How does sexual assault impact minorities?

Nationwide studies of sexual assault indicate that racial minorities, transgender people and people with disabilities are targets of sexual violence at greater rates than the general population. The studies, conducted at universities, health centers and hospitals across the nation, all support one emergent truth: that sexual violence, and the harmful psychological impacts of it, fall…

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New Arizona theater company inspires audiences to think about universal human rights issues

A Tucson human rights lawyer saw a need to create a conversation about issues within the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Tucson’s newest theater company Teatro Dignidad produces plays about matters of human rights to open dialogue. When Stage Director [of this specific production] Barclay Goldsmith was introduced to the play he felt that it was…

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Increasing immigration detention: sensible or senseless?

The stark white walls, chairs, tables and ceilings were what first stuck out when Arizona State University researcher and professor Leah Sarat toured the privately owned immigration detention center in Eloy, Arizona. But as the tour continued and Sarat conducted interviews with immigrants, the white physicality didn’t seem so bad compared to the food and hygiene standards of…

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DNA sheds light on past mistakes

As the science around DNA testing advances and becomes more commonplace in courts it reveals weaknesses in other forms of forensic evidence and expert testimony that impact convictions in Arizona and around the nation. According to the Innocence Project, there have been 330 post-conviction exonerations related to DNA evidence in the United States since 1989…

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