Question

n chapter four of the text, the authors present eight different topics that have been subject to some type of criminal law reform. Some of them are established reforms; others are still changing with the times.

Select one of the eight topics presented in the text, and answer the following questions in the form of an essay:

What caused the perceived need for the law or change in the law?

If laws were passed was the goal they intended to achieve reached? If yes explain how, if not explain why not.

Were there any unintended consequences of the law?

Is there a need to further amend the law? If so was something over looked in the original law or did circumstances change?

Based on what you have learned about the topic you chose is there any change you would recommend to that law now? If so what would it be and what would it accomplish.

Answer 1

1. The frist step in law reform shuld be to assess both the applicable legal framework and the crimnal justice system.
assessment of the legal framwork involves gathering all applicable lae may include the the stste's constitution, legal codes legeslation, regulation bylae standerd operating prusedure,relevent and binding precedent and even executive or presidential edicts or decrees.

2. Although rapid adoption of any major step in law reform is exceptional, swift
vmplementation is particularly noteworthy in the criminal field, where use of a new
prohibition, penalty, or procedure is often possible only where there is the concurrence
of several of the agencies through whose hands cases pass: police, prosecutors,

3. Reforms to tighten law enforcement may not, on the other hand, prove equally capable
of prompt and effective implementation, since disinterest or disapproval of a
specific reform at a single level of the criminal justice system can in many cases bar
its employment. A case in point is judicially-supervised electronic surveillance, which
can be considered a reform to improve the process of gathering accurate evidence.
For example, a disinclination on the part of one United States Attorney General to
use the statutory authority for such surveillance prevented all federal investigative
agencies and courts from obtaining its benefits for a seven-month period during 1968
and 1969,
4. and a similar disinclination led the Massachusetts Attorney General to refrain
from using his similar authority at any time during 1968 or 1969

5. Sarver, 9 CRIM. L. REP. 2171 (8th Cir. 1971) (federal district court
findings that entire Arkansas prison system violates eighth amendment upheld), 'Vith
K. MENNINGER, Tim CRIME OF PUNISHMENT 71-81, 219-48 (1968).
A recent example of such a study is Comment, The Role of the Eighth Amendment
in Prison Reform, 38 U. Cm. L. REv 647 (1971).
[Vol. 13:159
CRIMINAL LAW REFORIM
public has so little confidence in the system, and finds its processes so
burdensome for victims and witnesses, that only a small minority of
serious crimes are reported.6 Too few of the reported crimes are solved,
and too few of those solved are taken to court

6. THE PRESIDENT'S COMMISSION ON LAW ENFORCEMENT AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF
Jus-ncF, THE CHALLENGE OF CRIME IN A FREE SocIrr (1967) [hereinafter cited as
CHALLEGE OF CRIME]; a survey indicated that
the actual amount of crime in the United States today is several times that
reported in the UCR [the FJ3.I.'s Uniform Crime Reports compiling statistics
on crime reported to local police

7. According to estimates by the President's Commission on Law Enforcement and
the Administration of Justice, 2,780,140 UCR "Index" crimes (willful homicide, forcible
rape, aggravated assault, robbery, burglary, larceny of $50 and over, and motor
vehicle theft) were committed in 1965

8. For a great many offenders .. .corrections do not correct. Indeed, experts
are increasingly coming to feel that the conditions, under which many
offenders are handled, particularly in institutions, are often a positive detriment
to rehabilitation