By Richard J. Bonnie and Rebekah Hutton, Editors

Active shooter drills have become a standard practice in nearly all U.S. schools, yet their potential impact on students and educators has received limited attention. School Active Shooter Drills: Mitigating Risks to Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Health explores how these drills are conducted and how to reduce potential harm while supporting school safety. Developed by a committee of experts in education, school safety, public health, pediatrics, child and adolescent development, psychiatry, psychology, neuroscience, public policy, and criminology, this report provides an in-depth review of current practices and offers guidance. The report provides suggestions for implementing practices that promote prevention and preparedness while supporting well-being, and foster learning environments where students and staff feel safe, capable, and supported.

School Active Shooter Drills finds that while drills aim to enhance preparedness, they often vary dramatically in intensity and design, from simple safety walk-throughs to unannounced, high-simulation events. Such inconsistencies can heighten anxiety, distress, and confusion, especially among vulnerable student populations. The report underscores that developmentally appropriate, trauma-informed practices are essential, and drills involving realistic simulations or deception should be avoided entirely.

School Active Shooter Drills outlines actionable recommendations for state and local policymakers, school leaders, researchers, and federal agencies, including banning harmful practices, supporting staff training, ensuring equitable inclusion, and increasing access to mental health resources. This report also calls for national guidance and sustained research to strengthen the evidence base and help schools foster safe, inclusive, and supportive learning environments so that schools not only prepare students and staff for emergencies but also protect their mental, emotional, and behavioral well-being.

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education; Board on Children, Youth, and Families; Committee on Law and Justice; Committee on the Impact of Active Shooter Drills on Student Health and Wellbeing. 2025. p253.

Sexual assault is epidemic in the United States. Recent media reports, public outrage, and activism have been focused on the institutional settings in which these assaults occur. Colleges and universities, as well as the military and athletic programs, have come under increasing scrutiny as settings that not only fail to deter, but possibly foster rape.

viewpoints, 16p.

By J. H. Bogart

A woman awakens surrounded by four men who remove her from her bed and take her to another room.1 Despite protests and physical resistance, the men engage in a series of sexual acts with her. She files a complaint and the men are charged, tried, and convicted.2 They appeal, claiming they believed she was agreeable to their actions.3 They had been told by her husband that she had unusual tastes in sexual matters, and liked simulated gang rape. Because they had thought she was willing, they had not intended to rape her and therefore should not have been convicted.4 A young woman of limited cognitive capacities and an intense desire for acceptance seeks the approval and friendship of her male peers.5 The teenage boys induce her to join them in a basement where they asked her to perform sexual acts with them. No threats were made or implied. The teenage boys claim she was a happy participant.6

39p.

By Gillian C. Mezey

Sexual offences account for just under 1% of all to other life-threatening traumas. There is some notifiable offences and have been increasing over evidence that rape is more pathogenic than any the past decade (Home Office,1993).However, the other form of violent crime (Kilpatrick et al, 1987). The term 'rape trauma syndrome' was first used official statistics on rape prevalence grossly underestimate the extent of the problem; many cases of non-consensual intercourse are not in the 1970s to describe a range of psychological, cognitive, emotional and behavioural responses to reported or prosecuted; about one-third of victims.

Advances in Psychiatric Treatment (1997), vol. 3, pp. 197-203

By Sahar Jalili

Rape is a crime globally condemned yet; it's one of the most controversial crimes at the time. What this research did was to gather the information of countries rape law in their penal code from all over the world and create a pattern of how countries on a global scale criminalize rape and how far they have changed in the past century. The goal was to produce a rape criminalization map of the world to show which elements are playing the main factors and which factors are missing, how close countries define rape and how different their reactions are. The method that was adopted was the principal components analysis. This system allowed the researcher to compare twenty-nine countries plus seven the US states based on fifty- one elements of the crime of rape.

Pennsylvania State University, Penn State Law, 317p.

By Sylvia Walby

Rape matters. It destroys lives, as its traumatizing effects can linger long after the immediate pain and suffering. It is a form of gender inequality, an injury to health, a crime, a violation of women’s human rights and is costly to economy and society. Rape is one of the most serious forms of violence. It is the unwanted penetration of the body; with variations in definitions that concern whether absence of consent or use or threat of use of force is central, the object doing the penetration, and the orifice of the body being penetrated. The UN has a recommended definition for legislation, but there are currently some variations in the definition used in different legal regimes. There are further variations in the meaning in social science research and in popular understandings. There are many ingenious ways to address rape, to prevent it, to support victims. These practices are under development, constantly being tested and improved. This report is an overview of the worldwide best practices for rape prevention and for assisting women victims of rape. It is based on a review of the international literature on developments, together with a series of case studies of best practices.

DIRECTORATE-GENERAL FOR INTERNAL POLICIES, 2013, 214p.

Edited by Andrea Krizsán

Domestic violence, one of the most prevalent forms of gender-based violence, is a policy ield where spectacular progress took place worldwide in the last decades. Importantly the issue was put on the policy agenda across diferent regions and countries almost invariably by women’s movements (Htun and Weldon 2012). Awareness of domestic violence as a policy issue which needs state intervention has also showed spectacular progress in the last decade or so in most countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Yet, considerable variety emerges in the achieved policy outputs and the extent to which these outputs are gender equality sensitive and serve the interests of women victims/survivors (Krizsan and Popa 2014). his volume asks how this variation can be connected to women’s movements in the region. Is women’s rights advocacy and autonomous women’s organizing an equally important component of progress in countries of this region?

Center for Policy Studies, 2015, 249p.

By Kimberly Ann Puhala

The problems associated with the civil legal system for women who have experienced domestic violence have been persistent over time and still exist today. The current sociopolitical context in this state frames access to civil legal services either through a means-tested (and underfunded) program (Civil Legal Assistance) or as a privately purchased market service. This leaves a limited amount of low- or no-cost alternatives, which creates a gap in services for those women whose income is too high to qualify for Civil Legal Assistance programs, yet too low to afford to hire a private attorney. This study examines this two-tiered system, and reveals that the alternative to full Civil Legal Assistance or individually purchased full-scale legal representation for iv women who fall into the services gap is a system that is confusing, faces a lack of coordination, and may lead to less than optimal outcomes in civil legal cases related to domestic violence. This study explores the workings of this system from the perspective of the women using it and the service providers within it. Through surveys of 18 women seeking civil legal assistance and 11 interviews with legal services advocates and providers, this research identifies the areas that remain problematic for women who experience domestic violence and turn to the civil legal services for help.

Puhala, Kimberly Ann, "Legal Experiences of Women Survivors of Domestic Violence: A Need for Policies that Address the Justice Gap" (2011). Graduate Doctoral Dissertations. Paper 37.

By Annelise Mennicke, MSW Delaney Anderson, MSW Karen Oehme, JD Stephanie Kennedy, MSW

Rape and sexual violence are alarmingly common in our society, demanding a focused and coordinated response among researchers, the justice system, and health and social service providers. According to the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network (RAINN; n.d.), a sexual assault occurs every two minutes in the United States, totaling to 207,754 victims of rape and sexual assault each year. Using these inci- dence rates, RAINN estimates that one out of every six women will be raped during her lifetime (RAINN, n.d.). Victims of rape commonly experience a wide range of physical and emotional effects, including posttraumatic stress disorder, substance abuse, depres- sion, anxiety, sleep disorders, eating disorders, and many other negative and long-lasting consequences (RAINN, n.d.).

Springer Publishing Company, 2014, 15p.

By Umphress, E., and Thomas, J. M. (Eds.)

The 2018 National Academies report Sexual Harassment of Women: Climate, Culture, and Consequences in Academic Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine recommends the creation of institutional policies that can improve an institution's climate, culture, and reporting options while supporting those who have experienced sexual harassment.

This perspective paper addresses the 2018 report recommendations by exploring how a procedural justice framework could help guide improvements and revisions to policies, processes, and practices within higher education institutions with the potential to mitigate the negative experiences and outcomes of those affected by sexual harassment. Based on previous research, this paper applies a principles-based perspective to highlight ideals, rules, and standards that institutions can implement to achieve this goal.

Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/26563. 2022. 33p.

By Joan G. Hudson, et al.

This guidebook provides guidance for transit agencies seeking to address and mitigate assaults on passengers and transit workers. Developed through an extensive research effort—including a literature review, national assault data analysis, agency surveys, focus groups, and interviews with six transit agencies—this guidebook equips agencies with practical strategies and evidence-based recommendations to enhance safety and security in the transit environment.

Assaults on transit systems, while varying across time, location, and agency size, pose significant safety concerns for both passengers and transit workers. This guidebook begins by outlining the scope of the issue, including definitions, key facts, and the impact of the transit environment on perceived and actual security. The guidebook then presents national data trends and insights into the causes, risks, and consequences of transit-related assaults.

National Academy of Sciences.. 2025. 95p.

By TERESA FRASCA et al.

Sexual harassment continues to be a persistent problem in institutions of higher education, despite the creation of new resources, policies, and programs aimed at combatting high rates on campuses (NASEM, 2018). Historically, these institutions have focused sexual harassment 1 prevention and response efforts on complying with the requirements of the law (NASEM, 2018). Specifically, institutions in the United States have focused on responding to formal reports of sexual harassment through complying with Title IX and Title VII2 —which prohibit discrimination against employees, students, staff, and/or faculty on the basis of sex—rather than identifying what harm has been caused by the sexual harassment, who has been harmed, and how that harm can be repaired. Even when institutions provide resources to repair the harm caused by sexual harassment, the harm might extend beyond the conclusions of the institutional response process and provision of the required remedial measures and sanctions (when applicable) (e.g., Grossi, 2017; Karp and Frank, 2016; McMahon et al., 2019; NASEM, 2018; Smith and Freyd, 2014). Put simply, there is a lack of attention to remediating (or repairing and limiting) the damage caused by sexual harassment across the timeline of the institutional response process (see Box 1 and Figure 1).

National Academies of Sciences. 2025. 76p.

By William Maloney, Raul Morales Lema, and Marcela Meléndez Arjona

The Latin America and Caribbean region faces a very different outlook from what was foreseen six months ago. Despite continued progress on reducing inflation, LAC continues to grow more slowly than any other region of the world and increasing its dynamism and job creation potential faces new and daunting challenges. First, higher and more persistent inflation than anticipated in the advanced countries has slowed global interest rate declines which constrains regional monetary authorities’ ability to loosen monetary policy. Second, higher interest payments on debt consume an increasing share of government revenue impeding progress on reducing deficits and creating fiscal space for necessary public investment. Third, rising tariffs have driven up uncertainty around the nature of the global trade order, threaten market access for exports, and call into question the nearshoring project. Fourth, increased return migration will, in some cases, stress local labor markets and dampen remittances. Fifth, organized crime, and the violence that accompanies it continues to expand, reducing the quality of life of citizens, dampening economic growth, and undermining the integrity of public institutions. Progress on the fiscal front, as well as continued productivity related reforms to make the region more able to negotiate a changing environment are needed.

Washington, DC: The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank, 2025. 92p.

By Maureen Taylor and Lesley McMillan

There is a significant body of research that illustrates the emotional demands of policing and the physical and psychological toll this takes on officers and staff. However, the management of these demands, particularly in more specialist roles such as those in public protection policing where the demand may be higher, are less well understood. This research explores the experiences of public protection police officers in Police Scotland through a lens of emotional labour The aims of this research were to: • Critically review the literature around the emotional impacts of policing on officers and the role of emotional labour in policing; • Establish the experience of, and impact on, officers involved in the investigation of public protection cases; assess how police officers in roles where emotional labour may be heightened, manage their emotions and the strategies they develop to do so; and • Examine how emotions and emotion management are mediated by organisational, departmental and role values, demands and culture In doing so, the research sought to answer the following research questions: 1. What is the emotional experience of police officers in public protection roles and what impact does it have on them? 2. What emotional labour do officers undertake, and what strategies of emotion management do officers employ? 3. To what extent does the theory of emotional labour explain the experiences of public protection police officers? 4. What role does the prevailing organisational culture play in the emotion management strategies of public protection policing? This report presents the findings from this research and a potential framework for understanding the factors that contribute to resilience within the context of public protection policing

Edinburgh: Scottish Institut Institute for Policing Research, 2025. 32p.

By Hayley Stillwell

Despite the foundational principle in the American criminal justice system that it is better to acquit the guilty than to convict the innocent, wrongful convictions remain a persistent issue. Wrongful convictions are sometimes caused by flawed evidence, such as eyewitness misidentifications and unreliable forensic techniques. Researchers and scholars have studied this problem of flawed evidence extensively, leading to many successful reform efforts to address this portion of the wrongful conviction problem. But there is another portion of the wrongful conviction problem that has yet to be the target of reform efforts—wrongful convictions caused by juror error. Implicit biases, forbidden assumptions, and strategic voting are jury errors that can lead to wrongful convictions, yet they are difficult problems to address given the black box of secrecy that surrounds jury deliberations. This Article proposes the use of “placebo trials” as a novel thought experiment that could transform into a real experimental method to identify and address jury error. Placebo trials simulate real trials in every way, but they are not real. As far as jurors know, however, they are sitting on a real trial. Another important characteristic of placebo trials is that the objectively correct verdict outcome is an acquittal. By inserting a variable into a placebo trial, the experiment can show with firsthand jury data whether the variable impacts acquittal rates. If a variable has such an effect, then it may lead to wrongful convictions and should be the focus of reform efforts.

56 Ariz. St. L.J. 1361 (2024 )

By The Times of London

final report. Its 10 recommendations for change include a universal digital ID system, the roll out of live facial recognition, a licence to practise for the police, victim care hubs, restriction of social media for under 16s and raising the minimum age of criminal responsibility to 14.

London: Time of London, 3035. 57p

By Conor McCormick and Brice Dickson

Available open access digitally under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. This compelling book underscores the significance of the Court of Appeal in Northern Ireland, making a significant contribution to the literature and proposing recommendations on how it could enhance both its efficiency and its reputation.

Bristol, UK: Bristol University Press, 2024.

By Katie Boyle, Diana Camps, Kirstie Ken English, Jo Edson Ferrie, Aidan Flegg, and Gaurav Mukherjee

Available open access digitally under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. This book addresses the significant violations of social rights in the UK, as well as the gaps in access to justice to remedy them. This is a unique contribution to our understanding of human rights from the perspective of access to justice with key insights for policy and practice.

2025, 253p.

By Stina Bergman Blix and Nina Törnqvist

Exploring the rationales behind legal anger, its logic and origins, this book builds on the perspectives of judges and prosecutors in Italy, Sweden, the United States, and Scotland. When do judges and prosecutors become angry in court, what do they become angry about, and which other emotions open up for anger? Anger brings people to court and is essential in evaluating wrongdoing and attributing blame, but at the same time, anger is seen as a threat to well-reasoned and just decision-making. Drawing on observations, interviews, and shadowing of legal professionals, the text demonstrates how anger is entangled with legal thought and comes into play in legal practices. By comparing the workings and displays of anger found in different legal systems and emotional cultures, the book elucidates assumptions about law, morality, truth, and emotions that we commonly take for granted. Rational Anger will be of great interest to students and scholars of criminology, criminal justice, sociology, law, social psychology, and organisation studies.

Oxford, UK; New York: Oxford University Press, 2025. 124p.

By Brandon MordueFollow

The idea that one’s punishment should depend on the crime committed rather than which judge happens to do the sentencing strikes most as uncontroversial, if not a requirement for a fair sentencing regime. Forty years ago, the passage of the Sentencing Reform Act promised just that result. Increased data availability allows us to evaluate the project’s success. The results are not encouraging.

Federal defendants are sentenced using guidelines issued by the United States Sentencing Commission that sometimes bear little relation to the underlying wrongdoing. This has created a split among judges, with some following the guidelines and others rejecting them. The consequences are arbitrariness in sentencing and unwarranted disparities across offenders.

In 2007, the Supreme Court permitted appellate courts to presume the reasonableness of guideline sentences, largely insulating those sentences from judicial review. Much has changed since then, and it is time for the presumption to go. The findings of the original data analysis presented in this Article, as well as developments since the Court’s decision, show that the claims made in support of the presumption are unfounded. In fact, some of the related case law rests upon provably false empirical premises.

Today, most sentences are not within the range set by the guidelines. Favoring the minority of sentences that are within the range results in a sentencing regime incompatible with the overriding statutory aim of avoiding unwarranted sentencing disparities. Rather than presuming the reasonableness of within-guideline sentences, the courts can chart a course correction by prioritizing the data on actual sentences from the Sentencing Commission. Such a shift would achieve more consistent sentences across offenders convicted of similar crimes.

115 J. Crim. L. & Criminology 133 (2025), 73p.