This final chapter demonstrates how the State can fulfil its three fiduciary duties to end homelessness, maintain public property’s shared value, and legitimize laws that govern public space. This chapter unpacks each of these duties and explains their substantive content. Drawing on existing research, this chapter provides concrete proposals for how the State can respect each of its three fiduciary obligations related to homelessness and public property.

This chapter demonstrates how the punishments associated with laws that govern public property entrench individuals in homelessness, such that they will continue to experience non-egalitarian coercion and domination. It explores how these laws result in fines, fees, and surcharges that can result in significant criminal justice debt. It shows how punishments can result in collateral consequences that limit employment prospects and access to housing.

This volume, part of the Feminist Judgment Series, shows how feminist legal theory along with critical race theory and intersectional modes of critique might transform immigration law. Here, a diverse collection of scholars and lawyers bring critical feminist, race and intersectional insights to Supreme Court opinions that deal with the source of the power to regulate immigration, state and local regulation of immigration, citizenship law, racial discrimination, employment law, access to public education, the rights of criminal defendants, the detention of noncitizens, and more. Feminist reasoning values the perspectives of outsiders, exposes the deep-rooted bias in the legal opinions of courts, and illuminates the effects of ostensibly neutral policies that create and maintain oppression and hierarchy. One by one, the chapters in this book reimagine the norms that drive immigration policies and practices. In place of discrimination and subordination, the authors here demand welcome and equality. Where current law omits the voice and stories of noncitizens, the authors here center their lives and experiences. Collectively, they reveal how a feminist vision of immigration law could center a commitment to equality and justice and foster a country where diverse newcomers readily flourish with dignity.

Many animal lawyers react to critiques of carceral animal law by contending that punishment is no longer a priority, and that there are only but a handful of anecdotes about over-charging. One might listen to animal lawyers who support criminal interventions and conclude that incarceration is no longer a priority. But a critique of incarceration alone was never the point, and such a framing would actually let the movement off too easy. Prosecutions that do not result in sentences of imprisonment, under this logic, are examples of the merciful progression of animal law. This chapter focuses attention on the other-than-incarceration efforts that might be incorrectly conflated with leniency and just outcomes by animal advocates. Recognizing that for many of our readers, it will sound ridiculous to suggest that police interventions that do not lead to incarceration can be an over-reaction to animal crimes. Thus, a substantial portion of the chapter is comprised of short vignettes that describe the role of police in animal protection efforts that do not involve incarceration. These examples are not exhaustive, but they provide a foundation for thinking about how policing and prosecution that does not result in incarceration or even a conviction can be affirmatively bad for animals.

Chapter 9 examines the consequences of subjecting children to SORN laws. It argues that registration and notification laws are uniquely ineffective and harmful when applied to children. The chapter begins with a history of how SORN laws came to regulate juvenile sexual misconduct. In response to moral panics around “sexual predators” and “juvenile super-predators,” policymakers explicitly expanded the scope of SORN laws to cover children adjudicated delinquent of sex offenses. The chapter next evaluates the effects of these laws on juvenile offending, particularly recidivism. Contrary to the myths underlying their enactment, children found to have engaged in sexual misconduct very rarely reoffend. Further, the evidence is unanimous that SORN laws do not reduce recidivism. The chapter then compiles evidence on the many deleterious effects SORN laws produce when they are applied to children. Studies of providers and children who are registrants demonstrate that SORN laws increase substantially the risk of suicide and sexual victimization. Furthermore, SORN laws are associated with high rates of plea bargaining among children. In light of these failures and dangerous effects, the application of SORN to children should be abandoned.

Chapter 6 explores the broad range of ancillary consequences that stem from registration and notification laws. These consequences disrupt nearly every facet of daily life for registrants, their families, and their communities. The chapter begins with the most acutely felt consequences – the difficulty registrants experience finding jobs and housing. Since locating employment and housing is critical to successful reentry, the negative effects of SORN laws on both inhibit registrants’ ability to reintegrate. These difficulties have also led to the spatial clustering (“ghettoization”) of registrants. Other consequences include increased vigilantism by the public and decreased property values near registrant residences. All these consequences may lead to negative secondary effects on nonsexual criminal behavior and mental health outcomes, and in turn may affect the wellbeing of the family members of registrants and the overall community. Importantly, these wide-ranging consequences may also have hydraulic effects on charging and reporting decisions. Ultimately, this chapter concludes that SORN laws’ wide-reaching deleterious effects, and their high implementation costs, outweigh their supposed benefits. As a result, it maintains that SORN laws must be tailored to higher-risk offenders and that community notification must be curtailed.