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Full-Text Articles in Law
Parole: Corpse Or Phoenix?, Paul J. Larkin Jr.
Parole: Corpse Or Phoenix?, Paul J. Larkin Jr.
Paul J Larkin Jr.
Parole, once praised for its contribution to the rehabilitative ideal and later vilified for its close association with the same goal, no longer plays a major role in the twenty-first century federal criminal justice system, having been replaced by fixed mandatory sentences and sentencing guidelines. Congress believed a mandatory Sentencing Guidelines system was the ideal means of ending or ameliorating the nationwide sentencing disparities that had plagued the federal criminal justice process for most of the twentieth century. Unfortunately, after initially and repeatedly upholding that mandatory Sentencing Guidelines system, the Supreme Court ultimately kicked that approach to the curb as …
Public Choice Theory And Overcriminalization, Paul J. Larkin Jr.
Public Choice Theory And Overcriminalization, Paul J. Larkin Jr.
Paul J Larkin Jr.
“Overcriminalization” is a neologism used to describe the overuse and misuse of the criminal law, oftentimes to punish conduct that society traditionally would not deem morally blameworthy. Overcriminalization is less a problem with the substantive criminal law than it is with the lawmaking process. Each new criminal law or sentence enhancement may be eminently sensible on its own, but may turn out to be utterly unreasonable when considered against the background of laws already on the books. In economic terms, the marginal benefit of each new criminal law may be nil, yet the marginal cost that each one imposes could …