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Megan Stevenson

@meganstevenson.bsky.social
7.3K followers 577 following 417 posts

economist & legal scholar studying criminal justice issues. professor of law professor of economics (by courtesy) UVA sites.google.com/view/megan-stevens…

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Megan Stevenson @meganstevenson.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Our new article is out! :) It argues for a new approach to econometrics that takes into account the ways humans can add bias (selection on significance or sign) and uncertainty (through research choices). Hope to see this become a part of research practices. www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=...
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Megan Stevenson @meganstevenson.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Interesting thread for crim law nerds
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UVA Law School @uvalaw.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
WATCH: Prof. @meganstevenson.bsky.social discusses the role of quantified metrics in democratic systems. @publicpolicylab.bsky.social
youtu.be
PPL15: On Value: Measurement, Democracy, and Design
YouTube video by publicpolicylab
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Jörg Ankel-Peters @jrgptrs.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
New paper by @meganstevenson.bsky.social now appearing @i4replication.bsky.social & forthcoming in the JEL. Economics is fundamentally about how incentives affect behavior — yet incentives in our own research practices are largely ignored. Humans in the loop! www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10...
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Megan Stevenson @meganstevenson.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
Law professor friends, any suggestions for favorite papers on juvenile justice, public defense, or prosecutors? I'm looking for thought-provoking ideas that will generate good discussion in my seminar. Self-nominations welcome! #lawprof
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Megan Stevenson @meganstevenson.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
Excited to share a new paper with @jfischman, just accepted at JEL. We argue that empirical research tends to be biased and overconfident due to a weakness in the dominant econometric framework: insufficient attention paid to humans “in the loop” with the research process. 1/
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Megan Stevenson @meganstevenson.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
Holy crap we spent 11.3 *billion* in one week bombing the shit out of Iran
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Megan Stevenson @meganstevenson.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
Excited to share a new paper with @jfischman, just accepted at JEL. We argue that empirical research tends to be biased and overconfident due to a weakness in the dominant econometric framework: insufficient attention paid to humans “in the loop” with the research process. 1/
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Megan Stevenson @meganstevenson.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
I wonder how many law professors wrote two versions of an article about tariffs and have just decided which one to post.
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Megan Stevenson @meganstevenson.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
I don't think it's wrong to have a warm relationship with somebody who‘s done some really shitty things in their life. Which means I don't get canceling most of the people in the Epstein files. I think I might be the only one here.
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Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
This is a good paper. There's a sort of parallel literature in psychiatry developing (though a bit later) around length of stay in mental hospitals, and suicide risk. Unemployment insurance and other social programs develop similar questions. Any recommendations for histories that connect this?
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Megan Stevenson @meganstevenson.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
Just built a skill in Cursor that automatically extracts every figure, table, and equation in a paper and puts them in sequential order in a PowerPoint presentation with the paper title on the first slide. So useful for teaching a paper! And so satisfying to have built this. :)
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Ben Phillips @benphillips76.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
I don’t know who needs to hear Jesse Jackson leading the kids on Sesame Street in this beautiful call-and-response reminding them that every child is somebody, but here it is
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Megan Stevenson @meganstevenson.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
Robynn Cox and I have a new paper! It's about the history of predictive algorithms in criminal justice, back in the 1920s-1950s. This paper is the result of five years of research and we're so happy to see it out. 🧵 1/
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Megan Stevenson @meganstevenson.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
I've been using Cursor but am just trying Claude Co-Work (Windows). Compared to Cursor, Claude is just terrible. Is this others' experience as well? Everyone seems to be raving about Co-Work, so I'm wondering if there's something weird going on with security on my computer that is messing things up.
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Christine Corcos @lpcprof.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
Stevenson and Cox on Eugenic Criminology and the Birth of Predictive Algorithms in Criminal Justice / @meganstevenson.bsky.social lawlit.blogspot.com/2026/02/stev...
lawlit.blogspot.com
Stevenson and Cox on Eugenic Criminology and the Birth of Predictive Algorithms in Criminal Justice
Megan T. Stevenson, University of Virginia School of Law, and Robynn Cox, UC Riverside, University of Southern California, Schaeffer Center ...
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Megan Stevenson @meganstevenson.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
Robynn Cox and I have a new paper! It's about the history of predictive algorithms in criminal justice, back in the 1920s-1950s. This paper is the result of five years of research and we're so happy to see it out. 🧵 1/
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Megan Stevenson @meganstevenson.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
The president of the National Prison Association in 1915 called for abolishing prisons.
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Megan Stevenson @meganstevenson.bsky.social · 24/01/2026
My sister is a goddamn genius. Just sayin’. @rebeccaste.bsky.social
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Orin Kerr @orinkerr.bsky.social · 16/12/2025
Pennsylvania Supreme Court rules that there are no 4th Amendment rights in your Google search terms. When you search on Google, you tell them your search terms; the government can get those queries without a warrant. The third-party doctrine applies. www.pacourts.us/assets/opini...
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Megan Stevenson @meganstevenson.bsky.social · 11/12/2025
PSA: does everyone know about the unclaimed funds thing? It seems like each state has a website where you can look for unclaimed funds, like checks you forgot to cash or whatever. I just got $2,000 back, spread across 5 different separate checks and 2 states.
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Megan Stevenson @meganstevenson.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
I spoke with the @chronicle.com today about the Oklahoma woman with the zero grade. Link below, you may need to make a free account. nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...
nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com
A Conservative Student Got a Zero on Her Paper about Gender. Did She Deserve It?
A University of Oklahoma student says a graduate student’s harsh grading of her assignment amounts to religious discrimination.
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Claire Willett @clairewillett.bsky.social · 16/11/2025
Alice is the gold standard of what Twitter was when it was great - how you could just find these brilliant, remarkable people with the kind of voices that rarely get platformed or taken seriously, and hear about their lives in their own words without intruding on them or demanding emotional labor
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Megan Stevenson @meganstevenson.bsky.social · 15/11/2025
Last words from the inspirational disability activist, Alice Wong.
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Megan Stevenson @meganstevenson.bsky.social · 15/11/2025
I'm sad to hear this. Alice Wong was an inspiration, a leader, and a visionary.
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Danielle Citron @daniellecitron.bsky.social · 11/11/2025
So amazing to celebrate @payvandahdout.bsky.social on her tenure!! Brilliant scholar, extraordinary teacher, incredible colleague. A wunderkind!!
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Orin Kerr @orinkerr.bsky.social · 09/11/2025
Here's a law professor lamenting the fads in legal theory popular among law professors that become popular for a decade or two and then fade away— written in 1950. Specifically, it's Roscoe Pound, reflecting on trends since he became a lawyer in 1890. jle.aals.org/cgi/viewcont...
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Megan Stevenson @meganstevenson.bsky.social · 07/11/2025
When the literature systematically produces massive, unrealistic estimates, we should approach the research design as if there are flashing red lights and blaring sirens warning danger, not a "keep calm and ujive on."
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Megan Stevenson @meganstevenson.bsky.social · 07/11/2025
Strong disagree. Judge IV is a high-variance, low-power estimator that tends to be extremely biased in the presence of publication bias and specification search. So proceed with caution and take those large effect size estimates with a grain of salt.
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Megan Stevenson @meganstevenson.bsky.social · 04/11/2025
MEDICAL research. This is such a travesty.
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Megan Stevenson @meganstevenson.bsky.social · 29/10/2025
It’s true. Not all of economics is totally insular.
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Megan Stevenson @meganstevenson.bsky.social · 24/10/2025
Many people know that there are multiple metrics for racial bias in algorithms -- and that they can yield *very* different results. In a new paper with Aurelie Ouss, we show the same is true for racial disparities in treatment effects. 1/ #econsky #polisky
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Megan Stevenson @meganstevenson.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
New project asking whether incarceration really prevents crime via incapacitation, or just shifts it behind bars. With @aurelieouss.bsky.social @emmaharrington.bsky.social and Hannah Shaffer
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UVA Law School @uvalaw.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
How extensive is crime in prisons? Prof. @meganstevenson.bsky.social received a $610,000 grant to study the phenomenon.
law.virginia.edu
Professor Receives Grant to Study Impact of Incarceration on Crime
Professor Megan Stevenson of the University of Virginia School of Law has received a $610,000 grant to study the impact of incarceration on crime, including a survey of how extensive violent crime occ...
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Elizabeth Lopatto @lopatto.bsky.social · 18/10/2025
goddamn is there anything Wikipedia editors can’t do www.nytimes.com/2025/10/17/n...
nytimes.com
Wikipedia Volunteers Avert Tragedy by Taking Down Gunman at Conference
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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
I was born in 1972. The replacement rate he's panicked about has been below 2.1% for almost every year of my life. If you're really worried about the population falling, giving immigrants a path to citizenship is an obvious and easy solution. Unless there's ... something about them you don't like?
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Megan Stevenson @meganstevenson.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
Ok but degree of niceness should not be a citation criteria. Agree with the rest though.
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Erin Reed @erininthemorning.com · 15/10/2025
1. Many of you have seen a graph purporting to show trans identification has decreased in recent years. Matt Walsh and Elon Musk celebrated it as a victory over "transgenderism." Turns out, the entire graph is based on an egregious math and statistics error. Subscribe to support our journalism.
erininthemorning.com
Fact Check: No, There Is Not A New Survey Showing Trans Identity Is Decreasing
The claim, which originates from far-right professor Eric Kaufmann, appears to have made a glaring error: the survey actually shows more people have come out, not fewer.
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Megan Stevenson @meganstevenson.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
Worth a read
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Victor Ray @victorerikray.bsky.social · 12/10/2025
Attacks on the federal workforce are also attacks on Black workers, who are overrepresented in the public sector. Black unemployment is 7.5%. I'm reminded of Coates' observation that Black Americans regularly experience conditions that would be considered a crisis if whites faced them.
nytimes.com
Black Unemployment Is Surging Again. This Time Is Different.
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Ginny Vitiello @gvitiello.bsky.social · 12/10/2025
#SREE2025 had a really thought-provoking keynote Thursday evening by UVA Law professor @meganstevenson.bsky.social, on why so many RCTs fail to find effects (or fail to replicate when they do show initial effects). This is basically what she said at SREE: www.law.virginia.edu/news/202403/...
law.virginia.edu
Professor’s Research Shows Many Criminal Justice Reforms Don’t Work
Most interventions and reforms in criminal justice have little enduring impact, argues University of Virginia School of Law professor Megan T. Stevenson in a new article that reviews 50 years of data.
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Megan Stevenson @meganstevenson.bsky.social · 09/10/2025
Honored to be giving the Hedges Lecture at SREE tomorrow 😊 Topic: “What RCTs Teach us about the Structure of the Social World”
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Megan Stevenson @meganstevenson.bsky.social · 04/10/2025
I’m at an Airbnb and the host is conservative Christian. We talked about trans people a bit and his view was as you would expect. I told him about intersex people and showed him a pic of Alicia Roth Wiegel. Mind BLOWN.
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Megan Stevenson @meganstevenson.bsky.social · 03/10/2025
This is worth a listen: fascinating explanation of why tick populations have been exploding youtu.be/8Pfy6XBp0QY?...
youtu.be
Why Are Tick Populations Exploding?
YouTube video by Learn Your Land
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BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · 29/09/2025
This is my regular reminder to everyone that jstor is open to the general public now; a free account there will give you access to 100 papers a year.
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Trevon Logan @trevondlogan.bsky.social · 11/09/2025
Very excited to see my podcast with John Parman about our review of the racial segregation literature is out! Listen to “Reviewing Residential Segregation” here: www.aeaweb.org/research/rac... via @aeajournals.bsky.social
aeaweb.org
Reviewing residential segregation
Trevon Logan and John Parman discuss the meaning of segregation and how it has shaped US history.
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Megan Stevenson @meganstevenson.bsky.social · 04/09/2025
This is cool. Large, high-quality RCT shows that an over-the-counter antihistamine nasal spray protects against catching Covid.
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Jennifer Doleac @jenniferdoleac.bsky.social · 23/08/2025
Looking for research funding? Arnold Ventures has several open RFPs. This includes a standing RFP for causal research related to US crime/the CJ system/ppl w criminal records. First step is a 3-page LOI. We aim to get you a funding decision within 3 months of that first step.
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Imani Gandy @angryblacklady.blacksky.app · 20/08/2025
I don't know who needs to hear this but slavery was bad.
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Megan Stevenson @meganstevenson.bsky.social · 05/08/2025
Anyone know why this German UBI experiment seems to be have big impacts, while the US ones are mostly zip ?
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