digital punishment & surveillance
I study how privacy and surveillance are implicated during technological change. My book can tell you lots about how this works in the criminal legal system through the digitization of punishment and stigma. I’ve also written about this for Vice, Slate, the Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Appeal, the Crime Report. and the Minneapolis Star Tribune. My academic work in this area can be found in the ANNALS of American Political and Social Science, Law and Society Review, Punishment & Society, the British Journal of Criminology, and Law and Social Inquiry.
I recently published an article with Sarah Brayne and Karen Levy on “surveillance deputies,” detailing how regular people routinely surveil for the state. I also wrote about how digital criminal records operate as surveillance for the annual review of criminology.
This research has also been covered by the New York Times, The Guardian, NPR, the LA Times, and The Marshall Project.
algorithmic injustice
I analyze the data that powers algorithms now routinely used for criminal legal system proceedings (such as risk assessment tools) and in non-legal institutional settings (such as criminal background checks for housing and employment). This work assesses whether data used to power AI and automated decision-making is valid or reliable, and how bad and misleading data creates discrimination and harm. This research has been funded by the National Institutes of Justice and the American Bar Foundation. Rob Stewart is a collaborator.
You can read open access articles here and here.
This project has been featured in The Appeal and The Hill.
criminal records & discrimination
I also research the link between criminal records and discrimination, particularly in employment contexts. Together with Professors Chris Uggen, Mike Vuolo, and Ebony Ruhland, I conducted field experiments on the effects of low-level arrests on employment. Our papers are published in Criminology, and a related interview-based study of the audited employers appears in Law and Social Inquiry — with a longitudinal followup (conducted post-Ban the Box legislation) also published in Law and Social Inquiry. A related study of criminal record questions on job applications and Ban the Box is published in Criminology and Public Policy. Publications detailing our methodology are available at Sociological Methods & Research and in this book chapter. In forthcoming work, Bob Apel and I examine how technological shifts in hiring and experimental research are changing our understanding of criminal record discrimination.
As automated criminal record reform sweeps the country, I am also studying the implementation and impact of Clean Slate Policy, an algorithmic approach to expunging criminal records. This project is funded by the Clean Slate Initiative and is a collaboration with Professors Elsa Chen (Santa Clara University) and Ericka Adams (San Jose State University). You can learn more about the study (and sign up to participate!) here.
In a related project recently funded by the Russell Sage Foundation, I examine the impact of automated expungement on immigration outcomes. Bob Apel and Lorena Avila are collaborators.
In a forthcoming article in the Harvard Journal of Law & Technology, Alessandro Corda and I trace the historical relationship between data privacy and expungement. Stay tuned for that publication in Spring 2025.
I am also collaborating with a team studying the implementation and effects of recreational cannabis legalization and automated cannabis expungement law. This project is funded by the William T. Grant Foundation - you can read more about our study here.
Related qualitative research on public defenders can be accessed here, here and here.