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Aesthetics Of Slavery & Slave Trade Crimes, Jocelyn Getgen Kestenbaum

Articles

In his insightful new book, Invisible Atrocities, Randle DeFalco examines the aesthetic biases of international criminal law (ICL). DeFalco astutely argues that ICL prioritizes punishing "horrific spectacles" of violence while ignoring less visible, attritive forms of violence that cause similar levels of harm and suffering, generally over longer periods of time. While ICL is selective in its preference for "horrific spectacles," even the spectacular violence has been rendered invisible in ICL when inconvenient factual evidence counters dominant narratives in international law.

One such dominant narrative is the successful abolition of slavery and the slave trade of the nineteenth and twentieth …

An Examination Of Legal Responses By United States To Technological Advances In Organized Drug Smuggling, Abdulwahab Aldossary

Symposium Projects

No abstract provided.

Doing Death Work: A Mixed Method Examination Of Imprinted Events And Behavioral Responses Of Medical Examiner's Office Employees, Elizabeth L. Gilmore, Kevin Buckler

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"This study provides a qualitative and quantitative data analysis from interviews of current and former employees of medical examiner offices. These employees’ current and former positions required that they arrive at scenes of natural, accidental, suicidal, undetermined, and homicidal deaths, document and retrieve the decedent(s), and assist in eviscerating the remains to aid forensic pathologists during autopsy procedures. The authors interviewed 14 current or past employees of different medical examiner offices to understand what they liked and disliked about this curious profession and aimed to understand professional struggles. Additionally, study participants answered questions about imprinted events, how they and colleagues …

Editorial, Kevin Buckler

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

This issue contains five articles that utilize various qualitative and mixed methods.

Child Sex Abusers In Protestant Christian Churches: An Offender Typology, Andrew S. Denney

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

Sexual abuse within religious settings has been the focus of prior research for over fifty years. However, most research has focused on the Roman Catholic Church, not Protestant Christian churches. Yet, Protestant Christian Churches are the most prominent religious institutions, both in the physical number of churches and total participants, across the United States. By examining 326 alleged instances of sexual abuse at or through activities provided by U.S. Protestant Christian churches, this study sought to create the first typology of sexual abusers within this setting. This study found that three types of offenders exist within these settings, (1) on-site …

Infidelity, Liability, And Violence, Jason Manning

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

Much criminal violence arises from conflict and is moralistic. The perpetrator is punishing someone for a perceived wrong. Liability refers to accountability for a wrong: Who exactly has to suffer punishment? Here I argue that violence arising from infidelity and sexual jealousy is a strategic research site for studying liability. When these matters trigger lethal violence, there is variation in who the perpetrator targets. Using detailed descriptions of US homicides, as well as the cross-cultural ethnographic literature, I describe and classify three patterns of liability: mate, rival, and dual. I conclude by suggesting sociological factors relevant to explaining these patterns …

“Title Ix Isn’T For You, It’S For The University”: Sexual Violence Survivors’ Experiences Of Institutional Betrayal In Title Ix Investigations, Katherine Lorenz, Rebecca Hayes, Cathrine Jacobsen

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

Institutional betrayal occurs when an institution fails to appropriately respond to harm experienced by a member of the institution, such as by failing to act or by mishandling cases. The concept has been applied to higher education institution’s (HEI’s) response to students who experience sexual violence, particularly Title IX investigations, showing that institutional betrayal is common among student survivors. Yet, to our knowledge, institutional betrayal in HEI Title IX investigations has not been qualitatively explored. We conducted interviews of graduate and undergraduate student sexual violence survivors (n=21) who participated in a Title IX investigation at a U.S. HEI to understand …

Treating Criminal Justice-Involved Serious Mental Illness (Smi) Clients In The Community, Brittany Hood

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

With criminal justice-involved individuals with serious mental illness (SMI) at an all-time high in the criminal justice system, research on community mental health centers (CMHCs) demonstrates a lack of treatment for justice-involved persons. Scholars have argued that providing appropriate treatment to criminal justice-involved individuals with SMI could alleviate symptoms. Therefore improving the effectiveness of mental health treatment to reduce recidivism in this population is paramount. The current study used a qualitative approach to examine how community service providers perceived organizational-level variables and legal constraints to influence treatment decisions for justice-involved individuals with SMI. Findings suggest three critical implications for policy …

Why Criminal Defendants Cooperate: The Defense Attorney's Perspective, Jessica A. Roth, Anna D. Vaynman, Steven D. Penrod

Northwestern University Law Review

Cooperation is at the heart of most complex federal criminal cases, with profound ramifications for who can be brought to justice and for the fate of those who decide to cooperate. But despite the significance of cooperation, scholars have yet to explore exactly how individuals confronted with the decision whether to pursue cooperation with prosecutors make that choice. This Article—the first empirical study of the defense experience of cooperation—begins to address that gap. The Article reports the results of a survey completed by 146 criminal defense attorneys in three federal districts: the Southern District of New York, the Eastern District …

The Architecture Of Discretion: Implications Of The Structure Of Sanctions For Racial Disparities, Severity, And Net Widening, Ryan T. Sakoda

Northwestern University Law Review

About four million people are serving a term of probation, parole, or post-release supervision in the United States. Due to the extensive use of incarceration as a punishment for conditions violations, these community supervision programs are a major factor contributing to mass incarceration and, as this Article shows, can play a significant role in exacerbating racial disparities in the criminal legal system.

In recent years, jurisdictions throughout the United States have made reforms to their community supervision programs. A major trend in community supervision reform is the integration of new sanctioning structures, such as “swift and certain” sanctions, for conditions …

We[Ed] The People: How A Broader Interpretation Of The Rohrabacher-Farr Amendment Effectuates The Changing Social Policy Surrounding Medical Marijuana, Tess A. Chaffee

University of Cincinnati Law Review

No abstract provided.

Unacceptable Risk: The Failure Of Georgia’S “Guilty But Intellectually Disabled” Statute And A Call For Change, Logan Purvis

Georgia Law Review

In 1988, Georgia became the first state in the nation to prohibit the execution of intellectually disabled criminal defendants. At the time, this groundbreaking action played a critical role in shaping the national debate surrounding the criminal justice system’s treatment of this group of individuals, culminating in the United States Supreme Court’s own prohibition in 2002. A drafting error in Georgia’s statute, however, created a highly prejudicial process for determining intellectual disability, all but ensuring that the law’s protections are unattainable for those who seek it. Despite this error, Georgia’s process has remained the same since the statute’s enactment with …

You’Re Out!: Three Strikes Against The Plra’S Three Strikes Rule, Kasey Clark

Georgia Law Review

As federal court caseloads increased in the twentieth century, concerned jurists and academics pointed their fingers at many potential culprits. One culprit in particular, however, caught the attention of Congress: suits brought by prisoners. To curtail what it believed was an influx of frivolous prisoner litigation, Congress passed the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) in 1996. One provision of the PLRA, known as the “three strikes rule,” prohibits a prisoner from proceeding in forma pauperis if three or more of the prisoner’s prior actions or appeals have been dismissed as frivolous or malicious or for failure to state a claim …

Faithful Execution In The Fifty States, Zachary S. Price

Georgia Law Review

Amid heightened political conflict over criminal-justice policy, norms surrounding prosecutorial discretion have shifted rapidly. Under the prior mainstream approach, prosecutors exercised broad charging discretion, but generally did so tacitly and in case-by-case fashion out of deference to statutory law’s primacy. Under an emerging alternative approach, associated for the moment with progressive politics, prosecutors categorically and transparently suspend enforcement of laws they consider unjust or unwise. The federal government under President Obama employed this theory in high-profile policies relating to marijuana crimes, as well as immigration and the Affordable Care Act. More recently, a number of self-described “progressive prosecutors” have employed …

With Liberty And Justice For The Wealthy: The Criminalization Of The American Poor, Ashlyn Dickmeyer

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

The last phrase of the Pledge of Allegiance states “with liberty and justice for all”. However, not everyone has access to this liberty and justice. Liberty and justice can be bought in this country for a price, and those who can’t afford to pay it are often left in the hands of those who can. One of the most prominent ways to see this is by analyzing the criminal justice system. Despite clauses in the Fourteenth Amendment and court cases like Gideon v. Wainwright (1963) establishing and upholding that the poor are entitled to equal treatment within the criminal justice …

Federal Sentencing: The Need For A New Test For The Abduction Enhancement In The Context Of Robbery, Alex Leroy

West Virginia Law Review

The abduction enhancement applied to the crime of robbery is inherently ambiguous; the enhancement reads, “‘abducted’ means that a victim was forced to accompany an offender to a different location.” The lack of a clear definition for “location” has caused a split within the federal circuits, with some circuits interpreting “location” as position and others interpreting “location” as place. This has caused disproportionate sentences for similar criminal conduct within separate circuits, creating the need for a more uniform interpretation of the sentencing enhancement for abduction.

This Note builds upon the work of David J. Sandefer and proposes two additional factors …

Indigenous Self-Government And Criminal Law: The Path Towards Concurrent Jurisdiction In Canada, Michael Michel

Dalhousie Law Journal

This is a special contribution that has not been peer-reviewed.

The past few decades have seen an increase in culturally responsive policies and programs aimed at ameliorating the hardship and disadvantage faced by Indigenous peoples in the Canadian criminal justice system. These policies and programs, however, operate within a criminal justice system that consistently fails Indigenous peoples. What has yet to be tried is a nation-to-nation approach to criminal law jurisdiction where Indigenous peoples have legislative authority to enact and administer their own criminal laws. This paper shows that Indigenous jurisdiction over criminal law is possible within Canada’s constitutional framework. …

Anchoring Lifeline Criminal Jurisprudence: Making The Leap From Theory To Critical Race-Inspired Jurisprudence, Danardo S. Jones

Dalhousie Law Journal

This article takes as a starting point the claim that anti-Black racism permeates Canadian society and finds expression in our institutions, most notably the criminal justice system. Indeed, anti-Black racism in criminal justice and its impact on Black lives are not credibly in dispute. Thus, what should concern legal scholars is the staying power or permanence of racism. In other words, should Canadian legal scholars ‘get real’ about the intractability of race? Or can anti-Black racism be effectively confronted by developing legal and evidentiary tools designed to fix, rather than dismantle, the current system? Put another way, this article aims …

Understanding Mass Incarceration In The Us Is The First Step To Reducing A Swollen Prison Population, Jeffrey Bellin

Popular Media

No abstract provided.

Statement Of The District Task Force On Jails & Justice Before The Committee On The Judiciary And Public Safety Of The Council Of The District Of Columbia Performance Oversight Hearing For The D.C. Department Of Corrections March 1, 2023, Katherine S. Broderick

D.C. Council Testimony

No abstract provided.

The Structure Of Criminal Federalism, Erin C. Blondel

Notre Dame Law Review

Scholars and courts have long assumed that a limited federal government should stick to genuinely “federal” crimes and leave “local” crimes to the states. By that measure, criminal federalism has failed; federal criminal law largely overlaps with state crime, and federal prosecutors regularly do seemingly “local” cases. Despite nearly unlimited paper jurisdiction, however, the federal enforcement footprint has remained tiny and virtually static for a century. Something is strongly limiting the federal system, just not differences in substantive coverage.

The answer is different enforcement responsibilities. The police power means states alone provide basic public safety and criminal justice. Rather than …

The Legacy Of Trayvon Martin—Neighborhood Watches, Vigilantes, Race, And Our Law Of Self-Defense, Mark S. Brodin

Marquette Law Review

Reflecting back a decade later, what is the enduring significance of the Trayvon Martin case—a Black teenager whose life is violently cut short, and a legal system that accepted his death without consequence? The poet Elizabeth Alexander speaks of “The Trayvon Generation” of Black youth who have grown up in the haunting shadow of his killing, and the anguished parents who cannot protect their children from such a fate. America’s first Black president spoke for them: “When I think about this boy, I think about my own kids. If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon,” Barack Obama told …

Policing Pregnancy "Crimes", Valena Beety, Jennifer Oliva

Articles by Maurer Faculty

The Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization held that there is no right to abortion healthcare under the United States Constitution. This Essay details how states prosecuted pregnant people for pregnancy behaviors and speculative fetal harms prior to the Dobbs decision. In this connection, it also identifies two, related post-Dobbs concerns: (1) that states will ramp up their policing of pregnancy behaviors and (2) that prosecutors will attempt to substantiate these charges by relying on invalid scientific evidence. This Essay examines the faulty forensic science that states have used to support fetal harm allegations and reminds …

Evaluating Congress's Constitutional Basis To Abolish Felony Disenfranchisement, James E. Lauerman

Washington Law Review

In the past three years, members of Congress unsuccessfully introduced a series of federal voting rights legislation, most recently the Freedom to Vote Act. One goal of the legislation is to abolish felony disenfranchisement. Felony disenfranchisement is the practice of revoking a citizen’s right to vote due to a prior felony conviction. The Freedom to Vote Act aims to restore voting rights for every citizen who has completed their prison sentence. A ban on felony disenfranchisement would be historic, as the practice stretches back to ancient Greece and Rome. Moreover, the United States Supreme Court consistently upholds the practice by …

Reforming Prior Conviction Impeachment, Anna Roberts, Julia Simon-Kerr

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Defeating De Facto Disenfranchisement Of Criminal Defendants, Neil Sobol

Faculty Scholarship

In a democracy, voting is not only an important civic duty but also a right that governments owe to their citizens. However, by operation of law, forty-eight states deny voting rights to individuals based on criminal convictions. Activists and scholars attack de jure disenfranchisement as an improper collateral consequence that disproportionately impacts people of color. Although recent years show substantial reforms to reenfranchise defendants, an estimated 5.17 million defendants remained ineligible to vote in 2020.

While efforts to address de jure disenfranchisement remain necessary, a problem that has received considerably less attention is the de facto disenfranchisement of criminal defendants …

Grandma Got Arrested: Police, Excessive Force, And People With Dementia, Rashmi Goel

University of Richmond Law Review

Recent events have shone a light on the particular vulnerability of people with dementia to police violence. Police are arresting people with dementia and using excessive force to do it—drawing their firearms, deploying tasers, and breaking bones.

To date, little attention has been paid to the burgeoning number of people with dementia, one of society’s most vulnerable populations, and their experiences with the criminal justice system. This Article examines how dementia leads people to engage in activity that appears criminal (shoplifting (forgetting to pay), and trespass (wandering), for instance) and the disproportionate response of police. In several cases where people …

Continuing Principled Sentencing Reform And Winding Back Mass Incarceration Against The Backdrop Of America’S Surge In Violent Crime, Mirko Bagaric, Jennifer Svilar, Brienna Bagaric

Nevada Law Journal

Five decades of an unremitting tough on crime policy resulted in the United States having the highest incarceration rate on earth. This approach was in the process of being systematically wound back in recent years. The mood for criminal justice reform was highlighted by the receptiveness of many people to what on their face seemed to be radical proposals, such as defunding the police and abolishing prisons. This resulted in a significant decline in the incarceration levels. The momentum towards proportionate and principled sentencing has stalled as a result of the massive increase in violent crime in the United States …

Error Aversions And Due Process, Brandon L. Garrett, Gregory Mitchell

Michigan Law Review

William Blackstone famously expressed the view that convicting the innocent constitutes a much more serious error than acquitting the guilty. This view is the cornerstone of due process protections for those accused of crimes, giving rise to the presumption of innocence and the high burden of proof required for criminal convictions. While most legal elites share Blackstone’s view, the citizen jurors tasked with making due process protections a reality do not share the law’s preference for false acquittals over false convictions.

Across multiple national surveys sampling more than 12,000 people, we find that a majority of Americans consider false acquittals …

Sentenced To Prison, Not To Death: Home Confinement During The Pandemic And Moving Beyond Covid-19, Sydney Mcconnell

Arkansas Law Review

A prison sentence should “not include incurring a great and unforeseen risk of severe illness or death.” But for the 2.3 million people housed in our nation’s prisons and jails during the COVID-19 (“COVID”) pandemic, their sentences have included just that. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the Bureau of Prisons has transferred approximately 49,068 inmates to home confinement. The decision to expand home confinement is an important one. It is a step in the right direction to address another broader, and distinctly American, issue: mass incarceration. Lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle have reached the consensus “that …