Digital Commons Network^™

Schools Fail To Get It Right On Rap Music, Andrea L. Dennis

Popular Media

School officials treat rap music as a serious threat to the school environment. Fear and misunderstanding of, as well as bias against, this highly popular and lucrative musical art form negatively shape their perspectives on this vital aspect of youth culture.

As a result, students who express themselves through rap music in a way that challenges the schoolhouse setting risk the possibility of suspension, permanent exclusion and referral to the criminal justice system.

The ongoing case of Taylor Bell is the latest and most complex battleground on which this issue is playing out.

Criminal Law And Common Sense: An Essay On The Perils And Promise Of Neuroscience, Stephen J. Morse

All Faculty Scholarship

This article is based on the author’s Barrock Lecture in Criminal Law presented at the Marquette University Law School. The central thesis is that the folk psychology that underpins criminal responsibility is correct and that our commonsense understanding of agency and responsibility and the legitimacy of criminal justice generally are not imperiled by contemporary discoveries in the various sciences, including neuroscience and genetics. These sciences will not revolutionize criminal law, at least not anytime soon, and at most they may make modest contributions to legal doctrine, practice, and policy. Until there are conceptual or scientific breakthroughs, this is my story …

Lets Talk About Sexual Assault A Feminist Exploration Of The Relationship Between Legal And Experiential Discourses, Dana Erin Phillips

LLM Theses

This thesis challenges the tendency within feminist legal thought to imagine a sharp division between law and lived experience, and specifically between feminist methods that engage legal discourse and those that invoke grassroots narratives grounded in experience. In order to better elucidate the relationship between legal and experiential discourses, the author compares recent legal discourse on sexual assault focusing on two Supreme Court of Canada decisions with women's own accounts of sexual violence, as presented in mainstream news media in the wake of the 2014 Jian Ghomeshi story. The findings, examined through the lens of feminist scholarship, support a view …

Legal Beagle's Blog Archive For November 2015, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Law Library Newsletters/Blog

No abstract provided.

Police Violence And Ferguson: (En)Racing Criminal Procedure, Jeannine Bell

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Criminal Corruption: Why Broad Definitions Of Bribery Make Things Worse, Albert W. Alschuler

Fordham Law Review

Although the law of bribery may look profoundly underinclusive, the push to expand it usually should be resisted. This Article traces the history of two competing concepts of bribery—the “intent to influence” concept (a concept initially applied only to gifts given to judges) and the “illegal contract” concept. It argues that, when applied to officials other than unelected judges, “intent to influence” is now an untenable standard. This standard cannot be taken literally. This Article defends the Supreme Court’s refusal to treat campaign contributions as bribes in the absence of an “explicit” quid pro quo and its refusal to read …

Reverse Broken Windows, Christopher R. Green

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Moral Shock And Legal Education, Susan A. Bandes

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Teaching "Ferguson", Chad Flanders

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Facing The Ghost Of Cruikshank In Constitutional Law, Martha T. Mccluskey

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Law's Exposure: The Movement And The Legal Academy, Amna A. Akbar

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Two Scales Of Justice: A Reply, Alan Young

Alan N. Young

Victims' rights tend to be associated with a conservative, crime-control agenda, and this association is borne out by some of the American reforms that do serve to erode an accused's constitutional rights. However, this erosion is neither natural nor inevitable and can easily be prevented. The current disdain with which the public view the criminal process should compel lawmakers to consider deep structural reforms that will include greater respect for the victims of crime. In order for North American jurisdictions to accommodate fully the needs of victims, it may be necessary for lawmakers to streamline the process by reducing the …

Discussion Of Antony Duff's 'Or 'Emet Lecture: Legal Philosophy Between State And Transnationalism, Antony Duff, François Tanguay-Renaud, Michael Giudice

François Tanguay-Renaud

Follow-up seminar on Antony Duff’s ‘Or ‘Emet Lecture, delivered on Thursday, March 14, 2013. Part of the Legal Philosophy Between State and Transnationalism Seminar Series. Respondents: Michael Giudice, York Philosophy and François Tanguay-Renaud, Osgoode Hall Law School.

Legal Rites: Abjection And The Criminal Regulation Of Consensual Sex, Kate Sutherland

Kate Sutherland

The application of criminal law to consensual sex is an arena of conflict and contest between conservative and liberal forces in the United States, with occasional feminist interventions. The same arguments tend to recur on each side of the debate. Conservatives assert the appropriateness and necessity of enforcing a particular Judeo-Christian sexual morality through law. Liberals argue for tolerance of private consensual sexual conduct. When the debate shifts from the private to the public arena, conservatives may argue privacy principles, asserting the right of bystanders to be let alone, whereas liberals may shift to freedom of expression arguments. In this …

From Jailbird To Jailbait: Age Of Consent Laws And The Construction Of Teenage Sexualities, Kate Sutherland

Kate Sutherland

Age of consent laws provide an obvious example of direct state intervention into the sexual lives of teenagers. But the reach of this body of law extends further than this, operating in complex and contradictory ways that generate a range of distributive effects. For example, the roles that parents and welfare officials play in enforcement decisions have an impact on broader struggles between teenagers, parents, and state officials over teenage sexual activity and sexual values. Further, in those contexts where age of consent laws do not apply or where they are not enforced, teenage sex will be left in the …

"Prisoner Never Gave Me Anything For What He Done:" Aboriginal Voices In The Criminal Court, Shelley A. M. Gavigan

Shelley A. M. Gavigan

Aboriginal people participated in different ways in the criminal process in the earl years of the North- West Territories region of Canada, including, as accused persons, as Informants, and as witnesses. Their participation was often mediated by the police, Indian agents and sometimes their Chiefs. Their word were also mediated by interpreters, both linguistic and cultural and their signatures were invariably marked as "X" on their depositions. Scholarship that has examined the relationship of Aboriginal peoples to the criminal law has tended to interrogate the criminalization and moral regulation strategies implicit in the process of colonization and domination of the …

Public Defenders And Appointed Counsel In Criminal Appeals: The Iowa Experience, Tyler J. Buller

The Journal of Appellate Practice and Process

No abstract provided.

Criminal Law And The Counter-Hegemonic Potential Of Harm Reduction, Alana Klein

Dalhousie Law Journal

Harm reduction approaches to drug use have been lauded for saving lives, being cost-effective, elevating pragmatism over prohibitionist ideology, being flexible in tailoring responses to the problem, and for their counter-hegemonic potential to empower people who use drugs. This article examines the legal systems engagement with harm reduction, and, in particular,recent cases that incorporate harm reduction s focus on empirical evidence in policy making into Canadian constitutional rights jurisprudence. It argues that harm reduction approaches in this venue may hold promise as a bulwark against some of the marginalizing features of traditional criminaljustice approaches. However, the article also warns of …

Trafficked? Aids, Criminal Law And The Politics Of Measurement, Aziza Ahmed

University of Miami Law Review

Since early in the HIV epidemic, epidemiologists identified individuals who transact sex as a high-risk group for contracting HIV. Where the issue of transacting sex has been framed as sex work, harm-reduction advocates and scholars call for decriminalization as a primary legal solution to address HIV. Where the issue is defined as trafficking, advocates known as abolitionists argue instead for the criminalization of the purchase of sex.

Global health governance institutions are porous to these competing ideas and ideologies. This article first historicizes the contestation between harm-reduction and abolition in global governance on health. The paper then turns to a …

Lessons Learned From Ferguson: Ending Abusive Collection Of Criminal Justice Debt, Neil L. Sobol

Faculty Scholarship

On March 4, 2015, the Department of Justice released its scathing report of the Ferguson Police Department calling for “an entire reorientation of law enforcement in Ferguson” and demanding that Ferguson “replace revenue-driven policing with a system grounded in the principles of community policing and police legitimacy, in which people are equally protected and treated with compassion, regardless of race.” Unfortunately, abusive collection of criminal justice debt is not limited to Ferguson. This Article, prepared for a discussion group at the Southeastern Association of Law Schools conference in July 2015, identifies the key findings in the Department of Justice’s report …

Criminal Law And Common Sense: An Essay On The Perils And Promise Of Neuroscience, Stephen J. Morse

Marquette Law Review

None

Decisions To Prosecute Battered Women's Homicide Cases: An Exploratory Study, Sarah N. Welling, Diane Follingstad, M. Jill Rogers, Frances Jillian Priesmeyer

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Discretionary decisions to prosecute cases in which a battered woman kills her partner were investigated using several research strategies and targeting a range of case elements. Law students presented with case elements reported they would consider legal elements over nonlegal (or ‘supplemental’) elements when making a decision to prosecute. In contrast, law students assessed through an open-ended format as to important case factors for deciding to prosecute spontaneously generated high proportions of supplemental case elements compared with legal factors. Vignette comparisons of 42 case elements on participants’ likelihood to prosecute identified salient factors including legal and supplemental variables. Themes from …

Privately Failing: Recidivism In Public And Private Prisons, Lee N. Gilgan

Lee N Gilgan

This study would add to available research regarding recidivism rates following incarceration in private prisons in contrast to incarceration in government-run prisons. This is a non-experimental meta-analysis viewing numerous studies discussing the effects of multiple covariants within public and private prisons. Based on the information and conclusion in these studies, we find that there is little overall consensus concerning the effects of increased privatization on recidivism. While many studies find certain aspects of privatization to have some potential effect on recidivism, there are many other aspects that either are out of scope or have a negative effect on recidivism. However, …

Infanticide - Requirement That The Victim Be Born Alive; State V. Dickinson, Richard R. Wilfong

Akron Law Review

This case is unique, because it is the first time a court has imposed a conviction of homicide for the death of a viable unborn fetus caused by an unlawful but unintentional act. The evidence is persuasive beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol, without due regard for the safety and rights of others, and in such a manner as to endanger the life or property of other persons in lawful use of the streets and highways. The soundness of the court's finding depends upon a determination of the …

The Administratioin Of Criminal Justice In The U.S.S.R., John H. Shoemaker

Akron Law Review

The above procedure in the United States is conducted as follows: on the state and local level by the local police departments, with the arraignment and indictment being handled by the local county prosecutor; or on the federal level by federal police agencies operating through the U. S. attorney. The incarceration of the convicted person is handled by county or state agencies on the one hand, or federal penal institutions on the other. One similarity between the Russian System and ours is that in United States criminal practice on the federal level the coordination and uniformity essential to reform and …

Application Of Ohio Post-Conviction Procedure - Effect Of Prior Judgment On.; Coley V. Alvis, Thomas A. Geraci Jr.

Akron Law Review

In the per curiam decision of Coley v. Alvis' the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reversed an Ohio District Court decision dismissing Coley's petition for habeas corpus for failure to exhaust his state remedies. The circuit Court remanded, stating that it would be futile for petitioner to attempt to void his conviction under the Ohio post-conviction statute because of the narrow limits placed on it by the state courts and that there was consequently no longer any effective state remedy. Since the grounds that petitioner set forth to sustain his writ did not fall within any …

The Admissibility Of Polygraph ("Lie Detector") Evidence Pursuant To Stipulation In Criminal Proceedings, Bruce C. Heslop

Akron Law Review

American courts have traditionally held that evidence pertaining to the results of a lie-detector test is inadmissible in a criminal proceeding on behalf of either the prosecution or defense….In recent years, however, a few jurisdictions have withdrawn from the traditional approach and have admitted lie-detector evidence in limited situations, notwithstanding objection by the adverse party….The decision of whether or not to adopt the approach presented here must critically evaluate the potential value of polygraph evidence along with its potential dangers. In so doing, the courts of Ohio should determine whether a procedure may be devised to maximize the value and …

The Reach Of The Law: Sin, Crime And Poor Taste, Alexander B. Smith, Harriet Pollack

Akron Law Review

The past decade has been a period of intensive reevaluation of the law. The criminal law, in particular, has been subjected to an especially intensive criticism. These attacks fall largely into two categories: criticisms of the legitimacy of our penal codes, and criticisms of their efficiency.
Starting with the Civil Rights Movement of the Kennedy era with its heavy emphasis on civil disobedience as a tool of protest, the legitimacy of many of our laws was called into question. When Rosa Parks sat in the front of the bus in Montgomery, Alabama, she was not simply breaking the law; she …

The Impact Of New Justices: The U.S. Supreme Court And Criminal Justice Policy, Christopher E. Smith

Akron Law Review

The Supreme Court is an important policy-making institution. In criminal justice, for example, the high court issues decisions affecting institutions, actors, and processes throughout the justice system, from police investigations through corrections and parole. The Court's policy decisions affecting criminal justice are produced by the votes of the nine justices who select, hear, decide, and issue opinions in cases. It is widely recognized, and probably axiomatic, that the Supreme Court's decision-making patterns are determined by the Court's membership at any given moment in history. When five or more justices support a specific outcome in a case, they can form a …

Representation By Counsel Or Access To Defense Resources: Utah’S Single Source Approach To Indigent Defense, John P. Gross

Washington and Lee Law Review Online

The State of Utah has a unique way of providing representation in criminal cases to defendants who are too poor to hire an attorney. In Utah, there is no statewide funding or supervision of indigent defense. Each county, city, or town is responsible for creating and funding their own indigent defense delivery system. Utah is one of only two states in the United States—Pennsylvania is the other—that fails to provide state funding or oversight of indigent defense. But what makes Utah truly unique is the way in which counties and municipalities are required to structure their indigent defense delivery systems. …