By David Olsen, Patrick Griffin, Lucy Einstein, Molly Halladay-Glynn, and Bella Lira ·

During the early 1990s, violent crime in the United States reached its highest levels since the Federal Bureau of Investigation started keeping records.

One significant policy response at the federal level was the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994—popularly known as the “1994 Crime Bill”—which expanded funding for law enforcement, stiffened federal penalties for violent crimes, banned assault weapons, and made a host of other changes aimed at addressing and reducing violence. One of the most consequential components of the Crime Bill established the Violent Offender Incarceration and Truth-in-Sentencing (VOI/TIS) Incentive Formula Grants Program, which not only provided massive federal funding for new and expanded state prison construction, but set aside much of it for states that toughened up and reformed their criminal sentencing laws by adopting “Truth in Sentencing.”

Truth in Sentencing (TIS) laws mandate that those sentenced to prison for certain serious crimes actually remain imprisoned for all or a substantial portion of the court-specified sentence, no matter what early release or “good time credit” mechanisms might otherwise be employed to promote good discipline and encourage rehabilitative efforts in prison.

Illinois was one of many states that responded to the new federal funding incentives set up by the Crime Bill, enacting TIS legislation and eventually receiving a total of $124 million through the VOI/TIS grant program from 1996 through 2001.  Illinois’ original TIS scheme required that 100% of a court-imposed sentence be served following conviction for First Degree Murder, 85% for a range of other serious offenses, and 85% for specified offenses when they result in great bodily harm. TIS in Illinois was expanded to cover other offenses in 2005, 2007, and 2010.

The Legacy of Truth-In-Sentencing in Illinois

The dramatic wave of violent crime that prompted the original 1994 Crime Bill receded long ago, but the effects of the incentives created by the Crime Bill remain to this day. Many of these lasting effects were documented in a 2009 Loyola University analysis of the first ten years of Truth in Sentencing, which found among other things that TIS had greatly increased the time required to be served in prison under court-imposed sentences but did not have any significant influence on the extent and nature of disciplinary incidents in Illinois’ prisons. In fact, people subject to TIS had patterns of disciplinary infractions similar to those not subject to TIS. 

Now a new study conducted by the Center for Criminal Justice at Loyola, analyzing Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) data through December 31, 2024, updates and expands on the 2009 report, illuminating the ways that a quarter of a century of TIS has profoundly shaped the current population of Illinois prisons.

Chicago: Loyola University, Center for Criminal Justice, 2025. 11p,

By Paul Cassell and Richard Fuwles

Cassell, Paul and Fowles, Richard, "Does Bail Reform Increase Crime? An Empirical Assessment of the Public Safety Implications of Bail Reform in Cook County, Illinois" (2020). 

Recently bail reform issues have been in the news across the country, as concerns about fair treatment of defendants and possible public safety risks from expanding pretrial release have collided. These issues involve important empirical questions, including whether releasing more defendants before trial leads to additional crimes. An opportunity to investigate this public safety issue has developed in Chicago, our nation’s third largest city. There, the Office of the Chief Judge of the Cook County Courts adopted new bail reform measures in September 2017 and reviewed them empirically in May 2019. Cook County’s Bail Reform Study concluded that the new procedures had released many more defendants before trial without any concomitant increase in crime. This article disputes the Study’s conclusions. This article explains that, contrary to the Study’s assertions, the new changes to pretrial release procedures appear to have led to a substantial increase in crimes committed by pretrial releasees in Cook County. Properly measured and estimated, after more generous release procedures were put in place, the number of released defendants charged with committing new crimes increased by 45%. And, more concerning, the number of pretrial releasees charged with committing new violent crimes increased by an estimated 33%. In addition, as reported by the Chicago Tribune, the Study’s data appears to undercount the number of releasees charged with new violent crimes; and a substantial number of aggravated domestic violence prosecutions prosecutors dropped after the changes, presumably because batterers were able to more frequently obtain release and intimidate their victims into not pursuing charges. These public safety concerns call into question whether the bail “reform” measures implemented in Cook County were cost-beneficial. And because Cook County’s procedures are state-of-the-art and track those being implemented in many parts of the country, Cook County’s experience suggests that other jurisdictions may similarly be suffering increases in crime due to bail reform.

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship. 2929,

By Dennis D. Hirsch,  Jared Ott, Angie Westover-Munoz, and Chris Yaluma

Federal and state criminal justice systems use algorithmic risk assessment tools extensively. Much of the existing scholarship on this topic engages in normative and technical analyses of these tools, or seeks to identify best practices for tool design and use. Far less work has been done on how courts and other criminal justice actors perceive and utilize these tools on the ground. This is an important gap. Judges’ and other criminal justice actors’ attitudes towards, and implementation of, algorithmic risk assessment tools profoundly affect how these tools impact defendants, incarceration rates, and the broader criminal justice system. Those who would understand, and potentially seek to improve, the courts’ use of these tools would benefit from more information on how judges actually think about and employ them. This article begins to fill in this picture. The authors surveyed Ohio Courts of Common Pleas judges and staff, and interviewed judges and other key stakeholders, to learn how they view and use algorithmic risk assessment tools. The article describes how Ohio Common Pleas Courts implement algorithmic risk assessment tools and how judges view and utilize the tools and the risk scores they generate. It then compares Ohio practice in this area to the best practices identified in the literature and, on this basis, recommends how the Ohio Courts of Common Pleas—and, by implication, other state and federal court systems—can better align their use of algorithmic risk assessment tools with core criminal justice values.

Legal Studies Research Paper No. 939, 2925

By Robert French

This Report to the Government of South Australia follows a legal examination to determine whether the State of South Australia could legislate a ban on access to social media services by children who have not attained the age of 14 and to restrict access to social media services by children between the ages of 14 and 16 by requiring parental consent to their access. The Report also considers a legislative model for achieving that end.

The examiner considered:

• How South Australia can achieve the objective of social media prohibition for children within Australia’s constitutional framework.

• The existing legislative and regulatory landscape in South Australia including effectiveness of current legislative and regulatory levers for limiting access to social media for children.

• Opportunities for legislative or regulatory reform in South Australia to prevent access to social media accounts for children under 14 and require parental consent for children aged 14 and 15.

• How actions taken in South Australia to limit social media access for children could be effectively enforced.

• How existing technology to limit access to social media such as ‘age assurance’ mechanisms could be utilised to complement legislative and/or regulatory change.

The report concludes whatever regime is established by the South Australian Government, it will not be perfect. Effecting compliance across the industry will be challenging. The legislation would apply to existing as well as prospective users of social media services. There will undoubtedly be workarounds by knowledgeable child users. However, the perfect should not be the enemy of the good. One non-legal beneficial effect of the law may be to arm parents with the proposition that it is the law not them that restricts access to social media for children in South Australia.

Adelaide: Government of South Australia, 2024  277p.

By Debra Parkes

The nearly three decades in which Beverley McLachlin was a member of the Supreme Court, including 18 as Chief Justice, witnessed a number of shifts in Canadian penal policy and in the reach and impact of criminal law. During the Harper decade (2006 to 2015) in which the federal Conservatives enjoyed a majority government led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, criminal justice policy took a turn toward the punitive. The federal government tore a page out of the American legislative handbook and sought to “govern through crime”,1 albeit in a more restrained Canadian style.2 Criminologists Anthony Doob and Cheryl Webster have posited that pre-Harper, Canadian criminal justice policy was grounded in four pillars that enjoyed support across party lines. These pillars were that social conditions matter; that harsh punishments do not reduce crime; that the development of criminal justice policies should be informed by expert knowledge; and that changes in the criminal law should address real problems.3 These principles were cast aside, Doob and Webster argue, beginning at least in 2006 with the passage of numerous crime bills that, to name just a few, created new crimes with enhanced penalties;4 proliferated mandatory

Allard School of Law, Allard Research Commons Allard Research Commons, Faculty Publications Allard Faculty Publications, 2019, 19p.

By Kay L. Levine and Volkan Topalli

In The Process is the Punishment, Malcolm Feeley exposed the lower criminal court as a powerful institution in American life, an important counterpart to both the more glamorous federal courts and the more highly charged superior courts that preside over serious crimes within a jurisdiction. Although it typically handles only low-level criminal charges, the lower criminal court’s reach is both broad and deep; in its functioning and process it has the capacity to change the lives of many who come before it – sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse – irrespective of guilt or innocence, conviction or dismissal.

Cambridge University Press, on 22 Oct 2020, 17p.

By Christopher L. Ringwalt, 1 Dorothy C. Browne, 1 Lee B. Rosenbioomfl Gloria Ann Evans, 3 and Jonathan B. Kotch 1

This study explores the relationship between mothers" approval of corporal punishment and the degree to which they themselves were subjected to vio- lence as children. Considered as additional contributing factors are: (1) whether the mothers as children were punished by their own parents, (2) whether they perceived such punishment as unfair, and (3) the degree of parental nurture they experienced as children. The sample consisted of 330 new mothers whose mother and father both lived in the home when they were 14 years of age. Respondents were interviewed at home one to two months following their infants" discharge from the hospital. After control- ling for race and income, no relationship was found between approval of cor- poral punishment and the violence to which mothers were subjected as children. However, significant associations were found between such approval and: (1) whether mothers were punished by their parents, and (2) maternal (but not paternal) nurture. Perceptions that parental punishment was unfair failed to contribute to such approval. Altogether, parental factors in mothers" childhoods, excluding race and income, accounted for 8.9~o of the variance in approval of corporal punishment.

Journal of Family Violence, VoL 4, No. 4, 1989, 13p.

By K. Drybread

A six- year- old girl came home from a neighbor’s house with blood in her underpants. Her mother, frantic, demanded to know how it had gotten there. “Who did this to you?” she asked. The girl responded, “I don’t know.” Her mother screamed the question again and again; the girl’s answer remained the same. The mother tried a new question, “What did he look like?” Her daughter’s reply was still, “I don’t know.” After posing the new q

UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO BOULDER user on 27 January 2020, 21p.

By Özlem ÖZMEN

Martin McDonagh’s Hangmen (2015) is a contextual play as the work derives its material from an actual histori- cal event, the abolition of capital punishment in the 1960s, and presents this topic in 2015 soon after the debates of reintroducing death penalty in Britain. The play refers to two distinct socio-historical backgrounds, 1960s Britain as the context of the plot, and the twenty-first century as the context of the audience/reader. Hangmen takes place on a very specific date in history, the year in which hanging was suspended in Britain. The comical portrayal of what seems to be the last hanging case in the country makes it possible to problematise the integrity of the judicial system at the time. Presentation of the rivalry between two famous executioners in the country, Harry Allen and Albert Pierrepoint, also underlines the play’s socio-political relation to a certain context. What is equally noteworthy about Hangmen is McDonagh’s choice of this topic at a time in which the issue of capital punishment is raised again in Britain. Concerning recent arguments about the reintroduction of death penalty, it is observed that McDonagh also initiates a discussion about the legitimation of state violence through a depiction of the history of hanging. In light of this observation, the aim of this article is to discuss McDonagh’s topical dark comedy as a political intervention in the debate over death penalty in Britain by mentioning t

Özmen, Ö. (2019). Political Contextuality of Martin McDonagh’s Hangmen: An Intervention in the Debate over Capital Punishment in Britain, Gaziantep University Journal of Social Sciences, 18 IDEA Special Issue, 92-101

By Eva Maghfiroh Institut Agama islam Syarifuddin Lumajang

Aggressive behavior is a form of behavior that can hurt other people. This behaviour comes from cognitive processes that are disrupted. Students, in Islamic boarding school, who experience aggressive behavior, can become aggressive too. This article discusses how teachers deal with students with aggressive behavior in Islamic boarding school. One of the ways, is to provide reward and punishment for them, who have aggrescive behavior

Dakwatuna : Jurnal Dakwadan Komunikasi Islam, 19p.

By Cindy Miller-Perrin* and Robin Perrin

Physical punishment remains a common practice in the USA despite significant empirical evidence of its potential harm and ineffectiveness, arguments that its use violates children’s human rights, and professional recommendations against its use. The purpose of the current paper is to offer explanations as to why, in the face of a worldwide movement to protect children from violence, the USA continues to support physical punishment of children. The paper also summarizes the various debates engaged in by experts that stem from these explanations for physical punishment and argue that the time has come to move beyond these debates and eliminate the physical punishment of children. We offer suggestions for changing attitudes and practices related to physical punishment of children in order to promote their health and well-being. We conclude by suggesting that the burden of proof in debates about physical punishment, which has typically fallen upon those who argue children should never be physica

Miller-Perrin and Perrin Psicologia: Reflexão e Crítica (2018) 31:16, 7p.

By Ryan Casey, Fergus McNeill ,Betsy Barkas, Neil Cornish, Caitlin Gormley, and Marguerite Schinkel

In this paper, we draw on data from a recent study of how Covid-19 and related restrictions impacted on vulnerable and/or marginalised populations in Scotland (Armstrong and Pickering, 2020), including justice-affected people (i.e. people in prison and under supervision, their families and those that work with them; see Gormley et al., 2020). Focusing here mainly on interviews with people released from prison and others under community-based criminal justice supervision, we explore how the pandemic impacted on their experiences. Re ecting upon and re n- ing previous analyses of how supervision is experienced as pervasive punishment (McNeill, 2019), we suggest that both the pandemic and public health measures associated with its suppression have changed the pains and gains of supervision (Hayes, 2015), in particular, by exacerbating the suspension associated with it. We conclude by discussing the implications of our ndings for the pursuit of justice in the recovery from Covid-19.

Probation Journal, 1 17, 2021, 17p.

By James T. Graves, Alessandro Acquisti, Ross Anderson

The U.S. Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA)1 is not a popular law.2 Enacted in 1986 to deal with the nascent computer crimes of that era, it has aged badly. It has been widely criticized as vague, poorly structured, and having an overly broad definition of loss that invites prosecutorial abuse.

Perception Versus Punishment in Cybercrime

By Patrick G Bass Morningside College

Civil War prison historiography has enjoyed a kind of renaissance over the past two decades, using new sources, new research methodologies, and new theoretical frameworks. Both of these works from Kent State University Press are among the efforts in these new directions. Angela Zombek’s monograph Penitentiaries, Punishment, and Mili- tary Prisons is the more ambitious of the two works under review. Zombek approaches her subjects in a complicated manner. The struc- ture proceeds from background and general overview through specific investigations to a Reconstruction postscript. The introduction sum- marizes the entire work. The first chapter provides a deep background analysis of theories of penology before and during the American Civil War, which reaches from the European Enlightenment to the Lieber Code of the early 1860s. The second chapter centers on the overall con- tinuities of practices of penology throughout the first two-thirds of the nineteenth century. The last full chapter (not the conclusion) looks at postwar legacies in terms of the triumph of continuity. The conclusion ably restates her findings.

The Annals of Iowa Volume 78 Number 2 (Spring 2019) pps. 211-213

By Carl Toersbijns, Retired Corrections Administrator

This lecture is written by a layperson who seeks to simplify the process of punishment inside prisons while explaining its impact, intentionally or intentionally. It is also written to propose a theory that punishment should be temporary and not permanently imposed in perpetuity with time to allow society’s forgiveness and understanding of the long-term effects of penal state and its impact on criminalized people. To begin with, we must first acknowledge the fact that incarceration is massive in nature and tone and spoken of frequently and rapidly after a crime has been committed and adjudicated to the courts for sentencing and term of punishment.

January 7, 2023, 6p.

By Paolla Magioni Santini and Lucia C. A. Williams

Studies have shown that corporal punishment against children is a common family practice, causing damage to child development. Considering that parents are the main perpetrators of this type of aggression, parenting programs are needed to raise children without violence. This study aimed at performing a systematic review of parenting programs evaluations to reduce corporal punishment. Intervention procedures, as well as design, results and limitations were identified for each study. The PRISMA protocol (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses) was used for reporting the results. A literature survey was conducted in Brazilian databases, as well as English ones from 1994-2014. One Brazilian study and eight international studies were selected as relevant, and only four used randomized controlled trials (RCT). All studies reported satisfactory results in decreasing aggression by parents against their children. Further research in the area with solid methodology is recommended.

Systematic Literature Review, 2016, 9p.

By Lucy Sorensen, Charmaine N. Willis, Victor Asal, and Melissa L. Breger

International attention to the issue of children’s rights and dignity has grown in recent years, both culminating in—and then drawing momentum from— the landmark United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in 1989. The CRC represents a changing international consensus on the rights of children, emphasizing that children, as human beings, should have a certain level of autonomy and codified legal protections (Hammarberg 1990; Melton 2005; Reynaert et al. 2009). It is formidable in its range of provisions and its specificity: it states that children have the right to have their basic needs fulfilled (addressing issues of hunger, health care, edu- cation, and play); the right to participate in decisions affecting their own well-being; and the right to be free from harm (Hammarberg 1990; Melton 2005).

2024, 23p.

By MARÍA CASADO

La presente obra es un trabajo colectivo que analiza cada uno de los artículos y principios de la «Declaración Universal sobre Bioética y Derechos Humanos» adoptada por la UNESCO en 2005 para completar –en lo que se refiere al impac- to de la biotecnología y la biomedicina en los seres humanos y el entorno– la «Declaración Universal de Derechos Humanos» de 1948. La Declaración explici- ta como objetivo «Proporcionar un marco universal de principios y procedimien- tos que sirvan de guía a los Estados en la formulación de legislaciones, políticas u otros instrumentos en el ámbito de la bioética» y hace un especial énfasis en el análisis del concepto de dignidad humana en relación con la Bioética. Su rele- vancia para quienes nos ocupamos de la nueva disciplina Bioética es inmensa pero también es esencial para todos los ciudadanos, puesto que la supervivencia de la vidabuenaen el planeta exige tomar en serio lo en ella establecido.

Thomson Reuters, 2009, 600p.

By Clifton P. Flynn

Corporal punishment enjoys strong normative support in American society, even in the face of growing evidence suggesting that it may be potentially harmful. This arti- cle examines Americans' attitudes toward the physical punishment of children. Support for spanking varies along such social categories as race, education, religion, and region. The article concludes by discussing the implications of corporal punishment attitudes for scholars, professionals, and families.

University of South Carolina at Spartanburg, Aggression and Violent Behavior, Vol. I, No. 1, pp. 47-55, 1996, 9p.

By Ian Ayres and  Fredrick E. Vars

In a substantial majority of states, invitees may bring concealed weapons onto private property unless the owner expressly tells them that firearms are not allowed. Five states after the Supreme Court’s Bruen decision flipped the presumption, enacting statutes that prohibit bringing firearms onto other people’s property without the owner’s express consent. These statutes have been attacked as violating the Second Amendment. While the Ninth Circuit upheld the constitutionality of the “no guns” default, the Second Circuit and other lower courts have enjoined application of the law with regard to private property open to the public. This Article, after analyzing the reasoning of the courts, proposes a legislative fix. States can enact “affirmative choice” rules which require commercial establishments, as a condition of doing business, to state whether or not they want their customers to be allowed to bring concealed firearms into their stores. An affirmative-choice requirement avoids constitutional concerns that some courts have had with a “no guns” presumption because the ability to bear arms on private property would only be restricted when the landowner so chooses. Without state action restricting gun rights, the statutes would not meet the Bruen threshold requirement. The Article explains why affirmative-choice laws are likely to better effectuate the preferences of landowners and why such laws would not pose compelled speech concerns.

Yale Law School, Public Law Research Paper,