The role of criminal law is to identify, discourage, and, when necessary, punish behavior that harms other people or otherwise threatens the very fabric of civil society. In order to be legitimate, a criminal justice system must accomplish those tasks in a way that is substantively and procedurally fair while ensuring accountability from government officials who abuse their authority. Cato’s research focuses on unconstitutional overcriminalization, self‐defeating policing, coercive plea bargaining, and challenging our policy of near‐zero accountability for law enforcement.
Criminal Justice
Featured Content
New Mexico Enacts Landmark Qualified Immunity Reform Legislation for All Public Officials
A giant victory for accountability when government violates people’s rights.
Local Criminal Justice Reform and State Preemption
Local efforts at criminal justice reform can be preempted by state‐level edict. How should states and localities work to get along? Rachel Elise Barkow, author of Prisoners of Politics, comments.
To a Man With a Hammer, Every Criminal Justice Problem Looks Like a Nail
A spike in violent crime during the pandemic is no reason to jettison decades of progress on criminal justice reform
A Clarification on Systemic Racism
Understanding what systemic racism is requires an understanding of what it isn’t. Jonathan Blanks of The Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity details a few important distinctions.
The Importance of a Diverse Federal Judiciary
Much has been written about the importance of diversity in the legal profession generally and among judges in particular.
Featured Project
End Qualified Immunity
Qualified immunity is a judicial doctrine that shields public officials, like police officers, from liability when they break the law. Cato’s Project on Criminal Justice chose to make the elimination of qualified immunity one of its top priorities nearly three years ago for the simple reason that civil society is impossible without a well‐functioning criminal justice system.