Perception Gaps

Our justice system faces a lot of challenges – not least of which are the public’s misperceptions about the system and how it affects communities. How do we rethink and reimagine the way we serve justice? Join host Samantha Laine Perfas and guests: writer and journalist Baz Dreisinger, criminal justice policy expert Michele Deitsch, field researcher Reuben Miller, prison abolitionist Amber-Rose Howard, victim advocate Aswad Thomas, and justice advocates Kevin Garrett, Romilda Pereira, and Stacey Borden.

Why do we lock people up? Is it to punish offenders or to rehabilitate them? A majority of Americans say they want… both. But those goals often compete with each other, and the result is a system that’s dysfunctional at best – and deadly at worst. Join host Samantha Laine Perfas in Episode 5 with guests: writer and activist Jeremiah Bourgeois, research policy analysts Nazgol Ghandnoosh and Bethany Young, victim advocate Jennifer Bishop-Jenkins, and former corrections officer Andy Potter.

Private prisons receive a lot of flak from politicians, reform advocates, and the public. And yet data shows they make up a relatively small fraction of the billions of dollars that go into the criminal justice system. In Episode 4, Monitor reporters Henry Gass and Jessica Mendoza visit Evanston, Wyoming, to understand how money flows in and out of the system – and to explore the moral dilemma that flow creates. Join host Samatha Laine Perfas and guests: prison policy experts Bernadette Rabuy and Lauren-Brooke Eisen, private corrections representative Alexandra Wilkes, and residents of Evanston.

For decades, research has shown that more immigration doesn’t mean more crime. But the myth of “the dangerous immigrant” remains a powerful force in American politics and rhetoric. In Episode 3, we look at how the stereotype came to be and the ties between immigration detention and mass incarceration. Join host Samantha Laine Perfas and Monitor reporter Henry Gass with guests: criminologist Charis Kubrin, activist Hoda Katebi, immigration policy expert Muzaffar Chishti, sociologist Jonathan Metzl, and immigration attorney Laura Peña.

Is the criminal justice system fair? It turns out white and Black Americans often have very different answers for that question. In Episode 2, we look at how race affects our perceptions of crime – and punishment. Join host Samantha Laine Perfas with guests: race scholar Paula D. McClain, political scientist Spencer Piston, sociologist Yasser Payne, author Jess Row, criminologist Thaddeus Johnson, and exoneree Christopher Scott.

The American criminal justice system is based on the idea that a person is innocent until proven guilty. But did you know that most people in jail have not been convicted of a crime? How is this happening? In Episode 1 of Season 2, host Samantha Laine Perfas explores the history of incarceration in the U.S. and the far-reaching effects of locking up millions of people. With guests: criminal law professor Alexandra Natapoff, sociologist Bruce Western, “70 Million” podcast creator Juleyka Lantigua-Williams, and clients of the Chicago Community Bond Fund.

Join the Monitor's Samantha Laine Perfas, Henry Gass, and Jessica Mendoza as they discuss the next season of "Perception Gaps," which focuses on misperceptions in the criminal justice system.

During the last episode of our 10-part series, we have to ask… how do you solve perception gaps? Is it even possible? We look at the science of perception gaps, as well as the media’s role in closing them. Join host Samantha Laine Perfas, NCSE director Ann Reid, the Monitor’s Eoin O’Carroll, sociotechnical researcher Danah Boyd, and the Monitor’s Mark Sappenfield.

War… what is it good for? Turns out, perhaps peace. While we continue to fight long and expensive wars around the world, they are much less fatal than in the past. But with how much war has changed through the decades, do civilians really understand its role? Join host Samantha Laine Perfas, researcher Joshua Goldstein, retired soldier and academic Adrian Lewis, and ex-Marine turned novelist Elliot Ackerman.

The opioid epidemic is a frequent headline contender, and was recently declared a national public health emergency. But did you know that there’s another substance that regularly kills twice as many people per year? Join host Samantha Laine Perfas, data scientist Scott Formica, former ‘drug czar’ Michael Botticelli, and prevention specialist Amanda Decker.

Everything feels like a competition these days. Who is more generous: conservatives or liberals? There’s no easy answer, but data does show that both parties have become less generous in recent years. Join host Samantha Laine Perfas, along with guests assistant professor Michele Margolis, researcher Nathan Dietz, “Happy Money” co-author Michael Norton, and mother-of-the-host Dana Laine.

After surveying a global segment of the population, the Gapminder organization in Sweden found that only 10 percent of people knew the state of extreme poverty. Why is it that our perceptions are so… wrong? Join host Samantha Laine Perfas, along with “Factfulness” author Anna Rosling Ronnlund, academic Bobby Duffy, Gates Foundation chief strategist Mark Suzman, and the Monitor’s Peter Ford.

Women take low paying jobs. Women don’t advocate for themselves. The gender pay gap isn’t real. These are some of the myths that persist about gender pay gap. But why does the gap really exist? It’s complicated. Join host Samantha Laine Perfas, along with guests economist Claudia Goldin, Women 2.0 CEO Kate Brodock, and professor Patricia Deyton.

Due to multiple high profile mass shootings, many parents and students fear that a school shooting will happen at their school. But school shootings - and even mass shootings - are statistically rare. This episode, we want to spend some time looking at the biggest culprit of gun deaths in the US: suicide. Join host Samantha Laine Perfas, along with criminologist James Fox, behavioral scientist Andrew Morral, faculty director Jennifer Stuber, and retired gun shop owner Ralph Demicco.

Who, or what, is stealing American jobs? Contrary to popular belief, it’s not immigrants. In fact, robots are projected to steal even more jobs in the coming decade. A lot of the conversation about lost jobs revolves around fear. But, should it? Join host Samantha Laine Perfas, along with immigration analyst Alex Nowrasteh, drone instructors Daniel Leclair and Thomas Abbott, the Monitor’s Alfredo Sosa, economist Dany Bahar, and angel investors Semyon Dukach and Eveline Buchatskiy.

If you talk to anyone in the US, they’ll tell you that politics are more polarized than ever before. Which is true… technically. But millions of Americans find themselves in the middle. So are we really as polar opposite as it may appear? Join host Samantha Laine Perfas, along with data scientist Gaurav Sood, the Monitor’s Francine Kiefer, licensed counselor Suzanne Degges-White, Geralyn Smith, and Mimi Teixeira.

Have you ever wondered about crime in the US, and how bad it is? A lot of people feel like the world is really unsafe - but would you believe me if I told we were safer now than we’ve been in the last 30 years? It’s true, and it’s what we’d like to call a perception gap. Join host Samantha Laine Perfas, along with criminologists Nicole Rader and Josh Hinkle, and St. Louis Police Captain Perri Johnson.

Have you ever thought about how sometimes our perceptions don’t always match reality? These perception gaps happen frequently, and the big question is… why? And what narratives might better help us understand the world? Join executive producer Dave Scott and host Samantha Laine Perfas as they discuss why they created Perception Gaps, a new podcast series by The Christian Science Monitor.