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Criminology Commons

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Full-Text Articles in Criminology

Maine's Women Offenders: What Do We Know?, Erica King Msw, Jillian Foley Mppm, Mark Rubin Oct 2011

Maine's Women Offenders: What Do We Know?, Erica King Msw, Jillian Foley Mppm, Mark Rubin

Justice Policy

Although Maine has one of the lowest incarceration rates of any state for both men and women, between 1999 and 2004 the state experienced an increase of 114 percent in incarceration of women, the largest increase in the nation. This study provides a descriptive analysis of the characteristics of women entering Maine's probation system in 2004, 2005 and 2006, and examines the factors contributing to recidivism, defined as an arrest for a new crime (misdemeanor or felony) while under probation supervision. The study finds that recidivism rates of Maine's women offenders vary considerably by county and by offense type. The …


[A Brief Comparative Summary Of The Criminal Law Of The] United States, Paul H. Robinson Jan 2011

[A Brief Comparative Summary Of The Criminal Law Of The] United States, Paul H. Robinson

All Faculty Scholarship

This chapter provides a very brief summary of the central features of American criminal law. Section II describes its source and current form, which is almost exclusively statutory, embodied in the criminal codes of each of the fifty American states and (to a lesser extent) the federal criminal code. Section III sketches the typical process by which a case moves through an American criminal justice system, from the report of a crime through trial and appellate review. Section IV summarizes the most basic objective and culpability requirements necessary to establish liability for an offense and the doctrines that sometimes impute …


Mercy, Crime Control, And Moral Credibility, Paul H. Robinson Jan 2011

Mercy, Crime Control, And Moral Credibility, Paul H. Robinson

All Faculty Scholarship

If, in the criminal justice context, "mercy" is defined as forgoing punishment that is deserved, then much of what passes for mercy is not. Giving only minor punishment to a first-time youthful offender, for example, might be seen as an exercise of mercy but in fact may be simply the application of standard blameworthiness principles, under which the offender's lack of maturity may dramatically reduce his blameworthiness for even a serious offense. Desert is a nuanced and rich concept that takes account of a wide variety of factors. The more a writer misperceives desert as wooden and objective, the more …