Law Commons^™

What About The Victims? Domestic Violence, Hearsay, And The Confrontation Clause In The Aftermath Of Davis V. Washington, Stacey Gauthier

University of Massachusetts Law Review

This article analyzes the Sixth Amendment right to confrontation, admission of hearsay statements, and the effect of the Davis decision on the prosecution of domestic violence cases. Part II discusses the history of the Confrontation Clause. Part III discusses hearsay prior to Crawford. Parts IV, V, and VI discuss the landmark cases Crawford v. Washington, Commonwealth v. Gonsalves, and Davis v. Washington, respectively, with regard to whether statements made to police are admissible when the declarant is not available to testify at trial. The reasons why the Supreme Court’s extension of the Confrontation Clause is unwarranted are contained …

Virginia's Gap Between Punishment And Culpability: Re-Examining Self-Defense Law And Battered Women's Syndrome, Kendall Hamilton

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Post-9/11 Illegal Immigrant Detention And Deportation: Terrorism And The Criminalization Of Immigration, Stefany N. Laun

Student Publications

This paper analyzes the changes in immigration policy since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 in terms of how immigrants are viewed in the United States. The goal is to address the recent criminalization of immigration in that the perceptions of terrorists and immigrants have become relatively synonymous since 2001. Although deportations have decreased, immigrant detention has increased significantly. Detention centers pose threats to the basic human rights of the immigrants residing in them, as well as perpetuate the culture of fear enveloping recent immigrants, whether they are legally or illegally in the country, and native United States citizens …

Is Burglary A Violent Crime? An Empirical Investigation Of Classifying Burglary As A Violent Felony And Its Statutory Implications, Phillip Kopp

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Under the common law, burglary is defined as a crime committed against the property of another, and is listed as a property offense for purposes of statistical description by the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) and the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). However, burglary is prosecuted and sentenced as a violent crime under habitual offender laws at the federal level, and can be regarded as violent in state law, depending on varied circumstances. Using a mixed methods approach, the current study compared state and federal burglary and habitual offender statutes to an empirical description of the offense. First, a comprehensive content …

A Comprehensive Administrative Solution To The Armed Career Criminal Act Debacle , Avi M. Kupfer

Michigan Law Review

For thirty years, the Armed Career Criminal Act (“ACCA”) has imposed a fifteen-year mandatory minimum sentence on those people convicted as felons in possession of a firearm or ammunition who have three prior convictions for a violent felony or serious drug offense. Debate about the law has existed mainly within a larger discussion on the normative value of mandatory minimums. Assuming that the ACCA endures, however, administering it will continue to be a challenge. The approach that courts use to determine whether past convictions qualify as ACCA predicate offenses creates ex ante uncertainty and the potential for intercourt disparities. Furthermore, …

Balancing The First Amendment And Child Protection Goals In Legal Approaches To Restricting Children's Access To Violent Video Games: A Comparison Of Germany And The United States, Laura Tate Kagel

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Convergeing Around The Study Of Gender Violence: The Gender Violence Clinic At The University Of Maryland Carey School Of Law, Leigh S. Goodmark

Leigh S. Goodmark

Domestic violence clinics have been a staple of law school clinical programs since the 1980s. The University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law recently created the nation’s first Gender Violence Clinic, however. This article describes the motivation for taking a broader approach to gender based violence, the types of cases handled by the clinic, the challenges posed by the clinic structure, and the pedagogical goals for the clinic.

What Will It Take? Terrorism, Mass Murder, Gang Violence, And Suicides: The American Way, Or Do We Strive For A Better Way?, Katherine L. Record, Lawrence O. Gostin

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The assertion that access to firearms makes us safe, rather than increases the likelihood that oneself or a family member will die, is contradicted by a large body of evidence. Gunshots kill more than 30,000 Americans each year. Homicide accounts for approximately one-third of these deaths, with the remainder involving suicides and accidental gun discharges. In fact, firearms put us at greater risk of death than participating in war; in four months, as many Americans were shot dead in the United States as have died fighting in Iraq for an entire decade. Given these grim statistics, it would be reasonable …

Slipping Between Danger, Pleasure And The Law: Thoughts On Three Recent Books Addressing Sexuality., Ummni Khan

Dalhousie Law Journal

Sexuality is slippery. It slips, for example, between pleasure and danger, between surrender and repression, and between force (the kind that turns some of us on) and violence (the kind that terrorizes us). It can be a site of intense oppression and unwanted objectification, and also ofempowerment and affirming desirability. In this review, I address three recent books that reckon with the ambivalence of sexuality in relation to the law and regulatory practices.

Closing The Loop: "The Promise And Threat Of The Sacred" In Rian Johnson’S Looper, Brian W. Nail

Journal of Religion & Film

This article examines the ways in which Rian Johnson’s recent film Looper (2012) portrays the complex relationship between violence and the sacred in contemporary society through its exploration of the theme of retribution. Utilizing René Girard’s theory of sacrifice and Roberto Esposito’s explication of the immunitary logic of the sacred, this study argues that the film reveals the double nature of the sacred as a source of both life and death within society. Through an examination of crucial elements of Looper’s plot and setting, and in particular its enigmatic climax, I argue that as a religious film, Looper challenges its …

The Future Of The Law Of Armed Conflict: Ostriches, Butterflies, And Nanobots , Eric Talbot Jensen

Michigan Journal of International Law

The historical fact that the law of armed conflict (LOAC) has always lagged behind current methods of warfare does not mean that it always must. This Article will argue that the underlying assumption that law must be reactive is not an intrinsic reality inherent in effective armed conflict governance. Rather, just as military practitioners work steadily to predict new threats and defend against them, LOAC practitioners need to focus on the future of armed conflict and attempt to be proactive in evolving the law to meet future needs.

Womenpowerconnect Newsletter, Professor Vibhuti Patel

Professor Vibhuti Patel

Dear Friends, It is once again time to reflect on WomenPowerConnect’s work and achievements over the last three months. WPC has continued to develop and expand its advocacy agenda and targeted concern for women on child marriage supported by Ford Foundation, Women’s land rights and property supported by Oxfam India, and Enhancing access of the Mobile population to HIV & AIDS services’ information & support in collaboration with Care India. The projects in hand are progressing well along with other activities. Many achievements have been made in advocacy and networking while many new highs have to be touched in the …

A Provocative Defense, Aya Gruber

Aya Gruber

It is common wisdom that the provocation defense is, quite simply, sexist. For decades, there has been a trenchant feminist critique that the doctrine reflects and reinforces masculine norms of violence and shelters brutal domestic killers. The critique is so prominent that it appears alongside the doctrine itself in leading criminal law casebooks. The feminist critique of provocation embodies several claims about provocation's problematically gendered nature, including that the defense is steeped in chauvinist history, treats culpable sexist killers too leniently, discriminates against women, and expresses bad messages. This article offers a (likely provocative) defense of the provocation doctrine. While …

In Search Of Refuge: Mexican Refugees And Asylum Seekers To The U.S. From 1980 To The Present, Taylor Kristine Levy

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

An estimated 130,000 Mexicans have been murdered since 2006, with another 27,000 having been officially "disappeared;" approximately 2-3% of the adult Mexican population has been forced to leave their homes due to this violence, many of whom have entered the United States seeking refuge (Molloy, 2013; Olivares, 2012). These refugees have emigrated using a variety of both authorized and unauthorized channels, with a significant (and increasing) number applying for political asylum in the United States (Lyst, 2013). This Thesis seeks to provide a historic background and comprehensive analysis of the identity and struggles of the four types of modern Mexican …

The Legacy Of Stop And Frisk: Addressing The Vestiges Of A Violent Police Culture, Kami Chavis Simmons

Faculty Publications

For many years, the New York City Police Department ("NYPD") has engaged in a practice known as "Stop and Frisk." This policy allows officers, based on reasonable suspicion that criminal activity is afoot, to engage in investigatory stops and to conduct a pat down of the outer clothing of the individual if there is reasonable suspicion that the suspect is armed.

While there is an abundance of analysis regarding the detrimental impact of the stop-and-frisk policy, particularly the allegations of racial discrimination, an under examined facet of this policy and its implementation is the inherently violent nature of these encounters. …

Safety Over Semantics: The Case For Statutory Protection For Domestic Violence Asylum Applicants., Spencer Kyle

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

Women and children make up the vast majority of the world’s refugee population. However, in the United States, the majority of successful applicants are men. Asylum seekers who assert claims of domestic violence are largely unsuccessful. The current immigration laws do not take gender into account when determining societal factors for obtaining asylum. People often misinterpret most foreign domestic violence allegations as differences of religion or cultural practices. Many believe domestic violence against women is solely a private issue and not the product of a political or social system designed to make women inferior to men. This dichotomy allows people …

Rethinking Domestic Violence, Rethinking Violence, Aya Gruber

Publications

No abstract provided.

In The Civic Republic: Crime, The Inner City, And The Democracy Of Arms—Being A Disquisition On The Revival Of The Militia At Large, Robert J. Cottrol, Raymond T. Diamond

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

This Article examines the modern utility of the Second Amendment’s guarantee of “the right to keep and bear arms” in light of the phenomenon of modern crime, particularly black-on-black violence in urban America. Although many advocates of gun control have argued that crime in modern cities is a reason for modifying or severely truncating the right to have arms, the Authors argue that the right to have arms and the Second Amendment’s notion of a universal militia can be the basis of a new partnership between police and citizens in urban America. This new partnership can, if properly developed, be …

Contemporary Practice Of The United States Relating To International Law, Kristina Daugirdas, Julian Davis Mortenson

Articles

• Progress Is Made Implementing U.S.-Russia Framework for Eliminating Syrian Chemical Weapons • United States Advocates for Syrian Peace Conference • United States Extends Deadline for Signing of Bilateral Security Agreement with Afghanistan • China Announces New Air Defense Identification Zone over East China Sea, Prompting U.S. Response • United States and Six Other States Reach Interim Agreement on Iranian Nuclear Program

Martial Lawyers: Lawyering And War-Waging In American History, Bernard J. Hibbitts

Articles

American lawyers like to celebrate themselves as practitioners of peaceful dispute resolution. On public and professional occasions they proudly proclaim their loyalty to the rule of law over brute force. From the very beginnings of colonization, however, lawyers in America have been primary wagers of war. Leaving aside for the moment professional soldiers who only proliferated in significant numbers in the late 19th century, lawyers as an occupational group have been uniquely prominent in American history as invaders, battlefield commanders and soldiers, militia leaders, armed revolutionaries, filibusters, rebels, paramilitary intelligence agents, proponents of militarism, and civilian war managers. Over the …

Preventing Violence Against Women And Girls, Michael Flood

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

Men’s violence against women and girls is a blunt expression of the pervasive gender inequalities that characterize countries across the globe. Men’s violence against women both expresses and maintains men’s power over women. Indeed, rape, domestic violence and other forms of violence have been seen as paradigmatic expressions of the operation of male power over women (Miller and Biele 1993, p. 53). Whether in workplaces or elsewhere, efforts to build gender equality must reckon with men’s violence against women.