For state policymakers concerned with road safety in the United States, tamping down on drunk driving is front of mind for good reason; alcohol-impaired crash fatalities rose from less than 11,000 annual deaths before 2020 to over 13,000 annual deaths in 2021 and 2022. To combat drunk driving, policymakers have turned to a variety of policies such as zero tolerance laws, stricter punishments for DUI charges, or lower per se illegal blood alcohol concentration (BAC) rates, the latter of which this paper focuses on. As of this writing, every state with the exception of Utah maintains a 0.08% BAC legal limit despite the National Transportation Safety Board long recommending states lower their BAC legal limit to 0.05%. Accordingly, several state assemblies such as those of Washington, New York, or Hawaii have recently considered or are actively considering lowering the BAC legal limit. These bills have sparked intense discourse on whether a 0.05% BAC legal limit unfairly punishes responsible drinkers who may not be impaired yet blow a BAC over 0.05% on a breathalyzer test, and thus excessively disincentive drinking outside the home and unreasonably hurt the food and service industry. Thus, this paper uses difference-in-differences analyses to measure the effect of BAC policies on drinking habits, specifically alcohol consumption, and whether people substitute drinking at bars and restaurants with drinking at home. I rely on evidence from the state of Utah, which passed HB155 “Driving Under the Influence and Public Safety Revisions” in 2017, a bill that lowered Utah's BAC legal limit from 0.08% to 0.05% effective December 30, 2018. 

Since 2005, the United States has experienced a significant and sustained decline in juvenile delinquency, often attributed to increased arrest and incarceration rates. However, scholars have sought alternative, non-punitive approaches to further reduce delinquency. One such approach is after-school programs, which have been tested for their effectiveness. This article develops a theoretical framework using a utility-maximizing decision model that incorporates uncertainty and time allocation to analyze the market for juvenile delinquencies. The model suggests that extended school hours by investing in After-school programs reduces juvenile delinquency through limiting opportunities for criminal behavior— decreasing availability of potential victims. Additionally, the model suggests that aligning school hours with societal working hours strengthens the effectiveness of delinquency prevention policies. The findings also offer valuable insights for countries with weak law enforcement, where juvenile delinquency disrupts education and lowers its returns.

I conducted analyses of CDC mortality statistics and FBI homicide statistics from 2004 to 2020 in four-year increments (2004, 2008, 2012,etc.), as well as 2021 (Deaths: Final Causes for 2021 and FBI CDE data), 2022 (Deaths: Leading Causes for 2022 and FBI CDE data), and 2023-2024 (minimal CDC data, FBI CDE data) . I first analyzed the CDC's Deaths: Final Data series of reports, and pulled apart firearm mortality data into firearm homicide, firearm suicide, and accidental death by firearm, whereupon I calculated the aforementioned subcategories of firearm mortality as percentages of total deaths, homicides (for firearm-homicide), suicides (for firearm-suicide), accidental deaths (for accidental death by firearm), and total firearm deaths. These data were then compared with one another to show trends in firearm mortality over the studied period. I performed similar analyses on homicide data using the FBI's Crime Data Explorer, examining overall trends in weapons used in homicides over the studied period. This research project examines firearm mortality from the perspectives of both health and crime, so as to reflect firearm mortality's dual nature as an issue of both healthcare and law enforcement; this allows for a comprehensive understanding of firearm mortality in the United States. The ultimate purpose of this research project is to show that firearm mortality (as a whole, by weapon used, etc.) has remained stable, if not static, in proportion to total deaths over the course of the past twenty years, showing gentle fluctuations rather than violent turbulence in prevalence.

Our project will be about the intersection of prison with prisoner's sex, age, race, economic standing, innocence, recidivism, and other inequalities. We will focus on a couple of these ideas, for example, finding trends in gender disparities, the economic impact of local prisons, or plea bargains and their effect on prison populations. We will present our findings from a government issued dataset using Python. We would like to introduce how our initial understanding of prison systems have changed from learning with our mentor in the Directed Reading Program. We are planning to use linear regression and decision trees to analyze our data.

Democracies run on information, and decisions made by a democratic body are only as good as the objectives facts that voters have access to, which form the basis for political opinion. Access to information has never changed as drastically or rapidly in the United States as it did during the propagation of internet service that occurred in the period between 2000 and 2016. The effect of the internet as a source of information is theoretically ambiguous. Some herald it as a tool for the democratization of information, making knowledge easily searchable and available to all. Others lament the internet’s role in spreading misinformation, particularly through social media. To investigate the relative magnitude of these effects, I employ county-level data on home broadband connections from the Federal Communications Commission as well as voter perception survey data collected by the American National Election Studies. Controlling for social and partisan determinants, I analyze this period of internet expansion in order to determine the effects of broadband access on voters’ perceptions of objective politically relevant statistics, such as national inflation and unemployment trends. These perceptions are then compared to the real statistics during these periods to determine whether internet access has made voters more or less informed on political issues. Though my analysis is still ongoing, I anticipate disambiguating the competing effects that the internet has on information acquisition and determining which is predominant in influencing the formation of political perceptions. These findings contribute to our understanding of the social ramifications of internet access—a new and still-developing field—and inform future efforts to regulate the flow of information online.

Democratic backsliding has become a prominent and undeniable feature of contemporary world politics while greatly affecting international criminal law. This raises a question of what elements of the justice system and global politics have the most effect on incentivizing international cooperation in pursuit of global justice. This thesis answers this dilemma through analysing case studies of significant past international criminal tribunals, namely the International Military Tribunal and the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia. Through examining the nature and effect of complementarity, criminal procedure, and political motivations, on the level of international cooperation, this research provides policy and reform recommendations for the International Criminal Court to enhance its ability to serve justice with the stable and continuous support of the international community amid the many challenges that come with the global rise of authoritarianism.