1. Hispanics and the Law in Massachusetts  College of the Holy Cross  March 13, 2008  Class 8: Crime  Robert LeRoux Hernandez, Instructor

2. Virgen Palermo  Las Primeras  Criminal law  Trial lawyer  Sole practitioner  MAHA

3. CRIME  What is it?  Prison populations  Court dockets  Victims

4. Pew Report  1 in 35 adult Latino males is in prison

5. Jacobs & Carmichael  Historical review of imprisonment rates and reported crime: Little relationship  Communities with larger portion of minorities have larger proportional number of police  Political factors influence incarceration: relationship between Republican strength and incarceration rates

6. Urbina Far from being color-blind, society has been extremely ‘‘color and ethnically conscious.’’ As a consequence, the administration of justice has been informal, irregular, arbitrary, capricious, and secretive.

7. Steffensmeier: “focal concerns” theory of sentencing  assessment of the blameworthiness or culpability of the offender  desire to protect the community by incapacitating dangerous offenders or deterring potential offenders  concerns about the practical consequences, or social costs, of sentencing decisions  “Perceptual shorthands”

8. NB  Underrepresentation of Hispanics in Prison Mental Health services  Different nature of crimes for which Hispanics incarcerated: “public order” crimes  Interrelation of factors:  Poverty  Education  Employment  Color

9. Benjamin Laguer  Was he framed?  Did he receive a fair trial?  Did he do it?  Political ramifications  Organizing intellectual support