Criminal Justice in the 21st Century: The Challenge to
Protect Individual Freedoms, Civil Rights and Our
Safety
Hosts
Journal of
Civil Rights and Economic Development,
The
Ronald H. Brown Center for Civil Rights and Economic
Development
Co-Sponsor
Society of American Law
Teachers (SALT)
Asian American Legal Defense and
Education Fund
Date
Friday, April 5, 2013
Location
St. John’s
School of Law, Queens, NY
About the Symposium
The Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development (the
Journal) is the official publication of the Ronald H.
Brown Center for Civil Rights and Economic Development (The RHB
Center) at St. John’s School of Law, the law school’s oldest
academic center. For 18 years, the Journal has held
important academic symposia on a wide array of legally significant
social justice issues such as environmental racism, same-sex
marriage and immigration policy.
While the past decade boasted a record low number of reported
crimes, prosecutorial and police power continues to expand. In New
York City, police engage in an unprecedented number of racially
disparate stop-and-frisk practices and keep Muslim students under
close surveillance. Across the nation, “stand your ground” laws
allow private citizens to take the law into their own hands in the
name of self-defense. In addition, new technologies unrelated to
criminal justice permit prosecutors to utilize old statutes in new
ways that, at times, yield unprecedented results. For example,
juveniles who participate in “sexting” ―the distribution of
sexually explicit photographs via a mobile device― can face serious
child pornography charges that, on conviction, require them to
register as sex offenders. In contrast to this extended
prosecutorial reach, the U.S. Supreme Court has banned certain
harsh juvenile sentences on grounds of the juvenile’s maturity and
vulnerability. However, these cases raise a question of whether
there is any legal, constitutionally sanctioned manner to balance
individual rights and safety concerns.
On Friday, April 5, 2013, the Journal and The RHB
Center will hold a symposium to address this question and related
issues of criminal law, criminal procedure and criminal justice. As
the Journal focuses on legal issues of racial, social and economic
justice, it is well suited to present multiple perspectives on
emerging criminal law topics and to facilitate an academic
discussion on the subject’s legal, social, political and economic
dimensions.
Invitation to Participate
For this symposium, the Journal and The RHB Center invite
you to participate in a multi-disciplinary exploration of the above
criminal law, criminal procedure and criminal justice issues that
is thoughtful, intellectually rigorous and provocative. We seek a
broad range of participants― including scholars, practitioners,
elected officials, activists, community leaders and students. Paper
or panel topics should address the following topics of academic
inquiry:
Technology and Criminal Law: Considering recent
cases like State of New Jersey v. Dharun Ravi, which involved a
college student who used a webcam to spy on his gay roommate, how
has criminal law responded to emerging technology? Can “new”
crimes, such as sexting and cyberbullying, be adequately addressed
by existing statutes or do legislatures need to respond with new
laws? Do these “new” crimes afford prosecutors too much discretion
to charge individuals for conduct that is not contemplated by the
legislature and, therefore, arguably not criminal?
Racial Profiling, Police Accountability and Individual
Rights: Does police action, such as racially disparate
stop-and-frisk practices or surveillance of Muslim students,
violate civil rights or due process? What safeguards can be
instituted to ensure that these practices are constitutional, while
preserving police authority to protect our communities? In the past
decade nearly half of the states in the U.S. have implemented
“stand your ground” laws that provide immunity or a defense to
using deadly force. What motivated this change?
Juveniles and Criminal Law: In light of the
Supreme Court’s recent prohibitions on harsh juvenile sentences, at
what age and under what circumstances should a juvenile be tried as
an adult? Should juveniles be treated differently from adults for
crimes depending on the severity of the crime, such as murder as
compared to turnstile-jumping? Do school zero tolerance policies
and similar measures that remove juvenile offenses to the criminal
justice system disproportionately affect youth of color?
Prisons, Reforms and Rehabilitation: Does
imprisonment serve the criminal justice system’s stated goals of
deterrence, retribution and rehabilitation? Given large-scale
budget deficits and forced spending cuts faced by state and local
governments, are prisons’ high operating costs justified? When we
imprison non-violent offenders, what is the impact on the local
economy and the offender’s family? Are there better ways to reach
these goals, such as problem-solving courts like Drug Court?
Other Areas of Inquiry: The complexity of any
criminal law debate makes it impossible to capture the many issues
and areas that it implicates. Accordingly, we welcome proposals
that do not fall within the topics outlined above, but still fall
within the general description of the symposium.
Submission Guidelines
If you would like to participate in the symposium as a panelist,
speaker or paper contributor, please submit an abstract of 250
words or less through our
online abstract submission form or by email to jordanhummelJCRED@gmail.com.
The abstract submission deadline is October 31, 2012. We will
notify all selected participants by January 15, 2013. Selected
contributors must submit their finished papers to the
Journal no later than May 31, 2013.
More Information
Jordan Hummel
Symposium Editor
Journal for Civil Rights and Economic Development
jordanhummelJCRED@gmail.com
(718) 990-6074