Researching Law Fall 2020 - Flipbook - Page 2
R ESEA RC HI N G L AW
Reliable Research
in An Unp
This has been an unusual and extraordinary year, filled with
simultaneous unprecedented crises in the United States and
worldwide. In early spring 2020, the COVID-19 (Coronavirus)
pandemic spread rapidly throughout the world. Since that time, the
pandemic has infected tens of millions of people in more than two
hundred countries and territories. It led to stay-at-home orders and
other restrictions that disrupted livelihoods. As case numbers rose
and public spaces were transformed, the pandemic profoundly
impacted lives and resulted in what many have described as "the
new normal."
Amid this already uncertain
time, the death of George Floyd
in police custody prompted
a seminal moment of racial
reckoning in the United States.
His death, along with other
stories of police brutality
and police killings, sparked a
cascade of widespread protests
in hundreds of cities across the
2
country and around the world.
The mass protests brought an
intense focus to the inequality
within the criminal justice
system, and demonstrators
called for an end to institutional
racism and police brutality. This
renewed focus on inequality
and justice converged with
the public health threat of
COVID-19 to further disrupt
the status quo and exacerbate
uncertainty.
As this extraordinary moment
continues to unfold, the public
is witnessing the power of
data and empirical research
in helping to understand and
contend with ongoing current