scholarly journals Guilty Until Proven Guilty

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shivangi Narayan
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Indigenous Populations ◽  
Urban Landscapes ◽  
Criminal Records ◽  
Record Keeping ◽  
To Come ◽  
Lower Castes ◽  
The City

The journey to understand technological and digital policing requires a re-engagement with the most basic and widely used technology – paper-based registers for preventive policing. In the name of preventive policing, people from ex-untouchable castes, indigenous populations, and immigrants (in the city) are put under surveillance and recorded in registers. In the process, they earn criminal records for petty crimes, but also for no crimes at all. The registers enable a very ‘visible’ surveillance, where the ‘suspects’ are watched, followed and asked to come for mandatory attendance at the stations. Keeping in mind the segregated nature of the urban landscapes of cities in India, this is only possible for people who belong to certain strata of society and who do not have the privilege of escaping the prying eyes of the police. Researchers have argued that this form of policing is anti-poor or anti-marginalised. However, in this article, I argue that this form of preventive policing is better understood as being anti-caste. I demonstrate how police manuals, including guidelines for police record keeping and surveillance practices, reproduce and imitate the caste based social structure of India by using legacy practices from some still operational and some defunct laws. The paper-based registers maintain an illusion of objectivity – while the police can simply claim to be obeying the manuals. However, by enabling the recording of only those able to be visibly surveilled, those arrested for petty crimes, or those unable to escape the criminal justice system because of lack of money or social support or both, the paper-based registers become a vehicle of policing caste. By marking those thus recorded as habitual offenders, these registers propagate the caste-based understanding that defines crime as an inherent/hereditary trait of the lower castes. Prediction becomes nothing more than a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Crack and Criminal Justice in Canton, Ohio, 1987–1999: “The Drug Problem has Created a Monster”

2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-182
Author(s):  
WILL COOLEY
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Crack Cocaine ◽  
Mass Incarceration ◽  
War On Drugs ◽  
Drug Problem ◽  
Industrial City ◽  
The City

AbstractThe rise of crack cocaine in the late 1980s propelled the war on drugs. The experience of Canton, Ohio, shows how the response to crack solidified mass incarceration. A declining industrial city of 84,000 people in northeast Ohio with deep-seated racial divides, it was overwhelmed by aggressive, enterprising crack dealers from outside the city. In response, politicians and residents united behind the strategy of incessant arrests and drastic prison sentences. The law-enforcement offensive worsened conditions while pursuing African Americans at blatantly disproportionate rates, but few people engaged in reframing the drug problem. Instead, a punitive citizenry positioned punishment as the principal remedy. The emergency foreclosed on more comprehensive assessments of the city’s tribulations, while the criminal justice system emerged as the paramount institution.

Found Out and Opting Out

2016 ◽  
Vol 665 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Esther Lageson
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Family Relationships ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Criminal History ◽  
Criminal Records ◽  
Opting Out ◽  
Private Lives ◽  
Criminal Histories ◽  
The Relationship

Online criminal histories document and publicize even minor brushes with the law and represent people who may not even be guilty of any crime. This has dramatically changed the relationship that millions of Americans have with the criminal justice system and may affect their social and private lives. Drawing on interviews and fieldwork with people attempting to expunge and legally seal their criminal records, I explore how online versions of these records impact family relationships. Many who appear on mug shot and criminal history websites are arrestees who are never formally charged or convicted of a crime. The indiscriminate posting of all types of justice contact on websites may impact those who, for the most part, desist from crime and are core contributors to their family and community. I find that many of those who are affected by the stigma of online records did not know that records existed until they “popped up” unexpectedly, and that this experience leads them to self-select out of family duties that contribute to child well-being.

The Criminology of Wrongful Conviction

2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 82-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard A. Leo
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Wrongful Conviction ◽  
Wrongful Convictions ◽  
Cause Analysis ◽  
Academic Field ◽  
Root Cause ◽  
Improve Accuracy ◽  
Current Article ◽  
To Come

This article reflects on the author’s 2005 article, “Rethinking the Study of Miscarriages of Justice,” which sought to describe what scholars empirically knew at that time about the phenomenon, causes, and consequences of wrongful convictions in America. The 2005 article argued that the study of wrongful convictions constituted a coherent academic field of study and set forth a vision for a more sophisticated, insightful, and generalizable criminology of wrongful conviction. In this current article, the author revisits the ideas first developed in “Rethinking the Study of Miscarriages of Justice” to evaluate what scholars have learned about wrongful convictions in the last decade, and what challenges lie ahead for developing a more robust criminology of wrongful conviction. The article concludes that there have been significant theoretical, methodological, and substantive advances in the last decade, but that a root cause analysis of wrongful convictions has yet to come to fruition and urges empirical scholars to begin to study other sources of error and inaccuracy in the criminal justice system. Scholars should develop a criminology of erroneous outcomes, not just of erroneous conviction. By studying both sets of outcomes, scholars can improve accuracy and reduce errors across the board.

THE RACIAL HISTORY OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE IN AMERICA

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 221-241
Author(s):  
Heather Ann Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Native American ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
The United States ◽  
Indigenous Populations ◽  
Incarceration Rate ◽  
Racial History ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Law

AbstractThe United States today has the highest incarceration rate, as well as the largest number of people living under correctional control more broadly (including probation and parole), than any other country on the globe. The size of the American criminal justice system is not only internationally unparalleled, but it is also historically unprecedented. This apparatus is also deeply racialized. African Americans, Latinos, and indigenous populations (Hawaiian, Puerto Rican, Native American), are all represented in U. S. jails and prisons in numbers dramatically disproportionate to their representation in the population as a whole, and every non-White population is incarcerated at a rate far surpassing that of Whites. Notably, however, while the scale of today’s criminal justice system is unsurpassed and unprecedented, its severe racial disproportionality has always been a defining feature. Only by taking a close look at the long and deeply racialized history of the American criminal justice system, and more specifically at the regularly discriminatory application of the law as well as the consistent lack of equal justice under the law over time, can we fully understand not only why the American criminal justice system remains so unjust, but also why prison populations rose so dramatically when they did.

Racial Disparities in the Criminal Justice System: A Summary

1985 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joan Petersilia
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Racial Disparities ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Differential Treatment ◽  
Criminal Records ◽  
Research Attention ◽  
System A ◽  
Criminal Justice Systems ◽  
Comprehensive Examination ◽  
Future Policy

This article summarizes a comprehensive examination of racial discrimination in the criminal justice systems of California, Michigan, and Texas. In each of those states, judges typically imposed heavier sentences on Hispanics and blacks than on whites convicted of comparable felonies and who had similar criminal records. Not only did these minorities receive harsher minimum sentences but they also served more time. It is chiefly at the sentencing stage where differential treatment is most pronounced. I discuss what could account for differences in sentencing, and suggest areas for future policy and research attention.

Engaging Employers and Business in the Hiring of Individuals with Criminal Records

2014 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 15-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Gordon Swensen ◽  
John Rakis ◽  
Melanie G. Snyder ◽  
Randall E. Loss
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Criminal Records ◽  
Recidivism Rates ◽  
Lancaster County ◽  
System A ◽  
Collaborative Community ◽  
Reducing Recidivism

The successful reentry and reintegration of ex-offenders with disabilities will be discussed in terms of barrier removal, employer perception, and an improved relationship with the criminal justice system. A criminal record limits opportunitiesfor employment and without collaborative community supports can increase both recidivism rates and increase costs to an over-burdened criminal justice system. Employer relationships, including outreach, marketing and evidence-based partneringlcollaboration will be reviewed, including a model program from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania that supports the discussion. Special considerations for those with sex offenses will be provided, as well as efforts to eliminate the stigma involved with criminal and/or felony records. The correlation between disability and delinquency in terms of both impairment and vocational impediments is described through three disabilities (TBL Substance Abuse/Dependency, and Mental Illness). The role of the VR counselor in terms of community efforts at reducing recidivism, increasing employment outcomes for ex-offenders/clients, through effective partnerships, can affect significantly both societal and economic improvement, as well as impact overall recidivism, reentry and community reintegration issues for ex-offenders.

San Francisco's Family-Focused Probation: A Conversation with Chief Adult Probation Officer Wendy Still

2011 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-56
Author(s):  
Margaret Dizerega
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
San Francisco ◽  
Family Involvement ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Probation Officer ◽  
Family Impact ◽  
Decision Point ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The City ◽  
Adult Probation

The strengths of family and the impact of incarceration on family members are often ignored in the sentencing decision. Similarly, despite decades of research demonstrating that families play an important role in the successful reentry of individuals, they are often overlooked as a reentry resource. A family-focused approach to sentencing and supervision would ensure that family involvement is considered at each decision point in the criminal justice system. Believed to be the only U.S. jurisdiction that is using family impact statements at sentencing, the Adult Probation Department in San Francisco is committed to a family-focused approach. To discuss the department's innovative practices, the author interviewed Wendy Still, the chief adult probation officer of the city and county of San Francisco.

Drugs and Justice: The Impact of Drugs on Criminal Justice in a Metropolitan Community

1993 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 204-224 ◽  
Author(s):  
John M. Klofas
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Metropolitan Area ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Local Level ◽  
War On Drugs ◽  
Case Processing ◽  
York Metropolitan Area ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The City

This study examines the impact of drugs on the criminal justice system of the greater Rochester (New York) metropolitan area. Although discussed widely, there has been little investigation of the effects of the “war on drugs” at the local level. This research considers patterns of arrest and case processing and includes an examination of drug treatment. Increases in arrests, particularly for possession of drugs, have occurred in the city but not the suburbs and have had a disproportionate effect on African-Americans. Many cases are processed as misdemeanors and result in minor sanctions. The implications for traditional order maintenance concerns in a metropolitan community are discussed.

Facilitating Pretrial Justice in New Orleans

2011 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon Wool
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
New Orleans ◽  
York City ◽  
Justice System ◽  
City Government ◽  
Pretrial Detention ◽  
The City

New Orleans in 2011 finds itself facing many of the same problems New York City faced in 1961 when the founders of the Vera Institute of Justice launched the Manhattan Bail Project: Too many people are held in pretrial detention who could be released without risk to public safety; the reliance on bail results in disparate outcomes based on financial ability; and the unnecessary detention of thousands of defendants each year imposes excessive costs on the city government and taxpayers, as well as on those needlessly detained. Vera is now working with New Orleans stakeholders to develop a comprehensive pretrial services system. Following in the footsteps of the Manhattan Bail Project, the work will create a carefully conceived and locally sensitive pretrial services system, one that will result in a fairer and more efficient criminal justice system and a safer community.

M

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samm Deighan
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
German Society ◽  
Horror Films ◽  
Serial Killer ◽  
German Expressionism ◽  
First Sound ◽  
To Come ◽  
First Time

Fritz Lang's first sound feature, M (1931), is one of the earliest serial killer films in cinema history and laid the foundation for future horror movies and thrillers, particularly those with a disturbed killer as protagonist. Peter Lorre's child killer, Hans Beckert, is presented as monstrous, yet sympathetic, building on themes presented in the earlier German Expressionist horror films like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and The Hands of Orlac. Lang eerily foreshadowed the rising fascist horrors in German society, and transforms his cinematic Berlin into a place of urban terror and paranoia. This book explores the way Lang uses horror and thriller tropes in M, particularly in terms of how it functions as a bridge between German Expressionism and Hollywood's growing fixation on sympathetic killers in the 1940s. The book also examines how Lang made use of developments within forensic science and the criminal justice system to portray a somewhat realistic serial killer on screen for the first time, at once capturing how society in the 1930s and 1940s viewed such individuals and their crimes and shaping how they would be portrayed on screen in the horror films to come.

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