Margaret Vandiver

University students' perceptions of tobacco, cocaine, and homicide fatalities.

A questionnaire was given to 350 students in introductory-level and 46 students in senior-level university courses to determine how accurately students are able to estimate the annual number of deaths in the United States from tobacco use, cocaine use, and homicide. Results show that students dramatically overestimate the number of cocaine-related deaths and homicides, but dramatically underestimate the number of tobacco-related deaths. The data indicate that students generally have a poor grasp in both absolute and relative terms of the dangers inherent in tobacco use. Results are attributed to the mixed message young people receive about tobacco, with tobacco ads countering the effects of government health warnings, in contrast to the medias consistent emphasis on the dangers of illegal drugs and crime.

Ignoring the Past: Coverage of Slavery and Slave Patrols in Criminal Justice Texts

The authors reviewed 18 criminal justice and 13 policing texts published since 2000 to explore the amount of coverage these texts give to the relationship between slavery, slave patrols, and the early American criminal justice system. To provide a basis for comparison, 14 introductory texts published in the 1970s were also reviewed. We found coverage of topics related to slavery to be nearly nonexistent in the 1970s texts and to be perfunctory in the majority of the current texts. We argue that given slavery’s importance to American history, introduction to criminal justice and policing texts should be more comprehensive in their discussions regarding how this peculiar institution shaped American criminal justice and law enforcement.

Slavery's Enduring Legacy: Executions in Modern America

Abstract Using data on post-Greggexecutions and death sentences, we explore the previously observed, but not well understood, relationship between slavery and the death penalty. We classify modern states into categories focused on their jurisdictional law and practice of slavery circa 1860. Our analyses reveal that the relationship between slavery and modern executions is stronger even than previously recognized, with 90.6% of post-Greggexecutions occurring in states that supported the practice of slavery, whether or not they were in the Confederacy or inside the traditional boundaries of the South. We conclude that capital punishment is one of the enduring legacies of American slavery.

Teaching the ultimate crime: Genocide and international law in the criminal justice curriculum

The rapid expansion of international law and the establishment of an international criminal court have resulted in new justice institutions that should not be ignored in criminal justice curricula. Genocide, as the focal point of an entire course or a unit within other courses, provides instructors with an organizational framework for addressing a wide variety of topics related to international law. This paper discusses how the crime of genocide can be integrated into criminal justice curricula and the opportunities it provides for examining international law, history, current events, and the interdependence of criminal justice system components. A course on genocide taught to advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate students is described and evaluated.

The Tennessee Slave Code

Abstract Numerous studies have found evidence of racial discrimination in the imposition of the death penalty, particularly in the South. In this article, the authors posit that the legal antecedents of modern discrimination in capital cases are found in the codified rules that governed slavery. Using the capital punishment provisions of the 1858 Slave Code of Tennessee, the biases inherent in the laws of the Old South are documented. The discriminatory practices that blacks faced both as victims and offenders under the slave codes are linked through historical analysis and conflict theory to the current discriminatory practices documented by modern death penalty research.

“An apology does not assist the accused”: Foreign nationals and the death penalty in the United States

Over 70 foreign nationals are on death row in the United States. Under the terms of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, ratified by the U.S. Senate in 1969, any foreign national arrested in the United States must be informed of his right to contact and receive assistance from his consulate. American authorities have failed to comply with the Vienna Convention in the vast majority of such cases, including all eight executions of foreign nationals carried out under current laws. This paper reviews the issues raised by American violations of the Vienna Convention, the cases of several condemned foreigners, the rulings of American courts and of the International Court of Justice in the case of Angel Francisco Breard, and possible remedies.

A minor concern? underage casino gambling and the law

Abstract This article compared rates of underage casino gambling by students in two different regions of the country. Questionnaires were completed by 420 students at the University of Memphis and 415 students at the University of Nevada, Reno. Although Reno has long had casinos, Memphis residents have had access to casinos only since 1992 with the legalization of casino gambling in nearby Mississippi. The results indicate that 24.2% of underage Memphis respondents and 52.7% of underage Reno respondents had illegally gambled in casinos. We concluded that routine activity theory may help explain the different rates of underage gambling and question whether the security precautions against underage gambling are adequate.