Events / SCEW Seminar: Oren Gur

SCEW Seminar: Oren Gur

April 28, 2023
11:00 AM - 12:15 PM

online offering

This has been changed to an online event:

https://upenn.zoom.us/j/99037921492?pwd=eWY4K2t2WDhZWWppckp3YzZWL2Rndz09

 

Oren Gur
Director of Research & Policy Advisor
Director of DATA Lab
Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office

 

The new data shop in town: On prosecutors, data, and reform

 

Across the United States, elected prosecutors are using their discretion to be at the vanguard of criminal legal reform. Widely recognized areas of prosecutorial discretion include charging, diversion, plea bargaining, and sentencing recommendations. Prosecutors also have discretion to use data, analytics, and research to inform policy, practice, and public discourse. This paper describes how reform-minded prosecutors have incorporated data, analytics, and research into their discretionary toolkits, highlighting key examples of new data teams in prosecutorial offices across the US and emergent data-informed narratives regarding public safety. Key topics include misdemeanor prosecution, arrest rates, gun possession, and non-law enforcement approaches to ameliorating social problems. Implications for systemic reform, research, and the social construction of public safety are discussed.