{"id":10856,"date":"2024-05-01T10:30:58","date_gmt":"2024-05-01T14:30:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ciss\/?p=10856"},"modified":"2024-04-29T12:02:38","modified_gmt":"2024-04-29T16:02:38","slug":"may-2024-dr-ben-pyle-bu-school-of-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ciss\/2024\/05\/01\/may-2024-dr-ben-pyle-bu-school-of-law\/","title":{"rendered":"May 2024: Dr. Ben Pyle (BU School of Law)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Professor <\/span>Benjamin Pyle<\/span><\/a> teaches and writes in empirical legal studies, employment law, and criminal law, with a focus on how the law influences employment prospects and post-conviction opportunities for people with criminal records. Professor Pyle earned his JD from the <\/span>University of Michigan<\/span><\/a>, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude and <\/span>Order of the Coif, an honor society for law school graduates.<\/span><\/a> He was also awarded a Master\u2019s degree and PhD in economics from the <\/span>University of Michigan<\/span><\/a>. In addition, he earned a BA, Magna Cum Laude, in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) and Mathematics from <\/span>Claremont McKenna College<\/span><\/a>. He has published work in law reviews and peer-reviewed journals, including the <\/span>Notre Dame Law Review<\/span><\/i><\/a> and the <\/span>International Review of Law and Economics<\/span><\/i><\/a>. His research has won several prizes, including <\/span>The University of Chicago\u2019s Donald M. Ephraim Prize in Law and Economics<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>The John E. Parker Memorial Prize in Labor Economics and Human Resources<\/span><\/a>. In addition to theoretical and methodological contributions, Professor Pyle\u2019s scholarly contributions have been relevant to legal practice. His work has been cited by advocates, judicial opinions, and policy makers. His work has been featured in the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers journal, the <\/span>Champion Magazine<\/span><\/i><\/a>, as part of its <\/span>Getting Scholarship Into the Courtroom Project<\/span><\/a>. Professor Pyle\u2019s work has been supported by grants from the <\/span>Vital Projects Fund<\/span><\/a>, the <\/span>American Civil Liberties Union<\/span><\/a>, and the <\/span>University of Michigan<\/span><\/a>. Learn more about <\/span>Professor Pyle<\/span><\/a> in his full interview below.<\/span><\/p>\n

What made you decide to be a social scientist\/ why does social science matter to you?<\/b><\/p>\n

Social science matters to me because it offers a useful toolkit to shape and inform legal practices to improve outcomes after contact with the criminal justice system and to reduce the disparities the legal system generates. I am particularly focused on the relationship between the criminal justice system and employment. Research has demonstrated that a lack of employment opportunities for those with a criminal record damages returning citizens, hampers national productivity, exacerbates racial income inequality, increases crime rates, and causes many other problems. Seeking to improve post-conviction outcomes has led me to use tools from social science, and in particular, economics, to better understand policies upstream from a conviction within criminal law and downstream within employment law.<\/span><\/p>\n

Can you tell us about a recent research project that you\u2019re excited about?<\/b><\/p>\n

Legal collateral consequences \u2013 like criminal records \u2013 generated from criminal justice contact have dramatically affected how lawyers and lawmakers think about criminal law. For instance, even convictions with relatively minor court-imposed punishments cause dramatic declines in employment opportunities. While there is substantial evidence that employers are less willing to hire applicants with criminal records, we know less about why this is the case. Two of my current projects provide insight into this question. In a project studying negligent hiring tackles a difficult legal and policy challenge\u2014reducing the impact of criminal justice records on job applicants\u2019 chances in a manner that does not spur more discrimination\u2014by looking at the way another area of law, tort liability, impacts employers\u2019 decision making. In this paper, I examine the most common reason employers report being reluctant to hire a worker with a criminal history: liability due to the tort of negligent hiring. While the purpose of the tort is ostensibly to protect and make whole consumers and the public when an employee misbehaves in a foreseeable manner, I show that in practice, negligent hiring liability generates worse employment outcomes and additional criminal behavior. This pattern is consistent with negligent hiring being a significant barrier to employment and a lack of employment opportunities being a substantial driver of offending.<\/span><\/p>\n

My work highlights that it is not just one policy or belief driving low employment and wages for workers with a criminal history but many factors working in tandem. In other projects, I work to disentangle factors that shape employment opportunities for people with a criminal record. For example, in <\/span>a project<\/span><\/a> with <\/span>Michael Mueller-Smith<\/span><\/a> (University of Michigan) and <\/span>Caroline Walker<\/span><\/a> (U.S. Census Bureau), we study the impact of adult prosecution on recidivism and employment trajectories for first-time felony youth criminal defendants. We use extensive linked <\/span>Criminal Justice Administrative Record System (CJARS)<\/span><\/a> and socio-economic data from Wayne County, Michigan (Detroit). Using the discrete age of majority rule and a regression discontinuity design, we find that adult prosecution reduces future criminal charges over 5 years by 0.48 felony cases (down 20%) while also worsening labor market outcomes: 7.6 fewer employers (down 19%) and $613 less earnings (down 21%) per year. We develop a novel econometric framework that combines standard regression discontinuity methods with predictive machine learning models to identify mechanism-specific treatment effects that underpin the overall impact of adult prosecution.<\/span><\/p>\n

What is the best piece of professional advice you ever received?<\/b><\/p>\n

The best piece of professional advice that I\u2019ve received is to be curious and continue to ask questions. This includes a great deal of humility about what we know and what we can learn, but also optimism that progress can be made through consistent effort and willingness to consider, but rigorously evaluate, a variety of different ideas.<\/span><\/p>\n

What is your favorite course you\u2019ve taught at BU?<\/b><\/p>\n

I teach two courses, and couldn\u2019t choose between the two: <\/span>employment law<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>criminal law<\/span><\/a>. My research falls at the intersection of the two and I enjoy different things about each class. Employment law is an upper-level course that allows us to dive into both doctrine and theoretical and empirical work, assessing the impact of the legal choices courts and legislatures are making.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tell us a surprising fact about yourself.<\/b><\/p>\n

My dog is named Gordon Howl (after <\/span>the hockey player<\/span><\/a>, although I am an L.A. Kings fan). He often makes an appearance in my teaching hypotheticals and exam questions.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Professor Benjamin Pyle teaches and writes in empirical legal studies, employment law, and criminal law, with a focus on how the law influences employment prospects and post-conviction opportunities for people with criminal records. Professor Pyle earned his JD from the University of Michigan, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude and Order of the Coif, an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20070,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ciss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10856"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ciss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ciss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ciss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20070"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ciss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10856"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ciss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10856\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11320,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ciss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10856\/revisions\/11320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ciss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ciss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ciss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}