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Criminal Mind or Inculpable Adolescence? A Glimpse at the History, Failures, and Required Changes of the American Juvenile Correction System
Get PDFThis Comment provides an historical analysis of the principles, understandings and laws that have formed and altered the American juvenile correction system. Part I offers an historical synopsis of the societal understanding that juvenile offenders are less culpable than their adult counterparts and explains the process by which this concept came to permeate early American common law. By discussing the early nineteenth-century juvenile correction reformation movement and the cases that followed, Part I also illustrates the development and early failures of the American juvenile correction system. Part II explains the history of juvenile waiver laws, from their early presence in the American juvenile correction system to their stringent nationwide alteration during the 1980s and 90s. In Part III, this Comment discusses the unconstitutional results of increased juvenile waiver legislation and examines the United States Supreme Court’s judicial correction of such effects. Part IV concludes that despite the roadblocks to effectuating necessary changes within the juvenile correction system, the interaction among various omnipresent and undeniable forces requires that the States and their judiciaries do so
Municipal Wildfire Management in California: A Local Response to Global Climate Change
Get PDFThis Note will examine the wildfire issue in California within the context of municipal government. Part II-A will present a concise look at the current state of affairs regarding climate change, which demonstrates that because little has changed on the international level regarding emissions reductions, the responsibility of protecting people from the catastrophes associated with climate change will fall to lower levels of government. Part II-B will then discuss how wildfire activity is affected by climate change, with specific attention to how the western U.S. has been affected. Part III of this Note focuses on actions of several different municipalities in California, and examines how those communities are positioned to deal with the substantial number of wildfires they can expect to see in the coming years. This part of the Note will take a comprehensive look at municipal regulation as it relates to mitigation of wildfire risk. Finally, Part IV will conduct a legal analysis of the municipal actions discussed with specific attention placed on how the statutory framework of municipal actions can provide a response to increased wildfire activity
Improving the Legal Implementation Mechanisms for A Carbon Tax in China
Get PDFWithin the framework of existing Chinese environmental laws, carbon taxation faces four main challenges: the contradiction of existing taxes, conflict with the carbon emissions trading system, necessary adjustments to the organizational structure of tax collection and management, and coordination with international trade rules. Implementing a carbon tax is a complete and systematic process containing three stages: introduction, collection, and impacts assessment. In order to address these problems, it is necessary to construct legal implementation mechanisms for carbon taxation in China. The legal mechanisms of implementing a carbon tax include a series of coordination and safeguard measures aimed at optimizing the comprehensive environmental, economic, and social benefits of a carbon tax. This will become operative by integrating the carbon tax with existing environmental taxes and fees and by coordinating the different functions of a carbon tax and the carbon emissions trading system. In the context of modern economic globalization, the practice of a domestic carbon tax policy must be consistent with international trade rules. Therefore, making reasonable regulations for carbon tariffs is also an important component of the legal implementation mechanisms.
Part II of this article discusses the possible overlap between existing environmental taxes and the carbon taxes that will be levied and identifies the conflict between the two systems. Part III establishes a balanced mechanism to promote the complementarities between carbon taxation and carbon emission trading. Part IV introduces the European practice of carbon tax management, and proposes to construct a technical and administrative organization to safeguard the positive social effects of carbon taxation. Part V critically discusses carbon tariffs to ensure their conformance with international trade rules
The Role of Technology Coping and Habit in Information System Utilization
No full textOrganizations have spent millions of dollars on information systems (IS) in an effort to improve their competitive advantage. However, research has shown that the expected benefits from these investments have often not materialized. A common problem that occurs is underutilization of and resistance to new technology by the users. In other words organizations need to be aware of how employees adapt or cope with new technology as they go about their work in order to yield the benefits of an investment in information systems. The model developed for this research begins with Wiener’s (1948) Cybernetic Theory model as the foundation and integrates three additional models: (1) Folkman and Lazarus (1984 and 1985) Transactional Model to address technology coping, (2) Louis and Sutton’s (1991) research into automatic and habitual thinking to address habitual IS use, and (3) Sun’s (2012) research into information system features to address the extent to which a technology is utilized. The name of the model is the Technology Change Model (TCM). The Technology Change Model was used to examine the implementation of a case management system in a law enforcement setting involving a group of attorneys, investigators, analysts and administrative assistants. The methodology used to test the model was Focused Ethnography, which typically studies a specific problem within a specific context concerning a small group of people. Interviews are an important part of Focused Ethnography and can provide insight into the process and factors that affect IS implementations. The results of the interviews confirmed the factors and underlying theories of the Technology Change Model as well as uncovering three new factors related to habitual IS use: Feature Habitude, Feature Indifference, and Feature Ignorance. This study contributes to research by integrating disparate theories into one model, the Technology Change Model. This study contributes to practice by highlighting issues related to technology coping, habitual IS use, and use of system features that IS managers should be aware of in order to reduce underutilization and resistance to information systems
Grit and Legal Education
Get PDFOne factor that has received much attention in recent years is “grit,” which has been defined as “perseverance and passion for long-term goals.” Although grit has been studied in a number of different contexts, grit is understudied in the context of legal education. In light of the existing research regarding grit and performance, and the ongoing interest in law student learning, motivation, and performance, we undertook a research project to investigate the relationship between grit and law school academic performance. Although we hypothesized that grit would be positively related to law school GPA, we did not find a statistically significant relationship (positive or negative) between grit and law school GPA. In addition to examining the relationship between grit and law school GPA, we also conducted exploratory analyses to compare the grit scores of women and men. These analyses indicated a statistically significant difference between the grit levels of female and male participants, with female participants having higher levels of grit. The results of our research project raise questions about the role of grit in legal education and, most importantly, point the way for future research regarding grit, legal education, and law practice.
The remainder of this article will discuss our research and the implications of this research. Specifically, Part II of the article situates our research within existing research regarding grit and performance, and regarding the law school experiences of female and male law students. Part III describes the methodology of our research project. Part IV presents the results of the project. Part V of the article discusses these results and the implications of these results. Part V also discusses the limitations of this research and identifies avenues for further research regarding law students and grit. Part VI concludes
Trauma Exposure and Psychopathology: Racial and Ethnic Differences in Symptom Presentation among a Clinical Sample
No full textCulture shapes how an individual experiences, understands, expresses, and addresses emotional and mental distress. It is not the single most important variable but a contributing factor that influences the complexities of psychological processes. Therefore the approach to many psychological methods cannot necessarily be generalized without taking into account a person\u27s cultural background. Nonetheless there have been inconsistent findings in cross-cultural studies that have examined racial/ethnic differences and the associations between trauma and psychological symptoms. This study aimed to contribute to this area of research and examined racial/ethnic differences in exposure to trauma and psychological symptoms, as well as racial/ethnic differences in the associations of trauma with psychological symptoms. Specifically, symptoms of anxiety, anxiety-related disorders, depression, somatic complaints, and number of traumatic events were examined among an ethnically diverse clinical sample at an urban-based clinic. The sample consisted of 330 European Americans, 88 Latino Americans, 85 Black/African Americans, 33 Asian Americans, and 95 individuals who identified as another race/ethnicity. The majority of the sample identified as female (n = 450, 71.3%), and 181 (28.7%) as male. Results revealed that African American and Asian American participants experienced higher rates of traumatic events compared to European and Latino Americans. In the overall sample, number of types of traumatic events was positively and significantly associated with symptoms of anxiety related disorders, depression, and somatic complaints, but was not associated with symptoms of anxiety. Interaction analyses indicated number of traumatic events experienced was positively and significantly associated with anxiety-related disorders for all participants with the exception of Latino participants. While a marginally significant trend toward a negative association was found between number of traumatic events experienced and anxiety symptoms among Latino participants, but not for other participants. Limitations and implications of these findings for further research regarding diagnostic accuracy, the quality and effectiveness of treatment, and preventive services for racial/ethnically diverse populations are discussed
Think Tank Simulator: A Virtual Conversation between the Information Seeker and Domain Experts
No full textSearch tools used today in the life sciences industry, mainly use a query-response paradigm, returning relevant documents based on the search intent captured by keywords specified by the user. This model works very well when the search intent is specific and the user knows exactly what to look for; however, if the search tools is used for the acquisition or identification of new or unusual knowledge this model completely breaks down due to the unavoidable fuzziness contained in the query and the consequent inability of the ranking system to identify relevant content. The rich cognitive process necessary for the acquisition of new or unusual knowledge requires a more exploratory approach and one model that has been used successfully throughout contemporary history, in many and diverse fields, is the Think Tank. In a think tank setting, experts from different fields get together and converse so to provide feedback related to the problem at hand. During such conversations, important connections start to arise and eventually new and unusual findings are identified as important contribution toward the solution of the problem. In this study we have created a tool, the Think Tank Simulator, which simulates a think tank setting where scientific papers, from the PubMed ® Central Open Access Subset, are used as proxies to experts and indexed by a search software system. The fuzzy search intent of a user is then used to retrieve as many documents as possible that are related to the problem being researched and used to simulate conversations among the experts. Through the use of biomedical ontologies and statistical tools we then try to identify unusual and previously unknown connections using terms appearing in such conversations and display them back to the user using a graph-based visual metaphor as a tool to provide a meaningful exploration of related items identified by the system. The study then surveyed users from different departments—from scientists in the Research & Development department to marketing research professionals—to gain an understanding on how they search for information and especially to measure the level of satisfaction of using traditional search tools for the identification and acquisition of new and unusual knowledge. All participants in this study have produced reports using search tools based on a query-response paradigm, and their findings were compared with the output generated by the Think Tank Simulator. The results provided by the simulator were collected during a follow-up interview with the intent to determine the user’s perception of the tool’s effectiveness in identifying new or unusual findings. The technique demonstrated in this study was found to be associated to a better outcome for the discovery of new or unusual information in scientific literature. Moreover, throughout the study we have uncovered several other findings related to the use of specific Part Of Speech (POS) entities on portion of the documents where the match occurred: lemmatized nouns were associated to better outcomes
Forensic Evidence and the Court of Appeal for England and Wales
Get PDFThe Criminal Division of the Court of Appeal has extensively analyzed the role of forensic evidence. In doing so, the court has grappled with the admissibility and reliability of a broad range of forensic evidence, from DNA and computer forensics to medical and psychological proof, to more outlying subjects like facial mapping, fiber analysis, or voice identification. The court has analyzed these subjects from two perspectives: the admissibility of such evidence in the lower courts and the admissibility of such evidence as fresh evidence on appeal. In both contexts, the court has taken a practical approach to admitting forensic proof that is deemed to be helpful and reliable. It has also given helpful guidance to practitioners dealing with these issues, and to judges who must instruct juries about how to evaluate forensic evidence. Compared to the approach of the United States courts, the Court of Appeal has indicated a greater willingness to keep pace with scientific developments and to admit forensic proof that contributes to the accuracy of criminal verdicts
An Evaluation of the Effectiveness of the Use of Social Media by United Way of Westchester and Putnam
Get PDFPace Intellectual Property, Sports & Entertainment Law Forum, Volume 5, Issue 1, Spring 2015
Get PDFThe staff of PIPSELF has worked diligently this year in selecting and preparing original and appealing articles concerning emerging issues in the fields of intellectual property, sports, and entertainment law for this issue. We welcome our readers to send comments and feedback: e-mail us at [email protected], visit our Twitter @PIPSELF, or ‘like’ us on Facebook at “Pace Intellectual Property, Sports & Entertainment Law Forum.