Blog

Policy analysis, scholarly commentary, and critical perspectives on U.S. drug policy and criminal justice.

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3 articles

Drug Policy
Policing

Why Drug Policy Enforcement Fails: The Institutional Myths American Policing Runs On

Crank and Langworthy's (1992) foundational work on institutionalized policing raises a question that the drug policy field has not taken seriously enough: what if enforcement agencies are not built to reduce drug harm, but to look like they are?

May 10, 202616 min read
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Women in Policing
Police Leadership

Women in Police Leadership: Gender Inequality in American Law Enforcement

Female officers remain strikingly underrepresented in American police leadership. A close examination of Shjarback and Todak's (2019) national study reveals how organizational structure, institutional culture, and regional variation shape whether women advance into supervisory and management roles in law enforcement.

Apr 7, 202514 min read
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Sentencing
Race

Sentencing Disparities and the Racial Politics of Drug Enforcement

Federal drug sentencing guidelines have produced staggering racial disparities in incarceration. This essay traces the legal mechanisms, political choices, and ideological commitments that made these disparities possible — and asks what it would take to undo them.

Sep 20, 20246 min read
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