The Scientific Method Comes for Criminal Justice

About this episode

The episode discusses treating crime policy as an empirical problem with insights from economist Jennifer Doleac.

Economists love to say there are no free lunches. Jennifer Doleac thinks criminal justice is one of the rare places where that’s wrong. In this episode, host and Editor of The Argument, Jerusalem Demsas talks with Doleac—economist and author of The Science of Second Chances—about what happens when you treat crime policy like an empirical problem instead of a morality play. Rejecting the false choice of being "tough on crime" or "soft on crime," Doleac surfaces a surprising number of ref...

People in this episode

Host: Jerusalem Demsas

Guest: Jennifer Doleac

Topics covered

• criminal justice
• economics
• empirical policy
• crime policy
• morality
• second chances

Keywords

• criminal justice
• empirical problem
• crime policy
• Jennifer Doleac
• The Science of Second Chances
• tough on crime
• soft on crime

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: The Science of Second Chances

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