Criminal Law Commons^™

An Exploratory Examination Of A Prison Disciplinary Process: Assessing Staff And Prisoner’ Perceptions Of Fairness, Ann Marie Rocheleau

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

There has been scant research on how prison disciplinary processes work in comparison to the myriad of studies on individual, situational, and prison-level factors associated with prison misbehavior. This exploratory research delved into staff and prisoners’ perceptions of a prison system’s disciplinary process. Using in-depth interviews with 25 staff and 25 prisoners as well as direct observation of classification and disciplinary hearings, this research primarily focused on perceptions of fairness. It uncovered those features of the disciplinary process that prisoners and some staff assessed as problematic and unfair. These included: the nature, consistency, and investigation of disciplinary reports, the use …

Duran, Robert J., Gang Life In Two Cities: An Insider’S Journey, Robert Donald Weide

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"In his newly published book, former gang member and probation officer Robert J. Duran provides both a compelling comparative ethnography of gang life in two middle American cities, Denver, Colorado and Ogden, Utah, as well as a needed critical analysis of both the historical and contemporary roles of colonial oppression and law enforcement practices and policies that have contributed to the formation and perpetuation of gang identities in the barrios of those cities. Although neither cites the other’s work, I think it is fair to cast Duran’s book as a counterpart to Michelle Alexander’s celebrated work The New Jim Crow …

Howard S. Becker, Outsiders: Studies In The Sociology Of Deviance, Kenneth D. Tunnell

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"While recently reviewing a manuscript submission for a sociology journal and noticing Becker’s (1963) appearance in the body of the text, I discovered, when skimming the references, that the citation read “The Outsiders.” I remember wondering just how familiar the authors may have been with Outsiders or if they had actually read it – given that they got the title wrong. After all, Outsiders has become one of those books that simply must be cited. And, with growing interest among younger scholars in field research, deviant groups, cultural criminology and inductive analysis, Outsiders has become symbolic of good work that …

Student’S Crime Data Research Attracts National Ethics Symposium Attention, Kim Hill

News and Events (Discontinued Series)

No abstract provided.

Ministry Of Palestinian Prisoners V. Minister Of Defense, Edna Arbel, Isaac Amit, Uri Shoham

Translated Opinions

[This abstract is not part of the Court's opinion and is provided for the reader's convenience. It has been translated from a Hebrew version prepared by Nevo Press Ltd. and is used with its kind permission.]

The Petitions request shortening the periods of detention prescribed in the security legislation in the West Bank, including in the Order Regarding Security Provisions [Consolidated Version] (Judea and Samaria) (no. 1651), 5770-2009 (hereinafter: the “Order”), such that they match the periods applicable to Israeli citizens in the West Bank and those of detentions prescribed in Israel.

The High Court of Justice (Justice E. Arbel, …

Summary Of Lachance V. State, 130 Nev. Adv. Op. 29, Brian Vasek

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The Court determined whether (1) the sufficiency of the evidence supported the defendant’s domestic battery by strangulation and domestic battery causing substantial bodily harm convictions; (2) the convictions and sentences for possession with intent to sell and simple possession based on possession of the same controlled substance violates the Double Jeopardy Clause; (3) the defendant received adequate notice of the State’s intent to seek habitual criminal status; and (4) the district court properly adjudicated the defendant as a habitual criminal.

Will There Be A Neurolaw Revolution?, Adam Kolber

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Applying Sex Offender Registry Laws To Juvenile Offenders: Biases Against Adolescents From Stigmatized Groups, Jessica M. Salerno, Margaret Stevenson, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Tisha R.A. Wiley, Bette L. Bottoms, Liana Peter-Hagene

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

The need to protect children from dangerous sex offenders has led to policies that require juvenile sex offenders to register on public online registries. It is important to determine the implications of these laws for the wellbeing of child victims and also for juvenile offenders on these registries. Is the application of these laws—designed for adult offenders—to juveniles appropriate, necessary, and supported by public sentiment? The chapter reviews current sex offender registration policies and psychological research addressing whether the assumptions underlying these laws are supported by research, public sentiment toward these laws, factors that might drive biases against stigmatized youth …

The Role Of Litigation In The Fight Against Prescription Drug Abuse, Richard C. Ausness

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Capital Defenders As Outsider Lawyers, Kathryn A. Sabbeth

Chicago-Kent Law Review

What role can lawyers play in the internal disputes of a community to which they are outsiders? This essay highlights two core rationales for outsider intervention in support of internal dissent. It examines these rationales in the case of capital defenders from the U.S. North in the U.S. South. The position as an outsider can provide the will and freedom to launch direct attacks on injustice. Frequently, outsiders also bring superior resources for the fight. When outsiders engage in direct social critique, however, they can be accused of cultural imperialism. As an alternative, outsider lawyers can marshal indirect challenges, using …

Rethinking Traditional Conceptions Of Child Pornography: An Analysis Of How The U.S. Supreme Court Decision In Stevens Impacts The Illinois Supreme Court's Decision In People V. Hollins, James D. Konstantopoulos

Chicago-Kent Law Review

In 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court, in deciding United States v. Stevens, held that rational basis review was no longer sufficient to criminalize depictions of acts if the acts depicted are themselves legal. In 2009, Marshall Hollins entered into a consensual sexual relationship with his seventeen-year old girlfriend. As is becoming common in our technological era, where every phone can record video and photographs and send those files to other devices, Mr. Hollins and his girlfriend used the technology available to them to document one of their excursions. Following his conviction for child pornography, Mr. Hollins challenged the Constitutionality of …

Lost In Translation: The Accidental Origins Of Bond V. United States, Kevin L. Cope

Michigan Law Review First Impressions

One of the unusual features of cases about the constitutionality of federal statutes is that they are nearly always foreseeable. Even before the bill’s introduction in Congress, lawmakers are often aware that they are inviting a federal lawsuit. Anticipating a legal challenge, legislators and their staffs attempt to predict the courts’ views of the statute and adapt the bill accordingly. Generally speaking, the bigger the bill’s potential constitutional impact, the more foreseeable the resulting case. By this logic, jurists should have seen the constitutional issues in Bond v. United States from a mile away. In reality, they were foreseen by …

Unpermitted Urban Agriculture: Transgressive Actions, Changing Norms And The Local Food Movement, Sarah B. Schindler

Faculty Publications

Roberta keeps four chickens in her backyard. Bob snuck onto the vacant lot next door, which the bank foreclosed upon and now owns, and planted a vegetable garden. Vien operates an occasional underground restaurant from his friends’ microbrewery after beer-making operations cease for the day. The common thread tying these actions together is that they are unauthorized; they are being undertaken in violation of existing laws and often norms. In this Article, I explore ideas surrounding the overlap between food policy and land use law, specifically the transgressive1 actions that people living in urban and suburban communities are undertaking to …

Sentence Creep: Increasing Penalties In Michigan And The Need For Sentencing Reform, Anne Yantus

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The governor and several legislators have requested review of Michigan’s sentencing practices with an eye toward sentence reform. Michigan leads the country in the average length of prison stay, and by internal comparisons the average minimum sentence has nearly doubled in the last decade. This Article explores cumulative increases to criminal penalties over the last several decades as reflected in amendments to the sentencing guidelines, increased maximum sentences, harsh mandatory minimum terms, increased authority for consecutive sentencing, wide sentencing discretion for habitual and repeat drug offenders, and tough parole practices and policies. The reality for legislators is that it is …

Truth Stories: Credibility Determinations At The Illinois Torture Inquiry And Relief Commission, 45 Loy. U. Chi. L.J. 1085 (2014), Kim D. Chanbonpin

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

This is the first scholarly Article to investigate the inner workings of the Illinois Torture Inquiry and Relief Commission (“TIRC”). The TIRC was established by statute in 2009 to provide legal redress for victims of police torture. Prisoners who claim that their convictions were based on confessions coerced by police torture can utilize the procedures available at the TIRC to obtain judicial review of their cases. For those who have exhausted all appeals and post-conviction remedies, the TIRC represents the tantalizing promise of justice long denied. To be eligible for relief, however, the claimant must first meet the TIRC’s strict …

The Invisible Women: Have Conceptions About Femininity Led To The Global Dominance Of The Female Human Trafficker?, 7 Alb. Gov't L. Rev. 143 (2014), Samuel Vincent Jones

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

Virtually no academic or media attention has been dedicated to female traffickers, or female delinquency, in general. Human trafficking, like other crimes, has been myopically constructed, marketed, and viewed through news reports, cinema, literature, and criminal statutes as a heinous male-perpetrated offense against women and girls, rendering the female trafficker practically invisible. This essay questions the soundness and viability of continued reliance on the female victim-male culprit paradigm, used by many countries to prevent human trafficking. It confronts contemporary assumptions about femininity, violence, and aggression, calling particular attention to American cultural suppositions about femaleness that have detrimentally influenced our capacity …

Environmental Law, Public Health, And The Values Conundrum, David M. Uhlmann

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

In September 1996, when I was nearing the end of my sixth year as a Justice Department environmental crimes prosecutor, one of my colleagues sent me an email that there was a “good-sounding RCRA [Resource Conservation and Recovery Act] knowing endangerment case developing in Idaho.” A twenty-year-old man named Scott Dominguez had collapsed inside a storage tank at an Idaho fertilizer manufacturing facility called Evergreen Resources. Mr. Dominguez could not be rescued for nearly an hour, because firefighters who responded to the scene did not know what was in the tank and what safety precautions they needed to take before …

Just Outcomes, Overreaching Rationales: How International Criminal Law's Achievements Augur Flawed Responses To Political Violence, Brad R. Roth

Law Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.

Conditions Of Confinement At Sentencing: The Case Of Seriously Disordered Offenders, E. Lea Johnston

UF Law Faculty Publications

At sentencing, a judge can often foresee that an individual, given his major mental disorder and other vulnerabilities, will experience serious harm in prison. These harms may include psychological deterioration and mental distress, attempted suicide, or victimization by staff or other inmates. In response, some jurisdictions allow a judge to commit a disordered offender for treatment in lieu of incarceration, while others designate need for treatment and undue offender hardship as mitigating factors for use at sentencing. None of these measures, however, goes far enough to protect vulnerable prisoners.

This Article builds a case for expanding judges’ sentencing power by …

The Prosecutor Prince: Misconduct, Accountability, And A Modest Proposal, H. Mitchell Caldwell

Catholic University Law Review

No abstract provided.

In Personam And Beyond The Grasp: In Search Of Jurisdiction And Accountability For Foreign Defendants, Andrew F. Popper

Catholic University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Finding The Solution In Wec Carolina Energy Solutions: The Computer Fraud And Abuse Act In The Workplace, Emily V. Malone

Catholic University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Magnifying Deterrence By Prosecuting Professionals, Scott Schumacher

Indiana Law Journal

This Article examines the recent series of criminal prosecutions against tax professionals and offshore bankers. These criminal cases, brought against the largest Swiss bank (UBS), the oldest Swiss bank (Wegelin), one of the largest accounting firms in the world (KPMG), as well as numerous lawyers and accountants, represent a dramatic shift for the U.S. Department of Justice. After decades of tolerating abusive tax shelters and tax haven banks, the government changed its policy. However, rather than indicting the individuals and corporations who invested in tax shelters or hid money in offshore accounts, the Justice Department indicted the lawyers, accountants, and …

Introduction To The Symposium On Child Witnesses In Sexual Abuse Cases, Carl T. Bogus

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Remaking Mexico: Law Reform As Foreign Policy, Deborah M. Weissman

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Survey Of State Fetal Homicide Laws And Their Potential Applicability To Pregnant Women Who Harm Their Own Fetuses, Andrew S. Murphy

Indiana Law Journal

A discussion of the recent case in which a pregnant Indiana woman named Bei Bei Shuai was prosecuted for fetal homicide following a failed suicide attempt and later miscarriage. The Comment uses this case as a comparison point for different cases and statutes in all fifty states and suggests possible principles for a more unified doctrine and approach.

What Was He Thinking? Mens Rea’S Deterrent Effect On Machinegun Possession Under 18 U.S.C. § 924 (C), Stephanie Power

Catholic University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Habeas Corpus Proceedings In The High Court Of Parliament In The Reign Of James I, 1603-1625, Donald E. Wilkes Jr.

Scholarly Works

English parliamentary habeas corpus proceedings have been neglected by scholars. This Article ends that neglect. This Article focuses on the parliamentary habeas corpus proceedings that occurred in the reign of King James. The Article corrects several misunderstandings relating to the history of the writ of habeas corpus in England and to the history of the English Parliament (which in the seventeenth century commonly was referred to as the High Court of Parliament).

Part I of the Article provides answers to questions concerning the historical background and context of the parliamentary habeas corpus proceedings in the High Court of Parliament during …

Teaching The Methods Of White-Collar Practice: Investigatios, Roger Fairfax

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

When Ijoined the George Washington University Law School [GW] faculty after practice as a federal prosecutor and white-collar criminal defense attorney, I quickly learned that a GW law student interested in exploring white-collar crime had a great many courses from which to choose. Several of my full-time colleagues teach courses that cover various topics relevant to white-collar crime, including a computer crimes course, a course in criminal tax litigation, and courses on anti-corruption in government contracting and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act [FCPA]. GW is also fortunate to have a dedicated and talented adjunct faculty, which includes a former senior …

Presumed Imminence: Judicial Risk Assessment In The Post-9/11 World, Avidan Y. Cover

Cardozo Law Review

Court opinions in the terrorism context are often distinguished by fact-finding that relates to risk assessment. These risk assessments - inherently policy decisions - are influenced by cultural cognition and by cognitive errors common to probability determinations, particularly those made regarding highly dangerous and emotional events. In a post-9/11 world, in which prevention and intelligence are prioritized over prosecution, courts are more likely to overstate the potential harm, neglect the probability, and presume the imminence of terrorist attacks. As a result, courts are apt to defer to the government and require less evidence in support of measures that curtail civil …