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Judging Judges Fifty Years After – Was Judge Julius Hoffman’s Conduct so Different?
Get PDFIn Chicago, Illinois--and in courtrooms across the United States--judicial misconduct has affected trial outcomes as long as there have been trials. While Judge Julius Hoffman\u27s conduct in the “Chicago Eight” trial is an egregious example of judicial behavior toward criminal defendants, this piece\u27s examination of at least ten different categories of misconduct in dozens of cases makes the argument that misbehavior by judges is less of an exception to the rule of impartiality than the thinking public might know. In considering these brazen examples, practitioners and academics alike can evaluate how to best confront the extent to which conduct like Judge Hoffman\u27s permeates our justice system
Equine-Assisted Psychotherapy for Childhood Trauma: A Randomized Controlled Trial of the EAGALA Model
No full textChildhood trauma is a widespread problem that impacts millions of children, yet effectively engaging children in treatment post-trauma is challenging. Research on animal-assisted therapies and, specifically, equine-assisted psychotherapy (EAP), an animal-assisted form of treatment that partners with horses in the therapeutic process, suggests that it may be an efficacious treatment for children and adolescents with trauma-related mental health symptoms and diagnoses. However, the vast majority of this research consists of small, nonrandomized groups. This study is a longitudinal, randomized controlled trial of adolescents initially screened for trauma symptoms, who then received either EAGALA Model (EAP) (n = 55) or treatment as usual (TAU) (n = 49), with 10 sessions of active treatment, followed by a 10-week post-intervention follow-up assessment. Although both interventions demonstrated significant declines in anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress symptoms, it was the EAP group that demonstrated a significantly greater decrease in overall trauma symptoms that continued to decline longitudinally at 10-weeks post-intervention. The EAP group showed an improvement in emotion awareness from baseline to Week 5, although gains on emotional awareness were not maintained at Week 10 or at post-intervention follow-up. Attachment was only a significant predictor of therapeutic alliance at Week 1 but not at Week 5 or 10. Treatment group did not moderate the relationship between attachment and therapeutic alliance. Contrary to prediction, TAU had higher scores on therapeutic alliance but results did not reach statistical significance. Overall, these findings provide evidence for EAP as an effective form of treatment for trauma-impacted adolescents, but identifies caveats to be considered in future interventions and research
Bringing the Bosses to International Criminal Trials: The Problems with Joint Criminal Enterprise and the “Control over the Crime” Approach As a Better Alternative
Get PDFSimilar to most international and hybrid criminal tribunals, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia used the doctrine or theory of Joint Criminal Enterprise (JCE) as a mode of liability when prosecuting and convicting those most responsible, namely, state and non-state political and military leaders, in cases of international crimes. Against such background, the main research questions of this article are whether JCE should be applied in cases of those most responsible for international crimes and whether JCE should be replaced by the “control over the crime” approach. Overall, this article argues and finds two main points. First, JCE presents major issues when applied to cases involving senior leaders. Second, as done by the International Criminal Court, JCE should be replaced by the “control over the crime” approach since this approach is an overall more coherent alternative in the above-mentioned types of cases at international and hybrid criminal tribunals. Compared to JCE, the “control over the crime” approach as applied to cases involving senior perpetrators of international crimes: i) allows a clearer differentiation between principals and accessories to the crimes; and, ii) in its manifestation as perpetration through another person using an organized structure of power, is more suitable to appropriately determine criminal liability of those most responsible in large criminal enterprises
A Study on the Efficiency of Encryption Algorithms for Wireless Sensor Networks
No full textWireless Sensor Network consists of a substantial number of sensors with low computational powers, resource constraint devices, and is generally in hostile environments. In order to increase efficiency with limited computational resources, encryption is often either ignored or reduced by users of Wireless Sensor Network. To incorporate encryption in commonly used framework, we developed a modified Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) system for data encryption between clients and servers. The modified PKI system uses a star topology, which connotes the clients to only communicate with the an internal server which serves as both a certificate server and an application server. An empirical study capturing network traffic in this modified PKI was conducted to evaluate the efficiency of the Wireless Sensor Network, by observing the Round-Trip Time of packets between client and server sending data in plaintext and ciphertext. In addition, an evaluation of CPU and memory usage was conducted while the sensor nodes were communicated through both plain text and PKI encryption. The empirical study contained three case studies to assess the performance of the servers when varying the number of clients, the packet sizes, and the symmetric algorithms. This research helps to prove that the number of clients alters the efficiency of the network more than the packet size and the symmetric algorithms. This research is focused on Wireless Senor Networks in a residential or small Local Area Network and the results contribute to the implementation of the data encryption under such environment
Racial/Ethnic Differences in Trauma History, Resilience, and Personality Disorder Features
No full textThis study examined racial/ethnic differences in and associations among trauma history, psychological resilience and personality disorder features. More specifically, I explored the link between trauma exposure and personality disorder features as well as the possible moderating role of psychological resilience on the link between trauma and personality disorder features. Archival data from the intake records of over one thousand discharged clients from an urban-based university mental health clinic serving both university students and individuals from the community were analyzed for the study. Intake records assessed for this study included the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI), the Posttraumatic Stress Diagnostic Scale (PDS), the Resilience Scale (RS) and sociodemographic information. Findings indicated an overall difference in history of trauma exposure between racial/ethnic groups. There were also significant positive correlations between trauma exposure and each of the four (Antisocial, Borderline, Paranoid, Schizotypal) personality disorder features. There were no significant differences in resilience scores between racial/ethnic groups, but significant racial/ethnic differences were found in personality disorder features. Further, psychological resilience moderated the relationship between trauma exposure and Antisocial personality disorder features. Limitations of the present study and suggestions for future research as well as implications and contributions to the field of school-clinical psychology are discusse
The Unconstitutional Tampon Tax
Get PDFThirty-five states impose a sales tax on menstrual hygiene products, while products like spermicidal condoms and erectile dysfunction medications are tax-free. This sales tax--commonly called the “tampon tax”--represents an expense that girls and women must bear on top of the cost of biologically necessary items that they need in order to attend school, work, and otherwise participate in public life. This article explores the constitutionality of the tampon tax and argues that it is an impermissible form of gender discrimination under the Equal Protection Clause. First, menstrual hygiene products are a unique proxy for female sex, and therefore any disadvantageous tax classification of these products amounts to a facial classification on the basis of sex. There is no “exceedingly persuasive justification” for taxing menstrual hygiene products, and so the tax must fail intermediate scrutiny. Even assuming arguendo that the tampon tax is not viewed as a tax on female sex, it is still unconstitutional because it cannot pass rational basis review.
Since 2016, four states and the District of Columbia have legislatively repealed their sales tax on menstrual hygiene products. One state, Nevada, did so by ballot referendum in 2018. Other states will consider repeal bills in upcoming legislative sessions or may consider ballot initiatives in the future. Women have also brought class action litigation in four jurisdictions, seeking declarations that the state tampon tax is unconstitutional and requesting refunds of prior taxes paid. The article develops the constitutional arguments that can be used by litigators in any ongoing or future case, recognizing that menstrual equity activism, including impact litigation, is likely to continue in the future.
Ultimately, what and whom a society seeks to tax signal its larger values. The continued imposition of state sales tax on menstrual hygiene products, seemingly without a principled distinction from other products that are exempted as necessities, exacerbates the aggregate economic inequality that already exists between the sexes. The tampon tax is unconstitutional and should be repealed in all states
Ministerial Magic: Tax-Free Housing and Religious Employers
Get PDFReligious organizations enjoy many of the same benefits that other non-profit organizations do. Churches, temples and mosques, for example, generally are exempt from local real estate taxes. Economically speaking, a tax exemption has the same effect as a subsidy; freedom from tax liability means that the organization can devote its financial resources to other activities. But where an exemption afforded to a religious employee is broader than the equivalent exemption available to a secular employee, a significant Establishment Clause concern is raised. The parsonage exemption of Internal Revenue Code Section 107 presents such an issue: ministers are permitted to exclude cash housing allowances from their taxable income as a matter of course, even though the equivalent exemptions for secular employees are far more limited. Recently, however, in Gaylor v. Mnuchin, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit rejected the argument that the parsonage exemption violates the Establishment Clause. This Essay evaluates the court\u27s reasoning and suggests that the decision minimized the extent to which the parsonage exemption provides active governmental support for religion. This minimization, we argue, led to a distorted Establishment Clause analysis and the wrong result. We also address an issue lurking in the background: the intersection between the parsonage exemption and sex discrimination, given that some religions do not permit women to serve in religious leadership roles that would qualify them as ministers under Section 107. Although the stronger constitutional argument against the parsonage exemption stems from the Establishment Clause, both issues raise important policy concerns
The Critical Tax Project, Feminist Theory, and Rewriting Judicial Opinions
Get PDFIntroduction to Symposium on Feminist Judgments: Rewritten Tax Opinions