Smart Talks. Cold Drinks.
Presenting THINK & DRINK – where the curious gather. This ongoing lecture series delivers a wide array of topics that generate fresh perspectives, ideas, and discussion. These community-driven events are powered by a collaboration between UMKC, Linda Hall Library, The Third Place Historian, and Casual Animal Brewing Company.
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december 3 - Myths & Realities: What Crime Trends Actually Tell Us And What KC Is Doing About It
Speaker: Dr. Marijana (Maja) Kotlaja, Senior Associate III, Justice System Partners
Most of what people think they know about crime comes from headlines, not data. And when you look at the data, across countries and across decades, the story is remarkably different from the narrative in the media. Crime rates have dropped dramatically over the past 30 years, yet public fear keeps climbing. Why? This presentation digs into that disconnect by looking into the common myths about who commits crime, whether punitive policies actually reduce crime, and how media coverage distorts our perception of safety. Then we shift to what the research tells us actually works and open up a conversation about community-level strategies that everyday people can use to make their neighborhoods safer.
speaker bio:
Dr. Marijana (Maja) Kotlaja is a researcher and strategist with over 10 years of experience at the intersection of data, community impact, and violence prevention. Currently, she serves as Senior Associate III at Justice System Partners, where she leads nine concurrent evaluation and reform projects spanning jurisdictions from San Francisco to New Orleans to Knoxville. Her work helps local leaders rethink public safety, while translating complex data into strategies they can implement in their communities. Dr. Kotlaja is Principal Investigator on Kansas City's $1.6 million violence prevention initiative, where she has built data systems and performance frameworks that are actively informing decisions by city officials, prosecutors, and community organizations today.
Dr. Kotlaja is also passionate about global criminology. She co-authored Policing during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Global Perspective, coordinating research across 12 countries. She has presented at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, conducted fieldwork across Europe and the Balkans, and maintains collaborations with scholars on four continents and serves as Vice-Chair of the American Society of Criminology's Division of International Criminology and will take over as Chair in 2028.
Before joining JSP, she spent six years as a tenure-track professor at UMKC and Missouri State University, where she built research programs, mentored emerging scholars, and directed teams conducting community-engaged evaluation work.