NCJ Number
173448
Journal
Columbia Journal of Law and Social Problems Volume: 29 Issue: 2 Dated: Winter 1996 Pages: 293-335
Date Published
1996
Length
43 pages
Annotation
This analysis of homelessness, municipal ordinances against sleeping in public places, and the Robinson Doctrine concludes that the Robinson Doctrine should apply to prohibit arrests of homeless persons for public sleeping in cities with inadequate shelter space.
Abstract
At least 39 cities have initiated or continued policies that criminalize activities associated with homelessness. These prohibitions extend to the performance in public places of even basic human activities such as sleeping. Advocates for the homeless have argued that anti-sleeping ordinances violate the Eighth Amendment's Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause by effectively criminalizing the status of being homeless. Voiding a law on the ground that it criminalizes status is considered an application of the Robinson Doctrine. This doctrine emerged in the 1962 United States Supreme Court decision in Robinson v. California, which held a California law to be cruel and unusual punishment because it penalized narcotics addicts for their status. Analysis of the issue of homelessness and the necessity for sleep indicates that the Robinson Doctrine is a constitutionally sound means to challenge laws that label and punish not only status but also involuntary actions related to such status. Notes