By De’Ja Wood Over the summer, the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, sparked national protests and discourse about the need for radical police reform. Organizers across the nation called on their local and state governments to defund the police, invest in community resources that address the conditions that create violence within communities, and […]
Category: Homepage News
Firearms Testimony: Should it be the Smoking Gun?
By Alexi DeLara In recent decades, researchers, judges, and journalists have raised questions regarding the reliability of a range of widely utilized forensic techniques. This includes, but is not limited to, forensic comparison methods, such as latent fingerprint and firearm comparisons. The article, “Mock Jurors’ Evaluation of Firearm Examiner Testimony Notes,” written by Brandon L. […]
Join Our Team: Wilson Center Hiring an Associate Director
The Wilson Center for Science and Justice at Duke Law School is hiring an Associate Director. From the job description: The Wilson Center for Science and Justice aims to conduct interdisciplinary research to advance criminal justice and civil rights. The Center’s mission includes three important components: (1) research, (2) policy and law reform, and (3) […]
Remembering Roger Hood, a Champion of Justice and International Leader in Criminology
By Brandon Garrett Last night, Roger Hood, a champion of justice and international leader in criminology and in death penalty research, the founder of the Centre of Criminology at Oxford, and the greatest friend and mentor, to myself and countless other scholars, passed away in Oxford. His most recent work examined the death penalty in […]
Wilson Center’s Dr. Marvin Swartz Helps with New Mental Health Crisis App
Dr. Marvin Swartz, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University and part of the Wilson Center’s Behavioral Health Core, served as a consultant for a new My Mental Health Crisis Plan app and SAMHSA’s psychiatric advanced directive (PAD) toolkit. Psychiatric News published an article last week about the app, which provides a […]
Introducing a New Blog Series: Growing Above and Beyond
Editor’s Note: This is the first installment of an occasional series from the Wilson Center’s Michele Easter examining the intersection of nature and agriculture to support recovery, resilience, and community success within justice-involved communities. The logo for this series was created by Pitch Story Lab, the student-run creative agency at Duke University. By Michele Easter I […]
Federal Compassionate Release Opinion Cites Wilson Center Research on Risk Assessment
A U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Michigan cited research from the Wilson Center for Science and Justice in an order this week granting an incarcerated man compassionate release. Desmond Reginal Rodgers was serving 200 months in prison after pleading guilty to bank robbery, pharmacy robbery and a firearms charge in 2012. The […]
Forward Justice’s Atkinson Estimates 5,000 Could Vote This Election Thanks to Lawsuit over Felony Disenfranchisement
By De’Ja Wood and Sydney Gaviser Felony disenfranchisement rates are highest in Southern states, including in North Carolina, where voting restrictions passed during the Jim Crow era aimed to limit the political power of Black men. The Sentencing Project estimates that more than 5 million people across the nation will not be able to vote […]
DEAR Program Extends Court Debt Relief to 11,000 Residents with Suspended Licenses
Big news this week from the city of Durham: The Durham Expunction and Restoration (DEAR) Program has extended relief from court debt to more than 11,000 people whose drivers’ licenses were suspended because of inability to pay traffic fines and fees. During 33 court sessions over the past two years, the Durham County District Attorney’s […]
Groundbreaking Research Reveals Increase in Life-Without-Parole Sentences Amid Decline in Serious Crime
During a time in which homicide rates continue to fall, and death sentences plummet, life-without-parole (LWOP) sentencing persists at record levels. Although research has examined drivers of incarceration generally, and death sentencing specifically, there has been little research on LWOP sentences, despite their growing prominence. In a new, groundbreaking study, a team of researchers from […]