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

New York University, New York NY

Investigators

Abstract

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.