrespected rights. Past empirical work casts doubt on the descriptive claim that judges and policymakers are disrespecting the Second Amendment, but that simply highlights how little we know about how the second-class argument functions as …

Defunding Law Enforcement: Fire Departments' Perspective On Implementing The National Fire Protection Association 3000 Standard When Preparing For An Active Shooter Mass Casualty Incident, Anthony Rios

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

This study applied the policy window theory through punctuated equilibrium and resource dependency theories to analyze the perception of nationwide fire service leaders and the impact that defunding law enforcement can have on the fire service in managing an active shooter mass casualty incident (ASMCI). As police reform remains the center of discussion throughout the nation, many community leaders have explored ways to re-appropriate police funding. This comes at a time when the paradigm of law enforcement and Fire/Emergency Medical Services (EMS) interdependency has become the standard response to ASMCIs as defined by the National Fire Protection Association 3000 Standard …

Using Simulation For Law Enforcement De-Escalation Training, Julie Kent

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Law enforcement needs simulation practice tailored to de-escalation skills. Law enforcement officers spend most of their training time practicing how to use force appropriately and very little time practicing how to avoid using force. There is little research into the best ways for law enforcement to reduce their use of force and the best ways to provide training to individuals to coach them to avoid using force. There are many training programs promoting de-escalation techniques, but there is little research into the effectiveness of these programs beyond the ability of individuals to perform the skills that are trained. There is …

Leveraging Natural Language Processing To Analyse The Temporal Behavior Of Extremists On Social Media, May El Barachi, Sujith Samuel Mathew, Farhad Oroumchian, Imene Ajala, Saad Lutfi, Rand Yasin

All Works

Aiming at achieving sustainability and quality of life for citizens, future smart cities adopt a data-centric approach to decision making in which assets, people, and events are constantly monitored to inform decisions. Public opinion monitoring is of particular importance to governments and intelligence agencies, who seek to monitor extreme views and attempts of radicalizing individuals in society. While social media platforms provide increased visibility and a platform to express public views freely, such platforms can also be used to manipulate public opinion, spread hate speech, and radicalize others. Natural language processing and data mining techniques have gained popularity for the …

New Directions In State Crime: A Queer Criminology Perspective, Haley Elizabeth Bates

Online Theses and Dissertations

While recent decades have seen an expansion of state crime literature, the scholarship has been slow to integrate new criminological perspectives. The field is aware of state-perpetrated harms committed against queer and gender non-conforming individuals, yet there are limited works that explicitly frame the state as a criminal actor. This paper argues for the integration of queer criminology into the field of state crime to elevate harms against the LGBTQ+ community into academic awareness. Case studies demonstrating direct state violence in Russia’s Chechen Republic and indirect state violence against trans women in the United States are included to highlight the …

Hierarchy And Responsibility In Media: Cults, Culpability, And Culture, Max Hargett

Online Theses and Dissertations

This is a descriptive research project that investigates how popular entertainment media portrays cults. My intention is to see how the selected films and television shows portray issues of hierarchy and culpability within the cult and to explore how the genre and theme of the content was utilized in order to evoke certain reactions and sentiments in the audience. The selected films were The Sacrament, Martha Marcy May Marlene, and Midsommar. The selected television shows were Waco and American Horror Story: Cult. Each film and series is given its own analysis. Findings indicate that a common theme of the rigid …

Fear Of The Future: A Speculative Exploration Of Cinematic Dystopias, Katarina Megan Mcguire

Online Theses and Dissertations

Dystopia is often thought of as a simple fictional device or some far off possibility of an unrecognizable Earth. But what if dystopias are actually allegorical devices warning of the long-term effects of social controls like criminalization as well as reflections on current socio-political conditions? The aim of this study was to explore cinematic dystopias and their depictions of and reflections on such themes, including how they might act as speculations on the future. Relying on qualitative content analysis, this study gathered data from three dystopic films, including V for Vendetta, Minority Report, and Equilibrium, all chosen for their criminological …

The Road To Justice: Incarcerated Students’ View On Education Behind Bars, Margaret Baker Price

Online Theses and Dissertations

The experience of students that are incarcerated is largely unknown. This qualitative phenomenological research study allowed four college students that are incarcerated to share their experiences. Research shows individuals who are incarcerated are less likely to reoffend this study upon release. This study will show how these individuals view their educational experience during incarceration. Interviews were conducted with each participant and data was coded and organized into themes. By utilizing a phenomenological stance, observations were made of events that led to the placement of participants in the prison system and how education has impacted their time spent incarcerated. Themes discovered …

Communities In Conflict: A Critical Look Into Police And Deaf Interactions In Central Kentucky, Savannah Sublette

Online Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to examine historical and social patterns of audism, as expressed through criminal justice institutions, within local communities in central Kentucky. Previous research has pointed to patterns of discrimination by surveying either police or deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) people. By conducting research with members of both populations, the present study is able to explore the respective experiences and opinions on various topics, including knowledge of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), criminal justice policy and procedure, and the interaction techniques utilized by law enforcement. Themes and patterns emerge showing the disconnect between a …

The Expansion Of School Resource Officers In A Florida County: A Mixed Methods Study, Melanie Soderstrom

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

In the aftermath of school shootings, policymakers presented the expansion of school resource officers (SROs) in the nation's schools as a method for keeping students safe. Recently, policing in the United States has come under increased scrutiny, and several school districts across the country cancelled their SRO contracts with law enforcement agencies. Notably, these contradictory decisions have been made with limited empirical knowledge surrounding, the roles, preparedness, and impact of SROs. A county in Florida substantially expanded its SRO program in the 2016-17 school year creating a new unit within the local sheriff's office and an opportunity to investigate these …

Zombie At Work (Aggressive) Zombie At Home: The Relationship Between Work Boredom And Romantic Partner Undermining And Disengagement, Kenzie Dye

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Work boredom is an understudied topic within Industrial/Organizational psychology, and studies have yet to examine work boredom in the context of the work-nonwork interface. The present study reviewed the current work boredom literature and then examined two pathways by which boredom may be related to employees' behavior at home. It proposed that negative affect, in the form of frustration, is a link between work boredom and undermining behaviors toward one's romantic partner. The cognitive pathway connecting work boredom with romantic partner disengagement, was proposed to be affective rumination. These pathways were expected to be buffered with a high work-nonwork segmentation …

Redefining The Rule Of Law: An Eighteenth-Century Case Study, Christian R. Burset

Journal Articles

Scholars who write about the relationship between law and empire tend to adopt one of two frameworks. The first describes imperial rule and the rule of law as fundamentally incompatible. The second praises empires—especially the British Empire—for exporting the rule of law to lands that lacked it. These competing approaches have very different political valences, but they agree in suggesting that colonial rule made no substantial contribution to today’s rule of law tradition. At best, the metropole exported a premade rule of law abroad; at worst, colonialism corrupted preexisting commitments to legality. But in neither case did imperial rule alter …

Remedying Trait-Based Employment Discrimination: Lessons From The Crown Act, Tolulope Odunsi-Nelson

Faculty Scholarship

Trait discrimination is bias against people who possess traits and characteristics that are culturally, commonly, or historically associated with a particular race. Discrimination against Black people with "natural hairstyles" and anti-Black colorism are two forms of trait discrimination that stem from employers' preferences for white aesthetics. The CROWN Act is a law that expands the definition of race in discrimination laws to include an individual's hair texture or hairstyle, if that hair texture or hairstyle is commonly and/or historically associated with a particular race or national origin. The need for the CROWN Act stems from the systemic failure of United …

Japan’S Transnational War Reparations Litigation: An Empirical Analysis, Timothy Webster

Faculty Scholarship

Negotiating war reparations is traditionally the province of the political branches, yet in recent decades, domestic courts have presided over hundreds of compensation lawsuits stemming from World War II. In the West, governments responded to these lawsuits with elaborate compensation mechanisms. In East Asia, by contrast, civil litigation continues apace. This Article analyzes eighty-three lawsuits filed in Japan, the epicenter of Asia’s World War II reparations movement. While many scholars criticize the passivity of Japanese courts on war-related issues, this Article detects a meaningful role for Japanese courts in the reparations process: awarding compensation, verifying facts, and allocating legal liability. …

Carceral Progressivism And Animal Victims, Benjamin Levin

Scholarship@WashULaw

This chapter places the criminalization of harm to non-human animals within a larger context of left and progressive efforts to use criminal law to address social problems. This chapter treats the animal welfare movement’s turn to criminal legal solutions as a case study of the broader phenomenon of “carceral progressivism.” Specifically, the chapter identifies this case study as reflecting two particularly common features of left or progressive criminalization projects: (1) the presence of a particularly vulnerable class of victims; and (2) the claim that criminal law can send a message about society’s respect for that class of victims and condemnation …

Victims’ Rights Revisited, Benjamin Levin

Scholarship@WashULaw

This Essay responds to Bennett Capers's article, "Against Prosecutors." I offer four critiques of Capers’s proposal to bring back private prosecutions: (A) that shifting power to victims still involves shifting power to the carceral state and away from defendants; (B) that defining the class of victims will pose numerous problems; C) that privatizing prosecution reinforces a troubling impulse to treat social problems at the individual level; and (D) broadly, that these critiques suggest that Capers has traded the pathologies of “public” law for the pathologies of “private” law. Further, I argue that the article reflects a new, left-leaning vision of …

Interest-Based Incorporation: Statutory Realism Exploring Federalism, Delegation, And Democratic Design, Sheldon Evans

Scholarship@WashULaw

Statutory interpretation is a unique legal field that appreciates fiction as much as fact. For years, judges and scholars have acknowledged that canons of interpretation are often based on erudite assumptions of how Congress drafts federal statutes. But a recent surge in legal realism has shown just how erroneous many of these assumptions are. Scholars have created a robust study of congressional practices that challenge many formalist canons of interpretation that are divorced from how Congress thinks about, drafts, and enacts federal statutes. This conversation, however, has yet to confront statutory incorporation, which describes when Congress incorporates state law into …

Lemonade: A Racial Justice Reframing Of The Roberts Court’S Criminal Jurisprudence, Daniel S. Harawa

Scholarship@WashULaw

The saying goes, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. When it comes to the Supreme Court’s criminal jurisprudence and its relationship to racial (in)equity, progressive scholars often focus on the tartness of the lemons. In particular, they have studied how the Court often ignores race in its criminal decisions, a move that in turn reifies a racially subordinating criminalization system.

However, the Court has recently issued a series of decisions addressing racism in the criminal legal system: Buck v. Davis, Peña-Rodriguez v. Colorado, Timbs v. Indiana, Flowers v. Mississippi, and
Ramos v. Louisiana. On their face, the cases teach …

Race-Aware Algorithms: Fairness, Nondiscrimination And Affirmative Action, Pauline T. Kim

Scholarship@WashULaw

The growing use of predictive algorithms is increasing concerns that they may discriminate, but mitigating or removing bias requires designers to be aware of protected characteristics and take them into account. If they do so, however, will those efforts be considered a form of discrimination? Put concretely, if model-builders take race into account to prevent racial bias against Black people, have they then engaged in discrimination against white people? Some scholars assume so and seek to justify those practices under existing affirmative action doctrine. By invoking the Court’s affirmative action jurisprudence, however, they implicitly assume that these practices entail discrimination …

Little Progress In The Sixth Committee On Crimes Against Humanity, Leila Nadya Sadat

Scholarship@WashULaw

This essay takes up the work of the UN Sixth Committee to date on crimes against humanity. It offers the first comprehensive tabulation of States’ positions, an analysis of the work accomplished thus far, and suggests a potential roadmap for advancing the adoption of a new global treaty on crimes against humanity. The essay notes the substantial progress made by the International Law Commission in the development and shaping of the proposed draft treaty as well as the substantial support the ILC’s work has attracted from States. At the same time, it underscores the disappointing outcome of this year’s negotiations, …

Regulating Police Chokeholds, Trevor George Gardner, Esam Al-Shareffi

Scholarship@WashULaw

This Article presents findings from an analysis of police chokehold policies enacted at the federal, state, and municipal levels of government. In addition to identifying the jurisdictions that restricted police chokeholds in the wake of George Floyd’s death on May 25, 2020, the Article conveys (via analysis of an original dataset) the considerable variance in the quality of police chokehold regulation. While many jurisdictions regulate the police chokehold, the strength of such regulations should not be taken for granted. Police chokehold policies vary by the type of chokehold barred (“air choke” and/or carotid choke), the degree of the chokehold restriction, …

The Promise Of Radical Crime Policy, Trevor George Gardner

Scholarship@WashULaw

To the surprise of no one, the Defund the Police campaign has been subject to attack on several fronts—by political conservatives, police unions, and any number of Democratic Party politicians. How did Defund proponents respond to this high leverage moment? As the national debate about police budgets reached its apex, the Defund campaign seemed to scatter in several policy directions while clinging to the Defund mantra.

In To “Defund” the Police, Jessica Eaglin tracks these directions and draws a conceptual map of the various ongoing political projects designed to stem the flow of public money to police departments. To …

The Informed Jury, Daniel Epps, William Ortman

Scholarship@WashULaw

The right to a criminal jury trial is a constitutional disappointment. Cases almost never make it to a jury because of plea bargaining. In the few cases that do, the jury is relegated to a narrow factfinding role that denies it normative voice or the ability to serve as a meaningful check on excessive punishment.

One simple change could situate the jury where it belongs, at the center of the criminal process. The most important thing juries do in criminal cases is authorize state punishment. But today, when a jury returns a guilty verdict, it authorizes punishment without any idea …

How International Justice Can Succeed In Ukraine And Beyond, Leila Nadya Sadat, Christopher Hale

Scholarship@WashULaw

Depictions of gruesome and heartbreaking mass atrocities resulting from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have injected discussions of war crimes trials into common discourse the world over. World leaders and government spokespersons in major capitols now field a steady stream of media questions on how crimes in Ukraine will be confronted. An unprecedented number of States Parties (41) of the International Criminal Court (ICC) referred the crimes in Ukraine to the ICC Prosecutor for investigation, and a video statement from the last living prosecutor of the Nuremberg era, 102-year-old Ben Ferencz, was played at one of the most-watched United Nations …

Replies To Commentators, John C.P. Goldberg, Benjamin C. Zipursky

Faculty Scholarship

With gratitude for our commentators’ thoughtful and generous engagement with Recognizing Wrongs, we offer in this reply a thumbnail summary of their comments and responses to some of their most important questions and criticisms. In the spirit of friendly amendment, Tom Dougherty and Johann Frick suggest that a more satisfactory version of our theory would cast tort actions as a means of enforcing wrongdoers’ moral duties of repair. We provide both legal and moral reasons for declining their invitation. Rebecca Stone draws a particular link between civil recourse in private law theory and the right of self-defense as recognized in …

Personality Assessment Inventory Predictors Of Parole For Adults Who Committed Murder As Juveniles, Karlie Rice

Psychology Theses

Previously juveniles as young as 14 guilty of murder were eligible to be sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. However, the decision of Miller v. Alabama (2012) declared mandatory life without the possibility of parole (LWOP) unconstitutional. Juveniles sentenced to LWOP were now able to be either resentenced or eligible for possible parole. The current study examined which scales on the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) predict parole outcomes for adult men seeking parole who committed murder when they were juveniles and sentenced to LWOP. The PAI is a 344-item self-report assessment comprised of validity, clinical, interpersonal and treatment …