Skip to main content

Judicial Challenges to the Collateral Impact of Criminal Convictions: Is True Change in the Offing?

Nora Demleitner, 90 New York University Law Review Online 36

(January 2016)
Judicial Challenges to the Collateral Impact of Criminal Convictions Cover

In this response to Jason A. Cade's 'Return of the JRAD', Nora V. Demleitner argues that judicial opposition to disproportionate sentences and collateral consequences are limited as not all offenders, specifically those deemed dangerous, benefit from the changes in the sentencing system. 

Part I of this response focuses on the increasing judicial resistance to the various ways in which the U.S. criminal justice system imposes severe sanctions that reverberate through families and communities and negatively impact the country.

Part II indicates how even judicial critics of the current approach remain a part of the overall normative framework that has dominated the societal discourse on punishment over the last four decades.

Resource Type
Journal Articles