Cutting-Edge Criminal Justice Reform:
Poverty Traps, Junk Science, and High-Tech Policing
Thursday, January 10, 2019
12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. ET
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There is broad, bi-partisan agreement that the American criminal justice system is in dire need of reform. In this webinar, we will highlight three pressing issues ripe for reinvention. One broad set of interventions should address the way that criminal justice involvement—even involvement that does not produce an adjudication of guilt—further mires poor people in poverty. The use of cash bail and cascading fees and fines have produced what many have termed “the criminalization of poverty”—a system that often punishes people more harshly, or even solely, because they are poor.
A second area in great need of reform is forensic science. In the past few decades, frequently used forms of evidence such as fingerprint, hair and fiber, and bite-mark evidence have been unveiled as scientifically questionable and often unreliable, leading to numerous wrongful convictions. The systems by which forensic science is validated and scientific evidence is collected, stored, and presented in court are overdue for an overhaul.
Finally, technological innovations in policing—such as cellphone tracking, license plate readers, facial identification, and drones—offer unprecedented new powers to investigate and prevent crimes, but also unprecedented dangers in terms of potentially unreliable evidence and invasions of privacy.
Harvard’s Criminal Justice Policy Program, which Professors Steiker and Whiting co-direct, has partnered with criminal justice policy-makers on all three of these topics. CJPP’s work will serve as a springboard to discuss the need and prospects for change in these cutting-edge areas. Register Today! |
No travel required. This is a virtual session.
The one hour, monthly HLeX Open Lecture Series is an alumni engagement program that provides HLS alumni around the globe with an opportunity to hear from HLS faculty with the convenience of being in your own office!
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