Julia Laskorunsky

Dr. Julia Laskorunsky is Research Director at the Robina Institute of Criminal Law and Criminal Justice at the University of Minnesota Law School, where she leads a multidisciplinary team studying how criminal justice systems work in practice. A nationally recognized expert in sentencing policy, prison release and revocation, and community supervision, she has spent nearly 20 years tackling the questions that shape how people move through the justice system: how sentences get set, how prisons decide who leaves and who stays, how supervision actually works on the ground. She partners with state and local criminal justice agencies across the country—including sentencing commissions, parole boards, and probation departments in Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Kansas, Colorado, and Connecticut, among others—to conduct both qualitative and quantitative research that translates directly into policy and practice. Her work is grounded in a commitment to non-partisan applied research that gives agencies evidence they can trust and use.

Dr. Laskorunsky has served as PI or Co-PI on numerous federal, state, and foundation-funded grants. She has co-authored more than 20 technical reports, policy briefs, and book chapters, and her scholarly work has been published in journals including the Journal of Crime and Justice, Crime & Delinquency, and the Federal Sentencing Reporter.

She earned her PhD in Criminology from Pennsylvania State University, supported by a National Institute of Justice Dissertation Fellowship for her research on actuarial risk assessments at sentencing. Prior to joining the Robina Institute, Dr. Laskorunsky served as Deputy Project Director at Development Services Group, Inc., where she contributed to projects for the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and the National Institute of Justice.