December 2018 - searchfortruth.info

Prisoners Of The Mind | The Inappropriateness Of Comparing The Involuntarily Committed Mentally Ill To Pretrial Detainees In Fourth Amendment Analyses

February 5, 2019December 30, 2018 by admin

INTRODUCTION

In addition to substandard conditions of confinement, the invo- luntarily committed experience a stunning lack of privacy while insti-tutionalized. One commentator relates a former patient’s description of life in an institution as follows:

Everything is taken from you, you share a door-less room with as many other “crazy” women as the number of beds that can be fitted in al- lows . . . . There is one bathroom with two (door-less, of course) toilet compartments . . . and never, never any privacy at all. It is also a place where patients are instantly robbed of credibility.

Nevertheless, surprisingly little litigation has taken place over searches of psychiatric patients. One recent case, however, suggests that such claims are likely to be unsuccessful. In Serna v. Goodno, an entire treatment facility of “sexually dangerous persons” was subject to visual body cavity searches because hospital staff suspected the presence of a cellular phone in the ward.These suspicionless...

Ganging Up on Gangs: The Steps Necessary for Effectively Prosecuting Gang Violence

February 5, 2019December 30, 2018 by admin

The 2009 National Gang Threat Assessment report states, “[gangs] pose a serious threat to public safety in many communities throughout the United States” In his 2008 report to Congress, Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey writes, [Gangs] threaten our society, from city streets to sub-urban neighborhoods and beyond. They bring a culture of violence and drugs to our doorsteps, creating an atmosphere of fear, diminishing the quality of life, and endangering the safety, well-being, and future of our children. In partnership with state and local authorities as well as community leaders, we must be vigilant in keeping our communities safe from the curse of gang-related crime and violence. Legislatures have passed statutes intended to address gang related issues within their states. Those states enacting gang legislation have, with certain exceptions, done so recently.To understand and identify the threat posed by a criminal street gang, the term must be defined. At present, the federal definition reads as follows:...

Comprehensive Representation: A Holistic Approach to White Collar Criminal Defense

February 5, 2019December 30, 2018 by admin

I. Introduction

In Padilla v. Kentucky, the U.S. Supreme Court found that a defense attorney failed to adequately represent his client, José Padilla, a non-citizen, but lawful permanent resident of the United States, because he did not advise Mr. Padilla that entering a guilty plea could result in deportation. The majority opinion states:

It is our responsibility under the Constitution to ensure that no criminal defendant whether a citizen or not is left to the ‘mercies of incompetent counsel.’ Richardson, 397 U.S. at 771. To satisfy this responsibility, we now hold that counsel must inform her client whether his plea carries a risk of deportation.

Padilla marks “the first time that the Court has applied the 1984 Strickland standard to a lawyer’s failure to advise a client about a consequence of conviction that is not part of the sentence imposed by the court.” One legal scholar suggests that even if Padilla is limited to cases with the risk

Criminal Justice Standards On Mental Health

February 4, 2019December 30, 2018 by admin

PART I: THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM AND THE MENTAL HEALTH SYSTEM

Standard 7-1.1. Terminology

(a) Unless otherwise specified, these Standards adopt the definition of “mental disorder” found in the current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association.* In the settings addressed by the Standards, mental disorder is most likely to encompass mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depressive disorders; developmental disabilities that affect intellectual and adaptive functioning; and substance use disorders that develop from repeated and extensive abuse of drugs or alcohol or some combination thereof.

(b) “Mental health professional,” as used in these Standards, includes psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers and psychiatric nurses and other clinicians with expertise in the evaluation and treatment of mental disorders.

(c) “Mental health evaluation,” appearing throughout the Standards as “evaluation,” means an evaluation by a mental health professional of an individual accused of, charged with, or convicted of a criminal offense or detained by the police for the purpose of assessing:

Interrogation and Evidence Fabrication

February 5, 2019December 29, 2018 by admin

Abstract

I explore the rather common legally permissible practice of police lying to suspects and/or fabricating evidence by analyzing a simple model in which police can fabricate/lie and then the accused chooses whether to confess. When police are not permitted to fabricate/lie, the police presenting evidence, which in this case can be viewed as hard evidence, to the accused conveys information about the accused’s chances at trial. However, when police are permitted to fabricate/lie, the evidence does not convey information to the accused. I find that allowing police to lie is helpful in cases where it either leads to a guilty accused confessing when he would otherwise go to trial, or an innocent accused not confessing when he otherwise would confess if police were not allowed to lie. However, allowing police to lie is harmful in cases where it either leads to a guilty accused not confessing when he would confess if the police were not allowed to lie, or an

Infiltrated Labor Union

December 29, 2018 by admin

Part of OCGS' mission involves combating the infiltration by organized criminal groups of labor unions, employer organizations and their affiliated employee benefit plans in the private sector of the economy. Historically, elements of organized criminal groups referred to as La Cosa Nostra (LCN ) or the "Mafia" gained substantial corrupt influence, and even control in some instances, over labor unions by creating a climate of fear and intimidation among their members by threats and acts of violence. Through such domination, these criminal groups were able to place their associates in key official positions with various unions and in other positions of influence and to thereby exploit the unions and the employers which dealt with such unions and derive illegal proceeds from the operation of the unions' affairs and labor-management relations. See, President's Commission on Organized Crime (PCOC), The Edge: Organized Crime, Business and labor Unions (U.S. G.P.O. Washington, DC 1986) at 1-32. The PCOC specifically concluded that the LCN had for decades controlled and corruptly influenced certain

Gangs 101 – Gang Recruitment Techniques

December 29, 2018 by admin

2. Subterfuge

Subterfuge is a misrepresentation of what the gang really is and what it stands for. Recruiters use lies and schemes to convince the youth that it really isn't a gang, it's a club or it is really a group of close friends that have to protect themselves against a powerful enemy. Another tact taken by recruiters is to identify latchkey and other kids who may not have a good family life and convince them that they aren't loved and that the club is there for them, the "club" will love them.

3. Obligation

Often gang members will do a favor or make a loan of something to a prospective recruit and demand they give loyalty as payback. Often, these favors come in the form of protection. Girls are sometimes used to promote that sense of obligation.

4. Coercion

Forced recruitment is an age old technique, used most often by large gangs in chronic gang cities. This technique is used most

How Street Gangs Recruit and Socialize Members

December 29, 2018 by admin

Abstract:

Gangs recruit and socialize youth who live in their local neighborhood and who attend neighborhood schools. Gangs take advantage of the crisis adolescents face in growing up. Gangs present themselves in communities and neighborhoods as one of many reference group choices at a time in the life when a child's peers have the most influence. New gang members subject themselves to a process of socialization, which opposes many of the values and norms of the general society. As new members gain acceptance and status, and are allowed to play a role in the delinquent activities of the gang, they are taking part in a process of social learning, a vital part of gang socialization, a process of on-the-job training. Once these attributes are internalized by a new member, the result is an ongoing development of a personal and social identity consistent with the gang. By understanding how gangs socialize their members, improvements can be made in current prevention and intervention strategies.

Gang Recruitment

December 29, 2018 by admin

What do street gangs, organized criminals, rebel insurgents, and radical and extremist groups have in common? The answer is an organizational problem: the need to find trustworthy, loyal, and competent members under the conditions of illegality, the use of violence, and risk of infiltration (Pizzini-Gambetta and Hamill, 2011). Existing scholarship generally accounts for the profiles and motivations of recruits into extra-legal groups, but a question that remains is: why do only some and not all of those who share the same ‘risk factors’ and motivations join? Indeed, the vast majority of young black males living in low income or marginal areas are not gang members this is known as the Robins (1978, p. 611) paradox. The reason, this chapter argues, is that people do not only choose gangs, but gangs also choose people. Risk factors and motivations are crude facts often presented as profound truths that lend no insight into gang processes. ‘Many are called but few are chosen’

Street Gang Recruitment: Signaling, Screening, and Selection

February 5, 2019December 29, 2018 by admin

Abstract

By applying signaling theory to the strategies gangs and their prospective members adopt during the recruitment process, this article addresses one of the most crucial unanswered questions in the literature on street gangs: why, in any given pool of individuals with similar sociological profiles and motivations, do only some gain entry into gangs? Based upon two years of ethnographic fieldwork with gang members in London, UK, this article argues that gangs face a primary trust dilemma in their uncertainty over the quality of recruits. Given that none of the desirable trust-warranting properties for gang membership can be readily discovered from observation, gangs look for observable signs correlated with these properties. Gangs then face a secondary trust dilemma in their uncertainty over the reliability of signs because certain agents (e.g., police informants, rival gang members, and adventure seekers) might mimic them. Thus, gangs look for signs that are too costly for mimics to fake but affordable for the genuine article. This article thus demonstrates how

The Registration Of Communist-Front Organizations: The Statutory Framework And The Constitutional Issue

December 28, 2018 by admin

Because the Communist movement cannot attain all its goals through the single instrumentality of the Communist Party, it frequently resorts to the use of organizations which operate under Communist instruction, but are not openly associated with the Communist Party or the Communist movement. Lacking the broad purposes of the Party, these groups are utilized by the Communist movement for more specific aims. Their primary purpose is to extend Communist influence into areas where an openly Communist appeal would not receive support, a task they seek to accomplish by concealing their true goals behind a "high-sounding and attractive reform objective." Appeals are aimed at narrow groups, with emphasis placed upon such factors as occupation, race,; religion, and, most frequently, specific political causes. Front organizations are most often established by a small group of party sympathizers who will then undertake a general canvas of the populace for supporters.6 This nucleus will usually install as president a prominent figure who either will go along with

Gang Masculinity and High Risk Sexual Behaviors

December 27, 2018 by admin

Abstract

Context

High risk sexual behaviors (HRSB) are one of many problem behaviors, including relationship violence and substance use, which often cluster together among adolescents in high risk settings. Adolescent gang members often show the highest rates of HRSB, substance use and relationship violence.

Methods

This paper uses 58 in-depth interviews with male and female gang members from 6 different gangs. We explore the role of gangs as powerful socializing peer groups that set gender, sexual and relationship roles and expectations for their male and female members.

Results

HRSB among gangs included sex with multiple partners and group sex. Gang norms included the belief that male members were sexually insatiable with multiple sexual partners and that female members should be sexually available to male members. Alcohol and drugs were seen to have a large influence on sexual desire and the inability to use condoms. Much sexual behavior with gangs, such as group sex, was viewed with ambivalence and seen as somewhat coercive. Finally,

Gangbangs and Drive-bys: Grounded Culture and Juvenile Gang Violence.

December 27, 2018 by admin

Abstract

This study, based on quantitative and qualitative data gathered over a twelve-year period, takes its title from the two predominant styles of gang violence: "drive-bys," which have replaced "rumbles" as the primary form of gang violence; and "gang-bangs"--a generic term for other gang violence that includes assaults, knifings, and beatings. The author attempts to understand the situations in which a young man would drive up to another human being and, without further ado, blow his head off. By examining hundreds of such situations, and employing both structural and phenomenological analysis, Sanders explores the various configurations of gang violence. Gangbangs and Drive-bys also examines the routines of gang members and their view of life, the different styles of gangs, and changes undergone by gangs from the early 1980s to the end of the same decade. Over that period, the emphasis shifted from parties and paybacks to big money from the sale of rock cocaine, and from unstructured to organized crime. Along with that shift

Alcohol and Violence in the Lives of Gang Members

December 27, 2018 by admin

Life within a gang includes two endemic features: violence and alcohol. Yet, to date, most researchers studying gang behavior have focused on violence and its relationship to illicit drugs, largely neglecting the importance of alcohol in gang life. Because alcohol is an integral and regular part of socializing within gang life, drinking works as a social lubricant, or social glue, to maintain not only the cohesion and social solidarity of the gang, but also to affirm masculinity and male togetherness. In addition to its role as a cohesive mechanism, particular drinking styles within gangs may operate, as with other social groups, as a mechanism to maintain group boundaries, thereby demarcating one gang from another. Other examples of internal gang violent activities associated with drinking include fighting between members because of rivalries, tensions, or notions of honor or respect. At a more symbolic level, drinking is associated with two important ritual events in gang life: initiation, or “jumping in,”and funerals. By better understanding the link

Psychological Effect of Exposure to Gang Violence on Youth: A Pilot Study

December 27, 2018 by admin

Abstract:

Youths who had witnessed violence in their neighborhoods expressed concern about their safety while in the neighborhood. Feelings associated with exposure to gang violence varied among the youth and included sadness for the victim, worry, nervousness, being scared, and anger toward others. Surprisingly, a few of the youth had little concern for their personal safety after witnessing violence. This may suggest that constant exposure to violence may lead to desensitization and a sense of the inevitability of being a victim of violence. Gang violence was not the only violence to which the youth were exposed in their neighborhoods. Differences in reactions to the various types of violence should be examined in future research. Participation in school-sponsored athletic events and extracurricular activities were common for the youth interviewed; however, in the neighborhood, many were reluctant to play outside their homes without a trusted adult being present. Participants were recruited from one community center in Louisville, KY. The eight ce