Rainita Narender

PhD in Economics - Data Analytics Manager - Claremont Graduate University Visiting Faculty

I am the Data Analytics Manager at the Riverside County DA's Office and serve as a visiting faculty member at Claremont Graduate University. I utilize applied data science, causal inference analysis and dashboarding tools to analyze changes in criminal justice trends. My dissertation research emphasized the evaluation of policy reform on downstream community outcomes yielding partnerships with police agencies, prosecutor offices and rehabilitation organizations. My current mission is to bridge the gap between applied microeconomic causal inference techniques in local institutions to drive data driven policy initiatives.

Highlighted PUblications & Works in progress

European Journal of Law and Economics Deterrence, Norms and Enforcement in Laws (with Greg DeAngelo and Rustam Romaniuc) Published

In this paper, we examine the effect of a low priority initiative in Los Angeles County on the citation behavior of the local sheriff’s office and charging behavior of the county’s prosecutor's office. Namely, we explore how community norms to halt punishment for low-level marijuana offenses influence officer and prosecutor behavior, primarily how this norm interacts with these agents’ trained goal of ensuring public safety. As the sheriff’s office is contracted by the city of West Hollywood annually, we believe this community norm would influence officer behavior and decrease enforcement behavior. We find citation behavior to increase in surrounding counties to West Hollywood though remains constant in West Hollywood which can be explained through a principal-agent relationship. Prosecution behavior remains unchanged aside from the mechanical relationship of charges being a function of incoming arrests.

"911, What's your Emergency?": Variation in Call-taker' Race Mention Proclivity on Officer Arrest and Force Use Behavior

Final Edits

Much attention has been made to officer use of force incidents resulting in civilian death in the past ten years. An unstudied aspect of the officer-civilian interaction is the effect of the 911 call center on officer behavior. In the following paper, the call-taker leverages random assignment of incoming calls to call-takers in an instrumental variable identification strategy to estimate the effect of call-taker variation in race mention on officer arresting and use of force behavior.

Education

Ph.D. Economics, Claremont Graduate University 2022

M.A. Economics, Claremont Graduate University 2019

B.A. Economics, University of California, Riverside 2018

B.S. Psychology, University of California, Riverside 2018

Teaching Experience

Visiting Faculty

Advanced Research Methods, Claremont Graduate University Fall 2024

Statistics for Economists, Pitzer College Fall 2021- Spring 2023

Econometrics I Summer Module, Claremont Graduate University Summer 2022

Teaching Assistant

Evaluation of the American Criminal Justice System Fall 2022

Econometrics I, Claremont Graduate University Spring 2021

Advanced Econometrics, Claremont Graduate University Spring 2021

Econometrics II, Claremont Graduate University Fall 2020

Neuroeconomics and Decision-Making, Claremont Graduate University Spring 2019

Research Experience

Research Assistant, Computational Justice Lab Fall 2020 - Fall 2022

Lab Manager & Research Assistant, Center for Neuroeconomics Studies Fall 2018 - Fall 2020

Research Assistant, Cognitive Sleep Research Lab Fall 2016 - Spring 2018