...citizen of that state. Many states have laws that other states do not have. Each state is different but is ultimately rule by the federal government. In Texas the court system consist of Justice Court, Municipal Court, County-Level Court, District Court, Court of Appeals, Supreme Court, and the Court of Criminal Appeal. Texas leads the nation in execution and one of the largest populations of offenders incarnated in the free world. Texas seems to practice a policy of being "tough on criminals," reflecting the belief of most Texans that a strong deterrence is the most effective crime-fighting policy. Texas has the highest incarceration rate of any state or Western industrialized nation and is the leading state in both sentencing people to death and the number of prisoners executed (Dille, 2008). The Texas court system is built around a primary county. These counties are name county seats. These counties are the location of all major court system. Each town has a jail system and host minor court hearings. The major court cases are held in the town county seat. In Bryan, Texas, which is a sister of College Station, location in Brazos County, is the primary county seat. The Brazos Valley County consists of five towns. Each town in the Brazos Valley has their own city jail. The lowest court system in Texas starts with the Justice and Municipal Court. These court...
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...| Is marijuana illegal? | What are the penalties for possession of cocaine? | What are the penalties for possession of heroin? | What are the penalties for possession of prescription drugs? | What is the blood alcohol level for a driving while intoxicated (DWI) or driving under the influence (DUI) crime? | Is there extreme DWI or DUI? If so, what is the punishment? | Federal | | | | | | | <State 1> | | | | | | | <State 2> | | | | | | | <State 3> | | | | | | | 1. Where do you see the largest variance between federal and state anti-drug legislation? 2. What is the purpose of anti-drug legislation in relation to public order crime? Federal Despite medical cannabis laws in 40 states, cannabis is still illegal under federal law. Federal marijuana law. (2016). Retrieved from http://www.safeaccessnow.org/federal_marijuana_law Under federal law, a person with no prior federal or state convictions of possession of any narcotic who is convicted of a first offense of cocaine possession may be sentenced to not more than one year in prison, fined not less than $1,000, or both. A person convicted of cocaine possession after a prior conviction of possession of cocaine or any other narcotic in either federal or state court may be sentenced to not less than 15 days and not more than two years in prison, fined not less than $2,500, or both. Two or more prior convictions of possession of any narcotic in federal or state court may lead to...
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...Texas Death Penalty – Deterrent or Not Extra Credit Essay GOVT 2306-21402 Autherene E. Webster November 26, 2013 Throughout the history of time the death penalty has always been a hotly debated topic. At one point every state in the nation banned it through a federal mandate but later dismantled the ban and state by state began bringing it back. The state of Texas is well known for being the state which has executed more people than anyone in the history of the nation. Texas, known for its penchant for enforcing laws and carrying out sentences has long since had the reputation for executions that are done more swiftly and more often than anywhere else in the nation. When the nation reinstated the death penalty in 1976 each state determined whether or not they wanted to reinstate it. Since its reinstatement there have been 1335 executions. The state of Texas was responsible for 507 of those executions. Prior to 1976 the death penalty had been made illegal in every state. The 1972 United States Supreme Court banned death penalty executions because it felt there had been many years of racial bias and other procedural faults within the capital punishment system (Nolen 2000). Interestingly enough, that is still the feeling surrounding death penalty executions today. The punishment was banned until 1976, when the court ruled that applying capital punishment to first degree murder was not a violation of...
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...United States Law Enforcement United States Law Enforcement Elsie Farias CJA/204 Introduction to Criminal Justice Professor William McCauley University of Phoenix November 9, 2011 United States Law Enforcement Police agencies, the field of law enforcement, were developed as the embodiment of the laws created by society, government, being physically enforced. The objective behind these agencies is to protect individual and community rights as well as reduce the civil disorder. In the U.S. alone, there are thousands and thousands of law enforcement agencies ranging from local, state and federal levels. Each agency’s jurisdiction that is”the extent or range of judicial law enforcement or other authority…” (Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of Law, 2001), is set forth by laws including procedural law which is defined by the United States Supreme Court. As of September 11, 2001, the framework for all the police agencies was altered completely by the development of the United States Department of Homeland Security. The jurisdiction at all levels of law enforcement was restricted as well as the application of services. The American Law Enforcement system, that is, uniformed police officers responding to calls and investigating possible crimes, was developed hundreds and hundreds of years ago in England. At the time, the goal was to prevent crime by using constant patrols of the community. In the United States, the first police agency was established in the 1840’s in...
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...Criminal Records in the Digital Age: A Review of Current Practices and Recommendations for Reform in Texas Helen Gaebler, Senior Research Attorney William Wayne Justice Center for Public Interest Law The University of Texas School of law March 2013 TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................................4 II. THE PROBLEM: CRIMINAL RECORDS AND COLLATERAL CONSEQUENCES .........................................5 Collateral Consequences Overview ......................................................................................................... 5 Who’s Affected? A Look at the Numbers in Texas .................................................................................. 8 Disproportionality and the Criminal Justice System .............................................................................. 10 Reaching Across Generations and Communities ................................................................................... 11 III. AN OUTDATED SYSTEM: OPEN ACCESS TO CRIMINAL RECORDS .................................................... 12 The Background Checking Industry........................................................................................................ 12 Common Practices and Pitfalls............................................................................................................... 13 Past Calls for Reform .....................
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...Texas Department of Public Safety Driver License Division Parent Taught Driver Education (PTDE) Information Packet It is very important that you read this entire packet and follow all of the instructions. This packet is: ► Information about obtaining an approved PTDE course. ► Instructions on how to properly administer the PTDE training as required by Texas law. ► Instructions to obtain a driver license for the student. This packet is NOT: ► An approved driver education course. ► Proof of payment for an approved PTDE course. IMPORTANT NOTICE Since the purchase of a packet enrolls a student into the PTDE Program, each student must obtain a separate packet. Students may not share a PTDE Information Packet nor can this specific packet be transferred to any other student. It is the instructor’s responsibility to first obtain an approved PTDE course before beginning any instruction. The cost to purchase one of the approved PTDE courses was not included in the cost of this packet. You will need to contact a specific PTDE course provider for pricing information on the PTDE course that you choose. Only a PTDE course approved by the Department of Public Safety (DPS) can be accepted for the PTDE Program. (See Appendix A enclosed or go online to www.dps.texas.gov/ DriverLicense/parenttaught.htm) If you or your student has any questions after reviewing the enclosed material, please contact the Driver License Division Record Evaluation Section at (512)...
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...along the Brazos River in what would become Fort Bend County. William Little built on the west bank of the river a one room log cabin called a “fort” by the settlers. The cabin eventually became known as Fort Bend. Many of these early settlers and others who joined them made up the ‘Old 300’, the first families brought to Texas by Stephen F. Austin, one of the first empresarios to receive land grants from the Mexican government to start a colony in Texas. This paper will provide an appropriate description with substantial detail of community of Fort Bend County, Texas. Data will be gathered and interpreted using concepts of epidemiology that include population/economic status; cultural; neighborhood/community safety and disaster assessment and planning. An appropriate community genogram to present the data collected in the assessment will be created. Provide a short interpretation of the genogram, including the health indicators for Fort Bend County. In addition, this paper will formulate a community diagnosis based on the data collected. A1. Community Description Fort Bend County is located in the Houston metropolitan area of southeast Texas. Harris County is direct border of Fort Bend County and is located on the southwest side of Houston. On Gulf Coastal Plain; drained by Brazos, San Bernard rivers; Smithers Lake; level to rolling; rich alluvial soils. Fort Bend County terrain has an average elevation of 85 feet and varies from level to gently rolling with...
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...Hunting: Right or Wrong? Throughout history the human population has depended upon hunting to provide food for themselves and their families. Additionally, the hunting and killing of these animals provides many types of uses other than just food. Things such as tools, clothing, and medicine are often made from different parts of the animal. The killing of wild animals for food used to be a part of everyday life. There are people that are both for and against the taking of wild animals for these uses. Animal rights activists lack the knowledge of all the benefits we receive from hunting and act to fast in saying it is unsafe; two solutions to this would be to educate the activists on the benefits and to show them just how much safety is taken into consideration. The Animal Liberation Front (ALF) is a group of people that are against any type of the hunting of animals for food. Outcasts from ALF formed a militia, known, as the Animal Rights Militia (ARM). ARM believes that ALF does not take their violence far enough with regards to direct action (ALF, n.d.). Several examples of the violence that ARM is responsible for as stated on their website: Animal Rights Militia actions in England include incendiary devices causing economic damage to animal abusers. Some examples include Aug. 10, 1994 where C.H. Brown's saddler & leather shop, Madison and West World leather shops, Edinburgh Woolen Mill, and Nurse's fur store all had incendiary devices placed by ARM. Tens of thousands...
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...GEORGETOWN LAW The Scholarly Commons 2007 Biomedical Research Involving Prisoners: Ethical Values and Legal Regulation Lawrence O. Gostin Georgetown University Law Center, gostin@law.georgetown.edu Georgetown Public Law and Legal Theory Research Paper No. 976413 This paper can be downloaded free of charge from: http://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/facpub/479 http://ssrn.com/abstract=976413 297 JAMA 737-740 (2007) This open-access article is brought to you by the Georgetown Law Library. Posted with permission of the author. COMMENTARIES Biomedical Research Involving Prisoners Ethical Values and Legal Regulation Lawrence O. Gostin, JD U NTIL THE EARLY 1970 S , R. J. R EYNOLDS , D OW Chemical, the US Army, major pharmaceutical companies, and other sponsors conducted a wide variety of research on prisoners—a captive, vulnerable, and easily accessible population.1,2 During that time, approximately 90% of all pharmaceutical research was conducted on prisoners, who also were subjected to biochemical research ranging from testing diet drinks and simple detergents to studies involving dioxin and chemical warfare agents.3 From 1962 to 1966, for example, 33 pharmaceutical companies tested 153 experimental drugs at Holmesburg Prison in Philadelphia, including a Retin-A (tretinoin) study in which researchers did not seek informed consent and prisoners were not adequately treated for pain.4 By the mid-1970s, biomedical research in prisons sharply ...
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...Domestic Violence Melody Church Texas A&M University Central TX TABLE OF CONTENTS Title page Table of Contents Abstract Section One Introduction Definitions Section Two History of Domestic Violence Section Three Forms of Domestic Violence Purpose of Domestic Violence Section Four Theories of Domestic Violence Section Five Biopsychosocial Model Section Six Effects of Domestic Violence Conclusion Reference Page Abstract The following paper examines the social and legal problem of domestic violence. Included are different definitions and the history of domestic violence. Also discussed are the forms and purpose of domestic violence. There are different theories that have emerged from research on domestic violence that are discussed as well. Domestic Violence Domestic violence is a devastating social problem that spans across every segment of the population, and is a major problem that has gone completely out of control. Domestic violence affects all social and economic classes, and victims include women, men, children, disabled persons, gays, or lesbians. When most people think about domestic violence, they usually associate the term with husband and wife or boyfriend and girlfriend. Domestic violence can happen between other family members as well (Lien, Office on Child Abuse, and Neglect, & Children’s Bureau, 2003). The concentration of this paper will be on women of family/domestic violence. Definitions According to the...
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...Bullying in Schools 1 PRAIRIE VIEW A&M UNIVERSITY THE COLLEGE OF EDUCATION EXPERIENCES, PERCEPTIONS, AND ATTITUDES OF THIRD GRADERS TOWARDS BULLYING A RESEARCH REPORT RESEARCH ADMIN 5163 BY Jimmy C. Clark. PRAIRIE VIEW, TEXAS 2008 Bullying in Schools 2 Table of Contents Page Abstract……………………………………………………………………………3 Chapter 1. Statement of the Problem Introduction-Background and Content………………………………………….5 Statement of the Problem……………………………………………………...10 Purpose of the Study…………………………………………………………..11 Research Questions…………………………………………………………....11 Null Hypothesis………………………………………………………………..11 Significance of the Problem…………………………………………………....11 Operational Definition………………………………………………………….12 Chapter 2. Review of Literature……………………………………………………12 Chapter 3. Method…………………………………………………………………...20 Identification of the Research……………………………………………………20 Design……………………………………………………………………………20 Target Population………………………………………………………………..21 Sample of Participants…………………………………………………………...22 Sampling of Procedure…………………………………………………………..22 The Instrument…………………………………………………………………...23 Statistical Techniques……………………………………………………………27 Summary of Research Procedure………………………………………………..27 References……………………………………………………………………………28...
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...their children as productive members of society, there is an overwhelming amount of data indicating fatherlessness as a significant factor of violent crime, educational under-achievement, high rates of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), teenage pregnancy and behavioral disorders and it is vital that children have a father proactively involved in their lives wherever possible. Arguably the most desperate reason for fathers to engage in a positive way in their children’s lives is reflected in the statistics of violent crime. The young men of society today are growing up without fathers to guide them and teach them right from wrong. This has produced a generation of young men who are astonishingly angry. According to a report by Criminal Justice and Behavior, “Eighty percent of rapists motivated by displaced anger come from fatherless homes” (Children of Divorce and Separation – Statistics, 2001). This means that a male growing up in a fatherless home is ten times more likely to commit rape. Obviously there are copious other factors that play into this extreme level of violent behavior, but it is no coincidence that where fathers have taken perpetually diminished roles in their son’s...
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...the person Offences against the person are defined as acts that intend to cause harm or injury to the victim Homicide Definition: is the unlawful killing of one person by another * Murder is the killing of one person by another “with malice aforethought”(mental component) * Manslaughter is the killing of someone in circumstances less culpable than murder. (generally given a lighter sentence than for murder) Degrees of awareness | Murder | Voluntary Manslaughter | Involuntary manslaughter | Non-criminal Killing | Intention to killReckless indifference of life Constructive murderDeath during intention to commit grievous bodily harm | Where the intention to kill or cause the act is mitigated by other factors, such as provocation or diminished responsibility | Non-reckless indifference to life or manslaughter by criminal negligenceReckless indifference to grievous bodily harmManslaughter by an unlawful and dangerous act | Death by non-criminal negligenceDeath by an unlawful act that is not dangerousAccidental deathSelf-defence | Stats: Murder: * In 2001 of the 340 homicides in Australia, 306 were murder * Maximum penalty is life imprisonment Manslaughter: * In 2001 of the 340 homicides in Australia, 34 were manslaughter * Maximum penalty is 25 years in gaol but offender may not go to gaol, may receive a lesser penalty or be acquitted Assault and Battery Assault Definition: Assault is the threatening to do violence to someone...
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...A NEW BIRTH OF FREEDOM?: OBERGEFELL V. HODGES Kenji Yoshino The decision in Obergefell v. Hodges1 achieved canonical status even as Justice Kennedy read the result from the bench. A bare majority held that the Fourteenth Amendment required every state to perform and to recognize marriages between individuals of the same sex.2 The majority opinion ended with these ringing words about the plaintiffs: “Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization’s oldest institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right.”3 While Obergefell’s most immediate effect was to legalize same-sex marriage across the land, its long-term impact could extend far beyond this context. To see this point, consider how much more narrowly the opinion could have been written. It could have invoked the equal protection and due process guarantees without specifying a formal level of review, and then observed that none of the state justifications survived even a deferential form of scrutiny. The Court had adopted this strategy in prior gay rights cases.4 Instead, the Court issued a sweeping statement that could be compared to Loving v. Virginia,5 the 1967 case that invalidated bans on in––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Chief Justice Earl Warren Professor of Constitutional Law, New York University School of Law. I gratefully acknowledge receiving financial support from...
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...December of 2007, A.S., a 17 year old female, was subpoenaed to testify as a state’s witness in a case against a man accused of assaulting another woman. When she failed to respond to the subpoena and did not appear at trial[1], St. Mary’s Circuit Court Judge C. Clarke Raley issued an order for her arrest. She was picked up by patrol officers on New Year’s Eve, and appeared before a different judge, who subsequently released her on her own recognizance. On January 9, 2008, Judge Raley issued another order, this time finding her in direct criminal contempt for her previous failure to appear as a witness, and summarily sentenced her to 30 days in the St. Mary’s County Detention Facility, the county’s general population prison for adult criminal offenders. A.S. was jailed in the detention center among the adult population; public defenders appealed to the judge on her behalf, claiming that her imprisonment was in violation of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act[2]. Judge Raley was not compelled by the argument, stating that she A.S. “was not best served by guidance, treatment or rehabilitation [in a juvenile facility], but by a brief exposure to the St. Mary’s County Detention Center, where she would have the opportunity [to] learn the consequences of disobeying a clear and direct order of this court.”[3] Ultimately, Judge Raley would relent., however, and ultimately ordered the girl moved to a juvenile facility for other reasons. Keith L. Mackall (a man in his...
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