Education

• Harvard College A.B. 1991
• University of Michigan M.A. 1995
• University of Michigan J.D. 1999
• University of Michigan Ph.D. 2000

Courses

• Criminal Law (B511)
• Criminal Procedure: Investigation (B601)
• Criminal Procedure Capstone (B786)
• Seminar in Constitutional Law: First Amendment (L799)
• Seminar in Law and Society (L710)

Background

• Bell received her A.B. cum laude from Harvard College in 1991. She was book review editor for the Michigan Journal of Race and Law.
• Member, American Law Institute (2019-present)
• Co-editor, Law & Society Review (2016-2019)
• Recipient, Leon H. Wallace Teaching Award (2018)
• Law & Society Association Trustee (2006)
• American Bar Foundation Visiting Scholar (2005-2006)
• Founding Member and Book Review Editor, Michigan Journal of Race and Law (1999)

Biography

A nationally recognized scholar in the area of policing and hate crime, Professor Jeannine Bell has written extensively on criminal justice issues. Bell’s research is broadly interdisciplinary, touching on both political science and law, and relying on her empirical expertise. Her most recent book, Hate Thy Neighbor: Move-in Violence and the Persistence of Racial Segregation in American Housing (NYU Press, 2013), uses heartbreaking stories to show that “despite professions of tolerance, whites continue to patrol racial borders” (American Journal of Sociology). Her first book, Policing Hatred: Law Enforcement, Civil Rights, and Hate Crime (New York University Press 2002), an ethnography of a big city police hate crime unit, provides a detailed look at criminal investigation of and treatment of minorities by police. Bell also edited Police and Policing Law (Ashgate 2006), a collection she assembled exploring socio-legal scholarship on the police. In addition, drawing on her empirical expertise, she co-authored Gaining Access: A Practical and Theoretical Guide for Qualitative Researchers (AltaMira Press 2003). Bell’s research and writings have received national media attention, in outlets including ProPublica, The New York Times, and USA Today.  

Professor Bell joined the IU Maurer School of Law in 1999, where she teaches in the areas of criminal law and procedure. She was appointed Richard S. Melvin Professor of Law in 2015. In 2018, she was honored with the Leon H. Wallace Teaching Award, the highest teaching award bestowed upon a faculty member. From 2005-2006, Bell served as an American Bar Foundation Visiting Scholar. 

Bell is active in a number of national organizations, including the Law and Society Association, of which she has served as trustee and treasurer. She served as co-editor of the Law & Society Review from 2016-2019. Bell also was a member of the American Political Association's Presidential Taskforce on Political Violence and Terrorism from 2004-2008. In 2019, she was elected to membership in the American Law Institute. 

In addition to her PhD, Professor Bell received her JD and MA (in political science) from the University of Michigan. While at University of Michigan Law School, she was a founding member and book review editor of the Michigan Journal of Race and Law. She received an A.B. from Harvard College, cum laude, with a concentration in government.  

In the Media

• Quoted in "Murphy's Law: Hate Toward Black People Rising?," Urban Milwaukee (7/26/2023)
• Quoted in "Hate Crimes Expert Weighs in on Racially Motivated Buffalo Attack," WFHB News (5/17/2022)
• Quoted in "Advocates push for more comprehensive hate crime law in Indiana," WISH TV News (5/16/2022)
• Quoted in "Buffalo shooting latest example of targeted racial violence," Associated Press (5/16/2022)
• Quoted in "Buffalo Shooting Highlights Rise of Hate Crimes Against Black Americans," New York Times (5/16/2022)
• Quoted in "Arbery's death sparked big changes to Ga. laws. What's next?," Atlanta Journal-Constitution (2/23/2022)
• Quoted in "Jury finds Ahmaud Arbery's killers guilty on hate crime charges," NPR (2/22/2022)
• Quoted in "Hate-crimes trial of Ahmaud Arbery's killers: What to know," The Washington Post (2/13/2022)
• Discussant in "Hate crimes trial of the three men already convicted of murdering Ahmaud Arbery," Bloomberg Law Podcast (2/12/2022)
• Quoted in "State prosecutors mostly avoided race in trying Ahmaud Arbery's killers. Feds won't have that option," WLFI (2/6/2022)
• Quoted in "Feds drop hate crime charges against ex-Bordentown Police Chief Frank Nucera Jr.," WHYY News (12/21/2021)

Selected works

Conferences & Symposia

• Civil Remedies for Police Brutality Panel, hosted by University of California Berkeley Civil Justice Research Initiative on June 12, 2020. 
• The Way Forward: Perspectives on Police Reform Panel, hosted by Drexel University Kline School of Law on July 28, 2020.  

Publications

• The Violence of Nosey Questions, BOSTON UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW (Forthcoming, 2020).
• The Hidden Fences Shaping Resegregation, 54 HARVARD CIVIL RIGHTS-CIVIL LIBERTIES LAW REVIEW 813 (2019).
• The Resistance and the Stubborn But Unsurprising Persistence of Hate and Extremism in the United States, 26 INDIANA JOURNAL OF GLOBAL LEGAL STUDIES 305 (2019).
• Dead Canaries in the Coal Mines: The Symbolic Assailant Revisited, 34 GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW 513 (2018).
• Hate Thy Neighbor: Lessons for Neighborhood Integration for the Post-Obama Era and Beyond, 42 LAW & SOCIAL INQUIRY 577 (2017).
• HATE THY NEIGHBOR: MOVE-IN VIOLENCE AND THE PERSISTENCE OF RACIAL SEGREGATION IN AMERICAN HOUSING (NYU Press, 2013).
• The Personal, the Political, and Race, 44 LAW & SOCIETY REVIEW 487 (2010).
• The Hangman's Noose and the Lynch Mob: Hate Speech and the Jena 6, 44 HARVARD CIVIL RIGHTS-CIVIL LIBERTIES LAW REVIEW 329 (2009).
• Policing and Surveillance, in HATE CRIME (Fredrick Lawrence et al., Eds.) Westport, CN: Praeger Publishers (2009).
• The Hangman’s Noose and the Lynch Mob: Hate Speech and the Jena 6, 44 HARVARD CIVIL RIGHTS-CIVIL LIBERTIES LAW REVIEW 329 (2009).
• Restraining the Heartless: Racist Speech and Minority Rights, 84 INDIANA LAW JOURNAL 963 (2009).
• "Behind this Mortal Bone": the (In)Effectiveness of Torture, 83 INDIANA LAW JOURNAL 339 (2008).
• Demise of the Talented Tenth: Affirmative Action and the Increasing Underrepresentation of Ascendant Blacks at Selective Higher Educational Institutions (with Kevin D. Brown) 69 OHIO STATE LAW JOURNAL 1229 (2008).

Related links

• Social Science Research Network
• Publications

Areas of expertise

• Criminal law
• Criminal procedure
• Hate crimes
• Police violence