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Full-Text Articles in Law
Judicial Elections, Public Opinion, And Their Impact On State Criminal Justice Policy, Travis N. Taylor
Judicial Elections, Public Opinion, And Their Impact On State Criminal Justice Policy, Travis N. Taylor
Theses and Dissertations--Political Science
This dissertation explores whether and how the re-election prospects faced by trial court judges in many American states influence criminal justice policy, specifically, state levels of incarceration, as well as the disparity in rates of incarceration for Whites and Blacks. Do states where trial court judges must worry about facing reelection tend to encourage judicial behavior that results in higher incarceration rates? And are levels of incarceration and racial disparities in the states influenced by the proportion of the state publics who want more punitive policies? These are clearly important questions because they speak directly to several normative and empirical …
Drug Law Reform—Retreating From An Incarceration Addiction, Robert G. Lawson
Drug Law Reform—Retreating From An Incarceration Addiction, Robert G. Lawson
Law Faculty Scholarly Articles
Now, thirty years into the "war on drugs," views about the law's reliance on punishment to fix the drug problem are less conciliatory and more absolute: "[t]he notion that 'the drug war is a failure' has become the common wisdom in academic ... circles." Those who have most closely studied the results of the "war" believe that it has "accomplished little more than incarcerating hundreds of thousands of individuals whose only crime was the possession of drugs." More importantly, they believe that it has had little if any effect on the drug problem: "Despite the fact that the number of …