Crimes That Shaped the Law

Crimes That Shaped the Law PDF Author: David Field
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780409342222
Category : Crime
Languages : en
Pages :

Book Description
The law cannot remain static, but must adjust to reflect the changing society that it serves. From time to time, criminal cases arise that dramatically dictate the need for alterations to the law. Those developments often occur, but what of the fates of those whose misfortunes were the catalyst for change? The stories of some of these unwitting oÂeÂ" and unwilling oÂeÂ" pioneers are collected in this fascinating book. These twelve true-life tales include: oÂeo the infamous practice of oÂeÂ~baby farmingoÂeÂ(tm) that led to a new evidentiary principle oÂeo the murder of two young sailors that resulted in limits on an accused personoÂeÂ(tm)s oÂeÂ~right to silenceoÂeÂ(tm) oÂeo the victim of domestic violence whose trial on a murder charge saw the recognition of the oÂeÂ~battered woman syndromeoÂeÂ(tm) oÂeo the prosecutions of sleepwalkers who killed oÂeÂ" were they criminally insane? oÂeo the mistaken identity conviction that led to warnings against eyewitness identification The lively and engaging stories, spanning a hundred years, provide the historical background that led to important changes to our justice system. Features oÂeo Real-life stories provide engaging insight into our justice system oÂeo Offers a unique treatment of the genesis of many important legal rules oÂeo Written by an author with extensive background working with the rules of criminal law and evidence Related Titles Howard, R v Milat: A Case Study in Cross-Examination, 2014

A Pattern of Violence

A Pattern of Violence PDF Author: David Alan Sklansky
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674259696
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 337

Book Description
A law professor and former prosecutor reveals how inconsistent ideas about violence, enshrined in law, are at the root of the problems that plague our entire criminal justice system—from mass incarceration to police brutality. We take for granted that some crimes are violent and others aren’t. But how do we decide what counts as a violent act? David Alan Sklansky argues that legal notions about violence—its definition, causes, and moral significance—are functions of political choices, not eternal truths. And these choices are central to failures of our criminal justice system. The common distinction between violent and nonviolent acts, for example, played virtually no role in criminal law before the latter half of the twentieth century. Yet to this day, with more crimes than ever called “violent,” this distinction determines how we judge the seriousness of an offense, as well as the perpetrator’s debt and danger to society. Similarly, criminal law today treats violence as a pathology of individual character. But in other areas of law, including the procedural law that covers police conduct, the situational context of violence carries more weight. The result of these inconsistencies, and of society’s unique fear of violence since the 1960s, has been an application of law that reinforces inequities of race and class, undermining law’s legitimacy. A Pattern of Violence shows that novel legal philosophies of violence have motivated mass incarceration, blunted efforts to hold police accountable, constrained responses to sexual assault and domestic abuse, pushed juvenile offenders into adult prisons, encouraged toleration of prison violence, and limited responses to mass shootings. Reforming legal notions of violence is therefore an essential step toward justice.

Crimes That Changed Our World

Crimes That Changed Our World PDF Author: Paul H. Robinson
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538102021
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 405

Book Description
Can crime make our world safer? Crimes are the worst of humanity’s wrongs but, oddly, they sometimes “trigger” improvement in our lives. Crimes That Changed Our World explores some of the most important trigger cases of the past century, revealing much about how change comes to our modern world. The exact nature of the crime-outrage-reform dynamic can take many forms, and Paul and Sarah Robinson explore those differences in the cases they present. Each case is in some ways unique but there are repeating patterns that can offer important insights about what produces change and how in the future we might best manage it. Sometimes reform comes as a society wrestles with a new and intolerable problem. Sometimes it comes because an old problem from which we have long suffered suddenly has an apparent solution provided by technology or some other social or economic advance. Or, sometimes the engine of reform kicks into gear simply because we decide as a society that we are no longer willing to tolerate a long-standing problem and are now willing to do something about it. As the amazing and often touching stories that the Robinsons present make clear, the path of progress is not just a long series of course corrections; sometimes it is a quick turn or an unexpected lurch. In a flash we can suddenly feel different about present circumstances, seeing a need for change and can often, just as suddenly, do something about it. Every trigger crime that appears in Crimes That Changed Our World highlights a societal problem that America has chosen to deal with, each in a unique way. But what these extraordinary, and sometime unexpected, cases have in common is that all of them describe crimes that changed our world.

Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994

Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 PDF Author: United States
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Criminal justice, Administration of
Languages : en
Pages : 356

Book Description


Power and Crime

Power and Crime PDF Author: Vincenzo Ruggiero
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317647394
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 182

Book Description
This book provides an analysis of the two concepts of power and crime and posits that criminologists can learn more about these concepts by incorporating ideas from disciplines outside of criminology. Although arguably a 'rendezvous' discipline, Vincenzo Ruggiero argues that criminology can gain much insight from other fields such as the political sciences, ethics, social theory, critical legal studies, economic theory, and classical literature. In this book Ruggiero offers an authoritative synthesis of a range of intellectual conceptions of crime and power, drawing on the works and theories of classical, as well as contemporary thinkers, in the above fields of knowledge, arguing that criminology can ‘humbly’ renounce claims to intellectual independence and adopt notions and perspectives from other disciplines. The theories presented locate the crimes of the powerful in different disciplinary contexts and make the book essential reading for academics and students involved in the study of criminology, sociology, law, politics and philosophy.

Law, History, and Justice

Law, History, and Justice PDF Author: Annette Weinke
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 1805399020
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 529

Book Description
Since the nineteenth century, the development of international humanitarian law has been marked by complex entanglements of legal theory, historical trauma, criminal prosecution, historiography, and politics. All of these factors have played a role in changing views on the applicability of international law and human-rights ideas to state-organized violence, which in turn have been largely driven by transnational responses to German state crimes. Here, Annette Weinke gives a groundbreaking long-term history of the political, legal and academic debates concerning German state and mass violence in the First World War, during the National Socialist era and the Holocaust, and under the GDR.

Murder at the Supreme Court

Murder at the Supreme Court PDF Author: Martin Clancy
Publisher:
ISBN: 1616146486
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 412

Book Description
Offers a unique behind the scenes look at the capital punishment cases that made it to the highest court in the land.

Immigration Law and Crimes

Immigration Law and Crimes PDF Author: Dan Kesselbrenner
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 296

Book Description
This comprehensive looseleaf treatise presents the law and procedure involved in representing a foreign-born criminal defendant. The work discusses the immigration consequences of criminal conviction and discretionary relief and other amelioration of the impact on immigration status.

Criminal Law

Criminal Law PDF Author: Kevin C. McMunigal
Publisher: Ingram
ISBN: 9781531004019
Category : Criminal law
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
Criminal Law: Problems, Statutes, and Cases combines effective, innovative teaching methods, such as the use of problems and visual materials, with cases, including recent opinions on bias intimidation, possession of child pornography, threatening speech on social media, and theft of computer code. Key features include: A problem methodology. The book incorporates problem methodology with extensive use of problems, many based on recent cases. A statutory approach. A primary goal of the book is teaching skills in interpreting and, to a lesser degree, writing statutes. Visual materials. Visual materials include: (1) diagrammed crimes; (2) graphic exercises, such as having students create a timeline to compare and contrast various tests for the conduct element in attempt; and (3) video clip recommendations from a wide range of movies and TV shows such as The Wire and Breaking Bad.

Defining Crimes

Defining Crimes PDF Author: Antony Duff
Publisher: Oxford University Press on Demand
ISBN: 9780199269228
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 247

Book Description
This collection of original essays, by some of the best known contemporary criminal law theorists, tackles a range of issues about the criminal law's 'special part' - the part of the criminal law that defines specific offences. One of its aims is to show the importance, for theory as well as for practice, of focusing on the special part as well as on the general part which usually receives much more theoretical attention. Some of the issues covered concern the proper scope of the criminal law, for example how far should it include offences of possession, or endangerment? If it should punish only wrongful conduct, how can it justly include so-called 'mala prohibita', which are often said to involve conduct that is not wrongful prior to its legal prohibition? Other issues concern the ways in which crimes should be classified. Can we make plausible sense, for instance, of the orthodox distinction between crimes of basic and general intent? Should domestic violence be definedas a distinct offence, distinguished from other kinds of personal violence? Also examined are the ways in which specific offences should be defined, to what extent those definitions should identify distinctive types of wrongs, and the light that such definitional questions throw on the grounds and structures of criminal liability. Such issues are discussed in relation not only to such crimes as murder, rape, theft and other property offences, but also in relation to offences such as bribery, endangerment and possession that have not traditionally been subjects for in depth theoretical analysis.