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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Reentry Court Judges: The Key To The Court, Christopher Salvatore, Venezia Michalsen, Caitlin Taylor Mar 2020

Reentry Court Judges: The Key To The Court, Christopher Salvatore, Venezia Michalsen, Caitlin Taylor

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Over the last few decades, treatment-oriented court judges have moved away from being neutral arbitrators in an adversarial court process to treatment facilitators. In the problem-solving court model, judges are part of a more therapeutic treatment process with program participants and a courtroom workgroup. The shift from the use of the traditional criminal justice process toward the use of more treatment-oriented models for some populations highlights the need to systematically document key elements of treatment court models. In particular, it is important to clearly document the role of Reentry Court Judges because they are a key component of the Reentry …


How Can Presidents Properly Calibrate The Terror Threat?, Gabriel Rubin Mar 2020

How Can Presidents Properly Calibrate The Terror Threat?, Gabriel Rubin

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Presidential rhetoric has minimally changed from the narrative set by George W. Bush after the 9/11 attacks. Bush’s policies and agenda have also largely remained. This chapter provides proposals for change given the empirical and theoretical findings made in the book. The counterterrorist policy agenda needs to be narrowed and made more precise. The public needs to educate itself about the terror threat to understand that it is not a significant risk when weighed against others. Presidents need to be more careful with what words they use when describing America’s terrorist adversaries and with who they call terrorists. Recalibrating the …


Barack Obama: From An End To Terror To Drone Wars And Isis, Gabriel Rubin Mar 2020

Barack Obama: From An End To Terror To Drone Wars And Isis, Gabriel Rubin

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Barack Obama attempted to recalibrate presidential rhetoric on the terror threat. He made far fewer speeches about terrorism than George W. Bush did. Yet, despite some efforts to the contrary, he continued many of Bush’s policies—and in the case of targeted assassinations using drones (unmanned aerial vehicles), went further than Bush. The analysis of Obama’s rhetoric on terrorism shows a president who both wants to distance himself from his predecessor and one who wants to be seen as tough on terrorism. In the final analysis, Obama’s rhetoric and policies hewed rather closely to George W. Bush’s. This chapter raises questions …


From The Legal Literature: Criminalizing Propaganda: J. Remy Green’S Argument To Digitize Brandenburg, Francesca Laguardia Jan 2020

From The Legal Literature: Criminalizing Propaganda: J. Remy Green’S Argument To Digitize Brandenburg, Francesca Laguardia

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

No abstract provided.


From The Legal Literature: Automating Police, Francesca Laguardia Jan 2020

From The Legal Literature: Automating Police, Francesca Laguardia

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

No abstract provided.


From The Legal Literature: If The Fetus Is A Person—Is It Relevant? An Argument On The Rights Of Pregnant Women, Francesca Laguardia Jan 2020

From The Legal Literature: If The Fetus Is A Person—Is It Relevant? An Argument On The Rights Of Pregnant Women, Francesca Laguardia

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

No abstract provided.


From The Legal Literature: Disentangling Prison And Punishment, Francesca Laguardia Jan 2020

From The Legal Literature: Disentangling Prison And Punishment, Francesca Laguardia

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

No abstract provided.


From The Legal Literature: The Threat And Promise Of Police Use Of Dna Databases, Francesca Laguardia Jan 2020

From The Legal Literature: The Threat And Promise Of Police Use Of Dna Databases, Francesca Laguardia

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

No abstract provided.


Abolitionist Feminism As Prisons Close: Fighting The Racist And Misogynist Surveillance “Child Welfare” System, Venezia Michalsen Jun 2019

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 …


“It’S Hard Out Here If You’Re A Black Felon”: A Critical Examination Of Black Male Reentry, Jason M. Williams, Sean K. Wilson, Carrie Bergeson May 2019

“It’S Hard Out Here If You’Re A Black Felon”: A Critical Examination Of Black Male Reentry, Jason M. Williams, Sean K. Wilson, Carrie Bergeson

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Formerly incarcerated Black males face many barriers once they return to society after incarceration. Research has long established incarceration as a determinant of poor health and well-being. While research has shown that legally created barriers (e.g., employment, housing, and social services) are often a challenge post-incarceration, far less is known of Black male’s daily experiences of reentry. Utilizing critical ethnography and semi-structured interviews with formerly incarcerated Black males in a Northeastern community, this study examines the challenges Black males experience post-incarceration.


Race As A Carceral Terrain: Black Lives Matter Meets Reentry, Jason Williams May 2019

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 …


A Cell Of One’S Own? Incarceration And Other Turning Points In Women’S Journeys To Desistance, Venezia Michalsen May 2019

A Cell Of One’S Own? Incarceration And Other Turning Points In Women’S Journeys To Desistance, Venezia Michalsen

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Research has shown the importance of turning points in desistance from criminal behavior. Using qualitative data from a sample of 100 formerly incarcerated mothers interviewed about their criminal behavior, this article explores their descriptions of transition moments and whether and how those moments affected their criminal behavior. The findings indicate that whereas parenting emerges as a turning point, the practical difficulties of reentry may reduce the impact of mothering on women’s desistance. More self-focused turning points, such as those due to incarceration, arrest, and sobriety appeared to be particularly important to the women’s desistance. This article emphasizes the need for …


Commonsense Knowledge In Sentiment Analysis Of Ordinance Reactions For Smart Governance, Manish Puri May 2019

Commonsense Knowledge In Sentiment Analysis Of Ordinance Reactions For Smart Governance, Manish Puri

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Smart Governance is an emerging research area which has attracted scientific as well as policy interests, and aims to improve collaboration between government and citizens, as well as other stakeholders. Our project aims to enable lawmakers to incorporate data driven decision making in enacting ordinances. Our first objective is to create a mechanism for mapping ordinances (local laws) and tweets to Smart City Characteristics (SCC). The use of SCC has allowed us to create a mapping between a huge number of ordinances and tweets, and the use of Commonsense Knowledge (CSK) has allowed us to utilize human judgment in mapping. …


Embryo Litigation : The Legal Categorization Of Embryos As Protected Humans Or Property, Caroline Koboska May 2019

Embryo Litigation : The Legal Categorization Of Embryos As Protected Humans Or Property, Caroline Koboska

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This thesis explores the issue of the unknown legal status of frozen embryos in the United States. With an examination of the issue through the discipline of law, it becomes evident that the lack of legislation and guidance on the issue has left it a matter up to the states, rather than the federal government. Central to the issue is the history and laws of abortion in the United States that can help provide precedent. The thesis examines embryos in light of property law, contract law, and family law. Also included is a review of embryos through a second discipline …


The Coming Out Of Memory: The Holocaust, Homosexuality, And Dealing With The Past, Arnaud Kurze Feb 2019

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 …


Lgbtq Youth In Foster Care: Litigated Reform Of New Jersey’S Child Welfare System, Ariel Alvarez Jan 2019

Lgbtq Youth In Foster Care: Litigated Reform Of New Jersey’S Child Welfare System, Ariel Alvarez

Department of Political Science and Law Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Institutional heteronormativity is endemic across the U.S. state foster care system. The study purpose was to explore New Jersey’s child welfare agency in the context of policy changes during litigated reform that diminished the influence of institutional heteronormativity contributing to inadequate care of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or questioning (LGBTQ) foster youth. LGBTQ-related policy-based reforms identified through document analysis included: (a) leveraging the authority of state sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression (SOGIE) based anti-discrimination legislation; (b) establishing a Safe Space Initiative program; and (c) integrating SOGIE-based anti-discrimination policy and procedural changes to LGBTQ youth case practice, management, service …


Batman The Noble Dog: The Costs Of Spiritedness For The Individual And Society, Ian Drake Jan 2019

Batman The Noble Dog: The Costs Of Spiritedness For The Individual And Society, Ian Drake

Department of Political Science and Law Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Batman’s self-imposed mission to rid Gotham City of its criminal element has always presented the problem of vigilantism. From the perspective of criminology, Batman’s methods raise the problem of whether society can be governed, or govern itself, with extralegal law enforcement. The problem presented by Batman’s behavior is often stated, as the ancient Roman satirist Juvenal famously put it, “quis custodiet ipsos custodes?” (“but who is going to guard the guards themselves?”).1 The threat posed by selfappointed guardians, such as Batman and other super heroes, has been frequently analyzed by scholars and fans alike. Yet, there is an additional, less …


Virtual Life Sentences: An Exploratory Study, Jessica S. Henry, Christopher Salvatore, Bai-Eyse Pugh Apr 2018

Virtual Life Sentences: An Exploratory Study, Jessica S. Henry, Christopher Salvatore, Bai-Eyse Pugh

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Virtual life sentences are sentences with a term of years that exceed an individual’s natural life expectancy. This exploratory study is one of the first to collect data that establish the existence, prevalence, and scope of virtual life sentences in state prisons in the United States. Initial data reveal that more than 31,000 people in 26 states are serving virtual life sentences for violent and nonviolent offenses, and suggest racial disparities in the distribution of these sentences. This study also presents potential policy implications and suggestions for future research.


Smoke But No Fire: When Innocent People Are Wrongly Convicted Of Crimes That Never Happened, Jessica S. Henry Apr 2018

Smoke But No Fire: When Innocent People Are Wrongly Convicted Of Crimes That Never Happened, Jessica S. Henry

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Nearly one-third of exonerations involve the wrongful conviction of an innocent person for a crime that never actually happened, such as when the police plant drugs on an innocent person, a scorned lover invents a false accusation, or an expert mislabels a suicide as a murder. Despite the frequency with which no-crime convictions take place, little scholarship has been devoted to the subject. This Article seeks to fill that gap in the literature by exploring no-crime wrongful convictions as a discrete and unique phenomenon within the wrongful convictions universe. This Article considers three main factors that contribute to no-crime wrongful …


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 Feb 2018

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

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

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 …


African Americans And Punishment For Crime: A Critique Of Mainstream And Neoliberal Discourses, Jason M. Williams, Nishaun Tarae Battle Sep 2017

African Americans And Punishment For Crime: A Critique Of Mainstream And Neoliberal Discourses, Jason M. Williams, Nishaun Tarae Battle

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Understandings of punishment within the criminological enterprise have failed to capture the nuances associated with experiencing punishment. Moreover, mainstream academic discourses are inherently anachronistic in their conclusions on punishment, thus leaving significant gaps to be filled. One such gap is that of racialized history. This article attempts to make sense of punishment discourses (past and present) by situating them in their proper context. We argue that punishment, in particular for Blacks, is ideological and longstanding. Moreover, we posit that the prolonged punishment of Blacks is hyper manifested in contemporary society via neoliberal logic that has increasingly disabled race as a …


Trigger Warnings: From Panic To Data, Francesca Laguardia, Venezia Michalsen, Holly Rider-Milkovich Jul 2017

Trigger Warnings: From Panic To Data, Francesca Laguardia, Venezia Michalsen, Holly Rider-Milkovich

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Following a practice that originated online, university faculty and staff have increasingly used “trigger warnings” to alert students to the possibility that they might be affected or even harmed by potentially traumatic material. This practice has led to a passionate debate about whether such warnings stifle or encourage student expression and academic freedom, and whether they are beneficial or detrimental to learning. In this article, we illustrate the history and current state of this debate and examine the scientific support for the arguments for and against the use of such warnings. Specifically, we question the scientific basis for the suggestion …


Understanding Variations In User Response To Social Media Campaigns: A Study Of Facebook Posts In The 2010 Us Elections, Michael A. Xenos, Timothy Macafee, Antoinette Pole Jun 2017

Understanding Variations In User Response To Social Media Campaigns: A Study Of Facebook Posts In The 2010 Us Elections, Michael A. Xenos, Timothy Macafee, Antoinette Pole

Department of Political Science and Law Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Political candidates increasingly have incorporated social media tools like Facebook into their campaigns. Such tools enable supporters to interact directly and easily with campaigns, creating an immediate and relatively informal way for users to respond to candidate messages and publicly display their support. Previous research has explored how campaigns have used social media, or how the use of social media may be related to political engagement. In this study, we provide a systematic analysis of variations in user response to candidate messaging through Facebook. Our results shed new light on the dynamics of online campaigning through social media and engagement …


The Co-Evolution Of Marriage And Parental Rights Of Gays And Lesbians, Lisa M. Chauveron, Ariel Alvarez, Bradley Van Eeden-Moorefield Mar 2017

The Co-Evolution Of Marriage And Parental Rights Of Gays And Lesbians, Lisa M. Chauveron, Ariel Alvarez, Bradley Van Eeden-Moorefield

Department of Political Science and Law Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Historically, federal and state legislation placed different conditions on same- and opposite-sex couples' ability to marry, adopt, or exercise their parental rights. Given the historical intertwining of marriage and parenting, legal issues remain hinged on differing conceptions of marriage and what constitutes a legal family in the United States, especially for same-sex partners compared to their different-sexed couple counterparts. This article provides a historical review of decisions that serve as the foundation for queer parenting rights in the United States. A key focus is on the impact of the U.S. Supreme Court Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) marriage decision on queer …


Lights, Camera, Action: The Images Of Foster Care In The Movies, Ariel Alvarez Jan 2017

Lights, Camera, Action: The Images Of Foster Care In The Movies, Ariel Alvarez

Department of Political Science and Law Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Movies often reflect public perceptions. The portrayal of foster care in movies provides insight regarding beliefs and attitudes children, parents, and others bring with them as they interact with the foster care system. The study focus was to identify images of foster care portrayed in 37 nondocumentary movies produced in the United States and Canada between 1921 and 2012. Using Framing Theory, an iterative review process was used to derive three dominant images presented to audiences: child entrance into foster care, a broken foster care system, and life in foster care. Movie images generally misrepresented the realities of foster care …


The Contribution Of Hugo Chávez To An Understanding Of Post-Neoliberalism, Tony Spanakos, Dimitris Pantoulas Jan 2017

The Contribution Of Hugo Chávez To An Understanding Of Post-Neoliberalism, Tony Spanakos, Dimitris Pantoulas

Department of Political Science and Law Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

When Hugo Chávez was president, he pronounced the death of many things - the constitution, the old "partyarchy," Venezuela's "Fourth Republic," and the Free Trade Area of the Americas, among others. Since his own death in 2013, scholars, activists, and citizens have contributed to a rich discussion of his legacy. Part of that legacy is an understanding of post-neoliberalism that recognizes its competing and contradictory components, some of them seeking to complement, improve, and reverse neoliberal policies or overcome neoliberal logics and others constituting important remnants of neoliberalism.


The Legacy Of Hugo Chávez, Daniel Hellinger, Tony Spanakos Jan 2017

The Legacy Of Hugo Chávez, Daniel Hellinger, Tony Spanakos

Department of Political Science and Law Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Daniel Hellinger and Anthony Petros Spanakos discuss the legacy of Hugo ChaÁvez. In 1992, Lieutenant Colonel Hugo ChaÁvez vez failed to replace the beleaguered government of President Carlos AndreÁs PeÁrez but succeeded in capturing the hearts and imaginations of the population. Six years later, as a candidate for the presidency, ChaÁvez vez won his first of four presidential elections. Upon coming to power, he called for the drafting of a new constitution as part of a process of radical political, economic, and social change in Venezuela. Upon his death in March 2013, ChaÁvez left behind a significant but highly contested …


Deterring Torture: The Preventive Power Of Criminal Law And Its Promise For Inhibiting State Abuses, Francesca Laguardia Jan 2017

Deterring Torture: The Preventive Power Of Criminal Law And Its Promise For Inhibiting State Abuses, Francesca Laguardia

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The use of torture in the War on Terror reinvigorated a longstanding debate about how to prevent such human rights violations, and whether they should be criminalized. Using US history as a case study, this article argues that the criminal sanction is likely to be more successful in preventing such abuses than many other often suggested methods. Analyzing thousands of pages of released government documents as an archive leads to the counterintuitive finding that torturers were often deterred, at least momentarily, by fear of criminal liability, and would have been successfully deterred if not for the lack of prior prosecutions.


The Alabama Way: Independent Courts And Policymaking In Alabama, Ian Drake Oct 2016

The Alabama Way: Independent Courts And Policymaking In Alabama, Ian Drake

Department of Political Science and Law Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Rather, it was the product of a conscious policy choice by early nineteenth century jurists to "overthrow" an equitable theory of contract, wherein a good was thought to have an objective value, which courts could determine, independent of the value placed on it by the parties to the contract. [...] historians like Horwitz have interpreted the "buyer beware" rule as a "procommercial [sic] attack"-a conscious judicial policy choice to favor sellers over buyers-upon communal values, which essentially separated law from morals and created a harsher, more speculative, more individualistic, and combative marketplace


The Nonexceptionalism Thesis: How Post-9/11 Criminal Justice Measures Fit In Broader Criminal Justice, Francesca Laguardia Oct 2016

The Nonexceptionalism Thesis: How Post-9/11 Criminal Justice Measures Fit In Broader Criminal Justice, Francesca Laguardia

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Contrary to the assumption that ‘‘9/11 changed everything,’’ post-2001 criminal justice practices in the area of terrorism show a surprising consistency with pre-2001 criminal justice practices. This article relies on an analysis of over 300 terrorism prosecutions between 2001 and 2010, as well as twenty full trial transcripts, content-coding, and traditional legal analysis, to show the continuity of criminal justice over this time in regard to some of the most controversial supposed developments. This continuity belies the common assumption that current extreme policies and limitations on the due process are a panicked response to the terror attacks of 2001. On …