Criminal Justice

Revisiting Gang Violence in Boston

Publication Date: November 15, 2007

On the night of November 28, 2006, Reverend Jeffrey Brown, a Baptist minister and co-founder of the Ten Point Coalition in Boston, Massachusetts, received bad news: 20-year-old Jahmol Norfleet, a leader in one of Boston's warring gangs, had been...

Defining Torture in the War on Terror (Sequel)

Publication Date: December 14, 2006

After the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, President George W. Bush launched a military offensive in Afghanistan, which led to the capture of Al Qaeda operatives thought to be behind the attacks. Top US officials debated how to...

Defining Torture in the War on Terror: The Trail of the "Torture Memo" (B)

Publication Date: December 14, 2006

After the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, President George W. Bush launched a military offensive in Afghanistan, which led to the capture of Al Qaeda operatives thought to be behind the attacks. Top US officials debated how to...

Defining Torture in the War on Terror: "Checking with the Professionals" (A)

Publication Date: December 14, 2006

After the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, President George W. Bush launched a military offensive in Afghanistan, which led to the capture of Al Qaeda operatives thought to be behind the attacks. Top US officials debated how to...

Going it Together: Coventry's Community Safety Partnership

Publication Date: August 09, 2006

This case looks at the adoption by the city of Coventry, UK, of a 1998 law meant to enhance collaboration among public agencies to reduce crime rates. Coventry created a Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership and hired staff to coordinate...

Mr. Nam's Dilemma

Publication Date: September 30, 2005

In 2000, Vietnam passed the Enterprise Law to spur private sector development and facilitate its transition from a centrally-planned to a market economy. The Enterprise Law changed the paradigm for private business in Vietnam by making business...

Aiding or Abetting? World Bank and the 1997 Judicial Reform Project (Epilogue)

Publication Date: March 31, 2005

When the World Bank signed an agreement with the government of Peru in December, 1997 to provide a $22.5 million loan to help reform the country's antiquated and corrupt judicial system, the Bank knew it faced risks. Peru's President Alberto...

Smarter Foreign Aid?: USAID

Publication Date: December 1, 2004

The US Agency for International Development (USAID), responsible for US government aid to developing nations, had come under increasing criticism from Congress and others during the 1990s. At the same time, the proportion of foreign aid...

Aiding or Abetting? World Bank and the 1997 Judicial Reform Project

Publication Date: December 01, 2004

When the World Bank signed an agreement with the government of Peru in December, 1997 to provide a $22.5 million loan to help reform the country's antiquated and corrupt judicial system, the Bank knew it faced risks. Peru's President Alberto...

"Dealing with the Devil": The Tobacco Control Negotiations of 1997-98

Publication Date: March 25, 2004

The decade of the 1990s was one of increasingly bitter public criticism of the major US tobacco companies on the part of a number of anti-tobacco advocacy groups, who were collectively known as the tobacco control movement. In their zeal to...

A Duty to Leak?

Publication Date: February 01, 2004

This case describes the challenge faced by the executive director of a (disguised) human rights watchdog agency. The state wants to increase the number of inmates in its prisons (without increasing the size of the facilities). This requires the...

A Letter to Professor Dutch Leonard

Publication Date: November 01, 2003

This letter to a Kennedy School faculty member from a former student is a plea for advice about one of the most difficult dilemmas faced by public employees in a bureaucratic chain of command: what to do when one thinks a new boss is moving an...