Criminology

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.

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.

Data from the Quattrone Center at Penn Carey Law suggests that COVID-19 has caused crime in the U.S. to drop across the nation’s largest cities.

A study by researchers from Penn and Columbia found that the restoration of blighted land resulted in a 58% reduction in people’s fear of going outside due to violence and a 76% increase in the use of outdoor spaces.

Two studies by the Urban Health Lab at Penn found that gun violence dropped significantly in neighborhoods where vacant parcels were turned into regularly maintained green spaces.

In a 2021 essay, Aaron Chalfin and John MacDonald of the School of Arts & Sciences argued that a number of changing factors made it difficult to isolate the precise combination of ingredients behind the COVID pandemic’s surge in violence.

William S. Laufer of the Wharton School says that Stanton Samenow’s influence on criminal psychology will remain, even if at the foundation of future research.

John MacDonald of the School of Arts & Sciences outlines seven key facts about crime and criminal offenders.

Aaron J. Chalfin of the School of Arts & Sciences says that the theft of millions of dimes at a Walmart parking lot in Philadelphia was probably committed by people who knew that the money would be there.

Research by Eugenia C. South of the Perelman School of Medicine, John MacDonald of the School of Arts & Sciences, and Vincent Reina of the Weitzman School of Design shows that fixing up dilapidated homes in low-income Philadelphia neighborhoods is an effective way to prevent shootings.