CRIMINAL LAW (CJ 501)

Kadish Chapter 1: Study and Thought Questions

Read Kadish CH1 pps 1 to 8 (Section A The Sweep of Criminal Law) and pps 53 to 67
(Section D Alternatives to Punishment). Answer the following study questions. Submit
your answers to the study questions on Canvas. Also place your answers to the thought
question in the discussion forum on Canvas.

Study Questions: Short Answer (20 points)

Section A. The Sweep of Criminal Law

1. According to David Garland, when does imprisonment become mass

imprisonment?
2. The criminal justice landscape has changed dramatically since the 1970s. What
causes do the authors cite for mass incarceration?
3. What is the conclusion of the National Research Council?
4. According to the authors, what are consequences does mass incarceration have on
public safety and social welfare?
5. What percentage of people in California prisons were raised in foster care?

Section D Alternative to Punishment.

6. What was Karl Menninger’s alternative to punishment?

7. According to Angela Davis, instead of a presumption of punishment what should
prison abolitionists argue instead?
8. According to Mariame Kaba, what do abolitionist politics and practice contend?
9. Amna Akbar argues that the social and fiscal footprint of police must be
considerably diminished if not eliminated. A core part of this program must be to
shift resources from criminalization to other social programs. According to Akbar,
who should be the driver of this shift?
10. What dilemma between abolition and reform does Liat Ben-Moshe point out.
11. After discussing abolitionism, the Kadish authors consider Restorative Justice.
How do they define Restorative Justice? How do they define Transformative
Justice (actually, Hayes and Kaba’s definition)?

Questions for Thought. Select one to answer in a paragraph or two. Post you answers in
the discussion forum on Canvas: (10 points)

1. The Kadish authors start the text with a set of well known, but nonetheless
shocking, statistics concerning incarceration in America. Which two do you think
are the most shocking? Explain your concerns.

2. The authors quote at length from Alexandra Natapoff article Underenforcement,

75 Fordham L. Rev. 1715, 1716-1719 (2006). To me, this article raises extremely
profound concerns about the relationship of law to various communities targeted
 by law enforcement. What do you think about simultaneous over and under
policing? How can society escape this paradox?

3. To their credit, the authors start Chapter 1 with a critical examination of Criminal
Law and its place in society. Going forward in class, we turn our attention more to
a “black-letter” approach: examining the law as it is, rather than how it could,
should, or might be. What is your vision for how Criminal Law could be different?

4. If none of the questions above appeal to you, write a personal reflection of our
first readings and topics covered in our introduction to Criminal Law.