Expertise

Faculty and researchers affiliated with the Center for Law and Human Behavior have expertise in a wide array of social, behavioral, legal, and criminal justice-related research areas.   We invite you to explore the pages below to learn more about how the Center can provide research and analysis that helps inform basic science, agency decision-making, resource allocation, and policy formulation at the local, state, and national levels.   

A fundamental responsibility of government is the securing of its borders that protect citizens, institutions, and critical infrastructure from external threats. Each border security scenario is unique; differing geography, threat spectrums, resource levels, and cultural contexts necessitate intelligent deployment and training of personnel, utilization of technology, and adherence to tailored concepts of operations. Our border security team understands the latest manpower, technology, and infrastructure needs of border security organizations in the United States and around the world. By working directly with border security authorities, as well as private sector providers, the Center for Law and Human Behavior helps make borders around the world more secure.

Researchers at University of Texas at El Paso provide dynamic support to those agencies within the homeland security enterprise in meeting their border security and immigration (BSI) related research, education and science and technology needs. The Center provides full, dynamic support to those agencies and individuals who are charged with the implementation of immigration policy, the interdiction of transnational threats and those who maintain the integrity of the nation’s borders and immigration infrastructure. The Center also advances the understanding and analysis of national immigration and border security policies and their societal impacts. Victor M. Manjarrez, Jr., project director at UTEP’s Center for Law and Human Behavior, is an authority on border management and homeland security matters with more than 20 years of field and headquarters experience in the United States Border Patrol. Many of his innovative border security methods and ideas are the basic cornerstones for the U.S. Border Patrol and are still being utilized today. Throughout Chief Manjarrez’ career in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), he was been tasked with some of the most arduous jobs that the U.S. Border Patrol had to offer because of his skills in developing complex, efficient, and comprehensive border security programs. 

Due to Chief Manjarrez’ subject matter expertise in developing complex and innovative homeland security practices, he was consistently recognized as one of DHS’ most dynamic and innovative operational leaders.  Most recently in government, Mr. Manjarrez served as the Chief Patrol Agent of Tucson Sector for the U.S. Border Patrol. Previously, he held positions as Chief Patrol Agent in the El Paso Sector and Acting Director of Counternarcotics Enforcement for the Department of Homeland security where he was the primary policy advisor to the Secretary for Department-wide counternarcotics issues.

Contact:

Dr. Victor M. Manjarrez, Jr., Director

Center for Law and Human Behavior

Racial bias in traffic stops has emerged over the past fifteen years as an important policy issue confronting law enforcement agencies in the United States.  Widely publicized lawsuits claiming racial bias in traffic stops have stimulated public and political opposition to such practices.  Public opinion surveys reveal strong disapproval of racial profiling by the police, particularly among African-Americans. These public perceptions and attitudes not only raise potential constitutional issues of illegal search and seizure and Equal Protection in police traffic stop behavior  but also foster public doubt about the legitimacy of law enforcement agencies. These legal, social and political dynamics have subsequently prompted a number of state and local law enforcement agencies to engage in voluntary or involuntary data collection and analysis efforts capturing their traffic stop activity and related practices for the purpose of examining racial bias.

Researchers at the University of Texas at El Paso have been leading figures in the examination of law enforcement traffic stops and evaluation of racial bias. Dr. Jeff Rojek, Director of UTEP’s Center for Law and Human Behavior, is a nationally-recognized expert on this issue and has conducted the analysis for the Missouri Attorney General’s annual Vehicle Stops Report since 2001. This annual report was created from the first state legislative act in the United States to require the reporting of traffic stops to provide transparency on the distribution of racial characteristics of drivers stopped and related actions. Dr. Rojek has spoken to various police and academic forums on the analysis and interpretation of traffic stop data for examining racial bias, and has published research on this issue in the leading policing and criminological academic journals.  

Dr. Rojek has received multiple federal grants from the United States Department of Justice to examine the practices of law enforcement agencies and have also worked with numerous state and local law enforcement agencies on issues related to racial bias, use of force, officer misconduct, arrest practices, intelligence-led policing and responses to communities problems. He has expertise in research design, data collection, and statistical analysis to assist the law enforcement community and other criminal justice agencies in the issues they confront, as well as provide independent review.

Contact:

Dr. Jeff Rojek

Michigan State University

The hypervisibility of contemporary migration flows has generated an uncanny interest in migrant smugglers. Clandestine migrations and their facilitation are dangerous. They often involve traveling undetected under extreme conditions across vast distances. Many migrants become the target of criminals of various kinds. Many others sustain serious physical injuries and unknown numbers of people die or go missing during their transits. Many smugglers engage in atrocious practices that take advantage of the vulnerability of those in transit. The testimonies of many migrants and their families attest clearly and poignantly to these facts. 

Amidst the tragedy, there are two fundamental factors to consider. First,that the modus operandi of smugglers responds to immigration enforcement, and is reflective of the demand for channels for mobility amid their rapid decrease for specific groups of people worldwide. And most critically, while they are frequent actors in media, academic, government and law enforcement reports, smugglers have hardly been the subject of systematic empirical inquiry. This absence is particularly noticeable in US scholarship on migration: empirical work on the facilitation of irregular border crossings and their actors along the US Mexico border, the main point of entry for irregular migrants into the United States, is extremely scant. This project addresses this gap. 

A socio-cultural anthropologist by training Gabriella Sanchez researches transnational criminal organizations. Her ethnographic work has primarily explored the social organization and internal dynamics of migrant smuggling networks. She is the author of “Human Smuggling and Border Crossings” (Routledge, 2015), her first book on smuggling facilitators on the US Mexico Border, and finalist of the International Association for the Study of Organized Crime’s 2015 Book of the Year Award. Her current research documents the convergence between human smuggling and other criminalized markets and the participation of women, children and teenagers in smuggling facilitation. She is the convener of the Smuggling Workshop, an international collective of smuggling and trafficking researchers conducting empirically-informed research on clandestine and irregular migration facilitation.

Contact:

Dr. Gabriella Sanchez, Deputy Coordinator for Migration 

International Committee of the Red Cross

The prevalence of mental illness in corrections populations is 2 to 3 times that of the general population. Offenders with mental illness typically fare poorly in the criminal justice system and agencies struggle with meeting the complex needs of this group. A number of interventions have emerged in recent years to meet the needs of these offenders, such as mental health courts and specialized probation caseloads.

Researchers in the Center for Law and Human Behavior have extensive expertise studying the needs of offenders with mental illness and examining the criminal justice system’s response to these offenders. Dr. Jennifer Eno Louden has led or collaborated on numerous large-scale studies of this group. For example, she has coded focus groups of probation officers and offenders to gauge their perceptions of probation and mandated treatment. She collaborated on a matched controlled trial of specialty probation caseloads funded by the MacArthur Network on Mandated treatment. This multisite study examined the comparative outcomes of offenders with mental illness supervised by specialty mental health caseloads versus probation as usual. She also collaborated on a comparison of the risk factors for re-offense among parolees with and without mental illness. In addition, she has conducted experimental research to examine how probation officers make decisions for this group of offenders.

Dr. Eno Louden also has expertise in mental health assessment in correctional populations. She has directly examined the accuracy of mental health screening tools among adult and juvenile offenders. In particular, she has expertise in the assessment of mental illness among Latino offenders. She has experience in research design, data collection in community settings, and analysis. She welcomes opportunities to collaborate with corrections agencies on issues related to offenders with mental illness.

Contact:

Dr. Jennifer Eno Louden, Associate Professor

Department of Psychology

With the recent expansion of international law and the creation of regional and international judicial bodies, scholarship increasingly seeks to evaluate the impact of international law and supra-national courts on state behavior and domestic legal systems. The establishment of the International Court of Justice and International Criminal Court appear to emphasize global trends in judicialization and widespread international norms of accountability, individual rights, and justice. Similarly, the creation of regional human rights courts such as the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and European Court of Human Rights, appear to further entrench these norms transnationally. However, these institutions are plagued with accounts of ineffectiveness (and bias), limiting the perceived roles of these courts both in terms of their ability to influence state behavior and determine domestic legal policies. As such, these courts face severe criticisms in their apparent inability to curb state rights violations, tendency to produce strategic decisions so as to avoid conflict with powerful states, and perceived irrelevance through the ease with which states can completely ignore court judgments.

Dr. Rebecca Reid at the University of Texas at El Paso examines the roles of these supra-national courts on domestic legal policy. She finds, for example, that Latin American countries typically do comply with the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in that this regional court successfully induces domestic legal reform that incorporates international human rights laws. This research thus reevaluates contemporary understandings of the influence of international law and supra-national courts on domestic legal systems. Dr. Reid furthermore has expertise in data collection and management, research design, advanced statistical analysis, qualitative analysis, legal analysis, and formal theory.

Contact:

Dr. Rebecca Reid

Department of Poltical Science

The post-World War II era has witnessed a dramatic increase of regional integration organizations (RIOs) with implications on commerce, migration, security, development, and domestic policies. RIOs not only bind member countries together economically, they also strongly influence the strength of democratization, political stability, and the homogenization of domestic laws and regulations. RIOs justify requiring members to adhere to basic principles and specific regulations in order to improve efficiency and safety as well as maintain transnational economic competition. Cases that exemplify strong influence on domestic institutions, laws, and regulations, include the European Union, while weak, yet significant, cases include the North American Free Trade Agreement. We are at the start of understanding and effectively explaining the patterns of success and failures, at the micro and macro levels, of RIOs in enforcing supranational standards, regulations, and the rule of law.

Dr. Genna has pioneered the study of comparative regional integration by analyzing RIO development and their impact on member countries. His analyses include all existing RIOs, which are represented in each continent, with extensive expertise on the European Union, North American Free Trade Agreement, Common Market of the South (MERCOSUR), Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and Economic Community of West African States. His publications examine across various levels of analysis (RIO, member countries, and individuals’ attitudes and opinions) in order to explain why countries would pool sovereignty over laws and regulations, allow supranational jurisdiction over their domestic affairs, and become answerable to supranational courts and commissions. He also explains why enforcement of regulations and membership requirements are uneven among countries within a RIO.

Contact:

Gaspare M. Genna

Department of Political Science