Overcriminalization

Overcriminalization PDF Author: Douglas Husak
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198043996
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
The United States today suffers from too much criminal law and too much punishment. Husak describes the phenomena in some detail and explores their relation, and why these trends produce massive injustice. His primary goal is to defend a set of constraints that limit the authority of states to enact and enforce penal offenses. The book urges the weight and relevance of this topic in the real world, and notes that most Anglo-American legal philosophers have neglected it. Husak's secondary goal is to situate this endeavor in criminal theory as traditionally construed. He argues that many of the resources to reduce the size and scope of the criminal law can be derived from within the criminal law itself-even though these resources have not been used explicitly for this purpose. Additional constraints emerge from a political view about the conditions under which important rights such as the right implicated by punishment-may be infringed. When conjoined, these constraints produce what Husak calls a minimalist theory of criminal liability. Husak applies these constraints to a handful of examples-most notably, to the justifiability of drug proscriptions.

Overcriminalization

Overcriminalization PDF Author: Douglas Husak
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198043996
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 244

Get Book Here

Book Description
The United States today suffers from too much criminal law and too much punishment. Husak describes the phenomena in some detail and explores their relation, and why these trends produce massive injustice. His primary goal is to defend a set of constraints that limit the authority of states to enact and enforce penal offenses. The book urges the weight and relevance of this topic in the real world, and notes that most Anglo-American legal philosophers have neglected it. Husak's secondary goal is to situate this endeavor in criminal theory as traditionally construed. He argues that many of the resources to reduce the size and scope of the criminal law can be derived from within the criminal law itself-even though these resources have not been used explicitly for this purpose. Additional constraints emerge from a political view about the conditions under which important rights such as the right implicated by punishment-may be infringed. When conjoined, these constraints produce what Husak calls a minimalist theory of criminal liability. Husak applies these constraints to a handful of examples-most notably, to the justifiability of drug proscriptions.

Ending Overcriminalization and Mass Incarceration

Ending Overcriminalization and Mass Incarceration PDF Author: Anthony B. Bradley
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108427545
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 235

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Book Description
Personalism points to reforming criminal justice from the person up by changing criminal law and enlisting civil society institutions.

Ending Overcriminalization and Mass Incarceration

Ending Overcriminalization and Mass Incarceration PDF Author: Anthony B. Bradley
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108632408
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 235

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Book Description
Mass incarceration is an overwhelming problem and reforms are often difficult, leading to confusion about what to do and where to start. Ending Overcriminalization and Mass Incarceration: Hope from Civil Society introduces the key issues that need immediate attention and provides concrete direction about effective solutions systemically and relationally. In this work Anthony B. Bradley recognizes that offenders are persons with inherent dignity. Mass incarceration results from the systemic breakdown of criminal law procedure and broken communities. Using the principle of personalism, attention is drawn to those areas that directly contact the lives of offenders and determine their fate. Bradley explains how reform must be built from the person up, and once these areas are reformed our law enforcement culture will change for the better. Taking an innovative approach, Anthony B. Bradley explores what civic institutions need to do to prevent people from falling into the criminal justice system and recidivism for those released from prison.

Overcriminalization

Overcriminalization PDF Author: Douglas Husak
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019532871X
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 245

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Book Description
America suffers from too much criminal law and too much punishment, which produces massive injustice. To rectify this injustice, we need to defend and implement a theory of criminalisation: a set of constraints that limit the authority of states to enact and enforce penal offenses.

The Boundaries of the Criminal Law

The Boundaries of the Criminal Law PDF Author: R.A. Duff
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199600554
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 278

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Book Description
This is the first book of a series on criminalization - examining the principles and goals that should guide what kinds of conduct are to be criminalized, and the forms that criminalization should take. The first volume studies the scope and boundaries of the criminal law - asking what principled limits might be placed on criminalizing behaviour.

The Political Heart of Criminal Procedure

The Political Heart of Criminal Procedure PDF Author: Michael Klarman
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139505580
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
The past several decades have seen a renaissance in criminal procedure as a cutting-edge discipline and as one inseparably linked to substantive criminal law. This renaissance can be traced in no small part to the work of a single scholar: William Stuntz. This volume brings together twelve leading American criminal justice scholars whose own writings have been profoundly influenced by Stuntz and his work. Their contributions consist of essays on subjects ranging from the political economy of substantive criminal law to the law of police investigations to the role of religion in legal scholarship - all themes addressed by Stuntz in his own work. Some contributions directly analyze or respond to Stuntz's work, while others address topics or themes Stuntz wrote about from the contributor's own distinctive perspective.

Go Directly to Jail

Go Directly to Jail PDF Author: Gene Healy
Publisher: Cato Institute
ISBN: 9781930865631
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
The American criminal justice system is becoming ever more centralized and punitive, owing to rampant federalization and mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines. Go Directly to Jail examines these alarming trends and proposes reforms that could rein in a criminal justice apparatus at war with fairness and common sense.

Three Felonies a Day

Three Felonies a Day PDF Author: Harvey Silverglate
Publisher: Encounter Books
ISBN: 1594035229
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 390

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Book Description
"The average professional in this country wakes up in the morning, goes to work, comes home, eats dinner and then goes to sleep, unaware that he or she has likely committted several federal crimes that day ... Why?" This book explores the answer to the question, reveals how the federal criminal justice system has become dangerously disconnected from common law traditions of due process and the law's expectations and surprises the reader with its insight.

Sex, Drugs, Death, and the Law

Sex, Drugs, Death, and the Law PDF Author: David Richards
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 9780847675258
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 334

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Book Description
Among the most commonly argued legal questions are those involving "victimless" crimes--consensual adult sexual relations (including homosexuality and prostitution), the use of drugs, and the right to die. How can they be distinguished from proper crimes, and how can we, as citizens, judge the complex moral and legal issues that such questions entail? David Richards, a teacher of law in the areas of constitutional and criminal law, and a moral and legal philosopher concerned with the investigation of legal concepts, applies an interdisciplinary approach to the question of overcriminalization, he draws on legal and philosophical arguments and links the subject to history, psychology, social science, and literature. To demonstrate how gross and unjust overcriminalization has developed, Professor Richards explores basic assumptions that often underlie the common American sense of proper criminalization.

Criminal liability in regulatory contexts

Criminal liability in regulatory contexts PDF Author: Great Britain: Law Commission
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780118404938
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
In this consultation paper, the Law Commission sets out the case for reducing the scope for criminal law to be used in regulated fields such as farming, food safety, banking and retail sales. Criminal sanctions should only be used to tackle serious wrongdoing and it is out of proportion for regulators to rely wholly on the criminal law to punish and deter activities that are merely 'risky', unless the risk involved is a serious one. There has been a steep increase in the number of criminal offences created since the late 1980s to penalise risk-taking. The areas regulated cover a wide range of risk-posing activities, and involve millions of people and thousands of businesses. By turning to civil penalties for minor breaches, regulators could reduce costs to themselves and the criminal justice system by £11 million a year. In some cases, criminal prosecution can cost almost twice what the courts obtain in fines. The paper proposes that: (i) regulatory authorities should make more use of cost-effective, efficient and fairer civil measures to govern standards of behaviour; (ii) a set of common principles should be established to help agencies consider when and how to use the criminal law to tackle serious wrongdoing, and (iii) existing low-level criminal offences should be repealed where civil penalties could be as effective. Where criminal offences are created in regulatory contexts, they should require proof of fault elements such as intention, knowledge, or a failure to take steps to avoid harm being done or serious risks posed.