Recently added articles from Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology:
The cognitive psychology of mens rea.
Mar 22, 2009; ... I. INTRODUCTION Actus non facit reum nisi mens sit rea--"the act does not make a person guilty unless the mind is also guilty." (1) Few today would disagree with the maxim; the criminal law has long since rejected the idea that causing harm should be criminal regardless of the ...
A relational Sixth Amendment during interrogation.
Mar 22, 2009; ... I. INTRODUCTION [L]awyers in criminal courts are necessities, not luxuries. (1) Ever since the U.S. Supreme Court trumpeted the Sixth Amendment right to counsel in Gideon v. Wainwright, (2) our legal culture has extolled the value of this right in ensuring a fair ...
Adolescent transfer, developmental maturity, and adjudicative competence: an ethical and justice policy inquiry.
Mar 22, 2009; ... I. INTRODUCTION Various theoretical approaches underscore the education, training, and research methods of the interdisciplinary law and psychology field. One key method of inquiry is the law, psychology, and justice perspective. (1) This method promotes social change and action ...
Do executions lower homicide rates? The views of leading criminologists.
Mar 22, 2009; ... For centuries the death penalty, often accompanied by barbarous refinements, has been trying to hold crime in check; yet crime persists. Why? Because the instincts that are warring in man are not, as the law claims, constant forces in a state of equilibrium. --Albert Camus (1) ...
What can RICO not do?: RICO and the non-economic intrastate enterprise that perpetrates only non-economic racketeering activity.
Mar 22, 2009; ... I. INTRODUCTION Jackson Nascimento belonged to a local street gang that claimed territory on the south side of Boston, Massachusetts. (1) The gang operated exclusively in that area and did not actively participate in economic activity. (2) For several years, Nascimento's gang ...
When is a police officer an officer of the law?: the status of police officers in schools.
Mar 22, 2009; ... I. INTRODUCTION In March of 2005, a young girl threw a temper tantrum in kindergarten. (1) Temper tantrums are hardly unusual for a kindergartner. (2) Nonetheless, the school principal decided to call the police. (3) The police chief cancelled the call, as he thought it was ...
Mens rea for sexual abuse: the case for defining the acceptable risk.
Jan 01, 2009; ... I. INTRODUCTION The Supreme Court's decision in Lawrence v. Texas (1) has intensified the debate over the constitutionality of statutes that impose strict criminal liability for sexual abuse of children. (2) Critics of these statutes have long been troubled by the possibility ...
Free to leave? An empirical look at the Fourth Amendment's seizure standard.
Jan 01, 2009; ... So what do we do if we don't know? I can follow my instinct. My instinct is he would feel he wasn't free because the red light's flashing. That's just one person's instinct. Or I could say, let's look for some studies. They could have asked people about this, and there are none .... What ...
When human experimentation is criminal.
Jan 01, 2009; ... I. INTRODUCTION An unacknowledged problem exists in the realm of human subject experimentation: criminal acts are being committed seemingly without consequence. The individuals escaping punishment are no ordinary individuals; rather, they are medical researchers whose exalted ...
Juveniles' competency to stand trial: wading through the rhetoric and the evidence.
Jan 01, 2009; ... <Pre> I. THE PROBLEM: MINIMAL REQUIREMENTS FOR BEING COMPETENT TO STAND TRIAL IN CRIMINAL COURT II. THE ISSUE: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN JUVENILE DEFENDANTS AND COMPETENCY TO STAND TRIAL A. THE APPLICATION OF DUSKY TO DEFENDANTS IN JUVENILE COURT B. DUSKY AND COMPETENCY STANDARDS ...
The consequences of law enforcement officials' failure to record custodial interviews as required by law.
Jan 01, 2009; ... I. INTRODUCTION In an Article published in this Journal in 2005, we advocated the enactment of state statutes requiring that interviews of suspects held in custody at police facilities be electronically recorded, and we attached a proposed model statute. (1) After several years ...
Killing in Self-Defence.(Book review)
Jan 01, 2009; ... FIONA LEVERICK, KILLING IN SELF-DEFENCE (OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 2006). 217 PP. I. JUSTIFYING KILLING IN SELF-DEFENCE (1) Based on first appearances, one might think that self-defense is easy to justify. A bad guy threatens to kill you, so you kill him. Enough said. ...
Let the punishment fit the crime: should courts exercise the power of appellate sentence review in cases involving narcotics and other stigmatized crimes?
Jan 01, 2009; ... I. INTRODUCTION The traditional rule under the common law is that an appellate court may not review a sentence that the trial court has imposed if it is within statutory guidelines. (1) Since the legislature establishes narcotics laws, this rule effectively leaves the question ...
Rethinking the increased focus on penal measures in immigration law as reflected in the expansion of the "aggravated felony" concept.
Jan 01, 2009; ... I. INTRODUCTION Imagine the following scenario, based on an actual case. (1) Mary is a legal permanent resident who has lived in the United States since she was one year old. (2) When she was in her mid-twenties, Mary pulled a woman's hair in a quarrel over a man. (3) Upon the ...
The grand jury legal advisor: resurrecting the grand jury's shield.
Jun 22, 2008; ... I. INTRODUCTION In our American criminal legal system, the model grand jury is one that exercises independent judgment while serving as both an accusatory and investigatory body. When in the latter role, commonly referred to as the "sword," the grand jury uncovers wrongdoing and ...
Un-incorporating the Bill of Rights: the tension between the Fourteenth Amendment and the federalism concerns that underlie modern criminal procedure reforms.
Jun 22, 2008; ... Judicial self-restraint which defers too much to the sovereign powers of the states and reserves judicial intervention for only the most revolting cases will not serve to enhance Madison's priceless gift of "the great rights of mankind secured under this Constitution." ...
"Nigger": a critical race realist analysis of the N-word within hate crimes law.
Jun 22, 2008; ... A word is not a crystal, transparent and unchanged, it is the skin of a living thought and may vary greatly in color and content according to the circumstances and the time in which it is used. --Oliver Wendell Holmes (1) Although the slang epithet "nigger" may once ...
State intentions and the law of punishment.
Jun 22, 2008; ... I. INTRODUCTION With respect to states of mind, we are of many minds. Sometimes we think mental states matter, and sometimes we think they don't. Most simply, bare voluntariness is usually viewed as a threshold requirement for legal or moral responsibility. Perhaps it seems ...
Formal, categorical, but incomplete: the need for a new standard in evaluating prior convictions under the Armed Career Criminal Act.
Jun 22, 2008; ... I. INTRODUCTION Even simple, objective arithmetic becomes tainted with subjectivity when the exercise of discretion governs what is counted. An examination of the current application of the Armed Career Criminal Act, (1) which imposes an enhanced penalty for defendants having at ...
Criminal prosecution in sheep's clothing: the punitive effects of OFAC freezing sanctions.(Office Foreign Assets Control)
Jun 22, 2008; ... I. INTRODUCTION The first response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington D.C. (9/11) was the financial war on terror. On September 23, 2001, President Bush exercised his authority pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act ...