Law Commons^™

Policing Sex: The Colonial, Apartheid, And New Democracy Policing Of Sex Work In South Africa, India Thusi

Articles by Maurer Faculty

In Part I of this Article, I discuss the perception that sex work was a “necessary evil” under the Dutch East India Company. In Part II, I discuss British colonial rule and the influence of the Victorian era on the policing of sex work. In Part III, I discuss the Union of South Africa and the mass hysteria following the rise of the “black peril.” Part IV discusses the apartheid era and the impact of the Immorality Act on the policing of sex workers. Part V focuses on the new democratic era and the introduction of the human rights framework. …

Emergence From Civil Death: The Evolution Of Expungement In West Virginia, Valena Beety, Michael Aloi, Evan Johns

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Ninety-two million Americans have a criminal record—nearly one in three adults. This criminal record can include an arrest that did not lead to a conviction, a conviction for which the person did not serve time in prison, or a conviction for a nonviolent crime. All can have a similar impact on an individual’s job prospects and on local economies. Incarcerating adult Americans costs a combined $68 billion annually at the local, state, and federal levels. The cost of lost wages and lost financial contributions to society by ex-offenders is even higher.

This financially immobilized population of former offenders may be …

The Seductive Power Of Patriarchal Stories, Aviva A. Orenstein

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This essay develops a theme introduced in Rape and Culture of the Courtroom written by Andrew Taslitz. It examines the cases in which judges allow evidence of the victim’s sexual history and proclivities because, in their estimation, excluding such evidence would violate the constitution (an exception to rape shield in Fed. R. Evid 412). The review of these cases demonstrates the persistent power of patriarchal stories and documents how the constitutional exception sometimes indicates a resistance to the entire enterprise of rape shield. In particular, it focus on Gagne v. Booker, an en banc decision from the Sixth Circuit, …