Legal Studies Commons^™

Justice: The Use Of Food, Education, And The Law To Combat Human Trafficking In Sub-Saharan Africa, Nicholas Grandchamps

HIM 1990-2015

Human trafficking is an ever-growing crime in this century. It is estimated that there are 29.8 million slaves around the world today - 16.36% of which are located in sub-Saharan Africa. The sub-Saharan region is a region in which human trafficking is combatted ineffectively due to a lack of food, lack of access to education, lack of post-education opportunities and lack of proper legislation. This thesis explores the environment in which human trafficking is taking place in sub-Saharan Africa, and proposes potential changes that will theoretically disallow human trafficking to take place in the region. The only way in which …

Panua Partners In Hope, Naivasha, Kenya: Legal And Domestic Related Challenges, Keisha Holman

HIM 1990-2015

The complexities of issues existing in Kenya create a domino effect directly affecting not only the effective management and economic growth of Kenya, but also social and legislative constraints to the lower socioeconomic classes. Land dispossession, proof of ownership to property and nationality are ongoing troubling issues affecting increased orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) in Kenya, most noticeably within predominantly poverty stricken rural enclaves. This research focuses on the bold move of stakeholders of Trinity United Methodist Church in Naivasha, Kenya partnering with First United Methodist Church of Winter Park, Orlando, United States of America. In 2010, they conceptualized Panua …

Alien Tort Statute: A Discussion And Analysis Of The History, Evolution, And Future, Shane Yodlowski

HIM 1990-2015

The Alien Tort Statute is a short, thirty-two word section of the United States Code enacted in 1789 as part of the Judiciary Act. The Alien Tort Statute, or ATS, has an uncertain and controversial beginning and remains controversial in current jurisprudence. The ATS reads as follows: “The district courts shall have original jurisdiction of any civil action by an alien for a tort only, committed in violation of the law of nations or a treaty of the United States." It is my intent for this thesis to be an academic discussion of the mysterious history, intent, and court cases …

Indeterminacy, Value Pluralism, And Tragic Cases, David Wolitz

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Violations Of Protection Orders: Characteristics Of Offenders And Criminal Justice Responses, Kelly Eileen Henderson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Criminal justice research often finds gender-based differences with regard to both perpetration and responses to offending. These data indicate that, overall, women's crime rates are far below those of their male counterparts and that women commit less serious offenses. That is there are distinct patterns of offending across sex. In addition, justice responses tend to favor women, in that female offenders fare better than men particular in areas of arrest, prosecution, and sentencing. While previous research explores patterns of crime between male and female offenders, focusing primarily on drug or violent crimes such as homicide, there has been very little …

The Impact Of Serotonin And Dopamine On Human Aggression: A Systematic Review Of The Literature, Caroline Isabelle Jalain

Master's Theses

Aggressive behaviors can have serious impacts on both the population at-large and the criminal justice system (Fish, DeBold, & Miczek, 2002); but despite these potential repercussions, no adequate treatment options have been identified to prevent (or reduce) such consequential actions. An increasing amount of research has, however, developed (over the years) in response to these treatment needs. Recently, the disciplines of neurobiology and neuropsychology have discovered specific anti-aggressive treatments. Studies on the prefrontal cortex specifically reveal that certain areas of the brain, along with an array of chemical imbalances, are related to aggressive behavior (Barrett, Edinger, & Siegel, 1990). Specifically, …

Prevalence Of Knowledge In Forensic Anthropological Field Methods Within Traditional Forensic Investigation., Cassandra Christina Rausch 1988-

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As forensic evidence has come to be of increasing importance in the courtroom, standards and practices regarding documentation, collection, and preservation of evidence have also become increasingly necessary. This study examines forensic anthropological field methods and their incorporation into crime scene investigation. Prior research suggests that incorporation could increase evidence recovery, result in better preservation of evidence, and enhance chain of custody. Examination of baseline survey data and a specific cross-regional analysis seeks to discover how/if these methods are being utilized within crime scene investigation. Baseline results are compared with follow-up interviews from a small sample of agencies to examine …

Transnational Organized Crime And The Illegal Wildlife Trade Global Ties And Global Crime, Zachariah Edward Long

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

World biodiversity is faced with many different threats in today's globalized world. One such threat is the emergence of transnational organized crime in the illegal wildlife trade. But why would transnational organized crime which is traditionally associated with such crimes like illegal drugs, weapons, and human trafficking be interested in the illegal wildlife trade? This thesis seeks to explore why transnational organized crime as a rational business actor would it be interested in participating in the illegal wildlife trade. To explore this relationship, this thesis will look at several different variables. First the economic conditions oflocals living with wildlife and …

Deterring Fraud: Police Investigations Into Embezzlement, Brandon Grossman

Honors College Theses

Embezzlement is a highly disruptive crime that comes with a large negative societal impact. This study was a secondary data analysis of embezzlement data from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department for the years 2012-2013. Clearance rates were calculated and analyzed for general fraud related calls for service and for embezzlement cases specifically in order to determine what clearance rates were for the Las Vegas Valley and see if they are comparable to the national average. Data was analyzed within pie and bar charts to determine if the LVMPD is effectively solving embezzlement cases and see if cases with particular …

When Women Kill, Giovanna C. Lima

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The media is one of the strongest influences on how society views the criminal justice system and all actors therein. This is especially true for offenders of violent crime. Notably, women who kill are rare. However, when women do murder someone, the media tends to over expose them and portray them in different ways. The current study is intended to examine how the media portrays women murderers. In particular, this research is focused on how fictional and true crime programs portray female killers. Do they portray them in a positive or negative light? Do they portray them realistically? Are true …

Immigration Control And The Punitive Turn, Eduardo Batista

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

The “punitive turn” describes the penalizing and disciplinary focus the United States has implemented in regulating problem populations since the late 1970s. This period has welcomed the era of mass incarceration in which the US penal population has exploded to levels not seen anywhere else in the world. The rise in the use of prisons and jails has been accompanied by the retrenchment of the welfare state, attacks on affirmative action policies, continued segregation in education and housing, and a growing gap between the rich and the poor. All of these have essentially erased the gains made by the Civil …

Democracy, Prison, And Public Safety Realignment: Renewing Our Imagination, Kimberly Turner

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

The American carceral condition has waged a 200-year-old struggle where the lives of the guilty, the innocent, and the victimized have taken center stage in a debate centered on rehabilitation, reformation, and revenge. The drama has undergone a number of revisions from great scholarly authors, multidisciplinary intellectuals, and literary muses. Despite a number of new renderings, the central themes of the American prison have remained constant, and just as there have been builders of prisons, there have been forces intent on their destruction. The current state of the American carceral condition has burgeoned since the neoliberal political and economic shift …

Ethics And The Use Of Coercion In The Treatment Of Psychiatric Patients, Jen Rushforth

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

Involuntary psychiatric treatment occurs under such conditions as the medicating or placing in treatment facilities of patients without their consent. Such involuntary treatment has been litigated in the Supreme Court; however, the Court’s rulings have been applied to incarcerated persons, with the notable exception of the 1975 ruling in O’Connor v. Donaldson, a case argued as a civil rights violation. Using O’Connor v. Donaldson as a framework, this paper argues that forcing non- violent psychiatric patients to take medication, or be otherwise treated against their will, is an unethical practice and must be discontinued. This practice of forcible treatment violates …

The Lingering Killer: Agent Orange, Sharon Ungerfeld

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

This paper explores the utilization of the chemical herbicide, Agent Orange, as it was sprayed over Vietnam during the Vietnam War in 1961 to 1971. The United States government, military, and corporations acted irresponsibly by creating the chemical and spraying it as a war tactic. The outcome of the spraying includes detrimental socioeconomic impacts, environmental degradation, and health problems. The socioeconomic impact is explained with statistics and an explanation of loss of job and education capabilities. With data on the destroyed trees and vegetation, this paper demonstrates the degree to which the environment faced harm. The health effects of Agent …

Police Academy Training: An Evaluation Of The Strengths And Weaknesses Of Police Academies, Olga Bykov

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

The purpose of this paper is to give an overview of the historical and current protocols which have existed in police academies, with a focus on the gender issues being faced by female police officers. The development of the police force is examined, with explanation of the differences and developments aligning with each era of history. Next, current police practices are elaborated upon, emphasizing the difficulties women experience in becoming police officers and where the ideologies of the police academies originated. Finally, suggestions are given based on research findings in order to reduce the ideological divides that occur in the …

On The Database Lookup Problem Of Approximate Matching, Frank Breitinger, Harald Baier, Douglas White

Electrical & Computer Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications

Investigating seized devices within digital forensics gets more and more difficult due to the increasing amount of data. Hence, a common procedure uses automated file identification which reduces the amount of data an investigator has to look at by hand. Besides identifying exact duplicates, which is mostly solved using cryptographic hash functions, it is also helpful to detect similar data by applying approximate matching.

Let x denote the number of digests in a database, then the lookup for a single similarity digest has the complexity of O(x). In other words, the digest has to be compared against …

A Spatial Analysis Test Of Decennial Crime Patterns In The United States, Kristina R. Donathan

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Crime in the United States has steadily been decreasing since the 1990s. Social disorganization theory states that breakdowns of social institutions were the root causes of juvenile delinquency. Using exogenous variables of poverty, residential mobility, and ethnic heterogeneity, this study aims to investigate the impacts and magnitude of these variables on violent and property crime committed in the United States for adults and for juveniles. By comparing adult crime rates to juvenile delinquency rates, these findings will guide policy makers to develop effective policy tools that will provide a safer environment for the community. Using annual crime datasets, this thesis …

Music And Adjudicated Youth, Robert Langford

Morehead State Theses and Dissertations

A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Caudill College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Morehead State University in Partial Fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree Master of Arts by Robert Langford on April 29, 2014.

The Virtues Of Justice, John Thrasher, David Schmidtz

Philosophy Faculty Books and Book Chapters

"This essay considers (and endorses) three complementary conceptions of justice as virtue. To the two senses of justice just mentioned-justice as a virtue of the soul and of the polis-we add a third that bridges these two. Virtue can be a kind of outreach rather than a kind of internal harmony, because we are talking about essentially social beings. The harmony that is this virtue's object is harmony with a community. Thus, a person who is just in this sense is disposed to respect (play within the rules of) institutions that command respect by virtue of actually working-that is, actually …

Major League Baseball's Antitrust Exemption And The Impact Of The Curt Flood Act, Gina Scalzo

Senior Honors Theses

For many years, professional baseball has enjoyed a privileged antitrust exemption apart from other professional sports. With the passing of the Curt Flood Act in 1998 this exemption was removed; however, the act may not be as influential as it seems. Court rulings were prominent in initiating and maintaining the antitrust exemption for professional baseball. These include the Supreme Court Trilogy, especially the case of Curt Flood, a baseball player who fought against the reserve clause system which limited his and other players’ employment options. Collective bargaining as well as arbitration became dominant in professional baseball labor relations under the …

Changing Awareness Of Human Trafficking, Roma Patel, Krystal Letourneau, M. Alexis Kennedy

Graduate Research Symposium (2010 - 2017)

The issue of human trafficking has received increased attention since the Trafficking Victims Protection Act was enacted in 2000. We assume that awareness is growing in the United States but this has not been tested. The current study measures increases in awareness about the issue of trafficking. Nearly 400 students were polled about their awareness in the spring of 2007. Attitudes towards government responses, awareness of the issue and support for victims were surveyed. The study was replicated 5 years later with over 500 new participants. This paper will analyze changes in awareness over time. Gender differences will also be …

In It For The Long Haul: Exploring Gender Dynamics In Former Prisoner– Family Relationships, Damian J. Martinez, Andrea Leverentz

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"This article contributes to the growing body of literature on the role of families of origin in the reentry of former prisoners by focusing on a group of young men of color recently released from prison. Our in-depth interviews with young men and selected family members highlighted the ongoing importance of their family relationships for providing important emotional and instrumental support. These relationships also are gendered. In relationships with female relatives, the former prisoners’ primary role was to be there for the women in the family and thereby demonstrate their love of family and their commitment to desistance from crime, …

Kenneth D. Tunnell, Once Upon A Place: The Fading Of Community In Rural Kentucky, Travis Linnemann

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"It is difficult to think of the rural apart from rolling hills and green fields that offer a respite from the city’s disquiet. Along with images of a bucolic rurality however, is a darker anti-idyll that has loomed in the social imaginary for centuries. While the narrative is timeless, the rural’s decline is something few among us have lived or even cared to witness first-hand. However, in the pages of Kenneth D. Tunnell’s Once Upon a Place, we travel to the disregarded landscapes of rural Kentucky and witness the history of its struggles. Like looking out the window of …

Expressing Strain: A Qualitative Evaluation Of The Testimonies Of Female Sex Offenders, Jennifer L. Klein, Danielle Tolson, Cathy Collins

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"For those convicted of a sexual offense, life on the registry is not an easy one. There is a great deal of stigma associated with these offenders despite the fact they served their sentences and were released back into society. Current research examines what life is like for female sex offenders whose information is listed on the Florida Sex Offender Registry. Using Robert Agnew’s General Strain Theory as a lens to examine the registry, this article will show the stress present in the lives of the registrants. Specifically, the article will address coping mechanisms, anger, and several unintended consequences of …

Beyond Basic Needs: Social Support And Structure For Successful Offender Reentry, Andrew S. Denney, Richard Tewksbury, Richard S. Jones

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"Barriers to successful reentry have long been identified as impeding an offender’s ability to successfully reenter society upon release from incarceration. As a result, research has long examined what shared obstacles the majority of offenders often face upon reentering society. Much of the research identifies factors such as poor education, obtaining/maintaining employment, stable housing, and transportation as common barriers to successful reentry. By using in-depth interviews with ex-offenders deemed as successful that were conducted by two respective non-profit agencies, the present study explores what significant requirements, if any, successful offenders perceive to need and/or have experienced as lacking while attempting …

Editorial, Willard M. Oliver

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"When I took on the role of editor for the new Journal of Qualitative Criminal Justice & Criminology, I wanted to secure as many of the leading qualitative researchers as I could for the editorial board. While I did not know Jock Young personally, I knew of him and his reputation and writings, and I figured he was one who should be on the board. When I asked my book review editor, Kevin Steinmetz, now Dr. Steinmetz, who I should include on the board, the first two people he requested were Jock Young and Jeff Ferrell. I agreed and …

Obituary: Unapologetic Irreverence: The Life And Legacy Of William “Jock” Young (1942-2013), Robert Donald Weide

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"I first met my dear friend and mentor Jock Young as a doe faced graduate student, “full of it,” as he would have probably described me at the time. It was a quality he apparently admired in me, unlike many of my other academic mentors. Our dear friend, colleague and another cherished mentor, David Charles Brotherton, made the introduction and while Jock shook my hand, he gave me the cock-eyed look of a madman as he peered into my soul, remarking to David with a deviant smirk, “Oh look, we have another trouble maker here!” Well it takes one to …

Conceptualizing Social Recovery: Recovery Routes Of Methamphetamine Users, Miriam Boeri, David Gibson, Paul Boshears Europäische Universität Für Interdisziplinäre Studien (The European Graduate School)

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"The goal of our qualitative study was to gain a phenomenological understanding of routes to recovery from problematic drug use. In-depth interviews and drug histories were collected from 50 former methamphetamine users recruited from a U.S. metropolitan suburb who identified as having had problematic use of this drug in the past. Transcripts of the audio-recorded interviews were coded for common themes regarding types of recovery strategies or tools employed on the route to recovery. The common strategies used in all routes for recovery from problematic methamphetamine use were social in nature and did not necessarily include the cessation of all …

Heith Copes & Mark R. Pogrebin (Eds.), Voices From Criminal Justice: Thinking And Reflecting On The System, Joshua B. Hill

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"The introductory criminal justice “reader” is a difficult text to get right. The material should not be too advanced for the student (most likely a first-year undergraduate student) to understand, but also cannot oversimplify the topic and risk either insulting students or not conveying an appropriate sense of the complexity of the criminal justice system. Voices from Criminal Justice: Thinking and Reflecting on the System, a new compilation of readings published by Routledge and edited by Heith Copes and Mark Pogrebin, attempts to thread this needle in an interesting way by framing the book as a series of perspectives …

Examining The Death Penalty Insider Perspective: Capital Bench & Bar Interviews, Sherri Dioguardi

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"This study conducted semi-structured interviews with 27 death penalty insiders (9 capital judges, 9 prosecutors and 9 defense attorneys) across three states. Prior research examined whether knowledge of capital punishment correlates with death penalty support (the Marshall Hypothesis). While prior research focused on opinions of laypeople, this study interviewed those with direct, hands-on experience to explore the knowledge-based, insider perspective. The majority (80%) of interviewee-respondents did not believe the death penalty is necessary in light of Life without the Possibility of Parole as an available sentencing option, and 62% did not support capital punishment. Qualitative data analysis reveals a wealth …