Quattrone Center for the Fair Administration of Justice

Baltimore recently experienced one of the largest declines in homicides in the city's history.

Behind that progress was a broad coalition of local leaders, practitioners, and researchers—including Penn's Crime and Justice Policy Lab. Learn how the Lab uses research, data, and partnerships to support violence prevention efforts and how that work is expanding to the West Coast.

Read more:

Violence Interrupted The new West Coast office of the Crime and Justice Policy Lab brings together Penn researchers and experienced violence-reduction practitioners, adding to the lab’s prior success in several large East Coast cities.

It's in our hometown of Philadelphia — an important moment to lift up the essential, interconnected work of dozens of nonprofits, employers, government agencies, and advocates in providing support, services, training, and community after people are released.

Check the comments for a list of sources!

SCOTUS recently ruled in Pitchford v. Cain that defendant Terry Pitchford can appeal his Mississippi conviction (and death sentence) on the grounds that the trial court had inappropriately handled Pitchford's Batson challenge — which claimed that jurors were dismissed on racial grounds.

While this was a win for Pitchford, University of Florida Assistant Prof. Matthew Kim asks if Batson goes far enough to address the issue.

Supreme Court misses jury selection fix in Mississippi case - Mississippi Today Mississippi courts have repeatedly grappled with allegations of discriminatory jury selection. The U.S. Supreme Court missed opportunity to fix that in recent ruling, a law professor writes.

Big congrats to SMU Dedman School of Law Asst. Professor (and former QC Fellow) Laura Abelson, who received the Joel R. Reiedenberg Award at the 2026 Privacy Law Scholars Conference for her article, "The Multidimensions of AI Chatbots as Evidence."

Read her article: https://bit.ly/4v0WZBH

New reporting from South Carolina found positive signs from two counties that don't rely on presumptive field drug tests alone — including officials from Spartanburg County saying their jurisdiction uses a spectrometer to confirm colorimetric test results.

QC Assistant Director Ross Miller speaks with Fox Carolina News about our research finding that error-prone colorimetric field drug tests contribute to 30,000 wrongful arrests in the U.S. each year:

https://bit.ly/4xalOfZ