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The Post-Dobbs Reality: Privacy Expectations for Period-Tracking Apps in Criminal Abortion Prosecutions
Get PDFThe Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey in June 2022 was met with waves of both support and criticism throughout the United States. Several states immediately implemented or began drafting trigger laws that criminalize seeking and providing an abortion. These laws prompted several period-tracking app companies to encrypt their users’ data to make it more difficult for the government to access period- and pregnancy-related information for criminal investigations. This Comment explores whether the Fourth Amendment and U.S. privacy statutes protect users of period-tracking apps from government surveillance. More specifically, this Comment argues that the Supreme Court’s holding in Carpenter v. United States—that an individual has a reasonable expectation of privacy in their cell-site location information—should extend to personal information placed in period-tracking apps. This Comment also urges Congress to adopt a comprehensive federal privacy statute to address the gaps in consumer privacy protections currently in force at the federal and state levels. Our courts and government should recognize that the pervasive and comprehensive wealth of personal information on our cell phones deserves protection from government interference, especially when such information reveals the health and sexual intimacies of millions of women across the United States
Promoting Value-Based Healthcare Decisions: A Case Study of Shared Savings Programs in New Hampshire and Maine
Get PDFState lawmakers nationwide are looking for solutions to the high healthcare prices faced by patients and employers. One of the emerging policies to combat rising costs is a shared savings program. These programs allow patients to compare prices and receive incentives for saving money on elective services. Maine and New Hampshire both passed legislation to enact shared savings programs implemented between 2019 and 2022. New Hampshire’s program established for a large, self-insured employer outperformed programs in both states in the fully insured competitive market, saving patients 183 times more than participants in Maine’s program during that timespan. Stakeholders and policy experts interviewed for this project highlighted several themes to explain the disparity in program outcomes. They identified aligning incentives across patients, employers, providers, and insurers as the most crucial program design element for policymakers to consider when implementing similar programs in the future
ICanRetire-Hispanic Segment Experience (ICR-H): A Digital Educational Intervention for Improving Retirement Preparedness among Hispanic Workers
Get PDFWe evaluated the digital program ICanRetire-Hispanic Segment Experience (ICR-H), which was tailored to Hispanics and sought to improve retirement financial planning knowledge and motivate program participants to take specific actions to prepare for retirement. To our knowledge, this is one of the first digital educational programs on retirement preparedness that was designed to meet the informational needs of Hispanics taking into account cultural influences. We evaluated the program using a randomized controlled trial (RCT) in the Understanding America Study (UAS) Internet panel. We conducted an analysis of differences in means and proportions and Difference-in-Difference (DID) between treatment and control groups for all participants, and for Hispanic and White participants separately. We found the program to be associated with an increase on retirement knowledge, but the DID was not statistically significant. We found that our digital program had a statistically significant positive impact on specific actions related to retirement preparedness such as checking own retirement saving plan online, increasing contributions to retirement saving plan, thinking about retirement age and how much to save for retirement, reading about retirement from a printed source, and talking about retirement preparedness with a family member. We also found that our digital program successfully engaged participants to learn about retirement preparedness online, and that the program experience was similar for Hispanic and White participants
The connection between mental illness and prisoner recidivism: a study of the self-perceptions and perspectives of mentally impaired low-level non-violent male exoffenders
Get PDFThis dissertation investigates the connection between mental illness and prisoner recidivism in California and Los Angeles County. As the literature review discloses, there are various theories that claim to explain why mentally impaired offenders are reincarcerated for breaking the law after they are released. This dissertation presents five research questions based on the literature review and theoretical framework and collected survey and interview data from a sample of 30, self-reported, mentally impaired ex-offenders. The research questions and theoretical framework is intended to provide the reader with an assessment of the viewpoints of the mentally impaired survey participants regarding the connection between mental impairment and prisoner recidivism. The analysis for this dissertation is collectively based on the self-perspectives and perceptions of the mentally impaired survey participants, the principal investigator, and a licensed clinical psychologist who volunteered to participate in this study. The answers to the survey questions and interviews by the mentally impaired survey participants confirm there is a connection between mental illness and prisoner recidivism. The answers to the survey questions and interviews also confirm a significant level of abuse by correctional officers, feelings expressed about pre-release programs, and positive and negative opinions about community-based treatment services and programs.
The information collected from the survey questions and interviews are designed to clarify the mentally impaired survey participants perspectives and experiences during their incarceration, the rehabilitation services they received when they are approaching their release date, and the effectiveness of the community-based programs offered when they return to society. A mixed method research design is implemented to combine the quantitative and qualitative data associated with this dissertation. The information collected will be used to evaluate the current policies and procedures in the criminal justice system in California and Los Angeles County and to help guide formulation of modifications when it is deemed necessary. Criminal justice legislators and administrators in California and Los Angeles County have provided the essential rehabilitation services for mentally impaired offenders during their incarceration and the community-based services and programs for mentally impaired offenders when they return to society. The final chapter presents a program model comprised of an Individual Intervention Plan to address the needs of mentally impaired ex-offenders when they return to society
