policy reports

Policies and Practices to Minimize Police Use of Force Internationally.
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2022 (Committee member and contributing author), Washington: National Academies Press. drawing

Description Injury and death from use of excessive force by police officers remain a common concern in countries across the globe. Despite local, national, and international attempts to legislate and provide guidance for police use of force, there continue to be global accounts of excessive force by law enforcement. Reports of officer-involved killings, injuries to citizens, and attempts to control protests and demonstrations with chemical irritants, rubber bullets, and sometimes shooting into crowds with live ammunition frequently appear in the press worldwide. However, reliable data on and accounting for these incidents are both lacking. A large network of international and regional organizations, bilateral donors, international financial institutions, and civil society organizations aim to work with governments to improve policing practices and reduce police use of excessive force. As a part of that network, the U.S. Department of State, through its Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), provides foreign assistance to and supports capacity building for criminal justice systems and police organizations in approximately 90 countries. Like many donors, it strives to direct its resources to the most effective approaches to achieve its mission. Policies and Practices to Minimize Police Use of Force Internationally, the third in a series of five reports produced for INL, addresses what policies and practices for police use of force are effective in promoting the rule of law and protecting the population (including the officers themselves). This report looks at what is known about effective practices and their implementation and identifies promising actions to be taken by international donors in their efforts to strengthen the effectiveness of law enforcement agencies.


Police Training to Promote the Rule of Law and Protect the Population.
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2022 (Committee member and contributing author), Washington: National Academies Press. drawing

Description Training police in the knowledge and skills necessary to support the rule of law and protect the public is a substantial component of the activities of international organizations that provide foreign assistance. Significant challenges with such training activities arise with the wide range of cultural, institutional, political, and social contexts across countries. In addition, foreign assistance donors often have to leverage programs and capacity in their own countries to provide training in partner countries, and there are many examples of training, including in the United States, that do not rely on the best scientific evidence of policing practices and training design. Studies have shown disconnects between the reported goals of training, notably that of protecting the population, and actual behaviors by police officers. These realities present a diversity of challenges and opportunities for foreign assistance donors and police training. At the request of the U.S. State Department's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, the Committee on Law and Justice of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine examined scientific evidence and assessed research needs for effective policing in the context of the challenges above. This report, the second in a series of five, responds to the following questions: What are the core knowledge and skills needed for police to promote the rule of law and protect the population? What is known about mechanisms (e.g., basic and continuing education or other capacity building programs) for developing the core skills needed for police to promote the rule of law and protect the population?


Crime, Insecurity, and Community Policing: Experiments on Building Trust. (with Graeme Blair, Fotini Christia, Jeremy M. Weinstein, Eric Arias, Emile Badran, Robert A. Blair, Ali Cheema, Thiemo Fetzer, Dotan Haim, Rebecca Hanson, Ali Hasanain, Ben Kachero, Dorothy Kronick, Benjamin Morse, Robert Muggah, Matthew Nanes, Tara Slough, Nico Ravanilla, Jacob N. Shapiro, Barbara Silva, Pedro C. L. Souza, Lily Tsai, and Anna Wilke)
2022, Under advance contract, Cambridge University Press. drawing


Economic Shocks and Human Trafficking Risks : Evidence from IOM’s Victims of Human Trafficking Database.
World Bank and IOM, 2022, Washington, DC: World Bank. drawing

Abstract The report focuses on risk factors that are expected to increase the vulnerability to human trafficking from and within origin countries such as economic shocks, measured by large, discrete changes to export commodity prices and to GDP. It also explores the role that institutions play through enforcing the rule of law, providing access to justice, and implementing anti-trafficking policies, as protective factors that could weaken the link between economic shocks and an increase in human trafficking. The analysis verifies that economic shocks are significant risk factors that increase vulnerability to human trafficking. In origin countries, economic vulnerabilities, especially those caused by global commodity price shocks, are strongly positively correlated with observed cases of trafficking. For instance, the economic shock produced by a typical decrease in export commodity prices is associated with an increase in the number of detected victims of trafficking of around 12 percent. The analysis suggests that good governance institutions and particularly a commitment to the rule of law and access to justice as well as stricter anti-trafficking policies and social assistance can have a limiting effect on the number of observed cases of trafficking following economic shocks.


“Policing to Promote the Rule of Law and Protect the Population: An Evidence-based Approach.
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2022 (Committee member and contributing author), Washington: National Academies Press. drawing

Description The U.S. Department of State, through its Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), provides foreign assistance and supports capacity building for criminal justice systems and police organizations in approximately 90 countries around the world. It has a mandate to strengthen fragile states, support democratic transitions, and stabilize conflict-affected societies by helping partner countries develop effective and accountable criminal justice sector institutions and systems. While the science of policing outcomes has grown in recent years, it is limited in context, with much of the research conducted on policing taking place in the Global North countries (e.g., the United Kingdom and United States). It is also limited in purpose, with much research focused on examining crime reduction as opposed to examining the harms to the public as the result of crimes, violence, and any effects of policing activities. At the request of INL, Policing to Promote the Rule of Law and Protect the Population explores the organizational policies, structures, or practices (e.g., HR and recruiting, legal authorities, reporting lines, etc.) that will enable a police service to promote the rule of law and protect the population. This report presents an overview of the state of research and highlights promising areas to guide policing reform and interventions.


Regular and sustained information on incumbent performance improves electoral accountability. (with Carlo Prato, Kristin Michelitch)
EGAP Policy Brief 71, 2020, #71. drawing


Information and electoral accountability. (with Macartan Humphreys, Valerie Mueller)
IGC Growth Brief Series 022, 2019, London: International Growth Centre. drawing

Abstract Democracy is said to give citizens agency, as elections make it possible for them to remove poorly performing politicians. However, this only works if voters know how politicians are performing and are willing to base their vote on this information. This brief presents evidence on whether providing voters with better information on candidate performance affects their behaviour and strengthens electoral channels to better politician performance. Surprisingly, the evidence on the effects of information campaigns is very mixed.


Does greater public transit access increase employment for the Israeli-Arab Population? (with Diana B. Greenwald, Amir Levi)
2018, Harvard Kennedy School. drawing

Abstract In recent years, Israeli policymakers have identified greater economic integration of the Israeli-Arab population as a pressing priority. The Israeli-Arab population experiences persistent disparities in access to public services and low rates of formal sector employment, both of which have implications for Israel's political and economic future. Two recent government resolutions -- Resolution 1539 (2010) and the larger Resolution 922 (2015) -- have offered multi-sectoral approaches to promoting economic development in Israeli-Arab localities and, thus, greater opportunities for Israel's largest minority community. In this brief, we analyze the effect public transit interventions -- an area of investment prioritized in both pieces of legislation -- on employment outcomes for Israeli-Arab citizens. Using a new dataset of public transit availability and employment across 1,322 Israeli localities, we find that an increase in the number of bus lines servicing Israeli-Arab towns is associated with a small but significant increase in employment rates between 2011 and 2015. We do not see similar effects in Jewish-majority towns, and we do not find that alternative measures of public transit access (such as the daily frequency of bus line trips or the connectivity of a town to other larger towns and cities)have as much explanatory power. We discuss the implications of these findings for future research and for the ongoing implementation of Resolution 922.


Does Information Technology Improve Public Service Delivery? (with Melina Platas, Jonathan Rodden)
EGAP Policy Brief 51, 2018, #51. drawing


Reflections on Challenges in Cumulative Learning from the Metaketa Initiative. (with Thad Dunning, Macartan Humphreys, Susan D. Hyde, Craig McIntos)
The Political Economist, 2018, Newsletter for APSA’s Political Economy Section.


Lab-in-the-field Experiments.
Newsletter of the APSA Experimental Section, 2011, 2(2): pp. 13-19. drawing