Jennifer Doleac

Jennifer Doleac is an economist specializing in crime, public safety, and policy reform. Before joining Arnold Ventures, Doleac spent more than a decade as an economics professor, conducting academic research on crime and discrimination. She served on the faculty at the University of Virginia Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy and was a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution before becoming a nonresident fellow in Economic Studies. Doleac later joined the Texas A&M Department of Economics as an associate professor, where she directed the Justice Tech Lab. She holds a doctorate in economics from Stanford University and a Bachelor of Arts in economics and mathematics from Williams College.

Doleac is the executive vice president of criminal justice at Arnold Ventures. In this role, she directs the Criminal Justice program, collaborating with research, policy, and advocacy teams to support policy-relevant research and translate findings into effective policy. As an expert on the economics of crime, Doleac advocates for using rigorous research to inform policy. Her work addresses topics such as DNA databases, prosecutorial reform, risk assessment algorithms, and the unintended consequences of ban-the-box policies. Her research has received support from governmental and philanthropic organizations and has been published in academic journals including Quarterly Journal of Economics, Review of Economics and Statistics, and Journal of Labor Economics.

Among Doleac's influential research is her analysis of ban-the-box policies. Alongside economist Benjamin Hansen, she examined hiring data for men ages 25 to 34, comparing those in states with ban-the-box policies to those in states without, and found that these policies negatively impacted hiring for Black and Hispanic men without college degrees. This finding reflects Doleac's broader approach, emphasizing that policymakers should rely on measurable outcomes rather than assumptions when designing criminal justice reforms. She argues that incremental improvements at multiple stages of the system can have a significant impact and that certainty of consequences is more effective than severity of punishment. Doleac contends that criminal justice systems have often overinvested in sentence length while underinvesting in solving crimes quickly and consistently.

Doleac is also recognized as a public communicator. She hosts the "Probable Causation" podcast and is a regular guest on podcasts such as "The Gist," "Freakonomics," "Slow Boring," and "EconTalk." She has addressed international audiences on strategies to improve public safety and the economic analysis of crime. Vox named Doleac to its Future Perfect 50, a list of individuals building a more perfect future. She serves on the board of editors at Journal of Economic Literature.

Her book, "The Science of Second Chances: A Revolution in Criminal Justice," explores the importance of relying on measurable outcomes and real-world evidence in criminal justice reform. Doleac emphasizes that many well-intentioned ideas can fail or create unintended harm, making evidence-based approaches essential to progress in public safety and policy reform.