Gabriel J. Chin
University of California, Davis
School of Law
Criminal Justice’s Collateral Consequences
What is really at stake in criminal cases? Criminal charges sometimes result in imprisonment or even execution, to be sure, but the vast majority of the 75 million Americans with a criminal record spend most of their lives in free society. The major effect of a criminal conviction is to subject individuals to collateral consequences—the tens of thousands of statutes, regulations, ordinances, and policies imposed by all levels of government curtailing civil rights, employment, licenses and permits, and other public benefits, often for life. This lecture will explore how the legal system regulates collateral consequences—spoiler alert: hardly at all—and how it might do better in the future.