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    Summer 2011 - Perceptions of Punishment

     

    Prosecution

    Introduction: Perspectives on a Premise

    by Penny Wakefield

    This issue of Human Rights explores punishment issues with significant implications for law, legal processes, and individual rights.

    Featured

    Prosecution

    Sometimes the Cure Is Worse Than the Disease: The One-Way White-Collar Sentencing Ratchet

    by Carlton Gunn and Myra Sun

    The U.S. Sentencing Commission has been hard at work since 1987 amending the sentencing guidelines to narrow the disparity between white-collar offenses and such crimes as those involving violence, stealing, and firearms. While lessening the disparity between white-collar and blue-collar crime is a good thing, there is still an unhesitating and excessive use of incarceration as a remedy for crime.

    Prosecution

    Double-Edged Paring Knives: Human Rights Dilemmas for Special Populations

    by Giovanna Shay

    The U.S. incarceration crisis has focused increasing attention on the problems of special populations in corrections: women, LGBT prisoners, juveniles, the elderly, and the mentally ill. ABA policy, including the Standards on the Treatment of Prisoners, attempts to protect the health and safety of these groups. However, such reform measures are not wholly uncontroversial, even among human rights advocates.