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Social Welfare Law Commons

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University of Baltimore Law

Social justice

Articles 1 - 3 of 3

Full-Text Articles in Social Welfare Law

The Poverty Defense, Michele E. Gilman Jan 2013

The Poverty Defense, Michele E. Gilman

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Poverty is correlated with crime, but it is widely assumed that it should not be a defense. In the 1970s, Judge David Bazelon challenged this assumption, proposing a rotten social background defense, that is, how growing up under circumstances of severe deprivation can subsequently impact a criminal defendant's mental state and actions. Relatedly, other theorists have posited that poverty should be a defense to crime based on poverty's coercive aspects or because society forfeits its right to condemn when it tolerates significant economic inequality. Critics counter that a poverty defense should not be adopted because it is not only inconsistent …


Race, Space And Place: The Internal Critique Of The Empowerment Zones Program, Audrey Mcfarlane Jan 2000

Race, Space And Place: The Internal Critique Of The Empowerment Zones Program, Audrey Mcfarlane

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This Article examines the extent to which the Empowerment Zones Program is properly viewed as a neutral, rational, and beneficial program for poor, inner-city communities and their residents by exploring the limits and potential of its chief mechanism, economic development, as a tool to achieve social justice for the inner cities. This Article grounds its exploration within the contested terrain of the city, not simply as a legal or juridical concept, but in terms of its reality as a lived place on the eve of the 21st century.


Race, Space And Place: The Geography Of Economic Development, Audrey Mcfarlane Apr 1999

Race, Space And Place: The Geography Of Economic Development, Audrey Mcfarlane

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This Article examines the extent to which the Empowerment Zones Program is properly viewed as a neutral, rational, and beneficial program for poor, inner-city communities and their residents by exploring the limits and potential of its chief mechanism, economic development, as a tool to achieve social justice for the inner cities. This Article grounds its exploration within the contested terrain of the city, not simply as a legal or juridical concept, but in terms of its reality as a lived place on the eve of the 21st century. By explicating some of the unwritten rules and processes of economic development …