Doctoral Dissertation Research: Civil Asset Forfeiture, Urban Policing, and Criminal Justice Reform

对于评估全国各地法律改革举措有效性的学者来说，费城的刑事司法系统一直是几次重要辩论的中心。这场辩论的起因是该市执法政策和做法的历史，这些政策和做法对生活在不同社区的居民产生了不成比例的影响。在2000年至2015年的民事资产没收实践中，这种地理格局最为明显。这种特殊做法使执法机构能够没收犯罪嫌疑人的资产，并利用这些资产为进一步的警务工作提供资金。这样，民事没收与其他刑事司法做法，如现金保释是一致的，即使对那些未被定罪的被告也可能造成经济后果。注意到没收几乎只发生在该市最贫穷的社区，这项研究对一名学生进行了实证、科学数据收集和分析方法的培训，询问费城的警察和检察机构是如何决定没收现金和财产的。用什么标准来决定一项资产是否可被没收？这种做法对费城人的日常财务状况有什么影响？通过这项研究收集的数据将对那些讨论新的刑事司法政策的人有指导意义。它还将促进对刑事司法系统如何与低收入社区的财务福利相交的新的社会科学理解。在纽约大学迈克尔·拉尔夫博士的指导下，杰克逊·史密斯将探讨民事财产没收对城市社区刑事司法和治安的影响。鉴于费城刑事司法改革努力的进展，在费城进行这项研究尤其及时。在2000年至2015年期间，该市广泛使用了这种制度，但在新任地方检察官的领导下，这种制度不太可能继续下去。该市目前还在进行一项为期数年的倡议，以减少其被监禁人口。该市的被监禁人口一直是美国最高的美国最大的十个城市。正因为如此，费城是一个理想的实验室，用来检验民事资产没收使社会经济差异制度化的假设。本研究将利用一系列丰富的跨学科方法，包括民族志、档案研究和GIS可视化，绘制这些刑事司法问题的近代史，从地理上可视化整个城市的警务影响，并评估刑事司法改革的早期成就。研究将包括系统地审查记录该市在2015年之前使用没收的法庭记录，以及与利益相关者的访谈，以阐明最近改革的挑战和成功。这项研究将推进刑事司法系统的更全面和综合的理解，重点是它如何塑造财务健康。在此过程中，它还将及时提供对刑事司法改革建议的见解。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

For scholars evaluating the efficacy of legal reform initiatives around the nation, Philadelphia's criminal justice system has been at the center of several important debates. This debate is motivated by the city's history of law enforcement policies and practices that disproportionately impact residents living in various neighborhoods. Nowhere is this geographic pattern more visible than in the practice of civil asset forfeiture between 2000 and 2015. This particular practice permits law enforcement agencies to seize assets from people suspected of crimes and to use those assets to fund further police work. In this manner, civil forfeiture is consistent with other criminal justice practices, such as cash bail, that may pose financial consequences even for those defendants who are not convicted of crimes. Noting that forfeiture has taken place almost exclusively in the city's poorest neighborhoods, this research, which trains a student in the methods of empirical, scientific data collection and analysis, asks how police and prosecutorial agencies in Philadelphia make decisions about the seizure of cash and property. What criteria is used to determine whether or not an asset is forfeitable? What impact does this practice have on the everyday financial wellbeing of Philadelphians? The data collected through this research will be instructive to those debating new criminal justice policies. It will also advance new social scientific understandings of how the criminal justice system intersects with financial wellbeing in low-income communities. Jackson Smith, under the supervision of Dr. Michael Ralph of New York University, will explore the impact of civil asset forfeiture on criminal justice and policing in urban communities. Situating this research in Philadelphia is especially timely given the progress of criminal justice reform efforts there. It was widely used by the city between 2000 and 2015, and is not likely to continue under the leadership of the new district attorney. The city is also currently undertaking a multi-year initiative to reduce its incarcerated population, which had been the highest among the U.S.'s ten largest cities. Because of this, Philadelphia represents an ideal laboratory for testing the hypothesis that that civil asset forfeiture institutionalizes socioeconomic differences. This research will utilize a rich set of interdisciplinary methods, including ethnography, archival research, and GIS visualization, to chart the recent history of these criminal justice issues, geographically visualize the impacts of policing throughout the city, and appraise the early achievements of criminal justice reform. Research will include a systematic review of court records documenting the city's use of forfeiture prior to 2015, as well as interviews with stakeholders to illuminate the challenges and successes of recent reforms. This research will advance a more holistic and integrated understanding of the criminal justice system by focusing on how it shapes financial wellbeing. In doing so, it will also offer timely insight into proposals for criminal justice reform.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.