Misdemeanorland: A Conversation with Issa Kohler-Hausmann on “Broken Windows” and the Troubling Reach of America’s Penal State

• Free
• Legal, Politics & Economics

12:00 p.m. – Check-in, light lunch served
12:30 p.m. – Program
1:30 p.m. – Book signing

In the early 1990s, the theory of “broken windows” radically transformed policing across the country.Twenty years on, its legacy is complicated and hotly debated. Data suggest that it may have led to significant reductions in crime across the country. But many argue that the collateral damage of broken windows has far outweighed its benefits. Are they right?

In her recent book, Misdemeanorland, Yale Law School Professor Issa Kohler-Hausmann argues that, under broken windows, lower courts have slid into a mode of processing cases that prioritizes speed and efficiency over justice. She shows how the policing experiment has subjected hundreds of thousands of people to surveillance and asserts that the lower reaches of the criminal justice system operate as a form of social control. Professor Kohler-Hausmann joins the Brennan Center for a public conversation.

Issa Kohler-Hausmann, Associate Professor of Law and Associate Professor of Sociology, Yale Law School