criminal law reading test 1 Flashcards
Law on the books vs. Law in action
legal concern with reality and written law. books refers to written laws and action refers to how laws are applied in real life. Ex: jaywalking is a law on the books but not applied in real life.
Sociology vs. Law
sociology seeks causal explanations while law seeks to attribute responsibility; law and society was born out of legal concern with what was actually going on in reality, not just written law
Marxism’s ideology
Negative: masking social reality
Productive: inculcating ideas into people’s minds… how does the mode of production shape the law (determines the social, political, and spiritual processes of life).
Chambliss on Marxism
criminalization is part of the political economy, political power struggle, and bureaucratic organization
Chambliss’ dialectical model of law making
focuses on the role of class conflict and the political and economic contradictions surrounding law
Muhammad: How is the law rooted in racism?
anti-black criminalization by proxy (incarcerated white men saw themselves as black adjacent).
african americans embrace punitive measures – the US carceral infrastructure is older then our democracy (13th amendment forbids slavery, but allows it in the case of punishment – exception clause)
how the SC evaluated potential violence
had guidelines on “excessive use of force” by police
relationship between racist cultural tropes and the law
Tennessee v. Garner “deadly force only to prevent the escape of a fleeing suspect and officer BELIEVES to post a significant threat of violence”
recall 4th amendment; right to secure in homes against unreasonable searches unless probable cause
the effects of video evidence
reveals objective facts that can be agreed upon by all belies the racial field of vision that tints an “objective” video
Moore argument
potential violence as due cause for the use of deadly police force intersects a cultural discourse that marks black men as having the constant potential for violence embedded within their physical being
how law works as a field
there are many processes involved in making laws such as: bill drafting, committee review, senate/house voting, judicial interpretation…
how law works as a discourse of power
people have different ways and resources to influence the law depending on their hierarchy
colorblindness
black masculinity is always marked as potentially violent
symbolic power
how modes of domination are embedded in everyday social habits; EX: social hierarchys such as education
