Digital Commons Network^™

Vol. 4 No. 1, Fall 2012; Illinois's Drug-Induced Homicide Statute: Injecting Some Sense Into A Misinterpreted Law, Seth Mcclure

Northern Illinois Law Review Supplement

In 1988, Illinois went on the offensive in the War on Drugs by creating the Drug-Induced Homicide Statute. In essence, this statute creates increased punishment beyond normal drug trafficking penalties when a person delivers drugs to another person and, as a result of that delivery, somebody dies. For twenty years, the law remained mostly dormant, only being charged and prosecuted in a handful of cases. In a new push to fight drug-related deaths across Illinois over the last few years, prosecutors have dusted off the old law and vastly increased the number of drug-induced homicide charges. As these charges become …

Indigenous Justice In Ecuador, Luis Ángel Saavedra

NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America

This articles discusses the challenges and tensions encountered between indigenous and national systems of justice in Ecuador. The article highlights some of the major issues surrounding indigenous systems, namely, how crime should be dealt with, as well as how indigenous justice has been negatively portrayed in the media. The article suggests that indigenous communities know how to structure their justice systems the best; thus, the national justice system should work with them in a collaborative effort.

Mandatory Chemical Castration For Perpetrators Of Sex Offenses Against Children: Following California's Lead, Peter J. Gimino Iii

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Law Enforcement And Criminal Law Decisions, Erwin Chemerinsky

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Mental Illness, Police Power Interventions, And The Expressive Functions Of Punishment, Robert F. Schopp

Robert F Schopp

The state exercises coercive force under the police power to protect the public order, security, and justice. When individuals who manifest significant psychological impairment harm or endanger others, police power interventions can involve several different institutional structures within the criminal justice system or the alternative institution of civil commitment. The analysis presented in this paper draws attention to the significance of the expressive functions of criminal punishment in selecting the most justified institutional structures for police power interventions intended to prevent impaired individuals from harming others. These functions arguably carry important implications for impaired individuals who harm or endanger others, …

Auctioned, Sophia K. Reid

Student Publications

This poem, Auctioned, is about slaves who were severely punished simply because of their skin tone. The setting of the poem is in the early 1800s. This poem vividly describes the hanging, whipping, and shooting of slaves.

Punitive Warfare: Measuring The Effects Of A Punitive Disposition On Public Support For War, Paul I. Thomas Mr.

Political Science Theses

Recent research has posited that retributiveness is an individual level disposition that can help us understand foreign policy preferences (e.g. Liberman 2006, Liberman 2007, Liberman in press, Stein n.d.). However, previous research is limited in two related respects. First, previous research relies on correlational data, blunting our ability to make clear causal inferences. Also, retributiveness is not made theoretically distinct from general hawkishness. In this paper, I present results from two experiments to refine our understanding of how retributiveness can affect support for use of the military. In the first experiment, I examine how retributiveness affects support for greater military …

Preventing Sex-Offender Recidivism Through Therapeutic Jurisprudence Approaches And Specialized Community Integration, Michael L. Perlin

Michael L Perlin

Preventing Sex-Offender Recidivism Through Therapeutic Jurisprudence Approaches and Specialized Community Integration

Abstract

The public’s panic about the fear of recidivism if adjudicated sex offenders are ever to be released to the community has not subsided, despite the growing amount of information and statistically-reliable data signifying a generally low risk of re-offense. The established case law upholding sex offender civil commitment and containment statutes has rejected challenges of unconstitutionality, and continues to be dominated by punitive undertones. We have come to learn that the tools used to assess offenders for risk and civil commitment still have indeterminate accuracy, and that the …

Reverberations Of The Victim's "Voice": Victim Impact Statements And The Cultural Project Of Punishment, Erin L. Sheley

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Is The Prosecution Of War Crimes Just And Effective? Rethinking The Lessons From Sociology And Psychology, Ziv Bohrer

Michigan Journal of International Law

Should perpetrators of genocide, violent acts against civilians during war, or other massive violations of core human rights be punished? International criminal law (ICL) answers this question affirmatively, asserting that the punishment of such atrocities is just and that their effective prosecution can (and should) contribute to the prevention of such future acts. Moreover, an increasing attempt has been made in the international and domestic arenas to act in accordance with these assertions of ICL through the prosecution of war crimes. During the last two decades the role of ICL has become gradually more significant, and the fall of the …

Of Speech And Sanctions: Toward A Penalty-Sensitive Approach To The First Amendment, Michael Coenen

Journal Articles

Courts confronting First Amendment claims do not often scrutinize the severity of a speaker’s punishment. Embracing a “penalty-neutral” understanding of the free-speech right, these courts tend to treat an individual’s expression as either protected, in which case the government may not punish it at all, or unprotected, in which case the government may punish it to a very great degree. There is, however, a small but important body of “penalty-sensitive” case law that runs counter to the penalty-neutral norm. Within this case law, the severity of a speaker’s punishment affects the merits of her First Amendment claim, thus giving rise …

Friction In Reconciling Criminal Forfeiture And Bankruptcy: The Criminal Forfeiture Part, Sarah N. Welling, Jane Lyle Hord

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

The federal government uses two general types of asset forfeiture, criminal and civil. This Article addresses criminal forfeiture, which allows the government to take property from defendants when they are convicted of crimes. It is “an aspect of punishment imposed following conviction of a substantive criminal offense.” The goal of this Article is to give an overview of the forfeiture process, specifically in relation to claims victims and creditors might assert as third-party claimants.

The Paradox Of Statutory Rape, Russell L. Christopher, Kathryn H. Christopher

Indiana Law Journal

What once protected only virginal girls under the age of ten now also protects sexually aggressive males under the age of eighteen. While thirteenth-century statutory rape law had little reason to address the unthinkable possibility of chaste nine-year-old girls raping adult men, twenty-first-century statutory rape law has failed to address the modern reality of distinctly unchaste seventeen-year-old males raping adult women. Despite dramatically expanding statutory rape’s protected class, the minimalist thirteenth-century conception of the offense remains largely unchanged—intercourse with a juvenile. Overlooked is the new effect of this centuries-old offense—a sexually aggressive seventeen-year-old raping an adult now exposes the adult …

Breakthrough Science And The New Rehabilitation, Meghan J. Ryan

Meghan J. Ryan

Breakthroughs in pharmacology, genetics, and neuroscience are transforming how society views criminals and thus how society should respond to criminal behavior. Although the criminal law has long been based on notions of culpability, science is undercutting the assumption that offenders are actually responsible for their criminal actions. Further, scientific advances have suggested that criminals can be changed at the biochemical level. The public has become well aware of these advances largely due to pervasive media reporting on these issues and also as a result of the pharmaceutical industry’s incessant advertising of products designed to transform individuals by treating everything from …

Exploring The First Amendment Rights Of Teens In Relationship To Sexting And Censorship, Julia Halloran Mclaughlin

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article explores child pornography law in relation to teen sexting conduct. Recently, some teens who engaged in teen sexting have been convicted under child pornography laws and have been required to register as sexual predators. The criminalization of teens for developmentally typical behavior, mimicking the conduct of adults, can result in grave harm to most teens. Furthermore, the application of child pornography laws to teen sexting conduct demonstrates the constitutional overbreadth of the current definition of child pornography. Photographs have an emblematic role in society-capturing and celebrating youth. Moreover, the creation of teen sexting images accompanies a teen's developmental …

Punishment And Work Law Compliance: Lessons From Chile, Cesar F. Rosado Marzan

Hofstra Labor & Employment Law Journal

Workplace law activists and reformers find it increasingly more difficult to obtain redress for violation of workers’ rights. Some of them are calling for stricter enforcement and tougher penalties to bring employers into compliance. However, after seven and half months of participant observation at the Labor Directorate and the labor courts of Chile, institutions that use punishment as their main tools of enforcement, I am skeptical about the likelihood of success of mere punishment for effective workplace law enforcement and compliance. I am skeptical even though Chile is a country recognized as the Latin American “jaguar” for its successful economy …

The Death Penalty And The Absolute Prohibition Of Torture And Cruel, Inhuman, And Degrading Treatment Or Punishment, Juan E. Mendez

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.

Pain, Love, And Voice: The Role Of Domestic Violence Victims In Sentencing, Hadar Dancig-Rosenberg, Dana Pugach

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

Criminal law systems throughout the world have evolved to a stage where they no longer ask, "What is the appropriate role of the victim in a criminal trial?" The questions now relate to the scope of the victim's rights, in which procedures she has independent standing, and at what stage she should be heard. The process of the "prosecution stepping into the victim's shoes," whereby the state controls the entire criminal process, seemingly on behalf of the victim, has been replaced by the recognition that the interests of the prosecution (the State) are not always consistent with those of the …

Rethinking Attempt Under The Model Penal Code, William T. Pizzi

Publications

No abstract provided.

Play Fair With Recidivists, Richard Dagger

Political Science Faculty Publications

Retributivists thus face a difficult challenge. Either we must go against the social grain, and perhaps our own intuitions, by insisting that a criminal offense carry the same penalty or punishment no matter how many previous convictions an offender has accrued; or we must find a way to justify the recidivist premium. I shall take the second route here by arguing that recidivism itself is a kind of criminal offense. In developing this argument, I shall rely on Youngjae Lee's insightful analysis of "recidivism as omission." I shall complement his analysis, however, by grounding it in a conception of criminal …

Playing Fair With Prisoners, Richard Dagger

Political Science Faculty Publications

Oddness aside, however, I think there is much to recommend the attempt to restore rehabilitation to a central place in the practice of punishment. Nor do I think that rehabilitation must displace retribution in that practice. Properly understood, the two aims are not only compatible but also complementary. If we are to understand them properly, though, we shall need to see them as components of a theory of punishment that is grounded in considerations of fair play. Such a theory also has the advantage of offering guidance with regard to other controversial matters of penal policy, such as the question …

Punishment And Reform, Steven Sverdlik

Philosophy Research

Reformist ideas in the philosophy of punishment can be traced back to Plato. However, it is only in the late 19^th century that explicitly reformist ‘theories’ are discussed by philosophers, and in the 20^th century that they are worked out at length. The conception of reform has recently undergone important changes. Contemporary writers who are apparently reformist utilize use an enriched moral conception of reform, which conceives of it in terms of repentance for wrongdoing and a commitment to obey the law for moral reasons. This departs from an earlier conception that places less emphasis on repentance and …

Unsportsmanlike Conduct: Curbing The Trend Of Domestic Violence In The National Football League And Major League Baseball, Brant Webb

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Managing The Socially Marginalized: Attitudes Towards Welfare, Punishment And Race, Darren Wheelock, Pamela Wald, Yakov Shchukin

Social and Cultural Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

Welfare and incarceration policies have converged to form a system of governance over socially marginalized groups, particularly racial minorities. In both of these policy areas, rehabilitative and social support objectives have been replaced with a more punitive and restrictive system. The authors examine the convergence in individual-level attitudes concerning welfare and criminal punishment, using national survey data. The authors' analysis indicates a statistically significant relationship between punitive attitudes toward welfare and punishment. Furthermore, accounting for the respondents' racial attitudes explains the bivariate relationship between welfare and punishment. Thus, racial attitudes seemingly link support for punitive approaches to opposition to welfare …

Comparative Law And International Human Rights Law: Non-Retroactivity And Lex Certa In Criminal Law, Kenneth S. Gallant

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Politicizing Crime And Punishment: Redefining "Justice" To Fight The "War On Prisoners", Craig Haney

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Against Theories Of Punishment: The Thought Of Sir James Fitzjames Stephen, Marc O. Degirolami

Faculty Publications

This paper reflects critically on what is the near-universal contemporary method of conceptualizing the tasks of the scholar of criminal punishment. It does so by the unusual route of considering the thought of Sir James Fitzjames Stephen, a towering figure in English law and political theory, one of its foremost historians of criminal law, and a prominent public intellectual of the late Victorian period. Notwithstanding Stephen's stature, there has as yet been no sustained effort to understand his views of criminal punishment. This article attempts to remedy this deficit. But its aims are not exclusively historical. Indeed, understanding Stephen's ideas …

How (Not) To Implement Cost As A Sentencing Factor, Ryan W. Scott

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Book Review, Samuel W. Buell

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Restorative Justice In Islam: Should Qisas Be Considered A Form Of Restorative Justice?, Susan C. Hascall

Susan C. Hascall

The restorative justice movement challenges conventional approaches to sentencing and punishment by involving the victim, community, and perpetrator in sentencing. The movement is characterized by an emphasis on the restoration of relationships, healing and rehabilitation. Like the restorative justice movement, Islamic law embraces a conception of justice that involves healing relationships. Shari’ah, the religious law of Islam, is based on Islamic teachings on justice and divine revelation. In classical Shari’ah jurisprudence, crimes are divided into several categories, which do not easily correspond to the categories defined in modern Western law. One of these categories, the crimes of qisas, is distinctive …