The Vera Institute of Justice Research Department Speaker Series featured Jacob I. Stowell, assistant professor of criminal justice and criminology, University of Massachusetts, on March 29, 2010. In this podcast, Professor Stowell discusses his research, methods, and findings regarding the relationship between immigration, deportation, and violent crime.
To understand how the United States became one of the most incarcerated nations in the world, it is critical to understand the role that excessive and harsh sentencing has played. In this report, Vera addresses a main driver of mass incarceration: our sentencing system. Dismantling our system of mass incarceration in favor of a narrowly tailored se ...
A laundry list of minor traffic violations can lead to tickets and even jail time. In the worst cases, police stops for trivial infractions turn deadly. But stops for those offenses—tinted windows, a missing inspection sticker, an air freshener dangling from the rearview mirror—don’t make us safer. They do, however, drive racial disparities: study ...
A Virtual Event on the Power of District Attorneys in Criminal Justice
District attorneys wield enormous power in the criminal legal system. They have the power to decide the fate of people accused of crimes at every stage of a criminal case. They have tremendous sway over other actors throughout the criminal legal system, including policing practices and enforcement. We, the people, have the power to influence how th ...