Gregory Kirk Ridgeway (born 1973) is professor of

criminology Criminology (from Latin , "accusation", and Ancient Greek , ''-logia'', from λόγος ''logos'' meaning: "word, reason") is the study of crime and deviant behaviour. Criminology is an interdisciplinary field in both the behavioural and so ...

and

statistics Statistics (from German language, German: ''wikt:Statistik#German, Statistik'', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of ...

at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

, where he is also chair of the Department of Criminology.

Education

Ridgeway received his B.S. from

California Polytechnic State University California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (California Polytechnic State University, Cal Poly"Cal Poly" may also refer to California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt in Arcata, California or California State Polytechnic Univ ...

in 1995 and his M.S. and Ph.D. from the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

in 1997 and 1999, respectively. All three of his degrees are in statistics. His Ph.D. thesis was entitled "Generalization of boosting algorithms and applications of Bayesian inference for massive datasets".

Career

Early in his career, Ridgeway worked at the

RAND Corporation The RAND Corporation (from the phrase "research and development") is an American nonprofit global policy think tank created in 1948 by Douglas Aircraft Company to offer research and analysis to the United States Armed Forces. It is financed ...

, where he served as the director of the Safety and Justice Program from 2009 to 2012, and of the Center for Quality Policing from 2008 to 2012. He later served as the acting director of the

National Institute of Justice The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) is the research, development and evaluation agency of the United States Department of Justice. NIJ, along with the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), Office of Juvenil ...

for 19 months before joining the University of Pennsylvania in August 2014. In January 2021, he was named the co-

editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...

of the ''

Journal of Quantitative Criminology The ''Journal of Quantitative Criminology'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal in the field of criminology. It was established in 1985 and is published by Springer Science+Business Media. The editors-in-chief are John MacDonald and Gre ...

''.

Research

Ridgeway's research focuses on using statistical techniques to examine aspects of the United States' criminal justice system. These aspects include, but are not limited to,

stop-and-frisk in New York City Frisking (also called a patdown or pat down) is a search of a person's outer clothing wherein a person runs their hands along the outer garments of another to detect any concealed weapons or objects. U.S. Law In the United States, a law enforce ...

, which, in a 2007 study, he found was racially biased, with blacks and Hispanics being more likely to be frisked, searched, or arrested once stopped (though they were no more likely to be stopped than whites).

Honors and awards

Ridgeway is a fellow of the

American Statistical Association The American Statistical Association (ASA) is the main professional organization for statisticians and related professionals in the United States. It was founded in Boston, Massachusetts on November 27, 1839, and is the second oldest continuousl ...

References

External links

Faculty page
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ridgeway, Gregory Kirk Living people American criminologists 1973 births University of Pennsylvania faculty American statisticians Fellows of the American Statistical Association California Polytechnic State University alumni University of Washington alumni RAND Corporation people