Counting Crime: Racial Politics of Crime Data and How It's Used

Politicians, pundits, and mainstream media are claiming crime is going up and some are blaming defund the police campaigns. But how we measure crime is a socially constructed, political process and more data literacy on this topic can be useful in this political moment.

In this educational lecture we will learn about some of the history of counting crime during the post-Emancipation period, who has pushed for crime data to be collected, some of the major data sources (including the samples and methods), and how crime data is deployed for various purposes.

While this event and all of our events are freely available, we ask that those who are able make a solidarity donation in support of this important work. Part of the proceeds from this event will go to the National Bail Fund Network.


Date and time: Tue, July 27, 2021 @ 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM PDT

RSVP: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/counting-crime-a-lecture-on-the-politics-of-crime-data-and-its-uses-tickets-162441401605


Speaker: Tamara K. Nopper

Tamara K. Nopper is a sociologist, writer, and editor. She is the editor of We Do This ‘Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice, a book of Mariame Kaba’s writings and interviews (Haymarket Books), and researcher and writer of several data stories for Colin Kaepernick’s Abolition for the People series. She is a Fellow at Data for Progress, an Affiliate of The Center for Critical Race and Digital Studies, and a member of the inaugural cohort of the NYU Institute for Public Interest Technology. She is also an incoming 2021-2022 Faculty Fellow at Data & Society.

This event is sponsored by Haymarket Books, and partners Interrupting Criminalization, Survived & Punished, Community Resource Hub for Safety & Accountability, 18 Million Rising (18MR), Critical Resistance, Civil Rights Corps.