Digital Commons Network^™

Following The Script: Narratives Of Suspicion In Terry Stops In Street Policing, Jeffery Fagan, Amanda Geller

Faculty Scholarship

Regulation of Terry stops of pedestrians by police requires articulation of the reasonable and individualized bases of suspicion that motivate their actions. Nearly five decades after Terry, courts have found it difficult to articulate the boundaries or parameters of reasonable suspicion. The behavior and appearances of individuals combine with the social and spatial contexts in which police observe them to create an algebra of suspicion. Police can proceed to approach and temporarily detain a person at a threshold of suspicion that courts have been unable and perhaps unwilling to articulate. The result has been sharp tensions within Fourth Amendment …

Slavery By Another Name: 'Voluntary' Immigrant Detainee Labor And The Thirteenth Amendment, Anita Sinha

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

During the McCarthy era, Congress passed an obscure law authorizing detained immigrants to work for a payment of one dollar a day. The government justified the provision, which was modeled after the 1949 Geneva Convention’s protections for prisoners of war, in the context of the period’s relative heightened detentions of noncitizens. Soon afterwards, the enactment of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 diminished the use of detention drastically, and the practice of detainee labor lay dormant for decades. Modern changes to immigration law and its systems have rendered immigration detention today the largest mass incarceration movement in U.S. history. …

Boys, Rape And Masculinity: Reclaiming Boys’ Narratives Of Sexual Violence In Custody, Brenda V. Smith

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

This article examines a little studied area at the intersections of masculinity, feminist studies, and criminal justice — sexual abuse of boys in custody by female staff. Professor Smith outlines the scope of the problem and discusses competing narratives that attempt to explain the phenomena: (1) female staff as “mother, sister, friend”; (2) adolescent development theory; (3) complex early childhood trauma; and (4) female authority and power. There is a gap in both masculinity and feminist theory in analyzing sexual aggression and power by women over boys. The talk article concludes with policy and practice prescription and recommendations for further …

Are Prosecutors The Constitution's Gatekeepers?, Rebecca Roiphe

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Federal Sentencing In The States: Some Thoughts On Federal Grants And State Imprisonment, John F. Pfaff

Faculty Scholarship

As the movement to reduce the outsized scale of US incarceration rates gains momentum, there has been increased attention on what federal sentencing reform can accomplish. Since nearly 90% of prisoners are held in state, not federal, institutions, an important aspect of federal reform should be trying to alter how the states behave. Criminal justice, however, is a distinctly state and local job over which the federal government has next to no direct control. In this paper, I examine one way in which the federal government may be driving up state incarceration rates, and thus one way it can try …

Reducing Racial And Ethnic Disparities In Jails: Recommendations For Local Practice, Jessica M. Eaglin, Danyelle Solomon

Articles by Maurer Faculty

People of color are overrepresented in our criminal justice system. One in three African American men born today will be incarcerated in his lifetime. In some cities, African Americans are ten times more likely to be arrested when stopped by police. With the national debate national focused on race, crime, and punishment, criminal justice experts are examining how to reduce racial disparities in our prisons and jails, which often serve as initial entry points for those who become entangled in the criminal justice system.

This report, which relies on input from 25 criminal justice leaders, pinpoints the drivers of racial …

Improving Economic Sanctions In The States, Jessica M. Eaglin

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Prison Privatization And Inmate Labor In The Global Economy: Reframing The Debate Over Private Prisons, Alfred C. Aman, Carol J. Greenhouse

Articles by Maurer Faculty

The pragmatics of privatization offer terrain for a critical understanding of the relationship between government and business under the conditions associated with the globalization of neoliberal capitalism. Prison privatization is especially significant in this context, given the fact that—for privatization advocates and critics alike, in the United States and elsewhere—prisons represent a bellwether for broader questions about the scope of government. We review the recent history of prison privatization in the United States from the vantage point of the policy responses to the privatization movement more generally, to highlight the various factors that, over time, made private prisons iconic of …

Is America Becoming A Nation Of Ex-Cons?, John A. Humbach

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Recent rates of mass incarceration have become a concern, but those rates are only part of the challenge facing (and posed by) the American criminal justice system. An estimated 25% of the U.S. adult population already has a criminal record and, with new felony convictions churning out at a rate of a million per year, America is well on its way to becoming a nation of ex-cons. Already, the ex-offender class is the nation’s biggest law-defined, legally discriminated-against minority group, and it is growing. The adverse social implications of this trend remain unclear and the critical demographic tipping point is …

Meeting The Youthful Inmate Standard: Addressing Operations, Finding Promising Practices And Knowing The Law, Brenda V. Smith, Elissa Rumsey, Carmen Daugherty

Presentations

No abstract provided.

Racial Justice Study: An Examination Of Ticket Citations In The City Of Mankato, Minnesota, Meagan Hammers, C. J. Hays, Hannah Laniado

Public Sociology Publications and Projects

This study examines if there is racial disparity in policing in the city of Mankato, Minnesota by examining all traffic ticket citations given for a six-month period in 2014. The authors created a data set and examined statistical relationships between the observed race of those receiving tickets and the types of tickets received. This study discovered statistically significant findings of over policing of minorities; while minorities represent roughly ten percent the population in Mankato, they make up approximately 22% of the population cited. Further, minorities were about three times more likely than whites to receive a ticket for administrative offenses, …

What We Should Learn From Garner And Ferguson Cases, Jeffrey Bellin

Popular Media

No abstract provided.

An Examination Of Violation Behavior Among Participating Offenders Involved In The Grant-Funded Rural Reentry Initiative Of Ohio Within Six Months After Release From Prison, Douglas Patrick, Brian Martin

Learning Showcase 2014

Prisoner reentry services currently face multiple implementation challenges when providing parolees an access to resources in rural communities. As an extension of existing evaluation efforts on Ohio’s Second Chance Act Grant-funded Rural Recidivism Reduction Program (OR3), this project will investigate post-prison violation behavior among a sample of offenders under supervision in a rural setting. Specifically, the project will serve as an examination of violation behavior among participating offenders involved in the grant-funded rural reentry initiative of Ohio within six months after release from prison.

Utilizing quasi experimental methods to compare outcomes among grant-funded participants and an appropriately selected comparison group, …

Eric Holder's Recent Curtailment Of Mandatory Minimum Sentencing, Its Implications, And Prospects For Effective Reform, Alan Dahl

Brigham Young University Journal of Public Law

No abstract provided.

The Extradition Proceedings Against General Augusto Pinochet: Is Justice Being Met Under International Law?, Anita C. Johnson

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

International Extradition Of Mexican Narcotics Traffickers: Prospects And Pitfalls For The New Millennium, Rishi Hingoraney

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Playing By Their Rules: The Death Penalty And Foreigners In Saudi Arabia, Mary Carter Duncan

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

In The Belly Of The Beast: A Comparison Of The Evolution And Status Of Prisoners' Rights In The United States And Europe, Roberta M. Harding

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Future Of The Fourth Amendment: The Problem With Privacy, Poverty And Policing, Kami Chavis Simmons

Faculty Publications

For decades, the reasonable expectation of privacy has been the primary standard by which courts have determined whether a "search" has occurred within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment. The Supreme Court's recent decision in U.S. v. Jones, however, has reinvigorated the physical trespass doctrine's importance when determining whether there has been a "search" triggering constitutional protection. Recognizing the unpredictability of the reasonable expectation of privacy doctrine and that doctrine's bias against the urban poor, many scholars hope that the Jones opinion may ameliorate the class divide that has developed in Fourth Amendment jurisprudence.

This Article argues that while …

The Unconvincing Case Against Private Prisons, Malcolm M. Feeley

Indiana Law Journal

In 2009, the Israeli High Court of Justice held that private prisons are unconstitutional. This was more than a domestic constitutional issue. The court anchored its decision in a carefully reasoned opinion arguing that the state has a monopoly on the administration of punishment, and thus private prisons violate basic principles of modern democratic governance. This position was immediately elaborated upon by a number of leading legal philosophers, and the expanded argument has reverberated among legal philosophers, global constitutionalists, and public officials around the world. Private prisons are a global phenomenon, and this argument now stands as the definitive principled …

The Inverse Relationship Between The Constitutionality And Effectiveness Of New York City "Stop And Frisk", Jeffrey Bellin

Faculty Publications

New York City sits at the epicenter of an extraordinary criminal justice phenomenon. While employing aggressive policing tactics, such as “stop and frisk,” on an unprecedented scale, the City dramatically reduced both violent crime and incarceration – with the connections between these developments (if any) hotly disputed. Further clouding the picture, in August 2013, a federal district court ruled the City’s heavy reliance on “stop and frisk” unconstitutional. Popular and academic commentary generally highlights isolated pieces of this complex story, constructing an incomplete vision of the lessons to be drawn from the New York experience. This Article brings together all …

New Death Breathes Life Into Old Fears: The Murder Of Rosemary Nelson And The Importance Of Reforming The Police In Northern Ireland, Howard J. Russell

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Minding Your Meds: Balancing The Needs For Patient Privacy And Law Enforcement In Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs, Devon T. Unger

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

An End To Silence: Inmate's Handbook On Identifying And Addressing Sexual Abuse, 3rd Edition, Brenda V. Smith

Research Reports & White Papers

"Though many correctional agencies have taken steps to comply with PREA standards and create safer environments for individuals in their care, inmates in custody still face sexual abuse and harassment by staff or other inmates. Staff and inmates still report problems identifying those at risk of sexual abuse, reporting sexual abuse, and holding those responsible for sexual abuse accountable. This publication is a tool for educating inmates about legal and other mechanisms, including the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA), that can provide protection and redress from sexual abuse in custodial settings" (p. 5). Sections of this handbook are: introduction; what …

Examining Student Perceptions: Ethics And Misconduct In Today's Police Department, William Andrew Davis

Master's Theses

Police ethics and decision making are issues of concern to both academic scholars and police leaders. While previous studies have focused on perceptions of police officers, little research has focused on the perceptions of young people about police ethical decision-making. This study aims to capture such perceptions from a cohort of college students majoring in criminal justice. Students from an undergraduate criminal justice program (n=263) were surveyed to determine their attitudes toward various ethical components of police work, including the prevalence of misconduct and the impact of a college education on ethical decision-making. Moreover, the effect of successful completion of …

Interpersonal Needs And Suicide: Strengthening Measurement In An Offender Population, Rose Angeline Gonzalez

Dissertations

A disproportionate number of prisoners suffer from mental illness and engage in suicidal ideation or behaviors when compared to community adults (Tartaro & Lester, 2005; Torrey, Kennard, Eslinger, Lamb, & Pavle, 2010), placing a heavy burden on the correctional system for both housing and mental health treatment (Baillargeon et al., 2009). The Interpersonal-Psychological (IP) theory has been offered as a comprehensive framework for understanding and evaluating suicide risk (Joiner, 2005). The theory delineates two components that underlie both suicidal ideation and suicide behaviors, called interpersonal needs and acquired capability (Joiner, 2005). Although this theory could offer a clinically useful method …

I Thought He Had A Gun: Amending New York's Justification Statute To Prevent Police Officers From Mistakenly Shooting Unarmed Black Men, Toussaint Cummings

Cardozo Public Law, Policy & Ethics Journal

The note advocates for reforming the legal standards governing police use of deadly force, particularly in cases involving unarmed Black men. It argues that racial stereotypes and implicit biases significantly influence officers' decisions to shoot, leading to unjustified shootings. The author proposes eliminating the subjective component of the justification defense, focusing instead on objective reasonableness and incorporating social science research to address these biases. The reforms aim to hold police accountable and promote justice by valuing Black lives equally.

Exploring Police Shootings And Officer Survivability: A Case Study, Amanda Leigh Farrell

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

Police shootings are incidents that have lasting effects on the officers involved, the department to which they belong and the community at large, yet these events are rarely discussed holistically with consideration given to the multiple parties impacted. Given the significant impacts, officer survivability and resilience in the aftermath of a shooting incident have become a topic with which most modern police agencies are concerned. While this number of lethal incidents may seem surprisingly low, there is often a narrow focus on the shooting incident itself, with little attention paid to pre-event factors or to the long and short term …

The Conversational Consent Search: How “Quick Look” And Other Similar Searches Have Eroded Our Constitutional Rights, Alexander A. Mikhalevsky

Georgia State University Law Review

One area in which law enforcement agencies have stretched constitutional limits concerns the scope of a suspect’s consent to search his or her vehicle. Police forces across the country have tested the limits of consent by asking vague, conversational questions to suspects with the goal of obtaining a suspect’s consent to search, even though that individual may not want to allow the search or may not know that he or she has the right to deny consent.

Conversational phrases like “Can I take a quick look?” or “Can I take a quick look around?” have “emerg[ed] as . . . …

Can Retributivism Be Saved?, Chad Flanders

BYU Law Review

Retributive theory has long held pride of place among theories of criminal punishment in both philosophy and in law. It has seemed, at various times, either much more intuitive, or rationally persuasive, or simply more normatively right than other theories. But retributive theory is limited, both in theory and practice, and in many of its versions is best conceived not as a theory of punishment in its own right, but instead as shorthand for a set of constraints on the exercise of punishment. Whether some version of retributive theory is a live possibility in the contemporary world remains very much …