WASHINGTON - A decision this week by a major Texas school district to suspend operations at its truancy court was welcomed by juvenile justice advocates, who have long pushed for an end the state's controversial policy of criminalizing students for having too many unexcused absences.
The legislation would have criminalized, for example, a person who forwarded to a friend the hacked nude photos of Jennifer Lawrence after they'd been posted online.
Homosexuality has been criminalized for most of the last century there, and head of state Ramzan Kadyrov has imposed harsh Islamic religious law, endorsing family "honor killings" of women, for example.
They would have wiped the records clean of all people who have been unjustly criminalized for a plant that we are all pretty much in agreement was wrong to prohibit in the first place.
Opponents warned that it also would have criminalized women who have abortions, without exception for rape or incest.
"They were criminalized for just being themselves, they were criticized for wearing pants, their lives have been threatened," Al-Karib said.
A first and familiar suggestion, implicit in the way I have talked throughout of criminalizing 'conduct', is that 'mere thought' should not be criminalized: for thought is private; only action or conduct is public.
Although it has increased the availability of resources to diminish maternal mortality, access to therapeutic abortions was criminalized for the first time in the last 100 years.
As a bonus, when a government has you criminalized, they then have a permanent, excellent tool for controlling you.
People should not be criminalized for poverty.
