Partners

The team at UPenn’s Crime and Justice Policy Lab has brought invaluable research knowledge and expertise in helping Baltimore City design its Group Violence Reduction Strategy. The team gets how governments work and what they need, and also knows how to coordinate and rally with community and non-profit partners around the common goal of building a safer city.

–Brandon Scott (Mayor, City of Baltimore)

The [CJP] team has the rare skills required to engage in deep conversations with people who have experienced violence all of their lives and, through listening, garner insights that lead to innovative ideas on how we can better serve families and individuals. Our joint goal is to bring more public and philanthropic dollars and energy to preventing intergenerational violence and not just dealing with the consequences of that violence.

–Rev. Dr. Ray Hammond (Black Ministerial Alliance/TenPoint Coalition)

The team at the Crime and Justice Policy Lab have been an invaluable resource and support to the Oakland Department of Violence Prevention. Their hands on technical assistance allowed me to design, develop, implement, and evaluate the intervention infrastructure necessary to ensure that we were serving individuals at the very highest risk of gun violence in our community. With their help we saw a 32% reduction in homicides and nonfatal shootings in 2024, and have been able to provide services and supports to those at greatest need in our community by ensuring that participants reduce their risks of being victims or perpetrators of gun violence.

–Dr. Holly Joshi (Chief of the Oakland Dept of Violence Prevention)

Working with CJP members was instrumental in developing the Procedural Justice (PJ) training and the Ceasefire pilot in Mexico City. Their thoughtful and collaborative approach, combined with a deep commitment to adapting international models to our local context, made all the difference. A randomized controlled trial demonstrated that PJ training meaningfully shifted police officers' mindsets and behavior. Preliminary results from the Ceasefire pilot have also been encouraging, with a 58% decrease in homicides and a 17% reduction in non-fatal shootings between 2019 and 2023. Their strategic guidance and deep understanding of community violence dynamics were key to achieving measurable impact.

–Marcela Figueroa Franco (National Public Security System, Mexico)

With over 30 years of law enforcement experience in California, I have worked with numerous organizations that seek to assist with violence reduction. My work with the CJP as Chief of Police in San Francisco, CA has been truly exemplary. With CJP’s assistance we were able to design, implement, and manage strategies that helped to drive down gun violence in one of the city’s most disproportionately violent neighborhoods. CJP’s research team was also able to evaluate the effectiveness of our efforts which helped to not only validate the strategy but also save lives in the process.

–Chief William Scott (Chief of the San Francisco Police Department)

I have worked with the CJP’s leadership team in a variety of cities over many years. They are among the very best in the field at supporting cities with serious crime problems to design, implement and evaluate effective strategies to reduce violence and improve public safety. They have worked effectively with a variety of key stakeholders to develop and implement successful violence reduction strategies.

– David Muhammad (Executive Director, National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform)