Dahlia Lithwick, writing in Slate, thinks that Cardinal Law is a bad, bad person.
Right.
She thinks he has done awful things.
Right.
She thinks he deserves to be punished.
Right.
She thinks that it’s too bad the laws of Massachusetts don’t actually forbid any of those awful things.
Right.
She thinks that prosecutors should try to invent some new legal theory to convict him anyway, because he is a bad, bad person who has done awful things and deserves to be punished.
Wrong!
Author: Mark Kleiman
Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out.
Books:
Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken)
When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist
Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993)
Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989)
UCLA Homepage
Curriculum Vitae
Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com
View all posts by Mark Kleiman