...Placing restrictions on citizens with felony convictions may appear to be a solution to the increasing crime rates in cities across America; however, in the long run these programs are more hurtful than helpful to society overall. While such laws and policies are essentially designed to reduce the occurrence of crime, they ultimately lead to greater recidivism rates because those with prior convictions are prevented from forward after their time is served. As some criminological theories argue, many people make the decision to commit a crime based on their financial situation. If those individuals are released from jail and find themselves in a position where they are even less likely to obtain a job, receive financial assistance from the government,...
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...agree that resentencing was required. The case was argued on November 8, 1990 in the Supreme Court of Michigan. After six-months the case was decided on May 28, 1991. The findings in the People v. Smith were noted by one panel of the Court of Appeals, that in previous cases involving expungements, a juvenile record that was automatically expunged could not be used during sentencing (People v. Price) and in another case (People v. Jones), concluded that an expunged juvenile record could be included in the presentence investigative report and used during sentencing. The majority determined that Price presented a better-reasoned approach. However, the dissenting judge disagreed and believed that Jones in fact presented the better-reasoned analysis. It was found that within Smith’s prior record, according to his presentence report that he had twelve juvenile charges. Smith’s lawyer concurred that this report was indeed...
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...THE ARGUMENT FOR A CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO REPRESENTATION AT BAIL HEARINGS IN ALL CRIMINAL CASES IN STATE COURT The right to legal representation is generally accepted in the United States as a Constitutional right guaranteed to everyone. The Supreme Court promised the right to counsel to “ any person haled into court” in the infamous Gideon v Wainwright case. This case was instrumental in advancing the rights of indigent defendants through its proclamation that the Sixth Amendment right to counsel in criminal proceedings should also apply to State Courts. However, Gideon’s promise to counsel has yet to completely guarantee equal access to justice when first appearing at judicial proceedings in state courts. Although defendants who can afford lawyers will usually hire one from the onset of a criminal proceeding, the right to counsel for indigent defendants (i.e. a state-provided attorney) is interpreted as attaching at varying stages of a prosecution in different states. Only eight states guarantee indigent defendants the right to legal counsel at the initial bail hearing. Representation at the initial bail hearing is critical as a lawyer’s intervention is crucial for obtaining a defendant’s release and for protecting a defendant’s due process right (guaranteed in the Fourteenth amendment) against an unreasonable denial of liberty during pretrial detention. The lack of counsel in pretrial proceedings can result in numerous consequences; some include a high number of pleas...
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...Deterrence: general public is protected 3. General Deterrence: helps to protect public at large, justified on grounds of 1) prevention of crime by threat of arrest, conviction, punishment 2) prevention of crime by strengthening of moral norms 3) prevention of crime by stimulating law-abiding contact based on the impulse to conform. 4. Criticisms: 1) ineffective in cases where criminal is motivated by emotional concerns 2) one person might be used as a means to an end in order to deter others and benefit society as a whole ii. Retribution 5. Premise: humans act under free will and must be punished when they choose to violate society’s norms, backward-looking 6. Based on proportionality of punishment: the evil done to the victim is paid back to the perpetrator iii. Rehabilitation/Reform 7. Criticisms: 1)allocating resources to those who least deserve them 2) remaking humans with what society deems is the best 3) assuming that humans can simply be reconditioned iv. Incapacitation 8. Renders def unable to cause further harm to society 9. Criticisms: 1) too costly 2) ineffective in reducing recidivism 3) further criminal acts might occur in prison b. Legality v. Always begin analysis with legality: is there a legality issue? vi. Person cannot be punished unless that person’s conduct was defined as criminal before def. acted. Legislature defines...
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...laws in many of the country’s| |states, and the effectiveness of these laws. | In 1992, shortly following the murder of his 18-year-old daughter, Kimber, Fresno photographer Mike Reynolds drafted a law that would impose mandatory sentences for repeat offenders. It was proposed as both a legislative measure and a ballot initiative, but neither made much headway at first. According to Reynolds, legislatures “laughed it off” when he first brought up the measure to them. Then, in October of 1993, 12-year-old Polly Klaas was kidnapped, molested, and murdered by Richard Allen Davis, a repeat sex offender with a long record of criminal convictions. He was on parole at the time. Polly’s father, Marc, hit the national television circuit and campaigned for passage of harsher...
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...THE EMPLOYER AND THE EX-OFFENDER: THE DISCRIMINATORY EFFECTS OF CRIMINAL BACKGROUND CHECKS TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………… 3 II. OFFENDER AND EX OFFENDER HISTORY IN THE UNITED STATES………….. 5 A. LEGAL HISTORY OF EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION AGAINST EX OFFENDERS ……… 5 B. THE NUMBER OF EX OFFENDERS IS RAPIDLY INCREASING .............................................................................8 C. IMPACT OF CONVICTION ON EMPLOYABILITY OF EX OFFENDERS ................................................................. 10 III. CRIMINAL BACKGROUND CHECKS AID IN THE DISPROPORTIONATE EXCLUSION OF MINORITIES ………………………………………………………………………………… 13 A. EMPLOYERS ARE PREJUDICED UPON FINDING CRIMINAL CONVICTIONS .................................................. 13 B. BLACKS AND LATINOS ARE EXCLUDED FROM THE WORK FORCE DUE TO STIGMAS OF MINORITY STATUS AND CRIMINAL RECORD ....................................................................................................................... 15 IV. HEIGHTENED SCRUTINY TURNS ON EMPLOYER HIRING PRACTICES INFLUENCED BY CRIMINAL BACKGROUND CHECKS………………………………………………………………………………………… 18 A. THE EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION ATTEMPTS TO PROVIDE MUCH NEEDED GUIDANCE ON CONDUCTING CRIMINAL BACKGROUND CHECKS AND SUBSEQUENT HIRING PRACTICES ..................................................................................................................... 18 B. NOTABLE LEGAL ACTION STEMMING...
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...Facts: “In 1998, the United States sued Microsoft, alleging violations of Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C. 1, 2. After trial, the court found Microsoft had violated Section 2 by unlawfully maintaining its monopoly in the market for Intel-compatible PC operating systems ("OSs") and by unlawfully attempting to monopolize the market for internet browsers, and that it had violated Section 1 by illegally tying its Windows operating system and its Internet Explorer ("IE") browser. The court ordered Microsoft to submit a plan of divestiture that would split the company into an OS business and an applications business, and ordered interim conduct restrictions. Microsoft, 253 F.3d at 45.” (Weil & McMillan, 2003). The Sherman Antitrust Act prohibits agreements, contracts, combinations, and conspiracies that result in inhibiting or restraining free trade. The act is very broad and can include relationships or agreements that result in price fixing. The Act attempts to either prevent monopolies or break up a monopoly that has been created. Antitrust statutes can be enforced by the federal government through the U.S. Attorney, Federal Trade Commission, through the attorney general of each state, or by individual action. The antitrust provisions of the Sherman Antitrust Act have been used against the railroad industry, the major oil companies, telecommunications, and more recently companies in the high tech industry such as Microsoft. (Mallor, et. al., 2010). Issues:...
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...Executive Summary The American court system is overflowed with people that suffer from substance abuse. For example drug and/or alcohol related crimes have been implicated in violent crimes, instances of domestic violence, child abuse and neglect cases. Therefore, drug court has come in to offer people arrested for substances abuse related crimes and opportunity to receive community-based treatment with judicial supervision to avoid potential incarceration. For this reason drug court has changed people’s lives in a variety of ways, which are often overlooked, are the positive impact on families and society. Overall, substance abuse offenders have a recurring problem for the criminal justice system as a result drug courts are an important strategy to reduce incarceration, provide drug treatment and reduce recidivism among nonviolent offenders. Another key point is research study by the National Institute of Justice in 2009 called the Multi-Site Adult Drug Court Evaluation confirmed that Drug Courts reduced crime and substance abuse, improved family relationships, and also increasing employment and school enrollment. (Marlowe, 2010) Another key point is drug courts have affected the offender’s criminal behavior and substance use with mandated drug and alcohol treatment. Henceforth drug courts has been a popular diversion program for drug offenders since it’s began in Dade County Florida in 1989. Overview Drug courts represent the criminal justice approach to ensure public...
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...offenses. Serious offenses include the same offenses that are considered as violent offenses, but also include other crimes like burglary of a residence and assault with intent to commit a robbery or rape. The concept of this law is just like it is in baseball, the batter has two strikes before striking out on the third strike and then they are out. The purpose for this law is to not have repeated criminal offenders. This law keeps the criminals off the streets so that they won’t commit any more crimes. This law is also one of the most popular controversial laws because it imposes a mandatory life sentence without parole on offenders convicted of three or more crimes. It is the obligation of a life sentence for any felony conviction, no matter how minor the felony may be. Every crime is different and therefore, every punishment should be made according to the crime in which was committed. I believe that the “three strikes” sentencing should be abolished because it was a law created as an emotional response to the murder of Polly Klass and is not an effective deterrent for criminals. The three strikes law was created in the early 1990’s in response to the murder of 18-year-old Kimber Reynolds in 1992; it caught full movement with the kidnapping and murder of 12-year-old Polly Klaas. The citizens of California were outraged by the fact that a repeat...
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...accused as addressed in Amendments 4 through 8. In the period from 1961 to 1969, the Warren Court examined almost every aspect of the criminal justice system in the United States, using the 14th Amendment to extend constitutional protections to all courts in every State. This process became known as the “nationalization” of the Bill of Rights. During those years, cases concerning the right to legal counsel, confessions, searches, and the treatment of juvenile criminals all appeared on the Court's docket. The Warren Court's began with the case of Mapp v. Ohio, which was the first of several significant cases that re-evaluated the role of the 14th Amendment as it applied to state judicial systems. In a 6-3 decision, the Court overturne the conviction, and five justices found that the States were bound to exclude evidence seized in violation of the 4th Amendment. The 4th Amendment sets the standards for searches and seizures by law enforcement officials in the United States, the Court noted, and the 14th Amendment requires judges to uphold those standards in every State. Evidence gained by an illegal search became inadmissible in State courts as a result of the decision. The “Mapp Rule” has since been modified, so the exclusionary rule is no longer as absolute as when first handed down in Mapp. Critics of the Warren Court charged that it “had gone too far in interfering with police work.” With its decisions in the cases of Mapp v. Ohio, Gideon v. Wainwright, and Escobedo v. Illinois...
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...CRJS-6137-4 Analysis of an Offender Larry Tyus April 10, 2016 ABSTRACT My topic is about being a drug dealer and addressing all of the concepts of what and constitute and define a drug dealer, and it does get a bad rap, but at the same times it is glorified through songs and movies. We will address the issue of whether being a criminal is an inherent trait or learned behavior, the average age group of most dealers and their family and social environments. I will only use data as it pertains to cocaine, whether it is powder or crack, heroin and methamphetamine since they are the preferred choice. What constitute criminal behavior Criminal behavior is a behavior in which the offender commits an offense that has been deemed as being unlawful act and punishable by the government and usually it is against individuals or property. Criminal behavior is seen as being prohibition or possession that constitutes a menace against the general public or society. In hope of confining and understanding criminal behavior researcher begin to study the brain of violent crime and compare their findings to the brain imaging “normal” individual. Through doing this they came up a new field of study called neurocriminology. Adrian Raine has studied the brain image of murders, violent criminals and psychopaths and from this research, he is convinced that there is a social and environmental cause to violent behavior. Although he is also convinced there exist a biology side of this type of behavior (npr...
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...Parents who are convicted of child abuse should have their children taken away from them. This is not a matter of punishment but of recognition of the fact that there is a problem society has to address and that the children need to be protected. First, those parents have abrogated their parental responsibilities and shown that they cannot be trusted. Second, the children will benefit by being taken away from an abusive situation and placed into a loving situation. The alternative would be to work to preserve the family group. Attempts to do this are usually made by social workers, who might be brought in at an early stage, before adjudication becomes necessary. In such cases, the case worker develops a plan and implements it: This plan ultimately becomes the case plan that outlines treatment services for the child and the family. The plan describes what actions are required of all the parties involved to correct the conditions that caused the maltreatment and, in some cases, the placement outside the home, as well as the time frames for accomplishing them. In addition, the plan must address a child's health and education needs, including arrangements for any specialized treatment by health care providers. The causes of child abuse and neglect are complex, and a case plan can involve referrals to an array of individuals, including caseworkers from other units in the child welfare agency, such as adoption or foster care specialists; private service providers...
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...The Legal and Ethical Dilemma of Physician Assisted Suicide: An Analysis: People v Kevorkian Angelia Prince Shorter University The Legal and Ethical Dilemma of Physician Assisted Suicide: An Analysis: People v Kevorkian This research was aimed at providing an analysis of the ethical and legal dilemma surrounding physician assisted suicides. The subject of physician-assisted suicide has raised many thought provoking and controversial questions. This paper will evaluate, the ethical dilemma surrounding physician assisted suicides, the case of People v. Kevorkian, the differing laws pertaining to physician assisted suicide in Michigan, Georgia, and Oregon. The purpose of this paper is to provide the reader with information on the state’s most current laws regarding assisted suicide and how the case of People v. Kevorkian was a unique case involving physician-assisted suicide. The Ethical Debate of PAS In his article, Hosseini (2012), argued that physician-assisted suicide (PAS), is a moral and ethical dilemma faced by physicians, ethicists, legal experts, and others. Hosseini went on to explain that PAS is opposed by the American Medical Association (AMA) and all the US states except for Oregon. In his research, Hosseini (2012) used the case, People v. Kevorkian, as a basis to argue that although there is an ethical dilemma surrounding PAS, it was not the act alone that resulted in Dr. Kevorkian’s arrest and sentence. Hosseini posed the question in his research...
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...Criminal Records in the Digital Age: A Review of Current Practices and Recommendations for Reform in Texas Helen Gaebler, Senior Research Attorney William Wayne Justice Center for Public Interest Law The University of Texas School of law March 2013 TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................................4 II. THE PROBLEM: CRIMINAL RECORDS AND COLLATERAL CONSEQUENCES .........................................5 Collateral Consequences Overview ......................................................................................................... 5 Who’s Affected? A Look at the Numbers in Texas .................................................................................. 8 Disproportionality and the Criminal Justice System .............................................................................. 10 Reaching Across Generations and Communities ................................................................................... 11 III. AN OUTDATED SYSTEM: OPEN ACCESS TO CRIMINAL RECORDS .................................................... 12 The Background Checking Industry........................................................................................................ 12 Common Practices and Pitfalls............................................................................................................... 13 Past Calls for Reform .....................
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...ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF CRIME Elements: Actus Reus – physical act or unlawful omission by the D Mens rea – state of mind or intent of D at the time of act Concurrence – actus reus and mens rea exist at same time Harmful result and causation – a harmful result caused both factually and proximately by D’s act Attendant circumstances – ACTUS REUS: Definition: physical/external, or objective, part of the crime Eser = Actus Reus is the comprehensive notion of the act, harm and its connecting link, causation, w/ actus [expressing the voluntary physical movement in conduct] and reus [this conduct results in a certain proscribed harm (e.g. causes injury to the legal interest protected in that crime)] Conduct crimes: punished for illegal act [e.g. driving while intoxicated] Result crimes: punished for result [e.g. murder] VOLUNTARY ACTS: Definition: The D’s act must be voluntary in the sense that it must be a conscious exercise of the will. Rationale: An involuntary act will not be deterred by punishment. Not voluntary // not liable: Conduct that is not the product of the actor’s determination. E.g. A shoves B into C w/ result that C falls to death. Reflexive or convulsive acts Acts performed while the D was either unconscious or asleep UNLESS the D knew that he might fall asleep or become unconscious and engaged in the dangerous behavior. MARTIN V. STATE: Police arrested drunk Martin at home and brought him to highway – convicted of being drunk on highway...
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