Law Commons^™

The Offender And The Victim, Edward Tromanhauser

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Emerging Issues In Victim Assistance, Marlene A. Young

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Crime Victims' Rights -- A Legislative Perspective, William Van Regenmorter

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Progress In The Victim Reform Movement: No Longer The "Forgotten Victim", David L. Roland

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Victims' Rights: An Idea Whose Time Has Come--Five Years Later: The Maturing Of An Idea, Frank Carrington, George Nicholson

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Elevation Of Victims' Rights In Washington State: Constitutional Status, Ken Eikenberry

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Introduction, Ronald F. Phillips

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Rethinking Hiv-Exposure Crimes, Margo Kaplan

Indiana Law Journal

This Article challenges the current legislative and scholarly approaches to HIV-exposure crimes and proposes an alternative framework to address their flaws. Twenty-four states criminalize consensual sexual activities of people with HIV. Current statutes and the scholarship that supports them focus on HIV-positive status, sexual activity, and knowledge of HIV-positive status as proxies for risk, mental state, and consent to risk. As a result, they are dramatically over- and underinclusive and stigmatize individuals living with HIV. Criminalization should be limited to circumstances in which a defendant exposed her partner to a substantial degree of unassumed risk and did so with a …

Criminal Law—No Stitches For Snitches: The Need For A Duty-To-Report Law In Arkansas, Breanna Trombley

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

It is difficult to get witnesses of brutal crimes to step up and act. This article argues that every state, including Arkansas, would be well served by implementing laws that would require individuals to notify law enforcement officials when they witness certain offenses.

First, the note discusses the common law history of the no-duty-to-aid principle, as well as duty-to-assist laws in other jurisdictions and current Arkansas reporting statutes. Next, the note examines the need for a specific duty-to-report in Arkansas. Then, a duty-to-report statute is proposed for consideration by the Arkansas Legislature. Thereafter, the note addresses imposition of both civil …

Extralegal Punishment Factors: A Study Of Forgiveness, Hardship, Good Deeds, Apology, Remorse, And Other Such Discretionary Factors In Assessing Criminal Punishment, Paul H. Robinson, Sean E. Jackowitz, Daniel M. Bartels

Vanderbilt Law Review

The criminal law's formal criteria for assessing punishment are typically contained in criminal codes, the rules of which fix an offender's liability and the grade of the offense. Those rules classically look to an offender's blameworthiness, taking account of both the seriousness of the harm or the evil of the offense and an offender's culpability and mental capacity. Courts generally examine these desert-based factors as they exist at the time of the offense. To some extent, modern crime-control theory sometimes prompts code drafters to look at circumstances beyond the offense itself, such as prior criminal record, on the grounds that …

Shame By Any Other Name: Lessons For Restorative Justice From The Principles, Traditions And Practices Of Alcoholics Anonymous , Victoria Pynchon

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

Because the painful experience of shame is believed to deter anti-social and criminal conduct, it has long been a staple of our criminal justice system. Its purpose has been to accomplish moral education about the wrongfulness of the crime and to prevent its occurrence through social and self-disapproval. In criminal ADR or "restorative justice" circles, the beneficial effects of "reintegrative" shame are meant to be accomplished by a "restorative justice conference" or "victim-offender mediation" ("VOMS"). These VOMs bring together victims and their loved ones; offenders and their friends and family; and, caring members of the community for the purpose of …

The Defense Attorney As Mediator In Plea Bargains, Gabriel Hallevy

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

In this article, it will be argued that defense counsel's function in negotiating plea bargains is identical to that of a mediator, seeking to reconcile the positions of the defendant and the prosecution. Within this framework, the plea bargain should be seen as part of the broad conception of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) which first made its appearance at the end of the 1970s. An analysis of plea bargains in the Western world as part of the broader concept of ADR actually shows that it is the defense attorney, rather than the court or the other parties to the issue, …

No Way To Treat Man's Best Friends: The Uncounted Injuries Of Animal Cruielty Victims, Samantha D. E. Tucker

Animal Law Review

As society has come to recognize the sentience and intelligence of nonhuman animals, jurisdictions across the United States (U.S.) have promulgated animal protection laws. Despite the development of anti-cruelty statutes, though, states with sentence enhancement mechanisms continue to elevate criminal offenders’ sentences only if they injure human victims. This Note considers the development of anti-cruelty laws and explores how sentencing guidelines, victim injury points, and other sentence enhancement mechanisms function in U.S. criminal justice systems. It examines how multiple states treat victim injury, focusing particularly on Florida where, in October 2011, a Florida Assistant State Attorney—in what was likely the …

Reflections From The International Criminal Court Prosecutor, Fatou B. Bensouda

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Today I would like to introduce the idea of a new paradigm in international relations, which was introduced by the work of the drafters of the Rome Statute and the establishment of the International Criminal Court (ICC): this idea is that of law as a global tool to contribute to the world's peace and security. This idea first surfaced with the belief that the power of law has the capacity to redress the balance between the criminals who wield power and the victims who suffer at their hands. Law provides power for all regardless of their social, economic, or political …

Shaken Baby Syndrome As Felony Murder In North Carolina, Derick R. Vollrath

Campbell Law Review

This Article argues that the North Carolina criminal law’s treatment of Shaken Baby Syndrome should be reformed. Rather than leaving in place a legal regime that allows the state to prosecute all Shaken Baby Syndrome cases as first-degree murder, the law should distinguish between accidental and purposeful killings. If the state wishes to punish Shaken Baby Syndrome cases with special severity, the General Assembly should make this policy choice explicit. In making this argument, this Article proceeds in three parts. First, this Article examines how and why North Carolina subjects all Shaken Baby Syndrome deaths to prosecution as first-degree murder. …

Capital Punishment And Race: Racial Culture Of The South, Jerry Joubert

Undergraduate Review

There are currently 34 states with the death penalty and 16 states without the death penalty in the United States. According to the most recent report from the Death Penalty Information Center, there have been 1276 executions in the United States since 1976. In the year 2011 alone, there were 42 executions. This was 4 executions less than the previous year. Among the 1276 total executions in the United States since 1976, 1048 have taken place in the South. There are approximately 3,251 inmates on death row. African-Americans represent 42% of these inmates (Death Penalty Information Center, 2011). This statistic …

Juvenile Life Without Parole, Kallee Spooner

Undergraduate Review

The purpose of this paper is to analyze data, policy trends, and legal concerns on the issue of sentencing juvenile offenders to life without the possibility of parole (LWOP). Policy changes in the 1980s and 90s dramatically changed the sentencing outcomes for juvenile offenders. Significantly departing from the rehabilitative goals established by the juvenile court, states adopted harsher punishments, including LWOP. During this shift, the diminished culpability of youth became insignificant when compared to the nature of their crimes. The recent cases of Roper v. Simmons (2005) and Graham v. Florida (2010) reinstated the importance of recognizing that juveniles are …