I help people use data to reduce crime. Associate Professor at @UCLCrimeScience. Former police officer.
Nottingham and London, UK
Joined April 2009
- Tweets21.1K
- Following1.3K
- Followers6K
- Likes32.3K
Matt Ashby retweeted
I’ve heard Journal of Quantitative Criminology will soon require opens data/code…which will make it the only journal in the entire field to do so. In late 2026.
We should be embarrassed! Complete abrogation of basic scientific responsibility for decades. And seemingly no urgency from the editors of Criminology, Justice Quarterly, Criminology & Public Policy, or Journal of Experimental Criminology.
There was an effort to get there from the last two editors of criminology, but the new editors haven’t followed through.
Meanwhile, what year do you think the first preregistered RCT was published in the fields flagship journal Criminology? If you guessed 2026 then you win (proud to have authored that one 😁).
Chatting with a friend about ongoing efforts in Economics to use AI to replicate every econ paper ever published. This is scary for individual researchers, of course (everyone lives in fear of a coding error), but clearly good for science.
I'd love to see this applied to Criminology, but those journals still don't require authors to post their data or code. 🙄
Matt Ashby retweeted
Are you around Manchester on 7 October? We've invited Iain Brennan to deliver a public seminar at @CriminologyUoM titled “Focused deterrence: Evaluating America's most successful violence intervention in an English context”. Registrations:
eventbrite.co.uk/e/prof-iain…
Matt Ashby retweeted
🗣️ INVITATION: Crime Science Workshop – From Foundations to Future Frontiers - mailchi.mp/sakraplatser/skra…
Matt Ashby retweeted
Since 1970, 154 people have had their convictions for murder overturned. If the death penalty had existed, that is potentially 154 innocent people murdered by the Criminal Justice system. It is too unreliable to risk a death penalty.
evidencebasedjustice.exeter.…
Matt Ashby retweeted
The need isn't for viewpoint diversity per se but rather for a consensus that a central mission of academic research is to separate politics from scholarship.
Some will complain that this isn't possible to do as everyone has an underlying ideology. This is a deflection. It doesn't have to be perfect. If the separation between activism and scholarship is a central organizing principle, much improvement will follow even if ideology continues to exist and play a role.
Matt Ashby retweeted
London’s homicide rate is lower than that in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Toronto, Barcelona, Berlin, Madrid or Paris. London isn’t perfect, but in comparison to other global cities it’s fairly safe.
Matt Ashby retweeted
See our problem-solving guide to tackling knife crime. It sets out a range of approaches for police officers, staff and volunteers to understand the problem, analyse the causes, take action and measure what works. 🔗 See more: college.police.uk/guidance/k…
Matt Ashby retweeted
I’ve never understood why police detectives carry out extensive enquiries and highly detailed forensic investigations when they could just ask everyone on Twitter instead.
Matt Ashby retweeted
It should hardly need saying, but "no evidence at this time to suggest x" and "keeping an open mind" are both entirely compatible with a change of emphasis in a police investigation should new evidence come to light.
Matt Ashby retweeted
🧵New polling looks at the public reaction to Henry Nowak's murder, police failings and more general views about policing. Along with focus groups, its v.clear whatever people think of wider issues Henry's murder and the police response have shaken many Brits
Matt Ashby retweeted
The Epilepsy Society says ‘brainstorming’ is fine
epilepsysociety.org.uk/about…
ALT There has been criticism that the word 'brainstorming' is offensive to people with epilepsy. Epilepsy Society recently conducted a small survey among people with the condition and the overwhelming response was that the term is not offensive when used in its correct context, defining a session amassing spontaneous ideas as potential solutions to a problem.
Matt Ashby retweeted
For writing, first using the genAI tools to copy-edit should be relatively uncontroversial. They can do things beyond just identifying spelling errors, but give grammatical feedback as well.
You can just tell the tools review this writing and give me back a list of potential copy-edits. They tend to be very high quality in my experience, so anyone saying "don't use it like this" is just sticking their head in the sand.
Matt Ashby retweeted
Social media posts claiming that Dorset Police said 44% of sex offences are carried out by asylum seekers living in asylum hotels are false.
We could find no evidence this is true. Dorset Police told us the figure is “incorrect” and was not issued by them.
fullfact.org/immigration/dor…
Matt Ashby retweeted
One of my reflections on the Golders Green arrest is that I suspect there would have been less controversy if the suspect had been confronted and shot dead by armed officers, if he had similarly refused to put down his knife and continued to advance towards officers.
Matt Ashby retweeted
I'm in @ObserverUK today looking at why so many unis are in financial trouble and what the government needs to do to save HE.
observer.co.uk/news/columnis…
