The United States federal mandatory minimums have been controversial not only because of the length of the mandatory sentences for even first-time offenders, but also because the eligibility quantities for crack are very small when compared to those for other drugs. This paper shows that the...

Purpose: The present study examined how children alleging sexual abuse are asked about clothing placement during abusive episodes, both in criminal trials and forensic interviews. The placement of clothing is of great importance, because it facilitates distinguishing abusive touch from...

Using state level data on corruption convictions from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Public Integrity Section (PIN) and political importance over five consecutive presidential terms from 1993-2012, I find evidence that reported federal corruption convictions tend to be higher in politically...

Plea and sentence bargaining is characterized by several general features that we might recognize as common across a range of jurisdictions and procedural traditions. It requires an admission of guilt from the accused; the accused is offered some reward, incentive or advantage, either in exchange...

Neoliberalism has played a prominent role in criminological accounts of criminal justice and penal policy. Neoliberalism's place ranges from the core of neo-Marxist visions of a systematic global crime control program, through its place as one element in a punitive Anglophone ‘culture of...

Over the past two decades considerable interest has developed in the subject of the victims of crime. This interest reached a peak in the United States in 1982 with the establishment and report of the President's Task Force on Victims of Crime, which made numerous recommendations for...

Most observers agree that prosecutors hold too much power in the American criminal justice system. Expansive criminal codes offer prosecutors wide discretion to charge defendants with a huge number of offenses. And stiff authorized punishments provide prosecutors with leverage to pressure...