Risk and Resources: A Qualitative Perspective on Low-Level Sentencing in Virginia
Virginia’s sentencing guidelines include alternative sanctions based on the use of a quantitative instrument called the Nonviolent Risk Assessment (NVRA) that identifies individuals convicted of drug and property crimes that are considered to be at lower risk of recidivism. In this study, the authors explore how judges make use of the NVRA instrument when sentencing individuals convicted of low‐level drug and property crimes.
Our Data-Driven Future: Promise, Perils, and Prognoses
Nowadays, most of our activities and personal details are recorded by one entity or another. These data are used for many applications that fundamentally enrich our lives, such as navigation systems, social networks, search engines, and health monitoring.
How Do Prosecutors (and the Rest of Us) Get Sentencing So Wrong?
This article is a response to a recent New York Times op ed piece in which James Forman, Jr. and Sarah Lustbader pose the question, “What can we do to shrink our prison population, the world’s largest?”.
Oregon, Indigenous Nations, Manifest Destiny, and the Doctrine of Discovery
This talk will explain the elements, or factors, that make up this international law and argue that the Doctrine of Discovery morphed into “American Manifest Destiny” and was used, and is still being used today, to justify the United States’ acquisition of the lands and assets of the Indian Nations and peoples.
California Governor Signs “Use of Force” Bill Into Law
On August 19, California’s Office of the Governor issued a press release announcing that Governor Newsom signed AB 392 into law. The bill enacts one of the strongest use-of-force laws in the country.
Law360 Article Argues In Favor of Risk Assessment Tools
An article for Law360 entitled “Risk Assessment Tools Are Not A Failed ‘Minority Report’” discusses the use of risk assessment tools used by judges in criminal cases. The article comes in response to a New York Times op-ed which implied that risk assessment tools make future violence seem more predictable than it actually is.
The ALI Adviser is intended to inform readers about the legal topics and issues examined in many of ALI’s current projects; posts do not necessarily represent the position of the Institute taken in those projects. Posts on The ALI Adviser are written by ALI project participants, ALI members, and outside sources.