By Milan F. Satcher, Steven Belenko, Anthony Coetzer-Liversage, Khirsten J. Wilson, Michael R. McCart, Tess K. Drazdowski, Amanda Fallin-Bennett, Nickolas Zaller, Alysse M. Schultheis, Aaron Hogue, Noel Vest, Ashli J. Sheidow, Brandon del Pozo, Dennis P. Watson, Patrick F. Hibbard, Randy Stevens & L. A. R. Stein 

At the intersection of drug policy, the opioid crisis, and fragmented care systems, persons with opioid use disorder (OUD) in the United States are significantly vulnerable to contact with the criminal legal system (CLS). In CLS settings, provision of evidence-based treatment for OUD is variable and often secondary to punitive approaches. Linkage facilitation at every touch point along the CLS Sequential Intercept Model has potential to redirect persons with OUD into recovery-oriented systems of care, increase evidence-based OUD treatment connections, and therefore reduce CLS re-exposure risk. Research in this area is still nascent. Thus, this narrative review explores the state of the science on linkage facilitation across the varied CLS contexts, including general barriers, facilitators, and opportunities for using linkage facilitation for OUD treatment and related services. Following the CLS Sequential Intercept Model, the specific CLS contexts examined include community services, police encounters, the courts (pre- and post-disposition), incarceration (pre-trial detention, jail, and prison), reentry (from jails, prisons, and unified systems), and community supervision (probation and parole). Examples of innovative linkage facilitation interventions are drawn from the Justice Community Opioid Innovation Network (JCOIN). Areas for future research and policy change are highlighted to advance the science of linkage facilitation for OUD services in the CLS.

l. Health & Justice (2024) 12:36

By Christel Macdonald, Georgina Macpherson, Oscar Leppan, Lucy Thi Tran, Evan B Cunningham, Behzad Hajarizadeh, Jason Grebely, Michael Farrell, Frederick L Altice, Louisa Degenhardt

Mortality, suicide, self-harm, and substance use are elevated among people who are incarcerated. There is a wide range of heterogeneous interventions aimed at reducing these harms in this population. Previous reviews have focused on specific interventions or limited their findings to drug use and recidivism and have not explored interventions delivered after release from prison. Our aim is to examine the effect of interventions delivered to people who use drugs during incarceration or after release from incarceration, on a wide range of outcomes. Methods In this systematic review and meta-analysis, we searched Embase, MEDLINE, and PsycINFO databases up until Sept 12, 2023 for studies published from Jan 1, 1980 onwards. All studies evaluating the effectiveness of any intervention on drug use, recidivism outcomes, sexual or injecting risk behaviours, or mortality among people who use psychoactive drugs and who were currently or recently incarcerated were included. Studies without a comparator or measuring only alcohol use were excluded. Data extracted from each study included demographic characteristics, interventions, and comparisons. Pooled odds ratios and risk ratios were calculated using random-effects meta-analyses. Findings We identified 126 eligible studies (47 randomised controlled trials and 79 observational studies) encompassing 18 interventions; receiving opioid-agonist treatment (OAT) in prison reduced the risk of death in prison (one study; hazard ratio 0·25; 95% CI 0·13–0·48), whereas receiving OAT in the first 4 weeks following release reduced risk of death in the community (two studies; relative risk 0·24; 95% CI 0·15–0·37). Therapeutic community interventions reduced re-arrest at 6–12 months (six studies; odds ratio [OR] 0·72; 95% CI 0·55–0·95) and reincarceration at 24 months (two studies; OR 0·66; 95% CI 0·48–0·96). There was scarce evidence that OAT and syringe service provision are effective in reducing injecting risk behaviours and needle and syringe sharing. Interpretation There are effective interventions to reduce mortality and recidivism for people who use drugs who have been incarcerated. Nonetheless, there are also substantial gaps in the research examining the effect of interventions on risk behaviours and mortality during incarceration and a need for randomised designs examining outcomes for people who use drugs after release.

The Lancet, Vol 9 September 2024

By Dinesh Wadiwel, Claire Spivakovsky, Linda Steele

This report understands a complaint mechanism as a procedure within an organisation, institution or governing authority which allows individuals to report negative experiences and problematic conduct and policy; seek individual rectification; and, where appropriate, trigger system change. Additionally, in this report, the term ‘complaint mechanism’ can refer to the diverse range of public bodies and agencies that are made responsible for handling complaints, which includes various commissions, ombuds, government departments and bespoke complaint or oversight agencies.

Some people with disability utilise complaint mechanisms to report violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation. As shall be discussed, the use of complaint mechanisms to report such experiences creates a number of unique challenges, including whether existing complaint mechanisms are fit for purpose, whether complaint mechanisms are able to guarantee equality before the law and equal rights to justice for people with disability, how complaint mechanisms relate to other reporting pathways, in particular police and courts, and whether complaint mechanisms are able to protect individuals from violence and create system change to prevent violence. Raising these concerns does not mean that complaint mechanisms may not be appropriate or desired pathways for people with disability who want to report and seek justice for violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation. Indeed, a complaint mechanism may be able to offer forms of just process and justice in outcome that are not available through police and courts. However, much care is required in the design of complaint mechanisms as reporting pathways for violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation to ensure that they are effective in terms of process and outcome, including in achieving a broader goal of violence prevention.

This report provides guidance to the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability (the Disability Royal Commission) on the design of accessible and inclusive complaint mechanisms which function as a reporting pathway for violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation. Our report puts forward an ideal approach to creating accessible and inclusive responses to complaints of violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation of people with disability. The report utilises contemporary understandings of human rights, violence prevention, procedural justice and justice in outcome to identify the principles that should inform the design of complaint mechanisms to optimise their function as reporting pathways for violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation. The report centres lived experiences of people with disability, providing extensive accounts of people navigating complaint mechanisms in relation to violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation. The report further provides a mapping of the Australian complaint mechanism landscape, through a survey of website information, and where appropriate, policy or legislation, identifying some common features and limitations of existing complaint mechanism approaches, particularly in relation to the reporting of violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation.

Our conclusions in brief (explored in detail in Chapter 8) can be summarised as follows:

a) The Structural Drivers of Violence and Complaint Mechanisms. Much of the violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation experienced by people with disability is driven by structural factors, including as a result of segregation and institutionalisation. For a range of reasons, complaint mechanisms, even when designed in accordance with ‘best practice,’ can be poorly equipped to deliver either individual rectification or the large-scale transformational change required to address and prevent violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation.

b) Complaint Mechanisms, Equality before the Law, and Legally Authorised Violence. Many complaint mechanisms are not necessarily equipped to provide justice in relation to violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation. This is because many complaint mechanisms are non-independent and combine regulatory oversight with complaint resolution processes. They are thus potentially established with a policy goal to regulate services and maintain codes of conduct, and not necessarily designed to respond to violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation from a victim-centred and justice-focused perspective. Further, if there is a social or institutional expectation that some people with disability should use complaint mechanisms, rather than police or courts, to report violence, abuse, neglect and / or exploitation, then this potentially undermines equality before the law since this means some people with disability do not have access to the forms of justice that are available to the rest of the community. This problem is further complicated by the existence of legally authorised forms of violence, such as restrictive practices. However, despite these concerns, it is acknowledged that many people with disability utilise complaint mechanisms to report violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation, and that in some cases these pathways may be preferred over the criminal justice system due to the different forms of just process and justice in outcome that they may offer.

c) Improving Process and Outcome. Based upon this report’s survey of website information, and where appropriate, policy or legislation, there are many improvements that can be made to many existing complaint mechanisms at the level of stated process and outcome to enhance their ability to respond to violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation. Improvements can be made through access to and consistency of information; dedicated reporting pathways for violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation; application of accessibility standards and the availability of supported decision making; increased clarity on how complaint mechanisms interact with and complement police and courts; and increased clarity on outcomes available as a result of a complaint, including for system transformation.

d) An Independent Complaint Mechanism for Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation. While improvements to existing mechanisms are possible, there remains a need for an independent complaint mechanism to respond to violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation, with strong perceived independence, neutrality, transparency, trustworthiness, effectiveness and capacity to support and recognise the voice of complainants. At present, this independent, dedicated, pathway for reporting violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation experienced by people with disability does not appear available within the existing terrain of relevant Australian complaint mechanisms.

e) A National Redress Scheme. Much violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation is historical in nature, including violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation that is supported by legally and socially authorised forms of segregation, institutionalisation and society wide discrimination. There is a pressing need for governments and society to acknowledge the role of historical injustices committed against people with disability in creating the conditions for current mass scale violence. In this context, a National Redress Scheme would serve an important role as both a form of transitional and transformative justice, and as an additional pathway for reporting violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation that is historical in nature.

f) Improved Processes for Police and Courts. While out of scope for this report, improvements in responses of police and courts to violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation experienced by people with disability would work in a complementary way with improvements to complaint mechanism pathways, and ensure equality before the law and equal rights to justice for people with disability.

Australia: Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability, 2022. 534p.

By Dan A. Black Jeffrey Grogger Tom Kirchmaier Koen Sanders

Domestic abuse is a pervasive global problem. Here we analyze two approaches to reducing violent DA recidivism. One involves charging the perpetrator with a crime; the other provides protective services to the victim on the basis of a formal risk assessment carried out by the police. We use detailed administrative data to estimate the average effect of treatment on the treated using inverse propensity-score weighting (IPW). We then make use of causal forests to study heterogeneity in the estimated treatment effects. We find that pressing charges substantially reduces the likelihood of violent recidivism. The analysis also reveals substantial heterogeneity in the effect of pressing charges. In contrast, the risk assessment process has no discernible effect

IZA Discussion Papers, No. 15885, Bonn: Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), 2023.

By Nils Braakmann, Arnaud Chevalier, Tanya Wilson

We provide first evidence that temporal variations in the expected returns to crime affect the location of property crime. Our identification strategy relies on the widely-held perception in the UK that households of South Asian descent store gold jewellery at home. Price movements on the international market for gold exogenously affect the expected gains from burgling these households, which become relatively more lucrative targets as the gold price increases. Using a neighbourhood-level panel on reported crime and difference-in-differences, we find that burglaries in South Asian neighbourhoods are more sensitive to variations in the gold price than other neighbourhoods in the same municipality, confirming that burglars react rationally to variations in the expected returns to their activities. We conduct a battery of tests on neighbourhood and individual data to eliminate alternative explanations.

IZA DP No. 15520

Bonn: IZA – Institute of Labor Economics, 2022. 48p.

Edited by: Judith Goetz and Stefanie Mayer

This new book brings together research and analyses from five continents in order to promote a global perspective on the thoroughly global phenomenon of the current culture wars around sex and gender. The contributions show how transnational networks spread discourses that were developed in the Global North, and how they become re-articulated in different national, political and religious contexts.In recent years, issues of gender and sexuality have become a political battlefield on which far-right, religious and conservative actors wage their war against liberal and left-wing ideas, as well as emancipatory movements. 'Anti-Gender' crusades, which had originally been launched by the Vatican, deeply impacted societies and politics especially as these discourses were adopted by the secular far-right. Campaigns against sexual and reproductive rights, against gender equality and sexual diversity were waged from Russia to the United States and from Latin America to Japan.

Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2024.

By Nicholas Maple

A new understanding of state-based refugee reception that reflects the complex dynamics of contemporary refugee arrival. It is no longer realistic (if it ever was) to understand persons who flee across a border as a homogeneous group whose movement abruptly ends once they arrive in a host state or refugee camp. Through a comparative analysis of the politics surrounding the welcome afforded to refugees, this book offers an original perspective on refugee hosting in Southern Africa. Using the cases of Zambia and South Africa, the book explores why some countries maintain encampment reception policies for refugees, and others use more liberal ‘free settlement’ approaches, whereby refugees are granted freedom of movement and permitted to settle in cities and towns. While state-based reception is frequently framed as one-off moments, such as registration, Refugee Reception in Southern Africa examines reception as a complex and ongoing process of negotiations between refugees and state, with reception policies vital in shaping a refugee’s ability to settle and engage with local communities and labour markets. With its new ‘refugee reception’ framework and in-depth case studies full of concrete examples, this book is a significant theoretical and methodological contribution to migration studies more broadly.

London: University of London Press, 2024.

By  Rafael Duarte Villa, Camila de Macedo Braga1 and Marcos Alan S. V. Ferreira

In several Latin American countries, social violence has risen to warlike levels. Nevertheless, little attention has been paid to the extent of social violence and the new (informal) forms of governance generated by the so-called violent nonstate actors (VNSAs). Where a state’s forces fail to provide for the physical protection and social security of its citizens, some areas are governed by a mix of formal (vertical) and informal (horizontal) forms of governance, mixing state and nonstate actors. In these socially bounded spaces, nonstate actors produce and distribute public goods similarly as the state does. In this article, we explore how hybrid governance has appeared in the South American region, considering the operation of two regional VNSAs, the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) in Brazil and the Bandas Criminales (BACRIM) in Colombia. We show that such VNSAs are significant agents for security governance, as they challenge preconceived notions of state authority (legitimacy)  

2021, Latin American Research Review

By Hestia

.The number of potential victims of modern slavery in the UK is at its highest level since records began in 2009. London is a central hub for modern slavery offences; the Metropolitan Police has identified an increase of 12.6% in cases of modern slavery in London over the last three years. Modern slavery is a constantly evolving crime, with increasingly sophisticated recruitment and exploitation methods contributing to the growth of offences in London and across the UK. Hestia commissioned independent research agency Thinks Insight & Strategy to identify what modern slavery looks like in London today, and how it has changed in recent years. Central to the work was the need to bring the voices of those impacted by modern slavery to the forefront of a much needed conversation about modern slavery in the capital. Thinks Insight & Strategy conducted multi-method primary and secondary research to build a picture of experiences of modern slavery in London and understand public and political perceptions and assumptions. The research included: A scoping review of existing literature and data on modern slavery in the UK, including relevant data from the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) and from the Metropolitan Police (requested via an FOI) on instances of modern slavery in the UK and in London. Qualitative research, including six interviews with Hestia service users who have previously experienced modern slavery in London, one interview with a Hestia representative advocating on behalf of two service users who have experienced modern slavery in London and two interviews with experts in the field of modern slavery. Quantitative research, including a nationally representative online survey of 2,000 members of the UK public (including 265 based in Greater London) and an online survey with 99 MPs, completed prior to the dissolution of Parliament on 30th May 2024. The research found that: Modern slavery offences occur across every region of the UK, including in every London borough and are becoming more frequent. • Three in five (59%) adult potential victims referred to the NRM in 2023 stated they were exploited in the UK. • The number of NRM adult referrals increased by 70% between 2020 and 2023. However, modern slavery does not feel close to home for most. Just a quarter (25%) of the public believe that modern slavery is an issue in their local area. • This rises to 32% amongst those living in London. However, even here the public is underestimating the prevalence of the issue: data from the Metropolitan Police shows that numerous modern slavery offences occurred in every London borough in 2023. • Data shows that in 2023, across adults only, British citizens were the second largest group by nationality amongst adult victims of modern slavery (behind Albanians). However, only 10% of the public agrees that British citizens are one of the most likely nationalities to become victims of modern slavery. Despite low understanding of the issue, the public lacks confidence that enough is being done to prevent modern slavery and to protect those impacted. • Seven in ten (71%) agree that more attention should be given to the issue of modern slavery in the UK. • Prevention is high on the public agenda: 8 in 10 (81%) agree that the UK Government should do more to deter traffickers and those who commit modern slavery offences. • Similar proportions (78%) also agree that the UK Government should do more to support those who have experienced modern slavery. While the public want to see the Government take more action to prevent and support victims of modern slavery, MPs remain divided on whether new UK legislation will have an impact. • Just under half (47%) of MPs think new UK legislation (such as the Illegal Migration Act and the Nationality and Borders Act, and Safety of Rwanda Act) will not significantly reduce modern slavery in the UK, and 45% agree that new UK legislation will not deter traffickers1. • Labour MPs are significantly more likely to think that new UK legislation will not have an impact on reducing modern slavery and deterring traffickers than Conservative MPs. Note that fieldwork with MPs was carried out in May 2024, before policies like the Safety of Rwanda Act were axed by the current Government.

London: Hestia, 2024. 28p.

By Yennesit Palacios Valencia and Ignacio García Marín

Colombia is among the countries with the highest levels of violence and crime in the world, despite the peace agreements between the State and different armed groups, including the FARC. This is partly due to the fact that the Colombian case is complex and multifaceted because of the variety of participants in the armed conflict context and due to the mutation of new actors, under the modality of organized crime. Based on the above, the objective is to study the Colombian reality, contextually and diachronically, from theoretical and epistemological elements to demonstrate how violence and criminality factors intersect in the context of the armed conflict. The study concludes, among other findings, that in Colombia the ambiguity and the multiplicity of terms used to name the emerging criminal groups presents a legal problem because of their hybrid composition and regarding their treatment within or outside of the armed conflict.   

Dossiê - Criminalidade, Justiça e Estado-nação no Brasil e na América Latina • Tempo 29 (3) • Sep-Dec 2023 

By Karl Dodd, Paul M. Salmon, Colin Solomon, Scott McLea

Background: Sporting organisations and governing bodies are facing increased pressure to prevent child sexual abuse (CSA) in sport. This has led to an increase in investigative reports into CSA that include recommendations on how sporting organisations could improve child safeguarding. Current peer reviewed literature on the prevention of CSA in sport, indicates that the majority of research has been on interventions at the levels of the victim and perpetrator, rather than on broader components of the sports system. However, it is not clear whether this is the case in investigative reports. Objective:  The aim of this study was to analyse investigative reports into CSA in five Australian sports (Swimming, Cricket, Gymnastics, Football, and Tennis), to evaluate the extent to which a systems thinking approach was adopted to understand the broader systemic factors enabling CSA in sport.  Method: Factors enabling CSA detailed in the reports, as well as their accompanying recommendations, were mapped to a systems thinking-based framework. The identified enabling factors and recommendations were then evaluated to determine the extent to which a whole of systems focus had been adopted in the investigative reports. Results: In total, 30 enabling factors to CSA were identified, with the majority focused at the higher levels of the sports system (e.g., Governance, Policy, Reporting/Handling issues etc.). This contrasts with the peer reviewed literature. Conclusions: The findings indicate that the identified enabling factors to CSA align with a systems thinking approach, whereas the recommendations to safeguarding partially adhere to the tenets of system thinking.

By Luana Marques-Garcia Ozemela,  A lessandra Conte, Guilherme Sedlaceck, Leopoldo Laborda

We test for racial differences in crime victimization between whites and Afro-descendants in the form of thefts, robberies, sexual and physical assaults and police aggressions in Brazil. We explore the presence of skin color tone bias in victimization by the police. Methods With a novel dataset produced by the Ministry of Justice of Brazil in 2012, we use 6 different logit regression models to estimate marginal effects. We found that the probabilities of thefts and verbal aggressions by the police, even after controlling for all the considered individual and community variables, are higher for Afro-descendants. African descent women are more likely to be victims of theft and physical aggression by the police, while white women are more likely to be robbed. In the case of men, Afro-descendants have higher probabilities of being victims of thefts, robberies and verbal aggressions by the police. Regarding skin color bias, the probability of verbal and physical victimization by the police is higher for darker skin individuals. Because of its strategic importance to citizen security policy-making, further race-based data collection is needed, as well as research on the effectiveness of police targeting practices.

Washington DC: IDB, 2019. 37p.

By Patricio Domínguez Kenzo Asahi 

This paper studies the effect of ambient light on crime, taking advantage of the daylight saving time (DST) policy, which imposes exogenous variations in daylight exposure at specific hours of the day. The paper uses a rich administrative database managed by Chile’s national police, a centralized agency that collects detailed information regarding each crime incident. A 20% decrease (increase) in crimes is found when the DST transition increases (decreases) the amount of sunlight by one hour during the 7-9 p.m. period. Importantly, no significant response is detected induced by DST associated with a plausible demand-side response such as the population’s commuting time pattern, and no substantial short-term displacement is found. Most of the changes in property crime due to the DST policy are driven by robbery in residential areas.

Washington DC: IBD, 2019. 73p.

By Patricio Domínguez 

This paper models crime rates as a function of the interaction between potential offenders and victims. In particular, the paper studies robbery of bus drivers, a crime that remains common in cities throughout the world. Exploiting the timing of a significant reform introduced in Chile in the public transportation sector and detailed administrative data on crime incidents, the paper shows how victims' propensity to resist an attack can alter the level and nature of criminal activity. The paper also finds a large decline in crime after the implementation of a technological innovation that eliminated cash transactions on buses. The results suggest a strong relationship between victims incentives, cash presence, and crime.

Washington DC: IDB, 2020. 70p.

By Spencer Chainey Nathalie Alvarado Rodrigo Serrano–Berthet

Hot spots policing (HSP) is an effective approach for decreasing crime. This guide is designed to help police agencies better understand and make practical use of this policing strategy. The guide explains how HSP works in helping to decrease crime, and describes the processes involved in implementing a successful program in Latin American and the Caribbean (LAC). It also offers practical advice on how to address many of the challenges involved in implementing HSP, how to evaluate its impact, and how to complement it with other policing approaches to help sustain decreases in crime. Included throughout the publication are case studies from the region that help illustrate how HSP is applied. The guide also answers questions that are often asked about HSP, such as issues associated with the displacement of crime.

Washington, DC: Inter-American Development Bank - IDB 2024. 149p.

By Simone Cecchini and Jorge Martínez Pizarro

In Latin America and the Caribbean, where every country is a country of origin, destination, return or transit, international migration is becoming ever more complex and intensive. Migratory flows are increasingly characterized by irregularity; and migrants represent one of the most vulnerable population groups, as victims of stigmatization, discrimination, xenophobia and racism. However, migrants contribute to sustainable development through work, entrepreneurship, remittances and tax payments, in addition to their culture. To enhance these contributions, public policies and migration governance are needed at the multilateral, national and local levels, based on the interaction between migration and development and fulfilment of the countries’ human rights obligations.

CEPAL Review No. 141 • December 2023

By the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

The Americas have the highest regional homicide rate in the world, and high rates of homicidal violence related to organized crime. This research brief, excerpted from the UNODC Global Study on Homicide 2023, notes several recurrent patterns with respect to factors shaping criminal homicides in Latin America and the Caribbean: › Homicides related to organized crime and gangs are significantly more volatile than homicides perpetrated by intimate partners or other family members. › Subregions, countries and cities with a high homicide rate tend to be associated with a larger proportion of firearm-related homicide. › Settings with a high homicide rate also typically report a large proportion of homicides involving male victims. › High homicide rates are also usually associated with a proportionately higher number of homicides related to organized crime. Where there is a higher density of criminal organizations, there is a higher risk of homicidal violence. › Drug markets alone do not predict homicide but they are frequently associated with lethal violence, especially in the context of multiple competing criminal factions. Amid mounting public concern with violent crime and low trust in police, some Latin American and Caribbean governments are enacting “states of emergency” in response to organized crime and violent gangs. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has expressed concern about the human rights impacts of states of emergency introduced to address organized crime and violence1, while the Secretary-General’s New Agenda for Peace policy brief 2 notes that over-securitized responses can be counterproductive and can reinforce the very dynamics they seek to overcome, as their far-reaching consequences – blowback from local populations, human rights violations and abuses, exacerbation of gender inequalities and distortion of local economies – can be powerful drivers for recruitment into terrorist or armed groups.  

Vienna: UNODC, 2024. 42p.

By Jinmei Feng, Hong Ma, Mingzhi Xu, Wei You

This study estimates the causal impact of the massive installation of surveillance cameras on crime, using novel data from China between 2014 and 2019. Using the number of preexisting local camera producers as the instrument for the density of camera installation, we find that cities with denser surveillance networks experienced significantly faster declines in crime. The reduction is more pronounced for publicly visible crimes. Enhanced surveillance is associated with higher satisfaction with the government and a greater sense of security, leading to longer hours worked, especially for women. A back-of-envelope calculation shows preventing a crime costs approximately $5,922, which is highly cost-effective.

Unpublished paper, 2024 

By Kellen R. Funk & Sandra G. Mayson

How did criminal bail work in the Founding era? This question has become pressing as bail, and bail reform, have attracted increasing attention, in part because history is thought to bear on the meaning of bail-related constitutional provisions. To date, however, there has been no thorough account of bail at the Founding. This Article begins to correct the deficit in our collective memory by describing bail law and practice in the Founding era, from approximately 1790 to 1810. In order to give a full account, we surveyed a wide range of materials, including Founding-era statutes, case law, legal treatises, and manuals for magistrates; and original court, jail, administrative, and justice-of-the-peace records held in archives and private collections.The historical inquiry illuminates three key facts. First, the black-letter law of bail in the Founding era was highly protective of pretrial liberty. A uniquely American framework for bail guaranteed release, in theory, for nearly all accused persons. Second, things were different on the ground. The primary records reveal that, for those who lived on the margins of society, bail practice bore little resemblance to the law on the books, and pretrial detention was routine. The third key point cuts across the law and reality of criminal bail: both in theory and in practice, the bail system was a system of unsecured pledges, not cash deposits. It operated through reputational capital, not financial capital. This fact refutes the claim, frequently advanced by opponents of contemporary bail reform, that cash bail is a timeless American tradition. The contrast between the written ideals and the actual practice of bail in the Founding era, meanwhile, highlights the difficulty of looking to the past for a determinate guide to legal meaning.

Harvard Law Review, VOLUME 137, ISSUE 7, MAY 2024

By Michael J. Zoorob, ; Ju Nyeong Park, ; Alex H. Kral,  et alBarrot H. Lambdin, PhD3; Brandon del Pozo, PhD, MPA, MA1,2

IMPORTANCE-  With the implementation of Measure 110 (M110) in 2021, Oregon became the first US state to decriminalize small amounts of any drug for personal use. To date, no analysis of the association of this law with overdose mortality has fully accounted for the introduction of fentanyl—a substance that is known to drive fatal overdose—to Oregon’s unregulated drug market. OBJECTIVE -  To evaluate whether the decriminalization of drug possession in Oregon was associated with changes in fatal drug overdose rates after accounting for the rapid spread of fentanyl in Oregon’s unregulated drug market. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS In this cohort study, the association between fatal overdose and enactment of M110 was analyzed using a matrix completion synthetic control method. The control group consisted of the 48 US states and Washington, DC, all of which did not decriminalize drugs. The rapid spread of fentanyl in unregulated drug markets was determined using the state-level percentage of all samples reported to the National Forensic Laboratory Information System that were identified as fentanyl or its analogues. Mortality data were obtained from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for January 1, 2008, to December 31, 2022. Data analysis was performed from fall 2023 through spring 2024. EXPOSURES Measure 110 took effect in Oregon on February 1, 2021. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The primary outcome assessed was fatal drug overdose rates per half-year. A changepoint analysis also determined when each state experienced a rapid escalation of fentanyl in its unregulated drug market. RESULTS In this analysis, rapid spread of fentanyl in Oregon’s unregulated drug supply occurred in the first half of 2021, contemporaneous with enactment of M110. A positive crude association was found between drug decriminalization and fatal overdose rate per 100 000 per half year (estimate [SE], 1.83 [0.47]; P < .001). After adjusting for the spread of fentanyl as a confounder, the effect size changed signs (estimate [SE], −0.51 [0.61]; P = .41) and there was no longer an association between decriminalization and overdose mortality in Oregon. Sensitivity analyses were consistent with this result. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE In this cohort study of fatal drug overdose and the spread of fentanyl through Oregon’s unregulated drug market, no association between M110 and fatal overdose rates was observed. Future evaluations of the health effects of drug policies should account for changes in the composition of unregulated drug markets.

  JAMA Netw Open. 2024;7(9):e2431612. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.3161