Resources

Welcome to the Philosophy of Criminality and Forgiveness, a course for the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation, and Reentry. As the title suggests, this course is broken into two chapters: one on criminality and the dubious notion of the born criminal; the other about forgiving and being forgiven.

This course examines the connection between philosophy and the law. Specifically, this course critically examines the notion of the ‘born criminal.’ Are certain groups or individuals born with a predisposition for criminal behavior? It may initially seem that philosophy is unrelated to this question, but it is helpful to remember that the law, and legal reasoning, are branches of philosophy. As such, the merits of the ‘born criminal thesis’ can be analyzed under a philosophical framework.

If you are a parent and are in prison or in jail, navigating the different possibilities of what may happen to your child/children while you are incarcerated may be extremely difficult. After passing the Adoption and Safe Families Act, the federal government incentivized states, including Arizona, to place children who are in foster care up for adoption as quickly as possible.

Lifeline phone service is a federal program that gifts free cellphones to American on government assistance and those who fall below certain income thresholds. Find out if you are eligible.

In the ongoing debate over federal marijuana law, criminal justice reforms have concentrated on felonies due to the seriousness of the charges and accompanying punishments. This felony focus overlooks the problems facing those with records for misdemeanors and other low-level violations of federal marijuana law, which often carry collateral consequences that overshadow any official punishment.

On November 13, 2013, over 100 signatories – including former judges and prosecutors, former elected and appointed government officials, and prominent authors, scholars, artists, activists, and business leaders – sent a letter to President Obama in support of a commutation petition by then imprisoned Weldon Angelos, who was serving 55 years in prison for a first time marijuana offense.

Maria Ponomarenko, Adjunct Professor of Law and Deputy Director of the Policing Project at New York University, discusses how often when people talk about accountability in policing, they are focused on “back-end” accountability, which kicks in after something has gone wrong. What is needed in policing is accountability on the “front end”—which means that the public gets to have a say in what the rules for policing should be in the first place.

Valena Beety, Professor of Law and Deputy Director of the Academy for Justice here at Arizona State University, writes about how the shooting of Trayvon Martin caused many to question what exactly led to the death of an unarmed seventeen-year-old African-American teenager. This essay provides at least one answer: the brain in creating and preserving memories can distort one’s perception of events and people.

Cassia Spohn, Foundation Professor of Criminology and Director of the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, discusses how although the overt and widespread racism that characterized the operation of the criminal justice system during the early part of the 20th century has largely been eliminated, racial disparities in sentencing and punishment persist.

Paul Butler, Albert Brick Professor in Law at Georgetown University, elaborates on how at virtually every step of adjudication—charging, setting bail, plea-bargaining, jury selection, trial, and sentencing—law enforcement officials exercise discretion in ways that disproportionately harm people of color.

John F. Pfaff, Professor of Law at Fordham University, discusses how reformers are increasingly aware of the central role prosecutors have played in driving up the U.S. prison population. Yet few if any reform efforts have sought to directly restrict prosecutorial power.

L. Song Richardson, Interim Dean and Professor of Law at University of California, Irvine illuminates us on how “racial anxiety” can enable racial disparities in police uses of force even in the absence of racial animus and even when people of color are acting identically to their white counterparts.

Devon W. Carbado, the Honorable Harry Pregerson Professor of Law and Associate Vice Chancellor from UCLA, discusses how few people, including lawyers, journalists, legislators, educators, and community organizers, understand the enormously important role Fourth Amendment law plays in enabling the very thing it ought to prevent: racial profiling and police violence.

David A. Harris, Professor of Law and John E. Murray Faculty Scholar at the University of Pittsburgh, discusses how his paper describes the points at which racial profiling arises in law enforcement, the legal tools and incentives that drive it, and the harm that racial profiling does to people, and to the criminal justice system as a whole.

Jeffrey Fagan, Isidor & Seville Sulzbacher Professor of Law and Professor of Epidemiology from Columbia University, writes about the “New Policing” model and its emphasis on advanced statistical metrics, new forms of organizational accountability, and aggressive tactical enforcement of minor crimes has been adopted in large and small cities, and has been institutionalized in everyday police-citizen interactions, especially among residents of poorer, often minority, and higher crime areas.

Rachel A. Harmon, F.D.G. Ribble Professor of Law from University of Virginia discusses how the federal courts have limited the legal remedies for constitutional violations in policing to the point that they do not discourage police misconduct to the satisfaction of many communities.

Brenner Fissell, Associate Professor of Law at Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University discusses the paper Judicial Review of Strict Liability Local Ordinances that he co-authored with Guyora Binder for the Guilty Minds Virtual Conference hosted by the Academy for Justice and Arizona State Law Journal.

Stephen Morse, Ferdinand Wakeman Hubbell Professor of Law, Professor of Psychology and Law in Psychiatry, and Associate Director, Center for Neuroscience and Society at the University of Pennsylvania, discusses his paper Internal and External Challenges to Culpability that he authored for the Guilty Minds Virtual Conference hosted by the Academy for Justice and Arizona State Law Journal.

Kenneth Simons, Chancellor’s Professor of Law and Philosophy at University of California, Irvine School of Law, discusses his paper Willful Blindness Doctrine: Justifiable in Principle, Problematic in Practice that he authored for the Guilty Minds Virtual Conference hosted by the Academy for Justice and Arizona State Law Journal.

Kimberly Ferzan, Earle Hepburn Professor of Law and Co-Director for the Institute of Law & Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, discusses her paper Conspiracy, Complicity, and the Scope of Contemplated Crime that she authored for the Guilty Minds Virtual Conference hosted by the Academy for Justice and Arizona State Law Journal.

Shon Hopwood, Associate Professor of Law at Georgetown University, discusses his paper Two Sides of the Same Interpretive Coin: The Presumption of Mens Rea and the Historical Rule of Lenity, for the Guilty Minds Virtual Conference hosted by the Academy for Justice and Arizona State Law Journal.

Joshua Kleinfeld, Professor of Law and Philosophy at Northwestern University, discusses how a theory of a social practice must be able to carry a certain descriptive and interpretive burden: it must be able to account for those features of the practice sufficiently central to its character that, without them, the practice would become distorted or unrecognizable as a phenomenon in the social world.

Douglas Husak, Distinguished Professor at Rutgers, discusses Ignorance of Wrongdoing and Mens Rea for the Guilty Minds Virtual Conference hosted by the Academy for Justice and Arizona State Law Journal.

Stephen Garvey, A. Robert Noll Professor of Law at Cornell Law School, discusses his paper Versari Crimes that he authored for the Guilty Minds Virtual Conference hosted by the Academy for Justice and Arizona State Law Journal.

Benjamin Levin, Associate Professor of Law at University of Colorado Law School, discusses his paper Decarceration and Default Mental States that he authored for the Guilty Minds Virtual Conference hosted by the Academy for Justice and Arizona State Law Journal.

Vera Bergelson, Distinguished Professor of Law and Robert E. Knowlton Scholar at Rutgers Law School, discusses her paper The Depths of Malice that she authored for the Guilty Minds Virtual Conference hosted by the Academy for Justice and Arizona State Law Journal.

Michael Serota, Visiting Assistant Professor at Arizona State University Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, and Associate Deputy Director of the Academy for Justice, introduces the Guilty Minds conference and discusses the topic of mens rea reform and his paper.

Ekow N. Yankah, Professor of Law at Banjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, writes about how in February 2020, Ahmaud Arbery, a twenty-five-year-old Black jogger in Georgia, was chased down by a group of armed, White men in trucks, trapped, shot, and killed. His killers pursued Arbery because they suspected him—with no evidence whatsoever—of being behind a string of (unreported) neighborhood robberies. Arbery’s killers had never seen any suspect in those robberies.

The dominant narrative of the opiate crisis focuses on white suburban/urban areas. This ignores the increasingly high use of opiates in rural areas.

Every day, nearly one thousand people seek treatment in American emergency rooms for opioid addiction. Drug overdose deaths have reached unparalleled levels.

Human beings have long been fascinated by the awesome and unforgiveable power of fire. From old southern stories about barn burners to The Confession Tapes’ chronical of false confessions to murder by arson, fire investigations evoke the worst of human imagination.

Lifeline phone service is a federal program that gifts free cell phones to Americans on government assistance and those who fall below certain income thresholds.

Three reasons incarcerated parents have their parental rights terminated.

Quick Questions and Answers

Actions you should take while incarcerated to maintain a parent-child relationship

Many benefits for veterans are impacted by incarceration. This will depend on the type of benefit and the reason for your incarceration. Read below to find out how to maintain or regain your benefits.

Erik Luna, Amelia D. Lewis Professor of Constitutional and Criminal Law at Arizona State University, writes how many of the modern challenges of mens rea, the mental state element of crime, stem from the purported ambiguities of legislation.

The events of August 29, 2020 at the Hawthorne Suites Hotel unfolded quickly, and led to undesired outcomes that none of the participants intended.

Sonja B. Starr discusses that in the past few years, many states have adopted or expanded legislation allowing people who meet certain eligibility requirements to expunge their adult criminal convictions. The latest wave of reforms makes this relief automatic after the requisite number of crime-free years have passed.

Valena E. Beety, Professor of Law in Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University, recognizes the strengths of the current forensic evidence system in Arizona and proposes innovative reforms appropriate for labs that are leaders in the field. Arizona is particularly well situated to increase its lab independence and to serve additional members of the criminal legal community: namely, defendants and victims.

Reforming Criminal Justice is a four-volume report meant to enlighten reform efforts in the United States with the research and analysis of leading academics. Broken down into individual chapters—each authored by a top scholar in the relevant field—the report covers dozens of topics within the areas of criminalization, policing, pretrial and trial processes, punishment, incarceration, and release.

The United States is now waking up to the fact that Indigenous Peoples have been oppressed by the dominant (non-Indigenous) culture for centuries. This oppression continues today and has led to a national and international crisis involving missing and murdered Indigenous Peoples (MMIP).

Non-prosecution practices and policies have long been informally part of the fabric of the American criminal justice system, and more formal programs created by prosecutors have proliferated in modern times with growing and justified concerns about mass incarceration and mass punishment.

The Academy for Justice recently had the opportunity to work with an incoming District Attorney to formulate two best practice guides seeking to identify next steps, as well as potential pitfalls to avoid, on two specific topics based on available research.

On September 14, 2021, a letter was delivered to President Joe Biden requesting a general pardon to all persons subject to federal criminal or civil enforcement on the basis of a nonviolent marijuana offense.

Reforming Criminal Justice is a four-volume report meant to enlighten reform efforts in the United States with the research and analysis of leading academics. Broken down into individual chapters—each authored by a top scholar in the relevant field—the report covers dozens of topics within the areas of criminalization, policing, pretrial and trial processes, punishment, incarceration, and release. T

Reforming Criminal Justice is a four-volume report meant to enlighten reform efforts in the United States with the research and analysis of leading academics. Broken down into individual chapters—each authored by a top scholar in the relevant field—the report covers dozens of topics within the areas of criminalization, policing, pretrial and trial processes, punishment, incarceration, and release.

Reforming Criminal Justice is a four-volume report meant to enlighten reform efforts in the United States with the research and analysis of leading academics. Broken down into individual chapters—each authored by a top scholar in the relevant field—the report covers dozens of topics within the areas of criminalization, policing, pretrial and trial processes, punishment, incarceration, and release.

A book talk with the author of Junk Science and the American Criminal Justice System, M. Chris Fabricant, Director of Strategic Litigation at the Innocence Project and one of the nation’s leading experts on forensic sciences and the criminal justice system.

Criminal laws are the rules and prohibitions—typically drafted by legislators and codified in criminal statutes—that tell us how to behave if we want to avoid state-sanctioned punishment. Crimes are acts that violate these laws.

This essay discusses how Arizona should best advance marijuana legalization so that it can significantly improve Arizona’s criminal justice system. Now that Arizona has legalized marijuana via ballot initiative, we focus on steps that Arizona policymakers and advocates who are interested in improving the criminal justice system can take to ensure that legalization best advances this goal.

This article recommends ways to reform Arizona’s sex offender laws. It focuses first on laws designed to address the danger posed by convicted sex offenders: registration requirements, community notification, residence restrictions, and civil commitment.

Custodial arrests for the crimes intrinsically connected to homelessness, such as urban camping, inflict needless indignity on Arizona’s homeless residents. Arizona has an estimated 10,000 individuals currently experiencing homelessness, nearly half of whom are unsheltered—living on the streets, in desert washes, in vehicles, or other places not meant for human habitation.

This article calls for sentencing reforms designed to slow the flow of people into prison, reduce both the number of persons now incarcerated and the lengths of sentences they are serving, and ameliorate unwarranted disparities in imprisonment.

All government decisions matter. But few matter more than those involving the criminal justice system. These are not easy decisions. Nor do we expect public officials to always get them right. But given the high stakes and human consequences involved, we do have a legitimate expectation that these decisions will be made in the right way—that is, rationally, deliberately, and informed by expertise.

This article argues that the overlapping crises of 2020 expose dysfunction in the way criminal law has defined and promoted safety. Simply put, reliance on detention and rigorous, though disproportionate policing and prosecution of minority communities has failed to promote safety in the face of a global pandemic and the killing of Black and Brown people by police.

This article assesses Arizona’s pretrial justice reforms to date and suggests some ways to further improve pretrial justice, to remedy the fact that 78.5% of the people held in the state’s jails have not been convicted of the crimes for which they were arrested, but rather are awaiting trial.

This article advocates for judicial and legislative reforms that will ensure all youth are protected from the harms of coercive police interrogation. Drawing upon the substantial body of research on adolescent development and the growing body of research on racial bias and the experiences of youth of color, this article finds that current Arizona law leaves youth vulnerable to wrongful convictions and trauma caused by coercive interrogation practices.

Arizona’s correctional system has long been the subject of high-profile lawsuits, scandals, and other serious grievances that demand increased levels of transparency and accountability.

A common criticism of private prisons is that they encourage the firms running them to cut services, programming, and training, since cutting costs maximizes profit, and the resulting increases in recidivism actually help keep prisons full and the payments coming in.