Professor Preeti Chauhan 

Criminal Justice Policy Review released an online special issue in May dedicated to the Misdemeanor Justice Project (MJP) of John Jay College of Criminal Justice. A printed version of the special issue will be released later this year.

The Criminal Justice Policy Review journal is a project of the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP). It is edited by Professor Daniel Lee and published by Sage Publishing.

The MJP seeks to understand the criminal Justice responses to lower-level offenses, from arrest to disposition. It is a research initiative, led by Professor Preeti Chauhan and a research team of faculty, graduate students and staff at John Jay College. Researchers affiliated with the MJP are located at universities and criminal justice agencies throughout the United States. “The MJP is thrilled to work in collaboration with Criminal Justice Policy Review to release this special issue focused on criminal justice system responses to lower-level offenses,” Dr. Chauhan said.

The introduction to the special issue, authored by Chauhan and Jeremy Travis, founder and former co-director of the Misdemeanor Project and executive vice president of Criminal Justice at the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, notes: “Until recently, the majority of scholarly work and policy focus in criminal justice has been on serious crimes and felony arrests. However, for a variety of reasons, the enforcement of lower-level offenses such as a misdemeanor arrests, citations or summonses, and pedestrian or vehicle stops as well as the criminal justice system’s response to these enforcement actions warrant greater empirical inquiry. We hope that, over time, these inaugural volumes will spark a robust scholarly examination of these questions surrounding enforcement of lower-level offenses and pretrial detention.”

“IUP is extremely proud of the longstanding publication of Criminal Justice Policy Review, and we are very pleased to publish and promote the research that has been produced as part of the Misdemeanor Justice Project,” Lee said.

“Criminal Justice Policy Review has a long history of publishing respected evaluation research and critical commentary related to many aspects of criminal justice policy and administration. The publication of this special issue shows how the history of excellence in scholarship at IUP has laid a foundation for the continued dedication to the discovery of knowledge and establishing partnerships with regional and national leaders.” 

A total of nine articles are included in this special issue, including topics related to police officer discretion, pretrial diversion, the effects of retaining legal representation, and other aspects of enforcing and processing criminal cases that involve lower-level offenses. The special issue includes an article by John Jay Professor Eric Piza entitled “The Effect of Various Police Enforcement Actions on Violent Crime: 611 Evidence from a Saturation Foot-Patrol Intervention.”