The Temple University Center for Public Health Law Research convened a satellite conference in conjunction with the 6th International Conference on Law Enforcement and Public Health March 16–19, 2021. This satellite conference, funded by the National Science Foundation Law and Science Program, was a global gathering of people whose work in public health law research (also known as legal epidemiology) informs practice and policy at the intersection of law enforcement and public health. The satellite provided participants with an outlet to share their research, advance scholarship and methods, and support early-career and underrepresented scholars who are interested in studying the effects of criminal law and its enforcement on public health.

Legal epidemiology — the scientific study of law as a factor in the cause, distribution and prevention of disease and injury — is an emerging transdisciplinary field with roots in health, socio-legal and behavioral research. The intersection of law enforcement and public health encompasses both the obvious concerns and questions related to the interaction of law enforcement and communities, and broader questions about the effects of law and policy on security, safety, power, and control. It also asks how these issues interact with health, well-being and equity; all questions legal epidemiologists seek to answer.

Schedule and Materials

Pre-Recorded Conference Plenaries

Keynote discussion: Reflections on the Growth of Legal Epidemiology and Opportunities for the Future with eminent public health law researchers on the past, present and future of the field, and its role in supporting the field of law enforcement and public health. Featuring:

• Jeffrey Swanson, MA, PhD, Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University School of Medicine
• Alexander Wagenaar, PhD, Research Professor, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University
• Scott Burris, JD, Professor and Director, Center for Public Health Law Research, Temple University Beasley School of Law and the College of Public Health

This recording is available in full (approximately 80 minutes in length), or five parts:

• Full recording
• Part 1: Getting Real about Research in the Real World
• Part 2: Making a Career in a Transdisciplinary Field
• Part 3: Using Theory to Strengthen Impact
• Part 4: Sharpening the Lens of Racial Equity Concerns in Legal Epidemiology Research
• Part 5: Opportunities for Success in Legal Epidemiology

Framing a Legal Epidemiology Research Agenda on Policing and Public Health, presentation by Scott Burris, JD

• Watch the recording

Conference Panels and Methods Briefs

10-minute pre-recorded presentations of abstracts apply legal epidemiology research methods to issues in law enforcement and public health. Issues addressed include the effects of drug policy and its enforcement, the health effects of legal drug use, legal mapping, and the impacts of police practices on health effects and the social determinants of health.

Panelists have also prepared Methods Briefs that outline the methodological approach in greater detail.

About the Organizing Committee and the Satellite Conference

The satellite conference is hosted by the Center for Public Health Law Research at Temple University’s Beasley School of Law. The organizing committee for this satellite includes Scott Burris, JD, Professor and Director, Center for Public Health Law Research at Temple University Beasley School of Law; Jennifer Wood, PhD, Professor of Criminal Justice, Temple University College of Liberal Arts; and Rosemary Frasso, PhD, CPH, Associate Professor, Program Director, Public Health, College of Population Health, Thomas Jefferson University.