Skip to Content Skip to Content

Criminology

The Quattrone Center: Less argument, more truth-seeking
Illustration of a Black hand with shackle around the wrist and paper in the palm folded like a crane.

Image: Melinda Beck/The Pennsylvania Gazette

The Quattrone Center: Less argument, more truth-seeking

The Quattrone Center for the Fair Administration of Justice is pioneering a systemic, data-driven approach to criminal justice reform. Its executive director, John Hollway, started with the idea that the law should function more like science.

The Pennsylvania Gazette

'A national disgrace': Holes in DNA databases leave crimes unsolved for decades

'A national disgrace': Holes in DNA databases leave crimes unsolved for decades

PIK Professor Dorothy Roberts commented on the use of DNA in surveillance and policing. “Because of the huge disparities and injustices in the way in which criminal laws are enforced, like rampant racial profiling by police, collecting DNA is a racist practice,” she said. “It embeds within it the racist practices for arresting people and charging them with crimes.”

Crime has declined overall during the pandemic, but shootings and killings are up

Crime has declined overall during the pandemic, but shootings and killings are up

David Abrams of the Law School and Wharton School spoke about how crime rates have shifted amid the pandemic. "People have reacted to the pandemic in all sorts of ways in decreasing economic activity," he said. "They stopped going to work, they stopped driving their car. They stopped walking around the city, and crime also stopped."

Police violence, structural racism, and the science of reform
African American person in a crowd at a demonstration confronts a line of state police with riot gear.

Police violence, structural racism, and the science of reform

Co-sponsored by LDI and the Penn Injury Science Center, a virtual seminar on Policing, Race and Health: Prospects for Reform kicks off what will be a continuing series of conversations on the topic over the next year.

Hoag Levins