Open Justice Lab
Open Justice Lab
The Boston University Open Justice Lab conducts rigorous, policy-relevant data collection, analysis, and dissemination on justice and inequality. Our overarching goals are to democratize access to data through public records requests and other data collection mechanisms; publish datasets and code used to collect and process the data; engage community members in data standards, analysis, and interpretation; and integrate research, teaching, and advocacy through data.
Drawing on the strengths of the BU faculty, staff, and students in data science, public health, and social science, we aim to ethically obtain data through public records requests and technology-driven acquisition methods, and develop experiential learning through community partnerships.
Three core principles guide our work: (1) Exposure to the criminal justice system—from police stops to sentencing decisions to harsh prison conditions—may be significantly harmful to human health and democratic membership; (2) data on those exposures exist but are not often publicly available; (3) data collection and research priorities concerning the criminal justice system should be informed by those most impacted by it.
Our broad scientific and education goals are to evaluate theories of justice and inequality, contextualize the criminal justice system and effects in a larger field of social policy through data linkages, develop and implement project based cross-disciplinary courses and practicums, and expand participation in computing and data sciences among underserved groups.
This lab is supported by a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) Award.