Strategies for Change: Research Initiatives and Recommendations to Improve Police-Community Relations in Oakland, CA

New Stanford research on thousands of police interactions found significant racial differences in Oakland, Calif., police conduct toward African Americans in traffic and pedestrian stops, while offering a big data approach to improving police-community relationships there and elsewhere.The report makes 50 specific recommendations for police agencies to consider, such as more expansive data collection and more focused efforts to change the nature of mindsets, policies and systems in law enforcement that contribute to racial disparities.Among the findings, African American men were four times more likely to be searched than whites during a traffic stop. African Americans were also more likely to be handcuffed, even if they ultimately were not arrested.Across the United States, the report noted, police agencies are guided by the commitment to serve communities with fairness, respect and honor. Yet tensions between police and communities of color are documented to be at an all-time high

What The Numbers Say About How To Reduce Imprisonment: Offenses, Returns, and Turnover

Reformers across the political spectrum are calling for a rollback of mass incarceration. The U.S. rate of incarceration in state prisons would have to decline by 75% to return to its 1970s level. How might this be accomplished? This Article provides descriptive statistics about the mix of offenses, sentence lengths, and admission types and shows that no single approach can undo mass incarceration. Those classified as violent offenders are a majority of those in prison, but nonviolent offenders are a majority of those entering, leaving, or having been in prison. A majority of those in prison are scheduled to be released within five years, meaning that steep reductions in prison admissions can have a large impact on imprisonment rates. Revisiting the sentences and parole options for those who have already been in prison ten years or more could have some impact. An examination of the rate of returns to prison after a first release from prison suggests that the rate of committing a new crime is low and that reductions in revocations for violations of the conditions of supervision are an important avenue for reducing incarceration. The U.S. states vary greatly in their mixes of prisoners by offense, sentence length, and returns to prison for parole violations with no new crime as well as in their histories of trends over time. States will vary markedly in which reforms will affect their prison populations, and assumptions based on old data may not hold true as conditions change

A FRAME ANALYSIS OF NGO LITERATURE ON INTERNET CENSORSHIP IN CHINA: THE CASE OF AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, AND REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS

ABSTRACT This thesis critically examines the way in which Amnesty International (AI), Human Rights Watch (HRW), and Reporters Without Borders (RSF) frame the issue of internet censorship in China. As three of the world’s leading non-governmental human rights organizations, how these NGOs frame this issue—i.e. what aspects they emphasize or neglect, whose actions they highlight or obscure, and what kinds of solutions they propose—can influence which institutions or actors might take up the issue, who will pay attention to it, and what kind of action is taken to address it. In order to investigate the respective framing strategies employed by these NGOs in their discussions about internet censorship in China, a content analysis involving both quantitative and qualitative research methods was conducted on relevant literature published by all three organizations between the years 2005 - 2010.1found that all three NGOs tended to emphasize certain issues, including internet blocking and filtering, cyber dissidents, and foreign corporate complicity, while ignoring other issues, including Chinese internet laws and regulations, government surveillance and propaganda, and the complicity of hardware and domestic internet companies. The collective lack of attention to these items is problematic insofar as it may influence how target audiences interpret and respond to the issue of internet censorship in China. Largely ignored by these organizations, the items listed above are therefore likely to remain ignored by other political actors, including governments and policymakers with the capacity to take action on this issue

Retitling Title IX

Title IX, a federal education policy put into place in the early 1970s, has been under the microscope for its perceived failure to protect students from sexual misconduct. Since 2011, and especially since 2017, conflict has existed among higher education, the judicial system, and the Department of Education (ED), resulting in little clarity as to proper Title IX response. However, little research exists that attempts to examine court cases for both commonalities and divergence in how higher education institutions respond to Title IX incidents of sexual misconduct and whether those procedures mesh with how the courts view proper Title IX incident response. The purpose of this study is to examine what court opinions reveal about how institutions of higher education (IHEs) are responding to Title IX and how those responses align with courts’ interpretations of proper Title IX response. To discover the answers to the research questions, a document analysis was conducted of more than 30 appellate court decisions, looking at the major themes and trends that illustrate how IHEs responded to Title IX incidents of student sexual misconduct and whether those responses were reasonable in the eyes of the appellate courts. The appellate court opinions reveal that while IHEs have responded consistently to Title IX incidents of sexual misconduct, institutions have had issues with Title IX personnel holding conflicting roles and with avoiding gender bias. In addition, the opinions show that while IHEs are aware of their constitutional protections of due process and immunity, a lack of alignment existed between IHEs and the courts as to whether IHEs were entitled to constitutional protections as part of their Title IX response processes. This study contributes to the dialogue regarding federal Title IX policy and how IHEs are seeking to evaluate and, as needed, improve institutional Title IX policies, procedures, and responses to student incidents of sexual misconduct