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Criminal Law

Journal Article

Does Mens Rea Matter?

Does mens rea matter to the criminal legal system? Our study addresses this question by performing the first-ever empirical analysis of a culpable mental state's impact on administration of a criminal statute.

Mar 23, 2022
Journal Article

Sentencing Scorecards: Reducing Racial Disparities in Prison Sentences at Their Source

Scorecards are a common tool for public policy decisionmaking, but none highlight racial disparities in incarceration. We constructed county-level scorecards for racial disparities in incarceration rates for the NY State Permanent Commission on Sentencing.

Oct 21, 2020
News Release

Punishing Pregnant Women for Substance Use Is Linked to Higher Rates of Newborns Experiencing Opioid Withdrawal

State policies that impose punitive action against pregnant women who use illicit substances are associated with higher rates of infants being born with opioid withdrawal. This suggests that policymakers should instead focus on public health approaches that bolster prevention and expand access to treatment.

Nov 13, 2019
Tool

Forensic DNA Surveillance Tool

This tool shows criminal justice policymakers how state policies affect the size and racial composition of forensic DNA databases. Users can view current state policies or change inputs and assumptions to see how database composition is impacted.

Aug 12, 2019
Report

Ethics in Scientific Research

An analysis of how ethics are created, monitored, and enforced finds which ethical principles are common across scientific disciplines, how these ethics might vary geographically, and how emerging topics are shaping future ethics.

Jun 5, 2019
Report

Tool Created to Help Multinational Companies Assess Risk of Bribery When Doing Business in Foreign Countries

Corruption can hinder global business investment — particularly in emerging markets — but multinational companies often have difficulty assessing the business bribery risk in other countries. A new tool, called the TRACE Matrix, can help.

May 13, 2019
Journal Article

The Effects of Holistic Defense on Criminal Justice Outcomes

Using administrative data covering over half a million cases and a quasi-experimental research design, we estimate the causal effect of holistic defense on case outcomes and future offending.

Jan 29, 2019
Report

Alcohol and international football tournaments

This case study reviews the available evidence on the connection between alcohol and international football.

Dec 11, 2018
Commentary

The Rules of the Game: Reducing Antisocial Behavior and Violence at Football Events

Violent behavior at football matches has garnered international media attention for decades even though the vast majority of matches pass without any significant violent incidents. Despite the widespread attention toward harmful behaviors, there is limited evidence on the effectiveness of current practices targeting negative fan behavior.

Aug 14, 2018
Report

Violent and Antisocial Behaviour at Football Events: Review of interventions

This report presents the findings of a study on approaches that have been taken to prevent and respond to antisocial and violent behaviours among football fans, and the extent to which these approaches proved effective.

Jul 23, 2018
Report

Why Do Some Football Fans Engage in Violent and Antisocial Behavior?

Negative behavior by fans at football (soccer) matches—such as verbal abuse, destruction of property, and assault—has garnered international media attention for decades. No single factor is responsible, but alcohol, sporting rivalries, and socio-political factors play a role.

Jul 23, 2018
Journal Article

NIJ's Multisite Evaluation of Prosecutor-Led Diversion Programs: Strategies, Impacts, and Cost-Effectiveness

This study examines 16 prosecutor-led diversion programs in 11 jurisdictions across the country, and conducts impact evaluations of five programs and cost evaluations of four programs.

May 17, 2018
Journal Article

Prosecutor-Led Pretrial Diversion: Case Studies in Eleven Jurisdictions

The primary focus of this study is to provide a national portrait of prosecutor-led diversion through case studies of the goals, history, policies, and practices of diversion programs implemented in 11 prosecutors' offices.

May 17, 2018
Journal Article

Think Mass Shootings Are Terrorism? Careful What You Wish For

Those arguing America needs a new domestic terrorism law haven't thought things through.

Jan 4, 2018
Report

Helping Law Enforcement Use Data from Mobile Applications: A Guide to the Prototype Mobile Information and Knowledge Ecosystem (MIKE) Tool

Mobile devices automatically and unobtrusively collect data about their users. This report documents a prototype tool created to help interested stakeholders better understand this mobile app ecosystem, and its use by law enforcement.

Apr 28, 2017
Journal Article

Policing, Boundaries and the State: The Changing Landscape of Sovereignty and Security

This study examines institutional rearrangements of policing, boundaries and the state.

Dec 29, 2015
Journal Article

Starting from the End: A Plea for Focusing on the Consequences of Crime

Since its institutionalization as an autonomous discipline in the late 19th century, criminology's main project has been identifying the causes of crime.

Dec 29, 2015
Report

Electronic Surveillance of Mobile Devices for Law Enforcement

Mobile phones collect and retain enormous amounts of information that can be useful in criminal investigations. However, state and local law enforcement face substantial challenges when accessing these data.

Dec 10, 2015
Report

The Potential of Blind Collaborative Justice: Testing the Impact of Expert Blinding and Consensus Building on the Validity of Forensic Testimony

RAND researchers investigated two potential contributors to biased testimony within adversarial litigation involving forensic evidence: experts' knowledge of which side they were testifying for, and lack of input from relevant scientific communities.

Aug 7, 2015
Tool

Interactive Tool for Ranking Digital Evidence Needs

This tool presents the prioritized needs related to digital evidence collection, management, analysis, and use and allows the user to see how their priorities would change when the importance of different digital evidence objectives are changed.

Apr 20, 2015

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