Shawn Rohlin, Ph.D., associate professor of economics at Kent State University's College of Business Administration, and colleague William Horrace, Ph.D., of Syracuse University, have been named W.E.B. Du Bois Scholars and will receive a research grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, the Office of Justice Programs and the National Institute of Justice to deepen their exploration of alleged racial bias in the Syracuse, New York Police Department.
The U.S. Department of Justice-funded study will build upon Horrace's and Rohlin's previous research assessing racial bias among Syracuse police officers during traffic stops. The new research will seek to understand the causes of racial bias, while analyzing the impact of officer experience and exposure on their inclinations for bias.
"This research could lead to important policy implications that could save lives," Rohlin says.
The National Institute of Justice, which administered the $280,000 grant under the U.S. Department of Justice, supports research that explores race and crime and encourages scholars to analyze "the confluence of crime, justice and culture in various societal contexts."
"Dr. Rohlin's research contributes to greater understanding of the economic forces that shape a region, and this work increases the potential to address societal injustice across the nation," says Deborah Spake, dean of Kent State’s College of Business Administration.
In addition to serving as associate professor of economics at Kent State, Rohlin is the director of Kent State's College of Business Administration's Center for Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation. His research specialties are in urban, public and labor economics. He studies how government policies impact local economic factors.
Rohlin has received the Junior Scholar Award from the Lincoln Land Institute, the David C. Lincoln Fellowship in Land Value Taxation, and his research has won the Most Outstanding Paper for Public Finance Review. Rohlin also conducted a recent study with colleague Nadia Greenhalgh-Stanely, Ph.D., associate professor of economics at Kent State, on the Utopia East Pipeline Project. Proposed by Kinder Morgan Inc., they concluded the project could bring an estimated $237.3 million to Ohio's economy.
