Steven A. Drizin
Clinical Professor of Law
Associate Director, Bluhm Legal Clinic
Director, Center on Wrongful Convictions
Phone: (312) 503-6608
E-mail: s-drizin@law.northwestern.edu
SSRN Author Page | Curriculum Vitae (pdf)
Related Links: Blog | Center on Wrongful Convictions | Bluhm Legal Clinic
Steven Drizin is a Clinical Professor at Northwestern Law School where he has been on the faculty since 1991. He is also the Assistant Director of the Bluhm Legal Clinic, and since March 2004, has been serving as the Legal Director of the Clinic's renowned Center on Wrongful Convictions. At the Center, Professor Drizin's research interests involve the study of false confessions and his policy work focuses on supporting efforts around the country to require law enforcement agencies to electronically record custodial interrogations. He also writes a blog on the subject of false confessions and police interrogations and has lectured and published widely on these topics.
Prior to joining the Center on Wrongful Convictions, Drizin was the Supervising Attorney at the Clinic's Children and Family Justice Center where he built a reputation as a national expert on juvenile justice related issues. He was a leader in the successful effort to outlaw the juvenile death penalty and co-wrote an amicus brief in Roper v. Simmons, the United States Supreme Court's decision striking down the juvenile death penalty as unconstitutional. In August 2005, Drizin received the American Bar Association's Livingston Hall Award for outstanding dedication and advocacy in the juvenile justice field. Drizin received his B.A. with Honors from Haverford College in 1983 and his J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law in 1986.
Areas of Expertise
- Clinical Teaching
- Juvenile Justice
- Criminal Law
- Criminal Procedure
- Wrongful Convictions
Selected Publications
- True Stories of False Confessions (Northwestern University Press, 2009) (with Rob Warden ).
- Afterword in Barbarous Souls (Northwestern University Press, 2010).
- Police Interrogation of Youth in The Mental Health Needs of Young Offenders (Cambridge University Press, 2007). (with Allison D. Redlich )
- Tales From the Juvenile Confession Front: A Guide to How Standard Police Interrogation Tactics Can Produce Coerced and False Confessions From Juvenile Suspects in Interrogations, Confessions, and Entrapment (Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, 2004). (with Beth A. Colgan)
- Arturo's Case in Zero Tolerance: Resisting the Drive for Punishment in Our Schools 31-41 (The New Press, 2001).
- Remarks at the Dinner Celebrating the Centennial of the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, January 29, 2010 in 100 journal of criminal law & criminology 1247-1254 (2010).
Education
- BA, Haverford College
- JD, Northwestern University
Recent Consulting Activities
- Expert Witness, Office of the Public Defender Service in Washington, D.C.
