Justice Counts

The book will cover a range of cases where statistical analyses helped document human rights problems, determine the value of evidence, or understand the needs of victims. It will also briefly describe how statistical programs can be used to perpetrate human rights abuses and the need for safeguards. The book will be organized as a series of chapters that can stand alone, but that together highlight the need for statistical thinking in a wide variety of human rights contexts. Each chapter will have a clear structure and compelling storyline, and will highlight a particular statistical concept and method in an engaging way.

Introduction. Doing Bad: When Censuses Are Used to Perpetrate Human Rights Abuses. Building Peace in Liberia: Why Do You Need a Survey If You Have Testimonials? Justice in Guatemala (Almost): Finding True Patterns. Syria: How to Not Lie with Numbers. Was Sherlock Wrong? Conclusion.

Megan Price, PhD, Director of Research, Human Rights Data Analysis Group, meganp@hrdag.org Megan designs strategies and methods for statistical analysis of human rights data. Recently, she served as lead statistician and author on three reports commissioned by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UN-OHCHR) on documented deaths in Syria. She is also the lead statistician on a project analyzing documents from the Guatemalan National Police Archive. She has contributed analyses submitted as evidence in two Guatemalan court cases. Megan is a Research Fellow at the Carnegie Mellon University Center for Human Rights Science, and she is the Human Rights Editor for the Statistical Journal of the International Association for Official Statistics (IAOS). She earned her doctorate in biostatistics and a Certificate in Human Rights from the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University and holds a master of science degree and bachelor of science degree in Statistics from Case Western Reserve University. Robin Mejia, MPH, Science Writer and PhD Candidate in Biostatistics at UC Berkeley (advisor: Nick Jewell, jewell@berkeley.edu), mejia@nasw.org In over a decade as a freelance journalist, Robin covered health and science stories for the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post Magazine, Wired, Science. Her stories on problems with the statistical foundation for several forensics techniques and quality control problems at labs predated two National Academy of Sciences reports on the same issues. Her work has won several national journalism awards and been anthologized in the Best Technology Writing series. She’s a contributor to the Science Writer’s Handbook (Da Capo, 2013), which is taught in many graduate programs. In 2010, Robin returned to school to deepen her understanding of research methods and data analysis, earning an MPH from UC Berkeley in 2012. She’s currently working on a PhD in biostatistics.