Serving Justice
Unlocking lex talionis
Christopher Lewis
Journal of Legal Analysis, 2026, Pages 19-50
Abstract:
In this article, I operationalize the classical retributive formulation of proportionality — lex talionis, or "an eye for an eye" — to give some conservative estimates of what it might entail as a limit on the severity of permissible punishment. Respecting lex talionis would entail a radically lenient transformation of the criminal legal systems of the United States (and many other countries), reducing incarceration for nonhomicide offenses by at least an order of magnitude.
Local Prosecutors and Public Health
Panka Bencsik & Tyler Giles
Vanderbilt University Working Paper, February 2026
Abstract:
Legal scholars argue that local prosecutors may be the most powerful actors in the criminal justice system, yet there is a limited understanding of how different prosecutorial approaches shape community level outcomes. This paper investigates the causal relationship between approaches taken by local criminal prosecutors — also called district attorneys — and community-level mortality rates. We leverage plausibly exogenous variation in prosecutorial approaches generated by closely contested partisan prosecutor elections, a context in which Republican prosecutorial candidates are commonly characterized as "tougher on crime." Using data from hundreds of closely contested partisan elections from 2010 to 2019 and a vote share regression discontinuity design, we find that narrow election of a Republican prosecutor reduces all-cause mortality rates among young men ages 20 to 29 by 6.6%. This decline is driven predominantly by reductions in firearm-related deaths, including a large reduction in firearm homicide among Black men and a smaller reduction in firearm suicides and accidents primarily among White men. Mechanism analyses indicate that increased prison-based incapacitation explains about one third of the effect among Black men and none of the effect among White men. Instead, the primary channel appears to be substantial increases in criminal conviction rates across racial groups and crime types, which then reduce firearm access through legal restrictions on gun ownership for the convicted.
Bifurcating Relief and Legitimating Mass Incarceration: An Analysis of Obama's Clemency Initiative
Elena Amaya et al.
Law & Policy, April 2026
Abstract:
In April 2014, then-President Barack Obama announced an initiative to grant clemency to thousands of federal prisoners serving long sentences for non-violent crimes, targeting a reduction in racial disparities in drug-crime sentences. Critiques of the initiative's implementation abound, but 1715 people ultimately received clemency — more than under any previous president. We investigate Obama Clemency Initiative outcomes, focusing on the total pool of clemency applicants. Using clemency applicant data from the Office of the Pardon Attorney combined with "inmate locator" data from the Federal Bureau of Prisons, we construct a dataset of the 20,464 individuals who applied for clemency and had their petitions reviewed during Obama's presidency. After the Initiative was announced, overall demographic patterns of reviewed applicants shifted, becoming increasingly diverse in terms of race and age (but not sex). Notably, the proportion of White petitioners who applied for and received clemency more than doubled, while the proportion of Black petitioners who applied for and received clemency declined, suggesting that the Initiative's aims of equity were not fully realized across racial groups. We consider the theoretical implications of these patterns for understanding the role of clemency in the legal system and its potential as a tool of policy reform.
The Drunkometer and the Birth of Chemical Citizenship: How the Original Breathalyzer Reconfigured the Relationship between the State and the Body
Ryan Steel & Laura Browder
Law & Social Inquiry, forthcoming
Abstract:
Tens of millions of Americans are subject to drug and alcohol tests each year. How did this biochemical surveillance become so routine and normalized? This article examines the historical emergence, contestation, and gradual acceptance of the first biochemical surveillance technology, the drunkometer — the predecessor of the breathalyzer — which analyzed blood alcohol content in the breath. In the 1930s, public concerns over drunk driving grew alongside mistrust of rapidly expanding policing and security apparatuses. In this context, the drunkometer emerged as a seemingly commonsense solution to the problems of drunk driving and police mistrust, using a scientific technology to decenter law enforcement testimony and, in turn, streamline difficult cases. By examining contestations to the drunkometer in newspapers, court records, and other public documents, we detail how courts and the public gradually accepted the biochemical constitution of the body as the legitimate domain of authoritative institutions. We introduce the concept of "chemical citizenship" to analyze this authoritative institutional use of biochemical technologies to extract and deploy "the truth" about substance use as a mode of governing access to the rights and benefits of citizenship. We apply this concept to demonstrate how the drunkometer laid the foundation for contemporary drug testing.
Judge Ideology and Corporate Tax Planning
Travis Chow et al.
Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, forthcoming
Abstract:
We investigate whether judges' political ideology affects corporate tax behaviors. We find firms engaging in less aggressive tax planning when Circuit Court judges are more liberal. Cross-sectionally, the deterrent effect of liberal judge ideology is more pronounced for firms that engage in judiciary-sensitive tax strategies, face higher enforcement risk from the Internal Revenue Service, or have larger reputational costs from tax disputes. Our findings further suggest that liberal judge ideology reduces firms' R&D investments and market value by constraining tax planning. Overall, our evidence highlights the importance of judge ideology to firm behavior in the context of corporate tax planning.
Judicial Professional Background and Pretrial Detention Outcomes
Oded Oren & Chad Topaz
Journal of Law and Courts, forthcoming
Abstract:
We analyze nearly 70,000 New York City criminal court arraignments to examine how judges' professional backgrounds influence pretrial detention. We classify judges as having experience in law enforcement, legal services, both, or neither. Judges with law enforcement backgrounds are, on average, 3.9 percentage points more likely than others to order detention and impose cash bail. When bail is imposed, they set amounts about 32% higher. No significant differences emerge for legal services backgrounds. Because law enforcement experience is common among judges, our findings have broad implications for pretrial detention nationwide.
Forms of Commitment: Comparing Written and Verbal Consent in Three Psychological Experiments
Roseanna Sommers & Vanessa Bohns
Journal of Legal Studies, January 2026, Pages 171-205
Abstract:
Consent forms, often hailed as a means of protecting vulnerable individuals, are ubiquitous. We argue that consent forms are likely to activate people's "contract schemas" — mental scripts implicitly called upon whenever people encounter documents that resemble contracts. Across three experiments, we identify the psychological baggage that accompanies contracts and elucidate how these problematic associations bedevil consent forms, which serve a distinct purpose. In Study 1, laboratory participants were asked to consent to an unrestricted search of their smartphones; those whose consent was sought in writing reported feeling more pressured to consent than participants approached verbally. In Study 2, participants regarded written consent as more binding than oral consent across a variety of domains. In Study 3, the introduction of written consent led people to downgrade the importance of verbal consent. In light of these findings, we call for greater judicial sensitivity to how ordinary people understand consent formalities.
The power of victim narrative: Eponymous legislation increases voter sympathy and support
Krystia Reed et al.
Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, forthcoming
Abstract:
Legislators often propose bills in honor of a victim following a tragic event involving public outrage (e.g., AMBER Alerts, Megan's Law). Such bills and subsequent laws that involve a victim's name and story are known as eponymous legislation. Legal commentators have raised concerns that this legislation garners unwarranted emotional support from the public. We conducted three experiments to empirically test whether eponymous legislation received greater public support than legislation without a victim's name and story. In Study 1 and Study 2, participants read a proposed bill that either included a victim's name and narrative (eponymous condition) or not (control) and rated their approval of the bill, cognitive and affective responses, and reasoning. In both of these studies, participants were significantly more likely to support the eponymous bill than the control bill. Study 2 further suggested the effect was mediated by sympathy. In Study 3, we manipulated the victim's name and narrative separately and found that narrative, not name, drove increased support. Narrative also increased sympathy in Study 3, but sympathy did not mediate the effect of narrative on bill support. Findings support legal commentators' concerns about eponymous legislation. Legislators need to be cautious when proposing such bills to ensure that they are not ineffective or harmful despite receiving increased public approval.
Employment discrimination faced by people wrongly convicted: Evidence from a national correspondence audit experiment
Kyle Scherr et al.
Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, forthcoming
Abstract:
People wrongly convicted face barriers when attempting to reintegrate, often to a similar or greater degree than guilty people. We conducted a correspondence audit experiment to test the causal influence of wrongful conviction on attempts to secure employment. Posing as applicants, we applied to 15,579 entry-level jobs on Indeed.com across five U.S. metropolitan areas and tracked positive responses (e.g., interview requests) from employers. We compared applicants with varying types of criminal records against a control applicant with no criminal record, varying whether applicants with records were wrongly convicted based on a false confession or an eyewitness misidentification, or were guilty. We further varied crime severity via a drug or manslaughter conviction. Although crime severity had no effect on positive response rates, wrongly convicted applicants received significantly fewer positive responses than the control applicants, regardless of whether their wrongful conviction involved a false confession or eyewitness misidentification. Positive response rates for wrongly convicted applicants were not significantly different than the rates received by guilty applicants. Tests of equivalence indicated that the two wrongly convicted applicant conditions were statistically equal. Our findings demonstrate that people who are wrongly convicted and exonerated face discrimination when attempting to secure employment, thereby undermining their ability to successfully reintegrate into society. We offer four policy reforms: employment and vocational training built into state statutes, positive credentials (e.g., certificates of innocence) to reduce hiring discrimination, tax credits to hire people wrongly convicted, and automatic record expungement upon exoneration.
Do police tactics matter? Street-level drug enforcement and the likelihood of felony prosecution
Nicholas Paul
Police Practice and Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
This study examines whether specific street-level drug enforcement tactics influence the likelihood of felony prosecution. A mixed-methods design was used to first identify routine tactics through a focus group with experienced narcotics officers, followed by quantitative analysis of 1,190 felony drug arrests from Orange County, Florida. Logistic regression results indicate that buy-walk operations significantly increase the odds of felony prosecution compared to traffic stops, while search warrant arrests are less likely to result in felony charges. Additional predictors of felony prosecution include confessions, actual possession, recovered money, and prior criminal history. Findings suggest that some widely used tactics may be less effective in achieving prosecutorial goals, raising concerns about their utility and potential collateral consequences. The results offer evidence-based guidance for police administrators seeking to align enforcement practices with legal outcomes and organizational objectives.