Expunging Criminal Convictions: An Overview Convictions and arrests can be an embarrassment and may limit options in a career, employment or education. Many state laws give persons with arrest and conviction records a remedy – they may be removed or "expunged" if certain legal requirements are met.
State Expungement Laws
"Expungement" generally means the removal and isolation, and sometimes destruction, of records concerning a person's arrest, detention, investigation, trial or other disposition relating to certain criminal offenses. However, the laws and procedures for expunging criminal records are the creation of states, and sometimes even counties or municipalities. Disparity therefore exists in the principles, procedures and effects.
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Time is usually given for the filing of objections, and a court related agency may thoroughly investigate the petitioner's criminal records to establish qualification or disqualification. A hearing might be required; in some states the petitioner must appear to swear to the truthfulness of the petition and be questioned.
Effects of Expungement
The intended effect is usually to put the person in the same position as if the arrest or conviction never occurred. More specifically, the persons whose record has been expunged can usually then state on some employment, credit, professional license or school applications that she has never been convicted (or arrested), without fear of committing perjury. At other times disclosure may still be required, such as:
Aliens applying for entry into the United States (with the exception of expunged drug-related convictions in some jurisdictions) When applying for certain government issued licenses When applying for law enforcement and court related employment When testifying in a criminal case as a defendant In connection with sentencing for a subsequent
"Too many Americans go to too many prisons for far too long, and for no good law-enforcement reason … Although incarceration has a role to play in our justice system, widespread incarceration at the federal, state and local levels is both ineffective and unsustainable. . . We need to ensure that incarceration is used to punish, deter and rehabilitate – not merely to convict, warehouse and forget"(Holder). Former Attorney General Eric Holder does not dispute that prisons play an important role in the justice system. He believes that along with punishing the inmate’s prisons should provide them with rehabilitation. With the already overpopulated prison system across the US there should be alternative for lesser nonviolent offences.
...e records. In the People v. Smith (1991), the ruling prohibited the automatic expunction of any life offense, criminal traffic violation or adjudicated reportable offenses. The expungement of a record would not inherently make any case data go away. Therefore, a paper trail of previously related charges could be found and provided as evidence in Circuit Court proceedings.
When an offender is sentenced to imprisonment, post sentencing considerations must be made based on an evaluation of the individual and this will determine the manner in which the prison sentence is served. Post sentencing considerations include security classifications, parole and continued detention orders. These offer different levels of incapacity, accessibility of rehabilitation programs and incentives for good behaviour, and are implicated in order to achieve justice through upholding the rights of the victim, the offender and the wider community.
A dismissal usually occurs when the prosecution does not have sufficient evidence to obtain a conviction; 75% of all cases result in dismissal by the prosecution. Many times there is enough evidence to place an individual on trial, but it would be a waste of time and resources to try a case you can’t win. Dismissing charges has its limitations and restrictions, so tha...
There are certain instances in which you can seal your criminal records so they can't be viewed by outside sources including employers. This makes it easier to get a job when they're doing background checks. There are many benefits to sealing your record. In some states, a record can be expunged, but not in New York. The only option for New York residents is to get their record sealed.
Pettus-Davis, Epperson and Grier. (2017, March). Reverse Civic and Legal Exclusion for Persons with Criminal Charges and Convictions: A Policy Action to Promote Smart Decarceration. Retrieved from Grand Challenges for Social Work:
In the world of forensic science, exoneration holds a very crucial role. In cases where a person has been convicted of a crime and needs to be proven innocent, exoneration plays a key part. It is what helps the court to decide in a just manner whether the crime was committed by that person or not. Exoneration is based on DNA evidence and therefore, is the most authentic. The main purpose of exoneration is to help the legal system by allowing innocent people to be discharged of guilty verdicts. Majority of the legal systems are built on such structures that the people responsible for crimes can be identified and penalized. Exoneration removes the burden, charge or responsibility which is being erroneously imposed on someone by the law. On one hand where it finds out about the actual convict, it also helps the innocent.
Although this right is considered fundamental, restrictions have been placed on this right. The main restriction is placed on persons convicted of a felony conviction, all felonies, not just infamous ones. Today on Election Day, as Americans wait in line to cast their vote, over 4.65 million people are denied this most fundamental democratic right because of a past or present felony conviction. It is true that some felons can make bad judgments that are provocative and rebellious and the foundation to further jeopardy. In fact, statistics show the number of times prisoners had been arrested was the best predictor of whether they would commit more crimes after being released and how quickly they would return to their criminal ways....
Within the Black/African American community today, there is a lot of discussion about the prison system, and how it seems as if it is modern day slavery. One example of this is felon disenfranchisement, which is when a person has become ineligible to vote because of a criminal conviction, regardless of if they have served their sentence. African Americans are not the only people affected by this, but being that African Americans make up most of the prison population, it is understood why this is a big deal in the community. To many, felon disenfranchisement brings up feelings of the past when African Americans were considered equal, but when it came to things such as voting, it was rarely afforded to them. However, people both inside and outside
Every year, innocent people are given prison sentences to crimes they did not commit. Statistics are kept by the Criminal Justice Department on the number of wrongful convictions but according to research, it has been estimated to 5% of the cases tried have resulted in a false conviction. Reasons due to false convictions are misidentification from a witness, false confessions, forensic mistakes, DNA testing, coercion, and more. A number of ideas will be argued as possible solutions to help lower the number of wrongful convictions that are given the innocent people who fall trapped to this system. A study by Barry Scheck [2008] on forensic evidence revealed that not more than 20% of the felony cases involved biological evidence [Scheck, 2008, p.4]. Although the number seems low, the proper handling and testing of biological evidence can offer some hope to an innocent suspect. Other variables that lead to wrongful convictions are false statements and confessions. Which that can be taken from suspects through questionable actions of methods. [Leo, Ofshe, 1998] or that pooled from jailhouse snitched, informants, or cooperators. Many people believe that the use of evidence has been corrupted in the system while others believe that cases where evidence is used are deviations from the typical process. “Eyewitness misidentifications were a factor in over 70% of wrongful convictions.” The knowledge that a free citizen could be unreasonably sentenced to prison or executed by the State is totally opposed the thought of shrewd treatment likely in the United States. DNA is the leading cause to wrongful convictions. If the problem is to be talked and fixed, it must first be understood; not as it is seen, but as it is. It is difficult to express...
I am applying to the Master of Arts program in Criminal Justice at Lewis University, because I want to further my education in this field of study. The Criminal Justice field is changing day by day. I must admit that it is somewhat by accident that I find myself driven towards the field of Criminal Justice. I have always enjoyed watching and reading news article on what is going on with my city. When I was young, I thought I was going to major in Computer Science in Undergrad, but quickly that was changed. My advisor at College of DuPage told me to take a class in Criminal Justice, which I did, that could have been the best decision for me. I became quickly became fascinated with a growing interest in Criminal justice. When I transfer to Lewis University my Knowledge of the field grew, and so did my curiosity about how much I can do with this degree.
The term criminal desistance refers to when offenders desist, or stop, committing crime. Desistance from crime exists when an individual has an absence of criminal behavior in their lives for a sustained period of time. By studying desistance, a better understanding of what causes individuals to commit crime is created; as well as, a better understanding as to why certain individuals discontinue their lives of crime. The criminal justice field often encompasses, serving justice by locking people up and keeping the “bad guys” away from the general public. Little thought was given as to what can be done in order to help prevent people from committing crime, until more recent years. Most criminological theories attempt to explain why people commit
An “alternative to incarceration” is when an offender is not placed in prison and is given another alternative to serve their time and pay restitution for their crimes, such as probation, community service, community correctional centers, ankle monitoring, and community service programs to improve their lives. Our Federal, state and local government is looking for ways to keep non- violent offenders out of jail, by providing alternative programs for them, by keeping them accountable for their crimes and at the same time keeping our communities safe by not putting them back into society if they are not rehabilitated. The Obama Administration is on board to help find these alternative programs, which in turn will bring cost down. Alternatives to prison is crucial for women in general, because most of these women are in jail for committing crimes in order to provide for their children, for example, prostitution, and stealing to put food on the table.
By the end of Dostoyesky’s Crime and Punishment, the reader is no longer under the illusion of the possible existence of “extraordinary” men. For an open-minded reader, and even perhaps the closed-minded ones too, the book is a journey through Raskolnikov’s proposed theory on crime. It is a theory based on the ideas that had “been printed and read a thousand times”(313) by both Hegel and Nietzsche. Hegel, a German philosopher, influenced Dostoyesky with his utilitarian emphasis on the ends rather than the means whereby a superman existed as one that stood above the ordinary man, but worked for the benefit of all mankind. Nietsche’s more selfish philosophy focused on the rights to power which allowed one to act in a Hegelian manner. In committing his crime, Raskolnikov experienced the ultimate punishment as he realized that his existence was not that of the “extraordinary” man presented in his theory. In chapter five of part three in Crime and Punishment, this theory is outlined by its creator, Raskolnikov. Such an innovative theory would clearly have placed him in the “extraordinary” category, but when he fails to meet its standards, by submitting to the common law through his confession, the theory crumbles right before the reader’s eyes.
This scenario is played out every single minute in the United States. Potentially highly qualified individuals are immediately dismissed because of their past mistakes. That is why it is imperative for the United States Legislature to pass a law that would prohibit potential employers from asking an applicant about their convictions until after the initial application process.