In this response to Erik Luna and Paul Cassell's article, Mandatory Minimalism, 32 Cardozo L. Rev. 1 (2010), I argue that the authors' theory of federal crime legislation is misplaced – in the literal sense that it is directed to the wrong place. A minimalist strategy of finding the available...

In a series of studies involving over six hundred trial judges in three countries, we demonstrate that trial judges' civil damage awards and criminal sentences are subject to influences that make them erratic. We found that the presence of misleading numeric reference points (or “anchors”)...

A deterrence model with comparative static analyses is used to study efficient sentences when trials are not immediate. Depending on relative costs and the disutility of jail and prison, as well as the foresight of potential criminals, efficient credit for presentence incarceration ranges from...