Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 2 of 2
Full-Text Articles in Law
The Scale Of Misdemeanor Justice, Megan T. Stevenson, Sandra G. Mayson
The Scale Of Misdemeanor Justice, Megan T. Stevenson, Sandra G. Mayson
All Faculty Scholarship
This Article seeks to provide the most comprehensive national-level empirical analysis of misdemeanor criminal justice that is currently feasible given the state of data collection in the United States. First, we estimate that there are 13.2 million misdemeanor cases filed in the United States each year. Second, contrary to conventional wisdom, this number is not rising. Both the number of misdemeanor arrests and cases filed have declined markedly in recent years. In fact, national arrest rates for almost every misdemeanor offense category have been declining for at least two decades, and the misdemeanor arrest rate was lower in 2014 than …
The Global Diffusion Of Law: Transnational Crime And The Case Of Human Trafficking, Beth A. Simmons, Paulette Lloyd, Brandon M. Steward
The Global Diffusion Of Law: Transnational Crime And The Case Of Human Trafficking, Beth A. Simmons, Paulette Lloyd, Brandon M. Steward
All Faculty Scholarship
The past few decades have seen the proliferation of new laws criminalizing certain transnational activities, from money laundering to corruption; from insider trading to trafficking in weapons and drugs. Human trafficking is one example. We argue criminalization of trafficking in persons has diffused in large part because of the way the issue has been framed: primarily as a problem of organized crime rather than predominantly an egregious human rights abuse. Framing human trafficking as an organized crime practice empowers states to confront cross border human movements viewed as potentially threatening. We show that the diffusion of criminalization is explained by …