John Roman
@johnkroman.bsky.social
Director, Center on Public Safety and Justice, NORC at the University of Chicago. Essays: https://johnkroman.substack.com/.
Today's pod is a doozy! I do a deep dive with @johnkroman.bsky.social about why crime is falling in the United States and whether it will continue. Give it a listen! Apple - podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a... Spotify - open.spotify.com/episode/3zrk...
A Deep Dive into Why Crime is Falling with John Roman
Podcast Episode · The Jeff-alytics Podcast · July 22 · 37m
podcasts.apple.com
What are the costs, benefits, and public safety tradeoffs of women’s incarceration? Watch yesterday’s conversation with experts Elias Diggins, Victoria Kuhn, and @johnkroman.bsky.social, moderated by CCJ Policy Director Stephanie Kennedy, here: counciloncj.org/event-record...
Event Recording: The Rising Cost of Women’s Incarceration and What It Means for Public Safety - Council on Criminal Justice
In this conversation, the Council on Criminal Justice Women's Justice Commission and a panel of experts discussed the costs, benefits, and tradeoffs of women's incarcarceration.
counciloncj.org
What are the costs, benefits, and public safety tradeoffs of women’s incarceration? Join experts Elias Diggins, Victoria Kuhn, and @johnkroman.bsky.social for a discussion grounded in findings from new CCJ research, moderated by CCJ's Stephanie Kennedy. Register: events.zoom.us/ev/AsKgy4CUx...
Second cab in a row where the seatbelt doesn’t work. Though this one sounds like it’s about to blow up. Gonna wrap the belt around me like Jason Bourne when he backs off the roof of the parking garage.
While you fret about the AI revolution, the geese are advancing. And they are a cruel master.
The red line shows homicides between 2018 and 2025. The blue line, the number of local government employees. They are mirror images. The blue line trends w/ARPA, a $350B investment in local government. The red line trends down as 1 million teachers, counselors, and clinicians enter the workforce.
How’s it going in the NBA? Bucks Management: Hey Doc we know it’s a lot to ask, but we want you to lose the rest of the games. Doc: that sucks but I’ll do it. Management: good job losing all those games. You’re fired.
European hotels: We have a fine room to accommodate your three adults. You may select from a room with one queen bed or, a room with two twin beds. Our other rooms will not accommodate three adults.
"Successes from prevention are statistical rather than personal." Nice article from @johnkroman.bsky.social on violence prevention and its challenges in the US
Vital City@vitalcitynyc.bsky.social · 5mo agoWhat drove the nationwide crime decline of 2025? @johnkroman.bsky.social argues that large-scale prevention investments — funded through pandemic recovery dollars — helped drive the drop and that future gains require thinking beyond policing alone. www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/how...
How Prevention Reduced Crime and How To Get More of It open.substack.com/pub/johnkrom...
How Prevention Reduced Crime and How To Get More of It
Prevention is the third rail of Abundance. Let's fix that.
open.substack.com
Why could crime have declined? Leading criminologists like @johnkroman.bsky.social increasingly point to state, local, and federal investments in crime prevention. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
The Great Crime Decline Is Happening All Across the Country
Even cities with understaffed police departments have made record gains.
theatlantic.com
In the debate about whether Medicaid should pay for access to GLP-1s, the potential benefit of widespread access to GLP-1s, lowering crime rates, is rarely included among the potential benefits. If it were, it might tip the scales in favor of broader coverage. johnkroman.substack.com/p/medicine-c...
Medicine can reduce crime
GLP-1 and Crime Reductions: Reducing crime through better health
johnkroman.substack.com
Saying Trump is "weaponizing" these systems ignores that they were already much-used weapons, only targeting ppl w/o political power. DOJ's blessing of Rene Good's shooting is based on precedents from cops getting a pass in >1,000 such cases/year. If this is authoritarianism, maybe that was, too.
Mapping Police Violence
Law enforcement agencies across the country are failing to provide us with even basic information about the lives they take. So we collect the data ourselves.
mappingpoliceviolence.org
Cool job alert: "Postdoctoral Scholar: Criminal Justice Research Center & PA Department of Corrections" This is an opportunity to contribute to the fantastic research program at the PA DOC under Bret Bucklen.
Stay in school kids. When your connecting flight is delayed, and you’re gaming out alternate routes, all that algebra is going to be really helpful.
Every day, school is a surprise. Me: "Hey! Let's go! The bus will be here any minute" Child: "What are you talking about??!?"
The Prosecutors and Politics Project at UNC School of Law has released a study analyzing over 11,000 bills changing criminal law in all 50 states between 2015 and 2018. Please join me and a very distinguished panel today, October 1, at Noon EST to discuss the implications. lnkd.in/etzAqi3M
Without looking closely, I have twelve papers in there. Since authors are not paid for academic articles, the irony would be that this would be my first check.
Ryan Estrada@ryanestrada.com · 11mo agoJust a reminder to check for your name in this list of books that OpenAI trained from. If your name is there, they probably owe you several thousand dollars. OpenAI cried that if everyone eligible author files, the company will go bankrupt, so I'm alerting every author I have ever spoken to.
I think 83% of my emails are this exchange. Them: What time can you meet on Wednesday? Me: Anytime but 10 to 11 Them: Great, I'll send an invite for 10.
Crime control is undergoing a massive shift in the US and around the world, with surveillance tech advancing much faster than privacy protections. Bottom-line: the tech does reduce crime, and, it will likely infringe on civil liberties without careful regulation. www.forbes.com/sites/thomas...
AI Startup Flock Thinks It Can Eliminate All Crime In America
With more than 80,000 AI-powered cameras across the U.S., Flock Safety has become one of cops’ go-to surveillance tools. Now CEO Garrett Langley has both police tech giant Axon and Chinese drone maker...
forbes.com
Polls show most Americans think crime is rising because 'crime' is a catch-all term. But, there are dozens of evidence-based ways to reduce disorder and fight crime, and many of the most effective approaches do not involve the police. open.substack.com/pub/johnkrom...
When people say crime is a big problem, are they really talking about crime?
Sometimes, but not always
open.substack.com
The Abundance agenda has real promise, but it does require a much more serious approach to crime. open.substack.com/pub/johnkrom...
On the YIMBY-Abundance Crime Blind Spot
Nudging the pro-city crowd toward more effective crime policy
open.substack.com
Spot on. I would note that there are 43 law enforcement agencies operating in Washington, the majority of which are federal. The Capitol Hill police alone have a force about the size of Cleveland's municipal police.
Emily Badger@emmbadger.bsky.social · 12mo agoThe president wants to “take back” DC, but the federal government never really let it go. It touches nearly every aspect of life in the city, making it harder for local officials to manage even the things Trump cares most about. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/14/u...
The president wants to “take back” DC, but the federal government never really let it go. It touches nearly every aspect of life in the city, making it harder for local officials to manage even the things Trump cares most about. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/14/u...
Trump Wants to ‘Take Back’ D.C., but the Federal Government Already Controls Much of It
nytimes.com
Such a bad take from the @nytimes.com. It ignores decades of evidence from police research, criminology, economics, etc. It's a barstool conversation based on a hazy recollection of college sociology. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/14/o...
Opinion | Crime Keeps Falling. Here’s Why.
nytimes.com
It is hard to think of an idea with more staying power, and one with less empirical support, than the idea that the way to be tough on crime is to lock lots of people up. What I want to propose here is a much more effective way to be tough on crime. open.substack.com/pub/johnkrom...
Let’s get tough on crime by solving more crimes
Choosing between certainty and punishment
open.substack.com
