Legal Studies Commons^™

Analysis Of Pellet Patterns And Gsr Produced From Judge Taurus Revolvers, Donald Poon

Master of Science in Forensic Science Directed Research Projects

The Taurus Judge is a five-shot revolver designed to fire both 410 Bore shotshells and caliber 45 (Long) Colt cartridges. It is marketed as a self-defense firearm by Taurus. As of 2010, the Taurus Judge was “quickly becoming a popular personal defense firearm”.¹ Although it has become somewhat popular, the Taurus Judge and its various models have not had many distance determination studies completed and there is still a dearth of information on how these handguns compare with shotguns when looking at range of fire determinations. This study focused on: how barrel length affected pellet spread patterns produced by …

Leveraging Data To Reduce Gun Violence: The Cincinnati Experience, Matthew G. Hammer, Tamara D. Herold

Criminal Justice Faculty Research

The year 2020 has amplified demands for more equitable policing, more efficient government, and greater transparency. As police leaders around the world attempt to maintain order and safety during a period of large-scale civil unrest, they must also address criticisms that existing law enforcement practices include biased interventions and reinforce systemic racism. Many law enforcement agencies are also responding to increasing numbers of serious crimes that disproportionately affect society’s most vulnerable communities, while simultaneously facing calls to “defund the police” fueled by accusations that challenge the legitimacy of their policing tactics. The strategies used by agencies to manage protests and …

Crime Place Networks In Las Vegas: A New Violence Reduction Strategy, Tamara D. Herold

Criminal Justice Faculty Research

In 2017, the Las Vegas, Nevada, Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) adopted a series of interventions designed to reduce gang and gun violence across Las Vegas. In partnership with the International Association of Chiefs of Police/University of Cincinnati (IACP/UC) Center for Police Research and Policy and with evaluation funding provided by the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, the LVMPD implemented three violence reduction strategies: (1) focused deterrence (offender notification session); (2) hot spot patrols; and (3) place network investigations (PNI), also known as place-based investigations of violent offender territories (PIVOT), which is the focus here.

Validation Of Fast Spectrochemical Screening Methods For The Identification Of Counterfeit Pharmaceutical Packaging, Emily Ann Haase

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Counterfeit pharmaceuticals are an actively developing health and economic threat worldwide. Particularly prevalent are counterfeit pharmaceuticals distributed in emerging nations and through internet pharmacies or e-pharmacies. Although technology has been developed that discourages anti-counterfeiting practices (such as optically variable devices, invisible ink, and track-and-trace technology), it remains somewhat novel and expensive to implement on a widespread scale.

In this study, Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) and Attenuated Total Reflectance-Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) were proposed as fast and non-invasive tools for the identification of counterfeit pharmaceutical packages. The main objective of this research was to develop and evaluate the capabilities …

The Effects Of Household Substrates On The Evaporation Of Ignitable Liquids At Temperatures Up To 210℃, Caitlyn Wensel

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

In fire debris analysis, ignitable liquid residues are commonly identified using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The detection and identification of an ignitable liquid can help arson investigators determine whether a fire was intentional or accidental. To assist with the identification of ignitable liquid residues, chromatograms of questioned samples are typically compared to those of known ignitable liquids that have been weathered (evaporated) to different extents. Practitioners typically perform such weathering at room temperature and to a limited number of extents of weathering, so their database of weathered residues is likely to deviate markedly from casework residues. The ultimate goal of …

Evaluating The Use Of The M-Vac® Wet Vacuum System To Recover Dna From Cotton Fabric, Phillip Reilly Irion

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

With the current state of the field of forensic biology, collecting DNA from evidence samples may pose some difficulty. Traditional methods for collection of DNA from biological fluids and touch samples include cuttings, scrapings, and the double swab method. While all of these methods have benefits, they also have their drawbacks. In order to more efficiently collect DNA from an evidence sample, novel approaches need to be explored. This novel approach is the microbial vacuum (M-Vac®) Wet Vacuum System.

This system utilizes a sterile collection solution and a vacuum to collect DNA material from evidence samples. While it is similar …

Statistical Evaluation Of Randomly Acquired Characteristics On Outsoles With Implications Regarding Chance Co-Occurrence And Spatial Randomness, Nicole Richetelli

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Footwear evidence holds tremendous forensic value, owing to its ability to formulate linkages between victims, suspects and scenes. Naturally, the strength of these linkages is a function of the perceived clarity, quality and rarity of class, subclass and randomly acquired characteristics (RACs), which are the fundamental outsole features used to formulate source associations. In order to reach a conclusion when performing a footwear comparison, forensic examiners must assign value to the observed similarities and differences that exist between questioned crime scene and test impressions. Embedded within this process is an evaluation of the random association between unrelated shoes as a …

Mother Knows Best: A Brief Examination Of The 1982- 2019 Us Mass Shootings Data From Mother Jones’S Investigation, Gordon A. Crews, Garrison A. Crews

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

In the aftermath of the movie theater mass shooting in July of 2012 in Aurora, Colorado, Mother Jones magazine created one of the first open-source databases documenting mass shootings in the United States. They focused on documenting rampage shootings in public places which resulted in four or more victims killed by the attacker(s). Their initial database consisted of incidents between 1982 and 2012, then an additional 54 cases were added to this data base of incidents which occurred between 2013 and August 2019. The purpose of this chapter is to analyze the incidents gathered in this complete database from 1982 …

Mi Casa No Es Tu Casa: Attitudes Of Rio Grande Valley Police Regarding Immigration And Crime, Catherine E. Burton, Gordon A. Crews

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Extremism In Society, Gordon A. Crews

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Welcome To Cordell Perspectives, Neil M. Richards, Jonathan W. Heusel

Scholarship@WashULaw

The world around us is changing. Let’s talk about it together. Introducing a series of articles and opinions by the world’s leading experts concerning COVID-19 as it relates to precision medicine and data privacy: Welcome to Cordell Perspectives.

Gender Bias As The Norm In The Legal Profession: It's Still A [White] Man's Game, Kimberly Jade Norwood

Scholarship@WashULaw

Women consistently represent over fifty percent of entering law school classes, and one-third of all lawyers in the United States. As more women go to law school and practice as attorneys, two major impediments prevent women from climbing hierarchical ladders in the legal profession. This article examines gender and racially gendered bias in the legal profession, including law schools. It argues that until the existing structure is dismantled, women will continue to face gender and racially gendered bias in the legal profession.

Global Investor-Director Survey On Climate Risk Management, Jens Frankenreiter, Kristin Bresnahan, Sophie L'Helias, Brea Hinricks, Nina Hodzic, Julian Nyarko, Sneha Pandya, Eric Talley

Scholarship@WashULaw

Changes in the global climate are having profound impacts on business operations, governance, and organizational management around the world. Boards of directors are searching for ways to account for these changes as they help guide their organizations, and investors are increasingly concerned about how these changes might impact their portfolios. This global survey, conducted by a team of researchers at the Ira M. Millstein Center for Global Markets and Corporate Ownership at Columbia Law School and experts at LeaderXXchange, seeks to understand how — if at all — institutional investors and board directors incorporate climate-related issues in their investment decision …

Copyright And Economic Viability: Evidence From The Music Industry, James Hicks, Kristelia García, Justin Mccrary

Scholarship@WashULaw

Copyright provides a long term of legal excludability, ostensibly to encourage the production of new creative works. How long this term should last, and the extent to which current law aligns with the economic incentives of copyright owners, has been the subject of vigorous theoretical debate. We investigate the economic viability of content in a major creative industry—commercial music—using a novel longitudinal dataset of weekly sales and streaming counts. We find that the typical sound recording has an extremely short commercial half-life—on the order of months, rather than years or decades—but also see evidence that subscription streaming services extend the …

Taming The Prince: Bringing Presidential Emergency Powers Under Law In Colombia, Andrea Scoseria Katz

Scholarship@WashULaw

Can courts check presidential power exercised in a crisis — and should they? The case of Colombia, which recently turned on its head a history of presidential overreach and judicial rubber-stamping, provides an answer in the affirmative. As in much of Latin America, throughout Colombia’s post-independence history, bloodshed fueled authoritarian tendencies, with presidents exploiting the need for “order” to centralize power. One critical weapon in the presidential toolkit was the power to declare a state of emergency. During the twentieth century, these decrees became a routine pretext for the President to govern unilaterally, acquiesced to by the legislature and rarely …

Earth Mothers, Soy Boys, And Cool Dudes: Practicing Law While Protecting The Environment, Elizabeth J. Hubertz

Scholarship@WashULaw

As a public-interest environmental lawyer, this author explores gender in the legal profession. Specifically, gender in environmental law. Through a recognition of the gendered dimensions of environmental law, this Article explores the nature-culture binary, the relationship of meat to masculinity, and perceptions of the risks and threats of climate change.

Smart Contracts And The Illusion Of Automated Enforcement, Danielle D'Onfro

Scholarship@WashULaw

This symposium essay explores the barriers to deploying smart contracts in the consumer finance space: the humans themselves, existing consumer protection laws, and the other businesses who have financial contracts with consumers but that cannot deploy smart contracts. These three barriers render perfectly automated enforcement all but impossible. Nevertheless, there may be room for modifiable smart contracts in the consumer financial space although these contracts may be only marginally more efficient than traditional contracts.

Police Violence And The African-American Procedural Habitus, Trevor George Gardner

Scholarship@WashULaw

How should an African American respond to a race-based police stop? What approach, disposition, or tactic will minimize his risk within the context of the police stop of being subject to police violence? This Essay advances a conversation among criminal procedural theorists about citizen agency within the field of police-administered criminal procedure, highlighting “The Talk” that parents have with their African American children regarding how to respond to police seizure. It argues that the most prominent version of The Talk—the one in which parents call for absolute deference to police authority in the event of a police stop—may be as …

Accountability, Eugenics, And Reproductive Justice, Susan Frelich Appleton

Scholarship@WashULaw

This analysis contributes to an online symposium on Dov Fox’s book BIRTH RIGHTS AND WRONGS: HOW MEDICINE AND TECHNOLOGY ARE CHANGING REPRODUCTION AND THE LAW. Using eugenics and reproductive justice as points of departure, this review highlights both strengths and weaknesses in Fox’s approach.

What Would Mlk Do?: A Civil Rights Model Of “Good Citizenship” In Criminal Procedure, Trevor George Gardner

Scholarship@WashULaw

Good citizenship and eager participation in police investigations would seem to fit hand-in-glove. The good citizen helps to enforce the criminal law, particularly if the physical safety of the citizenry is thought to be at risk. But as Bennett Capers argues in his essay, Criminal Procedure and the Good Citizen, this version of the good citizen—crafted and propagated by our nation’s highest court—falls into direct tension with the activist principles animating the Civil Rights Movement. For instance, Martin Luther King, Jr., insisted that the citizen not suffer from a cultural condition Capers describes as “too much respect for majoritarian …

Estate Planning With Shaq And Strom: Teaching Post-Mortem Intimacy Audits, Adrienne D. Davis

Scholarship@WashULaw

This Article highlights the importance of using both popular culture references and fictional show characters as mediums for teaching courses on Trusts and Estates. Utilizing post-mortem intimacy audits, specifically through pop culture pedagogical hypotheticals and case studies, Professor Davis highlights the importance of understanding doctrines within Trusts and Estates Law. Focusing on the examples of Shaquille O’Neal and Strom Thurmond, this Article highlights three important lessons for students: the fragility of estate planning, the effects of individual estate planning on groups’ broader wealth and political equality, and the role of private law in distributing legal rights and political equality.

The Defender General, Daniel Epps, William Ortman

Scholarship@WashULaw

The United States needs a Defender General—a public official charged with representing the collective interests of criminal defendants before the Supreme Court of the United States. The Supreme Court is effectively our nation’s chief regulator of criminal justice. But in the battle to influence the Court’s rulemaking, government interests have substantial structural advantages. As compared to counsel for defendants, government lawyers—and particularly those from the U.S. Solicitor General’s office—tend to be more experienced advocates who have more credibility with the Court. Most importantly, government lawyers can act strategically to play for bigger long-term victories, while defense lawyers must zealously advocate …

Perfecting Issue Preservation, Daniel Epps

Scholarship@WashULaw

In his article, “Does It Matter Who Objects? Rethinking the Burden to Prevent Errors in Criminal Process,” Darryl Brown challenges the venerable rule that a defendant must preserve objections to erroneous rulings at trial in order to perfect them for later appeal. Brown ably convinced me that conventional wisdom about who should bear the burden of bringing errors to a court’s attention is woefully under-theorized. In particular, Brown’s move to analyze adjudicative error from the perspective of accident prevention in other legal contexts is both clever and generative of insights. Moreover, Brown made a persuasive case that normative judgments about …

The Right Approach To Harmless Error, Daniel Epps

Scholarship@WashULaw

My article “Harmless Errors and Substantial Rights” challenged conventional wisdom about the harmless constitutional error doctrine in criminal procedure. Specifically, I contended that the traditional way of understanding harmless error as a remedial doctrine rooted in so-called “constitutional common law” created significant anomalies. Instead, harmless constitutional error doctrine can only be understood as part of the definition and judicial enforcement of constitutional rights.

Few legal scholars have thought as deeply about the mysteries of harmless error as Professor John M. Greabe, and he is well equipped to give the remedial perspective the best possible defense. Nonetheless, despite Professor Greabe’s able …

Beyond Unreasonable, John D. Inazu

Scholarship@WashULaw

The concept of “reasonableness” permeates the law: the “reasonable person” determines the outcome of torts and contracts disputes, the criminal burden of proof requires factfinders to reach conclusions “beyond a reasonable doubt,” and claims of self-defense succeed or fail on reasonableness determinations. But as any first-year law student can attest, the line between reasonable and unreasonable is not always clear. Nor is that the only ambiguity. In the realm of the unreasonable, many of us intuit that some actions are not only unreasonable but beyond the pale—we might say they are beyond unreasonable. Playing football, summiting Nanga Parbat, and attempting …

Taking Stock Of The Religion Clauses, John D. Inazu

Scholarship@WashULaw

After a few decades of relative quiet, the Supreme Court has in recent years focused once again on the religion clauses and related statutes.

Virtual Access: A New Framework For Disability And Human Flourishing In An Online World, John D. Inazu, Johanna Smith

Scholarship@WashULaw

While many commentators have noted the wealth and class disparities that emerge from the digital divide, disability adds another important lens through which to consider questions of access and equity. Online accessibility for disabled people has fallen prey to the same assumptions and impediments that led to the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) addressing disability access in the offline world. Addressing these shortcomings requires a significant conceptual shift in our understanding of “access,” even among disabled people. Offline, the sidewalk or doorway hindered access to those who needed assistance walking or moving. Today’s virtual sidewalks and doorways complicate access in …

Acts Of Meaning, Resource Diagrams, And Essential Learning Behaviors: The Design Evolution Of Lost & Found, Owen Gottlieb, Ian Schreiber

Articles

Lost & Found is a tabletop-to-mobile game series designed for teaching medieval religious legal systems. The long-term goals of the project are to change the discourse around religious laws, such as foregrounding the prosocial aspects of religious law such as collaboration, cooperation, and communal sustainability. This design case focuses on the evolution of the design of the mechanics and core systems in the first two tabletop games in the series, informed by over three and a half years’ worth of design notes, playable prototypes, outside design consultations, internal design reviews, playtests, and interviews.

Validation Of The 4-Aminophenol Chemical Test And Analytical Testing Scheme To Distinguish Marijuana And Hemp, Kenna Lewis

Master of Science in Forensic Science Directed Research Projects

With the passing of the 2018 Farm Bill, which legalized hemp, law enforcement agencies and forensic laboratories needed a more efficient testing scheme to differentiate marijuana and hemp Cannabis plants. The validation of the 4-aminophenol chemical test and the subsequent analytical scheme allows for this differentiation to be performed. The evaluation of eighteen different cannabinoids, including acids, demonstrated that compounds with structures similar to tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) produced a blue result and compounds with structures similar to cannabidiol (CBD) produced a pink result. Several titration curves with varying concentrations of cannabinoids indicated a pink result when the THC concentration was less …

A Person-Centered Approach Of Dynamic Needs: Demographic Characteristics, Static Factors, And Justice-Related Outcomes Among Juvenile Offenders In Florida, Caitlin Brady

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Prior research examining criminogenic risk and need suggests that dynamic factors (i.e., criminogenic needs) are best suited for intervention and treatment as they are changeable over time. Thus, dynamic factors can be targeted to reduce the likelihood of recidivism among youth in the juvenile justice system. The assessment of needs is critical as it allows for the prediction of future delinquency and the ability to provide appropriate services/treatment for juvenile offenders. Several studies have shown that youth present with multiple needs and that these needs differ by gender. Therefore, the current study utilized a sample of adjudicated youth under community …