Section 1983 Civil Liability Against Prison Officials and Dentists for Delaying Dental Care

Many prisoners enter correctional facilities in the United States with little history of good dental hygiene and even less history of access to dentists. Thus, the incarceration experience presents opportunities for inmates to receive quality dental care, often for the first time. Dental care delivered by correctional dentists is complicated, however, by the array of serious dental conditions and difficult to treat dental problems in clinical settings. These conditions exist within a legal environment that mandates adequate dental care be provided to prisoners by the state. This article examines prisoners’ Section 1983 lawsuits, claiming that delays in the delivery of dental care violate inmates’ federally guaranteed rights. The analysis focuses on what the U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals have required of correctional officials and dentists in the form of dental care, concluding with nine best practices for correctional dental practitioners to follow to avoid Section 1983 liability

Construing the Legality of Solitary Confinement: Analysis of United States Federal Court Jurisprudence

This article analyzes the constitutional parameters of solitary confinement, administrative segregation, and/or punitive isolation within correctional facilities in the United States. After briefly discussing the harmful effects of isolation and the number of inmates subject to this type of confinement, it explains the U.S. Supreme Court’s “atypical and significant hardship” standard for assessing the legality of segregation. Evaluation of 68 cases decided by the 12 U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals reveals how each Circuit decides when conditions of segregation amount to an “atypical and significant hardship” for the inmate, creating a liberty interest protected by the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process clause. Due to the Supreme Court’s ambiguity, the Federal Circuit Courts of Appeals lack agreement on (1) when liberty interests attach and (2) which confinement conditions outside of segregation should serve as a comparison baseline to assess “atypicality” and “hardship.” While inmates possess limited liberty interests when placed in segregation, the physical and psychological harms wrought by segregation, isolation, and solitary confinement are rarely considered when courts make constitutional determinations of such practices

Convenience Theory of Cryptocurrency Crime: A Content Analysis of U.S. Federal Court Decisions

This article examines cryptocurrency cases decided in the U.S. District and Circuit Courts to determine the applicability of Gottschalk’s convenience theory of white collar crime to cryptocurrency crime litigation and to empirically analyze whether the conditions under which cryptocurrency offenses occurred show support for the convenience theory. Analysis of U.S. federal district and circuit court case law involving cryptocurrency crimes and fraud indicate support for the convenience theory of white-collar crime. Defendants in various schemes were motivated by financial gain, either for the company or for personal use. Their roles and positions in the businesses allowed them access to resources that helped them perpetrate fraud through the following mechanisms: (1) operation of front companies; (2) relationship building by defendants; (3) over representing profits that investors would obtain from purchases of virtual currencies, representing that tokens were safe and reliable investments when they were risky, and overestimating abilities and capacities to provide services promised to investors in securities fraud; (4) breaching fiduciary duties to their clients and corporate stockholders by misappropriating profits for their own personal gain; and, (5) engaging in dark web transactions that guaranteed anonymity. Defendants also employed various neutralization techniques to justify their crimes

Modeling Job Stress Among Police Officers: Interplay of Work Environment, Counseling Support, and Family Discussion with Co-Workers

Existing literature indicates that various factors affect police stress. This article uses data from the ‘Work and Family Services for Law Enforcement Personnel in the United States, 1995’ downloaded from the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (‘ICPSR’) website. Respondents include 594 sworn police officers from 21 agencies in New York City. Using structural equation modeling, results indicate that sex, race, education, and tenure do not have a direct influence on total job stress, but have a direct impact on family discussion with co-workers, counseling support, and negative working environment. Rank has a direct impact on total job stress, negative working environment, and family discussion with co-workers. In addition, both negative working environment and counseling support directly impact police total job stress

Does Insider Trading Pay? An Analysis of Trading and Tipping Activities in Insider Trading Litigation

Purpose This paper analyzes trading and tipping activities in insider trading litigation decided by federal courts from January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2014. Design/methodology/approach Legal documents from the US Securities and Exchange Commission, LexisNexis and Westlaw databases were coded to determine profile, patterns of trading and settlement outcomes. Findings Results of statistical analysis indicate that a defendant in both civil and criminal cases is more likely to trade on the information when he/she receives a direct, financial benefit from breaching his/her duty of confidentiality. The defendant tipper is also more likely to pass on the information to a close personal friend, business associate or family member. The average amount of profit of defendants in both civil and criminal proceedings substantially exceeds the average amount of their settlements. Originality/value This paper offers support for the rational choice model – insider trading is often based on rational calculations of benefits not only to the defendant but also to his/her family and associates. Although the threat of civil enforcement and criminal proceedings may possibly deter him/her from committing the crime, results indicate that the amounts of settlement in both proceedings are considerably lower than the amount of profits obtained from the offense

Building Legal Competency: Foundations for a More Effective Criminology and Criminal Justice Discipline

This article argues for the need to build legal competency in the discipline of criminal justice and criminology through incorporating law courses in its PhD program curriculum, whether as black letter law (i.e. criminal law, criminal procedure, courts), sociology of law, or socio-legal studies (i.e. law and society courses). Through requiring law courses as a necessary and integral part of the curriculum, and recognizing the mainstream impact of these courses, the discipline stands to enrich the field of legal studies in criminology and criminal justice. The discipline’s need and demand for law trained tenure track faculty with PhD credentials can only be met through consistent law course offerings

Modulation of attention and stress with arousal: The mental and physical effects of riding a motorcycle

Existing theories suggest that moderate arousal improves selective attention, as would be expected in the context of competitive sports or sensation-seeking activities. Here we investigated how riding a motorcycle, an attention-demanding physical activity, affects sensory processing. To do so, we implemented the passive auditory oddball paradigm and measured the EEG response of participants as they rode a motorcycle, drove a car, and sat at rest. Specifically, we measured the N1 and mismatch negativity to auditory tones, as well as alpha power during periods of no tones. We investigated whether riding and driving modulated non-CNS metrics including heart rate and concentrations of the hormones epinephrine, cortisol, DHEA-S, and testosterone. While participants were riding, we found a decrease in N1 amplitude, increase in mismatch negativity, and decrease in relative alpha power, together suggesting enhancement of sensory processing and visual attention. Riding increased epinephrine levels, increased heart rate, and decreased the ratio of cortisol to DHEA-S. Together, these results suggest that riding increases focus, heightens the brain’s passive monitoring of changes in the sensory environment, and alters HPA axis response. More generally, our findings suggest that selective attention and sensory monitoring seem to be separable neural processes

Decoupling of the ϵ\epsilon-scalar mass in softly broken supersymmetry

It has been shown recently that the introduction of an unphysical $\epsilon$-scalar mass $\tilde{m}$ is necessary for the proper renormalization of softly broken supersymmetric theories by dimensional reduction (\drbar). In these theories, both the two-loop $\beta$-functions of the scalar masses and their one-loop finite corrections depend on $\tilde{m}^2$. We find, however, that the dependence on $\tilde{m}^2$ can be completely removed by slightly modifying the \drbar renormalization scheme. We also show that previous \drbar calculations of one-loop corrections in supersymmetry which ignored the $\tilde{m}^2$ contribution correspond to using this modified scheme.Comment: 7 pages, LTH-336, NUB-3094-94TH, KEK-TH-40

Racial/Ethnic group differences in bipolar symptomatology in a community sample of persons with bipolar I disorder.

To better understand the problems associated with diagnosis of bipolar disorder, especially problems related to race and ethnicity, this study compared whites, African Americans, and Latinos with bipolar I disorder in the presentation of manic symptoms, depressive episodes, functional impairments (Short Form-12), and self-reports of schizophrenia diagnosis. Data for this study were derived from the 2001 National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions, which are nationally representative of United States households. African Americans and Latinos expressed similar rates in presentation of 14 out of 16 manic symptoms compared with whites, with the exception of grandiosity/self-esteem, in which they were more likely to exhibit this symptom compared with whites. Higher rates of depressive episodes were observed among whites, and these episodes occurred significantly earlier compared with African Americans and Latinos. Latinos had slightly higher vitality scores on the SF-12 measures after adjusting for sociodemographic and clinical factors, but no other differences across the groups were observed. Overall, these data show that the expression and functional impairments of bipolar I disorder is very similar across racial ethnic groups using this community-based sample. This is the first community-based study making such comparisons, with results suggesting that provider biases are more likely to explain problems in misdiagnosis than fundamental differences in the presentation of bipolar disorder across racial/ethnic groups.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78175/1/00005053-201001000-00004.pd

Profiles of disability among adults with bipolar spectrum disorders

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78039/1/57.pd