Developmentally and Trauma-Sensitive Courtrooms

2016 ◽  
Vol 59 (6) ◽  
pp. 779-795 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Crenshaw ◽  
Lori Stella ◽  
Ellen O’Neill-Stephens ◽  
Celeste Walsen
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
The United States ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Child Witnesses ◽  
Family Court ◽  
Humanistic Psychology ◽  
Child Victims ◽  
Court System ◽  
Criminal Trials

Courtrooms in the United States whether family court or criminal court fall far short of being either developmentally or trauma sensitive. While there is growing recognition that vulnerable child witnesses are at risk of retraumatization by court procedures and some judges have used their discretionary powers to render courtrooms less toxic to children, the system was designed by adults for adults, and certainly not for children. The court process especially in criminal trials does not typically take into account the developmental constraints of children nor do they fully understand trauma in children and the risks to testifying child witnesses. Humanistic psychology has long stood for social justice and compassion toward our most vulnerable humans, especially children, but the long and slow-to-change traditions of the court system in the United States creates an environment that is inhospitable to children and even older victims as illustrated by the low rate of prosecutions in rape cases. This article outlines the distressing conditions that await child victims/witnesses in this country in comparison with other developed countries and an innovative, out-of-the box solution that does not interfere with the rights of the accused.

Using Civil Law Approaches to Hate Crimes in the United States for Illicit Antiquities and Fine Art Cases

2021 ◽  
pp. 2631309X2110209
Author(s):  
Kate Melody Burmon
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Hate Crime ◽  
Burden Of Proof ◽  
The United States ◽  
Fine Art ◽  
Hate Crimes ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Court System ◽  
Criminal Cases ◽  
Hate Groups

The current legal system is not designed to pursue satisfying action in criminal court for hate crimes or fine art crimes. However, the civil court system in the United States might provide a more fruitful avenue in combatting these crimes. The burden of proof is lessened to preponderance of evidence. Compensatory and punitive damages awarded in civil cases against hate groups appear to create a more significant financial impact than reparations in criminal cases. Known forprofit entities engage in both of these types of crimes. Due to the limitations of criminal legal solutions in the United States, pursuing a civil legal approach might prove more effective in combatting cases involving hate crime as well as illicit antiquities and fine art.

The Culture of Silencing Child Victims of Sexual Abuse

2016 ◽  
Vol 57 (2) ◽  
pp. 190-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Caprioli ◽  
David A. Crenshaw
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
High Stress ◽  
The United States ◽  
Community Response ◽  
Child Victims ◽  
Court System ◽  
Judicial Process ◽  
Coordinated Community Response ◽  
Victims Of Sexual Abuse

This article describes the insidious impact of the cultural silencing of child victims of sexual abuse. Children exposed to sexual violence encounter a multitude of factors that force them to experience and respond to their victimization in silence. Those children able to break their silence in the form of disclosure are often thrust into a parallel process of silencing perpetuated in the United States by the current design of our criminal justice and court systems. Child witnesses within these systems are silenced in both subtle and overt ways throughout the judicial process and are expected to function under conditions of extremely high stress and anxiety. This intense and adversarial atmosphere overwhelms children’s resources and shuts down their ability to effectively communicate on the stand, leading to repeated experiences of silencing that can ultimately have devastating long-term consequences. In addition, secondary wounding is often inflicted because of the insensitivity of our institutional practices to both developmentally and trauma-sensitive treatment of these vulnerable children. This article describes an application of humanistic psychology to the court system in the United States as well as an attempt at building a coordinated community response to address the problem of silencing. Recommendations for addressing inequities in the child justice process and mobilizing professionals and agencies are offered in the humanistic tradition.

The Washington Consensus, liberal ideas and terms of the military-technological policy

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (11) ◽  
pp. 2103-2123
Author(s):  
V.L. Gladyshevskii ◽  
E.V. Gorgola ◽  
D.V. Khudyakov
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Production Management ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
The United States ◽  
Internal Quality ◽  
Industrial Complex ◽  
Active Involvement ◽  
Military Industrial Complex ◽  
Industrial Complexes ◽  
The Military

Subject. In the twentieth century, the most developed countries formed a permanent military economy represented by military-industrial complexes, which began to perform almost a system-forming role in national economies, acting as the basis for ensuring national security, and being an independent military and political force. The United States is pursuing a pronounced militaristic policy, has almost begun to unleash a new "cold war" against Russia and to unwind the arms race, on the one hand, trying to exhaust the enemy's economy, on the other hand, to reindustrialize its own economy, relying on the military-industrial complex. Objectives. We examine the evolution, main features and operational distinctions of the military-industrial complex of the United States and that of the Russian Federation, revealing sources of their military-technological and military-economic advancement in comparison with other countries. Methods. The study uses military-economic analysis, scientific and methodological apparatus of modern institutionalism. Results. Regulating the national economy and constant monitoring of budget financing contribute to the rise of military production, especially in the context of austerity and crisis phenomena, which, in particular, justifies the irrelevance of institutionalists' conclusions about increasing transaction costs and intensifying centralization in the industrial production management with respect to to the military-industrial complex. Conclusions. Proving to be much more efficient, the domestic military-industrial complex, without having such access to finance as the U.S. military monopolies, should certainly evolve and progress, strengthening the coordination, manageability, planning, maximum cost reduction, increasing labor productivity, and implementing an internal quality system with the active involvement of the State and its resources.

Rights Discourse and Assisted Suicide

2001 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-99
Author(s):  
Penney Lewis
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Assisted Suicide ◽  
Public Awareness ◽  
The United States ◽  
Medical Professionals ◽  
Physician Assisted Suicide ◽  
Criminal Trials ◽  
Supreme Courts ◽  
Rights Discourse ◽  
Law Professors

The debate surrounding the legalization of assisted suicide has been galvanized in recent years by reports of specific cases of assisted suicide, primarily involving physicians such as Kevorkian and Quill, and by impassioned pleas for legalization and assistance in suicide from individuals suffering in the throes of terminal or agonizing diseases, such as Sue Rodriguez. Media attention on criminal trials of individuals accused of assisting in a suicide has heightened public awareness of the issue. The constitutionality of criminal prohibitions on assisted suicide has been tested in various jurisdictions, and has recently been considered by the Supreme Courts of both the United States and Canada. Following two narrowly unsuccessful attempts to enact dignified death provisions by referenda in Washington and California, Oregon voters passed the first of such proposed laws in November 1994, providing for physician-assisted suicide under certain specified conditions. Attempts to introduce legislation to legalize assisted suicide in other jurisdictions have been galvanized by the success in Oregon. A model statute has been drafted by a group of law professors, philosophers and medical professionals.

American Defence Legal Systems in Germany

1981 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-15
Author(s):  
E. J. Bellen
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
United States Military ◽  
Court System ◽  
Legal Systems

The purpose of this paper is to give a brief sketch of the United States military court system and present a working example of it.

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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