Law Commons^™

Gates & Crowley, Patrol Officer’S Tool Box: Mandatory Conflict Resolution Skills For Police Officers, Christopher C. Cooper

Christopher C. Cooper Dr.

What happened between a Harvard professor and a street cop from Cambridge was a Testosterone laden confrontation fueled by ego of, and misconceptions held by, both men. In the police academy, we spend hours and hours learning how to fire a gun and then have to go back to the gun range on a regular basis, but not one class or even one hour is spent crafting the best way to talk with citizens. A famous criminologist (Muir) in his studies of American police used the phrase “Streetcorner” Politician to describe the uniformed police officer. What comes to mind of …

Yes Virginia, There Is A Police Code Of Silence: Prosecuting Police Officers And The Police Subculture, Christopher C. Cooper

Christopher C. Cooper Dr.

Successfully prosecuting police officers for police malfeasance represents formidable challenges. These challenges are not impenetrable. Prosecutor attention to the secrets of the Code of Silence, many of which are on public display, thanks to generous leaks, is an absolute necessity. This author has encountered and interacted with prosecutors as a Police Officer (in particular as a policeman in Washington D.C. [Metropolitan Police]) and as a Plaintiff’s attorney. The one thing that he noticed as a cop and continues to notice (now as a practicing civil rights attorney) about attorneys who defend or prosecute police officers is that most attorneys have …

Law Enforcement And Intelligence Gathering In Muslim And Immigrant Communities After 9/11, David A. Harris

David A Harris

LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE GATHERING IN MUSLIM AND IMMIGRANT COMMUNITIES AFTER 9/11 DAVID A. HARRIS ABSTRACT Since the attacks of September 11, 2001, law enforcement agencies have actively sought partnerships with Muslim communities in the U.S. Consistent with community-based policing, these partnerships are designed to persuade members of these communities to share information about possible extremist activity. These cooperative efforts have borne fruit, resulting in important anti-terrorism prosecutions. But during the past several years, law enforcement has begun to use another tactic simultaneously: the FBI and some police departments have placed informants in mosques and other religious institutions to gather …

Race In The War On Drugs: The Social Consequences Of Presidential Rhetoric, Jeff L. Yates, Andrew Whitford

Jeff L Yates

One of the president’s main leadership tools for influencing the direction of American legal policy is public rhetoric. Numerous studies have examined the president’s use of the “bully pulpit” to lead policy by influencing Congress or public opinion, or by changing the behavior of public agencies. We argue that the president can use rhetoric to change the behavior of public agencies and that this can have important social consequences. We focus on the disproportionate impact of presidential rhetoric on different “target populations” in the context of the War on Drugs. Specifically, we observe that presidential rhetoric had a greater impact …

Confusing Cause And Effect, Lawrence Rosenthal

Lawrence Rosenthal

This brief essay commenting on Paul Butler's article, "Race Based Jury Nullification: Black Power in the Criminal Justice System," prepared for the Criminal Law Conversations project, argues that Professor Butler's proposal of race-based jury nullification to address the African-American community's perception of racial injustice in the administration of the criminal laws, particularly the drug laws, confuses cause and effect. The most important cause of African-American dissatisfaction with the criminal justice system is its inability to keep inner-city communities safe. A regime of race-based jury nullification, in turn, would aggravate rather than ameliorate this serious problem.

Psychological And Cultural Aspects Of Interrogations And False Confessions: Using Research To Inform Legal Decision-Making, Richard A. Leo, Mark Costanzo, Netta Shaked-Schroer

Richard A. Leo

False confessions are a major cause of wrongful convictions. In many countries, physical abuse and torture are still used to extract confessions from criminal suspects. Cultural orientations such as collectivism and power distance may influence the tendency to confess, and a suspect's past experience in a country that uses physical abuse during interrogations may render suspects fearful and more prone to falsely confess. After looking at interrogations outside the United States, we examine the issue of why false confessions sometime occur in the U.S. legal system. We prove an overview of the stages of a typical interrogation and provide a …

Police Paternalism: Community Caretaking, Assistance Searches, And Fourth Amendment Reasonableness, Michael R. Dimino

Michael R Dimino