Law Commons^™

Bus Robberies In Belo Horizonte, Brazil: Solutions For Safe Travel, Elenice De Souza De Souza Oliveira, Mangai Natarajan, Bráulio Da Silva

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

This study examines the spatial patterns and other situational determinants leading to the high number of bus robberies in Belo Horizonte. Main research questions include patterns of robberies, spatial concentration, locations prone to robberies, and environmental characteristics therein. This study also provides a variety of safety measures based on the Situational Crime Prevention approach. The Rapid Assessment Methodology (RAM) was employed using both quantitative and qualitative data. It involves spatial analysis, direct observation of hot spots using a safety audit protocol, and focus group discussions with key participants. Bus robberies involve minimum risk and low detection and arrest. The “hottest …

Acting Black: An Analysis Of Blackness And Criminality In Film, Blake Edwards

Master's Theses

This thesis will attempt to answer how films deal with blackness and crime, specifically when intersecting with the concepts of exploitation, appropriation, whiteness and the criminality of the black body. While not entirely the root of the negative perceptions of African-Americans in the United States, the manner in which African-Americans are portrayed in motion picture media influences how their presence is seen in society. This thesis will examine specific films that include elements dealing with the listed factors and what effects they may or may not have.

Conversation With Jody Raphael About "Decriminalization Of Prostitution: The Soros Effect", Heather Brunskell-Evans

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

George Soros and Open Society Foundation are supporting the decriminalization of prostitution by funding organizations around the world to advocate for this legal change. Heather Brunskell-Evans (FiLiA podcasts, London) interviews Jody Raphael, Senior Research Fellow, Schiller DuCanto & Fleck Law Center, DePaul University College of Law, Chicago, Illinois, USA, about her research on this topic and discusses her article "Decriminalization of Prostitution: The Soros Effect."

Does The Decriminalization Of Prostitution Reduce Rape And Sexually Transmitted Disease? A Review Of Cunningham And Shah Findings, Lily Lachapelle, Clare Schneider, Melanie Shapiro, Donna M. Hughes

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

In 2013, research findings by Cunningham and Shah claimed that rape and sexually transmitted diseases were reduced by decriminalized prostitution in Rhode Island. The original unpublished claims have received wide media coverage which have gone unexamined. This review finds errors in their analyses. One error is the date when prostitution was decriminalized in Rhode Island. Cunningham and Shah claim that prostitution was decriminalized in 2003. Our analysis finds the date of decriminalization of prostitution was 1980. The change in the start date of decriminalization significantly alters the analysis and the findings. Another error results from Cunningham and Shah using an …

Abolitionist Feminism As Prisons Close: Fighting The Racist And Misogynist Surveillance “Child Welfare” System, Venezia Michalsen

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The global prison industrial complex was built on Black and brown women’s bodies. This economy will not voluntarily loosen its hold on the bodies that feed it. White carceral feminists traditionally encourage State punishment, while anti-carceral, intersectional feminism recognizes that it empowers an ineffective and racist system. In fact, it is built on the criminalization of women’s survival strategies, creating a “victimization to prison pipeline.” But prisons are not the root of the problem; rather, they are a manifestation of the over-policing of Black women’s bodies, poverty, and motherhood. Such State surveillance will continue unless we disrupt these powerful systems …

Bound By Silence: Psychological Effects Of The Traditional Oath Ceremony Used In The Sex Trafficking Of Nigerian Women And Girls, Jennifer Millett-Barrett

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

Nigerian women and children have been trafficked to Italy over the last 30 years for commercial sexual exploitation with an alarming increase in the past three years. The Central Mediterranean Route that runs from West African countries to Italy is rife with organized crime gangs that have created a highly successful trafficking operation. As part of the recruitment process, the Nigerian mafia and its operatives exploit victims by subjecting them to a traditional religious juju oath ceremony, which is an extremely effective control mechanism to silence victims and trap them in debt bondage. This study explores the psychological effects of …

Reforming Recidivism: Making Prison Practical Through Help, Katelyn Copperud

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

While Texas has long been recognized as “Tough Texas” when it comes to crime, recent efforts have been made to combat that reputation. Efforts such as offering “good time” credit and more liberal parole standards are used to reduce the Texas prison populations. Although effective in reducing prison populations, do these incentives truly reduce a larger issue of prison overpopulation: recidivism?

In both state and federal prison systems, inmate education is proven to reduce recidivism. Texas’s own, Windham School District, provides a broad spectrum of education to Texas Department of Criminal Justice inmates; from General Education Development (GED) classes to …

Skinning The Cat: How Mandatory Psychiatric Evaluations For Animal Cruelty Offenders Can Prevent Future Violence, Ashley Kunz

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

In 2017, the Texas legislature amended Texas Penal Code § 42.092, which governs acts of cruelty against non-livestock animals. The statute in its current form makes torturing, killing, or seriously injuring a non-livestock animal a third degree felony, while less serious offenses carry either a state jail felony or a Class A misdemeanor charge.

While a step in the right direction, Texas law is not comprehensive in that it fails to address a significant aspect of animal cruelty offenses: mental illness. For over fifteen years, Texas Family Code § 54.0407 has required psychiatric counseling for juveniles convicted of cruelty to …

Race As A Carceral Terrain: Black Lives Matter Meets Reentry, Jason Williams

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

In the United States, racialized people are disproportionately selected for punishment. Examining punishment discourses intersectionally unearths profound, unequal distinctions when controlling for the variety of victims’ identities within the punishment regime. For example, trans women of color are likely to face the harshest of realities when confronted with the prospect of punishment. However, missing from much of the academic carceral literature is a critical perspective situated in racialized epistemic frameworks. If racialized individuals are more likely to be affected by punishment systems, then, certainly, they are the foremost experts on what those realities are like. The Black Lives Matter hashtag …

Police And Higher Education: A Necessity Or Just A Desire?, Jared Marshall

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

A key issue related to the criminal justice system is if a college education makes a significant impact on an officer’s decision making, perception of their job, and desirability by police departments. Little research has been done on police departments in Massachusetts, so interviews were conducted with three high-ranking police officers in Massachusetts. They were selected using a convenience sample and the results were compared to the results of scholarly journal articles. Only some of the interviews and articles show that police officers with a college degree use force less often, they were inconsistent regarding a college educated officer’s job …

Attitudes Toward Marijuana Legalization: Temporal And Thematic Trends, Daniel James Krystosek

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This dissertation examines historical changes in marijuana legalization attitudes between 1974 – 2018, using a qualitative study of pro-legalization social movements in marijuana culture and quantitative analyses of measures from the General Social Survey (GSS). The main research question asks what themes have been prevalent in pro-legalization social movements (e.g., libertarianism, anti-establishment and anti-drug-war, medical/cancer patient advocacy, market incentives), how these themes have changed over the past several decades, and whether they connect to trends in legalization attitudes in the (GSS).

The first part of this study is qualitative, employing thematic content analysis of the most prominent national pro-marijuana publication. …

Exploring Places Of Street Drug Dealing In A Downtown Area In Brazil: An Analysis Of The Reliability Of Google Street View In International Criminological Research, Elenice De Souza Oliveira, Ko-Hsin Hsu

Elenice De Souza Oliveira

This study assesses the reliability of Google Street View (GSV) in auditing environmental features that help create hotbeds of drug dealing in Belo Horizonte, one of Brazil’s largest cities. Based on concepts of “crime generators” and “crime enablers,” a set of 40 items were selected using arrest data related to drug activities for the period between 2007 and 2011. These items served to develop a GSV data collection instrument used to observe features of 135 street segments that were identified as drug dealing hot spots in downtown Belo Horizonte. The study employs an intra-class correlation (ICC) statistics as a measure …

The Martin Institute Prints, Spring 2019, Stonehill College Martin Institute

The Martin Institute: Prints

No abstract provided.

Prosecutorial Discretion: The Difficulty And Necessity Of Public Inquiry, Bruce A. Green

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

Prosecutors’ discretionary decisions have enormous impact on individuals and communities. Often, prosecutors exercise their vast power and discretion in questionable ways. This Article argues that, to encourage prosecutors to use their power wisely and not abusively, there is a need for more informed public discussion of prosecutorial discretion, particularly with regard to prosecutors’ discretionary decisions about whether to bring criminal charges and which charges to bring. But the Article also highlights two reasons why informed public discussion is difficult—first, because public and professional expectations about how prosecutors should use their power are vague; and, second, because, particularly in individual cases, …

"I Assumed Chicago Would Be In The Forefront": Comments On The Movement To End Prostitution With Survivor-Leader Brenda Myers-Powell, Jody Raphael

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

For many years in the 2000’s, researcher Jody Raphael, teamed with prostitution-survivor Brenda Myers-Powell, undertook a myriad of speaking engagements in the Chicago metropolitan area, intended to raise awareness of the violence and coercion in the sex trade industry. Ten years ago, they were asked to make a video of their presentation. Recently, Dignity editors came across the video and asked for an update on the conversation. This piece is the result.

Voices Unheard: Women And Their Children In Nepal’S Incarceration System, Aune Nuyttens, Mikayla Rose

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This research project focused on women in Nepal’s incarceration system. Our goal was to hear and share their stories with the hopes of humanize and de-stigmatize perceptions of female prisoners in and outside of Nepal. A central component to these stories, as we learned, was also the story of prisoner’s children and the NGOs who provide assistance to this vulnerable group of women and their children. The researchers travelled to the east and west of Kathmandu to visit rural and urban prisons in Nepal, and visited various children homes, however the research was based out of Kathmandu, where many of …

Breaking The Prison-Jihadism Pipeline: Prison And Religious Extremism In The War On Terror, Gabriel Rubin

Gabriel Rubin

No abstract provided.

Mandatory Minimum Penalties: An Analysis Of Four State’S Penal Codes And Federal Court Policies, Cassie Geiken

Honors Theses

In Nebraska, variations of bills attempting to amend mandatory minimum laws in the state have been introduced. The harshness of the mandatory sentences, as well as the looming state of emergency caused by prison overcrowding, have sustained the debate over sentencing laws. This essay identifies the core issues of mandatory minimum sentencing laws and analyzes the states of Nebraska, Texas, Alabama, California, and the federal system’s use of mandatory minimums for felony charges to identify potential solutions. Statute review found that Nebraska’s current sentencing codes are misaligned with the rest of the nation; not even Alabama with one of the …

Filling The Sex Trade Swamp: Robert Kraft And His Predecessors, Janice G. Raymond

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

No abstract provided.

The Profile Of The International Cyber Offender In The U.S., Lora I. Hadzhidimova, Brian K. Payne

International Journal of Cybersecurity Intelligence & Cybercrime

This study explores the characteristics of international cyber offenders prosecuted in the U.S. Our findings to a large extent correspond with general studies about cyber offenders with a few important exceptions. First, the average age of the offenders in our study is slightly higher than others that do not focus exclusively on international offenders. Second, while this research confirms that China is among the leading country in committing cybercrimes when it comes to committing particular types of cybercrimes, the offenders come from other countries as well such as Romania, Estonia, Ukraine, South Africa, and Nigeria. Third, our results show that …

The Coming Out Of Memory: The Holocaust, Homosexuality, And Dealing With The Past, Arnaud Kurze

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

This research discusses the challenges of establishing a collective memory for gay victims of the Nazi terror in World War II and examines the introduction of gay victimhood into the public sphere through memorialization efforts. While scholarly accounts on gays and the Holocaust emerged in the 1970s, little is known about the emergence and consolidation of a public narrative on gay persecutions under the Nazis. It raises important questions, including why a public voice for crimes against sexual minorities in World War II emerged only hesitantly? Drawing on historical gay memorialization processes in Germany, the author maps the obstacles for …

A Study Of Factors Influencing Hiring Decisions In The Context Of Ban The Box Policies, Ronald F. Day

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation investigates whether NYC employers adhered to Ban the Box by removing the question about criminal history from employment forms, by refraining from inquiring about an applicant’s criminal record during the interview process, and by complying with other aspects of the policy. The study also documents employer perspectives on Ban the Box and on the hiring of individuals with criminal convictions, and examines whether more individuals with a criminal record were hired after the policy was implemented.

Using a mixed-methods approach, surveys were administered to companies in the nonprofit and private sectors, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with a …

Restorative Justice And Responsive Regulation In Higher Education: The Complex Web Of Campus Sexual Assault Policy In The United States And A Restorative Alternative, David R. Karp Phd

School of Leadership and Education Sciences: Faculty Scholarship

Sexual assault policy on college campuses in the United States is a complex system guided by federal policy, state policy, and local mandates. When students violate sexual misconduct policies, campuses primarily rely on suspensions and expulsions, paralleling the criminal justice system’s reliance on incarceration as a solution based on stigmatization and separation. Since the 1990s, restorative justice has made inroads as an alternative response to student misconduct, but application to sexual misconduct is rare. The Campus PRISM Project (Promoting Restorative Initiatives on Sexual Misconduct) is a network of academics and practitioners exploring a restorative approach within a responsive regulatory framework. …

The Justice System Is Criminal, Raven Delfina Otero-Symphony

2020 Award Winners

No abstract provided.

The Rise Of American Extremism: An Exploratory Analysis Of American Religious And Political Extremism From Presidents Jimmy Carter To Barack Obama: 1977-2016, Alwyn J. Melton

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this quantitative case study was to address the problem of domestic terrorism facing the United States. This concern led to a comprehensive examination of historical documents that focused on the temporal evolution of the problem beginning with the Carter administration and continuing through the Obama administration. The conceptual foundation centered on resolving the research question and validating three hypotheses directed at qualifying the escalation of domestic incidents of terrorism. This led to developing a behavioral model to assist law enforcement agencies in combating the issue of domestic terrorism. Bivariate and clustering statistical analysis validated the data while …

Exploring Locus Of Control In Offender Cognition And Recidivism Paradigms, Anistasha Lightning, Danielle Polage

All Master's Theses

Working with four Washington State county jails to administer surveys to currently incarcerated inmates, we investigated locus of control and beliefs in the likelihood of continued legal involvement as possible antecedents to criminal recidivism. The surveys examined whether there was any connection between legal involvement frequency and the externalization of locus of control. We investigated external locus of control with specific respect to involvement with the law, the prospect of future incarceration, and feelings concerning the overall cause of original and/or sustained legal involvement utilizing the Revised Causal Dimension Scale (McAuley, Duncan, & Russell, 1992). We identified statistically significant interactions …

In Fear We Trust: Anxious Political Rhetoric & The Politics Of Punishment, 1960s-80s, Stella Michelle Frank

Senior Projects Spring 2019

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

Risk Management For Persons With Serious Mental Illness: A Process Analysis Of Washington State Department Of Corrections' Tools, Martin J. Tobin

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

Although many evidence-based techniques are outlined in the literature, systems often assess, plan, and mitigate risk for Persons with Serious Mental Illness (PSMI) in significantly divergent ways. For more than 20 years now, the Washington State Department of Corrections has relied on the Offender Reentry Community Safety Program (ORCSP) to appraise dangerousness and presence of mental disorder, utilizing a staged process that considers a wide-ranging set of criminogenic and non-criminogenic variables. A growing body of research suggests that the ORCSP is effectively decreasing recidivism through collaborative reentry planning and mitigation between mental health and criminal justice professionals; however, whether ORCSP …

Investigating A Macro Level Trial Tax: An Analysis Of The Relationship Between A Circuit's Plea Proportion And Median Sentence Length In U.S. Federal Courts, Denise Lafontaine

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

This study investigates the relationship between the proportion of cases resolved by plea in the federal court circuits and the median sentence length of those circuits. Through OLS regression, this study models the relationship, controlling for variation in circuits, year, and violent crime proportion. With an understanding of two common theoretical frameworks surrounding the trial tax discussion, this study theorized under a focal concerns perspective that as the proportion of cases resolved by plea in a circuit increases, the median sentence length of that circuit would decrease. The results of this study are consistent with results of prior research showing …

Gun Control: The Gun Violence Epidemic In The U.S., Anna Koduru

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

While holding almost half of all civilian-owned guns around the globe and yet only 4.4 percent of the world’s population, the United States of America is heavily centered around gun rights due to the 2nd amendment in the U.S. Constitution. But gun violence is on the rise as deaths due to gun violence are at its highest rate in nearly 40 years. Americans are divided amongst themselves when it comes to how we must approach this issue. In order to reduce gun violence in the U.S., both Republican and Democrat leaders must come together and make bipartisan moves to implement …