Hello and welcome to my Pintern Blog! My name is Andrea Peralta-Villa, and I currently attending the Colorado University of Boulder for an internship on federal persecution of criminal enterprises. I am studying under professor David Pyrooz, an assistant professor in the Sociology Department. David has been working on several research projects to improve gang legislation, reduce gang violence, and improve conditions for juvenile transfers. I researched RICO, which stands for Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. The act was passed in the 1970s to deter gangs, however, there has never been any research done on it. We want to find the prevalence and frequency of usage and case characteristics (i.e. demographics).
On Monday, David Pyrooz had multiple meetings so, he was unable to drive to the institute, instead, we had a zoom meeting to check in that I had been doing my reading on gangs. He emailed me high-profile RICO cases and a presentation he gave about the proliferation and themes of gang legislation in the United States. I read and took notes on the assignments and for the rest of the day I annotated and read his book, “On Gangs.”
My workspace
On Tuesday, I went to the Institute of Behavioral Science from 9:00 until 2:00. There David explained his research projects in greater detail. We went to lunch at a Sushi Restaurant there Jose Sanchez, a Sociology student working to get his doctoral, showed me how to use and set up Dropbox. On Dropbox, I read the State Gang Legislation files that Jose had shared with me. I was told to read California Gang Bills and Colorado Gang Bills. Later in the day, I had to contact HR, OIT, and IT for an Identikey and a Buffone card, which would take a few days to go through.
Wednesday morning, I was able to join a Teams Meeting to see a study discussion of recidivism data for GRID. Later, David and Jose tried to give me access to the GRID server, but we faced some complications, and I was unable to access the server. For the rest of the day, I read nearly 200 pages of the California Gang Legislation.
Reading State Legislation
Thursday, I had a zoom meeting on RICO research with David, Jose, and Jemil, a law student, about giving me access to Bloomberg Law, a database with legal content. That day I used Jose’s code and filters to separate the civil cases from the criminal cases. My job for the summer is to go through 5,000+ criminal cases, read each case and separate the cases into a yes pile if it is gang-related and a no pile if it is not gang-related. I also downloaded the cases onto excel and if I decide to discard a case write an ‘X’ on the case and explain why I choose to exclude the case.
Friday, I went to the public library. I spent around five hours at the library, reading criminal cases. I did not receive my Buffone Card or access to the GRID server, but I did read criminal cases. It was tedious work and I am still getting a hang of it.
Poem from Boulder Public Library
When I am not at the library, researching, I go on runs. It’s helped me explore the city, and even if I get lost when I go on a run, it has help me familiarize myself with the place.
I got lost on campus, and I found a greenhouse!
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