Policy Panel: Enhancing Translational Criminology with Natural Language Processing and Data Science

Session Submission Type: Policy Panel

Abstract/Description

As with translational science and medicine, the goal of translational criminology is to evaluate, facilitate, and expedite the efficient transfer of results from basic research to policies and practices that directly benefit humans. This goal inherently requires the identification of strong evidence-based research, the identification of extraneous barriers to creativity and innovation in basic and translational research (supported by the ‘science of science’), the identification of unmet needs in the population, and the prioritization of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in science, policy, and practice. This panel presents projects that seek to examine, evaluate, or support the translational process that stimulates evidence-based policy and practice in the United States judicial system. These projects include, but are not limited to the on-going development of a network scientific and natural language processing framework for evaluating the translational impact of criminal justice research on judicial decisions; the development of a natural language processing approach to ascertaining similarities and differences in how criminal justice scholars and practitioners conceptualize culpability vis-à-vis homicide; a weight activated main path analysis of the overlap between victim and offender research in criminology, including a network approach to recommending ‘zipper topics’.

Sub Unit

• Area XX. Policy Panels

Individual Presentations

• Overlap between victimization and offending research in criminology: A weight activated main path analysis and topic network - Lindsay Leban, University of Alabama at Birmingham; Thomas Bryan Smith, University of Mississippi; Wesley G. Jennings, University of Mississippi

• Evaluating the translational impact of criminal justice research on Mississippi appellate court decisions using natural language processing - Thomas Bryan Smith, University of Mississippi; Mia A. Thomaidou, Rutgers University; Brian B. Boutwell, University of Mississippi; Colleen Berryessa, Rutgers University

• Intent, culpability, and blameworthiness: Exploring variations in conceptualization among felony murder cases, law, and social science using a natural language processing approach - Kimberly A. Kaiser, University of Mississippi; Thomas Bryan Smith, University of Mississippi

Chair

• Kimberly A. Kaiser, University of Mississippi

Discussant

• Thomas Bryan Smith, University of Mississippi

Organized by a Division or external group?

University of Mississippi Department of Criminal Justice and Legal Studies (Thomas Bryan Smith & Kimberly A. Kaiser