By Lorena Roque and Sapna Mehta

The Department of Labor (DOL) found that child labor violations increased in 2023: 5,800 children were employed in violation of labor law, an increase of 14 percent from the previous year and 88 percent from 2019. But this likely underestimates the prevalence of child labor across the United States, as the DOL only highlights cases known to the government and many uses of child labor go unreported.

While corporations cite “tight labor markets” and “a labor shortage” as reasons for using child labor, the more accurate reason seems to be that it increases corporations’ profit margins. Children and their families are unlikely to be aware of child labor rights or resources available to report child labor violations. In addition, children and youth from families with low incomes often experience pressure to work to support themselves and their families, increasing their likelihood to be exploited by employers.

Migrant children are significantly more vulnerable to dangerous forms of child labor. An estimated 130,000 unaccompanied minors entered the United States, with 66 percent of all unaccompanied migrant children working full-time in 2022. Children who migrate to the United States are often pressured to work in order to send remittances to their family in their home country, pay off smugglers, or help support themselves. Unaccompanied migrant children are also waiting for their immigration case to be resolved, which means they are unable to access work authorization or federal support programs due to their lack of immigration status. Research shows that unaccompanied children who are connected to lawyers and social workers are better able to navigate the legal process and integrate into their new communities, including obtaining work authorization, immigration status, and critical services like health care. Therefore, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) needs to direct more resources to legal counsel and post-release services for unaccompanied migrant children.

Child labor has had a long history in farmwork in the United States due to the original Fair Labor and Standards Act (FLSA), which excluded protections for all workers in the farmwork, agriculture, and domestic industries–including minimum wage, Social Security benefits, and overtime compensation. These exclusions disproportionately affected Black and Hispanic workers who were overrepresented in agricultural work and were intentional by design. These jobs were some of the only ones that Black and Hispanic people were allowed to have after the Great Migration. As of 2020, 78 percent of all farm workers identified as being a part of the Hispanic community.

Even today, the FLSA has a different set of standards for youth employment for workers in the agricultural sector. For example, youth must be 14 years old to hold a nonagricultural position, while youth 12 and under can work in agriculture if a parent has given written permission and if the farm is not required to pay the federal minimum wage.

In recent years there have been several deeply researched media reports on child labor. A 2023 New York Times investigative report showed the precarious working conditions migrant children endure. In July 2023, the death of a 16-year-old boy in a Mississippi poultry plant that had experienced previous fatalities drew wide coverage.11 This heightened coverage has drawn Congressional attention to the growing problem of child labor.

Astonishingly, since 2021, many state governments have encouraged the use of child labor, with at least 28 states proposing or enacting laws that loosen child labor protections.12 Arkansas enacted legislation that eliminated age verification for child labor as well as parent or guardian permission requirements, while Iowa lowered the minimum age of child care workers.

As states continue to enact laws and child labor standards that are more dangerous and negligent than the FLSA, federal legislation should prioritize child labor protections by ensuring that companies are held accountable at every step of the supply chain. This legislation should also include staffing agencies and independent contractors to ensure that all companies employing children in hazardous workplaces are held accountable for their actions.

At the federal level, policymakers have introduced several bills to address child labor, including some with bipartisan support. U.S. Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Josh Hawley (R-MO) introduced the Preventing Child Labor Exploitation Act. This bill would combat child labor by preventing the U.S. government from signing contracts with companies that violated child labor laws or those that do business with third-party vendors that fail to address child labor infractions. The Stop Child Labor Act, introduced by Senators Brian Schatz (D-HI) and Todd Young (R-IN), would establish new criminal penalties for repeat violations of child labor laws and increase civil penalties to a minimum penalty of $5,000 per child labor violation. Senators Bob Casey (D-PA) and Patty Murray (D-WA), along with Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-3), introduced the Children Harmed in Life-Threatened or Dangerous (CHILD) Labor Act, which would increase civil penalties for child labor violations to at least $11,000 and would also increase transparency by authorizing the Secretary of Labor to add warning labels to goods manufactured with oppressive child labor and issue a stop order to any individual who is in violation of child labor provisions.

It is also necessary to close the child labor loopholes between agriculture work and non-agricultural work. The Children’s Act for Responsible Employment and Farm Safety (CARE Act), introduced by Rep. Raul Ruiz (D CA) would bring age and work hour standards for children working in farmwork and agriculture to the labor standards of all other labor industries.

Washington, DC: CLASP, 2024. 5p.

By Gwendolyn Chang, Joseph D. Tucker , Kate Walker, Claire Chu, Naomi Miall, Rayner K. J. Tan, Dan Wu

Intimate partner violence (IPV) may have been exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Middle-aged and older adults, ages 45 years or older, are at higher risk of COVID-19 mortality and social isolation. However, most studies on IPV during the pandemic do not focus on this important subpopulation. Informed by the social-ecological theory, this study examines individual, household, community, and country-level correlates of IPV among middle-aged and older adults in multiple countries using a cross-sectional online survey. Data from 2867 participants aged 45 or older in the International Sexual Health and Reproductive Health (I-SHARE) survey from July 2020 to February 2021 were described using univariate analysis. IPV was defined using four validated WHO measures. Individual characteristics included self-isolation and food security. At the country-level, we examined social distancing stringency. Logistic regression models with a random intercept for country were conducted to explore IPV correlates among 1730 eligible individuals from 20 countries with complete data. Most participants were heterosexual (2469/2867), cisgender (2531/2867) females (1589/2867) between the ages of 45–54 (1539/2867). 12.1% (346/2867) of participants experienced IPV during social distancing measures. After adjustment, participants who self-isolated experienced 1.4 (95% CI 1.0, 2.0, p = 0.04) times the odds of IPV compared to those who had not isolated. Those who reported an increase in food insecurity compared to pre-pandemic experienced 2.2 times the odds (95% CI 1.6, 3.0, p<0.0001) of IPV compared to those who did not report increased food insecurity. People in countries with more stringent social distancing policies were less likely to experience IPV compared to people in countries with lower levels of stringency (aOR = 0.6, 95% CI 0.4, 0.9, p = 0.04). IPV was common among middle-aged and older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our data suggest the need for further crisis management and social protection measures for middle-aged and older adults who have intersecting vulnerabilities to IPV to mitigate COVID-19 impact

PLOS Glob Public Health 4(5): e0002500.

By Phillip B. Levine, Robin McKnight

his paper examines the impact of high-fatality school shootings on the subsequent outcomes of the survivors of those events. We focus specifically on the shootings at Columbine High School (Littleton, CO), Sandy Hook Elementary (Newtown, CT), and Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School (Parkland, FL). We assess the subsequent educational record, including attendance and test scores, and the long-term health consequences of surviving students. In all analyses, we treat the timing and location of these events as random, enabling us to identify causal effects. Our results indicate that these high-fatality school shootings led to substantial reductions in attendance and test scores. These educational effects appear to be larger than the effects of shootings with fewer fatalities estimated by others. Children who survived the Columbine shooting were more likely to die by age 30, particularly among boys. They experienced higher levels of suicide and accidental poisonings (overdoses).

Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, First published: 23 February 2024

By Delvin Davis; Southern Poverty Law Center

Alabama has a long history of incarcerating Black children. For generations, the state has overly criminalized Black youth, pushing them out of school without due process and penalizing them more harshly than their white counterparts. Today, youth incarceration has also evolved into a lucrative business venture in Alabama. For-profit youth detention facilities have been repeatedly exposed for rampant abuse, while cutting corners to maximize financial profit. Overall, Alabama’s approach to youth justice has produced persistent racial disparities and a system that is more expensive than it is rehabilitative. This report examines the state’s youth legal system and offers policy recommendations for reform. Alabama’s youth legal system overemphasizes incarceration, even though youth crime rates have declined for decades. •  Contrary to the “superpredator” myth that predicted a sharp increase in youth crime, youth arrest rates decreased by 80%  in the U.S. and 86% in Alabama from 2000 to 2020. •  Alabama has the eighth-highest youth incarceration rate in the nation as of 2021. 4 Alabama’s school-to-prison pipeline and youth incarceration disproportionately impact  Black children. •  A Black student is suspended from Alabama schools every 15 minutes – leading to the sixth-highest suspension and expulsion rates in the country. •  Black children are more likely to be suspended from school than their white counterparts, even when committing similar offenses. •  Alabama’s schools are more likely to refer Black boys with disabilities to law enforcement than any other group of students. Alabama’s youth detention facilities – especially ones run for profit – have proven to be dangerously abusive to youth and expensive for taxpayers. •  Incarcerated youth experience harm from excessive solitary confinement, physical and sexual abuse, and educational disruption – all contributing to recidivism. •  Incarcerating a young person in Alabama for one year in a public facility ($161,694) or private facility ($120,450) is more expensive than the annual cost to educate that child in Alabama public schools ($12,092), fund community-based programs ($20,075), and pay for attendance at the University of Alabama and Auburn University combined Policy reforms for Alabama should prioritize youth rehabilitation, disruption of the school-to-prison pipeline, and investment in the successful futures  of children. The Southern Poverty Law Center’s recommendations: 1.  Alabama should end exclusionary and punitive discipline as an arbitrary, routine practice and require that local school boards create due process protections against long-term suspensions and expulsions. 2.  Alabama should discontinue the use of privately owned for-profit youth incarceration facilities. 3.  Alabama should make nonviolent offenses, especially technical violations and nonviolent drug offenses, nonjailable offenses for youth. 4.  Alabama should raise the minimum age of youth incarceration and prosecution in the state from 11 to at least 14. 5.  Alabama should invest in communitybased alternatives to youth incarceration, and school-based policies that prioritize rehabilitation and services to support children’s needs.

Montgomery, Ala.: Southern Poverty Law Center, 2024. 26p. 

By John Howard Society of Ontario, Social Research and Demonstration Corporation, Canadian Observatory on Homelessness

No Fixed Address: The Intersections of Justice Involvement and Homelessness represents the first phase of a new research endeavor conducted by the John Howard Society of Ontario in partnership with the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness and the Social Research and Demonstration Corporation. This report explores the vicious cycle of justice involvement and homelessness. People involved with the justice system are at an increased risk of becoming homeless, while people living with homelessness are at an increased risk of incarceration. There are various systemic barriers that serve to trap people in this cycle of homelessness and justice involvement, preventing reintegration into society after incarceration. This report also analyzed over a decade’s worth of data on admissions to Ontario’s correctional institutions for people with No Fixed Address. The findings suggest that the number of admissions of people with No Fixed Address has increased over the past decade. Furthermore, the problems are worse for some people than it is for others. It is clear that changes to policy and practices are required to prevent more people from becoming trapped in this cycle.

John Howard Society of Ontario, Social Research and Demonstration Corporation, Canadian Observatory on Homelessness, 2022. 58p.

By Rachel Cox

This paper looks at the implications of addressing gender-based violence and harassment (GBVH) under a work health and safety (WHS) framework. It describes the characteristics of gender-responsive WHS approaches to prevention of violence and harassment, in particular with respect to risk assessment and other WHS prevention mechanisms. Integration of rights and obligations under equality and non-discrimination legislation and WHS legislation are considered, specifically with respect to responses to GBVH within organisations and access to remedies for workers who have been harmed by such behaviour. Parallel prevention duties incumbent on organisations are also considered.

The paper concludes that addressing GBVH under a WHS framework allows for proactive, systematic, collective, inclusive and publicly-enforceable approaches to prevention. As such, WHS regimes have the potential to offer the kind of progressive and transformational change needed to prevent GBVH at work and ensure that women’s and other people’s equality rights, as well as their health and safety, are respected. However, given historical and ongoing resistance to the idea that GBVH is a work-related risk, a legal obligation to conduct a gender-responsive risk assessment emerges as an important precondition for effective prevention.

ILO Working Paper 116. 

Geneva: International Labour Organization, 2024. 55p.  

By Holly Blackmore, Freya McLachlan:  Australian Domestic and Family Violence Death Review Network, & Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety.

  This report presents the first national figures for filicides that have occurred in Australia in the context of domestic and family violence (DFV). In this research, DFV context means the filicide was preceded by an identifiable history of violence against the filicide victim/s and/or their siblings that was perpetrated by their parent/s and/or a history of intimate partner violence (IPV) involving their parent/s. The report examines the characteristics of filicide victims and offenders, as well as some of the broader characteristics of filicide. In doing so, this report adds to the national knowledge base of DFV-context filicide and the drivers of DFV. The report is a product of a national filicide project, which has been developed through the collaborative partnership between the Australian Domestic and Family Violence Death Review Network (the Network) and ANROWS.  

Sydney: Australia's National Research Organisation for Women's Safety (ANROWS), 

2024. 146p.

By Thorn in partnership with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children

Sextortion — threatening to expose sexual images of someone if they don’t yield to demands — has been a source of harm to youth for some time, but it has gained added urgency in recent years. Over time, several studies have examined how this abuse takes shape, its prevalence, and those impacted. Importantly, while sextortion can affect all ages, this report focuses explicitly on the sextortion of minors. Between 3.5% and 5% of people are believed to have experienced sextortion before reaching adulthood, with girls more likely than boys to be impacted. Historical surveys have found demands most often were sexual or relational in nature, including but not limited to demands for additional intimate imagery, engaging in sexual acts, or returning or staying in a romantic relationship. Research has also found the source of threats is mixed, with roughly half coming from people in a victim’s offline community, such as acquaintances or romantic partners/ex-partners, and the other half involving people they met online. In the last several years, concerns about a unique form of sextortion — financial sextortion — have been on the rise. Distinct from more often observed forms of sextortion, which frequently impacted girls and involved demands that were sexual or relational in nature, financial sextortion appears to more often impact boys and involves demands specifically for money. In addition, financial sextortion marks the emergence of new organized endeavors leveraging the internet to engage in financial sextortion at scale. In both cases, the impact on children can be devastating, leading to severe trauma and, in extreme cases, suicide due to sextortion. Older surveys of sextortion victims found that 12% reported they “moved to a new neighborhood, community or town” and that 24% reported that they “saw a mental health or medical practitioner as a result of the incident.” The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) has received more than 144 million reports, as of year-end 2022,6 of possible online child sexual exploitation, including sextortion, and was among the first organizations to raise alarms about the rise of financial sextortion. This report provides a deep dive into the reports submitted to NCMEC 

regarding sextortion, with a focus on the evolving trend of financial sextortion. The overall trend in NCMEC reports shows a large wave of sextortion cases since the beginning of 2022. Although the numbers do not, on their face, differentiate among types of sextortion, analysis of report details demonstrates this increase is largely driven by reports involving financial sextortion. Figure 1 outlines the rates of all reports made to NCMEC and categorized as sextortion, showing an average of 812 reports of sextortion per week in the last year of data analyzed (from August 2022 to August 2023) and 559 reports/week in the last two years of data (from August 2021 to August 2023), which come from reports submitted to NCMEC by the public, as well as many cases identified by Electronic Service Providers (ESPs) such as social media platforms, listed as “from platform.” These rates have many details and limitations, which we measure through sampling and manual coding. Furthermore, there are limitations due to the nature of the reports submitted to NCMEC. 

. For example, although we find that the vast majority of cases submitted in this period are financial in nature, we cannot know how much of this is due to cases, particularly nonfinancial sextortion, being underreported. These numbers should not be viewed as vague statistics, but rather should be viewed as being many specific cases of children being targeted and extorted by perpetrators seeking to amplify their fears and for them to give in to demands. This report focuses on the chat logs and incident descriptions in these reports because they provide insight into how these incidents unfold and into the situation in which victims find themselves when they experience sextortion. 

  Sextortion, and particularly financial sextortion, continues to be a major and ongoing threat, with an average of 812 reports of sextortion per week to NCMEC in the last year of data analyzed, and with reason to expect that the vast majority of those reports are financial sextortion.  

Thorn, 2024. 37p.

by Ryan Andrew Brown, Todd C. Helmus, Rajeev Ramchand

The report examines how U.S. military veterans describe their endorsement of extremist beliefs, their experiences in the military and in transition to veteran status, and their narratives of the path to their current political and ideological beliefs and perspectives. The authors conducted follow-up interviews in 2023 with military veterans who had previously indicated support for one or more extremist groups or beliefs on a 2022 survey to understand the drivers and patterns of extremism among veterans based on their experiences in and out of the service. The purpose of this effort was to better understand the ideology that undergirded their original support and to use their responses as a means of further exploring their political viewpoints. This report details the findings from these interviews, which revealed the considerable presence of negative and traumatic life events for interviewees while in the military and afterward while adapting to civilian life. Coupled with narratives of becoming involved in extremist ideas and groups, these narratives point to several possible implications for policy and practice, which in turn will require further research to design, test, and calibrate.

Key Findings

• Almost all participants who had supported the Proud Boys in the 2022 survey denied such support in the 2023 interviews, while nearly all the participants who affirmed support for the Great Replacement on the survey believed that the Democratic Party was attempting to purchase votes through lax immigration policies.

• Many participants affirmed support for the potential need for political violence, although the responses suggested that none was intent on acting on such support.

• Roughly three-quarters of interviewees reported a negative or traumatic life event while in the military, including from interpersonal conflict (often leading to discharge), combat trauma, and physical or sexual abuse.

• Some respondents described difficulties with the transition from military to civilian life, including missing the pace and camaraderie of military life, having no resources, not knowing where to turn for help or support, struggling with posttraumatic stress disorder or depression, and even experiencing homelessness and becoming imprisoned.

• Some respondents provided narratives of life experiences that helped push them toward more-extreme political viewpoints, although drawing causal connections in the current interview-based study is difficult.

• Some interviewees explained how they were socialized into their current ideological viewpoints through friends or family and/or how their social circles provide support and encouragement for radical beliefs and support of radical groups.

• Many respondents mentioned specific media sources, social media platforms, and podcasters or political influencers that helped shape their viewpoints.

Recommendations

• Further survey and interview-based research should draw more conclusive links between military and veteran transition experiences and outcomes related to extremism.

• Support for veteran transition programs and services should continue and be prioritized.

Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2024. 44p.

by Melissa M. Labriola, Dionne Barnes-Proby, Laura Whitaker, Grace Hindmarch, James P. Murphy

The Minor Victims of Sex Trafficking Program aims to develop and strengthen victim service programs for trafficking victims. These sites provide services to minor victims of sex trafficking and collaborate with local partners. This final report summarizes the activities of four sites, including how the organizations within each site communicate and partner, and provides a preliminary assessment of each site's readiness for process and outcome evaluations.

Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2024. 94p.

By James P. Murphy, Roland Neil, Jessica Welburn Paige

Key Findings

• The impact of police shootings is severe—particularly for communities of color in the United States—and more-nuanced research is needed to understand the dynamics of racial bias.

• Thinking of racial bias in police shootings as a process with a series of stages can improve research in this area. These stages include officers’ encounters with civilians, use of force, and the type of force used.

• Fully unpacking how racial bias operates in police shootings is challenging due to data limitations. These limitations include unreliable federal and crowdsourced datasets, and the problem is particularly severe for non-fatal shootings.

• The most common forms of tests—benchmark and outcome tests—face significant challenges in inferring bias that research has only started to confront.

• We recommend several ways to improve understanding of the dynamics of racial bias in police shootings: better data, clearer definitions and estimands, better methods, and the use of bounding and sensitivity analyses.

Shootings of racial minority civilians by police officers have long been a major social issue in the United States, the subject of extensive media coverage, and a reality that has galvanized social movements, such as Black Lives Matter. Police in the United States shoot people at far higher rates than police in other economically developed countries (Zimring, 2017). The victims of these shootings are disproportionately Black and, to a lesser extent, Hispanic, compared with their shares of the population. These shootings occur in a society that continues to grapple with its oftentimes racist history, one that, to this day, remains beset with pervasive racial inequalities. This is especially true of the relationship between police in the United States and the country’s minority communities, which, although complex, has long been characterized by high degrees of both mistreatment and mistrust. It is perhaps no surprise, then, that this issue has become a national flashpoint and that high-profile police shootings weigh so heavily on the psyche of Americans, especially Black Americans.

In this context, researchers have increasingly sought to answer a fundamental question: To what extent are police shootings of civilians driven by racial bias? This is research that is high profile and high stakes, being published in prestigious journals, getting coverage in leading media outlets, and gaining exposure among a public in search of answers. However, research on this topic faces limitations: the quality of data available and the methods used to make inferences about racial bias. These limitations are significant enough to call into question the findings of this body of work.[1]

In this essay, we review the evidence to date (as of early 2024) on racial bias in police shootings, focusing on the data and methodological challenges that exist for research on this topic. In particular, we explore the importance of thinking of racial bias as a process with a series of stages, the data that are available to study bias in shootings, the main methods that have been used and their limitations, and—crucially—how researchers ought to procced to arrive at stronger and more-informative conclusions. While we employ a critical eye, our goal is productive: to draw attention to the data and methodological improvements most needed to strengthen research on this pivotal topic.

Santa Monica CA: RAND, 2024. 23p.

by Jeremy D. Barnum, Meagan Cahill, Dulani Woods, Kevin Lucey, Michael J. D. Vermeer, Brian A. Jackson

Despite the growth and evolution of data in policing over the past several decades, calls for better data continue to grow. In this context, better refers not only to improved validity, reliability, timeliness, and usefulness of information already collected by police agencies but also to the introduction of new metrics that can better capture key aspects of policing and public safety that matter most to members of the community. Even with recent improvements, challenges remain; extant data are often difficult to use and typically offer limited insights about the quality or outcomes of policing. Furthermore, it can be difficult to operationalize important policing activities or define community-based metrics.

RAND and the Police Executive Research Forum, on behalf of the National Institute of Justice, convened a workshop of subject-matter experts, representing police practitioners, researchers, private vendors, and community advocates to discuss current police data collection programs and identify high-priority needs to inform a research agenda for developing better metrics in policing and the criminal justice system. Through a series of interviews and group discussion sessions, the research team and participants identified and prioritized a total of 24 needs related to policing data. These highest-priority needs address problems related to creating a culture of data and measurement in policing, finding ways to standardize data collection efforts across key measures, automating data collection and analysis processes, auditing data to ensure validity and reliability, and improving data collection systems.

Key Findings

Despite various data collection initiatives, the usability of police data remains significantly limited

• The field lacks uniform rules for how calls for service are coded and processed after the initial response, which impedes meaningful insight from calls-for-service data.

• Data are often stored across multiple systems and are difficult to export or link; they also contain incomplete or inaccurate information.

• Many systems often do not support data analysis, interoperability, or even data extraction.

• Agencies face difficulties in managing and fully leveraging data platforms because their complex software usually requires someone with technical or programming experience.

• Even a perfect data platform cannot overcome fundamental issues pertaining to the validity, reliability, and completeness of the underlying data.

Instilling a culture that values data and building the infrastructure to support it are important steps toward achieving better measures of justice. Participants agreed on the importance of

• comprehensive and intentional plans for integrating data into the tasks of each person and unit throughout an organization

• meaningful career pathways, certification and accreditation programs, and a set of standards to foster the professionalization of law enforcement data roles

• mechanisms that intentionally integrate civilian data stewards into the larger sworn culture to help agencies leverage data to inform operations and advise on ways to improve data-related processes and procedures

• new metrics that capture unmeasured but important aspects of police work

• modern, efficient, and user-friendly data tools that agencies can acquire for a reasonable cost

• regular data entry checks or data auditing processes to ensure data validity and reliability.

Recommendations

• Law enforcement agencies (LEAs) should hire individuals with strong analytic skills into permanent positions, such as certified crime analysts, trained researchers, and practitioner academics (i.e., pracademics), and provide them on-the-ground training with law enforcement officers.

• LEAs should engineer data collection environments and tasks to create "intelligent workflows," which automate validation checks that identify where additional data collection would be useful, and to prevent and reduce the potential for human error.

• Data collection must be mandated. Engaging the Peace Officer's Standards and Training program or other state-level agencies, professional organizations (such as the Police Executive Research Forum), community members, and police unions will be needed to provide legitimacy "close to the ground" to determine data priorities and create communities of practice around how to use and analyze the data that are being collected.

• LEAs should work with information technology vendors to develop data collection systems with built-in functions that facilitate information linkability, sharing, and analysis (e.g., interoperability, exportability, application programming interfaces, and visualizations). States can create laws requiring data collection and minimum data system standards and provide funding to assist LEAs with implementing such systems.

• Federal guidelines should be developed on the best approaches for determining a person's race and ethnicity to ensure that LEAs collect race/ethnicity data in a manner that is comparable to sources of baseline population data. These guidelines should also include methodological guidance on how to use and compare such data and identify outliers.

Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2024. 24p.

By Chloe Anderson, Brit Henderson, Lily Freedman, Kasey Eickmeyer, David Selby, Cassandra T-Pederson, and Sarah Picard

  Fairness and equal treatment are long-standing ideals in the American legal system. Yet Black and Hispanic communities remain disproportionately affected by the legal system, an issue linked to the country’s history of racial discrimination and segregation. Specifically, heavy policing, housing discrimination, and a lack of investment in education and social services in traditionally Black and Hispanic communities have left members of these communities more exposed to in volvement in the criminal legal system. Once involved in the system, people of color continue to face unequal treatment at every decision point connected to their cases. In particular, research shows that people of color, compared with White people, are more likely to experience nega tive outcomes during the pretrial period (the period from the point of arrest up to when a case is resolved in a verdict, plea deal, or dismissal). Decision points during the pretrial period—in cluding arrest, bond setting, and pretrial release and supervision conditions—are particularly important from a policy-change perspective, as these are all opportunities for racially disparate outcomes to emerge. This report presents findings from a multimethod study of racial and ethnic disparities in the pretrial processes of seven jurisdictions across the country. Specifically, the study aimed to assess racial and ethnic disparities in the jurisdictions’ pretrial case flows, explore the extent to which disparities accumulate across pretrial decision points, and illuminate the challenges and opportunities for addressing disparities from the perspectives of people who work in the participating jurisdictions’ legal systems. To do so, the team used descriptive quantitative analy sis, multivariate logistic and linear regression, path analysis, and discussions and focus groups with stakeholders. Overall, the study found that racial and ethnic disparities were common across jurisdictions at the point of entry into the legal system (as seen, for example, in disparities in arrest rates) and in charging and release-condition decisions (for example, release with or without supervision while awaiting trial). Even when factoring in individual and case characteristics including charge severity and risk level, as was done in two jurisdictions in this study, disparities persisted. In one jurisdiction where it was possible to analyze the whole course of the pretrial process through path analysis, disparities were found to accumulate across pretrial decision points, culminat ing in longer incarceration sentences. In particular, disparities emerging at the charging stage appeared to be important mediators that contributed to overall sentence-length disparities. However, even when holding charging factors constant, disparities in bond amounts and pretrial detention continued to contribute to overall sentence-length disparities for Black and Hispanic individuals, compared with White individuals. Taken together, these results suggest that miti gating disparities at earlier stages in the pretrial process may help mitigate disparities at the point of sentencing. People who work in the jurisdictions’ legal systems—in particular, those from the jurisdiction where the research team conducted the path analysis of the complete pretrial process—offered ideas for potential strategies to mitigate disparities in that process. These ideas included reduc ing the number of people who come into contact with the legal system through arrest reduction/ diversion and community-based supportive services, considering a person’s full circumstances in making release-condition decisions, diversifying legal system staffing, establishing stronger communication channels between different areas of the legal system, improving translation services for nonnative English speakers, and improving data quality and the monitoring of dispari ties. As the field and the country at large continue to grapple with racial and ethnic disparities in the criminal legal system, researchers and jurisdictions must shift toward pilot testing and evaluating promising approaches, as well as highlighting evidence-based solutions  

New York: MDRC, 2024. 65p.

By Heather Harris, Brandon Martin, and Sean Cremin

  In 2005, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) was given a rehabilitative mission, which included providing programs to reduce recidivism by addressing the needs of imprisoned people. This report examines how effectively the agency has delivered on this mission by describing the education, employment, and rehabilitative programs available to people released from prison between 2015 and 2019, assessing program participation, and mapping underlying trends in recidivism outcomes. Based on information that has not been available before, we offer context for the role of prison programs in people’s lives by describing pathways into prison, investigating factors that affect program participation, and setting the stage to trace post-prison pathways. Each of these elements highlights aspects of people’s lives before, during, and after prison that determine which programs are available to and appropriate for them. Introduction After the California Department of Corrections was rebranded the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) in 2005, a panel of experts was convened in 2006 to help CDCR realize its new rehabilitative mission. The panel recommended expanding program offerings and targeting programs to those with assessed need, with the aim of reducing recidivism by building social, job, and educational skills. Ten years later, two oversight agencies questioned whether CDCR had achieved these aims. The Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) and the state auditor found that people who needed in-prison programs often did not receive them. Even when they did, the programs did not achieve their aims, which include building life skills, changing during- and post-prison behavior, and reducing reoffending (Taylor 2017; Howle 2019). Both agencies recommended an independent evaluation of prison programs, which CDCR enlisted PPIC to conduct. About 1 in 1000 people living in California in any year were released from prison during that year; 64 percent of over 37,000 people released in 2019 had participated in at least one prison program. People entered prison with significant needs that reflect their pathways into prison. On average, people read at the eighth-grade level and had sixth-grade math skills. Over two-thirds needed substance use disorder treatment. More than four in ten needed cognitive behavior interventions and employment programs. Program capacity expanded dramatically between 2015 and 2019. Participation rates increased across all program areas—doubling or tripling for some—but remained below an ambitious goal of 70 percent. Programs faced challenges with accurate targeting. At most, 43 percent of people who initially tested into an education program and 21 percent of people with an assessed substance use need participated. Recidivism rates are lower than before these reforms but remain high. Over half of those with prior prison histories and 43 percent of first-timers were rearrested for felonies. Likewise, 28 percent and 21 percent, respectively, were reconvicted for felonies within two years. Though we do not attempt to connect recidivism to program participation, stubbornly high recidivism rates indicate the need to enhance prison programs to improve reentry pathways.  

 San Francisco: Public Policy Institute of California, 2024. 49p.

By John K. Roman, Gregory Haugan, Benjamin Schapiro and Sofia Rodriguez

  What are the effects of drug-related arrests on New York City neighborhoods? Effects of criminal justice actions (including incarceration, arrest, misdemeanor conviction, and/or community supervision) extend beyond individuals and families to include the well-being of local communities. Collateral, unintended consequences of drug arrests include negative education and socioemotional outcomes for children whose parents have been incarcerated, shocks to local crime dynamics that impact levels of violence, and even effects on property values. Local economies and drug arrests affect each other in ways that are difficult to disentangle. Drug arrests tend to cluster in particular places and those clusters may persist over long time periods. Places where drug arrests cluster may be more amenable to drug trafficking and less amenable to legal economic activity, and illegal drug activity may lead places to become less viable economically. Interactions between the micro economy and drug trade are not easily understood. Statistical models built with administrative data may lead to biased estimates. One solution is to employ statistical techniques to separate the effects of system-level shocks associated with drug arrests (e.g., policy changes, supply shocks), from the effects of local factors that may be tied up with local property values or general levels of violence (e.g., migration or gentrification). Data from system shocks may provide an unbiased estimate of the effect of drug activity on the microeconomy. Using data from New York City's Open Data Portal and other administrative data sets, researchers from NORC at the University of Chicago measured the collateral consequences of arrests for drug law violations. The spatial patterns of drug arrests over time were examined to test for a disproportionate impact on communities of color and economically disadvantaged communities. Annual drug arrests in individual census tracts were predicted by examining drug arrests in the rest of the city that year and weighting them by the share of all homicides in the city that occurred in the census tract in the baseline (i.e., pre-analysis) period. This is a variation on an instrumental variables approach known as a Bartik Instrument and is referred to as a “Bartik Shock.” Results suggest that arrests for drug-law violations in a neighborhood reduce property tax assessments and the effect takes up to three years to manifest. The delay may be due to the time it takes for changes in drug arrests to affect perceptions of safety. On the other hand, drug arrests could have more immediate effects on perceptions of safety but delays in the administrative process of assessing property values could account for a lag in values. Researchers also tested whether the effects of drug arrests vary according to a community’s socioeconomic status and racial composition. The results suggest that negative effects of drug arrests in the third year after the tax assessment are greatest in areas in the bottom quartile for median income. Effects of arrests on property values were also greater in communities of color, particularly driven by census tracts in the upper quartile for their share of the city's Hispanic population. The general goal of the analysis was to determine whether more drug arrests in a neighborhood are associated with changes in a community's economic well-being. The results indicate that, on average, a one percent increase in drug arrests is associated with a two percent decline in assessed property values, and the effect is lagged: drug arrests this year tend to affect property tax assessments three years from now.    

New York, NY: Research and Evaluation Center, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York. 2024. 29p.

By Gina Moreno, Richard A. Espinobarros, Sheyla A. Delgado, and Jeffrey A. Butts

  Arrest rates vary across the neighborhoods of New York City in ways that reveal racial and ethnic disparity. Researchers at the John Jay College Research and Evaluation Center (JohnJayREC)investigated the extent of disparities after controlling for differences in neighborhood demographics and crime rates as measured by 911 “calls for service.” The research team focused on two high-volume offenses: assault and larceny. Researchers created five neighborhood subgroups based on the proportion of Black and Hispanic residents in each neighborhood (quintiles from low to high). Next, they examined the percentage of arrests in each area that involved Black or Hispanic suspects. Neighborhoods with more Black and Hispanic residents reported more Black and Hispanic arrestees. However, the percentage of Black and Hispanic arrests relative to the percentage of Black and Hispanic residents (i.e., the “arrest to resident ratio”) was often disproportionate, particularly for larceny. Disparities could stem from a neighborhood’s crime reporting rate and the intensity of law enforcement efforts to investigate crime incidents and make arrests. Simple differences in race and ethnicity are not de facto evidence of police bias, of course, but monitoring disparity measures could help public officials guard the equity of justice policies and practices.

 New York, NY: Research and Evaluation Center, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York.2024. 15p.

by Beau Kilmer, Michelle Priest, Rajeev Ramchand, Rhianna C. Rogers, Ben Senator, Keytin Palmer

Psychedelic substances, such as psilocybin mushrooms and LSD, have long been touted as holding promise for treating various mental health conditions, and the past decade has seen another round of enthusiasm for this hope. Although the clinical research and associated media reports on these substances continue to grow, what receives less attention is the changing policy landscape for some psychedelics in the United States. Despite the federal prohibition on supply and possession — outside approved clinical research, the Food and Drug Administration's Expanded Access program, and some religious exemptions — some state and local governments are loosening their approaches to some psychedelics. In fact, some states are implementing or considering approaches that legalize some forms of supply to adults for any reason. It seems likely that more jurisdictions will consider and implement alternative policies to prohibiting the nonclinical supply of some psychedelics, possibly including retail sales. The primary goal of this mixed-methods report is to present new data and analysis to help inform policymakers participating in these discussions in the United States, but much of this report should also be useful to decisionmakers in other countries. These insights should also be useful to anyone who is interested in learning more about these substances and the public policy issues surrounding them.

Key Findings

• Unlike people who use cannabis and many other drugs, infrequent users of psychedelics account for most of the total days of use.

• The total number of use days for psychedelics — a proxy for the size of the market — is two orders of magnitude smaller than it is for cannabis.

• Within the class of drugs generally classified as psychedelics, psilocybin has the highest past-year and past-month prevalence rates among U.S. adults. Of those ages 18 and older, 3.1 percent — or approximately 8 million people — used psilocybin in 2023.

• Among those reporting the use of psilocybin in the past year, nearly half reported microdosing the last time they used it.

• Scientific literature is limited in its understanding of the consequences of using psychedelics and preventing and mitigating adverse events.

• Most of the policy changes at the state and local levels focus on supporting research and deprioritizing the enforcement of certain laws about psychedelics, but a few states have legalized some forms of supply and others are considering it.

• There are many supply policy options between prohibition and legalizing production and sales by for-profit companies.

• The role of price as a regulatory tool may matter less for psychedelics compared with many other drugs.

• Meaningful policy discussions should include Indigenous Peoples who are community authorize role of supervision and facilitators when considering changes tied to speak on these matters.

• Policymakers need to be thoughtful about th psychedelics policies.

• It is critical to improve the data infrastructure on psychedelics to better support policy analyses.

• Now is the time for U.S. federal policymakers to decide whether they want psilocybin and other psychedelic substances to follow in the  in the footsteps of the for-profit cannabis model.

Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2024. 161p.

A comparative study and recommendations on programmes for perpetrators of domestic and sexual violence

By  Sandra Jovanović Belotić and Berta Vall and  Kieran McCartan, 

  Programmes for perpetrators are an important element of preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence. They help to ensure that perpetrators take responsibility for their acts of violence and, ultimately, do not re-offend. The objective of these programmes is to enhance the safety and well-being of victims by addressing and ending violent behaviour, and by changing the behaviour of individuals committing domestic and sexual violence against women. Most violence against women is perpetrated by men, as research shows.1 Unless otherwise indicated, the term “perpetrators” used in this study refers to male perpetrators. It is also important to emphasise that this study employs language based on a person-centred approach, which distinguishes the person from their behaviour. In order to harmonise the terminology of this report, the terms “perpetrators of domestic violence” and “perpetrators of sexual violence” are used in the context of the two types of programmes for perpetrators covered in this research. The Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention) embeds preventive and intervention programmes for perpetrators in the framework of a comprehensive strategy to prevent violence against women. It obliges parties to the convention to set up and support programmes for perpetrators, whose primary focus must be to ensure the safety and support of victims.2 Article 16 of the Istanbul Convention provides specific obligations regarding the setting up or support for preventive intervention and treatment programmes. Article 16 - Preventive intervention and treatment programmes . Parties shall take the necessary legislative or other measures to set up or support programs aimed at teaching perpetrators of domestic violence to adopt non-violent behaviour in interpersonal relationships with a view to preventing further violence and changing violent behavioural patterns.  Parties shall take the necessary legislative or other measures to set up or support treatment programmes aimed at preventing perpetrators, in particular sex offenders, from re-offending.  In taking the measures referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2, parties shall ensure that the support and safety of victims, as well as the human rights of victims, are of primary concern and that, where appropriate, these programmes are set up and implemented in close coordination with specialist support services for victims. The Explanatory Report to the Istanbul Convention underlines that parties should establish their own programmes or support existing ones. The decision on how they should be run rests with the parties or programme providers, although the Explanatory Report outlines core elements for programme safety. Prior to the Istanbul Convention, minimum standards for working with perpetrators had been developed in a Council of Europe study entitled “Combating violence against women: minimum standards for support services.” Furthermore, the Council of Europe has provided an overview of the practices in relation to programmes for perpetrators, including guidance in the form of checklists for the establishment of programmes for perpetrators of domestic violence and sexual violence.

  In addition, the European Network for the Work with Perpetrators of Domestic Violence (WWP EN) provides guidance for the safe and effective work with perpetrators. In 2023, the network published its “European Standards for Perpetrator Programmes,” outlining key elements for setting up programmes for perpetrators based on a victim-centred approach. In practice, however, challenges remain in aligning existing programmes with the above principles. In monitoring the implementation of the Istanbul Convention, the Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (GREVIO) identified shortcomings in ensuring sufficient availability of programmes that are based on a victim-centred and gender-sensitive approach and that work in close co-operation with specialist support services.The research conducted by the European Network for the Work with Perpetrators also pinpointed common challenges that countries and service providers encounter when establishing and designing programmes for perpetrators that aim to respond to the provisions of the Istanbul Convention.These challenges relate specifically to the principle of victim-safety orientation in work with perpetrators, the provision of risk assessment and management, and to their level of integration of a gender perspective. This comparative study provides an overview of existing models and approaches for programmes for perpetrators and their results, responding to the need for such analysis stated in the Declaration on the Prevention of Domestic, Sexual, and Gender-Based Violence (Dublin Declaration) adopted by 38 member states of the Council of Europe in September 2022.9 The signatories to this declaration further specified the need to “identify promising practices and develop guidelines for the operation of perpetrator programmes to ensure baseline quality standards in line with the principles of the Istanbul Convention, notably a victim-centred approach that focuses on ensuring victims’ safety and support and full respect for their human rights.” Corresponding to the above, this study offers guidance for the establishment of safe and effective programmes for perpetrators of domestic and sexual violence, as required under Article 16 of the Istanbul Convention. It draws on promising practices and common challenges encountered in the design and implementation of these programmes. Using qualitative and quantitative research methods, the study’s aim is to provide clear and practical recommendations for the safe and effective implementation of programmes for perpetrators of domestic and sexual violence for use by policy-makers, service providers and practitioners.  

STrasbourg: Council of Europe, 2024. 49p.  

By Fiona Vera-Gray, Clare McGlynn, Ibad Kureshi, Kate Butterby

  This article examines the ways in which mainstream pornography positions sexual violence as a normative sexual script by analysing the video titles found on the landing pages of the three most popular pornography websites in the United Kingdom. The study draws on the largest research sample of online pornographic content to date and is unique in its focus on the content immediately advertised to a new user. We found that one in eight titles shown to first-time users on the first page of mainstream porn sites describe sexual activity that constitutes sexual violence. Our findings raise serious questions about the extent of criminal material easily and freely available on mainstream pornography websites and the efficacy of current regulatory mechanisms.  

  The British Journal of Criminology, 2021, 61, 1243–1260  

By Hannah Feeney,  Rebecca Pfeffer; et al.

  Research has associated the impacts of COVID-19 with an increased rate of gender-based violence (GBV), including sexual assault/abuse, intimate partner violence (IPV), and sex trafficking (Nix and Richards, 2021; Piquero et al., 2021; UNODC, 2021; Wood et al., 2022). Research has also indicated that the nature of violence experienced during the pandemic was more severe (Jetelina et al., 2021). Under typical circumstances, survivors of GBV may experience a wide range of impacts as a result of their victimization, including negative physical, psychological, and psychosocial outcomes (Aldrich and Kallivayalil 2013; Black et al. 2011; Farley et al., 2004; Kilpatrick et al., 2007; Yuan, Koss, and Stone 2006). These effects of GBV can be immediate (e.g., lack of physical security, increased stress), long-lasting (e.g., increased risk of depression, anxiety), and cumulative across the lifespan (Yuan et al., 2006). . The COVID-19 pandemic may have amplified these impacts for victims1. Many of the factors that place individuals at increased risk for or exacerbate the impacts of GBV have also been documented as impacts of the pandemic, including housing instability, job loss or changes in job security, economic strain, new childcare responsibilities, lack of social support, and increased substance use, among others (Prime, Wade & Browne, 2020). For survivors of GBV navigating these amplified impacts, the presence of and services available through community-based victim service providers (VSPs) were and continue to be essential. At the same, pandemic altered normal social functioning in ways that significantly disrupted VSPs and the systems with which they interact and on which they rely. VSPs faced the competing needs of higher demand for services and a heightened call to follow public health guidelines to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Physical distancing, limitations on the number of people allowed in an enclosed space, and closures to infrastructure critical to service delivery (e.g., schools, courts, public transportation) in some areas impacted providers’ ability to meet victims’ needs. Although these efforts are effective in preventing the transmission of COVID-19, they create unique challenges for those supporting individuals experiencing or recovering from victimization. The resulting adaptations that VSPs made were immediate and necessary but also inspired innovation and modernization in service delivery, some of which was long-lasting and even overdue. This unique combination of circumstances presents a critical opportunity to understand the impacts of such service modernization on victims and VSPs, as well as the value of established practice models. The purpose of this study was to understand the impact of COVID-19 on service provision for victims of GBV in eight U.S. counties that vary in geography, urbanicity, and sociopolitical settings. This study includes a sample of eight county-level sites from four states, with one rural and one urban county from the western (Washington), southern (Texas), midwestern (Illinois), and northeastern (Massachusetts) regions of the United States. This study was guided by three main research questions: (1) How did local legal, policy, and cultural frameworks impact victim  service provision during the COVID-19 pandemic, and how can policymakers better support VSPs in future crises? (2) How did the COVID-19 pandemic change VSP service delivery models and practices, and to what extent have those changes been successful or sustained in the long term? And (3) Were there patterns in the ways that victim services were impacted by COVID-19 based on victim or service provider characteristics, such as type of victims served, region, or number of staff?

Research Triangle Park, NJ: RTI International, 2023. 96p.