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Does Bail Reform Increase Crime in New York State: Evidence from Interrupted Time-Series Analyses and Synthetic Control Methods
Wu, S., & McDowall, D. (2024). Justice Quarterly, 41(3), 371–399.
Did New York’s 2020 bail reform make the state less safe? Distinguished Teaching Professor David McDowall and I conducted the first study to evaluate the effects of the bail reform law on the entire state, and the first attempt to disentangle its effects from national historic events such as the COVID-19 pandemic. We found that the reform did not increase crime.
Changing Patterns of Death Penalty Opinions in US States: Group-Based Trajectory Modeling for Public Opinion Research
Wu, S., & McDowall, D. (2026). Crime & Delinquency (conditionally accepted).
Whom and When to Deport and Punish: Experimental Evidence on Americans’ Attitudes toward Immigrants in the Criminal Legal System
Shi, L., & Wu, S. (2027). International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 116, 102499.
Fleeting Support: The Temporal Structure of Help and Abandonment after Incarceration
Wu, S., Novick, R., & Robles, M. (2026). Journal of Developmental and Life-Course Criminology, 12(1), 28.
Recognizing and Reporting Police Misconduct across Formal and Informal Pathways
Powell, Z. A., & Wu, S. (2026). Policing: An International Journal, 1–22.
Guiding Cases and the Death Penalty in the Chinese Mainland
Xiong, M., Wu, S., Hong, L., Duan, S., & Hou, J. (2025). Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice.
Legitimacy, Brutalization, and the Acceptability of Violence: Evidence from the Death Penalty and Fatal Officer-Involved Shootings
Wu, S., & Powell, Z. A. (2025). Deviant Behavior, 1–17.
Measuring State-Level Death Penalty Opinion: A Research Note
Wu, S., & McDowall, D. (2025). Crime & Delinquency.
Public Support for Drug Courts: Beyond a Second Chance
Wu, S., Sloas, L. B., & Artemenko, V. (2025). Criminal Justice and Behavior.
Supreme Court Decisions and Fatal Officer-Involved Shootings
Powell, Z. A., & Wu, S. (2025). Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice, 37(1).
Framing the Harms of Wrongful Convictions: How Different Narratives Shape Public Opinion
Wu, S., & Norris, R. J. (2025). Journal of Experimental Criminology.
Does Bail Reform Increase Crime in New York State: Evidence from Interrupted Time-Series Analyses and Synthetic Control Methods
Wu, S., & McDowall, D. (2024). Justice Quarterly, 41(3), 371–399.
Distinguished Teaching Professor David McDowall and I collaborated in the first study to evaluate the effects of New York’s bail reform law on the entire state. This study is also the first attempt to disentangle the effects of bail reform and national historic events such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Past, Present, and Future of Restorative Justice in the Chinese Mainland: A Systematic Review of Chinese Literature
Wu, Z., & Wu, S. (2023). Asian Journal of Criminology, 18(2), 89–112.
Professor Zongxian Wu and I reviewed research on restorative justice.
False Positives vs. False Negatives: Public Opinion on the Cost Ratio in Criminal Justice Risk Assessment
Kang, B., & Wu, S. (2023). Journal of Experimental Criminology, 19(4), 919–941.
My colleague Byunggu Kang and I conducted a survey experiment to explore people’s opinion on false positive errors and false negative errors in criminal justice risk assessment.
The Effect of Wrongful Conviction Rate on Death Penalty Support and How It Closes the Racial Gap
Wu, S. (2022). American Journal of Criminal Justice, 47(5), 1006–1024.
Why do people who believe innocent people were executed still support the death penalty? I examined Gallup data in three years and found their perceived low wrongful conviction rate was the key. I also found the perceived wrongful conviction rate could explain the racial gap in death penalty support.
The Effect of Wrongful Conviction Rate on Death Penalty Support: A Research Note
Wu, S. (2022). Journal of Experimental Criminology, 18(4), 871–884.
Does telling people different wrongful conviction rates affect their death penalty opinion? I conducted a survey experiment and found that wrongful conviction rate has to reach a certain level to cast a significant impact on people’s death penalty support.
“I Did It, but...I Didn’t”: When Rejected Affirmative Defenses Produce Wrongful Convictions
Acker, J. R., & Wu, S. (2020). Nebraska Law Review, 98, 578–643.
My advisor Dr. James Acker and I explored convictions resulted from the wrongful rejection of affirmative defenses (e.g., self-defense).
Book Review: Death Penalty in Decline?: The Fight against Capital Punishment in the Decades since Furman v. Georgia
Wu, S. (2024). Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books.