Legal Epidemiology Satellite Conference at 2021 Law Enforcement in Public Health Conference

Temple University, Philadelphia PA

Investigators

Abstract

Law enforcement and public health (LEPH)are historically distinct domains. Law enforcement has been tied primarily to public order and criminal investigations, while public health’s focus is most closely aligned with establishing conditions most conducive to health. In spite of that, the fields share much common ground, with the central objective of both being the preservation of human well-being through the regulation of behavior toward safety and security. Research on effectiveness and impact of interventions can and should be an indispensable guide to practice and policy-making. Past annual LEPH conferences hosted by the Global Law Enforcement and Public Health Association have included robust participation from researchers as well as practitioners. The conference in March 2021 and this proposed satellite offer a much-needed opportunity to engage more researchers in the dissemination of high quality research on the effects of law on public health (legal epidemiology). Linking this proposed satellite with the regular conference will give more researchers the opportunity to interact with the views, challenges and innovations of the practitioners they study. And, deliberately incorporating legal epidemiology methods and research into the LEPH conference exposes a greater, new audience of scholars and practitioners to the methods and their applications, and supports further integral connection between the disciplines. The satellite meeting provides an opportunity for researchers in criminology, public health and law, and society research to articulate a collaborative agenda, including important research questions and the development of shared, formalized metrics. The meeting will have four areas of inquiry: 1) measuring the effects of criminal law and law enforcement on the social determinants of health; 2) developing shared metrics to inform LEPH strategy and practice; 3) understanding people’s experiences of laws and legal practices and their effects on health; and 4) identifying the role of health law in promoting first responder health and wellness. The satellite also has broad-reaching impact by generating increased scientific literacy in the area of legal epidemiology among practitioners working at the interface of LEPH, and among junior scholars. For the research community, the satellite will advance translational research at the interface of law enforcement and public health, illustrating the value of legal epidemiology in bridging theories and methods across the two fields. It will advance scientific knowledge of the complex relationships between law, law enforcement and public health, and it will help make the case for an enhanced infrastructure for inter-disciplinary, cross-sector research on law and its various influences on the public's health. For the policy community, it will highlight areas of law-making and law enforcement that can be actionable targets of innovation and reform, in furtherance of public health. It will illuminate direct and indirect ways in which laws and law enforcement practices reinforce or exacerbate disparities in health. 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.