2015 AAAS Annual Meeting (12-16 February 2015)

February 12 - 16, 2015

Creating and Using New Information To Promote Innovations in Crime and Justice Policy

The enormous economic and social costs of crime and criminal justice in the United States are borne by nearly every member of society. Legal and fiscal environments increasingly demand cost-effective and evidence-based solutions. The scholars on this panel -- from the fields of criminology, public policy, and statistics -- use new information, data, methods, and administrative levers to assess and promote innovations in crime and justice policy. The first presentation outlines recent initiatives that are transforming the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) into an engine of criminal justice innovation. The second presentation addresses the unprecedented California prison downsizing experiment -- a necessary response to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling -- and how it is affecting local criminal justice systems. Finally, as financial pressures and court orders force governments to rethink policies about who is sent to prison and for how long, scholars must provide high-quality evidence about how the experience of imprisonment affects reoffending. The final presentation relates the use of innovative statistical techniques to address this question. This session highlights how scholars and the federal government are using newly available information and methods to respond to unique legal and fiscal environments, finding innovative ways to contribute to evidence-based crime and justice policy.