Abstract
The scholarship examining constitutional rights is voluminous but much of this work is unapproachable to those without a legal background. The extant literature tends to be written by and for an academic audience (particularly legal scholars) and tends to offer few detailed accounts as context. In Seven Deadly Sins, Professors Lynch, Sween, Denniston, and Bayley (Department of Criminal Justice, Weber State University) allow students from diverse academic backgrounds to take an intellectual journey through one of the most critical issues in legal scholarship. They accomplish this largely through the use of a writing style that is both easily approachable and immensely engaging. Lynch et al. offer the reader an in-depth look at how courts protect the constitutional rights of citizens who are exposed to the criminal justice system. The authors pay particular attention to what they refer to as the seven deadly constitutional sins: intolerance, subterfuge, intrusiveness, cruelty, favoritism, craftiness, and subservience to authority.
In Seven Deadly Sins, the authors expose the reader to important tensions and nuances within the U.S. legal system. The book is presented in a straightforward pattern that adds to the overall readability of the text. Each of the seven “sins” is outlined in their own chapter. In each of these chapters, the authors establish the ways in which the constitution strives to protect against violating a particular legal virtue (i.e., avoiding the “sin”) and how specific, legal case decisions have reinforced and clarified these constitutional rights. After carefully laying out the legal doctrine on each of these core values enshrined in the constitution and the corresponding case law in a single chapter, the authors follow with a chapter that presents a set of case studies in the area of policing and corrections that serve to illustrate the complexities associated with protecting the legal virtue being considered. The reader soon realizes that few clear lines exist in the determination of our constitutional rights. Rather, these rights have expansive gray areas that appellate courts attempt to negotiate and clarify, often by establishing decision rules for lower courts to adhere to.
The first chapter presents a detailed description of the constitution’s protection of unpopular ideas or actions (i.e., tolerance). After briefly describing protections against intolerance found in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the chapter carefully outlines historical case law that provides the boundaries of what is legally protected speech, media, religion, and assembly. The second chapter builds on the first by presenting detailed case studies of how law enforcement and corrections attempt to negotiate individual rights protecting against intolerance. The chapter deals with timely and important issues such as how prisons process and house transgender inmates, the religious rights of inmates, and appropriate treatment of inmates by prison guards. Following the same pattern, the third and fourth chapters deal with the constitution’s requirement that officials avoid subterfuge (i.e., concealment, deception, and nonaccountability). After outlining important case law establishing legal protections from the use of subterfuge by law enforcement (e.g., requirements that officers inform citizens of their rights—Miranda) and correctional workers (e.g., use of jailhouse lawyers), and the courts (e.g., an open jury selection process), the authors then present case studies that are useful in identifying the boundaries placed on the ability of law enforcement to use subterfuge. The fifth and sixth chapters deal with constitutional protections against government intrusiveness. The chapters not only explore well-established protections against self-incrimination and unreasonable searches but also deal with more current issues such as law enforcement’s right to search digital devices such as cell phones, the use of solitary confinement, and strip searches. Chapters 7 and 8 approach the constitutional limits placed on law enforcement and correctional workers’ use of trickery and craftiness to catch potential wrongdoers. In particular, the authors focus on the limits of entrapment and the manipulation of suspects during interrogations. Two chapters deal with avoiding favoritism, ensuring that all have equal protection under the law, two other chapters explore cruelty (police use of force and the death penalty are given particular attention) and another two examine subservience to the government (right to bear arms and burden of proof placed on the state are discussed here). The final chapter discusses important legal cases that have simply failed to uphold the rights of people due to poor legal decisions.
This highly informative book introduces the reader to a broad set of legal principles in an approachable, well-organized, and well-written manner that readers from diverse disciplinary backgrounds and with varying degrees of academic experience will appreciate and learn from. Students of criminology, criminal justice, sociology, history, punishment, and the law will find this book to be insightful, intriguing, and an enjoyable resource on fundamental constitutional rights and the criminal justice system. Instructors will be able to rely on Seven Deadly Sins either as the primary text (likely in lower level undergraduate courses in the area) or as a supplement to a general text on the criminal justice system in more advanced undergraduate classes or early graduate courses. They will appreciate the many discussion question placed throughout the text that can be used to stimulate class discussion about the topic. Outside of the classroom, a wide range of practitioners would benefit from reading this book including law enforcement and prison officials. Policy makers and the general public interested in their constitutional rights could also gain a great deal of insight about how we must continually strive to defend the legal virtues enshrined in the U.S. Constitution.