Justice Department Convenes First Meeting of New Science Advisory Board

WASHINGTON – The Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs’ (OJP) newly created Science Advisory Board convened its first meeting today in Washington, D.C.   Created last year, the board is charged with providing OJP with guidance and recommendations for research, statistics and grant programs, ensuring the programs and activities are scientifically sound and pertinent to policymakers and practitioners.

Today’s meeting provided the board’s newly appointed members with information about OJP’s mission and goals, and how their participation will enhance the overall impact and performance of OJP’s activities in criminal and juvenile justice.   In Fiscal Year 2010, OJP awarded nearly 5,000 grants totaling $2.6 billion to the criminal and juvenile justice field.   This funding will be used for research and evaluation programs designed to encourage innovative approaches to prevent and control crime, to assist victims, and to increase the capacity of state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies.

“The Science Advisory Board will play a critical role in institutionalizing the protection of science at the Department of Justice,” said Laurie O. Robinson, OJP’s Assistant Attorney General.   “The board’s members will provide valuable input and guidance to ensure adherence to the highest levels of scientific rigor, while serving as a bridge between research and practice in the criminal justice fields.”

In November 2010, Attorney General Eric Holder announced the 18 board’s members – experts and scholars in criminology, statistics, sociology and practitioners in the criminal and juvenile justice fields.   The members are:

Chair: Alfred Blumstein, Ph.D., The H. John Heinz III College, Carnegie Mellon University.    Dr. Blumstein is a previous winner of the Stockholm Prize in Criminology and serves as the J. Erik Jonsson Professor of Urban Systems and Operations Research at Carnegie Mellon Heinz College.

William J. Bratton, Chairman, Altegrity Risk International.   Mr. Bratton most recently served as chief of the Los Angeles Police Department.

Andrea J. Cabral, Sheriff, Suffolk County, Mass.   Sheriff Cabral was elected as the 30th Sheriff of Suffolk County and she is the first female in the commonwealth’s history to hold the position.

Frank Cullen, Ph.D., Distinguished Research Professor of Criminal Justice, University of Cincinnati.    Dr. Cullen is the past editor of Justice Quarterly and Journal of Crime and Justice and was president of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences.

Tony Fabelo, Ph.D., Director of Research, Council of State Governments Justice Center.    Dr. Fabelo was a member of the National Research Council panel of the National Academy of Sciences that issued two national reports in 2000 and 2001 on juvenile crime and juvenile justice.

James M. Lepkowski, Ph.D., Chair, Program in Survey Methodology, University of Michigan.    Dr. Lepkowski is Senior Research Scientist at the Survey Research Center and Associate Professor of Bio-statistics at the University of Michigan.

Alan I. Leshner, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).    Dr. Leshner has been the chief executive officer of the AAAS and Executive Publisher of the journal, Science, since December 2001.

Mark Lipsey, Ph.D., Director, Peabody Research Institute, Vanderbilt University.

Dr. Lipsey is the director of the Peabody Research Institute and his research and teaching interests include public policy, program evaluation and social intervention with an emphasis on programs for children and youth.

Colin Loftin, Ph.D., School of Criminal Justice, University at Albany, State University of New York.    Dr. Loftin is co-director of the Violence Research Group, a research collaboration with colleagues at the University at Albany and the University of Maryland that conducts research on the causes and consequences of interpersonal violence.

The Honorable Theodore A. McKee, Chief Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.   Prior to his appointment to the bench, Judge McKee served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney where he prosecuted cases of public corruption, police brutality and civil rights violations.

Tracey L. Meares, J.D., Deputy Dean and Walton Hale Hamilton Professor of Law, Yale University.   Professor Meares’ research and teaching interests center on criminal procedure and criminal law policy, with a particular emphasis on empirical investigation of these subjects.

Edward P. Mulvey, Ph.D., Director, Law & Psychiatry Research, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.   Dr. Mulvey is a fellow of both the American Psychological Association and the American Psychological Society.

Joan Petersilia, Ph.D., Faculty Co-director, Stanford Criminal Justice Center

Dr. Petersilia is the author of 11 books about crime and public policy and has conducted research about parole reform, prisoner reintegration, and sentencing policy.

Joycelyn Pollock, Ph.D., Department of Criminal Justice, Texas State University.    Dr. Pollock began her career in criminal justice as a probation and parole officer in the state of Washington.   Her primary research areas include prisons, women in the system (as professionals, offenders and victims) and legal topics.

Richard Rosenfeld, Ph.D., Professor, Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Missouri.   Dr. Rosenfeld is the Curators Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.   He recently served as the President of the American Society of Criminology.   Dr. Rosenfeld is the co-author with Steven Messner of Crime and the American Dream, now in its fourth edition.   

Elizabeth A. Stasny, Ph.D., Professor of Statistics and Vice Chair of Graduate Studies in Statistics and Bio-Statistics, Ohio State University .   Dr. Stasny has served on the editor boards of the Journal of the American Statistical Association and Survey Methodology.    She is a recognized expert in dealing with missing data and other response errors in surveys.

Robert J. Sampson, Ph.D., Professor of Social Sciences, Department of Sociology, Harvard University .   Dr. Sampson is the 2011 co-recipient of the Stockholm Prize in Criminology.   He and Dr. John H. Laub, Director of the National Institute of Justice, are joint winners for their work on understanding how and why criminals stop committing crime.  Dr. Sampson currently is on a one-year research sabbatical from Harvard University to the Russell Sage Foundation.    His research interests center on crime and violence, the life course, neighborhood effects and the sociology of the modern city.

David Weisburd, Ph.D., Professor of Law and Criminal Justice, Hebrew University and George Mason University.    Dr. Weisburd is the 2010 winner of the Stockholm Prize in Criminology and one of the early proponents of place-based experimental research in criminology.