...Juvenile Justice: A Lost Child in a Failed System I remember one day when I was a child, I was about four years old and my sister was about 10 years old. We were on vacation with our parents in a beautiful resort. Our room was on the 15th floor of the Sea Coast Towers. Before I continue the story I have to make clear, my sister and have always been very close; we were inseparable. Until we read about Christian Fernandez, this story used to be a family joke. I had fallen asleep and my parents were going to take that opportunity to have a quick cocktail at the bar. Apparently I had woken up and began to cry uncontrollably. My sister did her best to try and get me to stop, but how do you stop a cry baby from crying? My sister remembers stepping out to the balcony because of her frustration and looking down; she says that in her head she was telling herself that it was not a long a fall and that I was so chunky that I would bounce. Thank goodness my parents came back to the room before she could entertain her thoughts! I first learned about Christian Fernandez about nine months ago. I was browsing through my AOL news when I saw the headline “Florida Boy to Be Charged as an Adult”. It immediately caught my attention. I began to read the story of a 12 year old boy, Fernandez who was left taking care of his 5 year old brother and his two year old brother. Fernandez pushed his two- year- old brother into a book shelf twice, knocking the toddler unconscious. When...
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...l Race and Juvenile Delinquency by Dubien Tshimanga SOCIOLOGY & ANTHROPOLOGY CAPSTONE PRINCIPIA COLLEGE APRIL 2015 ABSTRACT Throughout history, the struggle of minorities has been seen in many facets of life such as in history, literature, music and film: Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi fought for the right of unrepresented minorities. Books such as Too Kill a Mocking Bird spoke to the prejudices of a community. Movies such as Roots illustrated the hardship of the slaves. From the Roman’s persecution of Christians to today’s rap song lyrics about economic disparities the plight of the minority has been fought for millennium. This research examines the struggle of minorities within the juvenile justice system and the differential rates of adjudication and length of sentencing between the white majority and the black minority juvenile offenders. During the course of this research, additional insights were gained from an internship at a youth correctional center as well as drawing on my own personal experience as a refugee from Gabon. The findings of my research demonstrate that minority offenders do receive harsher sentences than the whites, and that there are several factors contributing to higher rates of juvenile delinquency among African Americans; primarily education and community. To consider the struggle of minorities is important because it creates awareness that the maltreatment of a minority group by the dominant majority often...
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...Customer Inserts His/her Name Customer Inserts Tutor’s Name Customer Inserts Grade Course (06, 07, 2012) Racism in criminal justice system Introduction Justice is a term that we hear a lot in our everyday life and also accept it although many of us might have a doubt as to what it truly means. Justice is the phenomenon through which we could achieve righteousness and equality. But unfortunately racism has been a common practice in the criminal justice system. Racism is actually discrimination against a group or individual based on color, social and financial status. It is something that occurs more than we notice. Many scholars believe that racism play a more important role in targeting and sentencing process in the criminal justice system and this is something which should not happen in any country no matter what. In order to understand the role that racism plays in the criminal justice system we must, first, look at the role that it plays before the criminal reaches the day of sentencing in the court. There are various publications that speak on profiling and actuarial methods which unwillingly get people into the system. Though these are two major components of the discriminatory acts that exist within the criminal justice system, it does not actually begin with these institutionalized methods. It is the laws and crime control policies that create discrimination in the system. It has been witnessed that in some instances these laws and policies are set in favor...
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... | I. Trial Context A. types of evidence at trial 1. witnesses 2. real evidence – something tangible related to the case 3. demonstrative evidence – not part of the story, but lawyer wishes to show the jury something to demonstrate something about the case (e.g., experiment; picture of intersection) B. competing stories at trial – two ways stories can compete 1. factual differences 2. differences in inferences drawn from the same facts II. Policy Overview [values that the evidence rules protect] A. accuracy 1. rationality – does evidence have a rational relationship to the case? 2. reliability – is the evidence credible? B. efficiency – see FRE 403 C. fairness – rules should be party-neutral 1. but note: some rules exclude evidence to one party’s advantage (e.g., evidence that Δ fixed the steps after the accident excluded, b/c we want to encourage Δs to make steps safer) (e.g., Confrontation Clause, guarantees rt of accused in a criminal trial to confront witnesses brought against him) D. danger of misuse of information 1. one solution: limiting instructions 2. but sometimes we’re so skeptical of jury’s willingness/ability to follow limiting instructions, and the potential harm from the evidence is so grave as to...
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...The New Hiring Process 14 We’re Not Done Yet! 18 Review of Kotter’s 8 step Model 22 Human Capital, the most Important Asset of an Organization 25 My Hopes 26 The Massachusetts Court System Massachusetts Trial Court Focus The Massachusetts Court System consists of the Supreme Judicial Court, the Appeals Court, and the Executive Office of the Trial Court, the 7 Trial Court Departments, the Office of the Commissioner of Probation, and the Office of the Jury Commissioner. For the purpose of this paper I will be discussing my place of work which is the Massachusetts Trial Court consisting of: Executive Office of the Trial Court, the 7 Trial Court Departments (Boston Municipal Court, District Court, Juvenile Court, Superior Court, Housing Court, Land Court, and Probate and Family Court), Office of the Commissioner of Probation (OCP), and the Office of Jury Commissioner. Exhibit 1 Massachusetts Trial Court is committed to fair and impartial administration of justice; protection of constitutional and statutory rights and liberties; equal access to justice for all in a safe and dignified environment; efficient, effective and accountable resolution of disputes; prompt and courteous service to the public by committed and dedicated professionals utilizing best practices in a manner that inspires public trust and confidence. The Massachusetts Trial Court has about...
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...RULE 101. SCOPE; DEFINITIONS (a) Scope. These rules apply to proceedings in United States courts. The specific courts and proceedings to which the rules apply, along with exceptions, are set out in Rule 1101. (b) Definitions. In these rules: (1) “civil case” means a civil action or proceeding; (2) “criminal case” includes a criminal proceeding; (3) “public office” includes a public agency; (4) “record” includes a memorandum, report, or data compilation; (5) a “rule prescribed by the Supreme Court” means a rule adopted by the Supreme Court under statutory authority; and (6) a reference to any kind of written material or any other medium includes electronically stored information. RULE 102. PURPOSE These rules should be construed so as to administer every proceeding fairly, eliminate unjustifiable expense and delay, and promote the development of evidence law, to the end of ascertaining the truth and securing a just determination. RULE 103. RULINGS ON EVIDENCE (a) Preserving a Claim of Error. A party may claim error in a ruling to admit or exclude evidence only if the error affects a substantial right of the party and: (1) if the ruling admits evidence, a party, on the record: (A) timely objects or moves to strike; and (B) states the specific ground, unless it was apparent from the context; or (2) if the ruling excludes evidence, a party informs the court of its substance by an offer of proof, unless the substance was apparent from the context. (b) Not Needing...
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...gun violence have primarily taken one of two approaches: case-control studies and social ecology. Gun ownership is usually determined through surveys, proxy variables, and sometimes with production and import figures. In statistical analysis of homicides and other types of crime, which are rare events, these data tend to have poison distributions, which also presents methodological challenges to researchers. (Just Facts, 2010) Americans own an estimated 270 million firearms, approximately 90 guns for every 100 people. In 2009, guns took the lives of 31,347 Americans in homicides, suicides and unintentional shootings. This is the equivalent of more than 85 deaths each day and more than three deaths each hour. 66,769 Americans were treated in hospital emergency departments for non-fatal gunshot wounds in 2009. Firearms were the third-leading cause of injury-related deaths nationwide in 2009, following poisoning and motor vehicle accidents. Between 1955 and 1975, the Vietnam War killed over 58,000 American soldiers – less than the number of civilians killed with guns in the U.S. in an average two-year period. In the first seven years of the U.S.-Iraq War, over 4,400 American soldiers were killed. Almost as many civilians are killed with guns in the U.S., however, every seven weeks. (Just Facts, 2010) Over the past 13 years, the per capita "sales" figure has fluctuated between a high of 3,217 per 100,000 in 2011 and a low of 2,182 per 100,000 in 2003. But there have been no...
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...and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. Bureau of Justice Assistance Response Center 633 Indiana Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20531 800–421–6770 The Bureau of Justice Assistance is a component of the Office of Justice Programs, which also includes the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, and the Office for Victims of Crime. ii Monograph Acknowledgments The Bureau of Justice Assistance wishes to thank Stephen J. Gaffigan, Director of Operations, Community Policing Consortium for supervising and coordinating the preparation of this document with the Consortium Management Team. BJA also acknowledges the members of the Executive Board and Advisory Board, who provided a wealth of expertise and information essential to the content of the document. Executive Board Richard Ward Director, Discretionary Grant Programs Division Bureau of Justice Assistance Dan Rosenblatt Executive Director International Association of Chiefs of Police Charles “Bud” Meeks Executive...
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...Marquez Pumthan Chaichantipyuth Wenzhen Dai Penn Law Summer 2006 I. Introduction and Historical Background A. What the course will cover? This is not an introductory course. You are all lawyers; I shall assume a good deal of professional expertise, and that many of you already have a body of knowledge about American law. The task: prepare you for the coming year, give you the basic grounding that you will need for the courses you are going to start taking in September. For this, you need two things: ♥ A great deal of basic factual information about how the courts and the legal system function, and about basic legal concepts (and legal vocabulary); ♥ But more importantly: background information about some of the critical ways in which the American legal system is unique, and differs from legal systems elsewhere in the world. This is hard: often you will find that your professors or fellow‐students will make assumptions or presuppose certain ways of doing things that aren’t explained in class. A large goal of this course is to explain those assumptions, and make them explicit. >> UNIQUENESS OF AMERICAN LEGAL SYSTEMS Briefly, there are four aspects of the American legal system that set it apart: 1) Inherited common law, existing out of three components: (a) judicial power; (b) civil jury trial; (c) law‐equity ; 2) Written ...
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...01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 Step 7 A Judge Is Assigned to Hear the Case ❖ 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 N 30 L In the previous two chapters, we learned about the two attorneys in the courtroom drama, the prosecutor and the defense attorney. In this chapter, we turn our attention to the third member of the courtroom work group, the judge. We will learn what judges do and how they become judges. Then, we will look at judges’ discretion and how it affects their relationships with others. INTRODUCTION Judges are by far the most easily recognized member of the courtroom work group, both by their conspicuous robes and by their prominent position in the courtroom. They are also the subject of many stereotypes because the public wants to believe that judges combine patience, wisdom, and compassion to arrive at fair decisions, while they eschew the character flaws that sometimes form the basis of decisions by others, including prejudice, intolerance, favoritism, and hostility. Unfortunately, judges are human and their decisions occasionally reflect such a reality. One West Virginia judge, for example, became so enraged at a defendant who began cursing at him in court that he jumped down from his bench, tore off his judicial robe, and bit the tip off the defendant’s nose (Smith, 1998). He served five days in jail on state assault...
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...has a computer and it is easy to find out how to hack into computer systems. With the rise of internet usage among businesses and private users, the risk of being a victim of cybercrime is huge. The Security Tracking Study performed by the Pomemon Institute states that 83 percent of multinational companies feel that within the past 12 months they have been a target of a cybercrime. Price Water House Coopers states that the number of businesses having a security breach is more along the lines of 92 percent. Cybercrimes are attacks on computer hardware and software, downloading illegal movies and music, online fraud involving financial crimes and corruption with an organization, crimes against children and the elderly, cyber bullying and fraudulent telemarketing events for charitable donations. What was once something only “hackers” did is now something anyone can do. The term hacker was originally described as “any technical effort to manipulate the normal behavior of network connections and connected systems.” The managing director of Accenture’s security practice, Alastair MacWillson, notes that hackers have changed a lot over the past decade. What was a crime with little to no victimization simply to prove their worth and ability has now become a crime whereas there are many different types of victims. Some...
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...VIRGINIA PROCEDURE OUTLINE CHAPTER I: EXTRA-JUDICIAL PROCEDURES Note: These Procedures take place without the participation of a judge or the court 1) Self Help a) Predates existence of the organized state b) Now greatly discouraged because police power of state more effective i) Discouraged, superseded in practice, and restricted by law now. c) Situations when available: i) Available in debtor-creditor situations where debts are voluntarily paid when they are due (most pay when get into financial position to pay) ii) When possession of goods bailed are returned to the Owner when the period of the bailment ends. iii) When debtor intentionally refuses to pay or neglects to pay creditor may resort to self-help to get paid. 1) May be independent or in conjunction with litigation. d) Usually attempt to get debtor to pay voluntarily before seeking assistance of the court. e) Repossession i) Allowed at common law where it can be accomplished without breach of peace. ii) Person disseised and dispossessed of land an reenter w/o a court order unless would involve breach of peace iii) Repossession of chattels is allowed where they have been: 1) Loaned, hired, bailed, lost and found, or stolen and wrongfully detained from the O provided it is done w/o ab reach of the peace. 2) Person may recover own chattels from land of the wrongdoer, but to do so from the land of a 3P would be trespass 3) Hunters...
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...CHECK YOUR ENGLISH VOCABULARY FOR I E L T S Rawdon Wyatt A & C Black Ⴇ London First edition published 2001 by Peter Collin Publishing, reprinted 2002 This second edition published in Great Britain 2004 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc Reprinted 2005, 2007 by A & C Black Publishers Ltd 38 Soho Square, London W1D 3HB © Rawdon Wyatt 2004 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without the permission of the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A CIP entry for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 978 0 7136 7604 4 eISBN-13: 978-1-4081-0157-5 Text typeset by A & C Black Printed in the UK by Caligraving Ltd This book is produced using paper that is made from wood grown in managed, sustainable forests. It is natural, renewable and recyclable. The logging and manufacturing processes conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. ii Introduction This workbook has been written for students who are planning to sit either the general training or the academic modules of the IELTS exam. It covers some of the main vocabulary points that you will need for, or come across in, the listening, reading, writing and speaking sections of the exam. We hope that you find the modules in this book useful and that the vocabulary you acquire will help you to achieve the grade you want in the IELTS. Good luck! about this workbook About this workbook Structure...
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...CRIME, PROCEDURE AND EVIDENCE IN A COMPARATIVE AND INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT This book aims to honour the work of Professor Mirjan Damaška, Sterling Professor of Law at Yale Law School and a prominent authority for many years in the fields of comparative law, procedural law, evidence, international criminal law and Continental legal history. Professor Damaška’s work is renowned for providing new frameworks for understanding different legal traditions. To celebrate the depth and richness of his work and discuss its implications for the future, the editors have brought together an impressive range of leading scholars from different jurisdictions in the fields of comparative and international law, evidence and criminal law and procedure. Using Professor Damaška’s work as a backdrop, the essays make a substantial contribution to the development of comparative law, procedure and evidence. After an introduction by the editors and a tribute by Harold Koh, Dean of Yale Law School, the book is divided into four parts. The first part considers contemporary trends in national criminal procedure, examining cross-fertilisation and the extent to which these trends are resulting in converging practices across national jurisdictions. The second part explores the epistemological environment of rules of evidence and procedure. The third part analyses human rights standards and the phenomenon of hybridisation in transnational and international criminal law. The final part of the book assesses Professor...
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...before you a compendium of the crux of some of the judgments of the Judges who have served the Bombay High Court since its inception in 1862.1 The initial idea was to document one judgment of the First Court from each year which was modified to include a judgment of the Bombay High Court of each year. I soon realized that it was too expansive an idea to merit a single judgment a year. I could collect and collate, as many as ten judgments which would qualify to show the development of the law we desired to portray. Having found too vast a number of such judgments, I had to settle at a more reasonable figure of about five judgments each year to showcase the progress this Court has made from its illustrious beginnings. Our Chief Justice Mohit Shah and our Justice Chandrachud wholeheartedly supported the idea to complement the Book published on this the sesquicentennial of our Court. As the number of Judges grew, fewer judgments of each Judge would be selected as illustrations. These judgments are not the only path-finding groundbreaking ones; they are also ones with simplicity and legal elegance. The number of judgments we settled upon just would not permit all deserving judgments to be compiled; only a few have been picked from each year as the first in a series of such compilation. The selection is largely subjective, most of which are selected by young minds reflecting the choice of today and have been largely accepted, with some additions and editing. The selection evinces the...
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