Carolyn Ramsey

Professor of Law
Criminal Law; Criminal Procedure--Investigative Phase;
Domestic Violence; Legal History; Gender and Criminal Justice;
Gender, Law, and Public Policy

401 UCB
2450 Kittredge Loop Drive
Wolf Law Building
Boulder, CO  80309-0401
Office: 431
Phone: (303) 735-5028
E-mail: carolyn.ramsey@colorado.edu

Curriculum Vitae:  View (PDF format)

Educational Background:
B.A.   University of California      summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa
M.A.   Stanford University     
J.D.   Stanford Law School      with Distinction
Bio:
Carolyn Ramsey teaches courses in criminal law, criminal procedure, domestic violence, gender issues, and legal history. She graduated from Stanford Law School with Distinction and clerked for Chief Judge Marilyn Hall Patel of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California and Judge Paul J. Kelly, Jr., of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. In addition to her law degree, Professor Ramsey received graduate training as a social historian at Stanford University. This background stimulates her interest in the relationship between law and social norms. She publishes widely on historical and modern aspects of criminal law, criminal procedure, and gender issues and is writing a book about the history of criminal justice responses to intimate-partner violence. She gave the 37th Annual Austin W. Scott, Jr., Lecture on "Intimate-Partner Violence and State Intervention: A New Historical Perspective." She is a past recipient of the Jules Milstein Faculty Scholarship Award for excellence in published writing and the 2018 Gilbert Goldstein Research Fellowship to support her work on domestic abuse. Beyond her academic achievements, Professor Ramsey has served as the Reporter for the Tenth Circuit Criminal Pattern Jury Instructions Committee. She also advises students about applying for judicial clerkships and engages in a variety of national and University service.

Forthcoming

HOUSES OF PAIN: DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND LEGAL INTERVENTION IN THE UNITED STATES, 1870-1994, (working title) (Cambridge Univ. Press, forthcoming).

Articles

Against Domestic Violence: Public and Private Prosecution of Batterers, Cal. L. Rev. Cir. (2022) (symposium).
Women's Votes, Women's Voices, and the Limits of Criminal Justice Reform, 1911-1950, 92 Univ. Colo. L. Rev. 829 (2021).
Firearms in the Family, 78 Ohio St. L. J. 1257 (2017) (lead article).
The Stereotyped Offender: Domestic Violence and the Failure of Intervention, 120 Penn. St. L. Rev. 337 (2015) (lead article).
The Exit Myth: Family Law, Gender Roles, and Changing Attitudes Toward Female Victims of Domestic Violence, 20 Michigan Journal of Gender & Law 1 (2013) (lead article), reprinted in Tracy A. Thomas (ed.), Women and the Law (Thomson Reuters, 2014).
A Diva Defends Herself: Gender and Domestic Violence in an Early Twentieth-Century Headline Trial, 55 Saint Louis University Law Journal 1347 (2011) (invited symposium).
Domestic Violence and State Intervention in the American West and Australia, 1860-1930, 86 Indiana Law Journal 185 (2011).
Provoking Change: Comparative Insights on Feminist Homicide Law Reform, 100 Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 33 (2010).
In the Sweat Box: A Historical Perspective on the Detention of Material Witnesses, 6 Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law 681 (2009) (peer refereed).
Restructuring the Debate Over Fetal Homicide Laws, 67 Ohio State L. J. 721 (2006) (lead article).
Intimate Homicide: Gender and Crime Control, 1880-1920, 77 Univ. Colo. L. Rev. 101 (2006).
Homicide on Holiday: Prosecutorial Discretion, Popular Culture, and the Boundaries of the Criminal Law, 54 Hastings L. J. 1641 (2003).
The Discretionary Power of "Public" Prosecutors in Historical Perspective, 39 American Criminal Law Review 1309 (2002) (lead article).

Other Publications

Commentary, People v. Berry, FEMINIST JUDGMENTS: REWRITTEN CRIMINAL LAW OPINIONS, (Bennett I. Capers, Sarah Deer, and Corey Yung, eds., Cambridge Univ. Press, 2023).
Criminal Law: United States Law, in Oxford International Encyclopedia of Legal History (Stanley Katz et al. eds.) New York: Oxford University Press, (2009) (peer refereed).
Commentary: Was the Bill of Rights Irrelevant to Nineteenth-Century State Criminal Procedure?, 18 J. Contemp. Legal Issues 501 (2009) (peer refereed) (invited symposium).
Public Responses to Intimate Violence: A Glance at the Past, 121 Public Health Reports 460 (2006) (peer refereed).

Book Reviews

Review of David Lemmings, Crime, Courtrooms and the Public Sphere in Britain, 1700-1850, Criminal Law & Criminal Justice Books website (January 2014) (maintained by Rutgers School of Law-Newark and Rutgers School of Criminal Justice) (peer refereed).
Review of Mike McConville and Chester L. Mirsky, Jury Trials and Plea Bargaining: A True History, 25 Law & History Rev. 446 (2007) (peer refereed).

Courses:

Fall 2025 Criminal Procedure: Investigative Phase LAWS 6045-801
Spring 2025 Criminal Law LAWS 5503-802
Spring 2025 Domestic Violence LAWS 7513-801
Fall 2024 Criminal Procedure: Investigative Phase LAWS 6045-801
Fall 2023 Seminar: Gender and Criminal Justice LAWS 8455-801
Spring 2023 Criminal Law LAWS 5503-803
Spring 2023 Domestic Violence LAWS 7513-801
Fall 2022 Seminar: Gender and Criminal Justice LAWS 8455-801
Spring 2021 Criminal Law LAWS 5503-803
Spring 2021 Seminar: Gender and Criminal Justice LAWS 8455-801
Fall 2020 Domestic Violence LAWS 7513-801
Spring 2020 Criminal Law LAWS 5503-804
Spring 2020 Seminar: Gender and Criminal Justice LAWS 8455-801
Fall 2019 Domestic Violence LAWS 7513-801
Spring 2019 Criminal Law LAWS 5503-802
Spring 2019 Seminar: Gender and Criminal Justice LAWS 8455-801
Spring 2018 Criminal Law LAWS 5503-802
Spring 2018 Criminal Procedure: Investigative Phase LAWS 6045-001
Spring 2017 Criminal Law LAWS 5503-802
Spring 2017 Seminar: Gender and Criminal Justice LAWS 8455-001
Fall 2016 Criminal Procedure: Investigative Phase LAWS 6045-001
Spring 2016 Criminal Law LAWS 5503-801
Spring 2016 Seminar: Gender and Criminal Justice LAWS 8455-001
Fall 2015 Domestic Violence LAWS 7513-001
Spring 2015 Criminal Law LAWS 5503-802
Spring 2015 Seminar: Gender and Criminal Justice LAWS 8455-001
Fall 2014 Criminal Procedure: Investigative Phase LAWS 6045-001
Fall 2013 Domestic Violence LAWS 7513-001
Spring 2013 Criminal Law LAWS 5503-803
Spring 2013 Seminar: Gender, Law, and Public Policy LAWS 8765-001
Fall 2012 Criminal Procedure: Investigative Phase LAWS 6045-001



Our Vision

With our roots in Colorado and a global outlook, we are ...

a supportive and diverse educational and scholarly community in a place that inspires vigorous pursuit of ideas, critical analysis, contemplation, and civic engagement to advance knowledge about the law in an open, just society.

Our Mission

To be an outstanding public law school that: provides students with a state-of-the-art legal education and prepares them to serve wisely and with professionalism; advances the development of knowledge through scholarship, testing of new ideas, and challenges to the status quo; and serves as a vehicle and catalyst for meaningful public service, all of which deliver high value to our students and have positive impacts?both locally and globally?on the legal profession and society.