12.1
Michele W. Berger
Science News Officer
mwberger@upenn.edu
In a Q&A, criminologist John MacDonald discusses his new book, grounded in years of research on the positive effects of remediation like fixing up abandoned lots and houses.
Bureaucratic hurdles block access to treatment services, so they tend to go unused. This leads to adverse outcomes that put stress on public systems like social services and law enforcement.
Predictive modeling is supposed to be neutral, a way to help remove personal prejudices from decision-making. But the algorithms are packed with the same biases that are built into the real-world data used to create them.
Through its emphasis on data-driven, systemic solutions to errors afflicting the criminal justice system, the Law School’s Quattrone Center for the Fair Administration of Justice has become a national leader in reform efforts.
In a Q&A, criminologist Richard Berk discusses why definitions matter and what role social media and mental illness play in this context.
Richard Berk, professor of criminology and statistics and chair of the Department of Criminology, taps into perpetrator patterns to forecast crime.
The Penn Program on Documentaries and the Law has produced a new documentary that exposes the discriminatory impact of a provision of the Pennsylvania Victims Assistance Compensation Program law that denies assistance to victims who contribute, or are suspected of contributing, to their own death or injury.
The program, run by the Ortner Center’s Kathleen M. Brown with support from Penn student volunteers and the Quattrone Center, works to secure the release of reformed prisoners serving life sentences.
The Quattrone Center for the Fair Administration of Justice and city agencies have joined together in a partnership that seeks to improve the fairness and accuracy of the criminal justice system.
Over a five-year period, most guns found in states with strict gun laws were obtained from less restrictive states.
Michele W. Berger
Science News Officer
mwberger@upenn.edu
“That’s just noise,” said the School of Arts and Sciences’ Richard Berk, commenting on the insignificance of a less than 1 percent decrease in violent crime from 2016 to 2017, as reported by the FBI.
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Maria Cuellar of the School of Arts and Sciences commented a partnership between the Houston Police Department and Ring, a home surveillance company that offers video doorbells, saying that there is not enough evidence to claim that the devices reduce crime.
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