Legal Studies Commons^™

Texas Indian Holocaust And Survival: Mcallen Grace Brethren Church V. Salazar, Milo Colton

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

When the first Europeans entered the land that would one day be called Texas, they found a place that contained more Indian tribes than any other would-be American state at the time. At the turn of the twentieth century, the federal government documented that American Indians in Texas were nearly extinct, decreasing in number from 708 people in 1890 to 470 in 1900. A century later, the U.S. census recorded an explosion in the American Indian population living in Texas at 215,599 people. By 2010, that population jumped to 315,264 people.

Part One of this Article chronicles the forces contributing …

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 …

Understanding Trauma And Victimization In Women's Incarceration: California's Treatment Response, Marissa Tuttle-Roache

Social Sciences

The purpose of this review is to provide an exploration of past research on women's pathways to incarceration, specifically discussing how this problem affects California women. Using research from various case studies, both quantitative and qualitative, this review examines the correlation between life experiences and incarceration for women. California laws and policies that mitigate the impact incarceration has historically had on women will be discussed. This research provides a better understanding of the treatment needs of incarcerated women and the programs that could provide them with some positive resources to succeed post incarceration and avoid recidivism.

Method Development And Validation For The Determination Of Designer Benzodiazepines In Blood By Lc-Ms/Ms, Victoria Mei

Student Theses

The misuse of designer benzodiazepines, as an alternative to prescription benzodiazepines and for drug-facilitated sexual assaults, has emerged as a growing threat, due in part to the ease of purchasing these drugs on the internet at low prices. Causing concern for safety, is the lack of dosage information resulting in users self-medicating, often leading to unintended overdoses, coma, or death at higher doses. With limited published data regarding quantification of designer benzodiazepines in forensic cases, a method was validated for the determination of thirteen and screening for two designer benzodiazepines in blood, in addition to a limited number of common …

The Forensic Analysis Of Children's Temporary Tattoos, Erika Bravo

Student Theses

While children’s temporary tattoos have been produced since the 20th century, there are few scientific studies that have evaluated their physical and chemical characteristics. Therefore, this thesis is a preliminary study done to evaluate the composition of children’s temporary tattoos and consider the importance of such traces in a forensic content.

Colored regions in children’s temporary tattoos, such as red, pink, yellow and orange, were found to fluoresce with the use of an alternative light source while the use of microscopy led to the identification of different printing patterns between temporary tattoos. However, limitations in the ability to determine the …

Linguistic Features Of False Confessions And Confessions Not In Dispute: A Corpus Analysis, Lucrezia Rizzelli

Student Theses

Confessions are considered the gold standard of evidence, and yet many cases of false confessions causing wrongful convictions have come to the surface in the past decades. Currently, a method to identify false confessions does not exist and studies focusing on the content of the confessions have found similarities rather than points of distinction. In this study, we approached confessions from a stylistic rather than qualitative point of view, utilizing corpus analysis to outline the linguistic features of two samples of confessions: false confessions (n=37) and confessions not in dispute (n=98). Subsequently, we created a model …

Quorum Blockchain Stress Evaluation In Different Environments, Daniel P. Mera

Student Theses

In today’s world, the Blockchain technology is used for different purposes has brought an increment in the development of different Blockchain platforms, services, and utilities for storing data securely and efficiently. Quorum Blockchain, an Ethereum fork created by JPMorgan Chase, has placed itself in one of the widely used, efficient and trustful Blockchain platforms available today. Because of the importance which Quorum is contributing to the world, it is important to test and measure different aspects of the platform, not only to prove how efficient the software can be but as well as to have a clear view on what …

Sometimes Merely As A Means: Why Kantian Philosophy Requires The Legalization Of Kidney Sales, D. Robert Macdougall

Publications and Research

Several commentators have tried to ground legal prohibitions of kidney sales in some form of Kant’s moral arguments against such sales. This paper reconsiders this approach to justifying laws and policies in light of Kant’s approach to law in his political philosophy. The author argues that Kant’s political philosophy requires that kidney sales be legally permitted, although contracts for such sales must remain unenforceable. The author further argues that Kant’s approach to laws, such as those governing kidney distribution, was formed in part by considering and rejecting an assumption frequently employed in the bioethics literature, namely, that legal duties can …

Cybersecurity Education: The Need For A Top-Driven, Multidisciplinary, School-Wide Approach, Lucy Tsado

Journal of Cybersecurity Education, Research and Practice

The human resource skills gap in cybersecurity has created an opportunity for educational institutions interested in cybersecurity education. The current number of schools designated by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and National Security Agency (NSA) as Centers of Academic Excellence (CAE) to train cybersecurity experts are not sufficient to meet the shortfall in the industry. The DHS has clearly mapped out knowledge areas for cybersecurity education for both technical and non-technical disciplines; it is therefore possible for institutions not yet designated CAEs to generate cybersecurity experts, with the long-term goal of attaining the CAE designation. The purpose of this …

Gender Based Violence In India: An Analysis Of National Level Data For Theory, Research And Prevention, Dhanya Babu

Student Theses

Gender based violence is a human rights violation, both the causes and impacts of which crosses personal, societal and cultural boundaries. Various initiatives to address the problem of gender-based violence have resulted in many countries attempting to quantify the extent of such crimes. The purpose of this present study is to examine nature and extent of GBV in India for prevention policy actions. The National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) of India publishes a consolidated list of reported crime happenings in the country every year. Recognizing gendered aspect of certain crimes, the NCRB maintains a separate chapter on incidences of crimes …

Christians And Pagans In The Sacred Nation, Christopher J. Eberle

San Diego Law Review

Christopher J. Eberle’s contribution to the 2019 Editors’ Symposium: Pagans and Christians in the City.

Pagans, Christians, And Student Protesters, Stanley Fish

San Diego Law Review

Stanley Fish’s contribution to the 2019 Editors’ Symposium: Pagans and Christians in the City.

This Isn’T About You: A Comment On Smith’S Pagans And Christians In The City, Andrew Koppelman

San Diego Law Review

Andrew Koppelman’s contribution to the 2019 Editors’ Symposium: Pagans and Christians in the City.

Jews, Not Pagans, Richard Schragger, Micah Schwartzman

San Diego Law Review

Richard Schragger & Micah Schwartzman’s contribution to the 2019 Editors’ Symposium: Pagans and Christians in the City.

Stop, Question, And Frisk: A Tool Of Racial Control In New York City, Justice D. Evans

Student Theses

Broken Windows policing through the utilization of Stop, Question, and Frisk has been widely used by the New York City Police Department (NYPD) since the 1990s, as guaranteed by landmark Supreme Court Case Terry v. Ohio (1968). As a result, hundreds of minority citizens have been the victim of routine stops for minor offenses through this aggressive police tactic. This study utilizes 2017 NYPD Stop, Question, and Frisk Data to determine whether broken windows policing, through stop, question, and frisk, operates as a mode of racial control for African Americans in New York City. Through the utilization of chi-square analyses, …

Killing Silence: A Path To Increasing Homicide Solvability In Urban Communities, Dennis Thornton

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Relatively low rates of homicide solvability results in law-abiding citizens being forced to co-exist with known murderers, which is detrimental to a community’s psyche. This condition happens disproportionately in neighborhoods where crime is high, cohesiveness among its members is weak, and the citizen/police relationship is little or non-existent. This research sought to understand this phenomenon by asking,” How can murder solvability rates improve in marginalized communities?” and employing four theoretical lenses. Using the city of New Orleans as a case study and holding Social Disorganization Theory constant, Spiral of Silence, Habitus, and Dramaturgy were utilized in an attempt to understand …

Lee, J.-A. (2012). Nonprofit Organizations And The Intellectual Commons. Cheltenham, Uk; Northampton, Ma, Usa: Edward Elgar., Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Professor Lee defines intellectual commons as “intellectual resources which anyone can use either without permission or with permission granted in advance.” From the vantage point of third sector studies, this is different from both the Ostrom resources approach and the commons theory of associations articulated by Lohmann. This review assesses the strengths and weaknesses of Lee's approach.

Simultaneous Determination Of Fourteen Antipsychotic Drugs In Whole Blood By Solid Phase Extraction And Liquid Chromatography Tandem Mass Spectrometry, Theresa M. Dawe

Student Theses

Anti-psychotic drugs are commonly prescribed to patients to treat several mental conditions, such as bipolar, schizophrenia, and manic-depressive disorder. The analysis of anti-psychotic drugs in blood is a common practice in clinical and forensic toxicology, to monitor drug treatment (therapeutic drug monitoring) or to explain the cause of the impairment or intoxication in human performance and in postmortem cases. However, most of the current studies have been performed in plasma, and a limited number in blood. We developed and validated a method to confirm and quantify a panel of commonly prescribed anti-psychotic drugs in whole blood using solid phase extraction …

Fight, Flight, And Free Will: How Knowledge Of Biopsychosocial Effects Of Trauma Influence Free Will Beliefs And Punishment For Juvenile And Adult Offenders, Rachel Lazar

Student Theses

Justifications for punishment are generally grounded in retribution or consequentialism. Retribution presupposes a belief in free will, claiming that offenders freely and rationally choose to commit a criminal act, and are therefore deserving of punishment. Consequentialism does not necessitate a reliance on free will, and views punishment as means to a valuable end. In recent years, neuroscientific research has challenged the notion of free will, providing one pathway for a public shift away from retribution and towards consequentialism. However, methods by which to instill this doubt in laypeople are still being discovered. To date, no studies have attempted to instill …

Terrorism In The 2020s: Examining The Global Threat Landscape, Landon W. Swearngin

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

This thesis uses quantitative and qualitative research methods to (1) explore the global trends and trajectories of terrorism, (2) identify emerging strategic challenges, and (3) outline an opportunity analysis for U.S. counterterrorism strategy. Collectively, this project provides a strategic forecast for terrorism in the 2020s, demonstrating that terrorism is becoming increasingly dangerous, dynamic, and difficult to defeat.

Reviewing The Literature On Staff Misconduct And Specific Responsivity, Ernest M. Oleksy

The Downtown Review: An Interdisciplinary Journal Written and Peer-Reviewed by Mandel Honors College Students at Cleveland State University

Incarceration is a trying time for inmates as they are punished for crimes they committed while free in society. Beyond the legitimate punishment of being imprisoned, inmates may face illegitimate punishment at the hands of prison staff, ranging from ridicule to physical and sexual violence. Apart from the obvious corruption and immorality involved in staff misconduct, such deviance can also result in a dampened responsivity to reentry programming efforts that strive to keep inmates out of prison. In this literature review, I investigate, summarize, and synthesize the corpus that is relevant to how staff misconduct can be a negative specific …

Forensic Analysis Of Spy Applications In Android Devices, Shinelle Hutchinson, Umit Karabiyik

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Smartphones with Google's Android operating system are becoming more and more popular each year, and with this increased user base, comes increased opportunities to collect more of these users' private data. There have been several instances of malware being made available via the Google Play Store, which is one of the predominant means for users to download applications. One effective way of collecting users' private data is by using Android Spyware. In this paper, we conduct a forensic analysis of a malicious Android spyware application and present our findings. We also highlight what information the application accesses and what it …

Decomposition Of Pig Carcasses At Varying Room Temperature, Jacqueline Abad Santos

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

The goal of this study is to assess the qualitative scoring of decomposition scales with statistical analysis while also determining which indoor environment will decompose the fastest. When comparing the three indoor environments, water decomposition appears to be the fastest, but the method of analysis for this study determines that using decomposition scales to analyze such environments may produce statistically insignificant results. For this study, piglets were put in a dry steel tub, a water filled steel tub, and a suitcase. These were recorded using photographs for 25 days and then scored using decomposition scales. The total score was divided …

Scientific Evidence Admissibility: Improving Judicial Proceedings To Decrease Erroneous Outcomes, Leica Kwong

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

In the United States, Federal Rules of Evidence 702, the Frye and Daubert standards govern the admissibility of scientific evidence in the courtroom. Some states adopted Frye while others adopted Daubert, causing varying judicial outcomes. The verdicts in some cases may be erroneous due to a nationally used standard. Frye has broad criteria of requiring scientific evidence to be generally accepted. While Daubert contains more requirements for the evidence to be admissible, such as peer review, publication, and scientific principles. Daubert, alongside FRE 702, provides a thorough guideline for trial judges who have the gatekeeping role to decide admissibility aiming …

Physical Match: Uniqueness Of Torn Paper, Marilyn Aguilar

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

In the forensic science field, it is generally accepted that all tears and fractures are unique; however, there is limited scientific evidence to support this. This study tests the claim that all tears are unique, focusing on paper. One-hundred Office Depot brand 3” x 5” blank, white index cards were torn in half by hand. Six halves were randomly removed; the remaining 94 halves were mixed and then matched by a novice using end-match analysis. The removal of the 6 random halves left 44 matching pairs. Of the remaining halves, all 44 pairs were correctly matched. The results show that …

Novice Ideas: Handwriting Comparisons Conducted By An Untrained Individual, Maia Lister

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

Forensic analysis of questioned documents includes chemical analyses of paper and ink as well as handwriting comparisons. Several elements affect handwriting analyses, including the presence of discriminatory factors that can individualize a handwriting sample and whether the handwriting has been disguised. Five handwriting samples were gathered from six individuals comprising of one reference, three natural unknowns, and one disguised sample per person. A novice conducted analyses on every collected sample and conducted comparisons of the reference sample to the unknown and disguised samples in an attempt to correctly source the unknown and disguised samples. The novice showed a high level …

The Accumulation Of Wear On Footwear Pattern Analysis, Sarah Pawloski

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

Wear is defined as the erosion of a shoe’s outsole or the loss of tread pattern, and it happens gradually over time with use. After a shoeprint is collected from a crime scene, it is questioned whether an individualization can be made if an exemplar is created after additional use of the shoe. The shoes of ten volunteers at San Jose State University were analyzed over a period of 40-45 days. Wear and Randomly Acquired Characteristics (RACs) were analyzed over time to determine if there were any observable changes or additions to the already present wear. It was hypothesized that …

Justifying Justice: Six Factors Of Wrongful Convictions And Their Solutions, Colby Duncan

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

There have been over 300 post-conviction DNA exonerations in the history of the United States. While this number may initially seem significant, there is still an unfathomable population of wrongfully convicted prisoners who have yet to be considered for retrials. Unaddressed wrongful conviction cases highlight the unacceptable weaknesses in the U.S. justice system, weaknesses that include poor investigative tactics and the acceptance or allowance of inaccurate and unreliable evidence. This paper will dutifully analyze the causes that lead to wrongful convictions and amply discuss potential solutions, all of which includes eyewitness misidentification, improper forensics, false confessions, informants, government misconduct, and …

The Effect Of Lineup Size On Eyewitness Accuracy, Alyssa Baumann

Augsburg Honors Review

The research investigated the impact of the number of members in a police lineup on eyewitness identification. Participants attempted to identify the perpetrator from either a sequential or simultaneous lineup. The number of members in the lineup differed between 6 members and 12 members, simultaneous or sequential lineup presentation, and target-present or target-absent. In the target-present condition, the research was concerned with correct identifications. Thus, the 6 member simultaneous lineup should yield the most correct identifications. The 12 member simultaneous lineup should yield the second highest. The 6 and 12 member sequential lineup presentation should yield fewer correct identifications because …

Developing And Validating A Fast And Accurate Method To Quantify 18 Antidepressants In Oral Fluid Samples Using Spe And Lc-Msms, Sanghee S. Shin

Student Theses

Antidepressant drugs are one of the most widely used medicines for treating major depressive disorders for long time periods. Oral fluid (OF) testing offers an easy and noninvasive sample collection. Detection of antidepressants in OF is important in clinical and forensic settings, such as therapeutic drug monitoring and roadside testing for driving under influence. We developed and validated a comprehensive liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry method for 18 antidepressants (amitriptyline, bupropion, citalopram, clomipramine, cyclobenzaprine, desipramine, desvenlafaxine, doxepin, duloxetine, fluoxetine, imipramine, mirtazapine, nortriptyline, paroxetine, sertraline, trazodone, trimipramine, venlafaxine) in oral fluid collected by Quantisal® oral collection devices. 0.5 mL of Quantisal® …