Digital Commons Network^™

Is Executive Function The Universal Acid?, Stephen J. Morse

All Faculty Scholarship

This essay responds to Hirstein, Sifferd and Fagan’s book, Responsible Brains (MIT Press, 2018), which claims that executive function is the guiding mechanism that supports both responsible agency and the necessity for some excuses. In contrast, I suggest that executive function is not the universal acid and the neuroscience at present contributes almost nothing to the necessary psychological level of explanation and analysis. To the extent neuroscience can be useful, it is virtually entirely dependent on well-validated psychology to correlate with the neuroscientific variables under investigation. The essay considers what executive function is and what the neuroscience adds to our …

Force-Feeding Pretrial Detainees: A Constitutional Violation, Bryn L. Clegg

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Recidivist Sentencing And The Sixth Amendment, Benjamin E. Adams

Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality

No abstract provided.

Restorative Practices, Asha Faith Goldberg

Transformations: Research Papers

Research consistently shows that suspensions are ineffective in addressing the root causes for behavior and inequities as students of color, students from low socioeconomic backgrounds, and students with dis/abilities repeatedly receive high rates of exclusionary punishments for their behaviors. Different schools have implemented Restorative Practices, an alternative discipline policy in response to the troubling data surrounding suspension disparities. This policy encourages students to collaboratively address their behavior and discuss ways that they can restore relationships within their community. Through observations and faculty interviews at an elementary school, salient information emerged on the policies' definitions, implementations, and critiques. The research question …

Bucklew V. Precythe'S Return To The Original Meaning Of "Unusual": Prohibiting Extensive Delays On Death Row, Jacob Leon

Cleveland State Law Review

The Supreme Court, in Bucklew v. Precythe, provided an originalist interpretation of the term “unusual” in the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution. This originalist interpretation asserted that the word “unusual” proscribes punishments that have “long fallen out of use.” To support its interpretation, the Supreme Court cited John Stinneford’s well-known law review article The Original Meaning of “Unusual”: The Eighth Amendment as a Bar to Cruel Innovation. This Article, as Bucklew did, accepts Stinneford’s interpretation of the word “unusual” as correct. Under Stinneford’s interpretation, the term “unusual” is a legal term of art derived from eighteenth-century …

Evidence, Arrest Circumstances, And Felony Cocaine Case Processing, Jacqueline G. Lee, Alexander Testa

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications and Presentations

Case evidence and situational arrest characteristics are widely speculated to influence courtroom actor decisions, yet such measures are infrequently included in research. Using new data on felony cocaine cases from an urban county in a Southern non-guideline state, this study examines how physical evidence and arrest circumstances affect three stages of case processing: initial charge type, charge reduction, and sentence length. The influence of evidence appeared strongest at the early stage when prosecutors chose the appropriate charge, though certain evidentiary and arrest measures continued to influence later decisions. Charge reductions were driven mostly by legal factors, and while guilt should …

Cross-National Incarceration Rates As Behavior Of Law, Christopher J. Marier

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Incarceration rates vary substantially around the world. However, systematic cross-national comparisons examining such variation are rare. Using Donald Black’s theory of law, and further informed by other theories in the sociology of punishment with conceptual overlap, the purpose of this study is to evaluate the structural and cultural factors that influence incarceration rates around the world. Using data from the World Prison Brief, World Values Survey, CIA World Factbook, and other international datasets, this study evaluates a series of ordinary least squares regressions in 66 nations. This study is one of few macrosocial tests of Black’s theory of law to …

Law School News: 'Injustice Dehumanizes Everyone It Touches' 1-31-2020, Michael M. Bowden

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Remorse, Not Race: Essence Of Parole Release?, Lovashni Khalikaprasad

Journal of Race, Gender, and Ethnicity

No abstract provided.

Eighteen Is Not A Magic Number: Why The Eighth Amendment Requires Protection For Youth Aged Eighteen To Twenty-Five, Tirza A. Mullin

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The Eighth Amendment protects a criminal defendant’s right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment. This Note argues that any punishment of eighteen- to twenty-five-year-olds is cruel and unusual without considering their youthfulness at every stage of the criminal process, and that it is unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment for these youths to be automatically treated as fully-developed adults. This Note will explore in depth how juveniles differ from adults, both socially and scientifically, and how the criminal justice system fails every youth aged eighteen- to twenty-five by subjecting them to criminal, rather than juvenile, court without considering their …

Constructing Guilt, Obstructing Truth: How The Spectacle Of Wrongful Conviction Reveals And Magnifies Fundamental Flaws In The Criminal Justice System, Fiona Marie Hession

Senior Projects Spring 2020

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

From The Legal Literature: Disentangling Prison And Punishment, Francesca Laguardia

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

No abstract provided.

Detecting Mens Rea In The Brain, Owen D. Jones, Read Montague, Gideon Yaffe

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

What if the widely used Model Penal Code (MPC) assumes a distinction between mental states that doesn’t actually exist? The MPC assumes, for instance, that there is a real distinction in real people between the mental states it defines as “knowing” and “reckless.” But is there?

If there are such psychological differences, there must also be brain differences. Consequently, the moral legitimacy of the Model Penal Code’s taxonomy of culpable mental states – which punishes those in defined mental states differently – depends on whether those mental states actually correspond to different brain states in the way the MPC categorization …

Canine And Criminal Bias: The Relationship Between Stereotypes And Perceptions Of Punishment, Jamie I. Thomas

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

In this thesis I provide an analysis of punitive perceptions of animal crimes and argue that the lack of value seen in animal’s lives affects perceptions of punishment for animal crimes. Specifically, I examine the role of animal attitudes and race on perceptions of crimes against dogs and will address the following question with a vignette survey design: How do racial stereotypes interact with dog breed stereotypes when considering punishment for animal crime? This research expands on factors that influence perceptions of punishment of animal crime, including racial differences that may affect attitudes about animals. This study contributes to the …

Aristotle And Mutual Accountability: A Just Theory Of Punishment, Dina Rosin

CMC Senior Theses

How can citizens of a moral community both be held accountable and be accountable for their actions and their character? What is the role of both the state and the citizen in restoring accountability? In this thesis, I apply Aristotle’s conception of virtue to Stephen Darwall and William Darwall’s mutual accountability framework for punishment. I present a theory of punishment that creates an obligation on both the state and the citizen to uphold virtue and be accountable, and posits rehabituation of character as a necessary component of maintaining mutual accountability. I then apply this theory to a paradigmatic case that …

Suffrage Over Suffering: How Disenfranchisement Erodes The Legitimacy Of Democratic Punishment, Kendall Hollimon

CMC Senior Theses

In this thesis I analyze both retributive and consequentialist justifications for punishment to understand the foundation for disenfranchisement as punishment. I then argue that although some of these justifications can condone disenfranchisement, the practice of disenfranchising criminals damages the democratic process, thus delegitimizing the punishments that societies democratically decide to impose.

The "Matthew Effect" In Punishment: : Do Previous Sanctions Foster More Sanctions In The Future?, Yinzhi Shen

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Societal response to crime is a topic at the heart of criminology. In contrast to a vast literature on the hidden social consequences of formal sanctions on individuals, family and communities, few studies have examined the ramifications of a formal sanction on future interactions with the criminal justice system over the individual life course. Applying a cumulative disadvantage (CDA) perspective, my dissertation contributes to the understanding of whether and how a prior punishment affects an individual’s trajectory of future punishments over the life course. Theoretically, I elaborated two conceptualizations of CDA processes and highlighted the overlooked value of applying CDA …

Thoughts, Crimes, And Thought Crimes, Gabriel S. Mendlow

Michigan Law Review

Thought crimes are the stuff of dystopian fiction, not contemporary law. Or so we’re told. Yet our criminal legal system may in a sense punish thought regularly, even as our existing criminal theory lacks the resources to recognize this state of affairs for what it is—or to explain what might be wrong with it. The beginning of wisdom lies in the seeming rhetorical excesses of those who complain that certain terrorism and hate crime laws punish offenders for their malevolent intentions while purporting to punish them for their conduct. Behind this too-easily-written-off complaint is a half-buried precept of criminal jurisprudence, …

Science And The Eighth Amendment, Meghan J. Ryan

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

As time hurtles forward, new science constantly emerges, and many scientific fields can shed light on whether a punishment is unconstitutionally cruel and unusual, or even on whether bail or fines are unconstitutionally excessive under the Eighth Amendment. In fact, in recent years, science has played an increasingly important role in the Court’s Eighth Amendment jurisprudence. From the development of an offender’s brain, to the composition of lethal injection drugs, even to measurements of pain, knowledge of various scientific fields is becoming central to understanding whether a punishment is unconstitutionally cruel and unusual. There are a number of limits to …