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*SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING REESE WITHERSPOON AND COLIN FIRTH * The West Memphis Three. Accused, convicted...and set free. Do you know their story? In 2011, one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in American legal history was set right when Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley were released after eighteen years in prison. Award-winning journalist Mara Leveritt's The Devil's Knot remains the most comprehensive, insightful reporting ever done on the investigatio...

This study examines the period that we still colloquially refer to as "the permissive age" - the 1960s. Perhaps more than any other period in our recent history, that decade has been the source of some apparently imperishable myths. "Permission and Regulation" attempts to separate the myths from the realities. It focuses upon a series of legislative changes that are commonly held to illustrate the permissive or liberal character of the era. These central case studies - of the law in relation to...

In 1840, Alexander Maconochie, a privileged retired naval captain, became at his own request superintendent of two thousand twice-convicted prisoners on Norfolk Island, a thousand miles off the coast of Australia. In four years, Maconochie transformed what was one of the most brutal convict settlements in history into a controlled, stable, and productive environment that achieved such success that upon release his prisoners came to be called "Maconochie's Gentlemen". Here Norval Morris,...

The problem of gangs and gang subculture is a growing threat to the stability of neighborhoods and entire communities. During the past two decades, gang members have increasingly migrated from large urban centers to suburban areas and other countries. This book addresses the intricacies and diversities of street gangs, drawing on the expertise of h

In the winter of 1996, the writer Janet Malcolm received a letter from a stranger - a disbarred lawyer named Sheila McGough, who had recently been released from prison, and who wrote that she been convicted of crimes she had not committed. McGough's was an obscure fraud case, just as McGough herself was obscure: a fifty-four- year- old woman who when Malcolm met her 'looked and sounded like a blandly wholesome heroine of fifties movies', toiling in the lower reaches of the American legal profess...

Corruption is an almost universal and persistent feature of the modern state. Commentators primarily view corruption as a major obstacle to development, whereas dissenting voices claim that corruption has the power to facilitate trade that would otherwise not have taken place. This comprehensive collection presents the most significant works contributing to our understanding of this debate, focusing on the key conceptual and theoretical issues and discussing anti-corruption policies. Alongside a...

This book shows how the legal systems of individual European countries protect patient autonomy. In particular, it explains the role of criminal law, that is, what criminal law protection of patient autonomy looks like on a European scale in both legal and social dimensions. Despite EU integration processes, the work illustrates that the legal orders of individual European countries are far from uniform in this area. The concept of patient autonomy here is generally in the context of the patient...

The U.S.-Dakota War, the bloodiest Indian war of the 19th century, erupted in southwestern Minnesota during the the summer of 1862. In the war's aftermath, a hastily convened commission of five army officers conducted trials of 391 Indians charged with murder and massacre. In 36 days, 303 Dakota men were sentenced to death. In the largest simultaneous execution in American history, 38 were hanged on a single gallows on December 26, 1862-an incident now widely considered an act of revenge rather...

Offers a new understanding of jailhouse informants and the role they play in wrongful convictions Jailhouse informants-witnesses who testify in a criminal trial, often in exchange for some incentive-are particularly persuasive to jurors. A jailhouse informant usually claims to have heard the defendant confess to a crime while they were incarcerated together. Research shows that such testimony increases the likelihood of a guilty verdict. But it is also a leading contributor to wrongful convicti...

As Ted Bundy was to the 20th century, so Carlyle Harris was to the 19th. Harris was a charismatic, handsome young medical student with an insatiable appetite. His trail of debauched women ended with Helen Potts, a beautiful young woman of wealth and privilege who was determined to keep herself pure for marriage. Unable to conquer her by other means, Harris talked her into a secret marriage under assumed names, and when threatened with exposure, he poisoned her. The resulting trial garnered nat...

In this in-depth examination of community policing in Seattle, William T. Lyons, Jr. explores the complex issues associated with the establishment and operation of community policing, an increasingly popular method for organizing law enforcement in this country. Stories about community policing appeal to a nostalgic vision of traditional community life. Community policing carries with it the image of a safe community in which individual citizens and businesses are protected by police they know...

Diese kriminologische Arbeit widmet sich der Evaluation des Implementationsprozesses eines kriminalpraventiven Modells in Niedersachsen: "ProgeSs". Im interinstitutionellen Spannungsfeld zwischen Schulen, sozialen Diensten und der Polizei erfolgte in den Jahren 2003 und 2004 in vier niedersachsischen Modellstandorten die Erprobung von "ProgeSs", welches die Reduzierung von Schulschwanzen und damit einhergehend langfristig die Senkung der Kriminalitatsbelastung der Jugendlichen zum Ziel hatte. Di...

More violence has been perpetrated in the 20th century than in the two previous centuries combined. Understanding and Preventing Violence: Unmasking the Mentality of Human Destructiveness elucidates the mentality of destructive behavior with the hopes that in the future, the trend may be reversed through enlightenment. But in order to choose to be constructive, rather than destructive, there must first be an understanding.This book takes a hard look at an alarming trend. It provides a focused vi...

This introductory penology textbook is a comprehensive guide to the field of penology that includes a discussion of the evidence-based correctional theories as well as the practical aspects of penology, from the point of view of the offender, the victim, the criminal justice system, and the society. Although the emphasis is on the American penal system and corrections in the U.S. today, there is also a key chapter on the history of punishment, so the current practices can be put in context, as w...