American criminal justice is in crisis. Prisons are swollen, confidence in police has plummeted, and race- and class-based biases distort every aspect of the system. American democracy is in crisis, too, as the chasm of loathing and incomprehension that divides political factions grows ever wider and deeper. Legal scholar and former prosecutor David A. Sklansky argues that these crises are deeply intertwined. And if the failures of American criminal justice are near the heart of our political divides, then reforming the system is essential for repairing our democracy.

Criminal Justice in Divided America shows how police, courts, and prisons helped to break American democracy and how better approaches to public safety and criminal accountability can help to repair it. Engaging critically with concerns from both the left and the right, Sklansky lays out a clear and deeply researched agenda for reforming police departments, prosecutors’ offices, criminal trials, and punishment. Sklansky seeks pragmatic solutions that take account of political realities: the lofty ideal of empowering “the people” or “the community” can mean little when members of the public or the community disagree. While efforts to “defund” the police have exacerbated political conflicts without addressing the underlying problem of how and when force should be used to protect public safety, reforms aimed at improving police accountability, restraining prosecutorial power, and expanding the role of juries can bring together warring parties who share a concern for justice.

Ultimately, Sklansky argues, reform must be rooted in a strong commitment to pluralism―bridging political divides rather than worsening them, strengthening democracy, and securing the broad support that enables durable change.

American legal systems : a resource and reference guide

Call Number:  KF240.J34 2025

https://catalog.libraries.psu.edu/catalog/47045159

American Legal Systems: A Resource and Reference Guide, now in its third edition, is a reader-friendly introduction to U.S. legal terms, institutions, and sources of law, including a discussion of precedent and the defining principle of stare decisis. Many of the concepts covered are tied to the realities of law practice. The text provides practice tips and instruction on how to prepare commonplace legal documents.

The information is largely presented in charts, with explanatory interspatial text to provide context, and can be used as a complement to other coursework or on its own as an introduction to the U.S. legal system.

With less than 5 percent of the world’s population and almost a quarter of its prisoners, America indisputably has a mass incarceration problem. How did it happen? Tough-on-crime politics and a racially loaded drug war are obvious and important culprits, but another factor has received remarkably little attention: the Supreme Court. The Constitution contains numerous safeguards that check the state’s power to lock people away. Yet since the 1960s the Supreme Court has repeatedly disregarded these limits, bowing instead to unfounded claims that adherence to the Constitution is incompatible with public safety.

In Justice Abandoned, Rachel Barkow highlights six Supreme Court decisions that paved the way for mass incarceration. These rulings have been crucial to the meteoric rise in pretrial detention and coercive plea bargaining. They have enabled disproportionate sentencing and overcrowded prison conditions. And they have sanctioned innumerable police stops and widespread racial discrimination. If the Court were committed to protecting constitutional rights and followed its standard methods of interpretation, none of these cases would have been decided as they were, and punishment in America would look very different than it does today.

More than just an autopsy of the Supreme Court’s errors, Justice Abandoned offers a roadmap for change. Barkow shows that the originalist methodology adopted by the majority of the current Court demands overturning the unconstitutional policies underlying mass incarceration. If the justices genuinely believe in upholding the Constitution in all cases, then they have little choice but to reverse the wrongly decided precedents that have failed so many Americans.

Essential legal knowledge and writing skills : foundations of law for every profession

Call Number:  K212.M353 2025

https://catalog.libraries.psu.edu/catalog/46440775

Essential Legal Knowledge and Writing Skills focuses on the learning needs of students in legal master’s programs. This text provides the knowledge and skills students need to succeed in legal studies and their professional careers. It incorporates student feedback and lessons learned in the authors’ combined 30 years of experience teaching master’s students.

This foundational text covers court and government structure and function. It provides tested tools and strategies to read and analyze cases, statutes, and regulations. The ethics chapter addresses the potential pitfalls of ethical issues and the unauthorized practice of law. The book devotes three chapters to writing, acknowledging that industry leaders seek and promote employees with excellent writing skills.

A strong emphasis on regulations provides guidance to the many students who work in highly regulated fields. The text highlights specific strategies to research regulations and submit comments to agencies to effect change in their industries. It equips students with the requisite knowledge of the legal world, and the ability to write cogently about business and the law. Essential Legal Knowledge and Writing Skills is a clear, concise, foundational text grounded in best practices.

Much has been written about the challenges tech presents to equality and democracy. But we can either criticize big data and automation or steer it to do better. Lobel makes a compelling argument that while we cannot stop technological development, we can direct its course according to our most fundamental values.

With provocative insights in every chapter, Lobel masterfully shows that digital technology frequently has a comparative advantage over humans in detecting discrimination, correcting historical exclusions, subverting long-standing stereotypes, and addressing the world’s thorniest problems: climate, poverty, injustice, literacy, accessibility, speech, health, and safety.

Lobel’s vivid examples—from labor markets to dating markets—provide powerful evidence for how we can harness technology for good. The book’s incisive analysis and elegant storytelling will change the debate about technology and restore human agency over our values.

Award-winning* mediator and conflict resolution specialist David Evans applies insights and tools from his mediation career to address the long-standing conflict between black people and white people. He shares his insights in his new book, “Black & White: How To Have Our American Conversation About Race.”Awards*: Two “Outstanding Case of the Year Awards”, 2000 and 2001, in the Los Angeles County Superior Court Alternative Dispute Program. With 14,000 mediation cases a year, it is the largest such program in the country.

The design of digital democracy

Call Number:  JF799.5.S48 2023

https://catalog.libraries.psu.edu/catalog/46153951

Ever-stronger ties between technology, entertainment and design are transforming our relationship with democratic decision-making. When we are online, or when we use digital products and services, we tend to focus more on certain factors like speed of service and user-friendliness, and to overlook the costs – both for ourselves and others. As a result, a widening gap separates our expectations of everything related to digitalization – including government – and the actual practice of democratic governance. Democratic regulators, unable to meet citizens’ demands for tangible, fast and gratifying returns, are seeing the poorest results ever recorded in terms of interest, engagement and retention, despite using the most cutting-edge technologies.

This book explores various aspects of the relationship between democracy, technology and entertainment. These include, on the one hand, the role that digital technology has in strengthening our collective intelligence, nurturing empathic relations between citizens and democratic institutions, and supporting processes of political aggregation, deliberation and collaboration. On the other hand, they comprise the challenges accompanying digital technology for representation, transparency and inclusivity in democratic decision-making.

The book’s main argument is that digital democratic spaces should be redesigned to narrow the gap between the expectations and outcomes of democratic decision-making. It suggests abandoning the notion of digital participatory rights as being fast and easy to enjoy. It also refutes the notion that digital democratic decision-making can only be effective when it delivers rapid and successful responses to the issues of the day, regardless of their complexity.

In Someday Is Today, the second in Manswell’s collection, you’ll broaden your knowledge on racial inequalities in the workplace and gain the tools to become a better leader.

This sequel goes beyond surface level conversations about inequalities and promotes the idea that racism needs to be understood before it can be addressed. Manswell gets to the core of the issue and launches off from there, taking the reader on a journey of often unexplored issues, tapping into a closer look at the emotional impact of discrimination.

You’ll learn how to untangle your own misconceptions that lead to generational differences as you have a front row seat to Roshunda and Maya’s discussion about the topic. LaToya and Shane hit a crossroad in their relationship and discover that their next steps need to include considerations about diversity. Jim comes face to face with his white peers in the workplace who verbalize what many have suspected for years. This leads him to the conclusion that organizations need a new approach to holding leaders accountable for the success or failure of racial equity in their organizations.

Antiracism as Daily Practice illustrates the many ways white Americans—those newly waking to the crisis of racism in 2020 and those already aware—can choose behaviors in our everyday lives to grow racial justice. Full of real life stories, this book shows how vital it is for white people to engage in and with our families, through our social networks, in our neighborhoods, and at our jobs to make antiracism a daily living commitment. We have real power in our relationships with other white people—and not enough of us have used it. Dr. Harvey explains why we white people struggle with knowing what to do about racism, and explores the significance of emotions like grief and anger (as well as the harmful role of shame) in really reckoning with the transformation and change needed in our communities to become the partners in justice that Black communities and other communities of color need and deserve. Not only is such transformation vital to the well-being of U.S. democracy. It’s vital to the freedom and wholeness of white people too.

Critical conversation analysis : inequality and injustice in talk-in-interaction

Call Number:  P120.R32C75 2024

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This book presents the first collection of conversation analytic studies addressed exclusively to issues of inequality and injustice. It offers a broad depiction of how inequality and injustice are reproduced, resisted and transformed in our daily life; together the chapters produce a forensic analysis of how participants enact discriminatory ideologies, negotiate systemic power imbalances, and pursue social change in and through the nuances of their interactions. The authors draw on audio and video recordings of interaction in a wide range of social settings, ranging from classrooms to family dinners, and political town halls to television sitcoms. The book demonstrates the power of conversation analysis to tackle issues of social (in)justice and (in)equality and launches critical conversation analysis as a distinct empirical program dedicated to systematically investigating and promoting inclusion and equity in the minute details of everyday interaction.