Race and Justice Lab, a CPSI CoLAB
The Race and Justice Lab (RJL), in collaboration with RIT's Center for Public Safety Instiatives, uses social science and other disciplinary research methods to explicate the impact of the criminal legal system (CLS) on the experiences and perceptions of racial/ethnic minority groups in the United States.
Research at RJL focuses on investigating racial disparities in addition to the intersection of the CLS and the federal immigration system in the lives of individuals, families, and those who engage in social justice/human rights work. While the primary work of the lab is the production of research, we will seek to influence policy via the dissemination of said research, and when able, the evaluation of justice programs within the criminal and immigration legal systems.
Current Research Projects and Lab Activities
Projects
- Immigration Lawyering in the contemporary United States:
- This project seeks to understand legal consciousness among immigration attorneys; how immigration cause-lawyers relate to and construct their clients; how immigration enforcement influences their work; how they organize their practice to serve clients; if and how they engage activist groups; how the prevailing political and judicial environment impact their work; and their policy recommendations.
- Currently conducting interviews in Syracuse, Rochester, and Buffalo, NY.
- This project seeks to understand legal consciousness among immigration attorneys; how immigration cause-lawyers relate to and construct their clients; how immigration enforcement influences their work; how they organize their practice to serve clients; if and how they engage activist groups; how the prevailing political and judicial environment impact their work; and their policy recommendations.
- Race and Crime in a Rustbelt Town:
- Completed three working papers using data for the Town of Irondequoit with Venita DiAngelo. Currently working with a data science student to explore questions regarding race, ethnicity and arrests that can be answered via the two available datasets for the Town.
- Currently working on a piece for Contexts where coauthors (data science students and faculty at the University at Buffalo) and I describe the impact of COVID on the racial/ethnic/gender distribution of arrests.
- Robertson plans to FOIA arrest data from all police departments in Monroe County with particular emphasis on race, ethnicity, and crime. This data is intended to explore the race crime relationship in suburban communities of regions that have experienced extensive deindustrialization in addition to answering some fundamental questions regarding race crime and racial integration/segregation. This data will also be used in collaboration with colleagues from the School of Mathematics in the College of Science via a proposed grant that seeks to entice students to major in the mathematical sciences via exploration of racial disparities in the healthcare and criminal legal systems. Noting the new administration, this grant will probably not receive funding.
- Completed three working papers using data for the Town of Irondequoit with Venita DiAngelo. Currently working with a data science student to explore questions regarding race, ethnicity and arrests that can be answered via the two available datasets for the Town.
- Immigration, Identity, and Crime:
- There is an article under review at International Criminology that explores West Indian Young Men’s perception of African American criminality relative to West Indian criminality.
- The next article on this topic will explore methods used by immigrant parents of West Indian young men to keep their children out of involvement in crime and delinquency.
- There is an article under review at International Criminology that explores West Indian Young Men’s perception of African American criminality relative to West Indian criminality.
- The impact of Body-Worn-Camera (BWC) technology on the adjudication process.
- The following article has been published: Robertson, O. N., McCluskey, J., Smith, S., & Uchida, C. (2022). “Body Cameras and Adjudication: Views of Prosecutors and Public Defenders.” Criminal Justice Review, 49(1):15-29.
- Currently working on an article where we explore the impact of BWC on the adjudication of Domestic Violence cases.
- The following article has been published: Robertson, O. N., McCluskey, J., Smith, S., & Uchida, C. (2022). “Body Cameras and Adjudication: Views of Prosecutors and Public Defenders.” Criminal Justice Review, 49(1):15-29.
Activities
- Grant application to evaluate the Person in Crisis Team (not funded).
- Seeking a grant (probably a foundation given the new federal administration) to fund a study of race and crime in suburban communities in regions that have experienced significant deindustrialization and the relationship between the central city and crime in the surrounding suburban communities.
- In the planning phase for a study of crime, victimization and acculturation among immigrant/refugee/asylee youth.
