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Full-Text Articles in Law
Hope And Betrayal On Death Row, David Cole
Hope And Betrayal On Death Row, David Cole
Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works
No abstract provided.
Incarceration American-Style, Sharon Dolovich
Incarceration American-Style, Sharon Dolovich
Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works
In the United States today, incarceration is more than just a mode of criminal punishment. It is a distinct cultural practice with its own aesthetic and technique, a practice that has emerged in recent decades as a catch-all mechanism for managing social ills. In this essay, I argue that this emergent carceral system has become self-generating—that American-style incarceration, through the conditions it inflicts, produces the very conduct society claims to abhor and thereby guarantees a steady supply of offenders whose incarceration the public will continue to demand. I argue, moreover, that this reproductive process works to create a class of …
Community Self Help, Neal K. Katyal
Community Self Help, Neal K. Katyal
Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works
This paper advocates controlling crime through a greater emphasis on precautions taken not by individuals, but by communities. The dominant battles in the literature today posit two central competing models of crime control. In one, the standard policing model, the government is responsible for the variety of acts that are necessary to deter and prosecute criminal acts. In the other, private self-help, public law enforcement is largely supplanted by providing incentives to individuals to self-protect against crime. There are any number of nuances and complications in each of these competing stories, but the literature buys into this binary matrix.
The "Monster" In All Of Us: When Victims Become Perpetrators, Abbe Smith
The "Monster" In All Of Us: When Victims Become Perpetrators, Abbe Smith
Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works
In this Essay, I will discuss the "cycle of violence”, that transforms victims into perpetrators, focusing on the Aileen Wuornos case. I will examine the odd lack of support for Wuomos and others like her as soon as they become perpetrators. I will then talk about men and boys who have been sexually abused and become perpetrators. I will conclude by arguing that the prevailing feminist approach to crime and violence has been too narrowly focused on victims, and has - witting or not - contributed to the nation's extraordinary and exclusive turn to punishment over the past three decades.
Defense-Oriented Judges, Abbe Smith
Defense-Oriented Judges, Abbe Smith
Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works
In this essay, I argue in favor of so-called "defense-oriented judges." Instead of the increasingly prosecution-oriented judicial aspirants who ascend to the bench, we need more judges who care about protecting the rights of the accused, who will put the government to the test, and who have some compassion for those who come before them. Instead of judges who are nothing more than rubber-stamps for prosecutors, deferring to prosecutors at every step because they believe most defendants are in fact guilty, or because they dislike defense lawyers, we need judges who are truly neutral and disinterested. Instead of judges who …
Left Out, Louis Michael Seidman
Left Out, Louis Michael Seidman
Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works
My thesis is that the left's problem regarding criminal justice is at least partially of its own making. Specifically, the problem stems from deep contradictions in the left's positions. Progressives have not one position on crime, but at least seven different ones, and these positions cannot be reconciled. Most of this essay consists of a taxonomy of conflicting progressive views on criminal justice. Before I begin, however, I need to qualify my thesis in three important ways. First, as will become obvious, what I present below amounts to no more than brief descriptions - really evocations - of attitudes, arguments, …
Some Thoughts On Proposed Revisions To The Organizational Guidelines, Julie R. O'Sullivan
Some Thoughts On Proposed Revisions To The Organizational Guidelines, Julie R. O'Sullivan
Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works
In this article, Professor O'Sullivan, who served as the reporter for the U.S. Sentencing Commission's Ad Hoc Advisory Group for Organizational Sentencing Guidelines, reflects on that Group's work. She concludes that the potential impact of many of the policy fixes within the power of the Sentencing Commission is dwarfed by decisions that lie solely within the power of the Department of Justice or Congress. Specifically, Department of Justice decisions regarding what constitutes organizational "cooperation" may have a determinative impact on organizational incentives regarding compliance efforts and decisions to investigate, self-report, and cooperate in the remediation of organizational wrongdoing. Professor O'Sullivan …
Faulty Adversarial Performance By Criminal Defenders In The Crown Court, Peter W. Tague
Faulty Adversarial Performance By Criminal Defenders In The Crown Court, Peter W. Tague
Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works
Who is the more able advocate, the lawyer in the United States or the barrister in England and Wales? Answering that question is extremely difficult because of a multitude of differences in the procedural regimes in which each works and in the scope of each's responsibility. Yet, one facet stands out, like a full moon in a dark sky: The comparative number of defenders who on appeal have been accused of having provided inappropriate representation in the process leading to conviction . . . Part 1 discusses the procedural hurdles that make challenging the trial barrister's conduct more difficult than …