Criminal Law Commons^™

Judging By The Cover: On The Relationship Between Media Coverage On Crime And Harshness In Sentencing, Itay Ravid

Faculty Publications

Does the mass media affect judicial decisionmaking? This first of its kind empirical study delves into this long-lasting question, and investigates the relationship between media coverage of crime and criminal sentencing. To do so, I construct a novel data set of media reports on crime, which I link to administrative state court sentencing records. The data span five years and more than forty-three thousand sentencing decisions across three jurisdictions that differ in their judicial selection models: Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. I find that crime coverage increases sentencing harshness. I also find evidence to suggest that this effect is mitigated through …

Deportation Arrest Warrants, Lindsay Nash

Articles

The common conception of a constitutionally sufficient warrant is one reflecting a judicial determination of probable cause, the idea being that the warrant process serves to check law enforcement. But neither the Constitution nor the Supreme Court has fully defined who can issue arrest warrants within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment; the constitutional significance of arrest “warrants” that are not; or when (if ever) warrants of any type are constitutionally required for deportation-related arrests. In that void, the largest federal law enforcement agency—the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)—is on pace to issue over 150,000 administrative “warrants” annually, authorized by …

Whose Rights Matter More—Police Privacy Or A Defendant’S Right To A Fair Trial?, Laurie L. Levenson

Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review

The function of the prosecutor under the federal Constitution is not to tack as many skins of victims as possible to the wall. His function is to vindicate the right of the people as expressed in the laws and give those accused of crime a fair trial.

– William O. Douglas

Screening And Charging Practices Of Three Mid-Sized Jurisdictions, Deason Criminal Justice Reform Center

Deason Center Reports

Understanding how prosecutors make their screening and charging decisions is essential to criminal legal reform. This preview report is the first in a series of publications that explores the screening and charging practices of prosecutors in three mid-sized jurisdictions. Through an innovative mixed-methods empirical study, the series provides a holistic account of prosecutors’ charging practices.

Willful Blindness As Mere Evidence, Gregory M. Gilchrist

Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review

The willful blindness doctrine at criminal law is well-established and generally fits with moral intuitions of guilt. It also stands in direct tension with the first principle of American criminal law: legality. This Article argues that courts could largely preserve the doctrine and entirely avoid the legality problem with a simple shift: willful blindness ought to be reconceptualized as a form of evidence.

Caught In-Between: A Video Essay Of Masculine Identity And Methamphetamine Use In The Rural South, Heith Copes, Jared Ragland, Adam Forrester

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

Since the Great Recession in 2007, rural employment rates have been steadily increasing. According to a 2020 United States Department of Agriculture report, rural unemployment has been at its lowest in over a decade. However, such aggregate trends overlook an important aspect of work—its meaningfulness. In many small towns throughout the Southern United States, much of the available work pays little and demands much on the body. As a result, meaningful employment is often out of reach for some men living in the rural South.

Opening The “Black Box” Of Federal Illegal Reentry Sentencing: A Non-Participant Observational Analysis Of Sentencing Constraints And Judicial Discretion, Kevin Buckler

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"Judicial discretion in sentencing has historically produced disparities in criminal sentencing outcomes. In an effort to address disparity at the federal level, in 1984, the U.S. Congress passed legislation that led to the creation of the U.S. Sentencing Commission and subsequently the adoption of federal sentencing guidelines. Studies show that even among similarly situated defendants (in terms of offense score and criminal history category) disparities have persisted regardless of the sentencing guidelines. An understudied source of disparity is the combined and interactive role of judges, prosecutors, and defense attorneys in the application of the guidelines and the statutory framework that …

Miriam Boeri, Hurt: Chronicles Of The Drug War Generation, Kathleen E. Padilla

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

In 1971, President Nixon officially declared the War on Drugs. Flash forward to 2020 and the prison population is approximately 2.3 million people, with 1 in 5 of those individuals having been incarcerated for a non-violent drug offense (Wagner & Wagner, 2020). Among those caught up in drug offenses stemming from the policies enacted during the War on Drugs, the majority are baby boomers. Baby boomers are those that are born between the years 1946 and 1964, and whose current population is approximately 73 million, the second largest generation aside from Millennials (Census, 2019). By the start of the 21st …

Forced Interactions With Sheriff Deputies Over Time And Their Influence On Stigma And Self Identities Among Individuals Convicted Of Sex Crimes, Lisa L. Sample, Brooke Cooley, Tusty Ten Bensel, Carin Hyter, Brett Hurley

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"This paper examined the perceptions of convicted sex offenders and their interactions with law enforcement over time. Specifically, we focused on how formal interactions influenced stigma management and self-identity transformation. For decades, scholars have proposed that identities and behaviors often result from interactions with others. Sex offender registration and notification laws force interactions between registrants and police agents for years, if not a lifetime. Given that desistance from sex offending is dependent on prosocial identity transformation, we analyzed interviews with 63 registrants to uncover how interactions with police promote or inhibit identity transformation over time. Our findings suggested interactions with …

Interpersonal Interaction Between Prisoners And Officers In Prisons: A Qualitative Meta-Synthesis Exploring Prison Officer Wellbeing, Davinia Rizzo, Belinda Davey, Melanie Irons

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"The wellbeing of prison officers has primarily been understood as a function of contextual variables such as their workplace and the nature of their role. Yet the research suggests the officers’ gender and tenure are the only statistically significant predictors of wellbeing for this population (Butler, Tasca, Zhang, & Carpenter, 2019). These findings suggest that variables at the person level may be more important than contextual variables. As such, we conducted a qualitative, meta-synthesis to explore how interpersonal interactions between prisoners and prison officers may affect the health and wellbeing of prison officers. Following a systematic review of the literature, …

Military Service And Offending Behaviors Of Emerging Adults: A Conceptual Review, Christopher Salvatore, Travis Taniguchi

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Focusing on the United States, this paper examines the impact of military service for the cohort of individuals that have experienced the social factors that characterize emerging adulthood as a unique stage in the life course. We argue that military service, as a turning point, may act differently in contemporary times compared to findings from past research. This difference is driven by changes in military service, the draft versus volunteer military service, and the prevalence of emerging adulthood. As a background, we describe emerging adulthood, examine how emerging adulthood relates to crime and deviance, explore the impact of military life …

The Political Economy Of Enforcer Liability For Wrongful Police Stops, Tim Friehe, Murat C. Mungan

Faculty Scholarship

This article questions whether excessive policing practices can persist in an environment where law enforcement policies are subject to political pressures. Specifically, it considers a setting where the police decide whether to conduct stops based on the suspiciousness of a person's behavior and the potential liability for conducting a wrongful stop. We establish that the liability level that results in a voting equilibrium is smaller than optimal, and consequently, that excessive policing practices emerge in equilibrium.

Rethinking The Reasonable Response: Safeguarding The Promise Of Kingsley For Conditions Of Confinement, Hanna Rutkowski

Michigan Law Review

Nearly five million individuals are admitted to America’s jails each year, and at any given time, two-thirds of those held in jail have not been convicted of a crime. Under current Supreme Court doctrine, these pretrial detainees are functionally protected by the same standard as convicted prisoners, despite the fact that they are formally protected by different constitutional amendments. A 2015 decision, Kingsley v. Hendrickson, declared that a different standard would apply to pretrial detainees and convicted prisoners in the context of use of force: consistent with the Constitution’s mandate that they not be punished at all, pretrial detainees …

The Crime Of Contempt Of Religions In International And National Laws, Dr. Jamal Barafi, Dr. Alia Zakaria

UAEU Law Journal

The protection of the religious sanctities of the individual is not of lesser importance than the protection of his physical entity, because of the relation of these sanctities with his cultural and civilizational entity. There is no doubt that the constant increase of prejudice and abuse of these sanctities require the need to provide adequate legal protection for it. It is well known that the individual has the right, in principle, to choose freely his religious beliefs and practice it’s rituals, but this does not mean that this right is without restrictions and limitations.

Despite the numerous legal provisions that …

The Legal Framework For The Participation Of The Victim During The Preliminary Investigation Procedures: A Comparative Study Between The Jordanian And The Emirati Laws, Dr. Moayed Al-Qudah, Dr. Mamoun Abu Zeitoun

UAEU Law Journal

This paper is written to provide an evaluative, critical, and comparative study of the role of the victims of crime during primary criminal investigation under both the criminal procedural laws of Jordan and United Arab Emirate. It aims to suggest changes to the victim’s role, expectation and extent of positive involvement in criminal proceedings during primary criminal investigation. To achieve this goal, the paper explores the current state of law in both laws on the victims’ rights during this stage of the criminal case, and it goes on to discuss some changes that should be made for the justice system …

Algorithmic Legal Metrics, Dan L. Burk

Notre Dame Law Review

Predictive algorithms are increasingly being deployed in a variety of settings to determine legal status. Algorithmic predictions have been used to determine provision of health care and social services, to allocate state resources, and to anticipate criminal behavior or activity. Further applications have been proposed to determine civil and criminal liability or to “personalize” legal default rules. Deployment of such artificial intelligence (AI) systems has properly raised questions of algorithmic bias, fairness, transparency, and due process. But little attention has been paid to the known sociological costs of using predictive algorithms to determine legal status. A large and growing social …

Transparency In Plea Bargaining, Jenia I. Turner

Notre Dame Law Review

Plea bargaining is the dominant method by which our criminal justice system resolves cases. More than ninety-five percent of state and federal convictions today are the product of guilty pleas. Yet the practice continues to draw widespread criticism. Critics charge that it is too coercive and leads innocent defendants to plead guilty, that it obscures the true facts in criminal cases and produces overly lenient sentences, and that it enables disparate treatment of similarly situated defendants.

Another feature of plea bargaining—its lack of transparency—has received less attention, but is also concerning. In contrast to the trials it replaces, plea bargaining …

Aspects Of The Penal Protection On The Right Of Defense Before The Investigative And Judicial Authorities: A Comparative Study, Dr. Abdulaziz Al-Hassan

UAEU Law Journal

The right of defense in front of investigation and justice authorities is part of the right of litigation that is assured by constitutions, national laws and international treaties. It is one of the pillars of fair trial because it is an original natural right. The rights of defense are not only to the accused person but they are so for each person having the status of a litigant in front of investigation and justice authorities whether in a penal , administrative , commercial and sharia case and whether this litigant is a physical person or a moral one. The legislator …

Criminal Liability For Artificial Intelligence Crimes, Yahya Ibrahim Dahshan

UAEU Law Journal

Artificial intelligence crimes are considered near future crimes If not some of them have now begun, Technological development has helped in recent years - Which accelerated in the current period - In the emergence of many of these crimes, The advanced programming of some Artificial intelligence machines has given the ability to build self-experience, Enabling them to make individual decisions in any situations they face like human beings; So we aim from this study legalization of Artificial intelligence crimes To determine the responsible for those crimes and the penalty is imposed on it; The importance of the subject lies in …

Collared—A Film Case Study About Insider Trading And Ethics, Garrick Apollon

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

This Article discusses the visual legal advocacy documentary film, Collared, by Garrick Apollon (author of this Article). Collared premiered in fall 2018 to a sold-out audience at the Hot Docs Cinema in Toronto for the Hot Docs for Continuing Professional Education edutainment initiative. Collared features the story and reveals the testimony of a convicted ex-insider trader who is still struggling with the tragic consequences of “the most prolonged insider trading scheme ever discovered by American and Canadian securities investigators.” The intimate insights shared by former lawyer and reformed white-collar criminal, Joseph Grmovsek, serves as a painful reminder of the …

When Mental Health Meets “The One-Armed Man” Defense: How Courts Should Deal With Mccoy Defendants, Farid Seyyedi

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

The Supreme Court’s opinion in McCoy v. Louisiana held that a defendant has a constitutional right to insist their attorney not concede guilt as to any element of an offense, even if doing so is the only reasonable trial strategy to give the defendant a chance at life imprisonment instead of the death penalty. Under McCoy’s holding, a defendant can insist on maintaining their innocence—even in the face of overwhelming evidence—and force their attorney to pursue a defense that will land them on death row. The Supreme Court’s holding makes clear that a strategic concession of guilt at trial—over …

Law School News: Professor Gonzalez Is 2020 Rhode Island Lawyer Of The Year 01/11/21, Barry Bridges, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Reversing The Evils Of Federal Mandatory Minimum Sentences: Is Clemency The Only Answer?, Melissa Johnson

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

(Excerpt)

Thirty-five years ago, Alice Marie Johnson lived a full life. She was a wife, a mother of five children, and a manager at FedEx. Then divorce, the death of one of her children, and job loss shattered her world. Ms. Johnson was able to find employment as a factory worker, a role which paid only a fraction of her former salary and was insufficient to support her children. Desperate and burdened, she became a telephone mule for drug dealers. She was instructed to “pass phone messages [and] [w]hen people came to town . . . [to tell] them what …

Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy: Mental Disease Or Defect That Can Trigger A Successful Criminal Defense, Thomas Mosczczynski

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

(Excerpt)

When he was a child, he was called kind, gentle and even sweet. He started playing football at a young age that ripened into a successful high school career that lasted from 2004 to 2007. He was a dominant force on the gridiron under the Friday night lights as he played both offense and defense—rarely missing a play. College scouts took notice, and suddenly, the world was his oyster. A small-town kid from Bristol, Connecticut became the talk of college recruiters across the country. In 2007, a year after the death of his father, the quiet kid from Bristol …

Sexual Misconduct By Law Enforcement: A New Meaning To Stop And Frisk?, Anastasia Cassisi

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

(Excerpt)

Turn on the television at any time during the day and you are likely to find at least one channel playing an episode of Law and Order, Special Victims Unit (S.V.U.). If you catch the opening sequence, after a few moments of catchy music, an ominous narrator recites the above words. The fictional show is about a group of New York City detectives who investigate sex crimes and the attorneys who prosecute the offenders. The show portrays sex crimes as egregious offenses committed by heinous criminals. However, what the show fails to depict is what happens when these dedicated …

Editor’S Foreword, Ava Agree

Hastings Journal of Crime and Punishment

No abstract provided.

Defunding Prosecutors And Reinvesting In Communities: The Case For Reducing The Power And Budgets Of Prosecutors To Help End Mass Incarceration, Udi Ofer

Hastings Journal of Crime and Punishment

No abstract provided.

Caniglia V. Strom: Brief Of Professor Leroy Pernell And The National Association Of Criminal Defense Attorneys In Support Of Petitioner, Leroy Pernell

Amicus Briefs

No abstract provided.

Examining Scott Peterson’S Appeals, Paige Bonavito

Selected Full-Text Master Theses Collection 2018-

This works discusses the Scott Peterson case, which took place from 2002-2004. Scott Peterson was convicted of murdering his wife Laci and unborn son Conner in 2004, and was given the death penalty. Peterson has filed automatic appeals and habeas corpus appeals since his trial, which have made their way through the California court system. Peterson’s death sentence was overturned by the California Supreme Court in 2020, and the California Supreme Court ordered the San Mateo trial court to look into overturning Peterson’s conviction. This work not only discusses the Peterson case at great length, it also serves to examine …

Clamping Down On Faulty Forensics, Maneka Sinha

Maryland Carey Law

No abstract provided.