Action or Distraction? Assessing the Impact of Post-2020 Police Use of Force Reforms in American Cities
by Vineet Chovatia Abstract Between 2013 and 2024, police killed 13,468 people in the United States. Low-income communities of color, who are disproportionately targeted, bear the brunt of this violence. This reality reflects a legacy rooted in a deeply racist history that continues to shape American policing today. In the wake of regular, highly-publicized killings […]
Splitting Hairs or Splitting Regions: The Differential Democratic Impacts of Splitting ZIP Codes vs. Counties During Redistricting
by Jacob Hervey Abstract In light of the Supreme Court’s holding in Gill v. Whitford, judicially-enforceable gerrymandering metrics must focus on democratic harms to individual citizens, instead of state-wide measures of proportionality. Previous literature has suggested that gerrymandering metrics should focus on the extent to which congressional districts split preexisting geographic boundaries (namely, ZIP codes […]
The Case for Clemency: Differential Impacts of Pretrial Detention on Case and Crime Outcomes
by George Rateb Abstract About half-million of individuals in US jails are detained pretrial while legally presumed innocent. Using data on quasi-randomly assigned bail judges in the third-largest court system in the U.S., we study the impact of pretrial detention on defendants’ court and crime outcomes between 2008 and 2012. We supplement our primary analysis […]
Variability in Jury Awards for Noneconomic Damages in Motor Vehicle Negligence Cases
By Max Cherman I analyze the efficiency of jury awards for noneconomic compensatory damages awarded to automobile accident victims suffering nonfatal injuries bringing motor vehicle negligence tort claims. Data from 1002 Jury Verdict Research (JVR) case abstracts was narrowed down to 218 observations of plaintiffs receiving noneconomic damages awards at trials involving motor vehicle negligence […]
Security Without Equity? The Effect of Secure Communities on Racial Profiling by Police
By Jack Willoughby Anecdotal and circumstantial evidence suggest that the implementation of Secure Communities, a federal program that allows police officers to more easily identify illegal immigrants, has increased racial bias by police. The goal of this analysis is to empirically evaluate the effect of Secure Communities on racial bias by police using motor vehicle […]
