Durant Frantzen and Claudia San Miguel
The purpose of this paper is to explore lawsuits involving police response to domestic violence incidents. Focusing on the specific legal remedy of due process under Section 1983…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore lawsuits involving police response to domestic violence incidents. Focusing on the specific legal remedy of due process under Section 1983, the paper seeks to examine federal case law dealing with police response to domestic violence victims. The paper also aims to discuss differences in procedural and substantive due process violations, highlighting circumstances under which the police may be held liable for improper response to domestic violence incidents.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper qualitatively examines relevant Section 1983 federal court decisions (n=27 as of May, 2008) identified through a query of Lexis Nexis for the last ten years (before and after Castle Rock) dealing with lawsuits arising from domestic abuse investigations.
Findings
The preponderance of cases have resulted in dismissals of summary judgments filed against police officers and agencies for allegations that the police violated plaintiffs' due process rights. The recent Supreme Court decision in Town of Castle Rock v. Gonzales has prevented plaintiffs from seeking relief under procedural due process; however, domestic abuse victims have been successful to some extent using substantive due process as a basis for civil action. Plaintiffs have prevailed in federal courts alleging that the police acted with deliberate indifference or conscious disregard for victims' civil rights.
Research limitations/implications
The paper is limited to federal court decisions involving due process violations and does not account for factors resulting in state tort negligence lawsuits filed against the police. Moreover, federal courts will likely continue to use substantive due process as a Section 1983 remedy for domestic violence victims as research and awareness on domestic violence policy evolves.
Practical implications
The paper suggests that police agencies should take note of recent court decisions applicable to their jurisdictions as domestic violence enforcement policy remains fragmented. Agencies should ensure that police dispatcher 911 call classification policies are current and that training guidelines comport with these policies.
Originality/value
Given the prevalence of domestic violence in the USA, police agencies should expect increases in the number of lawsuits filed against the police for violations of substantive due process.
Details
Keywords
Dae‐Hoon Kwak, Claudia E. San Miguel and Diana L. Carreon
This study attempts to determine how political legitimacy and regime change affect the level of public confidence in the Mexican police. The current study also aims to examine to…
Abstract
Purpose
This study attempts to determine how political legitimacy and regime change affect the level of public confidence in the Mexican police. The current study also aims to examine to what extent socioeconomic and attitudinal factors are associated with levels of police confidence among Mexican citizens.
Design/methodology/approach
The data used in this study were obtained from two Mexican surveys conducted as part of the World Value Surveys (WVS) in 1996 and 2005. Owing to the nature of the dependent variable, a series of ordinal logistic regression analyses was employed to examine the effects of political legitimacy, regime change, attitudinal, and socioeconomic factors on public confidence in the Mexican police while controlling other relevant factors.
Findings
Consistent with prior research, results confirmed that public confidence in the police was positively associated with political legitimacy (i.e. support for regime institutions and system support), happiness, life satisfaction, marital status, and religious activity. Yet, age, education, and size of the town were negatively related to public confidence.
Research limitations/implications
Since the current study used secondary data, the availability of information was limited. Only one nation was studied which limits the generalizability of the findings. Future research may attempt to study other Latin‐American nations, including Mexico, in order to address the issue of public confidence in policing on a greater scale. Further, as the police alone cannot take full credit in the public's perception of law enforcement, it is imperative that future studies also examine other government agencies (i.e. courts, prosecutors) that may lend more information on this subject.
Originality/value
While the police and some governing agencies may not be able to change most of the factors studied in this research, they can strive to cultivate better trust among the citizenry and seek to improve quality of life in neighborhoods which may lead to greater happiness and life satisfaction factors that may then increase the level of confidence in the police.
Details
Keywords
Claudia Magallanes-Blanco and Leandro Rodriguez-Medina
The main goal of the paper is to explore the origins and developments of the first community cellular network in Mexico.
Abstract
Purpose
The main goal of the paper is to explore the origins and developments of the first community cellular network in Mexico.
Methodology/approach
Data were gathered in 2015 and 2016 through in-depth interviews, participant observation, workshops, photos, official documents, and informal interviews in the state of Oaxaca in southern Mexico. Data was also drawn from the work of two activists, P. Bloom and E. Huerta, working with the community assemblies of a number of Indígena communities: Villa Talea de Castro, Santa María Yaviche, San Juan Yaee, San Ildefonso Villa Alta, San Bernardo Mixetepec, Santa Ana Tlahuitoltepec, San Jerónimo Progreso, Santiago Ayuquililla, San Miguel Huautla, Santa Inés de Zaragoza, Santo Domingo Xagacia, San Pablo Yaganiza, San Pedro Cajonos, San Francisco Cajonos, San Miguel Cajonos, San Mateo Cajonos, Santa María Alotepec, and San Juan Tabaá. To analyze the data, using codes created in Atlas.TI and relying on an inductive approach, we analyzed the history of this network within a theoretical framework informed by Actor-Network Theory.
Findings
Participants in the enactment of this cellular network followed two programs of actions, one technical and one legal. Together, the community assemblies and activists took advantage of available devices, free software and ordinary computers, on the one hand, and communal rules, national laws, constitutional reforms and tacit knowledge, on the other hand. They brought about a new, non-profit, communitarian, and self-organized network that allows for inexpensive communication between members of small, marginalized Indígena communities in the state of Oaxaca in Mexico.
Social implications
The arrangement of actants that the case illustrates is replicable in other parts of the country and outside of Mexico. The new community cellular network reduces the economic costs of communication, facilitates some jobs and family bonds, expands the range of community-owned projects, encourages self-organization and ways of situated conflict resolution, and empowers communities in relation to external powerful telecommunication corporations.
Originality/value
This is a novel account of a highly unusual set of community-led institutional innovations based on firsthand information drawn from the main actants of the new network.
Details
Keywords
Luis Quintana-Romero, Miguel Ángel Mendoza-González and José Álvarez-García
Tourism is Mexico's largest source of foreign exchange, only surpassed by remittances and foreign direct investment, and is one of the most wealth-generating economic activities…
Abstract
Tourism is Mexico's largest source of foreign exchange, only surpassed by remittances and foreign direct investment, and is one of the most wealth-generating economic activities in the country. However, measures to mitigate the Covid-19 pandemic – such as the suspension of flights and strict restrictions on people's mobility – have caused great economic damage to the tourism industry, and with it, to large regions in the country. This chapter aims to determine the national and regional impacts of Covid-19 on Mexican tourism and analyze potential recovery scenarios. To this end, the study looks at tourism performance in Mexico in 2020 and compares it to the experience of the H1N1 influenza epidemic of 2009. The methodology uses a spatial econometric model to simulate potential impacts and prospective recovery scenarios. Finally, recommendations for tourism policy consider new trends in tourism, namely the rise in tourism advertising through digital platforms, the surge in domestic, rural and environmental tourism, and the development of a more informed, demanding and selective consumer.
Details
Keywords
Gary J. Martin, Claudia I. Camacho Benavides, Carlos A. Del Campo García, Salvador Anta Fonseca, Francisco Chapela Mendoza and Marco Antonio González Ortíz
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the community conservation movement in Oaxaca, a bioculturally diverse state in southern Mexico, with a particular focus on indigenous and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the community conservation movement in Oaxaca, a bioculturally diverse state in southern Mexico, with a particular focus on indigenous and community conserved areas (ICCAs) as an emergent designation over the last decade.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey of indigenous and mestizo community conserved areas in Oaxaca was conducted in 2009 as part of a broader inventory of the ICCAs of Belize, Guatemala and Mexico.
Findings
The survey revealed 126 sites of community conservation in Oaxaca covering 375,457 ha, 14.5 percent more than the 327,977 ha included in nationally decreed Protected Natural Areas in the state. A total of 43 sites are certified community reserves comprising 103,102 ha, or 68.7 percent of the 150,053 ha included in the 137 certified sites recognized nationally. The diversity of Oaxaca's ICCAs, which have emerged creatively in variable cultural, ecological and historical contexts throughout the state, provide an opportunity to assess the effectiveness of community conservation efforts.
Originality/value
Mexico is one of the few countries that have an extensive inventory of ICCAs that could be incorporated into an international registry being formulated by the World Conservation Monitoring Centre.
Details
Keywords
In recent decades, it has become clear that the major economic, political, and social problems in the world require contemporary development research to examine intersections of…
Abstract
In recent decades, it has become clear that the major economic, political, and social problems in the world require contemporary development research to examine intersections of race and class in the global economy. Theorists in the Black Radical Tradition (BRT) were the first to develop and advance a powerful research agenda that integrated race–class analyses of capitalist development. However, over time, progressive waves of research streams in development studies have successively stripped these concepts from their analyses. Post-1950s, class analyses of development overlapped with some important features of the BRT, but removed race. Post-1990s, ethnicity-based analyses of development excised both race and class. In this chapter, I discuss what we learn about capitalist development using the integrated race–class analyses of the BRT, and how jettisoning these concepts weakens our understanding of the political economy of development. To remedy our current knowledge gaps, I call for applying insights of the BRT to our analyses of the development trajectories of nations.