John Roman
LightNews LightNews
banner
johnkroman.bsky.social
John Roman
@johnkroman.bsky.social
1.1K followers 550 following 350 posts

Director, Center on Public Safety and Justice, NORC at the University of Chicago. Essays: https://johnkroman.substack.com/.

Videos

John Romano was an American physician, psychiatrist, and educator whose major interest was in medical education and the important relationship between psychiatry and medicine. He founded the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Rochester and served as chairman from 1946 to 1971. He published over 200 scientific papers and served on several editorial boards including the Journal of Psychiatric Research. .. more

Public Health 19%
Economics 16%
Posts Replies Media Videos
Pinned
johnkroman.bsky.social
John Roman @johnkroman.bsky.social · Nov 19
Greeting new Bluesky people! And welcome. Here are 100 ideas for reducing crime and improving safety without more police and prisons. johnkroman.substack.com/p/100-ideas-... And a summary version at Vital City: www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/twe...

johnkroman.bsky.social
John Roman @johnkroman.bsky.social · 4d
Stay in school kids. When your connecting flight is delayed, and you’re gaming out alternate routes, all that algebra is going to be really helpful.

johnkroman.bsky.social
John Roman @johnkroman.bsky.social · 24d
Every day, school is a surprise.

Me: "Hey! Let's go! The bus will be here any minute"

Child: "What are you talking about??!?"

johnkroman.bsky.social
John Roman @johnkroman.bsky.social · Oct 1
The Prosecutors and Politics Project at UNC School of Law has released a study analyzing over 11,000 bills changing criminal law in all 50 states between 2015 and 2018. Please join me and a very distinguished panel today, October 1, at Noon EST to discuss the implications. lnkd.in/etzAqi3M

Substack
The Sacred and the Profane

Reductive debates about crime get us nowhere Reductive debates about crime get us nowhere

Reposts 0 Sep 25

johnkroman.bsky.social
John Roman @johnkroman.bsky.social · Sep 20
It’s true though!!

<kicks can>
<sulks>
<jumps on tiny dirt bike>
>rides off into the dirty sunset>

johnkroman.bsky.social
John Roman @johnkroman.bsky.social · Sep 20
Once again, Gen X is forgotten.

johnkroman.bsky.social
John Roman @johnkroman.bsky.social · Sep 18
I would be happy to accept that title!

johnkroman.bsky.social
John Roman @johnkroman.bsky.social · Sep 10
Without looking closely, I have twelve papers in there. Since authors are not paid for academic articles, the irony would be that this would be my first check.
ryanestrada.com Ryan Estrada @ryanestrada.com · Sep 6
Just a reminder to check for your name in this list of books that OpenAI trained from. If your name is there, they probably owe you several thousand dollars.

OpenAI cried that if everyone eligible author files, the company will go bankrupt, so I'm alerting every author I have ever spoken to.
Search LibGen, the Pirated-Books Database That Meta Used to Train AI
Millions of books and scientific papers are captured in the collection’s current iteration.
www.theatlantic.com

johnkroman.bsky.social
John Roman @johnkroman.bsky.social · Sep 10
I think 83% of my emails are this exchange.

Them: What time can you meet on Wednesday?
Me: Anytime but 10 to 11
Them: Great, I'll send an invite for 10.

Reposted by Cas Mudde, Anna O. Law, Marc Lynch , and 36 more

ryanestrada.com
Ryan Estrada @ryanestrada.com · Sep 6
Just a reminder to check for your name in this list of books that OpenAI trained from. If your name is there, they probably owe you several thousand dollars.

OpenAI cried that if everyone eligible author files, the company will go bankrupt, so I'm alerting every author I have ever spoken to.
Search LibGen, the Pirated-Books Database That Meta Used to Train AI
Millions of books and scientific papers are captured in the collection’s current iteration.
www.theatlantic.com

johnkroman.bsky.social
John Roman @johnkroman.bsky.social · Sep 5
In the opening sequence of Numbers, he writes X=yb on the glass. That was the beginning of the end...

johnkroman.bsky.social
John Roman @johnkroman.bsky.social · Sep 3
Crime control is undergoing a massive shift in the US and around the world, with surveillance tech advancing much faster than privacy protections. Bottom-line: the tech does reduce crime, and, it will likely infringe on civil liberties without careful regulation. www.forbes.com/sites/thomas...
AI Startup Flock Thinks It Can Eliminate All Crime In America
With more than 80,000 AI-powered cameras across the U.S., Flock Safety has become one of cops’ go-to surveillance tools. Now CEO Garrett Langley has both police tech giant Axon and Chinese drone maker...
www.forbes.com

Reposted by Jeffrey A. Butts

johnkroman.bsky.social
John Roman @johnkroman.bsky.social · Sep 2
Polls show most Americans think crime is rising because 'crime' is a catch-all term. But, there are dozens of evidence-based ways to reduce disorder and fight crime, and many of the most effective approaches do not involve the police. open.substack.com/pub/johnkrom...
When people say crime is a big problem, are they really talking about crime?
Sometimes, but not always
open.substack.com

Substack
When people say crime is a big problem, are they really talking about crime?

Sometimes, but not always For those who study crime, it is a head-scratching moment. Opinion polls show that people are deeply worried about public safety in America and are atypically open to radical approaches to fighting crime, including militarized policing. At the same time, crime continues to decline at unprecedented rates and is already at historically low levels. It’s ha…

Reposts 0 Sep 2

johnkroman.bsky.social
John Roman @johnkroman.bsky.social · Sep 1
This post was your magnum opus. Bravo.

johnkroman.bsky.social
John Roman @johnkroman.bsky.social · Aug 25
The Abundance agenda has real promise, but it does require a much more serious approach to crime. open.substack.com/pub/johnkrom...
On the YIMBY-Abundance Crime Blind Spot
Nudging the pro-city crowd toward more effective crime policy
open.substack.com

Substack
On the YIMBY-Abundance Crime Blind Spot

Nudging the pro-city crowd toward more effective crime policy A few housekeeping notes before we dive in. We’ve hit a milestone of sorts here at External Processing, enrolling our 1,000th subscriber. Despite the modest nature of this accomplishment, this has caused some soul-searching about the nature of a meaningful life and the External Processing blog’s role in it, or at least in mine. Specifically, I continue …

Reposts 0 Aug 25

johnkroman.bsky.social
John Roman @johnkroman.bsky.social · Aug 18
Bravo!

johnkroman.bsky.social
John Roman @johnkroman.bsky.social · Aug 14
Spot on. I would note that there are 43 law enforcement agencies operating in Washington, the majority of which are federal. The Capitol Hill police alone have a force about the size of Cleveland's municipal police.
emmbadger.bsky.social Emily Badger @emmbadger.bsky.social · Aug 14
The president wants to “take back” DC, but the federal government never really let it go.

It touches nearly every aspect of life in the city, making it harder for local officials to manage even the things Trump cares most about.
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/14/u...
Trump Wants to ‘Take Back’ D.C., but the Federal Government Already Controls Much of It
www.nytimes.com

johnkroman.bsky.social
John Roman @johnkroman.bsky.social · Aug 14
There are several evidence-based explanations for the crime spike and decline. I summarize them here, and explain why some fit the data better than others: johnkroman.substack.com/p/explaining...
Explaining the COVID Violence Spike and the Roaring Crime Decline
Four Reasons for the Historic Beginning to the 2020s
johnkroman.substack.com

johnkroman.bsky.social
John Roman @johnkroman.bsky.social · Aug 14
Such a bad take from the @nytimes.com. It ignores decades of evidence from police research, criminology, economics, etc. It's a barstool conversation based on a hazy recollection of college sociology. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/14/o...
Opinion | Crime Keeps Falling. Here’s Why.
www.nytimes.com

Reposted by John Roman

emmbadger.bsky.social
Emily Badger @emmbadger.bsky.social · Aug 14
The president wants to “take back” DC, but the federal government never really let it go.

It touches nearly every aspect of life in the city, making it harder for local officials to manage even the things Trump cares most about.
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/14/u...
Trump Wants to ‘Take Back’ D.C., but the Federal Government Already Controls Much of It
www.nytimes.com

johnkroman.bsky.social
John Roman @johnkroman.bsky.social · Aug 4
It is hard to think of an idea with more staying power, and one with less empirical support, than the idea that the way to be tough on crime is to lock lots of people up. What I want to propose here is a much more effective way to be tough on crime. open.substack.com/pub/johnkrom...
Let’s get tough on crime by solving more crimes
Choosing between certainty and punishment
open.substack.com

Substack
Let’s get tough on crime by solving more crimes

Choosing between certainty and punishment It is hard to think of an idea with more staying power, and one with less empirical support, than the idea that the way to be tough on crime is to lock lots of people up. The idea is simple and intuitive: we should lock up the bad guys for as long as we can to keep our streets safe. The trick is that we are pretty bad at identifying the bad guys, so we …

Reposts 0 Aug 3

johnkroman.bsky.social
John Roman @johnkroman.bsky.social · Jul 29
It’s interesting that there seems to have been some inflation in the estimates too: it was 18,000, then 18,500, now I see 19,000. It’s totally plausible there is an increase, but, you’d think we’d *know* this!

johnkroman.bsky.social
John Roman @johnkroman.bsky.social · Jul 29
I have say, I never thought about this. That’s a helluva good insight!