John Rappaport and Ben Grunwald are no strangers to writing about flaws in the American policing system – you may recognize their bylines from their research last year about wandering officers, a coin they termed for police officers who were fired by one department, often for something serious, but who later found work in another […]
Category: Blog
Support During Justice System Re-entry: A Look at Critical Time Intervention
By Chinmay Amin It’s widely documented that individuals who live in homeless shelters and suffer from mental illness often experience cycles of recurrent homelessness during their transition to living independently. The same is true for homeless persons with mental illness navigating justice system re-entry. After staying in a shelter for an extended period of time, […]
Brayne Talks Police Surveillance in First Novel Justice Event
By Belle Allmendinger The Wilson Center welcomed Sarah Brayne, Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Texas at Austin, for the first installment of the Novel Justice series, which invites recently published criminal justice authors to present their work and discuss their findings. Brayne’s book, Predict and Surveil: Data, Discretion and the Future of […]
Wilson Center’s Fall Students Bring Excitement, Passion for Criminal Justice Work
More than 40 students worked with the Wilson Center during the fall semester, with many continuing on with their projects this spring. The Duke University undergraduates, law students, and graduate students worked across more than 10 projects, bringing their excitement and passion for criminal justice research in their work, according to Research Director Dr. William Crozier. “Despite the […]
Online Conference Offers Scholars Maximum Feedback on Research
By Belle Allmendinger The Wilson Center and Duke Law’s Ben Grunwald hosted the inaugural Empirical Criminal Law Roundtable in December. “We are so pleased to have gathered together such an impressive and collegial group of scholars from across the country, to share their works in progress and provide feedback designed to improve the quality of […]
A Deeper Dive into the Recent Racial Equity Task Force Recommendations
By Annie Han In December, North Carolina’s Task Force for Racial Equity in Criminal Justice (TREC) released 125 recommendations that encompass all aspects of the criminal justice system, starting with police contact, then the courts, and sentencing. “North Carolina can reimagine public safety to provide accountability for victims and safety for communities without the grotesque […]
Connection, Trust, and Recovery: A New Series About Peer Support
Editor’s Note: If you’ve ever needed help but weren’t sure where to turn, then you know how important just one trustworthy guide can be. This blog post is the first of an occasional series called “Connection, Trust, and Recovery,” by Michele Easter. The series is about how peer supporters can help people who are returning […]
Wilson Center Executive Director to Return to Private Practice
Thomas Maher, who has served as Executive Director at the Wilson Center, will be departing to return to private practice on January 1. Maher, who has taught criminal trial practice to Duke Law students for nearly 30 years, joined the Center in March 2020. He is returning to criminal defense work in the hopes of […]
Student Post: Policing Term ‘Excited Delirium’ Should Not Justify Risky Ketamine Use
By De’Ja Wood This summer, the murder of George Floyd seized national attention and sparked protests and discourse about police violence across the country. The ongoing discussion about police brutality led to an online petition calling for Colorado government agencies to reopen the investigation in the death of Elijah McClain, a 23-year old Black man […]
CSAFE Presentation Examines Lay Jurors Perceptions of Forensics
Wilson Center researchers recently joined Nicholas Scurich, Associate Professor of Criminology, Law & Society, Vice Chair of the Department of Psychological Science at the University of California in Irvine, to explain their findings about lay jurors perceptions of forensic evidence. Wilson Center Director Brandon Garrett and Research Director Dr. William Crozier described two experiments as […]