Ph.D. and M.A. in geography, The University of Arizona; BA in geography, Mary Washington College
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More ExpertsMeagan Cahill (she/her) is a senior policy researcher at the RAND Corporation. For nearly 20 years, she has been conducting research and evaluation in the areas of policing and improving police-community relations; crime, place, and community crime prevention; at-risk and delinquent youth—with a special focus on youths' social networks; and gang violence. She currently leads an impact and process evaluation of NYPD's Neighborhood Policing philosophy and an effort to develop tools that communities can use to improve police-community relations. She is also developing and implementing a tabletop exercise designed to help cities improve police-community relations, and developed a research agenda identifying priority research topics that may improve efforts to reduce officer-involved shootings. Cahill is also the research director for the National Collaborative on Gun Violence Research, overseeing the solicitation process and grants management. In early 2018, she began an assessment of the combined effects of anti-violence efforts in two cities, Minneapolis and Durham (NC), funded by NIJ. Prior to joining RAND, Cahill spent over a decade conducting multi-site evaluations of anti-gang programs and studying youth gang networks and the gang desistance process at another research organization.
Cahill's work employs spatial analytic methodologies for crime analysis using geographic information systems (GIS), basic social network analysis, and quantitative and qualitative methodologies. She received her Ph.D. in geography from the University of Arizona, and received a National Institute of Justice Dissertation Fellowship in 2003–2004.
Meagan Cahill, Melissa Labriola, Jirka Taylor, Police Shootings: A Roadmap for Change, RAND (RR-A1525-1), 2022 (forthcoming)
Meagan Cahill, Melissa Diliberti, Community Gun Violence Prevention Programs, RAND (RR-A932), 2021 (forthcoming)
Caterina Roman, Meagan Cahill, Lauren Mayes, "Changes in Personal Social Networks across Individuals Leaving Their Street Gang: Just What Are Youth Leaving Behind?" Social Sciences, 10(39), 2021
Sierra Smucker, Esther Friedman, Meagan Cahill, Jirka Taylor, John Daly, Regina Shih, An Initial Evaluation of the Weinberg Center for Elder Justice’s Shelter Model for Elder Mistreatment, RAND (RR-A931-1), 2021
Meagan Cahill, Ryan Brown, Garrett Baker, Dionne Barnes-Proby, Hannah Sandrini, Australia's Third Action Plan of the National Plan to Reduce Violence Against Women and Their Children, Priority Area 2: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women and Their Children — Final Report, RAND (RR-A389-1), 2021
Anita Chandra, Meagan Cahill, Doug Yeung, Rachel Ross, Toward an Initial Conceptual Framework to Asses Community Allostatic Load, RAND (RR-2559-RWJ), 2018
Caterina Roman, Meagan Cahill, Jillian Eidson "Street Gang Definitions across Two US Cities: Eurogang Criteria, Group Identity Characteristics, and Peer Group Involvement in Crime," in Cheryl Maxson, Finn-Aage Esbensen, Gang Transitions and Transformations in an International Context (Eurogang V), Springer, 2016
Meagan Cahill, Gordon Mulligan, "Using Geographically Weighted Regression to Explore Local Crime Patterns," Social Science Computing Review, 25(2), 2007
