The Wire (Weeks 1-7)

What is the War on Drugs and when did it start?

The War on Drugs is an extensive, multi-faceted campaign launched by the United States government in 1971 under President Richard Nixon, aimed at curbing illegal drug trade and usage, incorporating a variety of law enforcement, legal, and social strategies.

What is a key consequence of the War on Drugs?

One of the major consequences of the War on Drugs has been the significant rise in mass incarceration rates, particularly affecting marginalized communities, and intensifying existing racial disparities evident in drug-related arrests and sentencing.

Who are the main criminal justice institutions involved?

The primary institutions in the criminal justice system involved in enforcing drug laws include police departments, judges who oversee court proceedings, and prosecutors responsible for bringing charges and managing cases.

What does 'residential segregation' refer to?

Residential segregation refers to the systemic separation of different demographic groups, particularly racial and ethnic minorities, into distinct neighborhoods, often as a result of discriminatory policies and socioeconomic factors.

What is the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010?

The Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 is a federal law aimed at addressing the sentencing disparities between crack cocaine and powder cocaine offenses, reducing the difference from 100:1 to approximately 18:1 and eliminating mandatory minimum sentences for simple possession of crack cocaine.

What does the Principal-Agent Problem illustrate?

The Principal-Agent Problem highlights the challenges that arise when one party (the principal) delegates decision-making authority to another party (the agent), creating opportunities for divergent interests due to informational asymmetry.

What does 'redlining' mean in the context of housing?

Redlining is a discriminatory practice where banks and insurers deny services to residents in certain neighborhoods based largely on racial composition, leading to significant barriers to home ownership and wealth accumulation for families in those areas.

How do police unions act as interest groups?

Police unions operate as powerful interest groups that actively engage in collective bargaining to improve working conditions, benefits, and salaries for officers, while also exerting influence on policies that govern law enforcement practices.

What is the Theil Index?

The Theil Index is a statistical measure used to analyze and quantify racial and ethnic segregation by comparing the demographic makeup of neighborhoods against the overall population distribution, providing insight into levels of integration or segregation.

What is the impact of 'blockbusting' in real estate?

Blockbusting is a controversial real estate practice where agents convince white homeowners to sell their properties at below-market prices by instilling fear of racial integration, subsequently reselling those homes at inflated prices to Black families, thereby perpetuating segregation.

What defines racial disparities in policing?

Racial disparities in policing encompass the unequal treatment and targeting of different racial groups within the criminal justice system, observable in metrics such as traffic stops, arrest rates, and use of excessive force.

What are the three stages of the criminal process?

The criminal process typically unfolds through three key stages: the arrest stage, where an individual is taken into custody; the prosecution/pretrial services stage, where charges are formally brought and preliminary hearings occur; and the adjudication stage, in which the case is tried in court.

What was the major outcome of Nixon's declaration in 1969 regarding drug abuse?

Nixon's 1969 declaration labeled drug abuse as a national threat, catalyzing the development of an aggressive anti-drug policy framework that ultimately led to the establishment of the War on Drugs.

What is the role of federalism in U.S. governance?

Federalism is a foundational principle of U.S. governance that divides power between the national and state governments, allowing for localized self-governance while maintaining a unified national framework.

How did the New Deal impact cities like Baltimore?

The New Deal spurred significant shifts from urban to suburban living through housing policies and economic programs, often exacerbating urban decline in cities such as Baltimore, particularly when combined with redlining and discriminatory practices.

What is the main concept behind 'Causal Inference'?

Causal Inference refers to the methodological framework used to determine whether a relationship between two variables indicates a true causal effect, necessitating careful examination of conditions and underlying mechanisms.

What is the 'Veil of Darkness Test'?

The Veil of Darkness Test is an analytical tool utilized to investigate racial disparities in police traffic stops by comparing rates of stops among different racial groups during daylight hours versus nighttime.

What does 'collective bargaining' mean in the context of labor unions?

Collective bargaining is the negotiation process through which employees, represented by their unions, seek to establish fair employment terms including wages, working conditions, and benefits.

What does the term 'mass incarceration' relate to?

Mass incarceration refers to the dramatic escalation in the number of individuals imprisoned in the United States, largely a consequence of punitive policies like the War on Drugs that disproportionately affect communities of color.

What issues arise from the 'chain of command' within police departments?

The chain of command in police departments can lead to problematic hierarchies, where conflicting interests or power imbalances may hinder effective law enforcement and response to community needs.

What is the significance of 'informational asymmetry' in organizational structures?

Informational asymmetry occurs when one participant in a transaction possesses greater or superior knowledge than the other(s), resulting in potential imbalances that can influence decision-making and outcomes.

Scientific Method

ask a question, research, form a hypothesis, conduct experiments, analyze data, draw conclusions

Urban Underclass

A social class characterized by persistent poverty and social isolation, often resulting from systemic issues such as unemployment, lack of education, and inadequate access to resources

Restrictive covenants

Provision in real property transaction that limits or restricts the actions of the person being granted property

Blockbusting

Real estate agents convince white property owners to sell property at low prices to get out of “bad” neighborhoods and then sell these properties to black people at much higher prices (to create racial segregation)

Steering

White and black clients are sent to different neighborhoods when buying houses

Civil Asset Forfeiture

Officers can take the money they seize (which can then go into the PD’s budget)

Fundamental Problem of Causal Inference

You can never observe the counterfactual. We can observe one state of the world but we can’t know what could have been in some alternate state

Conditions for Causality

1. Temporal precedence (cause happens before effect)

2. X and Y must covary (must be correlated)

3. No alternative explanations for this covariation between X and Y

What is the solution to causality?

Randomized experiments

Random Assignment

If we use randomness to assign subjects to control or treatment, we’re controlling for any other alternative explanations for the effect we measure afterwards (control group is the COUNTERFACTUAL to the treatment)

What are the drawbacks to using administrative data?

Data collected and maintained by federal/state/local governments only reflects encounters and interactions they record

• Interactions where officers talk to people outside of arrests are undocumented (how often do these interactions occur, outcomes, and what role race plays is unknown)

Bottom-up versus top-down data

• Bottom up collected from the sources themselves like through conversation portals

• Top down is where you get data from larger sources like administrative data (maybe through surveys)

Interest Groups

A group of people who work together to achieve something they’re interested in by putting pressure on the government

90-98% of cases are resolved with what?

A plea agreement and some type of bargaining

Types of bargaining

• Charge bargaining (defendant pleads guilty for lesser amount of charges or less serious charge > possibility of probation or shorter prison sentence)

• Sentence bargaining (judge has discretion and they can change length of sentence)

• Fact bargaining (focusing on ONE particular charge)

New Federalism (Containerization)

Efforts to return more power and authority to the states

• The federal government uses block grants and revenue sharing instead of categorical grants, which give states more control over how federal tax dollars are spent