Professor Joh Authors Commentary for New York Times
Professor Elizabeth Joh published an entry in "Room for Debate," a feature of the New York Times website. Titled "The Government Shouldn't Distribute Child Pornography. Period.", the article concerns an investigation of a child pornography website in which the FBI continued to operate the site after taking control of it, allowing images of child pornography to be distributed as part of an effort to identify site users.
Although it is sometimes necessary for law enforcement to participate in crime in order to conduct undercover investigations, such actions must be accountable to the public, and the government should be able to demonstrate that the resulting benefits outweigh any harms, Joh writes.
"In cases like this one, official government participation in crime amounts to a low visibility, high discretion policing tactic with tangible harms. That's the antithesis of policing in a democratic society," writes Joh.
Professor Joh's scholarship focuses on criminal procedure and policing, with a special emphasis on DNA evidence, undercover policing, and new surveillance technologies.