Race, Crime, and Institutional Design

Minorities are gravely overrepresented in every stage of the criminal process--from pedestrian and automobile stops, to searches and seizures, to arrests and convictions, to incarceration and capital punishment. While racial data can provide a snapshot of the current state of affairs, such information rarely satisfies questions of causation, and usually only sets the scene for normative theory

Production Chains in an Interregional Framework: Identification by Means of Average Propagation Lengths

When linkages between industries are studied from the perspective of production chains, sequencing is important. In this respect, both the strength of the linkages and the distance between industries are relevant. Distance is measured by the average propagation length, defined as the average number of steps it takes a stimulus in one industry to propagate and affect another industry. Using the 1985 intercountry input-output table for six European countries, we present three applications. These are, visualizing the production structure by graphing its production chains, analyzing intercountry linkages between industries, and determining the role that each country plays within the system

The Bin Laden Exception

Osama bin Laden\u27s demise provides an opportune moment to reevaluate the extraordinary measures taken by the U.S. government in the war on terror, with any reassessment incorporating the threat posed by al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations. Some modest analysis suggests that terrorism remains a miniscule risk for the average American, and it hardly poses an existential threat to the United States. Nonetheless, terrorism-related fears have distorted the people\u27s risk perception and facilitated dubious public policies, exemplified here by a series of programs implemented by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Among other things, this agency has adopted costly technology and intrusive pat downs to screen airline passengers with little evidence that the terrorist risk has been meaningfully and efficiently reduced as a result. The TSA regime also clashes with core constitutional values and decent understandings of the Fourth Amendment. To date, however, the courts have been deferential to the government. Although the decisions rehearse established exceptions they are indicative of an entirely new constitutional exception grounded in irrational fears of terrorism

Judicial Discretion: A Look Back and a Look Forward Five Years After Booker

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The Bin Laden Exception

Osama bin Laden\u27s demise provides an opportune moment to reevaluate the extraordinary measures taken by the U.S. government in the war on terror, with any reassessment incorporating the threat posed by al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations. Some modest analysis suggests that terrorism remains a miniscule risk for the average American, and it hardly poses an existential threat to the United States. Nonetheless, terrorism-related fears have distorted the people\u27s risk perception and facilitated dubious public policies, exemplified here by a series of programs implemented by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Among other things, this agency has adopted costly technology and intrusive pat downs to screen airline passengers with little evidence that the terrorist risk has been meaningfully and efficiently reduced as a result. The TSA regime also clashes with core constitutional values and decent understandings of the Fourth Amendment. To date, however, the courts have been deferential to the government. Although the decisions rehearse established exceptions they are indicative of an entirely new constitutional exception grounded in irrational fears of terrorism