The punitive consequences of organizational structures in England, France and the United States

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 303-326 ◽  
Author(s):  
DANIEL J. D'AMICO ◽  
CLAUDIA WILLIAMSON
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Organizational Structures ◽  
The United States ◽  
Rent Seeking ◽  
Legal Institutions ◽  
Commercial Law ◽  
Path Dependencies ◽  
Legal Structures

AbstractWe develop a framework for understanding how legal structures relate to imprisonment. We hypothesize that relatively more hierarchy within criminal justice institutions, compared to commercial law, fosters higher rates of incarceration. Our framework predicts that incarceration reflects asymmetric opportunities for rent seeking across differently organized legal institutions. Instead of comparing criminal justice institutions across nations in absolute terms, we investigate the relative degrees of institutional centralization across legal spheres. To provide support, we document the separate historical experiences that shaped divergent organizations across England and France. Within each country, criminal legal institutions developed inverse organizational traits from commercial legal processes. As a result, the contrasting organizations created asymmetric opportunities for rent seeking. Divergent contemporary outcomes can be understood by recognizing these initial organizational choices, the relative opportunities they created, and their subsequent path dependencies. We document contemporary England, France, and the United States’ incarceration trends and penal outcomes to provide empirical support.

scholarly journals Mercy towards decarceration: Examining the legal constraints on early release from prison

Incarceration ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 263266632097780
Author(s):  
Alexandra Cox ◽  
Dwayne Betts
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Family Members ◽  
The United States ◽  
Early Release ◽  
The Us ◽  
Legal Constraints ◽  
Release From Prison

There are close to seven million people under correctional supervision in the United States, both in prison and in the community. The US criminal justice system is widely regarded as an inherently unmerciful institution by scholars and policymakers but also by people who have spent time in prison and their family members; it is deeply punitive, racist, expansive and damaging in its reach. In this article, we probe the meanings of mercy for the institution of parole.

Shame and blame: Secondary stigma among families of convicted sex offenders

2021 ◽  
pp. 174889582110173
Author(s):  
Douglas Evans ◽  
Adam Trahan ◽  
Kaleigh Laird
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Sex Offenders ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Sex Offender ◽  
Family Members ◽  
The United States ◽  
Formerly Incarcerated ◽  
Research Attention ◽  
Sex Offender Registry

The detriment of incarceration experienced by the formerly incarcerated has been increasingly explored in the literature on reentry. A tangential but equally concerning issue that has recently received more research attention is the effect on family members of the incarcerated. The stigma of a criminal conviction is most apparent among families of convicted sex offenders, who experience consequences parallel to those of their convicted relative. Drawing from interviews with 30 individuals with a family member incarcerated for a sex offence in the United States, this study explores manifestations of stigma due to familial association. The findings suggest that families face negative treatment from social networks and criminal justice officials, engage in self-blame and that the media’s control over the narrative exacerbates family members’ experiences. Given the pervasiveness of criminal justice system contact, the rapid growth of the sex offender registry in the United States, and the millions of family members peripherally affected by one or both, justice system reforms are needed to ensure that family members are shielded from the harms of incarceration and registration.

scholarly journals A 26-Year Study of Restraint Fatalities Among Children and Adolescents in the United States: A Failure of Organizational Structures and Processes

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael A. Nunno ◽  
Lisa A. McCabe ◽  
Charles V. Izzo ◽  
Elliott G. Smith ◽  
Deborah E. Sellers ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Physical Restraint ◽  
Organizational Structures ◽  
The United States ◽  
Community Schools ◽  
Disability Services ◽  
Advocacy Groups ◽  
Governmental Agencies ◽  
Practice Recommendations ◽  
Mechanical Restraints

Abstract Background Physical and mechanical restraints used in treatment, care, education, and corrections programs for children are high-risk interventions primarily due to their adverse physical, emotional, and fatal consequences. Objective This study explores the conditions and circumstances of restraint-related fatalities in the United States by asking (1) Who are the children that died due to physical restraint? and (2) How did they die? Method The study employs internet search systems to discover and compile information about restraint-related fatalities of children and youth up to 18 years of age from reputable journalism sources, advocacy groups, activists, and governmental and non-governmental agencies. The child cohort from a published study of restraint fatalities in the United States from 1993 to 2003 is combined with restraint fatalities from 2004 to 2018. This study’s scope has expanded to include restraint deaths in community schools, as well as undiscovered restraint deaths from 1993 to 2003 not in the 2006 study. Results Seventy-nine restraint-related fatalities occurred over the 26-year period from across a spectrum of children’s out-of-home child welfare, corrections, mental health and disability services. The research provides a data snapshot and examples of how fatalities unfold and their consequences for staff and agencies. Practice recommendations are offered to increase safety and transparency. Conclusions The study postulates that restraint fatalities result from a confluence of medical, psychological, and organizational causes; such as cultures prioritizing control, ignoring risk, using dangerous techniques, as well as agencies that lack structures, processes, procedures, and resources to promote learning and to ensure physical and psychological safety.

scholarly journals Renewable Energy Federalism in Germany and the United States

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Johannes Saurer ◽  
Jonas Monast
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Federal Government ◽  
Energy Transition ◽  
The United States ◽  
Federal Republic Of Germany ◽  
The Us ◽  
Legal Structures ◽  
Cooperative Federalism ◽  
Energy Expansion

Abstract The Federal Republic of Germany and the United States (US) have adopted different models for energy federalism. Germany allocates more authority to the federal government and the US relies on a decentralized cooperative federalism model that preserves key roles for state actors. This article explores and compares the relevance of federal legal structures for renewable energy expansion in both countries. It sets out the constitutional, statutory, and factual foundations in both Germany and the US, and explores the legal and empirical dimensions of renewable energy expansion at the federal and state levels. The article concludes by drawing several comparative lessons about the significance of federal structures for energy transition processes.

scholarly journals Foucault, prison, and human rights: A dialectic of theory and criminal justice reform

2021 ◽  
pp. 136248062110159
Author(s):  
Mugambi Jouet
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Social Control ◽  
The United States ◽  
Criminal Justice Reform ◽  
Penal Reform ◽  
Foucauldian Theory ◽  
Prison Abolition ◽  
Abolition Movement

Michel Foucault’s advocacy toward penal reform in France differed from his theories. Although Foucault is associated with the prison abolition movement, he also proposed more humane prisons. The article reframes Foucauldian theory through a dialectic with the theories of Marc Ancel, a prominent figure in the emergence of liberal sentencing norms in France. Ancel and Foucault were contemporaries whose legacies are intertwined. Ancel defended more benevolent prisons where experts would rehabilitate offenders. This evokes exactly what Discipline and Punish cast as an insidious strategy of social control. In reality, Foucault and Ancel converged in intriguing ways. The dialectic offers another perspective on Foucault, whose theories have fostered skepticism about the possibility of progress. While mass incarceration’s rise in the United States may evoke a Foucauldian dystopia, the relative development of human rights and dignity in European punishment reflects aspirations that Foucault embraced as an activist concerned about fatalistic interpretations of his theories.

Health Associations of Drug-Involved and Criminal-Justice-Involved Adults in the United States

2013 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 318-336 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael G. Vaughn ◽  
Christopher P. Salas-wright ◽  
Matt Delisi ◽  
Alex R. Piquero
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
The United States

Criminal Justice in an Era of Mass Deportation

2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 12-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ingrid V. Eagly
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
State Level ◽  
Plea Bargaining ◽  
The United States ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Law Enforcement Agencies ◽  
Collateral Consequence

After a sustained period of hypercriminalization, the United States criminal justice system is undergoing reform. Congress has reduced federal sentencing for drug crimes, prison growth is slowing, and some states are even closing prisons. Low-level crimes have been removed from criminal law books, and attention is beginning to focus on long-neglected issues such as bail and criminal court fines. Still largely overlooked in this era of ambitious reform, however, is the treatment of immigrants in the criminal justice system. An unprecedented focus on immigration enforcement targeted at “felons, not families” has resulted in a separate system of punitive treatment reserved for noncitizens, which includes crimes of migration, longer periods of pretrial detention, harsher criminal sentences, and the almost certain collateral consequence of lifetime banishment from the United States. For examples of state-level solutions to this predicament, this Essay turns to a trio of bold criminal justice reforms from California that (1) require prosecutors to consider immigration penalties in plea bargaining; (2) change the state definition of “misdemeanor” from a maximum sentence of a year to 364 days; and (3) instruct law enforcement agencies to not hold immigrants for deportation purposes unless they are first convicted of serious crimes. Together, these new laws provide an important window into how state criminal justice systems could begin to address some of the unique concerns of noncitizen criminal defendants.

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