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morie: Multi-Domain Open Research and Inferential Estimation

Source: R/rmorie-package.R
rmorie-package.Rd

Multi-domain scientific computing toolkit for observational inference and intervention analysis across scientific-experimentation contexts. Hosts the MRM (Multilevel Reconciliation Methodology) framework as a primary application for Canadian carceral, police, and oversight data.

Details

Provides general-purpose causal estimators (ATE, ATT, ATC, GATE, CATE, LATE, AIPW, G-computation), survey sampling methods (stratified, cluster, PPS, bootstrap, calibration weights), propensity-score and doubly-robust estimators, and sensitivity analyses (E-value, Rosenbaum bounds). Companion modules support signal processing and spectral analysis, cryptographic primitives, spatial statistics, statistical physics of crime (Hawkes self- exciting processes, reaction-diffusion, Levy flight, urban scaling), and classical-test-theory and item-response-theory psychometrics, alongside ingestion utilities for officially published Ontario Special Investigations Unit (SIU; police- oversight) and federal Structured Intervention Unit reports.

Statement of need

Applied observational research on Canadian carceral, policing, and oversight data has, until now, meant stitching together a dozen single-purpose packages – one for difference-in-differences, one for propensity-score matching, one for spatial scan statistics, one for self-exciting point processes – each with its own data contract, and none aware of the survey-weighting, provenance, and privacy constraints these data carry. rmorie is aimed at criminologists, quantitative social scientists, and accountability researchers who need those estimators in one consistent, provenance-preserving toolkit, with the MRM (Multilevel Reconciliation Methodology) framework as its motivating application. Every public function is prefixed morie_* to compose safely alongside the specialist packages it wraps or complements, and results carry the labeling required to keep synthetic development runs from being mistaken for inferential findings.

Statistical methods and primary references

The estimators implemented or wrapped here follow established methodological literature. Primary references, by domain:

  • Difference-in-differences – Callaway, B. and Sant'Anna, P. H. C. (2021). Difference-in-differences with multiple time periods. Journal of Econometrics, 225(2), 200-230. de Chaisemartin, C. and D'Haultfoeuille, X. (2020). Two-way fixed effects estimators with heterogeneous treatment effects. American Economic Review, 110(9), 2964-2996.

  • Propensity scores and doubly-robust estimation – Rosenbaum, P. R. and Rubin, D. B. (1983). The central role of the propensity score in observational studies for causal effects. Biometrika, 70(1), 41-55.

  • Sensitivity analysis – VanderWeele, T. J. and Ding, P. (2017). Sensitivity analysis in observational research: introducing the E-value. Annals of Internal Medicine, 167(4), 268-274.

  • Self-exciting point processes – Hawkes, A. G. (1971). Spectra of some self-exciting and mutually exciting point processes. Biometrika, 58(1), 83-90. Ogata, Y. (1988). Statistical models for earthquake occurrences and residual analysis for point processes. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 83(401), 9-27.

  • Spatial statistics – Moran, P. A. P. (1950). Notes on continuous stochastic phenomena. Biometrika, 37(1/2), 17-23. Anselin, L. (1995). Local indicators of spatial association – LISA. Geographical Analysis, 27(2), 93-115. Kulldorff, M. (1997). A spatial scan statistic. Communications in Statistics – Theory and Methods, 26(6), 1481-1496.

Where an estimator is a thin wrapper over an established CRAN package (the deliberate design principle of this package), the wrapper documentation names the upstream implementation; rmorie's own contribution is the unifying data contract, provenance handling, and the MRM composition, not a reimplementation of the underlying algorithm.

Life cycle

rmorie is experimental (see the lifecycle badge in the README). The morie_* public API is stabilising ahead of a 1.x CRAN release; function signatures for the core causal, spatial, and point-process estimators are considered stable, while newer subsystems (SIU/OTIS ingestion, the AI helpers, and the causal-taphonomy suite) may still change. Deprecations, when they occur, will follow the standard warn-then-remove cycle across at least one minor version.

Acronyms used throughout the package

  • MRM – Multilevel Reconciliation Methodology

  • OTIS – Offender Tracking Information System (published by the Ontario Ministry of the Solicitor General, formerly the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services until June 2019)

  • SIU – Special Investigations Unit (Ontario police-oversight body)

  • TPS – Toronto Police Service

  • CSI – Crime Severity Index (Statistics Canada)

  • ac – alert complexity (per-person-year count of distinct alert-state configurations)

  • vm – volatility measure of placements (per- person-year regional-transition count)

Companion papers

If you use rmorie in your work, please cite the relevant companion papers (see citation("rmorie") for the current list). DOIs are pending re-deposit.

Key external citations used by MRM modules

  • Sprott, J. B. and Doob, A. N. (2021). Solitary Confinement, Torture, and Canada's Structured Intervention Units. Centre for Criminology and Sociolegal Studies, University of Toronto. Available at the Centre for Criminology and Sociolegal Studies web site: crimsl.utoronto.ca (file TortureSolitarySIUsSprottDoob23Feb2021_0.pdf).

  • Doob, A. N. and Sprott, J. B. (2020). Understanding the Operation of Correctional Service Canada's Structured Intervention Units: Some Preliminary Findings. John Howard Society of Canada.

  • Iftene, A. and Doob, A. N. (2024). Do Independent External Decision Makers Ensure that “An Inmate's Confinement in a Structured Intervention Unit Is to End as Soon as Possible”? (Corrections and Conditional Release Act, Section 33). Dalhousie Schulich School of Law, report 51. https://digitalcommons.schulichlaw.dal.ca/reports/51/

  • Structured Intervention Unit Implementation Advisory Panel (2024). Final Report on Structured Intervention Units and Solitary Confinement. Public Safety Canada.

  • United Nations General Assembly (2015). United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Nelson Mandela Rules). Resolution A/RES/70/175.

License

morie is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License, version 3 or later (AGPL-3.0-or-later), on both the R and Python sides. The optional Linux-kernel adjuncts under kernel-module/ and daemon/ are GPL-2.0-only (kernel ABI requirement) and are not part of the CRAN tarball.

See also

Useful links:

Author

Maintainer: Vansh Singh Ruhela vsruhela@proton.me (ORCID)

Authors: