Criminal Law Commons^™

From Acrimony To Forgiveness: How Adolescents Make Sense Of Childhood Maltreatment, Katherine Irwin

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"This paper examines 16 adolescents’ narratives about the abuse they experienced during childhood. To date, most research examining child abuse (CA) survivorship and recovery has been conducted with adults who look back on their early experiences. Consequently, this study fills gaps in our knowledge by offering a youth-centered view of survivors’ efforts to cope with CA. The data come from a 12-year qualitative study of a group counseling program for high school students in Hawaiʻi. The findings revealed that a minority (n = 2) of the teens had negative views of their lives and futures, while the majority (n = …

A Content Analysis Of The Sutherland Address, 2001-22: A Qualitative Exploration, Phillip Shon

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"Previous indicators of scholarly influence have been primarily quantitative, measuring a scholar’s influence through citation counts. This body of literature has overlooked the reflections of distinguished scholars, such as the recipients of the Sutherland Award, in the discipline as a form of scholarly influence. The current paper examines the Sutherland Address from 2001 to 2022. The key findings indicate that the majority of Sutherland Addresses reproduced existing sociological canons, while a minority of Sutherland Award winners explicitly rejected Sutherland’s sociological assumptions and their influence on criminology. Such findings suggest that Sutherland exerts a hidden influence on the recipients of the …

A Qualitative Analysis Of Gender Inequality In Southeast Missouri Law Enforcement Agencies, Madeline Marie Whistler, Christopher Bradley, H. Hamner Hill

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"Does gender inequality impact the careers of female law enforcement officers in the Southeast Missouri region? Using a qualitative single instrumental case study, seven cis-gendered female law enforcement officers who were employed at local law enforcement agencies within the Southeast Missouri region were interviewed to investigate the central research question. Four themes emerged from the data that illustrated their experiences: sexual exploitation and harassment, a lack of work-life balance, the presence of gender stereotypes, and patriarchal hierarchy and male dominance in the workplace. The findings suggest that the experiences of female law enforcement officers are heavily impacted by the behavior …

A Plea For Open Access To Qualitative Criminology: With A Python Script For Anonymizing Data And Illustrative Analysis Of Error Rates, Scott Jaques, Andrew Wheeler

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"Qualitative researchers are expected, sometimes required, to publish their data open access (OA). This is for the sake of science, impact, and social justice. Yet, understandably, qualitative criminologists are worried about what this means for their workload and their ability to protect subjects’ confidentiality. To be solutions-oriented, we developed an open-source Python script for anonymizing qualitative data. It uses named-entity recognition and fuzzy-rule based merging to identify and replace personally identifiable information (PII) with unique pseudonyms. This tool doesn’t eliminate the need for manual work, but it reduces the cost and associated risk. In this article, we describe and explain …

Felony Murder: What Courts Ignore In Ohio Rev. Code § 2903.02(B), Richard S. Walinski

Et Cetera

Ohio has two levels of felony murder. One is aggravated felony murder, 2903.01(b). It is an approximate equivalent of the common-law felony-murder rule. The other is a felony-murder rule for the lesser offence of simple murder, 2903.02(B). In felony-murder cases prosecuted under Ohio Revised Code § 2903.02(B), the nearly universal practice among the lower courts in Ohio is to ignore certain explicit text in the statute.

To warrant a conviction, 2903.02(B) requires that death have occurred as a proximate result of the defendant’s having committed or having attempted to commit one of many predicate offenses that the General Assembly labeled …

The Unspoken And The Unseen: An Analysis Of Victim Gender And Linguistic Framing Of Sexual Assault In Judicial Discourse, Sarnika Ali

Quantitative Social Science Undergraduate Senior Theses

Sexual assault is a profound legal and social crisis. However, it is also fundamentally a linguistic one. The words used, or conspicuously not used, to describe victims, perpetrators, and their actions are not neutral arbiters of fact. They are powerful mechanisms that shape perceptions of harm, attributions of blame, and assignments of credibility. The central battleground for survivors is credibility, and while a “credibility discount” is often applied to female victims, the male victim is rendered nearly invisible. This research is therefore guided by one central, overarching question: how does a sexual assault victim’s gender influence the judicial language used, …

The Weight Of Discretion: Examining Perceptions, Decision-Making, And Overrepresentation In Canada's Youth Criminal Justice System, Adrienne Graham

Dalhousie Journal of Legal Studies

The Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA) has changed the way that youth encounter Canada’s criminal justice system. While the reintegration and rehabilitation goals of the YCJA have decreased overall youth custody rates, Black and Indigenous youth continue to be treated differently than other youth. This paper examines the overrepresentation of Black and Indigenous youth in the criminal justice system, the impact of poverty on police oversurveillance, various policing practices, and the role of extrajudicial measures. Through discussing youth perceptions on police legitimacy alongside police perceptions of youth, this paper will demonstrate that in order to further the principles …

Byron Aaron Garcia V. State Of Nevada, 142 Nev. Adv. Op. 42 (Jun. 11, 2026), Lauren Jung

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

A probationer is not denied due process when the district court relies on the totality of everything, including the preliminary hearing transcript, prior police investigation report, and probation violation report and police report to revoke probation and impose a suspended sentence.

Explaining Compassionate Release: A Machine Learning Study Of Sentencing Modifications & Judicial Decision Making, Max Alderman, Arash Barfar, Dana Edberg

Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review

In 2018, Congress passed the First Step Act, amending 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A) to permit federally incarcerated individuals to directly petition district courts for early release. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, thousands of individuals did so, citing staggering prison death rates and asserting that further incarceration unjustly imperiled their health. Largely unprepared for the deluge, district courts granted 25.7 percent of those petitions. Without precedent to guide them, their decisions were and remain highly discretionary, based on dozens of interrelated variables and legal factors. Those decisions are also largely insulated from appellate review.

The FSA’s amendments and the …

Guaranteeing A Jury Of One's Peers Beyond A Reasonable Doubt, Grace Voissem

Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review

The right to a trial by jury is a foundational cornerstone of American democracy. This right has long been obfuscated by institutional inequality, preventing defendants from receiving a genuinely representative jury of their peers. California legislators proposed Assembly Bills 1452, 1981, and 881 to temporarily increase juror stipends for low-income jurors in select superior courts, hoping to address socioeconomic barriers to jury service. While AB 1452 and AB 1981 were enacted, the Governor vetoed AB 881.

This Note argues that this legislation strengthens the Sixth Amendment by empowering defendants to receive an impartial, representative jury from their community. However, these …

Reframing Narratives: Remedies For Improved Human Trafficking Coverage, Stefanie Henriques

The Pegasus Review: UCF Undergraduate Research Journal

The global rise in human trafficking is not receiving adequate media attention. While newspaper coverage of the topic has increased, current research argues that the issue is framed with a lack of diversity, limiting audience understanding of its complexity. Some researchers also note that coverage disproportionately focuses on sex trafficking, with minimal attention directed to other forms of trafficking such as the labor or organ trade. This paper conducts a narrative literature analysis of media research on human trafficking, drawing on framing theory to identify dominant frames in media messaging and synthesize cross-cultural factors that impact how the issue is …

A Systematic Review Of Restorative Justice In Criminal Contexts, Sigifredo Castell Britton

Journal of Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences

Restorative justice has gained growing attention within criminal justice reform as a practical alternative to approaches centered only on punishment. It emphasizes accountability, dialogue, and community reintegration, offering a different way to understand how change in behavior takes place. This systematic review examined quantitative evidence from 34 studies, selected from an initial pool of 112 records identified through databases such as Google Scholar, ProQuest, JSTOR, and institutional repositories. The studies assessed a range of interventions, including victim-offender mediation, diversion programs, community conferencing, and in-prison initiatives, which allowed comparison across different settings and populations. Across these studies, 79.4% reported statistically significant …

Rethinking International Armed Conflict: Legal Challenges In The Age Of Hybrid Warfare, Oleksandr Havryshuk, Roman Hryshchenko

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

The binary classification of armed conflicts under international humanitarian law (IHL) — distinguishing international armed conflicts (IACs) from non-international armed conflicts (NIACs) — was forged in the aftermath of World War II and increasingly fails to capture the realities of twenty-first century warfare. Hybrid tactics, cyber operations, the proliferation of private military companies (PMCs), the expanding role of non-state actors, and the near-disappearance of formal declarations of war have eroded the analytical utility of the existing framework, generating legal uncertainty and weakening protections for affected populations. This Article critically examines the conceptual foundations of IAC as set out in Common …

No Place For Success Stories: Challenging The Sex Offender Exclusion In New York City's Fair Chance Housing Law, Abby Connell

Brooklyn Law Review

As criminal justice reform gains widespread political appeal, people convicted of sex crimes remain outside of mainstream discourse about who deserves protection from the collateral consequences of criminal system involvement. As one example, New York City’s recently enacted Fair Chance Housing Law prohibits criminal record discrimination in housing but leaves people convicted of sex crimes outside of its protection. In New York, people convicted of sex crimes face unique barriers to housing due to a complex web of federal and state laws that restrict access to safe, stable, and affordable housing. Like other New Yorkers with criminal records, people on …

Blurred Lines: Did Booker Change Federal Sentencing Outcomes?, Hugh M. Mundy

Pace Law Review

This article considers whether United States v. Booker, the 2005 Supreme Court decision that replaced the then-mandatory federal sentencing guidelines system with an advisory scheme, had any enduring impact on sentencing outcomes. Commemorating Booker’s recent twentieth anniversary requires a balancing act: at once, recognizing the decision’s watershed impact while avoiding claims of lasting change where little exists. The criminal defense community hailed the ruling as a kind of liberation from the guidelines’ dispassionate rigidity. Today, while most lawyers and defendants would still prefer the current system, a legitimate question exists about Booker’s actual effect on federal sentencing. I propose that …

Advocacy Matters, Richard Collins

American Indian Law Journal

The Supreme Court’s 2022 Castro-Huerta decision was wrong on the points it discussed. It was doubly wrong for a reason it ignored. But the latter error was shared because all briefs and the dissenting opinion ignored it as well. The question presented was whether a nineteenth-century federal Indian country statute provided for exclusive federal jurisdiction over interracial crimes, or for concurrent authority with states. The Court held that the statute allowed concurrent jurisdiction. But it ignored the fact that Congress and the Court, until fairly recently, avoided concurrent federal-state jurisdiction over crimes. Had the self-styled originalist Justices taken their theory …

Stability At Stake: The Effects Of Overturning Chevron On Indian Gaming, Evan Callahan

American Indian Law Journal

The Supreme Court’s decision in Loper Bright to overturn Chevron Deference marks a significant change in administrative law and could have drastic consequences for the regulation of Indian gaming in the United States. This Note explores the implications of such a shift, emphasizing the importance of maintaining stability in the highly regulated gaming industry. Many stakeholders, including operators, investors, regulatory agencies, and patrons, may face significant uncertainty without doctrines such as Chevron Deference. Without agency expertise in interpreting statutes, the Court may instead directly influence the regulation of Indian gaming in the United States, presenting challenges and uncertainties for all …

Reading Between The Treaties: Why The Supreme Court Must Honor The Indian Canons Of Construction, Amelia R. Wimmer

American Indian Law Journal

This Note critically examines the Indian canons of construction as interpretive tools employed by the United States Supreme Court in cases involving treaties and statutes with Tribal Nations. Ultimately tracing their origins to Worcester v. Georgia, this Note explores how the Indian canons were designed to protect tribal sovereignty, ensure the liberal construction of ambiguous provisions in favor of tribes, and prevent the abrogation of tribal land and rights. Shifts in interpretive philosophy and the rise of textualism have led to a checkered application of the Indian canons across courts. However, a continued application of the Indian canons is necessary …

The Federal Trust ​​​Responsibility ​And Special Domestic Violence Criminal Jurisdiction: Restoring Justice In Tribal Nations​​​ ​, Sofia Sallas

American Indian Law Journal

Special Domestic Violence Criminal Jurisdiction (SDVCJ), enacted through the Violence Against Women Act, was designed to address jurisdictional gaps that long allowed non-Indian perpetrators of domestic violence in Indian Country to evade accountability. Yet despite restoring Tribal authority, SDVCJ remains significantly under-implemented. This Note argues that this failure is not merely a policy shortcoming, but a legal one. Congress restored Tribal criminal jurisdiction while conditioning its exercise on federal funding, coordination, and institutional support. Federal agencies, however, have failed to provide the consistent infrastructure necessary for SDVCJ to function in practice. These failures breach the federal trust responsibility, which imposes …

Table Of Contents

American Indian Law Journal

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