Maya Moritz

Crim PhD Student @Penn. Keen to tell you about place-based crime intiatives, bouldering blunders, & my @duolingo streak. Here to learn.

[Maya Moritz @mayarmoritz]

So delighted to see this Omnia article out about my current project on murals and crime + the general struggle of data collection!

[Penn Arts & Sciences @PennSAS]

Criminology PhD student Maya Moritz is collecting data to see if murals affect Philadelphia's crime rate. Her findings suggest that crime does decrease in neighborhoods after a mural goes up, and the effect can last well into the future. https://t.co/ovFFNET5fi @Penn

[Maya Moritz @mayarmoritz]

@rglenner That sounds so cool! Ideas are implicitly part of our combined thesis/methods class, but students may only focus on their method given that it's 1 semester for method & thesis. Integrating it into a non-thesis class w hypothetical applications may engage students for all methods.

[Maya Moritz @mayarmoritz]

As I read Takavarasha & @rglenner, I notice that learning methods/knowing where to focus attention is easiest with a project in mind. I wonder if having students envision a project, even if not their thesis, at the start of a methods class would raise understanding & engagement.

[Maya Moritz @mayarmoritz]

Book is "Running Randomized Evaluations: A Practical Guide" by Kudzai Takavarasha and Rachel Glennerster with @JPAL and it is an awesome read. Every few pages I read send me back to my RCT plan to add some cool consideration/wrinkle I hadn't considered.

[Vital City @VitalCityNYC]

RUBBER MEETS ROAD: Street lighting is one of the oldest public safety tools cities have. What does the evidence actually say about its impact on crime?

University of Pennsylvania's @AaronChalfin breaks down 50 years of research, policy and practice.

https://t.co/NvxExz00Xs

[Maya Moritz @mayarmoritz]

Note: Karakas T, Dumlu BN, Sarıkaya M, Yildiz Ozkan D, Demir Y, İnce G (2024), "The impact of urban graffiti with facial expressions on human behavioral and emotional experiences in a VR environment". Archnet-IJAR, Vol. 18 No. 2 pp. 409–431, doi: https://t.co/AnCG5kV13v

[Maya Moritz @mayarmoritz]

Another lit review preparation highlight: realizing that other people's perception of "negative emotions in street #art" might be more extreme than the frowning, normal faces you imagined in your head when reading the text. (from Karakas, Dumlu, Sarıkaya, Ozkan & Demir (2023)

[Maya Moritz @mayarmoritz]

@EileenCardillo @Anjan435 Note: Gonzalez, V. E., Li, S., Cardillo, E. R., & Chatterjee, A. (2025). Murals and Neighborhoods: The impact of public art in Philadelphia. Cities, 174, 107023. https://t.co/JwNsPvQx7s

[Maya Moritz @mayarmoritz]

Lit review preparation can be a slog unless you get to read articles by Vicente Estrada Gonzalez Shirley Li, @EileenCardillo, & @Anjan435

[Maya Moritz @mayarmoritz]

2 of our amazing department members are presenting their work at the #PennGradTalks #PGT
I'm so excited to see so much representation for criminological research!
Watch here: https://t.co/7wnaP6Y9QO
Vote for your favorite in the audience choice here:
https://t.co/76Vnkr8ceG

[Maya Moritz @mayarmoritz]

I was waiting for this article to mention very different cultural expectations of social interaction & loneliness, in line with happiness aligning culturally more with joy (e.g., USA) or with satisfaction (e.g., Nordics). Still fascinating!
@TheEconomist
https://t.co/cjsW8ljbr1

[Maya Moritz @mayarmoritz]

https://t.co/lx1XMOKfEk
An awesome chart and design from @flowingdata

[Gary Miles @GaryLMiles]

Joseph R. Syrnick, retired chief engineer for the Streets Department and CEO of the Schuylkill River Development Corp., has died at 79 https://t.co/bNEMwUhuT9 via @phillyinquirer

[Criminal @CriminalShow]

When Sister Helen Prejean was young, she declared that she would either grow up to be the President or the Pope. Instead, she became a nun — and later, a spiritual adviser to men on death row. Meet Sister Helen: https://t.co/6GTctHl3yc

[The Daily Pennsylvanian @dailypenn]

Amid citywide efforts to counteract crumbling infrastructure, professors and researchers associated with Penn’s urban planning and criminology departments spoke to The Daily Pennsylvanian about how improving urban design can decrease crime.

https://t.co/RoQDAPaJBF

[Maya Moritz @mayarmoritz]

Loving the coverage of research looking into the crime effects of beautifying cities!💡🎨🧹
https://t.co/lXuJr0eERf

[Maya Moritz @mayarmoritz]

Every shooting is a tragedy. The shootings at Brown and in Sydney, so close in time, just felt particularly wrenching as a Jewish person working at a university. If anyone at Penn or beyond is also struggling to process what's happened this weekend, feel free to reach out.

[Maya Moritz @mayarmoritz]

Study/work soundtrack of the day is Hanna by @ChemBros. Objectively very cool.

[Maya Moritz @mayarmoritz]

@ASC_DCS This was such an honor. Thank you to the Kimchi family and the Division on Corrections and Sentencing.

[ASC Division on Corrections and Sentencing @ASC_DCS]

Please join us in congratulating this year's Dr. Kimchi Graduate Travel Award winners, Carl Reeds (University of South Florida) and Maya Moritz (University of Pennsylvania)!

[Derek Thompson @DKThomp]

New newsletter: THE MONKS IN THE CASINO

In the last few decades, the pro-social life script for many young people—date, marry, buy a house, have a kid—has become more expensive.

Meanwhile, the anti-social life script—e.g., posting, porn, parlays—has become easier, cheaper, frictionless.

This has created an unusual inversion of risk. Today's young people—and young men, in particular—have become more risk averse in the physical world and more risk-seeking in the digital world. They date less, and gamble more. They find intimacy scary and betting exciting. They furnish their rooms like high-tech monasteries and gravitate toward media that works like a slot machine.

I don't think young men suffer from a "loneliness crisis." I think the problem is bigger and stranger than that. They are choosing to be alone, because economics and technology have made aloneness feel easy and togetherness feels anxious. The result: A generation of monks in a casino.

https://t.co/hcG8fnpQkC