Center on Public Safety & Justice

Driving evidence-based public safety and justice interventions.

NORC’s Center on Public Safety & Justice develops actionable, evidence-based solutions to crime and victimization. Those insights empower decision-makers to make criminal justice systems fairer and more effective and to inform community-level responses beyond policing and incarceration. When social systems are frayed, the Center fills an unmet need for trustworthy, non-partisan data collection and rigorous, transparent analysis and evaluation.

The Center integrates our multidisciplinary team of experts in criminology, demography, economics, and public health and NORC’s industry-leading survey data collection capacity. Our holistic approach and longstanding partnerships with diverse local stakeholders in the hardest-hit communities allow us to identify programming innovations at every societal level.

Center Leads

John Roman

Director

roman-john@norc.org

Asheley Van Ness

Associate Director

vanness-asheley@norc.org

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Center on Public Safety & Justice Experts

John Roman

Director

Center on Public Safety & Justice
Asheley Van Ness

Associate Director

Economics, Justice & Society
Audra K. Grant

Senior Research Scientist

International Programs
Jeanette Hussemann

Principal Research Scientist

Economics, Justice & Society
Kareem Kysia

Program Area Director

Hard-to-Reach Populations & People in Vulnerable Situations Program Area
Weiwei Liu

Principal Research Scientist

Public Health
Carrie E. Markovitz

Program Area Director for Youth Research

Economics, Justice & Society
Elizabeth Mumford

Senior Fellow

Public Health
Shannon Nelson

Senior Research Director

Economics, Justice & Society
Genevieve Ray

Senior Research Director

Economics, Justice & Society
Bruce Taylor

Senior Fellow

Public Health
Anthony Washburn

Senior Research Methodologist

Methodology & Quantitative Social Sciences

“Crime and violence rose dramatically in 2020 and then declined just as quickly in 2023. Policy responses should account for both the sudden increase and the sudden decline. The explanation that best fits the data is that COVID-19 caused disruptions to people’s daily lives and the programs that support them.”

John Roman

Director, Center on Public Safety & Justice

“Crime and violence rose dramatically in 2020 and then declined just as quickly in 2023. Policy responses should account for both the sudden increase and the sudden decline. The explanation that best fits the data is that COVID-19 caused disruptions to people’s daily lives and the programs that support them.”

Source: Testimony to U.S. House of Representatives

“As the U.S. justice system is becoming more aware of the need to provide increased protections for youth, reforms are being passed to provide youth access to legal counsel prior to arrest. Through our recent research, we outline best practices for jurisdictions who are considering implementing reforms in the future.”

Jeanette Hussemann

Principal Research Scientist, Center on Public Safety & Justice

“As the U.S. justice system is becoming more aware of the need to provide increased protections for youth, reforms are being passed to provide youth access to legal counsel prior to arrest. Through our recent research, we outline best practices for jurisdictions who are considering implementing reforms in the future.”

“Our study shows that investing in resilience training and wellness programs may help lessen the impact of stress on police officers’ well-being, job satisfaction, and performance, which may be of interest to administrators and policymakers striving to retain a high-performance police workforce.”

Weiwei Lu

Principal Research Scientist, Public Health

“Our study shows that investing in resilience training and wellness programs may help lessen the impact of stress on police officers’ well-being, job satisfaction, and performance, which may be of interest to administrators and policymakers striving to retain a high-performance police workforce.”

Our Expertise

Discover Our Research

Making justice and public safety efforts fairer and more effective requires subject matter expertise and trustworthy data and analysis.

Live Crime Tracker Shows Continued Major Crime Declines in 2024

Research Brief

Crime rates in major U.S. cities declined substantially in 2024, according to new data from NORC at the University of Chicago’s new Live Crime Tracker.