Profile

Dr. Alisa Smith is a Professor at the University of Central Florida. She earned her doctoral degree in criminology and criminal justice and her law degree (JD) at The Florida State University. Dr. Smith practiced criminal trial and appellate law for nearly 29 years, and her primary research interests include: Access to justice in the misdemeanor courts; empirical legal studies; and the use of social science by the courts. Dr. Smith has authored more than twenty-five peer-reviewed and law journal articles, reports, and book chapters, and she has authored three books. Her research has appeared in the Journal of Criminal Justice, Florida Law Review, and American Journal of Criminal Law.

Ph.D. in Criminology and Criminal Justice (1998)
Juris Doctorate in Law (1988)
Florida State University

• Improving access to justice in the misdemeanor courts
• Analyzing legal questions through an empirical lens
• Exploring the use of social science by the courts

• Misdemeanor Waivers of Counsel

Smith, A., & Stice S. K. (Spring 2025), No Lawyer/No Jail: A Critical Case Study of Pragmatism and the Flaws of ‘Purposeful’ Decision Making in Argersinger v. Hamlin, Seattle U. L. Rev., 48 (4), 921- 988.

Smith, A., & Stice, S.K. (2025). Offstage & Off-Script: Performing Bureaucratic Due Process and Waiving Counsel in the Misdemeanor Court. Washington, DC: National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

Smith, A., & Maddan, S. (2025). Misdemeanor Defendants: Counsel Selection and the Consequences of Delayed Representation. Washington DC: National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

Stice, S.K., & Smith, A. (2025). Complex Decisions Under Short Time Constraints: Why Misdemeanor Defendants Proceed without Counsel. Washington DC: National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

Smith, A. (2024). Moving Beyond Yoga: An Exploratory, Qualitative Study of Public Defenders’ Solutions for Improving Work-Life and Effective Assistance of Counsel. Criminal Law Practitioner, 14(2), 27-57.

Smith, A., Mousa, N., & Stice, S. (March 2024). Studying Unrepresented Defendants in the Lower Criminal Courts: Methodological Lessons Learned. Law and Method. doi: 10.5553/REM/.000082

Smith, A. (2023). “I get worried with this. . . . constitutionality by statistics”: A critical analysis of discourse, framing, and discursive strategies to navigate uncertainties in the Argersinger oral arguments. UCLA Criminal Justice Law Review, 7(1), 47-82.

• Mentor a Promise

• Criminal Law
• Criminal Procedure
• Law, Social Science, and the Criminal Courts
• Law on Trial: Empirical Legal Scholarship