Jerry Ratcliffe

Peter Moskos may not be popular with the progressive 'we hate policing' folk, but he is a reasonable and honest critic of good & bad policing.
New ep Thursday, but for now enjoy this snippet from the current episode, with Peter talking about what you are judged on when you join a police shift.

We won the cold war, and then gave it all away.
What a betrayal.

New pod out with @jerryratcliffe.net! Jerry is one of the smartest voices out there working to use research & science to improve policing. Give it a listen!

Apple - podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
Spotify - open.spotify.com/episode/4k6E...
Amazon - music.amazon.com/podcasts/cad...

This line graph illustrates the percentage change in agency staff levels from the previous year for nine major U.S. federal scientific and health organizations between the fiscal years 2016 and 2025. The agencies tracked include the CDC, Department of Energy, EPA, FDA, NASA, NIH, NIST, NOAA, and NSF. For the majority of the timeline between 2016 and 2023, the agencies show relatively stable fluctuations, generally staying within a range of +5% to -5% change per year. However, there is a dramatic and uniform plummet starting in the 2024–25 period. Every agency depicted shows a sharp downward trajectory, with staffing losses ranging from approximately -15% to over -25%. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) shows the most significant decline, dropping to roughly -26%, while the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) shows the least severe but still substantial drop at approximately -15%.

This is the most astonishing graph of what the Trump regime has done to US science. They have destroyed the federal science workforce across the board. The negative impacts on Americans will be felt for generations, and the US might never be the same again.

www.nature.com/immersive/d4...

Police departments struggle to find research partners, in part because academic criminology has actively worked against policing research for some years now.

Source: www.jerryratcliffe.net/_files/ugd/f...

Do you explore intersections between digitalization and geography of crime? @asiermoneva.com, Wim Bernasco and I look forward to your contribution to our guest-edited special issue “The Geography of Crime in the Digital Era”. See call for papers (www.sciencedirect.com/journal/jour...). Please share.

A shortage of ‘copaganda fascists’ and the need for more police pracademics This essay examines the evolving relationship between policing and academia, highlighting the increasing significance of pracademics – police practitioners with scientific training who, like embedd...

The first paper in our inaugural collection is now out. Much thanks @jerryratcliffe.net

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Brilliant 😂

Page 26 of that report (yes, I'm a nerd) has a truly awful graph from a design perspective. I mean, who thought this is good?

Thanks for getting back to me Asier. That’s not it (it’s a recent pub in last few weeks) but this helps too. Cheers!

Crime nerds, I need help. @LessCrime's excellent RSS feed recently posted an article about what I think was a study looking at if people took more cyber crime prevention advice when it was from authorities rather than hackers (if I recall), but now I can't find it. Anyone help?
@asiermoneva.com?

BlueSky filesize limits are a p.i.t.a, but if you want weekly summaries of key crime and policing studies and ideas, please follow reducingcrime_ over at instagram, or Reducing Crime on LinkedIn.

I didn't know CloudFlare was a thing, until it screwed up this morning's work.

This week is the ASC conference, so here’s mentions of “abolish” in recent programs:
2021 1 program, 5 submissions
2022 1 submission
2023 4 programs, 5 subs
2024 5 programs, 3 subs
2025 2 programs (not incl. one about abolishing nuclear weapons)

Is this idea's rampant stupidity finally receding?

I want a refund for your conference presentation There is a problem with academic criminal justice and criminology, and it’s getting worse.I’ve attended several conferences and meetings in the last three months. And the standard of presentation is d...

The American Society of Criminology conference is next week and this is your annual reminder that most of the presentations will likely be 💩
Here are some ways to be less 💩

www.jerryratcliffe.net/post/i-want-...

Yeah, he's a super smart guy.

Thanks for the shoutout. Here at UPenn we are proud of the program, with world-ranked, practical, non-partisan faculty.

If you aren't following the work of @benbradford.bsky.social then you are missing out on thoughtful insights into policing and public safety.
Apple: apple.co/4opeJDD
Spotify: bit.ly/3WBBJ6f

An interesting thought experiment here, and ... if you follow the logic of the thread, raises broader and potentially significant questions about the validity of 'lived experience' as a viable criminological research tool.

No, but we can examine other questions alongside the political circumstances. It's not like those other questions are not (rightly) being asked... just about everywhere.

National Guard presence may deter crime, but experts warn of the long-term costs As President Trump ramps up efforts to send federal officers and troops into cities, criminologists are watching closely. Are the feds doing this in a smart way?

Featuring a little of my chat with @martinkaste.bsky.social on the crime reduction implications of the deployment of National Guard in Washington DC.
www.npr.org/2025/10/02/n...

I agree with the tenor and points of ALL of the interviewees in the article, and reiterated many of the arguments and concerns mentioned by others. But there’s no point in the reporter using the same quote from everyone. I’m sure they are all equally aware of the UK research and it is relevant.

Commentary box? You moving upward in that field?

To contextualize this week’s political commentary, of the 2,647 identified extremist violent offenders in the US since 2000, far-right extremists were more than 7 times more represented in the data than far-left extremists.

* No, this isn’t to negate the abhorrent shooting this week.

Things get nicked because they are one or more of... CRAVED:
Concealable
Removable
Available
Valuable
Enjoyable
Disposable

(if I remember correctly)

Opinion | Forcing People Into Drug Treatment Can Save Their Lives

A must-read op-ed by Keith Humphreys in the NY Times, covers both how harm reduction advocates abandoned communities (hello Kensington in Philadelphia) and why mandating drug treatment will help many.

His @reducingcrime.com podcast ep is a must: apple.co/4ne9Jko

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/02/o...

In the new episode of the @reducingcrime.com podcast, @mattbland.bsky.social - former analyst and now evidence-based policing guru - explains the value he got from socializing with police officers.
Apple: apple.co/4g269aC
Spotify: bit.ly/4oXiQYc

Just asked Google how President Trump activated the National Guard.
The response was... not optimal.

Fun chat covering Matt's experiences as an analyst in the National Intelligence Model and where #evidence-based_policing is right now.
Tons of great advice for crime analysts working with police departments.

Absolutely... they all have long term relationships: David Weisburd, Geoff Alpert, Larry Sherman, Anthony Braga, Wes Skogan, Cynthia Lum, and many more. And they are all practical about the work they do. Helping the departments work on their needs, not just research interests.