Law Enforcement and Corrections Commons^™

Unreliable Forensic Science, Sarah Ciuffetelli

Quest

The Effectiveness of Forensic Science

Research in progress for CRIJ 1301: Introduction to Criminal Justice

Faculty Mentor: Stefanie LeMaire

Sarah Ciuffetelli uses critical thinking to examine the effectiveness of forensic sciences during criminal investigations. The assignment requires students to find the most prominent scholarly research in forensic sciences and discuss its efficacy. Further, the research leads students to discuss the potential limitations investigators must consider when examining forensic evidence. Lastly, students find at least six scholarly sources to provide an in-depth analysis of the research.

Sarah begins by discussing the history of forensic science and the ever-increasing technology used in …

Contextual Determinants Of Re-Reporting For Families Receiving Alternative Response: A Survival Analysis In A Midwestern State, Jianchao Lai, Michelle Graef, Todd Franke, Toby Burnham

Center on Children, Families, and the Law: Faculty Publications

Differential response (DR) has been widely adopted in over 30 states to address shortcomings of the traditional approach to child maltreatment reports in complex family and case circumstances. However, despite continued evaluation efforts, evidence of the effectiveness of DR remains inconclusive. The current study aims to assess the impact of a DR program and potential predictors, including service match and number of family case workers, on maltreatment re-reports in a Midwestern state. The study utilized a randomized control trial and assigned eligible families to either the Alternative Response (AR) track or Traditional Response (TR) track. The enrollment was implemented in …

When Machines Can Be Judge, Jury, And Executioner: Justice In The Age Of Artificial Intelligence (Book Review), Stacy Fowler

Faculty Articles

In When Machines Can Be Judge, Jury, and Executioner, former federal judge Katherine Forrest raises concerns over the pervasive use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the American justice system to produce risks and need assessments (RNA) regarding the probability of recidivism for citizens charged with a crime. Forrest’s argument centers on AI’s primary focus on utilitarian outcomes when assessing liberty for individual citizens. This approach leads Forrest to the conclusion that in its current form, AI is “ill-suited to the criminal justice context.” Forrest contends that AI should instead be programmed to focus on John Rawl’ 'concept of justice as …

Police Funding As A Deficit Of Democracy, Not Deterrence, Anthony O'Rourke, Rick Su, Guyora Binder

Journal Articles

Professor Noah Smith-Drelich’s Funding the Police is a welcome addition to the growing literature on structural barriers to implementing abolitionist visions of public safety. Professor Smith- Drelich’s central argument is consistent with our findings, in Defunding Police Agencies, that external funding of local police agencies imposes a set of “indirect constraints” that ensure robust police budgets and disincentivize spending on non-police social programs that might better ensure public safety. We believe, however, that Professor Smith-Drelich may be too sanguine about the deterrence potential of constitutional tort judgments. Misconduct judgments are largely financed through commercial insurance and public borrowing. Legal changes …

Evaluation Of Field Sobriety Tests For Identifying Drivers Under The Influence Of Cannabis: A Randomized Clinical Trial, Thomas D Marcotte, Anya Umlauf, David J Grelotti, Emily G Sones, Kyle F Mastropietro, Raymond T Suhandynata, Marilyn A. Huestis, Igor Grant, Robert L Fitzgerald

Institute of Emerging Health Professions Faculty Papers

IMPORTANCE: With increasing medicinal and recreational cannabis legalization, there is a public health need for effective and unbiased evaluations for determining whether a driver is impaired due to Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) exposure. Field sobriety tests (FSTs) are a key component of the gold standard law enforcement officer-based evaluations, yet controlled studies are inconclusive regarding their efficacy in detecting whether a person is under the influence of THC.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the classification accuracy of FSTs with respect to cannabis exposure and driving impairment (as determined via a driving simulation).

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This double-blind, placebo-controlled parallel randomized clinical trial was …

Abolition And Environmental Justice, Allegra M. Mcleod

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

During the coronavirus pandemic, movements for penal abolition and racial justice achieved dramatic growth and increased visibility. While much public discussion of abolition has centered on the call to divest from criminal law enforcement, contemporary abolitionists also understand public safety in terms of building new life-sustaining institutions and collective structures that improve human well-being, linking penal divestment to environmental justice. In urging a reimagination of public safety, abolitionists envision much more than decriminalization or a reallocation of police functions to social service agencies or other alternatives to imprisonment and policing. Instead, for abolitionists, meaningful public safety requires, among other things, …

Breaking Down Bias: A Comparative Analysis Of General Public And Police Officer Attitudes Toward Mental Illness And Officer Decision-Making In Mental Health Crises, Therese L. Todd

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Police responses to persons with mental illness (PMIs) compared to those without appear to be more likely to result in negative outcomes, underscoring the importance of understanding these interactions and the factors that may influence them. Relatively little research has examined officer attitudes toward mental illness, and no study has examined implicit bias toward mental illness among police officers or how police culture may impact outcomes in mental health crises. The present study sought to: 1) measure explicit and implicit bias toward PMIs among the general public and police officers to understand how these constructs may vary among these populations; …

Carceral Data: The Limits Of Transparency-As-Accountability In Prison Risk Data, Becka Hudson, Tomas Percival

Secrecy and Society

Prison data collection is a labyrinthine infrastructure. This article engages with debates around the political potentials and limitations of transparency as a form of “accountability,” specifically as it relates to carceral management and data gathering. We examine the use of OASys, a widely used risk assessment tool in the British prison system, in order to demonstrate how transparency operates as a means of legitimating prison data collection and ensuing penal management. Prisoner options to resist their file, or “data double,” in this context are considered and the decisive role of OASys as an immediately operationalized technical structure is outlined. We …

United States Of America V. Donald J. Trump, Defendant, Jack Smith

United States Department of Justice: Publications

Violations: Count 1: 18 U.S.C. § 371 (Conspiracy to Defraud the United States) Count 2: 18 U.S.C. § 1512(k) (Conspiracy to Obstruct an Official Proceeding) Count 3: 18 U.S.C. §§ 1512(c)(2), 2 (Obstruction of and Attempt to Obstruct an Official Proceeding) Count 4: 18 U.S.C. § 241 (Conspiracy Against Rights)

The Grand Jury charges that, at all times material to this Indictment, on or about the dates and at the approximate times stated below:

1. The Defendant, DONALD J. TRUMP, was the forty-fifth President of the United States and a candidate for re-election in 2020. The Defendant lost the 2020 …

Wellness And The Occupational Impact Of Being A Police Officer, Daisy Nunez, Karen Park

Summer 2023 Virtual OTD Capstone Symposium

The occupational impact of being a police officer was researched. Along with the barriers and supports to wellness services. The study aimed to answer both those questions to analyze the impact of wellness on the population.

The Lived Experiences Of 911 Dispatchers With Compassion Fatigue: An Interpretive Phenomenology, Angela Johnson

Counseling & Human Services Theses & Dissertations

911 dispatchers are the “first” first responders in an emergency and play an intrinsic role in the public safety continuum. 911 dispatchers are exposed to daily and cumulative stress from the repeated empathic engagement of those they serve, and from shift work, staffing shortages, and inability to make mistakes. However, there is a dearth of peer reviewed literature on 911 dispatchers and compassion fatigue (CF). CF is described as the emotional and physical exhaustion experienced due to the constant exposure to the trauma of others. CF symptomology in 911 dispatchers has far reaching implications for not only the citizens …

Proceeding Pro Se: Misguided Limitations On The Prison Mailbox Rule In Cretacci V. Call, Eleanor Ritter

Pepperdine Law Review

Under the “prison mailbox rule,” an inmate’s notice of appeal in either a criminal or civil case is considered filed at the moment the notice is given to prison authorities to be mailed. But the prison mailbox rule originated as a common law rule––having developed in Fallen v. United States and Houston v. Lack––and was not codified in the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure until 1993. In light of its complex origins, circuit courts have split over to whom and to which types of filings the rule should apply. More specifically, courts have disagreed over whether the prison mailbox rule …

The Racialized History Of Vice Policing, India Thusi

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Vice policing targets the consumption and commercialization of certain pleasures that have been criminalized in the United States—such as the purchase of narcotics and sexual services. One might assume that vice policing is concerned with eliminating these vices. However, in reality, this form of policing has not been centered on protecting and preserving the moral integrity of the policed communities by eradicating vice. Instead, the history of vice policing provides an example of the racialized nature of policing in the United States. Vice policing has been focused on (1) maintaining racial segregation, (2) containing vice in marginalized communities, and (3) …

The Pathway Forward: Uncovering The Barriers Faced By Women Police Chiefs, Michael Llamas, Amor Roma, Tianshi Hao, Wendy Perkinson, Kayleigh Axtell, Anshu Lal, Jesse Llamas

The Scholarship Without Borders Journal

Women have encountered many obstacles in their quest to gain leadership in law enforcement. While research has studied how well women officers strive to achieve higher-level positions within police departments, the challenges women face when they gain top leadership roles remain largely unexplored. This research paper will discuss the unique challenges faced by women police chiefs, drawing from first-hand experiences of women police chiefs and existing literature. The study finds that women police chiefs encounter challenges in communication, transferring to a new department, overtasking, introvertedness, and general police chief stress. The study also finds that women police chiefs implement ways …

Qualified Immunity And The Unintentional, Or Intentional, Chill On Free Speech, Madison Heiney

Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality

No abstract provided.

Why Judges Should Use 18 U.S.C. § 3553 To Assess Prison Sentences Qualitatively In The Context Of Collateral Relief, Luke Doughty

Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality

No abstract provided.

The Irrationality Of Child Support Enforcement In The United States: Harming Children And Punishing The Poor, Hannah Pitcher

Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality

No abstract provided.

To The Court Of Last Resort: A Prosecutorial Roadmap In The Aftermath Of State Violence In Chile And Colombia, David F. Scollan

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

A great deal of academic research and writing has been done on the most glaring examples of war crimes and crimes against humanity. But, only a small cadre of authors have endeavored to identify the ‘lower limit’ of when state action qualifies as these heinous acts. This Note strives to add to that area of legal scholarship aimed at bringing instances of in-country state perpetrated violence out from the behind the veil of sovereign police action and into the spotlight to call them what they are: crimes worthy of international condemnation and punishment. Specifically, this Note unpacks two spasms of …

Liability Of Third Parties In Compulsory Implementation: A Comparative Study, Dr. Yasser Bassem Al-Sabawi

مجلة جامعة الإمارات للبحوث القانونية UAEU LAW JOURNAL

The creditor's right to initiate compulsory enforcement procedures, in legal terms, entails an integrated executive association in terms of its elements, namely, the person, the subject and the reason, which constitutes the theory of implementation in general. Since implementation theory consists of three basic elements, implementation people, the reason for implementation, and the place of implementation. The subject of the research will be limited to the implementation persons, not all the people involved in the process of forced implementation. But only to third parties.

Since direct enforcement procedures require the intervention of several persons in the executive association, in order …

Taking The Gavel Away From The Executive Branch: The Indeterminate Sentencing Scheme Under S.B. 201 Is Ripe For Review And Unconstitutional, Jessica Crtalic

Cleveland State Law Review

In 2019, Senate Bill 201, also known as the Reagan Tokes Act, reintroduced an indeterminate sentencing scheme in Ohio whereby sentences are assigned in the form of a range. Under this sentencing scheme, the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, through the parole board, has discretion to retain an inmate past the presumptive release date. This fails to afford the accused their guaranteed right to a jury trial, improperly places judiciary power in the hands of the executive branch, and scrutinizes the violation of due process such that the defendant is being denied a fair hearing and notice. Not only …