September 2017
Amy Dent is coming to the School of Social Ecology as an assistant professor of teaching after two years as a College Fellow in Harvard University's Department of Psychology. Dent earned Master’s and doctorate degrees in developmental psychology from Duke University.
September 2017
Innovations in data-driven policing have caused a drop in murders in Los Angeles this summer, according to Criminology, Law and Society Professor George Tita.
In June, July and August, the city saw 59 murders. In recent years, that number has been in the 70s and 80s; last year it was 82. Police have been using data to pinpoint where violence is likeliest to happen, then have assigned resources to those areas.
September 2017
The September Social Ecology e-newsletter is out! Don't miss this month's stories on: saliva research, how to prepare your child for the first day of school the mental health consequences of being arrested.
September 2017
Thankfully, altruistic donations to the victims of Hurricane Harvey are pouring in -- as donations frequently do after such disasters.
But are those donations really the best use of donors' money? Or could donors spend their money more effectively elsewhere, by, for instance, giving to aid programs that seek to end disease or starvation in developing countries?
Jared Celniker, who is earning his Ph.D. in psychology and social behavior, examines such altruism, and whether there is a more effective method of giving in Psychology Today.
September 2017
To convince someone with a differing opinion of your point of view, it's wise to distinguish between your view of the person and your view of their opinion. Indicating that you believe the person as worthy of debate opens up the dialogue, says Peter Ditto, professor of psychology and social behavior.
What shuts people down? Name-calling, point-scoring and direct antagonism, which put people on the defensive.
August 2017
The U.S. Sentencing Commission has found that 9 of the 75 people sentenced for murder in 2014 at the federal level were non-citizens in the country illegally.
But those numbers aren't representative, says Charis Kubrin, professor of criminology, law and society.
August 2017
The new film "Crown Heights" depicts the story of Colin Warner, an African American man who spent 21 years in prison for a murder he didn't commit.
His story isn't uncommon. A study conducted by the National Registry for Exonerations, which is hosted at the School of Social Ecology, found that nearly 47 percent of the 1,900 people exonerated as of October 2016 were black, a rate three times higher than their proportion in the general population.
August 2017
Karna Wong, a UCLA researcher and instructor, is joining the Department of Urban Planning and Public Policy as a professor of teaching. Prior to earning her Ph.D. at UCLA, Wong worked for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in Washington, D.C., Santa Ana, Calif. and San Francisco, Calif.
Arrest accounts for nearly half the mental health consequences of incarceration
Being in prison is known to adversely affect mental health, but it’s not just the 2.2 million people incarcerated in the U.S. who suffer. According to a new UCI study, the 12.2 million individuals arrested every year also experience mental health repercussions.
August 2017
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents frequently make arrests at local jails, where they can identify undocumented immigrants before they're released into society. The agents are able to do so because of a program called Secure Communities, which allows them access to local jail bookings.
Even though President Trump reinstated the Secure Communities program in January, some local sanctuary policies limit the cooperation between local jails and ICE agents. But a new data collection system requested by ICE that would collect data from at least 17 sources such as jail bookings, car registrations and credit history could essentially create a nationwide Secure Communities system, Ana Muñiz, an assistant professor of criminology, law and society, told Reveal News.