Overcriminalization

Download or read book Overcriminalization written by Douglas Husak and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2008-01-08 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Ending Overcriminalization and Mass Incarceration written by Anthony B. Bradley and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-08-16 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Personalism points to reforming criminal justice from the person up by changing criminal law and enlisting civil society institutions.

Download or read book The Boundaries of the Criminal Law written by R.A. Duff and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2010-11-11 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Go Directly to Jail written by Gene Healy and published by Cato Institute. This book was released on 2004 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book The Political Heart of Criminal Procedure written by Michael Klarman and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2011-12-30 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Criminal liability in regulatory contexts written by Great Britain: Law Commission and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2010-08-25 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Three Felonies a Day written by Harvey Silverglate and published by Encounter Books. This book was released on 2011-06-07 with total page 390 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "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.