Legal Epidemiology

About our work

The LRC advances laws and policies that improve public health and reduce health inequities by supporting researchers, policymakers, and advocates in building the evidence base for such efforts. Using legal epidemiology—a transdisciplinary approach combining scientific methods with legal research—the LRC enables research on the effectiveness of legal interventions and their impact on health outcomes. Our legal epidemiologists conduct legal mapping studies to compare public health laws across jurisdictions, supporting policy evaluation, evidence-based policymaking, and advocacy. The LRC also produces nationwide law surveys, environmental scans, and legislative and regulatory datasets.

Novice Driver Licensing Laws Data

Under a cooperative agreement with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the LRC created two legal mapping data sets of laws governing novice driver licensing in the states. It is our hope that the data will be widely used for outcomes research, policy evaluation, and advocacy to reduce crashes among new drivers.

The data are free and publicly available on the LawAtlas website, and include interactive maps and multiple search functions to facilitate comparisons across jurisdictions. Data codebooks (user guides) and coding protocols are also available on the website.

Novice Driver Licensing Laws Data Instructional Webinars

In 2025, the LRC held a series of three webinars entitled A New Resource for Road Safety Research and Policy: Publicly Available Datasets on State Novice Driver Licensing Laws to describe and demonstrate these new resources. Recordings are available below.

Please contact Kerri Lowrey at klowrey@law.umaryland.edu with any questions or data corrections.