"The Inverse Relationship between the Constitutionality and Effectiveness of New York City 'Stop and Frisk'"

The title of this post comes from this recent contribution to the debate over NYC's stop-and-frisk program by Professor Jeffrey Bellin, the abstract of which states:  

New York City sits at the epicenter of an extraordinary criminal justice phenomenon. While employing aggressive policing tactics, such as “stop and frisk,” on an unprecedented scale, the City dramatically reduced both violent crime and incarceration – with the connections between these developments (if any) hotly disputed. Further clouding the picture, in August 2013, a federal district court ruled the City’s heavy reliance on “stop and frisk” unconstitutional. Popular and academic commentary generally highlights isolated pieces of this complex story, constructing an incomplete vision of the lessons to be drawn from the New York experience. This Article brings together all of the strands – falling crime, reduced incarceration and aggressive policing – analyzing the hazy historical and empirical connections between them, and evaluating the legal implications of a crime-fighting policy that might “work” to reduce both crime and incarceration precisely because of the factors that render it unconstitutional.

CRL&P related posts:

• "Probabilities, Perceptions, Consequences and 'Discrimination': One Puzzle About Controversial 'Stop and Frisk'"
• Across the Hudson: Taking the Stop and Frisk Debate Beyond New York City
• Debate: The Constitutionality of Stop-and-Frisk in New York City
• SDNY amends related-case rule to increase transparency over case assignments