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Health and mental health

Don't Jump the Shark: Understanding Deterrence and Legitimacy in the Architecture of Law Enforcement

November 2010
Series
Research for the Real World

Deterrence theory dominates the American understanding of how to regulate criminal behavior but social psychologists' research shows that people comply for reasons that have nothing to do with fear of punishment; they have to do with values, fair procedures and how people connect with one another. Professor Meares discussed the relevance of social psychologists' emerging theory to legal theory and practice and how deterrence and emerging social psychology theories intertwine.

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Changing the Behavior of Drug-Involved Offenders: Supervision That Works

December 2012
Series
Research for the Real World

A small number of those who commit crimes are heavily involved in drugs commit a large portion of the crime in this country. An evaluation of a "smart supervision" effort in Hawaii that uses swift and certain sanctioning showed that individuals committing crimes who are heavily involved in drug use can indeed change their behavior when the supervision is properly implemented.

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Reforming New Orleans' Criminal Justice System: The Role of Data and Research

September 2012
Series
Research for the Real World

With its criminal justice system in disarray following Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans invited the Vera Institute of Justice to examine the city's court and jail operations. For five years, Vera has been tracking arrest-to-first-appearance time, custodial arrests versus summonses, the granting of pretrial release, and many other decision-making points. Based on analysis of these data, Vera is making policy recommendations to assist with the implementation of new procedures and to ensure performance monitoring.

Transcript
Reforming New Orleans' Criminal Justice System: The Role of Data and Research
Audio file
Reforming New Orleans' Criminal Justice System: The Role of Data and Research

Prosecuting Cases of Elder Abuse

June 2010

This panel will feature NIJ-funded research that has direct, practical implications for the prosecution of elder abuse cases. Panelists will present findings from a study of prosecutors in three states that examined the factors that influenced their decisions to prosecute elder financial abuse cases. The panel will also provide the results from an evaluation of five innovative court-based models that target perpetrators of elder abuse.

Transcript
Prosecuting Cases of Elder Abuse
Audio file
1 of 4: Prosecuting Cases of Elder Abuse, Andy Mao, Senior Counsel for Health Care Fraud and Elder Justice, Civil Division, U.S. Department of Justice , 2 of 4: Prosecuting Cases of Elder Abuse, Shelly Jackson, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences, University of Virginia, Charlottesville , 3 of 4: Prosecuting Cases of Elder Abuse, Lori Stiegel, Senior Attorney, Commission on Law and Aging, American Bar Association , 4 of 4: Prosecuting Cases of Elder Abuse, Page Ulrey, Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney, King County Prosecutor's Office, Seattle, Wash.