Weekly Report 41: Federal Consent Decree

Last Thursday I had two interviews with professionals in the field of Criminology. One of them, was Dr. John Worrall who is currently a Professor of Criminology and the Editor for an criminology academic journal called the Police Quarterly. While interviewing him, I learned about federal consent decrees, which are an interesting topic that I thought I would share information about.

Officially, a consent decree is a "settlement of a lawsuit or criminal case in which a person or company agrees to take specific actions without admitting fault or guilt for the situation that led to the lawsuit. In simple terms, it is essentially a government takeover. In some cases, the federal government utilizes consent decrees to reform government agencies such as police departments and prison systems. In the last decade, the government has used them to place police departments under the oversight of a federal court if the department violated a law. Additionally, consent decrees have been used to implement reforms meant to prevent or a relapse. The New York City Police Department (NYPD), for example, was placed under the oversight of an US District Judge Shira Scheindlin in 2013 because of their stop-and-frisk policy. Now like many things, consent decrees are surrounded by controversy on whether or not they are effective. However, research conducted by criminologists such as Dr. Worrall suggests that consent decrees are successful in reform.

To learn about federal consent decrees, read the following article: American Police Reform and Consent Decrees

~Shrinidhi Joshi

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