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The Detention, Confinement, And Incarceration Of Pregnant Women For The Benefit Of Fetal Health, April L. Cherry

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

Section One of this Article discusses the effect of drug policy on the detention and confinement of pregnant women. This section also outlines three types of "fetal protection measures" that result in the detention, confinement, or incarceration of pregnant women in the name of fetal health and examines the legal rationales behind these mechanisms. Section One then questions whether detention is an effective way to reach the state's articulated goal of better fetal outcomes. Section Two offers a discussion of the constitutional rights at issue. This section addresses the ways in which detention violates two essential components of women's rights: …

Politics And The Glass Ceiling In American Law Enforcement: Why Not More Women Chiefs Of Police?, Madeline G. Meistrich Edd

Dissertations

Law enforcement is one of the last male-dominated occupations. Out of 18,000 police departments in the United States, only 200 to 250 have women chiefs. Such under-representation reflects the "glass ceiling" effect of a gender-based metaphorical barrier that prevents women from rising to the top of an organization, regardless of qualifications. The research examined three questions: what are the issues and problems articulated by women officers attempting to move upwards; what strategies were employed as they attempted to advance; and what strategies could help other women reach the top? Nine female primary participants in law enforcement leadership were interviewed, as …

The Personal Is Political--And Economic: Rethinking Domestic Violence, Deborah M. Weissman

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

From The Frying Pan Into The Fire: How Poor Women Of Color And Children Are Affected By Sentencing Guidelines And Mandatory Minimums, Nekima Levy-Pounds

Santa Clara Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Comparison Of Anxiety Levels Among Women In Mixed Gender Substance Abuse Treatment Facilities And Women-Only Substance Abuse Treatment Facilities, Veronica I. Jones

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether women who participate in a mixed gender residential substance abuse treatment facility experience more general anxiety during treatment than do women in a women-only setting and whether there a difference in the general anxiety levels of women in a women-only substance abuse treatment facility whether children are present or not. The voluntary participants of the study included 64 women who were selected from 4 residential treatment settings, 2 mixed gendered and 2 women-only, 1 with women and children. The women were asked to complete the State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) that …

Traffic In Human Beings: At The Intersection Of Criminal Justice, Human Rights, Asylum/Migration And Labor, Alice Edwards

Denver Journal of International Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Reflections On The Ambiguous Universality Of Human Rights: Cyrus The Great's Proclamation As A Challenge To The Athenian Democracy's Perceived Monopoly On Human Rights, Hirad Abtahi

Denver Journal of International Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Distorted Reflections Of Battered Women Who Kill: A Response To Professor Dressler, Joan H. Krause

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Economic Well-Being And Intimate Partner Violence: New Findings About The Informal Economy, Loretta Pyles

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The purpose of this research was to explore the relationship between intimatep artnerv iolence (IPV) and women's participationin the informal economy (both legal and illegal) and their impact on economic well-being. This research was part of a National Institute of Justice (NIJ) study that was concerned with women's survival of childhood and adult abuse. For the 285 women that were in this sample, there were positive, medium correlations between IPV and various types of informal economic activity. Illegal informal economic activity, institutionalized informal economic activity, incarceration and physical abuse negatively impacted women's economic well-being.

Domestic Violence And Legal Reforms In Nigeria: Prospects And Challenges, Itoro Eze-Anaba

ExpressO

The article focuses on the challenges for women’s rights activists attempting to provide a better legal regime for victims of domestic violence in Nigeria. It is my desire to provide a resource material on the issue of domestic violence for activists, policy makers, legislators and law reformers who are engaged in providing a better legal framework for the protection and promotion of women’s rights in a developing country like Nigeria. Having worked extensively on this issue, the article documents my experience on law reform advocacy in Nigeria.

Healthcare Encounters Of Formerly Incarcerated Women: A Grounded Theory Study, Karen Sue Hoyt Phd

Dissertations

The adult correctional population in the United States soared to nearly 7 million people (Bureau of Justice Statistics [BJS], 2005). Over 2 million individuals were housed in prisons or jails in the United States. Nearly 7 percent (6.9%) were women (BJS, 2005). Recent trends in the adult correctional population suggest that there has been a stark increase in the number of formerly incarcerated women in the United States. The purpose of this research was to explore how formerly incarcerated women perceived their healthcare encounters. The aims of this study were to answer the following questions. How did formerly incarcerated women …

Pregnancy & Policing: Are They Compatible?, Karen J. Kruger

ExpressO

A paper advocating that law enforcement agencies provide adequate accommodations and legal protections to women officers who become pregnant.

To Catch A Sex Thief: The Burden Of Performance In Rape And Sexual Assault Trials, Corey Rayburn Yung

ExpressO

Despite decades of efforts to reform American rape law, prosecution and conviction rates remain low compared to similar crimes. While activists led legislatures to adopt important statutory changes for rape and sexual assault, only modest effects in the levels of sexual violence have been observed. Nonetheless, reform-minded scholars continue to focus on statutory and rule tinkering as a means to quell sexual violence.

This article argues against the commonly-held belief that the crucial factors in determining the outcome of rape trials are substantive and procedural in nature. Rather, the issues of performance, representation, and language often pre-determine the outcomes of …

He Said-She Said: On Credibility And The New Reason, Nancy Rourke

ExpressO

The traditional wisdom in the field of evidence holds that, if there is a direct contradiction in the testimony of two witnesses, one of them must be lying. The jury is to discover which version is more credible. The traditional wisdom is wrong. This article uses an actual criminal case to establish that a direct contradiction in testimony can arise from another source - a fundamental difference of conceptual frame. In this case, both witnesses were telling the truth as they knew it, but were talking past one another. Words that were 100% true in the victim's conceptual frame were …

In The Best Interest Of The Child, Ellen L. Buckwalter

ExpressO

Each year more than 200,000 children in the United States are abducted by family members. When a child is abducted across international borders, the difficulties are compounded. Since the late 1970s, The Department of State’s Office of Children’s Issues has been contacted in approximately 16,000 cases involving children who were either abducted from the United States or prevented from returning to the U.S. by one of their parents.

The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction (“the Convention”) adopted on October 24, 1980, reflects a worldwide concern about the harmful effects that parental kidnapping has on children …

The Punishment Of Dixie Shanahan: Is There Justice For Battered Women Who Kill?, Leigh Goodmark

ExpressO

The article explores the prevailing theories justifying criminal punishment in the United States through the lens of the case of Dixie Shanahan, an Iowa woman who was sentenced to fifty years imprisonment for killing her abusive spouse after nineteen years of battering. The article begins with a detailed examination of the life of Dixie Shanahan and places her within the context of the literature on battered women who kill. The piece then looks at both retributivist and utilitarian justifications for punishment and concludes that only a retributivist rationale justifies the punishment of Ms. Shanahan and other battered women who kill, …

To Protect Or To Serve: Confidentiality, Client Protection And Domestic Violence, Dana Harrington-Conner

ExpressO

This article addresses the ethical dilemma of whether and when the attorney for an adult victim of domestic violence can or should disclose confidential communications for the protection of his or her own client.

Advocates maintain that domestic violence is the single major cause of injury to women in the United States. The risks are undeniable. An attorney representing a client who remains in or voluntarily returns to a violent relationship may confront conflicting ethical duties because it is difficult, if not impossible, for the attorney to determine which cases will end in further violence and which will not.

This …

Loyalty's Reward — A Felony Conviction: Recent Prosecutions Of High-Status Female Offenders, Michelle S. Jacobs

UF Law Faculty Publications

Between 2001 and 2004, six high-status women were charged with crimes in connection with corporate criminal cases. The public is familiar with some of them, although not all of their cases have been covered equally in the press. With the exception of an occasional article now and then mentioning the exploding rates of female incarceration, women's crime tends to be invisible to the public eye. The statistical data the government collects and analyzes on women and crime will be discussed. This article will focus on the prosecution of the individual cases of Lea Fastow, Betty Vinson, and Martha Stewart. Their …

Gender Equality, Social Values And Provocation Law In The United States, Canada And Australia, Caroline A. Forell

ExpressO

In this article I examine and compare the partial defense of provocation as it applies to domestic homicide in Australia, Canada, and the United States on both the gendered-male basis of jealous rage and gendered-female basis of fear. I explain why substantive equality, prevalent under Canadian constitutional law, has not resulted in woman-friendly provocation rules in Canada and the United States and why Australia is the leader in incorporating substantive equality into its provocation doctrine. I conclude that the main reason why some Australian jurisdictions have abolished provocation and others have female-friendly versions of the doctrine is that, unlike Canada …

Superstition-Based Injustice In Africa And The United States: The Use Of Provocation As A Defense For Killing Witches And Homosexuals, Jennifer Dumin

ExpressO

This Article examines two different instances where strong cultural and religious beliefs suggest that an individual is justified in taking another’s life. Focusing primarily on South Africa and the United States, it argues that the rationale used to defend those who kill suspected witches and those who kill suspected homosexuals is the same – merely because a criminal holds a belief that the victim is evil, the criminal is somehow entitled to a lesser punishment. In the United States, those who readily recognize the absurdity of the witchcraft defense may have some difficulty in recognizing the same level of absurdity …

Women And War: A Bibliography Of Recent Works, Annette Demers

International Journal of Legal Information

Since the end of the Cold War, a number of regional conflicts worldwide have devastated innocent populations. The conflicts in Rwanda and in the Balkans come to mind as prominent examples. With these developments the literature about women and war has proliferated.

In particular, there is a growing emphasis on the impact of war on women. The literature emphasizes a number of concerns. In most countries, women form the center of the family and bear the economic and social burden of keeping their families together throughout times of conflict and upheaval. Women's essential role in childbearing and procreation makes them …

Violence Against Women: An Obstacle To Equality, Sheila Dauer

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

No abstract provided.

Lessons Unlearned: Women Offenders, The Ethics Of Care, And The Promise Of Restorative Justice, Marie A. Failinger

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This article focuses on the reality that women's relationality, and particularly their relationships with men in their lives, profoundly affects the behavior that lands them in the criminal justice system. The author argues that restorative justice, which is essentially grounded on an ethical understanding of crime and treats the offender an as interacting subject/agent, is a necessary avenue of response to most women offenders' crimes, and that corrections must go beyond a psychological approach that treats crimes as a form of illness, or a systematic model which attempts primarily to rectify deficits in women's social situation.

The United States As Global Sheriff: Using Unilateral Sanctions To Combat Human Trafficking, Janie Chuang

Michigan Journal of International Law

By situating the U.S. rise to dominance in historical and political context, this Article underscores the significance of U.S. unilateralism for international anti-trafficking law and policy.

Revisiting Anna Moscowitz's Kross's Critique Of New York City's Women's Court: The Continued Problem Of Solving The "Problem" Of Prostitution With Specialized Criminal Courts, Mae C. Quinn

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This article explores New York City's non-traditional, judicially based response to prostitution. This article first recounts the history of New York City’s Women’s Court. It then examines the work of the Midtown Community Court, the “problem-solving court” established in 1993 to address criminal issues, like prostitution, in Midtown Manhattan. It also discusses the renewed concerns about sex work in New York and describe the movement, propelled by modern reformers, to address prostitution through specialty courts. It then contrasts the shared features and attributes of the Women’s Court and Midtown Court models. Finally, the article urges modern reformers to step back …

No Penis, No Problem, Kay L. Levine

Fordham Urban Law Journal

Over the past century and a half, the gendered essence of statutory rape has become deeply embedded in the purpose of the statute, extending its tentacles far beyond the statutory language, such that we can no longer extricate the male-on-female image from the formal law's requirements for prosecution. The reality of statutory rape is, however, far more complex than the traditional gender construct implies. Female sex abusers and male victims exist, in substantial numbers and varieties. Part I documents the statutory rape law's gendered essence, explaining the formal law's traditional gendered classification scheme, the Supreme Court's approval of that approach, …

Sex Before Violence: Girls, Dating Violence, And (Perceived) Sexual Autonomy, Cheryl Hanna

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This article explores the phenomenon of girl violence by examining teen dating violence and girls' experiences with intimate abuse both as victims and as perpetrators. While there is a tendency to view women's experiences as victims of violence as separate and distinct from their experiences as victims of violence, the two phenomena are interrelated. A girl's violent victimization can lead her to victimize someone else, just as her own violence can lead her to violent victimization. These conversations about young women and sexual behavior are especially important for lawyers and advocates. While the implementation of legal strategies such as civil …

Rare & Inconsistent: The Death Penalty For Women, Victor L. Streib

Fordham Urban Law Journal

Previous studies of the national landscape around the death penalty for women have identified and analyzed past themes and issues.22 This Article brings the analysis current through 2005, beginning with a reprise of the conversations about gender bias and disparity in the death penalty system. It appears that female offenders have always been treated differently from male offenders in the death penalty system, sometimes for reasons that are easily justifiable but too often simply because of sex bias. The next section of this Article explores the current death penalty era, identifying those women who have been sentenced to death, those …

Sexual Abuse Of Women In United States Prisons: A Modern Corollary Of Slavery, Brenda V. Smith

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This paper addresses the sexual abuse of women in custody as a more contemporary manifestation of slavery. Part II situates the sexual abuse of women in custody and women slaves in their historical context. Part II also charts the creation of the first penitentiaries in the United States and the "Reform Movement," led by Quaker women who were also involved in the abolition movement, and later in the suffrage movement. It further examines the impact that women's entry into male prisons as workers in the 1970s and 1980s - pursuant to Title VII - had on the sexual abuse of …

Sexual Abuse Of Women In Prison: A Modern Corollary Of Slavery, Brenda V. Smith

Project on Addressing Prison Rape - Articles

This paper addresses the sexual abuse of women in custody as a more contemporary manifestation of slavery and discusses the congruencies and the differences that exist between the sexual abuse of women in custody and slavery. The paper charts the history of the parallel abolition and prison reform movements and examines their divergent paths arguing that the women's movement abandonment of prison advocacy has harmed the women in prison movement. The article concludes that the embrace of human rights norms has assisted in providing new avenues for redressing the sexual abuse of women in custody.