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The State As Batterer: Learning From Family Law To Address American's Family-Like Racial Dysfunction, Angela Mae Kupenda

Journal Articles

The women's movement for equality bootstrapped to the movement for equality for Blacks. Now the reverse can happen. This Article uses family law and the plight of some battered women, as a lens to address analogous racial conflicts in the broader American family.

Getting Real About Race And Prisoner Rights, Michael B. Mushlin, Naomi Roslyn Galtz

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This Article explores the connection between the dramatic increases in the incarceration of non-whites and the parallel decline in the legal protections for prisoners over the same period. Using the social sciences, the Article suggests that racial tensions play a role in the decisions made by both guards and prison administrators. Further, the authors argue that the communities of these non-white prisoners are the least well equipped to advocate for their well-being. Ultimately, the Article concludes that the law is not currently equipped to confront the possibility of dealing with race-based tensions and structural inequities that are present in the …

The Driving Force: A Comparative Analysis Of Gang-Motivated, Firearm-Related Homicides, Christa Polczynski

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The knowledge of gang homicides is constantly increasing, but one aspect of gangs rarely studied is drive-by shootings (Dedel 2007; Hutson, Anglin, and Pratts 1994; Hutson, Anglin, and Eckstein 1996; Polczynski 2007; Sanders 1994; Sugarmann and Newth 2007). In this paper are comparative analyses of gang-motivated, firearm-related homicides perpetrated through a drive-by shooting to those which are not perpetrated through a drive-by shooting, by spatial and regression analyses. The data used for the analyses are a combination of incident variables, such as victim, offender, and incident characteristics, as well as social and economic characteristics of the communities in which the …

Race Stereotypic Crimes And Juror Decision Making: Hispanic, Black, And White Defendants, Joseph Francis Boetcher

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

A race stereotypic crime is a crime that most people tend to associate with a certain race. This is a type of racial bias that affects juror decision making by undermining the presumption of innocence and lowering the prosecution's burden of proof. Two studies investigated race stereotypic crimes. Study 1 used a new scale to identify race stereotypic crimes for black, Hispanic, and white males. Study 2 used a mock juror paradigm with a realistic stimulus and sensitive measures to focus on the influence of this type of bias on mock juror decision making. Study 1: Participants were 143 undergraduate …

Henry Louis Gates And Racial Profiling: What's The Problem?, Bernard E. Harcourt

Faculty Scholarship

A string of recent studies has documented significant racial disparities in police stops, searches, and arrests across the country. The issue of racial profiling, however, did not receive national attention until the arrest of Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., at his home in Cambridge. This raises three questions: First, did Sergeant Crowley engage in racial profiling when he arrested Professor Gates? Second, why does it take the wrongful arrest of a respected member of an elite community to focus the attention of the country? Third, why is racial profiling so pervasive in American policing?

The answers to these questions are …

The Violent Bear It Away: Emmett Till & The Modernization Of Law Enforcement In Mississippi, Anders Walker

All Faculty Scholarship

Few racially motivated crimes have left a more lasting imprint on American memory than the death of Emmett Till. Yet, even as Till's murder in Mississippi in 1955 has come to be remembered as a catalyst for the civil rights movement, it contributed to something else as well. Precisely because it came on the heels of the Supreme Court's 1954 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, Till's death convinced Mississippi Governor James P. Coleman that certain aspects of the state's handling of racial matters had to change. Afraid that popular outrage over racial violence might encourage federal intervention in …

Distributing Discipline: Race, Politics, And Punishment At The Frontlines Of Welfare Reform, Richard Fording, Joe Soss, Sanford F. Schram

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

Numerous studies have confirmed that race plays an important role in shaping public preferences toward both redistribution and punishment. Likewise, studies suggest that punitive policy tools tend to be adopted by state governments in a pattern that tracks with the racial composition of state populations. Such evidence testifies to the enduring power of race in American politics, yet it has limited value for understanding how disciplinary policies get applied to individuals in implementation settings. To illuminate the relationship between race and the application of punitive policy tools, we analyze sanction patterns in the TANF program. Drawing on a model of …

The Liberation Hypothesis And Racial And Ethnic Disparities In The Application Of California’S Three Strikes Law, Elsa Y. Chen

Political Science

This paper examines the extent to which racial and ethnic disparities exist in the implementation of California's “Three Strikes and You're Out” law and whether racial and ethnic disparities vary by type of offense. Logistic regression analysis of individual-level data on over 171,000 California prison inmates indicates that African-Americans are more likely than whites and Latinos to receive third-strike sentences, even when legally relevant variables are controlled. The analysis also finds that Latino defendants are significantly less likely to receive third-strike sentences. The results also indicate that the black-white gap is greater for offenses known as “wobblers,” which can be …

Gender, Race, And Intersectionality On The Federal Appellate Bench., Todd Collins, Laura Moyer

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

While theoretical justifications predict that a judge’s gender and race may influence judicial decisions, empirical support for these arguments has been mixed. However, recent increases in judicial diversity necessitate a reexamination of these earlier studies. Rather than examining individual judges on a single characteristic, such as gender or race alone, this research note argues that the intersection of individual characteristics may provide an alternative approach for evaluating the effects of diversity on the federal appellate bench. The results of cohort models examining the joint effects of race and gender suggest that minority female judges are more likely to support criminal …

Differences Between Races During Questioning By The Police, Amy Barron

Undergraduate Psychology Research Methods Journal

This experiment was conducted with 100 volunteers from Lindenwood University (20 staff and 80 students). There were 56 male and 44 female participants. Each participant took a survey pertaining to their past encounters with the police. The researcher was trying to determine if there was: a) a difference between races in the amount of people who had been questioned by the police for looking suspicious, b) the reason why the people who had been questioned felt they had, c) if there was a difference between sexes and questioning for looking suspicious and d) if any sex and race combination was …

Law Enforcement In Subordinated Communities: Innovation And Response, Richard Delgado

Michigan Law Review

Policing styles and policy reform today exhibit a ferment that we have not seen since the turbulent sixties. The reasons propelling reform include some of the same forces that propelled it then - minority communities agitating for a greater voice, demands for law and order - but also some that are new, such as the greater premium that society places on security in a post-9/11 world. Three recent books discuss this new emphasis on styles of policing. Each centers on policing in minority communities. Steve Herbert's Citizens, Cops, and Power: Recognizing the Limits of Community examines the innovation known as …

“Whites Only Tree,” Hanging Nooses, No Crime?: Limiting The Prosecutorial Veto For Hate Crimes In Louisiana And Across America, Tamara F. Lawson

University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class

No abstract provided.

Driving While Black: Stories Through The Driver's Car Window—A Communicative Analysis, Tracie Lynn Keesee

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the communicative dynamic that occurs between Denver police officers, and citizens of the African-American community, during traffic stops characterized as "Driving While Black." Thirty four interviews were conducted regarding this study. Derived from the interviews were transcribed narratives, which were examined through the use of narrative analysis and various theoretical frameworks. The narrative analysis and theoretical frameworks provided a new lens for exploring the police/citizen communicative dynamic, and a foundation for additional communication research between police officers and the African-American community.

Torture And The Biopolitics Of Race, Dorothy Roberts

University of Miami Law Review

No abstract provided.

Wrongly Accused Redux: How Race Contributes To Convicting The Innocent: The Informants Example, Andrew E. Taslitz

School of Law Faculty Publications

This article analyzes five forces that may raise the risk of convicting the innocent based upon the suspect's race: the selection, ratchet, procedural justice, bystanders, and aggressive-suspicion effects. In other words, subconscious forces press police to focus more attention on racial minorites, the ratchet makes this focus every-increasing, the resulting sense by the community of unfair treatment raises its involvment in crime while lowering its willingness to aid the police in resisting crime, innocent persons suffer when their skin color becomes associated with criminality, and the police use more aggressive techniques on racial minorities in a way that raises the …

Cinema, Race, And Justice: A Qualitative Analysis Of Selected Themes., Katherine Clay Thompson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine 7 different crime and justice films and provide a content analysis incorporating restorative justice and peacemaking perspectives. The 7 films examined in this study included 12 Angry Men, A Family Thing, American History X, American Me, Crash, Shawshank Redemption, and Traffic. The researcher examined the films and used content analysis to examine the behaviors and actions of the characters. The films were examined using 5 different analytical themes: "embracing change", "second chances", "hope", "connectedness", and "becoming more human". The current study found the 7 films …

Racial Profiling And Policing In North Carolina: Reality Or Rhetoric?, Randal J. Sluss

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examined police practices of the North Carolina Highway Patrol concerning the occurrence of racial profiling. The sample data consisted of motorists stopped in North Carolina by the Highway Patrol between January 1, 2000 and July 31, 2000 (N = 332, 861). The findings suggested that race was a likely factor in pretextual stops. The results also indicate that racial profiling was occurring more in the western region than the eastern region of North Carolina. Theoretical reasons are offered in support of these findings.

Racial Fairness In The Criminal Justice System: The Role Of The Prosecutor, Angela J. Davis

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

In this article, Davis analyzes discusses efforts to involve prosecutors in the elimination of racial disparities in the criminal justice system. Part II explains how prosecutors unintentionally contribute to disparities through the arbitrary, unsystematic exercise of discretion. Part III argues that the U.S. Supreme Court has failed to provide an effective legal remedy for victims of race-based selective prosecution. Finally, in Part IV, Davis endorses the use of racial impact studies and task forces and discusses a model reform effort spearheaded by the Vera Institute of Justice.

Undermining Individual And Collective Citizenship: The Impact Of Exclusion Laws On The African-American Community, S. David Mitchell

Faculty Publications

The purpose of this article is to expose felon exclusion laws as a method for undermining the individual and collective citizenship rights of the African-American community, and to call for their abolition.

Disparity Rules, Olatunde C.A. Johnson

Faculty Scholarship

In 1992, Congress required states receiving federal juvenile justice funds to reduce racial disparities in the confinement rates of minority juveniles. This provision, now known as the disproportionate minority contact standard (DMC), is potentially more far-reaching than traditional disparate impact standards: It requires the reduction of racial disparities regardless of whether those disparities were motivated by intentional discrimination orjustified by "legitimate" agency interests. Instead, the statute encourages states to address how their practices exacerbate racial disadvantage.

This Article casts the DMC standard as a partial response to the failure of constitutional and statutory standards to discourage actions that produce racial …

Dred Scott: Tiered Citizenship And Tiered Personhood, Henry L. Chambers, Jr.

Law Faculty Publications

Part I of this brief essay discusses Dred Scott and the Court's acceptance of tiered citizenship and tiered personhood. Part II discusses the Reconstruction Amendments as a response to tiered citizenship and tiered personhood. Part III notes two issues-felon disfranchisement and the treatment of detainees in the War on Terror-that help illuminate tiered citizenship and tiered personhood and help us evaluate the conditions under which citizenship and personhood rights may be restricted without creating tiers of citizenship and tiers of personhood.

Gender Performance Over Job Performance: Body Art Work Rules And The Continuing Subordination Of The Feminine, Lucille M. Ponte, Jennifer L. Gillan

Duke Journal of Gender Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Criminal Justice And The 1967 Detroit 'Riot', Yale Kamisar

Articles

Forty years ago the kindling of segregation, racism, and poverty burst into the flame of urban rioting in Detroit, Los Angeles, Newark, and other U.S. cities. The following essay is excerpted from a report by Professor Emeritus Yale Kamisar filed with the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (the Kerner Commission) regarding the disorders that took place in Detroit July 23-28, 1967. The report provided significant material and was the subject of one article in the series of pieces on the anniversary of the disturbances that appeared last summer in The Michigan Citizen of Detroit. Immediately after the disturbances ended, …

Crime And Race Representation: A Content Analysis Of Las Vegas Local Television News, Julie Arradaza Chapman

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Media studies have found Blacks more often linked with media reports of violent crime in their local communities compared to other races. The aim of this paper is to reveal if current trends in the Las Vegas media market overrepresent African Americans as the most active perpetrators of crime by examining crime statistics, race demographics, and television representations of crime and race in the local news. This study is a content analysis of the five major television network affiliates: KVBC, KVVU, KLAS, KTNV, and KINC. Seven hypotheses are tested. Results indicate that local television viewers in Las Vegas receive inaccurate …

A Reader's Companion To Against Prediction: A Reply To Ariela Gross, Yoram Margalioth, And Yoav Sapir On Economic Modeling, Selective Incapacitation, Governmentality, And Race, Bernard E. Harcourt

Faculty Scholarship

From parole prediction instruments and violent sexual predator scores to racial profiling on the highways, instruments to predict future dangerousness, drug-courier profiles, and IRS computer algorithms to detect tax evaders, the rise of actuarial methods in the field of crime and punishment presents a number of challenging issues at the intersection of economic theory, sociology, history, race studies, criminology, social theory, and law. The three review essays of "Against Prediction" by Ariela Gross, Yoram Margalioth, and Yoav Sapir, raise these challenges in their very best light. Ranging from the heights of poststructuralist and critical race theory to the intricate details …

Analysis Of The Association Between Socio-Demographic Variables, Juvenile Offending, And Formal Vs. Informal Juvenile Justice System Handling In A Non-Urban Sample, Stephen W. Phillippi, Jr.

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

PURPOSE: This study compares and contrasts first-time juvenile offenders enrolled in a community-based intervention program whose cases were processed either informally or formally, and examines empirically- and conceptually-relevant contributors to re-offending. METHODS: This is a longitudinal, secondary analysis of 1072 male and female offenders. The study includes descriptive univariate analyses; chi-square bivariate analyses of each independent variable with the dependent variables (level of processing and recidivism at both one and three years); and binary logistic regression analyses to identify significant predictors of the dependent variables. Independent variables include age, gender, race, family structure, marital status of biological parents, family income, …

The Effect Of Race, Gender, And Location On Prosecutorial Decisions To Seek The Death Penalty In South Carolina, Michael J. Songer, Isaac Unah

South Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Litigating Salvation: Race, Religion And Innocence In The Karla Faye Tucker And Gary Graham Cases, Melynda J. Price

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

The cases of Karla Faye Tucker and Gary Graham represent two examples of the renewed public debate about the death penalty in the State of Texas, and how religion and race affect that debate. This article explores how the Tucker and Graham cases represent opposing possibilities for understanding contemporary narratives of the death penalty. Though the juxtaposition of these two cases is not completely symmetrical, if viewed as a kaleidoscope—a complex set of factors filtered through the shifting identities of the person who is at the center of the immediate case—the hidden operations of race and religion can be examined. …

Introduction, Elijah E. Cummings

Journal of Health Care Law and Policy

No abstract provided.

Race, Gender, Region And Death Sentencing In Colorado, 1980-1999, Stephanie Hindson, Hillary Potter, Michael L. Radelet

University of Colorado Law Review

This paper examines the administration of the death penalty in Colorado. We first identify all cases (n=21) in which defendants were sentenced to death in Colorado, 1972-2005, and all cases (n=10) in which the death penalty was sought, 1980-1999. We then compare the race and gender of all homicide victims with the race and gender of victims in the 110 death penalty cases. Overall, we find that the death penalty is most likely to be sought for homicides with white female victims, and that the probability of death being sought is 4.2 times higher for those who kill whites than …