Legalization: Annotated Bibliography

In their article, Welsh and Loria start off by saying how medical marijuana has been legalized in more than 20 states(Paragraph 1) and how even CNN’s medical correspondent has changed his stance on medical marijuana(Paragraph 2). People are still stuck between whether marijuana should be legal or not, but most can agree that medical marijuana is “okay”. They go on to show that more and more studies are being conducted to try and understand how the drug is beneficial. Loria and Welsh then go on to write about the potential benefits of marijuana. In a study conducted by the National Eye Institute, they found that marijuana lowered intraocular pressure for people with glaucoma and those without(Paragraph 10). The next benefit that they mention, which this was has caused lots of controversy, is that marijuana stops cancer from spreading. A research done at California Pacific Medical Center has shown that CBD, cannabidiol, could help

Psychology plays a very important role in the field of criminal justice. It is needed to help assess individuals who commit crimes, as well as, help to be a predictor of criminal behavior. Utilizing theories such behaviorism and operant conditioning, individual behavior is able to be assessed by the response to learning what actions result in rewards and what actions result in punishment. As a result of how individuals respond to rewards and punishment, learned behaviors have the possibility to be deterred or corrected.

The intersections of Law and Psychology are contingent on the methods and instruments used to exercise and understand the fields. Crime causation, risk factors, research methods, and legal and non-legal actors all play a key role in the success or failure of the legal systems. Through the use of Bruce Sales’ and Daniel Krauss’ book, “The Psychology of Law,” and classroom lecture by Professor Weiner, I have furthered my understanding of these critical components that affect outcomes of cases in the legal field.

Muller, Christopher and Daniel Schrage. "Mass Imprisonment and Trust in the Law." Annals of the American Academy of Political & Social Science, vol. 651, no. 1, Jan. 2014, pp. 139-158. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1177/0002716213502928.

For the past 50 years, America’s criminal justice system has encountered several significant changes dealing with courts and policing. According to Marion and Oliver (2006), the historical Supreme Court rulings like Mapp v. Ohio and Miranda v. Arizona mold the way courts and law enforcement handle individuals charged with committing crimes. This paper will discuss the evolution of courts and law enforcement reflects the diverse and changing need for today’s population which is first importance, the urgency for cooperation and communication among criminal justice agencies and law enforcement within the country. Individuals must

Mandatory sentencing has been a big driver in the large population of incarcerated individuals in the United States. District attorneys are more aggressive in how they file charges against the arrestee. While the country has seen a decline in crime, new

The thought that the mood of the bail commissioner determines whether a person’s bail is set high or low is mind boggling, as well as reflects the lack of proper education in professionalism and ethics. Bail commissioners should understand that the pretrial detention has a negative impact not only on the defendants, but as well as their families. Additionally, high bails for low income defendants drain the system by using tax payer dollars, as well as overcrowding jails.

Marijuana is a controversial topic that is currently shocking the economy. Dr. Marco Leyton deciphers the pros and cons of marijuana, also known as cannabis, in his article "Legalizing Marijuana". The article, located on the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NCBI) website, begins with the risks associated with cannabis use. After talking about the neurobiological and medicinal effects, he focuses on marijuana's history with the law. He does this by stating statistics like, "Most prominently, an estimated 10% of users are arrested at one point in their lives"(Leyton).

Prison Overcrowding is one of America’s most critical issues in the Criminal Justice system. Just as the name states, the problem is insufficient jail space – for which the solution would be to build more facilities. What causes this problem? There are a lot of people in the world that believe putting all crime doers in jail is the best resolution. Let’s be honest here

The United States is plagued by the problem of mass imprisonment, with its prison population having risen by 500 percent in the last three decades. Because the overwhelming majority of criminal cases are resolved through plea bargaining, there is room for prosecutors to reduce mass imprisonment by exercising their wide discretion. At present, prosecutors likely do not give much consideration to the overcrowding of America's jails and prisons when making their plea bargain offers. However, if prosecutors were regularly advised of such overcrowding they might offer marginally lower sentences across the board. For instance, a prosecutor who typically offers a first-time drug offender a twenty-month sentence might instead agree to an eighteen-month

According to the graph shown above, federal and state combined in 1939 increased to a high of 137. After this period the imprisonments rate remained stable until 1972; when the rate rapidly increased annually by 6 to 8 percent through 2000. Years later, the rate of incarceration reached the peak of 506 per 100,000 people in 2007 and 2008. In 2012, “the imprisonment rate of 471 per 100,000 was still 4.3 times the historical average of 110 per 100,000. If the numbers in jail are added, the incarceration rate totaled 767 per 100,000 in 2007 and 707 per 100,000 in 2012” (Glaze and Herberman, 2013). In other words, the tremendous growth of the penal population is an astounding number of people behind bars. The U.S prisons and jails, by 2012, held

Adams, Jill U. "The case against menthols." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 27 Mar. 2011. Web. 29 June 2017.

Feeley investigates the expensive routine that lower criminal court defendants face on their way to adjudication on a daily basis. Feeley examined the records from the lower criminal courts in New Haven, Connecticut through informal interviews with defendants waiting for their cases. Suspects detained in custody anywhere from a couple of hours to multiple days until their disposition are automatically at a disadvantage. Research has shown that if one is unable to come up with the financial resources to post their bond they are more likely to be convicted (30 percent to 49 percent) than those already out of custody (Feeley, Malcolm 205 1979). Many of these delayed releases are due to police imposed mandates during the charging process. A large

Cohen, R. (2012, November 8). The fight over medical marijuana. New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2012

The state correctional facilities cost an astronomical amount to operate. Most citizens do not realize the daily cost associated with not only housing an inmate, but also the operational expenses. Even with the high costs associated with operating a correctional facility, most of the general public is immune to what it takes to house a prisoner. Prison is an expensive social tool. It’s effectiveness and purpose are often debated, but the fact that it is costly cannot be debated (Trout, 2011). So what are some of the costs associated with housing an inmate?