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Criminology
When police forces grow, homicides drop and low-level arrests increase
Research from Penn criminologist Aaron Chalfin and others found that an additional 10 to 17 officers prevented one homicide annually, but each extra officer added up to 22 arrests for crimes like drug possession.
The role of progressive prosecutors in the criminal justice reform movement
Using Philadelphia as a microcosm, a new law course will analyze the emerging trend of progressive prosecutors’ offices and discuss how their strategies fit into a larger movement for criminal justice reform.
The story of immigration enforcement
In an award-winning paper, criminologist Aaron Chalfin examines the public safety implications of labor market-based immigration enforcement.
COVID-19, protests, and crime
During a summer internship with the Law School’s David Abrams, rising sophomores Caroline Li and David Feng looked at how the COVID-19 pandemic and last summer’s racial justice protests affected America’s crime rate.
Hope and help for wrongfully incarcerated Pennsylvanians
With Project HOPE, President’s Engagement Prize winners Carson Eckhard, Natalia Rommen, and Sarah Simon will address the lack of support to wrongfully incarcerated people in Philadelphia and across the state.
Medication access for opioid use disorder lower among those in criminal justice system
Penn Medicine research finds Medicaid expansion helps increase access to medications for opioid use disorder, but limitations exist to broadening access.
Annenberg researchers use data science skills for social justice
Data scientists at the Annenberg School for Communication are working with the Amistad Law Project to create an open access dashboard of data that can aid efforts to help the incarcerated communiy.
How data science can win the debate on police reform
Wharton’s Dean Knox discusses his research on racial bias in policing, and how retrospective data analysis can help inform future practices.
Simple solutions reduce court no-shows, subsequent arrest warrants
For low-level offenses in New York City, text nudges and a redesigned summons form decreased failure-to-appear rates by about 20% and led to 30,000 fewer arrest warrants over a three-year period.
Internship gives law students exposure to criminal justice empirical research
The Quattrone Center’s inaugural summer internship program allowed students respond to calls for community reform, accountability, and justice.
In the News
Too many Philly police are no-shows in court, derailing cases and undermining our justice system
Research by Sandra Mayson of Penn Carey Law, Aurelie Ouss of the School of Arts & Sciences, and doctoral candidate Linsday Graef finds that Philadelphia police officers failed to appear in 31% of cases for which they were subpoenaed between 2010 and 2020.
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Do safe injection sites increase crime rates? What a study our of Brown University found
A study in collaboration with Aaron Chalfin of the School of Arts & Sciences indicates that overdose prevention centers do not lead to increased neighborhood crime rates.
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Philadelphians hope a cleaner city will reduce gun violence. Will Oh or Parker make it a reality?
A $3 million blight reduction project in Philadelphia is informed by Penn research showing that cleaning up trash and revitalizing vacant lots can reduce gun violence rates by as much as 29%.
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There is an invisible Puerto Rican community growing in PA’s prisons
Marie Gottschalk of the School of Arts & Sciences says that prison reforms to reduce the number of people incarcerated have been minimal.
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Gregg Bigda is the poster boy of police brutality in Springfield. But the city can’t—or won’t—fire him
A 2021 Penn analysis of all complaints across the Chicago Police Department revealed that on average, officers generated 1.5 total complaints and 0.2 use of force complaints in a five-year period.
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When a police shooting really is justified, what do we do with our pain then?
Richard Berk of the School of Arts & Sciences says that the police shooting of Estiben Alegria-Hurtado in Elizabeth, New Jersey, is a case where 20-20 hindsight can be fairly myopic.
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