A recent blog post in The Hill stated, “reliable research on data and crime is more valuable than ever.” With more and more headlines about spiking crime rates, the question has to be asked. Do data back that up? Who better to answer that question than our guests who coordinate agencies to give us an accurate assessment of these questions, Nancy La Vigne Alexis Piquero.

Nancy La Vigne is the Director of the National Institute of Justice. She’s a nationally recognized criminal justice policy expert and former nonprofit executive whose expertise ranges from policing and corrections reform to reentry, criminal justice technologies and evidence-based criminal justice practices.

Alexis Piquero is the Director of the Bureau of Justice Statistics. He leads the Bureau’s activities on a range of data collection on matters related to crime and the justice system. Piquero is a nationally and internationally recognized criminologist with more than 25 years of experience.