With our brief in Smith v. Texas finally out to print, I will be posting on a few things that have piled up in the inbox. The October issue of The Journal of Law & Economics (49:2) is out in hard copy. The electronic edition is here. Several articles more or less crime-related are sure to stir up controversy.

p. 451: Holzer, Raphael, and Stoll "find that employers who check criminal backgrounds are more likely to hire African American workers, especially men."

p. 481: Charles and Stephens continue looking at the controversial association between legalized abortion and crime and find that persons born in states where abortion was legal prior to Roe v. Wade are less likely to use drugs.

p. 507: Mocan and Tekin find an association between juveniles' access to guns and their likelihood of committing a crime. "No support is found for the hypothesis that gun availability decreases the propensity for being victimized." They are probably off the NRA's Christmas card list.

p. 533: Jennifer Hunt examines the correlation between teen birth rates and crime

In the current American Law and Economics Review (8:3, Fall) , there is an article by Ross & Yinger titled, "Uncovering Discrimination: A Comparison of the Methods Used by Scholars and Civil Rights Enforcement Officials." This might have some application to discrimination claims in criminal cases.