Criminal Law Commons^™

America's Paper Prisons: The Second Chance Gap, Colleen Chien

Michigan Law Review

Over the last decade, dozens of states and the federal government have enacted “second chance” reforms that increase the eligibility of individuals arrested, charged, or convicted of crimes to shorten their sentences, clear their criminal records, and/or regain the right to vote. While much fanfare has accompanied the increasing availability of “second chances,” little attention has been paid to their delivery. This study introduces the concept of the “second chance gap,” which it defines as the difference between eligibility and delivery of second chance relief; explores its causes; and approximates its size in connection with several second chance laws and …

Reassessing Prosecutorial Power Through The Lens Of Mass Incarceration, Jeffrey Bellin

Michigan Law Review

A review of John F. Pfaff, Locked In: The True Causes of Mass Incarceration - And How to Achieve Real Reform.

Criminal Justice And The Mattering Of Lives, Deborah Tuerkheimer

Michigan Law Review

A review of James Forman Jr., Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America.

The Consensus Myth In Criminal Justice Reform, Benjamin Levin

Michigan Law Review

It has become popular to identify a “consensus” on criminal justice reform, but how deep is that consensus, actually? This Article argues that the purported consensus is much more limited than it initially appears. Despite shared reformist vocabulary, the consensus rests on distinct critiques that identify different flaws and justify distinct policy solutions. The underlying disagreements transcend traditional left/right political divides and speak to deeper disputes about the state and the role of criminal law in society.

The Article maps two prevailing, but fundamentally distinct, critiques of criminal law: (1) the quantitative approach (what I call the “over” frame); and …

Dangerousness And Criminal Justice, Franklin E. Zimring, Gordon Hawkins

Michigan Law Review

The first section of this paper surveys some recent writings on the topic of dangerousness for major inconsistencies, which we regard as illuminating the special problem of dangerousness in the jurisprudence of criminal sentencing.

The second section describes the "special problem of dangerousness," for, we believe, the first time. The special problem is the fear that any admission of calculations of dangerousness into sentencing decisions will lead to an overuse of dangerousness, which may be worse than the inefficiencies and hypocrisies we confront when denying that future dangerousness is relevant to decisions about prisons.

The third section attempts to reorganize …

Dangerous Offenders: The Elusive Target Of Justice, Elizabeth T. Lear

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Dangerous Offenders: The Elusive Target of Justice by Mark H. Moore, Susan Estrich, Daniel McGillis, and William Spelman

The Sentencing Of White-Collar Criminals In Federal Courts: A Socio-Legal Exploration Of Disparity, Ilene H. Nagel, John L. Hagan

Michigan Law Review

This Article addresses that question by examining judicial sentencing philosophy as applied to white-collar criminality and reporting data that illuminate the operation of that philosophy. Part I of the Article argues that the traditional purposes and limits of criminal sentencing may plausibly justify either disparate or comparable sentences in cases of white-collar and common criminality. Part II describes the obstacles to an accurate empirical inquiry into how judges resolve these uncertainties in the theory of punishment. Part III presents a study designed to overcome as many of these obstacles as possible. What is most dramatic is that the resulting data …

Two Theories Of Criminal Justice, Alsen D. Miller

Michigan Law Review

A Review of A Theory of Criminal Justice by Jan Gorecki, and A Theory of Criminal Justice by Hyman Gross

The Inauguration Of Criminology Annuals, David F. Greenberg

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Crime and Justice: An Annual Review of Research, vol. 1 edited by Norval Morris and Michael Tonry, and Criminology Review Yearbook, Vol. 2 edited by Egon Bittner and Sheldon L. Messinger

Central Problems Of American Criminal Justice, Francis A. Allen

Michigan Law Review

At periodic intervals during the present century the American "crime problem" has aroused agitated public discussion. At these times both publicists and ordinary citizens are likely to assume that the disturbing conditions have suddenly arisen and are wholly unlike anything experienced before. In considering the crime problem, the beginning of wisdom may lie in the discovery that this is a problem with a history. Crime and its control did not suddenly become significant in the late 1960s, at the end of World War II, or even with the launching of the prohibition experiment at the conclusion of the first great …

Crime, The Public, And The Crime Commission: A Critical Review Of The Challenge Of Crime In A Free Society, Warren Lehman

Michigan Law Review

What is the appropriate set for the mind when it mulls the report of the President's Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice? Should it be fine grind, as is the professor's when he asks a student in his first class in law school to state the case of Regina v. Dudley & Stephens? Or should the running wheel be raised from the bedstone, as is so often the case when the professor turns to review the work of a colleague? While the latter may have the appeal of habit, there are, I think, three important reasons …

Friendly & Goldfarb: Crime An Publicity: The Impact Of News On The Administration Of Justice, Francis C. Sullivan

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Crime and Publicity: The Impact of News on the Administration of Justice by Alfred Friendly and Ronald L. Goldfarb