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Estimating The Impact Of The Age Of Criminal Majority: Decomposing Multiple Treatments In A Regression Discontinuity Framework, Michael Mueller-Smith, Benjamin David Pyle, Caroline Walker Jul 2023

Estimating The Impact Of The Age Of Criminal Majority: Decomposing Multiple Treatments In A Regression Discontinuity Framework, Michael Mueller-Smith, Benjamin David Pyle, Caroline Walker

Faculty Scholarship

This paper studies the impact of adult prosecution on recidivism and employment trajectories for adolescent, first-time felony defendants. We use extensive linked Criminal Justice Administrative Record System and socio-economic data from Wayne County, Michigan (Detroit). Using the discrete age of majority rule and a regression discontinuity design, we find that adult prosecution reduces future criminal charges over 5 years by 0.48 felony cases (↓ 20%) while also worsening labor market outcomes: 0.76 fewer employers (↓ 19%) and $674 fewer earnings (↓ 21%) per year. We develop a novel econometric framework that combines standard regression discontinuity methods with predictive machine learning …


Negligent Hiring: Recidivism And Employment With A Criminal Record, Benjamin David Pyle Jul 2023

Negligent Hiring: Recidivism And Employment With A Criminal Record, Benjamin David Pyle

Faculty Scholarship

This paper tackles a difficult legal and policy challenge—reducing the impact of criminal justice records on job applicants’ chances in a manner that does not spur more discrimination—by looking at how another area of law, tort liability, impacts employers’ decision-making. It uses theoretical and empirical methods to study the most common reason employers report being reluctant to hire workers with a criminal record: legal liability generated by the tort of negligent hiring. While the purpose of the tort is ostensibly to protect and make whole those harmed when an employee misbehaves in a foreseeable manner, I show that, in practice, …


Understanding Violent-Crime Recidivism, J. J. Prescott, Benjamin David Pyle, Sonja B. Starr Jan 2020

Understanding Violent-Crime Recidivism, J. J. Prescott, Benjamin David Pyle, Sonja B. Starr

Faculty Scholarship

People convicted of violent crimes constitute a majority of the imprisoned population but are generally ignored by existing policies aimed at reducing mass incarceration. Serious efforts to shrink the large footprint of the prison system will need to recognize this fact. This point is especially pressing at the time of this writing, as states and the federal system consider large-scale prison releases motivated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Those convicted of violent crimes constitute a large majority of older prisoners, who are extremely vulnerable to the spread of the virus behind bars. Excluding them from protective measures will deeply undermine those …


Brief Of The Legal Aid Society, Bronx Defenders, Brooklyn Defender Services, Community Service Society Of New York, Center On The Administration Of Criminal Law At New York University School Of Law, Center On Race, Law And Justice At Fordham University Law School, Katal Center For Health, Equity, And Justice, And Brooklyn Community Bail Fund In Support Of Plaintiff-Appellant, Zohra Ahmed, Cynthia Conti-Cook May 2018

Brief Of The Legal Aid Society, Bronx Defenders, Brooklyn Defender Services, Community Service Society Of New York, Center On The Administration Of Criminal Law At New York University School Of Law, Center On Race, Law And Justice At Fordham University Law School, Katal Center For Health, Equity, And Justice, And Brooklyn Community Bail Fund In Support Of Plaintiff-Appellant, Zohra Ahmed, Cynthia Conti-Cook

Faculty Scholarship

In upholding the constitutionality of the officers’ prolonged detention of Mr. Vargas, the lower court inaccurately assumed that Mr. Vargas was labeled a “transit recidivist” by the New York City Police Department (NYPD) as a result of either an open warrant or a prior conviction.3 The amici submit this brief to correct this misconception.4 The NYPD actually labels New York subway riders “transit recidivist” based on a much broader, constitutionally compromised database that includes prior arrests and summons that have been dismissed, declined prosecution or otherwise terminated in favor of the accused.