RAPID: Challenges and Novel Responses in Law Enforcement and Criminal Courts to the COVID-19 Pandemic

与影响有限地理位置的其他类型的自然灾害相比，目前的大流行病对整个国家的影响是引人注目的。刑事司法系统也未能幸免于这种影响，执法部门和法院不得不调整其业务决定和应对措施。本研究将对执法机构和成人刑事法院进行连续访谈，以应对COVID-19的公共卫生威胁。它不仅试图记录这些机构如何作出反应，而且要了解它们为什么作出这样的反应，它们的反应如何随着新信息的出现而改变，以及它们在这一过程中所面临的实际和务实的挑战。为了实现这些目标，结果力求为备灾、资源管理和刑事司法政策提供信息。人们一直认为，自然灾害和技术灾害的有害后果在很大程度上取决于受灾人口的物质和社会脆弱性，或获得物质、社会和经济资源的机会。同样，组织、企业和其他机构在破坏性事件面前的脆弱程度也各不相同。当面对这样的事件时，他们如何应对这种脆弱性，一般可以在组织决策的背景下理解，这意味着一个复杂的过程，涉及与潜在替代选择相关的具体和抽象成本和收益的不同权重。本研究借鉴了应急管理、理性选择、警务和刑事法院管理的理论/框架，以了解执法机构和刑事法院应对COVID-19不断演变的威胁的方式。为此，将对50个州的执法和刑事法院进行分层随机抽样，并进行纵向自我报告调查，以审查以下问题：(1)这些实体因COVID-19而面临的实际和行政挑战；(2)为了应对COVID-19大流行，他们已经实施或希望实施但无法实施的具体战略/计划；(3)应对措施及其实施中的挑战、成功和后果（预期的和意外的）；以及(4)为什么设计、实施或不实施应对措施、成功、具有挑战性并产生了各种结果。然后，研究结果可用于为制定新的应对措施和改进创新政策和做法的实施提供信息，包括流行病应急管理计划以及如何在公共卫生和刑事司法系统之间进行有效的沟通和协作。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。

Compared to other types of natural disasters which impact a limited geographic location, the current pandemic is remarkable for the effect it has had on the entire country. The criminal justice system has not been immune to this impact with law enforcement and courts having to adapt their operational decisions and responses. This study will conduct successive interviews with law enforcement agencies and adult criminal courts as they navigate and respond to the public health threat of COVID-19. It seeks to not only document how these agencies have responded, but to understand why they responded as they have, how their response has changed as new information becomes available, and the practical and pragmatic challenges they have faced in the process. Towards these ends, results seek to inform disaster preparedness, resource management, and criminal justice policy.It has been argued that the deleterious consequences of natural and technological disasters depend largely on the physical and social vulnerability, or access to physical, social, and economic resources, of the impacted population. In much the same way, organizations, business, and other institutions are differentially vulnerable to disruptive events. How they cope with this vulnerability when confronted by such an event can be generally understood in the context of organizational decision making, which implies a complex process that involves differentially weighting specific and abstract costs and benefits associated with potential alternative choices. This study draws on theories/frameworks of emergency management, rational choice, and policing and criminal court administration in order to understand the manner in which law enforcement agencies and criminal courts are coping with the evolving threat of COVID-19. Towards these ends, a stratified random sample of law enforcement and criminal courts in each of the 50 states will be obtained and a longitudinal self-report survey will be administered in order to examine the following issues: (1) the practical and administrative challenges these entities face due to COVID-19, (2) the specific strategies/plans they have implemented or wanted to implement but could not in order to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic, (3) the challenges, successes, and consequences (anticipated and unintended) in the responses and implementation thereof, and (4) why responses were devised, implemented or not implemented, successful, challenging, and produced various outcomes. The study results can then be used to inform the development of new responses and improved implementation of innovative policies and practices, including emergency management plans for pandemics and how to communicate and collaborate effectively across the public health and criminal justice systems.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.