Digital Commons Network^™

How The Rational Basis Test Protects Policing For Profit, William R. Maurer

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Since the police shooting of Michael Brown in 2014 and the civil unrest that followed, numerous lawsuits have challenged laws that use the government’s ability to impose fines and fees for reasons other than the protection of the public. These challenges have usually raised equal protection challenges to these laws—that is, that the laws punish the poor more harshly than others. The challenges have been unsuccessful, largely because courts examine these laws using “rational basis review,” a standard that is highly deferential to the government and one in which the courts themselves are often required to actively advocate for the …

The Elusiveness Of Self-Defense For The Black Transgender Community, Shawn E. Fields

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Handling Aggravating Facts After Blakely: Findings From Five Presumptive Guidelines States, Nancy J. King

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This Article reveals how five states with presumptive (binding) sentencing guidelines have implemented the right announced in Blakely v. Washington to a jury finding of aggravating facts allowing upward departures from the presumptive range. Using data provided by the sentencing commissions and courts in Kansas, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oregon, and Washington, as well as information from more than 2,200 docket sheets, the study discloses how upward departures are used in plea bargaining, sometimes undercutting policy goals; how often aggravating facts are tried and by whom; common types of aggravating facts; and the remarkably different, sometimes controversial interpretations of Blakely and …

Medicate And Segregate: How Due Process Fails To Protect Mentally Ill Inmates From Medically Inappropriate Confinement And Restraint, Peter J. Teravskis

Minnesota Journal of Law, Science & Technology

No abstract provided.

A Review Of Harold Johnson, Peace And Good Order: The Case For Indigenous Justice In Canada, Haneen Al-Noman

Dalhousie Law Journal

Haneen Al Noman: A Review of Harold Johnson, Peace and Good Order: The Case for Indigenous Justice in Canada (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2019).

Critique-Inspired Pedagogies In Canadian Criminal Law Casebooks: Challenging "Doctrine First, Critique Second" Approaches To First-Year Law Teaching, Sarah-Jane Nussbaum

Dalhousie Law Journal

This article is a critical evaluation of Canadian criminal law casebooks. The author explores the aims, practices, and challenges of these teaching texts by examining their relationship to critique-inspired pedagogical methods. A number of English-language Canadian criminal law casebooks add a welcome feature to the Canadian common law teaching landscape: all but one of six recently published casebooks teach doctrine and critique together. The research builds on an emerging scholarship of Canadian legal education by demonstrating evidence of critical political commitments and critique-inspired teaching methods within Canadian criminal law education. Yet casebook editors and other professors who utilize critical methods …

Bargaining Without Bias, Cynthia Alkon

Faculty Scholarship

In this article, to work towards decreasing bias in plea bargaining, I propose a structural fix and an individual fix to these core problems. The structural fix is that prosecutors' offices should adopt policies for blind assessment of cases when the first plea offer is made. All indicia of race or ethnicity (including names and neighborhoods) should be removed when prosecutors review a case and make the initial plea offer. This would help prosecutors focus on the facts and their evidence when making a plea offer and prevent bias in decision making. However, it is not realistic to expect that …

(Re)Framing Race In Civil Rights Lawyering, Anthony V. Alfieri, Angela Onwuachi-Willig

Articles

This Review examines the significance of Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s new book, Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow, for the study of racism in our nation's legal system and for the regulation of race in the legal profession, especially in the everyday labor of civil-rights and poverty lawyers, prosecutors, and public defenders. Surprisingly, few have explored the relevance of the racial narratives distilled by Gates in Stony the Roa - the images, stereotypes, and tropes that Whites constructed of Blacks to deepen and ensure the life and legacy of white supremacy-to the practice …

#Blacklivesmatter—Getting From Contemporary Social Movements To Structural Change, Jamillah Bowman Williams, Naomi Mezey, Lisa O. Singh

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

From the haters and hackers to propaganda and privacy concerns, social media often deserves its bad reputation. But the sustained activism that followed George Floyd’s death and the ongoing movement for racial justice also demonstrated how social media can be a crucial mechanism of social change. We saw how online and on-the-ground activism can fuel each other and build momentum in ways neither can achieve in isolation. We have seen in the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, and more specifically the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter, a new and powerful approach to using social media that goes beyond symbolic “slacktivism” and performative allyship …

Victim Impact: The Manson Murders And The Rise Of The Victims’ Rights Movement, Merrill W. Steeg

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Justice Delayed, Justice Denied? The Search For Accountability For Alleged Wartime Atrocities Committed In Sri Lanka, Aloka Wanigasuriya

Pace International Law Review

During the final stages of its nearly three-decades-long civil war in 2009, Sri Lanka attracted considerable international attention due to the allegations of international crimes that were said to have been committed both by the Sri Lankan government Armed Forces, the Guerilla Force, and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). According to United Nations (UN) experts, an estimated 40,000 civilians were killed during the final offensive, which lasted from January to May 2009. However, the Sri Lankan government has set this figure at 9,000 with no civilian casualties. Several UN bodies found credible allegations that international crimes were committed …

Improving Mandatory Firearms Training For Law Enforcement: An Autoethnographic Analysis Of Illinois Law Enforcement Training, Casey Lafrance

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"This study employs autoethnographic analysis of the author’s experiences in a mandatory police firearms training course in the United States. I first review relevant literature on firearms training as well as autoethnographic methodology. Afterward, I present my experiences and analyze them in the context of literature on police use of force, representative bureaucracy, and accountability. Based on this account, I offer suggestions for improving the course by integrating concepts from the literature on officer decision-making, community-police relations, and group dynamics. I conclude by recommending more course time be devoted to the decision to use force, rather than simple firearm proficiency."

Hate Exhaustion, Emotional Support, And Desistance From White Supremacist Groups, April Celeste Gould

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"This study examines how and why people join, participate in, and leave White supremacist terrorist (WST) groups. In-depth life history interviews and biographic timelines of former White supremacists in the United States and Canada were collected. Findings indicate that former members’ decisions to engage and desist from WST groups are greatly influenced by their experiences of emotional support—or lack thereof. Participants lacked emotional support prior to joining WST and the emotional support they received from group membership was toxic. Participants exited WST because they experienced hate exhaustion and were willing to sacrifice all or most of their emotional support to …

Bridging The Gap: Reconciling Research And Reality On Street Gang Prevention, Brent Schuliger

Helm's School of Government Conference - 2021-2024

Law enforcement in America is under great scrutiny. Last year saw numerous calls for criminal justice reforms due to a perceived racial bias in policing strategies and policies. This crisis of public opinion poses a serious threat to police legitimacy in the coming years. Couple this with a public which increasingly does not trust police capabilities to solve crimes: since 2010, the number of violent crimes reported to police steadily declined, reaching a low of only 40% reported[1]. It is clear some reforms to the criminal justice system, and how it interacts with communities, are needed. One of …

“She Is A Woman, She Is An Unbeliever—You Should Not Meet With Her”: An Ethnographic Account Of Accessing Sala, Kathrine Elmose Jørgensen, Henriette Frees Esholdt

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"The Salafi-jihadist environment, which seeks to remain closed and clandestine, is extremely hard to access. Moreover, the milieu is gender segregated and hostile towards non-Muslims, even other Muslims who are not considered “real” Muslims. Depending on the researcher’s positionality this can either further complicate or facilitate accessing the milieu. Based on methodological experiences from ethnographic fieldwork (interviews and observations) in Denmark and Sweden, this article aims to unravel how researcher positionality influences different layers of access when investigating Salafi-jihadist environments. Acknowledging that gaining access is a continuous process throughout the entire research process, we specifically explore how our positions as …

Exploring The Role Of Core Positive Selves With Men Convicted Of Child Sexual Offenses: A Character Strengths Initiative, Tiffany A. Miner

Individual, Family, and Community Education ETDs

The aim of this study was to help men convicted of child sexual offenses learn to recognize and engage their character strengths over 12 months. Participants were six men convicted of contact and noncontact (internet) child sexual offenses. All participants were members of a community-based reintegration group for registered citizens. In the first weeks of the study, participants received the Values in Action Inventory of Strengths survey. The survey, containing 240 questions—10 items for each of the 24 character strengths outlined—helped participants identify their top character strengths. The study explored (a) how the men could use their character strengths to …

Race And Social Class As Factors Associated With Sentence Disparities: A Survey Of Potential Jurors, Amanda Rickett

Honors Theses

Prior research has found that bias, along with other extralegal factors, leads to the sentencing disparities in the criminal justice system throughout the United States. The criminal justice system has implemented reforms to address these disparities. Furthering research on this issue, I analyze previous studies that tried to determine the effects of bias on the decisions made by judges and juries. Most importantly, the present study aimed to determine the effects of race and socioeconomic class of the defendant on the decisions on potential jurors using a vignette based survey with randomized assignment. The results suggest that the potential jurors’ …

Three Observations About The Worst Of The Worst, Virginia-Style, Corinna Barrett Lain

Washington and Lee Law Review Online

Much could be said about Virginia’s historic decision to repeal the death penalty, and Professor Klein’s essay provides a wonderful starting point for any number of important discussions. We could talk about how the decision came to be. Or why the move is so momentous. Or what considerations were particularly important in the decision‑making process. Or where we should go from here. But in this brief comment, I’ll be focusing not on the how, or the why, or the what, or the where, but rather on the who. Who are condemned inmates, both generally and Virginia‑style?

Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind: Analyzing Inhumane Practices In Mississippi’S Correctional Institutions Due To Overcrowding, Understaffing, And Diminished Funding, Ariel A. Williams

Honors Theses

The purpose of this research is to examine the political, social, and economic factors which have led to inhumane conditions in Mississippi’s correctional facilities. Several methods were employed, including a comparison of the historical and current methods of funding, staffing, and rehabilitating prisoners based on literature reviews. State-sponsored reports from various departments and the legislature were analyzed to provide insight into budgetary restrictions and political will to allocate funds. Statistical surveys and data were reviewed to determine how overcrowding and understaffing negatively affect administrative capacity and prisoners’ mental and physical well-being. Ultimately, it may be concluded that Mississippi has high …

To What Extent Are Appropriate Resources Provided To Veterans With Mental Illness To Prevent Contact With The Criminal Justice System?, Riley Christine Doyle

Master’s Theses and Projects

United States military veterans are a special population of men and women that have willingly sacrificed their lives to serve their country. They are perceived to be patriotic, honorable, strong, and disciplined people. Unfortunately, veterans are not exempt from committing criminal acts that land them in the criminal justice system. In fact, veterans are highly susceptible to developing mental illnesses and substance use disorders which can ultimately lead to criminal behavior. The purpose of this study was to examine to what extent available resources are provided to veterans to help them prevent contact with the criminal justice system. This study …

The Importance Of The Relationship Between Domestic Violence Victims And Their Pets, Emily Ryan

Master’s Theses and Projects

The purpose of this thesis is to explore the relationship between domestic violence and animal abuse with the goal of adding to the literature in this area. This study collected data from domestic violence and homeless shelters across the United States by sending a questionnaire via email. Two themes emerged based on the questionnaire responses, first, shelters reported that victims disclosed their fear of leaving an abusive situation due to abuse or threat of abuse to a family pet. And second, shelters indicated that they are unable to accommodate pets due to either, health and safety reasons, or financial difficulties. …

A Dual System Of Justice: Financial Institutions And White-Collar Criminal Enforcement, Sebastian Bellm

Notre Dame Law Review

Proposing more severe punishment for white-collar criminals is not a new concept. While many argue for the increased prison time of white-collar offenders, others provide “a counter-perspective on the use of prison sentences.” Other areas of academic publication support the convergence of sentencing guidelines for white-collar and drug-related criminals, particularly in light of utilitarian and retributivist principles. Rather than simply recommending that white-collar criminals should be punished more, this Note proposes two distinct structural solutions that reevaluate the current policies directing the punishment of white-collar criminal conduct. Specifically, this Note argues that the Department of Justice (DOJ) should reconsider the …

If Only I Had Known: The Challenges Of Representation, Jenny E. Carroll

Faculty Scholarship

This Essay explores the challenges of that representation and the false dichotomies it creates—dichotomies that carry tremendous burdens for stakeholders—from my perspective as a public defender. It is the only perspective I know, and so it is an incomplete story. I cannot tell the whole story of representation no matter how generous the word count or deadline. I do not know it. Nor can I tell my complete story of what it was to be a representative. But this is a start. My story is written in the first person and tries at once both to be personal and to …

Seeing Color: America's Judicial System, Elizabeth Poulin

Senior Honors Projects

In many eyes, it often seems as though being white in America is easy, or a privilege. Being white in America is considered a safety blanket, with an abundance of opportunities beneath it. Yet, how does a physical difference such as skin color manifest itself as privilege? Noticing color is not wrong, hateful, or oppressive. Even children notice color, and we define them as the ultimate innocence. But in fact, skin color is often a trigger. When the world has preconceived notions about people of color, an oppressive system designed to harm people who have never done anything to deserve …

Chimerism And Mosaicism: The Fallibility Of Dna Evidence, Robert Ellis-Liang

Child and Family Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Caring Against The Carceral: How Families Mediate The Social Death Of Incarceration, Jessica Claire

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Incarceration, especially in the United States, is deeply related to issues of racism, poverty, and citizenship. These particular experiences are the result of a history of biopolitical control affecting Black and brown communities and have a quintessential origin in enslavement. Those who are incarcerated are isolated, dishonored, and powerless as a result of the criminalization of race and poverty. These observations led to questions surrounding the particular impact families may have on the experiences of those who are incarcerated. Families of Incarcerated Loved ones, or FOILs, mediate incarceration through intentional socialization which has the potential to counteract the realities of …

Feminist Scripts For Punishment, India Thusi

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Review of:

THE FEMINIST WAR ON CRIME: THE UNEXPECTED ROLE OF WOMEN’S LIBERATION IN MASS INCARCERATION. By Aya Gruber. Oakland, C.A.: University of California Press. 2020. Pp. xii, 288. $29.95.

The Veil (Or Helmet) Of Ignorance: A Rawlsian Thought Experiment About A Military’S Criminal Law, Dan Maurer

University of Richmond Law Review

This Article loosely adapts political philosopher John Rawls’s famous social contract thought experiment to interrogate a corner of law that receives too little theoretical attention: the separate federal code at the intersection of criminal law and national security that regulates both martial and non-martial conduct of millions of citizens, invests judicial responsibility and prosecutorial authority in nonlawyer commanding officers, operates with no territorial limitations, and pulls even certain retirees within its jurisdiction: the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Employing the perspectives of four “idealized” actors—Congress, a president, a Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and a potential recruit—this “experiment” …

Manning, Powell, And The Habitual Misunderstanding Of Addiction, Matt Dean

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

Bryan Manning, a homeless resident of Roanoke, Virginia, has been arrested and prosecuted more than thirty times for drinking or possessing alcohol. Although alcohol is generally legal in Virginia, Mr. Manning was forbidden for many years to “possess” it, “consume” it, or “purchase” it. On at least one occasion, police arrested him merely for “smelling like alcohol.” On another occasion, he was arrested because he happened to be shopping in a Walmart where alcoholic beverages were sold. For decades, Virginia law permitted a state circuit court to issue a civil order declaring an individual to be “an habitual drunkard” …

Can A Person's "Slate" Ever Really Be "Cleaned"? The Modern-Day Implications Of Pennsylvania's Clean Slate Act, Kimberly E. Capuder

St. John's Law Review

(Exceprt)

In 2006, Khalia was arrested for a “low-level counterfeiting charge.” While Khalia was innocent and never convicted for the charged offense, she still had a criminal record. Because she was concerned that future employers would “view her as a thief,” she never applied to any of her dream jobs. But once Khalia’s arrest record was automatically sealed, she finally had enough confidence to send in a job application to a prestigious consulting firm, and was offered the position. Khalia believes that her newly sealed criminal record “means a future without judgment.” And this future without judgment was made possible …