New Durham-based pilot study explores the impact of choice in direct financial assistance programs on health and recidivism for formerly incarcerated adults Researchers at the Wilson Center for Science and Justice at Duke Law, Duke University School of Nursing, and the Duke Department of Population Health Sciences have partnered to launch SAFE HOPE (Supporting Adult […]
Category: Homepage News
Recap: From Punishment to Prevention
Driver’s License Suspensions: What Other States are Doing Differently Watch the full panel above. On April 23rd, the Wilson Center for Science and Justice hosted the third and final installment of the Life on Hold series. After earlier sessions examined how driver’s license suspensions affect North Carolinians and why people miss court dates, this conversation […]
Congrats to our graduates!
Nine McAtee JustScience Lab students received their degrees this past weekend This past weekend, almost 7,000 Duke students across campus received degrees after years of hard work. We are proud to share that among those graduates were nine of the Wilson Center’s McAtee JustScience Lab students. We extend our heartfelt gratitude, appreciation, and congratulations to […]
Research Assistant Karina Lu on Punishment, Reentry, and the Questions that Don’t Fit Neatly into Data
As a freshman competing in moot court, Karina Lu was assigned a hypothetical case about a juvenile given a virtual life sentence. She started reading Eighth Amendment case law, trying to understand what the Constitution actually permits under “cruel and unusual punishment,” and found the question harder to put down than she expected. The following […]
Speaking Up for Youth: Law Student Daniela Hernandez-Gil on Juvenile Justice Advocacy
For rising Duke Law 3L Daniela Hernandez-Gil, working with the Wilson Center for Science and Justice has meant standing alongside young people navigating one of the most difficult moments of their lives. As a a member of our McAtee JustScience Lab student supporting Sam Lawrence’s work with incarcerated children, much of Dani’s work centers on […]
Join Our Webinar: Extreme Risk Protection Orders in Practice: Balancing Risk and Rights, Ensuring Justice
Join us for a webinar and panel discussion Date: Monday May 11 Time: 1pm Eastern Time Register here Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPOs) laws authorize law enforcement with a civil restraining order to temporarily remove and prohibit access to firearms for individuals who pose a significant risk of harming themselves or others. As ERPOs have […]
Work in Progress: Studying Death by Distribution
Michele Easter is currently conducting a comprehensive study of “Death by Distribution” prosecutions in North Carolina with co-authors Rita Grunberg, Madeline Stenger, Lindsay Bass-Patel, Jeffrey Swanson, and Abigail Lee (A.B. ’25). Death by Distribution refers to homicide charges to prosecute a lethal overdose, specifically against the person who shared or sold a drug that led […]
Recap: The Highest Law in the Land: A Conversation with Jessica Pishko
The sheriff is one of the most powerful and least scrutinized figures in American law enforcement. That was the argument at the center of an evening with journalist, lawyer, and author Jessica Pishko, co-hosted by the Duke Justice Project, the Wilson Center for Science and Justice, the Duke Decarceration Project, and the Duke Law chapters […]
Recap: Why People Don’t Appear For Court and What Happens When They Don’t
Part 2 of our Webinar Series “Life on Hold: The Impact of Driver’s License Suspensions” On March 19th, the Wilson Center for Science and Justice hosted the second installment of the three-part Life on Hold series. The discussion focused on “Failure to Appear” (FTAs), why people miss their court dates, how current responses to FTAs […]
From Research to Real-World Impact: Lessons from My Time at the Wilson Center
Samantha Richter Reflects on her Time in Our McAtee JustScience Lab I replayed the same forty-five seconds of audio three times before I realized I’d stopped transcribing altogether. It was 10:30 p.m. on a Tuesday in my second semester of freshman year. My roommate had just gotten home, filling our dorm with the familiar sounds […]