Rapid Response
In 2011, governors and conservative legislatures in 4 of 11 states with state-run monopoly spirits sales pushed to shift to private sales at many more outlets, while GA voted on allowing off-premises alcohol sales on Sundays. The study aims: (1) to develop and apply a simulation model that estimates the harms from privatization and the dollar costs to state government and to society, (2) to perform secondary data analyses that validate or correct libertarian analyses of the public health consequences of privatization and answer related questions raised by state legislators, (3) evaluate the role the analysis plays in the decision process about these public health laws, and (4) inject non-partisan input into the policy debate. The evaluation will rely on follow-up telephone calls and e-mails and the team will track the outcomes of the legislative efforts and document how the team's estimates were used in the legislative and public debate.
Funding Date: Wed, 02/08/2012
Researching Institution: HBSA, Inc.
Researcher: Ted R Miller, PhD
The application of criminal penalties for unintentional transmission of or exposure to HIV - "HIV criminalization" -- continues to be an important topic in HIV policy, drawing attention from researchers and policy-makers alike. The President's 2010 National HIV/AIDS Strategy for the United States has recommended that state criminal laws relating to HIV be reviewed and revised for consistency with public health principles and with current scientific understandings of HIV infection. This project will map US state laws criminalizing the transmission (or exposure of others to risk of transmission) of HIV. Using legal databases, the two-phase research process will first map criminalization statutes, and then reported judicial findings which characterize conduct risking HIV transmission as a common law crime (e.g., as a form of reckless endangerment or of battery).
Funding Date: Tue, 10/09/2012
Researching Institution: Yale University
Researcher: Stephen R. Latham, JD, PhD
The federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) provides a basic set of protections for workers who are injured or ill, for new parents, and for workers who need to care for a family member. Family and medical leave access represents an essential element of worker, family, and population health. While there has been limited quantitative and qualitative analysis of the impact and utilization of the federal FMLA, very little attention is known about the content or outcomes associated with state family and medical leave laws. A data set of these laws is needed to encourage research on state laws, and to inform further policy discussion of their scope and usefulness. The researchers at Columbia University's Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies will quantify and code variables associated with accessibility of leave, types of leave-taking activity, and forms of legal remedy provided to leave-takers.
Funding Date: Sun, 12/09/2012
Researching Institution: Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York
Researcher: Elizabeth Ribet, JD, PhD
Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of teen death and injury. The CHOP team will evaluate a New Jersey Graduated Driver Licensing (GDL) law (Kyleigh's Law passed 5/1/10), which requires probationary teen drivers to display a decal on the vehicle's license plate, making them easily identifiable to police, thereby making it easier for police to enforce (1) restrictions on the number of passengers less than 21 years of age allowed in the vehicle without parent accompaniment; (2) ban on driving during the hours between 11:01 pm and 5 am; (3) ban on driver use of interactive wireless communication devices; and (4) required seat belt use for all vehicle occupants. The team will analyze existing NJ licensing and citation data to compare the number and rate of citations issued to and number and rate of police-reported and fatal crashes involving NJ teen probationary drivers before and after the law went into effect.
Funding Date: Sat, 04/14/2012
Researching Institution: Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Researcher: Allison E. Curry, PhD, MPH
The rapid growth of the immigrant Latino population in North Carolina and nationwide has led to immigration policies that may have a potentially profound impact on utilization of public health services. This study will evaluate whether a relationship exists between local immigration law enforcement and the utilization of public health services, especially prenatal care, by Latinos. The team will collect qualitative data in North Carolina on (1) Latinos' willingness to seek public health services as it relates to the threat of immigration enforcement, and (2) how attitudes and behaviors have changed since implementation of the immigration enforcement program. Using statewide prenatal care data from 2000 through 2009, the team will explore how immigration enforcement affects utilization of prenatal care among Latinas to determine trends and differences in: (1) the month of gestation for a first prenatal visit, and (2) the total number of prenatal visits.
Grant Number: 69701
Funding Date: Sun, 01/01/2012
Researching Institution: Wake Forest University
Researcher: Scott D. Rhodes, PhD; Mark A. Hall, JD
This study will create a database that will aid future research determining the effectiveness and impact of public mental health laws. Although various forms of out-patient commitment have become more common in recent years, civil commitment of all kinds has continued to be a basic mechanism for assuring that people with serious mental illness receive treatment for their own benefit and for the protection of others. The relative efficacy of the varying legal mechanisms has, however, not been thoroughly evaluated. This study will collect and code statutes, regulations and case law governing involuntary civil commitment to both inpatient and outpatient mental health treatment across the 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. The database will include current and past laws.
Grant Number: 69536
Funding Date: Tue, 11/01/2011
Researching Institution: University of Massachusetts Lowell
Researcher: William Fisher, PhD; John Petrilla, JD, LLM
Americans saw more than 2.8 million foreclosures recent years, and the impacts on public health are largely unknown. The foreclosure process may impact health if it causes stress-related illnesses such as hypertension and diabetes, if it forces reallocation of household funds that are otherwise used for health care, if it occasions dislocation that impacts treatment relationships, or if it degrades health-related behaviors such as diet and exercise. The research team will draw a sample of 400 homeowners undergoing foreclosure in a median Zip code in Phoenix through an extensive recruitment effort. Data will be gathered on the foreclosure process, health, health care, insurance, and use of safety net benefits - all essential for understanding the impact of laws on health.
Grant Number: 69700
Funding Date: Sun, 01/01/2012
Researching Institution: University of Arizona
Researcher: Christopher Tarver Robertson, PhD, JD; Christina Cutshaw, PhD
The American Nonsmokers' Rights (ANR) Foundation will collect and code local tobacco control laws nationwide related to youth access to tobacco products, tobacco advertising, and conditional use permits. The final dataset is expected to include as many as 70 variables for the youth access laws (eg. vending machines, single cigarettes, and penalties), 20 variables for tobacco advertising laws (eg. location restrictions, point of sale requirements, and tombstone exemptions), and an undetermined number of variables for conditional use permit laws. The dataset of tobacco control laws, in combination with other existing data on public health behavior and outcomes, will enable researchers to determine the impact and value of such laws on public health.
Grant Number: 69741
Funding Date: Sun, 01/01/2012
Researching Institution: Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights Foundation
Researcher: Cynthia Hallett, MPH
This project will look at the implementation of Virginia’s newly-enacted Health Care Decisions Act (HCDA) and identify the key barriers and enabling factors that will determine the law’s ultimate impact on health outcomes, safety, and quality of life for persons with severe mental illness. The study’s findings will be used to develop specific recommendations to improve the implementation and positive impact of the HCDA in Virginia and will also be disseminated nationally to inform policymaking in other states. The NCDA provides a legal mechanism for persons with chronic, disabling health conditions—including serious mental health disorders such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder—to document, while competent, their advance consent to treatment and to authorize a healthcare proxy to make treatment decisions for them during periods of incapacity. Whether and how these types of advance directives will work in practice is unknown.
The Research Network on Mandated Community Treatment has awarded a matching grant for this research. Funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Research Network on Mandated Community Treatment seeks to elaborate a new and broader conceptual framework to encompass all forms of mandated treatment.
Grant Number: 67241
Funding Date: Mon, 11/30/2009
Researching Institution: University of Virginia
Researcher: Richard Bonnie, LL.B.; Jeanita W. Richardson, Ph.D., M.Ed.
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Public Health Law Research is a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. It is housed at the Temple University Beasley School of Law.