Researching Law Fall 2020 - Flipbook - Page 8
R ESEA RC HI N G L AW
emergency funds, and some are
funds that can be distributed
through routine means like
Medicaid and Medicare. But there
have to be ways of making that
happen with decreased political
controversy.”
To decrease the politicization
of responses to public health
emergencies, Heimer says there
needs to be stronger support for
augmented legal powers in other
social and cultural areas.
“Even legal powers depend on
trust, expertise, and goodwill…
In some ways, we’ve had a perfect
storm in the U.S. with issues of
declining trust in science, medicine,
government. The legal things
matter, but they have to work in
tandem with the other powers.”
“Even legal powers
depend on trust,
expertise, and
goodwill…In some
ways, we’ve had
a perfect storm in the
U.S. with issues of
declining trust in
science, medicine,
government. The legal
things matter, but
they have to work in
tandem with the other
powers.”
8
How Does Expos
Lethal Force A
This summer yielded a seminal
moment in the United States and
throughout the world. Nationwide
protests, fueled by grief and
outrage, surfaced in response to
police violence and systemic racism
in the criminal justice system. To
address this pivotal moment, the
ABF hosted a nationwide Fireside
Chat on Policing and Protests
featuring Executive Director Ajay K.
Mehrotra in conversation with
Research Professor Traci Burch.
Burch is one of the ABF’s leading
scholars on policing, politics, and
inequality, and is also an Associate
Professor of Political Science at
Northwestern University. She is also
the author of several books,
including the award-winning book
Trading Democracy for Justice:
Criminal Convictions and the
Decline of Neighborhood Political
Participation (University of Chicago
Press). Burch’s most recent ongoing
ABF project, Policing and Political
Participation, explores the
relationship between the criminal
justice system and civic and
political engagement.
During the Fireside Chat, Mehrotra
and Burch discussed Burch’s recent
work examining the public response
to police use of lethal force.
In a forthcoming paper, Burch uses
survey data to shed light on the
effect of police killings on political
interest. Her preliminary findings
show that exposure to officerinvolved killings of black victims
who posed little threat to officers
or bystanders increases political
interest among blacks under the
age of 40.
But, as Burch noted during the
Fireside Chat, her findings indicate
that not all officer-involved killings
motivate an interest in politics.
Instead, she identifies two key
factors surrounding an incident
necessary to shape political
interest: visibility and framing.
Understanding the effect of
Traci Burch