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- Creators: Barrett, The Honors College
Description
This paper explores the relationship between social and cultural capital and the experience of Asian Americans in law school and after graduating from law school. Bourdieu’s (1986) conceptualizations of institutional cultural capital, embodied cultural capital, and social capital guide this analysis. Two electronic surveys resulted in participation by fourteen Asian American law students and nine Asian American law school graduates from American Bar Association-accredited law schools in the United States. The research design is qualitative, and a partial grounded theory approach based upon Charmaz’s (2006) work was utilized. Thematic coding, line-by-line coding, and focused coding were also used to analyze survey responses. Results demonstrate that there is a relationship between social and cultural capital and the experience of Asian Americans in law school and post-law school graduation. Institutional cultural capital, in the form of J.D. degrees, seems to influence the development of embodied cultural capital and social capital, particularly when considering membership in groups and forming personal and professional connections. When considering embodied cultural capital, family members appear to influence important personal characteristics that participants carry into law school and the workplace. These results may have implications for the larger trend of Asian Americans leaving large law firms; in addition, perceptions of embodied cultural capital may influence barriers to career advancement. Suggested areas for future research include the role of mentorship in Asian American career development, patterns within specific Asian American ethnic/cultural groups in the legal field, and the intersection of gender and Asian American identities in legal practice.
ContributorsSu, Yuhong (Author) / Nakagawa, Kathryn (Thesis director) / Broberg, Gregory (Committee member) / School of Social Transformation (Contributor, Contributor, Contributor) / Economics Program in CLAS (Contributor) / Dean, W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-12
Description
After the landmark case, Gideon v Wainwright was heard by the United States Supreme Court in 1963, the 6th Amendment granted counsel to indigent defendants. However, since 1963 the United States population has skyrocketed and so have arrest rates leaving many public defenders underpaid and overworked. Knowing these facts Can Justice be Bought uses interviews, real-life stories, and research to determine if the 6th Amendment is upheld in the way the system is currently working, and are indigent defendants given a fair chance at trial. After an overview of public defense in the United States as a whole, it becomes clear that in many states the way the system is operating gives them less than a fair chance at justice. This, however, is not from a lack of effort from public defenders, they are simply just so overworked by exorbitant caseloads that they cannot possibly give each of their cases the time it deserves. However, not all indigent defense systems were created equal, states like Maryland have a number of resources for their public defenders that set them up for success. In order to close the gap between private counsel and public defense in the United States, public defenders’ offices should begin to allocate more funding in order to lighten their defenders’ caseloads as well as to provide them with resources such as expert witnesses and social workers. Funding is not found overnight, so in the meantime, the implementation of “participatory defense” can also help close the gap. The advantage of wealth is not found only in the courtroom but through nearly every part of the criminal justice system. From bail to parole, wealthier defendants typically see higher rates of success and lower rates of recidivism due to their ability to pay for these programs.
ContributorsAyd, Olivia (Author) / Koretz, Lora (Thesis director) / Moore, James (Committee member) / Dean, W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor, Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
This thesis explores the evolution of the insanity defense throughout legal history beginning with ancient Greek and Roman times. Ideas about treating the insane separate from the sane in a criminal proceeding were first expressed by famous philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle. The insanity defense was codified into the Justinian Code under Roman Law, but there was no criteria to distinguish who was insane and who was not. From the 14th to 19th centuries, a number of insanity tests were developed in English common law, resulting in the milestone M’Naghten rules, which became the basis for the insanity defense as it exists in the United States today. This paper explores how M’Naghten can be interpreted, what it does well, and its criticism. The thesis then explores how a number of other insanity defense standards rose in the United States, including the Irresistible Impulse Test, the New Hampshire test, the Durham test, the Model Penal Code, the Insanity Defense Reform Act, Guilty but Mentally Ill, and abolishing the insanity defense all together. The thesis asserts why all of these standards fall short of providing adequate protections for the insane in the criminal justice system and do not accurately define legal insanity. There is an analysis of both the theoretical and practical implications of trending alternate proposals for the insanity defense, including the Mental Illness Contribution Defense and Not Criminally Responsible By Reason of Recognized Medical Condition. Then, an argument is presented for the proposal for a new standard for insanity incorporating the ideas of philosopher Herbert Fingarette.
ContributorsHartunian, Jordyn (Author) / Rigoni, Adam (Thesis director) / Mack, Robert (Committee member) / Dean, W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
It is interesting to reflect that the American legal system has not seriously applied any significant technological advances in many decades. It is fascinating that the same processes used to draft a will or estate plan are virtually the same as they were in the 1960’s. This seems to be a problem that should be concerning in this modern age. We would be hard pressed to observe doctors in the U.S. currently performing medical procedures as they would have in 1960 considering the technological advancements that have taken place in society since then. Many of the processes in the legal system are extremely static and even archaic. It seems to be an opportune time to revolutionize the whole system as advancements continue; but, this revolution must take into account both the positive and negative repercussions that are possible moving forward.
ContributorsWilladson, Conor Calista Carolena (Author) / Koretz, Lora (Thesis director) / Forst, Bradley (Committee member) / Dean, W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
Realistically, everyone should either be in jail or in court for crimes that everybody
commits. Outside of the house, there are people speeding, jaywalking, littering, sharing
medication, and driving without seat belts. Inside the house, people are downloading
music/movies, drinking while underage, using (and abusing) social media while under the age of
18, and reading another person’s mail. With so much of a focus on serious crimes, or felonies,
people tend to forget about the everyday actions in America that are also illegal. For example, a
police officer may not do anything if several cars are going well over the speed limit on the
highway, because it is normalized. This paper explores two sides of this issue: the psychological
side and the legal side. The goal is to find out how culpable people really are for their actions
when they do not have the mental intent that the they are determined to have in court. All human
behavior will be divided into two sections (people with non-extreme mental disorders and people
who have total control over their behavior). First, I dive into the complexity of anxiety,
depression, and ADHD, and explain how these disorders will subtly change someone’s behavior.
Next, I examine how actions like speeding and jaywalking and explain how certain illegal
actions have become so normalized that people may not be very guilty, even when they are
knowingly committing these crimes. I use different misdemeanors as examples for each of these
types of behaviors to argue why people should be more culpable (aggravating factors) or less
culpable (mitigating factors) because of their respective predispositions. Finally, I discuss issues
of fixing the criminal justice system such as: how to make all punishments fair/accurate, how to
fix the public’s distrust towards the law, and how to stop these normalized illegal behaviors for
all people, regardless of mental health or intent.
commits. Outside of the house, there are people speeding, jaywalking, littering, sharing
medication, and driving without seat belts. Inside the house, people are downloading
music/movies, drinking while underage, using (and abusing) social media while under the age of
18, and reading another person’s mail. With so much of a focus on serious crimes, or felonies,
people tend to forget about the everyday actions in America that are also illegal. For example, a
police officer may not do anything if several cars are going well over the speed limit on the
highway, because it is normalized. This paper explores two sides of this issue: the psychological
side and the legal side. The goal is to find out how culpable people really are for their actions
when they do not have the mental intent that the they are determined to have in court. All human
behavior will be divided into two sections (people with non-extreme mental disorders and people
who have total control over their behavior). First, I dive into the complexity of anxiety,
depression, and ADHD, and explain how these disorders will subtly change someone’s behavior.
Next, I examine how actions like speeding and jaywalking and explain how certain illegal
actions have become so normalized that people may not be very guilty, even when they are
knowingly committing these crimes. I use different misdemeanors as examples for each of these
types of behaviors to argue why people should be more culpable (aggravating factors) or less
culpable (mitigating factors) because of their respective predispositions. Finally, I discuss issues
of fixing the criminal justice system such as: how to make all punishments fair/accurate, how to
fix the public’s distrust towards the law, and how to stop these normalized illegal behaviors for
all people, regardless of mental health or intent.
ContributorsHildebrand, David Abel (Author) / Rigoni, Adam (Thesis director) / Cavanaugh-Toft, Carolyn (Committee member) / School of Social Transformation (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
The United States (USA) and the United Kingdom (UK) have a long and complicated history, but through this they have learned an abundance of things from each other. In this paper, I will argue that the two countries still have much to learn from each other to this day about how to enforce the law and manage crime. An important structure that the United Kingdom helped influence the United States in was the development of their criminal justice system. Although the two country’s values differ, there are great similarities in the ways the two countries deal with crime but numerous differences as well. Looking deeper into the differences between the two systems can help future research identify new and innovative ways to combat crime and actively reduce crime rates. This paper will compare violent crime rates in the USA and UK for four years (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017). Doing so will provide evidence regarding the degree to which the police in each country have been able to effectively enforce the law. After evaluating these differences, I will conclude with a discussion of the key items that I believe each country should take from the other to create a path forward to better justice. Our societies are constantly evolving, creating a necessity to progress our laws and aspects of the criminal justice system, and examining internal workings will only tell so much. There is never a reason to stop learning from each other, which is why this type of research is important.
ContributorsEubanks, Hannah E. (Author) / Spohn, Cassia (Thesis director) / Fradella, Hank (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of Criminology and Criminal Justice (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
In this paper, we offer three legal bases for the continued legality of abortion in the U.S. in alternative to the current rationale set by Roe v. Wade. After a brief history of abortion law and rhetoric that shows the abortion debates to center on unanswered assumptions about the value and nature of human life, we first propose, through philosophical analysis, that an embryo does not merit the same legal protections as a born human because the status of being unborn marks it as fundamentally different from one. Secondly, we examine the legal principle of bodily integrity and demonstrate its clear application to the pregnant women, whose right over her own body, we argue, is unjustifiably curtailed by anti-abortion laws. Finally, we proffer that abortion is justified even if we grant the embryo personhood by applying the legal concept of medical power of attorney to the rights that parents have over their children.
ContributorsSalazar, Jakob Andrew (Author) / Huntington, Patricia (Thesis director) / Kim, Linda (Committee member) / School of Humanities, Arts, and Cultural Studies (Contributor) / School of Social and Behavioral Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
I created an annotated bibliography on the many factors that affect eyewitnesses recollection and testimony.
ContributorsWood, Paul (Author) / Ingram-Waters, Mary (Thesis director) / Litwak, Jack (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor)
Created2022-05
Description
My honors thesis focuses on the technological aspects and the legal impacts of prosthetics and advanced prosthetics. There is a lot of case law dealing with early prosthetics when it comes to worker’s compensation, airport security, prisons and sports. However, there has been little case law that has dealt with advanced prosthetics. As prosthetic limbs become more technologically advanced and intertwined with one’s identity, it is crucial that laws are made to draw a new line between person and property. The innovation of prosthetic limbs has just begun and will surely face setbacks along the way, but the benefits will be worth it once the law catches up with the rapidly advancing technology.
ContributorsRogers, Madison (Author) / Marchant, Gary (Thesis director) / Schaefer, Sydney (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Harrington Bioengineering Program (Contributor)
Created2022-05
Description
Technological advancements have provided ease and accessibility for musicians to produce, publish, and share music worldwide. However, contradictory court rulings in determining what is protected under copyright law have developed an environment where top-of-the-chart and up-and-coming artists fear their records will be liable for copyright infringement. Throughout the twelve circuit courts in the United States, various legal tests are applied to copyright infringement cases. Most courts use two specific legal tests; the Second and Ninth Circuit court tests. This thesis analyzes how copyright law is applied to music, focusing on the ambiguous legal tests of the Second and Ninth Circuit Courts. This analysis aims to outline the flaws in the current legal tests and establish a new legal test dedicated to providing structure and uniformity to copyright law and music.
ContributorsSidi, Joshua (Author) / Koretz, Lora (Thesis director) / Moore, James (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Dean, W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor)
Created2022-05