Robert J. Sampson talks to Adam Gopnik about crime, time and life trajectories
A podcast is also available.
— Read on www.vitalcitynyc.org/robert-sampson-adam-gopnik-interview-transcript/
Tag: Criminal Justice System
Traffic Tickets Issued in New York State
Traffic Tickets Issued: Four Year Window
Data extracted from records of tickets on file with NYS DMV. The tickets were issued to motorists for violations of: NYS Vehicle & Traffic Law (VTL), Thruway Rules and Regulations, Tax Law, Transportation Law, Parks and Recreation Regulations, Local New York City Traffic Ordinances, and NYS Penal Law pertaining to the involvement of a motor vehicle in acts of assault, homicide, manslaughter and criminal negligence resulting in injury or death.
Read more HERE
This is the direct link to the data HERE
Safe Roads for All – Evidence-Based Strategies for Keeping Our Roadways Safe
Each year, more than 40,000 people are killed and more than 2 million injured in preventable car crashes. Despite a growing body of evidence demonstrating the effectiveness of common-sense infrastructural and road design measures, traffic safety strategies in this country have largely focused instead on individual enforcement through high-volume police stops and ticketing. The report finds that this approach fails to prevent injuries and deaths from car crashes and in fact puts people at risk of harmful encounters with police. Ticketing practices that prioritize revenue generation over road safety also trap millions of people in inescapable cycles of fines, fees, and debt.
See more here: https://www.aclu.org/documents/safe-roads-for-all
Get a .PDF of the report HERE
Applied Police Briefings Journal
Applied Police Briefings (APB) addresses the challenge police professionals face in accessing and understanding policing research. Our mission is to make this research accessible, free of charge, and easy to understand.
Key features of APB include:
User-Friendly Access: An easy to navigate platform for all users
Open Access: Free access to all APB materials
Clarity in Communication: Research briefs are free of technical and statistical jargon
Concise Content: Briefs are kept succinct for quick and easy reading
Reputable Sources: We use reputable, peer-reviewed research that addresses key policing questions
Diverse Perspectives: Incorporating a variety of research methodologies and viewpoints
APB is dedicated to empowering police professionals with research insights to enhance their work.
— Read on appliedpolicebriefings.com/index.php/APB
New York’s Self-Induced Repeat Offender Problem
Sealing prior arrests may benefit lawbreakers in more ways than one.
— Read on www.city-journal.org/article/new-york-criminal-history-prior-arrests
CPE Publishes Report on Improving BART Fare Enforcement Operations
This month, the Center for Policing Equity (CPE) published a new report, BART Fare Enforcement: Balancing Goals, Community Concerns, and Human Costs, in partnership with Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART). The team received additional support from Stout, a global advisory firm specializing in corporate finance, accounting and transaction advisory, valuation, financial disputes, claims, and investigations. The report is a comprehensive assessment of BART’s approach to enforcing its fares, and CPE hopes to see the recommendations contained in this report adopted for implementation. Read on HERE
Related Resources from the Center for Policing Equity:
Equal protection under law: Supreme Court to rule
The Supreme Court’s decision in Pitchford v. Cain will test the enforcement of equal protection under the law and address racial bias in jury selection.
— Read on thehill.com/opinion/criminal-justice/5825551-jury-selection-equal-protection/
Releasing 12,000 shoplifters shows limits of progressive policing
Releasing 12,000 shoplifters shows limits of progressive policing
— Read on unherd.com/newsroom/releasing-12000-shoplifters-shows-limits-of-progressive-policing/
After George Floyd they promised social workers would replace cops — one just got attacked with a sword in Boston – Mass Daily News
Police respond to Hemenway Street near Northeastern University after a man attacked a mental health clinician and officer with a sword. Inset: A George Floyd mural in Berlin by street artist Eme. (Scene photo via Citizen app; mural via Wikimedia Commons)
— Read on www.massdailynews.com/2026/04/05/george-floyd-social-worker-promise-boston-clinician-stabbed-sword-hemenway
We can’t ‘incarcerate our way out of crime.’ But we can deter a lot more of it. – Niskanen Center
A post on X that went viral recently laid out a series of statistics about the percentage of serious crimes — murder, rape, robbery, assault, and so on — that are committed by people with prior arrests. All hovered between 60 percent and 79 percent. The post’s conclusion: “You can incarcerate your way out of crime. Facts.” Elon Musk, the platform’s owner, amplified the post to his hundreds of millions of followers and sharpened the point: “Either incarcerate or innocent people suffer.” To date, these two posts have nearly 50 million views each.
The claims in these posts are worth unpacking. First, Musk uses the correct metric: Reducing the suffering of innocent people is the proper goal of any criminal justice system, and public safety policy should be evaluated primarily by that standard. Musk is also correct in an important, albeit limited, sense: Failing to incapacitate genuinely dangerous people will lead to some level of crime and suffering that would have otherwise been avoided.
— Read on www.niskanencenter.org/we-cant-incarcerate-our-way-out-of-crime-but-we-can-deter-a-lot-more-of-it/
