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Full-Text Articles in Law
Race And Punishment: Demographic Disparities And Patterns In The Blue Earth County Court System, Aaron Guerdet, Alyssa Haugly, Kelsey Mischke
Race And Punishment: Demographic Disparities And Patterns In The Blue Earth County Court System, Aaron Guerdet, Alyssa Haugly, Kelsey Mischke
Public Sociology Publications and Projects
This study examines potential race and gender disparities in sentencing decisions in Blue Earth County, MN courts. Using qualitative field observations and a grounded theory approach, authors observed and analyzed court proceedings. In total, three researchers conducted seven weeks of observations; the final sample consisted of 95 observed court sessions, 50 of them being closed court cases. Results show little discrepancy in gender and charges and sentencing rates. Though there are racial discrepancies in charges that suggest discriminatory policing decisions, the data shows that minority members are being sentenced at a similar rate compared to white defendants. In all cases …
The Demographic Dilemma In Death Qualification Of Capital Jurors, J. Thomas Sullivan
The Demographic Dilemma In Death Qualification Of Capital Jurors, J. Thomas Sullivan
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Democracy Enhancement In Criminal Law And Procedure, Janet Moore
Democracy Enhancement In Criminal Law And Procedure, Janet Moore
Faculty Articles and Other Publications
There is a democracy deficit at the intersection of crime, race, and poverty. The causes and consequences of hyperincarceration disproportionately affect those least likely to mount an effective oppositional politics: poor people and people of color. This Article breaks new ground by arguing that the democracy deficit calls for a democracy-enhancing theory of criminal law and procedure that modifies traditional justifications of retributivism and deterrence by prioritizing self-governance. Part I contextualizes the argument within cyclical retrenchments in movements for racial and economic justice. Part II sketches the contours of a democracy-enhancing theory. Parts III and IV turn that theoretical lens …
The New Jim Crow? Recovering The Progressive Origins Of Mass Incarceration, Anders Walker
The New Jim Crow? Recovering The Progressive Origins Of Mass Incarceration, Anders Walker
All Faculty Scholarship
This article revisits the claim that mass incarceration constitutes a new form of racial segregation, or JimCrow. Drawing from historical sources, it demonstrates that proponents of the analogy miss an important commonality between the two phenomena, namely the debt that each owe to progressive and/or liberal politics. Though generally associated with repression and discrimination, both Jim Crow and massincarceration owe their existence in part to enlightened reforms aimed at promoting black interests; albeit with perverse results. Recognizing the aspirational origins of systematic discrimination marks an important facet of comprehending the persistence of racial inequality in the United States.
“To Corral And Control”: Stop, Frisk, And The Geography Of Freedom, Anders Walker
“To Corral And Control”: Stop, Frisk, And The Geography Of Freedom, Anders Walker
All Faculty Scholarship
This article revisits the emergence of stop and frisk law in the 1960s to make three points. One, the impetus for formalizing police stops arose midst confusion generated by Mapp v. Ohio, the landmark Warren Court opinion incorporating the exclusionary rule to the states. Two, police over-reactions to Mapp intersected with fears of urban riots, leading to a formalization of stop and frisk rules that aimed at better containing inner city minority populations. Three, the heightened control of urban streets coupled with the heightened protection of the private home bore geographic implications, interiorizing liberty in ways that perpetuated a national …