Introduction

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Issa Kohler-Hausmann
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Physical Space ◽  
Mass Incarceration ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Front End ◽  
The U.S

This introductory chapter gives a brief overview of “misdemeanorland” and how it is studied. “Misdemeanorland” is a colloquialism used by people who work in the courts that receive the large volume of cases generated by New York City's signature policing tactics. The term designates a jurisdictional and physical space where these cases are processed. Within the context of the city's Broken Window enforcement, the expression “misdemeanorland” also signifies the widely shared notion that there is something unique about the operations of justice in the subfelony world. Many social science and media accounts of the U.S. criminal justice system tend to address either the back or front end of the system. In the age of mass incarceration, much public and scholarly focus has been directed at the back end, at what many of us assume to be the end point of most arrests: prison or jail. But between police and jails stands an institution assigned the role of deciding which people identified by police will end up in jail, prison, or elsewhere: the criminal court.

Conclusion

Outlaw Women ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 217-232
Author(s):  
Susan Dewey ◽  
Bonnie Zare ◽  
Catherine Connolly ◽  
Rhett Epler ◽  
Rosemary Bratton
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Mass Incarceration ◽  
Individual Choice ◽  
Dominant Culture ◽  
Frontier Myth ◽  
New Frontier ◽  
The U.S

Our Wyoming study offers direct implications for the U.S. prison system, which has reached a new frontier in terms of the sheer number of people incarcerated, on probation or parole, or experiencing the lifelong consequences of a felony conviction. Much like the frontier myth that continues to exercise influence in U.S. politics and dominant culture, mass incarceration is the result of popular acceptance of beliefs that ignore pervasive socioeconomic inequalities. These beliefs encourage the U.S. voting public to endorse addressing deeply rooted social problems, particularly addiction, through criminal justice solutions designed by the politicians they elect. Such is the nature of democracy in a society characterized by ever-widening inequalities between rich and poor, those with stable jobs and contingent workers, where the criminal justice system is fodder for countless films, series, and other entertainment, and where individuals rely far more on electronic communication than on meaningful social interaction. Social isolation and inequality breed fear, and three fear-based beliefs undergird the existence of the criminal justice system in its present form: drug-abusing women are a threat to public safety, law breaking is an individual choice rather than a community problem, and women released from prison pose a long-term risk to society.

“It was a jet. It was a jet. It was a jet.”

2021 ◽  
pp. 3-21
Author(s):  
Jessica DuLong
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
The United States ◽  
Staten Island ◽  
Creative Problem ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Maritime Infrastructure ◽  
Maritime Community ◽  
The U.S

This chapter provides a background of the waterborne evacuation that happened after the events of 9/11. New York harbor was, and is, a busy place — the third largest container port in the United States and a vital connection between New York City and the rest of the world. Manhattan is an island, and the realities of island real estate are what ushered the port's industries off Manhattan's shores and over to Brooklyn, Staten Island, and New Jersey in the 1960s and 1970s. By late 2001, maritime infrastructure had been replaced with ornamental fencing. On September 11, 2001, as the cascade of catastrophe unfolded, people found their fates altered by the absence of that infrastructure and discovered themselves dependent upon the creative problem solving of New York harbor's maritime community — waterfront workers who had been thrust beyond their usual occupations and into the role of first responders. Long before the U.S. Coast Guard's call for “all available boats” crackled out over marine radios, scores of ferries, tugs, dinner boats, sailing yachts, and other vessels had begun converging along Manhattan's shores. Hundreds of mariners shared their skills and equipment to conduct a massive, unplanned rescue. Within hours, nearly half a million people had been delivered from Manhattan by boat.

Susan Philips, Ideology in the language of judges: How judges practice law, politics, and courtroom control. (Oxford studies in anthropological linguistics, 17.) Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. Pp. xvii, 205. Hb $59.00, pb $29.95.

2001 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-115
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Mertz
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Classroom Discourse ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Trial Court ◽  
Anthropological Linguistics ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Oxford University ◽  
Administration Of Justice ◽  
Social Structural

In a time when some scholars are bemoaning an apparent drop in attention to the role of ideology in legal settings, Philips's new book comes as a welcome intervention. The author uses fine-grained analysis of courtroom language to reveal the pervasive influence of ideology on trial court judges' practices. Followers of Philips's pioneering work on legal language will not be disappointed; the volume lives up to the exacting standard she set for the field in her early articles on courtroom (and classroom) discourse. The study uses discourse analysis of guilty pleas in an Arizona criminal court to uncover how wider social-structural and political divisions are affecting the administration of justice – a process mediated by ideology and enacted in the minute details of linguistic exchanges.

The Changing Role of Foreign Money in the United States, 1782–1857

1977 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 1009-1027 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Martin
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
New York ◽  
The United States ◽  
National Currency ◽  
Legal Tender ◽  
Silver Standard ◽  
Changing Role ◽  
The U.S

Foreign money remained in widespread use in the United States until the middle of the nineteenth century. Several foreign coins were provided legal tender status in order to supplement the scanty American specie supply. A particular disadvantage was the perpetuation of non-decimal units of account, especially in New York. When the U.S. enacted a subsidiary silver standard in 1853, the expedient bases for the lawful status of foreign coin was removed. In 1857, the United States coinage was finally reformed to secure an exclusive national currency.

scholarly journals The Consensus Myth in Criminal Justice Reform

2018 ◽  
pp. 259
Author(s):  
Benjamin Levin
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
Mass Incarceration ◽  
Criminal Justice Reform ◽  
The Troubles ◽  
Mass Frame ◽  
Pragmatic Turn ◽  
Policy Proposals ◽  
Policy Solutions

It has become popular to identify a “consensus” on criminal justice reform, but how deep is that consensus, actually? This Article argues that the purported consensus is much more limited than it initially appears. Despite shared reformist vocabulary, the consensus rests on distinct critiques that identify different flaws and justify distinct policy solutions. The underlying disagreements transcend traditional left/right political divides and speak to deeper disputes about the state and the role of criminal law in society. The Article maps two prevailing, but fundamentally distinct, critiques of criminal law: (1) the quantitative approach (what I call the “over” frame); and (2) the qualitative approach (what I call the “mass” frame). The “over” frame grows from a belief that criminal law has an important and legitimate function, but that the law’s operations have exceeded that function. This critique assumes that there are optimal rates of incarceration and criminalization, but the current criminal system is suboptimal in that it has criminalized too much and incarcerated too many. In contrast, the “mass” frame focuses on criminal law as a sociocultural phenomenon. This reformist frame indicates that the issue is not a mere miscalculation; rather, reforms should address how the system marginalizes populations and exacerbates both power imbalances and distributional inequities. To show how these frames differ, this Article applies the “over” and the “mass” critique, in turn, to the maligned phenomena of mass incarceration and overcriminalization. The existing literature on mass incarceration and overcriminalization displays an elision between these two frames. Some scholars and reformers have adopted one frame exclusively, while others use the two interchangeably. No matter how much scholars and critics bemoan the troubles of mass incarceration and overcriminalization, it is hard to believe that they can achieve meaningful reform if they are talking about fundamentally different problems. While many scholars may adopt an “over” frame in an effort to attract a broader range of support or appeal to politicians, “over” policy proposals do not necessarily reach deeper “mass” concerns. Ultimately, this Article argues that a pragmatic turn to the “over” frame may have significant costs in legitimating deeper structural flaws and failing to address distributional issues of race, class, and power at the heart of the “mass” critique.

scholarly journals Criminal Justice after 9-11: ICC or Military Tribunals

2004 ◽  
Vol 5 (5) ◽  
pp. 545-568
Author(s):  
Thomas Mertens
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Thought Experiment ◽  
The United States ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Perceived Threat ◽  
Clash Of Civilizations

Nowadays, widespread consensus exists that the dramatic events of September 11, 2001 changed not only the country that suffered these attacks but also the way many in the West view the world outside this exclusive circle. For quite a number, it confirmed Huntington's thesis of a clash of civilizations – a vision of a future of ‘us’ versus ‘them'. But as the attackers were being identified, it became clear that in a sense they came from among us; although technically foreign nationals all, they lived and studied inconspicuously in western, multicultural societies. How are we then to deal with this enemy within? How is democracy to fight this so-called War on Terror and survive? Such questions are obviously not new. Bearing De Tocqueville's assertion in mind that a long war is not needed in order to put freedom at risk in a democratic society, this article, using the technique of a thought experiment, seeks to examine the increased prerogatives that governments – fearing the enemy within – have granted themselves in the realm of criminal law to deal with the perceived threat. This experiment will bring the reader, in a non-specialist way, from the criminal justice system of Germany to the possible role of an operational International Criminal Court, and from the criminal justice system of the United States to military tribunals as a means of dealing with what those in power claim is an extraordinary threat.

Introduction

Undelivered ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Philip F. Rubio
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Women Veterans ◽  
Postal Service ◽  
Leading Role ◽  
Union Leadership ◽  
Postal Workers ◽  
Policy Measures ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The U.S

This introductory chapter argues that this strike was a ground-breaking, successful rebellion against the federal government and postal union leadership. Both organized and spontaneous, it was a strike that also helps reveal rank-and-file militancy during that time as something rising, not falling--especially in the growing public sector. Postal labor was vital to the movement of mail, and postal workers were well positioned to wildcat by virtue of being so thoroughly unionized yet forbidden by law to strike. The stage had already been set for upsurge with the 1960s spike in the hiring of African Americans, women, veterans, and young people, and with a leading role played by New York City postal workers. This chapter draws connections between the strike and the resulting Postal Reorganization Act, which subsequently left the U.S. Postal Service vulnerable to subsequent laws and policy measures that harmed the agency’s financial viability.

scholarly journals Analysing the Future of International Criminal Justice in Africa: A Focus on the ICC

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-122
Author(s):  
Emily Ngolo
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
International Criminal Court ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
International Criminal Justice ◽  
African Union ◽  
The Future ◽  
Enforcement Mechanisms

The International Criminal Court has generally a bad reputation in the African continent as a whole with hostile assertions by the African Union, that the court is nothing but a political tool for the powerful. The Court, plagued with numerous difficulties, has come under pressure to perform, with some doubting its viability. Created by the Rome Statute, and the parties therein governed by general treaty law, enforcement mechanisms of the court have been unsatisfactory at best and this has led to questions being asked as to its survival. There exists a pool of divergent views, in regard to the African Union and the International Criminal Court, in many of the crucial areas of international criminal justice. This paper seeks to find out just how true is the claim that the ICC is ‘dead’ is, and the implications of this in the future of the continent as regards international criminal justice. How important is it for us to preserve international criminal justice? Just how much of a role do states play in this revered area of law? Is its legal viability coming to an unfortunate premature end? What does this mean, then, for the victims of mass atrocities? This paper seeks to show an interplay of the role of states and politics in international criminal justice, and determine then, whether there exists any bright future for this area of law in Africa.

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