POLS/LSJ 363 Law in Society Spring 2025 Final Exam Study Questions, Part 1

Tort Law

• Definition: Tort law addresses civil wrongs that cause harm to another person, leading to legal liability.
• Categories/Types:
  • Intentional torts
  • Negligent torts
  • Strict liability torts

Types of Torts

• Intentional Torts:
  • Involve deliberate actions that cause harm.
  • Examples: Battery, assault, false imprisonment, trespass.
• Negligent Torts:
  • Occur when someone's carelessness results in harm.
  • Examples: Car accidents due to speeding, medical malpractice.
• Strict Liability Torts:
  • Impose liability regardless of fault.
  • Examples: Blasting with explosives, keeping dangerous animals.

Damages

• Compensatory Damages:
  • Intended to compensate the plaintiff for losses.
  • Purpose: To make the plaintiff whole again.
• Punitive Damages:
  • Intended to punish the defendant for egregious behavior.
  • Purpose: To deter similar conduct in the future.

Purposes of Tort Law

• Compensation for victims
• Deterrence of harmful behavior
• Holding wrongdoers accountable
• Promoting safety standards

Tort Law Reform Movement

• Launch: Contemporary movement launched due to perceived excesses in tort litigation.
• Legal Reforms:
  • Caps on damages
  • Stricter standards for liability
  • Limits on punitive damages

Supreme Court Limitation

• BMW Case: Supreme Court limited tort law remedies in a case involving a BMW with a jury award deemed excessive.

McDonald’s Coffee Case

• Media coverage omitted key facts, leading to misunderstandings.
• Key facts often left out:
  • The coffee was excessively hot.
  • McDonald's had received numerous prior complaints.
  • The plaintiff suffered severe burns.

Tort Law System

• Sometimes called a “lottery” because some plaintiffs receive large punitive damage awards.
• These awards can address the impact of harmful practices on many people.
• Alternatives to the tort lottery:
  • Regulatory fines
  • Class action lawsuits

Crime Rates in the US

• Violent crime rates have generally decreased since the 1990s.

US vs. Similar Countries

• The US stands out in certain crime categories compared to similar countries.

Incarceration and Punitiveness

• The US has higher rates of incarceration and punitiveness compared to similar countries.
• Also spends more on policing, law enforcement, and punishment.

Criminal Law

• Purposes include:
  • Deterrence
  • Rehabilitation
  • Retribution
  • Incapacitation
• Actual criminal processes may not fully achieve these purposes.

Crime Rate Factors

• Changes in policing numbers or tactics may not fully explain changes in the US crime rate.
• Other factors contribute, making it hard to determine specific causes.

Bill of Rights & Criminal Justice

• Key provisions addressing criminal justice:
  • Fourth Amendment (search and seizure)
  • Fifth Amendment (self-incrimination, double jeopardy)
  • Sixth Amendment (right to counsel, speedy trial)
  • Eighth Amendment (cruel and unusual punishment)

Criminal Justice Practices

• Actual practices of the criminal justice system often do not fully align with Bill of Rights protections.

Warren Court Era

• Key rulings on criminal justice during the Warren Court era (1950s and 1960s):
  • Miranda v. Arizona (rights of the accused)
  • Mapp v. Ohio (exclusionary rule)
• Some rulings limited law enforcement powers, while others favored law enforcement.

Criminal Law Enforcement

• Criminal law enforcement became an important issue in national politics.
• Criminal justice policy shifted from state/local to federal government due to various factors.

False Confessions

• Factors leading to false confessions or guilty pleas:
  • Coercive interrogation tactics
  • Psychological manipulation
  • Desire to end the interrogation

Malcolm Feeley’s Findings

• Key findings on decision-making processes in lower criminal courts:
  • Cases resolved through negotiation and compromise.
  • Legal ideals of fairness, equal treatment, and individualized justice are often compromised.

Criminal Law Attorneys

• Attorneys negotiate their client’s “theoretical exposure” and the “going rate” for the offense.

Violence and the Modern State

• Max Weber's view: Violence plays a central role in defining the modern state.
• Law helps curtail illegitimate violence/coercion.
• Official violence through law is an inevitable feature of modern states.

The War on Drugs

• Major effects:
  • Increased incarceration rates
  • Changes in law enforcement practices
  • Impacts on society
  • Changes in constitutional protections of rights
  • Altered relationship between states and federal government

Racial Disparities

• Racial disparities in criminal justice intensified during the War on Drugs.
• These disparities were not solely due to higher rates of drug use among targeted racial minorities.

Fourth Amendment

• Protection: Protects against unreasonable searches and seizures.
• Requirements:
  • Probable cause
  • Warrant (generally required)
• The warrant requirement is related to probable cause.

Florida v. Bostick (1991)

• The Supreme Court ruled on searches on buses.
• The ruling depended on the assumption that Terrance Bostick understood his right to refuse the search.
• Impact of the Court’s ruling.

Pretextual Stop/Investigatory Stop

• Different from other traffic stops.
• Do not require probable cause.
• Supreme Court rulings on investigatory stops.

Policing Practices

• Studying policing practices:
  • Individualized vs. institutionalized
• Conceptualizing police practices as institutionalized makes a difference.
• Reasons for thinking investigatory stops are institutionalized.

Limitations of Administrative Data

• Limitations as a source of information about investigatory stops.
• How the Epp, et al., study overcame some limitations by using survey data.

Epp et al. Study Findings

• Major findings:
  • Who gets stopped
  • What happens during the stops
• Findings about the harms caused by the stops.

Drop in Crime in NYC

• Key factors explaining the drop in crime in New York City after 1990, according to Zimring.

Stop and Frisk Program

• Crime in NYC declined after implementing an aggressive stop and frisk program.
• Reasons for skepticism/concern about the effectiveness of widespread stop and frisk tactics without probable cause.

Marginalization of Migrating Workers

• Ways that law has contributed to the marginalization of migrating workers.

Laws Against Vagrancy

• How vagrancy laws worked in the US before 1970.
• Widespread enforcement.
• People likely to be charged.

Supreme Court Rulings

• Key rulings regarding “status crimes” in the 1960s.

Law is “Void for Vagueness”

• Meaning of “void for vagueness” and the constitutional basis for the doctrine.

Vagueness of Vagrancy Laws

• Reasons that vagrancy laws like the one in Jacksonville, Florida, were said to be unconstitutionally vague.

Grants Pass v. Johnson (2024)

• Supreme Court’s majority opinion on Warren Court era decisions that expanded the rights of poor people and limited the use of criminal law to target unhoused and unemployed people.

Problems Related to Homeless Persons

• How the Supreme Court majority understood the problems related to homeless persons in places like Grants Pass.
• Ways the understanding missed structural economic problems contributing to homelessness.