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Matt Ashby

@mattashby.com

1.5K followers 320 following 1.1K posts

I help people use data to reduce crime. Associate Professor, Crime Science, UCL. Former police officer. 🌐: mattashby.com

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Matt Ashby @mattashby.com · 2h

Crime scripts are widely used to work out where best to intervene to stop crime, but this article uses several case studies to illustrate how scripts can also be used in investigations of serious crimes when there are competing theories of the crime.

“You Can’t Get There from Here”: Use of Crime Scripts in Validity Testing - American Journal of Criminal Justice

Purpose Detectives require analytic tools for the evaluation of deception, truth, and probability as police investigations need to assess the validity of suspect alibis, witness claims, victim…

Matt Ashby @mattashby.com · 20h

I don’t think it matters much what you or I believe. Just Say No doesn’t work when educating young people about illegal drugs or risky sex. Why would it work when teaching young people about AI?

Matt Ashby @mattashby.com · 22h

But the risks associated with using LLMs can be minimised, and it’s not particularly difficult to do so. It’s certainly well within the capabilities of most students if guided well.

Matt Ashby @mattashby.com · 22h

Prohibitions are often accompanied by attempts to reduce harm. Safe consumption rooms for drug users, heroin replacement therapy, and drug-safety testing in nightclubs, for example. Also designated street prostitution tolerance zones in non-residential areas.

Matt Ashby @mattashby.com · 22h

A brief (and not necessarily well thought out) argument from me on why trying to ban students from using AI when writing essays is like abstinence-only sex education, and will fail for the same reasons.

I’d be interested in others’ thoughts on this, especially constructive (🙏) disagreements.

Matt Ashby @mattashby.com · 22h

I think the problem with the argument by @ubisurv.net in this article is that he’s doing the same thing to students that he complains the university is doing to him: leaving students to navigate on their own decisions about LLM use with minimal guidance.

…

Matt Ashby @mattashby.com · 22h

Surely it would be better for us to say to students ‘using LLMs comes with these risks and these harms, but if you do use them then this is how to minimise that risk to the extent you can’?

Matt Ashby @mattashby.com · 22h

Unless LLM use is designed out of an assessment (eg a handwritten unseen exam), many students will use it. And as with abstinence-only sex ed, prohibiting LLM use just leaves students with no guidance at all on how they can use them in the safest way possible.

…

Matt Ashby @mattashby.com · 22h

A policy of prohibiting/strongly discouraging LLM use in all circumstances will fail for the same reason abstinence-only sex ed fails: the temptation to ignore the prohibition is simply too great.

…

Matt Ashby @mattashby.com · 22h

I think the problem with the argument by @ubisurv.net in this article is that he’s doing the same thing to students that he complains the university is doing to him: leaving students to navigate on their own decisions about LLM use with minimal guidance.

…

Matt Ashby @mattashby.com · 23h

If you teach media and crime, this looks like it would be a very useful introductory reading:

Our World in Data @ourworldindata.org · 1d

Does the news reflect what we die from?

The image presents a comparison of the leading causes of death in the United States for 2023 and the media coverage these causes receive from three news outlets: The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Fox News.

In the footer, it notes the data sources, indicating that the information is based on media mentions from Media Cloud (2025) and death data from the US CDC (2025) and the Global Terrorism Index, with a clarification that values are normalized to sum to 100%.

Matt Ashby @mattashby.com · 1d

Interesting blog post arguing that as well as researching the reasons police sometimes use excessive force, it’s also important to understand the harms caused by police *not* using force when it is necessary to do so.

When the Pendulum Swings the Other Way: Rethinking Police Use of Force

Dr Tuncay Durna and Dr Kutluer Karademir Use of force is a fundamental yet highly controversial aspect of policing. While it is a necessary tool for the police to control crime and apprehend suspec…

bscpolicingnetwork.wordpress.com

Reposted by Matt Ashby

Esther Schindler @estherschindler.bsky.social · 1d

I just saw someone use the abbreviation “AI;DR” and I’ll be laughing for a while.

Matt Ashby @mattashby.com · 2d

Were you able to get any comment from Hackney Council on why they rejected the previous applications and why the process has taken so long?

Reposted by Matt Ashby

AndreasThinks @andreasthinks.me · 4d

So had to contact my local police Safer Neighbourhood Team this week, and had *A Bad Time*, so built a thing: Your Police Events, a service that automatically updates your calendar with events from your local policing team.
Would welcome some testers!

yourpolice.events

Your Police Events - Local Neighbourhood Policing Calendar

Get automatic calendar updates for your local neighbourhood policing events. Enter your postcode to subscribe and stay connected with your community.

yourpolice.events

Matt Ashby @mattashby.com · 5d

There are three UK government funding schemes for places of worship to improve their security, including one specifically for synagogues: www.gov.uk/guidance/pla...

Protective security for faith communities

Places of worship or other faith community organisations can apply for protective security.

Reposted by Matt Ashby

YouGov @yougov.co.uk · 6d

Do you trust the police?

Great deal / fair amount: 55%
Not very much / not at all: 42%

yougov.co.uk/topics/polit...

Reposted by Matt Ashby

European Network for Open Criminology @opencriminology.bsky.social · 6d

Hello! ENOC is on BlueSky now. We are a working group of the @esc-eurocrim.bsky.social dedicated to the promotion, training, application and rewarding of open research in criminology. Check out our website for more: esc-enoc.github.io

European Network for Open Criminology

esc-enoc.github.io

Matt Ashby @mattashby.com · 6d

@opencriminology.bsky.social 👋

Matt Ashby @mattashby.com · 6d

Who do you think is the “criminal, murderous leader” of the Jewish community in Manchester?

Matt Ashby @mattashby.com · 6d

Although it’s worth highlighting that the quality of data on offender nationality remains woeful.

Reposted by Matt Ashby

Ian Wiggett @wiggett-ie.bsky.social · 6d

Foreign nationals are underrepresented as a proportion of prisoners jailed in England and Wales when compared with rates of incarceration among British citizens of similar age, an analysis of government data has found

Foreigners underrepresented among prisoners in England and Wales, report finds

Analysis finds lower proportion of foreign inmates than would be expected if they were jailed at same rate as UK citizens of same age

www.theguardian.com

Matt Ashby @mattashby.com · 6d

Hold on: this person murdered two other human beings (leaving aside that they were public servants) and yet the phrase ‘double murderer’ doesn’t appear anywhere in those headlines?

Matt Ashby @mattashby.com · 8d

Nice blog post on how private-sector security can benefit from working with academic researchers. Includes recommendations on bridging the gap between 🎓 and 💼.

TL;DR: the benefits of evidence-based policing apply to private-sector security companies, too.

www.linkedin.com

Reposted by Matt Ashby

Dr. Jonathan Foley @globalecoguy.bsky.social · 9d

Yes! If we want people to listen to science, then don’t put it all behind a bloody paywall.

Saloni @scientificdiscovery.dev · 9d

In general I think it's hard to combat scientific misinformation when some of the best research is locked behind an academic paywall, while lots of nonsense gets published free for everyone to read in predatory journals.

Reposted by Matt Ashby

Saloni @scientificdiscovery.dev · 9d

In general I think it's hard to combat scientific misinformation when some of the best research is locked behind an academic paywall, while lots of nonsense gets published free for everyone to read in predatory journals.