"I want to help them make decisions that are grounded in data."

The Delaware County Adult Probation and Parole Office has retained Dr. Leanne Havis, professor of Criminal Justice, as a consultant to help analyze local recidivism data and identify trends that might lower the county’s repeat-offender rate.

“My hope is that the Adult Probation and Parole unit will look at the results for actionable data that will have a practical effect on the real world. I want to help them make decisions that are grounded in data,” says Havis. For example, if the data show that most people who are rearrested do not have a high school education, the county might allocate more resources to GED programs. If most reoffenders have no job, then more vocational training programs might be a solution.