Greg Ridgeway

Greg Ridgeway serves as the Rebecca W. Bushnell Professor of Criminology at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Arts and Sciences, with a dual appointment in the Department of Statistics and Data Science. He holds multiple leadership roles including Co-director of the Data Driven Discovery Initiative and Co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Quantitative Criminology. His affiliations span the Quattrone Center for the Fair Administration of Justice, Penn Injury Science Center, Center for Causal Inference, and Population Studies Center.

His educational background includes a Ph.D. in Statistics from the University of Washington (1999), where his dissertation focused on Bayesian inference for massive datasets under advisors David Madigan and Thomas Richardson. Additional degrees include an M.S. in Statistics (1997) and B.S. in Statistics (1995) from the University of Washington and California Polytechnic State University respectively.

Ridgeway's research centers on statistical methods for crime analysis and justice system improvement, with major contributions in police use-of-force analysis, racial profiling detection, and justice system benchmarking. His work bridges criminology and data science through innovative applications of propensity scoring, causal inference, and predictive modeling to real-world criminal justice challenges. He has developed methods implemented by police departments in Cincinnati, Los Angeles, and New York City, as well as Federal Public Defender Organizations.

His 15 most recent publications demonstrate consistent focus on police behavior analysis, sentencing disparities, and environmental crime prevention. Key trends include the development of conditional likelihood models for officer shooting analysis, benchmarking systems for judicial accountability, and rigorous evaluation of place-based interventions like vacant lot remediation. His methodological contributions span criminology, statistics, and public health with strong emphasis on practical policy applications.

• Fellow of the American Society of Criminology (2025)
• Fellow of the Academy of Experimental Criminology (2024)
• Fellow of the American Statistical Association (2013)
• ASA Outstanding Statistical Application Award (2007)
• RAND Gold Medal Award (2007)
• 8 granted US patents in medical treatment hypothesis testing and resource pre-fetching

Ridgeway has secured over $20 million in research funding from entities including Arnold Ventures, National Institute of Justice, and Neubauer Family Foundation. His advisory work includes directing the Master of Science in Criminology program and mentoring students through Penn's Graduate Groups. As former Acting Director of the National Institute of Justice (2013-2014), he led an 80-person agency with a $250M budget, implementing reforms like a $75M school safety research program. Current service includes chairing the American Statistical Association's Committee on Law and Justice Statistics.

His leadership extends to directing RAND's Safety and Justice Program and Center on Quality Policing, where he managed 50-person teams and $10M in annual research. Current institutional roles include Co-director of the Data Driven Discovery Initiative, which he launched to develop data science for social good programming, seed grants, and a data science minor.