The Public Health Value of Opioid Litigation
Jul 31, 2020
Justice Policy Publications
Publications from the RAND Justice Policy program cover topics related to public safety and the performance of the U.S. criminal justice system for federal law enforcement and other agencies, police departments, and other clients.
RAND Justice Policy also conducts research on topics related to civil justice through the RAND Institute of Civil Justice (ICJ).
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RAND Justice Policy publications are categorized in the following issue areas; some publications are cross-listed in multiple categories:
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The Public Health Value of Opioid Litigation July 31, 2020
This article proceeds in three parts: discussions of the general goals and role of public health tort litigation, the demonstrated and potential value of opioid litigation to achieve public health goals, and a conclusion.
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Autonomous Road Vehicles and Law Enforcement: Identifying High-Priority Needs for Law Enforcement Interactions With Autonomous Vehicles Within the Next Five Years July 16, 2020
Autonomous vehicles promise many benefits, but questions remain about how law enforcement officers will interact with them. Officers likely will encounter new challenges related to technology, procedures, and constitutional authority. A panel of experts identified ways to address these challenges.
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Research in Brief: Comprehensive Suicide Prevention in Law Enforcement July 14, 2020
Any institution-from workplaces to schools to correctional settings to law enforcement agencies-seeking to prevent suicide must take a comprehensive approach. Science suggests that there are five components that define what such an approach looks like.
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Costs of Responding to Crime: Police, Court, and Legal Services July 1, 2020
How much taxpayer money is spent on police, courts, and legal services to respond to crime? RAND researchers provide estimated costs by crime type and by state in a new tool. The tool includes a map that allows users to visualize the differences in costs across the United States. Users can download parts of the data or the full data set in a variety of formats.
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Toolkit for Weighting and Analysis of Nonequivalent Groups: A Tutorial on the TWANG Shiny App for Two Treatments June 30, 2020
This tutorial describes how to use a menu-driven Shiny app based on the Toolkit for Weighting and Analysis of Nonequivalent Groups (TWANG) R package. It can be used to estimate propensity score weights and related treatment effects for comparing two treatment groups when using observational data. The tutorial demonstrates use of the Shiny app through an illustrative example and explains key inputs and outputs of the TWANG Shiny app.
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Changes in Firearm Mortality Following the Implementation of State Laws Regulating Firearm Access and Use June 26, 2020
Laws that regulate children's access to firearms, the carrying of a concealed firearm, and the use of a firearm in self-defense, are associated with an 11% decrease in the firearms-related death rate.
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Countering Technology-Facilitated Abuse: Criminal Justice Strategies for Combating Nonconsensual Pornography, Sextortion, Doxing, and Swatting June 18, 2020
The proliferation of online platforms that enable users to interact virtually and often anonymously has given rise to new methods of perpetrating criminal behaviors that compromise victims' privacy and safety. These types of acts can involve the use or distribution of the victim's personal information, which compromises the victim's privacy and poses a threat to their safety. A panel of experts identified ways to address this challenge.
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Understanding and Using Research on Gun Policy in America: An Interdisciplinary Unit Plan Based on RAND's Gun Policy in America Website, Suggested Grades 10–12 June 11, 2020
As part of the Gun Policy in America initiative, RAND researchers developed a unit plan centered on the evidence-based resources on the project website. The unit, recommended for grades 10–12, is designed to help high school educators and students — who are increasingly interested in joining the conversation about gun policy and mobilized to respond to gun violence — access the high-quality research materials on the website.
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Consensus Guidelines and State Policies: The Gap Between Principle and Practice at the Intersection of Substance Use and Pregnancy June 3, 2020
We review the change over time in state-level policy environments around substance use in pregnancy and contrast the policy response with the principles and guidance from professional societies and federal agencies.
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Countering Drug-Impaired Driving: Addressing the Complexities of Gathering and Presenting Evidence in Drug-Impaired Driving Cases May 7, 2020
Driving under the influence of drugs (DUID) is a serious and growing threat to public safety. Addressing DUID cases involves various challenges, including identifying and characterizing impairment and presenting complex evidence in court. A panel of experts from law enforcement, forensic toxicology, the research community, and government agencies discussed the challenges related to DUID cases and identified ways to overcome these obstacles.