International Education Week 2022: Quantitative Approaches to Criminal and Social Justice

Mitigating Inequity for Racially Minoritized Individuals in Policing, Sentencing and Incarceration

This event is organized by UCLA Charles E. Young Research Library.

Tens of millions of citizens in the United States have been directly impacted by the criminal justice system and nearly half the population is impacted through close familial or social ties to them. Accompanying the harm caused by the system is an additional nefarious challenge: opacity in the specific loci of harm renders it difficult to mitigate. Following the words of civil rights pioneer Ida B. Wells, who said that "the way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them," Topaz will present work that uses data science to identify loci of injustice.

Topaz is a professor of complex systems at Williams College and a cofounder of the Institute for the Quantitative Study of Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity. He is an avid scholar and educator whose research applies quantitative tools to expose and remedy social injustice.

Light refreshments will be served.