Abstract

Objective: to analyze the collateral consequences of conviction in criminal law (by the example of the United States ofAmerica).Methods: dialectical approach to the cognition of social phenomena, allowing to analyze them in the historical development and functioning in the context of a set of objective and subjective factors, which determined the choice of the following research methods: formal-logical, comparative-legal, and sociological.Results: for many people convicted of crime, the greatest effect will not be imprisonment, but being marked as a criminal and subjected to collateral consequences. Consequences can include loss of civil rights, public benefits, and ineligibility for employment, licenses, and permits. The United States, the 50 states, and their agencies and subdivisions impose collateral consequences - often applicable for life - based on convictions from any jurisdiction. Collateral consequences are so numerous and scattered as to be virtually uncountable. In recent years, the American Law Institute, American Bar Association, and Uniform Law Commission all have proposed reforms. Collateral consequences should be: (1) collected and published, so that defendants, lawyers, judges and policymakers can know what they are; (2) incorporated into counselling, plea bargaining, sentencing and other aspects of the criminal process; (3) subject to relief so that individuals can pursue law-abiding lives, and regain equal status; and (4) limited to those that evidence shows reasonably promote public safety.Scientific novelty: for the first time, the work substantiates the necessity to rationalize and reform the collateral consequences of conviction. The collateral consequences should be integrated into the criminal justice policy process in general, and into the process of disposition of each case. It is proposed to publish the National Inventory of Collateral Consequences of Conviction so that any individual can learn the legal implications of a conviction under the law of each jurisdiction. At the same time, defense attorneys should inform clients of collateral consequences, judges should inform defendants of applicable collateral consequences at plea and sentencing, prosecutors should take collateral consequences into account in charging and plea bargaining. It is proved that Congress and state legislatures should develop mechanisms to relieve individual collateral consequences to facilitate an individual’s employment and rehabilitation.Practical significance: the main provisions and conclusions can be used in scientific and educational activities for the development of the issues related to collateral consequences of conviction in criminal law.

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