Law Enforcement and Corrections Commons^™

Resisting Nullification In Excessive Force Prosecutions, Sarah E. Wagner

Buffalo Law Review

Police violence in the United States occurs at an alarming rate. Enforcing federal criminal laws aimed at holding law enforcement officers accountable for their misconduct is difficult. Even where there is strong evidence of guilt, jurors often acquit officers rather than allow them to face criminal consequences for their actions. This Article examines suspected nullification verdicts in excessive force cases through the lens of an expansive body of research on juror and jury decision making. What emerges is the theory that nullification verdicts in excessive force cases are a function of the presence of one or more authoritarian jurors, the …

Federalism, Family Unity, And Keeping Families Together, Kristina M. Campbell

Idaho Law Review

No abstract provided.

Trapped By Immunity: Women, Prisons, And The Need For Obvious Clarity, Alexandria E. Hatten

Mercer Law Review

For many Americans, the mere thought of the prison system evokes great fear and uncertainty. The fear is justified and reflected through rampant reports of sexual abuse, exploitation, and abuse of power by prison officials. Lack of privacy in prisons is largely supported and expected. The general population of prisons have unique safety concerns which require closer surveillance and diligent observation by correctional officers. Prison officers are tasked with ensuring that all contraband stays out of inmate possession—notwithstanding the constant changes of the general population. The security interests of a prison also extend to prison visitors. The known security concerns …

Finally, A Fair Shot: Supreme Court Shoots Down The Moment-Of-Threat Doctrine In Barnes V. Felix, Noah Ring

Mercer Law Review

The Framers designed America’s legal system with the belief that no one, not even the government, is above the law. The right to hold government officials accountable before a court reflects the Framers’ vision that justice resides in the people themselves. Unfortunately, countless citizens who suffer excessive force are barred from presenting their stories to the jury. Nowhere is the clash between liberty and authority more visible than in encounters between police and citizens. Every day, those who wear the badge are forced to make difficult judgment calls in volatile situations.

In 2024, 147 officers lost their lives in the …

The Long Arm And The Short Stick: How Citizenship Transforms White-Collar Enforcement, Andrey Spektor, Henry B. Blaikie

Fordham Law Review Online

Transnational white-collar enforcement has expanded steadily, even amid recent Department of Justice rhetoric favoring restraint. Yet the enforcement apparatus imposes markedly different—and more costly—consequences on noncitizen defendants than on similarly situated U.S. citizens. Noncitizens are more likely to be detained pretrial and more likely to serve longer and harsher custodial terms because they are excluded from sentence-reducing mechanisms, housed in more restrictive facilities, and face an additional layer of postsentence immigration detention. These structural features convert nominally equivalent sentences into more punitive sanctions while increasing burdens on courts, prisons, the immigration system, and taxpayers.

This Essay argues that courts, as …

Social Bonds And Dynamic Risk In Predicting Juvenile Recidivism Among Florida Probation Youth, Shadrach Sackey

Department of Sociology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Juvenile recidivism remains a persistent challenge within the United States juvenile justice system, particularly among youth supervised in community-based probation programs. This study examines how family context, school engagement, peer associations, antisocial beliefs, and overall dynamic risk are associated with recidivism among juvenile probation youth in Florida. Drawing on social bond theory and social learning theory, the analysis uses administrative data from the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice (FDJJ) Juvenile Justice Information System, including 6,215 youth who completed community-based probation supervision between 2015 and 2018. Recidivism was measured using two outcomes within a 365-day follow-up period: rearrest and readjudication. Descriptive …

Arrest Rates And Police Presence In East Bay Area Counties Of Northern California, Christiana M. Tyler

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

In this research study, we discuss the social phenomenon of mass incarceration in the United States. Previous research has evidenced clear racial disparities within this social issue, but has yet to make a connection between high incarceration rates and the sheer volume of police officers in many communities. This descriptive study sets out to discover whether there is a difference in incarceration rates based on the level of police presence in select counties in Northern California. The study will measure police presence by the number of police officers, using secondary data from U.S. government and nonprofit agencies. The researcher hypothesizes …

Revocation Reconsidered: Probation Advocacy Through A Litigation Lens, Shira M. Diner

Faculty Scholarship

Being found in violation of probation has dire consequences. The person found in violation can be imprisoned, upending them from their job, family, and community. Unlike incarceration after a criminal trial, a sentence after a violation of probation is not the result of a legal process characterized by robust due process protections. It is also often not the result of a forceful and thorough defense. It is instead the consequence of a hearing where lawyers with the fixed mindset of an inevitable finding of a violation don’t engage in the same preparation that they would if it was a trial. …

The Myth Of The Immigrant As A Criminal: Rhetoric, Otherness, And The Legal Construction Of Danger, Katerina Fernandez

Immigration and Human Rights Law Review

The figure of the “criminal immigrant” occupies a central place in contemporary U.S. immigration discourse, shaping public perception, enforcement priorities, and legal doctrine. Yet a substantial body of empirical research consistently demonstrates that immigrants—both documented and undocumented—commit crimes at lower rates than native-born citizens. This Note examines why the narrative of immigrant criminality persists despite this evidence and how it influences the development and operation of immigration law. It argues that “immigrant” functions not only as a legal category but also as a socially constructed marker of Otherness, encompassing perceived differences in race, language, culture, and religion. Through this lens, …

The Expanding Digital Border: Ai, Surveillance, And The Fight For Justice, James Chesser

Immigration and Human Rights Law Review

As artificial intelligence transforms the mechanisms of immigration control, the modern border has become a digital filter—one governed less by geography and more by code. This Article examines the legal, technical, and ethical implications of AI-driven systems now central to global border enforcement, including biometric surveillance, algorithmic risk scoring, and predictive profiling. It explores how states use these technologies not only to manage irregular migration, but to compete for global talent—constructing migration regimes that reward capital and compliance while eroding transparency, due process, and equality.

Through an international and comparative lens, the piece highlights the expansion of algorithmic decision-making across …

Before The Last Breath: How Alabama’S Nitrogen Execution Adoption Created A Procedural Crisis On Death Row, Caroline E. Penfield

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

In 2024 and 2025, Alabama executed eleven people. During this time and in the years leading up to it, the State botched multiple lethal injections. Seeking an ostensibly constitutional way to continue carrying out executions, Alabama introduced death by nitrogen gas suffocation. The problems with lethal injection are not unique to Alabama, but Alabama was the first to adopt and use the novel nitrogen gas method, despite concerns from medical professionals, the public, and inmates themselves. Alabama put little to no protocol in place for inmates to exercise their statutory right to elect this method, leading to confusion and harm. …

The Crime We Forget? White-Collar Crime: Problems In Defining Motive And Enforcement Of Followers, John Stillman

Notre Dame JLEPP: In Limine

John Stillman explains problems in defining and enforcing against white-collar crime, focusing on followers.

How And Why Hundreds Of Preventable Deaths Continue To Occur Behind America's Prison Walls And Jail Cells, Melody Monssen

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

This Note examines how the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) came to be and the consequences of its passage. The PLRA was largely a response to the growing movement of prisoners’ rights that began in the 1960s and continued until the 1990s. As the Court grew more conservative, the legal system became less receptive to prisoners’ plights. Consequently, PLRA was enacted in an effort to curtail prison litigation. Consequently, conditions in correctional institutions have continued to worsen, leaving prisoners with little recourse. Although the passage of PLRA was justified by claiming that prisoners were bringing frivolous lawsuits, the continued upward …

Drug War Repair Guarantees, Amber Baylor

Washington and Lee Law Review

Drug legalization, especially cannabis legalization, is a critical step forward in states’ willingness to address systemic disparities, privacy intrusions, violence, and other harms of the drug war. Yet, reforms center on legalization and repair through a narrow lens, focused on changes to the penal code. The public has found that narrow forms of legalization cannot serve their purported reparative purpose. Narrowly drawn legalization is illusory. Drug war harms and punishment for legalized substance use continue. Legalization reforms are vulnerable to political trends, resulting in rollback and retrenchment of drug war operations.

Legalization cannot deliver on its reparative terms without guarantees. …

The Exoneration Of Archie Williams, Dominic R. Graves

SACAD: Scholarly Activities

This poster covers the case of Archie Williams, a man incarcerated for a crime he did not commit. Multiple forensic science and criminalistic strategies were employed to exonerate Williams after years of incarcerations. Fingerprints and false identification were themes throughout the case. Much of the evidence was used in the trial but disregarded, only to be used to appeal the punishment. This poster highlights the case, the issues with repeat line-ups, and the accuracy of fingerprints. The poster also conveys alternative actions that could have prevented this unfortunate outcome. This is but one story of many others who have been …

Athletic Participation And Youth Justice System Involvement, Dominic R. Graves, April Terry

SACAD: Scholarly Activities

Research supports the role of prosocial leisure activities in reducing justice system involvement. Athletic-based programs have mixed findings regarding reducing system involvement among youth. However, when implemented correctly, sports programs can greatly benefit youth by providing them with structured adult supervision and mentorship. This poster briefly introduces the social bond theory supporting the influence of athletics and highlights potential negative associations with athletic-based programs. This poster concludes with a review of current implementation and future guidance.

The Multi-Hatted Court: Community Courts As Boundary Organizations, Peter Dixon, Hadar Dancig-Rosenberg

Northwestern University Law Review

As a variety of the problem-solving court model, community courts have received significant scrutiny and debate. Do they help individuals by addressing the underlying needs that contribute to criminal behavior? Do they extend an unjust criminal legal system by making help conditional upon judicial involvement? This Article moves beyond such debates to ask how community court professionals and the communities who engage with them manage these and other tensions that are inherent to the model itself. As the second in a series of articles drawing on semi-structured interviews and focus groups with diverse stakeholders at the Red Hook Community Justice …

Facing State-Created Danger In Facial Recognition Technology, Esha Jain

Washington Law Review

When the police wrongfully arrest someone, that person faces distinct harms. Various scholarship, news articles, and studies document that AI-powered facial recognition technology (FRT) disproportionately misidentifies individuals from marginalized racial groups when used irresponsibly. Many of those sources indicate that police reliance on FRT without adequate vetting results in wrongful arrests. Yet law enforcement continues to misuse FRT.

This Comment contends that the 42 U.S.C. § 1983 state-created danger doctrine offers a potential remedy for plaintiffs harmed by police reliance on FRT. To prevail under this doctrine, plaintiffs must prove affirmative conduct, deliberate indifference, and proximate causation. If successful, these …

Outbound Investment Restrictions And International Law’S Challenge, Harlan Grant Cohen

Seattle University Law Review

The Outbound Investment Rule, restricting U.S. investment in certain Chinese advanced technology sectors, has largely been portrayed as an incremental measure, a modest extension to fill loopholes in the existing investment screening regime. But while perhaps the logical next step in the securitization of the economy, the Outbound Investment Rule actually reflects a momentous shift in the relationship between governments and business, one playing out in the United States and around the world and worth attention. Unlike traditional investment screening, the Outbound Investment Rule operates like a sanctions regime, designed not to protect the U.S. economy, but to hamper the …

Navigating Compliance In A Geopolitical Era: The Case Of Chinese Multinationals In The United States, Ji Li

Seattle University Law Review

This Article examines how Chinese multinational companies (MNCs) approach compliance in the United States amid deepening geo-political rivalry and intensified regulatory scrutiny. Drawing on original survey data, this Article maps variations in compliance structures, staffing, and governance mechanisms across Chinese firms and identifies key determinants such as industry-specific regulatory intensity, listing status, and organizational imprinting from headquarters. The analysis employs a dual institutional framework to explain how compliance systems emerge from the interplay between host-state regulatory demands and home-state institutional legacies, producing hybrid structures that blend local adaptation with headquarters-driven replication. Findings reveal that while certain compliance features—such as committee …