This article examines the intersection of legal epidemiology, education, and diversity in the healthcare workforce within historically marginalized Black communities. Despite national efforts to diversify the healthcare workforce, systemic barriers — rooted in historical policies such as redlining and unequal school funding — continue to obstruct educational attainment and career access. Through a literacy-focused intervention and analysis of parental involvement, the study identifies foundational educational deficits that hinder students’ progression into healthcare fields. The authors argue for an expanded definition of legal epidemiology that includes education as a determinant of health, enabling a more holistic understanding of how law and policy shape community well-being. This interdisciplinary approach highlights the necessity for structural reforms in both education and healthcare policy to enhance equity, representation, and health outcomes. The findings offer actionable insights for policymakers, educators, and public health professionals committed to advancing justice through systemic change.

Bullying is a public health concern that results in diminished well-being for children and adolescents. One approach that lawmakers have taken to address bullying is enacting anti-bullying laws, which require school districts to establish bullying prevention policies. In this study, researchers used standard legal epidemiology methods to systematically retrieve and analyze anti-bullying laws in the United States (US). While they found that every US state and the District of Columbia has a school anti-bullying law, there is wide variation in their scope and requirements. Some jurisdictions specified requirements that school districts must implement in their anti-bullying policies, while others deferred policy enactment entirely to school districts. Given the differences in requirements and scoping afforded in anti-bullying laws, understanding the important components included in such policies can help provide policymakers and practitioners with information about bullying prevention strategies across jurisdictions.

Scientific legal mapping methods build on traditional comparative legal research practices, but add elements of transparency and reproducibility that can increase utility of research findings for empirical research, policymaking and public information. This comment on ”Global Legal Environment for LGBTQ+ Sexuality and Public Health” by Matthew Kavanagh et al. sets out the benefits of scientific legal research techniques and argues that legal scholars and their students can benefit from their wider adoption.

In Wisconsin, many alcohol policies are regulated at the local level. To examine the relationship between local policies, alcohol use and health outcomes, our team developed a database to collect local alcohol policies. Initial results highlight differences in how policies are defined, enforced, and made available to the public.

Little research has explored relationships between prenatal substance use policies and rates of maternal mortality across all 50 states, despite evidence that prenatal substance use elevates risk of maternal death. This study, utilizing publicly available data, revealed that state-level mandated testing laws predicted maternal mortality after controlling for population characteristics.