Policy 

CPIP’s faculty affiliates regularly engage with journalists and policymakers. Learn more about these policy issues and contributions.

 

CRIME AND JUSTICE

Charis Kubrin, Professor of Criminology, Law and Society      

Policy Issues: correlates and causes of crime trends; criminal justice reform and its impact on crime/public safety; immigration, immigration policy and crime

Policy Contributions:

• 2024. Charis E. Kubrin and Sarah Shannon, “Opinion: Laken Riley’s killing does reflect a broader danger. But it isn’t ‘immigrant crime’,” LA Times, April 1.
• 2023, Op-ed with Bradley Bartos, “Decarceration and Crime Do Not Go Hand in Hand.” Scientific American. September 14.
• 2022, Expert witness, United States Department of Justice Executive Office for Immigration Review in the matter of Rouben Dossous. December 22.
• 2019, Testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security Hearing, “California Criminal Justice Reform: Potential Lessons for the Nation.” Los Angeles, CA. July 13.
• 2020, Committee on Revision of the Penal Code, Can We Downsize Our Prisons and Jails Without Compromising Public Safety?: Findings from California’s Criminal Justice Reforms.” June 24. (virtual due to COVID19)
• 2019, National Press Foundation, “Can We Downsize Our Prisons and Jails Without Compromising Public Safety?: Findings from California’s Criminal Justice Reforms.” November 10.
• 2018, Blue Ribbon Commission on Public Safety, “Prop 47 and its Impact on Crime in California.” May 23.
• 2016, Zocalo Public Square, “How Do You Fix a ‘Bad’ Neighborhood?” November 1.
• 2016, Keynote Address, Museum of Man, in conjunction with their exhibit, Race: Are We So Different?, “Rap, Race and the Reproduction of Inequality.” May 11. See Rap on Trial. 

 

Kristin Turney, Professor of Sociology

Policy Issues: social inequalities in health and wellbeing; criminal legal system, including police contact, jail incarceration, and prison incarceration

Policy Contributions:

• 2020. Sugie, Naomi, Keramet Reiter, and Kristin Turney. “California Needs to Protect Its Prison Staff and Inmates During COVID-19 Pandemic.” CalMatters. May 30.
• 2020. Sugie, Naomi, Kristin Turney, and Keramet Reiter. “California’s Racial Justice Crisis is COVID-19 in Prisons.” Medium. June 13.
• 2019. Wakefield, Sara, and Kristin Turney. “In 2020, We Need Bold Ideas for Criminal Justice Reform, Too.” The Hill. May 5.
• 2019. Turney, Kristin. “Understanding the Needs of Children with Incarcerated Parents: What Educators Should Know.” American Educator. Summer.

 

Naomi Sugie, Associate Professor of Criminology, Law and Society
* Accomplished while a faculty affiliate of CPIP before leaving UCI in 2024. 

Policy Issues: Ban the Box, criminal record screening in other contexts (e.g., housing, dating apps); reentry, incarceration and COVID

Policy Contributions: speaks with reporters; writes policy briefs

• 2023. Sugie, Naomi and Carol Joan Newark, "Restricting Food Stamps is Soft on Crime - Opinion." Newsweek. June 1. 
• 2020. Sugie, Naomi, Keramet Reiter, and Kristin Turney. “California Needs to Protect Its Prison Staff and Inmates During COVID-19 Pandemic.” CalMatters. May 30.
• 2020. Sugie, Naomi, Kristin Turney, and Keramet Reiter. “California’s Racial Justice Crisis is COVID-19 in Prisons.” Medium. June 13.

 

Keramet Reiter, Professor of Criminology, Law and Society

Policy Issues: prisons, incarceration, solitary confinement

Policy Contributions: editorials and op-eds; expert and policy reports 

• 2023. Reiter, K. “Is the Sun Setting on Solitary Confinement?” OnlySky, Mar. 8, https://onlysky.media/kreiter/is-the-sun-setting-on-solitary-confinement/
• 2023. Reiter, K. and K. Tinto, “Creating a prison to university pipeline,” The Daily Journal, Feb. 16.
• 2023. PrisonPandemic. Locked Up and Locked Down: Stories from the Inside (72 pp). Collected by the PrisonPandemic Team: Keramet Reiter, Naomi Sugie, Kristin Turney, Joanne DeCaro, Gabe Rosales, Elvia Arroyo-Ramirez, Alexis Rowland, Maria Villalba Madrid. 
• 2023. Participant in and Signatory on: Physicians for Human Rights & Antigone, International Guiding Statement on Alternatives to Solitary Confinement (May), https://www.antigone.it/upload2/uploads/docs/International%20Guiding%20Statement%20-%20April%202023.pdf

 

Ana Muñiz, Assistant Professor of Criminology, Law and Society

Policy Issues: gang databases, gang injunctions, constitutional violations by law enforcement as a result of gang profiling, local-state-federal information sharing policies, immigration detention, deportation.    

Policy Contributions: speaks with reporters; consults with congressional offices and other elected offices on policy issues; has drafted state-level legislation and testified in favor of legislation

 

WORKFORCE

Wang Feng, Professor of Sociology

Policy Issues: Contemporary China, social inequality in state socialisms

Policy Contributions: publish op-eds; speaks with reporters 

2024. The consequences of China's population decline. NPR's All Things Considered. January 21, 2024.
2023. Wang Feng, “The Alternative, Optimistic Story of Population Decline,” The New York Times, January 30.
2023. “Why China’s shrinking population is a big deal – counting the social, economic and political costs of an aging, smaller society,” The Conversation, January 18.

 

David Neumark, Distinguished Professor of Economics           

Policy Issues: Minimum wages, discrimination, hiring credits, Earned Income Tax Credit, anti-poverty policy          

Policy Contributions: radio and television appearances, publish op-eds, testify and brief policymakers

2024. D. Neumark. "Help Still Wanted?" Hoover Institution. June 21.
2024. D. Neumark. "California's Crazy 'Fast Food' Minimum Wage Takes Effect. Wall Street Journal, March 31.
2024. D. Neumark. 22 States Hiked the Minimum Wage. Now What? Who is helped by a rising minimum wage—and who is left behind? Slate.com, January.
2023. D. Neumark. "Higher Minimum Wages and Mixed Effects on Health," VoxEU, June. 
2023. Briefing for California Manufacturers and Technology Association on research on California job creation policies and California Competes Tax Credit, Sacramento, CA, May.
2023. Briefing for California Business Roundtable on research on California job creation policies and California Competes Tax Credit, Sacramento, CA, May.
2023. Briefing for California State Chamber of Commerce on research on California job creation policies and California Competes Tax Credit, Sacramento, CA, May.
2022. D. Neumark. “The Least Effective Minimum-Wage Hike.” Wall Street Journal. August 15.
2022. David Neumark and Maysen Yen. “Reducing or Eliminating Minimum Wage Tip Credits.” Cato Institute. May 4.
2021. D. Neumark. “The True Story of the Minimum-Wage Fight.” Freakonomics Radio Network. April 28.
2020. D. Neumark. “Strengthen age discrimination protections to help confront the challenge of population aging.” Brookings. November 19.
2020. D. Neumark and L.F. Munguía Corella “Do minimum wages reduce employment in developing countries?” VoxDev.org. October 26.
2019. D. Neumark. “Democrats’ job guarantee plan isn’t such a good idea, economist says.” NJ.com. July 19.
2022. Consulted with Behavioral Economics Team of the Government of Australia regarding my research and methods to detect stereotypes in job advertisements.
2022. Briefing for staff of U.S. House Committee on Financial Services
2022. Briefing for California Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development on research on California Competes Tax Credit
2021. Briefing state policymakers and staff on California Competes Tax Credit at UC Center Sacramento
2021. Briefed California Legislative Analysts’ Office and staff from Assembly Committee on Revenue and Taxation, Assembly Committee on Jobs, Economic Development, and the Economy, and Senate Governance Finance Committee on research on California Competes Tax Credit, March.
2021. Briefed House and Senate staff in U.S. Congress on minimum wage, March.
2021. Briefed Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (Go-Biz) on research on California Competes Tax Credit, February.
2021. Consulted with CA Assemblywoman Cottie Petrie-Norris about economic response to the pandemic and opening up, February.
2019. Consulted with Diet Members and Committee Chairs on minimum wages, Diet, Tokyo, Japan (November).
2018. Participated in Webinar on the Minimum Wage for U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (August).

PUBLIC HEALTH

Tim Bruckner, Professor of Public Health

Policy Issues: Mental health care for homeless (CA prop 63), income transfer programs for young families with children (EITC, child tax credit)

Policy Contributions: interviews with journalists

• 2020. Tim A. Bruckner. “How Widespread is COVID-19 in Orange County? New Study Hopes to Find Out.” NPR All Thing Considered. August 21.

 

Andrew Noymer, Associate Professor of Public Health

Policy Issue: COVID pandemic

Policy Contributions: speaks with journalists; interacts with policymakers

• 2022. Andrew Lover and Andrew Noymer. “Can Baby Boomers quit fearing monkeypox if they were vaccinated against smallpox as kids?” Tampa Bay Times. September 1.
• 2022. Andrew Noymer. “Four things I want to know about the origin of COVID.” Washington Examiner. August 22.

 

Suellen Hopfer, Assistant Professor of Public Health
2024. Suellen Hopfer. The true cost of vaccine misinformation: A vulnerable nation, The Orange County Register. April 23.

 

DIGITAL INTERACTIONS

Candice Odgers and Stephen Schueller

• Odgers, CL, Allen, NB, Pfeifer, JH, Dahl, RE, Nesi, J, Schueller, SM, Williams, JL, and the National Scientific Council on Adolescence (2022). Engaging, safe, and evidence-based: What science tells us about how to promote positive development and decrease risk in online spaces for early adolescents, Council Report No 2. doi: 10.31234/osf.io/rvn8q.

 

Stephen Schueller, Associate Professor of Psychological Science

Policy Issue: Selection and reimbursement of digital therapeutics. Regulation around digital mental health products.    

Policy Contribution: Policy briefs

• 2021. Stephen Schueller. "Creating a National Infrastructure for Digital Mental Health Services," Federation of American Scientists (Day One Project), May 26. 

 

EDUCATION

Jade Marcus Jenkins, Associate Professsor of Education

Policy Issues: Early education, literacy 

Policy Contributions: Reports

• Markowitz, A.J., Jenkins, J.M. (June 2022). “The Importance of Formative Evaluation in California’s Universal Pre-K Rollout” Policy Analysis for California Education.
• McNeill, S.M., Harbatkin, E., Jenkins, J.M., Penner, E.K., Henry, G.T. (November 2019). “Early Literacy In North Carolina And Its Lowest Performing Schools”, North Carolina State Board of Education.
• Jenkins, J.M. (May 2019). “State-Level Investments in Early Childhood Education: Evidence of Short and Long-Term Impacts”, 3(8), Policy Brief Series, UC Center Sacramento.

 

Greg Duncan, Distinguished Professor of Education

Policy Contributions: 

2023, National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine report on Reducing Intergenerational Poverty, September. 
2019, National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine report on A Roadmap to Reducing Child Poverty.