The Scientific Method Comes for Criminal Justice

The Scientific Method Comes for Criminal Justice

February 17, 2026 · 1h 10m

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...

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