Center on the Administration of Criminal Law

The Center is an apolitical advocacy organization and think-tank dedicated to promoting good government practices in the criminal justice system.

New Report:

The Center, with funding from the Public Welfare Foundation, is pleased to release “Establishing Conviction Integrity Programs in Prosecutor’s Offices: A Report of the Center on the Administration of Criminal Law’s Conviction Integrity Project.”  The goal of the Conviction Integrity Project is to support prosecutors’ efforts to ensure public confidence in the convictions they obtain and to reduce the incidence of wrongful convictions.

The Report is the outgrowth of the Center’s empirical research into best practices, as well as a roundtable with participants that included a number of current and former District Attorneys from across the country, representatives from the Department of Justice, and individuals from various state law enforcement agencies and research institutes. The Roundtable brought together these leading figures to develop templates that prosecutors can use to implement conviction integrity reforms in their offices.  The Report emphasizes reforms that are scalable to even the smallest prosecutors’ offices.  And the Report’s appendices include checklists that offices are already using to reduce errors and that could be easily modified to work in any office.

Center News:

The Supreme Court cites and quotes the Faculty Director's article, and cites the Center's brief, in Missouri v. Frye.

  • The Ninth Edition of Kadish, Schulhofer, Steiker & Barkow, Criminal Law and Its Processes (2012) was published. The Center's Faculty Director is a co-author of the latest edition of this leading criminal case book.  Buy it here.
  • NYU Press published Prosecutors in the Boardroom: Using Criminal Law to Regulate Corporate Conduct, the Center's book comprised of scholarship generated out of the Centers first annual major conference.  Read more.  Buy the book.
  • The Supreme Court cited and quoted an article by the Center's Faculty Director, Rachel E. Barkow, cited the Center's brief, and relied extensively on the Center's research in its majority opinion in Missouri v. Frye, which -- along with its companion decision in Lafler v. Cooper -- held that the Sixth Amendment's guarantee of effective defense counsel extends to plea negotiations.
  • On April 17, 2012, the Center hosted its fourth annual major conference, "New Frontiers in Race and Criminal Justice." See video here. Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., delivered a "Conversation on Urban Crime" on February 7, 2012. See video here.
  • Faculty Director Rachel E. Barkow published "Sentencing Guidelines at the Crossroads of Politics and Expertise," 160 U. Pa. L. Rev. 1599 (2012), exploring the tension that arises from the fact that sentnecing commissions must produce guidlines that are simultaneously reflective of the best empirical and expert knowledge about sentencing and acceptable to political overseers, and completed "Law versus Politics: Comments on William J. Stuntz's The Collapse of American Criminal Justice," U. Toronto L.J. (forthcoming 2012), a book review of Professor Stuntz's documentation of the pathologies of the American criminal justice system.

About the Center

The Center analyzes important issues of criminal law, particularly focusing on prosecutorial power and discretion.The Center analyzes important issues of criminal law, particularly focusing on prosecutorial power and discretion.  It pursues this mission in three main arenas: academia, the courts, and public policy debates. The Center's academic component researches criminal justice practices at all levels of government, produces scholarship on criminal justice issues, and hosts symposia and conferences to address significant topics in criminal law and procedure. The litigation component uses the Center’s research and experience with criminal justice practices to inform courts in important criminal justice matters, particularly in cases in which exercises of prosecutorial discretion create significant legal issues. The public policy component applies the Center’s criminal justice expertise to improve practices in the criminal justice system and the public dialogue on criminal justice matters, and includes communication with elected and appointed public officials and with the media.

The Center is the first and only organization dedicated to defining good government practices in criminal prosecutions.  No other organization is dedicated to improving prosecution practices through research, litigation, and the improvement of public policy.  

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http://www.law.nyu.edu//centers/adminofcriminallaw/index.htm