John Roman

John K. Roman, Ph.D. is a senior fellow in the Economics, Justice and Society Group at NORC at the University of Chicago. Roman's research focuses on evaluations of innovative crime control policies and justice programs. His research focuses on the economics of crime in juvenile and adult justice systems focusing on prisoner reentry, diversion and alternative sentencing. Roman also investigates justice system interactions with substance abuse, adolescent development, workforce development, and education. Roman's work also includes studies on cost-benefit methodology and public private partnerships.

Roman has conducted research on behalf of numerous federal agencies, including the National Institute of Justice, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and the Bureau of Justice Assistance, as well as research on behalf of state and local governments and foundations, including the Laura and John Arnold Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Using both experimental and quasi-experimental research designs, he has investigated drug courts and other specialized courts, prisoner reentry, substance abuse policy, capital punishment, wrongful conviction, forensics, impact investing, and bullying. 

Roman is the coeditor of two books, Cost-Benefit Analysis and Crime Control and Juvenile Drug Courts and Teen Substance Abuse, and the author of dozens of scholarly articles and book chapters. He is also a regular contributor to CityLab and the Huffington Post. Dr. Roman is a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania and an affiliated professor at Georgetown University and has lectured and testified widely.

Roman is a Fellow of the Academy of Experimental Criminology, and serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Experimental Criminology and Drug Court Review. He has received awards for excellence in research from the National Institute of Justice, the Division of Experimental Criminology at the American Society of Criminology, and the Urban Institute.