By Todd Foglesong, Ron Levi, Léo Henry, Enrique Bouchot, Emma Wildeman

This report analyzes data on crime and violence across hundreds of cities and counties in the United States between 2014 and 2023 to appraise the relationship between violent crime and prosecutors deemed “progressive.” We find no evidence to support the claim that prosecutors of any type were responsible for the increase in homicide or other violent crimes before, during, or after the pandemic. Instead, we infer that fluctuations in violence and crime during this period are likely rooted in the changing social ecology of urban centers and rural areas. We recommend that further analyses of violent crime be supplemented by quantitative research on social inequality and qualitative research into the documented practices of prosecutors in cities and counties that record divergent patterns in violent crime.

Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy at the University of Toronto, 2024. 70p.

Edited by Kenneth E. Kerle, American Jail Association

“People familiar with the American jail scene realize that jails rank at the bottom of the criminal justice hierarchy in influence. Courts, prosecuting attorneys, police, and even probation and parole offi­cials exert more political clout than jail administrators. Jail popu­lation figures have nearly doubled in a decade, and now more than 300,000 ADP (average daily population) are found in the 3,338 jails in the 3,000 plus counties and cities that operate these institutions of incarceration. During 1987, there were more than 17 million ad­missions and releases from county and city jails. These local gov­ernment agencies serve as the dumping grounds for the arrested criminal, the chronic drunk, the DWI (driving while intoxicated), the mentally ill, the homeless, and juveniles ranging from the run­away to the amoral killer.”

Nelson-Hall. 1991. 299p.