Laurie O. Robinson Program on Crime Policy Email: robinsol@sas.upenn.edu

Laurie O. Robinson is Director of the Master of Science Program in the University of Pennsylvania's Department of Criminology. Since 2001, she has also served as a Distinguished Senior Scholar in the University's Jerry Lee Center of Criminology, and as Executive Director of its Forum on Crime & Justice. The Forum encourages more effective links between Washington policy-makers and state and local criminal justice practitioners who are pioneering research-based innovations in public safety. Robinson served as Assistant Attorney General in the U.S. Department of Justice from 1993 to February, 2000. In that capacity, she headed the Office of Justice Programs, the Department's research, statistics, and state and local criminal justice assistance arm, which includes the National Institute of Justice, the Bureau of Justice Statistics, and the Bureau of Justice Assistance. Under her leadership, the annual appropriations for OJP grew substantially, from $800 million in 1993 to over $4 billion in 2000. She spearheaded initiatives in areas ranging from comprehensive community-based crime control to violence against women, law enforcement technology, drug abuse, and corrections, and oversaw the largest increase in federal spending on criminal justice research in the nation's history. In 1998, she established established a new OJP office on domestic terrorism preparedness for state and local first responders to provide training, grants, and technological assistance. Prior to joining the Justice Department, Robinson served as director of the American Bar Association's Section of Criminal Justice for 14 years, where she founded the ABA's Juvenile Justice Center and had responsibility for policy development, work with Congress, and development of special projects in such areas as crime victims, prisons, police procedures, and computer crime. Robinson serves on an array of national boards relating to the justice system (including the Board of Trustees of the Vera Institute of Justice, the Board of Directors of the Police Foundation, and the Advisory Board for the George Mason University Administration of Justice Program), has published numerous articles in criminal justice and legal periodicals, and has spoken at hundreds of criminal justice-related conferences and forums. She is a magna cum laude graduate of Brown University and a member of Phi Beta Kappa. Publications Robinson, L., "Commentary on McCoy -- Problem-Solving Courts," American Criminal Law Review, Vol. 40., No. 4, Fall, 2003 Robinson, L., "Sex Offender Management: The Public Policy Challenges," in Robert A. Prentky, Eric S. Janus, Michael C. Seto, (Eds.), Sexually Coercive Behavior: Understanding and Management, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Volume 989, 2003. Robinson, L., "The Future Federal Role in State and Local Criminal Justice Assistance: Gazing into the Legislative Crystal Ball," Corrections Today, December, 2002. Travis, J., Robinson, L., Solomon, A., "Prisoner Reentry: Issues for Practice and Policy," Criminal Justice, Spring 2002.