Search

I. INTRODUCTION 569 A. RATIONALE 570 B. STATISTICS 571 II. FEDERAL HATE CRIME LEGISLATION 573 A. THE ENFORCEMENT ACTS 574 B. CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1968 575 C. VIOLENCE AGAINST [...]

Introduction 466 I. Political Origins of the Terrorism Enhancement 470 A. Enactment of the Terrorism Enhancement 471 B. The Role of the Sentencing Judge 474 C. Expansion of the Terrorism [...]

Two observations about the operation of the criminal legal system are so widely accepted that they are seem undeniable: First, it is a system of pleas, not trials. Second, the system is too punitive and must be reformed. One could easily think, therefore, that the Federal Rules of Evidence, which apply intentionally and explicitly only to the adjudicatory phase of criminal procedure, have nothing to do with the solution. And legal scholarship focusing on decarceration largely reflects this assumption: while many have explored reforms that target front end system actors and processes that lead people into the system (e.g. police, prosecutors, broad criminal statutes), and back end reforms that that seek to lessen the toll of punitive policies (sentencing reform, alternatives to incarceration), markedly fewer have explored how what happens in the middle--adjudication--contributes to mass incarceration. While this oversight makes sense, it is not justified because it is also equally undeniable that plea bargaining happens in the shadow of trial. This Article examines how the shadow of trial--specifically, the shadow cast by evidentiary rulings about the accused person's past--contributes to the perpetuation of an expansive carceral state. It identifies how evidence rules have been relaxed, tweaked, specialized, or unmoored from their foundational principles in ways that facilitate prosecution and conviction or essentially force plea deals--without regard for the truth, fairness, or justice of the outcome. In other words, it identifies ways that evidence law undermines the Rules' primary purpose, which is to advance fair proceedings 'to the end of ascertaining the truth and securing a just determination.', Introduction 354 I. The Promise 356 II. Breaking the Promise 358 A. FRE 413 & 414: Past Acts of Sexual Assault or Child Molestation to Prove a Defendant's Propensity to [...]

Increasing per capita real income and standard of living in the United States have been accompanied by increasing number of total crimes as well as all crimes per million households This phenomenon led to increasing demand for public safety, which, in turn, encouraged the U.S. Congress to enact a crime-bill and Brady Handgun Control bill in 1994 to reduce the crimes in the country. The two laws were effective during the same period of time. In this study, a probability Logit model in binary mode, using pooled state-level aggregate cross-section and time-series quarterly database for the period 1980-2003, was estimated. This model estimates the probability of a household committing a crime explained by various explanatory variables and the two laws in existence during the same period of time. Analysis done for this study indicated that the crime-bill and Brady Handgun Control bill were effective in reducing the crimes. The methodology and estimation procedure used in this paper might be useful for future researchers in conducting other economic studies. Keywords: Crime-bill Brady Handgun-bill Household Crime Logit Model, INTRODUCTION Increasing per capita real income and standard of living in the United States have been accompanied by increasing number of total crimes as well as all crimes per million [...]

ABSTRACT With the demise of apartheid, South Africans eagerly anticipated the freedom from bondage that liberation brings. More than ten years later, however, remnants of the inhumane system still remain [...]

Despite the Hate Crime Statistics Act, signed into law by President George W. Bush making hate crimes a federal offense, these types of crimes appear to be continuing into the millennium. This paper addresses what can be done to prevent these crimes from occurring in the future and how to profile those with a propensity to act on hate., Introduction Because of its continued occurrence, in 1990 President George W. Bush signed into law the Hate Crime Statistics Act. The Act was amended by the Violent Crime and Law [...]

A re-evaluation of the the state of post-secondary educational programming in US prisons since the Violent Crime Control Act of 1994 eliminated Pell Grant funding for inmates is presented. How prisons have adapted to the loss of Pell Grant funding is discussed.

Federal sentencing standards which take into account past statutory rape convictions for the purpose of enhancing sentences can be inappropriately harsh. Blanket consideration of all such convictions can result in life sentences for nonviolent criminals under the federal recidivist statute, the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. The standards should be altered to allow judges the discretion to consider the factor of the consent of statutory rape victims. Meaningful consent is crucial to differentiating violent crimes from statutory crimes.