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Research of Jon Gould
Racial and Ethnic Discrimination in the Courts
A Research Summary
Professor Jon Gould is consulting to the New Mexico Supreme Court to determine whether there is racial or ethnic discrimination in the decisions of its court system. This is a nine-month project in which Professor Gould is working with judges, court clerks, and judicial administrators to determine if data exist even to consider this question, and if not, to advise the New Mexico courts on which data must be collected and how to do so. They will be looking at “outcome measures” of the courts (convictions and sentences for criminal cases, damage awards in civil cases), the race and ethnicity of litigants, and the many possible “intervening variables” that could explain any relationship that is found between race/ethnicity and judicial outcome. Professor Gould has several trips planned to New Mexico over the course of the academic year, and he will be working throughout the state, from its major cities of Albuquerque and Santa Fe to New Mexico’s many rural areas.
Constitutionality of Police Searches
A Research Summary
Professor Gould is working with Professor Mastrofski to determine the extent to which police officers adhere to the Constitution when searching citizen-suspects. When officers do not follow such Fourth Amendment requirements, the study also seeks to understand the factors that explain search behavior. The study involves an analysis of police “ride alongs,” in which observers directly followed and recorded officers’ activities in a medium-sized, metropolitan police department. Coding those searches for their constitutionality, Professors Gould and Mastrofski undertake several empirical tests to examine patterns in, and explanations for, search activity.