Research SummaryAs a result of the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, state lawmakers can and have enacted abortion restrictions, including criminal penalties targeting those who seek, provide, or assist with abortion. Given the current legal landscape, it is imperative to assess public opinion regarding the endorsement of punishments for illegal

Research SummaryWe use novel, fine‐grained data that covers the entire penal process from arrest to final case disposition, spanning various agencies, including the police department, prosecutor's office, and courts. We exploit sharp changes in practices generated by the adoption of two sets of policies in Philadelphia: one instructing prosecutors to decline low‐level offenses, and the other aimed

Research summaryDigital inequality is a barrier for returning citizens. Yet, much remains unknown about the specific issues they encounter. As the world continues to advance technologically, it is important that we understand returning citizens’ access to and use of technology and how it impacts their ability to reintegrate into society. Framed in the Digital Rehabilitation Model, the current study

Research SummaryOn January 31, 2023, British Columbia (BC) launched a 3‐year pilot initiative decriminalizing the possession of up to 2.5 g of select illegal drugs. The policy aims to reduce stigma, address racial disparities in drug law enforcement, and improve police relations with people who use drugs (PWUD). As part of a national evaluation, we conducted qualitative interviews with 100 PWUD who

Research SummaryIn the latter decades of the 20th century, criminology was dominated by models emphasizing the top‐down management of crime. Police departments used their expertise to design policies and relied on their capacity to deploy force to implement them to deter crime. During the early 21st century, the field of criminology recognized the need to pay attention to community views about the

Research SummaryU.S. police agencies are currently facing a serious recruiting and staffing crisis. As a result, many scholars and police leaders are re‐examining police recruiting methods. This study draws on the field of intergroup communication to examine the effects of how police are portrayed in police recruitment materials. Using a randomized survey experiment, we tested the effects of humanizing

Research summaryA long‐standing critique of place‐based crime prevention interventions has been that any reductions in crime are often short‐lived. If researchers do not carry out longer‐duration follow‐ups, we cannot know for sure if the effects of these interventions will persist, decay, or even strengthen. Using a rigorous microsynthetic control design, we evaluated the long‐term impacts of a large‐scale

Research summaryTo address firearm‐related harms in the context of domestic violence (DV), federal law prohibits firearm purchase or possession for respondents in qualifying civil domestic violence protection order (DVPO) cases. Washington state further authorizes courts to order a DVPO respondent (i.e., the person who perpetrated DV) to relinquish firearms in their possession while a DVPO is in effect

Research summaryImplementation science (IS) is an emerging field that is infrequently used in criminology and criminal justice. IS offers criminology and criminal justice new methods to describe and measure innovations, and new and rigorous research designs that include measuring the implementation of innovations, examining implementation or change strategies, and pursuing a myriad of implementation

Research SummaryIn recent years, nutrition researchers have found that ice cream may have as many health benefits as low‐fat milk or yoghurt for those with diabetes or at risk of diabetes. Nonetheless, they have resisted reporting this finding to the media, the public, or other researchers. This observation got me thinking about how preconceived assumptions and biases affect social science in general

Research SummaryUsing firearm transaction and crime gun recovery records from California (2010–2021), we employ machine learning to identify dealers who sold largest number and highest fraction of guns recovered in crimes within 1 year of sale. This short “time‐to‐crime” (TTC) is a well‐established indicator of potential illegal activity by dealers or traffickers. We developed two primary prediction

Research SummaryUsing secondary data from a census of 421 police academies nationwide continuously operating between 2002 and 2018, we assessed continuity and change in core areas of basic law enforcement training (BLET) of new police hires. Despite decades of concerns expressed by national‐level commissions, scholars, and practitioners about the substance of police academy basic training, ours is

Research summaryWe tested the effectiveness of virtual response in policing as an alternative to the traditional physical presence of officers to nonemergency calls for service. We randomly assigned 1059 eligible calls to either virtual or in‐person responses. We estimated the results in terms of waiting time, criminal justice outcomes, cost efficiency, and victim satisfaction based on a representative

Research SummaryPretrial reform is driving criminal justice policy debates across the nation. The In re Humphrey decision required the San Francisco County criminal court to set bail levels based on defendant ability to pay rather than the county bail schedule. Under this new policy, the rate of pretrial detention fell by 11%. We find defendants released pretrial were less likely to be convicted (a

Research summaryFor decades, child welfare scholars and policy makers have been concerned with the strong association between foster care and juvenile justice involvement. Foster care placement may lead to differences in justice system outcomes if youth in foster care face “processing bias”—differentially harsh treatment by agents of the juvenile court. Previous research found that youth in foster

Research SummaryFirearm violence continues to be a leading cause of death in the United States. As alternatives to law enforcement intervention, community‐based violence prevention programs, such as Cure Violence, have become increasingly popular across U.S. cities. This article documents the results of a multiyear, mixed‐methods, quasi‐experimental study of the implementation and impact of Cure Violence

Research summarySituational crime prevention (SCP) is an environmental crime control perspective with enormous practical and policy relevance due to its practitioner‐friendly theoretical approach. This study examines whether SCP interventions reduce incident casualty outcomes in active shooter incidents. We used an inductive, open‐source data set of 555 active shooter and mass public shooting sites

Research summaryThis study provides a rigorous assessment of the public safety benefits of pretrial detention by estimating the criminogenic and punitive effects of spending at least 1 week in pretrial detention across three jail systems in two states. We use a doubly robust difference‐in‐differences design to show that pretrial detention increases the odds for someone to miss a court appearance or

Research SummaryWe examined darknet user discussions on the Dread forum to identify key themes and emerging topics in fraud planning, focusing additionally on elderly victimization. Using the conceptual framework of criminogenic learning to study the process of fraud planning in darknet communities of practice, we analyzed the content of original user posts (n = 818) and comments (n = 1365) collected

Research summaryAlthough society benefits when people with criminal records are employed, employers are reluctant to hire them. Can we diminish this reluctance with direct incentives that reduce the cost of employing record‐holders or that compensate for the associated risk? If so, will the beneficial effects of incentives emerge under traditional hiring, where job applicants disclose criminal history

Research summaryIn 2012, Chicago closed half of its public mental health clinics, which provide services to those in need regardless of their insurance status or ability to pay. Critics of the closures argued that they would result in service shortages and divert untreated patients to the criminal justice system. We explore this claim by examining whether and to what extent the closures increased criminal

Research SummaryThe evaluation literature suggests that focused deterrence strategies are effective in reducing gun violence. However, focused deterrence is notoriously difficult to implement and sustain. The history of focused deterrence implementation failure raises questions about its viability as a gun violence prevention strategy. Stockton, California, implemented focused deterrence three times

Research SummaryTwo perceptions drive interest in finding ways of diverting more 911 calls from police to civilian first responders: (1) police responses can result in inadvertent harm to citizens and (2) many calls to which police respond require services that police often cannot provide. Thus, using other personnel may improve police–citizen relations and strengthen crime fighting by reducing extraneous

Research summaryThe concern of crime in New York City public housing complexes motivated heightened police patrol of buildings and the enforcement of trespass laws. The 2013 federal court settlement of Davis et al. v. City of New York et al. mandated that the New York City Police Department (NYPD) implement a series of reforms, including the deployment of body‐worn cameras (BWCs) on officers, to address

Research SummaryThe average length of jail stays is increasing despite national efforts to reduce these populations. The current study examines variations in lengths of stay, differentiating between short and long pretrial stays. Using data from two large jails in metropolitan jurisdictions, we take an intersectional perspective and model potential differences among race, gender, and residing in a

Research SummaryAlthough federal law prohibits firearm possession by individuals who have been convicted of a disqualifying offense and those who are subject to certain domestic violence protective orders (DVPOs), it does not provide a mechanism for enforcing firearm dispossession. Some states have adopted relinquishment laws to enforce firearm possession restrictions among prohibited persons following

Research SummaryScrutiny over the quality of police work continues to increase, at the same time that a recruitment crisis may hinder policing services. Moreover, this crisis exists despite numerous work incentives for officers, which are potentially competitive salaries, early pensions, and legal protections. Using a sample of 604 undergraduate students—a natural recruiting pool for police agencies—this

Research SummaryBroken windows theory suggests that police can prevent serious crime by addressing social and physical disorder in neighborhoods. In many U.S. cities, recent increases in disorder, fear, and crime have initiated calls for an intensification of disorder policing efforts. Disorder policing programs can be controversial, with evaluations yielding conflicting results. Further, a growing

Research summaryIn recent years, there has been a rise in so‐called “progressive prosecutors” focused on criminal justice reforms. Although there has been considerable debate about the relationship between progressive prosecution policies and crime rates, there has been surprisingly little empirical research on the topic. Building on the limited extant research, we examined whether the inauguration

Research SummaryWe conducted a group randomized‐controlled trial of an internal dashboard system deployed by the Michigan State Police to determine its effectiveness in reducing traffic stop racial disparities. Informed by a difference‐in‐differences design, analyses of traffic stop data from 2019–2022 indicated that the dashboard had no impact on traffic stop racial disparities. Additional analyses

Research summaryWe conducted a systematic review and meta‐analysis examining whether increasing preventive patrol in large areas reduces crime. Our review included experimental and quasi‐experimental studies that focused on areas such as beats, precincts, or entire jurisdictions and that measured a crime outcome either through official data or surveys. We identified 17 studies to include in our review

Research summaryThe primary outcome desired for juvenile delinquency programs is the cessation of delinquent and related problematic behaviors. However, this outcome is almost always pursued by attempting to change intermediate outcomes, such as family functioning, improved mental health, or peer relations. We can conceptualize intermediate outcomes that are related to reduced delinquency as change

Research summaryA growing literature documents the effect of criminal justice contact on inequalities in the labor market. While ample evidence indicates that a criminal record itself imposes considerable disadvantage, the formal legal mechanisms that may contribute to criminal record‐based exclusion have received less empirical attention. The present study examines how one such mechanism—legal requirements

Research summaryLegal representation is a critical right in the criminal legal process, yet it is unclear when representation is guaranteed. Further, many individuals find obtaining legal representation difficult and expensive. The current study is an evaluation of an initial appearance program implemented in St. Louis County, Missouri. This mixed‐methods study focuses on understanding if and how providing

Police brutality is a widespread phenomenon around the world. Particularly gruesome human rights abuses in the course of policing take place in Latin America, the world's most violent region outside war zones. Democratic institutions such as competitive elections, checks and balances, and judicial independence are insufficient to prevent police from abusing their power. What factors explain that police

This study investigated the effect of an expanded police station citation release policy enacted in Washington, DC in March 2020 on eight types of crime: homicide, sex abuse, robbery, assault with a dangerous weapon, burglary, motor vehicle theft, theft from motor vehicles, and other theft. Monthly-level multivariate time series analyses employed data from 2013-2022 and accounted for the relationship

Following high-profile police killings, many U.S. cities banned officers from using chokeholds and other neck restraints. The evidence for such bans, however, is limited. To test whether use-of-force policies prohibiting neck restraints are related to fewer police killings, we use three modeling approaches to analyze 2183 U.S. cities between 2009 and 2021. Police killings were lower in places that

This paper describes Rainier Beach: A Beautiful Safe Place for Youth (ABSPY), a community-led, place-based, data-driven initiative to improve community safety and reduce crime involving young people at hot spots in Seattle, Washington. The ABSPY model puts crime prevention into the hands of the community, compared to traditional problem-solving approaches that may involve community stakeholders but

Juvenile justice agencies are increasing their emphasis on early intervention and prevention services as a growing body of research evinces their effectiveness and cost efficiency. The present study analyzed the relationship between individual risk factors, contextual risk factors, and future juvenile justice involvement for 30,328 Florida youth residing in 3309 census tracts served by prevention programs

We examine the efficacy of the California Fair Chance Act (CFCA) policy—legislative stipulations regarding employers’ hiring of individuals with criminal records—on practices and outcomes in two Southern California counties during 2021. We rely on survey and experiment data with 542 hiring decision makers to investigate employer and personal compliance with the CFCA, whether applicant appeals affect

The increasing presence of armed security personnel in schools has led to concerns about the criminalization of students. While many schools use sworn law enforcement (e.g. school resource officers or SROs), many schools also use security guards who are not sworn law enforcement. Recent policy changes in a number of states and political pressures resulting from acts of mass school violence have led

We apply the microsynthetic control method to evaluate the gun violence prevention effect of gunshot detection technology (GDT) in Kansas City, MO. We measure the influence of GDT on process measures (ballistic evidence collection and gun recoveries) and outcome measures (shots fired calls for service, non-fatal shootings, fatal shootings, and aggravated assaults and robberies committed with a firearm)

European law enforcement agencies have begun to use targeted online ad campaigns to raise cybercrime awareness among at-risk populations. Despite their rapid proliferation, there is little research to support their efficacy and effectiveness. This study uses a quasi-experimental difference-in-differences design to evaluate the effect of seven campaigns deployed in 2021 and 2022 on the volume of (distributed)

We present a comprehensive description of Hydra, the largest darknet marketplace in the world until its shutdown in April 2022. We document the main features of Hydra such as dead-drop delivery, feedback and reputation system, escrow, and dispute resolution. Using data scraped from the platform, we quantitatively examine the scale and the structure of the marketplace. We find that it has been highly

Darknet marketplaces (DNMs) are global digital marketplaces used primarily to buy and sell illicit drugs online. High rates of adulterated substances have contributed to the creation of harm reduction policies by DNM administrators to address growing rates of overdose worldwide. This paper explores the extent to which harm reduction occurs in buyer feedback of Adderall and Oxycodone purchased on AlphaBay

This qualitative interview study examined individual and social aspects in the lives of 15 hackers who started with ethical hacking before the age of 18. We examined what motivated and stimulated them to start with ethical hacking and how and why they continued. Results show that individual aspects, such as an early interest in ICT (Information and Communication Technology), the motivation to make

The current study examined 1055 stolen data products across 40 vendors on the Open and Dark Web to determine whether different product- and vendor-level behaviors predicted vendors’ trustworthiness as reflected in their product price point. Understanding the mechanisms that convey trust in the underground marketplace is crucial as it could help law enforcement target serious actors and disrupt the

This article investigates the contributing factors (or triggers) to a realization of romance fraud victimization, based on 1015 reports lodged with Scamwatch (Australian online reporting portal for fraud) between July 2018 and July 2019 (inclusive). The article examines the free text narrative of each report to propose five discernible trigger categories: further requests for money; characteristics

This study utilized a quantitative analysis of 246 cyberattack incidents reported in the Extremist CyberCrime Database to identify significant predictors of nation-state-sponsored cyberattacks relative to those performed by non-nation-state-sponsored ideological actors. Clarke and Newman's Situational Crime Prevention framework for terrorism was used to identify differential opportunities to successfully

Crackdowns are law enforcement strategies based on the principles of deterrence theory, which stipulates that offenders are rational actors who will refrain from crime if perceived risks are higher than perceived benefits. Studies have shown that the effects of police street drug crackdowns are mostly short termed and followed by considerable displacement. In the early 2010s, an important part of illicit

This study investigates the impact of scientific research findings on public views of policing topics. Specifically, we conducted an original survey experiment to determine whether research information treatments influence respondents’ views on the effectiveness of the police in reducing crime, defunding and refunding police budgets, and use of body-worn cameras. Our results indicated that presenting

We utilized the synthetic difference-in-difference method to estimate the impact of adopting a permitless Concealed Carry Weapons (CCW) law on rates of assaults, robberies, and homicides committed with a firearm and by other means, as well as weapons arrests, from 1981 to 2019. We stratified permitless CCW laws by whether they previously prohibited violent misdemeanants from obtaining a CCW permit

Using data from the National Registry of Exonerations, we examined how the presence of confession evidence impacts prosecutors’ tendency in order to (1) commit misconduct in any form (e.g., permitting perjury and witness tampering) and (2) specifically withhold exculpatory evidence (i.e., evidence favorable to the defense). We assess these relationships particularly in the context of wrongful convictions

A 2 × 2 × 3 fully crossed factorial experiment is used to examine the linkages between key dimensions of protection motivation theory (PMT; perceived severity of risk, vulnerability to risk, and response costs) and the intentions to adopt information technology (IT) cybersecurity recommendations after being informed of degrees of risk in the vignettes. Data in this study consist of a nationwide sample

We quantified the implementation of WA state's domestic violence (DV)-related firearm prohibitions (RCW9.41.800) by the courts and the Regional Domestic Violence Firearms Enforcement Unit (RDVFEU), a regional approach to compliance promotion. We measured implementation, vetting, compliance, and enforcement of firearm prohibitions before (2014–2016) and after (2018–2020) the RDVFEU was implemented using